From the article archive
My Adventures as a New GM: A Couple Tips
About six months ago, after playing M.J. Young's Multiverser game on the forums here, I decided it would be fun to buy a copy of the game and run it for my friends. So, I had the joy of not only running my first game, but of learning a new system at the same time. To make my life even more complicated, Multiverser starts every player in separate worlds, so I had to create not one adventure, but three. Although I've still got a lot to learn, I've come up with some good ideas to make a new GM's life easier.
1. The Internet is your friend. Because I started playing Multiverser on the forum, it seemed natural to run my game over the Internet. Since I started the game near the beginning of summer vacation, and we were all about to head home from college, it was also a necessity if we wanted to play more frequently than once every month or two.
Running my game over an e-mail list has made things much simpler in a lot of ways. It gives me time to think and plan my next move, and it gives my players the opportunity to think their plans through. Playing on-line is also helpful if you're running characters in separate adventures, whether they're in completely different worlds or just in groups that have split up or not yet encountered each other. Because you don't have to be physically in the same place, no one gets bored waiting while you're dealing with the other group. As an added bonus, each group can move at its own pace. Since I have a couple players who post daily, sometimes twice a day, and another who's more likely to post once a week, it's important that everyone's game can develop at its own speed.
The drawback to this, of course, is that if you have multiple PCs interacting with each other, they need to post at about the same level of frequency for it to work. Otherwise, you may have everyone else getting frustrated while they wait on that one slow poster. Depending on your game and your players, you could end up combining e-mail or forum posts with real time play through WebRPG or a chat room. When people are adventuring separately, they can work at their own pace, but you can still bring everyone together once in a while. If distance isn't an issue, you can also combine internet games with face-to-face sessions.
2. Get yourself a cheat sheet. I've heard this advice from several sources, and it's proved very helpful to me. Rather than wasting time flipping through your rulebook, or even through several sourcebooks, it's a good idea to keep a short list of the most frequently used rules, noting when they apply and how they work. The sooner you can figure out the rule, roll for it, and move on, the happier everyone will be. This is especially useful if you run multiple systems or if you just have trouble keeping the rules straight in your head. Going back to tip number one, my Multiverser cheat sheet is here on the GO forums.
Cheat sheets for worlds and adventures are also useful. If, for example, you're running a canned D&D adventure or something from one of the Multiverser books of worlds, you might find yourself spending a lot of time looking things up, and that can detract from the game play. Condensing twenty or fifty pages of source material into a page or two can be tricky, but it's nice to have the most important locations, NPCs and facts about the plot at your fingertips.
If you don't have time to create your own cheat sheet, and you don't want to violate somebody's copyright by photocopying pages of the game book, there are shortcuts you can take. I'm iffy on the copyright regulations, so for some games, copying might be perfectly fine. If that's not an option, whether because of those rules or just because the game's tonight and you don't have time to get to a copy machine, you can always use Post-It notes or dog-ear important pages. You might also want to create, instead of a cheat sheet listing rules, a simpler one with page numbers where those rules can be found. Eventually, you may know off the top of your head that the skill learning rolls are on page 26 or that, in a certain situation, you always roll a d20 and try to get below your willpower stat. When you start off, though, a cheat sheet will make things much simpler.
3. Play with your friends. I refer to my Multiverser game as my "first" GMing experience, but that's not technically true. It's just the first one that got anywhere. A few years ago, I was playing in a Hunter: The Reckoning game on-line, bought the rulebook at the GM's suggestion that each player should have one, and decided I'd like to try my hand at running it. Before I even had my adventure halfway planned out, I sent a message to a mailing list asking for players, and found a couple interested people. Some of them I knew already, some I didn't. Because one was really anxious to start, and I wanted to keep everyone happy, I began the game before I really knew what I wanted to happen and before I was familiar with all the rules. Needless to say, it deteriorated rather quickly.
Because of that experience, I would never suggest starting your first game that way. Instead, grab a couple players from your current gaming group or other people you consider friends. Not only will your friends be more understanding of the time it takes you to prepare, they'll also be more forgiving of the mistakes you make and more likely to give you a second chance if things don't work out quite the way they'd hoped. If you advertise your game to people you don't know, you may get some players with pretty high expectations who might be ready to bail (or just sit there and complain) if your game isn't quite flawless.
