RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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So, here's my definition of the term: sitting down and running the scenario without prep.
Sometimes, it's the GM's own damn fault. I've seen people try to run adventures at conventions where (a) they had had the table assignment for weeks, but 9b) had never gotten around to reading the scenario. That's very bad GMing.
I've also seem GMs volunteer at the last minute, to run scenarios they weren't familiar with, to make sure the table happens. That's also a bad situation, but commendable on the part of the GM.
By my definition, running a scenario you've already played, but never read through, counts as running cold. Running a scenario, having only read the background and synopsis, also counts as running cold. On the other hand, running something that I've already prepped and run last year would not count as running cold. I mention this because other people may have different definitions.
I am, myself, lousy at it. I won't volunteer to run cold, even with a bunch of games under my belt. The players only get one shot at a particular scenario, and I'd rather have the table not go off today, and have them eventually play it under good circumstances, than play today struggling with a poor experience.
So, I know that "GM 101" has some tips for running cold. All well and good, but what advice do you folks have? In particular, Season 4 and 5 have encounters with unstatted opponents who have templates and other modifications applied to them, or stat blocks in books (like the NPC Codex or Bestiary 4) I am probably not carrying to the table. (And lots of spells or feats I don't have access to.) . How do you handle running cold in those circumstances?
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?
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I agree, I never (99.9%) run something cold. I don't even like running having read through it a single time. I find that after a second read I have missed a bunch of things.
AS too coordinators and convention coordinators I cannot speak to but I can say that I agree running something cold lends to a bad experience for everyone at the table. Including the GM running it. I guess there are people who might have learned to master this but I can't see it being as good as the GM who preps thoroughly before the game.
K
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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I have done it (at the request of the organizer, not because I just didn't read what I was supposed to), but I really hate doing it, because I know it ends up as not a good experience for the players 9 times out of 10. My advice? Don't be the guy who ends up having to run something cold. It sucks.
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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?
This one's easy; we don't ask them to gm anymore.
There are a few scenarios I feel I could run with no to very little prep. Granted, these are scenarios I have run several times and enjoy running for people.
I will not volunteer to run cold either. But if I must, then this is where my trusty hi-liter enters the scene. Tell the table you need a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the scenario. Go through and hi-light every DC you find. This will speed up your ability to answer questions of success or failure, whether a room has a trap, Perception notices, etc. Read the critter actions before and during combat. Hi-light the development section of encounters. Sometimes vital information on how a room plays out is located here. This leads me to my next tip.
Write in the margins which rooms have traps or special things that need your attention. Haunts are a good example, along with whether a critter is alerted by prior PC actions. Jot down what you read in the development section.
Try your best and concentrate on what you are good at. If this is role-playing, then play the hell out of that cowbell. Take a table break and read the rest of the scenario.
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At our FLGS, we used to almost exclusively run scenarios cold on game days because of the way we did scheduling. As a result, I'm quite used to and comfortable with running sessions cold (or at least I was). It's one of those things where you get better at it with practice (though it seems the popular opinion is to not do it at all).
I'm not opposed to running a scenario cold. But if I can get an idea of what I'm supposed to run in advance, of course I'll give it a look over prior to the game at least once because it doesn't really make sense not to (though I can see someone being super busy and being unable to get to it).
I haven't really had a situation where running it cold ended particularly badly. I'm indifferent as for running scenarios cold on game day.
Convention play is a different story. So long as the organizer provides clear game assignments prior to the convention, there is no reason why the scenarios should not be prepared. Conventions are special, so people should be given a great experience for showing up.
Perhaps the dilemma of having a GM come unprepared to a convention despite being told well in advance their assignment could be resolved by making the expectations perfectly clear. Tell the person that if they don't prepare, they will not be welcome to volunteer in the future. Then the onus is on them to actually ensure they are prepared, and then you don't have to feel bad for cutting them loose as a volunteer next time. The same could be said of Game Day. You do have to keep your word though.
