1. Get players who want to play.
2. Decide on a system to play.
3. Read the book(s) for the system. There will be a section or book about how to run the game.
4. Arrange a time and place to meet with the people from 1.
5. ???
6. Now you're thinking with portals.

Just try if yourself and see what works and what doesn't.
Play with people you're comfortable with and ask for some kindness from your PC
The first two wil most likely fuck up.
Do not start with a campaign, try some one shots.
Read some advice in the core books.

How DO you get started with GMing?

I mean, when I started me and everyone I played with were 12 years old, so no one minded a load of fucking around and me making shit up and not following the rules right. until we eventually learned how shit worked after a year old bullshit.

At this point it's all second nature, but I can't even conceive how I'd get started if I didn't know shit and had to go in at ground level trying to please adults who want some kind of coherent experience.

1.Create a sandbox
2.don't plan a plot
3.Players can't read your notes, you can move dungeons or encounters around in space and time and give them coats of paint if the story deviates.

i mean story/encounter wise.from my point of veiw it looks like my gm has to write a book with protagonists he cant control.it looks scary af

>>44558106
That's GMing, yes

>>44558106
Someone post that image of the dog and the toy train, because it pretty much sums up any GM running anything at any time

>>44558106

Pretty much.

Imagine writing a book where every time you put the pen to the page to describe the actions or speech of the protagonist a random asshat pushes you away from the typewriter and starts slamming away at it.

That's pretty much it.

>>44558128
so basically improvise or plan for every possible contingency

>>44558166
What I do, and what works for me is setting up a world where there's a plan already in motion, and the inserting the characters. Whatever they do, you just tell them what would happen as a result. Also remember that if you aren't having fun, you don't have to keep running. Don't feel obligated and don't get angry at your players. Do something you think everyone will like

>>44558106
One of the more popular ways to deal with it is to prepare two layers of information.
A general story of something about to happen / happening, that could be interesting for the PCs to get involved in.
Within that first frame, checkpoints. Precise points in space (and sometimes time) with all the details, events and NPCs prepared.
Between the checkpoints, you can prepare and anticipate all the logical (or illogical, random, fun) paths.
It simplifies tghe whole experience a lot, because it estblishes a framework for you to build fluff around.
Bonus : put some failsafes that will prevent the PCs to completely derail the game. If they derail it anyways, two possibilities :
>your story is shit and it's better to not force them to go back to it
>your PCs are shit and you shouldn't run another game with them

>>44558247
thx this helps

As far as getting good at the raw narration element goes, I've gotten pretty good at it by just asking myself every now and then whenever I see something visually interesting--how would I describe this if I were GMing? Or even if you're bored in line at the grocery store and there's a shelf of impulse-buy junk. Pick something, and spend a moment considering.
Brevity is important, as is a sensory description or two. Maybe relate the sensory element to other stuff in the scene--the mingling of smells, the way light plays across a surface.
Be mindful of the semantics of words, and how synonyms can still go across differently because of implications and word associations--different words might evoke different things.

>>44558024

If you seriously want to learn, start reading

http://theangrygm.com/jumping-the-screen-how-to-run-your-first-rpg-session/

Learn to improvise, never plan anything that requires a precise following of steps.

If you have trouble improvising, practice with the following: problems for which you haven't though up a single solution.
The party arrives at a town, the party discovers the town is going to be flooded by a shit eating water elemental, from here on instead of saying "they must do this in order to stop the elemental" think of all the things that the party could do:
Do they want to attack the elemental head on?
Do they want to gather forces?
Do they search for a magician that teaches them how to deal with the elemental?
Do they say "fuck everything" and let the elemental flood the town to be able to pillage it?
Do they think this is shit and decide to leave without doing anything?
Is there anything that they could do that I haven't though of? (Always yes)
What's the chance they'll go for something I didn't think of? (Always higher than you think)

TL;DR: make their actions have consequences

>>44558861
Holy shit, that guy is a retard

None of what he is saying is true, "Being a GM is hard"? What a fucking prick
My first session as a GM didn't suck, if you go thinking it is going to suck then it will be so

>>44559092

>My first session playing Ice Hockey didn't suck, if you go thinking it is going to suck then it will be so.

