Cheating Players: 8 Ways to Deal With Character Sheet Cheats

Posted on 8 January 2012 by Jade| Leave a comment

You would think that in a game without winners or losers, players wouldn’t feel the need to cheat. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. There a more many ways players cheat during game sessions. That’s unfortunate , because cheating violates the GM-player trust so necessary for running a good game.

One common way players cheat is by using false or misleading character sheets, or by lying about what’s on their sheet. They “forget” their character sheets, or suddenly decide to spend experience points in the middle of session (usually just before combat), or they “misremember” a skill score (always in their favor, of course).

It’s usually a good idea to create some firm rules about character sheets:

  1. Require players to use easy-to-read character sheets. You can choose to require everyone to use the same type of character sheet, or you can let players use one of their choosing. You just want to make sure that you can find the information you need on it quickly and easily.
  2. Keep a copy of every player’s character. This gives you a couple of advantages: you have PC information at hand when you’re planning the next game session and you have a copy to loan in case a player forgets his.
  3. Require all experience and character advancement to be done between game sessions. Or, alternatively, you could set aside part of game session for everyone to up-date their characters at the same time and then start play.
  4. Make a firm rule that your copy of the character sheet overrides a player’s. It should be a player’s responsibility to notify you of any changes to her character and to do so between game sessions. Once play starts for a particular session, if it’s not on your copy of her character, it doesn’t count.
  5. Require all character changes be approved by you before they’re used in play.
  6. Add all static modifiers in advance. Have your players write their static modifiers clearly on their character sheets. Check a player’s math from time to time–one sheet per game session until you’ve checked them all, is a good rule of thumb.
  7. Do the math for the players. Have them give you the “raw” die roll result and add all the modifiers yourself.
  8. Remind the players of their numbers. At the beginning of each game session, read off the PCs’ critical numbers (initiative, AC, hit points, blood points, etc.) as you currently have them.
  9. Watch to see if a player has more than one copy of character sheet. Some players have multiple versions of their characters, each “optimized” (read “fudged”) for different situations. A player may have one copy of his character for combat and another (slightly different) for social situations. If you think a player is using more than one version of a sheet for a single character, ask to see all copies and then make them correspond to your copy.

Of course, all of these are suggestions only and you certainly don’t have to use them all. Pick which ones you think will work best for you and your group and, as always, fold, spindle and mutilate to your heart’s content.

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Hope everyone had (or his having) happy holidays. You haven’t heard from me for a while because I’ve encountered a major problem with The Field Guide to Players and it’s take me several weeks to figure out what to do about it.

Truthfully, I knew what I should do; the problem was, I didn’t want to take that route and it took me several weeks to face up to that fact and finally do what I knew needed to be done.

Let me explain.

The basic problem is this: by the time I finished the entire first draft of The GM’s Field Guide to Players (FGP), I realized the durn thing was just too long. I was looking about almost 200 pages of material about dealing with players. It was too big, I knew that. I would have to charge at least $20 for the book and I don’t think many people would be willing to pay that much for a PDF about players.

After all, we’re not talking about core rules here.

While I knew that all the material in the book-to-be would be useful, I knew that one section would be of more interest than any other–the one about how to deal with problem players. The problem was, I’d already promised the readers of this blog that the book would cover more than that. That was the thing that had kept me from cutting out the other material.

I finally realized I was just going to have to do it anyway. I’ve kept the section on player types and all the sections on dealing with problem players. The book will still be called The GM’s Field Guide to Players. The rest of the material (covering finding players, keeping good players, introducing new players to your game, etc.) will appear in either The Campaign Creation Handbook or on my blog, Evil Machinations.

I’m currently about halfway through the first edit of the manuscript, which I’m going (come hell or high water ;) ) to finish this week. Then I’m looking at passing the second draft to my editors for their feedback, then the final rewrite, creating the product layout, typesetting and illustrations… Hopefully, the book will be available mid-February.

