I have read a lot of stuff and so I have come up with some helpful stuff I use as a DM.
Number 1 is using beyond to make the character sheets, it’s easy. Let it compile all the stuff for you. Export the sheet and make your changes. This takes off the stress of your characters.
Number 2, this one is every DM who plays and actually sees their players face to face. Use a dry erase board or something close to it as a substitute for combat line up. This makes it easy and you don’t have to remember the order it is already put together.
3, go into every game flexible, you never know when a character can mess anything up.
4, make sure you run the game not your players. You are telling the story that your characters are playing in, you have everything in the game at your disposal to make sure you keep them in line to move forward.
The last thing number 5, the whole world is a template to play with if you want to do something cool or something that’s not in the game, you can make it and use it in your game. Nothing wrong with outside concepts from the DM.
That is it, you can ask questions as well. I’m sure I and other veteran DMs and players can help you out and tell you how you had to survive the craziness of older editions.
It's been said around these threads a bunch, but it bears repeating: discuss with your players before-hand the style of game you are going to run. - Will it be absolutely silly? Or very serious? Somewhere in between? - How much investment into the world do you expect from your players? Are you willing to repeat to them the basic world history, or once you've said it, is it up to them to remember? In a similar vein, should they always be taking notes, or will you give them a heads-up when you're about to tell them something important? - Are you expecting to run combat on a grid, or theater of the mind?
And many more. Making sure the game is set up to be fun for everyone is critical. Everyone is going to have slightly different ideas about what they find fun; knowing how your players feel can inform your decision-making, but it only works if you talk to them.
The GM chapter of Dungeon World, a different game system, has a list of principles that the GM should follow. One of the primary tenets of Dungeon World, and in the way I GM everything since having read it.
Be a Fan of the Characters.
The PC's are the Protagonists, big P, of the story. Like in a TV show or a book, we put the protagonists into positions, drop them into the middle of problems, to see how they'll react and what they'll do to get out of it. While we do it, we root for them. We cheer about their successes and lament their failures. It's not my story as the GM. It's their story as the heroes, they have center stage. Everything I do as the GM is to help facilitate that story. I create problems they supply the solutions and how they solve the problems moves everything else forward.
Think Offscreen Too.
The PC's are the protagonists of the story but that doesn't mean that everything happens right in front of them. Sometimes the most dramatic thing, or your best move happens in another room of the building, a different part of the dungeon or even back in town at the wizards tower where they were given the quest from originally. While the PC's are making their choices, being heroes and solving problems the world still keeps on moving around them. Do not be afraid to make a move somewhere else and then show the effects when it comes into the spotlight later.
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I have read a lot of stuff and so I have come up with some helpful stuff I use as a DM.
Number 1 is using beyond to make the character sheets, it’s easy. Let it compile all the stuff for you. Export the sheet and make your changes. This takes off the stress of your characters.
Number 2, this one is every DM who plays and actually sees their players face to face. Use a dry erase board or something close to it as a substitute for combat line up. This makes it easy and you don’t have to remember the order it is already put together.
3, go into every game flexible, you never know when a character can mess anything up.
4, make sure you run the game not your players. You are telling the story that your characters are playing in, you have everything in the game at your disposal to make sure you keep them in line to move forward.
The last thing number 5, the whole world is a template to play with if you want to do something cool or something that’s not in the game, you can make it and use it in your game. Nothing wrong with outside concepts from the DM.
That is it, you can ask questions as well. I’m sure I and other veteran DMs and players can help you out and tell you how you had to survive the craziness of older editions.
It's been said around these threads a bunch, but it bears repeating: discuss with your players before-hand the style of game you are going to run.
- Will it be absolutely silly? Or very serious? Somewhere in between?
- How much investment into the world do you expect from your players? Are you willing to repeat to them the basic world history, or once you've said it, is it up to them to remember? In a similar vein, should they always be taking notes, or will you give them a heads-up when you're about to tell them something important?
- Are you expecting to run combat on a grid, or theater of the mind?
And many more. Making sure the game is set up to be fun for everyone is critical. Everyone is going to have slightly different ideas about what they find fun; knowing how your players feel can inform your decision-making, but it only works if you talk to them.
Great add in to this Lan-tin.
The GM chapter of Dungeon World, a different game system, has a list of principles that the GM should follow. One of the primary tenets of Dungeon World, and in the way I GM everything since having read it.
Be a Fan of the Characters.
The PC's are the Protagonists, big P, of the story. Like in a TV show or a book, we put the protagonists into positions, drop them into the middle of problems, to see how they'll react and what they'll do to get out of it. While we do it, we root for them. We cheer about their successes and lament their failures. It's not my story as the GM. It's their story as the heroes, they have center stage. Everything I do as the GM is to help facilitate that story. I create problems they supply the solutions and how they solve the problems moves everything else forward.
Think Offscreen Too.
The PC's are the protagonists of the story but that doesn't mean that everything happens right in front of them. Sometimes the most dramatic thing, or your best move happens in another room of the building, a different part of the dungeon or even back in town at the wizards tower where they were given the quest from originally. While the PC's are making their choices, being heroes and solving problems the world still keeps on moving around them. Do not be afraid to make a move somewhere else and then show the effects when it comes into the spotlight later.