How do you GM on a bad day?
You've got a weekly session, but the day comes and something happens and you're just feeling like shit. You're not sure if you can do a great job.
Do you continue anyway and risk a bad session, or cancel and annoy your players?
A-asking for a friend..
It's gonna be okay, user. Eat your favorite food. Listen to some good music. You can do this.
>GMing isn't his favorite part of the week
If it's an in-person game (the only way I play), then the first 15-or-so minutes of everyone getting in, settling in, and chatting before you start is enough to shake off the shit of the week and get back in the groove.
Trust me, I've been doing exactly that for a long, long time.
You friends understand, and have surely had their own bad days that they've shaken off to play with you before.
It is for me, but shit happens. Terrible shit.
>You're not sure if you can do a great job.
Whoa what the fuck? GMing is a thing you do for fun.
Besides, you're awful already. Your players will enjoy the session no matter what.
You go to your friends who you're running this shit, say "sorry, something horrible happened, can't GM today" - and if they don't reply with "Jesus Christ, we love you get better soon and always remember you can talk about it" ditch them altogether.
Sometimes shit happens and I have some bad days. My players are pretty understanding most of the time but when they push for a game I'll run anyway but I regress to the GM vs. the players mentality.
When I feel like shit and don't feel like DMing at all, it usually goes away as soon as the session begins. Unless it's some debilitating professional-care-requiring shit, I think it's worth it to try coming for the game.
Spend some time with a pet beforehand-that usually cheers me up.
You sound like a fag.
kill your players
Tell the players I don't feel up to it and offer them the choice between a boardgame and a shitty rpg session.
Terribly.
I add less descriptions, I find it harder to concentrate on the mechanics or the minute by minute. The only thing that remains unaffected is the NPC dialogue, since method-acting or describing their feelings helps me get rid of my own.
Fixed that for you
>I'm so insecure about myself I will resort to name calling when confronted with any form of emotional vulnerability
I just do. Pretending things are fiiine is part of my job description (we're critically understaffed and cut way too many corners), stretching that routine for another couple hours a week is nothing.
That said, if you're not professional pretender - getting petted my somebody you like just before the session should got you in the good mood.
Rolled 2, 16, 8, 13, 12, 13, 6, 20, 8, 18 = 116 (10d20)
>you all triggered an avalanche and half the mountain's coming towards you
>roll 10d20 for damage
>shit guess we'll need to do new characters next week
But seriously if you're not always cancelling because you got the wrong order at Starbucks or got cut off in traffic, unless you're entire party is That Guy it'll be fine asking for time off. Maybe just play a joke session, one of my players a few weeks back had a terrible fucking week so rather than continue on with the orphan meat golem story we made up a quick joke session. The druid decided to set free all the animals in the city, while the barbarian made it his duty to buy and eat every kabob in the same area. It resulted in the characters killing half the town guard, the horses and cows stampeding through the fields and ruining the harvest, the barbarian gaining 30lbs because they ate 540 gp worth of meat while the thief managed a quite impressive Stealth and Slight of Hand checks to steal the panties from the duke's daughter, and finally the wizard somehow managed to convince the brownie spirit living at the duke's manor to make her home in their Bag of Holding, resulting in this little white haired girl appearing whenever they open it. Many laughs were had, and we were back to orphan meat next week. We kept brownie spirit because the party seemed attached to her, I'm trying to figure out how to work her into the campaign that involves investigating why the dragons went extinct as the current story arc and the larger issue of magic becoming increasingly controlled and hoarded by the warlock colleges.
I don't have bad days. I just man up and never complain about anything. The good time of 4 other bros depends on me this evening and I am not going to bitch out and let them down.
You can do this for so long but eventually you're going to go full Pagliaccio
If you do it because you like it then force yourself to do it, if you're having a bad day it might make you feel better.
If DMing is already a bother to you than call it off and do something better, like take a walk listening to an audiobook, cook something nice or clean your room.
I just sit down with myself and resolve all of my problems by thinking them through and figuring out solutions. I never feel the need to use alcohol or drugs to make myself forget or to go and piss my eyes in front of a psychologist. Just tough it out and keep going with your day, buttercup. Its what will make you strong and let you push through life leading you to success. I know its Veeky Forums so you have to take that with a grain of slat, buy my grandfather used cow manure to isolate the floor and not lose heat in the winter. My father was a farmer. By age 30 I have 2 undergrads, a masters, and started up a company that I managed to expand to sell internationally within the first 6 months of operation. Complaining about problems never gets you anywhere you have to beat them down and move ahead. Bad days are wasted days you could have done something useful/fun in instead.
Did it, it went great and was probably the best session I've run in a while. I'd prepped well ahead of time and felt great by the end.
:)
:)
If really bad shit happened and you're not feeling like you'd be able to... don't. I've tried one day where I was absolutely devastated by bad stuff that happened, and I just couldn't focus. My players saw I wasn't well, too. So we just chat about random stuff instead, it was still great to uplift my mood a little.
user, we're not RP here, you can stop.
Also, OP wasn't bitching about anything.
Good to hear, dude!
that's great to hear!
user, are you aware what actually goes on when you visit a therapist? Having someone to bounce off ideas about your situation, to share their perspective and to confide in usually leads to a better understanding of yourself. I'm sure you're very successful, but most people can't function on a "just do it" basis.
I have not yet reached the level of GMing experience required to run a decent session while drunk. Hell, I can barely run a decent session sober.
This to be honest
I do awful sessions after awful days and they still love it.
That's my secret, bub. I'm always having a bad day.
I'm almost completely certain, with each approaching session of a game I'm running, that I'll be terrible. I honestly think it's better to try and fail than to not try. At least you'll take something away from the experience, and more often than not, sink or swim will actually help you to swim. So while I don't really ever feel confident, and after each session I think I did really bad, at least I keep myself composed and keep things moving along, and I even manage to have a good time. And then my players tell me I did really good, and praise me for my apparent knack for GMing (newish GM), even though I think they're being charitable. I know I'm making a lot of mistakes.
But here's the thing: Even if you don't perform as well as you'd like, the fact that you're performing at all is already a huge plus in your favor. It's kind of like that piece of dating advice; that by going out and actually talking to girls, you're already well ahead of guys who you think are better than you, but aren't talking to girls. People want to play, and even if they story isn't spectacular, they can have fun.
So even though this might sound gay, my advice is to stop being so hard on yourself, ignore your doubts as best you can, and just forge ahead. If you fuck up, you fuck up, but if you keep moving forward, that fuck up will be behind you before you know it.
Actually good GMing advice. 10/10.
How do you deal with a GM who is clearly having a bad day, but then tells the players that their hearts aren't in it to put it on them? Asking for a friend.
I don't. Every time I meet up with my players, we play MtG for an hour or two before playing. If I'm feeling shitty, We just keep playing MtG until one of us is tired of playing, and then go out for an early dinner.
Gayest cop out advice I've ever seen
Bitch about it to your players (they're sympathetic friends, right?) and get it off your chest first then play