On the flip side, if something happens during a convention (and I've seen this happen at GenCon), and the convention coordinator asks a volunteer to run a scenario cold (say the volunteer's table didn't work out and there are 5 or 6 players looking for a different game to play), then that volunteer should absolutely run a scenario cold so those people can get a chance to play. Especially if the volunteer in question is getting convention rewards for volunteering.
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I have done it a couple times, and none of those times did I feel good about it afterwards. Sadly, it was under the first definition of I had plenty of time on the calendar but it kept getting pushed beneath other stuff, so I never got around to prepping (no excuses, that's what happened, I am ashamed).
The best advice I can give, however, is to do a quick readthrough to get an idea of what's going on followed by a second skim to make sure you can find little details easier. Better for the game to start late so you can get a grasp on what you have here than for it to start on time and be fully run cold.
This stacks with having general knowledge of the scenarios to know where the treasure is usually located, know where the defenses are, know where to find the equipment in the stat blocks, etc etc.
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Running cold should be avoided like the plague. Even if you can hack your way through it, the players deserve more than the bare minimum. You only get to play each scenario once, and so if a GM runs one cold for you, that's an experience you can never have again. (Even with GM star replays, you miss out on the experience of playing it fresh.)
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I refuse to run a scenario cold. I usually have at least one or two scenarios I have run in the past printed out that I keep with me in the event that I need to run something at the last minute. I generally try to make sure that they are a 1-5, that they have flipmaps that I have either drawn before or are simple enough that I can redraw it with short notice.
One of our local VL's commonly asks GM's to run things at the very last minute (10-15 minutes before start time) and often cold, and it frustrates me to no end, to the point that I refuse to play at one of his tables, because I'm pretty sure he doesn't do much in the way of prep either. This past game day, he asked one of the people that sometimes GM's to run Risen From the Sands cold, telling the person that the module "shouldn't take more than two hours" which suggests that he hadn't even read the thing to begin with, even though he had planned on running it on FRPGD.
When I prep something now, I always try to read it at least a few times. The first time, I read it to get a general idea of the flow of the scenario/module. The second time, I focus on the monsters/bad guys in the scenario, trying to get a general sense of how the combat will go in relation to the maps of the combat. Third, I focus on each combat, looking at all of the feats/SQ's of the opposition in the scenario. Then time permitting, I read it one final time to try to tie everything together. I usually begin the process three-four days before I've signed up to GM.
Edit: I recognize that some might view my approach as excessive, especially depending on work schedules, etc. My approach mostly stems from how I used to prepare back when I played limited formats of M:tG.
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I dont run scenarios cold. If I havent run it before within the last 6 mos., I wont do it. Its not fair to the players. I know if I was a player, I would really be annoyed. There are some scenarios you can prep with 1 day notice ( mainly season 0 lvl 1 to 5)but there are some that need lots of prep. Especially season 4 and 5 ones.
playing and gming alot helps with learning more rules, feats, spells, etc. so prepping becomes easier at least.
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I ran cold one time, never again. Even playing and running it 6 months prior , the fact that I did not refresh my knowledge on it led to slow pacing and mistakes.
I now have a "I won't play with a GM who is going to run cold no matter what" policy. If I get wind of it before the game starts I literally pack up my things and say I'll catch the game another time down the road. If I play with a GM who has ample warning and runs cold I won't play at that persons table again unless I can get assurances that this time they are in fact prepared.
It makes me laugh when certain GM's brag about how good they are at running cold. But they suck too, running cold always sucks. They might not suck as much as others but it still sucks.
I'm also annoyed by GM's who skim the material but didn't really read it in detail. Yeah, OK, they read it but what good is it if they forgot it. GM skim seems to really hamper the details for all season 5 scenarios and most season 4 scenarios. These scenarios are built with more depth and skimming these misses major pieces of a scenario.
Sorry for the rant, this is a hot button for me.
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I won't GM any scenario I haven't had time to read and prep properly. That's one full read through, then a second pass where I go through and look up all the technical details, highlight things, and write notes in the margins, so I know how all the feats, spells, and other technical details work. If I don't have at least a 4 or 5 hours to do that, I won't run the scenario.
