So I'm nervous about running a game

[Mark Hoover 330]

I have a buddy who is aggressively "old skool" in the way he plays FRPGs. He is also pretty controlling; always the DM, never the player. He's been married to 3x D&D for decades and openly bad-mouthed PF1 to me before realizing it's my go-to system.

Tomorrow I'm going to be running a session of PF1 where he is a player in my game. We're starting off at L1 and since I've been running a lot of stuff lately in the Frog God Games setting I'm setting a generic, canned PF1 adventure in their world.

I'm nervous y'all. I don't know why exactly but this guy intimidates me. I've run several PF1 campaigns, I know the mechanics, read through the adventure and what not. I know how to do silly voices, ad lib NPCs, try to manage tension, all the skills a GM should practice IMO. Despite all that something about tomorrow's game has me on edge.

It's not a good anxious either. Like, I'm not excitedly looking forward to the clatter of the dice. More like I feel like I'm under a microscope. There's only 2 players; one has been in many of my PF1 games and seems to genuinely enjoy the way I run things. The other is this friend who has me sweating about tomorrow.

I've played in this gentleman's games in the past. He has story but he is extremely withholding of it so 10 sessions in you don't really know much about what's going on besides this is the enemy of the session, here's the ultimate big bad, and your own personal goals. NPCs tend to be 2d and the fights are an idea in the GM's head that then marry up to stat blocks he looks up on the fly in the Monster Manuals.

By contrast my games tend to focus on the characters and NPCs first, with combat sprinkled in as the conflicts escalate. I also use pre-written stat blocks as is but try to give the combat areas some character; shifting, loose stones, different elevations, cave formations or running water, etc. I also tend to be pretty open with my plots, using mysteries sparingly; I figure we all have jobs and lives and most of us are in our 40's and older, so forcing someone to unravel tangled plotlines months old in a 4 hour session on a weeknight is cruel and unusual punishment.

I don't know why I'm making this thread except to just document things. I'm nervous but hopeful that tomorrow's game will be the start of something cool for all three of us. Regardless of how it goes, I'll come back post game for an update. I guess, if anyone has tips or tricks to deal with anxiety around feeling intimidated by one of your players, let me know.

[MoFiddy]

I've been GMing my home group since about 2009 and I still get anxiety before every session. I don't feel intimidated by a particular player...I think it's just something that has always been with me. What helps me is that I know that after we are done with the session, I feel almost euphoric. Not that I'm the best game master, but the players are my friends and we just had a good time for few hours. I'm sure part of it for me is the relief that it was successful.

For situations like this, I tell myself, "In a few hours it will be over and you will have had a good time."

Good luck....looking forward to hearing how it goes.

[Mark Hoover 330]

So it ended up being fine I guess. I think I was intimidated by Mr Old Skool for a couple of reasons, both of them personal. He has views which tend to be a very far cry from the other gentleman playing in the game and 2, Mr Old Skool has a need to be right all the time. I think this somewhat controlling nature is why he's the perpetual DM with his other friends.

He was able to tone down his personality for Wed's game session which was nice. Still there was ONE weird thing: he's played PF1 before. Not only that, he claims he even tried running a couple sessions but didn't get into it b/c there were "too many rules to keep track of."

That's weird for a couple reasons. When I first started hanging out with this guy a few years ago he said he'd never played PF1. He even kind of bad mouthed the system as being too crunchy, which I always thought was funny b/c his default system is D&D 3.5.

Also, he insisted he was pretty familiar with the system but then played like a total noob. I mean, fine, I run on "easy mode" apparently so the rules he missed I just slowed down, explained things, let him re-choose his character's actions a couple of times, it was ok, but either he lied to me back in the day and had in fact played PF1 a long time ago, just forgot some stuff, or he lied on Wed and isn't super familiar w/the rules from having played around with the system and such.

Either way, I have the distinct impression Old Skool is misrepresenting himself. Again, I think this is weird. It's weird b/c he's told me, on a personal level he wants to be a friend. Like, outside the games. We've hung out, I've gotten to know him and I'm already friends with his wife so I feel like there's no real reason to be fake or misleading or something.

Anyway, the actual game play went fine. I was nervous right up until I pulled up the "boxed text" I'd given myself for the start to my homebrewed adventure. The mechanics were ok; a few missteps here and there as Mr Old Skool got into the swing of things but otherwise smooth sailing.

He's playing an oddly complex character for his first PF1 campaign in however long, or if ever. Its a Samsaran Wizard (Universalist)1 with an eye towards also picking up Cleric levels to go on into Mystic Theurge. I mean, fine, if you WANT to keep track of a bunch of spells and powers while you're ostensibly learning or re-learning how to play the system, that's fine, just figured playing a Martial PC would've been easier.

As of right now I am planning to make this into an ongoing campaign. We'll see how long it lasts. If anything else weird comes up I'll circle back.

[Azothath]

lol, everyone wants to be important or seem an expert.

it's fine

As a party host don't concern yourself too much with trying to predict how your party will go (like obsessing over seating charts or borish guests). You've laid out the spread, invited sociable folks, you just have to keep it going in the right direction. You do what you can.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Sounds like it's a combination of two things: 1) not so much that there are too many rules and more like it's not exactly what he is used to.
2) he thinks he knows more than he actually does
Lots of people are like that. Ease him into it. My own experience going from 3.5 to PF1 was that we still used many 3.5 rules instead of PF and didn't notice it in game play. Just point out stuff that is different, ahead of time if possible, and he should come along.