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Hey everyone, I was wondering if any of you had advice for someone who is wanting to try their hand at being a DM. I've been playing the game for years, but due to player fallout my group seems to be lacking someone to DM. It's a bit intimidating when my prior DM was quite good, but I'm hoping that with enough study/practice/suggestions I can be just as good. I'll spare you the drama of the group breakup, but needless to say I can't exactly go to my old DM for advice, so I'm coming to you guys for help!
What I'm really looking for (aside from useful advice on how to make a game great for my players) is a good low level campaign for a group of mix experienced and inexperienced. I'd keep it at a 25 point buy (gives wiggle room for the newbies) and restrict it to core class/races for the first go round. Like I said, I'm a very experienced player, but I don't want to overwhelm myself (or the new player) with complicated classes/races (at this time, down the road is a different story). I'm also keeping the group to a six person maximum, I'd prefer smaller, but we'll see who actually commits when it's time to roll the dice.
I'm looking for something that is fun and simple, but still lets the group feel like big darn heroes, or at least little big darn heroes. So, lay it on me! Suggestions, advice on how not to kill my players (both in and out of game), and any other helpful tips you may have. Thanks!
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Now, I myself haven't personally DM'd, although I am likely to very soon as well, I've been trying to come up with a collaboration of things to take into consideration.
Firstly, an engaging story. What you may consider engaging may not apply the same way to the rest of your players. In this sense, you may have to adjust some aspects or elements of what you may have come up with to something else. Example, you may be coming up with a horror filled campaign, but your adventurers may start goofing around with different scenarios such as playing "skull-puppets". Rather than always attempting to make it bleaker and get them immediately back on track, maybe add a little bit of humor and have one of the skulls still alive an animated, biting down on the "puppeteers" fingers, or talk for real, surprising all the other players. Generally, take into consideration your audience. This is true for speeches, movies, writing, it often works its way into roleplaying as well.
When to say no. Sometimes players, rather than going for flavor, will go for downright OP attempted things. Although this may be their definition of fun, if it ruins the fun for the other players, it should be attempted to be stopped, and early before it really takes effect. This mostly occurs when 3rd party material comes into play, or certain iterations upon the normal rules can be interpreted differently. Unless you have taken the time to read up on the clarifications and have a good understanding of what the player is attempting to do, say no until you have had that opportunity, and once clarified, dictate what you believe is right to keep the game enjoyable. When there is one player who disposes all things and issues in their path, leaving the rest of the players in the dust, this can lead to a situation where those other players begin losing interest, and becomes much less enjoyable.
Players that argue. There have been a multitude of threads on this, for a multitude of reasons. If it is personal issues among the players, talk about it outside of the game, and try and rectify the problem there. The largest issues among players are when they take out of game issues into game, and it ruins the mood among those players, even those not directly involved in the issue.
Having a Plan B, C, D, E... In a game such as pathfinder, you can often attempt to lead your adventurers down a certain path, but there are bound to be those situations where they will want to wander, and explorer, diverting from the original path or options available to them. This said, try and picture out how these scenarios may play out differently, and have those back up plans. If you are good at whipping up things on the spot, even better, as you can't picture EVERYTHING, but still better to be at least a little prepared.
Being the overseer, not the evil lord. Do not consider yourself the evil lord at the end of the dungeon. He is but a pawn in the world to do your whim, acting as a piece to lead your players to greater heights or challenges. You are a god, who is omniscient. As such, learn the general key things that your players are working on with their characters. Use these strengths to make an individual player who has been feeling left out feel stronger. Use these weaknesses as a plot enabler in which they need to think outside of the box and use aspects of the world you have constructed to solve the puzzle or problem at hand. Get an idea of what may be to easy for them and what may be too hard. While you definitely do not want to lean over their character sheets 24/7, become acquainted with them enough so you know that you know it, and they aren't cheating in any way.
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Now, I myself haven't personally DM'd, although I am likely to very soon as well, I've been trying to come up with a collaboration of things to take into consideration.