Meanwhile, keep checking back here for more updates as the FGP progresses. I’m also going to be doing an update of The Adventure Creation Handbook and I’ve started researching for The Campaign Creation Handbook, which will be rpgGM’s third book.

I’m also considering offering an on-line adventure creation class, but I’m not sure how many people would be interested in and willing to pay for it. It’s looking at being around $50 minimum, with lessons delivered directly to your email and a password-protected blog or forum for posting homework. The class would be self-paced, with the goal of actually producing a finished adventure. If this is something that would interest you, please leave me a comment below. I’m just at the beginning stages of putting this together, so I’m not sure when it would be available.

Keep looking here for the FGP and other product updates and excerpts.

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Posted on 26 December 2011 by Jade

Dealing with the Socialite: a Casual Player Type

Posted on 26 November 2011 by Jade| Leave a comment

There’s usually one in every group–the player that isn’t really there to play, he just wants to hang out with his friends. Sometimes he’s the joker who simply can’t take anything seriously, other times he’s the wallflower who will go along with anything the party wants to do, as long as he doesn’t have to take center stage.

Socialites aren’t necessarily new players who are still trying to get a handle on this “roleplaying thing” (though they might be). Many of them have been playing for years, always in the shadows, often paying more attention to the contents of your book shelves than to the game itself. They just want to hang out with the group and since the group likes to game, well, here they are. Usually you don’t have to worry much about these players; just let them maintain their backseat position and they’ll be happy.

Unintentionally, this player type may make you feel like a bad GM. No matter what you do, you can’t get him engaged with the group or game. He doesn’t mean to cause problems—in fact, causing problems is the last thing this player type wants to do. Rest assured–it’s not you or your game; the Socialite is only here for the company. You may wonder where you’re going wrong when, in truth, nothing you do or don’t do will make him more involved in the game. If your Socialite keeps showing up game after game, no matter how much of a wallflower he is, your game is probably just fine.

If you have any doubts, a quick conversation with the Socialite will usually put your mind at ease. If not, you’re dealing with a frustrated player of another type, rather than a true Socialite.

This is the easiest type of player to deal with on-the-spot. Just leave him alone. Let him peruse his comic book or stack dice, or just listen to what’s going on. Touch base with him occasionally throughout the session: have him make a skill check, or just ask what his character is doing in that particular scene. Just don’t get upset if he responds minimally. While it can feel like your GMing isn’t reaching him, it’s more likely he’s just here for the company, especially if he only contributes minimally when invited to do more. Let him do some dice rolling, but don’t force him into role-playing a scene or taking a major part in a complex operation. With this player type, you’ll only make him uncomfortable by trying to get him more involved.

Virtues and Flaws

Virtues

You’ll never hear a Socialite complain about feeling left-out or upstaged by another player. He’s not going to get into a rules argument with you. And he can often round out the party with a needed character type no one else wants to play. You’ll also never hear him complain if him character dies. He’ll happily take over an NPC or create a new PC, especially if one of the other players helps him.

Flaws

The biggest problem you’ll have to deal with this player type is the distraction factor. Having some at the table reading can draw other players’ attentions. Socialites have  tendency to start side conversations on non-game-related topics. He may also frustrate you  and the other players by needing constant reminders about where the party is and what dice he should be rolling now. Don’t expect a Socialite to spend any time or effort learning the rules.

Dealing with a Socialite

Out of character

Let him slip into the background. Don’t try to force this player type into the lime-light. To help speed up play and avoid you  having to tell the Socialite how to roll for initiative for the seventh time tonight, pair him up with another (patient) player. Pick someone who can guide him through the game with suggestions about what his character could do in a given situation and what dice to roll when. You may need to rotate this job among a handful of players, so no one gets stuck “babysitting” all the time.

Socialites make good reality checks. If the group gets into a heated argument over something related to the game, this player type can often be the voice of reason, providing a calm, reasoned opinion or observation that puts the whole issue into perspective.

He may be also willing to role-play NPCs or party henchmen/companions, if needed. Most Socialites I’ve known don’t mind switch-hitting to play a character other than his own. He generally has no emotional investment in his character, which means he’ll also be more than happy to round out the party by playing a needed character type no one else wants to play.

