i want a few gm questions answered before i go start a session
1.would it be possible to play and gm
2.how do i encourage my close friends to take this seriously
3.where are some places to find some people to start gaming
4. what are some good places to roll-play
5.can one person be the gm one full run then another pc becomes gm for a run and the current gm becomes pc that he creates kind of idea gimmie some pointers to work this idea out if you think it is possable
6.should i dedicate a session to create the characters
7. gimmie sone hints
thanks for the help to get me to play.
Full Version: newbie gm questions
You can't be a pc but you can run npc if there are not enough people to play.
I don't know if you will be able to encourage your friends if they are not interest by it worth a try
You can try the GM registery on the website to find players in your area
You can switch out GMing duty each run but I am not sure if you want to start doing that rigth off the bat.
You don't necessarily have to decicate an entire session creation but it may take 4 + hour to do it. just make a short run and have extra ready to go if you want to play longer
I don't know if you will be able to encourage your friends if they are not interest by it worth a try
You can try the GM registery on the website to find players in your area
You can switch out GMing duty each run but I am not sure if you want to start doing that rigth off the bat.
You don't necessarily have to decicate an entire session creation but it may take 4 + hour to do it. just make a short run and have extra ready to go if you want to play longer
1. You can play a team member and still run, but be careful of favoritism.
2. Offer them beer? Or just make it as fun as possible.
3. Local game stores often have bulletin boards.
4. Anywhere that won't kick you out.
5. My group swapped out GMing for a long time and it worked great. We still do it, but now we switch game systems when we switch GMs.
6. It couldn't hurt, and could really help to make sure that everyone plays compatible characters.
7. Have fun. Try to be realistic whenever possible, and ensure that PC actions have ramifications, both good and bad. But don't be too much of a slave to realism. If it sounds like fun and your group likes it, run with whether it's "real" or not.
2. Offer them beer? Or just make it as fun as possible.
3. Local game stores often have bulletin boards.
4. Anywhere that won't kick you out.
5. My group swapped out GMing for a long time and it worked great. We still do it, but now we switch game systems when we switch GMs.
6. It couldn't hurt, and could really help to make sure that everyone plays compatible characters.
7. Have fun. Try to be realistic whenever possible, and ensure that PC actions have ramifications, both good and bad. But don't be too much of a slave to realism. If it sounds like fun and your group likes it, run with whether it's "real" or not.
1. Its bad form for the GM to also run a PC. There is a strong tendency to make suggestions when you should be leaving it to the players, and favour your own character.
If your team is short muscle then a tag along NPC is acceptable but they should be just muscle. Leave the tactics to the players.
2. Difficult one. There are no shore bets. If you see an appropriate movie (don’t know what’s out now) and they think its really cool tell them “you could do that in shadow run”.
3. Gaming stores and clubs, the stores will be able to tell you where the clubs are.
4. Wherever you can get space. I play at a club that meets in a seniors centre and around a friend’s diner table or lounge.
5. You can do that but I would keep your own character rather than swap. Say every person a character. When your running the game your character is busy with something else and cant help with the run. In order to avoid penalising somebody for running a lot of games there character should be assumed to earn enough cash to cover all expenses during the time of the run and should be awarded an amount of karma decided buy the players (based on how much they enjoyed the session).
6. Probably a good idea, if there are a lot of new players or players without a copy of the book it is almost essential. If the players are experienced then its not necessary, they can get ready themselves.
Edward
If your team is short muscle then a tag along NPC is acceptable but they should be just muscle. Leave the tactics to the players.
2. Difficult one. There are no shore bets. If you see an appropriate movie (don’t know what’s out now) and they think its really cool tell them “you could do that in shadow run”.
3. Gaming stores and clubs, the stores will be able to tell you where the clubs are.
4. Wherever you can get space. I play at a club that meets in a seniors centre and around a friend’s diner table or lounge.
5. You can do that but I would keep your own character rather than swap. Say every person a character. When your running the game your character is busy with something else and cant help with the run. In order to avoid penalising somebody for running a lot of games there character should be assumed to earn enough cash to cover all expenses during the time of the run and should be awarded an amount of karma decided buy the players (based on how much they enjoyed the session).
