Bringing Characters Together

I am the only GM I have ever met who was willing to run a mixed clan L5R game that was not a magistrate campaign. Translating that from the built in jargon – one of the biggest problems with one of my favorite role playing games is figuring out how to get characters working together.

Reality is, bringing characters together actually is usually pretty easy. At least in the sense of getting them in same place. It’s keeping them together that is a pain in the a**!

The first step, even before you have players, is figure out where you want them to be.

This can be as simple as ‘in city X’ or as complicated as ‘you have to have a reason to join this group of actors who are traveling to every major court in the Empire, or else a reason to take exactly the same route they are taking’. (That last would be my current L5R game).

Having a specific quest you want people on is always much harder then just getting them to the same geographic location. For some games, getting them to the same geographic location will be enough. Set them loose on the city and watch what trouble they get into. For others, you really need to give them a motivation to go along with your plot (or travel plans).

Watch out for that word – motivation. It’s kinda crucial here.

The second step is character gen. You can lay out any requirements you want for your players to work in – and for most characters, telling the player that their character has to have a background reason for them to be in NYC isn’t going to be that big a deal. Sometimes, though, it isn’t enough to tell the player ‘you need to have a reason for your character to do this’. Sometimes they need a lot more background information to suit what you are looking for. In that case, it’s a good idea to work with them to develop their character’s background and history. Working together, it can often be possible to come up with a good reason to get them where you want them to be. In nothing else, you can always set them on a revenge plot by having the Evil Villain (TM) destroy the family farm during their prologue. Knowing the details of the character history make it much easier to find a motivation that will work on them.

If backstory doesn’t work, then you are left with coming up with an in game reason for them to get with the program.

So, what are some tricks you can use to get the characters with the party and following the plot line?

One GM I knew had all his new characters wake up, hog tied and without any possession on the trail of the rest of the party. I have to admit, I tended to wonder what he would do if a new character was the sort to be untied, and head down the trail saying ‘so long b*tches’. Of course, if he robbed them blind before heading down the trail, a new plot would result.

This is a slightly heavy handed version of a deus ex machina, but it seemed to work pretty well for him.

If you are running an X-men game, or any other prosecuted minority game, the need to stick together for mutual protection will help. But simplicity seems to go down hill from there.

Which is one reason why I like insanely powerful NPFs. That would be my personal jargon for ‘non-player forces’. These can be characters, gods, acts of natural destruction or anything else that can compel a character.

For example, in my current game, the troupe of actors is being led by a high ranking Scorpion character. The Scorpion in L5R are kind of like the mafia – no body trusts them and everybody has to deal with them. They have dirt on the whole damn world. If you aren’t in your debt they can blackmail you, if they can’t blackmail you they can bribe you, and if they can’t do anything else they can just kill you.

So, two PCs are other Scorpion, they don’t need an incentive. One was sent by a clan allied with the Scorpion to assist with a mutual threat. One was random mage who got hired as back up. One is married to one of the Scorpion. One was sent by another clan to make restitution for an insult. One is actually in debt to the Scorpion, and working it off. One was a inquisitor mage that the Scorpion dangled the possibility of hunting down black magic in front of. And one is tagging along at the request of a relative to keep the fellow in debt to the Scorpion from getting in even more trouble.

It looks pretty complicated, written out like that. And in a way it is. However, having the Scorpion as the NPF that every character needs to work with ties the group together. Depending on the world you are in, you can use the actual mafia, the Black Sun cartel (Star Wars), a really old vampire (they know where all the bodies are buried – literally), or a god (a la the prophet Jonah ‘but I don’t want to be a prophet’ ‘tough, I’m the god, and you work for me now’). Or anything else you can come up with. These NPFs can work with carrot (look! big reward) or stick (I will smite you) depending on which motivation works best for any given character.

