So you fancy being a DM/GM then?
Do you fancy giving it a try?
Have you been a player for years and finally want to see how the other side lives?Have you been stitched up royally and had being a GM thrust upon you as no other twat wants to do it?
Whatever the excuse, you are now wondering what the fuck – how?
Well rest your little cotton socks this should help lube you up for the ride. Be you considering being a GM, a new GM here are some tips.
Well what the fuck is a DM/GM and is there a difference?
DM or Dungeon Master is the term user primarily for D&D from the old dungeon crawl days.
GM or Games Master is a more generic term and encompasses more than just creating and running dungeon crawls. Nowadays they both mean the same thing, so pick the term you like and run with it.
Is it Easy?
First off being a DM ain’t easy, you both the player’s best ally—in that you are their eyes and their ears in the world and at the same time—and their antagonist and nemesis, representing the perils of the world they explore.
This is both challenging and extremely gratifying. You are a god in a world of your creation: all knowing and all seeing. You are also the selfless saint who gives over hit loads of time to facilitate a game for a group of players. You’re a good and noble hero to us all, my friend.
By using a published adventure you can see how an adventure is laid out, and will make it much easier for you to run when you get to the table. Read through the entire adventure at least once before you start on your game prep.
Check out online resources to see if anyone else has already run that adventure, and if they have advice on how to run it, what to change, etc.
Check YouTube for videos of groups playing through the adventure. There are lots of great introductory adventures online, some of them for free.
A great GM facilitates the actions and decisions of the players. They can do what they want, but there may be future consequences for it. This can make for great roleplaying hooks later on.
Let their bat-shit crazy plans manage to work often enough not to discourage them from making plans in the future. Let things slide that you can stand to let slide, because the main thing is that everybody had a fun session and wants to come back for more.
Rules, they are more of a guideline than set in stone, make sure you and the players are actually having fun.
As long as you and your players are all familiar with the basic rules for playing the game, you'll do fine. As the game progresses you will pick up more and more and more.
Each game session is a chance to practice and hone those skills.
In fact much of the GMing is about world-building, which you won't need if you're starting with a published adventure (and you should).
The most important things to skim over before you play are probably the parts about combat resolution, encounters and the environment, traps and treasure. Don't bother reading through the entire magic items section, just look through it for the things that look cool to you.
Some GMs like to have ever possible detail worked out in advance, some just make everything up as they go, while others use a combination of the two.
Find the method that works best for you, but in general you should consider making some point form notes before each session so you have at least a general idea of the encounters that could happen, the NPCs the PCs might meet, and where you'd like the story to go.
Just remember one thing... if your players can go outside the box, they will go outside the box. At least some times, anyway.
There will always be times when the players do something you didn't expect. THAT'S FUCKING AWSOME! Roll with it!
If you can, just make it up and make it seem like you were prepared for them to do that, even if you weren't.
If you aren't comfortable with "winging it" when the players do something unexpected, calmly call for a brief pause for snacks, or a piss break, and take a few minutes to figure out what you will do next. Don't panic, it's going to be okay.
Have a few “generic” what if encounters that you can quickly pick from if the players go off book, as this can buy you time in your head to flesh out either a new arc, or an intersection point.
I found creating a blog to record the session output, is both fun and useful. As you can use it to summarise where you have got up to, refer back to characters they have met, and record party or player actions that may have a future consequence.
Miniatures, is using minis on a grid/map, ie with full visual representation.
"Theatre of the Mind" (TotM from now on), is where you describe the actions and everyone imagines it.
There are pros and cons to both, and personally I like to use the one that works best for any given encounter.
Some encounters may need a map and minis or tokens because it may be a complicated battle, and the players may want, or need, to see how everything relates to everything else.
This can mean minis/tokens and measuring distances etc, or a semi combination to keep track of where people are if they are not all in the same location.
Other times, it might be a simple encounter, and rather than stop the action to set everything up, you can keep the flow going by explaining the action to your players.
If you go with TotM for an encounter, don't sweat the little things. In TotM exact distances aren't that important.
Give your players a sense of where they are in relation to each other and their opponents, and just "guesstimate" it as things change.
Can the fighter run up and twat that ogre this turn? Yer, why not, go ahead!
The problem with making critical successes amazing experiences and critical failures a terrible one for players means that as a GM you’re essentially building the opposite of fun into the experience.