6. Probably a good idea, if there are a lot of new players or players without a copy of the book it is almost essential. If the players are experienced then its not necessary, they can get ready themselves.
Edward
1) No, please don't do these at once. If you are driven to do this by a desire to play a character in the game, you will not be able to keep from stealing the fun from the players.
2) You will have a very hard time convincing your friends if they have a sceptical attitude about roleplaying games and you also have little experience. If you start something up without help, you will run into a lot of problems at first that have to be worked out, and your players will have to be willing to give it time. The good news is that starting to play roleplaying games can be an extremely fun learning experience if everyone keeps a possitive attitude. You should play around and use your imagination, finding your own way of playing and what's fun.
A good way to start off your players (and yourself) would be to find someone who has played a while, and let that person GM a few sessions to get you all started. Or attend a gaming convention together. That way you all get a (hopefully) good example of what it's all about.
3) Were do you live? Here in Sweden we have a national gaming foundation of sorts, that just about every gamer who's into rpg's is asociated with in some way. If that does not exist in your country there may be clubs and fraternities with a gaming niche, or gamestores that act as meeting spots.
4) If you are young enough you may be able to organize yourselves into some kind of youth association to get state funding for a club house or something. Just kidding, but that's actually the kind of thing this gaming foundation in Sweden teaches kids to do. We never got organized enough to get a club house, but we managed to get a lot of free games.
No, you play in someone's home obviously. By the dinner table, by the coffee table, on the floor in someone's bedroom or werever there's a free spot. Or if there's allready some kind of association, fraternity or something; that you can get in contact with, you can play werever they hang out.
5) This is the kind of thing that most people try in the beginning and stop doing after a while. The reason is that if you play this way and use the same setting and the same characters, you tend to get a few problems on your hands. Because the GM's character still exists in the world, and the GM has ultimate powers, he can award his character anything. Or if he is prevented from that, he can threathen the players with gruesome punishment if he does not get special treatment for his character on the next run. Even though these things are pretty screwed up and can propably be prevented by common sense alone, the possibility makes it a situation that just not good.
Instead, have everyone who wants to GM make up his/her own campain, whether it's the same system or some other system, and have everyone make a new set of characters for every GM.
Unless you feel you are muture enough to handle collaboratively GMing the same campaign, that is. You have been warned.
6) Good idéa. Or you can catch each of the players on separate occations, after soccer practice or on the lunch break for example. Making characters for the first time in a game can take a lot of time, and you may need to give each of the players undivided attention. You should, however, try playing with the sample characters a few times before you even do this.
7) Just basicly try to follow the advice about GMing that are in every core rule book on the market: Remember that your goal is to have fun. There are also a lot of other good advice in these books that you can turn to.
Other than that I just have one more thing to say: It's a hard learned lesson that what the GM generally feel is a successful gaming session very seldom is as appreciated by the players.
As a GM you want everything to go according to plans, and you want your players to fail or get hurt to some extent so that they can feel it was a challange. But as a player you just want to do things your way and succeed.
If the players always succeed without any difficulty, true, they will not feel challanged. But if they are allowed to succeed perfectly when they earned it, without the GM fixing the result to "keep it challanging", they will still feel it is challanging only they kicked ass. And that's what player's really like!
2) You will have a very hard time convincing your friends if they have a sceptical attitude about roleplaying games and you also have little experience. If you start something up without help, you will run into a lot of problems at first that have to be worked out, and your players will have to be willing to give it time. The good news is that starting to play roleplaying games can be an extremely fun learning experience if everyone keeps a possitive attitude. You should play around and use your imagination, finding your own way of playing and what's fun.
A good way to start off your players (and yourself) would be to find someone who has played a while, and let that person GM a few sessions to get you all started. Or attend a gaming convention together. That way you all get a (hopefully) good example of what it's all about.
3) Were do you live? Here in Sweden we have a national gaming foundation of sorts, that just about every gamer who's into rpg's is asociated with in some way. If that does not exist in your country there may be clubs and fraternities with a gaming niche, or gamestores that act as meeting spots.
