My name is Phil and I am a long time game master. I have been playing and running for 38 years. First game I played was DnD. First game I ran was After the Bomb. I have played DnD, most Palladium Books stuff, Cyberpunk, Deadlands, and a handful of others big in the 80’s and 90’s. I am currently running three Pathfinder 2e games. One weekly ( Abomination Vaults) and one monthly (Shackled City) and as of last night one bi-weekly which we used Collaborative Campaign Design to build the world. At this time because the monthly and weekly games have just been in one area we put them as givens and they will be included in the world build on the next times they play. As of now I have 14 players across three games.

Over the holiday I made a "dice funnel" to let me players roll their own secret checks. It was an I'm bored and I am not going to do real work project. Basically, the players throw the d20 into the funnel and tells me their modifier, it drops it gently down into my cardboard dice tower, and finally into a tray on my staging table. After the roll I hand it back down the table. Seemed fun, so I kept it up for one session for each game. Now the players are unanimous that it should stay. They are never unanimous on the first take. Jokes on me. They also say the polka dots (the oldest bed sheet we had) have to stay. No eye of sauron for me. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FDKpvHdGXCI. Context: In PF2e when a character would not immediately know the result of a skill check (e.g. stealth) it is a secret roll and the GM is supposed to roll for the player. On VTTs the player hit roll, but sees ?? on the dice, in person I didn't have a solution.

There's something about moving Blades forward 100 Years that seems really appealing. Maybe it's just because I recently rediscovered the game Deathloop, or the more modern geo-political themes that can be woven into the narrative, I'm not sure. https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/bbd583d2-7c42-478b-a4f2-4c73f30e7022/landing

Since I started running proactive games, and especially with some collaborative worldbuilding, my games tend to be very fast paced. There’s always something going on, and my players are always sprinting forward as fast as they can. I’ve had a few groups say they want to turn down the speed a bit and have some lower stakes sessions, which they always call beach episodes lol, some time to just chill, talk to people, shop, engage in some tomfoolery, downtime, etc. I highly recommend incorporating that, especially if your players mention it. At first, it really went against my instincts—as a GM, I tend to prep by adding as much tension, raised stakes, and drama as I can cram in my notes, and I prep by specific encounter using a PC v NPC goal structure. So the more free form, laidback stuff made me nervous that it would be boring for my players—I felt like I had so little prepared! But it’s always resulted in a great time. My players will have the opportunity to do stuff they never would otherwise, and the Freeform format makes it so they really steer the story themselves. I’ll do very little and relax, and they’ll talk amongst themselves, form more goals, make allies and enemies, etc. anyone else had some good seasons this way? How did you prep for it?

For GMs who regularly run games with people they didn’t already know. Bonus points if you’ve ever been paid for it. Hey everyone —I found this community after reading Proactive Roleplaying (which I love), and it got me thinking more deeply about why some tables hold together for months (or years) while others slowly fall apart. I’m especially curious about games with strangers or semi-strangers, where chemistry isn’t a given and commitment is harder to predict. Rather than asking for advice, I’m trying to understand patterns. So I’ll start with one question: When a campaign falls apart, what’s usually the first crack you notice? A few optional prompts if it helps you think it through (no need to answer all of them): - Is it something mechanical (scheduling, rules, pacing), or something social? - Does it usually show up early, or after a few sessions? - Did you see it coming, or did it blindside you? If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d also love context like: - Whether you run paid or unpaid games - Whether your players usually come from friends, marketplaces, Discord, etc. I’m mainly interested in how real tables behave — not how we wish they did. Thanks in advance. I’ll be reading and asking follow-ups if that’s okay.