confidence as a referee

Believe that what you know is enough, and the vast gulf of what you don't know will cease to scare you. With the barrier of fear demolished, the unknown will become accessible to you. When you are refereeing a ttrpg, it's important to project confidence. DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE take that as an invitation to grandstand, or be defensive, or be wildly confrontational when your rulings are challenged. Those behaviours are not rooted in confidence; they are rooted in fear. Fear that you got it wrong. Fear that this somehow means they could find out everything else you did was wrong too. Fear that one mistake will suddenly undermine the fragile social contract that holds up your authority at the table and, by extension, the game itself. Discard those thoughts. Fear is the mindkiller. Listen to your players. Understand that you can understand their frustrations, should they have any, and even empathise with them, without having to immediately fold to their every whim. This, my friend, is the…