[PF] Im new to GMing and need your help!

[lfarbstein]

Hello everyone. I am planning on GMing my first session soon. I am alittle freaked out about it. Me and my friends are going to do the "We be goblins" one shot adventure to get used to GMing. Then I want to try moving onto the beginners box adventures. But after that is where I need help.

From the beginners box I want to move onto an adventure path. But I dont know witch one. I was thinking "Rise of the Runelords" but I dont know. What one seems to be the most manageable for a fresh GM.

Also any advice you can give me would be very appreciated. Thank you all in advance!

[SpaceBadger]

Sorry, I can't advise as to adventure paths because I don't use them.

General GMing advice:
- Remember that you are doing this for fun. Don't stress over it.
- If you are running a canned adventure, be familiar with it before you start. Play it through in your head and see if there are any problem areas you can anticipate and be ready to deal with. For example, if there is some encounter that will involve grappling, be familiar w how grappling works in PF.
- Remember that you are doing this for fun. Don't stress over it.
- If you will need to generate NPCs/Monsters/Mooks/etc, do that ahead of time (I'm not familiar w adventure you will use, so maybe that is already in the prepared stuff).
- Remember that you are doing this for fun. Don't stress over it.

[Zeikstraal]

I don't know how difficult and good the adventure path is.
But from my experience the adventure paths for Pathfinder are all decent. They all start at lvl 1, so it aint that hard to GM. Just make sure, even when it is a premade, to prepare for the session. Especially as your first time GMing. Read the first part as a whole, and then read the part again what you think will happen in the session. Make notes, search everything up. Just be prepared.

I had a GM who had more experience, and he didn't prepare for a premade. We did the Carrion Crown adventure path. The first session was decent, mostly due to my awesome Barbarian who made some nice intimidate checks.
But from there on it all sucked, we noticed that he did not prepare for it. The mayor was an idiot, he missed a lot of things, encounter wise and things we should have noticed with succeeding perception checks.
We told him that, and the next session it is crap all over again, so now I am GMing again.

Oh and dont make Houserules on the spot, players don't like it.
The same DM did that to 3 or 4 things.
First the Hit Points, we always rolled for it, and when you rolled less than half of your max Hit Die, you would just get half.
So we where lvl 2 and he says, what you roll is what you get...We are like WTF, that doesn't work. I say my barbarians Hit Die is a friggin class fueture, you think it's okay to let the Wizard get just as many HP as me!!!!1
Our battle Cleric rolled a 1 and died the next session cause he got 1 shotted, DM still says: It's your own fault.

Second thing. We had someone playing a Magus, and when he reached lvl 2 he wanted to do the loophole to Arcane Mark every target. When he wants to do that, the DM says he won't let him. Guy complaining that the GM had to tell him that earlier when he was making his character.

Third thing. We could choose a background trait from the adventure path and 2 extra from the APG. This is what the GM tells us. So I have written my background, the wizard and the Magus also. We al had picked our background traits. The wizard had an Initiative of +13 in total. So the GM asks how he get it that high. So he explains his background traits etc. And he says, that not everyone had thier background finished, and that he would choose the traits for us....

forth thing. He had a critical hit deck. And the guy who was playing a Magus, and he was planning to go crit fishig whit X2 damage with Shocking Grasp. So he asks can I also choose to just get my X2 Damage, that is why I'm building my character. The DM says no, the guy picks up his character sheet rips it in 2 pieces and says: I'm Done!!!!!!

We kicked the GM out of the group now btw.

Sorry for the rant, I let myself go loose it seems. But you now have some examples of what you don't want to doXD

Have fun with your game:smallsmile:

[Keneth]

You can start with Rise of the Runelords and that's fine but you need to be aware that it was made for 3.5 and is therefore gonna need some adjustments to encounters for it to run smoothly. While it's not a big deal, it might be a bit stressful for a fresh DM.