I will, however, bring along other scenarios that I've run before, and know well enough to run on short notice to try and make sure everyone gets a chance to play. It doesn't always work out perfectly, because some people may have already played the scenarios I brought with me, but at least a table happens.
And based on past experiences with GMs running things cold, I won't play at such tables again, either. Every time I have in the past, I always come away wishing I hadn't played at all, and still had the chance to play those scenarios with a better prepared GM later. There are 3 scenarios in particular that I constantly see people on these forums talking about as being among their favorites, and I have no idea why they like them so much. I missed out on the opportunity to play and enjoy those scenarios the way they were intended.
Honestly, I'd love to see the Guide to Organized Play updated to specifically ban the practice of GMing any scenario you haven't read in full ahead of time. It would obviously be impossible to enforce, but even putting in some strongly worded advice should help in trying to crack down on the practice, and make it less common.
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I avoid running mods cold like the plague. I feel it is a disservice to both the author of the adventure and the players.
That being said I do feel they are occasionally a necessity, most frequently at Cons where people paid money to play something, usually something specific, and it is bad for business to disappoint them. At the very least, they should be given the choice of having it run cold, playing something else (or possibly not playing at all).
We have had exactly 1 cold run (by the OP's definition) at our local game day in recent memory and that was somewhat my fault. Normally, when we schedule a gameday and no one signs up to GM I send out a call for GMs on our yahoo group. If no one signs up after that, there are a few GMs (me included) that will jump in to sign up at the last minute (frequently pulling themselves off of a table they wanted to play at to do so). But this had been happening with increasing frequency and that can cause GM burn out. So the next time it happened I didn't jump from player to GM. I did bring a copy of the adventure, along with GM prep from the GM prep site and chronicles. I explained the situation to the table and asked for a volunteer to run it. One of the people who only get to play once a month at the most volunteered. He had never GM for PFS before, but was willing to do it for the sake of everyone else at the table. I rewarded him for doing so with a battlemat I had brought home as swag from a con. We have not had a repeat of that situation.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Well, there are times when bad is opposite worse. If the players are willing, and ask me to run an adventure cold, for whatever reason -- say their scheduled GM conked out on them; or they want to play through Bonekeep, and I'm the only 4-star GM around who can legally run the scenario -- I'll do what I can.
(And again, there are those odd places, like St. Louis, where GMs are expected to run cold. If I ever go drive down to one of their game days, I understand that I'll need to run whatever scenario the players want.)*
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* (That's the main reason I haven't driven down to a St. Louis game day.)
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I think people are overstating the difficulty. Maybe I'm deluding myself but I think that I do a reasonable job of running things cold and that players would rather play it with a GM running cold rather than go home.
Note, I am NOT saying that it is a good thing. I most definitely do a worse job than when I prep.
I do have lots of experience, mind. In home games I tend strongly to being an improvisational GM. And I have probably been GMing longer than most of you have been born.
I think some thing that help are:
Tell the players. It helps a lot if they know that you stepped in. Makes them far more forgiving.
Don't sweat the small stuff. I'll quickly apply templates, I'll quickly look at tactics, etc. But if there is a spell/feat/domain power that I don't recognize I just won't use it. If I get a template slightly wrong, oh well.
Try very hard to only do it with fairly simple scenarios. Some can NOT be run cold. Most can.
Take the time you NEED to read ahead. If this means an encounter gets skipped so be it.
ALWAYS read the summary carefully. NEVER skim it.
Ask the players to help. Get one of them to run initiative, have one of them look something up for you, ask them to keep the rules lawyering to a bare minimum
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Venture-Captain, Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh
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As an organizer, I generally keep a copy of We Be Goblins and First Steps, both of which I have printed maps for and are evergreen, so that if I DO have to ask someone to run cold, I've got something that they not only have likely played, but is easy to run cold handy. Plus, the fact that they are evergreen means that if, for whatever reason, the GM does poorly, the players will have an opportunity to replay for credit.
