About me: Played PnP RPG from the early 80's to the late nineties, primarily as a GM. Took a break for the last 15 years or so. I have been in a Pathfinder group as a player for the past 8 months playing through an adventure path (currently on the 4th module).
My question: being new to Pathfinder and wanting to try my hand at GM'ing, what "rules" do other GM's ignore or simplify to help the game session run more smoothly?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
I'm sticking my nose in here because I'm pretty much in the same boat as you and I want to see what some of the others here have to offer.
You are a veteran GM, so my advice is use your judgment to make quick rulings during play and then look up the rules after the session. (Or, have a player look up the rule while play proceeds.) Once the official rule is found, notify the players that in the future, that is how it will work.
New GMs sometimes get bogged down looking through the rules themselves, during game time, and that is what slows the game down. Your job as a GM isn't to slog through the rule book during the session, so either save it for after play or delegate it.
When entering a dungeon crawl, my group will occasionally decide marching order once and keep that consistent.
Initiative will also be handled this way, the players deciding who they to move after in a chunk. We all just use the player's median initiative mod to roll for the set, though it would be closer to have the group use the mean or the lowest value. That just speeds up the start of combat and keeps a consistent turn order around the table, which turns out to be really useful.
For flying PCs, if you have above a 10 in the skill, we largely ignore the fly checks, since the DCs are low and pretty simple. Same thing with high Handle Animal skills, it cuts down on tedium.
Those are the only things that come immediately to mind.
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Something that has changed for 80s era GMs to keep in mind of in tastes particular to Pathfinder is the game is less about "GM, May I?" and more about "GM, this is what I'm doing."
It's a paradigm distinction modern players likely won't even understand if they didn't play back when you used to. But it's one you'll have to adapt to (for Pathfinder, at any rate).
great stuff so far...
Deusvult - you are right about that, I noticed it when I joined the group I am in.
What's everyone's feelings on all of the "Create xx" feats, especially when magic is involved?
I can see where they would be valuable in a campaign setting, but since our group focuses on AP's,it seems the creation rules are overly complex (since the group is able to loot many items, I can simply tailor the gear to my players needs)
Does it make sense to tell the group to skip all Creation Feats and that I would work with them, as needed, to gear up?
You are a veteran GM, so my advice is use your judgment to make quick rulings during play and then look up the rules after the session.
This is spot on. Speed and reasonability are key.
Create feats are awesome and very powerful. A wizard can crank out scrolls while adventuring at a reduced rate, but still useful. They are much less important if you are going to tailor gear, but having that off use spell on demand is just plain win.
Forgot to add, one thing I do before I launch a campaign is create a setting check list:
The players are:
1-Below average
2-average heroes (15 point buy)
3-Heroes (20)
4-Big Darn Heroes (25+custom stuff)
5-Big Freaken Heroes (add Mythic)
6-Superheroes.
Alignments allowed:
Any good.
Banned Classes/content:
Anything that makes my head hurt after an hour of reading because I still don't understand it.
Tech level of setting.
Guns? (which era)
Eastern weapons/feats/traits ok.
Campaign traits (AP specific)
Which splat books allowed?
All Paizo.
PFS legal.
All Paizo and Dreamscarred.
Anything 3.5 on (I don't usually do this, 3.5 doesn't mesh all that well anymore)
Happiness:
1-Shakespearean Tragedy. Dead puppies.
2-Hardcore gritty.
3-TV Crime drama with comedic moments.
4-Marvel Universe.
5-DC Universe.
6-Rainbows, ponies, sunshine. Disney.
7-Smurfs. Saturday morning cartoons (well when they existed.)
If I'm in a heavy RPG group.
Character motivation.
Character tie to another character.
Character dark secret.
Villain motivation.
Villain tie to another character.
Villain dark secret.
I find having this ahead of time helps develop the story and cut down on many common questions at the same time.
Forgot to add, one thing I do before I launch a campaign is create a setting check list:
I find having this ahead of time helps develop the story and cut down on many common questions at the same time.
great idea....definitely stealing it.
Whatever group Im in we always tend to ignore encumberance. Its either "theres no way you can carry all this" or carrying a ladder in your pocket (like where would anyone carry that 10ft pole?)
We also ignore things like cutting str bonus for offhand attacks - that just makes for another silly thing to remember and only discourages from using twf
We also ignore things like cutting str bonus for offhand attacks - that just makes for another silly thing to remember and only discourages from using twf
If you have to remember your damage bonuses, you need to rewrite your character sheet.
What's everyone's feelings on all of the "Create xx" feats, especially when magic is involved?
I can see where they would be valuable in a campaign setting, but since our group focuses on AP's,it seems the creation rules are overly complex (since the group is able to loot many items, I can simply tailor the gear to my players needs)
Does it make sense to tell the group to skip all Creation Feats and that I would work with them, as needed, to gear up?
The item creation rules aren't that complicated - you just work out the Spellcraft DC, wait a few days, then roll to see if you succeeded.
But it's OK to ban Craft Wondrous Item, etc. They are powerful and can kill the momentum of a campaign. Though a player whose character gets the ability to make scrolls or potions automatically probably won't like it if you take that away.
Normally the game assumes a 'magic mart' where you can buy all the magic items you want in any major urban area, save for the rare super-valuable ones. Some people don't like this. Other people don't like contrived item drops that just happen to be exactly what the group needs. See how your group feels.