Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!daemon From: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: Re: Help for Beginning GM Message-ID: <3743@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Oct-83 07:43:28 EDT Article-I.D.: decwrl.3743 Posted: Mon Oct 24 07:43:28 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Oct-83 02:25:49 EDT Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Los Altos, CA Lines: 114 From: Ed Featherston HL01-1/P06 225-5241 Begin Forwarded Message: ------------------------------------------- Newsgroup : net.games.frp >From : ROYAL::RAVAN Organization : Digital Equipment Corp. Subj: Re: Help for Beginning GM I have been a DM and a player for over four years, mostly using an AD&D variant. These are a few things that I learned from my first dungeon. Rule 1: Know thy scenario! Whether you're using a prepared module or one of your own devising, whether you're in a dungeon, a town, or a wilderness, whether your players like hack-and-slash or storytelling - you MUST be familiar with their current surroundings. (The ability to improvise will also serve you in good stead, but everything that you make up on the spur of the moment will affect your campaign for the rest of Time, so be careful.) It can be truly dampening to a budding dungeon if the DM has to pause and look things up at the most exciting moments, or, worse, has to stop and backtrack because "I looked that up on the wrong table". Rule 2: Know thy players. People participate in role-playing games for many different reasons; your dungeon will be happier (great concept, a "happy dungeon") if you and your players agree on the kinds of things that you want to do. If your people want action, then don't keep forcing them to do involved puzzles or to spend hours plotting. If they like to puzzle things out, don't keep throwing hordes of orcs or wererats at them. If they want to role-play their characters in every detail, give them the opportunities to do so; let their characters have relationships with other characters or NPC's - they may fall in love, make enemies, change professions or perhaps take a job on the side. (Of course, a little variety is good for the soul; just don't force people to do things that seem like fun to YOU if they don't seem to like it themselves.) For absolute neophytes, the "Basic Role-playing" guide that comes with such games as Runequest is the best introduction to FRPs that I have seen. Rule 3: Practice your combat system. Whatever system you are using, practice it before your first melee. Try pitting characters of different classes against each other, and run the whole thing. (It helps to have a friend play the "player characters", leaving you the NPC's.) If you've done small melees but are facing a new type - a war or a seige, say - then practice that, too. Make sure that you have enough record-keeping materials handy to track all the wounds, spell effects, etc. that both sides have taken. If you miscalculate a monster's hit points and find out later that the monster killed a player character three rounds after it should have been dead, you may have a problem! (If the player finds out, you REALLY have a problem.) Rule 4: Keep the characters hungry. Be EXTREMELY careful about what you let your players find early on in the campaign. It is, of course, possible to take things away later on, but that can cause hard feelings; it's usually simpler to let things start slowly and gain momentum as you and the players feel more comfortable with the game. Even if they wind up as 18th level mages ruling half the world, they'll still be able to get together and talk about the days when they fought off a rabid wolf with only one magic dagger between them. Rule 5: Remember to role-play! This is less important to some people than to others, but the game rapidly turns into a strange sort of backgammon if it is played only with the rules, tables and dice. You may not want to go so far as to insist that everyone speak in character all the time ("What did the Paladin just say? What is a 'pizza'?"), but players should make some attempt to act as their characters would. This isn't always easy, especially in AD&D: in striving for game balance, the designers put many artificial restrictions on character classes, races, weapons, magic - everything, in fact. Therefore, it is possible for people to play strictly by the numbers, or, worse, to try to force interpretations of spells or rules way past the intended spirit of the thing. Although I've done my share of arguing with the DM over what actions my character should be allowed (fear of death can do strange things), I prefer to use the role and not the rules. It's the DM's job to use the game restrictions, coming up with reasons for them and weaving them together with the characters' and NPCs' actions to create a cohesive story. (Nobody said it was easy.) Try to get your players to help with this; if they're pushing the rules too far, ask them if they think their interpretations would "feel" right if they read it in a book. ("... and while the great demon watched, the mighty Aragorn ripped the rings from the fingers of his dead comrade, then stood in the corner and quaffed three little vials of liquid, one after the other..." Some hero.) Might help; who knows? /beth ravan/ Mail address : ...decvax!decwrl!rhea!royal!ravan ------------------------------------------- End Forwarded Message