The Guest GM

Over the past year or so, my little Friday Night Gaming Group has been locked in ferocious combat against the overwhelming forces of the evil Empire in "Star Wars: Saga Edition - Dawn of Defiance".  For those who don't know, Dawn of Defiance is one of only a handful of adventures released for the Saga Edition game set before WotC sold the rights off to the folks at Fantasy Flight Games.  Since I didn't have those books at the time, but I did have the full library of Saga Edition games, I went with that.  Really there was no other reason.  And I know Saga Edition gets a bad rep for poor mechanics, unbalanced combat, and ridiculously overpowered d20 characters - we still manage to make it work.  It's all in the storytelling, and Dawn of Defiance does not disappoint in that regard.  Every element you love of Star Wars exists in this lengthy 10-book-long campaign designed to carry your players from level 1 all the way to level 20!  Space battles, lightsaber duels, infiltrating a Hutt palace, visiting a Jedi temple, it's all in there.  They wanted to build something that encompassed as much of the Star Wars experience as possible, and I have to say they succeeded like none other, and none since.

This moment totally happened in our game, too!

We're not done.  Like the movies, Dawn of Defiance is broken up into 3 main parts, and we're just about to embark on the third and final chapter in our saga.  But before we moved on, an interesting concept was brought to my attention while watching the Star Wars cartoon - because yes, I do still watch cartoons, that really shouldn't surprise you by now.  Anyway, I noticed that while the entire season might have a specific goal or overall story, they made room for episodes that allowed everyone to really get familiar with the backgrounds and motivations of a single character.  What a neat idea!  We could do that.  Have a series of short mini-adventures, that may only last a day or two, that allowed us to get to know everyone else's characters a bit more.  Rather than put that burden on me, as my attention was focused on the bigger picture, I thought - who knows the player's characters better than the players?

Hell, I can't even remember your character's name half the time...

Getting the players involved at this level, letting them create their own mini-adventure to really play out their backgrounds, letting us get to know their motivations and quirks, has been a great experience.  Several players got an opportunity to be the Game Master for the first time ever.  Others used it as a chance to inject a little of their own unique imaginations into the world.  It made the universe bigger, and it allowed for a level of character growth I don't often get to see in a campaign.  I know it's not easy for a GM to give up his throne, let alone his world, to the destructive and often malicious minds of the players.  But I for one recommend it, especially if you're into the whole "character development" thing.  Players just be sure to run your entire mini-adventure story past your GM first, so there's no conflict between what you want to do and the bigger campaign storyline.

"So my character's background is like this..."    No.  Just, no.