Being a Good Gamemaster at RPG Conventions

Posted on November 23, 2025 by First Age

This short guide sets out a few key tips to inform the art of being a Gamemaster (GM), particularly in the context of a one session game at a convention. First pass thoughts were presented on my podcast, which if you want to listen to my dulcet tones, can be found here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/first-age/episodes/Being-a-Convention-Gamemaster-e3agt57

I received some feedback on the episode, which I have incorporated into this text based version of the guidance.

Inevitably, any such glittering nuggets of genius will be informed by the play style and types of game that you are running. These thoughts should be read in the context of a traditional roleplaying game, with one GM, presenting a prepared adventure to a group of 4-6 players, and responsible for facilitating the progress of the game to a conclusion within 3-4 hours. There are lots of styles of games, where these criteria either don’t apply, or only weakly, yet elements of the guidance below can be applied across the full range of games.

The Role of the GM

GMs bring the core experience to RPG convention events. As session facilitators, providing the game premise, rules, pre-generated (or semi-generated, or quick generation method) characters, plot startup and potential scenes, and overall session management, a player’s likelihood of enjoying a great RPG is much more likely if their GM is actually good at running a game. That doesn’t mean that all the responsibility for a good time rests on the GM alone; everyone is a player and responsible for the fun around the table. 

 A fairly standard ‘traditional’ GM will present the setting, situation, other characters, opportunities for drama, and guide the adventure using the game rules to support the action. Roleplay and Game. As GM you will typically round the adventure off with some form of denoument that provides a satisfying ending or, if time is pressed, a tantalising cliffhanger. It’s incredibly rewarding to run a great RPG session, especially with people that you don’t know! The role of GM seems intimidating, as there seems to be so many things to think about and, well, ‘master’. However, the reality is that just about anyone can be a GM.

Some games may be presented with situations and characters that are more completely realised by the players collaborating or pulling against each other. The GMs role in this type of game would be to help adjudicate outcomes, provoke new situations and shape the narrative so that all the players are actively engaged. In full co-operative mode, some games have everyone play the dual role of player and GM throughout.

Your most important attributes are not detailed rules mastery, intricate adventure plotting, depth of rich scene descriptions, incredible voice acting, or beauty of your table set-up of maps and figures, dice mountains and table snacks. All of those things are great, but what you mostly need is an open disposition, with an ability to listen and respond to your players, to ask questions, and draw out the fun of situations that players will, at least in part, manage to get themselves into all on their own.

This short document will give some guiding pointers to the craft of being a GM. It cannot be definitive, and will signpost you to other weightier and worthy places to learn more. Hopefully, as a relatively short guide, this will be a decent place to start, or opportunity to recap, on your lifelong journey as an RPG gamemaster. 

Safety

When running games in public spaces, like RPG conventions, with people that you don’t know (and arguably with people that you think you know), it is either mandatory or strongly recommended to use some known, simple, safety tools to help ensure that everyone feels comfortable throughout the game session. Conventions are inclusive, welcoming and friendly to everyone. Many conventions will have codes of conduct or behavioural expectations, with advice on how we should act and what the organisers will do if there are any breaches.

Due to the open nature of the discourse in RPGs, we cannot entirely control the content. As such, it is quite possible that something might crop up in the game that could make someone feel  uncomfortable, strongly affecting their enjoyment of the game. To provide consistent processes to manage this, there are a set of commonly understood tools available for you to choose from. These can be found here:

You will find that today’s conventions expect the use of safety tools. As much as we might like to think that everyone that sits to play your game is going to be ‘nice’, abiding by basic rules of courtesy and respect, that isn’t guaranteed. Safety tools provide a neutral medium to facilitate this behaviour and keep everyone feeling safe. As a minimum, learn how to use ‘Open Table’ and the ‘X-card’ at your table. The available tools are all ‘codified common-sense’ and very easy to use. Broadly, safety tools are either designed to understand any players’ concerns about possible content up front, to give the group a consensus to safe play, or they provide an in-game method to respond to discussion content that makes someone uncomfortable.  

Understand the expectations of the convention, decide which tools you are going to use, learn how they work, what they do, and be ready to take the time to explain this during the opening of your session. One of the advantages of using common tools is that, over time, more and more players will be familiar with them, what they are for, and why they are important. Some tools, like ‘Lines and Veils’ even benefit from being used and shared with the whole group in advance of the convention taking place, if that is possible.

Most conventions will provide you with a method to pitch your game with a title, game system and short description. Some conventions will also give you space to provide helpful ‘tags’ that give prospective players some clues to the content, aims, themes, or subject matter (safety) (CATS) of the game. It’s good practice to provide these as a shorthand on content. Here are some good ones:

#Beginner friendly, #Mature Content, #Player vs Player, #Horror, #Violence, #Conflicting agendas

None of these replace the need for safety tools, but they help a player make a decision. ‘CATS’ is also a safety tool, and well worth checking out.