Other versions of this are the 13 Warriors trick (yes, I am dating myself). But if anyone remembers that particular Antonia Bandera’s flick, the outsider got dragged into the quest by a prophecy. The superpowers trick (you all woke up with strange powers and a mysterious man appears to teach you how to use them). And don’t forget the ‘WTF is going on here!’ trick (you each receive a note that informs you to show up at X time and place of your will never see your little dog again).

Of course, if you have a villain, it can be fun to use him/her as well. One delightful trick I pulled I pulled in a mixed WoD game was having all the characters kidnapped, surgically implanted with a remote activated bomb and told ‘you work for us now’. I’ve never in any game seen characters that motivated – to stay alive and find a way to kill the Bad Guys.

Anyway, I hope some of these rambling thoughts will provide inspiration on the subject of bringing characters together, and motivating them to stay that way.

Be well!

Role Playing Out of the Box

In a dark warehouse a group of men stand around a table discussing the quality of a block of uncut cocaine. One of them is an undercover agent, and a mage, posing as a buyer. Unfortunately for him, the dealer’s guards are smart, and perceptive. One rolls really well on a spot check, and figures out that the mage is not a legitimate buyer. When the guard pulls a gun on him, the mage reacts immediately.

He uses an instant action to bring up a mage shield, then picks up the block of cocaine and uses it at a melee weapon, smashing it into the guard’s face. Instant fatal overdose for the guard, and cocaine powder everywhere, promising overdoses for everyone else in the room as well. The mage is protected by his shield.

With one action, the mage has killed or disabled every antagonist in the room, and assuming he can avoid getting shot in the next few minutes, should escape unharmed. He has also just thrown your entire plot for the evening into the trash bin. What do you do now?!

Creative players can be a blessing, and a real pain. Some times they build fairly normal characters who just always come up with the most insane ideas during combat (see above). Other times they design characters that you’re sure the rules were never meant to cover (the Wookie porn star turned priest of the great Bantha and her protocol droid-agent).

Not every role playing game is blessed with these . . . unusual players. The ones that are can expect an exciting ride.

The best way for a game master to keep up with these players, is to be a faster and more out of the box thinker then they are (And I wish you luck at it!) If that doesn’t work for you, you need to find another way to out think them. With this type of player in the game, I like to run with either open ended, or multi layered plots.

With open ended plots, I set up a scenario: a scene, a mystery, an adversary, a lot of available NPCs on hand, and a good map of the setting, then don’t plan anything past when I present the characters with the scenario. Then, it’s up to the players. This type of plot requires you to stay on your toes and be good at improv. (“What’s behind the door? Umm .. . It’s locked” only works so often)

Multi layered plots are harder to design, but easier to run. Essentially, I build a basic plot, and at every point in the plot where the characters have to do something for the plot to work – talk with this guy, discover that note, have enough mooks left alive they can follow one to the big bad guy, I ask myself, ‘what is something goes wrong?’

• What if the contact gets killed in a stunt?
• What if the note gets burned up when someone unleashes a fireball, rather then negotiating?
• What if all the mooks die in one big puff of cocaine?

And for every ‘failure point’ I come up with 2 or 3 alternative ways the plot can continue.

• Maybe the contact left a folder of evidence with his brother.
• Maybe the characters can back track to an earlier scene and find a different clue
• Maybe one of the mooks is carrying contact information for a higher up.

And don’t be afraid to let a player’s creativity trip him or her up from time to time -

The play group was breaking into the office building, and gets ambushed by suits with guns – someone failed a stealth check! The inventive (and massively strong) character, grabs one of the suits by his tie, and begins swinging him around as a melee weapon. . . unfortunately for him, that tie isn’t massively strong, it breaks, and the suit flies into the middle of the play group, knocking 2 PCs over when they fail to dodge.

Just because an idea is original, doesn’t mean it works.

What kind of crazy stunts have your players pulled, and how do you deal with them?

