I’ll let players interact for a little bit, but will cut in and move things along. I was once in a campaign where the GM would never move things along, and I found I would role play less hoping everyone would say their piece so we could get to the action.

This is incredibly well-said: “…sure, it’s fun to yammer away, and everyone’s having a good time, but at some point, the night will be over, and will five hours of B.S. be remembered as fondly as a well-crafted and well-played adventure? Probably not.”

We frequently got into very fun but very drawn out in-character arguments. Our PCs always had a reason to not get along, even though we were all certainly “good guys.” Disagreements were political, philosophical, personal, and tactical, and they were fun to play through. To me, against the backdrop of the epic supernatural threat we faced, it helped make that campaign the favorite in which I’ve played.

I definitely know what Martin’s getting at, though. The good, complex, purposeful arguments were like playing out an episode of Firefly – lots of character drama, but everyone pulled together for the heist/mission. When we took it too far, it was like a wangsty season six Buffy episode – petty, drawn-out, and leaving everyone wondering, “Okay, when will something actually happen?”

I see this issue as part of the same continuum as too much joking or BSing at the table: sure, it’s fun to yammer away, and everyone’s having a good time, but at some point, the night will be over, and will five hours of B.S. be remembered as fondly as a well-crafted and well-played adventure? Probably not.

I must admit that when I GM I almost never try to “rerail” the story. I thrive on reacting to the players, so I don’t know how I’d handle this kind of issue. My games typically have the PCs doing what they will, while the antagonists are acting independently. A team which does its own thing inevitably learns of the actions of the enemy – or sees the consequences.

If it was bad/bitter/etc. at the moment, I think it’d be likely to be caught at the end of a session, particularly if it kept recurring– but with it leading to good roleplaying and spot enjoyment, I don’t think it would have triggered my tripwires.

It sound more like the advice from Phil’s Use a Quote article would be the only way to make sure that you were staying on track with the right tone.

First, this seems like a situation where the problem would have been best detected by group postmortem. Talking with the players individually or as a group about the sessions including those tense conflicts might have revealed the problem sooner.

Second, a one page story progression tracking sheet that included BBEG, subplots, and player development could help. Write down each story element and check off one of the following 1)absent (think about including it in the next session), 2) stagnant (likely to be the rating for that conflict), or 3) developing (specify exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution). This could be printed before each session and only take a few seconds to fill out, compare to previous sessions, and help in prepping for future sessions.

If you viewed player interaction as one story element, you might have seen that the conflict was stagnant for several sessions and could have considered how to help the players develop the tension to a natural dramatic climax and eventual resolution. This of course, assumes an emphasis on storytelling roleplaying (from Robin’s Laws) more than the method actor roleplaying.

-zerfinity

@The_Gun_Nut – That’s a tricksy one — in this case, it was my players who were roleplaying the I-P conflict because that’s what their characters would have done. It’s an interesting idea, but also a long jump to then tell them that it wasn’t their choice after all.

@samhoice – I write down what happened (the highlights), what was left unresolved, and what went well or badly.

@Eric Wilde – That train ride sounds like a HUGE boon! How cool would that be.

@Razjah – Sound advice! I like your tip about making sure to all leave the room for breaks in general, not just breaks due to hurt feelings. (No actual hurt feelings in the case of my example campaign.)

@Vance – I’d love to try the Obsidian Portal/wiki/the whole group contributes model. And it sounds fantastic for post-mortems — very cool!

@evil – I love the rotating feedback idea — that takes the social pressure out of the equation, and would give even your less talkative players a chance to pipe up. Great tip!

@Kurt “Telas” Schneider – That resonates with me, especially the bit about taking the simple route: watch and consider.

@JakeSox – There was no douchery here — my group is douche-free. Intra-player conflict is definitely a different ballgame.

As for perceiving these opportunities, I go with my gut and a dose of sensitivity. Be sensitive to how your players are feeling about the game. Watch for the signs of impending implosion. Ask a player privately if he or she seems less than perfectly happy with the way things are going.

As far as post mortems, after every game I talk to one player (I cycle randomly through the group) asking what went well, what went poorly, and what they’d like to see change. Sometimes I get great story ideas, sometimes i just learn which mechanics to throw out the window or explain better.

If it weren’t for a campaign wiki, I’d forget half of my good ideas…

I think it depends on the situation. The intra-party conflict is normally fine as long as the players aren’t feeling hurt by the PCs’ actions. I think after a really tense moment it may be best to call a 30 minute break, Everyone Walks Away from the gaming area*, and then discuss what happened (possibly over soda/beer/burritos/comfort food of your group’s choice). This way you can evaluate what happened, why, how are people’s reactions, and if this is actually a good thing for the game you are playing.

Then when everything has calmed down return to the game and continue. If you need let the players play out the apology that usually follows a fight/argument, so that anyone who would be “playing my character” has the resolution to avoid this situation the next time.

*everyone walking away is very important, if everyone remains in the gaming area with the character sheets, minis, etc. they will have a much stronger incentive to argue for their character’s actions and are much less likely to be observant to how this affected the other player.

I treat the session notes as a creative writing exercise. This takes WAY too long, on the order of about 4 hours; but, for me is a reward in itself. The notes are pretty complete, though I do forget most of the dialog and battle details unless I write the notes immediately. When I haven’t had this creative writing exercise I usually just make an outline of the notes that touches on all the clues revealed, ideas for the future, major plot developments, trivial fun facts and NPC notes. This outline usually takes about 20 minutes.

Secondly, I take the train home from the session with one of the more creative players. We usually review the session on the train together and he gives me lots of feedback. That helps me know when I’ve made something confusing or off the mark.