D&D General How Do I Help Mentor a GM Making Rookie Mistakes?

[pukunui]

Which leads me to double down a bit on not worrying about filling your role, and exactly how to maximize effectiveness. She may not be ready to deal with optimization.

The "I didn't realize that feat was so good - you can't use it anymore" comment seems to suggest that as well.

 

[Scribe]

Personally, I'd let it all ride unless asked for feedback, kick back roll dice, kick in the doors.

I do think Level up is perhaps an ambitious choice to start with, but thats just me.

 

[zakael19]

are your other fellow players feeling the same issues and concerns? Maybe have one of them broach it instead of the guy who just was DMing and may come off as “you’re not doing it how I like” even if inadvertently.

 

[Koloth]

Every time she makes a new house rule, make a point of writing it down in a notebook with the time/date. "So we have a list going forward." Otherwise, mostly let her be. If the game blows up, it blows up. You don't want to create a situation where she feels that you are trying to control her game and the only solution is boot you. But if something comes up where she house rules one of her previous house rules, you now have "The List" to refer to and ask "So are you undoing this previous house rule?" Or when you have a TPK or just a character death, you can go "Well on date/time you house ruled that we don't get more HP per level. Those normally gained HP might well have let the party/character live...."

Sometimes, being the chronicler has it advantages.

And remember, if this game does go off the rails, it isn't your fault. You are just a player. Let her learn.

 

[Alby87]

You can chat with your DM. Try to understand where there errors and where there are choices. The Slow Healing Rule to me is a good rule for hexcrawl (better than Gritty), the lingering injury I would use when a player goes to 0 HP (to avoid the classic "don't use healing until is almost death).

I'm recentely started playing a BECMI campain, and the master give use XP for coins, as per rules. For the first non magical treasue, worth 700 GP, he told us that wasn't XP. I think it was strange. After the session, I borrowed the manual, and found the part about XP for trasures, and explained that if we would get no XP for treasures, we will always be under levelled for the next dungeons (we are playing B2). He understood, now waiting for the summer break to pass to try my new almigthy all powerful unstoppable level 2 thief, now with +5% of probabilties XD.

tldr; Talk with her. This is a game, should be fun for anyone.

 

[R_J_K75]

But mostly I agree with @Morrus here -- let her break it a little bit. Enthusiasm is worth a lot and I would be hesitant to interrupt hers.

I disagree. If a GM is re-writing the rules as they go that's a far stretch from, they are just learning the game. IMO I'd tell them, "You should read the rule books". I'm not saying you need an encyclopedic knowledge of them, but you should at least have a passing knowledge of them. If everyone at the table reads the rules it puts everyone on a level playing field in the sense that they have a good idea of how their actions should play out. A new GM if they have read the rules of the game should be able to make rulings within those guidelines, not just make something up whole cloth out of thin air. Whether someone has been GMing for 40 years or for 3 sessions should not remove the onus on them to learn the rules of the game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I do think Level up is perhaps an ambitious choice to start with, but thats just me.

Yeah, it's better to start off with rules-lite systems, and gradually add stuff in, rather than dive in with something that is very crunchy.

But that's something else that is best learned by experience.

But the advice has to be, unless your can say "I really enjoyed that" you should say nothing at all. The most important rule of DMing is do it your way.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, it's better to start off with rules-lite systems, and gradually add stuff in, rather than dive in with something that is very crunchy.

But that's something else that is best learned by experience.

But the advice has to be, unless your can say "I really enjoyed that" you should say nothing at all. The most important rule of DMing is do it your way.

In principle that may be true, but in practice they may not be familiar with or enjoy rules-light systems. The DM is going to run the game she wants to run.

 

[Kromanjon]

I basically agree with everyone so far. It's quite the tightrope to walk.

On the one hand talking to her would seem to be the answer since everyone should be having fun at the table and basic knowledge about how rules are to be interpreted might be part of the fun for people.

On the other, a new GM should be allowed to run the game she wants to play and make all the mistakes that are a part of being new at something.

The question is, what are the risks? The risks of talking to her is that she feels too harshly critiqued and loses the will to continue learning and improving. The risks of not talking to her is everyone else getting burned out on her campaign, quitting, and she never knowing why no one wanted to stay on.

Honestly only you know what kind of person she is. Would she like to get tips or is she more likely to get offended? How far is the rest of the group willing to push through only to support her first go at GMing? If you can answer these questions you might have your final answer there.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The "I didn't realize that feat was so good - you can't use it anymore" comment seems to suggest that as well.

It sounds like a DM who feels the players are having far too easy a time of it!

Maybe it's the players who need to be spoken too, and told to stop trying so hard to win.