Player Types

There are lots of play styles, and everyone comes at a GM differently. Some are great to have, some can destroy a game, and some just drive you crazy. Let’s take a look at some basics:

The Active Role Player – these players are a blessing. They always have something they want to do, a sheaf of blue booking between every session, and jump for almost every story hook. Some of the really insane ones will even suggest ways use their characters backgrounds to mess with them. These guys can mess with a plot like anything, but letting them run with their odd ideas can lead to great inspiration. Just be prepared to rein them in from time to time.

The Passive Role Player – sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between passive players and passive characters. Not every character is going to be out going and looking for trouble, and there is nothing wrong with that. A passive player can be a head ache. Forget the subtle plot hooks, forget getting any blue booking out of them. Go for obvious. With luck, you’ll have an active player to drag them allow. Otherwise, an ambush is always a good way to let them know there is a problem.

The Contrary Player – some GMs don’t know how to let players play, and some players come out of bad experiences with a chip on their shoulder. They will do exactly the opposite of what you want, every time, just because they can, and make you deal with it. One contrary player told me this story:

Every game would start the same way, ‘So, you’re all sitting in your favorite tavern.’
I got sick of it, so I’d say, ‘I don’t like the tavern, I’m going to the book store.’
‘You can’t, the book store is closed.’
‘OK, I’m visiting my best friend.’
‘You can’t, she’s sick.’
‘Ok, I’m going for a walk.’
‘You can’t, there is a seige.’
‘Alright, I’m climbing a TREE!!!’
‘You can’t, the tree is closed.’

Can you see the problem here?

Contrary players will always want to do their own thing. Let them. Either a new plot will form around it, or they’ll be left out of the action. It’s their choice, and it’s important to them that you let them have it.

Power Players/Min Maxers – these players can ruin a role playing game faster then anything if they are let loose in the wrong group. Power players are in it for themselves, and use the rules to build the most insanely powerful character possible. They can best be diverted by making the game about the characters, and light only dice rolling.

Comedy Players – these guys are the class clowns of gaming. They just want to have fun. They don’t take the game, or their character seriously, but they have a blast doing it. These players can derail a role playing game with comedy, but they can also make the game more fun. Ride herd on them if necessary, but unless you are running a hard core game (which I don’t suggest for your first game), have fun.

Rules Lawyers – some players know the rules of a game too well. They will try to trip you up, citing minor point 158 in the tiny side bar on page ** to try and make a case that your ruling is wrong, and they actually should be able to cast insane magic spell N and do such-and-so. The two best ways to deal with them are:

• Know the Mechanics better then they do
• Make it clear that you are playing house rules and fudging where the story calls for it, and they can live with it or leave

New Players – people that have never played before are either gung ho or very nervous about doing the wrong thing. In general, treat them like either active or passive players, depending, but be gentle, and let them get their feet wet at their pace (just be warned, their pace may be Mach 10).

Ego Gamers – some people like to belittle other people, some little boys like to tear the wings off flies, and some gamers aren’t worth having in a game. They cheat, they cause problems in the play group, they power game and rules lawyer with the best of them, some will cheat if they think you will let them get away with it. Count points on a character sheet, know the rules, and if you see a player starting inter-party rivalries and using powers on other players just because then can, watch out. It may be a good player, who has decided to build an asshole of a character. Or it may just be an asshole.

Roll Playing vs Role Playing

Some times, it’s good to get out the big guns . . er, dice. To ignore character, background, and plot line in favor of just whacking stuff.

Roll playing is generally used as something of a derogatory term – and certainly to treat a WoD game, or BESM, or Legend of the Five Rings, as a roll playing game is an insult to the time and effort the designers put into to making them games about worlds and characters.

But there are games designed for roll playing, from the war games that led to the invention of role playing games in the first place, to Battlelords (described by a friend as ‘Big Guns, Bigger Guns and Don’t You Dare Point That at my Planet!!!‘) These games are meant to be played with a focus on the dice and little, if any, attention given to character development, or any of the other ‘extras’ normally associated with role playing games.

