RPG a Day #27 Practice

 

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

Do you practice for a game? For me, if I’m going to be running a game for the first time I like to try and run it ahead of time. I especially do this if it’s for an event. I’ve talked about running things for Free RPG Day and my local game club.

For Free RPG Day I always try and run the adventure for my friends first because I know that Free RPG Day will require me to move quickly. I’ll be running the game in a slotted time so I can run a couple of groups through it. I want to make sure I get everyone who wants to a chance to play.

Playing it ahead of time lets me find any rules or questions that I might not have noticed reading the module. I’ve hit problems in the past with a trap being a game breaker the way it was written and had to make adjustments to it so that it was more of a possibility during the actual game. With my friends we were able to stop the game look up some stuff and make adjustments. If it had happened on the day it could have soured folks to the game. I don’t want to do that.

The same goes for large events. If I was running a battle interactive I always tried to hold a session zero where I’d run the module for everyone who was running it for the club. That way they’d see it from the players side, get to take their characters through it, and again if any questions came up we could pause and answer them. We also go together for breakfast the day of the game to run over any last questions and strategies.

The only other time I practice is if I’m learning a new system. When I’m sitting down with a new game, especially if I’m going to be teaching it, I will run myself through a couple of quick encounters and fights to make sure I’ve a basic understanding of the mechanics. I probably won’t get everything right but at least I’ll be going into that first game with an idea of what I’m supposed to be doing.

That’s about it for me. I don’t really do any other practice beyond that. How about you?

I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about Solo…maybe…

Until then, stay safe and be well.