Askdal Aleheart wrote:
Before I give being a DM for PFS a try I'm curious about other people's opinion on this matter.
I'm the kind of person that if I were to run a scenario that involved Kreighton Shaine I would absolutely need to have a plastic rose before I would feel comfortable running the game.
However with all the 'Speed-Run', let's go, we can get This Evergreen done in less than three hours... I'm curious on this topic.
I'll throw in two examples to start things off.
The Bard who sings: You have a player with a Bard character and every round he is using Inspire Courage he sings two sentences from an altered IRL song.
"Smelly Scale-Man, lurking in the tower. Smelly-Scale-man the kind I'd like not to meet".
Might get a grin out of a few people but you know some others might not like this.
The Tobacco User: The player who brings a cigar to the game. It it is not bubblegum or chocolate and it is out of the cellophane wrapper. It is not lit and never has been. He chomps on it during the game because his character smokes cigars and will show you his sheet where he purchased the 5 silver one pound of tobacco trade good to justify it. This situation sounds simple enough but you know that you will get that one player. The one who sits next to someone with a pack of cigarettes obvious in their shirt pocket and not bothering them but the fact this player has a cigar in his mouth is the 'worst distraction' in the world.
These two examples from my experience from DnD 3.0/3.5 might sound silly but I'm still curious about other people's views.
Please feel free to add your own experiences and examples.
So back to the original post. If you find something distracting as a GM or it seems to be derailing the game (especially if you are on a tight time table) it falls to you as the GM to control the table. I don't mean with a chair and whip, but there are circumstances outside the GM's control that must be maintained. If someone brings a cigar to the table or other character affectation and it takes on a life of it's own, the GM can call a quick break and speak with the player in private. There are ways to lay things out for a player without making it personal. "Hey player, I really love that you are into your PC and you have brought the cigar, but for some reason it is really making it hard for me to focus on the game today. We only have 3 hours to get through this scenario. Can I get you to put the cigar down and get through this on time?"
For the bard - After the first couple of rounds, especially if the bard player can't sing, same deal - "It's great that you've got a bunch of songs prepared. We only have 3 hours to get this scenario run, so, let's get our actions prepared for each round and if you are going to continue singing, we know what that sounds like, we're going to have to go with 'I keep singing'."
This works best when you have a limited time slot and something is distracting and keeping you from moving through all the parts quickly. Get everyone on in the same out of game party - "We have a scenario, we all want to succeed at getting through this, right? This is what we need to do to get there." Buy in is key. Players sit down to play, let them know that their play is going to be negatively impacted over all if they "play around" at the table.