Newbie GM needs help

[JayToTheMe]

Greetings, all, I'm new here. This forum was recommended to me as a good place to come to for advice.
A few weeks from now, I'll be GMing a game for the first time. I'm nervous enough about that as it is, but in addition we'll be using a variant of the D20 modern system, which I have, at best, minimal experience with.
Can anyone offer me any tips or such that you think might be helpful? Luckily for me, my three players aren't exactly seasoned veterans, but I still worry they might come up with some obscure rule I've never even heard of.
Thanks in advance

 

[pspahn]

Grab your girlfriend or sister or even your mom and sit down and make a character. Then, run through a few combat situations. It doesn't have to be a coherent scenario or anything, you just need to have a good grasp on how combat plays out. You can do the same with the skill/task resolution system, but it's pretty similar to any other skill based system so there's not much to worry about there. Combat is what's going to make or break the flow of the game. There's nothing worse than having to flip through rules during a fight, so again, really try to get it down as much as you can before playing.

Otherwise, good luck!

Pete

 

[moritheil]

Can anyone offer me any tips or such that you think might be helpful? Luckily for me, my three players aren't exactly seasoned veterans, but I still worry they might come up with some obscure rule I've never even heard of.

Thanks in advance

I truly don't mean to give useless advice, but I always recommend that GMs know at least as much as their most knowledgeable player. This serves to naturally reinforce the GM's position as the one with the handle on things.

At this point, it may be impossible for you to know as much about the rules as your players. You'll just have to deal with that. Where you can outshine them is in the campaign setting, the NPCs, and the details of the world they trek through. With the proper preparation, you can make your campaign engrossing and surprising even if your players think they know more than you.

Let's take an example from DnD 3.5. It is widely known that devils and lycanthropes have damage reduction overcome by silver weapons, and demons have damage reduction overcome by cold iron. Who says you have to stick to that? Mix things up a little! Maybe in your campaign world, things work a little differently, or both materials are commonly referred to by some other name, and it isn't immediately clear which is which. Tricks like these minimize the impact of metagame knowledge on the campaign.

 

[Flynn]

If you have a little time, the following is a great resource for GMing tips:
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/index.php

There's a lot of very cool stuff located here, and many tips that can help you improve your game.

My other recommendation is fairly simple: For the next ten days, read the combat section of the game at least once a day. Don't skim! Actually read it from the first page to the last. By sheer repetition, you'll absorb a lot of the core functionality of the gaming system that will take up the most time in your sessions. You'll be surprised how well that one thing will prepare you as a GM. (I used to tutor in college, and this one tip in regards to reading class notes turned C students into B and even A students. It also works for gaming.)

Hope that helps,
Flynn

BTW, what variant of D20 Modern are you using? Grim Tales? Classically Modern? Fantastic Classes?

 

[Priest_Sidran]

I truly don't mean to give useless advice, but I always recommend that GMs know at least as much as their most knowledgeable player. This serves to naturally reinforce the GM's position as the one with the handle on things.

At this point, it may be impossible for you to know as much about the rules as your players. You'll just have to deal with that. Where you can outshine them is in the campaign setting, the NPCs, and the details of the world they trek through. With the proper preparation, you can make your campaign engrossing and surprising even if your players think they know more than you.

Let's take an example from DnD 3.5. It is widely known that devils and lycanthropes have damage reduction overcome by silver weapons, and demons have damage reduction overcome by cold iron. Who says you have to stick to that? Mix things up a little! Maybe in your campaign world, things work a little differently, or both materials are commonly referred to by some other name, and it isn't immediately clear which is which. Tricks like these minimize the impact of metagame knowledge on the campaign.

I would go as far as to say, why, as a DM are you using a system you do not know well. I would say use the system you are most comfortable with as a player...

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I'll go one further on the combat. Find a buddy who's willing to sit down and run some fights once every week or every other week. Other than that? Jump in, get your feet wet, don't get discouraged, and take a break when you run up against the unexpected. (You can regroup during the break.)

Oh yeah, Johnn Four's site is good!

 

[JayToTheMe]

Thanks to everyone. I'm running through the combat system later today with some friends, and I'll try to do it as regularly as I can. I've got a pretty good handle on the common stuff, I'm just concerned they'll try something fancy and tricky.

I'm confident I have at least as much knowledge as any of my players about the core rules and the variant we'll be using (Which happens to be based on an Anime; Naruto D20. Heh heh...embarrassing, I'm a narutard) but they have wider access to other rulebooks than I do.

I'm also confident I have a well written and designed campaign. Writing dialogue and NPCs and such is easily my strongest point.

As for why I'm running a campaign I'm not too familiar with, it's mainly because both I and my players are really interested in it, and living a fair ways apart from eachother, when we do find time to get together for a game, I wanna make it something special, even if it takes a few sessions to get a firm grip on the rules.

Thanks to Flynn, that's the most detailed site I've seen so far.

 

[pspahn]

Thanks to everyone. I'm running through the combat system later today with some friends, and I'll try to do it as regularly as I can. I've got a pretty good handle on the common stuff, I'm just concerned they'll try something fancy and tricky.

Then that's what you should have your friends focus on. Have them try to do stuff that;s more than just I shoot you, you shoot me. Have them kick over tables for cover or throw dirt in someone's eyes or try to yank the rug out from under one of the bad guys.

 

[Flynn]

Thanks to Flynn, that's the most detailed site I've seen so far.

My pleasure, my friend. I hope you enjoy it; any time spent there is time well spent as a GM, in my opinion. Don't forget to offer it to other aspiring GMs as the opportunity arises, if for no other reason than you might be playing in one of their games someday.

Let us know if you need more help,
Flynn

 

[Stormborn]

I'm confident I have at least as much knowledge as any of my players about the core rules and the variant we'll be using (Which happens to be based on an Anime; Naruto D20. Heh heh...embarrassing, I'm a narutard) but they have wider access to other rulebooks than I do.

Their access to rule books should not be a factor. You are the GM and are perfectly within your rights to say "This is what I have. This is what we use." If they have something that is in a book you do not have then you can say "You can't start with it, but if you lend me the book I will try and look at it before you level up/would be able to access it."

It is actually more considerate of all the players for you to only use things you are familiar with than it is to let someone with a larger library, or wallet, bring in lots of things you might not be comfortable with in game play.

As long as you are learning a system, you might as well take a look at BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) which is atually designed for this kind of thing. GoO is out of buisness but you can still find the most recent edition put out by ArtHaus this January. There is also a d20 version -which if you can find it be sure it has the "3.5" in the bottom corner. Some versions were released with the "Revised" title but the wrong interior.