GURPS Notes 12: Power Inflation, Why Doctrine

GURPS is fine in a realistic game. All the realistic advantages are fairly priced, no need to apply any modification. I cannot say the same in a game with Supernatural advantages. Here is where best practices and GM's world building are going to mean a lot of work.

Recently I discovered the cheese of Modular Abilities (B71) with -80% limitation (B110) (example - Preparation Required 1 hour -50%, Limited Use x10, -10%; Spells only -20%) (any combination of limitations). Its quite powerful, but before that I've struggled with powers reflecting the setting demographics - how often they occur and how the market prices such magical modification.

An interesting way to do this is creating a set of Tiers. Each tier is a Multiplier to the Cost of an Advantage or Power. Tiers multiply the cost, x1.5, x2, x3, x5. You can do this Before the Campaign begins or tweak it around mid-campaign. Of course, your players should be aware of this if its mid game. Of course you have to go to the forums and check what needs to be "tweaked" and what creates interesting organic results. Personally there should be some list of powers that can be calibrated. Modular Ability + Magic is one of those. Some people argue Magery IF you allow them in certain levels.

Why Doctrine - More Organization of Material, instead of More Material

The added cost only makes certain powers occur more often than others, and what happens next is Doctrine. This is what I wanted from my WBH game. See how best practice evolved from the game system, and I discovered some interesting combos and practices as a result of certain advantages and combinations. My regret is that magery is just TOOO big a chunk to process, especially when you consider the number of books about it. We've reached the point of diminishing returns, that we need more Prepared Material, like Doctrine, instead of New material. An aging number of players, the highest paying bracket, won't be very easy to part with money if its something that just adds work instead of reduces it.

I like doctrine, its something the GM can be good at even if hes not as smart as a bunch of players combined or those who can dedicate their resources and time to their character. With doctrine you have guidelines and procedure, it draws upon more of age and experience instead of brilliance and processing ability. You can pulls something out chaos and it will screw with a lot of things. It empowers the GM to give a real challenge.

GURPS Mass Combat Notes: Logistics and Lances

Logistics have been separated in the cost of forces in GURPS mass combat. Since MC already simplified much of the tactical elements, Logistics because its own interesting and fun game. Its really about framing logistics to players is about adding Drama to Details (which should be covered in another article).  

Lets Review  

• MC3 - Building and Maintaining your force. 
• In my experience, I rarely deal with Raising Costs, and most of the time worry about maintenance costs. As the GM you can ignore the Raising costs since these combat units should already be already raised.
• MC13 Logistics Costs. Raising a logistic force cost as much as the Unit itself and Half its maintenance. 
• LS is a stat that measures how much forces it can maintain in thousands of $. The LS to raise is typically equal to raising the force, since we are ignoring this, then the LS to maintain is roughly always 50% of the maintenance cost of the unit (since the Unit's maintenance cost is typically 20% of its cost to raise, and maintaining LS is 10% of its cost to raise). 
• Typically LS maintenance cost increases Maintenance cost by 50% (more over bad terrain and difficult circumstances). This is because most logistics is calculated with Maintenance Cost, maintenance cost is 1/5 the cost to raise for almost all units (except ships, should be tackled seperately), and the cost to raise a logistics force is x5 of a Logistics force while maintaining a logistic force is 1/10 to raise it. 
• Administration skill to handle monthly costs. On campaign you can assume the quartermaster is working on this 12hrs/7days a week. Having more Administrators or staff (pages, scribes, cup bearers) will help if you can afford it.    
• Costs to maintain go up over Terrain and Conditions. 
• MC13-14 Readiness. Your force is not in constant alert. If they are 'ready' 3 months in a year (mobilizing, re-arming, and updating in 1 month), then you pay them at full at 3 months of that year and half as much 9 months of the year. 
• Just add the Logistics Maintenance cost to the total calculation because even they are part of the force. with 9 months low readiness, Gross monthly maintenance is (4.5+3) * (Monthly Maintenance + LS monthly maintenance). The logistic force cannot be disbanded without giving yourself a headache scrambling for one, note that LS can serve to replenish losses. In some games other than camp followers, Pages or Servants make up LS (those who are still in training or in On-the-Job training). 
• In fact if you want to maintain some discipline you may need to rotate forces. that means you will need 6x as many forces or 1/6 as many forces as you have disposable. 
• MC17 Mounts. In some eras mounts are expected, even if the units fight on foot. The costs are that of riding horses - which are more for gentry. For sergeants cheaper mounts, those with -1 move, are half the price.  
• MC14 Replacement Cost is equal to half the maintenance cost 
• Small Wars Manual expects 25% losses for horses on campaign. (Ouch!)
• in MC36 as survivable loss in a failed encounter would be around 20% and a typical loss even in good win would be 10%! if you expect 10% losses, raise your unit's maintenance cost budget another CF+0.5 and file it under Logistics Force. 

