BEING A WÜRSTMEISTER
These are general recommendations for being a Würstmeister (Game Master in Low Drama: A DUNGEON DEGENERATES roleplaying game. These rules are good for any leadership role, management, teaching, parenting, whatever.)
Being a Würstmeister is like being the director of an improvisational theatre group playing craps, except you play all of the extras & you are playing with them. You might be using a premade adventure but you have to be able to describe anything in the world, make up dialog, understand how things work in order to keep the game going & fun & immersive for your players.
If you are playing solo you need to be able to do this for yourself. Because of all this, you can’t be a checked out, non-committal Würstmeister, you need to be there for your players, for the experience. This isn’t a power trip, this is responsibility.
Because of the role of the Würstmeister, you need to have a lot of general knowledge, understanding the psychology of your players & of all the things you encounter, physics, everything. You need to juggle all this & still deliver a fun experience to your players.
This is a great experience for being a parent, a teacher, a manager or any place where you are some kind of leader. In fact, this advice is good in general no matter where you fall on the pyramid.
It is important to not take yourself too seriously in this role. Being a Würstmeister is complicated. You are simultaneously responsible for your players having fun & presenting enough of a consistent experience for everyone that it feels like it is worth doing.
Your responsibility is not towards the rules, the rules aren’t alive, they have been written & printed & you carry them with you. The rules are supposed to serve you. If something in the rules doesn’t work for you or your players, change it. Add rules, subtract rules, modify rules.
If the rules don’t cover a situation, make a rule up, don’t spend tons of time looking for a rule, just go with what makes sense. Be fun & flexible, serve the narrative & make sure your players are having fun.
These “homebrew” rules are the way these games operate, this isn’t an exception, breaking the rules is the rule.
Low Drama tries to encourage all manner of playing styles that will improve the game with the Path, but maybe you identify more. If you do let us know!
Ultimately, you need to agree with the players about the way things are going. You aren’t the only game in town & if players aren’t having fun, they won’t show up.
Ultimately, the fate of your players rests in your hands & you don’t want to reward distracting foolishness that takes away from the experience. You are not playing against the players, nor are you God, you are more like a movie director, working to get the best out of your actors & keep butts in the seats.
No phones at the table! There are unlimited distractions in the world, your phone is a portal into a world of never-ending distraction. If you need a pdf version of the rules print them out. No phones!
Roll with the direction that the game is going, don’t be rigid if the story is being buried by something else the players are exploring. You can pull people back in, but the tangents are important, sometimes more important than the preconstructed missions.
All RPG products should be viewed as accessories that augment the experience & open possibilities rather than rigid instruction manuals. These products then help you adapt & build a unique, flexible setting around your players, rather than attempting to follow someone else’s recipe.
I approach life in this way & so this is the way I approach games. Especially since roleplaying isn’t competitive. You can be competitive, but that’s you, not the game.
The ideal is to create a living & breathing alternate reality that grows in the minds of your players. Every situation should be open to as many options that are possible even the impossible.
Using jargon really destroys the immersive nature of these games, so try not to use jargon unless you are talking shop after the game.
WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A WÜRSTMEISTER
KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW, KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW
Be honest & clear about what you know & constantly expand your knowledge. Remember that it is an endless world & there will always be more to not know than is possible to know. Not knowing is nothing to be ashamed of. Try & fill in the gaps.
LISTEN CAREFULLY
You might think that you can predict what’s going to come out of people’s mouths, but you can’t. It’s difficult when you are supposed to be the voice of everyone except the players, but give them space to shine. Take a beat before you respond, let there be space.
TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM
This exalted position comes with a lot of giving. Players always need something, you should do your best to supply it. You should even pay attention to what people frequently need & try to have it next time: pencils, paper, dice. Whatever.
WHEN THEY SUCCEED, YOU SUCCEED
The goal is to immerse the players & allow them to feel something real that will stay with them. They will feel a sense of accomplishment & you will have done your job.
KEEP THEM FOCUSED
Distraction is the norm, entering a world of the mind using the limited tricks of the trade when you are competing with the most distracted period of time forever is a challenge. Lead your players in a grounding exercise before you start the game. No phones at the table.
THE RULES ARE SUGGESTIONS
You aren’t there to be a lawyer, you’re there to lead. The rules don’t care if they are modified, ignored or whatever, neither do I. Your players care if the game makes sense to them & they’re having fun, so should you.
IT’S HARD
Survival in the world of DUNGEON DEGENERATES is hard. You must embrace perseverance, staying positive or at least having a sense of humor about constant adversity. Savor the misfortune, draw it in & laugh at the bad things that crop up.
MAKE TIME
It’s easy to see time as this limited, valuable thing because this is true. However, generosity is something you should always strive for & you can always make time.
REWARD CLEVERNESS
Engagement with this thing means to treat it as your own. The best thing that we do as humans is to completely own & love a thing & to make it your own. After that comfort with a thing is achieved, the variety & innovation in iteration & direction are amazing.
EMBRACE CHAOS
You never know what’s going to happen & the more things happen, the more they mix together. This is unavoidable, you can’t do anything about it, you must embrace this neverending stream of randomness & embrace it, channel it.
BE FAIR, JUST & LOGICAL
It is easy to confuse keeping people happy with serving the truth. People have been trained to put their own temporary ego needs in front of this larger, shared language of what is judicious.
IT’S OUR WORLD
This is a shared experience. Anyone in the world can pick up these books & form their own ideas about them. You are not the only interpreter of this, you are another one, a position of authority sure, but your version of things doesn’t go above others.