First I'd like to say thank you to the different people who have helped me out and given me advice and suggestions before. The Pathfinder community on the whole seems a lot more friendly and welcoming then the Wizards of the Coast was, though maybe it was just my experience.
So for the first time I will be doing a five-person group campaign of Pathfinder! I have done a one-on-one run of Kingmaker, where me and my player have been multiple characters, and I've been a party member with friends but never a GM for a full-fledged group, and now I finally get to with some friends from work, my girlfriend and my aforementioned partner-in-crime.
That being said, the three friends from work have never played Pathfinder, and so I was wracking my brain trying to think up a campaign idea for them. One of the hardest parts about starting out with Pathfinder was choosing a class. I loved playing a Bard, a Ranger, and a Paladin before, but it took me a little while until I found true love with my character Tobias, a Caydenite Brawler. Due to this, I wanted my new players to try out some different classes, but not overwhelm them with the variety right off the bat, so I put this list together:
'The Loyalists' Campaign
Prince(ss) ANE (Alchemist, Bard, Rogue, Witch)
Mercenary CN(Archer, Polearm, Tower Shield, Two Weapon)
Guardian AG(Bloodrager, Cavalier, Paladin, Warpriest)
Apprentice AN (Arcanist, Magus, Sorcerer, Wizard)
Acolyte AG (Cleric, Druid, Oracle, Shaman)
Spy CG (Inquisitor, Knife Master, Poisoner, Rogue)
The campaign will take place in the kingdom of Raydia, our Kingmaker-made country, some 100 years after its founding. The players select a role in the story based off of a personality I describe to them. They choose a character and role in the story that is not locked in by gender or race, as Raydia is all-inclusive in culture. There's an upheaval, the Prince/Princess is usurped by a noble tyrant and must escape the kingdom temporarily with their retinue of companions from the palace, train to be strong enough, return and overthrow the evil King!
Pretty standard stuff, but I was curious what you guys thought and wanted to know if you had any tips for a still-newbie GM?
Dotting to see the answers that come up. The people I GM for have a really huge problem with deciding on character builds too, and when they do decide, all but two of them have had the most god-awful and ineffectual builds possible.
It sounds like the rules for Exploration & Movement and the rules for Downtime would help you.
This sounds like the makings of a globe-trotting campaign, so be prepared to have characters go around the world to various locales - maybe look at the various campaign settings in Golarion for inspiration. Depending on how magically-inclined the world is, flying ships may or may not be commonplace, and could be a cool base of operations for the party.
Also, let the players guide the story. Unless you're in college or something where summer break really messes with people being present, a JRPG-style campaign that is semi-railroading isn't great.
I prefer running Sandbox campaigns, personally, since it puts all of the pressure on the party to make decisions, and allows them to determine the course of events - it also lets me as a DM make stuff up on the fly, and not have to be concerned with them hitting certain points in a pre-constructed story.
Finally, familiarize yourself with fringe rules, like duels, chases, etc., just to be prepared. Don't get bogged down with using too many variants, though, if it's your first time DM'ing.
I love traditional campaigns like that. Please be sure to include a dragon. Everybody loves dragons.
A lot of GM's have many different styles, so some good values of successful GM's to emulate might be the best way I can help you:
-Confidence: if you don't believe the reality you are setting forth, none of your players can jump in either. Even if you make a GM fumble, you must believe in yourself.
-Know it ALL: Everything.
-Your nPC's, however, SHOULDN'T
-Know your role: you are their narrator, not their enemy
-Know your players' premise: Every player has a different reason why they play this expansive game. Learn what that is for each of them, and then press the right buttons.
-Strive for engagement, then immersion: once you know their buttons, give them goals inside of their premise, then bring their heads into the clouds with you.
-On immersion: describe every thing concisely, but as if you had a blind person passing with your group. And engage all 5 senses, ESPECIALLY SMELL.
-Flexibility: make your stories as comprehensive, thrilling, and grandiose as your want, but be ready to alter or abandon them, preferring the party's decisions.
-make the party's decisions matter: instead of writing the full story, make the cast have motivations, and have all of the cast advance in time, at the same rate as the PC's. Refer to Brewer's guide to GM'ing
Hope this helped
The choice of class is highly connected to premise of the player. You should ask what kind of a general character build they would like to play, and then present different classes/build fromthere. This way you don't really limit them or overload them.
I'm currently GM'ing the first campaign I have in a long while, all with completely new players, trying my best to apply these principles, and let me tell you, all my PC's remember EVERY WORD I SAY. they are hooked and loving the game. And if you can get your game to get to a point where everyone is excitedly remembering your games, and having fun while playing, then you are doing yo job.
I hope for you the best.
Have lists ready.
Players always head off the and want to check out the unmarked doors. Don't let them see that there's nothing beyond the scope of the story.
You don't need to have everything in the background running and completely simulated, but you should be ready to answer some questions that don't have answers yet.