Commanders who Don't like Details!

If your the Logistics Officer you basically end up having to always frame information a peculiar way. For everything you ask for, it gets harder and harder because it appears you are moving the goal posts. To prevent this you have to put it ALL IN before you present information. 

This means if your lord gives you $20,000,000 of resources for raise a force and campaign for X months, you keep calculating down and down. You begin with the number of months, you then pre-calculate the cost of a "Knight" (which means 1 cavalryman, and 4 footmen). 

Example. $20,000,000 (3-5 years of rigorous administration and taxation; ideally after merchantile reforms and infrastructure has made the land more productive)
A Knight aka a Lance is Light Cavalryman, 2 Light Infantry, 2 Bowmen (this is a setting assumption).  That basically boils down to $10.4k to maintain each lance. But there are so many other costs. $10.4 Logistics and Reinforcement costs. That makes $20.8k per Lance. The lord has 200 lances, which translates to $4,160k per month.
The lord has two companies of sappers, thats $1,200k (100 men). In total, $5,360k or 3.7 months of operations, -1 month for rallying and getting back to full readiness.
The lord will need to see how much money he can bring in while these 2.7 months is happening and how his logistics officer can bring in more supplies. 

Useful Notes

• Sharecroppers families (slaves and indentured servants) contribute $300/mo to the lord's economy. 
• This is very simplified value is derived from offsetting the raised prices from the value chain and the rising share of the profit as it reaches the lord. This value, despite being in a monetary form would be assumed to be non-cash. 
• If you want to convert it to cash, you can do so per season at 10% its value modified by a Merchant Roll for the margin of success at improving that at plus or minus 2% gross value with margin of success or failure. If you relied on a merchant broker, only half the profits go the the lord.
• Typically it is in services, goods, commodities, Shelter and Food, and even social favors or obligations. There will be little cash in the transactions.
• You will mostly base your logistics and maintenance costs all on how many families or how many micro-economic units it takes. 
• On campaign, it is assumed 90% of the budget is in the form of supplies and logistical goods. 10% is hard cash for other purposes.  
• A "family unit" is 2 adults, 3 dependents, and about 24 acres/ 10 hectares half of which is actively cultivated. 
• In the end accounting for Logistics and Loss Replacement, you work with double the maintenance cost. When you go back to low readiness, you bring this value back down to half.  
• Medieval Demographics Made easy will come in to play often. 
• In devastating events many costs are not anymore taken care off so you will see slow time to raise forces, and mismanaged logistics. 
• Just because a Region can Support X amount of troops, it doesnt mean it can or will be able to. Weather, battles in other fronts, communication, and many other details prevent armies from being mobilies in optimum sizes at any point of time. In points in time that the weather and economy allows for such large numbers assembled is rare and happens a few times in an entire life time. 
• Simplify - 
• Don't use Heavy Cavalry as much - I tend not to use Heavy Cavalry, at 20% less TS (which is not enough to matter) and at the same cost (using Equipment Quality modifier of CF+1 for 100% increase in TS and Maintenance) Light Cavalry has a recon superiority over Heavy Cavalry. Recon is very valuable and Heavy cavalry is for set piece battles. If most combat is skirmishes and guerrila fighting then light cavalry would be more important also knights are really trained as recon force with hunting, war games, and various cultural virtues and exercises. 
• Light Infantry vs Bowmen - the funny thing about light infantry and bowmen they tend to be the same thing. It gets really muddy in their employment and use so when in doubt assume Light Infantry have bows but cannot employ it in the maximum artillery range bowmen can.  
• So most of the time you just arrange battles between Light Cavalry, Light Inf, and Heavy. Sometimes they have Bowmen, Med Inf, Sappers, and Horse Archer elements.   

