March 27, 2025 • 12 mins
🎲 How to Play Goblin Quest (7 Eps) ⚙️ Goblin Quest Rules Hacks (7 Eps)
https://bonus.claimtogamepodcast.com/playgoblinquest
🎲 Free 15-Minute Strategy Call – GM Coaching
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#36 - For some gamers, playing games with a GM is the only type of Tabletop RPG they’ve ever known. When your eyes are opened to the flexibility, and shared participation of GM-less games, it’s easy to want to give a GM-less game a go. But how do you make the transition from a GM-led Game to a GM-less Game? It’s easier than you think.
Episodes Mentioned:
- Episode 35 - Top 5 Best GM-Less TTRPGs - https://claimtogamepodcast.com/episode/035-top-5-best-gm-less-ttrpgs
Games Mentioned During the Episode:
- We Three Kings (PDF) - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/279770/we-three-kings?affiliate_id=4263376
- Fiasco 2E (Multiple Formats) - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/335287/fiasco?affiliate_id=4263376
*As an amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Some of these links are affiliate links for other programs but once again, if you choose to purchase through these links, it's no extra cost to you. I only promote products or services that I have investigated and feel can deliver value to you.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Clint Scheirer (00:00):
For some gamers, playing games with the GM is the only type of
tabletop RPG theyve ever known. And when your eyes
are open to the flexibility and shared
participation of a GM list game, its easy to want to
give a GM less game a go. But how do you make the
transition from a gmled m game to a
GM list game? Its easier than you think.
Welcome to Claim to Game. We help tabletop gamers have a
(00:23):
great time with friends to experience amazing stories.
It can be overwhelming to start and run great
games. Lets make it easier for you to play any game you
want to have fun with your friends. Im Clint
Scheirer. Ive helped thousands of students in my career
find their way to better themselves and better their game.
With more than 10 years experience in leadership, coaching,
live performance and public speaking, I know I can help
(00:45):
you create immersive low stress games
youll never forget. Its time for you to make your
claim to game.
(01:22):
Hello and welcome back to episode 36
season 2 of Claim to Game, still a
predominantly educational fun podcast in which I
am daring to coin the word funationalal.
Its like a weebble that wobbles but actually falls
down. This app were going to continue to lean to
GMless tabletop games. These are games that are
run without a game master. They are usually
(01:44):
less prep. They evenly distribute the storytelling and game
responsibilities among the players. They help take the
load off the person who is always
the game master, the person whos always in charge of creating
the campaign, running the game, making decisions.
This can be a big transition though. There are a
few obstacles of growth that ive run into
(02:05):
as ive started to run my fair share of GM
list games. And it can be a lot,
which is the acronym that Im going to give you today to help you
remember some things to consider when making the transition
from GMLed M games to GM list games.
So remember lot. The L in
lot stands for looking for mama duck,
(02:25):
the O stands for Obsessive Compulsive
GM syndrome and the T stands
for the trust fall. Let's go.
A nice little tool called the Internet told me
that baby ducklings, you know like quack quack.
Baby ducklings instinctively imprint
and follow their mother within hours of
(02:45):
hatching, recognizing her as their caretaker
and relying on her for survival.
This bond is crucial for learning essential
survival skills such as finding food and staying safe.
I believe that players who are used
to a GM led game are much like baby
ducks. They have a really hard time
not looking to the person who is normally their
(03:08):
GM for the survival of their game
or the continuation of the storytelling. I'll give you an
example. every Christmas. And by every Christmas,
I mean last Christmas. Because I want to make this a
tradition. So I will be running it every Christmas but
Christmas. For the first time ever, I ran the one
page RPG WI3 Kings made
(03:28):
by Grant Howitt from Rowan, Rook and Deckard.
And I'll put a link to it in the show notes. I love this game.
The description had me cracking up. Even if it
may not be historically accurate. Here it is.
It's Christmas Day
0ad. You are a trio of kings from
a land afar. A swordsman, a
necromancer and a sorcerer. You are going
(03:50):
to defeat the wicked King Herod and his
forces with two fisted magic,
jumping off buildings and kicking people into
giant snakes. You are going to save baby
Jesus and by extension save
every Christmas ever.
okay, you gotta play it after that, right? Well, I
was playing with my buddies and as we were
(04:12):
going through the game, Roland Dice making the story,
they kept looking to me and saying,
was I successful? Did that
work? What do I see?
