09-10-2026, 05:12 AM
It's funny, I increasingly find myself annoyed having to do prep at all beyond reading and note-taking. Like maybe this is just an after-effect of ~being a game designer~, but I feel like if I'm going to do the work of prepping something good myself, I should make it into something I can release. Like prep, when done well, can tremendously increase the quality of the games that I run at the table. I really value well-made adventures and play materials specifically because it means that I can get that quality boost at my table—all the depth and richness of prep—without needing to do the work, the labor of the craft, myself. Don't get me wrong, in the games that I do make myself to run and the books I do eventually release, I definitely pour in a lot of time and love and creativity and effort. And that sort of just makes it more frustrating to have a book claim to do that work for me, the labor, only to find that it will still take me hours of preparation before I can bring it to the table. I don't mind doing that for my own work, my own precious special little projects, but if it has to be mostly my own work to even get the game to the table, what's this new RPG book I just picked up even for?
Increasingly I find myself feeling that I am a very... uncreative GM? I read the books and take notes, sure, but mostly, I feel like I am just there to referee. I have no real plan, no real outcomes I'm building up to, no big dynamics devised for my players. We go where the game takes us. When I hear about how some GMs run, where there are moments and situations and dynamics built up to with huge intention and mountains of prep well in advance, it's pretty astonishing. Like at the table I think I put in plenty of effort to take notes, keep track of lots of moving pieces, adjudicate fairly and well, do fun character voices, lean into the big descriptions and exciting stuff, make sure everyone's comfy and enjoying themselves. It's just that none of that is... creative? Really? Like I am, for the most part, not really making anything up. I do a bit with the NPCs and the descriptions, sure, but I feel like mostly I am just describing this imaginary world as it is.
And I actually get a lot of value out of that, I think. I come away from sessions often tired and worn-out, true, but also often delighted, reinvigorated, compelled and moved by the events of play. It's really cool to see how players running into the world can change that world, and it makes me think and feel lots of ways. And so it's hard, it's difficult for me, to see that promise expressed somewhere in or around a book, only to discover that all those good feelings of uncreative GMing are still hours of work and preparation away.
Increasingly I find myself feeling that I am a very... uncreative GM? I read the books and take notes, sure, but mostly, I feel like I am just there to referee. I have no real plan, no real outcomes I'm building up to, no big dynamics devised for my players. We go where the game takes us. When I hear about how some GMs run, where there are moments and situations and dynamics built up to with huge intention and mountains of prep well in advance, it's pretty astonishing. Like at the table I think I put in plenty of effort to take notes, keep track of lots of moving pieces, adjudicate fairly and well, do fun character voices, lean into the big descriptions and exciting stuff, make sure everyone's comfy and enjoying themselves. It's just that none of that is... creative? Really? Like I am, for the most part, not really making anything up. I do a bit with the NPCs and the descriptions, sure, but I feel like mostly I am just describing this imaginary world as it is.
And I actually get a lot of value out of that, I think. I come away from sessions often tired and worn-out, true, but also often delighted, reinvigorated, compelled and moved by the events of play. It's really cool to see how players running into the world can change that world, and it makes me think and feel lots of ways. And so it's hard, it's difficult for me, to see that promise expressed somewhere in or around a book, only to discover that all those good feelings of uncreative GMing are still hours of work and preparation away.