My first 3 were self written, and they got progressively better. Or course when you are at the bottom.....
I did do an AP eventually.
I skipped a question. I first GM'd after about a year, and while a I knew the rules as a player I was not prepared for the other side of the screen.
AP's are easier, but it still helps to know the rules, and they are not perfect for every group so you may have to make minor adjustments.
The more you need to know the better. How much you need to know depends on your players. I would suggest having the book nearby or an internet connection to look up rules. After you player for a while many rules will become second nature though.
I would run a multipart module first or a few modules that you connect through a story line before doing an AP. That way you won't end up in high level territory too quickly. I am assuming you are new to the game.
I am a bit adventurous (read: wreckless) when it comes to this. I played bi-weekly for about a year in some short campaigns that never actually finished. My first 3 characters were clerics and my 4th one was a mixed ranger/rogue. I was GM'ing soon after with a campaign I had crudely drawn up over the summer. It was a heck of a journey and there were some headaches as I looked up rules myself constantly and had players with more experience than me always catching my mistakes. (which lessened my swing when I wanted to intentionally diminish rules for story-line) Needless to say, it was a bit of a gong-show but everyone had fun at some point during the night and I learned some valueable lessons about prep-work, quick math, people skills, story-telling, people skills, group management, and many other things.
I guess to be more direct; GM when you feel comfortable doing so. Know your stuff and be able to think on the fly. I would not recommend doing a homebrew campaign as your first step into the big-boy seat though.
I started GM'ing two years before I ever got to play and about a year before I learnt the rules (the rules back then being Alternity).
I lived in a small town, and while I had heard of this thing called roleplaying I didn't have anyone to show me the ropes. So I got a few friends together and we make believed as good as we could :p
In the beginning I made my own adventures based on the computer games I had played growing up. It just recently as work and responsibilities keeps me busy that I've started relying on pre made adventures and adventure paths.
We were young when we started playing, so my players didn't mind that we didn't know the rules or the plot was thin.
I wish I could have afforded more adventures when I was younger. They are a great crutch when you are new. Give you finished encounters, and a background and plot to build upon.
As I recall it, the day after my first session as a player I was drawing maps and rolling up characters between customers at my job as a drive in bank teller. Within a week I was running my first campaign.
I have run only a single module in 30 years, and that was entirely due to not wanting to redo my entire world to check out 4e since I was skeptical about 4e as a game experience. I didn't like it.
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Brad,
It took two sessions before I was in the GM seat. That was in the Living Greyhawk Organized Play days.
The best way to get into DM'ing is to join an organized play (such as Pathfinder Society), play some sessions, and then run some sessions. This way you're not investing too heavily into a long-term story-line while working on the learning curve.
-Perry
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I played my first game of D&D when I was 8. It was just me and the GM (he was 13 and stuck babysitting me), and we didn't really follow the rules. After the game he gave me his copy of Lantham's Gold, a solo adventure - which I played through several times despite not knowing any of the rules or having the rulebooks.
If not for that (which, IMHO, barely counts has having played), then it would be entirely fair to say that I DM'd my first actual game of D&D, when I bought the Red Box in 1986 (I was 10).
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Played the game with some kids up the street with the book from the Red Box but nobody had actually read it so we made up all the rules as we went along and barely used the book for anything. The next day, I was DMing a game without the book based on my memory of the previous night and that's pretty much how it was until several years later when I finally managed to get some 2nd Ed books. Really more interactive storytelling than RPGing, but I think it still counts. We called it D&D anyway.
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I think my first attempt DMing was about 4 or 5 years after I started playing. It went very poorly that is to say, I was unprepared and I was really unprepared to fake it. Also, I was young and kind of shyer than I am now. I tried again a few years later in seattle but got kind of flustered after the first adventure. It was very open ended and it caused me a lot of stress. Still, better. Shortly after that I ran a ptolus group to about 5th level which was actually quite a lot of fun for them but it had some issues with a player playing a broken character and yet again here was something that was a challenge to me that I couldn't meet at the time. I still feel that providing a challenge for a group when there is a specific broken build is hard to keep it fun for me, but it's not as huge a thing anymore. I recently started a LOF game which I was really psyched about but our group fell apart and I'm hoping I can get it back together. It doesn't help that I'm surrounded by very good GM's.
It is harder to tell a story for others than it is to tell your own story. That said, the AP's provide a decent start for that. Some may be easier than others. I kinda dread the fourth and fifth book for the LOF campaign which I hope we can start up again soon, four being very open ended and then five being very linear and dangerous. Regardless, you should learn some good skills in a fairly structured way and that's valuable. Especially if you have patient players and good voice. =)
I think I started GMing about a week after buying a boxed version of Basic D&D back in the (mumble). I immediately grasped the concept but still had not figured out all the rules so my friends and I free formed it on the playground.