Allies: Gotta Get them All!

Allies is one of the most overlooked advantages for logistics. Allies or Manpower is like a Pokemon game, "you gotta collect them all". The right people, with the right fit, and all the HR matters that can distract and highlight the drama of a game. My favorite part of this is this is where the random NPC generators come in handy, the demographics really make skilled personnel rare or time consuming to train. Being forced to ally with dangerous or untrustworthy people is an exercise in politics, diplomacy, and leadership and its a pretty amazing if you manage to survive or get anything done.

Asking the Right Questions

Logistics allows us to ask the right questions or gather the information we need about the setting (basically asking and rolling for answers from the GM). 

• Can I learn the size of the economy from what I can observe, and the information I can gain from talking to various people? 
• Its like getting the information if your 200 men can pick off at Region with a city of 10,000! (which would mean the region is about 100k pop and may have reserves of 1k). 
• Can I learn their state and that of their economy? Can I find their most pressing matters, and where they are having conflicting needs and loyalties? 
• If that 10k city is in civil war and balkanized, chances are good your 200 men can make a difference. 
• What can i know about their leaders and key professionals? How is their tradition of warfare fare against my own traditions? 
• You are stuck with poor grade iron, and they have traditions of Horse archers and ambush tactics OR they have a strong warrior citizen tradition, and each adult male of fighting age is a competent heavy infantry man skilled in the woods near the city. 
• Is my information secure: economic activities, current political state, and persons at court? 
• For all you already know, Intell has been gathered about your force and you are a pawn. Know your enemy and know when you are over your head. Note that even if you are weaker, you can negotiate because wasting time and forces on you can be a difficult decision if you play your cards right. 
• What are the variables I can control, and what are the variables I will assign to others? With my judgement of their character and proficiency, how likely are they to fail/succeed? 

Sample Units that may be Helpful. 

