GMing, like cooking, is all about preparedness

I wanted to take some time today to talk a little about how cooking and gaming relate to each other so you're getting an extra post this week.  One of the things that really got me thinking about starting a blog is noticing the little areas in life where the skills of being a GM and a player relate to the skill of cooking and vise versa.  Some gaming traits have proven useful as I learn to cook, but there is one big way cooking has helped my gaming.  That is the fun little French term 'mise en place'.  

Mise en place literally means 'putting in place' and it is a term that you've probably heard if you watch cooking shows or read books on the subject.  It's the practice of doing as much preparation as you can, before you start cooking. This ensures that once things get started they run smoothly.  It's also a fun phrase to pull out if you want to sound like you know what you're doing (note: it's pronounced me zahn ploss).  

Don't start cooking when things still look like this.

Ahh, much better.

This practice of preparation makes a world of difference for me when I cook.  I'm not a great improvisational cook (someone who can throw a dash of this and a handful of that and end up with something amazing).  If I start to get behind, don't chop something quick enough or forget to shred some cheese, I start to get panicked and the whole thing goes downhill from there.  But if I have a chance to set up my kitchen beforehand, I can make some delicious meals while blithely chatting with my wife and our guests.  I can't stress this enough: if you don't think that you're a good cook, find a recipe and just follow these steps. You'll feel like a pro.  

1. Read the whole recipe before you start
2. Chop up everything that needs to be chopped
3. Measure out every spice, oil and ingredient you need
4. Lay out everything in the order that it's used before you start

If you stay calm and move through the steps, you will successful.  Here's my setup for the Turkey 'Chili'.

Since you're clever, you've probably already figured out how this relates to GMing.  Running a good game is about 70% preparation.  As I said in the game prep entry a couple of weeks ago you want to have as much as you can laid out before you ever sit at the table.  This will help limit your need to invent things on the fly, and drastically reduce panic at the table.   If you already run games this way, you can now use these skills in your cooking.  

If you don't, the next time you run a game try to identify the places where your table falls apart.  When you lose control of the players and things go off the rails you'll find that it is usually caused by some small failure of preparation.  The players lost interest while you were looking up a monster, figuring out an NPC name, or trying to remember what a cubicle farm looks like while they are getting ready to raid an office.  Write down what you learn from these situations and look over your notes a couple of hours before your next game. You soon find things running much more smoothly.

Cocoa Coffee Turkey Chili

Turkey "Chili"

As we talked about last week, having your food plans laid out before gathering is invaluable for a game that occurs around a mealtime.  It prevents the meal from stopping your momentum and keeps everyone engaged at the table.  Generally I try to make food that is relevant to the game that I’m running like something that would be served to the characters. Sometimes, though, you just need something that is filling, delicious and doesn’t take too much  time to prepare on game day.  For such a situation my go-to is soups and chilies, since most of the time you can prepare them the night before and just heat them up when people are ready to eat.  

One of my favorite chili recipes originally came to me from Turntable Kitchen, a great blog about food and music.  This is a modified version that I make for my family at least once a month that always turns out great.  We don't really love chili peppers so we replaced them and made some other small changes.

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Large (softball sized) Red Onion, rough chopped*

1 Large Yellow Onion, rough chopped*

4 Cloves of Garlic (approximately the size of a segment of your pinky finger), minced

2lbs Lean Ground Turkey

2 28oz Cans of Diced Tomatoes

2 15oz Cans of Black Beans (drained)

1 Teaspoon Chipotle Chili Powder

1 Tablespoon Ground Cumin

1 Tablespoon Sugar

2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder

1 Cinnamon Stick

1 Cup Dark Coffee, fresh brewed

Optional: 1 Tablespoon Epazote.  This will help to enhance the flavors of the black beans, but can be hard to get your hands on if you don’t have a Mexican market nearby, I generally omit it.

*when I say rough chopped I mean the pieces should be between ¼ and ½ inch to a side, or about the size of the face of a 4 sided die

First heat your oil and cinnamon on medium high in a Dutch oven or large pot, to check to see if the oil is hot enough flick a little water from your fingertips in there and if it starts popping you’re good to go.  Throw in the Red and Yellow Onion and the Garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the Yellow Onion is translucent.  This should take about 7 to 10 minutes.

Next add the turkey, breaking it up in the pot with a wooden spoon and stirring frequently until the turkey is browned.  How long this takes will depend largely on how good you are about keeping the pink turkey in contact with the bottom of the pot, but be patient.  This is a stage you don’t want to rush, but shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes or so.

Once the turkey is browned pour all of the other ingredients into the pot.  Give it a few good stirs to get everything mixed and then turn the heat to high.  Keep it on high, stirring it every minute or so until you get a light boil. 

