It Begins

"So, what do you think of the new spin-off chronicle?"
"I think it's the near future of the main chronicle and we're all going to die in the last game."
"Damnit! You're too perceptive to be a player; we're going to have to bring you onto staff."

Eventually, it may happen to you, too.

Your friend gets an idea for a story that's just too big to tell with one GM. You're part of an established LARP that suddenly has a staff role open to fill. Someone has the good fortune to have a dozen players apply for a tabletop game and then realizes that it would help to have a co-GM or two.

You're no longer a maverick GM, bravely captaining your players through landscapes fully formed in your own mind. You're now part of a conglomerate, a hive, a gestalt; no idea is painted for the players until it's been fully filtered through the group consciousness.

By gum, you're part of a creative team! This column is intended to help you in your newfound role as a member of a team. But why do you need help? And why would you want to be part of a creative team to begin with?

The Honeymoon

"Want to help me write a game?"

Developing games as part of a group can be far more rewarding, or at least far more social, than flying solo in the GM's seat. You don't have to wait until the big plot is revealed to the players to find out if it's good or bad. When you're having an episode of writer's block, others can provide ideas and inspiration. And never underestimate the joy of commiserating with the rest of the staff about how the players are boldly tearing off after a red herring while the plot chases ineffectually after them.

Teams are very powerful methods for coming up with good ideas, which is why they're so common in creative industries. In any situation, the group can throw out half a dozen ideas, filter them down to a single good idea, and then work together improve that into a great idea.

When you've put together a campaign as a cohesive group, it shines brighter and has more depth and volume than anything you could have done by yourself ... like hair!

Honey Can Leave a Sticky Mess

"Why did you keep telling your players that the dark phoenix was a fragment of the other two phoenixes?"
"Because that's what we decided when we wrote the game."
"No, we changed that months ago. The dark phoenix was the daughter of the other two."
"Nobody told me!"

A cohesive team can create an amazing game. A team that's less cohesive will tear apart friendships and alienate players, or at least present a mediocre campaign. Is your creative group like a team of horses all pulling the carriage at an impressive pace? Or is it going in different directions, about to quarter that poor man in the middle?

Any team has personality conflicts, but the creative team can have the worst of all. In an unrelated metaphor, it takes a lot of courage to spin out your dreams and have them folded, spindled, mutilated, and even tossed out by the group. The tapestry of the game may have thread from everyone, but it's hard not to look at it and feel like it doesn't have enough of your own, particular, thread. It's harder still to look at the pile of scraps on the floor that were once your best ideas. These feelings can lead to resentment, apathy, distrust, and even petty revenge.

If you have a responsibility to a game that you don't feel like you have any investment in, it's sometimes tempting to try to destroy it.

Why Am I Telling You All of This?

I've been on the creative staff for four LARPs and several co-GMed tabletop games. I've also played in dozens of LARPs and co-GMed games, many of which were run by good friends. Some of them have been rousing successes, others have been less than enjoyable, and some have been titanic failures. Many of the good ones succeeded by overcoming intra-staff problems and many of the bad ones could have been much better with a truly cohesive staff.

In this column, I'll work to distill many of the cause and effect relationships in staff difficulties. Since those won't be terribly helpful by themselves, I'll also present potential solutions that can return the staff to a gestalt. Many of these causes are common to creative teams in general, but they have unique effects within the realm of gaming.

The subjects of later columns will include individual roles and responsibilities, the skills members bring to the table, money and burnout, getting the game going and keeping it organized, and what happens when outside influences interfere with the delicate relationships amongst the staff.

Running a game with friends can be one of the most fulfilling enterprises in gaming. The campaigns you create together can have greater value and reach more players than anything you could do as a solo GM. But the group has many more hurdles to overcome than a solo GM as well.

It takes hard work to become a gestalt, but the rewards are worth it.