In character

The best way to deal with a Socialite in-character is don’t. That sounds harsh and I don’t mean you should ignore him completely. For example, combat’s breaking out and you’re going around the table asking people what their characters are doing. Don’t skip the Socialite as well, even if he’s leafing through a magazine. On the other hand, don’t make plot line that features his character.You’ll just make him uncomfortable and he may even stop playing all together.

Socialite Sub-classes

The Merry Lark

The merry lark is usually an engaged member of the game group. You probably won’t even realize she’s a Socialite—until something bad happens to the PCs. Then you find out the Merry Lark can’t take the game seriously. TPK? The Merry Lark will laugh and make a comment like “Well, that was a hoot, wasn’t it? Anyone up for Munchkin?” To her, it’s just a game—she’ll approach roleplaying with the same emotional investment she would a game of Crazy 8’s. She honestly won’t understand why the rest of the players are so worked up about it.

The Wisecrack

This is player who just can’t stop cracking jokes during the game. Frequently, this takes the form of puns, but may just as frequently be sexual innuendo or other form of humor. While every game needs a good laugh now and then, the Wisecrack takes it too far. At the funeral of a good and much-beloved king, the punster will be the guy dancing around with the lampshade on his head, trying to get people to “lighten up.”

They often view the game as one long setup to a punchline, which they’re happy to provide if no one else does. If you call him to task about it, he’ll say something along the lines of “Aw,cummon, it’s a game, right? It’s supposed to be fun.” He just can’t see that after awhile, the constant joking wears really thin.

[This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.coml.]

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13 Ways to Keep Good Players

Posted on 6 November 2011 by Jade| Leave a comment

Good players are golden and as GMs, we need to treat them that way. Here’s a list of suggestions to keep your players happy and coming back:

  1. Make every player feel like their PC is your favorite character. Focus on each PC in the party for a set period of time: one session, one month, one adventure. The length of time doesn’t matter as much as making sure that every PC gets the same amount of time.
  2.  Read what your players give you. It’s important to them, or they wouldn’t have given it to you in the first place. Find a way to incorporate something from that information into your game, even if it’s just having the character run into a college roommate and say “Hi.”
  3. Try to give every player the same amount of attention every game session. You don’t need to set a timer for exactly 10 minutes (though you certainly can, if it makes it easier); just rotate your attention on a regular basis. If circumstances cause you to spend a greater amount of time in one session with one or more players, try to give the same amount of time to the other players over the course of the next few sessions.
  4. Listen to your players, in and out of character. Players are great sources of inspiration. Treat them with respect by actually paying attention when they’re talking to you.
  5.  Let the PCs have a lasting and real effect on the game world. Reward creativity and good thinking with more than gold and experience points. Have a grateful city name a street after the party, let one of the PC’s songs become a popular hit, have the party overhear bards telling stories of their latest acts of heroism, etc.
  6. Never tell a player how her character feels about something. Unless the PC is under mental influence from an outside source (Charm spell, Dominate discipline, etc.), the player alone controls the character’s feelings and actions. Tell them what happens, don’t tell them how to feel about it.
  7. The same goes for PC actions. Unless the PC is under some type of compulsion, never tell a player what their character does in a particular circumstance. Similarly, try to avoid telling a player that they can’t do something. Let him make an attempt. Give him an impossibly low chance of succeeding, but let him try. Use common sense with this; most players would be okay with you telling them that their normal human character can’t pick up the Empire State Building or fly unaided.
  8. Make sure helpful NPCs are there to help the characters, not to do things for them. It’s okay to have an NPC participate in a party’s victory, just make sure that the crucial actions are performed by the PCs. Helpful NPCs should stay in the background in support roles.
  9. Don’t get bogged down in mechanics during the game session. Make a ruling and move on, unless the players want you to look something up. Include you players in this by asking one of them to look up the mechanic in question.
  10. Respect your players’ time. Show up on time to game sessions and try to avoid canceling on at the last minute. Understand when non-game obligations interfere with play. After all, most players have jobs, spouses, kids that will sometimes take precedence over play. Real Life™ always trumps game.
  11. Be organized. That doesn’t mean your game notebook needs to look like it came out of DayTimer ad. Just be sure you can find what information you need when you need it. Be particularly careful not to lose information your players give you.
  12. Keep control of the game. Don’t let players bully you into making decisions you don’t like. If you have to boot a player to keep the game fun for everyone else, do so politely. Cut off rules discussions that threaten to become arguments. Stop the session and/or separate players when they start to argue or get angry with one another (out of character).
  13. Be a gracious guest. If you’re not hosting the game, treat your host’s home and family better than you would treat your own.

