Learning to GM - Part 3

The game is on

So with much trepidation (just ask anyone who's known me for the last week.) I GMed my first game on Wednesday.

It was a Cthulhu Dark game set in the Conway Museum, a dilapidated mansion that was once grand but fell into disrepair. There were few visitors to the museum as Charles Conway tended to open the museum erratically (including in the middle of the night) and chased people away if he didn't like the sense of them. There have been even fewer visitors a week ago since Charles sold a lot of the items of value, scraped the rest and filled the museum with new and strange artefacts.

The game began at 8pm as the night security guards were beginning work. Snow was settling around the Museum. And maybe the lights are flickering a bit. But it was just for one night.

The first thing I realised was how supportive the roleplaying community is. I posted on Facebook that I was a bit nervous and got lots of replies telling me that it would be fine.

I think, for a first attempt it went OK (I'm defining OK as I didn't get flustered and give up in the first 5 minutes). About half way through I started to enjoy it.

The issue I have, which I should've realised was that 'no plan survives contact with your players.' There were three bits I regret I missed out, two because the players didn't do anything to trigger it and one because I completely forgot. (I think juggling 3 maps, 3 character sheets and a notebook didn't help.)

I also had the idea that the players would sweep the museum and not find anything too creepy the first time and then it would gradually get scarier, but they looked a bit bored so I quickly moved onto the scary bits which made for a shorter game (actually that was lucky because one of my players had to leave quite early).

I forgot to have a lines and veils talk at the start and then during a particularly gruesome scene had to say 'ugh, you guys are OK with this, right?'

I had to write a text on the train home so I could remember which NPCs were dead, which were alive but horribly injured and how and which were OK. I nearly sent it to my sister.

I don't think I used enough tension – at one point I was describing “this horrible thing, and then this horrible thing and then this horrible thing”

I didn't play up the NPCs enough. The one that featured in the game most, featured because the character she was most attached to was concerned about her. I need to sort that out for the next game.

At the end I was railroading the players a bit because I was worried that no one was going to find the one important thing that they needed to find. There was a book in a secret passage and I was trying every tactic I could to get at least one of my players to pick it up and read it! (“It's drawing you towards it” “You hear your adult son calling your name and it seems to be coming from that direction”)

The players wanted to play the second session and final of the game next week which I will take as a positive (although the guy who actually said it is far too nice to have requested I don't put him through another 3 hours of boredom!)

One of the players, the one who was helping me with this in the first place, said he would give me some feedback which will be really useful.

No one went completely insane which is good because it wasn't time to go insane. Later maybe.

I think the take away is (and I know how hypocritical I sound) if you want to try out GMing find some friends you trust not to laugh at you and just do it. If I know you IRL I'm very happy to play in your first game and I promise I will make it as easy for you as possible because I know how stressful the whole thing is.