Giving Feedback On What you want

[Josh]

This thread will collate Some of the questions we want to ask all of you.  Mostly, what Kind of stuff are you interested in

This is the first poll and then we will move on.

[woodenbandman]

I want more Min/Max 'sodes. Not because I need help that much, but because I like to hear the BG's takes on Min/Maxing.

[chrisfixedkitty]

While I also want more min/max and reviews as the come along, I'm a player.  I like the GM episodes, but player info is more directly useful to me right now.  That said, I mentioned that I wanted a childfree knitter game night to some knitting buddies, and that was greeted with enthusiasm. Um, maybe I'd better search the archives for a "what you should know before you start a new game as a new GM... warning! warning!" thread/episode... 

[InnaBinder]

Voted for GM advice, on the basis that I'm more GM than player at the moment.

[Meg]

Um, maybe I'd better search the archives for a "what you should know before you start a new game as a new GM... warning! warning!" thread/episode... 

That is a great idea!

[Daz Florp Lebam]

I voted setting. For some reason the first thing i thought of when you mentioned this thread was "things you can learn from playing or running setting X and use in setting Y."

For instance, what can you learn from a Star Trek game where the PCs are the senior officers - including the captain? Doing that sort of game well requires (among other things, I'm sure) roleplaying the superior/inferior officer relationships without douchebaggery, accepting the power differential between the ranks in a way that's fun to play rather than annoying, utilizing the specialness of the senior officers' departments and expertise...I could probably go on. How could you apply those lessons, those necessities, to another genre...or even the trappings and assumptions and coolness of one setting or genre to another.

Even as I wrote that i caught myself phrasing it in a more generic way than I intended, so that it sounds less Trek-y and more "how to have a well-balanced group".
 
Anyway, that's what popped into my head. 'Cuz my head is like that.

[AfterCrescent]

The more I run games for friends and their friends, the more I A) miss being a player and B) realize how many mistakes I make and things I ignore. There's always room to learn and make my games better, so I'm always looking for ideas and advice on that. Hence, I voted GM.

[Dionysus]

Yeah, i'm pretty much stuck in the "gm" role a lot.
I want more tips on getting players more immersed - I love making enjoyable games and want more tips on how to do it. Things like pacing, building excitement, making challenges etc.

[Daz Florp Lebam]

What do oyu do with players who only participate if there's something !!!AWESOME!!! going on, and are otherwise on their laptop doing who knows what. We have a player in our group like this. Nice guy, but he's very quiet. He opened up last week when there were fewer players, but that session was mostly combat.

[Meg]

You know, that would be good to explore from both a GM and a player side.  I do that a lot

[Daz Florp Lebam]

You know, that would be good to explore from both a GM and a player side.  I do that a lot

Shame on you! Of course, I don't own a working laptop or any hand-held devices other than a basic cell phone, so I can't speak to those kinds of distractions.

The standard advice here is to prohibit laptops from the game table, but more and more people seem to like to have their character sheets and gule book PDFs on their laptop or even on things like iPhones, this doesn't seem like a tenable solution anymore.

[chrisfixedkitty]

otherwise on their laptop doing who knows what.

I'm halfway between Silicon Valley and San Francisco.  Half the people at the table have to deal with Twitter for work on the weekends, and sometimes this gets annoying when Bad Things happen in the real world.  I suppose you and the other players could talk to the player's character more in the not-tremendous moments and pull them into interacting?  Maybe feed more story hooks their way?

[TheChrisWaits]

The standard advice here is to prohibit laptops from the game table, but more and more people seem to like to have their character sheets and gule book PDFs on their laptop or even on things like iPhones, this doesn't seem like a tenable solution anymore.

Oh please no! Some groups I'm in would never accomplish anything without my laptop.

[veekie]

They're too handy these days.

The trick is to have the game in a Faraday's Cage. Laid down by the host while nobody's watching between games. In the gaming room.

[chrisfixedkitty]

I've searched the boards and found tidbits on this here and there, but the bridge between being a player and starting to DM or co-DM isn't covered in much detail.  I'd like to hear the Brilliant Gameologist take on this transition and skills/knowledge that you may not need as a player that were essential as a DM.  Also, when should you NOT step up to that particular plate?
CF

[Perry]

I'd like to hear more about how structures of different games create opportunities for different interactions and modes of engagement among players.  Or, in a critical sense, how systems may fail in these goals.  I'd say that, unlike many gamer pundits who explore "theory" and seem to fall into distracting lapses of physics-envy, the Gameologists are at their unique best when they discuss game systems comparatively and with an eye to deep structure, much the same way that textual links are often explored in Comparative Literature. 

Also, I like the dick jokes.

[Dumb-Age Master]

Min-max, because they're really technical, and I love technical stuff.

If you could make other episodes technical, that's fine, too.

[Hallack]

Systems because there has got to be some great systems out there to which I have not been exposed.  Things that might be better than say D&D 3.5/4.0 for fantasy or others even for different genres. 

I recall some games being mentioned in various sodes in regards to best supporting it's goal... Gumshoe for mystery comes to mind.

Some info on basic mechanics of various systems would be some nice crunch.

[ksbsnowowl]

I voted setting, but I like GM episodes just as well... especially when they are GM advice about constructing a well-planned setting.  Yeah...