User:Spazalicious Chaos/Spaz's Tips For Game Mastering Anything!

Being one of those players that sems to fall naturally into the Game Masters chair, now 10 years after picking up the hobby I have found myself mentor to shiny new players who wish to try on their GM wings. After giving the same advice over and over, I have found that the players who follow the advice soon have their own player flock that loves to cluster about their table. Thus, here is that advice in electronic format, for your reading or flaming pleasure.

You Don't Need to Know The Rules
One of the first panic attacks I quell in newbie GMs is usually "how will I memorize all these rules and books?" First, I can count up only one player of any game that I know who has actually memorized the entirety of a games rules- badge name Phaser Slinger, Star Trek the RPG, age 40, occupation- looking up Spock porn in his moms basement. And no one plays his games. No one else I can think of memorizes all the rules. The majority of players all memorize the rules that apply to them and them alone- mage players know the spell system and how magic works, fighters often know combat inside out, skill specialists often know how their favorite ability systems work, all regular players know how to create characters, etc. And it is this self interest that lets GMs cheat. I can list all the rules of any game you would ever need to know to run it-
 * How die rolls work
 * Order of combat

Fin. That is it. If you know how those work in a game, you can run it. All the rest is listening to players when rules come into play.

IMPORTANT!!! This only applies for games the players KNOW. If everyone is learning the game from scratch, then stumble along with your players during character creation. That way, you will know as much about the game as they do.

Come to the First Game Unprepared
This is weird sounding at first, but hear me out. Players as a rule are very egocentric, and thus like hearing about themselves and how awesome they are. Best way to facilitate this- don't bring any form of prepared adventure to the first game. Instead, let everyone tell each other about their characters, where they are from, what they like to do, and a bit of what they plan to do. Then, ask everyone to tell about how their characters know each other, if they want to start knowing each other at all.

After you absorb all of this info, just throw a shitty situation into the home town of a player who did not specify that their character has left his home behind, especially one who described his home in loving detail. Not only does this make it feel personal, but if you track the characters actions in that first situation and pay attention to how they deal with the aftermath, you have a campaign. Granted, killing off everything the character loves in the first game should not be your goal; make that shit salvagable if not totaly resolvable. Rather, your goal is to give the party something to fight for and preferably something to fight against that they hate on a personal level.

You Are Just the Consequence Guy
As a player, the one thing I hate more than anything is finding out what I do doesn't matter. Not the "nothing matters" mindset (I already have that and enjoy it, thank you), but rather the game everyone plays where all things are predetermined and all your characters actions decide is whether things end with moving on to the next predetermined scenario or a game over screen. Those are called console RPGs, and have no place at the game table.

A really do believe that a good GM is the consequence guy and nothing more. Yes, he could have this awesome plan revolving around how you meet this orc war chieftan who is really a drow wizard who has disguised himself to lead orcs into a war with elves to kill off both races so that he can launch an invasion of the surface world and how the players will stop him by gathering the Three McGuffin Swords of Blah, but "invite the orc over for drinks and make friends" should still be a valid option. So should "screw these orcs, I'm enlisting in the goblin kings army," or, "I wanna seduce the dutchess and steal her husbands dukedom." Yes, that means the drow will probably succeed in his plan, and that is a legitimate consequence, but that is no reason to say no. Allow players freedom of action at all times. Whether actions will work or not is entirely up to you, that is your job, but the only actions players should not be able to do are things that are legitimately impossible.

Because you are just Consequence Guy, never feel bad about not forseeing an awesome player action, just present the consequences. If you accidentally leave enough free time to allow the players to set up a death trap for your villain, let it be so. If it is something the villain would fall into, let it work, even if it means an easy win. Just never toss in complications to make things harder because the players are smarter than you. So what if they have found a way to melt your ice dungeon and escavate the ice dragons horde? Let it work if it would work! Then let your player reap the rewards, both the negative and the positive.

There Should Only Be Two Causes of Player Death
Player Death Cause 1- Stupidity- If a player has done something irredeemably stupid, has placed himself beyond help and there is no way to save him, let him die. A good player will accept what has happened and move on. Bad player will bitch and cry and ask for second chances, and it is your job as Consequence Guy to just smile coldly and offer help in creating a new character.

It is important to note the difference between stupidity and alternative player choice. A great example is character creation. Many optimizers would laugh at me if I told them about Taylor Jannorson when he started out. Intelligence was his primary, weak wisdom and strength, half-elf rogue with skills focused in the charisma and stealth department with absolutely no search or trap skill whatsoever. Why? I built him as a pirate, not intended for dungeon delving in any form, as most of his skills were in stealing treasure from other ships at sword point and fencing the loot himself. I did not whine about finding him in dungeons or his near uselessness in the many underground caves he ended up in, and the only reason he was there was because of his treasure lust. This is different than a player who creates the same character and then bitches the whole time about why he got caught in the trap like everyone else. One is a player choice based on creative concepts that were not the GMs own, the other is stupid and childish. Thus, the former is less likely to be punished than the latter.

Player Death Cause 2- Bad Luck- Games without risk are boring and unfun. However people also hate losing, because losing sucks. Some GMs try to make the game fun by "fudging die rolls", a practice wherein a GM ignores a die roll or changes it to better suit the ideal outcome. This is pure bullshit.

First, dice are a games embodiment of risk. If the dice mean nothing, if they can be changed on a whim of the GM, then there is no risk, only the GMs plan. If you choose to have dice rolled, you are choosing to add risk and chance to the game, and must abide by their outcome. If there be dice, let the dice fall where they may.

Second, if you do not like an outcome, you obviously had a better idea of what should have happened, therefore the dice should have never been involved. If dice are pure risk, then to include them is to include the posibility of plans not being solid. There are also natural orders of events that dice tend to muck up- I have yet to see anyone ever have to roll listen to talk to another player about their plans, or to see what time of day it is, or to tie their shoes. If it is plain and obvious what shoud happen, you do not need dice.

Finally, since actions you do not roll for are planned out and fairly obvious in how they work, and dice themselves are risk incarnate, dice should really only be used when an action comes into question and both success and failure are interesting. Repeat, BOTH success and failure are interesting. It is not interesting to fail a "buy my horse" roll, just annoying. Similarly, players quickly lose interest if a good untrained jump roll can catapult their character accross the world. However, it can be intersting if you succeed or fail in detecting a rip-off horse dealer and both leaping over a pit and plumeting down the same pit are all interesting. Thus, save the dice for when you think it would be fun to live or die by the dice.