When you're preparing a session...

[Dordledum]

...do you also always get on edge and have the feeling that you're forgetting something?

I'm GM-ing tomorrow for the first time in a year and a half, and I'm getting quite nervous. I don't exactly know why. The weird thing is, I allways feel like this when I get to GM.

I reread the entire PHB, read the monster entries at least 3 times, prepared the combat maps, got minis, initiative markers, the lot.

Opening myself up for some cheap shots, but is it just me?

Or do you guys have similar feelings whe a session comes up?

 

[Jacob Marley]

I try to keep in mind the immortal words of Lt. Col. Frank Slade (from Scent of a Woman):

"No mistakes in the tango, not like life. It’s simple. That’s what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, get all tangled up, just tango on. Why don’t you try?"
​

Just replace tango with D&D.

Basically, if I forget something; get messed up; or make any other mistake, I don't worry too much about it. I just roll with it, improvise, and play on.

 

[Oryan77]

I learned to not get the jitters by just not thinking about the fact I'm DMing. I'll think about the game and what I might do, but not about the fact that I'm DMing for people. That way I don't worry about what might go wrong.

I learned long ago that no matter how prepared I am, I'm going to mess up something. Just keep in mind that the players don't necessarily know that you messed up. Especially if you just go with it and keep the game moving.

If you stop the game, fiddle with your notes, keep saying, "uh, hmm, uhhhhhhh" and keep looking at the battle mat, then the players know you are having problems. That will also remind you that you have messed up and probably keep you discouraged each session cause you'll be worried that you're going to do it again. Just wing it if you go off track, play out the session, and then figure out how to get back on track for the next game. Whatever you do though, don't stall the game or you'll make it worse.

 

[Lwaxy]

No... and yes.

No because my players will tell me if I about to make a mistake that could derail the campaign (which happens about once a year or so, no one is perfect) or when I overlook something that could make someone feel left out etc. And when I don't have a good day, it still works out somehow and next time will be better. I also usually have a stats and rules guru helping out with my number problem.

Yes because it is annoying to find you forgot to print a map or something... but then I can almost always call a short break and do that then.

Essentially, I can whip up a game in a moment's notice without much prep. And the players always surprise me, anyway.

 

[The Red King]

Thats the right idea! When you are DMing, you are the boss, so if you do something wrong, and they call you on it, just look at them and confirm what it is you said.

I like to do stuff like that on purpose.

It keeps the players that have memorized the books on their toes.

"the figures running at you are wearing armor that looks to be made from paper."

"Their armor is made from paper?"

"Yup. Why?"

 

[mcbobbo]

I try to keep in mind the immortal words of Lt. Col. Frank Slade (from Scent of a Woman):

"No mistakes in the tango, not like life. It’s simple. That’s what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, get all tangled up, just tango on. Why don’t you try?"
​

Just replace tango with D&D.

Basically, if I forget something; get messed up; or make any other mistake, I don't worry too much about it. I just roll with it, improvise, and play on.

This, plus if the players accidentally suggest something even mildly entertaining, I roll that in as though I had planned it all along.

"Hey Bob, are there any pies on the counter?"

"Why yes, yes there are. Lots of flavors, all cooling."

It's a collaborative game, right?

 

[TarionzCousin]

"No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy." --Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Expect the players to do something that you didn't plan for. Be prepared to improvise.

Then, if everything goes off smoothly exactly as planned, you'll be pleasantly surprised. If not, that's what you expected anyway, right?

This, plus if the players accidentally suggest something even mildly entertaining, I roll that in as though I had planned it all along.

"Hey Bob, are there any pies on the counter?"

"Why yes, yes there are. Lots of flavors, all cooling."

It's a collaborative game, right?

It is a collaborative game. When in doubt, solicit input.

 

[Dordledum]

thanks for all the replies, I will defenitely remember to have fun tonight!

 

[delericho]

...do you also always get on edge and have the feeling that you're forgetting something?

Yes, though only for "special event" games such as conventions, one-shots, or the first session in a new campaign. For 'standard' games I'm fine.

I suffer similarly when my band are about to put on an important performance, or before a competition. And just before the speech I had to give at my wedding, I was something of a mess.

I'm GM-ing tomorrow for the first time in a year and a half, and I'm getting quite nervous. I don't exactly know why. The weird thing is, I allways feel like this when I get to GM.

In my case, I'm reasonably sure it's because I try to hold myself to pretty high standards, and also because I'm very keen not to let other people down.

I reread the entire PHB, read the monster entries at least 3 times, prepared the combat maps, got minis, initiative markers, the lot.

Sounds like you're as well prepared as you could reasonably hope to be. And yet, somehow it doesn't help, does it?

I've come to embrace the nerves before a big performance. After all, they seem to mostly work out okay, and the nerves are generally a sign that I actually have taken it as seriously as I should and have done the appropriate work. If for no other reason than in those cases where I haven't, it's not nerves I feel - it's a creeping feeling of dread instead!

(And, incidentally, it's my understanding that such nerves before a performance are not at all uncommon, and indeed that some of the very best at what they do suffer from nerves quite out of proportion to their appropriateness.)

 

[Jhaelen]

My confidence in being able to 'wing it' has increased greatly over the past 25+ years of DMing. The important thing is to focus on the things that are hard to come up with on the fly and prepare them ahead of time. In D&D 3e for me that was creating monster stat blocks and combining them into encounters.

At the beginning of the campaign at the start of a new adventure I prepared about twice as many encounters as I felt would be required. This soon lead to me having a repository of unused encounters I could throw in with little preparation.
Unfortunately, in 3e 'leveling up' monsters was a pretty involved process, so there was a certain basic amount of work you couldn't really get around.

4e is a lot better in that regard: I can do the math in my head and creating encounters is almost as easy as picking a bunch of monsters.

Another neat thing to have for any kind of game is a list of 'skeleton npcs', i.e. not much more than a list of names, professions, distinctive features and personality traits. You can introduce them and develop the details later, if required.

Similarly a list of hooks and rumours can be very handy.