Being a GM (a “Game Master” cue choir), is nerve wracking. Its being in charge of running a pencil and paper role-playing game. It challenges your ability to craft story, improvise dialogue, create tension and suspense, and it makes you have to go to bathroom really, really bad.
That could just be my GM bowels. Not quite up to snuff.
Recently, I finished up my first, full length campaign as GM. The RPG was The Dresden Files (a personal favorite. Seriously I love the series and the game), and I cut the story into four parts:
Part One: Blood Lines
Part Two: Side Ways
Part Three: Crooked Servant
Part Four: Blood Forge
Not that you need to know the titles of each part, I just felt like showing off. Anyway, I had four players in my care: Mads, Rhona, Mangus, and Whitehall. Four brave souls who agreed to join me in my first ever GM attempt. They were already established as kind people with a lot of patience. And it was appreciated. Especially since each part would need its own day to play out. So that is four days out of these players’ lives. I really hope they had fun.
Blood Forge, the final chapter went more quickly than I intended, but that is normal for a game. Sometimes it goes long, sometimes it goes short. Depends on how quickly the players want the game to move. Blood Forge was quick and crazy. These are the ten main points:
There was a monster chasing them at one point. This monster was made up old body parts. EW. And then there was an evil bell that was also made up of rotten meat. EW AGAIN. Things made out of meat and body parts seemed to be the theme for this round. I don’t know, it was on my brain for some reason. That’s one of the weird parts of GM’ing. You never know what gets dragged out of your head. Cathartic at times, if not for the constant nerves.
As for the characters, nobody died. Which I was going to let the dice decide what the outcome was going to be for them. But the dice took pity upon them, and the characters all got closing credit goodness. Mads found new power, but some guilt as well from a failure. Rhona defeated life-long enemies, achieving a new hope for the future. Mangus found love. And Whitehall might become a counselor.
This all sounds so silly as I write this, but its actually very cool. Cool to care what happens to make believe people. That’s the magic of RPG’s. You get so involved with these creations. Your imagination is finally allowed to run wild again. Its your very own TV show, movie, book, video game all rolled into one.
As for me, I’m willing to GM again at some point, but I would like to take a break right now. I just want to be a player again. Maybe I’ll be a disgraced Cavalry officer. Or a scarred, power-hungry warlock. Or a one-liner spitting shaman. Or…
Or whatever I want next.