# What Your Game Master Actually Wants — A Player’s Guide to Better Sessions
*By Martin Schroer | d20sounds*
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I’ve been running tabletop RPG sessions for a long time. And I love it. I genuinely love preparing adventures, building worlds, voicing NPCs, improvising when players do the unexpected — which is always.
But after all those years at the head of the table, there are things I wish someone had told me when I was just a player. Things that seem small but make an enormous difference. Not just for the GM — for everyone at the table.
These aren’t rules. They’re not a contract. They’re an invitation: to show up, to engage, to make the game better for everyone — including yourself.
Because here’s the thing: when the players are great, the GM can be great too. And when the GM can be great, the whole table has more fun.
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## Before the Session: The Game Starts Before You Sit Down
### Show up. Really show up.
This might sound obvious. But there’s a version of “showing up” that’s just physically being in the room — and a version that actually means something.
When you commit to a session, you’re not just committing your time. You’re committing to five, six, seven other people who rearranged their week, prepared their characters, maybe drove an hour to be there. Your GM might have spent ten hours building what happens tonight.
That’s worth taking seriously. If something comes up — genuinely comes up — communicate early and proactively. Don’t ghost. Don’t send a message twenty minutes before start. The earlier you say something, the more everyone can adapt.
And help with the scheduling. The GM is already doing a lot. Taking ownership of the “when are we all free?” coordination is one of the most underrated things a player can do.
### Come prepared.
Know where your character sheet is. Know what your spells do. Know roughly what happened last session — or at least take notes so you can look it up.
There’s a specific kind of player that makes a GM quietly age ten years: the one who forgot their character sheet, shrugs it off, and then spends the first hour asking what their abilities are. Bring a backup. A photo on your phone. A PDF. Something.
And read the basic rules of the combat system. You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to know what your character can do so that when it’s your turn, you’re not starting from zero.
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## At the Table: Presence Is Everything
### Put the phone away.
Not on silent. Away.
The GM is building a world for you in real time. When you’re half-watching a video while they describe a scene they spent hours crafting — they notice. Everyone notices.
There’s a specific moment every GM knows: when they’re building to something, layering in atmosphere, choosing their words carefully to create a feeling — and someone laughs at something on their phone. The moment shatters. It takes time to rebuild.
You don’t have to be perfect. Life happens. But make the default “present,” and make the phone the exception.
### Let other players have their moment.
One of the most generous things you can do at a table is give someone else the spotlight.
When another player is in the middle of a dramatic scene with an NPC — support it. React. Be their audience. And if you have a great idea but your character isn’t really the right one for this moment, ask yourself: could I frame this so that *their* character gets to shine instead?
The best sessions feel like ensemble pieces. Nobody is the main character. Everyone is.
### Don’t interrupt the magic.
When a GM is deep in an atmospheric description — when the tension is building, when the NPC is delivering something important, when the room has gone quiet in that good way — let it land.
There will be time for jokes. There will be time for side conversations. But when something real is happening at the table, be in it.
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## In the Game: Be a Character, Not a Passenger
### Play someone with goals.
The single biggest shift you can make as a player is this: stop waiting to be entertained, and start *wanting* things.
Your character should have goals. Small ones, big ones, personal ones. A debt to repay. A person to find. A secret to protect. Something that makes them move through the world with intention.
When players have goals, GMs have material. When players wait passively for the story to come to them, the GM has to carry everything alone.
Ask yourself before each session: *What does my character want tonight?*
### Engage with the world.
Talk to the NPCs. Investigate the building. Ask questions about the map on the wall. Notice the details.
When you engage with the world the GM has built, you’re telling them: *this matters, what you created is worth exploring*. That’s one of the most motivating things a player can do. And it generates story almost automatically — because engaged players find things, and finding things creates consequences.
### Keep notes.
Your GM will not repeat information fourteen sessions later because you didn’t write it down. Take notes. Not everything — the important names, the locations, the secrets, the promises your character made.
It’s not just practical. It’s respectful. It says: what happens here is worth remembering.
### Know your character’s abilities — especially in combat.
When it’s your turn in a fight, you should already know what you’re doing. Think ahead. While others are taking their turns, plan yours. Not as a rigid script — things change — but as a starting point.
Combat slows to a crawl when every player starts thinking from scratch when their turn arrives. The players who know their options, decide quickly, and describe their actions with some flair? They make combat *fun*.
### Embrace moral complexity.
Some of the best sessions I’ve ever run started with a small disagreement between characters — not players, *characters* — about what to do next. A moral conflict. A difference in values.
That’s not disruption. That’s roleplay. If your character would push back against the group’s decision, push back *in character*, with investment, and then ultimately move with the group. Small tensions create story. Just don’t make them a habit, and never play a character who simply sabotages the fun of others.
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## After the Session: The Game Isn’t Over When the Dice Stop
### Give feedback.
At the end of a session, tell your GM what worked. Tell them what you loved. And if something felt off, say it — kindly, constructively, outside the game.
GMs improve through feedback. Most of them are doing this out of love, giving enormous amounts of time and energy. Knowing that a scene landed, that a particular NPC was memorable, that the combat felt tense in exactly the right way — that’s fuel. It keeps us going.
And it works the other way too: feedback from the GM to players is how everyone grows together.
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## The Point of All of This
After everything — the scheduling, the preparation, the presence, the notes, the character goals — it comes down to one thing:
**Everyone at the table should have fun. Including the GM.**
The GM isn’t a service. They’re a player too, in a different role. When players show up prepared, engaged, and generous with each other — the GM can do what they’re there to do: build something memorable together with you.
These tips aren’t about being a perfect player. Nobody is. They’re about showing up with intention. About treating the game — and the people in it — as something worth your full attention.
Because the best sessions I’ve ever been part of? They weren’t the ones with the most dramatic plot twists or the most clever puzzle solutions.
They were the ones where everyone at the table was really, truly *there*.
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*Martin Schroer is the composer behind d20sounds — original fantasy music for tabletop RPG sessions. All music is free to use at your table. [d20sounds.com](https://d20sounds.com)*