This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.com, due to be released late fall.

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How to Talk to a Problem Player

Posted on 25 September 2011 by Jade| Leave a comment

You’ve got a player and he’ s making game sessions less fun for everyone else in the group. His behavior isn’t so bad that you feel you need to kick him out immediately, but the rest of the group is putting pressure on you, the GM, to deal with problem. You know you need to talk to him, but how exactly do you go about it?

Step 1: Arrange a time to meet him out side of the game session. You don’t want to deal with problem issues during game time. Not only does it put the player on the spot, but it makes him very defensive, which means he’ll be less likely to hear what you have to say. I also recommend you do this on “neutral” territory. Go to coffee, or meet for lunch.

Step 2: Talk to the player one-on-one. Describe the specific behavior  and why it’s a problem. The best format for this I’ve seen is to phrase the problem like so:

“When you do [specific problem], I feel [description of the effect the specific problem has on you]. I need you to [specific action that will help solve the problem] because [reason action will help].”

Here’s a example:
“When you arrive a half-hour late to the game, I feel caught between you and the rest of the players. I don’t know whether to wait longer for you, cutting into playing time, or to start without you, which means I maybe short a crucial player. I need to you to call me if you’re going to be more than 5 or 10 minutes late because then we can talk about what your character would do if I start the game without you so that the rest of the players don’t have waste time sitting around.”

[I got this formula from a book called Joint Custody with a Jerk. Even if you’re not dealing with divorce and custody issues, I highly recommend reading it. It’s got a lot of good information about dealing with problem people can apply to many areas of life.]

This formula is great because it helps you focus on specifics and give a constructive solution. Don’t let the player distract you in the middle of this, or it weakens the statement. Finish the statement, then  address any questions, excuses, reasons, etc.

In my experience, this formula throws the player a little off-balance, which means he’ll actually listen to what you’re saying, rather than sit there formulating their “argument”. People tune out criticism. This focuses the conversation on what they can do, rather than on how bad they are.

Often a player doesn’t realize he’s causing a problem. Once he does, usually he’ll be happy to try and correct it, especially if you’ve given him an idea of a specific step he can take to solve the problem.

Step 3: Set up a trial period. If it’s a problem that’s been going on for awhile,The player’s not going to be able to fix it over night.  Habits are hard to break–doing so requires consistent practice. If the problem isn’t severe, set up a trial period to see if the behavior improves.

One thing you can do is to work out a code word or hand signal that you can flash to the player when he starts repeating the problem behavior. It can be small or subtle, so you don’t have to call attention to the issue with the other players. It should be meaningful to you and the player, but doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else.

For example, my son has ADD. When we play together and he starts to get distracted, I can say “shiny” and he’ll realize that he needs to come back and refocus. I use “shiny” with him because we call his tendency to get distracted the “Shiny Effect”, as in: “I’m going to test this chest for tra….oooh, shiny.”

Don’t drag out this trial period. It usually takes less than a handful of sessions to realize whether or not the player is sincere in his promise to change. If he’s putting in great effort and you can see improvements, no matter how small, you may decide to let him remain, as long as he continues to work towards improvement.

On the other hand, some players will promise you anything to end the difficult conversation, then make no effort to change. Or they’ll make a token effort, then stop when they achieve the outcome they want (usually to remain in the game). In these cases, you’ll need to move on to the next step in the process—holding the player accountable for his actions with the rest of the group.