In the podcast I stray from the script here, and observe that the practical implementation of safety tools at GM’s tables is patchy at best, suggesting that fumbled lip service is paid to safety tools. Feedback suggested that we may simply not know what “good” looks like. It may be lip-service, or it may be that what looks like lip-service might be exactly right. The tools are so rarely used that it’s hard to know. It’s also true to say that we typically only hear the horror stories about games that go wrong, with few if any instances relayed of a game where the safety tool worked.

Although fallible, it is important for a GM to be able to judge appropriate content.  A GM who cannot “read the room” risks more trips and falls in the process of running games. You should also consider the time of day your slot is running. Fewer people want guts and terrors at 10am than 8pm. Perhaps consider spicier games to run in the evening slot. If your game is more graphic, and you have some flexibility on table location, choose a more secluded table.

Safety tools have that survivor bias thing. If you have the X-Card in play and nobody used it, then it has actually done its job. The X-Card presence is to signal to players that they CAN stop the game if they need to, perhaps to edit out content that we didnt think about in lines and veils.

Further advantages of the X-Card is the way that its presence provides the self-policing natural counter to some of the ‘But my character would do that…’ tendencies. In the end, it moves the energy of tone moderation from the GM to the whole table, by giving everyone explicit permission to voice concerns, albeit usually in a jocular fashion.

Also check out Fiasco’s “Let’s not…” card, which is their version of an X-card. It does the same thing but is much easier to explain and understand.

It’s an imperfect world.

Know the Convention

RPG conventions have differing expectations. This might be on behaviour, safety expectations, escalation procedure, session duration, communication with organisers, attendance tickets, preference on types of games, and GM rewards.

Take time to understand how the convention runs and what is expected of you.

Know the Game

Run a game that you’re familiar with and that YOU want to play. Don’t worry about what other people are looking for, prepare and pitch something that really speaks to you. At Furnace 2025, a small weekend convention of 100 people, there were more than 50 different game systems offered. 

RPGs have game rules that structure play and inform dramatic outcomes. As a minimum you should have a good grasp of the game rules that will be used in your presented situations, dramatic scenes or plotted scenario. Players often come to conventions to try out games, looking for a good grounding as to how they work. Some flexibility, or considered simplification, of particular game rules, especially for more complex systems, is fine, if signalled and justified, but ‘just make a roll’ or ‘I play fast and loose with the rules’ is just poor GMing. Play the damn game. There are lots of great RPGs with very simple rules, over not many pages, so there is something for everyone.

It’s also fine to make mistakes. If you are new to a game system, or it is quite an involved one, or your head is overstuffed with similar games, it is quite possible to get some rules wrong. This is unlikely to matter too much if you’ve done the work to understand the structure and intent of the game rules. You may also find that you have some system experts around your table. Ease and share the load by referring to their expertise. The GM does not have to be the sole arbiter of the rules.

More than rules, games often come with a core premise, expectations on the style and rhythm of play, what player characters in the game are expected to do, how they should behave. Beyond your mechanical rules mastery, seek to run a game that lives and breathes the game’s expected premise. You should find that the game rules support the action in the adventure if you do.  

Know the Scenario

Whether you are running a pre-written adventure, or one of your own, make sure that you thoroughly understand the text, the beginning, perhaps the middle, and have considered a number of possible endings. Your adventure could be anything from a flexible network of potentially interconnected scenes, a limited network of strongly joined scenes, character-led objectives with improvised scenes or anything in between.

However your session is structured, it is more likely to be fun if you both know it and not hold onto it too tightly. Placing player characters in situations and giving them meaningful choices can take the session in a number of divergent paths. Where possible, roll with your players’ decisions and the consequences of them, though also note that players typically understand the constraints of the convention session form and are wanting to have a fun time with the material and situations that you have prepared.

Timekeeping

Time flies when you are having fun!

Convention session structure used to be set as a standard duration of four hours with an expected six players. Conventions now have a range of session durations from a short demo hour, ‘games on demand’ two hours, or convention slots of three, three and a half or four hours for four to six players. More unusually, some conventions provide scope for games that last two slots, or even whole weekends at LongCon. You can fit a fun game into any of these sessions.

Plan the content of your game to fit into your session duration. If you are able, test run your game before presenting it at a convention to check content and pacing. Every session, even of the same game is different, and online play has its own dynamics, so a test run is just a useful guide. Generally, you should plan for less, as players will often fill any scenes, or spaces between scenes. There is never a good reason to overrun. Your players will have lots of other things to do once your session is over, so it is poor practice to assume that you can overrun.

Several typical types of scenes can eat up a lot of your game time, for marginal or no benefit. Aim to keep your game setup talk to a minimum. Once you have covered ‘safety’, perhaps something on ‘CATS’, passed out characters and the briefest of rules introduction, you could easily be half an hour into your session! If you have pre-generated characters, get them allocated quickly, pushing along overly polite players who all want someone else to pick first (a classic British trait). Establish any dice types needed and perhaps a quick overview of the game’s core mechanic as players are looking at their character sheets. Get to the opening scene as quickly as you can.

