I live in Reno, which is full of casinos and hotels. For most of my adult life I’d been parking cars and driving limos (making tips in the process). Most of the time we pooled our tips and then split it among everyone working that day. Some days, I had very little to contribute, but other days I was the mule…
In most gaming groups, the game master is the mule. He (or she) is the one doing most of the work. He buys the books, studies the system, gets the group together, prepares for the game, and then runs it. Generally, everyone else shows up with a character and says, “OK, what do you have for us today?” Good players will have already studied the system and read the setting, but great players will occasionally step in for the heavy lifting…
We’ll be starting up a new game in a couple of weeks, and this post is more of a challenge for me (as a player) to take on the role of the mule more than anything else…
If I’m going to be the mule, I’ll have my work cut out for me:
Not only will I come to the table with a completed character, but he’ll have a background as well as goals. His purpose in life will not simply be to react to whatever the GM throws at him, but to give the GM things to react to and work with. If the GM is going to spend time developing ten or twenty (or more) NPCs, then I’ll spend the time developing just one. If the GM is going to spend time preparing for the game, then I’m going to spend time preparing to play.
This doesn’t just mean that I’m going to know everything there is to know about my character; it means that I’m going to come up with hooks about my character that are tied to the game-world or other player characters. Not all of the game’s story has to come from the game master; I can help contribute to that as well.
That brings me to my next task. I’m going to contribute to the setting and story. By that, I mean that when we walk into a new town, I’m going to reference an old stonemason buddy that might take us in for the night – and that I hope we don’t run into his mother, because she’s always pinching my cheeks (and not the ones on my face). When the GM is busy trying to think of the next logical step in his adventure, I’ll be busy trying to add a little flavor to the story. Why should he be responsible for ALL of it?
One other thing I might do is help the other players with their characters, if they need it. If the GM has a game to run and a story to tell, he doesn’t need to spend time teaching the game. He already has a lot of work to do, he doesn’t need more. I’m going to be a veritable mack daddy at making characters, both in crunch and flavor, so that (as a group) we players are as prepared as we can be.
One thing that I’ve been doing already (and will continue to do), is have the Pathfinder System Reference Document up on my tablet. We only started playing Pathfinder a few months ago, and d20pfsrd was a HUGE help. We’ve grown accustomed to the system, so we don’t use it as much anymore – but having it up and ready for our new game coming up is greatly going to help the new GM.
Ah, something else I’m going to do is write a recap of each session and post it in our Facebook Group the day before our game. That way, everyone at the table can recap before the big game so the GM doesn’t have to be the one to remind us. Really, that’s not work that should fall on his shoulders. That would be just one more thing the GM has to take care of. Besides (in our group), we feel we don’t get enough time at the table as it is, so this should help us dive right in. Also, I think it will help everyone not only get into game-mode faster, but also get us excited to play.
` ` `
So, really, I’m coming up with this list to help me be a better player. I’m sure that being a “better player” is different for everyone, but this is what it means for me. I want to be a player that comes to the game prepared, helps move the story forward, and helps makes the game more fun for everyone. As a player, if I take some of the weight off the shoulders of the GM, that will leave him better able to run a great game.
I think this list could be longer…? Is there anything you can think of that can add to help take some of the weight off the GM’s back, so he doesn’t have to be the mule?
Chris Stevens
In Chris's opinion, the very best vices are dirt bikes, rock music, and gaming, while the very best medicine is fatherhood. If he could just learn to balance them all, he'd live forever. He's much more creative than intelligent, often wakes up belligerent, and ponders many things insignificant. Lastly, in an effort to transform his well-fed body, P90X, Roller Blades, and Food are all laughing at him. And the pain continues.
I want you at my table!! Or if not you, someone like you once in a while would be great. The amount of time I would class as ‘wasted’ that is taken up at the beginning of a session I would say hardly ever justifies the means.
Just getting everybody in tune for the session, to get all the players in character mode and ready to play has been known to take as long as the first cigarette break or toilet call. Beer calls are no longer counted in this wasted time since the installation of a meaty beer fridge within the confines of the gaming zone!
I usually play the GM as I tend to have a greater understanding of the rules of the game being played, even ones I have not written the rules for, and am capable of playing a non-biased game without fear of obliterating a long-term character if the dice rolls and the decisions by the player force the hand of fate in death’s favour.
So a hearty thank you to you and your kind for your personal sacrifice and I cannot think of anything else to add to your list except possibly the addition of assisting players post-scenario with any equipment restocking or injury treatment they may need or leveling up bonuses they may have earned. Other than that – keep doing what you are doing and hopefully your dedication will rub-off on others and us GM’s can start to get an easier life and we can all get more game.
For the Game!!
I don’t envy you being in the position of seeing precious game time tick away unused. I have always wanted to get the game started as soon as possible, but (for the most part) the gamers in our group only see each other once a week, so there’s a certain amount of pre-game time for us to deflate a week’s-long worth of non-gaming build-up. We gotta talk about Iron Man, we gotta talk about Game of Thrones, and so on…
Thankfully, we’re all there to game first, and socialize second, so we’ve (somewhat) set a limit. After the last player arrives, we’re gaming within 15 minutes. I think it works well for our group, because that’s what our group wants.
I’m sorry, I couldn’t concentrate after reading “mack daddy”. Did any thing important come after that?
Ha! No… that was the high point…