New Beginnings: Phase 2: Baggage Dump<\/a>, starting with the section “Clearing Your Head” about 20% into the article, and continuing to the section “What to dump: Categories of baggage”, which constitutes the bulk of the article..<\/p>\nFear, in lesser doses, can be a quite useful survival trait. I (quite reasonably) fear burning myself, so I’m cautious when handling saucepans, lighting fires, etc. I fear the consequences of dishonesty, so my nature is to be honest. I have a wary respect of snakes, which are far more aggressive in Australia and more dangerous; were I to encounter one, I know to stand absolutely still until it<\/em> decides I’m not a threat, and then to get a professional animal control officer to remove it, and so on.<\/p>\nTo distinguish between these grades of intensity, let’s define a fear continuity:<\/p>\n
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\n- Acute Fear<\/em><\/strong> is crippling. The fear itself matters more than the object of that fear, which exists as a composite of reality and nightmare. And note the yellow waves of panic and how much they conceal.<\/li>\n
- Fear<\/em><\/strong> is disabling. Nothing matters except the fear, but action can be taken that removes or mitigates that fear – usually after the individual has had time to build themselves up to performing the task.<\/li>\n
- Extreme Anxiety<\/em><\/strong> is disturbing, but the sufferer can still function, albeit at very high stress levels, despite the anxiety.<\/li>\n
- Anxiety<\/em><\/strong> is that level of nervousness at which the subject experiences stress as a result of their nerves. That stress often persists beyond the point of no return in decision-making.<\/li>\n
- Nervousness<\/em><\/strong> is the level of fear that we experience about everyday decisions and activities, and is generally the result of uncertainty over the outcome. It frequently fades or vanishes once decisions or situations take effect.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
When it comes to gaming activities, the highest level of fear to which we should ever be exposed is Anxiety, and even that should be relatively rare. But it’s worth remembering that even nervousness triggers a flood of adrenalin in the body, and that both can have profound impacts on the individual that they should be aware of, watch for, and make allowances for.<\/p>\n
Nervous Triggers<\/h3>\n
I’ve identified a baker’s dozen of triggers that can make a GM nervous. Most of these will be fairly obvious, so I don’t intend to belabor the point.<\/p>\n
\n- New Games<\/em> – <\/strong>Doing anything for the first time is scary. This is usually a problem of expectations – the GM’s and the Players’, and doubts about whether or not the GM can live up to them.<\/li>\n
- New Campaigns<\/em> – <\/strong>Starting a new campaign brings very similar pressures, stresses, and nerves. While the challenge of a new game system is not involved, expectations about expertise in the game mechanics will be higher.<\/li>\n
- New Adventures (investment-dependent)<\/em> – <\/strong>Starting a new adventure is always a little nerve-wracking. Will it entertain? Will it derail? Is it too GM-dominant, or worse yet, a railroad? Will the spotlight sharing be adequate? Does it make sense? As a general rule of thumb, the more effort that they have invested in the new adventure, the more nervous a GM will be about running it.<\/li>\n
- New Adventure Locales<\/em> – <\/strong>Introducing a new adventuring location to the mix can also be quite nerve-wracking. Has the GM been too subtle? Too obvious? Too simple? Too complex? Will the potential adventures appeal to the players? Is the setting too detailed? Not detailed enough? Will it fit the campaign? The same general rule of thumb applies as for new adventures, but because a new locale is a lot more work to define well, this almost always ranks higher on the anxiety scale. Potentially compounding the problem is the fact that new locales also often mean the start of a new adventure.<\/li>\n
- New Players<\/em> – <\/strong>Introducing one new player is stressful and nerve-wracking. If the new player knows the other players, there may be expectations and baggage; and if not, there will almost certainly be an adjustment period as new and old get used to each other. Introducing more than one new player is exponentially worse. Starting a game with a whole new group is therefore the pinnacle of nervousness in this trigger area. This can be muted somewhat if you are also introducing new locales or campaigns or game elements, as the New Player factor tends to get subordinated by those more intense sources of nerves.<\/li>\n
- Important Moments<\/em> – <\/strong>Some moments are more important than others in a game, and we naturally get more nervous when an important moment approaches. You may have been building up to this moment for weeks, months, or even years; this might be the pivotal heartbeat of the entire campaign. The greater the consequence, the greater the investment that the GM has in the moment, and the greater the investment, the greater the nervousness.<\/li>\n
