*buzz buzz buzz*

I get a tremendous buzz when I run games. I mean, I can get seriously jazzed up as a player, but when I GM, boy, I spend an hour afterwards just coming down. I feel a buoyancy in my chest, a fuzzy static in my head, and my eyes won’t focus on anything for a little. It’s an exciting feeling sometimes, especially after a really good game session, but I always feel so exhausted once I get down.

If you hadn’t guessed yet, Friday night is my group’s weekly session time. Tonight they finished the scenario, titled Life’s Bazaar. Given that I’ve played with this group for several months now, this is the first time I have ever seen fear on the players’ faces. Recognizing that emotion, those looks, I realized that I did my job, and did it well. Were it not for some extremely canny play on their side, at least two of the characters would not have come out of the climactic battle. And they worried about it, terribly.

I admit, I am trying to change the group’s play style—they’re very argumentative, very meta-game, very combat-driven in style. Instead, I grant small experience point prizes for particularly in-character comments or actions. Small and subtle, but I reinforce the things that I want to see. I have absolutely gotten the attention of the one player I worried the most about, who seemed the most detached from the whole thing. It will take time, but then, I’ve got their rapt attention, for six hours a week.

But, damn I’m wiped.

A general grump...

Southeast Michigan is possessed of what I have come to call the ( Culture of the Car. )