The norm Crit in combat:
Crit success normally means additional damage, but a crit failure means damaging a companion.
If this becomes the boring norm, then it stagnates the experience of Crits for players, as it just becomes an automated response.
There is nought wrong with doing the above, BUT you have a golden bollock of a gift in your hands to build up the narrative, expand on the characters, make things interesting.
By building the crits into a narratives, players can
A dreaded outcome for a character doesn’t have to be a dreaded outcome for a player, provided that outcome is fun enough.
When players roll very low whether for a skill check or an attack it is a great opportunity to input some humour.
Mix it up, try something funny. if it helps your PC's get into the story-line and none are feeling picked on win-win.
Draw inspiration from characters you yourself have played or played with in the past, people you have met in real life, on TV, books or film. All can be used to flesh out characters.
Make a list of NPC names common to the region the PCs are in, or to the races they might encounter.
As the session progresses, if they meet an NPC you weren't expecting them to meet, if you make up an NPC on the fly, you can pick a name quickly from the list (just make a note about it in your notes for later!).
It is much more realistic for your players if the people they meet have names, rather than Bartender #4, or Generic Old Woman. Also keep a list of NPC characteristics handy for the same situations (ie. Smokes a purple pipe; Has only one eye; likes to say "Wot!" at the end of every sentence; Fidgets with an a dead rat, boss eyed, so you never know who he is actually looking at.).
Let's be clear, your job as GM is not to be an opponent for your players. Your job is to be part of telling a cooperative story, and take care of all the NPCs, monsters, traps, and plot points the players will encounter.
In this case, what Rule 0 (aka The GM is Always Right) means is that you don't need to worry about the rules, or the text of an adventure, verbatim.
If, during a session, something comes up in game and you're not sure what rule applies, or how a rule might apply, you can either stop the game and look up the rule (and debate it with the players), or, my preferred option, you can make a ruling on the spot for the sake of keeping the game flowing.
Make it clear to the players that you are making a ruling now, and will check the rule later, just keep the game going! After the session you can look up the rule and work it out.
If you got it wrong, no biggie. Next session you can tell the players what you learned and let them know that going forward if the same situation comes up you will all follow the rule as you've learned it to be. The same can be said for adventures.
If you're playing through a published adventure and make a mistake, no big deal! You can retcon it later, or just change the story to fit the mistake. The Adventure as written is not the law! You can make it your own. Rule 0.
It can be a bit hard at times but don’t let the power of being the GM go to your head, because all in all your player will notice and may not want you GMing if it keeps up. Especially don’t be a cock about it being “your world”.
Remember that it is a game, and you are all there to have FUN. If you aren't having fun, then something is wrong. As a starting point for making sure everyone has fun, put together a list of your table rules and hand it out in advance of the first session so everyone knows what to expect.
Let your players ask questions about the table rules and how you plan to run the game, and make sure you respect their questions - don't make them feel "dumb" for asking something you think should be obvious.
Role Playing Games are an inclusive game. Everyone at the table should feel welcome and safe.
Some good table rules include:
There are other ways to get across the character of an NPC or villain without using an accent or a strange voice.
If you want to be able to do accents, watch videos on YouTube in your spare time and practice along with them, but don't get hung up over it. If the story is a good one, the players won't notice the lack of special voices, and if the story isn't good, the voices likely aren't going to save it anyway.
Sly Flourish - http://slyflourish.com/
DMs Guild - http://www.dmsguild.com/
Stan Shinn - http://swshinn.com/
Official D&D Resources - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/trpg-resources
Kobold Fight Club - https://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder
Reddit D&D 5e (aka Next) - https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/
Reddit D&D - https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonsAndDragons/
DM's Campaign Work Sheet (from Mike Shea, aka Sly Flourish) - http://slyflourish.com/5e_campaign_worksheet.html
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/
https://www.name-generator.org.uk/fantasy/
https://www.name-generator.org.uk/villain/
https://www.name-generator.org.uk/pirate/
This is both challenging and extremely gratifying. You are a god in a world of your creation: all knowing and all seeing. You are also the selfless saint who gives over hit loads of time to facilitate a game for a group of players. You’re a good and noble hero to us all, my friend.
Tips n shit to make your life easy and the game great
Start with a published adventure
New to GMing, start with a published adventure where everything has been done for you, this way you are not faced with the daunting task of trying to build your own epic world.By using a published adventure you can see how an adventure is laid out, and will make it much easier for you to run when you get to the table. Read through the entire adventure at least once before you start on your game prep.
