The most vital, most unsung, most underrated hero of every gaming group is its facilitator. As facilitator, you are responsible for dealing with the logistics of the game–the when, the where, the who, and the how long. You will be the one telling people to show up, coordinating snacks, cleaning up before and after, and making sure everyone has a good time. The truth is that everyone in the group ought to contribute to this, but some people will inevitably contribute more than others. Rather than letting the work flow downhill to the person who is socially expected to do this (in a lot of cases, the women), designating one or two people as facilitator can massively improve your group experience, both so someone is accountable for doing this work, and so the person who is doing it feels properly thanked for it.
In home games, the role of facilitator is traditionally granted to the Game Master. They are, after all, the most essential member of the group, so it’s only natural that the game revolve around their schedule. However, as this author has experienced firsthand, being a good GM and being a good facilitator are uncorrelated skillsets. Rather than simply assuming that your GM will take on the full responsibility of facilitating game, talk about who can do it, and divvy up the responsibilities based on ability rather than social expectation. Sometimes, games fall through because people get too busy to continue, and that’s unavoidable. It is this author’s opinion, though, that there are an equal number of games that fall through because the participants don’t realize how vital the work of facilitation is in keeping them going, and so never think to volunteer to do it. A game like Last Odyssey that’s meant to be played over the course of a very long time is absolutely going to require facilitation, so make sure the person doing it understands their responsibility and is comfortable with it.
At the time of writing this book, the author has some experience planning home games, although she isn’t very good at keeping up with it. If you are reading this book and you run a convention, a gaming club, or a game store, you probably have a much better sense for how to facilitate this game than she does. Last Odyssey games require roughly the same amount of space and materials as a game of any other tabletop RPG of its kind. The process of character creation can be a bit time-consuming and is also very setting-dependent, so it’s recommended that people running this game at conventions have character sheets ready for new players.
What separates campaigns that last from campaigns that don’t? Part of it is that a lot of people just don’t want to play for that long. It’s only natural that not everyone wants to commit to something long-term, particularly if they’ve never played Last Odyssey before, and at any rate most long-term campaigns happen because a group is able to keep going, and not because they initially knew they were going to stay together. Still, there are a few things that the facilitator can help with that can help with keeping a group going for as long as it needs to. The games the author has participated in that have lasted a long time have had two defining elements: regularity, and good communication.
The first of these, regularity, is about making it easier for players to keep up with what’s going on. If you can manage it, try to make sure you have a regular window of time in which you can meet. Maybe you meet on the first Sunday of every month, or every other week on a designated day, or only after 5pm on weekends. The other aspect of regularity is one that is more elusive, and one that often develops organically, which is ritual. If your game is happening around mealtime, making sure everyone stays fed is a good way to keep them coming back. In one of the author’s gaming groups, tea was always served beforehand, while in another it was traditional for everyone to pitch in for a pizza in the middle of the game. This author recognizes that the expense involved in purchasing food for a regular gaming group may be prohibitive for some, but even something as simple as a bag of chips in the middle of the table can keep everyone happy and focused.
Good communication is in large part a function of people’s preferences and their own social skills. It’s possible your lives outside of game are just not something you’re interested in sharing with one another, although it’s just as possible that the opposite is true. Whatever the case may be, keeping everyone in the loop is essential for making sure that everyone can coordinate. If you’re of the author’s generation, most of you will have a computer, a smartphone, or both, and making a group chat or even a Discord server or Facebook group is a great way to keep everyone connected. If you know each other from someplace else other than game, you’ll naturally have an easier time staying in the loop. If this is the case, be sure that those of you who aren’t in whatever other group ties you together still feel included.
If someone wants to be a part of your game, you aren’t obligated to let them in. That being said, a healthy group environment is one that is as accessible as you can make it. The author believes that meeting in person can facilitate more interesting group dynamics than meeting online, but if someone lacks the means to attend in person, then holding sessions online instead is the way to go. Being able to see each other’s faces lets the GM better respond to changes in the players’ mood, but if someone is immunocompromised and needs the rest of the players to wear masks in order to participate, then wear masks. Our contemporary idea of accessibility overlaps with conversations about the needs of disabled people, but this encompasses any form of inability, too, including age-related or financial restrictions. Lines and veils are non-negotiable, and boundaries around a person’s material needs shouldn’t be negotiable, either. When you do something cool or interesting to facilitate game, just be sure that it doesn’t prevent anyone from participating. Isolating someone from your gaming group is a jerk move, and if one person isn’t having any fun, then it’ll hurt everyone else’s fun, too.
Whoever is doing the facilitating is, more than anyone else in the group, doing work that will contribute to everyone else’s fun before their own. First of all, everyone should meet the standards of decorum appropriate for wherever you are playing your game. Pick up after yourselves, keep the noise to a level that doesn’t wake the neighbors, and do your absolute best not to break anything. In general, it’s important for the group to make sure that the facilitator’s job is as easy as possible. As facilitator, you are allowed to delegate tasks if you lack the time to handle everything yourself, and you can pass on the role if you’re feeling too burnt out. Beyond that, the vast majority of what you need to keep in mind boils down to common sense. From a logistical standpoint, a meeting for FRP is no different than any other group meeting. As long as you all stay in communication with one another, you will be able to handle any problems that might arise.