Take the Spotlight With Grace
As you play TTRPGs, you may notice that your GM isn’t a neutral game designer. Official published adventures have 15 ways to solve every scenario, so that your ranger with nature skills is exactly as useful as your rogue with thievery skills. An official adventure builder has to build scenarios to be solved by any legal part of characters, because they don’t know who will be playing it. Your GM doesn’t have that restriction. They build stuff for your party.
And more than that, sometimes they will design something that is very obviously for you. Depending on your temperament, this can evoke a wide range of feelings. Having the spotlight centered on you for a bit can produce anxiety, it can make you feel coddled or patronized. That may bring up critical reactions, calling out the GM for “obviously” making something for you, or snarkily completing the scene because “This is how you wanted me to do it, right?.”These are natural reactions to being called out in a large group, but I invite you to re-examine the situation with a new lens.
Another take is: The GM cared enough to know about you and your character to know what an obvious “for you” moment would look like. They cared enough to give you an opportunity to show off your skills to the rest of the group, if they haven’t been showcased before. With this in mind, lets look at a few ways to respond when this comes up.
Level 1: Play along with enthusiasm
Better than causing a scene, you can just keep playing the game. This scene was obviously for you, so you should obviously be capable of solving it. Solve it. Do it with enthusiasm, as it is something specially crafted for your GM to show how great your character is. Just generally make sure that the energy you bring to the table is good in this moment.
If the spotlight made you uncomfortable, then you can let the GM know after the scene is over, or after the session. Try to catch yourself and steer away from being defensive or passive aggressive in the moment. Better yet, if playing along ended up with a fun scene:
Level 2: Say thank you
GMs love it when you figure their secrets out. Later. Don’t interrupt the game session, but after the session is done, send them a DM or text your group chat a thank you. Don’t lie if you didn’t like it, but if the scene ended up going well, tell them that! Say that you really felt your character shine in that scene.
The GM prepared something specifically for you, they put in extra effort specifically for you. If you recognize that, even call it out to the group as appreciated, they will be more likely to do similar things in the future. And If you’re lucky, they may even be willing to:
Level 3: Collaborate
Once your GM has given you a few scenes, and you see how they like to format them, help give them ideas! Let them know when specific challenges really feel good to you, because maybe they wont all stick the landing. GMs are doing game design on the fly with no beta testers here, so feedback about what works and where you would like to expand are generally welcome. Don’t focus on what hasn’t worked, focus on what you want more of, what excites you.
Recognize that it is a gift
Even if it’s not perfect, it was made for you. Recognize that this is the GM trying to give you some spotlight time, but not trying to call you out. If the spotlight lands on you and that makes you uncomfortable, don’t become defensive. Play along, and see where it can take you.