More useful advice to be an entertaining tabletop role-playing game referee

There must be honest and open communication between the game master and their players.  That is important to making sure everyone is having fun.  As a game master, ask your players what they want increased and what they want decreased in your tabletop role-playing game.

 

For example, I once played in a role-playing game that has rules for jousting tournaments.  Our game master loved jousting tournaments, starting them whenever he could.  On the other hand, I find jousting tournaments to be dull and repetitive.  Back then, I should have told my game master that I didn’t like jousting tournaments; and then asked him to diminish or drop these or I would find another game master who ran campaigns much more to my liking.

 

An example comes from my time as a game master.  A player asked me to downplay the more mature aspects of Dungeons and Dragons.  Thus, instead of having a band of nearby goblins bringing back to their camp the heads, skin, and muscle of humans and humanoid species that they successfully murdered; my goblins instead brought back the heads, fur, and muscle of big-game such as deer, elk, and bighorn sheep that they poached on land they didn’t own.

 

Note:  These goblins have a secret password for their evil allies allowing them to pass through the goblins’ territories.  The goblins’ most used, current password is “Hail Chaos”.

 

What campaigns are more to my liking?  I love campaigns where my character takes on the roles of Marco Polo, Sherlock Holmes, and Indiana Jones.