Last month, I introduced some aspects of GM/player interactions [1], and I’m going finish off what I have for you on this topic here and now.
Make Things Interesting
GMs should set up and introduce interesting/difficult choices to the players. They don’t always have to be life or death. They don’t always have to be “save the victim or catch the villain” type choices either. Interesting choices are things that will hit with deep, emotional resonance for the players by way of what is important to their characters. There are also difficult choices to make where the PCs can gain advantage in one aspect of the story by sacrificing something important to them or losing ground in a different aspect of the story.
On the flip side of the conversation, players need to step up to challenges and do their best to conquer them. Yes, working around them is sometimes the smart thing to do. Yes, running away from a challenge can also be the proper action, but (as Ang likes to say), you’re playing the Big Damn Heroes, so you really should act like it.
Let Them Shine
GMs need to establish scenes, settings, and scenarios to allow the different PCs in the group to display their competencies. This is part of spotlight management. If there’s nothing to shine a light on, then why is there a spotlight in the first place? This basically means to tailor some challenges to allow PCs to leverage their special skills, abilities, and powers. If you can get a single challenge to require teamwork between the disparate abilities for a better chance of success, all the better.
For players, you’re going to see some amazing things tossed in front of you from the GM. If you want to see more of what you have on your metaphorical plate, compliment the GM on what you’ve experienced. This will naturally encourage the GM to include more of that type of interaction in future sessions. We, as a people, tend to focus on what we didn’t like in an experience, but if you can seek out the positives and reinforce those, then you’ll get more of those positives.
Celebrate Accomplishments
As a GM, be happy when a scenario, die roll, skill check, or some amazing plan of the PCs goes as it should or exceeds all expectations of success. Cheer them on. Even if that “nat 20 with max damage” critical hits your Big Bad and almost kills it in a single strike, cheer on the PCs. This will make everyone happier. Also, if things doesn’t quite go the way the players had planned or if a “nat 1, drop your sword” happens at the wrong moment, sympathize with the player who just had their precious math rocks betray them.
Players also need to celebrate the GM by congratulating them on a well-run session, an interesting experience, an engaging interaction, or a wonderful campaign. This will go a long way to prevent the GM from burning out and stepping out from behind the GM screen. If you want your GM to run more (and maybe longer) games, let them know that via compliments and thanks.
Critique (NOT Criticism)
Some definitions to start this section:
A critique is a somewhat formal process in which the carefully expressed judgments, opinions, or evaluations of both the good and bad qualities of something are delivered to the creator.
Criticism is most often used broadly to refer to the act of negatively criticizing someone or something.
GM’s will almost always have opinions on PC decisions, choices, plans of action, and approaches at overcoming challenges. Hold back on those while the game is actively going on unless a player is making a decision that goes against something their character knows, but the player does not. There are times where “in world knowledge” might be apparent to a character, but not their player. This could be because the player took a bathroom break during a key moment, missed a session, simply forgot a detail from many sessions ago, or maybe wasn’t exposed to that information in the first place. Once some certain set of actions are resolved, let your players know what they did well, how they could have maybe worked better together as a team, and if something went sideways, what they could have done to manage the situation better.
From a player perspective, the feedback loop via critiques to the GM are very important. This helps the GM bring forth more of the “bright spots” of the game to the players, and assists the GM in finding the “rough edges” that need to be sanded down to a more smooth interaction (or maybe eliminated completely). If you, as a player, find anything in the game (plot, story, theme, NPC, setting, situation, location, etc.) especially interesting or inspiring, let the GM know. The other side of the coin for pointing out unenjoyable moments is completely fair game, but try to not focus only on the negatives when delivering a critique. There are always shining moments in every game session.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this two-parter of an article. This particular topic has been sitting in my “Gnome Stew to do list” for a very long time, and I’m happy that I finally got it to bubble to the top. Do you have any interactions that I may have missed between the first and second article on this topic? Let me know! I’d love to discuss it with you in the comment section.