Greetings; as the title states, I am looking to give my first attempt at GMing a game of Pathfinder with 3-4 players. My familiarity with the system comes primarily from years of reading Forgotten Realms books and video games (Icewind Dale II and Neverwinter Nights, primarily), so I'm tempted to use this as a setting.
I'm thinking of 'easing' the whole getting started portion by having the players start in (or entering) a larger city and push them to join an adventuring guild, which would give them a series of small tasks leading up to more involved adventures. This would give me a very simple way to give them direction and rewards based on performance. I'm curious, though, what kind of suggestions any experienced DMs would give as far as preparations - a checklist of things to have ready, so to speak. I'm thinking of drafting simple maps of both the city and surrounding regions, but I'm not a terribly creative writer - more technically minded, as it were.
On a side note, my gaming group primarily plays Magic but has recently gotten into Pathfinder; at the moment, there are probably 3-5 'active' campaigns started amongst the group of varying sizes, most of which lack any real planning or direction. I attempted myself to organize a smaller group into playing only to have our GM's dedication to the assigned time become an issue. My idea at present is to use the adventuring guild as a method of explaining any rotation of party members between sessions, as well as introducing any NPCs which may become relevant... perhaps even giving another player a chance to DM for an evening, letting their character rest or pursue a profession in the interim. Is this a viable plan?
I recommend starting in a small town; fewer NPCs to deal with. And always have two potential bad guys that the players can interact with. They may sometimes work together and sometimes oppose each other, but it gives enough of a dynamic to make the world seem real.
In fact, Johnn Four recently sent out an email on something akin to this. Here is the relevant section:
...make the setting a small village.
Villages in the wilderness reduce the amount of world details needed and questions players might have.
For example, if you put the PCs in a city, they will want to know the names of businesses, districts, streets, and more. In a village, there's a dozen buildings, no districts, no street names. Simplicity rules the day and makes my life easier.
I could throw the PCs naked in a dungeon and be done with it. But I likes me my NPCs as supporting cast. A village lets me introduce all kinds of NPCs - locals and strangers. So all options remain open here.
Finally, I don't know what kind of adventure the players want. In a village I can offer roleplay, nearby dungeons, and wilderness. Plus, the village usually becomes the default home base, giving some stability and recurring people and places to make life easier during the game.
Create Two Villains
The party needs a focus. An easy focus is an enemy doing something bad the PCs need to stop.
I'd create two villains.
Do you know what a bolo is? The weapon with a rock tied to either end of a cord you throw to tangle someone's legs up?
I want the bolo effect on the party.
With two villains, I get an instant dynamic. There's enough complexity to get the players scratching their heads and thinking, while two is simple enough to GM without much prep. Also, the villains can oppose each other and sometimes help each other, while the PCs get caught in the middle.
Give Villain #1 a goal. Let's say he's the Baron's son who's in love with the tavern waitress, but she thinks he's a cruel jerk, which he is.
Give Villain #2 a different goal. Let's say it's an evil dragon getting tormented by knights on a crusade.
Next, create the cord - tie the villains together. Just a single, tentative strand is enough for now. Gameplay will strengthen the cord if by no other means than the PCs' presence.
Let's say the Baron has hired the knights to kill the dragon because the lizard is killing his villagers and destroying crops. That ties the dragon indirectly to the Baron's son.
Before I leave this step, I start thinking of a twist. Just let it run in the back of your mind as you plan and game. A twist idea might never appear, that's ok. But if a twist does come to mind, then you've got a cool story angle ready.
I strongly recommend signing up on his email list, he has some great things to say about GMing in general and tips on how to make your game better.
Other bits of advice; when I used to make my own campaign world, I spent a lot of time on cool details that I really enjoyed making up and figuring out - only to have my PCs never experience it. Only plan out what your PCs will experience, and the further something is from where your PCs are, the less attention you should give it. Also, don't stat up every NPC; only important ones, and then use or steal stats from other sources to save time.
Guild is fine; or any reason for them to have a loose association to a set of plot hooks. Look, it's okay to say, "hey guys, I didn't really prepare anything for that idea," and suggest you'll prepare something for next time. You can build up to being comfortable "winging it".
It's also fine to just "jump to the meat" if you're worried about the rotating players, just let the players know it's that kind of game right now. Just start with a summary of what wasn't important to play out: "Jim the Wizard had to do research, so when you guys decided to go after the bounty on Evil Bob, he stayed behind and you teamed up with Ranger Steve. You've been tracking Bob for a week, and you hear he's hiding out north of Mill Town, where you'll arrive at noon today. What's your plan when you get there?"
As for putting together "hooks and missions", when I GM, I try to plan "events", too. Let's say you've based your team in a small town, like some have suggested above. Perhaps you've mapped the town in order to be able to answer roleplaying questions like where to shop, what's good at the tavern, and where to take the mayor's son or daughter on a date.
