Leading a game...

Leading a game...

Unread postby Grey_Cat » July 8th, 2010, 10:00 pm

Um. Hi. I'm new to the board and well... *sigh*
My friend and I want to start a pen and paper gaming group, nothing big or fancy, and she wants me to be the gamemaster. Niether of us have ever joined or played in a pen and paper game, and I was wondering if anyone could provided some advice? The basis is Vampire:The Requiem, by the way.
We have our basic setting so far, but I'm not sure what approximatly we should have, so... well any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Darkandus » July 9th, 2010, 12:08 am

I don't really have any experience with V:tR so I can only give you general advice. Start roleplaying as soon as possible. If you don't you'll never get the hang of it. Never give the DM ideas they can use against you. To the DM, Get a general outline of what's happening, but never make concrete plans for more than five minutes ahead or you will get trapped into railroading your players. And while that can be fun sometimes, never having a choice will ruin the enjoyment immensly. It's really hard to strike a good balance between planning and winging it, but it is well worth it too when you get it right.
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Tempest Kitsune » July 9th, 2010, 12:42 am

If you know any other people who GM, ask them about their styles, but don't be afraid to deviate. Find a play style that works for you. Like Dark, I'm afraid I have no real experience with V:TR.
"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."
— Captain America

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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Chuckg » July 9th, 2010, 1:09 am

Learn to crawl before you learn to run. In other words, don't sanc all that cool stuff from the optional rulebooks or the bloodline books until you've logged some hours running the core. I speak from experience. And for the love of God, do not sanc heavy military weapons early in the chronicle. Again, I speak from experience (although to be fair, I didn't give them out so much as give them to some NPCs that were then immediately run over by a PC with his car, who then looted the bodies).

Also, if your players know which elders are safe to trust and which ones are going to dick them over horribly at the beginning of the game, you're doing it wrong. :) (And if the answer is 'trust no one, they will all dick you over horribly', well, you're not doing it wrong, but it does increase the DM difficulty curve.)
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Wittgen » July 9th, 2010, 1:12 am

Know your players. Do they like combat? Social intrigue? Sneaky spy stuff? Do they prefer comedies, thrillers, or epic action movies? If you know what your players are like, you can better decide how to set up situations and stories. If you set up a social scene to start off some bleak journey to discovering the true weight of the vampiric curse, it won't go so well if your players want a light hearted comedic romp. They will find a way to make everything that happens ridiculous and funny.
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Lightwhispers » July 11th, 2010, 12:23 am

To the DM, Get a general outline of what's happening, but never make concrete plans for more than five minutes ahead or you will get trapped into railroading your players.
To modify this somewhat, figure out what's going on in the world. There will be some events that the players are highly unlikely to have an impact on, on down to events which depend entirely on the players. Making plans can be very useful, but don't be afraid to scrap them and improvise if the players do something completely unexpected. (In my group, we call this "Plan F-ing" the situation.) If they do so in a creative and intelligent manner, reward them. If they do so in a creative and boneheaded manner, "reward" them appropriately. :devil

Don't be afraid to apply consequences when characters do stupid stuff (and they will). On the other hand, if it's because the player is inexperienced, try to give them an out. They may even take it.

Finally, "No" is your friend. Don't be afraid to deploy it liberally when players are trying to pull something.
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Darkandus » July 11th, 2010, 12:32 am

Finally, "No" is your friend. Don't be afraid to deploy it liberally when players are trying to pull something.
This, oh god this! An addendum however. Don't whip out No just because you personally don't like something. Use it because what the Player is trying is impossible or will destroy everyone elses enjoyment of the game.
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Tempest Kitsune » July 11th, 2010, 12:47 am

Also, don't be afraid to screw with your player's heads at times. As a GM, it's not onlya right, it's kind of a responsibility. For example, during a Shadowrun session, the Autholord has us running aground on the Black Shores of R'lyeh. Yeah, we ended up facing off against Shuggoths, running for our lives after managing to kill most of the ones attacking us with a Fuel-Air Explosive (and nearly killing the Authorlord's character in the process) and saw what looked like a moving green mountain heading our way (though none of us had a clear view of it, our decker created an Augmented Reality overlay that made it look like Barney). We used a tactical nuke on it, and motored out of there as the island sank. That, was an epic mind-screw, made even better in my case, by the fact that I recognized the description of the island, and had figured out what was going on out of play, while in-play, my character didn't have a clue.

