Tips for new GM? Friend wants me to GM a game he's made and I've played for about two years but never GM'd before. Already have a few simple ideas in my head I feel ready to run with.
OP, I hope you're still here, refreshing every few minutes until your thread dies, hoping to see a reply.
Well, I'm hoping you haven't already seen this heap of knowledge I'm about to drop on ya, so you'll always remember the kindness of an anonymous stranger throughout your career as the best goddamn GM your crew has ever fucking seen.
Step one is to have your first session be a bit longer than the norm, just so everyone can become familiar with the setting and rules, or perhaps receive help creating their characters. I'm a fan of doing real short solo sessions so your players can feel established into the world, but that's not always possible.
>>46381580
Everyone is already familiar with the settings and the rules as am I. Also using established characters.
>>46381020
>Tips for new GM?
Bees are your friends, they produce honey and are docile as long as you don't mess with them.They're also team players and generally decent at roleplay
Wasps crawled directly out of Satan's asshole and exist purely to fuck you up.They're also notorious powergamers and their rules lawyering will grind any session to a screeching halt
>>46381580
Step two is to take a few minutes and read this shit. Did your friend make the game system, or the story? If it's the second one, prepare for some dickery when he tries to use his inside knowledge to his advantage.
Otherwise, prepare for general dickery from your players. Make your story modular, so that no matter what they decide to do, you can roll with it and easily adjust your already-laid-out plans. This pic is very much related.
If you've got 'some ideas,' flesh that shit out. Write in the little notepad on your phone while you're in a slow spot at work. Draw maps, or if you're shit at art, go use Google Earth and look at Europe. Find a nice coastline and flip it 90 degrees, and then make the water into land and land into water. Boom, instant detailed cartography. Make dungeons on graph paper. Use props. Shit's fucking cash.
I forgot to reply to my own shit last time and I can't be fucked to do it this time, and I also didn't say Step three, but you're smart enough to tell who the only contributing member of /tg/ is right now, and this thread is like three people wide anyways.
Make a goddamn homebrew thing, man. 'Rule of Cool' it up, nigga! Make a race or something. Find something you've always wanted to do when you play and make it happen! You wanna lead a horde of dragons against an unimaginable threat? You wanna establish a civilization in the middle of fucking nowhere and turn it into the next Mecca? You wanna start or end a civil war? How about giving everyone a little unique trinket that might actually become useful?
Don't start at level one, man. Everyone has done that shit, and everyone's tired of it. Start at two or three, when players can actually begin to make a character unique. They have options to at least begin down their path to a memorable character, instead of sneaky stabby bastard #341.
When it comes down to it, your crew wants to have fun, so make a story you'll have fun telling, and make them instrumental in it.
Every thread I've ever seen discuss GMing tactics turns into "Yeah, I just BS'd the whole thing and my players loved it. Improv is the way to go, man!"
That isn't fucking true. It sucks to make yourself do at first, but buckle down and do some work. Write shit down and make flowcharts and maps and create a living, breathing world. And for fuck's sake, don't start in a goddamn tavern. My favorite campaign intro was all set up by having the party paladin meet and arrest the party warlock for the attempted murder of the part ranger, because the ranger's animal companion attacked the warlock's familiar, and the warlock had to rely on help from the party rogue to escape both prison and the eyes of the paladin. The escape failed, and so when the rogue and wizard were about to be hanged until death, the ranger shot their ropes because he felt guilty, and the three escaped, with the paladin in hot pursuit. Eventually plot happened and the group became a proper party.
Do some creative shit like that, man. Fuck, rip that shit straight from this post and do exactly that, if you want. It's not like I'll ever find out, will I?
>>46382183
don't listen to this pretentious dickbag. When you start out OP go for a mix of 50% improv, 50% planning. As you get more experience you'll figure out which you prefer and which to lean on.
Also don't be faggot and purposely avoid starting in a tavern because they're cliche. Just go with what feels comfortable.
>>46381708
Thanks. Saved. This gave words to what I feel about my favoriteGMs
Stop me if this sounds shit. The setting takes place in a worlds not unlike our own. There's already tons of lore to build on and my friends has written so much for his game it's redonkulous but I'm giving it my special flavor. (think fun SCP and comedic X-Files episodes). Everyone said they're bringing established characters so I'm starting them out in (what they have to discover) is a shared dream that lists off aaaallll the plot hooks they can pursue which all lead back to the same grand, evil eventually. They're also introduced to a living statue who is secretly the DMPC.
Plot hooks are
-Why are they get visions of all the characters in different time periods as Knight Templar, industrial revolution street urchin, librarian in lost library etc
-Town that vanished wholesale before shit like that was supposed to happen in the established lore
-Mysterious warehouses falling from the sky basically containing SCPs and other adventures trying to loot them carelessly
You get the idea. Since the game has been around and have avenues they can take if they want to look into any of it or if they opt to dick around I've been playing long enough to know how to keep them busy and nudge them in the direction of the action.
>>46382770
sounds good, the fact that you were able to describe your setting without verbally masturbating is a good sign
>>46381020
OP, what in the fuck is going on in that picture?
What is wrong with you.
>>46383484
Not seeing a problem here
>>46381020
I've started listening to
http://one-shot.wikia.com/wiki/Critical_Success and http://one-shot.wikia.com/wiki/Hero's_Journey (first episode link is broken, you can google it) and find them pretty nice bundles of advice.
>>46381679
What about Hornets?
Specifically, Giant ones, that are like armored vehicles compared to everyone else's paper planes.
>>46381020
Make sure you are confident with whatever system you plan to run. Never ever run a system that you don't know inside and out. I've been that GM who ran a system that they barely knew, it sucked for everybody. Read that shit cover to cover.
Consider each person in the party, and make sure they all have something to do. Your skill monkey is going to be sad if your campaign is back to back combat. Your face will be sad if they don't get to talk to people. Give your stealthy-guy a chance to actually use that talent.
On a similar note, this is hard to enforce, but encourage your party to have a diverse makeup. You don't want two people with the same very specific purpose.
You do not have to have a plan for everything, nor do you need to be good at coming up with stuff on the spot. The first one is a waste of effort, and the second one creates situations in which you will be caught floundering. It is better instead to have a set of situations that can be adapted to multiple paths.
Have a list of names. You have no idea how much it helps. Lists of names for people, taverns, shops, whatever. Players will take more interest in that cardboard cutout NPC than you had anticipated, and they will ask their name. Eventually they are going to notice the abundance of toms, williams, etc.
What if you have someone who's goal is to do absolutely fuck around and run twelve miles from plot and ruin everyone's day?
>>46389657
Kill them, anon.
>>46389657
Tell the GM to drop That Guy's character if he splits from the party for his own reasons and fucks off a sufficient distance.