These suggestions assume that the problem is still at “annoyance level”. If a problem is serious or your other players have reached the point where they want the problem player gone right now, you’ll need to sit down and talk to the group about what they want to see happen.

If a player’s actions are many any member of the group feel unsafe (even you), even if you can’t point to a specific reason, you need to remove the player from the game immediately. Always trust your gut instincts when dealing with other people. They’re usually right.

This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.com, due to be released this fall.

[Photo courtesy of Between a Rock via Flickr Creative Commons]

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Some Tips for Introducing New Players to RPGs

Posted on 5 September 2011 by Jade| Leave a comment

Okay, so you’ve convinced some of your non-gaming friends to give this “roleplaying thing” a try. Now you’re left with the question of how to run a game for brand-new players? This can be especially tricky when you’ve been gaming so long you can’t remember what it was like to be brand new yourself. Below are some guidelines to help you introduce new player to role-playing in general.

Do the planning for them

New players are often overwhelmed just from looking at the character sheet. Are they expected to understand all those numbers? What’s the difference between abilities and skills and attributes anyway? And how are they supposed to actually use this stuff that’s on there?

Consider using pre-generated character for brand-new players. Introduce them to one aspect of the game at a time. Let them get a handle on using skills and engaging in combat before you force them to think about a character idea and how to effectively combine the bizillion choices (so it can seem to new players) of powers and abilities. By using pre-generated characters, you make a lot of overwhelming decisions for them. They don’t have to worry about choosing the most effective skills, powers, spells or weapons, because you’ve already done that for them.

When your introducing brand-new players who’ve never role-played at all (as opposed to experienced players trying a new system), think carefully about what game system to use. This isn’t a good time for you try out a system for the first time. Pick something you’re very familiar with so you don’t have use up valuable play time looking up answers. Plus, if you need to look up everything, you’ll make the game look much more complicated than it actually is.

When you use a system you’re very comfortable, you give the impression of “See, this isn’t so hard. I don’t even have to look up the rules, it’s that easy.” It makes the system seem much more accessible and player-friendly. Your familiarity with a system is much more important than how “easy” it is to play. Pretty much any system will work if you, as the GM, can handle most of the mechanics for the players. (I’d still think twice before using Rolemaster, though.)

Limit choices, but make sure you give them

If you’ve had toddlers, you know how effective and empowering it is to let them choose from a limited and predetermined selection of choices. Do you want to wear the green pants or the blue skirt? The same goes for new players. Do you want to use a healing potion or have the cleric use his last spell?

But you still definitely want to give the new players choices. Choices are the corner stone of gaming and new players don’t want to be railroaded any more than experienced players do. What makes a game satisfying is knowing that you brought about the outcome by your own actions.

Too many choices can be very overwhelming. I’m convinced fewer choices was part of the reason for the great success of the original D&D  and what made it more popular than, say, Traveller.

Travaller was an open-ended character system. Sure, you chose a branch of service and you rolled randomly for skills (so you didn’t have to choose them), but you still had to create your own role in the party and in the game world. It was entirely up to you to define your place in the universe. Great for an experienced player with a strong character concept and goals. But if you’d never played an RPG before, you really didn’t know what kinds of things your character could do.

The original (A)D&D took care of a lot of that. You had a very limited number of classes, each with a very distinct role to play in the party. Fighters fought, magic-users cast spells to support the fighters, clerics healed people and thieves disarmed traps and opened locks. Each class had a built-in purpose that made it very accessible to brand-new players and which worked really, really well when the whole hobby was new.

Don’t been afraid to make suggestions. Most brand-new players will be grateful for the advice, especially if you explain the reasoning behind your suggestions. Just remember that players are free to chose something other than your suggested option. That’s part of the learning experience. Don’t make them feel stupid or wrong because they made an ineffective choice. If one of their choices doesn’t work, explain afterwards why it wasn’t the most effective solution. But never phrase it as a mistake or a wrong decision. Instead, use language like “less effective.”

