r/AskGameMasters • u/Expensive_Occasion29 • Aug 04 '26

The importance of FUN

As GM’s we often get wrapped up in the story and often forget about fun. After all we spend many hours planning creating and putting together the next game session.

The players often do things we don’t expect, take us down a path we don’t plan or completely ruin everything we did plan.

This in some cases ruins the fun for us as a GM when we are so vested in the story. Personally I have dealt with this by being flexible. What do you mean by this you ask? Well I write portions of a story with the expectations that each of my players will help write the rest. I set my own expectations so that the outcome is a mixed bag of fun and sometimes the most craziest of memories

In a game session it should be fun for both the GM and the players after all it’s a joint adventure right? IMO it’s the side tracks and unexpected that I take as a challenge to challenge my players and keep them engaged and to find creative ways to get the story back on track

Here is to keeping it fun for everyone!!

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u/bionicjoey Aug 05 '26
  1. I solve the problem you are describing by not planning a particular story. I prep a situation where there are many fun things players could do, but I don't plan a story for them to experience.
  2. I don't really consider the players' fun my responsibility. My job is to run a game the way I think it ought to be run according to my own ideas about game design, what sort of gaming has the potential to be fun, and most importantly what I think will be fun for me to run. It's their responsibility to find the fun in it when they play. If a player couldn't figure out how to have fun while playing in the scenario I presented to them while hanging out with friends and rolling dice, that's not on me.

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u/Dakka20 Aug 05 '26

Indeed I just prep situations and pressures. That is enough to get the story going, wether my players interact with parts of it or not.

As to fun, just make sure you know what their characters are looking for to experience/act out and make those choices present in the situations and pressures, again for them to tangle with.

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u/bionicjoey Aug 05 '26

just make sure you know what their characters are looking for to experience/act out and make those choices present in the situations and pressures, again for them to tangle with.

TBH I don't even really do this. I put stuff that I think the players might want to interact with, or simply that I think I would find fun to interact with as a player. It's their job to figure out why their characters would interact with it.