Check out online resources to see if anyone else has already run that adventure, and if they have advice on how to run it, what to change, etc.
Check YouTube for videos of groups playing through the adventure. There are lots of great introductory adventures online, some of them for free.
Prioritise the gaming experience over the game’s rules
A good GM has a solid foundation in the rules. At the same time they are human and account be expected to be all-knowing about the rules.A great GM facilitates the actions and decisions of the players. They can do what they want, but there may be future consequences for it. This can make for great roleplaying hooks later on.
Let their bat-shit crazy plans manage to work often enough not to discourage them from making plans in the future. Let things slide that you can stand to let slide, because the main thing is that everybody had a fun session and wants to come back for more.
Rules, they are more of a guideline than set in stone, make sure you and the players are actually having fun.
You don't have to memorize all the rules!
This may seem like more of Rule 0, but it is important to understand going in that you DON'T have to memorise all the rules before you start GMing.As long as you and your players are all familiar with the basic rules for playing the game, you'll do fine. As the game progresses you will pick up more and more and more.
Each game session is a chance to practice and hone those skills.
In fact much of the GMing is about world-building, which you won't need if you're starting with a published adventure (and you should).
The most important things to skim over before you play are probably the parts about combat resolution, encounters and the environment, traps and treasure. Don't bother reading through the entire magic items section, just look through it for the things that look cool to you.
Preparation
Whether you are playing a published adventure or making your own, spend time prepping, the amount of time spent is open to differing opinions.Some GMs like to have ever possible detail worked out in advance, some just make everything up as they go, while others use a combination of the two.
Find the method that works best for you, but in general you should consider making some point form notes before each session so you have at least a general idea of the encounters that could happen, the NPCs the PCs might meet, and where you'd like the story to go.
Just remember one thing... if your players can go outside the box, they will go outside the box. At least some times, anyway.
There will always be times when the players do something you didn't expect. THAT'S FUCKING AWSOME! Roll with it!
If you can, just make it up and make it seem like you were prepared for them to do that, even if you weren't.
If you aren't comfortable with "winging it" when the players do something unexpected, calmly call for a brief pause for snacks, or a piss break, and take a few minutes to figure out what you will do next. Don't panic, it's going to be okay.
Have a few “generic” what if encounters that you can quickly pick from if the players go off book, as this can buy you time in your head to flesh out either a new arc, or an intersection point.
Keep Notes! Lots of notes!
Take notes, lots of notes. Be it recorded in a physical notebook, or on a computer, take notes!- Make notes before the session starts in point-form for what you expect to happen in the session;
- Make notes about the monsters coming up and any special abilities you might need to remember;
- Make notes during the game about any NPCs you need to make up on the fly
- Make notes of things the Characters do or say that you can mine for story ideas and encounters later.
I found creating a blog to record the session output, is both fun and useful. As you can use it to summarise where you have got up to, refer back to characters they have met, and record party or player actions that may have a future consequence.
Miniatures or "Theatre of the Mind"
Say what?Miniatures, is using minis on a grid/map, ie with full visual representation.
"Theatre of the Mind" (TotM from now on), is where you describe the actions and everyone imagines it.
There are pros and cons to both, and personally I like to use the one that works best for any given encounter.
Some encounters may need a map and minis or tokens because it may be a complicated battle, and the players may want, or need, to see how everything relates to everything else.
This can mean minis/tokens and measuring distances etc, or a semi combination to keep track of where people are if they are not all in the same location.
Other times, it might be a simple encounter, and rather than stop the action to set everything up, you can keep the flow going by explaining the action to your players.
If you go with TotM for an encounter, don't sweat the little things. In TotM exact distances aren't that important.
Give your players a sense of where they are in relation to each other and their opponents, and just "guesstimate" it as things change.
Can the fighter run up and twat that ogre this turn? Yer, why not, go ahead!
Try to make Critical Failures more fun than Critical Successes
Crits in a game are often represented by additional damage or bumbling failures.The problem with making critical successes amazing experiences and critical failures a terrible one for players means that as a GM you’re essentially building the opposite of fun into the experience.
The norm Crit in combat:
Crit success normally means additional damage, but a crit failure means damaging a companion.