You shouldn't worry about it much, all adventure paths are extremely thoroughly designed with lots of tips, ideas, etc. Just make sure that you read each chapter carefully and prepare for the adventure in advance. Also, since it's gonna be your first real adventure, you should urge the players not to stray too far off course. While some improvisation is always gonna be necessary, it shouldn't be a huge part of a game that follows a written story; Present your players with enough options and it shouldn't be a problem (there's plenty of things to do in every adventure path).

[Mustard]

I'm a player in a Jade Regent campaign, and as far as I can tell (because I don't have all the behind-the-scenes information), seems pretty straightforward for the GM. So, that could be a good place to start. There's added mechanics in the form of caravans, but the players can handle that burden; the GM just needs to know how combat works. It's also almost literally a railroad, which can be good or bad. I think for a new GM it's good, if your players are on board.

I also played Council of Thieves. In contrast, it seems a little more intensive for the GM. It was pretty fun, but I get the sense that there are many details the GM needed to manage behind the scenes.

Hope this helps!

Edit: Apparently I can't make a single post without editing, ever. Beats posting twice in a row, I guess. Anyway: I GMed We Be Goblins, and I think it's a pretty good introduction. I GM Paranoia for my group, so it wasn't my first GMing experience, so your experience will vary slightly, but GMing Paranoia is quite a different beast from GMing PF. I actually found PF to be WAY easier to GM, since the players get to know how the rules work, and you don't have to have the computational capacity of The Computer to be able to run it. So one more piece of advice is: relax, you'll do fine.

One more thing: I found the ship layout to be a bit odd, and I couldn't quite figure out how it was supposed to be laid out. It may have been my brain failing to parse the image, but something seemed off. I had to improvise, so just be on the lookout for that.

Edit yet again! Blargh! If you go with Jade Regent, I'd advise you to jump right into it after We Be Goblins. If you have other intermediate, short adventures (I know little of the beginner box adventure(s)), your players may get Sick of Being Level 1 All the Time. Maybe they're a little more patient than that, but myself, I can stomach level 1 for a limited amount of time.

Edit: Ooh! (I just cannot stop, can I?) You may find it helpful to take index cards and write monster stats on it (or do it on a computer). Sometimes, the AP will tell you to refer to a monster, and it's nice to have the stats handy. Other times, you'll have to cross-reference multiple entries. For example, in WBG, there's an Advanced Dog, or something to that effect. You can either go to that monster's entry and then apply the quick version of the advanced template on the fly (they call it the "advanced simple template", which I find amusing), and all of a sudden, you're juggling numbers, and forgetting things, and freaking out! OR, you can take an index card, write the base stats, modify them according to the template (or the quick one if you like, of course), well in advance of the game, and voila: no mental acrobatics required.

[Blisstake]

Oh and dont make Houserules on the spot, players don't like it.
The same DM did that to 3 or 4 things.
First the Hit Points, we always rolled for it, and when you rolled less than half of your max Hit Die, you would just get half.
So we where lvl 2 and he says, what you roll is what you get...We are like WTF, that doesn't work. I say my barbarians Hit Die is a friggin class fueture, you think it's okay to let the Wizard get just as many HP as me!!!!1
Our battle Cleric rolled a 1 and died the next session cause he got 1 shotted, DM still says: It's your own fault.

Err, rolling twice is a houserule. Rolling and taking whatever number you get is what you're supposed to do by the core rules.

[DrDeth]

