How would you react to a PFS GM who admits to not being honed up on the PF rules?

[Curious]

DigitalMage wrote:

How would you react?

Would you be annoyed that your GM is not competent enough?

Your thoughts and feedback would be welcomed!

I would be happy to have a GM.

I find GM and PCs that know the rules too well to be a bigger source of annoyance than ones that make minor mistakes.

An incompentent GM is one that has not prepared the campaign they are going to run such as looking up a NPC feats/spells in the middle of the combat.

[sieylianna]

At conventions and game days, I am happy to have a judge, no matter how qualified he may be. I've played in games at Gen Con where the judge had never seen the system before. Any judge is better than no game, you just have to be more patient. I've run games at conventions where I hadn't seen the module ahead of time and in systems that I had previously only played.

However, if you are going to sign up to judge, then you owe it to your players to prepare the module and to have a sone idea of the game rules. I would recommend judging for friends before you try to judge for strangers. Some people are just jerks.

[Daniel Moyer]

The world needs more DMs, better you than me... err, I mean... thanks for volunteering!

Also don't sweat the PF Grapple rules. Our group fought it originally too. CMB/CMD are simply an alternate attack(to hit) and defense(AC) for the Combat Manuever system, it looks overwhelming at first, it's not.

Good luck!

[bugleyman]

Gorbacz wrote:

I swear you have some script that rings out a big alarm in your house every time somebody uses the words "core" and "only" in one sentence over here.

Hey!

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...it's not that big.

[DigitalMage]

sieylianna wrote:

However, if you are going to sign up to judge, then you owe it to your players to prepare the module and to have a sone idea of the game rules. I would recommend judging for friends before you try to judge for strangers. Some people are just jerks.

I always prep scenarios, and have in the pass not-commited to running games at cons because I wasn't sure I would have the scenario written / prepped in time, only to find I play in some games where the GM sits down and says "I didn't finish writing the scenario you signed up to so I am going to run XYZ, is that okay?" :(

Daniel Moyer wrote:

Also don't sweat the PF Grapple rules. Our group fought it originally too. CMB/CMD are simply an alternate attack(to hit) and defense(AC) for the Combat Manuever system, it looks overwhelming at first, it's not.

I am actually pretty okay with the PF Grapple rules as I learned them for my grappling half orc Druid PC :) I just don't like them (much prefer 3.5 grapple that actually made sense and was detailed in one section rather than across four different chapters).

Anyway, thanks for all the responses and advice - my reading list has grown a bit (reading Bulldogs! will be postponed) and I am hopong to run at least one scenario for my monthly PFS group before running at cons just to make sure I get it all right - I'll also probably be buying the GM screen in hardcopy too.

[Herald]

Just jumping in here for a moment to echo pretty much what everyone else has said and at the Venture Captain dinner, this thread was one of the many topics of conversations. I think it was unanimously felt that people who want to step up to the plate should be supported and pretty much fostered in PFS.

I know from that conversation that if there was one thing that we could recommend to any one starting of in Socety play would be to tell the GM to be a good facilitator and build from there. Much of what a player can do should be...handled by the player. Granted you will get complete newcomers and the will have to get some hand holding, but chances are you can share that responsibility with another player. Most of what a GM should do is keep things moving as smoothly as possible, understand when to look a rule and when to make a call to just move on, and I don't think that is really all that hard.

The fact that you care to ask the question, like you have shows me that you care and that says to me that your ready to step up to the plate. So game on!

[DigitalMage]

Michael Griffin-Wade wrote:

The fact that you care to ask the question, like you have shows me that you care and that says to me that your ready to step up to the plate. So game on!

Thanks for the support! And its good to know that such topics were being discussed by the venture captains.

Re the newbies bit, the pre-gen characters that include a full description of the feats look very useful and preclude the need to explain everything to a new player. I will definately make use of them when I GM.

[james maissen]

Michael Griffin-Wade wrote:

Granted you will get complete newcomers and the will have to get some hand holding, but chances are you can share that responsibility with another player.

While everyone is being supportive and I don't mean to alter that feeling for you, there is a reason that I would suggest that you don't start GMing a system that you're not comfortable with at a -Convention-.

Most people learn a majority of the game at the table by playing it. I cannot count how many times I've heard someone say 'I've always played it that way' when doing something completely wrong.

This is even more true to new players to PF, as they will be like you in likely knowing 3.5 but not the differences that snuck in with PF.

I know that if I decided to 'try out this new PF thing' at a convention after having played a lot of 3.5 that I would want a GM that knew 'this new PF thing'. I see this as different than say getting a group of friends together to 'figure it out' in a home campaign/game day setting.

So I would suggest two things towards this:

1. You do as you've been saying, and read up some more on the rules.. basically skimming them looking for changes from what you're comfortable with from 3.5.

2. You GM for a home group/game day kind of setting where there can be a supportive group of players that can hold your hand through the transition.

In general players are very supportive of GMs that are 'trying' to do right, and very unforgiving of GMs that 'dictate' that their (incorrect) way is always right. Be upfront about things and most players can realize that it's not 'us vs him' but rather 'all of us' getting together to play a game that we enjoy.

But again I'd suggest that you get your feet wet in the shallow end of the pool rather than the deep end. But if you do dive into the deep end look for the life guards (say rule lawyers) and I would steer clear of those just learning to swim as well (those like you that are new to PF, as you might take them down with you).

Anyway food for thought, and from merely the fact that you're concerned enough to be asking here I think that you'll naturally do fine with all of this,

James

[sieylianna]

DigitalMage wrote:

I always prep scenarios, and have in the pass not-commited to running games at cons because I wasn't sure I would have the scenario written / prepped in time, only to find I play in some games where the GM sits down and says "I didn't finish writing the scenario you signed up to so I am going to run XYZ, is that okay?" :(

That is the big advantage of organized play, whether it's Pathfinder Society or similar offerings from other companies.

When an individual runs his own game, it can be great or it can be horrible. He may have stayed out late the previous night drinking and not show up for the morning slot you signed up to play. (I've seen all these).

Organized play has minimum quality level, generally modules don't suck. On the other hand, the necessity of having a module that is suitable for any party, players of any age, and running in a 4-5 hour time slot means that there is a certain degree of homogenization and few modules are memorable. IME, the organizers try hard to seat as many players as possible, possibly rounding up additional judges if the demand exceeds expectations.

[NeoFax]

I would have no qualms whatsoever sitting at a table with someone that is new at the GM helm. It is a tough task to do well just getting everyone to have fun, let alone knowing every single rule and how they interact with one another. The one thing that I do enjoy about the PFS games I have ran is that the players at the table are more than willing to correct you when you are wrong and work with you on a rule that is not cut and dry. As a matter of fact I am glad when people speak up and let me know if I am doing something wrong, this way I learn and possibly even others at the table do as well.

[AxeMurder0]

Step 1: Run a fun table.
Step 2: Try to follow the rules when appropriate.

(Organized play step 0: do not mess with xp/wealth progression etc)