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trapstar posted:I have never DMed but love worldbuilding. Am currently working on a very extensive homebrew world and was wondering what you guys thought of the idea of hiring a paid dm to run a campaign for my friends in my homebrewed world. Do you think it would be worth the money if the dm was good enough at it? I want to introduce my friends to my homebrew lore/setting when is ready and I want their first experience in the world to be go well. if you already have a group of friends to play with maybe you don't need to jump right into paid DMing and could consider having one of your friends DM a game in your world personally I think it would be nice to be able to DM in a context where "what is happening here?" is something I can easily ping the author about
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Sep 7, 2022 06:27
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trapstar posted:I'm not really familiar with how paid dming works. Do they usually have pre-planned settings and campaign stories that they then run for people who hire them out? I'm not sure how it works either, but I think there would be the issue of needing to do more work reading up on your campaign setting and making adventures/campaigns that work with the lore established.
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Sep 7, 2022 07:23
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Just DM it yourself. The idea that you need loads and loads of experience for your players to have fun is baloney, and if your players are any kind of decent they'll forgive your learning-to-dm fuckups and have a blast regardless.
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Sep 7, 2022 08:33
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Whybird posted:Just DM it yourself. The idea that you need loads and loads of experience for your players to have fun is baloney, and if your players are any kind of decent they'll forgive your learning-to-dm fuckups and have a blast regardless. This is the answer. You're passionate about the setting, and that will carry you through a lot! DMing is not actually that difficult, it's just time-consuming if you're playing something like D&D where the burden of prep is relatively high compared to other systems. But loving the setting enough to work on it on your own time is enormously beneficial to DMing, because it turns some of that prep into a leisure activity. You can become a significantly-above-average DM simply by listening to enough Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcasts, honestly, and I've played games with literal children who crushed it at DMing their very first time simply by treating their fellow players with respect, describing an actionable situation and asking "What do you do," and not being afraid to ask more experienced players about rules. Also, as someone who's done paid GMing for clients with very specific requests: your odds of getting the experience you're looking for out of a GM-for-hire running your setting are not great. GMs inevitably bring their own passions to the table because it's what makes the prep all worth it. Even if they agree to absorb your setting material (which is already a big ask and will probably be quite expensive even if you can find someone to do it), their interests will be different from yours. The things they'll want to explore in play are unlikely to match up with yours, and there will be this constant tension of "if I were running the game, I'd do it like this..." And the answer to that tension is that you should run it yourself!
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Sep 7, 2022 09:37
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Whybird posted:Just DM it yourself. The idea that you need loads and loads of experience for your players to have fun is baloney, and if your players are any kind of decent they'll forgive your learning-to-dm fuckups and have a blast regardless. Yeah. Start with a one shot to lower the stakes.
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Sep 7, 2022 09:42
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Kestral posted:This is the answer. You're passionate about the setting, and that will carry you through a lot! This is also very true. One of the most valuable things for a GM is to know the setting inside and out, and to be passionate about it. You will be miles ahead of any paid DM in that regard because you wrote the thing yourself! As a player, I would pick enthusiastic incompetence above polished apathy every time.
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Sep 7, 2022 10:21
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Nobody who plays TTRPGs has ever been anything but thrilled when a friend says "I'm thinking of trying to DM my first game". I love watching cooking videos but don't cook much. I'm going to try baking my first cake, would you mind trying some?
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Sep 7, 2022 12:18
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trapstar posted:I'm not really familiar with how paid dming works. Do they usually have pre-planned settings and campaign stories that they then run for people who hire them out? Most paid dm's have a very set thing they like to do and generally charge a premium for doing stuff that's outside of their niche. I would suggest trying to dm it yourself for the first time, it's your world and if you loved creating it, chances are you'll love telling stories in it.
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Sep 7, 2022 12:30
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NGL if I paid for a DM and they made mouth sound effects like that voice actor DM on YouTube I'd be pretty unhappy. That's always seemed like the most unnecessary thing to me from such a highly regarded gaming group.
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Sep 7, 2022 13:03
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trapstar posted:I have never DMed but love worldbuilding This statement alone describes half of all GM origin stories The other half is being the only one in a given friend group willing to do it
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Sep 7, 2022 13:08
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I feel like the one pitfall in "loving worldbuilding" and becoming a DM is that what you need to love to DM properly is not to just build a world, but then also to set it free, let your players set part of it on fire, accept that maybe they're more interested in the Legends of the Elven Candymakers than the Dwarven Licorice Vaults which you're more interested in.
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Sep 7, 2022 13:12
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I guess I'll put in the dissent here and ask - do you need to world build in the context of a TTRPG that people play? Cuz you could just write. Don't even really need to write stories, people read setting books after all.