Delusional or still as bad at GMing as you were when you first started.

Basics of GMing:

As the GM, it's your job to put a series of obstacles in the way of your players and adjudicate how well they do in doing that.

As long as you have a steady supply of obstacles and a way of linking them together then you'll be fine.

"But how do I link them together?" you might ask.

Well, when it comes down to it, players deal with obstacles in 4 ways:
They destroy it, they avoid it, they make friends with it or they are defeated by it.

Make links from one obstacle to the next using the results of those links -
Bashing down the DOOR will bring GUARDS for example, and bribing the GUARDS means they can get to the BAD GUY.

Or the party might AVOID the DOOR and GUARDS and go in over the ROOFTOPS but that's its own obstacle. If the BAD GUY then beats down the party they are thrown in a CELL guarded by GUARDS.

And so on and so on.

Don't plan for HOW your players will succeed. Leave the details as to how they beat the obstacle up to the players - assume all obstacles will be overcome (or the party loses) and simply plan for what happens after.

>>44559092
>"Being a GM is hard"?

It kinda... is. Essentially, it's like being the producer, director, PR guy, camera-man, narrator, stage-hands, extras, and supporting cast for a long-form improv play, all at once, while the players get off lightly with being, well, the players.

>>44559133
My players, all of them veterans with more years of gaming than me, have helped me a lot to improve and get better. While I certainly wasn't very great, the first session didn't suck at all, we are sure of it

>>44559178
Indeed, but that guy is making it sound like "this shit is very difficult that requires a lot of skills that I have honed because I'm that good", praising himself too much, know what I mean?

>>44559283
>Indeed, but that guy is making it sound like "this shit is very difficult that requires a lot of skills that I have honed because I'm that good", praising himself too much, know what I mean?

Are you a woman?

Seriously. I don't often see someone get this catty over perceived slights.

GMing is difficult, and if he's running a literal website about GMing, chances are he's pretty decent at it.

More relevant to the discussion, though, is how good his advice regarding GMing your first session is, and it is all quite sound.

>>44559283
I can see that point of view. It is a really esoteric set of skills, but it's not a slight against you, he's just being self-important. A lot of DMs do that; they see how hard it is, they see how easy they make it look, and they think, with no input from the outside world, that it's just them.

>>44559400
>they think . . . that it's just them.

Are you trying to imply it isn't? Because a GM is the singular deciding factor in the success, failure, and general quality of any game. That's simply a fact.

>>44558404
Different anon, but using same thing:
Don't get mad, that your players didn't get all your preciously prepared plot at first sight. Trying to expose all that you have thought of can be really disrupting for a game (i.e. extra long BBEG speeches) and players will feel better if you let them figure everything on their own.

>>44559464
> Because a GM is the singular deciding factor in the success, failure, and general quality of any game.

I have seen too many games that went to shit because of players weren't able to get along to not oppose this statement. Yes, GM is important for overall quality of game, but definitely not single deciding factor

>>44559565

>"Sorry, but you're butting heads with the group, so we're going to be gaming without you."

Managing the group is literally part of the duties of a GM. You demonstrated obvious failures of the GM to manage it. This is a failure on his part.

Without a GM, there is no game. Without particular players, there's another batch you can recruit. A game can survive the loss of players; it cannot survive the loss of its GM. That's just how it is.

>>44558166
The first one. Paint in broad strokes so that you always have guideline to work off of. You don't need a 4 page backstory for john, farmer of oosvalt. But you can remember the setting is ' everyone can see dead people' and oosvalt is 'place where most malicious spirits are' and then you know he's a farmer who goes every day living with malicious spirits, and from there I know he's probably a tough son of a bitch who has strong nerves and a lot of patience. When NPCs, inevitably try to harass him, he'll be unphased from dealing with worse (hardass), but won't pay too much hostility to the party for their misdoings, he's too focused on his crops (patient).

>>44559631
True. But loss of players is playing in different group, so I would say that the game failed, but that would be just interpreting same things differently for the sake of argument.
And I am not doing that.

>>44559806

I'm glad you've accepted you're wrong and that GMs must take responsibility for the success of their games, then.