First time GM question

[Talas Leviann]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place or not but here goes. I'm a first time GM and have only played slightly. One of my new players played 3.5 D&D for quite sometime. He is new to our group and he and I spoke beforehand. We agreed that if he could over look my(quite frequent) mistakes than he could often let me know when I have done something that isn't "by the book." I like the fact that he will tell me if the rule book says something different than I've said. The reason I decided to GM was to learn the rules better after all. However, last game session was...interesting. I allowed the party to don armor hastefully in one round, due to lack of much gaming time. Afterwards, the previously mentioned player informed me that it takes 5 rounds. Now I had already ruled one round and wasn't going to take back a ruling. However, knowing this I plan on following the actual ruling every time after. Before I could let my players know this, one of them jumped down the experienced players throat for correcting me. He basically told him, "I'm going to call bull****. You are trying to GM and you are NOT the GM." Now this really, REALLY bothered me. I didn't even get to tell them that I wasn't going to go back on what I said. Needless to say, I almost killed the player in game.(bad GMing, I know I know) I've talked to this player before about some of his actions towards other players. I don't think he means to be such a prood. But he's also hypocritical. Three rounds later he tried to argue with me that a player could wield both a bow and a punch dagger. Any thoughts on how to approach the situation appropriately and get my point across without killing his PC and telling him to think about what he did?

[Lamontius]

Talk to him.

[Kolokotroni]

If you want rules help, everyone at the table should be aware of it. As a new gm you are going to make mistakes. Often. Its normal. The rules are complex and odd at times. But everyone should know what to expect. Some gms have the 'my rule is law' mentality and some players are used to that. Others are more open, others could care less about rules and just make stuff up if it seems convenient. Its important to decide how you want to approach rulings and learning the rules with the whole group. Also keep in mind there are lots of little changes between 3.5 and pathfinder, so your friend with lots of 3.5 experience wont always be right. That is also something you need to consider when deciding how to approach this.

I'd take half an hour or 15 minutes at the start of the next session to talk it over with the whole group. It will be a long time (took me years) before you are comfortable enough with the system to not need to look up or be reminded of the rules. Thats not a bad thing, you just need to make sure the whole group is on the same page.

[MurphysParadox]

Yeah, you have a talk outside of the game with everyone. You explain that rules are complex and there are a lot of them. While you will try to do what is correct, you will also make snap judgements in the moment in order to keep the game going. These judgements will sometimes be completely wrong, but at the time they are considered to be the way things are.

Explain that in the cases where you have made a snap judgement that may be incorrect, you will talk to everyone after the game and the group will look it up and see how it should be or create a formal house rule to handle it.

Ensure they understand you will not normally stop the game to hunt through rule books and search forums. However, if there is a major disagreement which has immediate negative effects to a character (e.g. a ruling that could lead to their death), you will stop the game to investigate.

Finish by stating the game is for having a challenging adventure, not for arguing over minutia and you will try to do your best with the rules. It is meant to be a fun time though, and if players are too caught up in the rules to have fun, then things are going to be difficult for everyone.

Don't necessarily single out any particular player. And don't wait for this to come up again. Start the session this way (or do it outside of a game night entirely).

[Talas Leviann]

I have had this talk with him before though. He GMs another game and has the "GM is God" mentality. He is new to the game to though and in his game just makes up DC's and pretty much everything. That's good and fine. But in my game I want to use the rules. But be flexible. That is, to me, being a GM. And everyone else gets that. We are all learning together. Except him. He has adapted the "PC's have no right to try to do something if they don't know what it is" philosophy. And I made a ruling on "once per day" abilities, which he decided to argue with. He's one of my very best friends but he makes me want to murder puppies from time to time. (Disclaimer: no puppies were hurt in the typing of this post)