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Sep 7, 2022 13:20
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Tulip posted:I guess I'll put in the dissent here and ask - do you need to world build in the context of a TTRPG that people play? Cuz you could just write. Don't even really need to write stories, people read setting books after all. trapstar posted:I want to introduce my friends to my homebrew lore/setting when is ready
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Sep 7, 2022 13:57
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I'd recommend you get them onboard for playing three "one shot" games so you can sample a broader section of thr setting, and cut your teeth DMing. Then. You could ask them which of the three they might like to play in a longer campaign and get some feedback on what they like, don't like, etc. Regarding player agency think of setting up interesting situations for the players to assert themselves in, not interesting things for them to watch happen.
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Sep 7, 2022 14:05
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trapstar posted:I have never DMed SUSD just published a video that hits many of these same points, in case you don't believe us. Shut Up and Sit Down getting into rpgs
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Sep 7, 2022 14:18
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CitizenKeen posted:Not in theory - there are tons of people who worldbuild with no end goal, not a novel, not a TTRPG, nothing - but, the request was specifically:
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Sep 7, 2022 14:30
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CitizenKeen posted:Not in theory - there are tons of people who worldbuild with no end goal, not a novel, not a TTRPG, nothing - but, the request was specifically: I mean I definitely share stuff I write with my friends. You can even make little writing circles. I just think its worth thinking through what the emotional objectives you're going for are. If the goal is to world build and have your friends see your world building, then I figure the most direct route is worth considering. Doesn't even need to be a novel, cuz its worldbuilding not a story, so it'd be more like an AU or just a collection of ideas.
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Sep 7, 2022 14:49
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Thanks for the advice guys. My friends from multiple game groups have actually been asking me to DM a game and said they’d be very excited if I do. Maybe I’ll start with a one-shot.
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Sep 7, 2022 16:38
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trapstar posted:Thanks for the advice guys. My friends from multiple game groups have actually been asking me to DM a game and said they’d be very excited if I do. Maybe I’ll start with a one-shot. We have a DM advice thread in this very forum if you have any questions, it's really friendly and full of lovely and helpful folk!
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Sep 7, 2022 17:46
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Link for lazy: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3150535
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Sep 7, 2022 17:53
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:It's a very good concept and core system held back by lack of content. You've got three incredibly basic classes, a few abilities that can be tacked onto them by random events, and that's it. It's especially bad in multiplayer where you're only going to be controlling 1-2 of those characters instead of all of them. I really like Wildermyth's base system, but yeah I was surprised to see I played the game pretty close to 1.0. Its premise only works with a lot of written/designed content to use as "parts" and by the end of the second campaign I already felt like I'd pushed the game past what the point of feeling like new and unique stories. The other thing is that the "legacy" element of it is kind of underbaked? Like the only way I saw characters from old campaigns reappear was through dimension hopping; I didn't get the sense that I was playing in the same world they'd existed in which I thought would've been really cool to do (e.g. a new campaign starts during the intermission between phases of previous ones, so you recruit characters who are in their "rest" period and do new things with them to add to their history). Overall I'm still really glad I played it because the tactical combat is really fun if a bit simple, and the stories it creates feel good to see at least a couple times. I also love a lot of the core design decisions like the way magic works and how healing comes at a premium. I just wish it could have sustained a longer development timeline. Apparently sales were not great?
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Sep 7, 2022 17:58
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trapstar posted:Thanks for the advice guys. My friends from multiple game groups have actually been asking me to DM a game and said they’d be very excited if I do. Maybe I’ll start with a one-shot. You're in the best possible position, so go for it. 
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Sep 7, 2022 18:07
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hyphz posted:You're in the best possible position, so go for it. Yeah, your friends being preemptively excited for you to do something that you’re passionate about is a recipe for good times.
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Sep 7, 2022 19:50
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CitizenKeen posted:2d20 games have started including more and more Drives/Values in their mechanics, which peaked with Dune, whose Drive/Value Statements are nearly identical to Smallville’s. The closest thing to a fix is the minigame where you can earn narrative metacurrency by "challenging" your drive statements. This is similar to what other posters were discussing, where characters' values are called into question and can cause them to fail instead of succeed. In practice it's rare for players to do this, because in a team based game where everyone is working toward a shared objective, deliberately screwing up to support your own characterization feels like you're not holding up your end of the bargain. Warthur reported a similar experience with Star Trek Adventures. I think it's partially because of the specific implementation in 2d20, where the metacurrency you get from handicapping yourself (determination) is a secondary separate track from the one that drives the rest of the game (momentum). It's a nice bonus but it's parallel and ultimately superfluous to the game's main economy.