Knowing your players also has another benefit. You can use what you know about their personalities to design adventures that appeal to them. One of my friends owns about a dozen swords, is passionate about the Middle Ages, and quotes from The Princess Bride constantly. So, I threw him onto the pirate ship Revenge where he's having a blast learning fencing, fighting, and piracy from the Dread Pirate Roberts. Another player is into science fiction and is very good with technology. He wound up on Dagobah, and he's currently working on building himself a light saber.
If you've played with your group before, you also know what style of game they like. If you have a player whose reaction to every situation is to kill something, you're going to have to take that into account. You don't necessarily need to provide him with lots of mindless bloodshed, but you should make yourself very familiar with your system's combat mechanics, since you'll need them.
Starting off with people you already hang out with is even more important if you're playing a face-to-face game. If the game gets to a point where everyone needs a break, you'll be perfectly comfortable piling into the car to make a pizza run, breaking out the video games, or just sitting and chatting for a bit. This isn't to say that you should never bring in new people, just that your first game has enough inherent stress as it is, and playing with friends makes it much easier.
One more benefit to knowing alll your players before you ever start is that you have a better chance of putting together a group that gets along as a whole. For example, I've played D&D with several different groups of people, and, out of those gaming groups, there are lots of people I'd happily invite to join a game I might be running. However, there are some who, because of personality clashes, I'd never ask to the same game. Announce to a mailing list or large group that you're running a game and need players, and you might end up with the two guys who have been flaming each other on said mailing list for the last umpteen years doing the same thing in your game.
4. Ask for help. If you've got a game situation that you're not sure how to handle, advice from other GMs can be very useful. Don't let them make your mind up for you, but it's always good to bounce ideas off other people. Also, don't overloook your players as a resource. Earlier, I mentioned that I have one of my players in a pirate adventure. Well, what I know about wooden sailing ships could be written on, if not a pin, at least a rather small sheet of paper. But, lucky for me, another player in that game knows more about the subject than I do, and I'm constantly hitting him up for information. This adds to the flavor of the game, and, as an added bonus, I'm learning a lot of interesting things.
Well, that's all the tips I've got for right now. My next article will focus on the idea that it's okay to be a little bit evil when running your game.
1. The Internet is your friend. Because I started playing Multiverser on the forum, it seemed natural to run my game over the Internet. Since I started the game near the beginning of summer vacation, and we were all about to head home from college, it was also a necessity if we wanted to play more frequently than once every month or two.
Running my game over an e-mail list has made things much simpler in a lot of ways. It gives me time to think and plan my next move, and it gives my players the opportunity to think their plans through. Playing on-line is also helpful if you're running characters in separate adventures, whether they're in completely different worlds or just in groups that have split up or not yet encountered each other. Because you don't have to be physically in the same place, no one gets bored waiting while you're dealing with the other group. As an added bonus, each group can move at its own pace. Since I have a couple players who post daily, sometimes twice a day, and another who's more likely to post once a week, it's important that everyone's game can develop at its own speed.
The drawback to this, of course, is that if you have multiple PCs interacting with each other, they need to post at about the same level of frequency for it to work. Otherwise, you may have everyone else getting frustrated while they wait on that one slow poster. Depending on your game and your players, you could end up combining e-mail or forum posts with real time play through WebRPG or a chat room. When people are adventuring separately, they can work at their own pace, but you can still bring everyone together once in a while. If distance isn't an issue, you can also combine internet games with face-to-face sessions.
2. Get yourself a cheat sheet. I've heard this advice from several sources, and it's proved very helpful to me. Rather than wasting time flipping through your rulebook, or even through several sourcebooks, it's a good idea to keep a short list of the most frequently used rules, noting when they apply and how they work. The sooner you can figure out the rule, roll for it, and move on, the happier everyone will be. This is especially useful if you run multiple systems or if you just have trouble keeping the rules straight in your head. Going back to tip number one, my Multiverser cheat sheet is here on the GO forums.