Posted previously: OK, guys, I have been DMing since 1974 or so, I have a few suggestions, they apply most to newer DMs.
Puzzles, riddles? Sure, go for it. Let the players have fun trying to figure them out or guess. But do remember that a player that isn’t so hot at this may be playing a Riddlemaster bardic genius. So, after they don’t get it on their own, let them get HINTS by making skill or INT checks.
Loot? Players love loot, but you don’t want to be Monty Haul. New DMs- use the WBL tables, but be a little more generous, remember that you can go one level above without breaking the game. So, with 5th level PC’s they can have up to 16K gps each. Err on the side of being generous, but don’t overdo it. Throw in some cool sounding loot once in a while like a “delicate hand carved ivory statue, worth 120gps”. (in the back of some older sourcebooks they have tables of this stuff) and make up a few fun but mostly useless in combat magic items like a “Toysong bird that sings along with you, adding +1 to Perform checks”. Never hand out a macguffin that they will NEED several games from now without making it real obvious.
Starting stats? Again err on the side of being generous. If the last DM had a 15 pt buy, try a modest increase to a 20 pt buy. Don’t go to “roll 6d6 keep the lowest 4, roll a dozen times, pick the best set”.
Source books- here’s where you should be conservative. Start with the Core & APG only.
DMPC’s- as in a NPC that you run, not the players. DON’T. Yes, some few experienced DMs can pull these off. You’re not experienced. Don’t.
Evil games, evil PCs or CN sociopath PC’s: at some point in time, experienced mature players/DMs will want to give this a try as a change of pace. You’re not experienced. Don’t. Same with PvP. Ask the players to come up with a background which includes why they are together as a team, or suggest a reason.
Pre-gen PC’s. Never. Do use modules, but change things up a bit.
Railroading. Yes, OK, within limits. Make sure you allow the players to “stop the train” to get off and visit a ‘whistle stop” etc. Read “DM of the Rings” Don’t be that DM.
Table time- make sure every PC has a chance to shine at least once a nite.
Splitting the party while adventuring; half the fun for the players, double the work for you. Don’t.

Lastly- have fun!

[Zeikstraal]

Err, rolling twice is a houserule. Rolling and taking whatever number you get is what you're supposed to do by the core rules.

Yes, that is true of course. But when your playing with the people for 6 years, and always did the house rule we did, and nobody complained about it. And changing that on the spot when we roll Hit Points, you can't do that as a GM in my opinion. And nobody was happy.

[Tyndmyr]

Hello everyone. I am planning on GMing my first session soon. I am alittle freaked out about it. Me and my friends are going to do the "We be goblins" one shot adventure to get used to GMing. Then I want to try moving onto the beginners box adventures. But after that is where I need help.

From the beginners box I want to move onto an adventure path. But I dont know witch one. I was thinking "Rise of the Runelords" but I dont know. What one seems to be the most manageable for a fresh GM.

Also any advice you can give me would be very appreciated. Thank you all in advance!

If you don't know...ask your players. =)

That said, Rise of the Runelords, while, IMO, painfully unimaginative, and basically a ripoff of many things before it...is fairly easy to run. And, if you haven't run that sort of thing many, many times before, the fact that it's a pretty well used plot won't really be a problem.

Also, I hear good things about kingmaker.

Edit: Yes, all paths by Pazio for PF appear pretty decent. I advise reading ahead a bit, so that you don't get surprised if players do things in a different order or something. Also, read the core rulebook plenty. The more you know from that, the better.

[Keneth]

you can't do that as a GM in my opinion
Deciding to use RAW is just fine and while he should have told you sooner, sometimes it's not hard to miss little things like that, so as long as he tells you when you roll for the first time, I don't see a problem with that.

I don't really see a point in that rule as it is, yes you might end up with the barbarian and wizard having the same amount of hit points at level two (highly unlikely but plausible) but D&D is a game of chance and there's no point in having to roll if you can't lose. Besides, the law of averages dictates that the whole thing will even out after a few rolls, whining about it is just detrimental for group dynamics.

As far the magus is concerned, using Arcane Mark is shaky and I completely understand if the GM doesn't want to allow it. I think it should be allowed but this is completely up to the GM and the player should have asked him beforehand. If there's really no way around it, there are rules for researching new spells and just about every GM should allow you to research a cantrip that gives you a melee touch attack for minimal damage. Plus there's the Close Range arcana which obviates such problems.

Secondly, even if using the critical hit deck, the magus should always deal x2 with Shocking Grasp since it has nothing to do with the weapon's crit effect or multiplier. Either that or he could be given a choice when critting to select the effect for magic instead of slashing and multiply the weapon damage normally. Using both effects actually works extremely into the player's favor so if that's what your GM was planning, he was setting himself up for a world of hurt (and debuffs). Anyway this should be pressed if it ever comes up again.

