GM Tips for an RPG rookie?

I had an idea recently for a campaign and am currently trying to flesh it out. I was hoping maybe some more experienced players and GMs could give me some tips on how to GM a campaign? Things to avoid doing. Tips on how to get players aware and hopefully invested plot lines without completely railroading them. If the monsters I'm developing would work. Or maybe advice on how to make the story more interesting? Pretty much any advice would be welcome.

Adding story information to first post to make it easier:

On the tropical island of Junna off the Equestrian Coast there is a local legend of a spirit named Verana who protects the island and guards against the return of the evil Windigo King. Recently, a fanatical cult intent on overthrowing Celestia and replacing her with an heir to the ancient unicorn throne has come to the island, attacking Verana's shrine and greatly weakening her in their quest to awaken the Windigo king and use his powers as a weapon against Canterlot Court.

Say you've drawn up an awesome Haunted House encounter but want it to be a surprise to the party, not a formal quest. You strongly imply you want the party to go to the East, so they can discover it in the forest. If they go North to the mountains, then that mansion was always in the northern mountains and anyone who says otherwise is being silly. Use a quantum railroad, not a physical one.

Don't use a DMPC. Use NPCs frequently, and try to re-use them whenever possible to encourage a connection with them, but don't use a DMPC unless absolutely vital. The party WILL try to kill your DMPC. If it gets that far? Let them.

Don't punish creativity. If someone figures out a way to circumvent the whole session arc, don't just say "no". Give them at least a small reward for being clever. You can rehash the arc later with different names and covering the loophole; no one will notice.

Without having your story or monsters on hand, we can't give advice on them. Post the monsters in the Monsters subforum for feedback.

To get people invested in the plot, let them feel as if they have an effect upon it. People will test this. In example, someone may purposefully botch an important RP encounter and then talk as if the NPCs aren't even there, not that I'm drawing examples from recent PBP here. Punish them by making those NPCs react. It will show world continuity. Have the NPCs remember and react to the actions of the heroes. Have objectives shift and escalate naturally, not disjointed and segmented. Similarly, let PCs assume things about the world and make it canon. If you're in said haunted mansion, and they say "I take one of the candle-holders from the wall and toss it down the pit", even if candle-holders were never mentioned, allow them reasonable assumptions of existence, don't be overbearing.

Finally, if at all possible, try to have a friendly rules-lawyer on your side in your game, someone who knows the system really well in order to advise you real-time. Players want to play, if you make it clear you're a newbie and would appreciate any support, do so.

Is the monster subforum the Monster Arena one? And as for the story.

On the tropical island of Junna off the Equestrian Coast there is a local legend of a spirit named Verana who protects the island and guards against the return of the evil Windigo King. Recently, a fanatical cult intent on overthrowing Celestia and replacing her with an heir to the ancient unicorn throne has come to the island, attacking Verana's shrine and greatly weakening her in their quest to awaken the Windigo king and use his powers as a weapon against Canterlot Court.

That's the general version I have so far. I intend to have Verana's Spirit reach out to the player characters and act as an "Adorable Assistant" type NPC with a high History skill for the party ((since she's lived on the island since before it was even inhabited)). Does that make her a DMPC?

I don't know, Ravenscroft Raven, I've found party members are usually okay with a DMPC if the DM asks ahead of time. Maybe that's just my friends, though.

The most important thing when DMing a storyline, in my opinion, is to write your story as a bunch of cool plot points you want to see happen - a basic framework of a story. Then, instead of trying to get your players to go a certain place or do a certain thing to make that plot point happen, let the story flow naturally whilst subtly moving the pieces that are characters and circumstances to lead in that plot point's direction -not railroading, forcing them to go, but something more behind-the-scenes. It's difficult, certainly, but it's rewarding. When it comes to a roleplaying session's (or even a campaign's) story, I believe what a certain Ankh-Morporkian once said applies: "Only presumptuous fools plan. The wise man steers."

That being said, you will want to plan your stories a little bit - though you can't plan for everything a player might do in a certain situation, try and plan a basic direction for the story to continue in for each major choice they might make. For instance, your party is presented with evidence of a cult in the area attempting to summon something bad. They have a few very basic options: confronting the cult in some way or another, ignoring them, or attempting to join the cult in some way or another. If you can plan a basic story direction for each of these major decisions, you should thus be fine for at least that. For minor decisions, you should usually be able to start steering towards the major ones, as above.

Out-of-story and in-setting, you'll want to plan A LOT - dungeon maps, town maps, monsters and NPC stats, backstories, consequences actions that don't directly affect the story will have, etc. Make as complete a world as you possibly can - you never know what those wild player characters are gonna try and do with it, and having to shut down something they're doing because part of your world isn't ready yet blows monkey string.

All I've got for the immediate moment - good luck!

