Advice for New GMs

GreyHuge

I know very little about GMing, and I have not made it a priority in the past to figure out how. Now I have decide to run the Burning GeekChat game, and I am in need of some good advice on running Burning Wheel games. Are there any general tips on how to run a Burning Wheel game, or any RPG in general? How might I improve my GMing ability? Are there any questions that I should have thought of, but haven't?

thaneofcawdor

1. Know the rules, or at least know enough to be able to look them up easily. Don't spend a ton of time looking things up, either, better to make up a rule than have people waiting 10 minutes while you read.
2. When a player asks if they can do something in the game, say "yes", or make them roll for it. Don't just say no.
3. Don't get caught up in being ultra-precise with the rules when you start out. Bluffing (but not cheating) is OK for now, but aim to be better in future.
4. Along a similar theme, don't constantly apologise for mistakes. Confidence (or the appearance of it) is the key to maintaining a positive experience for everyone involved.

Most importantly: know that the burden of entertainment should be shared equally. It's supposed to be as fun for you as it is for them, so use the rewards mechanism to make that happen.

Apreche

1 - You don't have to know the rules perfectly, but you have to know them as much as or better than the players do. Otherwise players will start challenging you when you get it wrong, and throw the game out of whack.

2 - Remember that the GMs job in almost any RPG is to introduce conflict. That's really all you have to do is introduce conflicts, and then watch players deal with them. Then repeat without rinsing.

3 - Practice. Personally I think that anybody can be a good GM. The problem is that most gaming groups pick one person to be the GM early on. That person seems to stay the GM because they are the only one to have any experience with it. The way to get good at GMing is simply to GM a lot of games and learn over time. Like an artist who has to get all their bad drawings out of their system, a GM must get bad games out of their system. The thing is that a bad artist just wastes paper in order to build skills. A bad GM needs to waste people's time in order to become good. That's much easier when you are wasting the time of childhood friends as opposed to fellow gaming adults who know your game sucks. Good GMing advice helps, but it can only get you so far. Nothing can make up for actual practice.

My recommendation to increase GMing skill is to do something like take turns GMing, play games that don't have GMs, or play games which are easier to GM before moving up to harder ones. So start by GMing games that barely have role playing, but have GM-like players, like Descent or Fury of Dracula. Then move up to something like Kobolds Ate My Baby. Then Inspectres. If you can run an Inspectres, then you're ready for whatever.

Apsup

First. Burning Wheel Brown book part Playing the Game (p. 265 ->), the most important part for GM in the book. (Good read for players too).

1. As people before me said knowing rules is good, but don't be afraid if you don't remember the whole book. If you know that someone in your group has experience with the game and the rules you can and should ask their help when you don't remember something. I understand that some GM;s hate "backseat GM;ing" but I like it when I get help and I tend to backseat GM myself.

2. Know their characters. BW should be character driven game it means that PC;s are the most important thing in the game. If you have players who have more experience with old-school games they might wait for you to come up with story and bringing it to them, but that shouldn't be the way of Burning Wheel. Characters should be active and GM reactive to PC;s actions. So if game seems to slow down ask questions like "You have this Believe about getting in the City Council, how are you going to do it."

3. First couple of sessions are the most difficult part, especially in a game with players you haven't played with before. Until you learn to know how players play their characters things might seem hard, but after a while wheel starts running and GM;ing becomes much easier.

4. Hardest thing for me as a GM is coming up with results of a failed roll. Good rule of thumb is that before you ask player to roll the die come up with what will happen if they fail, if only thing you can come up with it totally road-block for the story or nothing, then either say yes or ask players for ideas.

5. Finally, don't worry and relax. You will learn the secrets of GM;ing like everyone else, by doing it.

MrRoboto

-If the story is not going your way or the way you planned, let it go, it doesn't matter that you planned for 20 NPC's and a whole arc based on one outcome, that was your mistake and your players shouldn't pay for it, just keep them on hold, and introduce them when it seems natural, not forced down your players throats.

-Let your NPC's die and don't make them super players, they are there to help develop the story, not to come save the players every single time so you can continue with your story.

Churba

If you don't want your players to argue the setting or the world, no matter how outlandish it is, then grab the one who is most likely to, and have them help you construct it, because then, not only will they not nitpick and break up your game with their settings/rules lawyering, they will actively defend the world against other people doing so.

Edit - Though, considering that our main city is called Leeds and it is described as, literally, "Where it's always fucking raining" I think you may have done this already.