If this becomes the boring norm, then it stagnates the experience of Crits for players, as it just becomes an automated response.
There is nought wrong with doing the above, BUT you have a golden bollock of a gift in your hands to build up the narrative, expand on the characters, make things interesting.
By building the crits into a narratives, players can
- Stylishly decapitate an enemy Kill Bill style,
- Shoot while somersaulting through the air Deadpool style,
- WWE style extreme wrestle the baddie and throw him headfirst into an industrial fan, Jackson Pollockng the wall with his entrails to such an artistic masterpiece the Tate want to buy it.
- The character cuts their belt while drawing their sword, so have to fight with their trousers around their ankles.
- A PC rolled for a perception check to look out of a window to check for when the Dark Alfar troops were arriving. Rolls a Crit Fail. The result was the painting by the window was of such exquisite beauty and depth they got themselves lost in the moment admiring the painting, they had no idea what was out of the window.
- A Hitman trying to keep low key, tries to slip out of their hotel for a secret rendezvous, critically fails their perception and walks straight in front of a police car! Only to go on to critically pass their luck roll and smooth talk the police, not only in not arresting them but giving them a lift to their meeting!
- Even a master swordsman, can fumble their weapon from time to time, or a master archer could miss the monster and snag the pouch you were after lodging the arrow and pouch 15 ft above your head.
A dreaded outcome for a character doesn’t have to be a dreaded outcome for a player, provided that outcome is fun enough.
When players roll very low whether for a skill check or an attack it is a great opportunity to input some humour.
Mix it up, try something funny. if it helps your PC's get into the story-line and none are feeling picked on win-win.
Build out your NPCs to enrich your world for the players
There are so many ways to inject your own personalised and interesting elements into the world you’re building for your players. One of the easiest ways is to create, use and re-use interesting characters.Draw inspiration from characters you yourself have played or played with in the past, people you have met in real life, on TV, books or film. All can be used to flesh out characters.
- That school teacher you had who would have made a great bartender, or that holier-than-thou-art librarian from your college/uni days who you could see as a religious zealot toiling in a town’s church are perfect additions to such a universe.
- There’s also the minor satisfaction of watching your players battle and overcome an evil warlord whose personality was based on your childhood bully.
Make a list of NPC names common to the region the PCs are in, or to the races they might encounter.
As the session progresses, if they meet an NPC you weren't expecting them to meet, if you make up an NPC on the fly, you can pick a name quickly from the list (just make a note about it in your notes for later!).
It is much more realistic for your players if the people they meet have names, rather than Bartender #4, or Generic Old Woman. Also keep a list of NPC characteristics handy for the same situations (ie. Smokes a purple pipe; Has only one eye; likes to say "Wot!" at the end of every sentence; Fidgets with an a dead rat, boss eyed, so you never know who he is actually looking at.).
Rule 0, aka "The GM is always right."
This get touted about a lot, and can at first seem like a dick move.Let's be clear, your job as GM is not to be an opponent for your players. Your job is to be part of telling a cooperative story, and take care of all the NPCs, monsters, traps, and plot points the players will encounter.
In this case, what Rule 0 (aka The GM is Always Right) means is that you don't need to worry about the rules, or the text of an adventure, verbatim.
If, during a session, something comes up in game and you're not sure what rule applies, or how a rule might apply, you can either stop the game and look up the rule (and debate it with the players), or, my preferred option, you can make a ruling on the spot for the sake of keeping the game flowing.
Make it clear to the players that you are making a ruling now, and will check the rule later, just keep the game going! After the session you can look up the rule and work it out.
If you got it wrong, no biggie. Next session you can tell the players what you learned and let them know that going forward if the same situation comes up you will all follow the rule as you've learned it to be. The same can be said for adventures.
If you're playing through a published adventure and make a mistake, no big deal! You can retcon it later, or just change the story to fit the mistake. The Adventure as written is not the law! You can make it your own. Rule 0.
Don't Let The Power Go To Your Head
Don’t be a dick!It can be a bit hard at times but don’t let the power of being the GM go to your head, because all in all your player will notice and may not want you GMing if it keeps up. Especially don’t be a cock about it being “your world”.
Table Rules
A challenging part of running a RPG game is bringing together a bunch of people and keeping everyone happy.Remember that it is a game, and you are all there to have FUN. If you aren't having fun, then something is wrong. As a starting point for making sure everyone has fun, put together a list of your table rules and hand it out in advance of the first session so everyone knows what to expect.
