Online DM resources

[Astrella]

I'm wanting to give DM'ing a try, but I don't know that much about it. Does anyone know about some general (preferably not game specific) resources for fledling DM's?

[Dimers]

I know this doesn't meet your criteria, but I found it impressively helpful, so it's worth a shot. The 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons DMG includes several pages of advice that applies to all roleplaying games to help you figure out what kind of game you and your players want, how to give players what they want and deal with their trouble areas. It's very little text and tons of insight. Then you can take that insight and find a well-suited game system, which may or may not be 4e D&D.

So ... sorry, kinda game specific and not online, but if you know somebody who has a copy, you'd be doing the group a great service by taking a look.

[Firest Kathon]

Again not generic at all, but if you are planning to GM a Pathfinder Society game, you can find a lot of resources (such as collections of monster stats, handouts etc.) on pfsprep.com.

[nedz]

I'm wanting to give DM'ing a try, but I don't know that much about it. Does anyone know about some general (preferably not game specific) resources for fledling DM's?

The playground

Really there are two main aspects.

Technical: this is about knowing the system you decide to use mechanically and being organised.

Artistic: this is about the performance art / story telling side backed up by world building / scenario design.

There is some overlap between these two.

There are different styles of game: which you chose will depend upon your preferences and the playstyles of your players.
Ideally the system you choose will support this choice, or it could make it harder.

[Itsjustsoup.com]

Before you commit to GM ask yourself these two important questions:

have you ever herded cats?

Can you roll with cats running all over the yard?

That being said,

Pathfinder Actually has some good info on creating stories. It's 2-3 pages long in the book.

Since the Pathfinder book is online, maybe you can find it in the "Paizo PRD" - google that!

[BWR]

Pathfinder's "Game Mastery Guide" is basically the PF version of D&D's Dungeon Master's Guide, with a minimum of mechanics and a maximum of trying to prepare you for how to write different types of adventures, how to handle different types of roleplaying, different types of players, conflicts IC and OOC, basic goals and tips for GMing, world-building, cosmology building, campaign building, lots of random generators for names, characters, taverns, ships and lots of ideas for good literature, films and music and more.

It is primarily aimed at D&Dish games but lots of the information is universal.

[Airk]

I suggest The Angry GM. Specifically, the How to Run a Game section. His style is a little bit... silly, and I don't agree with everything he says, but he gives enough explanation of WHY he says what he says so that you can form an educated opinion about whether you should agree with him or not.

In any event, the How To Run Your First RPG session post is a strong suggestion, and his posts on adjudicating actions and adventure building are likewise pretty smart.

Most actual published books on the topic are pretty arse.