In any case, it sounds to me like you never gave the guy a chance just because he was trying to give everyone the same treatment and follow the rules as they are. He might actually be a bad GM, I don't know but the way you wrote it up just made it seem that you bullied him out of the group because he didn't let you bend the rules in your favor and while a GM must be somewhat flexible to make things fun for everyone, they're the ones running the game, so as a player you should respect their authority.

[Zeikstraal]

Deciding to use RAW is just fine and while he should have told you sooner, sometimes it's not hard to miss little things like that, so as long as he tells you when you roll for the first time, I don't see a problem with that.

I don't really see a point in that rule as it is, yes you might end up with the barbarian and wizard having the same amount of hit points at level two (highly unlikely but plausible) but D&D is a game of chance and there's no point in having to roll if you can't lose. Besides, the law of averages dictates that the whole thing will even out after a few rolls, whining about it is just detrimental for group dynamics.

As far the magus is concerned, using Arcane Mark is shaky and I completely understand if the GM doesn't want to allow it. I think it should be allowed but this is completely up to the GM and the player should have asked him beforehand. If there's really no way around it, there are rules for researching new spells and just about every GM should allow you to research a cantrip that gives you a melee touch attack for minimal damage. Plus there's the Close Range arcana which obviates such problems.

Secondly, even if using the critical hit deck, the magus should always deal x2 with Shocking Grasp since it has nothing to do with the weapon's crit effect or multiplier. Either that or he could be given a choice when critting to select the effect for magic instead of slashing and multiply the weapon damage normally. Using both effects actually works extremely into the player's favor so if that's what your GM was planning, he was setting himself up for a world of hurt (and debuffs). Anyway this should be pressed if it ever comes up again.

In any case, it sounds to me like you never gave the guy a chance just because he was trying to give everyone the same treatment and follow the rules as they are. He might actually be a bad GM, I don't know but the way you wrote it up just made it seem that you bullied him out of the group because he didn't let you bend the rules in your favor and while a GM must be somewhat flexible to make things fun for everyone, they're the ones running the game, so as a player you should respect their authority.

Hehehe, he brought it to himself. We always had problems with the guy, and should have kicked him waaayyy sooner. I tell you the story....The short one.

I was GMing for a group of 5, exluding the guy of above, lets call him Bob. Bob was in our D&D group before, and GMd most of the 4th edition stuff we played. But after numerous party switches cause of him, a player (we call him Matt then) had enough of the switches and decided to take a break from D&D. Bob send him an E-mail with that it is good that he stopped cause he is a bad roleplayer and that he is pathetic that he doesn't have anyone to D&D anymore.

So we where playing my campaign and I talked with Matt about his character, and asked him if he hadn't enough inspiration anymore. And he said to me that he was thinking to take a break again, he was going through some rough times at that time. So he told me he was certain that he was going to stop.

I have alsways stayed friends with Bob and asked him if he wants to join my campaign, cause Matt was planning to stop. So he decided to join.

Matt is also a good friend of mine and he was at my house and we where talking, he hadn't stopped with playing yet, the subject came onto D&D and I gave him some character ideas and he had a new character idea, and decided not to stop. I told him that Bob was joining, but it was okay with both of them. They hadn't seen eachother in 3 years or so.

So where at the next session everything goes well etc.
The same week I am fired from my job, and with the crisis here in this country I am forced to move back in with my parents. So no D&D at my house.
Luckily for us, Bob was getting his own place in the upcomming month.
After a month of waiting, we finally can go on with my campaign again.
Two days before the campaign begins again. So after some mailing around we where going to play on Friday instead of saturday. After a week of complaining from Bob.
So send an Mail that we where going to play friday to confirm it.

So I get a call from an old friend that wanted to play again. Ofcourse where happy to take ya!!!! So he's calling Bob that he's also going to play
today. Bob not reading his mail or something, calls me and says that we can't play tonight and that he didn't know that we where going to play yadda yadda.
I was pissed of about it, cause everyone is excited to play again, and I do have send him a mail, I doublechecked it.
So I get a call from the new guy again and asked me if I could Skype.
So at Skype there was a chat going on with Bob and player 2 (John). John asked me what was going on, and Bob also began complaing again.