That being said, utilizing the GM prep folder to get emergency stat blocks already templated, etc, absolutely helps in that rare situation when you have to run cold. Keeps you from having to adjust stats on the fly.
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I've had to run some games cold, and while I think I do a "good" job at it, it's clearly not the same as having fully prepped it.
My advice: Read the summary. Hand out the chronicles at the beginning to have the players put their information on the top part. While they are doing that and filling out the sign in sheet, I quickly skim to the first encounter and get an idea of what I need to do to make it work.
I try and spot something interesting that I can play on to make the NPC engaging right off the bat, and try and convey some useful information to the players.
Once I have read the "Getting Started" part, I have the players introduce themselves. While they are doing that I do a little more fast prep to get the first act ready as best I can.
Once we get going I usually insist on a very quick break after the first 2 hours. This gives me a chance to skim the last part and make brush up on some quick rules, etc., while the players are taking their break. This lets me at least put the final encounter into some kind of order so that it's a decent experience for people.
I improvise as best I can, make things up so that it makes some verisimilitude of sense, and nod and smile a lot at the players.
Additionally, I laugh at everyones jokes, even if they aren't funny. I think that helps a lot.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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Whenever I am going to a PFS event, I bring everything I need to run the three short evergreens (The Confirmation, First Steps Part I, and Master of the Fallen Fortress) with me, so if a table doesn't make, I can always run an evergreen. I find that most folks, if given the choice between playing a scenario the GM is running cold and a well-prepped evergreen, will pick the evergreen and just start new characters.
BTW, I would not ever run Bonekeep cold. Players who sign up for Bonekeep are looking for a particular experience (or they don't know what they're getting into and shouldn't be playing it. If you run it cold, you run a real risk of either softballing the hard stuff or killing somebody off that you shouldn't have because you didn't grasp some part of the scenario (tactics, for instance).
But, as for tips to mitigate running cold if you absolutely must:
1. Have a blank flipmat.
2. Standard GM 101 stuff: read the Adventure Summary, primary and secondary success conditions, tactics in the statblocks; phone a friend who has run it or check the forums/GM Shared Prep for advice.
3. Try to avoid social scenarios (Blakros Matrimony, Merchant's Wake) or complex infiltration/investigation scenarios (Scars of the Third Crusade, Murder on the Throaty Mermaid, The Disappeared); go for simple and straightforward fare like Mists of Mwangi.
4. Take breaks in between encounters to figure out what happens after the encounter and what's supposed to happen next.
5. When in doubt, give the PCs the benefit of the doubt. You don't want your lack of preparation to wind up screwing over a player.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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So aside from the discussion about when or why people run cold, here is some advice I'd have for GMs that wind up doing it.
1) Only do it if you feel up to it. If you feel pressured, uncomfortable, unhappy, or otherwise not in the mood to GM—don't. Not much is worse than a GM that's not into GMing. Remember, your players only get to play that scenario once (unless they burn a star), so make sure you're ready to give it a good performance.
2) Quickly skim through the scenario, and flag down what resources you're going to need. in the newer ones, you'll find a condensed list at the start. Use that. If you can't get all the books, etc, ask your players if you can borrow their smartphones, iPads, etc when the time comes. Most folks will be amenable to this.
3) Read the summary, the bonus faction goal (if there is one), any traps or haunts (if there are any), and the final fight. These are where misreading or missing completely critical information can lead to bad times at the table. Try and be proactive, and identify any problem areas at the start.
4) As you GM, you can often buy time to keep reading the scenario by: having the players introduce themselves in character, quickly audit one another's characters and last three chronicle sheets, take a 5 minute break to buy snacks, etc. Anything you can come up with that allows the players to still be engaged and having a good time is more time you have to play catch up with your scenario speed-reading. Having good role-players at your table really helps, as often they'll splurge into a tangent and give you tons of time to read up.
5) Use all the tricks in your GM toolbox you can to keep the game exciting. You should do this in general, but it becomes especially important when you're running cold. You can often times conceal areas that you're fuzzy on by focusing on the PCs and their interactions then the actual meat of the scenario. It doesn't matter what's in Featureless Room #5 if the Paladin and the Barbarian start arm wrestling to impress the Sorceress.
