Got 2 B Styling

Do you know something I really love about Table Top Games? (Probably not I just couldn't think of a good opening line). I love it when a Games Master injects the game with their own sense of style. It can be such small or major touches that really gives the games a unique feel and I think it also really improves the players confidence in the GM.

Years back a friend of mine once went to a local paid Dungeons and Dragons event. It was the kind that was hosted in the back of an arcade that you could buy weekly tickets for. Thing is though she came from it really disappointed and said that the whole thing just felt strictly by the book and lacking in personality. Real shame but then I compare that to things other players have told me and my partner about their games; One excitedly told us about his how his first game started with the DM pulling out a scroll he'd made by tea-staining a sheet of paper. Another recently told us about how their DM made the whole setting only populated by talking rats. There's one I've seen on reddit where the Games Master uses sweets to mark out the enemies on the map and whoever gets the killing blow gets to eat it. Players love having a reason to say to people: 'Oh our DM always does (insert fun unique thing)'

I'm probably just going to end up listing examples in this post as far be it from me to tell anyone how to be creative. I just think it makes things so much better if you can find a way to put your own spin on things and I love hearing them from other people.

My partner (who runs a weekly Dungeons & Dragons Game) has always disliked aspects they consider busywork so just straight up removed mechanics like item weight, fatigue, ammo management for arrows, the need to regularly eat. The argument being that they want their games to have a streamlined feel focusing on character decisions, puzzles and action set pieces instead of survival sim. They're also really good at drawing and coming up with puzzles so often design the players lots of visual aids for puzzle rooms.

For me music is a big thing, music always makes me feel creative and helps me picture the vibe of the scene I'm going for. I'm also someone who hates giving long visual character descriptions so anytime there's a human character I just used the shorthand of picking a celebrity to say they look like. Our party in Monster of The Week has Peter Cushing, Hugh Jackman, Lauren Socha and Anna Kendrick to name a few. To be honest as well I actually just leaned into that games inspiration of being based on the tv genre by presenting it like it's a 90s TV show with a cheesy intro sequence I made. I'm shockingly terrible at drawing but I'm alright at video editing so thought it would be fun to make and it just gives the whole

thing that extra sense of flavour. I did once run a D&D Campaign with an additional religion alignment gameplay element for an extra bit a flavour.

I think that's the main thing I'm thinking about here. It's that extra flavour that gives being a GM your distinctive feel. Not to mention there are so many aspects that different Games Masters approach completely differently from one and other.

Perfect example. Let’s say there’s an NPC (we’ll call her Sally) who has some information the players need.

• GM1 has the players roll to see what information they get from Sally.

• GM2 has the players play out the conversation with Sally and leaves them to figure out for themselves what was important and how to interpret it.

• GM3 also has the players play out the conversation with Sally but interrupts the conversation when they say anything that transitions the conversation into investigating and then has them roll for it.

All three are absolutely valid approaches for dealing with the situation but they’re completely different styles that set the Gamemasters apart from one and other.

I'm always on the lookout for ways GMs set themselves apart from one and other and think it's such an important aspect to really make the game special for your players.