GoblinStop

In my many years as a DM, one of the biggest hurdles I have encountered is a lack of focus on the game, which can stem from any number of causes.  Players sometimes have to arrive at different times, they’ve just come from busy days at work or school, they all want to talk about their Dragon Age: Origins characters or something funny they saw on 4Chan (gag!).  Everybody is glad to be with their friends and understandably wants to chat it up.  There is nothing wrong with this.  However, at some point, everybody needs to reach a consensual focus and start playing the game.

I have seen a lack of focus kill many game sessions.  If you are unable to grab your players’ attention even before the game starts, you will notice your session failing pretty quickly.  Joe will start checking his email on his BlackBerry.  Amanda will text her boyfriend every 3 minutes…THE WHOLE NIGHT.  Robert will pull out his Nintendo DS for some Tetris even though he “swears he’s paying attention.”  Aaron will flip through his sourcebooks making level-up plans during an important encounter.  You will see your entire game session disintegrate in front of you.  So what’s a DM to do?

The key is to do something communication-heavy that everyone must take part in together.

Have dinner together.  Having the whole group share a meal around a table immediately prior to the game encourages everyone to engage each other face to face and focus on a single topic at a time.  Plus everyone likes to eat with their friends.

Play a short board/card game.  Anything under an hour and that requires fairly intense focus will do the trick.  I highly recommend Settlers of Catan, because similar to D&D it has the players cooperating for the greater good while at the same time serving their private motives, which will get them into the correct mindset for D&D.  Tsuro, a Japanese tile game, is also great, because it really forces you to look at both the immediate consequences of your actions, and their possible long term effects as well.

The point is to get everyone into the Game Night frame of mind, which can be difficult without some kind of primer activity.  Whatever you do to foster this focus, it needs to require a lot of attention, and put the players in close physical proximity to one another. 

What tricks do you use to get your gaming group focused on the game?

You’ve been in this scenario before.

You’re at work on Monday morning after an awesome all-day gaming session yesterday.  You head to the coffee machine and your boss greets you while he finishes putting cream and sugar in his little Styrofoam cup.  “So what’d you do this weekend?” he asks.  Uh-oh.  None of your coworkers knows you play D&D, and you don’t want to lie.  Do you brush it off with a witty retort, or do you tell your boss that you spent the day gaming with your buddies?

As acceptable as Dungeons and Dragons has become as a somewhat mainstream pop culture icon in the last decade or so, the fact remains that there are a lot of people who still view the game as some creepy, anti-social fringe hobby that is only played by awkward, comic-convention-attending Star Trek fans living in their parents’ basements.  Unfortunately, many of these people are your bosses, family members, clients, pastors, and others in positions of relative power with whom you want to remain in good standing.  At what point, if ever, should you let these people know about your pastime?

I’ll admit to not telling people right off the bat.  Until I began writing this blog, I usually waited at least a few weeks to even mention it, and even then, it really depended upon the person in question.  Here’s my reasoning:

Because of common preconceived notions about D&D perpetuated by the media over the last few decades, I want to ensure that people I meet get an accurate idea of who I am as a person before I share that information.  I want them to see that I am a pretty cool guy, that I am fairly responsible and industrious, and that I am outgoing and conversational.  Letting someone get to know you reasonably well will help prevent unwarranted comparisons to Screech, or the cast of Freaks and Geeks. 

I certainly would not recommend actively hiding your gamer status or lying about it.  I just think there is no reason to mention it too early if nobody asks.  So what are your thoughts?  Do you shout it from the rooftops?  Do you actively try to keep it secret?  I’m interested in other opinions.

Many people out there are using social media as an avenue to promote their businesses on a national, or even international, level. They are advertising on Facebook, building 1-on-1 customer relationships on Twitter, and blogging about their area of expertise in order to build credibility and rapport with potential clients and contacts. But can social media be used effectively to promote business on a local level? I think it can, if you combine it with an effective guerilla marketing campaign as well.

Here is an example of how I think it can be done, and I’d love feedback:

1. Start, and regularly update, a blog about your company’s industry. First of all, if you keep this frequently updated with relevant, insightful, and useful posts, it will go a very long way to establish you as an expert in your field.

2. Figure out which other social media tools your clients are using most, and develop a presence there. Different industries will have potential clients congregating in different places, so don’t just think that this means creating a Facebook or Twitter account will solve all your problems. Educate yourself on which applications and websites are most used by people in your industry, and build there. The rules from Step 1 still apply though: be relevant, insightful, and useful. This is not just an ad-fest.

3. Use face-to-face networking to bring web traffic, and eventually business. Make sure your social networking profiles and blog URL are on your business cards, and hand them out to anyone and everyone you meet. Oftentimes, if they can’t use your products/services, they will know someone who can.

4. Scratch other businesses’ backs, and hopefully they will scratch yours. Get local retailers of related products to hand out your promotional materials in exchange for endorsements and free ad copy on your blog/website. For example, “By the way, for anyone who lives in the Dallas area, check out MadeUpName Comics and Games. They carry all the latest D&D products, have a great miniatures selection, and they are super helpful, especially to newbies.”

These are all pretty basic things, and I am certain they have been done before, but I really think this is a great way for local businesses to work together to promote each other and fill everyone’s customer dance card. How have you used social media to promote your business? Do you see anything you would improve about this strategy? Do you think local, small-radius businesses can benefit from social media?