Strategic planning and combat can really eat into your session time. Depending on your adventure that can be fine, and on point, but note that these scenes can drag, so be vigilant on your time keeping.

If you need to push things along, summarise planning options, or decision points, and ask the group which they wish to take. If a location has no further clues or areas of interest, it’s fine to say that the location has now been cleared, and ask what the group wants to do next. If you find a combat scene is taking too long, then make use of morale to curtail the fight. Foes should rarely want to fight to the bitter end. 

Take planned breaks during your session, in addition to an ‘open table’. Confirm this at the beginning of your game. As a minimum have a mid session break of 5-10 minutes, but also others depending on the needs of the group.

If your game has come to an enjoyable and satisfying conclusion before the end of the session time, then it is fine to finish early. Although the game should last a reasonable duration, to give everyone a sense of immersion in the experience, no-one is going to complain if the game has been good fun and wrapped up with half an hour still to go. You should never feel under any pressure to pad out the session to fill your quota of time. If timekeeping has not worked out and you look to be overrunning, then draw the strands together in the last ten minutes and finish on a cliff-hanger if necessary.

Note however, that some conventions persist in providing GM rewards on the basis of the number of player hours that you have provided.

Spotlight Sharing

At the beginning of your game have each player introduce their real world self and their character.  Just as people are different, you will find that you have lots of different types of players at your table. Some will be self starting, keen to play, and may even inadvertently dominate your session in all the scenes. Others will be quiet, and either happy for others to take the lead, or lack the confidence to participate as they would like. Some will stay focused on the in game action and characterisation, others may struggle to stay with the game. Spotlight sharing levels this playing field.

Seek to give every player opportunities to come to the fore, to take actions, make decisions or provide suggestions, speak as their character, pursue their goals, lead a scene, or make use of their character’s signature abilities. Move this spotlight around the whole group as much as you can. Good players will also be looking to draw others into the action.

If a GM is doing most or all the talking in a one shot session, then something is wrong. Lengthy game explanation, essay scene descriptions, and non player character spotlight dominating or monologuing, is a sign that you are all playing a solo game with a superfluous audience. A good game will give players agency to make meaningful choices and influence outcomes. Although the spotlight should also fall on the GM, ensure that everyone gets the opportunity for a proportional share. Spotlight sharing helps to give every player a sense of purpose and participation in the game.

Bling

There are some basic extras that you should plan to have ready for your game. Much as you may expect players to rock up with their own dice and maybe a pencil and paper, long experience tells us that this may not be the case. Have some spare sets of dice, scrap paper, pencils and an eraser ready to go.

Prepare some method for the players to present both their own names and character names to the other players. This can be as basic as some folded cards, through to plastic A5 menu holders with character pictures and names on the table facing side and possibly other information on the player facing side.

Depending on the nature of your game, any other prepared materials are nice to have but not necessary. ‘Bling’ such as maps, scene and non-player character pictures, props, themed dice trays, battlemats, scenery and figures, can really add to the game experience. Bling crafting can be fun to do. However, the bling is not the game. Beware ‘bling envy’. A heavily blinged up game might not actually be very good in imaginative play, while a bling-light affair might well be the most memorable game of the convention!

Convention games are generally played in shared spaces with other tables, so you may have to curtail sound effects and music as being too disruptive to other surrounding tables.

If you are lavishing your game with bling, be aware of any rules about bringing food and drink to the table. Usually drinks and snacks are all part of the established culture of play. Accept that any bling placed on the table will be sloshed with sticky beverages or torpedoed with spicey sauces. Keep your hallowed irreplaceables for display only.

You can’t please all the players all of the time

This one is quite important, and often forgotten. Always remember that whatever your energy, enthusiasm and skill, it is quite possible that what you present, and the style of game that you run, simply might not work for all the players that sit at your table. It’s important to remember that people bring their own expectations and play preferences. Everything in your game might align, but quite predictably, they sometimes won’t. The key take away here is that this is not a reflection on you as a GM or the quality and potential of the games that you run. You really can’t please all the players all of the time. So be kind to yourself and recognise this.

This may also partly explain why, when you run a particular convention game more than once with different groups, one game goes really well with a buzz around the table, and with another group it falls a bit flat. There are, of course, myriad reasons why this might be the case, but the preferences and expectations of players can account for some of it, and these are beyond your control.

There is a craft to being a good player too. You might not get very good, aligned or engaged players.

Nerves

Even if you subscribe to the view that the responsibility for a fun session is shared between all the participants around the table, it is fair to say that you, as GM, will play a pivotal role. Whether you are a first timer or an old hand, it is quite understandable for you to have some nerves and anxiety in the lead up and during your game session. As with so many facets of life, having some nerves can be a good sign and a positive driver.

We all manage anxiety differently. Good preparation for your game will help you to run it well in the session. If you find that you are still preparing a game that is ready to run, then this is usually an attempt to manage anxiety and nerves. Remember that your players are already there to have fun, and to make the most of the situations and characters that your game presents. You don’t have to ‘win the room’, they have chosen your game from the system, blurb text and tags. They are already with you.