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Sep 7, 2022 21:33
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mellonbread posted:I would not rate the drive system from Dune 2d20 that highly. They basically use it as the stat component of the standard stat+skill equation, and it works alright in cases where there's a clear and obvious nexus with the action happening in the game world. You can't use the Truth drive on a skill test to lie for someone, but Power or Justice could work. But in most cases there's no obvious link. If I stab someone in a combat encounter, do I stab him Faithfully? Truthfully? Justly? Everyone just ends up using their highest drive whenever possible, which is something the book suggests will happen and... doesn't offer a solution to. Fair. I've read Dune but haven't gotten it to the table, I probably gave it too much credit. I do think what made Smallville great wasn't the Values/Relationships alone, but also the denunciation of the player characters as a team. The PCs are a cast, but they may be each others' antagonists from episode to episode. And I think you hit the nail on the head (along with Warthur): if you're a team, the rogue doesn't want to spend time watching the paladin deal with their problems. (Or they don't in a traditional, team-centric, objective-focused game.) So creating situations where your character believes (A) but acts in accord with (B) is all fine and dandy until it starts screwing up the objectives. When the failure of your objective is another PCs objective, though - that's when you can really get into it.
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Sep 7, 2022 21:54
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If you liked my game Friendship, Effort, Victory, the shonen battle manga inspired Powered By The Apocalypse Tabletop RPG I have been mucking around with the idea of a campaign using an old setting I never got to used inspired by Bleach. It is based on Christian mythology. I tried to run a Valor game in it once, but it never got off the ground. Even if you don't care about the setting, I used this as a chance to put some alternate rules for Battle as a way of maybe testing out some ideas for a 2nd edition or supplement down the line. The link is down below if you want to check it out yourself. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1knPvyEqwq6cg_KAXHoPcokfaTvS9Cy17iz47rxg8Mhg/edit?usp=sharing
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Sep 8, 2022 03:39
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Jack B Nimble posted:Nobody who plays TTRPGs has ever been anything but thrilled when a friend says "I'm thinking of trying to DM my first game". This is a pretty great analogy, because Cake can be cooked pretty terribly and leave you in a bad state if you consume what ends up being a couple of undercooked eggs in flour (because sugar ruins my immersion). But if the person making it puts the effort in to at least try to make a cake it'll end up being an enjoyable time by all.
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Sep 8, 2022 19:06
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In my experience, the amount experience someone has GMing actually has very little bearing on how good the game ends up being. As far as I can tell it's mostly a natural talent. You can polish some miscellaneous skills surrounding it and get a little better that way. But at least the way it seems to me, some people are just naturally interesting GMs, and some people aren't. And I haven't really seen people move from one category to the other. Though I guess to be fair I should say naturally interesting to me, as I'm sure different people have somewhat different tastes.
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Sep 8, 2022 19:14
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there is absolutely not some magical elfgames gland you can be born with that makes you better at GMing lol it's a learnable skill like any other. moreover it's like 20% skill and 80% just plain old work, which is the real reason some people can't or won't do it. you don't have to be good at running games to double-check encounter math or memorize your player's GM-driven aspects or whatever, you just have to put time in
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Sep 8, 2022 19:33
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I think there's natural talent (ability to come up with NPC names on the fly for example is a thing I fail at that a much better GM than me I know is great at), and I think there's also attitude. Having a good GMing attitude is absolutely teachable. And it's a bit of a broken record but the MC Chapter of Apocalypse World is incredible GM advice that is almost entirely system-agnostic. It isn't advice about how AW "works" in specific, its advice about playing as a set of antagonists that in theory have infinite power but in practice need to lose. The trouble with experience in particular is that GMing is not something where there's really meaningful feedback on when you're doing things wrong. Partially because its kind of hard to criticize your friends but moreso I think because you're just almost always around other people who don't really have a sense of how to evaluate or provide feedback. Like if everybody goes to the gym and there's no trainers and the guides for weightlifting are vague and often inaccessible. You're going to get a ton of people who not only have poor technique, but no matter how much time they spend at the gym they're never going to get good technique because the experience just ingrains already bad habits. The main thing I'd say that you do get out of experience is learning your own weaknesses and finding out ways to deal with those weaknesses. As alluded to it can be hard to recognize those weaknesses, and so its totally possible to never improve with any amount of experience. I'm bad at coming up with NPC names on the fly but pretty good at setting mood, and so I throw NPC names to my players frequently. Learning to recognize your own weaknesses is its own skill and requires a lot of humility.
