recommendations for new GM


Advice


Hi There,
I'm going to be running a game for the first time in a few months and I was hoping this forum might provide some specific advice/recommendations.

I'm looking for module/adventure path suggestions you might be able to provide to support a short campaign. I expect that we will be running between 4 and 6 sessions that tend to run about 6 hours a piece. I'm looking for something that would be appropriate for 5 characters level 5 to 7 ish.

I'd like to do something that is wilderness (forest) focused and find the idea of some amount of cave type exploration appealing.

Anything come to mind? I'm open to portions of an adventure path or something third party. I might even cobble something together from bits and pieces of this and that. But given that I've never run a game I'd like a point of reference to make certain my encounters are appropriate.

I'm also specifically looking for thoughts on ability score generation. The group I'm playing with seems very attached to rolling for scores..I really don't like it, but they do. Typically we roll 5d6 and drop the lowest two. Do this six times and then the player assigns the scores as they like. I don't like that the resulting ability scores can very so much between players.

I'm considering introducing a "leveler" for those that role sub standard scores. Something like..if the resulting total ability score modification from your rolls is <x the player gets y additional points to assign as they like. Any thoughts?

Also...I wouldn't say no to any other other advice you might have for a new GM. I've played with a great group for the past 2 years and I'm something of a rules lawyer, so I'm not particularly concerned with the mechanics. I think my biggest challenge will be with RP and story telling....I'm a little uptight ;-)

Thanks all for you time.


Heya! For starters, I think it's great that you're asking these sorts of questions - the willingness to look to all sources for ways to improve the game experience both for yourself and for your players is the first hallmark of a good GM.

That said, I don't use adventure paths (I just prefer to write my own stuff, as I'm picky and like the flexibility) so I can't really make any recommendations. However, I hope I can help with the other questions:

Gwaedh wrote:

I'm also specifically looking for thoughts on ability score generation. The group I'm playing with seems very attached to rolling for scores..I really don't like it, but they do. Typically we roll 5d6 and drop the lowest two. Do this six times and then the player assigns the scores as they like. I don't like that the resulting ability scores can very so much between players.

I'm considering introducing a "leveler" for those that role sub standard scores. Something like..if the resulting total ability score modification from your rolls is <x the player gets y additional points to assign as they like. Any thoughts?

This is one of those situations where you have to ask yourself if you're willing to sacrifice a little of what you want to give the rest of the players a little of what they want. I don't like rolling for scores, either, but if all my players were married to the idea, I'd probably just let them. My goal as a GM is to help everyone have fun, and that often means giving people the freedom to do what they want.

However, I have to ask if your players have ever tried alternate ways of generating stats? If they haven't ever tried point-buying or something else, maybe you could convince them to at least try it out?

There are compromises that can be reached, too: you could roll one set of stats for everyone to use, and maybe allow them to customize it to their liking using the point-buy charts. That may give them the sense of randomness that they like, while still leaving everyone with the same relative stats.

The only thing about random stats that I really want to avoid when I GM is the phenomenon of players deciding their character sucks because of some bad rolls, and making plans to kill them off just to try again. I won't tolerate that kind of flippancy at my table, as it's just a huge waste of time for everyone.

Quote:
Also...I wouldn't say no to any other other advice you might have for a new GM. I've played with a great group for the past 2 years and I'm something of a rules lawyer, so I'm not particularly concerned with the mechanics. I think my biggest challenge will be with RP and story telling....I'm a little uptight ;-)

I guess my best piece of advice in this respect is to be patient with yourself and let yourself find your own style. Every GM has their own style, and that's part of what keeps gaming fresh for those of us who have been doing this for ages.

And as I said before, just remember that fun is the point. Whenever I'm facing a tough decision as a GM, I always try to ask myself: what's more fun?

Otherwise, it's just about maintaining balance. Playing with tension is a lot of fun: the tension should be high during an adventure, then give way to a little downtime between adventures where the players can feel good about themselves and look forward to the next adventure. The problems the PCs face should be challenging enough to keep them from getting bored, but still realistic enough that they don't get too frustrated, etc.