• A Lance. 1 Light Cavalryman, 2 Light Infantry individuals, 2 Bowmen individuals, and 4x  individual Mounts. $7.6k (everyone has woods terrain feature)
• TS 1 (0.4 ranged, 0.6 recon, 0.2 cavalry). 
• Cost Inclusive of logistics, the means there are servants, mules, cart, and supplies. 
• Costs inclusive of replacement, this means the Knight as has a young squire and page. So there should be very little time to raise.
• 9 months low readiness, 3 months readiness, makes for $57k a year. 
• 16 share croppers to maintain. The equivalent of a Wealthy x10 ($5,000 per month!) and 160 hectars or ~400 acres. 
• Justinian, Bandon. 1 horse archer element, 2 light cavalry elements, 9 Bowmen, 9 Heavy Infantry, and 9 Light Infantry.  (everyone has woods terrain feature)  
• This may come to play if you plan to run an adventure set in this era (since its well documented). 
• TS 78 (TS6 cavalry, TS26 rec, TS20 ranged)
•  $560k per month, with 9 months of low readiness $4,200k a year (the equivalent of a extremely powerful patron or x500 of starting wealth per month). 
• It takes a the wealth of 1,200 sharecroppers or an economy the size of as many households to support this (like a large town) or 120 sq km or 47 sq miles. This would be about 4% of a medium size Military Province. 
• As example Large provinces have about 25,000sq km or 9,500sq mi (ex. Calabria, Konya). At 6 people per sq km or 15 per sq mi (byzantine empire post plague of justinian)   
• Komnenian Kentarchia. 5 Archers, 5 Heavy infantry.    
• TS30 (TS10 ranged).  (everyone has woods terrain feature)
• $160k per month, with 9 months of low readiness $1,200k a year (equivalent of Filthy Rich x150 starting wealth). 
• It takes wealth from 350 sharecroppers or an economy of the size of that many households (about 2,000 people). This would be 200 sq km or 800 sq mi. A very small fraction of a any province and more fitting for one of the many historical towns found in the era. 
• 25,000sqm km region with a density of 10 people per sq km. 
• Economy size is 50k families or about $180,000k a year. 
• If there are 6 rotations of standing forces in a year, and each force is in low readiness at 9 months of the year, then there is a force worth $333k on full readiness at any time. 
• This is equal to 10 infantry elements of  Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry, and Bowmen. This also has enough resources for 3 Light Cavalry Elements and 1 Horsearcher element.  

Summary of a Summary

• Use the values above to simplify your preparation for the game. 
• Since you have a grasp of logistics you have more information to work with in planning a force or engagement, and if you have the same sources as your GM (like Medieval Demographics made easy) would know what questions to ask and can get creative in finding the right information. 
• With these details, you basically try to win the battle without resorting to full asset mobilization - or limiting the variables you will have to deal with once you mobilize your assets. This should help use logistics against the opponent - since you know the limits of their resources from your own.  

Some notes

• I also realize that a group of players who are familiar with others play styles and strengths, will be able to cut up the "project" into their various roles and specialties. I always get the most enjoyment in a game when the players have some player-skill roles where they are learning the role or pretty good at it it becomes a enjoyable to see a master at work. 
• You may need to make a spreadsheet to speed up preparation. You may also simplify units and forget their other characteristics (like Troop or Equipment Qualities) to be able to have more mental agility in resolving these things. 
• If the player seems to know more about logistics, don't fret ask him what each should mean. The GM has the ability to fudge the answer and defy the statistics anyway. 
• Currently when I used GURPS Vehicles 3e to build galleys they ended up fairly cheap, what is expensive is the Crew. Even if the crew was struggling wealth for each man (and they were paid good wages except slave galleys later in the middle ages) or even poor, a 50 oar galley of 20 metric dtons would be at least $30k maintenance or $150 raising cost for just the crew. The 50 oar 20dton ship was about 5k the cost. So i had to add modifiers to raise the cost. TL:DR - ship stats needs recalculating. 

Roll20 Macros for GURPS

Because the character sheets will be available eventually. You can find the Demo Campaign here. Thanks to +James Austin for teaching me all these macros. Don't forget the Roll20 notes on GURPS. it took me 5 minutes to input the Hit Location table.

3d6
Rolling 3d6 [[3d6]]

because the double brackets saves more space and reduces the clutter on the chat log. 

block
@{selected|character_name} tries to block with a margin of [[@{selected|block}+?{mod}-3d6]]

parry, dodge are all the same with just the text changed around

turns aka Initiative
@{selected|token_name} has a [[@{selected|SPD}&{tracker}]] for initiative!

I call it turns because it takes up less space than typing initiative.

wound save
@{selected|character_name} resists the wound with [[@{selected|HT}+?{Mod}-3d6]]

this is basically for Major Wound and Death Checks 

attack01
@{selected|character_name} rolled a margin of [[@{selected|attack01}+?{mod}-3d6]] hitting [[1t[hit_loc]]]

as you can guess, I have a hit location table. Just add more attack buttons for other attacks, and just keep it in the notes what attack does what. Ideally your best attack and secondary attacks. The hit location table is hit_loc

You will notice to remove clutter I've made most of them Token based macros. meaning that it shows up when a token is selected. If you want to save some work, you can ask me to share with you the campaign and you can branch it out if you want.

