"Dos & donts of umpiring" Topic

When umpiring a wargame, what are the dos & don'ts?

I'll start with:
1. know the rules better than the players.

Your additions?

Plan for the players to do something completely unexpected which will destroy your well crafted scenario.

Very important, bring a stun gun to calm irate players who just can't abide your ruling.
Cheers and Seasons Greetings Donald :) actually for me, two most important, enthusiasm and humour that gets the players interacting and enjoying.

Don't spend an hour explaining all the intricacies of the rules---start the players playing!

When you need to rule, do it swiftly, decisively and move the game on. Keep they playing and engaged

Not wargaming as such, but back when I played RPGs as a teenager, we had one chap who – when acting as GM – seemed to think it was him against the players. He was a good fellow, but adopted a God complex in this position of 'power' and 20 minutes into any scenario he ran, two or three of us would be dead and spending the rest of the evening watching TV.

I can still remember him cackling with delight as he killed us off in the most far-fetched and unreasonable ways: one character got a 'heat critical hit' for 'rope burn' when climbing down a rope ladder, for example, rendering him a charred corpse.

I can imagine any wargame umpire behaving in such a fashion would become a little tiresome.

Be an advocate for the rules, not a particular way of playing.

Don't try to force the desired result.

1. Have a sense of humor.

2. Realize that when you umpire the angel in charge of irony and absurdity in this world is standing right behind you.

3. Realize when you umpire that war games is a social hobby with a lot of anti-sociable people in it, and several of them are standing in front of you.

Remember – the Umpire is always right – even when he is wrong!

Disputes can be sorted after the game.

Don't interfere unless its necessary, let the players play together – so long as they are both happy, best do nothing but watch!

Agree with pzivh43 100%.

DM

> Don't try to force the desired result.

To expand on that excellent bit of advice. DON'T have a result in mind to begin with.

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

Use relatively simple rules and get the game moving quickly. If you need to talk for more than 10 minutes you are already losing my interest.

Don't have a plan about how you think the game should go -- it plays out how the players make it play out.

Bring spares. Dice. Figures. Terrain bits. Rulers. Pencils. Scrap paper. Cheat Sheets. Chits. Markers. If you can, organize them in a craft box, even better.

I agree with don't bring a scenario outcome with you. Do, however, bring a game outcome. Since you will know the rules and scenario cold, if you see a derailment of the game in the making, don't be afraid to intervene to keep the fun flowing. There is a difference between "the French should win" and "the game shouldn't end 30 minutes into the 4 hour slot".

On the other end of the spectrum, be prepared to adjudicate victory based on conditions for a scenario that ran out of table time.

You're there to enable people to have FUN.

If you get a rule wrong, get it wrong consistently, that way no one can complain you're biased against them.
And after the game have a discussion over what the rule should have been.

Keep a brace of dueling pistols ready, and don't hesitate to ask for satisfaction if any of the players challenge your rulings.

Don't explain the rules in detail unless you have people completely new to the hobby. Instead keep it at 30,000 feet to start, just to orient players. So pre-game I focus on (a) the turn sequence (b) where stuff is on the QRS and (c) how to move.

You'll get an occasional mistake (if I'd known THAT about shooting I'd have acted different) but these rarely destroy the game. In my SciFi game I explain shooting like this:

You get 1-3 dice per figure based on their weapon. Roll a D10 against the hit, typically 7 or 8+. Defender rolls saves and then chooses casualties. Now, morale…

That's it. There are modifiers for cover and such but those are on the QRS.

Another good technique is to have a game within the game if you can. So put one red unit and one blue unit in the middle of the table. Go through the turn sequence and you (the GM) play them. Have them move, shoot, and roll morale. When the players get to that area, just pick them both up…

There seem to be some very strange ideas about the role of umpires here. In some cases there might be a scenario, in some cases there might be two (or more) sides, in some cases it might be up to the umpire to hand down judgments of solomon on the misdeeds of the naughty players, but certainly not in all cases (and I really hope not at all in the last case).

Anyway, I tend to regard it as just an extension of playing, just keeping things moving along and plausible.

If putting a game on, then as noted above, bring absolutely everything. Accept offers of stuff from other people of course, but plan on them forgetting or not turning up. A stock of pens and card in your game bag is useful, as if push comes to shove you can make some counters up (done that a few times).

But as Giles say, the main thing is to be an enabler.

If you are running the game at a convention, do a couple practice runs in the weeks leading up to the convention, and fix any problems.
At a convention, be prepared for the folks to do things in a totally different way than your regular gang does. Accept the weird, like a shieldwall that squiggles across the landscape like sidewinder. If they want to charge through the pond, you can point out they'll come out covered with duck muck, but let them do it.

Grelber

Years ago, someone online did an article on running "great convention games". I wish I had the link, but it was great for new GMs. Good advice in addition to whats been posted above.

People are confusing the roles of organizer, host, rules adjucator and umpire – each of which requires a different mindset.

I see the role of umpire more as that of a gamesmaster in a roleplaying game: running the game, make decisions, provide a good scenario, improvise, and make sure the players have fun.

DON"T help players directly with what they should be doing.
Played a Lexington game once at Little Wars. I had been watching my opponent for several turns and had planned a tactic against him. When I did, the Umpire steps in and tells him what I am doing and what he should do to stop it.
Thanks a whole frick'n lot. I then lost the game.

Don't be arbitrary or, worse, veer off into putting random ideas in the game as the umpire sees fit. Players like a sense of fairness in games, that the scenario has some sense of being worked out and planned in advance. Just dropping random ideas that come from nowhere might be the umpire's idea of fun but it often puts the players backs up.

Don't solve disputes by "rolling a dice".
If a decision upsets a player then promise to bear that in mind when there is a future dispute,

martin

If players want to do something stupid, let them. The result might be interesting.

There are some great files in the GMSN yahoo group about what to bring to a convention as a gm and other tips. They are great and I have followed them in many games.

Don't forget the dice and rulers/tape measures.

If you want to provide any rules tactical advice, do so before the game starts, and equally for both sides.

Once the game starts, don't do that anymore, unless young children are playing and need/want help, since otherwise you may annoy other players, or they may feel you are choosing sides, unfairly.

Thanks, all.

The game, with two dear friends, is tomorrow night.

Keep the game moving,especially at a convention. Luckily,my first GM gig ,I had plenty of experienced players already,and the assistance of a second dude.