4) If you are young enough you may be able to organize yourselves into some kind of youth association to get state funding for a club house or something.
Just kidding, but that's actually the kind of thing this gaming foundation in Sweden teaches kids to do. We never got organized enough to get a club house, but we managed to get a lot of free games.No, you play in someone's home obviously. By the dinner table, by the coffee table, on the floor in someone's bedroom or werever there's a free spot. Or if there's allready some kind of association, fraternity or something; that you can get in contact with, you can play werever they hang out.
5) This is the kind of thing that most people try in the beginning and stop doing after a while. The reason is that if you play this way and use the same setting and the same characters, you tend to get a few problems on your hands. Because the GM's character still exists in the world, and the GM has ultimate powers, he can award his character anything. Or if he is prevented from that, he can threathen the players with gruesome punishment if he does not get special treatment for his character on the next run. Even though these things are pretty screwed up and can propably be prevented by common sense alone, the possibility makes it a situation that just not good.
Instead, have everyone who wants to GM make up his/her own campain, whether it's the same system or some other system, and have everyone make a new set of characters for every GM.
Unless you feel you are muture enough to handle collaboratively GMing the same campaign, that is. You have been warned.
6) Good idéa. Or you can catch each of the players on separate occations, after soccer practice or on the lunch break for example. Making characters for the first time in a game can take a lot of time, and you may need to give each of the players undivided attention. You should, however, try playing with the sample characters a few times before you even do this.
7) Just basicly try to follow the advice about GMing that are in every core rule book on the market: Remember that your goal is to have fun. There are also a lot of other good advice in these books that you can turn to.
Other than that I just have one more thing to say: It's a hard learned lesson that what the GM generally feel is a successful gaming session very seldom is as appreciated by the players.
As a GM you want everything to go according to plans, and you want your players to fail or get hurt to some extent so that they can feel it was a challange. But as a player you just want to do things your way and succeed.
If the players always succeed without any difficulty, true, they will not feel challanged. But if they are allowed to succeed perfectly when they earned it, without the GM fixing the result to "keep it challanging", they will still feel it is challanging only they kicked ass. And that's what player's really like!
I've run a "PC" and GMed at the same time. It worked out fine, but you've got to keep certain things in mind:
-The character was mostly providing a little fire support (following plans made by the rest of the team) and occasionally commenting along the lines of "That sounds suicidal" when players came up with ideas that were likely to get a bunch of them killed.
-The character served as a resource (skills, knowledge skills, and contacts) for the rest of the players, but I wouldn't have him pursue things of his own intitiative. If someone else said "we should do this," he'd help out or handle it, if it was his area of expertise.
-You, as the GM, know the background story of what's going on. Your "PC" does not and *should not* know these things, and you have to play him as if, while a reasonable guy and probably the best meter of how, exactly, your world works (if character appropriate, of course), he isn't figuring things out ahead of the rest of the party. Let them do that.
-When other players GMed (we'd rotate off every 3-5 runs, between 2-3 GMs), this "PC" would become an actual PC. The group was used to having him around, so it avoided the whole "Oh, he's back in town again?" excuse for a character showing up out of the blue.
Essentially, the PC will really be a highly-developed NPC when you're in charge of the game. Again, do *not* have him be a heavy plot driver or problem solver... this is not satisfying for the players. It can certainly work out, though, so don't feel like you should avoid it like the plague. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it's not causing problems.
-The character was mostly providing a little fire support (following plans made by the rest of the team) and occasionally commenting along the lines of "That sounds suicidal" when players came up with ideas that were likely to get a bunch of them killed.
-The character served as a resource (skills, knowledge skills, and contacts) for the rest of the players, but I wouldn't have him pursue things of his own intitiative. If someone else said "we should do this," he'd help out or handle it, if it was his area of expertise.
-You, as the GM, know the background story of what's going on. Your "PC" does not and *should not* know these things, and you have to play him as if, while a reasonable guy and probably the best meter of how, exactly, your world works (if character appropriate, of course), he isn't figuring things out ahead of the rest of the party. Let them do that.