I say as soon as you have the desire to try is exactly the time you should. You are going to make mistakes. Get over it and jump in with both feet. This is why I also strongly disagree with anyone who says you have to know the rules backwards and forwards or any other prerequisites. This isn't brain surgery. Make mistakes, learn from them, carry on.
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I GM'ed before I ever played. I also started with the Basic D&D Red Box.
Seriously, though, if you still have that around, pull it out and read it. It was genius in the ability to teach someone what the game was about and how to play, assuming that you've got no idea what you're getting into. It's honestly that good.
The magic of the Red Box was that you honestly didn't need to find a group to teach you how to play; you could start new groups with complete neophytes out of whole cloth. That's power, man.
I GMed because I was the oldest one. I think when I was 8. Yeah, the games sucked, no source material and being 8. lol.
You don't have to know the rules perfectly to DM, you just have to know them better than your players. :)
I think I also started with the D&D Basic Set, red box set also. Back in 1978 or something. First printing!
Perhaps buying the Paizo beginners box set would help?
I started playing D&D seriously about 2 years ago. Took a six month break for the military. ;D I was really bored in training, so I picked up some Pathfinder books on the weekends, and I got hooked on it. I didn't play for the whole 6 months I was there because no one was interested.
One medical discharge later, I'm at home looking at going to college with all of the guys I hung out with before, and now I have all of this Pathfinder stuff. One guy had a ton of 4e stuff (and he still continues to buy it, poor sap) but none of us like 4e, so I took over DMing, since our usual DMs don't live in the town where we go to college.
So, technically, a little over a year, playing what might average out to 2 games a month. I started with the Master of the Fallen Fortress module, which I botched. XD Then I just started making crap up. I'm really bad at running prewritten things for some reason - not that I'd say I'm "good" at improv, but jumping in head first like that has definitely improved my DMing AND the way I play.
I recommend this and this if you're new to DMing. Don't take it anything as gospel, but as excellent advice to be mulled over.
I'd been playing for about 3 or 4 months, so this would've been very early in 1986. I wrote my first adventure based on the Dio song "Sacred Heart". Great song. Horrible game. I guess I've gotten better, because in 25+ years of gaming I've been the gamemaster for D&D/Pathfinder over 90% of this time. Whenever I try to take a break and let someone else do it, they won't let me. I reckon that means I'm doing a good job.
EDIT: Some prior posters have mentioned that they either don't like to or aren't very good at running prewritten modules and APs. Sadly, that's me, too. In all my years I've run two modules that I can recall; 1e's "Baba Yaga's Hut" and another module from a Dragon Magazine the title of which I can't recall.
Don't get me wrong; some modules and APs are literally works of art (IMHO). But my group has never been one to follow the Yellow Brick Road, so to speak. Modules tend to give players Options A,B, or C to complete the adventure. My guys always chose Option Q and I'd have to make it up from there, anyway. So now I'll mine modules and Adventure Paths for all the goodies and let my players go where they may.
I started DM-ing in 1988 after having played for 6 years and co-DM-ed for 3 years. I thought I knew the rules pretty well, but when DM-ing I noticed that I did not know them at all. Somehow I always managed to camouflage this for my players. E.g. I forgot to read about the size of the rooms (notably the ceiling height) and then decided to improvise this during a session. What I learned early is to make notes, in order to make all improvisations stick (and see to it that the size of rooms does not change between sessions). I also learned that DM-ing is only partly about knowing the rules. That is only one aspect of it. Another aspect is to pretend you know what you are doing and not to hesitate when making a DM decision. And to be consistent. I also know that I got away with a lot in these first sessions, partly because I am fond of storytelling and somehow had a good story in the campaign, in which the players were interested, and partly because I took care not to railroad them and respect their decisions.
As for my knowledge of the rules: I am still learning. (You can read through the rulebooks only so many times and there is no way you are going to remember them all).
OMG, most of you people were DMing before or near the time I was born.
O_O; I feel like I'm in elementary school.
If all else fails and you're really stumped at how to react to something, you need a "bathroom break."
Yes, that is what I do! Especially when the group casts a divination spell and I want to come up with a nice cryptic clue on the spot. It is quiet there, without players talking, so that you can think.
Problem is: when I really have to go, my players always say: "O no, watch out! The DM is going to the bathroom. What horrors will we experience next?" :-)
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I tried GMing the day after I first played. Needless to say, it didn't go well. (I was twelve at the time, but I think my lack of familiarity with the system was the reason for not doing so well.)
Adventure Paths are fairly hard to run because you can't just say "You all meet in a bar and decide to clean out the Caves of Horror." You still have to make up your own descriptive text (especially when the adventure is less-than-well-written), keep the plot moving, and look stuff up. It's almost easier to make your own adventure because you know what you intended.
You don't need to know a lot to run a game. You need to be able to adjudicate, though. Don't be afraid to ask players what the rules are; don't be afraid to ask them to look up the rules; don't be afraid to make a ruling over their heads.