Until they make an if statement macro this is the most I could think off. Feel free to comment about other macro ideas that would save the GM time and make it easier to communicate ideas.
I already input the critical miss table and it took me about 15 minutes. Its faster if I used my own words than typing it out word for word. If I have the time the other tables found in B556 and in order of priorities

• Magical Crit fail table
• Vehicle hit location Tables
• Unarmed Critical miss tables. 
• Critical Hit table
• Monster Hit Location Tables in B553 

Why would you want a Patron?

In the modern world, Companies are Patrons.

When Haiyan struck the Philippines, one of the biggest corporations in the philippines was able to fly out its employees. In my work experience, certain corporations have benefits that cover healthcare, transportation allowance, even provide car allowance, housing allowance, and some even child care services (in the form of a daycare) etc... Not just large corporations provide such but very wealthy employers provide some similar economic benefit. 

continuing from another article Patron, Duties, and Frequency of Appearance. 

In some cultures there is a practice that some employers will help out in financial hardships. They provide assistance when gov't, banks, and all other relatives have been exhausted. Employees who act as agents to the Patrons, like lawyers or paralegals, nannies, drivers and messengers, actually get special support from the patron in emergencies. You would want to look closer using economic demographics at the savings rate and the average economic situation to understand how powerless people can be against misfortune, and how they look towards the economic superiority of a patron for aid. 

Patron and Client relationship is very much alive today. In fact its transformed a bit in the west, but it is very much alive everywhere else. Its also not as one sided a relationship as it was like in the past, the client had many bargaining tools then and even more now. Patrons always had to help out then, but gov'ts and communities have prospered economically to need less help from patrons.

I guess what is affront to Patron-Client relationship is that it dispels the illusion of equality. Scarcity and Wealth do not make people equal, some people are better off and have more momentum and resources than others. When Deng Xiapoing introduced the free market to communist china, he had to alter the communist ideology a bit saying that "others will prosper a head of others" - an interesting way to "frame" the economic disparity. 

In the modern world, strong Gov'ts - those that can provide for the basics of their population (ex. healthcare, food, food security, jobs, training and educations, stable cost of living, freedoms, rights, and some even internet) empower their populations so that they do not need a patron - a healthy and growing society is their patron. Of course, there is some memetics that try to make Gov't THE patron, but that assumes society has control over Gov't through democratic and/or technocratic process. Of course such are exceptions than the rule when you consider the world and the rest of history. You may even consider it even a fluke, if less than ideal situation of scarcity would ramp up the variables. 

The human characters we make are vulnerable, and have the same worries and powerlessness in most situations as we do, but the advantage we can choose for them. If their world is much like ours, they may be even more vulnerable than us depending in their era or level of education. They may have a different take on "equality" in the presence or reality of patrons and clients.

In a Sci-fi "Utoptia" where society is a stable and healthy collective psyche and has sustainable economic goals you may have Society as a Patron. Even if there is such an assumption, everyone else will have more primitive social orders that exert a large amount of influence because of lower overhead and greater resources at its disposal. It also assumes the powerful forces of social entropy will be finally overcome in a stable form of "magical" social state lolz. Maybe in Sci-fi Fantasy.  

Managing Discussions in Games

My mentor told me to always have someone with me in a deal or in a discussion. Its not something I can find in a book but its really been helpful, you can even say it saved my hide, when I was assigned in one of the most traumatic assignments in my professional life. In fact its such a important "tactical" factor, I was on the receiving end of a tactic that attacked my credibility because I had no witnesses in an informal passing meet (meeting someone in the hallway on my way to go somewhere else; you can say AMBUSH).