If you've got that map, there's no reason not to use it. Plot hooks don't have just be "go fix the goblin problem". You can plan to have events happen right in town. For instance, a wagon rolls into town, and the fidgety merchant wants to know where to set up his wares. As the guard is talking to him, (baddie) in wagon grapples guard and takes off. Town guards go galumphing after him, leaving the town wide open for (the moneychanger to be robbed? the local wizard to be kidnapped for ransom? the mayor's daughter to be whisked away by her secret paramour?).
All you have to do is wait for a moment when the players are doing something else in town to fire it off. If the PCs don't want to get involved, let it play out and use the stats you've prepared for something else (say now the baddies are embolded to ambush the PCs next time they leave town, use any road map you have; or the mayor's daughter returns to kidnap the mayor in order to pay for the remove disease spell she and her paramour need).
Other bits of advice; when I used to make my own campaign world, I spent a lot of time on cool details that I really enjoyed making up and figuring out - only to have my PCs never experience it. Only plan out what your PCs will experience, and the further something is from where your PCs are, the less attention you should give it. Also, don't stat up every NPC; only important ones, and then use or steal stats from other sources to save time.
This advice is really good. Basically think of it as a 'framework' that you are building. Build the world in its barebones state, a frame you can fill in details as they become necessary. Then you can focus on the areas the players will be inhabiting. You can stat up the important characters with their own builds, histories, and motivations, but overall most NPC's can have one of like four generic builds you can copy-pasta and slap a different name/look on. If players start interacting with one of the generics more often, or even take a liking to one for god knows what reason, you can make small adjustments behind the scenes so they have more flavor/personality or competency.
As for villains, I tend to think of them in regards to two things:
What is their purpose in the plot?
What horrible things can they do to the character's faces?
Those in mind, you can fill in the world around them. No person lives in a void. (Even trying to explain HOW they live in a void therefore makes them NOT in a void)
You can also think about each person's motivations and how they can affect the world around them. If you keep a simple tally of the 'movers and shakers' and how long it takes them to accomplish steps towards their goals, you can make your world seem organic without 99% of it actually changing.
So to sum it up: Make a frame, fill in the parts around the players, use cut/pasted generics for unimportant npcs. You can have details to the surrounding area for the players to find, but don't get upset if they completely overlook it or it passes them by. (Or they find it not as important of a detail as you thought it did *my problem*)
Things can be going on progressively to give a sense of life happening around the players, but also make sure your plotted story has some pretty good hooks to draw them in.
Oh, side bit of advice. Never use just one hook into the plot. Players have the uncanny ability to dance just past them sometimes so you need like 3-4 (preferrably like 20) to make sure it sets in.
My experience: Running games for years. Author of a semi-popular fantasy series. Read the Gamemastering guide, if that even counts. :p
Hey, I read the GM section of the main rulebook! Haha...
What I'm attempting to write down is less a solid plot and more of a setting; I've roughly defined the local region as an organized, lawful collection of cities run by a council which meets in the larger central city, also the center of trade and shipping, and handles issues such as taxes, law and defense of the realm - as well as the funding of the adventurer's guild to handle issues which the city guards and army are ill-suited to handle, such as smaller bounties and tasks (also, it is wonderfully helpful at keeping a watch on them...).
For an antagonist, I'm thinking of inventing a cult of one of the evil Gods pulled from the player's guide (no sense re-inventing the wheel) as a 'behind the scenes' influence attempting to destabilize the region using a variety of methods, from placing puppet politicians into the political system to simply disrupting trade between the cities - highwaymen, goblinoid incursions, necromantic activity... anything that isolates the satellite cities and disrupts their order. Each smaller task might give the PCs a piece of a larger puzzle, hinting at some corrupting influence or giving them actionable evidence of corruption.
To this end, I'm thinking of mapping out the 'kingdom' itself, along with the primary city and some early dungeons. I know to avoid giving the players a single 'boot-print in the mud' to find which leads them where I want them to go and I imagine it'll take many a hint to actually lead to a reasonable conclusion - and trying to act without proper evidence in a lawful society might not be a great idea anyway (hehe...). I don't expect I'll need full stat sheets on every character in town, but how about names of the council members, businesses and proprietors the PCs would encounter regularly as well as some of the city guard?
Also, I find most games getting a little bogged down on sales transactions... I'm pretty sure we've been doing this wrong, but the GM we have right now is just ball-parking a price for gems (for example) and then having us roll Diplomacy checks when attempting to sell said items. I'm pretty sure this isn't what the skill is used for and it does seem to detract from the game... is it even worth it to allow the PCs to have a roll on bartering for prices when selling items? The Appraise skill seems the most appropriate for such things, as just knowing what something is worth seems an odd skill to need...
Actually the Ultimate Campaign book has all the specifics on bartering rules, including alternate ways to handle it, I believe.
Ultimate campaign is a great resource for DMing, by the way. The chapter on constructing your own buildings or shops/towers/temples/etc. is phenomenal and makes it really engaging for players who want to 'invest' in an area.