Accidental GM

[TaraSilverwind]

Hello everyone,

I just joined this forum because I'm apparently going to need some DMing advice soon. I've been playing D&D since around 1994 when my dad brought me to one of the 2nd ed games that his brother was running. I got to play one of their NPC fighters. Not too long after that, I created my own character and joined their group for a while until I found my own gaming group in high school, which my dad DMed. He took us through some really memorable adventures, and those games were some of the best memories of my teenage years.

Now, I find myself with an opportunity to introduce two young teenagers to the joys of D&D. My neighbor's son and his friend were over at our house today for your typical Labor Day BBQ get together. As they were going through my gaming cabinet, they saw my 1st edition starter box set and asked me if we could play it. So what does a long time D&D player with no DMing experience say? Well of course I said, "sure!" I got them started on character creation while I hastily tried to familiarize myself with all the idiosyncrasies of 1st edition. Over the next few hours, they had so much fun creating their characters and going through the first few rooms of a jailbreak module. True to the nature of many-a-party, they even went against what you're "supposed to do" and killed the NPC character that they really weren't supposed to kill (to be fair, the NPC was kind of a jerk). Now, they want to come back sometime and play through more of the quest.

While we were playing, some of my other gamer friends told them about 2nd ed and 3.5 (specifically, that we generally preferred 3.5), so the boys expressed some interest in switching to that next time. Depending on what they want to do, it looks like I've got some research to do before the next game. Whatever we do, we'll probably stick mostly to hack and slash for the first module. Anyone have any pointers for a brand new GM running a game for brand new players?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Anyone have any pointers for a brand new GM running a game for brand new players?

It sounds like you've been playing for long enough to know what you like and dislike in a DM, so I doubt you're going to make any obvious DM blunders. Apart from that... have fun. With a newish DM and new players, your gaming styles grow and adapt together. You'll learn to run things that make them happy, they'll learn to play things that make you happy, and it'll all work out great in the end.

[Erock]

When I opened this thread, I expected a Brad Paisley/LL Cool J joke. However, two pieces of advice:

1.) If you think you've messed up a rule, or don't know it, don't point it out. Make something up and Band-Aid your mistake.

2.) See what they want, and go from there. From system to campaign, if you have a campaign that's all role-play and players that are all hack-and-slash, the game will fail. Talk to them before anything else.

And, just as an aside: play a Cleric DMPC. Teenagers will not see how good having a cleric, and how fun playing a cleric, can be. Also, check out non-D&D systems such as FATE and Pathfinder. There is a wide array of tabletop RPGs, and some people are better suited for some systems.

[stupiddDice]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76474

For all your GMing needs.

[JusticeZero]

And, just as an aside: play a Cleric DMPC. Teenagers will not see how good having a cleric, and how fun playing a cleric, can be.

I completely disagree with this on several levels.
I often played the cleric when I was a teenager. Clerics are awesome; you can rant about the Wrath of Zeus or whatever; they get all the cool lines as a result.
Furthermore, they have ridiculously excessive power. They have enough raw power to crack everything wide open, played wisely. just mention a couple of power combos.
Also, they are not actually necessary. Seed the treasure with things like cure light wounds wands, ring of regen, etc. and they will have no trouble staying topped up on hit points. Scrolls and so on can be used for the status effect repair as long as you have someone who can use them - in 3e at least, a Rogue or IRRC Sorcerer can do that.
Finally, running a DMPC is a bad idea on many levels. It makes it hard to run things and tends to suck the fun out. All my worst memories of gaming involve DMPCs.

[Arbane]

Also, check out non-D&D systems such as FATE and Pathfinder. There is a wide array of tabletop RPGs, and some people are better suited for some systems.

Pathfinder is TOTALLY D&D.
Aside from that, I agree. Trying different systems is a good idea. There are a lot of RPGs out there, and quite a few are free.

[Erock]

I completely disagree with this on several levels.
I often played the cleric when I was a teenager. Clerics are awesome; you can rant about the Wrath of Zeus or whatever; they get all the cool lines as a result.
Furthermore, they have ridiculously excessive power. They have enough raw power to crack everything wide open, played wisely. just mention a couple of power combos.
Also, they are not actually necessary. Seed the treasure with things like cure light wounds wands, ring of regen, etc. and they will have no trouble staying topped up on hit points. Scrolls and so on can be used for the status effect repair as long as you have someone who can use them - in 3e at least, a Rogue or IRRC Sorcerer can do that.
Finally, running a DMPC is a bad idea on many levels. It makes it hard to run things and tends to suck the fun out. All my worst memories of gaming involve DMPCs.

I wrote that mostly jokingly, as I thoroughly enjoy clerics as a class (as a teenager), but it took quite a while for my friends to come around. And don't get me wrong, I know the perils of a DMPC, I meant it more in the "guy who just randomly shows up and helps you/ deus ex machina" sense. Although this can be replaced by wands, potions and rings, it can become harder to control. An inexperienced DM is more likely to give too much or too little magic healing, buffs, etc., which can destroy campaigns.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I know the perils of a DMPC, I meant it more in the "guy who just randomly shows up and helps you/ deus ex machina" sense.