Firstly, an engaging story. What you may consider engaging may not apply the same way to the rest of your players. In this sense, you may have to adjust some aspects or elements of what you may have come up with to something else. Example, you may be coming up with a horror filled campaign, but your adventurers may start goofing around with different scenarios such as playing "skull-puppets". Rather than always attempting to make it bleaker and get them immediately back on track, maybe add a little bit of humor and have one of the skulls still alive an animated, biting down on the "puppeteers" fingers, or talk for real, surprising all the other players. Generally, take into consideration your audience. This is true for speeches, movies, writing, it often works its way into roleplaying as well.
When to say no. Sometimes players, rather than going for flavor, will go for downright OP attempted things. Although this may be their definition of fun, if it ruins the fun for the other players, it should be attempted to be stopped, and early before it really takes effect. This mostly occurs when 3rd party material comes into play, or certain iterations upon the normal rules can be interpreted differently. Unless you have taken the time to read up on the clarifications and have a good understanding of what the player is attempting to do, say no until you have had that opportunity, and once clarified, dictate what you believe is right to keep the game enjoyable. When there is one player who disposes all things and issues in their path, leaving the rest of the players in the dust, this can lead to a situation where those other players begin losing interest, and becomes much less enjoyable.
Players that argue. There have been a multitude of threads on this, for a multitude of reasons. If it is personal issues among the players, talk about it...
This is great, thank you! :D
as tyrantherus said, when you give the players options A, B, and C, 9/10 times they will choose option Q. be prepared for your players to go veering off track from the main story and feel free to improv a little bit. Let your players guide you towards stories. For example i have the main story plot all lined up for my players but they do need side quests to level up, money runs etc. Well a story came up that my players kinda conjured and i ran with it. Don't be afraid to do that
And if you're just starting out and unsure try running an adventure path. Its a campaign all ready to go with little planning needed and enough wiggle room to let the players do what they want.
I definitely recommend going with published adventures, or even an entire adventure path, to start off. As the DM, you'll have a lot on your plate, and this can feel even more so when you are first starting out. Having the adventure(s) already written can certainly take a lot of the pressure, and time, off of you, and leave you more time to make sure you have the rules down, the NPC motivations down, etc.
Note that running published adventures/paths doesn't mean that the players cannot take you by surprise and go off script from the published path. However, with the main framework already in hand, you'll be that much better situated for figuring out how to ad lib in a given scenario. If the players do decide to ignore your hooks and instead go off on their own path, just remember that the NPCs/villains are not like characters in a computer game that will patiently wait for the party to trigger certain encounters. Rather, if the party decides to ignore the obvious hook of the Damsel in Distress, perhaps the Damsel is killed. Or her father hires another band of adventurers to save the day, and now that other band is talk of the town.
As for specific advice, that can take up an entire book, or more. Perhaps the best advice I can give is to relax, enjoy yourself, and don't worry about the missteps. Those are inevitable. I've been DM'ing for close to 14 years and I still make mistakes. We're human after all. After that, take a walk around the internet. There's a plethora of great advice out there at a multitude of locations. One of Paizo's rival sites had a long running series of GM advice written by an excellent GM that can give great insights, but there are also a lot of other, "amateur" GM's out there with excellent advice.
Finally, continue doing what you started here. That is, ask questions as they come up. The gaming community as a whole is great and very supportive. I've rarely had a problem getting advice when needed -- even if I sometimes get contradictory advice. :p
All in all, congratulations on taking up the GM mantle! Have fun and don't sweat it. In my experience the vast majority of players just want to play and they will give you a lot of leeway, especially when you are starting out.
Well, this seems kind of obvious, but have you looked at the GameMastery Guide? It contains lots of useful information, some of it specifically written for new GMs.
