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I saw a fair bit of comments about don't run it cold, etc., it's badwrong, never do it, but I admit in rare cases (last minute offer to GM comes to mind a few times) I've had to run cold and had a fair bit of success.
Running cold isn't for everyone. You need to be a fast reader, and have very good-exceptional system mastery. You need to be adaptable and quick thinking.
-Even when running cold, I almost always have time to read through at least once. Take time while players are sitting down or introducing themselves to do this, if you need to.
- I would always suggest making quick notes about feats and buffs in stats-blocks, and to always focus on statblocks above the other stuff. If you have better system mastery/good in combat decision making this becomes less necessary.
-Fluff can usually just be read on the fly, though
-Keep your eye out for the capitalized DC or numbers, these are often the important bits. Sidebars also generally have important bits
-PCs will almost always dither around talking to themselves, use this time to read further into the scenario.
For the system mastery, it sucks when I GM has to waste time digging into a book to find out what x does (though this happens even in prepped scenarios), so knowedge of feats and spells is really important for running cold. If you don't think you're good at this, maybe cold-running isn't for you.
I once had to run a special cold at GenCon (I heard they didn't have enough GMs for the special so I went up to Mike Brock and offered to GM). I had maybe a few hours (less since I was also playing and had to get food) so I did get 1-2 read throughs, but no thorough prep. At the end every player thanked me and one even asked if I was a 5-star GM I ran it so well. If only.
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Some Random Dragnmoon Thoughts on running Scenarios Cold - These may or may not have anything to do with the OPs subject ;).
- Random Thought 1: I will never GM/Play or even Visit St Louis!
- Random Thought 2: Running cold here in San Antonio is rare, it rarely gets below freezing here.
- Random Thought 3: I prefer my scenarios preheated at 400°
- Random Thought 4: One of my favorite scenarios takes place in Irrisen, it gets cold there.
Non-Random Thought:
I don't run scenarios cold, the same as Chris I would rather a game did not happen so it could happen another day with a better experience.
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again, good advice, but I would like to point out that most of the advice given in this thread is just as apropos for GMs who are preparing the module.
I think there's a difference between
Trying to not kill the party
Not trying to kill the party
Trying to kill the party.
Actively trying not to kill them is something I usually reserve for 1-5s where death is the end.
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I would rather a game did not happen so it could happen another day with a better experience.Yep, I'm in this boat also. I'd rather go home then have a bad experience due to a GM not being prepared.
so, let's put this in context.
You are signed up for a scenario at the local shop, and when you get there you learn the Judge that signed up to run it had to cancel. The organizer says - "Jo says she can run it, she played it last week and seems to feel that she'll be able to run it cold - or with the prep she can get in in the 15 minutes we have setting up..."
Do you get up and leave?
What if you're the 4th player - and if you drop they'll have to add in a Generic (another thing for the judge to keep track of) or just cancel the game?
Do you say to the other players ..."I'd rather we go home than risk having a bad experience due to a GM that didn't prep the game earlier...."
I play/GM regularly at two different stores. My answer would depend on which one we're talking about.
Store #1: We're trying very hard to build PFS gamedays there. Lately, we've been averaging 3-5 people there (including the GM) so it can be iffy whether we get enough people to actually make a table. Because the goal is to make PFS at that store a going concern, I will suck it up and play under less than ideal circumstances, just to get people in the habit of showing up.
Store #2: We regularly have 4 tables going. I wouldn't feel bad about leaving and making a table misfire, because odds are things could be rearranged and most of the others could find spots at other tables.
Not coincidentally, Store #1 is the place where I have run scenarios cold.
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Do you say to the other players ..."I'd rather we go home than risk having a bad experience due to a GM that didn't prep the game earlier...."Yes, as politely as possible. Just like I will leave a table politely if there is 7 players.
Same here, I get up and leave.
I also actively avoid GM's who often run cold.
I have almost nothing left to play from the old stuff so it only leaves newly produced scenarios and modules to play. I also play at several different stores and go to multiple conventions a year. So, if I don't catch it this time I'll catch it again within a few months.
I would rather enjoy the limited playing time I have. So, yes I get up and leave.
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My very first PFS experience as a GM was last April, and yes, it was running a scenario 'cold'.
I had been gearing up and reading up on GMing, and was scheduled to GM my first PFS game the next month. I showed up to play that day in April, however...and the GM for one of the three tables didn't show, canceling shortly before muster due to an emergency. Six players were left without a game and they already were all at the LGS, left with nothing to do. So...I stepped up, left my #6 spot as a player at one of the other tables and just did what I could.
