Monday Musings #103 🤬

School is OUT. For. GAMING!

Jun 09, 2025

"Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and the lesson afterward.” — Vernon Law, Ranger

GM Lessons I’ve learned from the tables of real life. Every GM has moments that change them. A lesson hard-earned, handed down not in rulesets or adventure modules, but in real human messiness, at real tables with real peoples.
I’ve got a few.

1. Once, I was running a game when a male player misgendered a trans player’s character —thrice. It escalated fast. I didn’t catch it in time. Worse: I probably would have gotten it wrong, and been down a player at the least. But a woman, cosplaying as a Twi'lek, was spectating and stepped in. She caught what I missed. She de-escalated, clarified, made space for apology and reconciliation — and the game continued in good standing. I learned some things that day:

Listening deeply isn’t just about plot and player choices.
Sometimes you’re not the hero of the moment — and that’s okay.

2. I was running a Forbidden Planet–themed Apocalypse World one-shot at a con. About an hour in, one of my five players started to shift — emotionally and physically. He was gearing up to do “the man dance” and argue his way out of the table, you know the vibe!
I was annoyed at first. But I’d been there. I’ve ejected from tables too — though I usually try to be more polite.
“Hey, it’s cool, man,” I said. “I’ve been there. I’ll be around all day if you wanna talk it out.”
He split and fast. And the game went on, just fine.
Now, upfront, I always say:

“This is an open seat game. You can punch out anytime. You don’t owe me an explanation, and the game will be just fine.”

3. My very first public session of The One Ring: Moria?
I showed up to find a table full of kids. Literal kids — four pre-teens and their 20-something guardian. I, assuming they were just squatting until the “real players” arrived, went to run them off my table! Except, they were my real players!
Also, I’d forgotten my folder of hardened dwarf pregens. All I had were silly little Hobbit characters from the starter set.
And of course, the kids all wanted to play hobbits… in the black, echoing depths of Moria. Hobbits.
Sometimes, you gotta let go and just ride the MF ride.
One of my best con sessions ever.

What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned at your table?

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⚙️ Around My Table This Week

Summer disruption mode: activated.
The first full week of summer break means the whole house is on a new schedule. But I’m still waking before the sun, knocking out my big work before anyone else stirs. Well, me and Vegas, my giant mastiff puppy.

I’ve been running solo sessions of The One Ring + Moria, using a modified tarot deck as an oracle. Solo play’s never been my jam — maybe I haven’t found my solo game yet. But this method is helping me generate rumors, history, and dungeon flavor for future Balin’s Expedition runs. I'm about six play sessions in and it's been good. I should prolly write these up.

CBR+PNK returns this Thursday for two more Mad-Dice playtests. IRL disruption bumped things around last week, but we’re back! These sessions will likely wrap the MVP launch. After that, I’ll shift to Balin’s Expedition as the testbed for Mad-Dice’s next development sprint.