Oke this is getting a little long. So it's about this. Bob said that I wasn't that good of a DM and he didn't trust me as a DM, everybody was enjoing themselves in my campaign, so I take it lightly.
The new guy called me again, telling me that we are going to do a one shot adventure for the evening, cause apperently the new guy had a friend who also wanted to try it. And that next week we where going to do my campaign again.
So the week after, Bob told us that we where playing in his house, he was going to DM, if people liked it or not.

After a couple of sessions al of my first post happened. And we told him that we didn't like the way it was going. And he told us again it is my house yadda yadda.
After another session the group except for Bob and the newest guy, who didn't want to vote. Voted for me to DM again and Bob went with it.
We had 3 weeks of downtime, cause of new years eve etc. So after 3 weeks it was friday again, and we where going to play, well that was the plan. I tried calling Bob 6 times or something all unanswered, and I had texted him also 3 times earlier that week but no response.
The new guy gets a call from Bob 2 hours before the session should began, and told him that he didn't feel like D&Ding today. And asked him, probabbly manipulate him, that if we would play today, that he would not participate.

The new guy basically said screw you. We played at the new guys house, and had one of the most memorable sessions we ever had. And we all think that it's due to Bob not participating.
And we kicked Bob out.

So I don't call it bullying.

But I do see your points.

The Hit Die thing. Ofcourse it's Okay to do Raw, but at least he could tell it earlier. Not when we where rolling for lvl 2. We told him (Me, John and Matt, the most experienced players) That it aint fun for someone to roll low, and it just doesn't work, if it works or not is not the point right now.
He decided to just go with Raw. So okay, our battle Cleric in breatplate etc. is rolling a one. That gives him 14 HP at level 2. We told him that he has a chance of getting one shot etc. The Wizard walked around with more HP that our Cleric at that moment.

The next combat, yeah the next. The cleric gives our fighter a buff and he next round he charged. The creature attacked the cleric and was brought down to -8. So thats 22 damage at lvl 2. Okay, but the creature also automatucally grappled you when it hits, and the GM decided that he would pull the Cleric inside his body, wich was a jacket. It ain't part of the encounter. So the vreature being extremely tough withstands my blows. And knocks me silly, then the fighter and then the ranger. The wizards decided to run off. and the Magus finished it barely. he also had 4 HP left.

As far for Arcane Mark. The player could see it, and admitted that it was a loophole. But the DM said it on that tone that he knew it al along and even when the player told him what the Magus could on Skype including playing Zorro, the Dm never said that he wouldn't allow it. But at the moment the Magus wants to use it, he tels him that.

For the crit deck. I had scored to crits, and instead of double damage I did normal + effect. The magus player wanted his x2 damage cause wanted to play a burts character and shine only sometimes. But having a chance to just do regular damage when he finally crit and have Shocking Grasp on he didn't wanted it.

We gave him enough chances, but he blew it for himself.

Edit: I played a Barbarian with Exotic Weapon: Bastard Sword. I had a Large bastards sword. Cause I wanted to have a big sword:) I'm not one for rulebending and Powerplay if that's what you think:P

Edit 2: Nevermind my edit, I forgot that you is also for multiple persons and you where talking about the Magus. Nevermind then:)

[Keneth]

A short one.
It wasn't short and you should really work on your grammar. :smallbiggrin:

But it does sound like Bob was basically a prick. Anyone who's that damaging for the group as a whole needs to take a hike.

[Zeikstraal]

It wasn't short and you should really work on your grammar. :smallbiggrin:

But it does sound like Bob was basically a prick. Anyone who's that damaging for the group as a whole needs to take a hike.

It's not my native language and it was late:P but I will watch closer.

Maybe if it was an whole other person that invented the Raw rules etc. I would agree with you, but if you know who the guy is. XD

Edit: It was the short version hehe.

[TheArsenal]

The best starting adventure path is Kingmaker- It gives the characters a level of freedom that shows awesome.