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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 679677" data-attributes="member: 99">This is a great thread for anybody who GM's, not just novices.  I've been GMing off and on for over 20 years and I still find myself making some stupid mistakes.Let me mention one important thing that I haven't seen mentioned so far.  This isn't necessarily one of those minor tweaks you make to send your campaign from "good" to "Fabulous" (nods to Angelsboi), but more of a fundamental building block of the campaign without which things could very easily fall apart completely:  Explain clearly your idea of the tenor and focus of the campaign before the players even make characters.The single biggest cause I've seen for "Campaign Failure" is a discrepancy between GM and Player expectaions of what the campaign is going to be about.  If the game is supposed to be a lighthearted dungeon romp that is pretty hack and slash but the players all want to have lots of deep roleplaying, the game will likely fail.  If the GM wants the game to be an epic journey to save the world but the Players want a gritty, character-focused storyline where they struggle just to make it in the world, the game will likely fail.If these expecation do not match, it is not necessarily the GM's job to alter the campaign to suit the players precisely or the players job to play into the exact mold that the GM would like.  It IS necessary that everybody compromise and to be up front about whether they can give the campaign concept an honest try.  Nobody should agree to a light-hearted hack and slash type game if they are goint to take every opportunity to bend the game back to a deep-roleplaying theme.</blockquote>

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