I have something of a code as a GM.
Even if I don’t have something ready, even if I’m not in the mood, if I’m scheduled to run, I run anyway, or at least I try. Some of my best sessions (at least, judging from the reactions of my players) have been when I was winging everything—and let’s face it, it’s getting harder and harder to actually plan ahead, between my players’ unpredictability and the huge bite grad school has taken out of my time. And goodness knows I’ve had games when I’ve sat down about ready to kill something and come out of it with nine kinds of gamebuzz. Granted, there have been a couple days when I’ve just said, “Screw it, let’s figure out [insert thing that if it isn't currently relevant is going to be in a couple sessions],” or days when someone just drove me so crazy that I had to stop in mid-session, but they’re few, and far between, and I tend to spend the rest of the evening kicking myself for them (mostly the unprepared ones rather than the someone’s being trouble ones).
Any combat I start, I finish. (All right, there was that time with the little side plot where I gave the group an acceptable out before the conflict could actually end, but nobody was enjoying that particular fight, so I don’t think it counts.) In game, there’s very little that tends to annoy me more than characters in limbo; I can deal with having to go several sessions to finish a battle, but I’m not so fond of a game going on indefinite hiatus while still in initiative.
I show up on time. That’s pretty much a given. Even if the trolley schedule is in the process of making me late, I can call ahead and let one or more of my players know to tell the others I’m still on my way.
Of course, the problem with standards is that I start getting frustrated when I’m being GM’d for and whoever’s GMing doesn’t adhere to as strict a set of standards as I do. As the thought goes, they’re not that strict, right? Okay, maybe running live, with the game going faster, makes things tougher, and there are some systems that seem to necessitate rather than encourage hours of planning, but still. Or I’ll mutter under my breath about someone else’s fight having been unresolved for months, even as I shove myself through a battle I’m not sure I wanted even when I planned it towards someone else’s promised hiatus game.
But nothing of that is near is important as the worry that drives me. If I drop the code, I’ll get lazy. Rather like how I worry that if I drop the exacting blog schedule, I’ll start skipping things more and more, until it’s a bunch of holes with posts in them rather than a string of posts with holes in it. Codes make identity. Identity is… important somehow. The rest I leave alone; if I don’t inquire into it, it won’t take away from my planning/posting time. Right now, that’ll do.
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I have once ditched a game. I felt very bad for doing it, and was eternally grateful when another player came out and said he had something he’d been wanting to run for a very long time but never had a group.
I had my reasons – me and a friend were co-running a live action game and the time I was spending GMing the table top game was eating into that the time needed for the live game, which had been going on longer – but still don’t like the fact that it happened. Since then, I’ve a whole lot better, but one of my biggest complaints is the GM who for no reason other than ‘not feeling it’ drops a game after three weeks that the players were just getting their teeth properly sunk into. I know, pot and kettle right? But for me it was a one off, with good reasons, and I had the good grace to be ashamed of doing it.
If ever you wonder if your code really means something, consider this:
1) I really dislike combat, but I know you aren’t crazy about it either, so I can get through it to get on to other stuff if you are doing the same. And usually I enjoy it after I get a rhythm going.
2) I know we will have session and when (unless I miss a memo). That means if I sign on at the right day and time you’ll be there. Especially good in a day and age when I can’t even get people I’m paying to call me back to call me. I can prepare for it. I can schedule my time around it.
3) I know what time you’ll be on at. This means that not only can I schedule my time, but if it’s 6:30 and you aren’t on, I know to be concerned (unless you messed with space-time again, in which case no one’s on), but if it’s 6:05 I know the trolley, dinner, or some crazy incident involving evil palm trees delayed you a little.
4) The rest of the group has a standard to follow. The more punctual and the more you follow through with things you start, the more we do as well. I mean, things happen, but if we think, “man, I’m tired and don’t really want to RP today,” we can remember all the chaos you have schedule-wise and grin and bear it. And tiredness brings zany schemes anyhow.
5) I know that if the game ever really ends, we’ll know what became of our characters to an extent, because if you won’t hiatus mid-fight, then you won’t end the game mid-fight either.
6) Not on your list but still important: I know you aren’t actively trying to kill our characters (maybe maim them a lot, but that’s different) or make my life difficult. That means that when we’re plodding through that fight, or I can’t get mechanics just right, or I do something stupid like forget to set up a persistent, someone is bound to give me a workaround or remind me of something (like the healy stone or Twisoak), or help me come up with a plan of attack, and that if I have to ask in the main OOC you won’t use that discussion to thwart my plan (any more than you normally would be trying to thwart all plans that is).