Take it slowly

Plan a short adventure. While you may consider a mission to stop an ogre from carrying off the livestock of a town to be an exciting adventure, remember that new players have never done this before. They’re not going to feel cheated that the ogre’s lair is nothing more than a three-room abandoned farm house.While a small adventure looks on paper like it wouldn’t fill an entire play session, remember that you’ll be stopping frequently to answer questions and give explanations.

Give out information as the players need it

Don’t try to explain the entire character at the beginning of the adventure. You’ll just overwhelm new players and they won’t remember it anyway, since they have nothing to relate it to. Instead, explain each piece at the point where they need to use it. Explain initiative as the PCs are getting ready for combat. Explain picking locks right when your party encounters that first chest. Because they immediately put that information to use, they’ll remember it better the next time they need to use it.

Make learning the goal

Don’t get hung up on finishing the adventure. Your goal for this session should be on teaching the game, not on accomplishing the mission. Sure, your players are going to feel great if they save the day, but it’s much more important that they enjoy themselves, since that’s what will cause them to come back for more.

This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.com, due to be released this fall. For more detailed information about running teaching games <blatent self-promotion>How to Run a Fantastic Convention Game has a lot of good information about running games for first-time players. Sign up for my monthly newsletter (in the sidebar to the right) and get it free.</blatent self-promotion>

[Photo courtesy of striatic via Flickr Creative Commons]

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Dealing with Problem Players: The Munchkin

Posted on 28 August 2011 by Jade| 1 Comment

The Munchkin is a Power Gamer gone bad. All power gamers want to “win,” but in the case of the Munchkin, that desire goes out of control. They’re intensely competitive players in a non-competitive game. They want their characters to be the strongest, the smartest, the most competent, most capable … well, the most everything. That means they can see not only the GM, but also the other PCs as rivals in a game only the Power Gamer is playing.

What makes the Munchkin so hard to deal with is that he’s selfish. While Power Gamers, in general,  want to be the best, they usually view the other PCs as their support team and won’t (knowingly) try to antagonize the group. They can be clueless, but they’re not generally mean. They’ll usually back-off the intensity if the GM points out that they’re being disruptive.

Not so for the Munchkin. To him, everyone is a rival that must be overcome or done away with. That includes the other PCs and the GM. It’s impossible to approach the Munchkin as a co-creator: they seem to need to outshine everyone, including the GM. Indeed, the GM is the primary adversary, since she supplies all the opponents and challenges, but the other PCs come a close second.

In addition to min-maxing his character legitimately, the Munchkin isn’t above cheating to “stack the deck” in his favor. Three copies of his character sheet, each optimized for different situation? Can any one PC legitimately have all of those magic items? If you suspect a Munchkin in your group, ask the other players to keep an eye on his dice rolls. It’s a common Munchkin tactic to add or subtract a bit from a die roll, or to make up a reason they should be allowed to reroll the bad result (how many times can a die come down cocked on a flat surface, anyway?).

You’ll often hear the Munchkin cry “Not fair!” if something doesn’t got exactly their way. If they don’t come away with huge amounts of treasure from a PC cake-walk, well, the GM had it out for them. If you disallow their newest über prestige class with a ton of bonuses and laughable (if any) weaknesses, they’ll say the GM is out to keep them down. They are also extremely quick to accuse others of the misdeeds they, themselves, performed.

Unfortunately, the Munchkin has no remorse about his actions and, thus, no incentive to change. If you try to talk to him, you’re likely to get a “all fair in love and war”-type response. Or he’ll promise to change, but not actually do so. Or they just get sneakier about their cheating. In 30 years of gaming, I’ve yet to see a Munchkin “mend his ways.” In each of the (thankfully) rare cases, I’ve had to resort to booting the player from my games.