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There is a store I go to occassionally that run everything cold. They get a table together, and then decide what to play.
Me, I am with the group of avoid running cold at all costs.
The big reasons is because I am cheating the author who wrote the mod, and the players who get to play it once. Also I could cheat a player by not fully understanding the rules and cost them more then it should.
When I am prepping a scenario I spend about 10 hours reading and reviewing the rules and review strategies for what the opponents have, their personalities, and how best to use them.
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I've run cold twice. The first time -- Besmara help me -- was Murder on the Throaty Mermaid. I'd at least played it before, and had skimmed it ahead of time. My only excuse is that I unexpectedly had to put in 12-14 hour days at work that week (including 8 hours that Saturday right before the gameday) so I kept losing my scheduled prep time to either work or sleep.
I told the players straight out that I was unprepared, took twenty minutes to prep after I knew which characters were playing (vital for that scenario) and ended up giving everyone a good time -- though we ended up going seven hours. (Not the local record for Throaty Mermaid.)
The other time was Confirmation, on a day when I was not expecting to GM but got drafted. Since I'd played that one twice, including a game earlier that month. That one went fairly well, though I was still unsatisfied.
I guess the advice I would give is similar to others:
Try to keep a game prepped for emergencies so you don't have to run cold
Tell the players the situation ahead of time
I won't even consider running cold if I haven't played it or watched it played
On the one hand, I'm glad I've run a few cold because I am generally an *over* preparer, so it helped me get away from my need to have everything set up perfect ahead of time. On the other hand, I hope never to do it again.
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I've had some experience running "luke warm" where I've at least skimmed the scenario ahead of time (mostly due to last minute change in GMs or scenario being ran); very rarely have I run Organized Play materials "cold" and then only as a last resort**. If at all possible I prefer sufficient preparation time, but if that's not an option for some reason, here's some advice in how to make the best of a bad situation and run "under prepared"
First off, if you have any choice and advance warning in what you're playing:
-Avoid Investigation/Social scenarios. Those tend to have a lot of special rules and conditions that are a lot harder to manage on the fly.
-Stick to combat heavy scenarios, especially earlier Seasons. Losing the Faction Missions cut the content in some scenarios down substantially and those tended to have less new mechanics. Combat heavy scenarios also tend to be a lot more familiar and easy to run.
-Try to stick to lower tiers. There's generally fewer mechanics and consumables at 1-2 than there are at higher levels.
Regardless of whether you have say or not in which scenario you're running, make sure to:
-Skim the scenario to at least get an idea of what the Primary Success Conditions are, major enemies, and sidebar call outs.
-Know what the Secondary Condition is in advance. A few are quite obscure, especially in older Scenarios. Don't make the Party lose out on a Prestige Point because you forgot to read crucial flavor text!
-Read the "Before Combat", "During Combat", and Equipment entries before describing any areas that have combat encounters. Especially important to note if an enemy "begins the combat invisible" or has consumables not listed in their Tactics block such as wands/scrolls for a caster or alchemical weapons.
-Double check that you read the information for the correct tier, especially if you've only played / run the scenario at a different tier. Different tiers can *drastically* change the nature of a combat.
-Identify if any Encounters are Optional and strongly consider skipping them. It's likely that you're going to be running slower than you would have with sufficient Prep time and there's nothing worse than killing a PC on an optional encounter. Optional Encounters frequently have more complicated enemies as well.
-If there's going to be an enemy Caster and they have spells that you don't recognize, try to look them up in advance of actually needing them.
Hopefully at least everyone will have a good time!
**: I had to run Living Forgotten Realms cold a few times due to lack of access to the modules before hand. Those were a *lot* easier to run under prepared and I still didn't like it.
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I'll disagree with one common recommendation above.
Social scenarios are some of the easiest to run cold. It takes only a minute to get a basic feel for the NPCs and the sidebar will give you whatever weird rules this scenario has.
