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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 7618405" data-attributes="member: 20564">I think there's a different set of requirements for a GM for a convention / one-shot vs. a GM for a campaign.For a convention/one-shot:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Bring everything vividly and concisely to life.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make each of the few scenes you have either memorable or quick.  Voice acted NPC, narrow escapes, acts of daring, everything meaningful.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have great pacing.  Important to control tension for the climax at the end of the session.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If a player doesn't have a chance to shine, manufacture one.  There is only a small (4hr?) window for everyone to feel like they were a vital contributor.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If inclined, fudge (both dice and #/power of monsters) to make encounters epic.</li> </ul>For a campaign GM:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Much of the one-shot list is still appropriate about running a memorable session, but gone is the idea on short term planning.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Find out what interests the players.  Do that.  Even if that's not the direction you were originally planning.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The PCs are the stars.  Don't one-up them with your NPCs.  Don't one up them with a "GMPC".  Don't regularly o Deux-ex-Machina.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't be afraid to kill your darlings.  In other words, be willing to let go of things that don't work for the table as a whole even if you really like them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Give every player a time to shine.  It's okay if one session favors one character over another as long as it evens out - you're building for the long haul.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Learn to be comfortable improvising.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Prep things you don't need that you can pull out when you don't have anything else.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Give each character their own arc, their own place to grow.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Weave plots together.  Have clues for one in the bowels of another as well as hints about a third plus the introduction of an NPC you plan to have reoccur in yet a different plot.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Throw challenges at them you aren't sure they can survive - from such comes stories of legend.  (And PCs are more durable then you think.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Throw easy challenges against them, especially multiples of foes who were once challenging in low numbers.  Nothing like a curbstomp battle to make the PCs feel like heroes.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Take the characters out of their comfort zones at times.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Remember you only have authority because the players gave it to you.  Don't wield it like a dictator.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">When soeone derails all your plans, reward them for cleverness, don't gripe and grumble about wasted work - and definitely don't disallow it just because it's not what you imagined.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Give them different types of challenges.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Be consistent.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Find out what you need to make good NPCs on the spur of the moment.  Do it.  Sometimes it's prep.  Sometimes it's random pictures.  Sometimes it's a catalog of voice accents or a list of quirks.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Say "Yes".  Often it will be "Yes but", but start with that.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't let a lack of rules stand in your way of something cool.  Don't let a rule hamstring you - but be careful because they are part of your shared social contract.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't be afraid to give your players some authorial space.  Let them tell you about their god, their tribe, their homeland.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Paint the world in broad strokes until you need it.  Just enough to be able to give a concept and lay some foreshadowing and hooks.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Nothing is true until it hits the table.  Even the plot you had.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have fun - if you're not having fun, that'll come across.  So run things you enjoy for people you want to spend time with.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Step #1 in dealing with a problem player is to talk to them honestly and non-confrontationally.  These are also rules #2 through #99.  Rule #100 is just to toss them out.  None of the rules are to make up house rules that really only target that player's character like some HR department trying to appear "fair".</li> </ul></blockquote>

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