RPG a Day: Day 7


Question 7: What was your most impactful RPG session?

Hmm, from which side of the GM screen? I guess I'll answer from both points of view.

As a player:
There was once a Buffy game played in Edinburgh called The Watch House (it was only a matter of time before that game came up, no?). There are two sessions that stick in my memory. The first is the one where my character was possessed by his evil ancestor. The second was the breaking of the 4th wall episode, where some of us played our characters, the actors who played our characters in a TV show, and finally, played our versions of the actual players for another character at the table. It sounds confusing, but it was a hell of a lot of fun, and fun is the reason we're at the table. These sessions stuck with me, as they opened doors to my understanding of what you can do at the table, when the other people at the table are in it for the same reasons as you.

As a GM/Keeper:
Scaring the Players.

A Call of Cthulhu game, in Montreal, about 10 years ago. We were playing in the back of a games store, which was closed to the public at the time (the owners of the store were players in the game). I was running a pretty basic intro game in what went on to be a long running campaign, where the investigators had come into possession of a new house, which had a monster in the attic. I can't even remember what the scenario was based on, only that the players were exploring the house, and were deep in discussion as to what to do next, and in character. I banged on the table, to stimulate a nouse from what theya ssumed was the empty attic, and to a one, all the players jumped.

It was a cheap jump-scare, but it was well timed, and it showed me the players were deep into the game and their characters. It was that session that sealed the success of the campaign in many ways. It was also an insight into how the players were reacting to the game. In many ways, it's hard to get into their heads. We all know what we experience at the table, but as a GM it's important to understand how the players are feeling too.


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