Tonight im running my first proper game of pathfinder after doing a tester game with just a couple of people just over a month ago.
My friend finished his call of cthulhu game last week so this week its my turn, im looking forward to it but yet bloody nervous as i now have a group of 6 where as before it was 3, i must have made some sort of an impression with my improved seeion to get other people interested.
So now i have some cool little handouts sorted which me and the gf made (tea stained paper to look like parchment and the like) and a good idea of what i think the party is most likely going to be doing tonight as they have elected to carry on from where the tester game left off.
But i just wanted to ask if anyone has any hints and tips for gm'ing a session, any quick solutions to unexpected problems that kinda thing.
the pathfinder book does have some helpfull hints to for this kinda thing but i wanted to ask you experienced gm's out there if theres anything you personally have in your arsenal to keep the game running smoothly.
I will of course give an update as to how the game went later on tonight if i get chance.
Wish me luck
You can never predict everything players will do.
Long rules debates get boring and take away from gaming time.
Most importantly have fun.
Good luck and have fun!
1.)Have fun. There is no right or wrong way to play. The best thing you can do is play a style that everyone likes.
1.a)You may have to be the one who starts the roleplaying ball.
If you are having trouble encouraging roleplaying, typically don't let your players get away with saying, "I'm going to ask the shopkeeper for a longsword.. how much does it cost so I can mark it off on my sheet?"
Tell them they arrive at what appears to be a small runty shop with an anvil on the door. The character is bombarded with the smell of coal soot and hot iron and its very dark. A small, charred, beardless, one eyed dwarf stops hammering away at the forge, eyes you up and down in an intimidating manner, and says, "this ain't no pansy elf art gallery better get to speakin' your business or leavin' me be."
You'll figure out when its appropriate to have roleplaying and when its ok to just deduct the gold and pencil in a trinket. Just keep in mind that some of the best game memories and running jokes are made from simple in-character actions.
2.)You're the DM. You will are responsible for knowing every single rule for everything all the time. That being said.. this is impossible so just rule as fair and just as you can. Rule as things happen and don't waste too much time looking things up. Make sure you rule consisitently and fairly to everyone. No favorites.
3.) Players do unexpected things. Sometimes things will take them MUCH longer than you anticipate and other things will take MUCH shorter amounts. Example: It took my group of players about 45 minutes to an hour to figure out how to jump over a simple 10ft chasm.
4.)Write and track things in combat. Don't rely on just your head. Keep track of durations with tally marks, HPs, and most importantly: combat order.
5.)Speaking of combat, with 6 people combat encounters can last 30 minutes to an hour in real life.
6.) If you haven't already gotten them, Paizo sells awesome washable dry-erase mats. Buy a few of these and a set of dry-erase markers and it will do wonders for visualizing combats.
Best of luck! Hope I helped.
I've only played in improper games, so I can't help you. ;-)
I agree with everyone else -- if you go into it with the attitude of having fun, it should turn out okay.
I always ask my players what type of game they are looking for i.e. lots of magic or little, do they like role playing, how about character backgrounds, and do they prefer home made worlds or modules? If no one can agree on a specific rule, you need to make a ruling and then go over that rule the following day. I GM a group of 4 and that is difficult enough, but six can get out of hand if they don't have a leader speaking for them. Have fun!!!
These are some things I have found greatly improve the gaming sessions in my campaigns:
1. Have the party give you a copy of their character sheets, or at least have all their key attributes available so you don't have to ask them things like "What's your AC again?"
2. Pre-load all of your encounters, have all the NPC or monster's stats, know what tactics they will use, have notes about any spells or spell-like abilities they may use and lay out the "loot" the party can find in advance. If the loot includes things like potions or wands, don't be afraid to use them against the party.
3. For your key NPCs, have some personality key to work from so you can quickly adopt that personality. I sometimes use characters from movies or books, and sometimes use people from work as my guide for basic personalities.
4. Identify someone in the group to be your "adjunct GM" and allow them to look up rules questions while you keep the game moving.
5. Write down the basic plot of the session. But do not, I repeat DO NOT expect the players to stick to it. And whatever you do, don't force them to stick to it. Be as prepared as you can, but be ready to wing it.
