If you’re reading this, then you’re probably more dedicated to the RPG hobby than most.

You’ve probably read the rulebook.

You’ve probably made cheat sheets to help you master the game (and to help you fake it ‘til you make it).

So you’ll likely find yourself in a position where you know more about the game’s rules than the other people you’re playing with. You might even know more than your GM!

How can you share that mastery with the table?

First, obviously, you can answer any questions that come up during play that you know the answer to. (Even just knowing where in the rulebook the answer might be found can be very useful!)

Second, let the other people at the table with you – particularly new players – know that you have experience with the game and you’d be happy to answer any questions they have.

Third, if you’ve made a rules cheat sheet for the game, share it with the rest of the group!

As you’re helping other players, remember that your goal is to help them make the choice that THEY want to make. Don’t just tell them what to do. We call that quarterbacking. If you do that, then they’re not really getting to play the game, and that’s not fun.

One way to avoid quarterbacking is to focus on helping newbies do what they want to do, but better. (For example, if they say they want to skewer an orc on their rapier, you might remind them that their Dexterous Riposte bennie lets them double their Agiltiy bonus to damage.)

Along similar lines, make sure you’re explaining the rule to them, not just telling them what to do. Your goal should be for them to learn the game so that you don’t need to keep helping them!

When the occasion does arrive for specific advice – for example, if they ask, “What do you think I should do?” – you can still avoid quarterbacking by giving them two or three options instead of just one. That way they still get to decide what their character actually does. (And sometimes, seeing those options will actually spur them to a new and creative idea that’s all their own!)

This works even better if you can also explain the positives and negatives for each choice, helping them to understand how to think about similar choices in the future. (For example, you might say, “Well, you could rush into melee and attack with your monocord. That’ll do more damage, but put you at risk for a counterattack. Or you could hang back and shoot your pistol from a distance. You’ll be safer back there, but you’ll be shooting into melee and have disadvantage on your attack roll.”)

HELPING THE GAME MASTER

Helping your GM with the rules can be a surprisingly touchy subject.

The really good GMs are going to recognize your expertise and will actively seek it out. They’ll be the ones saying things like, “Hey, Nina, do you remember how the grappling rules work?” or, “Asem, could you look up the range of a bullseye lantern?”

But you may discover that other GMs won’t be thrilled with you talking about the rules, and some can be downright hostile about it.

For some GMs this is an aesthetic preference. They want the players interacting with and thinking about the game world as if they were their characters. They don’t want them thinking about the rules.

It can also be because GMs, rightly, believe that part of their responsibility is to be an expert in the rules and to use that expertise to the benefit of the players and the game. When a player tries to correct a mistake or simply provide their own expertise, therefore, some GMs will feel like the player is implying that they’re somehow failing or even abusing their position.

A few GMs will take this even further, believing that they have ultimate authority at the table and, like a tinpot dictator, can’t have anyone questioning that authority or implying that they’re less than omniscient. (Ugh. Kind of a red flag, in my opinion.)

It’s kind of like a student correcting a teacher’s mistake. The good teachers will politely take the correction and the best teachers will actually get excited about it. But, of course, some teachers – sometimes even otherwise pretty good teachers! – just can’t handle it.

Complicating this simple picture are rules lawyers. These players have expertise in the rules, but instead of using their knowledge to help improve the game, they’ll instead selectively use the rules and even deliberately misinterpret them in order to gain personal advantages.

When it’s not outright cheating, rules lawyering skirts right up against it, and it can be particularly pernicious because rules lawyers will frequently turn every rules question into a lengthy debate that distracts and detracts from the game.

Many GMs will have had bad experiences with rules lawyers in the past, and their hostility towards players offering an opinion on the rules will often be a reaction to those bad experiences.

To avoid being a rules lawyer, when you think the GM is overlooking a rule or getting it wrong, politely offer the information you have as briefly and completely as you can. Then let the GM, with your information in hand, make their ruling and figure out what happens in the game. Whatever the outcome is, let the game roll on. If you still have a problem with how things played out, then approach the GM after the session to talk it out and make sure you can both be on the same page in future sessions.

This same advice holds in general: If you feel like the way you’re sharing your rules mastery at the table is creating friction – whether with the GM or with the other players – just have a chat with them about it between session. Explain where you’re coming from and why it’s important to you to be a positive resource, and see if you can all reach an agreement that can benefit the game and make everyone happy.

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