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Advice


I'm new to pathfinder, and I never played D&D. Recently a group of my friends who have experience with 3.5 and 4.0 started up a campaign, but I'm not sure the gm will stick around. I want to go from noob to gm material as quickly as I can, because I don't want the group to lose its momentum.

Really, I'm looking for advice like what books should I read and what online resources (perhaps other than paizo's site) that I could use to learn how to be a true game master. I just don't really know what resources I need to be drawing from in order to become a gm proper.

Silver Crusade

While there are many, many, many books, articles and accessories for learning how to be a good GM, nothing beats practise.

The best way to start is simply with the Beginner Box. It has all you need laid out simply and read to use. It also walks players through character creation, which is especially useful if they are coming from another edition, as there are many similarities between Pathfinder and D&D, but many subtle differences, too.

It also has a limited set of rules and options, which allows you to master the rules of the game at your own pace, rather than be bombarded with splat books and add-ons. Just get the Box, read the rules, and run through the adventure. Think of it as the Tutorial Mode for Pathfinder.

After that, go with one of the Adventure Paths, or one of the chained module sets. A published adventure does a lot of the "heavy lifting" for you as a GM, with pre-made stat blocks, plots, and tips on how to handle PCs that go "off the rails" (and they will).

Once you get comfortable with all that, then start getting into developing your own adventures, and read some of the good material made for GMs.


I would start with the rule book. Become comfortable with the basic rules (initiative, spell casting, CR, ability checks, combat) then get your hands on a low level adventure path. Paizo has a number of free ones. Read the adventure path from start to finish. Then look it over again. Then look over the monsters in the AP. Then run it.

You will need to read the AP twice so you can truly understand the consequences of your players actions and how events fit together. You will also need to understand how to play the monsters. Is it smart? Dumb? stealthy? Does it have special powers? How do those powers work mechanically? Can you keep one as a pet? Etc...

After the game ask your players if they liked how it ran what they would have changed or done differently. Take the good with the bad and thank them for the input. Then do better.:)

As for resources I've found GnomeStew to be a very helpful.

Sovereign Court

Uriel's advice is excellent. Definitely start eith the beginner's box.

Once that is done and you move on to the full game, find a helpful friend and run through some encounters with them to see how they feel. Things like, a simple fight, a fight with spell casters, encountering a trap and escaping from a well.

Mage Evolving is right to recommend Gnome Stew.

I would add Steve Winter's articles on the Kobold Quarterly website: they are clear, thoughtful and seem aimed at beginners.


Learn to love preparation.

Learn to love when players break your plan/outsmart you.

Learn as many accents as you can, even if you suck at them.

Study people and learn to emulate mannerisms you can work into NPCs.

Learn to emulate the speech patterns of others.

Learn to have no shame.

Learn that table top is not a competition, it is a meeting of minds to create a story. This means sometimes you sacrifice your awesome encounter that took you three hours of work in favour of the combined experience.

GMing is a lesson is learned masochism, but it is more rewarding than almost any other thing I do.

A healthy god complex also helps.


Also remember that all tunnels lead to the dragon's cave.

The illusion of choice is all the players need to have. If you make a dragon's cavern with 5 exits, you don't need to plan what is down every exit. Plan one or two with interesting things. First one players go down: midden heap with some nasty trash-eating monster! Next one they choose: prison cell with someone who has a useful tip for killing the dragon! Third one they go down: dragon! Always the third one... weird...

If you make all five ahead of time and the players randomly go down the dragon's tunnel and finish the dungeon, well, you can still use the other four branches in another game. Maybe the midden-heap trash monster tunnel encounter get's a new skin as a sewer passage; same work, different paragraph describing the surroundings.

And don't forget Murphy's Paradox - The more detailed your plans, the more places you have to fail.

Players have the most amazing knack at destroying well laid plans. They will break into attics when you wanted them to use the front door; they will stone meld directly through the eight walls to the king's chamber instead of fighting through the dungeon. Don't discourage them.

Just remember you are always in control of everything... so what if they get into the chamber early? The evil king is in his laboratory right now... your players will never know you planned a great fight in the throne room! They will think you are quite clever to anticipate all the crazy things they can do!


I wouldn't even call it a knack. I am convinced there is a secret message board somewhere on the internet for players who never DM where they come up with devious plans on how to derail a campaign.

I believe this secret message board was invented by one of my first players.

Quick story:
Picked up Dark Sun boxed set for 2nd edition.
Ran low level adventure that comes with the box.
Players start as slaves.
Slave caravan gets fubared, players get basic equipment and water (water is like a magic item, but better, in Dark Sun... real Dark Sun, not 4e Dark Sun).

The FIRST encounter listed in that adventure is a run in when thirsty caravan guards roaming the desert.

What does this player do when the guards demand they hand over their water? He dumps the water into the sand.

The adventure then became the "find water or die" adventure.


Fleshgrinder wrote:
The adventure then became the "find water or die" adventure.

I aboslutely loved 2E Dark Sun precisely for these types of adventures. Characters who were careless with their mundane equipment had a rough time of it. Conversely, everyone had very high ability scores ... which made players who like to be badasses love it.

Grand Lodge

I participated in my first Pathfinder Society last week "Scenario 43: The Pallid Plague." I received a completion paper of the scenario with experience & gold on it, but I'm unsure how to enter it online to keep track of what I've done. Any help in this is most appreciated.

I already entered the Pathfinder # group #53229 & confirmation code:9K4BGS

How can I enter my gold earned & experience earned?

The Exchange

@Gatin That nifty piece of paper is called a chronicle sheet. Paizo tracks these when the session using your Pathfinder number is reported by the GM running the scenario. as far as tacking you experience and gold for the character is something you have to do yourself and can do on your characters sheet.

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