whatever you do, at the very least change the canned adventure, and if you write your own, players have the uncanny ability to solve things in ten minutes. Roll with it and move on. If you are running pathfinder or DND, become familiar with the SRD more than the players handbook.
rules are a (imo very weak) social construct, and the most important thing is everyone has fun. The players are the ones who bring the main characters, conflicts, and determine the general direction of the story. The role of the GM involves a lot of improvisation to make it all work, and provide all the parts between (like the world).
your players will have different degrees of participation that they're comfortable with, and your extroverts will hog the spotlight without thinking about it. I think it's important to find opportunities for every player to show off (without pushing unwillingly out of their comfort zones) so the game isn't just focused on one extrovert
I find it helps to have a general idea of what might happen in a given session, but don't get too attached to your plans happening the way you want them to. If your players really want to send things off the rails in a way you have no idea how to handle, you can call an intermission to give you time to think over how you want to handle it.
if you find you're bad at coming up with new ideas on the spot when your players inevitably surprise you, there's no shame in borrowing ideas from familiar media. Pull in stuff from books or movies or such that you enjoy.
Also the classic writing advice of "if you're stuck have someone bust into the room with a gun" doesn't actually work all that well for GMing in practice, because you'll be quickly made to answer a lot of questions you don't have answers for on the spot.
If you have the urge to GM then you’re already more than qualified. Learn the rules well enough to keep your table moving (especially in combat) but don’t try to know everything. Try to be in the moment and improv as you go - it’s more fun to make stuff up on the day then sweat about keeping them on a determined or prepared path.
nobody knows when you're making shit up, nobody knows when your overly-complex plan for the session has fallen apart, nobody knows if you think you're not prepared at all. And if they did know, they *wouldn't care*. They're just glad to be playing with you!
One piece? My son has just started GMing for his friends. It's hard to single out just one piece of advice I've given him.
But how about this one: It's not about you: they are the main characters of the story. Let them shine. But that doesn't mean you have to make it easy for them.
At the final battle of his last session, he proudly told me he had PCs down to 1, 2 and 4 HP when they killed the bad guy, so he seems to be doing an awesome job at that part at least.
Use a tiny RPG system[1] with a tiny environment ready-made environment[2]. Familiarise yourself with how others[3] run the same environment, then make it your own! You got this.
1. Change the rules when they don't fit what you want the world to be like. 2. Don't stress about balance. Throw too much danger (monsters, traps, big untracked wilderness) at the players, just leave them some room to run if they can't handle it. 3. Let them hire help, but don't give them anyone more powerful or flashy than they are. They gotta do it themselves. 4. Don't tolerate behavior you don't like. In-party fighting, etc. you can just shut it down. #rpg #ttrpg #dnd #gmadvice
nadin brzezinski
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •djflippy
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Chris Hartjes
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Trike Homard
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •aeva
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •aeva
in reply to aeva • • •aeva
in reply to aeva • • •aeva
in reply to aeva • • •aeva
in reply to aeva • • •AJ
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •silverwizard
in reply to Evan Prodromou • •Treat your NPCs like stolen cars
Via buriedwithoutceremony.com/
Lambic
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •evilchili
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Matt Thomson
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •99% of any problem you face at the table can be solved by talking with your players. If something needs to be cleared up, clear it up.
Always remember that this is meant to be fun for you as well.
Martijn Vos
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •One piece? My son has just started GMing for his friends. It's hard to single out just one piece of advice I've given him.
But how about this one: It's not about you: they are the main characters of the story. Let them shine. But that doesn't mean you have to make it easy for them.
At the final battle of his last session, he proudly told me he had PCs down to 1, 2 and 4 HP when they killed the bad guy, so he seems to be doing an awesome job at that part at least.
Eric G.
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Jons Mostovojs
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Use a tiny RPG system[1] with a tiny environment ready-made environment[2].
Familiarise yourself with how others[3] run the same environment, then make it your own! You got this.
[1]: System (free). yochaigal.itch.io/cairn
[2]: Environment (free). v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/64…
[3]: An actual play of the environment (free). youtube.com/watch?v=e3N4pqHIEw…
Cairn by Yochai Gal
itch.ioJons Mostovojs
in reply to Jons Mostovojs • • •I spent many hours thinking about how to answer your question, here's the story of how I distilled this answer: gist.github.com/cognivore/cdad…
(and three bonus suggestions from my experience in mentoring an actual beginner GM).
Distilled.md
GistEvan Prodromou
in reply to Jons Mostovojs • • •Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 🙄
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •2. Don't stress about balance. Throw too much danger (monsters, traps, big untracked wilderness) at the players, just leave them some room to run if they can't handle it.
3. Let them hire help, but don't give them anyone more powerful or flashy than they are. They gotta do it themselves.
4. Don't tolerate behavior you don't like. In-party fighting, etc. you can just shut it down.
#rpg #ttrpg #dnd #gmadvice