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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clueless" data-source="post: 2844893" data-attributes="member: 11802">I've got a lot of playing under my belt, but not as much GMing and it *is* a whole different ballgame in some respects since you're approaching the story from the other side of things. A few things I would mention myself:1) We're here - use us! (Abuse us! Love us!) - since you don't have another DM in your area, we'll be glad to be surrogate trainers for you. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I've seen threads pop up on ENworld ranging from 'now what do I do with my players ' to 'tell me what you think of this for a campaign plot arc' - that's exactly what we're here for. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />2) As Rothe said, Don't get complicated. That's my biggest flaw, and inevitably I see the complex plot line I've spent weeks on and the players.... don't even get close to it, or they kill the plot off before 30 minutes pass. Don't worry about making it extremely complicated, if they have personable characters and drive, they'll handle that *for* you.3) Keep a straight face. You may be lost, panicking, pulling the plot and characters out of your butt, and not a clue what you need to roll - you're just making dice-rolling noises on the other side of the screen. And the players, trust me, they will *never* know the difference so long as you don't let them in on it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Just make it seem difficult, keep them smiling or tense, or whatever emotion you need... and it evens out in the wash. Listen to them speculate - it'll help you figure out the next plot twist if you don't know what to do.And last one, planning *can* help a lot. And one of the best threads I've found on the boards here is this one: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=125434" target="_blank">The Essential Guide to a GM’s Notebook</a> Take and pick what you need out of the thread, it's not a critical thing that you have to do - but it's handy. The idea of a DM's Notebook is to do all the advance work, the drudgery, once in your life as a DM - and never have to do more than smile and reach for the notebook come time  to run.</blockquote>

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