(flashbacks of my time in that assignment Lolz)

Anyway, back to Gaming. I found myself in a very engaging and intense discussion which shouldn't be the case in an RPG. We play this hobby to escape work, we expect tons of good will free flowing and we trust the people we play with to do what is fun and surprise us. Although we cannot help but have some emotional investment in this game make things a bit more intense than it should.

I realized we were in a bubble, and back into the scary and dangerous place of just being in a one on one discussion. Flashbacks you can say make it a bit traumatic for me, and has conditioned my response in a quirky unnatural way - you can say it was a survival mechanism. Still no one has the intent to harm one another, but that's the muddy and interesting thing about discussions and arguments, parties can be completely without malice but it can't help but get a bit intense.

Then in a moment of clarity, my mentor advice all of a sudden came clear back. Basically this kind of intensity is not typical in an open forum with people who can pull the participants out of the intensity. People can remind everyone about gaming priorities and what its all about. The ability to zoom in and out is easier when voices are not as engaged and work with a different perspective as the more active participants.

Arguments are part of a real engaging discussions, dissent is important, and being able to air everyone's ideas is crucial in a where people evolve more robust concepts and ideas. Of course, the ability to shift mindset is necessary to keep track of priorities and letting details work with the big picture.   Also note that this is a text based discussion, many things are "lost in translation". That last part cannot happen without an audience to remind them from their outside perspective.

The sense of ganging up is a definite concern, so is picking sides. Things that complicate things, needs a moderator, especially if this is a larger discussion. In a small discussion, just call for a recess when things are about to get too interesting for comfort.

Sins of the Crusades Episode 4.5 - Intrigues

1. In Episode 4.0 Tertius and Xeno were part of a "War Game" where they battled season vets and manage to win by an Off-called technicality. This was a way to exercise Mass Combat rules and see how it would play out. 
2. Today, this episode 4.5 the team proceeded to do their machination. We simplified Cato's attempt to gather forces in Naples, his home town, and he did something rather amazing. The city was fractured with many conflicting interests, and he arrived with promises from the emperor. Promises that allowed him to carry off many of their readied forces to fight for the emperor instead. Joining his war against the Turks meant pontial status and gains. Lands lost to so many dyansties will be need new lords and stewards to the emepror. 
3. The team was doing their machinations, it really is difficult to plan an assassination attempt on figures in history who are used to the game and only really surround themselves who are trustworthy. Assassination is a very difficult art it seemed. Fortunately they were speaking in Greek when a non greek, Anodai, followed Cato when he returned.
1. Xeno was busy befriending Ponziano and Francesco, Francesco asks Xeno to watch tertius for him. 
2. Tertius got into the good graces of Tancred and was slowly being indoctrinated to be in his group. 
3. Adonai who followed Cato stumbled on them and seem to have a strong attraction to him. Cato giving attention to the broken thing which is Adonai has become something tangled and confusing. He entertains her affections, in return she gives him secrets of Francesco and some of his men. 
4. The group adjourn to gather more information and to plan. Xeno investigates more of Francesco, and discovers one of the leads of Cato to be true, regarding the business of slaves. The question is it from East to West or the other way around. the Next day Francesco speaks to Xeno about what he saw, learning of his "use" of the slaves seems to ease Francesco's worries - he is more at ease when Xeno asks for priscilla, a sex slave, he "used" that night. 
5. Cato uses Tertius' connection to talk to Tancred. He tries to make a deal and Tancred scoffs at the assumptions Cato has about Bohemon. Still he knows his cousin will be interested and lets them meet him. They are put on guard. 
6. Xeno is presented to Bohemon by Francesco, calling for raising a Fleet and not just an army. Bohemon argues he does not need one, even with Xenos impeccable skills does not impress the land based warrior. 
7. Cato and the party is presented to Bohemon. They are tested, and they seem unable to convince or move him, where they propose that they can prove their ability by raising the army for Bohemon. He is impressed but is still cautious, he asks them to prove it to him by eliminating his current steward - he gives them little head start - they were trying to plan when an ambush attempt tries to take the PCs down. We stopped at the last leg of the combat. 