Reduce the heat to low and allow the chili to simmer, uncovered, for about a half hour.  You’ll want to look in on it a few times during this period just so you can scrape any residue on the side of your pot back down.  If you want to make the chili spicier you’ll want to taste it now and add more chipotle powder as needed.  Either way, you’ll want to keep it going for another half hour and then you’ve got yourself a delicious pot of chili.  Dependent on appetites this recipe should feed 5 – 10 people.   I’m still playing around with this recipe, and I’m going to try some vegetarian variants. If I have any success with those I’ll let you know.

Later this week I’ll share a recipe for a simple corn bread that you can serve with this, and some thoughts on how the skills of cooking and game mastering overlap.  See you then.

The Game away for the Table

Here in my first content post we're going to discus something pretty basic, what to do before you sit down at the gaming table.  I hate homework and I've learned some tricks to avoid it.  I'm going to tackle this in three stages, the first being...

How to Prepare if your Hosting

This is an a subject most of these prep advice columns overlook but it's important to having a good time at the table.  Hosting an RPG group like hosting a party, and you have some responsibilities

First is that you have to prepare the environment.  You want seating for everyone arraigned so that they can see the GM without turning and sufficient light to read.  You'll want a hard writing surface for every player (if you're not at a table gaming books are a good substitute) and a central space the GM can use to display maps or props.  It's also a good idea to buy a pack of mechanical pencils or the like.  

Second, as the host, you have also been drafted into making refreshment decisions.  This will depend a lot on your groups expectations.  If the game overlaps a meal time you should be prepared to serve that meal to your friends, or organize with them some other plan before they arrive.  Figuring out where to eat mid session can kill hours of table time so make sure everyone is on the same page before your start.

Drinks also fall to you, and generally you won't be able to rely completely on outside sources.  Make sure you have something that you can offer to everyone without worrying about it running out.  Powdered drink mix, filtered water, and tea are all very cheap and easy and will prevent your guests from getting grumpy for lack of hydration. 

Lastly you want to make sure your group knows when the game will have to leave.  This will be important for planning rides, but also so your gaming group doesn't overstay it's welcome.  Informing your players of when things have to wrap up before they arrive will prevent you from looking like a jerk while you try to herd them out.

How to Prepare as a Player


If you're starting a new game your most important job as a player is to understand what kind of game you're going to be in. Ask your GM what sort of story they want to tell, and make sure your character makes sense as a protagonist in that story.  Before the session try watching a movie or tv show or reading one book that your GM recommends and keep it in mind when sitting down for character creation.  Too many games have died because someone made Sherlock Holmes when their GM was running Conan or The Incredible Hulk when The Dread Pirate Roberts would be more appropriate.  

Another basic tenet of prep as a player is know the rules your character uses.  Everyone will sometimes make mistakes, but you should know generally how the rules work for everything your character is likely to do. Games slam to a halt if one player has to look up a spell description or re-read the bull rush rules every time their turn comes around.

How to Prepare as a GM

Hey GMs, I put you last because let's face it, you were going to read the whole thing anyway.  My style is very improvisational, but even so some prep has to be done or the game will fly off the rails.

The first thing you'll want to do if you're starting a new game is decide what sort of game you want to run.  Setting your players expectations can make a world of difference in running a good game.  

If you are running an adventure written by someone else you'll want to read it cover to cover first.  Don't take notes but do pay attention to what events have to happen early in the adventure for the end to make sense.  As long as you have these hard points in mind you will be much better prepared to improvise around the details.  Before a session re-read the next several steps of the adventure, past where you think you'll get, and note the page numbers of the monsters and maps you will need.

If you're writing your own story, or planning to improvise, your prep will be less but there's still some things that you'll need before you sit at the table.  First you'll want to make sure you know the rules you're responsible for.  Initiative, monster rules and the like should be clear in your mind.  Allow the players to worry about specifics for their characters, you're responsibility is knowing all the rest.  You'll also want to have bookmarked or otherwise available the stats for a few different likely enemies your players might fight or NPCs they might encounter, this includes names so you don't have to come up with them on the fly.

Lastly, whether improvising or running out of a book, you'll want to give yourself at least an hour or two before the game to get yourself into the right head space.  For me this takes the form taking a quiet hour to think over all of my plans for the game and to try to come up with some clever one-liners or environments I can throw at the players if the opportunity arises.  This time to yourself will help a great deal when it comes to keeping the game on point and keeping to the genre you are trying to emulate.  

Now that we have the boring stuff out of the way, next week I'll tell you about my favorite Chili recipe and how gaming made me a better cook.