I quickly got online and bought 'Rise of the Goblin Guild'. I skimmed through it as fast as I could on my iPad while another GM lent me a spare grid mat and some extra random minis. Luckily, the LGS had a printer in the back, so I was able to fire off some chronicle sheets, faction missions, sign-in, etc.
All the players knew I was stepping up and thanked me for doing so. Still, I apologized in advance for what was not only going to be a pretty rough 'cold' run...but that also it would be my first GMing session ever.
We got through it. We had fun. Looking back, I did a million things wrong that were absolutely NOT pfs legal and in some cases, not even within the pathfinder rules, but the table was full of laughter, excitement, jokes and great roleplay. The PCs triumphed in the end and, sweaty, exhausted and covered in wet-erase marker I stood proud, having survived my first session.
That being said...I wouldn't do this again except under the most extreme circumstances, like a last-second GM cancellation. Even then, I would probably only do it for folks I know through the PFS community, who can understand the circumstances.
Four months later, with a lot more experience again, I prepped 'Rise of the Goblin Guild' and GM'd it again for zero credit, just to sort of exorcise the demons of all the 'cold' things I got wrong in that very first session. It definitely felt good, and really reinforced even more the difference for me, in running 'cold' versus giving your players a prepped, researched and studied gaming session.
That being said...in these situations, I WILL step up. I will not send players home with no game. I'll do my best, I'll put smiles on their faces, and I'll make it worth their time. It won't be THE best...but damn, I'm gonna give it my best rather than send them home.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I concur with Dragnmoon on both particulars.
You would do this even if it canceled the game and sent the other players home?
Generally speaking, yes. I'm certain that we could ladle on special circumstances ("The table will not run otherwise, and the other players want to play, even if the GM is running cold." "It's a Season 1 scenario." "The emergency substitute GM is John Compton," "One of the other players is a 12-year old with advanced leukemia, and she'll probably die before she gets a chance to play again.") that would generate an exception.
Under normal circumstances, I'll walk. My playing experienced with GMs running cold has been pretty dismal, and I'm not getting paid to play in circumstances where nobody's having much fun.
And look: if my leaving sends the other players home, that means that there were only two other players. And either the GM didn't bother to prepare, or else the GM didn't even show, and the venue found a substitute table judge. There is a serious problem with that venue, and my sitting through a session isn't a long-term fix.
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My opinion is informed by GenCon 2012, and the Race for the Rune-carved Key, Part 2. As adventures go, it was pretty straight-forward: traps, combats, puzzles. A time limit. And several tables were being run by GMs who had not even read the thing ahead of time. Other GMs didn't even show up, and Mike enlisted emergency back-up volunteers at the last minute. You've heard stories about whole tables getting wiped because the GM hadn't read some important information? Yep.That was a potentially tremendous, historic event, turned sour at the edges by GMs running cold.
(Heck, nosig, I'm not happy running scenarios when I've only prepped one sub-tier, and find myself running another. I've made some whoppers of mistakes there.)
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I very rarely have had to run a mod cold. I find two things that help me immensely.
1. Masterwork Tools: Pathfinder Open Source Reference It helps me without flipping through books everywhere to look up something. I keep it on my phone and tablet so I can have two things open at once.
2. http://www.pfsprep.com/ or the old google docs for the prep. It is nice to see good pitfalls in a fast manner.
I find that some mods are just brutal without prep, a ton of the season 5 mods I wouldn't want to have run without prep.
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I haven't read anything more than the first post. I've only ever run a scenario cold once, and it was such a let down (both for me and - I feel - for my players) that I've adopted the same attitude as Chris Mortika. As such, I don't have too much to add, other than this...
To gameday coordinators, how do you respond to GMs who consistently come in unprepared, and run cold? To convention coordinators, how do you encourage GMs to come prepared for their tables?
I start using them less and less. Those sorts of GMs quickly become a last resort for me.
The exception is if they're running a pure dungeon and have a means of quickly looking up monster stats. I have no problem with running Thornkeep cold, so long as I have my iPad (with it's copy of Kyle Olsen's Combat Manager) on me.
EDIT: I just realized that I've contradicted myself. I don't view the pure dungeon crawls in the same light as a scenario that has roleplay opportunities. Thornkeep is the only set of modules I'd classify in that manner right away. For a scenario, I'd have to look it over first and make a judgement call. Even Master of the Fallen Fortress has at least one RP opportunity.
