Training a DM

[kurashu]

I've been trying to groom my players to feel comfortable DMing. Now, I have two volunteers -- both semi-serious but hesitant. One is my girlfriend who has played on and off with our group for the last several years and the other is a newer player who is still learning how to flank and sneak attack.

Aside from making sure they are both versed in the rules, what other things should I train them in, for lack of a better word.

For me, it was as easy as taking my knowledge of how combat works and extrapolate that out to how running multiple creatures would act with the motivation of staying alive, killing the PCs.

They are both decent story tellers, which is something I wouldn't be able to teach, so that isn't a concern.

I'm thinking of finding a very simple module (Scourge of the Howling Horde or The Sunless Citadel) and annotating it and giving it to one of them to run with me as copilot if they had any questions. But I don't know.

[Bearchucks]

Improvisation.  Flexibility.  Having a living world rather than a static plotline or a flowchart--both of the other times my brother tried a flowchart to GM we ended up going outside of planned contingencies. 

(One case was my Jedi going door-to-door like a cop looking for someone who didn't show up to work for a senator that day, thinking that he'd find the assassin he'd been advised about trying to impersonate them or find a body or something.  The other involved attempting to talk our way out of an encounter with a Sith 6 levels up on us instead of fight our way out.)

Can they keep a handle on everything?  Battlefield status, character status, opponent status?  Running an encounter's a lot different from fighting one.  Has either of them been the party leader-type?  Not necessarily the face or the BFC, but the one ultimately dictating where people went or what happened.  That personality can be useful to have running a game.

[Unbeliever]

I'd avoid the modules, personally.  Especially if storytelling is their strong suit.  Here's my reasoning:  the temptation with a module is to think that the writers have done a lot of the "under the hood" thinking for you.  That is, that they've balanced the encounters and thought out interesting ones and so forth. 

In practice, though, this isn't the case.

Bearchucks has good advice.  I'd say just tell them to take it easy, not to get too ambitious outside the gates (i.e., start with a fairly self-contained adventure rather than the War of the Ring), and to be flexible and realize that players are a fractious and chaotic lot. 

Besides that, I'd say help give them some easy tools to manage things.  If there's a handy way of tracking initiative or combat statuses (one of the most headachey things about DMing) then I'd suggest that to them.  And, I'd also pass along that one of the easiest and most effective tricks is to invest the occasional NPC and environment with some character ... anything that really helps it stand out.  Another good trick is to just get a feel for the way circumstance modifiers work or what the ballpark DCs are in the system.  It's much easier to wing the game when you know some of the basic ideas behind the rules, such as that save DCs tend to be 10+1/2 hit dice/levels + stat modifier, or having a sense that a DC 35 is really high while a DC 15 is easy and a DC 25 is hard but a skilled PC can nail it.  Stuff like that. 

Finally, they should feel free to come on these boards and ask us about encounters and various ideas.  We're good that way. 

[Necrosnoop110]

LINK: DM Advice & Resources

[Bearchucks]

If they're strong storytellers and they can handle "living worlds" a game based around a city on an island is great.  All kinds of interesting terrain, interesting encounters, assorted factions to negotiate with / be friendly towards / ignore / murder.  It's also of limited scope: sure, the outside world is there, and you might need to go to the cave of excellent adventure on quest for theodore and william, but everything you need's in the city.

I've thought a couple times about adapting Morrowind as a campaign setting--a bunch of cities, a bunch of ruins and tombs.  If they've got games they like or a setting they like, see about helping them make a world in that spirit (or expressly in that world in an alternate time or some such).

Far as tracking statuses and init, I keep a little scratchpad with me.  Dry erase is another great way of handling it.  Magnetic boards.  On init: if there's a group of goblins, I have them all go on the same init.  Simplifies the game.  Goblins on wargs would have their own init, etc.

If they've got a laptop, having the SRD available gives them click-click-click access to any rules they're unsure of, along with "standards" for skill checks.  Balance, for example, gives the whole collection of modifiers and standards.  The less they need to keep in their heads regarding the rules, the better.  Their heads are where the game happens.

[veekie]

I'd say the following would help:
-Run a module. Not a long one, try going for a module that would last maybe 3-4 sessions at most. This takes the pressure of creating a coherent plot off them initially, and helps build confidence that they can make it work.

-Co-DM for them. You help them manage the rules and stats initially. Especially for D&D the statistics overhead is fairly intimidating, and few people jump in easily. This might not be that obvious a stumbling block, especially for those of us who ARE good at the rules.

-Once the module gets going(so they have already gotten past the first hitch of getting started at all), draw out a setting and hammer out an overarching plot with them. This sorta falls under the Co-DM schtick, as good storytellers may not necessarily be good plotters. You need to supply inspiration and restraint. Railroads are acceptable initially, so that they avoid information overload, you can guide them towards expanding their scope and flexibility gradually.

-Get easy-going players. Forget optimization, you need players who're there primarily to socialize and have fun, rather than expanding their characters. You want people who would grab the first plot hook and run with it.

[oslecamo]

Have notes of your main stuff ahead of time. The players only really need a character sheet, a DM needs rough maps, NPC lists and motivations, major and minor plot hooks, and some " generic" ecounters stated out don't hurt either. If the DM arrives at the session and tries to do everything by memory, things are gonna go slow.

Improvisation. The players are gonna ask for unexpected things sooner or later, and repeatedly. A DM needs to know how to pull quick answers, or the game can easily bog down or even crash.