That's... like... one of the worst forms of DMPC/"super NPC."

Also, I'd disagree on the "don't admit to making mistakes" thing. This is a thing we do for fun, not some arcane secret society thing. Be open with your players. If you make a mistake, admit it. "Hey, guys, I'm sorry, I messed up the grappling rules earlier. This is how they're supposed to work." It makes things friendlier, and means that you don't have to remember some hodgepodge of fudged rules if you want to keep something consistent.

(Usual guidelines of "keep things moving" still apply; just say "sorry, I know there's a real rule for this somewhere, but in the interests of time I'm going to make something up for now.")

[Anonymouswizard]

For, DMing boils down to a few key things you have to get down:

• Whats your style as a Games Master? by this I don't mean roleplay vs. hack-and-slash, I mean do you prefer running published modules or your own adventures? And do you prefer to have everything pre-planned or are you willing to free form.
• Social encounters can still be fun even if nobody is specced for them, so include one in most sessions. This mainly works by letting them talk to the enemy, and remembering that their sense motive is probabaly -2 to +3.
• Let them play exactly who they want to play. Party of paladins? Why not. A wizard, a Sorcerer, a Druid and a Monk? just make sure the monk doesn't feel left out.
• Don't expect them to be too clever, either with combat encounters or puzzles.
• Don't expect the players to be stupid, as with a battle grid simple tactics can give the party a huge advantage. If you think that they'd have trouble with a fight, just give them a terrain-based option to fight them one at a time (e.g. the corridor they just emerged from). The best session I ever played in involved a rogue, a knight, a ranger and an illusionist fighting against undead.
• The most important thing to remember is that YOU ARE NOT THERE TO RUN THE WORLD. Your job is to give the player's a situation, and then somehow accommodate all the weirdness they come up with. If the plot is you must kill the evil wizard in his Tower of Doom, and your player's decide that they would much rather ruin his reputation until he can no longer get the help he needs for his evil plan, that's the way the adventure is going.

Some of these are common sense (most players aren't geniuses or idiots, and a player won't be happy if forced to play a character), but the first and last are the most important. In my experience, improvisation is far more important for GMs as players, as not only do player's dislike any rails than the most fair (your lord has given you a mission), but they will find some method to make your plans fail spectacularly. Therefore, whenever the players do something, I suggest asking you these questions:

• Does it make sense on some level?
• Is it cool?
• Is it funny?
• If I turn it into a joke, will my players except/run with it?
• Is it completely and utterly ridiculous?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you may now pick from my two top GMing lines:

• "Yes, you are allowed to try that. Make a/an X roll"
• "yes, but (you alert the guards/you rolled really badly and didn't notice that the bomb was a model/you now have a history of doing that with demons/whatever seems appropreate)"

And if you follow these, you may find (as I did) that GMing is a different but equally enjoyable experience to playing a PC.

[BaronOfHell]

Just don't be disappointed if they don't come back. Kids will be kids. :)

[TaraSilverwind]

Thanks for all the advice! I think I was pretty lucky growing up having my dad as a GM, because I really enjoyed his GMing style and am definitely planning to take a lot of hints from him. He was very flexible, and recognized that players can, and will, go off track. He never got bogged down in rules, and established that when in doubt, GM's rule is law (for this call).

I have thought that perhaps the teens I GMed for yesterday may get distracted and decide not to come back, but I hope that isn't the case. And I hope that if I do continue to run games for them, I can be a decent GM and at least ensure they have fun with it.

At the very least, I can consider this a test run for when I have children of my own to run games for.

[AKA_Bait]

If you are still looking for info, there is a guide in my signature that I crowd sourced from members of the playground a few years back.

[TaraSilverwind]

Thanks AKA_Bait! stupidDice posted that link as well, and I read through it all a couple days back. There is a lot of really great stuff in that guide. Thank you for putting it all together!

The one thing I know I'm going to do differently regards pre-rolling initiative and skill checks that you want to keep secret from the party. As a player, it's far more ominous to hear the clatter of dice behind the screen every once in a while. I talked to my dad, and what he likes to do is just randomly roll dice for no reason sometimes. That way, the players never know if there's a reason for the roll or not. It can be a great way to keep up the tension if you don't overuse it. Also, I've never been in a game where skill checks were prerolled by the DM, and as a player, I might find it a little suspicious if the DM simply says, "you don't hear anything" without rolling for it first, or allowing me to roll for it.

But hey, everyone has their own play style, so just because something doesn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for someone else

As a followup to my original post in this thread, I finally got an opportunity today to read through the rest of the module I started them in, and I plan to rewrite the entire thing. It's a little too hack and slash with no regard for staying alive, and no real personality to any of the NPCs, monsters, or the villain. It's basically too OD&D for my tastes. The rewrite should be fun!