If you’re not yet ready to go that far, here are a couple of other things you can try:

  • Let the Munchkin play the villians. They usually view evil characters and more fun to play and good PCs as “whimps”. Don’t, however, allow them to return to playing a PC the same game they played the NPCs. Munchkins don’t care about in-character/out-of-character knowledge.
  • Make sure that there’s in-game retaliation for the actions Munchkins take. Let the ravished lord’s daughter be secretly training as an assassin. Make the teller of the bank he’s robbing be an undercover cop looking specifically for the Munchkin’s character. And when the PCs inevitably decide that the only left for them to do is to take care of the problem character “permanently”, think twice before stepping in on the Munchkin’s behalf. Let him face the consequences of his own behavior.

This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.com, due to be released this fall.

[Photo courtesy of d.billy via Flickr Creative Commons]

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How to Find Your Perfect Player, Part 3

Posted on 22 August 2011 by Jade| Leave a comment

Need husband for my daughter signHaving trouble finding good players? It can often be difficult to meet other gamers once you’re out of school, particularly if you don’t have the wherewithal to get to cons. This post is the third in a series on how to find the right players for your game. The first part covered figuring out what your game was like, so you could communicate that to prospective players; the second covered discovering what type of players you like and dislike. This last and final section will cover how to make a “Players Wanted” ad and where to post it.

Step Four: Create Marketing Materials

You know what your game will be like and you know what you want and don’t want in players. Now its time to market your game. “What?! Marketing? Isn’t that for businesses? I’m just running a game for fun!” True, but anytime you’re trying to convince someone else to try what you have to offer, you’re marketing. That holds whether you’re writing a blog, selling an eBook…or trying to get players for your game.

If you’re lucky, you already know a large number of gamers and you can spread information about your game word-of-mouth. Even in this case, it’s helpful to have an “ad” about your game. Now, it doesn’t need to be full-fledged written flier (though it can be—it’s often useful to have something in writing to hand to prospective players); it can simply be a short description of your game. To help with this, I suggest creating an “elevator pitch.”

An elevator pitch is a short description about why people should try your game. It’s called that because you should be able to say in the span of time of an elevator trip. Try to avoid making it sound like a sales pitch (even though that’s what it is). Go for simplicity and the facts. “I’m planning to run a character-focused Vampire game using 2nd edition rules. It’s going to be heavy on roleplaying and politics. It’s set in New Orleans and the PCs will all be young Camarilla Cainites who get caught up in the religious crusade of an ancient Sabbat Elder” is much better than “I’m running the best Vampire game ever. Dude, this game’s gonna rock,” which tells prospective nothing about whether or not they’ll enjoy the your game.

If you don’t know a lot of other players, you’ll have to create some kind of “Players Wanted” ad you can post in places where gamers hang out. This should be a short flier that you can post somewhere and should contain:

  • the title and edition of the system you plan to use
  • the game setting, such as where the city or country it takes place in and the relative time period or genre (medieval-style fantasy or an intersteller empire in the far future, for example)
  • any age restrictions (such as “over 18 only”)
  • your elevator pitch
  • a brief description of the type of player you feel is best suited to this game (using your favorite traits list). At the very least, you’ll want to mention how much combat and/or roleplaying players should expect. If your games tend to have very few dice rolls, you should probably point that out
  • your contact information and when you plan to begin the game, as well as when the game sessions will take place.

If you’ve got the time and inclination, you could create an actual brochure about your game. Many programs, such as MS Word and Open Office have brochure templates you can download free from the Internet. Or you could buy pre-designed brochures (which are blank except for an artistic design) that you can print out on your own printer.

Step Five: Post Your Ad

Now that you have your flier and/or brochures, you need to find somewhere to post them. Remember to ask permission before you post anything in a public place. Many places have a bulletin board where you can post information about things happening in the community. You’ll want to put these somewhere where gamers are likely to see them. No matter how attractive your flier, you’ll probably have a lot more success if you post them at the local coffee shop than you will at the local bank. Some good places to post information are:

  • your local game store
  • coffee shops
  • bookstores

You can also post them on-line there are several sites devoted to helping players and GMs connect with each other.

Some of these include

For a more in-depth look at how to find good players, check out Filling the Empty Chair by Johnn Four of Roleplaying Tips and Campaign Mastery.

