Suggestions for new DMs(for veterans and newbies)

[Polerno]

Hello to everyone who clicks on this, be you an old veteran or a new DM out for their first time. I'm setting up this topic because in GAGG we have many people who are very good at DMing, and many new players who are just trying to figure out what they're doing. I'm hoping this can be a resource for those for whom it's old hat to pass along their experiences. I know I've come a long way since my first game, enough to shudder at the memory of my mistakes, and could've used the guiding hand of an experienced DM. So please, if you've got advice pass it along, if you need advice and something here is helpful post a thanks to he person that helped you. I hope this is helpful.

[Polerno]

First suggestion for any new DMs, obvious as I know it seems to many of you, DON'T RAILROAD. If you get to creative and caught up in your story arc you'll have to rely on your players to follow what you want them to do, and they almost never will. Players can tell very quickly when you're trying to force them down a certain path, and no one fights a story harder or can ruin a game faster than a player who thinks you're trying to trick/trap them into doing what you want(and btw, you'll never justify getting them to do what you want anyway, players will poke so many holes in your story and reasons that they might do something that even if they do it you'll wish they hadn't because its now a ridiculous caricature of the awesome idea you thought you had). So play it loose, get used to the idea that this isn't a videogame, and just because it would be really cool if you could pull off the epic story in your head through D&D, doesn't mean that your players won't come up with their own stuff that can be just as cool and interesting. If players help form the story then they get the feeling that they have some control over their own destiny, so when it comes out really cool they feel like they helped make it happen. This can lead to some of the most interesting and amusing storylines around, sometimes even you'll like it better than what you thought you were going to do at the beginning.

Have a few hours of story and fights ready when you get to the table, and a goal of where you'd like the quest to finish, and then let the players figure out how they get there. I have to say there is nothing I've found so satisfying as seeing the looks on players faces when everything they did to get away from where they thought you were trying to lead them ties right back around into them accomplishing exactly what you wanted them to(it's hilarious). Well... thats not true. The single most satifying experience I've ever had a DM was listening to my players brag about how awesome the stuff they got to do in my game was(btw, thank you so much to my player who lightning b**ch slapped a black dragon to death). That will warm the cockles of even the coldest heart.

Not that I'm in anyway suggesting not to plan out a story, if you don't have some goal out there, and an easy way for them to progress towards it, then they they'll just tend to wander off and never get anything done, which isn't any fun for anyone. Know your world and the motivations of at least a few of the NPCs in it, have a few back up NPC perosnalities you can slip into just in case someone decides to slap the barmaid on the a$$ or go try and pick up rumors from the general store owner, and know the world around what you're dealing with.

As the DM you make the entire world, all the monsters and NPCs and gods and everything else in it, then the players come in and start mucking around in it. Don't try and rigidly control your own world either, just let it flow in response to your players, its ok to make small adjustments and changes to suit the game, but don't start bending space/time/causality to fit the way you want. That way lead to holes, and the discovery that some of your players are brilliant in fields you were never aware of and will start making checks to disbelieve the world. That can only end badly, because you really need the players on your side. The good players who want to be there will put in enough that they'll start off on your side and you'll have to try to get them to fight you, the bad/annoying ones will take great pleasure in tearing you apart and making you feel stupid, unless you start off making them happy and giving them a reason to want to help you.

I guess the best summary of all of this I can give is this, play it loose, its a game being played for fun not the end of the world, and if it is the end of the world the nyou can always make another one.

I apologize for the huge blocks of text, but having read through this again, I can't bear to change a single word. I've tried to break it up a bit without making it really confusing, don't know if I succeeded, maybe I'll try again when I'm not so tired.

[Polerno]

Oh, and if you want an example of how not to run a game check out the webcomic at
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612

and for an example of you to run and awesome game go here
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/

[Dr. Mage]

Polerno, I have been crit by a wall of text. Seriously, go back and edit that block cause it's very intimidating at the moment.

My tips from 10+ years of DM experience (probably closer to 15 but i haven't GMed every minute of that time):

Just say yes: Basically as long as the thing the player wants to do is within reasonable bounds for the game, let them have a go at it. Your game will generally be improved by player input, as it increases collaborative ownership

Puzzles, Bane of Players: If you have created a simple genius puzzle in 5 minutes, it will take the players 1 hour, minimum to sort through it. If the puzzle includes a red herring, add an hour. The reality is simply that when players do not have all the pieces, it's much harder from their side to sort it out.

