Gaming: Reruns
At Ambercon North I ran Morpheus Calling for a second time. It was succesful, but I had a tougher time getting into character for the major NPCs (mainly Morpheus himself) and I don't think the game went as smooth as it did the first time. A friend said that it may be because we spend so much time contemplating the game the first time we run it that we are better prepared but teh second time we run it, perhaps it isn't as much in our mind. I know that the first time I ran MC, I watched The Matrix multiple times and tried to get Morpheus's voice and mannerism and the last time I only watched it once, the weekend before ACN.

On the other hand, there is a mystery game that I have run a few times. Each time I have adapted it to a new setting and each time it seemed to run better than the previous time. I seemed to be better prepared for the things players would try and I had more backup plans to fall back on.

This weekend I'm running a game at UCon that I ran before at ACUS. I'm not sure how it will go and I am trying to really prepare, but it has me thinking: Do games usually go smoother for GMs when they have run the game before or does it seem more difficult? Does it depend on the type of scenario or NPCs? Some NPCs take more preperation than others. Does that effect how the GM performs?

I like to re-use mystery scenarios that I ran before because mysteries take a lot of work to plan. Not only do you need to come up with a villian, plot and motive but any good mystery needs a wealth of red herrings. It's a lot of work to come up with multiple suspects so if I can adapt them to a new setting with some changes, I do.

-James