6. Don't be afraid to wing it. Improvisation is a skill that improves with use. Most good GMs are masters of improvisation. I have run entire sessions that were totally improvised in the past, and some of them have been among the most fun I've had playing the game.
First: have fun. If it's not fun, why play?
Second: If you can't find the rule in less than 60 seconds, make a judgment call with the following caveat, "This is how I'm ruling right now, when I find the rule I will tell you and that will stand for the future." This allows the game to keep going, but allows you to follow the rules more closely as you gain more DM experience and memorize more of the rules. I like brassbaboon's idea of an adjunct DM too!
Third: Find out what the players want. I'm guessing that as a novice DM you will be following some sort of module? If so, change out the loot for what your players want/ will use. From experience, handing out the loot in the module/AP to inexperienced players without consideration of player wants/needs results in a session grinding to a halt in town while they sell all the junk that you gave them, then hunt through the book for what they want.
Fourth: If your players are not interested in role-playing town interactions (shopping, etc), handle it over email in between sessions. It's more fun if they want to role play, but that's not everybody's cup of tea. If they just want to get to the next dungeon and kill stuff, email shopping helps to get them there faster in the next session.
That's just what I could think of off the top of my head. In case you couldn't tell, I'm also a realtively new DM with a group of players who have not played much at all outside of video games.
If your players use spells, learn them well countless times in my games people misread/misunderstand the spells they use.
If your players use spells, learn them well countless times in my games people misread/misunderstand the spells they use.
This is great advice, but not something the OP will be able to do in one afternoon.
What I have done in the past is ask the players to give me a list of the spells they think they will use most frequently and then I try to read up on them. I have to admit that I am a long-time gamer, and I actually read rule books for fun, but I don't know all the rules for all the spells. I just don't think that's possible. The real trick is to be able to look them up quickly if you need to. There are some downloadable programs that really help with this. I have a Pathfinder spellbook on my droid, it helps a lot.
What adventure will you be throwing at your players? Rise of the Runelords? A module? Something you've created?
Ultradan
Right that the session done.
it was something i had made up myself after i had initially done a tester game with a smaller group just over a month ago and they wanted to carry on where they left off.
But anyway the session went fairly smoothly only a few of brief stops to check rules and such and most of those wernt by me :) unfortunetly we did have rather a late start due to circumstances out of our control so we only got about half the amount of time in that i had hoped for.
As for what i was running, i'll try and be brief, a tribe of orcs and goblins were attempting to expand their territory and their was a call to arms to support the local militia and guard while waiting for the army proper to turn up, some scouts had located a blockade camp set up on a road leading eventually to a southern port town, the party was tasked with scouting it out assesing the situation and if possible neutralize the camp.
Some of my players being the bloody thirsty lot they are decided to forego most of the exploring and speak up to the camp (unsuccesfully) thus alerting the guard and patrols and combat ensued, there were some really good moments but due to the short time i didnt quite manage to get the combat sorted before we had to call time but still everyone really seemed to enjoy themselfs so overall quite a decent session.
Thankyou to all who offered tips i used them when i could.
Roll on next wednesday for the next session :)
Tonight im running my first proper game of pathfinder after doing a tester game with just a couple of people just over a month ago.
My friend finished his call of cthulhu game last week so this week its my turn, im looking forward to it but yet bloody nervous as i now have a group of 6 where as before it was 3, i must have made some sort of an impression with my improved seeion to get other people interested.
So now i have some cool little handouts sorted which me and the gf made (tea stained paper to look like parchment and the like) and a good idea of what i think the party is most likely going to be doing tonight as they have elected to carry on from where the tester game left off.
But i just wanted to ask if anyone has any hints and tips for gm'ing a session, any quick solutions to unexpected problems that kinda thing.
the pathfinder book does have some helpfull hints to for this kinda thing but i wanted to ask you experienced gm's out there if theres anything you personally have in your arsenal to keep the game running smoothly.I will of course give an update as to how the game went later on tonight if i get chance.
Wish me luck
Good luck!
Try not to get bogged down in rules debates, they just drag the game down to a crawl and it gets boring. If that situation crops up in my game I usually rule in favor of the PC and then resolve it later with research.
Remember that you're a storyteller and they're seeing the world through your descriptions.
Keep it light and fun, make the characters feel powerful and heroic and then you'll be the hero GM :)