-When other players GMed (we'd rotate off every 3-5 runs, between 2-3 GMs), this "PC" would become an actual PC. The group was used to having him around, so it avoided the whole "Oh, he's back in town again?" excuse for a character showing up out of the blue.
Essentially, the PC will really be a highly-developed NPC when you're in charge of the game. Again, do *not* have him be a heavy plot driver or problem solver... this is not satisfying for the players. It can certainly work out, though, so don't feel like you should avoid it like the plague. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it's not causing problems.
Hi schmitzzy here are my comments to your quetions:
| QUOTE |
| 1.would it be possible to play and gm |
As being the GM for most of my group, I've toyed with the idea, but it's hard to act like "one of the team" when you know all the answers. I have used my characters as NPC for some sessions but never awarded Karma and my players kick him a few bucks for the help. In short, no, not a player character.
| QUOTE |
| 2.how do i encourage my close friends to take this seriously |
In game terms, Offer then rewards for doing so. Nothing motivates like bonus Karma for this like: roleplaying, keeping in character, good ideas. Awarding bonus Nuyen if the job is handled better than MR.J expects helps too.
Outside of the game, if you are struggling with immature players then you might have to look elsewhere for "your type" of player.
| QUOTE |
| 3.where are some places to find some people to start gaming |
I've recruited my own friends mostly, but school, work and hobby shops are some good starts. One of the best Battletech groups I had was from answering a flyer someone had posted at the local hobby store.
| QUOTE |
| 4. what are some good places to roll-play |
Most of my games happen in my garage, but all my group's offered-up their homes as well. Public libraries sometimes workout, but they usually insist anyone has to play. Hobby stores often offer space for players. We've even considered renting small conference rooms at larger hotels when we played once-a-month or less frequently.
| QUOTE |
| 5.can one person be the gm one full run then another pc becomes gm for a run and the current gm becomes pc that he creates kind of idea gimmie some pointers to work this idea out if you think it is possable |
My group does this more often than in the past where I used to be the only one who'd GM. My biggest suggestion is to not change GMs until a particular storyline/run is complete. Nothing worse than having runners entangled in multiple runs because the GM couldn't make it that day and everyone wanted to do something.
| QUOTE |
| 6.should i dedicate a session to create the characters |
Yes! Make characters and do something fun! It's a tradition for each new addition or long absence from SR for us to run the SR1 "Stuffer Shack" from the original SR1 book. It's almost like a right-of-passage too for all new GMs to our group.
| QUOTE |
| 7. gimmie sone hints |
Talk to your players!! What I think is great gameplay, might be miserable for my group. This is where playing the game helps. We also do deconstruction after runs/sessions and talk about what worked and didn't. Dumpshock is also a great place to run ideas and ask questions!
| QUOTE |
| thanks for the help to get me to play. |
Good luck and hang in there chummer! (oops, no mention of chummer in SR4
)~GTT
1. I'm currently doing it with another co-GM in our fairly large group. It requires a lot of maturity from the two GMs, and works best if the current GM's "part-time PC" is moved offcamera for that particular run. That way there's no conflict of interest.
It's also best if the two part-time PCs are dedicated support characters (healers, technicians, overwatch snipers, etc.) that aren't irreplacable when they're offcamera. For instance, myself and my counterpart are both medically trained fire support personnel (more or less) and while we're helpful to the rest of the team we still need to firmly stay out of the spotlight whenever possible.
2. If they're not interested in it, you're not going to make them interested in it. The best suggestion I can offer is to ask them if they like certain movies: Robocop, Johnny Mnemonic, Blade Runner, Demolition Man, Minority Report, Mad Max, and so on. Then ask them if they'd like to play a RPG that combines all of that with Lord of the Rings.
Alternately you could leave out the whole magic & cyber parts and run the game in a modern-day setting with nothing but guns, skills, and mercenaries doing secret corporate espionage. Do that for a while, and if they like it you can start introducing "special new technologies" like smartlinks and drones. Then maybe ease into the idea that psychic powers are real. After that point you're pretty much ready to jump them to 2070.