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I am new to GM-ing PFS but I try my hardest to run what I've already played and had a chance to read at very least once. I've found some of the newer scenarios (season5) lacking stat blocks that are contained within the earlier Seasons. I do my best to keep things in order with custom prints from the books to make the cardboard NPCs, Doorways, Items, and treasures to be handed out as needed and help me keep track of what agendas are being worked on.(ie a book needed to be placed in a caravan so I printed a book icon on cardboard for the PCs to be handed and the caravan and person watching it was also made into the scene.) Sadly even after reading the entire scenario I never could find what set off certain items in the game. Which is why I prefer having played it before I GM it. For some of us it seems no matter how much we read these scenarios typos also throw us when our intelligent brains sometimes don't catch the typo until game is being played and a PC asks a question that is answered weird from the typo. As for the other books in the game I use PDFs or carry all my books with me for such a reason as having to find the stats during game play.
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As far as newer player's perspective if someone regularly drops from being in a game that the GM is newer and trying to get experience running the game and the players are well experienced at playing and running, The newer player is going to not want to play as much feeling the game will be cancelled and they come out for no reason. the newer GM is not going to get the experience needed to run games as smoothly and not learn from there mistakes because of the more experienced players dropping out. Remember no matter how good you are there is always someone Better and no matter how bad you are there is someone worse. So we need to keep the balance and help the "inexperienced" GMs learn better to prep and give them tips on how to prep. Running cold is sometime the only option but should be avoided. Another example of running cold is when a new module comes out and it is the first run for anyone in your group, you;ve planned to run it the week it is released, everyone shows up but the module didn't arrive until the day of and the GM has read it once through saying this would be ok to run. Is this one you'd Drop from and make it where no one has a chance to try to new Mod?
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I would rather a game did not happen so it could happen another day with a better experience.Yep, I'm in this boat also. I'd rather go home then have a bad experience due to a GM not being prepared.
I generally agree.
I think people insisting a table run, is because they are operating out of a sense of fear. They are afraid if they turn people away, that those people will not come back.
All the regions that use an RSVP system, and turn folks away who haven't RSVPd, are evidence to the contrary.
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I would rather a game did not happen so it could happen another day with a better experience.Yep, I'm in this boat also. I'd rather go home then have a bad experience due to a GM not being prepared.
so, let's put this in context.
You are signed up for a scenario at the local shop, and when you get there you learn the Judge that signed up to run it had to cancel. The organizer says - "Jo says she can run it, she played it last week and seems to feel that she'll be able to run it cold - or with the prep she can get in in the 15 minutes we have setting up..."
Do you get up and leave?
What if you're the 4th player - and if you drop they'll have to add in a Generic (another thing for the judge to keep track of) or just cancel the game?
Do you say to the other players ..."I'd rather we go home than risk having a bad experience due to a GM that didn't prep the game earlier...."
In context:
How many times does a GM back out so last minute that you literally can't find another GM and give them at least 12 hours to prep?
How many times is it the same GM that does this?
Why is this GM depended upon to run a table?
In the 3 years I've been a Venture Officer, I have yet to have a GM back out on a game day and cause this situation to come to fruition. I've had players back out last second or no-show. But never a GM.
If a GM did this to me once, I'd see if there was another GM who had run that at some point, and ask them to step in (I did this for a fellow coordinator in my region once.) Or I'd let the players figure out what they wanted to do amongst themselves.
But ultimately, if the GM doesn't show last second, I would cancel the table and apologize to the players.
If this same GM just no-showed, or didn't have a really good reason for last second canceling, I would never ask them to GM for me again. If they do it to me a second time even with a good excuse, I would never ask them to GM for me again.
Why? Because even with good excuses, if you are unreliable, then I can't use you to make sure my game day goes smoothly.
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Do you say to the other players ..."I'd rather we go home than risk having a bad experience due to a GM that didn't prep the game earlier...."Yes, as politely as possible. Just like I will leave a table politely if there is 7 players.good. I would also leave from a 7 person table (though I would first offer to split the table and run another table... as I feel that two 3 player tables is better than one 7 person table).
The reason I ask is I had this come up at DieCON this year (actually twice). A group of three friends and I pre-registered for two games and asked the local VL to sign up to judge them for us. (One of them was the scenario he had written - we had been delaying playing it until we could get him to run it for us.) At the last minute the VL was called into work and had to Cancel. So we were presented with a choice - back out (in mass, that would be 4 players dropping the game) leaving the other two persons who had signed up for them without anything to play (different two people in each game)... or sticking the organizer with the task of finding a game for these guys with seats open that they could play...