Cheat sheets for worlds and adventures are also useful. If, for example, you're running a canned D&D adventure or something from one of the Multiverser books of worlds, you might find yourself spending a lot of time looking things up, and that can detract from the game play. Condensing twenty or fifty pages of source material into a page or two can be tricky, but it's nice to have the most important locations, NPCs and facts about the plot at your fingertips.
If you don't have time to create your own cheat sheet, and you don't want to violate somebody's copyright by photocopying pages of the game book, there are shortcuts you can take. I'm iffy on the copyright regulations, so for some games, copying might be perfectly fine. If that's not an option, whether because of those rules or just because the game's tonight and you don't have time to get to a copy machine, you can always use Post-It notes or dog-ear important pages. You might also want to create, instead of a cheat sheet listing rules, a simpler one with page numbers where those rules can be found. Eventually, you may know off the top of your head that the skill learning rolls are on page 26 or that, in a certain situation, you always roll a d20 and try to get below your willpower stat. When you start off, though, a cheat sheet will make things much simpler.
3. Play with your friends. I refer to my Multiverser game as my "first" GMing experience, but that's not technically true. It's just the first one that got anywhere. A few years ago, I was playing in a Hunter: The Reckoning game on-line, bought the rulebook at the GM's suggestion that each player should have one, and decided I'd like to try my hand at running it. Before I even had my adventure halfway planned out, I sent a message to a mailing list asking for players, and found a couple interested people. Some of them I knew already, some I didn't. Because one was really anxious to start, and I wanted to keep everyone happy, I began the game before I really knew what I wanted to happen and before I was familiar with all the rules. Needless to say, it deteriorated rather quickly.
Because of that experience, I would never suggest starting your first game that way. Instead, grab a couple players from your current gaming group or other people you consider friends. Not only will your friends be more understanding of the time it takes you to prepare, they'll also be more forgiving of the mistakes you make and more likely to give you a second chance if things don't work out quite the way they'd hoped. If you advertise your game to people you don't know, you may get some players with pretty high expectations who might be ready to bail (or just sit there and complain) if your game isn't quite flawless.
Knowing your players also has another benefit. You can use what you know about their personalities to design adventures that appeal to them. One of my friends owns about a dozen swords, is passionate about the Middle Ages, and quotes from The Princess Bride constantly. So, I threw him onto the pirate ship Revenge where he's having a blast learning fencing, fighting, and piracy from the Dread Pirate Roberts. Another player is into science fiction and is very good with technology. He wound up on Dagobah, and he's currently working on building himself a light saber.
If you've played with your group before, you also know what style of game they like. If you have a player whose reaction to every situation is to kill something, you're going to have to take that into account. You don't necessarily need to provide him with lots of mindless bloodshed, but you should make yourself very familiar with your system's combat mechanics, since you'll need them.
Starting off with people you already hang out with is even more important if you're playing a face-to-face game. If the game gets to a point where everyone needs a break, you'll be perfectly comfortable piling into the car to make a pizza run, breaking out the video games, or just sitting and chatting for a bit. This isn't to say that you should never bring in new people, just that your first game has enough inherent stress as it is, and playing with friends makes it much easier.
One more benefit to knowing alll your players before you ever start is that you have a better chance of putting together a group that gets along as a whole. For example, I've played D&D with several different groups of people, and, out of those gaming groups, there are lots of people I'd happily invite to join a game I might be running. However, there are some who, because of personality clashes, I'd never ask to the same game. Announce to a mailing list or large group that you're running a game and need players, and you might end up with the two guys who have been flaming each other on said mailing list for the last umpteen years doing the same thing in your game.
4. Ask for help. If you've got a game situation that you're not sure how to handle, advice from other GMs can be very useful. Don't let them make your mind up for you, but it's always good to bounce ideas off other people. Also, don't overloook your players as a resource. Earlier, I mentioned that I have one of my players in a pirate adventure. Well, what I know about wooden sailing ships could be written on, if not a pin, at least a rather small sheet of paper. But, lucky for me, another player in that game knows more about the subject than I do, and I'm constantly hitting him up for information. This adds to the flavor of the game, and, as an added bonus, I'm learning a lot of interesting things.
Well, that's all the tips I've got for right now. My next article will focus on the idea that it's okay to be a little bit evil when running your game.
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