So I had my first GM'ing experience this weekend. I'd like to share, and hear what other people's experiences were like.
My gaming group consists of seven people (including me) but only four of us can currently meet regularly. Everybody else has run a game (3.5, 4th Ed, WoD Changeling/Mage/Hunter) except for me. I decided to play a game of GURPS set in the Mass Effect universe. I statted out all the races and equipment in addition to the story. None of us had played GURPS before, so things went real slow at the beginning. Character creation took about 2.5 hours, mainly because I had to do most of the work being the only person who was at all familiar with the system.
Once we got into play it went really well. The story I came up with was straight forward and relatively linear just so we could all ease into the new system and I wouldn't be overwhelmed running the game. Most things went as planned, except I allowed the PCs to have a couple toys that I'm going to have to take back. One of the players was an Elcor and another was a Salarian. The Salarian and Elcor split the cost of a heavy machine gun to mount on the Elcor's back. This works and is pretty close to how the Elcor actually wage war. Unfortunately, the gun is REDICULOUSLY powerful and totally unbalanced the game. In what was supposed to be the climactic shootout with a Krogan bodyguard ended with the PCs surprising the Krogan and blowing him away in a single burst before he could even draw his gun. Oops. No more HMG for them. But overall it was a fun night.
So what was your first GM'ing experience like?
Also: Take THAT thread monster! I copied my post before you ate it.
So I had my first GM'ing experience this weekend. I'd like to share, and hear what other people's experiences were like.
My gaming group consists of seven people (including me) but only four of us can currently meet regularly. Everybody else has run a game (3.5, 4th Ed, WoD Changeling/Mage/Hunter) except for me. I decided to play a game of GURPS set in the Mass Effect universe. I statted out all the races and equipment in addition to the story. None of us had played GURPS before, so things went real slow at the beginning. Character creation took about 2.5 hours, mainly because I had to do most of the work being the only person who was at all familiar with the system.
Once we got into play it went really well. The story I came up with was straight forward and relatively linear just so we could all ease into the new system and I wouldn't be overwhelmed running the game. Most things went as planned, except I allowed the PCs to have a couple toys that I'm going to have to take back. One of the players was an Elcor and another was a Salarian. The Salarian and Elcor split the cost of a heavy machine gun to mount on the Elcor's back. This works and is pretty close to how the Elcor actually wage war. Unfortunately, the gun is REDICULOUSLY powerful and totally unbalanced the game. In what was supposed to be the climactic shootout with a Krogan bodyguard ended with the PCs surprising the Krogan and blowing him away in a single burst before he could even draw his gun. Oops. No more HMG for them. But overall it was a fun night.
So what was your first GM'ing experience like?
Also: Take THAT thread monster! I copied my post before you ate it.
Yea that kind of thing can happen in games. Learning to cope with that kind of stuff takes some time, but once you get the hang of it you'll learn to anticipate the players. As for my first time DM'ing? I honestly can't remember anymore...I think it was the old WEG Ghostbusters or the good ole' Red Box. Don't even remember the adventure (prob a module) but back then it was: enter the dungeon, rush in to a normal sized door to fight a huge storm giant in a normal sized room, then loot the treasure chest. Things have changed some...
|
2.5 hours for GURPS character generation? Surely you prevaricate!
Seriously, though, sounds like a good first experience. GURPS is still, and probably always will be, my favorite system. Glad to see people still having fun with it!
Heavy weapons can break the game, but can also be moderated. I almost always have one character with an H&H Express if the TL's high enough. 10d6 damage is a girl's best friend.
2.5 hours for GURPS character generation? Surely you prevaricate!
Seriously, though, sounds like a good first experience. GURPS is still, and probably always will be, my favorite system. Glad to see people still having fun with it!
Heavy weapons can break the game, but can also be moderated. I almost always have one character with an H&H Express if the TL's high enough. 10d6 damage is a girl's best friend.
This beast was a Gauss HMG from Ultratech. 16d(3) Pi. The wielder had an 18 in Gunner(Machine Gun) and went full burst. Four hits=splattered Krogan. The Krogan had a grenade launcher that would have made them duck for cover and nullified the mounted weapon, but he never got a chance to act. The poor guy.
|
|
This beast was a Gauss HMG from Ultratech. 16d(3) Pi. The wielder had an 18 in Gunner(Machine Gun) and went full burst. Four hits=splattered Krogan. The Krogan had a grenade launcher that would have made them duck for cover and nullified the mounted weapon, but he never got a chance to act. The poor guy.
Hee, sounds like fun. Nothing says loving like a crew served weapon.
hmm; my first gm experience; not sure I can remember, was like 30 years ago and was probably with Kojan who posts on these boards too. Hmm, I think the first thing I ran was an adventure out of Dragon Magazine: The Midas Orb. I didnt really read the end bag guy very closely and he was like a 9th level mage and the party was about 3rd level at the time; lol; most of the dungeon is just goblins; so I had him shake his fist at the party and flee and become a recurring bad guy. This was also the experience I learned that pc's will tend to move into a dungeon/castle that they conquer and at the time had no idea what to do about that. This may not have been my first; but it was one of them way back there near the beginning. Everyone else was running ready made modules and making there own stuff; so I was reading Dragon and trying to catch up.
I really learned to read and study the entire adventure before I run it; I still see a lot of peeps running games they just open and havent read yet and shake my head. I remember the one of the hardest things was trying to explain directions and finding the write up in the mag about the place on the map.
At least that was one of my very early gm experiences, I remember my friend Pat Allis saying; wow; playing at your house is cool; your mom makes snacks." lol. Mom had made a whole tray of stuff. So because of that; food and snacks have always been an intergal part of any game I run.
When I started as DM I always had problems with sizes of rooms, heights of ceilings, etc. The players then asked: "How high is the ceiling?" And then I had to say "ehhm" or improvise. Usually I improvised wrong, and then the monsters did not fit into the room, etc. So now when I prepare an adventure this is one of the first things I check out, and make notes of.