natsukashii...

This should really be a great experinece for your players and hopefully for you as well!

If you're GM'ing for the first time, I think some good tips might be found here:

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/current_issue.asp

Also, if your players are gaming for the first time as well, you might wish to direct them here:

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue187.asp#4

and here:

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue187.asp#6

Yes, I'm a geek. Yes, I figured, for non-rpg'ing geeks who wanted to get into rpg'ing geekdom, I'd give a push in a certain direction. Hope you enjoy =D

Oh, yeah: And much luck GM'ing. It's a tough job.

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.html

(That particular episode isn't as funny as the whole, but I'm sure you get the point)(or will, at any rate).

I have been in campaigns that have been both overly story driven and overly character driven. My experience is that the best adventure can be found in a very delicate balance between the two. Also, the amount of players in the campaign is somewhat of a slider. The more characters, the more the story must lead the party. With four or less characters, you can leave a pretty open storyline. The main drawback to this is the preparedness of the GM. Leaving to many avenues for the party to travel can make you look like you are bumbling around for a plotline. What separates the good GM's from the great ones is the ability to give the party options, but not let them surprise you with their choices.

i agree that gm'ing is very difficult, especially if you allow the players a lot of freedom in their actions. there've been plenty of times where certain players will go off on a tangent that i was unprepared for, causing me to either force them back to into the game i was planning on, or making up new plotlines to accomodate their actions.

of course, some of the best games i've played came about from unexpected actions taken by the players.

Here are my two cents worth as an experienced game player and game master. There are a few things that can really spoil the fun of role-playing. One of the main things is bad group dynamics. With as much as you are investing of your time and mind on the campaign you are putting together you will want to make sure that you like all of the people you are inviting to play and that within that group there isn't any major conflicts that will inappropiatly come out in the game.

Freedom of choice. As a player I love to have at least the same amount of freedom in a game that I have now in real life. In both there should be consequences. If I, in real life, choose to stay home playing video games and miss work then I am going to obviously not get payed for that day and if I don't give proper notice, even if that is faking being sick, then I could lose my job. But if it were a game and the Game Master(GM) wanted me to go to work because it was pivital for me to be in a car wreck to meet a major NPC then I just screwed up the plot by staying home. The best GM's are those that can roll with the multitude of unexpected punches that the players will throw and come up with plot changes on the fly.

When I design a plot what I do is determine who my villian(s) will be and just exactly what they are trying to do. The villian doesn't even have to be a living thing. It can be anything that is a conflict for the players, like a tornado, a sinking ship, and so on. And the best villians are those that we can identify with, or at least understand their motivation. Such as the Wicked Witch from Wizard of Oz. If you killed my sister and stole the family shoes I'd be after your ass too, but that doesn't make me the bad guy.

Make sure to know your villian(s) inside and out. This will allow you to decide what they will do when your players enter into their world. This way all I need to really have planned is those first few encounters and the world where all of this stuff is taking place. After that the players will have to figure out how to stop the villian, or in some cases the villian will be after the players and they have to figure out how to hide and stay alive.

There also needs to be a very real sense of danger. Even if you plan to not allow any of your player's characters to die, because as GM you do hold that power, don't let your players know this. Lie to them. Tell them as they are making their characters up, "It is quite possible these characters are going to die in this story. I am warning you now because I don't want to hear you whine about it if and when it happens."
Knowing this will help create tension in the game during the action portions. And it might make your players think twice about doing stupid things...most of the time. I had an entire group almost killed by one stupid player that threw a very large explosive into a building, where the rest of his group was involved in a fight against vampires. The group told that player not to come back any more.

Lastly, it is ultimatly the players actions, or even inactions that will determine the outcome of an adventure. Not all stories have happy endings. In fact, some of the best stories don't have happy endings. As a GM our job is to guide the entertainment but not force it.

Good luck on this. When it gets rolling maybe you can post updates on the adventure. Our maybe one of the players will volunteer to do a journel, in charecter if possible, and allow you to post it.
Take care,
Troy

ooo, how exciting. :D keep us posted.

are you going to go cheapass games route and self-publish the game? or is that the last thing from your mind at the moment? ;3

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Posted by: outsider on April 11, 2006 07:33 AM