This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.com, due to be released this fall.

[Photo courtesy of Mel B. via Flickr Creative Commons]

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How to Find Your Perfect Player, Part 2

Posted on 15 August 2011 by Jade| Leave a comment

This is the second part of a three-part article on finding players that are a good match for your game. Last week, I covered defining what your game is like. This week, I’m describing how to figure out the traits you (and don’t!) want in a player. The third part, which I’ll post next week, is about how to put it all together to create a “player’s wanted” ad.

Step Two: Favorite players

If you’ve GMed before, write down a list of your favorite players from previous games. Why were these players your favorites? What did they do (or not do) that made them so great? If you’ve never GMed before, think back over games you’ve played in. What players did you enjoy playing with? What was it about them that you liked so much? Do this for at least three previous games; you’ll want enough players to begin to see trends in what you like. Of course, if you’re new to the hobby, you may not have three previous games to draw from. In that case, just use as many as you’ve had. Even a single game will give you some useful information.

Write down each of your favorite player’s (or character’s) name—you just need something that will jog your memory. Next to their name, write at least one trait you particularly liked about them or the way they played. Maybe they were always respectful or maybe they always stayed in character. Or they learned the combat rules quickly and were willing to help others learn them. It could even be something as simple as they always brought great snacks or as complex as they found creative uses for spells. Notice if a particular trait appears in your list more than once. That means it’s most important to you.

Now rank your list of traits (just the traits; we’re done with the players’ names) in order of importance to you. Is “always stays in character” more important than “always on time”? Then place it closer to the top of the list. Now take a look at your top five traits. Those are the ones we’ll use when it comes time to write the player ad.

Step Three: Least Favorite Players

Now repeat step two, only this time, use your least favorite players. Who really got on your nerves with their constant droning of “In my game, I do…”? Who really set your teeth on edge every time they brought a combat to halt to bicker about an obscure rule that affects no one else in the game? Again, make a list of players and at least one trait per name that just wanted to send you screaming in the streets? Rank these traits by how much you hated them. You now have a “things to avoid” list. This won’t go in your player ad, but will be very useful when it comes to interviewing potential players.

This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.com, due to be released this fall.

[Photo courtesy of Rodrigo Moraes via Flickr Creative Commons]

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How to Find Your Perfect Player

Posted on 10 August 2011 by Jade| Leave a comment

In the beginning of this great hobby, you couldn’t be choosy about players–not if you wanted to play at all. Fellow gamers were few and far between and you took whomever was willing to sit down at your table and was willing to give this “roleplaying thing” a try. In some places in world, that’s still true today.

For most of us, however, things have changed for the better. Not only are there a wider variety of games available, there are also a far greater number of gamers. This means that, as GMs, we’re better able to select players who match our play style and, therefore, are more likely to enjoy our games. The question these days is often “How do I find the right players for my game?”

Step One: Define  your game

What are the qualities of your game? Is it story-focused and tightly scripted, like a movie, or is it a character-focused sandbox game? Do you favor mechanics over story? How much combat are your players likely to see? These are all questions that can help you match players to your game.

If, for example, you know that players in your games usually spend most of the time investigating and talking to NPCs, bringing in a player who lives for combat could be a recipe for disaster. Either you’ll have to change your play style to accommodate more fighting, or you run the risk of having a bored player who, since he can’t find a fight, is likely to go off and start one on his own. Now, if you want to bring more combat in your game, this could be a great way to do, since you’d have the Combat Monger’s experience to draw from.

In any case, because you know your what your own game will be like, you can convey that information to your prospective players and see if they like the kind of game you’re offering before they officially join.

This is turning into a much longer post than I expected, so I’m going to break it up into several parts. Next time, I’ll cover steps two and three–figuring out what traits you do and don’t want to have in your game. This is an excerpt from the GM’s Field Guide to Players, the up-coming book from rpgGM.com, due to be released this fall.

[Photo courtesy of Mel B. via Flickr Creative Commons]

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