Help! Newbie GM gonna kill it for others!

[Salad Shooter]

One of the rookie players in my group up at school (the rookiest, actually, if rookiest is a word) has decided to start a game. He has none of the books, and probably won't have access to any of them. He barely knows the rules, and is planning on running 2 5 player groups with people who have never played before. Despite our best warnings, he refuses to start on a small level, in one town, or a premade adventure, he's allowing the characters to wander whereever they will across a whole continent...he doesn't have the gaming knowledge or the resources to pull this off, and I'm afraid he's going to turn off a large number of prospective players from the game...I've taken to giving him all the information I can, but what else can I do to help him? Any ideas would be appreciated...thanks!

 

[Psikonetic]

he doesn't have the gaming knowledge or the resources to pull this off, and I'm afraid he's going to turn off a large number of prospective players from the game...I've taken to giving him all the information I can, but what else can I do to help him? Any ideas would be appreciated...thanks!

I say you shoot him and then herd the players over to me, I'll teach 'em good... er, I mean, I'll teach them well, don't let that be a judgement of my game running skills, just my english skills. I game run good, too, much good!

 

[clark411]

Sounds like a player has to have a prelude with him, and address both setting questions and rules questions. If it's open ended, where you can explore anywhere, head into a combat- if there are problems, discuss the rules, point to the citation that he can't use without the books or core knowledge. Spend time exploring the setting, culture, dieties, etc, like a tour.

If he can't get a clue through simple discussion, then experience is the only method. DMs who think they can wing everything, and shrug off every rule in favor of Rule 0 will find for themselves (and bring to their players) a whole bunch of confusion and frustration that might as well be done with prior to any serious gametime spent. It's not till your sitting there, with a demanding player bugging you over campaign details what you haven't even considered yet, that you come to realize as a DM that you aren't ready.

 

[S'mon]

He'd be best off not claiming to be running D&D, but rather a "D&D-based homebrew" or such, or just make up his own simple system. You can run an RPG perfectly well with minimal rules, but running D&D 3e really requires the books (or SRD).

 

[Salad Shooter]

the SRD...hmmm...that WILL help, I think...I'll corner him in our next regular session and see what I can get out of him game knowledge wise. We lost one of our DMs after there was some personal conflict, and I guess he decided we needed another one. Most of the regular players won't be playing, unless he invites me, I think the two least experienced players in our group will be playing with him. I'm all for it if this works, because we'll have tripled our player pool, but I truly hope it doesn't fail and make people hate the game.

 

[kamosa]

Buy him Robin's Laws

Buy him a copy of Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, by Steve Jackson Games. It is an excellent tool for newbie GM's. Talks about all the social stuff that a good GM must do to make the story fun. Also, make them read the running the game sections of the DMG in 3.5. Lots of good advice for a new GM in those pages.

Other than that, you have to let them fly on their own. They may not do the best job right away, but they will learn. You have to run your first game at some point, and early is just as good as later for some people.

 

[Painfully]

Well if he doesn't even have the PHB (or SRD) handy, I wouldn't let him advertise them as D&D games.

Everytime he mentions his game to people, mention to the same people that he has no books, and is new. Then pull out the core books, and say, "this is what your DM doesn't know."

Does he at least have some dice? Or is he going to wing that too?

 

[KenM]

Try to convince Him to get more playing time, and at least borrow some books to read up on rules/ DMing.

 

[Salad Shooter]

He has dice, my girlfriend bought everyone in the group a set of dice for xmas. He also now has the SRD, because I showed him the wonders of it. He won't delay the game, he wants to play asap. I'm hopefully going to be there to provide some auxillery support, give him rules when he needs them and things. We'll just have to see how it goes...

 

[the Jester]

Try to be supportive and helpful, not a naysayer.