Posts Tagged by First Time GM
| October 13, 2010 | Posted by Kurt "Telas" Schneider |
First Time GM is a series of articles dedicated to the newly-minted game master, making his or her first tentative die rolls behind the screen. Today’s article deals with techniques used to prepare for a game. A broader look at the process is here. GMing is an art form; no two GMs will prepare in exactly the same manner. In addition, the list of techniques for game prep is massive and ever-changing. I’ll try to cover a few big topics, but each GM have to…
| August 6, 2010 | Posted by Kurt "Telas" Schneider |
First Time GM is a series of articles dedicated to the newly-minted game master, making his or her first tentative die rolls behind the screen. Today’s article deals with preparing for the gaming session, commonly called game prep or just prep. For some GMs, game prep takes far more time and effort than the actual gaming sessions. We could spend weeks on game prep, but this is just an overview of the process; techniques will be handled in a future article. Because game prep is…
| June 9, 2010 | Posted by Kurt "Telas" Schneider |
First Time GM is a series of articles dedicated to the newly-minted game master, making his or her first tentative die rolls behind the screen. Today’s article deals with establishing the ground rules of the game, and of the group itself. This is commonly referred to as the Social Contract, but I prefer the term Game Charter. What? More Rules? Over the years, a gaming group will develop their own internal rules, conventions, and standards of behavior, many of which will be unspoken. Some of…
| June 3, 2010 | Posted by Kurt "Telas" Schneider |
First Time GM is a series of articles dedicated to the newly-minted game master, making his or her first tentative die rolls behind the screen. Today’s article deals with finding a group of players, deciding on a time and a place to play, and ensuring that everyone is on the same page once the game starts. Finding players Some GMs are lucky enough to inherit or adopt a fully-developed group of players. But some poor souls are truly at the beginning, and have no idea…
| May 20, 2010 | Posted by Kurt "Telas" Schneider |
Over at the Suggestion Pot, Inumo wrote: As a first-timing DM, one thing that I’ve noticed lacking in many first-time-DM articles is just the basic, taken-for-granted stuff; how to use secret information, how to paint an environment picture, easy ways to keep track of initiative/char. stats/etc. for all the PCs and monsters, how to avoid MMO-style number-crunching, that kind of thing. Which led directly to First Time GM, a series of articles dedicated to the newly-minted game master, making his first tentative die rolls behind…