The truth is, roll playing games really are a lot more then just whacking stuff, they allow a focus on tactics and strategy that gets lost in most role playing games. The bad reputation comes from groups that play a role playing game like a roll playing game (hack and bash D&D for instance) leading to evenings that can be little more than ‘I smash!’

Certainly roll playing games aren’t suited to every play group, but then, neither is L5R. Still, the experience of playing a game purely for the strategy and tactics can translate well to role playing games for groups willing to try it.

A great many role playing groups seem to have only a slightly larger grasp of strategy then they knights of old – CHARGE!!! Getting the practice at strategy that a roll playing game forces players and GMs to pick up (or get killed a whole lot), can add a new dimension to role playing games. And playing a general or a soldier can become a whole lot more real, if the player has some experience with how a full scale battle (even in miniature) can play out. Never mind how much more scope a GM can add to a mass combat situation, when they have actually ‘run’ a mass combat!

And of course, never forget the lessons of Sun Tzu – the strategy of the battlefield applies to politics and business just as much as it does to war.

The GM Interview

Learning about how other GMs handle the job can give you ideas for how you want to handle things.

Because he did such a good job of hitting the high points, I’m borrowing today’s post from Pointyman2000 and his blog The Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer. He put up a great list of questions for GMs to counter the classic ‘Interview for Players’ that has been done so often. My answers are below.

Campaign Creation:

How do you go about formulating a campaign, what influences your choice of system?

I run with a regular play group, and when one campaign ends we normally spend an evening pulling out the RPG core books we have and talking over what we all feel like playing. Eventually I or Chris, the other semi regular GM will get an inspiration from the discussion, and see if the rest of the play group is interested.

Do you prefer pre-built settings, or settings that you come up with on your own? Why?

I’m not good at world building. Or town building. Or set building in general. Basically, the more detail a game gives me on setting the happier I am.

I have stretched myself to build settings myself on ocassion. I find that no matter how well the game goes (and sometimes they go very well) I feel like I’m floundering the whole time.

How do you generate NPCs?

I have two ways of genning NPCs -

1. I start with a personality and and idea of what I want the NPC to do plot wise, and build it around those, or

2. At the start of a campaign I spend some time using dice to randomly generate some NPCs of various types (focusing on basic combat mooks). If you’re creative you can use dice to randomly generate characters in almost any system (d10s work great in WoD – just divide by 2 and round up).

What are your preferred Genres?

NWoD
Star Wars Saga Edition
BESM
Exalted

Running the Session:

How much preparation / effort do you put into a session?

Varies, a lot.

I like to improv sessions, because the players are going to throw a curve ball and mess up any plans anyway.

Rather then planning for individual sessions I tend to plan out over arching plots, with antagonists, plot hooks, etc., the last several game sessions, and have a point in the plot I want to reach before the end of each session.

How do you plan plot hooks for your campaign?

I like to look for character quirks and background, and build plot hooks around them. A lot of times I try to make sure every character has something in their background that can be used as a hook.

It does help that, having a regular play group, I have a pretty good idea of the type of characters the players build, and what kind of hooks work on them.

The damsel in distress works like a charm every time.

Do you fudge dice to help your players when they’re in a bind?

Always, and to rescue the plot on occassion if they roll to well. I figure fudging the dice both ways evens things out, and I never fudge more then I have to to keep necessary NPCs alive, or save the characters from a big mess.

What’s your opinion on Player Characters dying via PvP and TPK?

My group doesn’t like PvP conflict for the most part, and tend to make an effort to make characters that will get along reasonably well. We’ve had two players over the years who enjoyed PvP, one was asked to leave b/c he was a blatant power gamer, the was actually a welcome change and spiced up the game a bit, but left when a new campaign began – he wasn’t fond of the system we were going to run.