Admittedly, I always like the roleplaying side of scenarios more than the combat side.
Investigation scenarios are hard to run cold, especially those where the information isn't organized very well.
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Disclaimer: I am not a PFS GM, I have GMed in home games and a few in-store games that were non-PFS. I have decades of gaming in me though so here is my experience with running modules/games cold.
Some people can do it and some can't. My suggestion for when you have to run cold is to encourage the players to roleplay some interactions amongst themselves and try to read a few pages ahead....if you have even a few moments to skim ahead do it, trying to ignore the more common creatures and focusing on room layouts, unique creature abilities and equipment, NPC and Monster motivations and such like that. Boxed text is something you are going to read to the players so there is no need to pre-read that when your time is limited. If you understand the concept of flow charts you could sketch out the paths that the adventure takes into a simple flowchart while you skim to give you a sort of cheat sheet on the adventure to help you keep the ball rolling in the right direction. I love flow charts and I like using them to help me keep focused and to figure out where the party may toss in wrenches that I may not have foreseen.
I like preparing and having everything in order but sometimes you show up with X idea and party wants 4, then you gotta wing-it. Even 5 minutes to skim a module can give you the general outline of the adventure and translating that into a flowchart can help keep the adventure rolling and lessen the appearance that you are running cold.
That's all I got, hope it's helpful to someone.
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I'll disagree with one common recommendation above.
Social scenarios are some of the easiest to run cold. It takes only a minute to get a basic feel for the NPCs and the sidebar will give you whatever weird rules this scenario has.
Admittedly, I always like the roleplaying side of scenarios more than the combat side.
Investigation scenarios are hard to run cold, especially those where the information isn't organized very well.
I agree with this as well.
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I would add at least one more thing to Wolfspirit's list:
Make sure you know the adjustments for a 4 player party in Season 4 & 5 scenarios, if you need to use them.
And, as an add-on to that, verify that you are running at the correct sub-tier and adjustment, and use the correct stat blocks. I know Wolfspirit mentioned it, but I don't think it can be emphasized enough. It is easy enough to read the wrong stat block when you have prepped, it is even easier when running cold or semi-cold.
And some scenarios are easier to run semi-cold than others. Mists of Mwangi, for instance, is easy to run. Severing Ties, on the other hand, is not. I have run both semi-cold (prepped a while back, not read in a few weeks) and Mists went much better than Ties.
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My first trial by fire if you will, was running classic tables at Origins 2010 .. I'd been GMing for 3 months and Doug threw me into the fire and expected me to dance ..
I danced .. I learned .. and I grew and hopefully became a better GM for it in the long run.
Running cold sucks .. and has been stated enough times in this thread alone that we don't need to go into another one.
Mitigation: .. if it's a matter of the GM not taking the time to prep there isn't a lot the coordinator can do if the GM chooses to run cold. Simply put, if the GM had the time (exceptional circumstances apply) and didn't take it .. that GM shouldn't be asked to GM again, but there should also be a conversation with the GM.
If it's a matter of the GM volunteering at the last minute .. explain to the table .. allow the GM 10 minutes to read over and provide them with additional resources they may need as they are helping to save the coordinator booty and getting a table to make.
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At my local there are 3 people that seem to "run cold" on a regular basis.
They are not stepping up to fill the shoes of someone that didn't show or handling the overflow of an unexpected influx of players. They are schedule to play a specific scenario and feel that downloading it to their tablet or having someone print it out for them is sufficient prep.
One does an OK job. Not excellent mind you, but OK. The other 2 seem to feel they are doing a great job, but I and the few players with whom I have discussed it, disagree.
I try to avoid those GM's when possible, but our scheduling system doesn't always say who is running a particular scenario. So I often won't know until I sit at the table. Then I don't like backing out of a commitment at the last minute.
I do not like others running a game cold and will not do it myself. I don't think most that try it do nearly as good a job as they think. I know I certainly do not do a good job of it and will not subject others to that experience. Especially not new players that are checking out the possibilities of the game system or society.
