Advice For a First Time GM
by Wayne Cole
A few months ago I had the opportunity to GM for the first time in a revolving GM game. I was very nervous going in but full of ideas. Overall, it went well, and my first week in particular went better than I could have hoped. The second week, though, I stumbled. It wasn’t as bad as it could have bee,n and it certainly wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to be. I made a few very simple mistakes, and I hope that if any of you are considering running your first game I can help you avoid the pitfalls that I fell into.
1) Locations are your background not your plot. On my second week I prepared my location too much. I had fully written descriptions for each room, but realized quickly that my players were getting bored with it. They didn’t care to hear about a room that wasn’t related to the plot, and to be honest, I wouldn’t have either. I was so worried about making sure my locations were well thought out that I allowed them to become the focus instead of the story I was trying to tell.
2) NEVER allow any one person or item to be essential to your plot. I was not at all prepared for the players to decide that my creepy character deserved to be attacked. I knew that I couldn’t anticipate everything that they would do and was able to adapt, but when my whole plot required interaction by a single character and they wanted to kill him, I looked like a deer in the headlights. Experienced GMs would know how to react to this, but as a new GM you can’t have a single point of failure. I did let the players kill my creepy character, but I had to find a way to make them wait until he had done what I needed him to first.
3) Prepare stats for characters even if you don’t anticipate a fight. I didn’t expect my players to attack my creepy character, but they were so freaked out by him that they really wanted him dead. I didn’t have anything prepared for him or his guards in combat. It wasn’t opposed to a fight and I did during some periods of stalling figure something out for them. I just didn’t ever think I would need stats for these characters.
4) Don’t feel like you have to stick to a script. Players will always do things you don’t expect and these can be the best moments of the game. In my first week one of the things that I did particularly well was react to player decisions that I did not expect. Subplots quickly grew out of these actions that I had never intended and I found afterward that these were the moments everyone talked about the most. The players will latch on to things and you will be presented with opportunities during the course of the game that you never anticipated. Don’t be afraid to go down these tangents, because you will be surprised how easily they can fit into your plot. If your players are having fun with something it only makes the game easier for you, and they never need to know that it wasn’t something that you had planned.
The most important thing to remember is to just have fun. If you are having fun, then your players are more likely to have fun. Your first game won’t be perfect and you will make mistakes. These are your friends or else you wouldn’t be gaming with them, and they will understand that you are new. Your worst critic is likely to be yourself.
“you can’t have a single point of failure”
I love that phrase. It’s a concept we’ve talked about on the show, but you succinctly boiled down the broader thesis into about eight words. (Nine if you count contractions as two words.)
To anyone that’s wondering, the creepy character was a robed wizard sitting on a throne at the middle of a city full of his personal slaves. He had a giant insect attached to the top of his skull with probes going into his brain, making this wizard his puppet. If that doesn’t just scream, “this is something that ought not be,” then I’m not sure what does.
But there’s also some great advice for the players of a first time GM in this story. I had a spell that would allow me to launch this guy upward, crushing the bug between the possessed body and stone ceiling.
Our current system allows the GM and players to pass around “plot point” chips to urge certain meta-game actions, ala Spirit of the Century. When Wayne offered me a plot point to leave this guy be, I suddenly realized the importance he apparently played in his plot. After all, a nameless mook isn’t worth buying off my killing urge. I took the hint, accepted the chip, and stopped an action that I knew would just derail his plot.
By his own admission, Wayne created a single point of failure for his campaign, which is a bad move for a GM. But that doesn’t somehow obligate me to be an ass and pursue it; that’s how you make a new GM quit instead of grow.
So the lesson is don’t wreck the GM’s plot, hold it hostage for boons. Words to live by.
As someone who GMd for the first time as a ten year old back in ’87, and based on the amount of thinking and analysis you put into this, you probably did very well. How many first timers have the benefit of this much insight brought on by age and gaming experience? It took me probably close to a decade to get to this level.
On the other hand, I was pretty good at improvising stats from day one. All you need to have is a feel for the guy, and you’ll know how good he is at whatever he needs right then and there. Of course, this only works with systems with low amount of calculations in the stats.
The couple of times I GM’d, I ran into that same problem with the script-sticking. Having played more than my fair share of JRPGs, I was more used to a linear style of storytelling, whereas most players wanted an open world to explore; I set up Final Fantasy for them, and they wanted Rogue. I totally agree with and understand points 1, 2, and 4 especially, since I typically stat out everything I possibly can and don’t run into 3 that much.
It’s very difficult to plan in advance unless you really know your players and especially their characters. If you know you have a combat wombat, just have a Portfolio O’ Level-Appropriate Targets; if you know you have a barfly, have a randomized Color + Animal Inn generator on hand to populate a place to get him roundly drunk and thrown out for hitting on the waitresses. But if at all possible, you’ve got to integrate each character into the plot you want to run; if they don’t bite the bait, then you’ve got your backup with the random encounter pile, but without PC backing your plot’s worse than useless.
As far as descriptions, it’s six of one and half-dozen of the other. I’ve gotten into heated semantic debates about the exact location of a wall or if there are torches in a given room, and other times it never comes up at all. It’s a matter of conservation of detail; put the glittering ‘plot device’ stars around items germaine to your setting, and let the rest go by the wayside unless the players need it.
quote:Triggerhappy938O
“So the lesson is don’t wreck the GM’s plot, hold it hostage for boons.”
I’m a lazy, lazy bastard.
Otherwise, that would be my new signature by now!
Often overlooked, but in my experience one of the most important tools for a (new) GM: A list of unused NPC names. If your players do something you didn’t expect, you don’t have to call the people they want to talk to Alrik, Alrigio, Al-Rick, Alregina and Bob. If you have prefabricated names at hands you can keep them guessing who is important and who is not. Just remember to write down next to the names what you have used them for.
Great addition Robak. I did just that too. I had about 20 names listed and every time someone new was encountered I would add who they were next to the name on the list. I also had town names listed and added what the town was next to the name.