Which leads me to another point. Make sure to enforce that in-play and out of play knowledge is kept separate. It makes for more interesting games, though you'll probably have to call them on it to get them to quit.
"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."
— Captain America

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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby MrRigger2 » July 12th, 2010, 2:02 am

As for players deciding to do something that the DM completely unexpected, that happened to me in my most recent gaming session. The other player and I decided that after having our trail of evidence go cold as well as finding out we were on an unknown party's hit list (though we have some reason to believe it might be the Red Wizards of Thay), we needed to go back to the homestead and regroup. We did, and found our village had been burned to ash, possibly by a dragon that had passed over our heads a day prior to our arrival. Of course, once we decided to head south, as that was our best option at the time, we encounter what is obviously an Elven Rogue. The other player (Rogue/Soulknife) was even speaking to him in Thieves Cant, so he knew he was facing a rogue. Then he admitted to being an independent rogue, not aligned with any guild, and he was on their turf. Not being a thief, my character doesn't know what they're saying until the rogue's three partners pop out and attack us at 2:1 odds. My character later finds out what happened, and obviously is somewhat perturbed.

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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Satori » July 18th, 2010, 11:45 pm

I dm'ed only once. results of that can be seen here

The advice i would give is to PREPARE PREPARE PREPARE.

I'm not that good a DM. Good DM's I played with had massive stacks of sheets of notes to cover everything they wanted to do. Stats for every creature the party is likely to encounter. Backstory and personality notes for anyone they could conceivably want to talk to. Etc, etc.
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Grey_Cat » July 20th, 2010, 7:36 pm

So have plans A-Z on hand, and make sure they're involved.

Edit: Also, playing music good or bad idea?
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby SLAMU » July 21st, 2010, 3:01 pm

It depends, really. On the one hand, music can help set the mood, but for that I'd suggest mostly instrumentals, not whatever pop song you'd like to hear unless you're just wanting to have something to listen to while you play.

I'd also reccomend playing something for fight scenes, but that's just me saying "do it for the lulz!"
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby MrRigger2 » July 21st, 2010, 3:49 pm

Music can very much make or break a game. If you're unsure, do without. Better to have a slightly weaker ambience because of no music than a ruined one because of bad music. Also, if you have new players, you might want to do without anyways, as you probably need as few distractions as possible.

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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Tempest Kitsune » July 21st, 2010, 9:40 pm

One of the benefits of playing a TTG over the net is that you can pick and chose whether or not to listen to whatever music the other players use (if any) to psyche themselves up for the situation at hand.

But yes, as both Mr. Rigger and SLAMU pointed out, music in a game where you're all having to hear it is a situational thing. On the one hand, in certain places it can help set the mood, like if you're RP-ing in a place like a restaurant or some equally fancy establishment. On the other hand, it can break the immersion for players if they hear music that doesn't gel with their concept of the world they're playing in, making the game less fun as well as breaking their concentration.
"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."
— Captain America

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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Satori » July 28th, 2010, 5:26 pm

make sure you know the system at least half as well as you players. Nothing says "this won't be a fun game" like "Dipping a bunch of melee classes isn't allowed because you'll be overpowered, but Druid with natural spell is okay".
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby Calinero » August 13th, 2010, 11:47 pm

Before you go into the game, make sure everyone knows what everyone else wants from the game. If you want to enforce strict roleplaying while others just want to relax and get into some combat, somebody is going to end up not having very much fun. Likewise, if someone wants a game based off of stealth and intrigue, but someone else makes a character devoid of social skills, then you might have problems. That's a good way to start out, finding out what the expectation is.

Next, come up with both a story, and a situation. A situation is an immediate problem that characters are involved in, such as a fight or a sudden inconvenience such as being summoned by the King. The story is the underlying issue behind the situation--the fight is actually the Evil Overlord trying to remove your PC's because of the threat that one of their fathers represents to his rule. These convert well into long term campaigns, but can be cut short to the depth of the situation quite easily if necessary.

Another important rule, be flexible. If you plan too far in advance, you will mis-guess what your players will do and they will go off the rails. Have a general idea of everything that's going on, so you can adapt quickly if they go somewhere unexpected, but don't be afraid to make things up as you go if you have to. And remember--if your players haven't seen it yet and it hasn't influenced key parts of the game or the plot, then they'll never know you changed your plan.

Above all, don't be too nervous! Everyone is there to have fun, and it's their first time too. Everyone expects and accepts mistakes, and the point of the game isn't to be perfect. It's to have fun with your friends, and maybe learn a few things for next time.
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Re: Leading a game...

Unread postby viridian » September 14th, 2010, 10:35 am

Oh, and feel free to steal ideas from an many different sources as you can.

For example, in the webcomic Satori linked, the "community service... I don't want to talk about it." made me laugh out loud, even though the concept is waaay modern. The trick is to be fairly subtle about it, so when the players catch on, they enjoy it more because they get the added pleasure of having figured it out. (Whereas if you were heavy-handed with it, they will only feel mild contempt.)
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