To Add or Not to Add to the Game Group

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Jared Rascher
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To Add or Not to Add to the Game Group

Post by Jared Rascher »

I'm getting ready to run a Star Trek Adventures game.

We've only got four players currently. The owner of the FLGS is very enthusiastic about playing STA, but has never gotten a group together. Some of the players asked me if I wanted to invite him to the game, which is being run at the FLGS.

He is a good guy, very enthusiastic, but a little prone to being the dominant personality at a table, although usually not in an intentionally bad way. The worst I can say is that I have seen players that aren't naturally assertive avoid the spotlight when he is around, not because he's hogging it, but because when he has it HE HAS IT, if that makes any sense.

All of that said, I'm hesitant to invite him, for reasons that aren't really his fault.

The previous FLGS owner that I had in my games often joined games, was very disruptive, and I had a more difficult time talking to him about his behavior because I felt like I was at a disadvantage because I was running games in his store. I just naturally want to avoid that uneven power dynamic in the future, even though I have no reason to believe the same situations will occur.

Am I being unreasonable, or is this a logical course of action?
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Emmett
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Re: To Add or Not to Add to the Game Group

Post by Emmett »

Do you think you'd be able to talk about it beforehand and have him respond positively?

Maybe you could explain it like it's in his business interest to give others the spotlight because they're going to want to keep coming back when they get to do cool stuff.

Maybe you could help construct his character's personality so that he's inclined to make a big splash and then disappear for a while (I don't know how to do that in STA though).
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chrismmp
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Re: To Add or Not to Add to the Game Group

Post by chrismmp »

You could set the parameters for play before hand. Make it clear one of the things you’d like to see out of the play of the game is being inclusive in scenes. Get people talking to each other in play to work out how things need to be solved since that’s a Star Trek staple.
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