Here is what I will do:
I am too busy in the spring summer months. But this fall and winter, I am going to start a detailed prep of all repeatable scenarios/modules. I will have every thing prepared: maps drawn out, monster sheets printed off, player had-outs printed, list of minis needed, etc... I will get them organized and just leave them in the trunk of my car.
Then if a bunch of new players show up I will have the ideal scenarios all ready to go (confirmation, first steps, we be goblins, ect...). There is little risk of a really bad experience turning them away from the hobby.
If veteran PFS guys show up without having signed up for anything, they can start a new character and run it through the scenarios I prep'd or they can go home. I have much less sympathy for them. They have been their before and know how the system works. If they don't sign up, they know they are taking the chance that there will not be a table available for them.
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As someone who has been GMing living campaigns since 2nd ed. living city, I have run more than my fair share of modules cold (and kudos to chris for defining his term before unleashing this thread on the world).
The most common experience I have with running cold is being at a con, having the coordinator come up to me, and saying "hey, Steven, the GM for your table cancelled. Can you run the module?" To which I usually say "Okay." (cause I would prefer that people get to play the module that they paid money to come and play rather than go away empty handed). For a frame of reference, I've probably GMed cold at least 100 times, so ymmv.
Here are imho the pros and cons of GMing cold:
Cons: You are surprised by things that happen in the module, and may find it harder to roll with; unprepared stat blocks (especially statblocks that have templates that aren't included in the module); being flustered by not understanding the overall plot of things like a murder mystery or investigation module.
Pros: stepping up to GM at the last minute is a pretty boss thing to do. (as an aside, Cancelling at the last minute "because you didn't set your alarm" is not so cool. Cancelling at the last minute because someone did something the day before that really pissed you off, even less so); You get to learn obscure rules and have the stress help put them into your long term memory; and the biggest pro: You learn to improvise, adapt, and overcome (to borrow a US army infantry motto).
In closing, I would just like to add that some of the best tables of living campaigns I've ever run have been for people who don't know me running cold at a campaign.
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Here are imho the pros and cons of GMing cold:
Cons: You are surprised by things that happen in the module, and may find it harder to roll with; unprepared stat blocks (especially statblocks that have templates that aren't included in the module); being flustered by not understanding the overall plot of things like a murder mystery or investigation module.
I would like to add on the cons, is at least for season 5 the GM's running cold often miss major plot items or rules within the scenario and in essence are not capable of running as written. I've known this personally to happen in 5-03 & 5-17 where the players walked away saying well that scenario sucked, they thought the scenario sucked but their complaints were not really complaints against the scenario they were covered within the scenario the GM missed major items is what the real issue was but they would never have known it until they read it themselves.
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I did run cold twice in my 200+ scenarios.
The first time was Lost at Bitter End. We had a group of players at my place over the weekend. We finished some scenarios we had planned and there was some spare time to fit in an extra scenario.
With lots of frequent players around and only a single table it was impossible to find a scenario that one of the GMs at the table had run in the past and nobody had played yet.
The experience was mixed - it ended up in the longest ever rules discussion. Not sure if better preparation would have changed that - but I likely would have been more assertive. It didn't put me off the scenario as I signed myself at Scotties for it - so it didn't cause long term harm (to me).
The second one was 'The Forstfur Captives at GenCon 2011'. I flew over to GenCon last minute to discuss business with DwarvenForge. I ended up outside the PFS play area on numerous occasion and at one stage Mark Moreland desperately needed a replacement GM.
I was thrilled to be allowed to GM - but also afraid to give the players a good experience. It actually worked very well and the players left with an above average experience and some even thanked me later here on these boards.
Apart of the advice - avoid it if possible - here are some other bits that might help.
1) You can get some training to run cold by running at least occasionally lukewarm. I had done several conventions before where I slotted in last minute because there was a lack of GMs. Sometimes this was the 'floor-sweep' of all players left without a table and me figuring out together with them a scenario to play. In these cases I did a scenario I had GMed before - but that I hadn't prepared specifically.