Let your players ask questions about the table rules and how you plan to run the game, and make sure you respect their questions - don't make them feel "dumb" for asking something you think should be obvious.
Role Playing Games are an inclusive game. Everyone at the table should feel welcome and safe.
Some good table rules include:
1.
Don’t be a Dick
No bullying in-character or out-of-character.
If any player has a problem with another player out-of-game, don't bring it to the table.
If those players can't figure out their differences outside of the game, then they shouldn't be in the game together unless they are able to leave their baggage at the door;
2.
No party in-fighting.
Unless everyone is okay with PVP (player vs player) just rule it out from the start.
No stealing from each other, and no fighting each other, unless it's agreed upon by all.
Even if a couple of players agree to it, it can make other players feel uncomfortable;
3.
No rules-lawyers at the table.
A rules-lawyer is someone who knows (or thinks they know) all the rules, and is constantly correcting the GM and everyone else.
Don't be a rules lawyer.
If the GM needs help with a rule, they can always ask the rules lawyer for help, but until then, keep your rules-lawyering to yourself.
Voices
Yer fuck that, don't worry about voices. Yes, voices can be fun, and they add a lot of flavour and colour to encounters with NPCs and villains, but not everyone is comfortable with doing voices, and that's okay. If you like doing it, go for it! If you are nervous about it, that's okay.There are other ways to get across the character of an NPC or villain without using an accent or a strange voice.
- You can use hand gestures, or change your face.
- You can stand up from your chair and change your posture.
- You can also just change the speed at which you speak with your normal voice - slow it down, or speed it up.
- Talk in a bit deeper voice or a bit higher voice than usual
- You can try a gruff voice, a mean voice, or a happy voice.
If you want to be able to do accents, watch videos on YouTube in your spare time and practice along with them, but don't get hung up over it. If the story is a good one, the players won't notice the lack of special voices, and if the story isn't good, the voices likely aren't going to save it anyway.
Resources
Web sites & Blogs
World Builder Blog - https://worldbuilderblog.me/Sly Flourish - http://slyflourish.com/
DMs Guild - http://www.dmsguild.com/
Stan Shinn - http://swshinn.com/
Official D&D Resources - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/trpg-resources
Kobold Fight Club - https://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder
Reddit D&D 5e (aka Next) - https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/
Reddit D&D - https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonsAndDragons/
DM's Campaign Work Sheet (from Mike Shea, aka Sly Flourish) - http://slyflourish.com/5e_campaign_worksheet.html
Name Generators
https://www.name-generator.org.uk/fantasy/
https://www.name-generator.org.uk/villain/
https://www.name-generator.org.uk/pirate/
https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/name/
Matt Colville - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkVdb9Yr8fc05_VbAVfskCA
Roll20 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHC1kWACzA7G6D2fqkqsRDg
Official D&D channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi-PULMg2eD_v5AO0PlW4sg
WASD20 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQOmmyopiTzH9dlThm8hbwQ
WebDM - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7XFmdssWgaPzGyGbKk8GaQ
Nerdacrhy - https://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdarchy
How to be a great game master - https://www.youtube.com/user/Bon3zmann
GM Tips (Matt Mercer & Satine Phoenix) - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7atuZxmT9570U87GhK_20NcbxM43vkom
Tabletop Babble - https://dontsplitthepodcastnetwork.com/table-top-babble/
DM's Deep Dive with Mike Shea (Sly Flourish) - https://dontsplitthepodcastnetwork.com/dms-deep-dive/
The Tome Show - http://www.thetomeshow.com/
Youtube
Roll20 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHC1kWACzA7G6D2fqkqsRDg
Official D&D channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi-PULMg2eD_v5AO0PlW4sg
WASD20 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQOmmyopiTzH9dlThm8hbwQ
WebDM - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7XFmdssWgaPzGyGbKk8GaQ
Nerdacrhy - https://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdarchy
How to be a great game master - https://www.youtube.com/user/Bon3zmann
GM Tips (Matt Mercer & Satine Phoenix) - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7atuZxmT9570U87GhK_20NcbxM43vkom
Podcasts
DM's Deep Dive with Mike Shea (Sly Flourish) - https://dontsplitthepodcastnetwork.com/dms-deep-dive/
The Tome Show - http://www.thetomeshow.com/
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