Mystery is good, information scarcity is the devil: Something I have often been guilty of, expecting my players to come up with the answer to "what next" without the necessary information. It's a frustration builder, and frustration = bad.

Failed rolls don't have to mean no: This is a skill I want to build. Basic example (and this is not mine), is a thief who fails a lockpicking roll. Maybe that failure means he picks the lock successfully but a guard sees him, or he alerts a dog in the home, etc etc. Basically make failure more interesting than a thing not happening.

Character Webs: I dunno where I picked this up, but I liked it the moment i saw it and have used it to good effect. Basically you make an npc, say the big opposing force of the campaign or a major plot figure. By make an NPC I mean you have 1-2 sentences of their core description. Next you make one NPC that supports them, and one that opposes then. Next you repeat that step for those 2 NPCs, and do it again, and by now you have 15 NPCs and you will start thinking of ways to connect them besides what you initially made. It makes the NPC world have a lot of interlinking, and although you will probably find some NPCs dominate the plot, you will have others to easily stick in as you need.

[Phantom]

I may not be the most experienced or bestest GM around, but here's a few things I can suggest based on things I know I do wrong.

Planning
--Have an idea of where you'd like to take the narrative. Sometimes it goes beyond a great hook, but building a three act story arc will not only keep your players interested but keep the excitement up for you as you tell your tale.

Prepare to Throw Your Plans Out the Window
--Keep your story malleable. Players will come up with crazy ass ideas and crazy ass plans and sometimes just plain crazy ass, so you have to roll with what is thrown your way. Like what Dr. Mage said, "Just say yes." It's fun to see where these things go.

Know Your Tone
--The extent of me GMing these days is running the annual All Flesh Must Be Eaten game at Running GAGG. And honestly all I come up with is a decent location where broadly written high schoolers played by 30-year-olds can get drunk/high/have premarital sex while the hordes of the undead invade. I have little plan other than to let the players have fun and then zerg rush them. It's a formal and it works every year. There's no way I could do that for a D&D game or even, shit, a Shadowrun game. But I make expectations conform to the tone I'm setting. And everyone has fun. Speaking of which...

You Are the Holder of The Fun
--Your job is to not kill off the players or stymie their every move with malicious, unsolvable traps. That's Descent. Your job is to challenge the players and make sure everyone has a good time. That doesn't mean showering with magic items and easy-peasy boss encounters. But, as Pixar has taught us, full characters and a well rounded story will make for good entertainment. As a subset to this ...

Nobody Likes Trogs in Full Plate
--Fuck you Monte. Fuck you very much.

Railroading Is Not Terrible
-Just don't let on that you are railroading. I'm famous for railroading; I have a story I want to tell and themes to get across and certain plot points will have to be hit for those things to come across. However, I'll rarely tell my players no and I keep my plan loose enough that I'll find a way to get what I want to get across even if my players would rather sit all night at the Waffle House.

Mmmmm Waffe House
--Soysage.

Know Your Style
--Mine is style over substance. What's yours?

[foz]

I'd point out that most of my experience is also with con games ... 1 time things.

But most of the best GMing lessons I've learned came from mileS.

The most important question to answer about your game is this:
are we animated or are we live action?

This helps set expectations ... when you refine it further (what is the animation style reminiscent of for example) your players will know more about how things should go.

Lesson 2, it's ok not to dance around things. Your game may have borrowed from movies or shows or books. This is ok. PCs may do this with their characters. This is ok. Trying to dance around and hide the fact is not necessary. It's all right to tell players that the bartender is "some Steve Buscemi looking motherfucker." This puts everyone on the same page.

Anything can be fixed in post. So don't be afraid to use those exact words. "Whatever, we'll fix it in post." and keep going.



Also, if you've designed a really kick ass fight, so much so that the PCs are getting torn the Hell up, sometimes it's okay to "forget" your round.

[Asmodeus]

Steal Everything that is Awesome
Play with as many different DMs as you can. Take notes on what they did that made you go 'wow! that was awesome!', and do the same thing in your game. If you see something they do that sucks, make sure you avoid that in your games.

Be Prepared
Have your maps drawn ahead of time if you can. Have your monster stats well organized. Have whatever miniatures you need out and ready to go. Players don't want to sit at a table for 5 minutes waiting for you to dig through your bag, find that special mini, or spend 10 minutes drawing every detail of a room on your map grid.

Don't DM for your girlfriend
Just trust me. Its a bad idea. Its ok to play in the same game with her when someone else is the DM, but don't DM if she is a player. Nothing good will come of that situation.