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<blockquote data-quote="jmartkdr2" data-source="post: 8337118" data-attributes="member: 7017304">In creative endeavors, the &quot;rules&quot; are usually just guidelines: when the community says &quot;don't do this&quot; it's because they've seen a lot of people do this and it didn't work how they wanted. But there's always the one genius who did the thing and made it awesome. Usually, said genius understood the 'rule' better than most people. So advice is possible, without knowing the context beyond which game you're playing, if it's taken as advice and not 'the definition of good.(exception: copyright law. Those are the true &quot;rules of writing.&quot;)So, some of my advice: if you're new, overplan. The more planning you do the better you'll be at improvising. If it's a modern game, play by the rules as much as possible until you understand them well enough to know why they are the way they are. Then you can start changing them to get specific results. If you're new, run short games - don't plan for epic tales out the gate. Don't worry overmuch about game balance - the only bad imbalance is when one pc overshadows another. Outside of that, just dial up or down the difficulty. Most mistakes you can make as a dm aren't problems unless they become the new normal, and even then it's unlikely. You can always dial the difficulty up or down if it's too easy. Let the pc's be the main characters of the story, even if they're not the protagonists for now.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jmartkdr2, post: 8337118, member: 7017304"] In creative endeavors, the "rules" are usually just guidelines: when the community says "don't do this" it's because they've seen a lot of people do this and it didn't work how they wanted. But there's always the one genius who did the thing and made it awesome. Usually, said genius understood the 'rule' better than most people. So advice is possible, without knowing the context beyond which game you're playing, if it's taken as [I]advice[/I] and not 'the definition of good. (exception: copyright law. Those are the true "rules of writing.") So, some of my advice: if you're new, overplan. The more planning you do the better you'll be at improvising. If it's a modern game, play by the rules as much as possible until you understand them well enough to know why they are the way they are. [I]Then[/I] you can start changing them to get specific results. If you're new, run short games - don't plan for epic tales out the gate. Don't worry overmuch about game balance - the only bad imbalance is when one pc overshadows another. Outside of that, just dial up or down the difficulty. Most mistakes you can make as a dm aren't problems unless they become the new normal, and even then it's unlikely. You can always dial the difficulty up or down if it's too easy. Let the pc's be the main characters of the story, even if they're not the protagonists for now. [/QUOTE]

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