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Sep 8, 2022 19:34
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:there is absolutely not some magical elfgames gland you can be born with that makes you better at GMing lol
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Sep 8, 2022 19:35
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Tulip posted:I think there's natural talent (ability to come up with NPC names on the fly for example is a thing I fail at that a much better GM than me I know is great at) make a list or use one of the dozens of random name generators online. this is actually a great example of something that people think is a skill, and it can be, but can also be wholly substituted for with preparation
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Sep 8, 2022 19:38
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There may not be an elfgames gland, but natural charisma affects everything. It’s a bitch. But the reason I said it’s the best possible situation is that having to ask players to help a GM learn sets up a weird situation where the facilitation is in the wrong direction.
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Sep 8, 2022 19:46
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Tulip posted:I'm bad at coming up with NPC names on the fly but pretty good at setting mood, and so I throw NPC names to my players frequently. Learning to recognize your own weaknesses is its own skill and requires a lot of humility. Same, and my life got a lot easier when I started premaking names and descriptions for NPCs that didn't even exist and just waiting for the PCs to ask someone. Then I fill in the entry, so John Smith, Heavyset Human with a hearty laugh, becomes the town blacksmith. It has the immense benefit of making it much less clear if they're encountering some major NPC central to whatever is going on or if it's just thay the role playing around buying armor is happened to become a bit involved. Description is currency, for a GM, the more you talk about something the more you're putting it "on screen", in a movie sense.
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Sep 8, 2022 19:47
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AW is systematized good gm advice. Things like be a fan of your players, use Fronts and give warnings of what they are up to, fail forward, put crosshairs on your npcs, all gold.
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Sep 8, 2022 20:33
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Not being shy about having your NPCs get clowned on occasion, is absolutely vital
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Sep 8, 2022 20:40
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:there is absolutely not some magical elfgames gland you can be born with that makes you better at GMing lol
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Sep 8, 2022 20:45
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:there is absolutely not some magical elfgames gland you can be born with that makes you better at GMing lol I suppose this is where difference in preferences comes in. I don't think something like encounter math has much to do with being a good GM, or at least it falls into the miscellaneous skills that can be polished category. You can absolutely get better at knowing a game's rules, but I don't think that tends to be the difference between a fun and a boring GM. When I think of a good GM I think of someone who has a knack for making interesting three dimensional characters, who knows how to pace a scene well and move on before it gets stale, who presents interesting plot points, who knows how to improvise well and deal with players making wild and crazy choices without falling apart. And I've absolutely seen completely new GMs do well on every one of those things, and very experienced GMs fall completely flat. But I suppose it depends on the types of RPGs you enjoy playing and what you're looking for out of a game.
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Sep 8, 2022 20:53
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There are definitely people who have a leg up at GMing simply through upbringing and circumstance and natural inclination: I think this is the first time I've agreed with hyphz on literally anything in this forum, but yes, charisma is real. People who are personable, collaborative, empathetic, can read a room, and have some self-confidence (or enough prep to fake it) are straight-up better at the role of GM than people who do not have those traits, and while they are traits that can be developed deliberately, they are far more often the result of seeds planted in early childhood and nurtured through adolescence and young adulthood. This isn't a "magical gland," it's human social development, and not everyone develops in ways that are conducive to being a great GM. There are a lot of people out there who are just... Dull, disengaged and unengaging, lacking an internal life. poo poo, anyone who's ever been on a dating app can tell you this. But yes, actively learning the skills is important, and you can make up for a lot through study, preparation, and practice. sebmojo posted:AW is systematized good gm advice. Things like be a fan of your players, use Fronts and give warnings of what they are up to, fail forward, put crosshairs on your npcs, all gold. Nailed it with the word systematized. Too often the Master of Ceremonies chapter is interpreted as GM advice - it's not. Those are the rules the MC must follow to play Apocalypse World, they are exactly as much a rule as rolling +weird to open your brain to the psychic maelstrom. They also happen to be incredible GM advice for many other games where they aren't rules, but in Apocalypse World, they are mechanical. AW players are playing a regular roleplaying game; MCs are playing a diceless game like Nobilis, with a completely separate rules set that happens to invoke the fictional triggers of the players' moves and cause them to roll dice.
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Sep 8, 2022 20:57
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Colonel Cool posted:I suppose this is where difference in preferences comes in. I don't think something like encounter math has much to do with being a good GM, or at least it falls into the miscellaneous skills that can be polished category. You can absolutely get better at knowing a game's rules, but I don't think that tends to be the difference between a fun and a boring GM. those are all still skills though they're just skills more related to writing and performing. like, acting school exists, MFAs exist (their efficacy at the stated goal notwithstanding  ), none of this is the domain of inherent, inborn traits. not least because almost nothing is
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Sep 8, 2022 21:23
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