Workshop | Player Behavior on the Margins

About the adventure

Poor behavior has a tendency to fester because it plays on our desire to avoid uncomfortable confrontations. It drains the fun from your table and harms the well-being of players and GM's. However, establishing clear expectations and management strategies replaces the confrontation while still maintaining an enjoyable experience for all players. As an Instructional Technology Specialist, I spend my days consulting with schools on their use of technology. One of the key areas of concern is how to manage students in a virtual environment. Through this workshop, I hope to give GM's the tools they need to address the difficulty and murky behavior while maintaining both their professionalism and their emotional well-being. Am I being fair to everyone? Is it time to remove a player? I don't want to remove a player, what else can I really do? How do I talk to my players about this? These and many more questions will be answered using expertise, research, and experiences from my time in the classroom and at the table.

Additional Details

How to prepare

Attendees will need only an active, free Discord account.

What I provide

A link to the presentation slideshow will be provided at the beginning of the workshop.

Gameplay details

This workshop will consist of a discussion of behaviors that are negative but fall short of the level of SPG's Code of Conduct. Code of Conduct violations are to be immediately reported to SPG staff and are not to be handled by the individual GM. This workshop will consist of a presentation followed by a voluntary round-table discussion amongst participants. During this time, attendees will be invited to pose questions or add input on the topics of the presentation. No attendee will be pressured to participate during this time. CW: Due to the open nature of the round-table, questions and anecdotes about the types of behavior prohibited by the SPG Code of Conduct may be raised. These include: "intimidating, harassing, abusive, discriminatory, derogatory or demeaning conduct by any participant in a game or in online communities including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other online media, or in offline contexts." If such a comment or question is raised, I will not entertain discussion on these points as they are to be handled by SPG and are beyond the scope of this workshop.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

(none)

How will character creation work

There is no character creation as this is a workshop event.

Players can expect

• Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.
• Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.
• If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.