Not every game is going to be a riotous success, and that’s OK! With good preparation, application of some basic GM good practice techniques, and space for the game to breathe with your players, you are all going to have some fun creative times together in your shared imagination space.

Many of the best conventions are warm, inclusive, and welcoming. If in the run-up to the convention you have any questions or concerns, you will find that the RPG coordinators will be there to help and support.

Anyone can be a GM. It really isn’t as difficult as this guide might make it seem! Take small steps and give it a go. Being a GM is a lot of fun and extremely rewarding.

Always Learning

The best GMs recognise that they are always learning. Maintain an open and inquisitive attitude to your GMing. If you do, over time, you will improve in your craft, and better understand your own style and preferences as a GM.

Conversely, the fact that someone has been a GM for forty years doesn’t guarantee that they know what they are doing, or are very good. So, an ‘old hand’ also needs to be someone who thinks about how they GM, how their games are presented, and welcomes constructive feedback. 

One of the best ways to learn about being a GM is to play lots of games and see how others do it. You will find many practical examples of techniques, table management, safety, spotlight and time keeping – the technical side of GMing. If you are a ‘forever GM’, use conventions as an opportunity to be a player too.

Play the games that you enjoy. Seek to improve and deepen your understanding of the game systems that you use. Having a strong game system knowledge is great for confidence, and speeds up play in your session. For some more complex games, your system knowledge will continue to grow over time. You will also understand how to tailor the game for a particular session, and how its rules and premise will support pivotal scenes in your scenario.

‘Stars and Wishes’ is a positive technique to get constructive feedback at the conclusion of your game session from everyone who has played (including you!). A star is first awarded by each person in turn for great moments in the game, be it character play, descriptions, moments of generosity, supporting another player, rule memory or tactical brilliance. Wishes are then given for something that a person would like to see for the next time. This could be something drawn from the interactions between characters, outcomes of scenes, rules that were applied, or in the way that the game is run. There is also a stronger version called ‘Roses and Thorns’ that opens up for more critical feedback. If you wish to use this technique, then plan for a ten minute period at the end of the game that still keeps you within the overall slot duration.

At conventions, if a player exercises the right to leave the game early, for whatever reason, it is worth asking that you can have a chat afterwards to see what the issue was so that it can be looked at, even if it’s just a mismatch of expectations. You can learn from when things don’t go so well for someone.

GMs want to run the most intriguing, entertaining and memorable games that they can. There isn’t a competition between GMs. Sometimes your games will sing and be brilliant, at other times they will just be OK. You’ll have your off days.

Stay open, keep learning, enjoy your GM journey.

Summary

Running an RPG at a convention with a small group of people is hugely rewarding and great fun. Anyone can be a GM. Try it and see if the process of preparing and presenting a game brings you joy. If it does, then do it some more! 

Like many endeavours, there are techniques that you can learn to help you be a good GM and present engaging games. Recognise that you will always be learning as you continue to present games, finding out a little bit more about yourself and the games that you enjoy as you go.

Not everyone will care to be a GM, but if you want to try it, then allow yourself a little preparation, perhaps starting with close friends and then branch out. Play to find out. If you are an experienced GM, stay open to how you run sessions, and recognise that as we change with the passing years, what we are looking for in our gaming will change just as the available games, styles and expectations of play are also moving around us.

As a GM or player, enjoy your gaming!

  • Listen and respond to your players.
  • Take time to understand how the convention runs and what is expected of you.
  • Know your material.
  • Understand how to play your selected game.
  • Keep to time and do not overrun.
  • Take breaks during your session.
  • Move the spotlight around the players so that everyone feels involved and engaged.
  • Have ready spare dice, pencils and paper.
  • You can’t please all players all of the time.
  • It’s fine to be nervous.
  • Everyone is there to have fun
  • Keep an open attitude to your GMing and recognise that you are always learning
  • Play games and find out how others GM

Some other places to find out more

This guidance introduces some of the techniques and mindset that will set you on your journey as a GM. There is a ton of great advice out there. Here are some links to other places you can go to find out more:

So You Want to be a Gamemaster? Justin Alexander

https://thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-master

Your Best Game Ever, Monte Cook Games

https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/your-best-game-ever/

Return of the Lazy Dungeonmaster, Sly Flourish

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/251431/return-of-the-lazy-dungeon-master

How to be a Great GM, Guy Sclanders

https://www.youtube.com/@HowtobeaGreatGM

Burn After Running, Guy Milner

https://burnafterrunningrpg.com/

Safety Tools

https://www.dramadice.com/gm-tips/safety-tools-for-tabletop-rpgs/

https://ttrpgsafetytoolkit.com/

CATS

https://proleary.com/games/the-cats-method/

Stars and Wishes

https://burnafterrunningrpg.com/2022/01/07/stars-and-wishes-because-feedback-is-hard/

https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/stars-and-wishes

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Everywhere, Everywhen, All The Time

Posted on November 20, 2025 by First Age

That Young Kingdoms call has proved strong. With more than a passing eye on Demonbane, a Dragonbane game set in a Stormbringer world, I think I will press ahead to use Everywhen with Barbarians of Lemuria sprinkled attachments. Here’s the adventure pitch:

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When, Everywhen, and Where?

Posted on November 17, 2025 by First Age

I’ve long enjoyed the tub thumping thrills of Barbarians of Lemuria (BoL). This sword & sorcery game flows off the page and onto quick pick up play without breaking its stride. The simple 2D6, get a 9+ and add a couple of modifiers depending on the situation, wears a Travelleresque task simplicity with style. Characters are a combination of four attributes, four combat abilities and a flexible number of careers (that cunningly replace skills), all in the 0-5 range. Your careers tell the foundations of a story for you to embelish, as your sketched potential quickly strides onto a many hued canvas, perhaps with a sword in hand or a terrible curse twitching to be released from your lips. Round off with some hero point fate flexing, never enough Lifepoints, and some defining boons and flaws and you have a flavoursome character, simply drawn and ready to go.

The elegant Barbarians of Lemuria game engine has been opened up for others to develop, which has given me a big fun recent swashbuckle as a musketeer in Basic Action Games’ ‘Honor+Intrigue’, layering on a tactical fencing system to give a martial focus to the 17th Century adventures. I also have their ‘Tome of Intriguing Options’ to further broaden the scope of the game to other heroic landscapes, which cycles me round to Everywhen:

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Enemy in Shadows

Posted on November 14, 2025 by First Age

We finished the ‘Enemy in Shadows’ Warhammer Fantasy 4e adventure last night, with a suitable climax! We are now moving onto ‘Death on the Reik’. Enjoying the classic campaign immensely, and it is a joy to run in Foundry. Here is a quick screenshot of the company of heroes.

Our company of heroes in Foundry VTT

With some experience now under their belt the characters are starting to rise above the filth strewn ditches of the Empire’s cities. A focused advancement from our wizard, Fulgran, has quickly created a powerful piece of mobile artillery, useful to deploy with targeted strikes against the forces of Chaos. The slow career build of the game is a delight.

The campaign has rattled along at a good pace, taking us a tight 14 fortnightly sessions so far. It will be interesting to see how the next section progresses. A continually updated story journal keeps the threads accessible, which really helps when you have gaps and a lot to remember.

Although a moderate extra investment, the Foundry campaign modules really makes it very easy to run this big adventure online. Aesthetically rich, full of information, maps, tokens and game system support, you feel very much in the driving seat to present encounters and choices for the players.

In theory, we have two or three more years of fortnightly play. I can’t be sure we will stay the course, but will enjoy every step that we take.

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Elder Scrolls Roleplaying Game

Posted on November 8, 2025 by First Age

The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Roleplaying Game has hit a final version for R3v4, prompting me to take the PDF to Lulu with a custom cover for print. The Lulu print has come out very well.

The UESRPG R3v4 Rules Compendium

This is a fan made game that draws extensively from Mythras, with some ideas from Dark Heresy and Eclipse Phase sprinkled on top. With that heritage, the game is a somewhat detailed d100 simulation, with an action point economy to tactically settle combats. The game is festooned with talents, traits and qualities themed to the setting of The Elder Scrolls. 

The game also comes with a Foundry VTT module, which accelerates the likelihood that I’ll actually do something with it. I’m also hopeful to get into a game with online friends at some juncture.
  

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The Sons of Guilliman

Posted on November 1, 2025 by First Age

 Eight Ultramarine brothers met for Remi’s 50th and kicked some arse!

https://zerolatencyvr.com/en/experience/space-marine-vr

Thirty minutes of pulsing action, as our two teams swept chaos before us.

In the mood for some Wrath & Glory or earlier FFG RPG games now!

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Heroic Fantasy 2e Updates

Posted on October 30, 2025 by First Age

My Black Hack based ‘Heroic Fantasy’ game continues to see play online and in the real. In the background I’m continuing to develop it, and consider where I might take it in the longer term.

For now, it has been good to get the game running with a character sheet on the Foundry VTT using the Custom System Builder. Foe templates and some light background lore and we are cooking for some more RPG action!

Heroic Fantasy running in Foundry VTT

The core game has had a recent text refresh, with some minor sentence improvements, page reference updates, and a few spell description improvements. These are available in a v2.02 PDF. The changes are minor, but if I find there are any more changes, then I will also update the physical books.

A recent DrivethruRPG review was very welcome, and energising for my recent developments.

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Furnace XX

Posted on October 13, 2025 by First Age

We have just had a great weekend of RPGs and company at our twentieth Furnace Convention in Sheffield at the Garrison Hotel. To celebrate this milestone we arranged some merch in the shape of emblazoned messenger bags from our accomplished trader friends ‘All Rolled Up’ and a separately sourced dice tray give-away to all attendees. Dom did such a great job pulling all that together!