And I would look at them and say, well, I don't know, I'm not your
gm. and it's because they were looking for Mama Duck.
They were looking for me. And so one of the transitional
(04:32):
points as maybe the forever GM or the person
who normally runs the game, is to look at the players
when they do come to you and say, nope, it's time for you to
spread your wings and fly. You tell me what's going
on. You tell me what your character did.
I'm not gonna say anything. I'm only gonna respond about
my character. And what that does is it helps
(04:53):
distribute the storytelling
ability to everybody and it
empowers everybody at the table to basically be a
gm. And next we have, oh, obsessive
Compulsive GM syndrome. And you're not gonna find this disorder
in the DSM 5, the diagnostic statistical
Manual of Mental Health Disorders. No, you're not
gonna find it there, but you will find it. If you are
(05:15):
usually the forever gm, and you're sitting at the table and you
are playing a GM less game, and you have the urge to
take the reins and be the GM. I was
playing fiasco 2e, the game made by Jason
Morningstar. Fantastic game. in an
attempt to teach the game to other people, I
took on the role of facilitator. I basically was
(05:35):
explaining the rules to keep the game going and
flowing. And once the game started, I took
backseat and just told the story when it was my turn.
Not a problem. It becomes a problem
when I start interpreting the actions of other
players when it's not determined by the game that it's my
turn to do so. In Fiasco, a player gets to
choose on their turn either to establish the
(05:57):
scene at the beginning, like what's starting to
happen, or they get to determine the
outcome of the scene. And the players
that aren't them, they get to establish the scene.
So you get to choose to either begin or end the
scene. Now, if I am to resist my
obsessive compulsive GM syndrome, it's
okay for me to remind the player that they have these two
(06:19):
choices if they're learning the game and they forget what they need to do
when it's their turn. It's okay for me to remind them
it isn't okay if I start describing the
scene in which their character is going to
choose an action before they even establish
their character's action. And when I take that
undue storytelling control and
(06:39):
start facilitating the environment, thats
GMG my friend. Fight back, remain silent,
wait your turn, twiddle your thumbs, take a chill
pill.
Quick pause on the episode if youre considering giving a
gmless game a try One of my favorites and
super easy to help you in your transition is Goblin Quest,
the RPG by game designer Grant Howitt.
(06:59):
Simply put, you play as green tiny
little goblins trying to succeed in a perfectly
hopeless quest in a Lord of the Ring s setting.
In case you miss season one, Ive packed everything together
and tied it with a nice little bow. In the show notes, you can
find a link to access my free resource the
Complete seven Episode Series of How to Play
(07:20):
Goblin Quest, the RPG and the Complete seven
Episode Series about the rules hacks to Goblin
Quest, giving you different settings, character choices
and modes of play. And it's still using the same rules
as Goblin Quest. So picture yourself pretending to
be gross grotty little buggers on your
next game night with your closest friends. You'll be wreaking havoc
(07:40):
all over the Great Battle Camp in no time. Thanks.
And now back to the episode. The last letter is the letter
T, which stands for the trust fall. Do you remember that
icebreaker? Have you ever had to play that game? I've, had to play it
a few times when I went to a new job, maybe a new school
or a new group of people. what'll happen is the
instructor or facilitator will buddy you up with
(08:00):
one other person. And the idea of the trust fall is
that one person stands in front of the other.
the person in front will close their eyes, cross
their arms, and on the count of three, they're supposed to fall
back trusting that the person behind them is gonna catch
them. And if the person behind them is a jerk, they
won't catch them. M and let them fall in their butt. They won't have any more
friends. If the person behind them wants to
(08:23):
build trust, they will catch that person. And then
the idea is that they will switch spots. The person who
caught will now be the person who's falling and the person who fell is
now the person who catches. So it's called the trust fall.
And playing a GM list game involves a
certain level of trust. You're falling into a
situation where you need to trust the game mechanics
(08:44):
are strong and well thought out enough to take the
place of a human GM's input, facilitation
and arbitration. U you're falling into the trust
that the players will explore their storytelling power
and grow inc confidence in their newfound freedom.
