I like to offload as much work as possible on my players during a game to keep my head free from book keeping etc to be able to concentrate on the more relevant aspects of the game. It has been a great help and helps players take ownership of “the game” as well. I was wondering if anyone has additional tasks they give out or similar methods that help making the GMs life easier? I assign the following jobs at the beginning of each session:
HP tracker: usually scribbles onto the playmat how much damage each monster has taken Mapper: classic role, draw the map Loot Master: keeps track of treasure found, fair distribution of magic items etc Journaler: document what happens in the session for players who couldn’t make it (we play an open table game) Dungeon DJ: in charge of playing appropriate music via Bluetooth Rules Lawyer: if something needs to be looked up quickly they are responsible (e.g. spells, etc).
Players usually fight over who gets to be Dungeon DJ for the session
Depending on the kind of game, I usually ask that players take on the role of Caller, Mapper, Note-Taker, and Treasurer. Each confers some kind of a bonus, such as a 5% xp reward in OD&D.
Overall I find them very helpful. Caller especially for larger games, although below six players it ends up being kind of just a tie breaker roll.
Here are the “Player Roles” we see most often in my games. I don’t really force them onto a Party, but they do definitely help reduce some of the cognitive overhead of Refereeing.
Caller pretty essential for me once Party size gets above 3+ and I often regret not having one even in those situations!
Mapper keeping track of the fictional space for later reference. They don’t have to be good artists, as the Map needs to only answer two questions: “Where have we been?” (so we know where we haven’t explored yet) and “How the heck do we get out of here?” (for when things go south.)
Chronicler These Players generally keep track of Rumors/Open Loops. They may also record Monsters slain or NPCs met/befriended.
Quartermaster Keeping track of Party Supplies/Gear, especially those consumables like Rations. Having an “overview” of the Party’s assets when it comes to Equipment can be extremely helpful for Planning.
Lucifer In Dungeon Games, these Players are tracking the Light Sources for me and serve as an ersatz Timekeeper. Sometimes overlaps with Quartermaster.
Treasurer Noting valuables/party funds and financial assets. Paying Hirelings/Retainers and working with the Quartermaster to re-supply out of any “Party Fund” the Players might establish or paying Upkeep. Navigator Often dovetails with Mapping Duties in Overland Journeys, these Players are establishing the Pace/Direction of Travel for the day as part of my Wilderness Procedures.
I used to incentivize these in minor ways (sometimes with XP, sometimes with a minor bonus or boon that the Player Character could use) but I don’t find myself doing that as much these days. Teamwork in my games is pretty useful on it’s own, and these Roles really just help foster it and make sure that the game goes smoother overall.
All the important ones I’ve used are already mentioned. The only other thing I’ve tried is making the weather roll / state machine the responsibility of a player. I’ve still been the one to interpret it into the fiction.
It was certainly one less to think about, and because the weather roll was unpredictable it didn’t give that players any real out of character knowledge.
I’ve found this is a good candidate to provide for a Druid/Ranger type Character (or anyone with a Farmer/Woodsy background like this!)
Sky Watcher
I like to just use the Reaction Roll for the Weather most of the time, so giving them a chance to roll one of the dice in the 2d6 lets those Character Types get a feel for whether it’s likely to be Good (a higher roll like a 6 means less a chance of a dramatic shift to Bad Weather) or Awful (if you see a 1 on your die, the best it can be today is a 7.)
I found that a lot of the roles just make my life as a GM harder, and that a lot of them clash with my playing style, too. The mapper being the prime example. Communicating the measures of complex dungeons is a tedious exercise, takes much longer than live-drawing a rough simulacrum. I don’t put in teleport traps or too many secret doors to justify the player diegetically running around with the medieval equivalents of a theodolite.
And I just like the chaos too much (and don’t play that many large/open table games) to use a Caller…
I do have a variant of the Rules Lawyer in play sometimes. Looking up rules has to fluctuate between people, as it shouldn’t be the one actually needing the help (for speed’s sake). But the Loremaster doesn’t have that problem, as looking up background info usually doesn’t happen in the more time-intensive periods of the game.
I’d also like to note that I’ve had to suffer through too many badly implemented “agile development” teams with their scrum meetings, Jira, etc., so anything that moves towards that direction is regarded with extreme prejudice.
These are all great, thank you! I was thinking of adding another, but this is more out of game and usually a GM task, but having a player that’s on it with this helps greatly:
Scheduler: make sure google calendar invite goes out, confirm attendance, or schedule alternate program if GM can’t make it on game day
No one else using a dungeon DJ or HP tracker? I was surprised!
I never was that bothered by tracking HP. And wouldn’t that only speed up things if they knew the max hp of a monster? Or shout the total after each exchange. (And then I’d have to look up the monster, compare that to the max, which is 75% of the bookkeeping anyways).
As for DJs, I often don’t have music, and if I do, it’s carefully selected
For big ol’ 5e games i used a HP tracker. We had a white board in a conference room, so the wrote down initiative as well. They only added damage to the white board, sk total hp was never actually know unless the death blow was a 1, and even then i rolled hit dice for wach monster.
