It’s no surprise that most people who play DnD don’t have extensive experience running the game. For most games, actually, for every person running the game, there are four or five who are playing as characters. Even GMs need breaks though, and I know that I, personally, love playing in games occasionally as a change of pace.
But who’s to take over the group when the GM is player for a night? Usually, it’s one of the players, and they very often don’t have the slightest clue what they’re doing. So this article is going to be a little primer for some people who have little-to-no experience running a game.
1) Your players are evil.
This might sound like strange advice, but it is something that you should keep paramount in your mind. No matter what you plan, no matter how meticulously you plan everything, and have a great scene in mind, your players will intercede and inject their own ideas of how a scene goes. Be ready for this, because nothing is worse than a GM looking at his players and going “Wait, you do what?”
2) You are allowed to cheat.
This one is also fairly counter intuitive, however, if used correctly, it can make the encounters feel a whole lot more dynamic. Think this guy should be able to parry incoming attacks, but that’s not in the rules? Make a rule up. Hell, make it automatically activate on every other, or every third attack. Enemies can have overpowered things, because they won’t abuse them – because the one running the game is able to tell.
3) Your goal is to lose, barely.
Some players prefer to stomp a dungeon flat with relatively little risk, but the real success for a GM comes when they could have died, but through their own skill and ingenuity (and a little luck) overcome the odds. Then the players feel like they beat the omnipotent GM at his own game and they are triumphant…which is what you wanted them to do the whole time. GMing is a large part of slight of hand. You want the players to feel good about beating you without them catching on that you’re letting them win!
4) Sacrifice for the Story
This one might be a little tough for the beginners, but it really hits at the heart of good GMing. If the players do something that you don’t anticipate, run with it. If you’re planning the session as a story, not as a series of encounters, then you’ll find that you can just keep things on track in other ways. It makes the players feel like they have a lot more choice in the matter, when in reality, they’re just getting to the same point in a slightly different way.
5) Planning
Nothing, absolutely nothing, is a replacement for good planning. You need to know your story ahead of time, and you won’t do that unless you’ve actually put the time in to prepare. That might mean something as simple as sketching down a few names, or a paragraph of the plot. I know GM’s who run with nearly no notes at all. I don’t run that way. I tend to write a page or so with all the relevant information for each major event in the plot. This lets me keep things rolling, and lets me make sure that I didn’t forget something important. (No, I definitely mentioned the Orb of Plotty-plottiness last scene!)
6) Affected Omniscience
Pretend you know it all. The players expect something of their GM, and it’s your job to give it to them! They want an overlord who will oversee their game seamlessly. If your players notice you in a lie, just nod, and pretend that it’s deliberate. “He missed on a 9 there, but hit on an 8 this time?” asks the number-cruncher of the group, to which the GM nodded and responds: “Yep. He does.”
Does he actually hit? Probably not. But now this NPC has a miracle +2 from somewhere, and your players will probably try to figure out how to remove it. If they figure out something that sounds good, then hey, give them the +2. It all comes down to what makes the players feel like they’re doing it right. If you act confident enough, then the majority of players will assume that you have some kind of eldritch knowledge behind the screen.
I hope that some of these tips proved useful. Have you ever GMed a game? Have any desire to? What system would you run? What kind of plot? Any advice from other experienced GM’s for the newbies? Answer any of these down below in the comments!
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