GM survey

Answers to questions from Zak's Playing D&D With Porn Stars.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

Games I run are 99% improvisation.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Last weekend of December 2011.

3. When was the last time you played?

Last sunday.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Postapo / ultra-tech (Blame!/Gigacrawler-style) setting, players are recently awaken cyborgs from the ancient past and they don't know about their nature.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

I invent something new for a game / draw obscene pictures on their char sheets / read my notes.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Almost everything. Noodles, snacks, sandwiches, cake... You name it.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

Never.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

I was on a date with beautiful noble woman :D

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Yes, definitely. We constantly laugh at our ideas / acts.

10. What do you do with goblins?

I haven't seen any goblin for years!

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

Ideas about spaceships, taken from Johji Manabe's Outlanders manga.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

One of the PCs thrown bucket full of human refuse out of window. Bucket hit the knight's horse in the head and killed it instantly. It was at Dark Heresy game session (on a feudal world).

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

World of Synnibarr, because of its notoriety.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Rodney Matthews, Katsushika Hokusai, Albrecht Durer, Caspar Friedrich. Other, less 'unavailable' picks would be Paul Bonner, Zak Smith (no shit!) and Erol Otus.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Yes, but maybe once or twice in my entire GM career.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

House of Dust and Ash for Dark Heresy and Power Behind the Throne for WFRP (in about 1999).

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

With both players and DM on acid. More serious - comfortable seats, big table and shitloads of food and beer.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

OD&D and 3e. Or maybe Amber RPG and Rules Cyclopedia.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Poetic Edda and Cave Story?

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Creative one, not caring about game balance and mechanics. And with sense of humor.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

Effects of illness and drug experiences.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

Exile series RPG, Outlanders RPG and mostly Dark Tower RPG.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

I don't think so.