Dice Trays, Bags and ARU supermodel

In many ways, Furnace is shaped by our venue, which we have stayed with for our twenty years. There is a really good understanding between our event and the hotel staff. We are a regular feature for them, and we work very well together to make the weekend as enjoyable as possible for everyone that attends. This year, due to changes in the flow of hotel business, we had an opportunity to multi-function use the large restaurant area, in addition to our more usual venue rooms. This large space opened up the convention with eight more large round tables in an airy and well lit space. This year, the ‘Mess Hall’ became the convention hub for our traders, bring & buy and raffle. It worked brilliantly!

This extension to our space afforded us an opportunity to expand our registration to ‘about 100 people’, which was extremely satisfying. I was beyond delighted to see the enthusiastic sign up for the event from regulars, returners, and a good number of very welcome newbies. Of course, this enlargement needed a complimentary number of games to fire the event to life across our five sessions. Our attendees responded by filling our schedule to the brim with, I think, 74 adventures from an astonishing 58 games. Everything from 10 Candles, Alice is Missing, to Legend in the Mist, Daggerheart, to Draw Steel and the Cosmere RPG and everythingish in between. We even had two games of D&D 2024.

We pre-book all games at our conventions. GMs get priority picks based on the number of games they offer, and then we open out to everyone working through preferences slot by slot to get the best fit we can, so that everyone knows who is playing where. I say ‘we’, by which I mean Elaine, our games Tsarina, who worked considerable magic to produce our more extensive schedule this year. I often hear that the convention ‘runs smoothly’, and that’s true in good measure to the beating heart of our game scheduling. Thank you Elaine!

Our regular traders, Patriot Games and All Rolled Up, were in attendance. It’s so good to be supported by both of them, providing a rich shopping experience in amongst the games and socialising.

I ran three games. ‘Legend in the Mist‘ – a very lovely ‘rustic fantasy’ using tag phrases instead of numbers and a charming resolution mechanic. It’ll be a big game for me for years to come. Its scalable versatility has me thinking of all sorts of future places and possibilities. ‘Coriolis‘ – a Middle Eastern inspired space opera set on a giant space station, solving a mystery of a stolen statue. This was a last minute game to help with GM dropouts, and enjoyed the interplay and enthusiasm from my players. ‘Cepheus Universal‘ – a classic Traveller style SF adventure as the ‘pirate bait’ plan went explosively awry. What might next year bring?

Pirate Bait – one of my games

I played in two great games. JohnO’s atmospheric ‘The Harrow’s Scar’, set north of Hadrian’s Wall in the second century AD. My energy was somewhat low, but enjoyed the game a great deal with a background amusement that, unlike my other players, I genuinely had no idea about Cthulhu lore at all. JonR’s sumptuously presented ‘A Box of Old Bones’ using the venerable Dragon Warriors game. The system is very 1985, but good fun nevertheless. Blingtastic game full of imagery, props and a steady hand on the setting. I picked well! 

I was glad to receive some canny feedback from our attendees during the event. We have introduced a feedback and action log to make sure we capture, record and agree what, if any, actions we need to undertake in time for our next outing. We want to both listen and act. One of my favourites was a word of congratulations that we had managed to grow the convention, and yet retained the warm and inclusive Garricon feel. Thank you, that was generously given and warmly received.

Today, I’ve paid some conventon invoices, updated the convention accounts, created a Garricon feedback action log, analysed the games offered at Furnace, and just about finished this blog. I was asked how much work goes into running the convention and realised that I didn’t really know. A monitoring timesheet is unlikely, but I reflect that, allowing for the main well oiled processes, the many small tasks over the year will amount to a significant amount of time. I enjoy much of it, and there is a particular reason why this is so.

There was a moment during Jon’s richly realised Dragon Warriors game, when I turned to one of my fellow players and co-organisers, Dom, and pointed to the ‘Mess Hall’ area behind us, full of gamers engrossed and exclaiming in their adventures and said, “Dom, look. That’s why we do it…”.

Let’s do it again shall we?

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The Storytelling Divide

Posted on August 11, 2025 by First Age

I was inspired by the extended conversation on Che Webster’s Roleplay Rescue with Anthony, aka ‘Runeslinger’, from Casting Shadows. I’m a regular listener to Che and recommend you check out his podcast here:

https://shows.acast.com/roleplayrescue

I’ll try to summarise the excellent conversation. The hobby has trended over many decades to be described as predominantly a structure to tell stories together. The touch points for this include the White Wolf storyteller games and Monte Cooke’s Cypher system. This narrative experience is seen as the primary goal for the process of play. We play to tell stories. The concern expressed in the podcast conversation is that roleplay game play is actually about other things, particularly the inhabiting of created characters, alternate antagonists and experiencing a believably constructed fantastical alternate world through their eyes. Story will, or course, inevitability emerge through the conversation and process of play, but this is different from the active and ongoing construction of either a predetermined fiction, or the managing of story beats to create a satisfying story. 

