Love Your PCs

Love Your PCs.

Love Your PCs.

Love Your PCs.

I cannot say this enough as both a Tabletop and LARP GM.  If you hate the PCs (or even worse the players) or just like being a cruel jerk that believes "they get what they deserve," you have no business being a GM of anything.

We challenge the PCs to see them overcome the situations.  Will they fail at times? Yes, and that is fine. I am not advocating making things all sunshine and rainbows for them, just that no matter how hard the challenge, you should be rooting for the PCs to overcome it.

Admittedly, I have needed my PCs, especially my LARP ones, as heroes for my own sanity. Sandy Hook left a negative imprint on my psyche for a long time, I ended up creating a similar NPC in game just so the adventurers could pass judgement and kill him. The fact that it also served as a dark mirror to one of the PCs was completely a bonus.

I am writing a story right now where the player is eating ALL THE ANGST BISCUITS. She is having an enjoyable time of it. I just gave her a challenge of sending her to what basically amounts to Hell in our LARP to retrieve her 3yo son's soul. Nothing major.  ;)  It is a challenge that I root for the character to succeed in, though success is not guaranteed. I will still root for her, though

Always Love Your PCs.