I avoid TPKs like the plague, to the point of once bringing in the proverbial cavalry when all but one character was unconscious. Normally I don’t go quite that far, but it was the first time with that system, and I didn’t realize how ever matched the characters were.

Other Questions:

Do you have any bad habits as a GM?

Well, not being able to world build could definitely count, beyond that I have a tendency to wait for the characters to act, rather then pushing then when they are being passive. I’m slowly getting past it.

I need to be careful with my NPCs – if I let myself have a ‘main’ NPC that I identify with, and/or becomes a part of the play group, I can really mess myself up.

Do you cleave strongly to the rules, or do you view them as guidelines?

Depends on the system and world setting. I have a good grasp of fantasy, so I tend to use the rules in fantasy settings as more guidelines. I really don’t understand star ships and blasters and such, so I tend to follow the rules pretty tightly in sci-fi settings.

What kind of players are the most difficult to run for in your experience?

Power gamers

What’s your most rewarding GMing experience?

Sometimes everything comes together, and the session just flies. The players are in character, I’m improving around curve balls without a problem, and everything clicks. I love it.

To Bribe, or Not to Bribe?

I’ve never accepted bribes from my players for extra experience points, better treasure or anything else. I always felt that if a player wanted extra XP, they should earn it with their role playing.

However, bribing the GM is fairly common; and usually pays! A friend of mine tells a story of the time he went out and got 3 pizzas for the GM. When he got back with the food, the GM rolled a d20 to determine how many levels his character would go up. Bribing doesn’t exactly hurt the GM either, and it is good for players to remember on what side their bread is buttered!

What’s your take? Do you accept bribes? Why or why not?

Types of Role Playing Plots

According to Joseph Campbell there are only seven plots in existence, and every book, movie, game, comic or story uses one or more of those plots, just with imaginative variations. Campbell bases all his plots on the way the main character grows or changes over the course of the story.

For example, Star Wars, through all six movies, tells a Fall and Redemption plot of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, and at the same time, the original trilogy (4-6) tells a Coming of Age story for Luke Skywalker.

To a certain extent these plot types hold true for role playing games. RPG plots however, need to take multiple central characters into account. So, since most traditional plots involve one main character, how do you adapt them to work for a whole group?

Well, one option for a game master is to ignore Joe Campbell. You can decide that it is not your job to design plots around the way they will effect the characters (sure the character straight off the farm may grow up, but that’s up to the player to deal with).

Instead, design a challenging adventure around what is going on in the world – political machinations, or evil villains stealing princesses, or a plague that might destroy the world. Design challenging side plots involving a young child who needs to be rescued, or needing to track down a genius scientist, or anything else you can come up with, and run with it. Hopefully the players will do something meaningful with their characters, but if they don’t, hey, you still have a plot to run.

The alternative is to build the plot for your role playing game based directly on one or more of your characters. Often times, these plots can turn into Joe Campbell look-a-likes, as the situations a character encounters forces them to change. Some times your players will hand you characters where you kind of have to build a plot around them, it may be a side plot or a background plot, but it’s there. For instance, a character who escaped from prison a week before the game starts, is going to have the law after him.

Other times, characters will have potential plot hooks like a missing father or true love. Does the character begin receiving notes from the father who disappeared before he was born? Does the true love attract the attention of a mage and become enspelled? Unlike world (or setting) based plots character based plots have the advantage that at least character, and generally more, have no choice but to get involved.

In summary, the two basic plot types for a role playing game are:

• World based – something is going on in the world and the character’s get dragged in or volunteer to deal with it
• Character based – something in the character’s background or current situation becomes a problem the character and his/her friends need to deal with.

As a Game Master, I tend to prefer character driven plots and story lines, but every GM is different.

Which do you prefer to run or play in?

Do you think there are plot types that I missed?

A Game Master’s Take on RPGs Part II

If you missed the first half of this list, you’ll find it in the archives for Saturday the 27th.

It actually went up on the 29th, but a glitch of some sort has it usurping the place of the first post.

In any case, to continue on we have:

Exalted

Exalted is published by White Wolf and uses the same Storytelling System as World of Darkness.

In Exalted, the characters have all been . . . well . . . exalted. Touched by the hand of a god, and given powers, life span and curses beyond human imagining. They also all happen to be at war. The types of Exalted are:

• Solars – sun touched
• Terrestrials – the chosen of the Elemental Dragons
• Lunars – do I need to explain this one?
• Sidereals – born of the stars, there are never more then 80 of them
• Abyssals – basically corrupted Solars, working for ancient enemies of the gods

Every group suffers a curse of madness for their part in the war of the gods. Emphasizing the curse can add a bit of WoD style horror; down playing it can give the players a bit more freedom to play the characters the way they want to.

Unlike WoD, ‘mixed’ play groups don’t work with this one. Solars and Terrestrials do not play well together, every other group kills Abyssals on sight (if they can), Lunars hide from everybody, and Sidereals don’t want anyone to know they exist. With the exception of the Sidereals, the nature of the magic system makes concealing what type of Exalted a character is nearly impossible.

Overall, Exalted has the feel of an anime or a Chinese action movie. Impossible stunts are normal, and the system is designed to give characters a bonus for attempting showy feats.

Big Eyes Small Mouth aka BESM
BESM is an effects based system, and if you’ve ever run an effects based system before, it should be pretty familiar. The world setting is more open ended then Champions, the original effects based system, but otherwise the two are extremely similar.

If you haven’t run an effects based system before, BESM character gen can be hard to wrap your head around. I’ll get into effects based systems in detail eventually.

Character gen aside, BESM’s mechanics are fairly strait forward, you have three stats, and whole bunch of attributes to describe what a character can do, the die system uses d6′s exclusively, and realistic combat has been thoroughly sacrificed for a streamlined system. Besides which, the system is based on anime, so what does realistic have to do with it?

BESM is a great system for a GM who can think on her feet, and is comfortable making house rules. Be careful using it in a group with a rules lawyer, this is a system designed to be improved around some basic theory, not followed like an engineering blueprint.

Amber
Amber is an odd ball system based on the series by Roger Zelazny.

Amber is set in a fantasy multiverse, and the characters are members of the ruling family of the multiverse, or their demon adversaries.

This system is the closest published system I have seen to a true free form. We would typically fit all our characters’ information on a 3×5 card. There are no mechanics. Instead, the characters are built based on the GM saying, ‘You have X number of points (generally less then 50) to split between body, mind and magic.’ Extra points can be spent to get special items, or specialize with a certain weapon.

Alright, character gen is over. Start playing. When it’s time for combat, each player describes what they want their character do, and the GM decides what happens based on a combination of realistic description, the stats on that little card, and whose idea sounds coolest.

Don’t bother even mentioning this game with a play group that doesn’t trust you to be fair. Also pass this one up if you play with a group whose idea of combat is ‘I hit it.’ Finally, don’t run it if you are not comfortable with politics, treachery or characters capable of casual atrocities. Zelazny’s character are certifiable, and they are your NPCs.

Reading the Amber series before trying to run is a good idea, but not necessary. The RPG gives a good solid synopsis of the books, with a strong dose of humor mixed in.

Why Design Plot for a Role Playing Campaign

Some role playing groups don’t worry much about character, or plot or having a story line. They head out in to the woods, find a group of bandits or orcs or pirates, and smash them.

Most players, and game masters for that matter, prefer to have a goal, a long range target, a big bad to search out and hunt down, or some other idea that basically translates into: a plot.

By definition, the plot is what happens in the story.

RPGs, novels, movies and newspapers are have the same basic outline: who – character, what – plot, where – setting, when – setting, why – motivation; we’ll cover all of these as time goes on.

