How to Play Good: The Game is a GAME.
Think of it as a sport. Have a solid grasp of the game’s fundamentals. No, I’m serious. I know we’re nerds, and we’re supposed to be better than jocks, but the team-sports metaphor holds, so stick with me. We have a referee (the GM). We have a group of people working together (the players, including you). If your GM is worth playing with, we have a balanced opposition and a clear set of win conditions which end the game (or at least that part of the game governed by rules and mechanics). There’s enough overlap to justify a gratuitous use of sports metaphor here. So suit up, rookie. Time to get off the bench.
Have you ever gotten frustrated when the referee in a game of sportsball calls penalty after penalty? It slows down play and makes it boring. Every time your GM has stop play for rules reasons, the game suffers. If the ref has to go upstairs for a TV adjudication — the RPG equivalent of pulling out a rulebook to look something up — play completely stops. You can help avoid this by knowing how the rules impact your character.
Being good at a sport takes practice. Know the rules of the game as they apply to your character. Get as good a grip on the mechanics as you can as fast as you can. The intent is not to become a rules lawyer, but to promote fast, seamless play.
Have you ever noticed that no NBA player dribbles with both hands? Dribbling is fundamental to playing basketball. Practice your fundamentals. Know where things are on your character sheet. Know how to make a basic attack or saving throw. Know how to determine damage when your character makes a successful attack. From there, work on more advanced techniques; for example if your Warlock will routinely cast eldritch blast, know how the spell intersects with and is modified by invocations.
| Bonus Tip: Roll All the Dice At Once You can help speed things up immeasurably by rolling to-hit and damage dice at the same time. If you have advantage and sneak attack, that’s a lot of dice, but it’s a hell of a lot faster than making a bunch of different rolls. |
Next week, we talk more about how the game is a game. Stay tuned!
Every week as part of the How To Play Good series you’ll get a different post with tips and tricks in this series. But if you don’t want to wait, you can get the whole thing here, along with a crap-ton of GM tips.