Rather than cancel two games (we found out at least two of the players were from out of state...) we elected to play. I don't really know if the Judge ran totally "cold" - (he did a very good job, but I would expect that here - we have judges experienced in running things "cold") and we didn't get the Author, so I know we got "a lesser game", but it was totally a lot of fun! (and special thanks to our judge who picked up and ran both of them for us).
I do wonder though, would you also leave if the environment was to loud? I have experienced this in the past, often by getting the center table in a ball room at a CON. One where the players across the table from the judge often can't hear him when he talks in less than a shout. (This is why I will normally print up copies of the VC briefing, so that as I go over the mission,...
I don't want to call anyone out specifically.
But frankly, if a GM knows that they are "on call" then it is a bit irresponsible to schedule themselves to run a game that would likely put another GM and/or the coordinator in the position of either canceling a table or offering a sub-par session where a GM would run cold.
At Con of the North last year, I had a GM email me at 8am the day of the convention and tell me that he couldn't make the entire convention.
I had to scramble, while trying to do a half day's work, to get someone to cover. Fortunately Jon Dehning had run the 5-9 at our slot-0, so he could take that, and another guy stepped up and the 1-5's weren't slated to run until the second slot, which gave him about 8 hours to prep. Not ideal, but at least we didn't have anyone run cold for those slots.
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I would rather a game did not happen so it could happen another day with a better experience.Yep, I'm in this boat also. I'd rather go home then have a bad experience due to a GM not being prepared.
I agree with the above, but with one proviso:
I would see if the table would be willing to play something I had available that I had prepped.
"Hey, guys, I haven't prepped 5-98 Pie Masters of Doom, but I do have all my GM stuff available for any of these <insert list here> replayable scenarios. Would you be willing to play one of those, instead?"
I did this a while back, when our Sunday game day went from 4-5 players one week, to having 8 players and a GM. I ran a table of First Steps, while the original GM ran what he had listed.
Since that day, we usually have two tables listed, and usually have them both go off. I thiunk we actually had to split into a third table a few weeks back for one session... Someone else got to run that table, though, I was already scheduled to run...
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Hey, guys, I haven't prepped 5-98 Pie Masters of Doom, but I do have all my GM stuff available for any of these <insert list here> replayable scenarios. Would you be willing to play one of those, instead?"
Even some obscure old 1-7 you keep prepped(ish) should have enough people that haven't played it to canibalize a table togther with a little geek soduku.
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The part that I have read now a few times is - with some really bad experiences: Convention specials
They cause some special issues:
a) you tend not to have anyone who has run it before (unless it is an older special)
b) handing out of the special tends to be pretty restricted - there are no other GMs who have prepped this 'by chance'
c) people tend to have travelled pretty far for conventions big enough to offer specials - sometimes including flights
d) players are less likely to walk - and even if they walk - other might want to snap up the place
This is the 'perfect storm' and I have seen this here mentioned more than once and I know from own experience that my wife had a very bad experience at her very first special with a GM running cold.
Guess this is something specific for organizers - but maybe specials need x% extra GMs that organizers plan in
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I've ended up having to run cold quite a few times now. Sometimes the guy who signed up to GM it gets caught at work, sometimes you muster a table you weren't expecting, sometimes your players puppy dog eye you so that they can hit 7 before Bonekeep. This kind of thing has happened more often than I'd like, but I can say that the few times I've had a player get up after the game looking less than ecstatic, I've asked them what I could have done to improve their experience, and not once yet have I had a complaint about lack of prep. While I prefer thorough prep time, here are ways I've found success:
1. System Mastery: It turns out being a munchkin is very helpful at times. Knowing what monsters do at a glance is very helpful. Not having to flip through books increases player enjoyment.
2. Look Happy: Running cold isn't the best experience. You have to keep track of lots of things you would normally have wriiten down or highlighted, while interacting with your players, and sometimes coordinating the rest of your store as well. Smile a lot, laugh, get into a good mood. GMing is fun, Pathfinder is fun, running cold isn't the end of the world.
3. READ.THE.SUMMARY: The summary gives a feel for how the scenario should play out. Barring hilarious player hijinks, you should not deviate often. As long as the scenario went generally according to plan, and everyone, yourself included, had fun, I call that a successful game day.
And now for one I don't think everyone can do~
4. Play with yourself: I spend about 45 minutes a week playing with different enemies of various sizes, intelligences, motives, and tactics against PCs I build, testing how far CR stretches, problem monsters, low level PCs (comparatively) effect on high CR encounters, single enemies, multiple terrain and weather effects, and working on my encounter design. It helps me immensely when I run cold to be able to intuitively understand how a monster/enemy would act if I have to go past tactics, and helps me gauge difficulty relative to the party.
