New answers tagged new-gm
3
Definitely elevator pitch your game.
"It's a Lovecraftian cyberpunk game that focuses more on action than horror, with the good guys thwarting sinister incursions left and right."
If nobody bites, they're not interested. Include the genre and feel, as well as, if necessary, hints about the type of game. If they're veteran roleplayers, this is probably only ...
4
I've been in a very similar situation with a Savage Worlds zombie game I wanted to run, and there were several things I did that helped.
Make it really, really clear in your 'sales pitch' what you are expecting from players in the game
Be explicit here. The more detail you can give the better, and it will mean everyone starts the game on the same page ...
4
However, how can I make sure the players I pick are players I want in my campaign? I want this to be a more serious, mature game than other games I've played in and I need players that can handle this while also being respectful to each other.
So how can I screen potential players without making them feel like it's a job interview?
To me, this ...
4
"how can I make sure the players I pick are players I want in my campaign"
As with all group games, it will become more "our campaign" than "my campaign" as it goes on.
Attending the RPG meetup and asking people what they want from a game and why they play RPGs in casual conversation will give you a good idea of whether them playing is likely to evolve ...
16
On the one occasion we started a new group from scratch, we all went out to dinner together, during which we talked about what we were looking for in a game and did some basic worldbuilding. Also, it meant hanging out in a social situation and just getting to know each other. If it didn't end up working out, I believe it would be a softer rejection this way, ...
2
I’m not super-familiar with Savage Worlds so I don’t know how feasible this is, but what I have usually done is requested characters from all interested players, and then chosen the characters who best fit the intended campaign, or picked the characters whose backstories have indicated that their players have had the appropriate mindset for the ...
1
One way I figure how long an adventure will take:
Add up the planned scenes of roleplaying and estimate an hour for each of them (my group tends to be very talky, and we also lose focus easily making fun of names and quoting Monty Python in the middle of drdamatic scenes. In fact, the more serious the scene the more the other players TRY to make the ...
3
Good answers above, but there are so many factors involved that you cannot easily estimate this until you have experience running things for this group with this particular system.
For my 3.5 group I used to reckon I needed about an hour for a solid encounter, so expect to manage two encounters per session max. Exploration, description and roleplaying ...
4
Play with your players and you'll get a general sense for how long an adventure will be.
Really, there's not much of another way, though you can do some quick estimations.
How much content is there? Remember that a session in a tabletop game isn't necessarily linear-or even necessarily on topic at all. If you've got a lot of adiaphorous options for ...
23
There's no easy way to tell how long an adventure will last. Sometimes they'll run through several adventures' worth of material in an evening, and sometimes they'll spend forever on what you thought was a minor task.
Some reasons why material can take less time than you expect:
The party thinks of a solution you didn't think of. Maybe you assumed the ...
3
I would recommend Epidiah Ravachol's nano game "What is a roleplaying game?".
It is a small but complete game that fits on a business card and can be freely downloaded as PDF.
It explains the basics of what roleplaying is (to him, obviously). You can try it without preparation, dice or anything similar. It will take about 20 minutes to play.
You will be ...
0
Big, tough question. I had similar questions myself in highschool and ultimately wasn't able to find answers at the time and as a result didn't get into RPGs for another few years. I would say experience is the best teacher of all, you will make mistakes and learn from them and so long as your players are understanding this won't be an issue.
Here are my ...
3
My advice here, is talk to your friends.
This thing is important for you. You just need to tell it to them. If they are true friends, then you can count on it they'll help you. Quite possibly you have similar interest, and whatever you like is not anathema to them. They'll get along. Indeed, you said they are somewhat interested in the game. That is a good ...
4
One piece of advice I have would be to check out other games than just D&D before playing D&D; it's not necessarily important to do this from any real rules or whatnot perspective, but more or less every full-length game, and several shorter ones, has a guide to GM'ing or such, and while none are particularly true more than another, everything you read ...
7
Getting started as a DM
I had the same problem a few months ago. My friends wanted to play and wanted me to DM, and I had absolutely no experience in the game at all. I skimmed through the player's handbooks (it was all I had), and after a few days of being absolutely overwhelmed, this is what I did:
Read the chapter on combat very carefully. There's a lot ...
15
You're new to RPGs and you're looking for the sign that says "New GM Orientation"… but there isn't one. Most of us learn by doing, or by playing with a more experienced GM. There isn't really any beginner's bible. We do have some already-answered questions around here that should give you some context for your experiments, though.
Consider if you actually ...
2
I think you should try and DM a game for your friends. While I'm sure it would be fun to play with the gaming club, I would imagine playing with your friends would be even more fun. As for being a newbie on the rules, 4th edition D&D isn't terribly hard to play. Just give a quick run through of the PHB and the DM guide and you should be good to go. ...
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