{"id":32308,"date":"2016-05-21T16:12:19","date_gmt":"2016-05-21T20:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=32308"},"modified":"2016-05-21T16:12:19","modified_gmt":"2016-05-21T20:12:19","slug":"rutskarns-gminars-ch4-foundations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=32308","title":{"rendered":"Rutskarn’s GMinars CH4: Foundations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alright, you’ve borne with me through three posts of theory and explanation and art-of-GMing shenanigans. Let’s have an interlude of practicality. Let’s talk over the first three steps to getting your game set up:<\/p>\n

First, Before Anything Else – Players<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most difficult part of running any game is getting good people to play with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some GMs make the mistake of only considering people who already play tabletop games, but that’s usually a bad policy; the pool of people who would want <\/em>to try a game like D&D and haven’t is still much broader than the pool of people who are already <\/i>playing D&D. Unless there’s a good well-populated club or organization nearby, your first instinct should be to do to what I’m theoretically doing right now–reach out to the interested and the sympathetic and convert.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not just a matter of scarcity, either. Like everybody else, some gamers are just assholes, and partially because RPG players are scarce I’ve found that clubs don’t filter out jerks and creeps nearly as often as you’d think. I’ve met the love of my life and some of my best friends in the world in an RPG club, but I’ve also met a bunch of bottom-feeding cretins and borderline predators who were tolerated or even courted when available players were scarce. Especially if you’re part of absolutely any demographic that experiences harassment, I probably don’t have to tell you that randos aren’t always fun gaming partners.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s just my demo and location, but I’ve never had trouble persuading cool people I already knew to try RPGs. But–<\/p>\n

Let’s just hit this head on. I’m lucky.<\/em> I’ve been lucky enough to find a lot of cool people where I am–to have found myself a lot of friends over the past few years. But things haven’t always been that way. The truth is that I’ve spent a lot of my life without many friends at all, and I’m guessing some of you reading this are in the same position. So just leaving you with the advice “make your friends gamers” is a pretty crappy place to end this first section.<\/p>\n

One suggestion is that if you can’t get or form a group in your area, try using Roll20<\/a>, Mythweavers<\/a>, and other websites to play online–either with text or with voice chat, depending on your preference. There’s always players looking for games, and if you’re anxious about GMing and want to try playing first, this is a good way to get some experience. I’m sure there are other good communities people can share in the comments. Heck, I use Roll20 to play with a group I met in real life, that’s in the same state as I am, just so we don’t all have to drive to one place on a Friday night.<\/p>\n

Secondly – Chat<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the GM, it’s ultimately going to be your responsibility to decide what kind of game you’re going to play. It should probably be something you’re really excited <\/em>about. It should also be something your players are excited about.<\/p>\n

You’re probably not going to get anywhere asking your group, “What do you want to play?” If they’re new, they’re not even going to have the context to consider that question. If they’re not new, the reason they’re letting you GM is probably that they don’t want to worry about setting or system–they want you to figure that stuff out so they can just show up and play the game. Only once in all my gaming experience has somebody ever requested <\/em>a system or setting of a GM, and it was me, and it was Seventh Sea<\/em>, and I’m very sorry, Kamen.<\/p>\n

If your players already have experience, just ask what systems and characters and setting they’ve liked before. If they don’t have experience, my earlier pointer about favorite TV shows and videogames and movies stands. I find another question useful: how much do your players like figuring out fiddly, complicated problems? A player who will spend hours and download a host of semi-legit programs to get their new tablet set up just <\/em>right is more inclined to like a system with a lot of options, like Pathfinder<\/em>, while a player who closes the same ten startup programs every time might like a bigger-picture game that requires less paperwork, like FATE<\/em>. Of course, which kind of person you <\/em>are can be equally important.<\/p>\n

Thirdly – Pregame<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a trifle obvious, and in fact it’s the only advice I offer that I know is standard, but here it is: before you run the game, read the rulebook. If you’re playing Dungeons and Dragons<\/em>, you might think your first step as a burgeoning Dungeon Master is to read the Dungeon Master’s Guide. <\/em>Nope! Almost all the rules you’ll ever need are in the Player’s Handbook<\/em>, and if you’re only going to read one book it’s always going to be that one. Confusing? Yup. Here’s the classic structure of an RPG’s rulebook(s):<\/p>\n