PRE-POST EDIT TO RESPOND TO NINJA: No, not unless you intend on that character taking part in battle as a full character, having an impact on the plot as a full character, or continuing in the plot line past that stage as a full character. AT least in my opinion.

Make the game fun. Sure having a challenging boss that could kick the party's flanks would be hard, but it would be a curb-stomp battle and that's no fun. you want to get the players to enjoy your game and want to stay farther than just the first session.

The biggest thing I've learned from my short time as a newbie GM... Come to terms with the fact that ANY character can end up dead, and when I realized that fact it scared me deeply cause I like a lot of my characters and don't want them dead, but you've gotta get ready for that fact that because of the way the Party is... Anything nearby the party can end up dead or the places can be destroyed in a second. In fact I suggest take a character you really like. Then try to think of the fact that the party will KILL this character for some reason or another. Think up outcomes of that fact... Try to build a plot where a character you like a lot gets killed or at lest just think of his plot just to prepare yourself if it happens. Do everything you can to try to avoid it... Just something to be always aware of.

....Because players are horrible people.

I'd be wary of permanent NPC companions in general in Ponytales if only because the system is geared to be heavy RP, so having an RP-only ally is still a huge boon to the party. The only time I've found a full on DMPC (class levels, in fights, in RP) fully tolerable and reasonable and accepted was when I played a "fickle gods" type campaign, where every three weeks the DM changed to another party member, which was a really fun and interesting experience, so their player while they're not the DM becomes a DMPC. DMPCs are, by their nature, kind of immortal and know exactly what to do to progress the plot, so some players will cede to their every whim, along for the ride, while other groups will try to make them the sacrificial lamb for every dangerous mission imaginable.

However, I agree with everything else APW said. Solid advice there.

And for monsters, look under "Home" "Developers Corner" "Game Mechanics" "Monsters". There's a lot of premade ones there as well to use if you need them.

This last bit will sound mean without the context of emotion, in advance, it is not meant to be: Your plot is very standard and tropeful. There is a non-zero chance people will make fun of that, but ribbing the DM and other players is, in my opinion, a big and fun part of the metagame. If anyone points it out, laugh with them and promise something out of left field. And have, just in case, something from left field in case you feel like a twist (don't spoil it by posting it here if you intend to run it here though!).

It's alright, it didn't sound mean. Honestly I laughed a bit at myself with that.

I was trying to make the base of the story pretty "generic hero epic" thing so the possibility of "get the quest, fight the things, be the hero of the land" is available if someone wants that.

But I also want to develop and branch off a lot of potentially more interesting and offbeat individual things from it with time and help and ideas I might get from these tips.

As for Verana's Spirit. I intended her to be kinda like Navi. She can use her History skill to try to remember things about Junna that might help if the party asks but she has to roll so she can still be wrong. But she mostly doesn't manifest much since she's too weak to do so, and she's bound to a trinket so if she becomes too much of a boon she can be stolen. She also can't be seen or heard by most other characters so talking to her too much may cause NPCs to think you're insane.

Running a DMPC that isn't immortal and doesn't know how to progress the plot automatically isn't too hard.

You just have to keep in mind that most players have to juggle the following:

1)In-character knowledge
2)Out-of-character knowledge

While playing as a DMPC you only have to juggle one more thing:

1)In-character knowledge
2)Out-of-character-non-GM-knowledge
3)GM knowledge

I understand your wariness, really. Some GMs can be self-serving jerks who will try to steal the spotlight and railroad the party to vicotry on their character's immortal backs. However, I defend the concept because I personally am currently playing one of these characters in my own campaign, and I would like to think that I'm better than some self-server who would bend the rules of the game towards his own character like that. And I get the feeling that, if it came to it, Dr. Blight would be better than that too.

DB, you strike me as a team player, not an attention hog from what I've seen so far - so I'd say you could probably manage a DNPC if you tried. The spirit doesn't sound like a DNPC though, and I really think the only DNPCs are those that level up and are a constant member of the party.

As far as NPC death goes, at times you may have to kill off your characters, but this is a fantasy setting - they can always come back. Resurrection at the local temple, anypony?

-Also, something else that hasn't been touched on yet, but PC death!

I get the shivers just thinkin' about it (;

But the thing about PC death is that... nopony likes it - UNLESS, that is, they die in a very epic and memorable way (and even then, they may not like it). Be wary about just killing off a player's character fighting some mooks or something, as I've heard that's the easiest way to get a player really miffed. I've heard from sources much more knowledgeable than I that if it happens, player death is also best when the player realizes and actively makes the decision to do something life-threatening, even suicidal, in the name of greatness.

