My first OVA game as a GM: Huge success.

[Rawle Nyanzi]

Clay,

You hit it out of the park.

This weekend, me and a couple of friends got together to play your game. I was quite nervous at first, and the two friends were expecting something similar to a board game, moving pieces around on a board and calculating stats for damage.

I explained the nature of the game to them, and introduced them to a scenario where they had to discover the identity of a rampaging monster. This scenario was set in a world where Japan had won WWII, and an authoritarian government arose in what was once the USA shortly after that victory, since the familiar federal government was perceived as "weak and foolish" for fighting a war they couldn't win. The game itself was set in California roughly a century after that victory (so 2040s thereabout.) My friends picked Shou and Auren as their characters.

We ended up playing for 14 straight hours.

I never once cracked open the rulebook. The initial scenario, which I thought would end within the day, became more involved (Find the witch who created the monster!) and bled over into the next day. The players really got into their characters, taking them in their own direction. For example, Shou -- and Clan Cave Fox as a whole -- ended up acquiring a lot of political power through underhanded means, and Auren no longer wanted to return to his time...because over the course of the adventure, he got married.

They absolutely loved it, and want to play again. For our next session, we will use the aforementioned alt-history setting and cross it over with the Winx Club series.

As a GM, I found that it worked well when I just went with the flow, filling in details where necessary. I often had to invent characters on the fly, but I had this scenario in my head for a while so it wasn't too bad. We initially tried to use the official rules for the combat situations, but we decided to just simplify it down to opposing rolls, since it moved the game faster and they were having the time of their life playing the characters anyway (the highest-matched-set rule was still in effect, though.) I had a bunch of character sheets written up for the NPCs, but I rarely used them, even when those characters appeared -- the sheets weren't necessary. We even created a mechanic where players could combine attacks. It was amazing how the story took shape organically.

While I had played in an RPG a few times while in college, I had never GM'd before, and my friends never played a tabletop RPG before, ever. The experience surprised all of us.

I'd like to congratulate you for providing us this awesome experience, Clay. I'm glad to have paid into the Kickstarter.

[Cloud]

Congrats on a job well done. Being a GM is the most important job and the best way to gauge your success is how much your players liked the game. Judging by the fact that you ended up going into supreme overtime, I would definitely call your game a success!