And you're falling into the trust that those who normally
play as the GM will give everybody else the
(09:04):
freedom to do so and shut the hell up. So how do you
have trust? Well, trust is built over time
when actions are taken and promises are
fulfilled. So the only way to build trust in a
GM list game and that a GM list game can work
is you gotta try it out. And if you're not sure which one
to start with, you wantna go back and listen to episode 35,
(09:24):
the top five GM list games where
critically acclaimed games were brought to the
top of the R RPG Reddit
community and they were some great
options. those options, those five games that were
chosen, I'm not going toa say what they are. You gotta go back and listen to episode
35 because those games were designed to help
people build trust that a
(09:46):
GM less game could actually work. we
do this all the time. We want that social proof that
Amazon reviews give us, the credibility of a
friend who purchased something and then gives us advice. That's how
my wife always is. She wants to hear a friend talk
about how great something was and if they really loved it, then she'll go out and
buy it. and I'm the same way to a certain extent, you know,
so trust in the tabletop RPG community
(10:09):
that they have evaluated and raised up some of the best
options for excellent games.
And here are my final thoughts. Transitioning to
a GMless game from a gmled game
can provide some obstacles for growth. This is a review.
Remember lot O T
L is for looking for mama duck and you gotta encourage
(10:29):
those ducklings, I mean players to spread their wings
and fly. O is for obsessive
compulsive GM syndrome. Fight that urge and
only take control of the narrative when it S your turn dammit.
And the final letter is T the Trust
fall. Trust in the mechanics to take the place of
the normal human GM and trust the community
(10:49):
to give you great recommendations from their own experience.
Soon you'll have your own experiences with GM list games.
Maybe even you will be responding on the RPG Reddit
or other reddits or other communities telling people of
the great games that you have played. Whether there's a GM
in the game or not, you can
enjoy that mode to play just as much as and maybe even
(11:10):
sometimes even more than a GM led game.
Join us next time as we find the best ways to
have great times with friends and experience amazing stories through
tabletop role playing. And if youre Re struggling to keep
a campaign going, maybe you're feeling overwhelmed as a
GM or don't know how to get started. Get personalized
guidance to build confidence, create engaging
(11:30):
sessions and manage your group effectively with an
absolutely free 15 minute coaching
strategy. Call with me during our virtual call,
I'll give you some quick wins, actionable steps and
clear directions you can take away to make your game better. Click
on the link in the show notes to schedule your free 15 minute coaching
call today. We'll laugh. We'll cry. We'll make you the
(11:51):
big bad evil guy dominating all the other GMs in
your path in just 15 minutes. I
can't wait to speak with you and may you keep having
fun as we continue to make our claim to game.
For some gamers, playing games with the GM is the only type of
tabletop RPG theyve ever known. And when your eyes
are open to the flexibility and shared
participation of a GM list game, its easy to want to
give a GM less game a go. But how do you make the
transition from a gmled m game to a
GM list game? Its easier than you think.
Welcome to Claim to Game. We help tabletop gamers have a
(00:23):
great time with friends to experience amazing stories.
It can be overwhelming to start and run great
games. Lets make it easier for you to play any game you
want to have fun with your friends. Im Clint
Scheirer. Ive helped thousands of students in my career
find their way to better themselves and better their game.
With more than 10 years experience in leadership, coaching,
live performance and public speaking, I know I can help
(00:45):
you create immersive low stress games
youll never forget. Its time for you to make your
claim to game.
(01:22):
Hello and welcome back to episode 36
season 2 of Claim to Game, still a
predominantly educational fun podcast in which I
am daring to coin the word funationalal.
Its like a weebble that wobbles but actually falls
down. This app were going to continue to lean to
GMless tabletop games. These are games that are
run without a game master. They are usually
(01:44):
less prep. They evenly distribute the storytelling and game
responsibilities among the players. They help take the
load off the person who is always
the game master, the person whos always in charge of creating
the campaign, running the game, making decisions.
This can be a big transition though. There are a
few obstacles of growth that ive run into
(02:05):
as ive started to run my fair share of GM
list games. And it can be a lot,
which is the acronym that Im going to give you today to help you
remember some things to consider when making the transition
from GMLed M games to GM list games.
So remember lot. The L in
lot stands for looking for mama duck,
(02:25):
the O stands for Obsessive Compulsive
GM syndrome and the T stands
for the trust fall. Let's go.
A nice little tool called the Internet told me
that baby ducklings, you know like quack quack.
Baby ducklings instinctively imprint
and follow their mother within hours of
(02:45):
hatching, recognizing her as their caretaker
and relying on her for survival.
This bond is crucial for learning essential
survival skills such as finding food and staying safe.
I believe that players who are used
to a GM led game are much like baby
ducks. They have a really hard time
not looking to the person who is normally their
(03:08):
GM for the survival of their game
or the continuation of the storytelling. I'll give you an
example. every Christmas. And by every Christmas,
I mean last Christmas. Because I want to make this a
tradition. So I will be running it every Christmas but
Christmas. For the first time ever, I ran the one
page RPG WI3 Kings made
(03:28):
by Grant Howitt from Rowan, Rook and Deckard.
And I'll put a link to it in the show notes. I love this game.
The description had me cracking up. Even if it
may not be historically accurate. Here it is.
It's Christmas Day
0ad. You are a trio of kings from
a land afar. A swordsman, a
necromancer and a sorcerer. You are going
(03:50):
to defeat the wicked King Herod and his
forces with two fisted magic,
jumping off buildings and kicking people into
giant snakes. You are going to save baby
Jesus and by extension save
every Christmas ever.
okay, you gotta play it after that, right? Well, I
was playing with my buddies and as we were
(04:12):
going through the game, Roland Dice making the story,
they kept looking to me and saying,
was I successful? Did that
work? What do I see?
And I would look at them and say, well, I don't know, I'm not your
gm. and it's because they were looking for Mama Duck.
They were looking for me. And so one of the transitional
(04:32):
points as maybe the forever GM or the person
who normally runs the game, is to look at the players
when they do come to you and say, nope, it's time for you to
spread your wings and fly. You tell me what's going
on. You tell me what your character did.
I'm not gonna say anything. I'm only gonna respond about
my character. And what that does is it helps
(04:53):
distribute the storytelling
ability to everybody and it
empowers everybody at the table to basically be a
gm. And next we have, oh, obsessive
Compulsive GM syndrome. And you're not gonna find this disorder
in the DSM 5, the diagnostic statistical
Manual of Mental Health Disorders. No, you're not
gonna find it there, but you will find it. If you are
(05:15):
usually the forever gm, and you're sitting at the table and you
are playing a GM less game, and you have the urge to
take the reins and be the GM. I was
playing fiasco 2e, the game made by Jason
Morningstar. Fantastic game. in an
attempt to teach the game to other people, I
took on the role of facilitator. I basically was
(05:35):
explaining the rules to keep the game going and
flowing. And once the game started, I took
backseat and just told the story when it was my turn.
Not a problem. It becomes a problem
when I start interpreting the actions of other
players when it's not determined by the game that it's my
turn to do so. In Fiasco, a player gets to
choose on their turn either to establish the
(05:57):
scene at the beginning, like what's starting to
happen, or they get to determine the
outcome of the scene. And the players
that aren't them, they get to establish the scene.
So you get to choose to either begin or end the
scene. Now, if I am to resist my
obsessive compulsive GM syndrome, it's
okay for me to remind the player that they have these two
(06:19):
choices if they're learning the game and they forget what they need to do
when it's their turn. It's okay for me to remind them
it isn't okay if I start describing the
scene in which their character is going to
choose an action before they even establish
their character's action. And when I take that
undue storytelling control and
(06:39):
start facilitating the environment, thats
GMG my friend. Fight back, remain silent,
wait your turn, twiddle your thumbs, take a chill
pill.
Quick pause on the episode if youre considering giving a
gmless game a try One of my favorites and
super easy to help you in your transition is Goblin Quest,
the RPG by game designer Grant Howitt.
(06:59):
Simply put, you play as green tiny
little goblins trying to succeed in a perfectly
hopeless quest in a Lord of the Ring s setting.