Some thinkgs that I can remember from the top of my head are:
* Player types, what they do and how to handle them
* What to do if a character dies
* Different types of campaigns (railroad vs sandbox)
* How to "wing it" if things go unexpectedly
Keep in mind the main thing: It's meant to be fun. As GM, you derive your fun from the players having fun. What that means varies from player to player and GM to GM, so you might take a while to get into your stride; be flexible and HAVE FUN!
That said, you have several options to help you achieve this.
(1) Have materials at hand. There is nothing worse than having the players sit around while have to look up the stats for the celestial dog your encounter has just summoned. Try to keep the flow of the quest smooth, it helps players immerse themselves in the story.
(2) Improvise. If your players do something unexpected, shift what you do accordingly; if they struggle with an encounter and become half dead, cut out or cut back the following encounters; similarly if they do particularly well reinforce the ensuing encounters. For example, in a recent adventure the party dispatched the henchmen before the main protagonist (a wizard) could enter the frey. I decided that he would instead escape, which he did; now the unsuspecting party will at some point face him again (with better henchmen, I hope!). Now he has the potentail to become a recurring enemy (an Arch-villian) whereas originally he was just going to be a one-off. I even heard of one campaign where the players in their first adventure got involved with a turf war between two thieves guilds, and afterwards decided to run with it. Don't know what the campaign was about originally, but afterwards it was about defeating the enemy guild.
(3) Include everyone. The Wizard may have used all his spells, but a sudden need to use spellcraft to recognise the function of the strange device can make them still feel useful. Some players/characters may need more chances to shine than others (Rogues and Monks spring to mind). This is what GM Fiat is for.
This is especially true of new players, who are often unsure of what they are supposed to do. Unless someone tells thme to do something, they usually don't do anything. Giving them a chance to shine will give them a positive experience and confidence in their ability to do something.
(4) If you go with a pre-made quest, make sure it is suitable for your players. I recently returned to GMing after a hiatus of several years and took out a party of three of which only one is a regular GM. Two Fighters and a cleric are not the best choice for an investigation quest! Only one of them (the regular role-player) was really involved in working out the clues, the others didn't do much until the big fight at the end.
I should have used a quest with more encounters and combat; fighters excel at tactical combat and the cleric would be in a good position to help them. So gear your quests towards the make-up of your party.
(5) Keep the party together as much as possible. Having half the party sit around twiddling their thumbs while the other half goes off in a different direction is going to ruin the flow of the game for half your players. This isn't always possible but should be encouraged when it can be.
The Alexandrian. Deacon's suggestion above. Read and read until your eyes bleed.
Then pitch it all and find a style.
Then go back, re-read, and figure out who's style you're closest to. Proceed to copy the advice from that source.
Now on a serious note, do go out and read some of the excellent advice sources out there. But ultimately get to know your players, why they come to the table, and why you do as well. I strongly urge homebrewing, though it can SEEM overwhelming. If not homebrewing, from the very few Paizo published things I've gone through or used, Rise of the Runelords gives a nice general intro kind of feel that builds into a darker story.
Though even as I type this I realize I couldn't run ROTRL for my group b/cause 2 of my 4 players are serious non-linear plot gamers who love social interaction and ranging off the main plot.
So then I come back to: know thy players. Talk to them, study them; figure out what kind of game they like, then run that. Do they like a lot of exploration? Kingmaker, or a homebrew, or perhaps start with some old module from any edition and just tinker from that.
That's how I built my first campaign for this new bunch of gamers I play with. I didn't know who they were very well (I'd just moved at the time) but I knew they'd all played old 1e games and liked them. I then proceeded to craft my own version of the Keep on the Borderlands I called Mistwatch. I cited the old hermit, the caves of chaos and the cave of the unknown, then just simply let them explore.
One of the players caught onto the source material, went hunting for the goblins and the ogre, and got a war started among the humanoids. Then they wandered in too far, one guy got killed and they abandoned the caves of chaos for other adventures, going on to save a village and a ranger's pet from an awakened aberration lairing in a ruined church.
The game died then (internal strife) but it was a great crash course w/this new bunch of guys and we've had some great games since then.