2) Lower level is easier as higher - there are exemptions - but try to stay low level if possible
3) The more railroady a scenario, the easier it is
4) Earlier seasons tend to be easier as later ones as you don't have complex BBEG with 'surprising' skills/feats/ways to fight that you only realize afterwards
5) Be upfront with it. It helps if your players know
6) Ask for help from the players. In the GenCon game I asked someone to take care of initiative - something I tend to do myself.
6B) I also had someone looking up items / spells while I was driving the game forward
7) Sometimes a dice roll is enough to tell success or failure without knowing an exact number. I don't have to look up the AC and HP of a goblin variant if a barbarian power attacks with a 25 to hit and 29 points of damage. Just describe the death in a glorious way and be done with it. Similar a 12 or less to hit very rarely hits.
8) Be prepared to make minor mistakes - as long as the story moves on and you get the important decisions right.
9) You are yourself the best judge to tell if you do your players a disfavor in GMing. Therefore feel free to say no.
I don't think a scenario run cold is the end of the world. There is a higher chance that it completely bombs and leaves a bad taste when the players leave the table. It is also very, very unlikely that you ever will do an outstanding job.
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I would like to add on the cons, is at least for season 5 the GM's running cold often miss major plot items or rules within the scenario and in essence are not capable of running as written. I've known this personally to happen in 5-03 & 5-17 where the players walked away saying well that scenario sucked, they thought the scenario sucked but their complaints were not really complaints against the scenario they were covered within the scenario the GM missed major items is what the real issue was but they would never have known it until they read it themselves.
but that could happen with a prepped judge (I know that in living greyhawk I have missed the main plot point before once or twice, even though I read the module several times and prepped it fairly thoroughly. In my case, I remember saying "wasn't NPC X supposed to say Y?" and then found the notion after the module was over).
As for your examples, was it the same GM both scenarios? did they (or s/he) say they were running cold? I know that different GMs prep modules different, and it could just be that they did not prep those specific modules properly.
Dissatisfaction with modules can also be table specific issues as well. If you have a group of cha 7 characters doing a social module, or int/wis 7 characters doing a investigation module, I could definitely see that being an issue.
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They did not say they were running cold and it was 2 different GM's
And believe these were hacked apart. It was like they had stat blocks and maps and no other details at all.
In 5-17 the Cheliax faction mission was given out but how it was resolved was completely made up. And that's just the start of the story.
5-03 happened at a convention and 2 newer PFS players quit playing due to having a real poor experience with the same GM in back to back sessions.
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I cannot stress this enough.
If, for some reason, you are running cold, by all that is polyhedral, try to not kill the party. Not just don't try to kill your party , actively try not to kill the party. You're not ready with the scenario, you forget a monster, you lose a prestige point because of something, you use a few extra wand charges, no big deal. You forget something that was the difference between life and death for a party member... much bigger deal. If you're killing the party chances are pretty good that you're doing something wrong.
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Well, one thing i can add here perhaps.
I found myself to run some scenarios in short order at some points, meaning i only had a minimum of prep time.
So, if you run cold, even at a Con make sure you:
-tell everyone involved.
-ask 15-30 minutes prep time. (better running with a little bit less time than not running).
-i use a method called speed reading. First read the introduction, then browse through the scenario, soaking in an overview.
-then read the introduction and summary again. Now go through the scenario, scatter read the whole thing.
-with that knowledge, extract all combat and/or decision points.
-best have a mobile device to get not included stat blocks online or from the shared prep.
-check the maps and prepare to do them on the fly, looking out for important points you need to describe.
-draw a mental node point and map of the scenario, its mission and developement, check things you have white spots on or doubts.
-ask the players to understand "lags" after difficult decisions or creative play from their side to check back.
-run.
It´s similar to normal prep only much faster and less proper. Minor things might slip your grip. But i think with growing experience as a GM and more PFS experience, as well as knowing Golarion, the faction goals and the year theme, this get´s a lot easier.
Of course it also depends on your reading skills and talking skills, a lot probably. But it can also be a good training for that ;)