3. Universities, local gaming shops, and the internet. Yahoo Personals, for instance, tries to hook people up.
4. Roleplaying is a matter of whatever the group wants it to be. If you're like my group, it's a bunch of people sitting around on sofas. Some folks are more into the "get up and move around" thing. So, I'd say a good place is wherever you can loudly talk about shooting someone in the head for hours at a time and no one will call the cops on you.
5. See #1.
6. At least one, especially if this is everyone's first time. Start with very basic character concepts and learn from there. Keep in mind that everyone's going to make mistakes with their first few characters.
7. Read the sourcebook. Read, read, read. Write down things that confuse you about the rules and then come here to see if they've been answered. Realize that not every question has a good or satisfactory answer. As a GM and as a group, everyone will have to eventually make some house rules to smooth their games out. Keep it to a minimum, but don't be afraid to do it if there's a game-stopping situation at hand.
Above all, try to remember that the whole purpose is to have a good time. The moment roleplaying becomes a chore, it becomes a waste of time.
It's also best if the two part-time PCs are dedicated support characters (healers, technicians, overwatch snipers, etc.) that aren't irreplacable when they're offcamera. For instance, myself and my counterpart are both medically trained fire support personnel (more or less) and while we're helpful to the rest of the team we still need to firmly stay out of the spotlight whenever possible.
2. If they're not interested in it, you're not going to make them interested in it. The best suggestion I can offer is to ask them if they like certain movies: Robocop, Johnny Mnemonic, Blade Runner, Demolition Man, Minority Report, Mad Max, and so on. Then ask them if they'd like to play a RPG that combines all of that with Lord of the Rings.
Alternately you could leave out the whole magic & cyber parts and run the game in a modern-day setting with nothing but guns, skills, and mercenaries doing secret corporate espionage. Do that for a while, and if they like it you can start introducing "special new technologies" like smartlinks and drones. Then maybe ease into the idea that psychic powers are real. After that point you're pretty much ready to jump them to 2070.
3. Universities, local gaming shops, and the internet. Yahoo Personals, for instance, tries to hook people up.
4. Roleplaying is a matter of whatever the group wants it to be. If you're like my group, it's a bunch of people sitting around on sofas. Some folks are more into the "get up and move around" thing. So, I'd say a good place is wherever you can loudly talk about shooting someone in the head for hours at a time and no one will call the cops on you.
5. See #1.
6. At least one, especially if this is everyone's first time. Start with very basic character concepts and learn from there. Keep in mind that everyone's going to make mistakes with their first few characters.
7. Read the sourcebook. Read, read, read. Write down things that confuse you about the rules and then come here to see if they've been answered. Realize that not every question has a good or satisfactory answer. As a GM and as a group, everyone will have to eventually make some house rules to smooth their games out. Keep it to a minimum, but don't be afraid to do it if there's a game-stopping situation at hand.
Above all, try to remember that the whole purpose is to have a good time. The moment roleplaying becomes a chore, it becomes a waste of time.
so this is these are the general answers for all of them correct me if i am wrong
1. don't do this bad idea
2.offer them some stuff or tell them to try it for 1 run
3.gaming centers/conventions/clubs
4.would my basement work?
5.good idea but regulate it and don't give you character stuff for them to give to them and other things like that.
6.good idea I am new to the game and so are all my players
7.be flexible don't make them do everything according to plan and try to be realistic but you don't have to be all the time and know your players and talk to them
and thanks and a 1 more
would it be a good idea to create a character or 2 to gat the hang of making them before trying to teach them?
one last thing what does this mean
1. don't do this bad idea
2.offer them some stuff or tell them to try it for 1 run
3.gaming centers/conventions/clubs
4.would my basement work?
5.good idea but regulate it and don't give you character stuff for them to give to them and other things like that.
6.good idea I am new to the game and so are all my players
7.be flexible don't make them do everything according to plan and try to be realistic but you don't have to be all the time and know your players and talk to them
and thanks and a 1 more
would it be a good idea to create a character or 2 to gat the hang of making them before trying to teach them?
one last thing what does this mean
| QUOTE |
| Good luck and hang in there chummer! (oops, no mention of chummer in SR4 ) |
p.s. what is a system?
