The Art of Role Playing Games

As I plan my approach in hosting my first game as a GM, I find myself questioning myself. "What is my approach?", has become a reoccurring theme in my thoughts. I find myself lost as to where to start, or even, what direction do I go and where does it end. Needless to say, I'm learning now, that taking the reigns as a GM leads to many more questions, and much more work answering those questions than on the other side of the screen.

When I role played, the only real questions I ever had to ask myself was "What does this character think, or feel?". I would take the information fed to me by the GM and the other characters in my party. And yes, "characters" once we began role play they were no longer players, or the people I had known for years and experienced much of life with. I digress. The fact of the matter was that I had never thought of what type of experiences I enjoyed while role playing because I role played the way I enjoyed.

That being said, I have recently began a journey of sorts into the real world, or more accurately the virtual world. I have began to lean heavily on the views, experiences and opinions of other GM's and players on YouTube. It is here I made one of my first discoveries. There is more than one type of player in role playing games. Additionally, by the same logic, there is more than one type of GM. This leads to an immeasurable amount ways to enjoy a game.

a long long adventure with hobbit by breathing2004

Inspired by this I began to view role playing as an activity, much like stained glass windows  in a chapel. Perhaps I'm attracted by the colorful panes of glass, or even a specific color that appeals to me. I may appreciate the how each pane is shaped, sharp and contrasting, or smooth, round, and flowing. The intricacies of the iron frame and how it's been worked into an over all structure might draw me in. As a complete piece they often make beautiful and moving pieces of art.

I ask myself now, "If a game, were to be treated like stained glass window how would it work out?"

If I were to inundate my window with my favorite color it would lose perspective and the over all picture would become lost, and if I chose a variety of colors adding as much as I could at every possible opportunity, my picture would look disjointed and be just as difficult to make out. To build my window out of only curved and flowing pieces, my art would come out gelatinous and bubbly, and using only sharp pieces would make my final piece look broken, and fractured. Finally, if too intent on the iron frame, I would over shadow the glass in all forms. At some point I would push all of the color, all of the shapes out of my picture and end up with a stiff rigid piece of iron.

This leaves me, finally, at the thought that it is not my favorite aspect of the window that makes it wondrous. It is everything together in balance that makes the stain glass window such a grand image to behold.

I still haven't discovered where I start, or where it will end. I have however learned that without all of the pieces in place the end won't be everything it could be. So I will have learn to balance flavor, form, and function in order to make a truly pleasurable experience.