Have a few lists of things like names for random people or businesses. Have some random encounters at the ready. What makes this inn different from the one down the street?
There have been some published books in the past that are made expressly for this purpose. I have one published during the 3.5 era called Toolbox. It has great lists for when you instantly need things like encounters, ship names, dungeon dressing, market stall goods, and more.
It sounds like the rules for Exploration & Movement and the rules for Downtime would help you.
This sounds like the makings of a globe-trotting campaign, so be prepared to have characters go around the world to various locales - maybe look at the various campaign settings in Golarion for inspiration. Depending on how magically-inclined the world is, flying ships may or may not be commonplace, and could be a cool base of operations for the party.
Also, let the players guide the story. Unless you're in college or something where summer break really messes with people being present, a JRPG-style campaign that is semi-railroading isn't great.
I prefer running Sandbox campaigns, personally, since it puts all of the pressure on the party to make decisions, and allows them to determine the course of events - it also lets me as a DM make stuff up on the fly, and not have to be concerned with them hitting certain points in a pre-constructed story.
Finally, familiarize yourself with fringe rules, like duels, chases, etc., just to be prepared. Don't get bogged down with using too many variants, though, if it's your first time DM'ing.
Thanks for the help, had no considered airships and in all honesty I did not realize how JRPG my story idea was. But yes I played Sandboxes before and the only place that I would advise them not to go to is Raydia itself. The rest of the entire world is up for grabs. Already got like ten companions for the setting that will help me.
A lot of GM's have many different styles, so some good values of successful GM's to emulate might be the best way I can help you:
-Confidence: if you don't believe the reality you are setting forth, none of your players can jump in either. Even if you make a GM fumble, you must believe in yourself.
-Know it ALL: Everything.
-Your nPC's, however, SHOULDN'T
-Know your role: you are their narrator, not their enemy
-Know your players' premise: Every player has a different reason why they play this expansive game. Learn what that is for each of them, and then press the right buttons.
-Strive for engagement, then immersion: once you know their buttons, give them goals inside of their premise, then bring their heads into the clouds with you.
-On immersion: describe every thing concisely, but as if you had a blind person passing with your group. And engage all 5 senses, ESPECIALLY SMELL.
-Flexibility: make your stories as comprehensive, thrilling, and grandiose as your want, but be ready to alter or abandon them, preferring the party's decisions.
-make the party's decisions matter: instead of writing the full story, make the cast have motivations, and have all of the cast advance in time, at the same rate as the PC's. Refer to Brewer's guide to GM'ingHope this helped
I agreed with and knew about everything except that you are right, I always forget to include certain sounds and smells. Thanks for the reminder, I'll be sure to describe the rotting stench of a zombie's dislodged eyeballs to them while making squishing noises with my mouth!
Have lists ready.
Players always head off the and want to check out the unmarked doors. Don't let them see that there's nothing beyond the scope of the story.
You don't need to have everything in the background running and completely simulated, but you should be ready to answer some questions that don't have answers yet.
Have a few lists of things like names for random people or businesses. Have some random encounters at the ready. What makes this inn different from the one down the street?
There have been some published books in the past that are made expressly for this purpose. I have one published during the 3.5 era called Toolbox. It has great lists for when you instantly need things like encounters, ship names, dungeon dressing, market stall goods, and more.
This is actually my Achilles' heel when I write fiction. I over-plan settings and use up all my creativity before I get the ball rolling. In this case it'll come in handing.
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Personally i use lot of improvisation it quite takes practice but you get used to it since you can never be ready for what your pcs try to do. Have encounters ready for when you need them or random generator.
Another option is to use chekovs gun if you dont want them to derail too much from the story. Chekovs gun is for example: oh so you go trought this secret door which actually takes to an ambush with 20 dragons in the dungeon? well now it takes you to the correct path. Not exactly smooth but it can help you some times just dont abuse it.
Chekhov's Gun is also great for building a narrative. You can spend a whole bunch of sessions with the character meandering the world, and then - BOOM - remember that random thing/npc/something you encountered 4 sessions back? Well, it's a might bit more important than you thought.
That random +1 sword they picked up? Turns out it's a Weapon of Legacy (though I suggest dropping the feat requirements and HP/Skill/Spell penalties, and just make it a weapon whose power is tied to its wielder's Character Level).
The Commoner NPC you saved from the cult? Turns out it's the rightful heir to a kingdom.
Once you get used to it, you can make up CG's on the fly, as long as you or the party keep track of things via a quest log.
If you want examples of great uses of Chekhov's Guns, watch Avatar the Last Airbender.
The whole show is a case study in how to do Guns awesomely - the Bison Whistle, the White Lotus Pai-Sho tile, the dual Dao swords in Zuko's room, Iroh redirecting lightning back in the first few episodes of Book I, etc.
It's never clear if the creators planted those Guns knowing they'd be used later, or if they made them up as they went along. If the prior is true, then they're amazing at planning ahead; if the latter is true, then they are GODS at improvisation.