Some notes about GURPS Combat. 

• Losing 2/3 HP (HP = ST) halves dodge and move. 
• It takes 3 seconds to shoot a bow. 2 seconds with fast draw. 1 second with -6 from Quick Shooting (MA119) in Archery. Drawing the bow with arrow takes 1 second and cannot be avoided. 
• Feint is very valuable in GURPS combat. bringing down defense bonuses to 7 and below would speed up their kill per round. 
• I'll fix their load out. 

Looking Back One Year of Running Games in Roll20

FIRST session of GURPS Modern Fantasy

Session 1-8
Season 02, episode 1-11
about 60 hours of gaming

Things Learned

1. Sustaining New Cast and Players. I only have 1-3 regular players in the span of the campaign and a lot of people who try it out and part ways when its not a fit. My experience with this is parallel with how work and family really pulls us in all directions. Its not a bad thing, its just how life is now. You can't let all those biases get in the way of enjoying being able to run or play RPGs. One important thing that came out of this is how understanding the limitations helps me appreciate whats there and achievable. 
1. Curiosity of meeting new people. I've gotten to know a lot of people over the Games and G+ and with every new person I meet and interact with my image of the world changes and is reshaped. As bill nye would put it "they know something you dont" and this mental expansion is something to look forward to because age is actually getting in the way of my learning new things. 
2. Constantly Making stuff up for New Players can be pretty challenging. Especially when I make a report after the game. I get it if you don't have to rationalize anything by end of game, but when making a session post it becomes a bit challenging. What happened with WBH is that I used it as a tool to let new people try out GURPS and always open the table for people to try. 
3. Long term Investment in Time. I get it why it is Ideal that you have a long standing cast - you can build story around them playing to their favorites and preferences. I don't expect the GM to know your preferences and master meeting them in one session or two even.   
4. There is a lot of relationship dynamics in a campaign. There is also the barriers of schedule. It is in the games I can be regular in is where I cultivate a stronger connection in relationships. There are campaigns I wish i can join but are well outside my schedule. 
5. Ages perspective over time. Because of work and family and Age, time can pass very quickly and a couple of sessions schedules will begin to conflict.  
2. Use Roll20 Campaigns to 
1. ...meet people of your desired time slot. Make a campaign and put it in LFG with an disclaimer that you will run with enough people. Use it as an AD to find players or GMs who are available in the same Slot.
2. ...meet people of your same very niche Interests. Make campaigns like above, put it in Looking for Games (LFG) so that you can find people who like the same very niche games you also like. 
3. This is what kinda played out with my obsession to run games and find players who'd play them. In the end I found people who are of a similar sched and interests. Working with what you've got, even if it is not the "IDEAL"(the incredibly PLATONIC and unreachable ideal for some) is the best case scenario. Its sad when people dont even try and can't compromise in RPGs! (having "your way" in this hobby is not a great way to make friends). 
3. Conflict is King. Drama can be a pain, but the drama that gets me and, I think, the guys who play my game is the kind that makes a strength out of a vulnerability. The disadvantages that we get our 50cp from is where we get an idea of what kind of conflict and vulnerability we want to explore to strengthen us. The nice guys and the misunderstood jerks, drawing from their own weaknesses for strength and empowerment. As the GM I have to formulate a narrative based on these motivational forces.  
1. Drama is the biggest Quality Time chunk of a game. I believe that drama/conflict has the biggest return on investment in game prep. Note that my idea and definition of drama or what makes for Dramatic actions and scenes has expanded with experimentation and random success. Since I'm not a master I'm really not that good at describing it and how to bring it out. My best guess is to mix economic and interpersonal conflicts and shake it till something happens. 
4. A good night's Sleep. Fake it till you Make it which is true when it comes to confidence but when I lack sleep, my "bounded rationality" gets really limited. So you can't fake something unless you have the mental agility to improvise. without sleep I can't improv.  