Is the older, perhaps more traditional, mode of play a dwindling twilight view of story as by-product, as opposed to the main product of the game? There is a pervasive caveat that much of this is about preference, style and a shifting perspective in styles of play that strengthens and enables a player to inhabit their character and live their life in the shoes of another. You will find a more structured view of the ‘story divide’ in Anthony’s blog:

https://castingshadowsblog.com/2025/05/31/the-accidental-lie-in-rpgs/

One of the great features of the conversation was the return to original sources, a choice selection of games over the years to investigate the language being used to describe what roleplaying, in the context of the roleplaying game book you were holding, was actually all about. Taking inspiration from this I decided to pick up FGU’s Chivalry and Sorcery 2nd edition boxed set from my shelves. The C&S text is a powerful pull for me personally. In the  rollercoaster of life, the text became a source of comfort when things were going through a difficult phase. Reading the game again brought a strong reverberation of the past and some appreciation of the intervening years.

So, heading back to a 1983 publication date, with already a corpus of text on the subject, how does C&S now describe a roleplaying game? Well, considerably different to the 1977 1st edition, as we now meet the ‘Gamemaster Storyteller’. This is chronologically well in advance of anything written in the White Wolf Storyteller games. Did the shift to RPGs being, principally, or even in principle, story telling exercises happen even earlier than supposed? Here are some short elements from the early C&S chapters ‘On Being a Gamemaster’. There is also a subsequent section entitled and On Being a Role Player’, however the balance of the text is weighted much more to the heavier role of Gamemaster.

A Gamemaster needs to be a:

  • Master of Rules –  know the game part, understand the book and house rules and apply them impartially and fairly. You have the final word.
  • Creator of Worlds – and make it fit for effective role play. It is a task that depends upon the imagination, expertise, intelligence, and plain common sense of the GameMaster.
  • Teacher and Advisor – your task is to instruct Players about your view of role playing so that they know how to play in your world. Present the world so the Players know how to deal with it. Instruct on the rules and any house rules and assist players if they have difficulties with a particular rule.
  • Storyteller – here it is… A fantasy role playing game is a akind of enactment of a heroic tale, and the GameMaster is the narrator who tells the story and keeps everything tied together. Players, who have excited imaginations, will add to the general outlines of the ‘story’ through role-playing their characters as the events unfold. The GameMaster will respond to play and modify the general story to match the effects the Players are having on the course of action. In short, you the GameMaster must be prepared to accept the fact that the Players are also ‘storytellers’ who can influence your own plans and ideas. course  
  • Role Player – breathe personalities into your NPCs. Without giving your NPCs a life of their own, then the whole activity is really a farce. Your NPCs gve you a chance to play characters. 
  • Bookkeeper and clean-up man – deal with detail so that everyone knows what is going on, moment by moment.

Put in dramatic terms, the Gamemaster is a combination Playwright / Director / Stage Manager / Producer / Actor. Put another, perhaps more frightening way, the Gamemaster is Fate, God and Everyone Else besides the Player Characters in the fantasy world. GameMastering is a great responsibility, but it is not as difficult a task as it appears if the Gamemaster knows the material, is organised, and has prepared himself beforehand. Indeed, it is an immensely satisfying experience.

Each of these sections are then given greater exposition, with a lot of interesting takes. The text is, of course, rooted in a slightly earlier age, but I think it does a good job of describing a trad GM who has ‘a sense of duty to their players’. After all, if you have 8-10 players, you really need a ‘Caller’ to stop there being so many voices all at once. Ah yes, them warr days.

The storyteller GM is what I recognise in most trad GMs for the past forty years. Apply the rules well, play the game, create a story structure, allow the players to respond and make their own stories, weave them together to create a shared narrative that arises out of collaborative play. If there is a divide, then my old favourite sits on the emergent side, where story is developed as play progresses, with as much emphasis on game and situational resolution for its own sake.

It was nice to go back to the text, though my initial excitement for something more radical wasn’t really there in the detail. I didn’t really think it would be. 

Is the term ‘storyteller’ and ‘storytelling’ misappropriated by modern texts? Do we actually all mean the same thing?Do those terms need to be ‘reclaimed’ for the more mainstream emergent story, the narrative created through character driven play, perhaps guided by adventure design, but diverging as the group create their own pathways? I’m not sure it does. The vast majority of my play experience of forty years has found us telling a story, it just generally formed as a byproduct of our chaotic play. The personal character arcs combined or clashed to give a group outcome. Some of our stories were better shaped than others, but they were all fun, because the play was the thing. 

Not that there is anything wrong with a game that is more obviously designed so that a playing group can create a compelling story, sometimes within a set number of sessions, as the main artefact out of the experience. If that is what a ‘Story Game’ is, then even after all this time I have played very few. I have really enjoyed DramaSystem games ‘which privileges the exploration of narrative over other design goals..’. Even here, I have only played Hillfolk as one shots, where the game is actually designed to create an improvised narrative over longer form play.

