1,000 GMing Tips

[Morrus]

In this thread, each post contains one GMing tip. It can be as short as a single sentence, but each tip should be self-contained. No discussion or replies - the only posts allowed are new tips. Let's see if we can get to 1000! It may take a few years....

So what have you learned from GMing? Post your tip below. One tip per post, and number each one so we can see how many we have.

 

[Morrus]

1) Always say "yes" to players when they say they want to try something. They might fail, but you shouldn't tell them "no, you can't try that". You can, however, warn that it is difficult.

 

[Janx]

2) Do not reward the Forker.

There's always that one player who has his thief sneak off while the party is sleeping and he's on guard duty. It is GM instinct to respond to stimulus, so since he is actively engaging the GM, the GM keeps responding and before you know it, 2 hours have gone by while the rest of the party is waiting to be allowed to wake up.

This is one of the reasons for the adage "never split up the party", because the person doing so is seeking to eke out more camera time at the expense of the other players.

Instead, when you realize this is happening, jump back to the rest of the party and get them engaged again, with infrequent returns to the lone wolf to see if they get the memo.

 

[Nytmare]

3) Don't be afraid to change directions and realign the plot to match a players' suspicions as to what might be going on. A good suggestion is a good suggestion, even if they didn't realize they were giving you one.

 

[Janx]

4) Instill a sense of urgency during combat, do not let players dawdle during their turn

Real fighting is rushed, frenetic and scary. Contrast that to armchair generals mulling over their option to cast a spell or swing their sword for 10 minutes when it's their turn, it kills the mood and makes combat crawl.

Encourage players to plan their next action, look up a spell, etc during the other players turn.

Limit how much time during their turn they have to announce their decision. If they hem and haw, delay their action to later in the turn or skip it if they are the last, assigning them to "full defense" while their PC assesses the situation.

Talk faster during combat, to instill a sense of rushing.

Outside of combat, let things slow down again. This gives players a breather, and a chance for the armchair generals to get their composure after the fight. You might also let players plan their attack a bit before the they kick the door in to attack. But once initiative is rolled, keep the rounds rolling.

 

[Janx]

5) hand the party a map to the dungeon at your earliest convenience

Unless you are aiming for the classic crawl through a dungeon where the GM has to describe it and the players are expected to document it (which is very slow paced kind of play), do yourself a favor and get the party a map.

Before the game, look at your dungeon map and draw it roughly and badly onto a piece of paper. Make it look aged by soaking it in tea/coffee, or crumpling it up. Get this map into your party's hands, either by way of merchant who sells it to them, old adventurer who hears they are going back to where he lost his friends, or on the first dead body they loot when they get there.

The reason for this is that it is very expedient for the players to put the map on the table and a token on the map for where they are, and then to tell the GM, we want to go over to here.

Since the player's map has all the same turns and rooms as the GM's copy (except for the secrets you left out), this makes it much easier to explain where the party is, etc. Saves time and confusion.

 

[Janx]

6) Don't try to solve player behavior problems with in-game solutions

Let's say you've got a player who is disrupting your game. It is very tempting to try to solve it without confronting the player directly, by making the world/NPCs try to punish or disuade the player. This ends up further disrupting your game.

Consider your campaign to be a story. Do you really want the middle of the story to get confusingly jumbled as a bunch crazy things happen to deal with a problem player?

That'd be like filming this week's star trek episode, and trying to get Jonathan Frakes (aka Riker) to stop being a jerk to Michael Dorn on set by suddenly throwing Riker in the brig for jaywalking during an episode about Data's quest to be more human.

Disruptive players should not be allowed to disrupt your game's narrative (even the one that develops naturally, not scripted) by their disruptive play or your attempts to reign it in.

Figure out what they are doing, and talk to the player. Find out what's going on and tell them what is not acceptable behavior. If they continue, eject them from your game or something else.

 

[Morrus]

7) Use props and handouts at every opportunity. Players love love them!

 

[was]

8.) Have the players create backgrounds for their characters and then use the backgrounds to create adventure hooks and quests.

 

[Cristian Andreu]

9) When players speculate about what might happen in the story, pay attention! They are inadvertently telling you what they enjoy seeing.