Best DM Advice?

[MarauderX]

"Don't pet a burning dog."

Beyond that, I think Henry is right -- if you know your players you can run things the way you wish most of the time. Read Sun Tsu's Art of War and you can see how it applies in the case of the DM as moderator.

Often times I think I have to set a different tone or change things on the fly to keep up with unexpected things, and that is the only thing that a DM is sure of with the players - assume nothing, prepare more than you ever think you will need to, and have a good time.

 

[Drawmack]

I'm not sure about this. I think the best GMs know their limits and are honest with the players about them. Besides, I think that having "one GM to rule them all" gets sort of boring. I like a change of scenery every once in a while. That's why I play in several gaming groups as opposed to running the same group through different settings and systems. It can be fun with the right group, but I tend to respect those who understand their limitations.

I never said that not knowing your limitation is a good thing. I agree 100% that players and GMs need to know their limitations. I am the head GM for my group. This means even when someone else is running the game the players can come to me to have them kicked back into player mode. They decided on this not me. In DnD we share completely the GMing, we're starting up CoC soon and me and one other person are going to share dming that. After that we're moving onto d20 modern, but only one player in the group is hip on gming that so it's all his baby. I never said I was a great GM but I have known two in my life. They could littereally run any system with almost any players and have a blast and make a great game out of it. The only thing these guys needed was a set of players that played well together.

 

[Ed Cha]

"1A The Hamlet of Thumble" from my company Open World Press, an imprint of Mystic Eye Games, will have a "DM Tips" section which includes a discussion on:

- How to Avoid Killing 1st-Level PCs
- How to Keep Role-Playing from Becoming "Roll-Playing"
- 12 Signs of a Good DM

There is also a discussion on distributing ability scores according to the power level of the game. Of course, the product also has a short 1st-level adventure and a halfling hamlet setting.

It's a July release and there is a discussion thread right here on EN World:
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46632