5. Managing Expectations. from the smallest to the subtle to the biggest disconnect of expectations. People can go into your games expecting certain things and it takes a lot of follow and juggling to get it all done and ready for the game. 
6. Timing for a Change. The best time to end a game is on your own terms. It sometimes ends prematurely, and sometimes life just gets in the way. It does really suck when it ends interest wanes and the ability to stop just in time is a very difficult one.  With OnAir recording I can keep record of the games, and at least save all of that. 
1. The GM's ability to run a genre needs to be recharged and he needs to pull away from it now and then. A break is important.  
2. Every End campaigns means an opportunity to try new things. Since I'm a research and Try out new things GM. I really should survey how long 
7.  Keeping a lot of Notes in Gdocs. I hope nothing happens to Gdocs because thats where all my notes can be found lolz. One big advantage is when I'm hit with inspiration I can open the app version on my phone. Until Dropbox and Libreoffice docs can be better used on mobile I think Gdocs would be the most used. 
8. How to pitch your game to strangers! This needs a long and separate post, but I guess its trying to be professional because its the only thing your particularly interested and all pistons are firing in the old noggin when it comes to games lolz. 
9. Learning some topics I never thought I'd learn. Learned a lot about Orisha and Africa, principalities and thematas. I learned more of operational logistics for the small arms armies, and medieval retainers. Learned a lot about 11C history lolz. 
10. My games are slowly becoming Project Based Challenges. The project based mindset from work has given me some tools to see a challenge, any challenge: social, logistical, combat, long actions, etc..., as mentally tackled as "Project". To frame a problem quickly in the Empirical Process and Format, and the Set up challenges in the same methodical manner allows for a manner of GMing where players can use any Strategy and the GM won't be flatfooted without a method of resolving it. This should be another topic of discussion (which requires a couple of case studies). Very Niche and probably nobody cares about - which is why the blog is 
11. Filtering Opinions and Constructive Criticism. Its your game, and enjoy it how you like. People would criticize but most of the time they should just enable (via Constructively Criticize, like in any professional environment lolz). I realize debate and argument is a young mans passion, these days its just going to your gaming peers and presenting a problem and the results you want to achieve. Its not about "Ideological Perfection" but more of Dramatic Effect and Emotional Immersion (aka having fun). 
12. Practice and Process. I have small improvements over the number sessions, what improves most easily is preparation but its less appreciable lolz. Still the processes of getting the mindset ready for the game is a very challenging and difficult one. Psyching myself out is important because I need to visualize all the things the pcs will do in the most extreme case. I can't say worse case because if they really decide to go to a direction it should be as good as any other if its purely from an RP perspective. 
13. Facts Sheet or Post game Report, Flow Charts, and Checking up on players. Strange is that these are skills used to entertain clients and meet their expectations and I happen to be using it to make sure my players are on the same page and prepared by the next adventure. 
14. Running Mass Combats. I like the scale of great leaders, generals and nations. So many great things (and so many trampled underfoot, the things that happen behind the propaganda) that add drama but dressed up as a fairytale people will want to believe.
    Mass Combat and major economic efforts are things I want to explore in a game because behind the simplicity of the statement "The city built a wall" there is "the city employed press gangs to work for the wall, a man died every day in construction and many families starved when they were manpower short to prepare the harvest as enemy troops were raiding the lands". Internal conflict of someone whose seen the human cost of various actions - i find it dramatic and entertaining when Players are able to foresee and struggle with it.
15. Journalize and Consolidate my weird prep heavy manner. I like heavy prep, but I can't do it every session. Out of an 4 sessions, one heavy prep's material lasts for 2-3 sessions. It also only works when I've established a profile of what the players like to do, and cater and compromise to that.