How many other GM's out there have done this?  

Your in the middle of a game providing a critical description of something and you just kind of slowly trail off and forget what your saying and the game grinds to a halt.  Your players look at you expectantly then at each other then back to you for like 5 minutes before you keep going.

One word:  caffeine.  Nourishing, life-giving caffeine.  It's quite effective in preventing that scenario.  And yes, I do speak from experience.

(Of course, you could try to prepare a little in advance and get adequate sleep, but where's the fun in that?)

Cheers,

- V.

Considering what's in that thread you posted in the main RT forum, ieatdeadpeople, I don't think a lack of sleep is the problem!

Vandegraffe said:

Agreed!

 Caffeine, plenty of notes to refer to, and either audio/musical or scent cues to keep you on track. Much easier to remember stuff if you've done your prep-work and had the same scent in your nostrils then and at a session.

Also- plenty of fast burning carbs in the run-up to/during a session should help keep you awake (and it's an excuse to have a bag of GM-only sweets).

Yes, but in my case it was so bad I was starting to repeat myself. My players told me to go sit down and arranged a driver for me - I was badly sleep deprived and my grandmother had died that week, so I wasn't at my best.

It's not always possible, but making sure you've had sleep and food prior to a game and not letting it run on too long are good ideas. If I'm tired enough that I'm flailing beyond recovery, I usually call a halt to a session. Until then, I run on tea and the murder of (N)PCs.

Are you drifting off because your tired or because you lost the thread of the plot►

Tiredness is dealt with easily enough by grabbing an early night the night before the gamesession, a few fortifying caffine drinks and a decent meal. My body is usually held together at the moment with a delicate balance of sugar, caffine and ibuprofen but sleep and good food are essential to keeping you able to function. I usually have two bottles of Pepsi next to me at the table when running a game for several important reasons.

1. LID! This way you do not spill it if you knock it over (spill liquids on my books and I WILL beat you to death with my chair ;) ).

2. Its sugar and caffine! Keeps you awake and means by the final encounter I''m a little hyperactive and eager for player deaths in a suitably brutal fashion.

3. I''m not allowed it at home (my wife does not enjoy having a 27 year old hyperactive in the house, we have enough trouble with the kids)

Another major tiredness buster (if its warm enough) is open a window and have some fresh air. Helps clear the head wonderfully.

Loosing the plot is harder to deal with but again, a problem I often have due to being immensly forgetfull. The key is your prep. Read the rules, read the adventure, make extra notes, practice an unsual rule your thinking of using or a creature you havn''t used before (all to often its after the players slay it, that you remeber the monster has regeneration or something like that). I will even write the rules into my notes so I don''t forget.

Of course any written plot goes out of the window the minute you let players near it, whenever you play (and my goodness me I am the same) you leave your common sense and intelligence at the door. Be ready to improvise and wing it, I have 3 spare star systems, 3 spare planets, 3 spare enemy starships and a bucketfull of random encounters in the file, ready to go at a moments notice.

Finally, if your flagging, the players are flagging, the table chat is getting off topic too much or all of the above, maybe just take a break, 10 mins or so, stand up, walk outside for some fresh air, maybe a cup of tea or snack, cigarette stop for those who smoke and so on. Everyone gets back to the table feeling more awake and ready to play.

Good Luck :)

ShadowFighter88 said:

I see. Thanks for the heads up Ale Golem.

Unknown said:

When you are at a convention you will either need sleep or Emperor-blessed coffeine, there's no way around it I'm afraid.

Ale Golem said:

 I don't really understand why that thread got deleted.  It was pretty funny and if some one posts something you don't like you don't have to read it…

Ale Golem said:

Heres a picture ieatdeadpeople posted followed by art which GW made and ffg has used in some of its books.

One has an attractive girl bitting a bag of weed and smiling the other some how manages to combine violence, nudity, blood, gore, sado-masachism and borderline satanic imagery.

Now I ask you Alegolem which is wildly innapropriate?

Fearandloathing said: