What’s the best piece of advice you got before you ran your first game?
@ahorseofcourse7283
3 ай бұрын
Improvisation and the ability to take criticism is absolutely key -- bullshit and beguile!
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
@@ahorseofcourse7283 Bullshit and beguile- I love it, I think I’m going to have to borrow that phrasing! 😂
@ben2720
3 ай бұрын
Don’t over-plan. Create a framework for the type of game you want, and let your players bounce around inside of it.
@Bondanalloy
3 ай бұрын
you don't run a story, a story develops from what happens at the table.
@daveshif2514
3 ай бұрын
ask the players leading questions "would you say or do anything in this situation?" "how does [character name] feel about all this?" Call the PCs by their character names, not the players names, it helps with immersion Present the players choices. A B or C or do they come up with another option, D? meaningful choices that impact what happens next are the heart of the story. choices breed conflicts. examine who is helped/ and who is harmed by these choices, and what would they do in those situations. ask yourself "what do these characters WANT to happen" and "how will they go on from here"
@chukyuniqul
3 ай бұрын
Me, a DM for nearly a decade now:hmmm, yes, maybe I am a beginner let's watch just to be sure.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
😂 Honestly I do the same! I never know when I might learn something new!
@richardgarrettjr4431
3 ай бұрын
Same, except change the "a" to FOUR. Always looking to learn. 👍
@chukyuniqul
3 ай бұрын
Y'all I was moreso joking about the DM tendency to doubt ourselves
@Frederic_S
3 ай бұрын
I am GMing for 25+ years. Still I watched to the end just in case 😸
@lydiasims6412
2 ай бұрын
we are very different people, ive never even played a game but ive decided i want to play with my friends so im stepping up
@ahorseofcourse7283
3 ай бұрын
This is the exact advice that got me into DMing. While it's important to have a grasp on the basics, nothing beats the ability to improvise!
@krim7
3 ай бұрын
I have been DMing for almost 20 years. I do not like pushing new DMs towards running one shots. It is too much pressure on the dm to host a successful event. I have seen a lot of new DMs get defeated by a one shot that went poorly. Much easier to push DMs towards running 2 or 3 session adventures.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
You know... I absolutely agree! I have a tendency to use "one shot" to encompass things that end up running 1-3 sessions (since very few people do in fact run true one shots well!). I really shouldn't do that because I do agree that people just getting started *should* plan on 2-3 sessions. That is wayyyy less pressure than getting down the pacing you need for a true one shot, and it's smart to take that off the table right from the get go!
@OldManGamgee
3 ай бұрын
Great video! Very concise, and I agree with most all your points. Answering the question: I think the best advice I ever got as a DM (for the type of DM I am), didn´t come in the form of advice. Rather given guiding through example. I looove world-building. But yeah I can get carried away, and even put way to weight on my shoulders, wanting to have every aspect of the world defined and compelling. Then one day, I play a game as player, narrated by a friend that had been a player in my games for some years. And after he explains the idea of the game and the types of characters we can create, he took out a map and started asking us to name the world, a few cities, invent a legendary monster, and we even came up with a guild of adventurer-librarians that specialized in studying the monster. (Yes, very much like CR's session zero of Daggerheart. But was years ago.) And as I felt myself and all the players getting super pumped up to start playing not only our characters, but start playing in that world... I felt my self go : "You can do that???" (Yes, i'm paraphasing Brennan Lee Mulligan.) So yes. I guess I'd sumarize in: The best way to get the players invested in your world is not to present an amazing awesome world with all the details exhaustively planed and everything ready for the players to explore. The best way to get them invested is to invite them to create and give life the world too.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Totally agree with that! Collaborative worldbuilding makes our jobs a little easier WHILE making it that much more fun for the players - I'm glad that it seems like your players love it just as much as mine do! 😊
@Frederic_S
3 ай бұрын
Pacing is so important 👍 > What’s the best piece of advice you got before you ran your first game? Back in my days, we got no advice. We ran games anyway. Did they suck? Maybe. But did we care? No. Because we didn't know better 😸
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Honestly I think just starting is the way to go! 😂 Even if you suck at first, you don’t get better without running so there’s no way around it!
@utb15281
3 ай бұрын
A good idea now, is better than a perfect one later. :)
@darktimesatrockymountainhi4046
3 ай бұрын
Excellent tips! New subscriber here! As a long-time player, DM, and classroom teacher, I do most of these things by instinct, experience, and creativity. Definitely a collaborator/facilitator type, I simply manage our group improvisation by adjudicating player choices & actions. Oh, I plan some things out, but it almost always goes differently than planned, so I “plan” to allow the players to alter the plan. My group are all new players, so your suggestions here will help me see better from their pov. Thanks!
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Thanks for the kind words! I feel like teaching skills and DM skills definitely go hand in hand! I absolutely agree that you can only plan to the best of your knowledge, but with players and with kids adaptability is king 😂
@dmeep
2 ай бұрын
The most important thing as a GM is not to make the same mistakes over and over and instead make new and exciting mistakes
@StephaniePlaysGames
2 ай бұрын
Heck yeah it is! 😂
@rhylin26
3 ай бұрын
Best advice is, only you know what you had planned.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
So true!
@coalcreekdefense8106
16 күн бұрын
Been freeform RPing since 1996, got interested in tabletop in 2018, played in my first game last Sunday, and now I'm setting up a day and time to run my first game. I'm freaking pumped. Send up a prayer for me!
@MemphiStig
3 ай бұрын
If you're a player aspiring to be a GM, start paying attention to how they do it, and learn the rules as well as you can. Don't go diving into homebrew, just stick to the book(s). And watch a lot of actual plays of that system, primarily for the same reasons: watch other GM's and immerse yourself in the rules, til you don't have to think about them at all. And whatever you do, she's right. Don't stress the rules. And don't let them stop you.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
I agree - watching other people you admire definitely helps a lot! I actually immediately started working with homebrew though 😂😂😂 I feel like for the right types of people diving in headfirst (read: those of us with severe ADHD haha) - but you’re probably right that running a published adventure for your first time makes a lot more sense!
@MemphiStig
3 ай бұрын
@@StephaniePlaysGames It seems like everyone's first impulse is to immediately start "fixing" the rules before you even learn them. That's what I mean. That's not diving in headfirst; it's jumping the gun. Like the whole Dunning-Kruger thing. Just because you can change the oil, it doesn't make you qualified to repair the engine. But yes, I did it too. I couldn't even run a session, and I was reinventing the combat system, half the classes, *and* the magic rules. And it was all terrible. Never used any of it.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
@@MemphiStig Gotcha - and I definitely agree 😂 Thankfully I know that I don't know nearly as much as actual game designers (although I'd love to be afflicted with that level of confidence that people lower on the DK graph have! 😉), I'm just a tinkerer by nature so I can't stop myself!
@MemphiStig
3 ай бұрын
@@StephaniePlaysGames It's an addiction for me too.
@Joshuazx
3 ай бұрын
Because I'm the GM and I say so
@toryniemann5124
3 ай бұрын
I see so many players that I think would be GREAT DMs get intimidated by the number of hats a DM has to wear and just never try. They say things like “I know the basics and have some ideas, but x y and z part of being a DM I would suck at!” Nobody’s perfect, and you don’t need to be flawless to be great! I suck at a lot of DM tasks, but I do them and the players usually don’t notice.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
It definitely breaks my heart a little, but I think in the beginning it’s so hard to really believe that no DMs feel like they’re amazing at everything all of the time! I constantly try to get players to run one-shots for me since I know having players with high enthusiasm at least helps! 😂
@marioevildm7410
2 ай бұрын
After almost 4 decades of DMing multiple Games systems or realities, I still Suck... Make too many mistakes / assumption etc... But I have fun and my numerous players have fun and they come back with foods and Ice Tea. So I carry on! And I just Love to be an Evil DM 🧙♂😋 1986 was my fist time as a DM for my friends. I add no advices, just a model of a DM that I used to be a players to. And the challenge of reading all 3 books of the 1E D&D... It was a success I was born Evil DM, I did roll important roll in the face of the players and crit often 😃😃. Still do this to this days, its my signatures move. 🧙♂🧙♂ A small secret I learn that night, cheering for the Monsters/bad guys is very good for drama, and let the players destroy/kill them in your face is the secret sauce. NEVER let the players know that you secretly want them to succeed. You my friends are a Dungeons Masters, mysterious enigmatic, a conflict designers, but a group leaders. Make your players to unify vs your Monsters/NPCs make them heroes of the realms. 🍗🍗 Again a very good Advices from you Stephanie, you little witch 🧙♀🧙♀ You 💜💜
@StephaniePlaysGames
2 ай бұрын
Haha I think that’s my favorite part of the game - there’s always room for improvement! I agree, if there’s fun and snacks you can’t really go wrong! 😊 Also I actually really like the tip for outwardly cheering for the bad guys even if you do want your players to succeed! I’m someone who has no poker face so they can usually tell I want them to win - but I know I have some that would love to rub it in my face if they heard me rooting against them! 😂
@Hjorth87
3 ай бұрын
Definitely the embrace the sock. Im paralyzed by the thought of preparing npcs and running combat in the Savage Worlds system on Roll20. But if I wanna try out the system, I've gotta jump jump into it and make it work... Somehow
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Absolutely you do! None of us can ever get better without practice! 😊
@RIVERSRPGChannel
Ай бұрын
Yes you’ll learn as you DM more and you’ll get better.
@andrewshaughnessy5828
2 ай бұрын
"This isn't a chance to be a weird, power-tripping egomaniac." Well, there goes my lich-based campaign...😉 Really enjoyed this video, thanks for making it.
@StephaniePlaysGames
2 ай бұрын
Bahaha I think we can all make an exception for some lich action 😂 Thanks for the kind words!
@Stickyickyslapshot
2 ай бұрын
Playing other systems is great advice!
@matthewroy8116
3 ай бұрын
My best advice to a new GM is to be ready (even excited!) for your NPCs and monsters to lose. It’s better to err on the side of having your players win too much than too little. An easy fight where they route the enemy easily? Players love that. Using mage hand to pants the annoying NPC? You better believe they love that. Once you’ve got more of a handle on their power level and desire to be truly challenged you can ramp up the difficulty.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Yesss I totally agree! I root for all of my PCs so hard, even when I'm stacking the odds against them now that I do have a better handle on CRs 😂
@Skimmer951
3 ай бұрын
My focus with rules lies less in "be correct" and more"be consistent" dont change things on the fly if you made a ruling stick to it and check later if its correct and if you will stick to the same ruling later on or not but dont let it halt the flow of the session. An advise i can share is, dont feel like you need to take the dm burden all alone, your players can help things like scheduling or keeping track of or setting up initiative. Dming can feel pretty overwhelming and sometimes isolating since the dm experience is very different to the player experience so sharing responsibilites to keep the game going is very helpful.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Totally agree - at least with consistency players won’t feel slighted! And having players take care of certain things can remove so much pressure! I’m terrible about assigning jobs but truly appreciate my players who just take the lead with things like initiative- literal angels 😇
@Rhidcully
2 ай бұрын
Its really funny. 50 % of the audience are forever GMs for several years 😂 Well, me too 😢🎻
@StephaniePlaysGames
2 ай бұрын
😂 Well recently a friend called his groups “DM Incubators” and I like to believe that’s what we’re all trying to accomplish!
@lorenzomn5396
3 ай бұрын
Great vid! Thanks for the tips!
@scotth2014
2 ай бұрын
Lots of great points. I'll try to keep at least some of them in mind when I run my one-shot tomorrow.
@StephaniePlaysGames
2 ай бұрын
You’ll do great! Nobody’s first time is perfect, the most important thing is relaxing and having fun!
@MGShogun
3 ай бұрын
This video is really excellent. Much thanks. You got new subscriber.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Thanks for the kind words! 😊
@Stickyickyslapshot
2 ай бұрын
Embrace the suck 😂😂😂 that's what they told us in the army
@StephaniePlaysGames
2 ай бұрын
Bahahaha honestly it’s really good life advice! Usually if you’re trying to get better at something, there’s no way around it- only through!
@cwdiode4521
3 ай бұрын
I did not expect to be called out like that in the first minute lmao
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
😂 You can’t get better without doing the thing! That’s just math!!! Haha I’m very lucky(?) in that I try to learn at least one new thing a year, so I’m used to being bad at things 😂 But then I get better! The ego bruises will fade I promise!
@ignaciozegers5267
2 ай бұрын
It'd be cool to see a full video on pacing
@StephaniePlaysGames
2 ай бұрын
It’s definitely on the list! 😊
@tappistrt
3 ай бұрын
I just DM'ed for my second time ever last week. I made some mistakes, fumbled a few things at the start, but once we got going everyone had a great time. I definitely forgot about some rules and had to make a few corrections on the fly. I probably made or modified some of my own rules. Oonce I got immersed in the storytelling and feeding off the players' energy, it was so much fun and I can 't wait to do it again.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
I love this, I'm glad you had a blast! It's definitely a rewarding feeling getting people to just kickback and enjoy storytelling together 😊
@MarkCherkowski
3 ай бұрын
These are all great points. I never played, just straight into DMing, and now I run 2 games a week! 😅 I am getting a new campaign ready, and trying to find a balance of asking the players what they want, and not overwhelming them, and maintaining some of the secrets I want to keep in this campaign.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Yesss! I played 2 sessions of my first campaign before I just dove right in, it’s addictive for sure! And that is always the hardest part - finding that balance between player involvement and the joy of getting to straight up surprise them with things!
@ItsDeffoScott
3 ай бұрын
I am already running one shots here and there, but really gave me some good info. Especially resource shoutouts, nice :)
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Thanks for the kind words! And I am nothing if not a deep font of resources 😂 My bookmark organization is a sight to behold!
@DirkTheReunification
3 ай бұрын
I'm quite intimidated! I'm going to run my first game, having never played DnD before! We don't have a choice, all three of us only have Philistines as friends and we're a little off the grid. This helped a ton.
@mistermellowsart
3 ай бұрын
I also just started as game master even though I have never played a TTRPG. The players are my 5 kids, so (while they are certainly critical) they have no experience in TTRPG, either; we will be starting session 5 soon. If you need any advice, drop me a message.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
It can actually be even better when it's everyone's first time! Everyone will make mistakes together so it'll be extra okay! 😂 Honestly though, I promise if you just focus on having a great time with your friends, the rest of it will come much easier! I hope you guys have a blast!
@darcyw156
3 ай бұрын
Some great advice Stephanie! Thanks for the vid.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
Thanks for the kind words! 😊
@Drudenfusz
3 ай бұрын
To be honest, I don't think that D&D is an especially beginner friendly game, at least not 5E. But yes, the idea of perfection can be quite detrimental to get any game started, not to speak of getting a campaign to a conclusion.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
I agree, it has so much name recognition that it makes sense most people start with it - but ohhhh boy are there choices that are better 😂
@zachb8012
3 ай бұрын
5E is probably the easiest DnD rule set to apply though. I barely know the rules beyond the basics but I coast on the fact my players don't know that I don't know. Charisma is my best stat and I've been rolling bluffs since the day I was born. Lol, nah, I mostly DM one-offs for kids, so they look at me like I am the rules but the only thing I'm trying to do make the game entertaining, letting them direct and using rolls to skew the outcomes in either a positive or negative direction, but always entertaining. I pretty much learned more about DnD from Harmonquest rather than the books though.
@StephaniePlaysGames
3 ай бұрын
You should definitely consider checking Dragonbane out, it’s a fantastic rules light system! I also agree that for 5e you really only need to know the basics - just simply seeing how many rules for things there are can really freak people out! It can be hard to convince them that half the book is about edge case scenarios 😂
@zachb8012
3 ай бұрын
@@StephaniePlaysGames I could never figure out how to play DnD 3.5 when I was young, even though I had the books and wanted to play. It wasn't until I was able to watch people play the game that I realized most of the rules can be ignored. I think specificity comes from the rule set being applied to create many video games over the years. When it comes to table top, a lot of rules are basically - use bonuses to draw goal between positive and negative outcomes, roll a D20 to represent the degree of failure or success, based the outcome on the roll's proximity to the goal. Other than that, being a good DM is all soft skills. In terms of those skills you sound like a good DM and your advice is solid.
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