Authority. Regardless of what's said about the party-DM relationship, the DM is still the guy investing more of his personal resources on the game. If a rules interpretation conflict breaks out in the mid of a session, players may present a complain, but the DM should still have the final word, at least until the end of the session. Any remaining problem can then be discussed when it doesn't bog down the game anymore.

[veekie]

Have notes of your main stuff ahead of time. The players only really need a character sheet, a DM needs rough maps, NPC lists and motivations, major and minor plot hooks, and some " generic" ecounters stated out don't hurt either. If the DM arrives at the session and tries to do everything by memory, things are gonna go slow.

Seconded. Preparation is the difference between easy early session and total clusterfuck. Experience eventually makes up for prepwork, but in my case I spent a full month scheming out pretty much every location, encounter and NPC for the first game. The players didn't manage to pull too many surprises due to that, and by the time I ran out of the precooked stuff, I had enough experience to wing it.

[Eagle of Fire]

If I may add my own grain of salt: I think the most important aspect of a DM is improvisation. Players very rarely do what common sense dictate because D&D is a game designed to allow the players to evade their day to day worries and play someone else in a fantasy setting which is (usually) completely different than the world we live in.

Another point which goes hand in hand with the improvisation part: if the PCs are bent of ignoring all your quests and go rampaging in the wild instead of focusing in the towns like you planned, or whatever... Simply follow your PCs and make something happen. Anything. Have a temple pop out of nowhere even though you never planed it. Maybe a simple hole on the ground with Formilians running amok. Maybe a goblin colony, an unmarked river... Or even a frigging dragon which laught at the low power of the PCs if they are low level and simply toy with them, casting Quest or whatever and bullying them around. Anything, really. The whole point is: if the PCs get there for the first time ever, nothing you ever prepped need to be set in stone unless there is a very good reason.

Another important part of DMing is understanding the battle system but especially the challenge rating mechanics. On a previous game I played once, the game ended with a TPK... We were only two players of second level which translate to a CR of 1 versus a bunch of zombies with full actions which I calculated afterward as being a total of CR 4. We had no magic users, no magic items except healing potions and we were already about half injured. At the time we both thought: heck, zombies? If it goes wrong we simply run from them right? We got both killed in about 3 rounds. Ouch much?

Something else which goes hand in hand with the above is that the DM can cheat a little if needed. If your goal is not to TPK them at every opportunity and that you make a mistake like my little story here, you even should cheat a little. Simply enough to give a fighting chance to your PCs so either you or the PCs can learn from their mistakes. Make the monsters distracted or sidetracked while they make their escape, warn them out of game that ''those foes are beyond any of you. Run!'', reduce the monsters strenght once you realize your mistake, call in sudden reinforcement, etc.

I think that with a good world creation along with a little preparation plus all those points, you have everything you ever need for a memorable game. Whomever runs it.

[Pencil]

Something else which goes hand in hand with the above is that the DM can cheat a little if needed. If your goal is not to TPK them at every opportunity and that you make a mistake like my little story here, you even should cheat a little. Simply enough to give a fighting chance to your PCs so either you or the PCs can learn from their mistakes. Make the monsters distracted or sidetracked while they make their escape, warn them out of game that ''those foes are beyond any of you. Run!'', reduce the monsters strenght once you realize your mistake, call in sudden reinforcement, etc.

The GM should never cheat EVER!If you made a mistake earlier, your loss.But never fake a roll or something.Thats why I always roll open because I think it is important that the players trust their GM.Furthermore as a play one will have a bigger emotional award when he wins even though the GM does not have to cheat.

[Eagle of Fire]

That's a matter of perception and personal preference, really.

My point was that if, as a DM, you make a critical mistake which could heavily hinder or even kill a PC... Cheat a little and mend things back.

If you cheat all the time just because, you should not be the DM!

[veekie]

The use of fudging, as with improvisation, are advanced GM skills. They are vital to the smooth running of a game in the long run, but until you have enough experience, can quite easily ruin your day.

New GMs should stick to the rules(because they aren't familiar enough to adjudicate properly), stick to a plot(because they can't freely switch tracks) and generally focus on getting the group dynamics right. Pull punches if necessary, an unexpected death can very easily throw the new GM off balance and cause a panic. Whereas overly easy fights don't really detract that much.
After the game is smoothly operational, THEN they can get creative and use improvised plots, homebrew rules and materials, fudging where fudging works(most of the time, to establish inter-NPC or NPC-environment interactions, or to speed the clunky resolution of a foregone conclusion). Above all this, is to keep the tricks from being visible to players. The magic diminishes if you know where the rabbit is hidden.

[kurashu]

Something else which goes hand in hand with the above is that the DM can cheat a little if needed. If your goal is not to TPK them at every opportunity and that you make a mistake like my little story here, you even should cheat a little. Simply enough to give a fighting chance to your PCs so either you or the PCs can learn from their mistakes. Make the monsters distracted or sidetracked while they make their escape, warn them out of game that ''those foes are beyond any of you. Run!'', reduce the monsters strenght once you realize your mistake, call in sudden reinforcement, etc.

The GM should never cheat EVER!If you made a mistake earlier, your loss.But never fake a roll or something.Thats why I always roll open because I think it is important that the players trust their GM.Furthermore as a play one will have a bigger emotional award when he wins even though the GM does not have to cheat.

I roll open, too; but that doesn't stop me from fudging time to time. Players should trust a GM to give them a good game, not to stick slavishly to the rules and rolls. I've even fudged player dice if they've been having awful rolls that night.

But I do admit that fudging is something you learn on the job rather than something that can be taught.