That noted, even though you shouldn't often kill PCs, keep in mind that not all enemies even need to be out to kill the PCs. For instance, they might KO the party just to drag them off somewhere, shackle them in chains, and gloat. They could loot the party while they're out cold. They could even do something magic-related (curse them, steal their cutie-mark, make them forget their trained skills, etc.) There's tons of options for penalizing a party for losing a combat without actually killing them.

I'll also say this, I don't agree with LoganAura entirely. You need to have some very difficult and challenging battles. Like I said in the P-Files OOC Thread, players need a real challenge every once in a while. It's what makes the story exciting - you just also need to be careful not to make your big fights unbeatable.

I just can't agree with you Proc. If you weren't being self serving at all, you wouldn't need to run a GMPC. A Companion NPC on the other hand, while similar in certain ways, is an entirely different story and they're often fine where GMPCs are at absolute best, not horrible additions to the game. There's certainly nothing the players gain from a GMPC. Companion NPCs can be useful to players as support, limited expository devices, and a sort of avatar to ask questions of the GM of in character, and can be entertaining without stealing the spotlight or railroading (or heavy handed pushing at least) like GMPCs are by their very nature.

Btw, from what I can tell based on his description, what Dr Blight wants to run in his game is a Companion and not a GMPC.

Edit: To note, a big part of the problem with GMPCs is not bad GMs. Good GMs can screw everything up with a GMPC too. The concept at its core offers nothing to the players that can't be offered a better way and has a lot of traps for detracting from the fun.

Something else I'd like to add:

On Monsters...

I'd like to say this much - from the games I've GMed, it's never really been a big deal to come up with balanced monsters.

Why?

Because once you start fighting the party with said monster, there's no rule saying you can't tweak it mid-battle. If the fight seems to be going too easily for the party, you can always give the monster some more HP or greater damage output (heck, you could even give it more attacks if you prepared ahead of time). If the fight is becoming too hard, you can likewise cut the monster's HP or damage output - even make it use it's heavy hitting attacks less often (you control the monster after all, so you decide on it's attack patterns).

Now I know that some GMs/players have some very differing opinions on this idea of fudging monster stats. Some would argue this is cheating, but it's not cheating because GM's can't cheat.

-Keep that in mind. Never forget it (;

My opinion is that as long as the players are having fun, that's the important thing, so if you have to fudge some stats on the fly to make that happen, then you shouldn't feel the least bit guilty. That's not cheating. It's smart GMing.

With about 10 years of DMing experience. Let's see on the battle front, I can safely say that you should leave the option open to fudge with your rolls, as a rule, I like to lower the monsters rolls when they are getting extremely lucky in order to avoid a total wipe out, but I never give the monsters better rolls. You want a pivotal battle to have the party using all of their available abilities to stay alive. If you need help with monsters, I can offer assistance in the monster arena under the roleplay section.

As for the non-battle stuff. I'd say if the players do something that circumvents an encounter you had planned, then go with it, but save that encounter for later, or use it on the fly. Maybe change that city skill challenge you had planned into a skill check in the wilderness instead. Or those thugs that they could have stumbled into? Well they are wolves now! Same stat block just flavoured differently. Remember that your players are the center of the story and everyone wants to have a good time.

Often times after sessions, I ask my player what they thought of certain aspects of the game to get feedback. Also listen to any requests that they have, or figure out what they want for their characters in order to make their rewards that much sweeter.

And on a final note, if you can get the players to contribute in world building, whether it's a back-story, or describing a tavern they frequent, or even creating the world map for you, then the game becomes much more dynamic.

I hope you have a blast when DMing, it takes a fair amount of time to set up, but it's well worth it when you play

Ramsus wrote:I just can't agree with you Proc. If you weren't being self serving at all, you wouldn't need to run a GMPC.

What if no one else is running a game and the DM wants to play? Is it any more self-serving for the DM to start playing then than it is self-serving for a player to start playing?

The rest, of course, I understand; there are several pitfalls that aren't easy to avoid. But I think possibly there are non-self-serving, or at least not self-serving to a horrid degree, reasons to play a DMPC. And just because one has a selfserving doesn't mean is going to break any rules or railroad. The most honorable DMs will never do so consciously, of course - though I will of course acknowledge the sweet siren call of the unconscious mind, and do so with the utmost sincerity, as your position is a strong one.

As to SilentBelle and XandZero2: I've never been one much for fudging rolls...but then again, I fudge the DCs for skill checks when I start thinking "no, that's too high" or occasionally like holidays or something "too low" all the time, so whaddoo I know? Fudging monster's stats is definitely something I could get down with.


Of course, I only talk about all that stuff and react to it because reading it (and providing my reactions) illustrates a very important DMing concept.
Because really, Dr. Blight, there is only one certain thing when it comes to DMing. What am I about to say is more the absolute truth than anything that anyone in this topic has said to this point:


Everyone DMs a bit differently.