In case you miss season one, Ive packed everything together
and tied it with a nice little bow. In the show notes, you can
find a link to access my free resource the
Complete seven Episode Series of How to Play
(07:20):
Goblin Quest, the RPG and the Complete seven
Episode Series about the rules hacks to Goblin
Quest, giving you different settings, character choices
and modes of play. And it's still using the same rules
as Goblin Quest. So picture yourself pretending to
be gross grotty little buggers on your
next game night with your closest friends. You'll be wreaking havoc
(07:40):
all over the Great Battle Camp in no time. Thanks.
And now back to the episode. The last letter is the letter
T, which stands for the trust fall. Do you remember that
icebreaker? Have you ever had to play that game? I've, had to play it
a few times when I went to a new job, maybe a new school
or a new group of people. what'll happen is the
instructor or facilitator will buddy you up with
(08:00):
one other person. And the idea of the trust fall is
that one person stands in front of the other.
the person in front will close their eyes, cross
their arms, and on the count of three, they're supposed to fall
back trusting that the person behind them is gonna catch
them. And if the person behind them is a jerk, they
won't catch them. M and let them fall in their butt. They won't have any more
friends. If the person behind them wants to
(08:23):
build trust, they will catch that person. And then
the idea is that they will switch spots. The person who
caught will now be the person who's falling and the person who fell is
now the person who catches. So it's called the trust fall.
And playing a GM list game involves a
certain level of trust. You're falling into a
situation where you need to trust the game mechanics
(08:44):
are strong and well thought out enough to take the
place of a human GM's input, facilitation
and arbitration. U you're falling into the trust
that the players will explore their storytelling power
and grow inc confidence in their newfound freedom.
And you're falling into the trust that those who normally
play as the GM will give everybody else the
(09:04):
freedom to do so and shut the hell up. So how do you
have trust? Well, trust is built over time
when actions are taken and promises are
fulfilled. So the only way to build trust in a
GM list game and that a GM list game can work
is you gotta try it out. And if you're not sure which one
to start with, you wantna go back and listen to episode 35,
(09:24):
the top five GM list games where
critically acclaimed games were brought to the
top of the R RPG Reddit
community and they were some great
options. those options, those five games that were
chosen, I'm not going toa say what they are. You gotta go back and listen to episode
35 because those games were designed to help
people build trust that a
(09:46):
GM less game could actually work. we
do this all the time. We want that social proof that
Amazon reviews give us, the credibility of a
friend who purchased something and then gives us advice. That's how
my wife always is. She wants to hear a friend talk
about how great something was and if they really loved it, then she'll go out and
buy it. and I'm the same way to a certain extent, you know,
so trust in the tabletop RPG community
(10:09):
that they have evaluated and raised up some of the best
options for excellent games.
And here are my final thoughts. Transitioning to
a GMless game from a gmled game
can provide some obstacles for growth. This is a review.
Remember lot O T
L is for looking for mama duck and you gotta encourage
(10:29):
those ducklings, I mean players to spread their wings
and fly. O is for obsessive
compulsive GM syndrome. Fight that urge and
only take control of the narrative when it S your turn dammit.
And the final letter is T the Trust
fall. Trust in the mechanics to take the place of
the normal human GM and trust the community
(10:49):
to give you great recommendations from their own experience.
Soon you'll have your own experiences with GM list games.
Maybe even you will be responding on the RPG Reddit
or other reddits or other communities telling people of
the great games that you have played. Whether there's a GM
in the game or not, you can
enjoy that mode to play just as much as and maybe even
(11:10):
sometimes even more than a GM led game.
Join us next time as we find the best ways to
have great times with friends and experience amazing stories through
tabletop role playing. And if youre Re struggling to keep
a campaign going, maybe you're feeling overwhelmed as a
GM or don't know how to get started. Get personalized
guidance to build confidence, create engaging
(11:30):
sessions and manage your group effectively with an
absolutely free 15 minute coaching
strategy. Call with me during our virtual call,
I'll give you some quick wins, actionable steps and
clear directions you can take away to make your game better. Click
on the link in the show notes to schedule your free 15 minute coaching
call today. We'll laugh. We'll cry. We'll make you the
(11:51):
big bad evil guy dominating all the other GMs in
your path in just 15 minutes. I
can't wait to speak with you and may you keep having
fun as we continue to make our claim to game.
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