- Stylistic Changes<\/em> – <\/strong>Trying something in a new style can be exciting and thrilling and a fun change of pace – or it can all crash-and-burn horribly. What’s more, such changes frequently involve a fairly substantial commitment on the part of the GM, with nervousness escalating proportionately. One-offs can be written off; multi-session adventures can be written off less easily; multi-adventure plot arcs can often be written off only with extreme reluctance; and it’s often very hard to completely write off a new campaign because the style just doesn’t work or doesn’t fit what the players want (or worse yet, doesn’t fit what the GM promoted the campaign style to be), or doesn’t meet expectations in some other respect.<\/li>\n
- Difficult Relationships<\/em> – <\/strong>We all experience hurdles in our real-world relationships now and then. Games can either be an escape from those, or an amplifier. Consider the problems if two players happen to be husband and wife: if the relationship is happy, they are more likely to favor each other; if the relationship is strained, they are more likely to take it out on each other; and either way, real-world baggage has a way of leaking into the campaign. Things get even worse when one of the two is the GM. And then there are the problems when two former friends who now have a somewhat strained relationship find themselves playing in the same campaign. Again, baggage. The GM’s problems come when they become aware of any out-of-game baggage because they are the one who will have to deal with it’s potential impact, and they may already be distracted and distressed by virtue of their own relationships with the individuals. Uncertainty always promotes nervousness.<\/li>\n
- Difficult Characters<\/em> – <\/strong>Some characters are easy to run. Some require a lot more effort on the part of the player. And some require a lot more work on the part of the GM. And then there are complicated and complex NPCs. Difficult players always create nerves, usually in the form of anticipating problems that never materialize, and wasting time and energy prepping for them. And the more things that can go wrong, the more likely it is that something will go wrong that the GM didn’t anticipate. More nervousness. And finally, difficult characters often require a level of energy and activity from the GM during actual play that can be hard to achieve consistently, and can be a cause of apprehension.<\/li>\n
- Public Exposure<\/em> – <\/strong>You can’t really GM without your personal opinions and philosophies sneaking into the game – whether you know what they are or not, or realize they are present or not. You’re attaching your name, reputation, and credibility to something and doing it in the glare of a very large spotlight. That’s’ enough to make anyone nervous.<\/li>\n
- Public Speaking<\/em> – <\/strong>Some people have a mortal terror of public speaking. Some take to it like a duck to water. And some fall into the typical middle ground where public speaking makes them nervous. Some people will find their apprehension easing once they actually start, others are more glass-half-empty and will get more nervous if things seem to be going well (“don’t mess up now…”)<\/em>. Public speaking, especially when you know in advance that you have to do it, is frequently a source of nervousness.<\/li>\n
- New Technology<\/em> – <\/strong>It can be stressful, working with a new piece of technology for the first time “live for real” – no matter how much private practice you may have put in. It introduces a new variable that we have at best a vague handle on, and that is enough to make people (quite justifiably) nervous.<\/li>\n
- Risks<\/em> – <\/strong>Finally, there are times when we all need to take a risk of some sort beyond those identified above. Have you ever had the fate of an entire campaign come down to a single die roll? How about the life of your best friend’s favorite PC? Risks can arise anytime, and taking a risk always induces both nervousness and an adrenalin rush.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That list is as comprehensive as I could make it, and the bottom line is this: there are always lots<\/em> of reasons for a GM to be nervous, most often at the start of a given day’s play or in the period leading up to it.<\/p>\nWhen you boil most of these down, though, you end up with three basic categories: Meeting Expectations, Excessive investment (too much prep), or Insufficient prep. Clearly there is a very delicate balancing act involved, and one that is changing constantly, and different for every individual.<\/p>\n
Well, there are three basic responses to nerves. You can give in to them, you can ignore them, or you can attempt to manage them.<\/p>\n
\n- Giving in<\/strong><\/em> basically means there will be no game. That’s a dead end outcome that’s to be avoided.<\/li>\n
- Ignoring fears<\/strong><\/em> means that the consequences of nervous energy can catch you off-guard, and that can create situations that are even more nerve-wracking.<\/li>\n
- That leaves Managing Your Fears,<\/strong><\/em> and that usually means acknowledging the fear and managing the consequences of it; in other words, managing your nervous reactions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Nervous Reactions<\/h3>\n
I’ve identified ten reactions to nervousness that can afflict GMs, of varying levels of consequence. They are:<\/p>\n
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