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.

Let me start off by saying that I realize that this video is a tech demo for Microsoft Surface’s gaming applications, and that this program is not necessarily under development for the consumer market.  Now watch this video.  WARNING: Have a change of pants nearby!  Yours might become soiled.

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When I see this video I get super giddy with excitement. 

And not just at the pretty animations and Minority Report-esque menu control.  I, as a lover of the art of DMing, get crazy excited about the game-enhancing capabilities of such a setup.  Or maybe I should say game-streamlining capabilities.  Either way, I know what I mean.

No more waiting for players to sit there figuring out what the range on their powers is.  No more triple-tracing my monsters steps to make sure they successfully avoid all hazards and opportunity attacks.  Players can see all regular options for movement, powers, magic items, skills, etc. right there on their gorgeous little touch screen menu wheel. 

And not to mention the incredible possibilities for downloadable published adventures: professional quality audio narration, video and artwork with background music to introduce NPC’s and set the tone and mood, and dungeon grids from which the DM can hide details and reveal them at his discretion.  Supplemental functions would be limited by the imaginations of the programmers.

And that’s where the giddiness stops.

When I see all this fantastic technology melding with the realms of RPG’s, from MMO games, to real-time Twitter campaigns, to playing D&D online through the Insider, I can’t help but wonder if all this is actually stunting our imaginations a bit.  Occasionally it feels a little like these various tools and programs are giving us less incentive to think outside the box, simply because they make thinking inside the box so much easier. 

Technology like this raises questions.  How will house rules be incorporated?  To what extent will the applications support user-generated content, like monsters, paragon paths, and magic items?  Will the DM have the option to override the programming to bend the rules a bit in certain situations?  For a moment, I get a little concerned about things like this.

Then I go back to squealing with glee.  Thoughts?  Opinions?

Since I initially started GoblinStop a few months ago, I’ve gotten a number of questions about the site, my topics, my motivation for starting the blog, etc.  However, the most common question I get asked is “Why D&D and social media?” 

I can see the cause for the blank stares.  To be completely honest, it was initially a test; a test of my writing skills, a test of my critical thinking abilities, and a test to see how well I could take two seemingly unrelated subjects and bring them together to create something of value.  You can read all about my adventures in starting and running GoblinStop right *here*. 

Regardless of how it was conceptualized, it quickly picked up more steam than I thought it would, and it became a project for me.  I ended up taking a hiatus from posting, and focused on investigating what GoblinStop could become.  And so now, when I get asked that same question, “Why D&D and social media,” I have an answer other than because “I felt like it.”

I continue blogging about the convergence of these two things because they are more meant for each other than most people are willing to look close enough to realize.  D&D is inherently an exercise in socialization, and not even just the in-game part.  D&D players form clubs, businesses, online forums, discussion groups, event leagues, conventions, campus activity groups, tournaments, and many types of social units, all focused around the game they love to play.  Social media can provide these players and businesses with countless ways to keep in contact, advertise, play in real time, build relationships, and find new group members. 

So after a couple of months away and some serious time at the drawing board, GoblinStop is back and ready for action!  Great plans are in store for the future, and some excellent posts will be coming your way.  If you are reading this, you are currently standing at the intersection of D&D and social media, and you won’t want to miss out on the construction taking place all around you.  In addition to reading posts and commenting here on the blog, remember that you can follow @GoblinStop on Twitter and join the conversation.  Thanks for stopping by!

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Of all the social media tools available, Twitter has been gaining the most attention for the last couple of years.  Powerhouse marketing teams use it to have open communication with tech-savvy customers, celebrities use it to build their online presence, and everyday people tweet daily play-by-plays to all their friends.  But how can D&D players benefit from this swelling social media tool?

There are a number of ways that Dungeoneering adventurers can enjoy the benefits of Twitter:

1. Keep Absent Players In the Loop: Inevitably, every player will have to miss a game session from time to time.  Having at least one present party member tweet any important happenings will give a running, bite-sized, written record of the major events of a session.  It’s simple: just start one Twitter account for your entire adventuring group, and each night assign one person Tweet Duty, and make sure anyone who’s absent is receiving mobile device updates.  This way, no player ever has to miss out on the important parts of a game session he unfortunately can’t make.
2. Find New Players: Need to find a new player or gaming group in your area?  Twitter is searchable, so you can seek out D&D-related tweets from the entire network of users.  Use this feature to find out who plays the game in your town, or even to network with other social media-savvy hobby gamers in other parts of the country.  If you do this, you could even host a Tweet-Up when the next GenCon or D&D Experience conventions roll around.
3. Run a Virtual Adventure: This one could prove to be tough to manage, and I don’t know of anyone who has tried it yet, but with the right structure and ground rules, Twitter could be a great place to run an ongoing virtual campaign.  Each player and the DM could all have separate accounts, and direct @ messages could be treated as private communications.  Like I said, I think it would be tough to make this work, but I don’t doubt that the right group of gamers could be successful with it.

What other ways have you used Twitter or other social media to enhance your Dungeons and Dragons experience?

P.S.: Here’s a little Easter egg for you.  Allgeektout.com has a post that translates Twitter into a 4Ed magic item!  Enjoy!