Chummer one of the most popular bits of slang in older Shadowrun editions, it just meant friend, or chum, or bud, or whatever. It doesn't really show up in the SR4 main book, which is sad.
As for GMs running characters. My group does this all the time. Since Shadowrun is so mission based, it is easy for different players to trade off GMing from run to run. Each GM has his/her (damn our lack of a non-gender specific 3rd person pronoun and the fact that I play in a bi-gender group!) personal plotline that develops as s/he Gamemasters. The advantages are two fold. One, everyone gets to play, which rocks, because we all love playing more than we like running. Second, the jobs we take feel more distinct. The problem with having one GM is that the different jobs generally have a similar feel, or flavor, based on the style of each particular GM. With multiple GMs you get a gamut of different styles, which I find great in SR. I think jobs should be really distinct as god only knows what sort of job you'll get next week! For instance, one week the team might be destroying the Earthfirst! vessel the Rainbow Murderer (my adventure, high action, tongue firmly in cheek), next time we have to clear our names when Ares frames us for multiple murders and thefts as part of an evil advertising campaign (my friend Jay, more Noir and LOTS of backstabbing.) After that we need to work with the Cal free state Government to raid a drug smuggling storehouse (Matt, who tends to run more "professional" adventures filled with realism and exacting standards.
As for what to do with the character the GM normally runs, they either are off doing other things (sorry guys, I gotta do this favor for my fixer, I'll be back in 3 weeks.) or they are generally in a purely "support" role. For instance, the hacker turns into a way for the GM to get info to the players. Anything the GM wants them to have the hacker is able to get, otherwise the info is hidden/too well gaurded/the hacker catches fire/etc. and they have to find it some other way.
As for GMs running characters. My group does this all the time. Since Shadowrun is so mission based, it is easy for different players to trade off GMing from run to run. Each GM has his/her (damn our lack of a non-gender specific 3rd person pronoun and the fact that I play in a bi-gender group!) personal plotline that develops as s/he Gamemasters. The advantages are two fold. One, everyone gets to play, which rocks, because we all love playing more than we like running. Second, the jobs we take feel more distinct. The problem with having one GM is that the different jobs generally have a similar feel, or flavor, based on the style of each particular GM. With multiple GMs you get a gamut of different styles, which I find great in SR. I think jobs should be really distinct as god only knows what sort of job you'll get next week! For instance, one week the team might be destroying the Earthfirst! vessel the Rainbow Murderer (my adventure, high action, tongue firmly in cheek), next time we have to clear our names when Ares frames us for multiple murders and thefts as part of an evil advertising campaign (my friend Jay, more Noir and LOTS of backstabbing.) After that we need to work with the Cal free state Government to raid a drug smuggling storehouse (Matt, who tends to run more "professional" adventures filled with realism and exacting standards.
As for what to do with the character the GM normally runs, they either are off doing other things (sorry guys, I gotta do this favor for my fixer, I'll be back in 3 weeks.) or they are generally in a purely "support" role. For instance, the hacker turns into a way for the GM to get info to the players. Anything the GM wants them to have the hacker is able to get, otherwise the info is hidden/too well gaurded/the hacker catches fire/etc. and they have to find it some other way.
| QUOTE (schmitzzy) |
| would it be a good idea to create a character or 2 to gat the hang of making them before trying to teach them? |
Absolutely! Make 3 or 4, different types. You can use them as NPCs later, so it's not a waste, and having the experience will help you assist your players.
I always make several characters for a game system before I start playing/GM'ing.
"System" is short for game system: Shadowrun, Dungeons and Dragons, Toon, etc. are all different game systems. For a long time out group would play SR by cycling GMs in and out, then we ended up cycling games when we cycled GMs too.
| QUOTE |
| would it be a good idea to create a character or 2 to gat the hang of making them before trying to teach them? |
I missed this one: defintely. The more knowledge you have of the system the smoother thigns will flow and the better the gaming experience will be. The better the game is, the more likely you'll actually play again.
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