And that's a good thing! So if some of this stuff we've been saying feels wrong to you in any way, no matter how sound advice it is, heck, throw it out the window! It's your game, it's your story, and though there are definitely bad ideas, there are occasional DMs that make those bad ideas work...and even if you're not one of them, if you really think a bad idea is a good one we're not gonna convince you otherwise.

So my best advice, I think is to get out there and just start DMing, just the best way you know how. The road'll be rough sometimes, and you'll make some mistakes, but things'll go alright for you, I think. Just find out what makes your game fun for you and your players, and I get the feeling you'll find who you, personally, are meant to be as a storyteller, as a referee, as a challenger, as an actor, as a DM, extraordinary one that you are.

But then again, what do I know?

Or in short form...

"Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"

I don't fudge rolls personally, if a mook would kill you it kills you, I was a bit of a hard-edge "heir-and-a-spare" DM. However that's because you only had so much leeway between animate and dead, so really, people would often go from 5hp (and still a full threat) to -10, and be dead. With more HP buffer, I agree, if mooks kill the party, make them take the party for ransom or something. Most ponies are self-interested, and money is always a good interest. TPKs are never fun.

The key is balance of tension. On one side, you've got folks like Logan who want to play their character and learn about them and grow, touchy-feely style. On the other side you've got folks like myself, who find the teeter of life and death to be much more interesting than "safe" combat. I think it mostly originates in what generation of RPGs you learned from: Nintendo-hard games spoiled me. Druids always pick the hard way, it encourages natural selection.

Just a quick note - but although Proc and RoR make good points about getting your hooves dirty, I completely understand wanting to get as many tips as possible before starting up a campaign. GMing is really daunting, especially for a first-timer, and it can be hard to know where to start. I should know, I had to start with no idea what I was doing, and my first couple outings proved to be equal parts success and failure.

If you can circumvent some of that initial failure part, that's always a good thing (;

Keep in mind though, like Proc and RoR already said, you probably will make mistakes. Don't let them get you down though, and I'd recommend that when you make a mistake, just own up to it and keep moving forward.

Another good bit of advice... Know when to start the campaign... Don't waste too much time just trying to build the setting and stuff.

a Quick question that is a big choice is your game going to be a Play by post or a skype game

Play by Post. It's the only kind of game I've ever experienced and I like having a little time to sit and think about what I say or do. I can only imagine it'd be even better for a DM to have that time.

I find there are big pros and cons to doing Play by Post... But I'm not sure how to explain said pros and cons. Though if that's what you wanta start off with, I only support it. Nothing wrong with more Play by Post campaigns here. :3

Pros players get more time to think about actions, more flexable times, less hassle overall
cons Editing, slower, hard to control, more comitment (have to be there almost every day) less planing time for the GM

Side note I would like to express interest in your game are there any restrictions? Plan on using a Hippogriff Archaeologist.

no, no restrictions really. Is your character high magic? that's fine. Is he pulling out old-timey ray guns and jet packs instead? Still fine! You can be MLP Captain Kirk if you want, I'll try to work it in somehow! Sounds like fun honestly!

The island, as I imagine it, has had a lot of tribal cultures and stuff like that so it'd be pretty easy to find something for an archaeologist to do too! If anything, a character like that would be really helpful!

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there is one restriction. If you want to be MLP Captain Kirk or MLP Dumbledore, don't just go "I'm Captain Kirk but a pony" or "I'm Dumbledore pony" go "My name is Boldly Go, Captain of the star ship Experience! I have been tasked with exploring the depths of space and finding whatever there is to find! My ship is out in orbit as I attempt to blend in and observe the local population of this world." Make the character your own original. I'm sure most people here would do that anyway but just saying.

I'm actually kind of interested in joining your campaign too, DB. You've been with my campaign from the start, and I'd like to support ya if I could (:

I was trying to think of a character I'd want to play, and right now I'm leaning towards an MLP version of Dr. Horrible.

If you're not familiar with the character:

Spoiler:

Basically he's your standard loser villain - always tries to be bad but never succeeds - until the end of the musical, that is. I'm not sure exactly what kind of a pun I could use for him... I was thinking Dr. Horse Bridle, or Dr. Hoar Bridle... Hoarfrost?

But I don't know if I'm a big fan of any of those... Maybe Dr. Freeze Ray? ...Or Dr. Death Ray?

-I kind of like the sound of that last one.

Oh... How about Dr. Dark Horse, as in Dark Horse comics (which published a Dr. Horrible comic at one point)? I think that one might be a winner (:

I'd still have to come up with a background, but I'm imagining a high-tech, mad scientist type that secretly wants to rule the world and have his creations acknowledged as the best of the best.

-And he'd also probably be out looking for love too - by any means necessary (;

Once you start up your OOC topic for said Campaign I'll totally think of joining as well.

... That makes what 5 games at once xel?