Easier said than done, but ultimately I think players respond well to GMs who are obviously trying their best, no matter how it turns out.


Gwaedh wrote:

... I'm looking for module/adventure path suggestions you might be able to provide to support a short campaign. I expect that we will be running between 4 and 6 sessions that tend to run about 6 hours a piece. I'm looking for something that would be appropriate for 5 characters level 5 to 7 ish.

I'd like to do something that is wilderness (forest) focused and find the idea of some amount of cave type exploration appealing.

Anything come to mind? I'm open to portions of an adventure path or something third party. I might even cobble something together from bits and pieces of this and that. But given that I've never run a game I'd like a point of reference to make certain my encounters are appropriate. ...

I would suggest you try the Curse of the Golden Spear trilogy. It is fairly straight forward for a new GM but has enough that is unexpected to make it fun for them. The reincarnation curse thing is a bit confusing, but not horrible. And will definitely give a potential twist they won't see coming.

I also do not like rolling ability scores. Even though everyone says they are ok with it, there is always someone whose scores are lower and gets upset about it. The only time that doesn't happen is if everyone has such high scores that they are virtual godlings. Then they survive bad builds and/or playing poorly just because of the high abilities. The method you proposed sounds like that. If everyone including you is happy with it ok. But remember, you will have to jack up every encounter because they will be stupidly easy.
I prefer 15 point buy, but they usually talk me into 20 point buy.


Gwaedh wrote:


Anything come to mind? I'm open to portions of an adventure path or something third party. I might even cobble something together from bits and pieces of this and that. But given that I've never run a game I'd like a point of reference to make certain my encounters are appropriate.

I'm also specifically looking for thoughts on ability score generation. The group I'm playing with seems very attached to rolling for scores..I really don't like it, but they do. Typically we roll 5d6 and drop the lowest two. Do this six times and then the player assigns the scores as they like. I don't like that the resulting ability scores can very so much between players.

I'm considering introducing a "leveler" for those that role sub standard scores. Something like..if the resulting total ability score modification from your rolls is <x the player gets y additional points to assign as they like. Any thoughts?

If you are concerned about being able to balance encounters, then you need a far more balanced stat generation. Remember published adventures are written for 4 15 point buy characters. 5d6 drop 2 is dramatically more then 15 point buy on average. So cosider carefully how you handle that if you want to use published material.

Personally I am a fan of 2d6+6 if im rolling. It gives fairly high overall stats, but it also reduces the possible variance in the standard 4d6 drop 1 and certainly less then the method you recommend

Quote:

Also...I wouldn't say no to any other other advice you might have for a new GM. I've played with a great group for the past 2 years and I'm something of a rules lawyer, so I'm not particularly concerned with the mechanics. I think my biggest challenge will be with RP and story telling....I'm a little uptight ;-)

Thanks all for you time.

RP and storytelling comes with practice. My best adice, use voices for major npcs. They dont have to be accents or anything, just shifts in tone. It helps me organize npcs into distinct personalities, and keep them straight as I manage a bunch of characters at once (which to me is the hardest part of dming, rping multiple distinct characters in a session).

Silver Crusade

When I roll stats I say that the resultant scores must total between a 20 and 40 point buy.


An adventure I plan on using myself is Hollow's Last Hope, from Paizo. It's a free download, IIRC. It's originally set for lower-level pc's, but i plan on pumping it up for my group when I get around to using it- probably around 4-5th level for us as well.

It starts out as a wilderness adventure, but transitions to an abandoned monastery towards the end - I'm going to add a dungeon entrance for them to come back to after the scenario is over (gotta love the traditional dungeon crawl!).

Hope that helps!


For the short campaign you want to play, I would recommend Thornkeep.

It is situated in a semi-civilized area next to a huge forest. The section on the town itself contains a ton of adventure hooks for characters, as well as several fully crafted dungeons, including one suitable for the levels you wish to play.

Regarding stats: Currently I give them 16,14,14,13,12,10 before racial adjustments. There are a lot of threads on the forums discussing whether or not higher than average ability scores really affects the game, so you may want to browse around before deciding what method will work for you.

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