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

Second that + don't go to far with details
As a DM that took the chair 16 years ago because of resident GM moved away, I second it all.

And would like to ad don't go to far with details: When you plan a adventure have a good idea about the start, the hook that should draw the players in and one or more possibly endings, but until the players take the bait don't go fully flessing out the secret vally with the secret temple and stats for all encounters within, chances are that the players sell the treasure map (small chances, but the are there).

If they take the hook (in this case follow the treasure map) you can then use the rest of the intro session for preperation, shopping for the journey, research on the secret vally and and hidden temple, maybe throw a encounter when the players leave the city.

Then you have until next session to flesh out the details of the path chosen by the players and do not end up with a dungeon filling 14 A4 pages that the players dodged....

and in the case were they dodge the hook, you can save it for later (maybe same campaign or another)
 * I didn't add that on purpose, and that is because I practice what I preach. All the listed points are how I run games, and frankly I love going into intense detail. Because I did not know if my players wee going to get lost or not I created twelve city states with detailed maps, political demographics and criminal factions, full knowing that only one would be used. Your point is valid to a point in that you should never become heavily invested in a creation, but if you have very detailed ideas you should write them down. They are like life itself- the sum of human existance and reality is exactly zero, but I'm not going to pick up a revolver and call it quits anytime soon. I say go ahead and be as detailed as you want, just do not get invested and save the notes for later if it doesn't happen next week.--Change=Chaos. Period. SC 19:14, 11 May 2012 (UTC)