In 2019, I’ve decided to try and post a bit of Gaming Mastery every day of the year. That’s 365 tips, all of them organized around a monthly theme.
January’s theme? The basics of running a game.
And we’ll start with the most basic of basics for Game Mastery:
Fun.
Fun is the first rule. You’re getting together to play a game to have fun. If the players aren’t having fun, you’re not doing your job. If you make a decision that doesn’t add to the fun of the game, either immediately or over the long term, you’ve made a mistake.
This doesn’t mean the players should always be happy. Indeed, setbacks and conflict and frustrations can be important elements in setting up fun gaming–we have can have great fun *overcoming* our obstacles.
How do you promote fun in your game? Well, that’s the tricky part, and that’s what the rest of this series will be about.
But whenever you’re running a game, ask yourself: is this promoting the fun?
Worldswalker 