Perhaps I am wary of the notion of a divide, because I have only played on one side of it, so that the apparent wall seems relatively inconsequential? Is the divide an ephemeral mist of loose taxonomy not actually carried through into actual play experience? Or, perhaps, even now, I need to get out more? Perhaps I need to run for the hills?

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Classic Traveller – shrouded in nostalgia

Posted on August 2, 2025 by First Age

The Traveller science fiction RPG was first published on 22nd July 1977, so my continuing forever game is soon to reach the important milestone of a 50th anniversary. I anticipate something of a formal celebration from the current publisher, Mongoose, and broadly across the Traveller playing community. I’m delighted to discover that an old University friend, who I have kept in touch with, and who used to run Traveller for me when it was taking its very early developmental steps in the early 1980s, is planning a celebratory anniversary weekend game for us, using the classic Traveller rules. I’m looking forward to it already! This has prompted me to return to the orignal text to remind me of the few minor differences between the original game and the iterations that I play today: the modern 2d6 system of Mongoose Traveller and Cepheus Engine.

I had one of those heart sinking moments when I realised that I could neither locate my original Starter

set or MegaTraveller books. After a plaintive search into the surface regions of my store cupboard, I had to accept that they have, at least for now, become lost in jumpspace. So, without batting an eyelid, I went onto DrivethruRPG and grabbed a copy of the Traveller Book, both in PDF and physical. This is the 1982 rendition of the game, which is drawn from the 1981 refresh of the original 1977 three little black book release. I think that will prove to be ‘classic enough’, and it will be great to have a physical copy on the table when we play. If I need to get down with 1977, with starship ranges in miles ratjher than kilometers, then electronic copies are available here. If you want to play along for free then there is the Facsimile Edition, which is a tidied up ‘1981 version’ of the three black books. A vast trove of Ancients artefacts are available at Far Future Enterprises. I may yet delve into the treasures, but for now I have what I need.

In the chasms of gaming time, I have allowed myself to forget how different ‘Classic Traveller’ is from the versions I play today. On reading the Traveller Book text, several key aspects immediately struck me, resonating with my resurging memories of the game I played back in the day. Here are my immediate reflections. 

Classic Traveller doesn’t have a standardised task system. Different modifiers and target numbers apply to each skill area. Jack of Trades provides an actual skill level in certain Referee controlled situations. As there is no unified task system, the effect of a character’s skill, or lack thereof, needs to be checked with the skill text. Attributes have different effects, or none at all, for each of the skill areas. I have played with unified systems for so long, I had forgotten that Classic played as it did. 

In the basic game, characters would muster out of their services with very few skills, taken from a much smaller skill list. The ‘Gun Combat’ skill is per weapon, though everyone gets the skill at zero. I remember the hilarity of starting an epic adventure with a character that had Admin-2 and Liaison-1 (and Gun Combat-0). 

Skill training is over a four year block, which provides a temporary level, only to be cemented over a further four year programme. Crikey.

Armour provided a minus modifier for a hit, with each type cross referenced with the weapon list to get the effect. In our early Traveller game we used elements of the seperate boxed Snapshot game for our personal combat. This seemed like a sophisicated upgrade even then. Although mechanically, the game plays out differently, the recognisable core delivers a deadly combat system that encourages other solutions to problems, or a swift return to the quickly generate a new character.

Having skimmed the original core game, I then poured through books 4 to 7, each of which significantly increase the skill totals for characters, and introduces additional skills, all of which are now standard in the later versions of the game. Instinctively we moved our games forward with the incremental releases of these books. We moved with Traveller as it developed. It remains a quetion to someone Refereeing a game of Classic Traveller, to check if they are using Mercenary, High Guard, Scouts and Merchant Prince. 

For me, this return to the original text reinforces the seminal importance of the release of Digest Group Publications’ ‘Universal Task Profile’ in 1985. I remember looking at this new standardised process for resolving tasks and immediately saw the profound benefit it would bring to the way the game plays. All subsequent versions of the 2d6 line of Traveller games use the principles of the UTP, helping to modernise the game, whilst keeping close to the core of the original text.

The UTP as adopted into MegaTraveller

Of course, the core of the beautiful game is all there in Classic Traveller, but I was surprised how different it felt, how early and formative, which of course it had to be. Classic is often touted as the simpler start to the game, and I found nothing in the original text that supported this notion.  Not that the game is complex to play, it just lacks the honed norms of more modern game design. Some will prefer Classic to the modern expressions, it is just a matter of taste. Whether you are playing Classic, MegaTraveller, T4 and 5, Cepheus or Mongoose Traveller, you are always recognisably playing Traveller, such is the strength of the core design and the clever adaptation over the years.

I’m currently enjoying Dom’s Mongoose Traveller Jägermeister Adventure, and will return to play the Drinax adventures in September. My forever game continues, whichever dice modifier or task profile used. The game ages better than a character on the ageing table, it has such good genes. As I commence my eleventh four year term around the sun, I reflect that I’m lucky to have found my forever game.

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