Anyway, plot. For a GM, plot translates as ‘what are you going to throw at the characters’

The most basic plot is, go into the dungeon, kill everything you find, and get the treasure. This is pretty easy for a GM to put together. Get a bunch of antagonists, map out the dungeon, pick a treasure. Add traps if you want to get fancy. However, while this is technically a plot, it isn’t what most gamers mean when they refer to a plot. This, for a gamer is a random dungeon crawl.

Hopefully you have played enough role playing games with a solid campaign and plot to understand why you want to put your time into building one.

In case you haven’t, here are some thoughts:

• Variety: a role playing campaign with a plot has a lot more for characters to do -
  1. decide to go adventuring
  2. hear a rumor of treasure in a tavern
  3. track down someone who knows more of the rumor
  4. bribe him
  5. follow his directions to find the map of the dungeon
  6. steal, buy or rescue the map
  7. go to the dungeon
  8. kill everything
  9. get the treasure

  This is a fairly simple plot, that isn’t to hard to run, involves a bit more then a random dungeon crawl, and is actually short enough for me to write out. It involves character interaction, a bit of mystery, what may turn into an additional combat scene (getting the map) and a bit of travel.

• Motivation: I won’t get to much into motivation right now, but why do the characters go looking for the treasure. Some will just be in it for the money, sure, but not a monk or a paladin.
  Finding reasons for your characters to be doing things makes the game more believable, and creating those reasons requires a plot.
  Involved plots allow you to create reasons for characters to do things.
• Long campaigns: the more involved the plot, the longer the campaign runs. This means more fun for the players, who get to continue with the same characters for longer, and less work for the GM, who gets to continue an existing plot, rather then coming up with a new one every week.
• Easier: Just because you plan a random dungeon crawl, doesn’t mean your players will go along with it. Having a plot in mind and working with it is a lot easier then creating one on the fly if a player says,
  ‘I don’t want to go to the tavern and plan our next orc raid, I’m going into the city and find a merchant caravan I can hire on with.’
  Or something equally unexpected.
• FUN! Running, and playing in a game with an actual plot is just a lot more fun then random dungeon crawls, or bandit kills.

I’ll be continuing discussing plot on Thursday, in the meantime, you’ll find a preview of designing plots half way down this page.

So You Want to Be a Game Master

Running a game for the first time can be pretty scary, in fact, with the right play group it can be down right terrifying!

Before you embark on the hazardous journey of running a role playing game, here are a couple of things to consider:

1. Experience – I ran my first game (WoD), after playing in a single session of D&D, and half dozen sessions of a Vampire LARP. Experience isn’t necessary, but it is very helpful! Yes I ran my first game on next to no experience, but I was running for two players with less experience then I had, who were also people I could trust. Running your first game with a rules lawyer who has twice or more the experience you have, is a disaster waiting to happen. Hell, my first game was a disaster! But we did have fun crashing it.

If you do want to run a game, and don’t have much experience, take the time to read up on the basics of role playing.

2 Game – What game do you want to run? Did you decide to try and gm because you can”really, really want to try it? Or do you want to be the one in control of the world, and now need to decide what world to run? Make sure you pick a game that you will enjoy, but just as important, pick a game that you know the rules of. (Btw, unless you really are that desperate, do not run Shadowrun as a first time GM!)

3. Gaming Style – What kind of game do you want to run? A dungeon quest? A mystery? How about a game dealing with high level politics? Do you want to run combat heavy? Think about it, it will help you design the game, and help your players design their characters.

4. Gaming Group – Experienced game masters will either call a group of gamers and say “I’m running this tonight,” or, get a bunch of gamers together and ask, “What do you want to play?”

As a first time game master, you want to go with the first option, but be flexible. If you have a regular gaming group, great! You already know their personalities, something of their quirks, and just who is going to be a rule lawyer. If you don’t have a regular group, be careful who you invite. Try to put together a group that will enjoy both the game setting, and style of game you will be running. And try not to invite the rules lawyers, min/maxers, and other problem players; unless you know them well enough to know what they will throw at you.