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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
A. I didn't get much advice when I started, so here's some observations and sources of advice I rate.
This is kind of a strange one; my early gaming had no real advice available as I was the person who introduced roleplaying to my circle of friends. There wasn't a local club that I was aware of, so my approach was heavily flavoured by an article in a magazine and an introductory book which I picked up from the library. Soon after, White Dwarf came into general circulation (issue 52) and I took the magazine for the next five or so years until it became a support and promotion organ for Games Workshop's Warhammer catalogue. Much of the advice published in those years is still worth considering, although it may have dated.
The magazine was Space Voyager and it gave me enough of an understanding of roleplaying games that I knew that I wanted to try them. It was the very first issue, and I actually bought it for the Blakes 7 content. You can find a copy here on Archive.org. The article was written by the UK Steve Jackson, and starts on page 12.
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| What is Dungeons and Dragons? by Butterfield, Baker and Honigmann |
The book - What is Dungeons & Dragons? - was published by Puffin and did a great job of explaining what a roleplaying game was, how D&D works and then how other games worked. What really stood out for me was the example dungeon (The Shrine of Kollchap) and the example of play, which was the first time I saw game fiction set in one column against the game mechanics in another.
I was pretty much self-taught from then on until I started going to cons many years later. Continuum introduced me to signing up to games to see how they played (especially useful if you're struggling to follow what's written) and also attending seminars. I've used this approach to get my head around Hero Wars/HeroQuest/QuestWorlds and Gumshoe in the past, plus some of the more indie games like Blades in the Dark (although I'm still not a hundred percent certain I've really got my head around that one).
The most useful resource for me for advice is the internet. Specifically blog posts by other gamers. I much prefer to read written words than watch a video, although I realise that's probably because I'm a dinosaur. I don't get on very well with actual play videos, but I know many love them. Blog posts I especially like get clipped into Evernote.
The blog roll in the sidebar shows quite a few of the blogs that I find useful, but I have a much larger list connected to an RSS reader. If you've not used one of those, I recommend it. It picks up on the feeds from blogs and will grab some or all of the text to the reader when it updates. It serves a similar function to notifications, but the right reader will let you work offline.
I've found the Alexandrian quite thoughtful, along with Tales of the Grotesque & Dungeonesque. However, there are many others. Xaosseed does a really useful weekly set of links which are worth exploring, especially if you're interested in D&D. Traveller seems to have less posted out there, and sometimes I think that I should make more of an effort in that space because the posts I've done have triggered a lot of interaction. The Monsters Know What They're Doing is a great blog for GMs running D&D 5e as it takes apart stat blocks and looks how they work.
My advice to a starting GM is check out blogs like those by Sly Flourish and the Alexandrian, because there's a lot to learn there. By all means watch actual play videos or get into games at a local convention to get a feel. Guy's Burn after running (see blog roll) is also packed with great advice and although it's aimed at one shots, it's generally applicable.
Most importantly, start small and don't be intimidated. If you watch or see some of the productions out there, it's easy to feel like you aren't good enough. You will be; the people doing those have probably got hundreds if not thousands of hours of gaming or performance under their belt. Some of them regularly act.
If you've got a player who's keen on the rules, then co-opt them and use them as a resource to check things. You don't have to get things exactly right; it's more important to be consistent. If you discover that you've made a mistake, then own it and discuss it with the players. You can always retcon things later or just change what you do going forward.
Make sure you've read the rules a couple of times. I find it useful to take notes and make my own cribsheet, but other people I know prefer to take a game's own cribsheet or screen and mark it up with post its or annotations.
If maps are important, get your own copy and mark up important information - even if it's just page references and names of NPCs or creatures that can be found there. Anything you can do to avoid having to look things up works well.
Be ready to change and adapt. No matter how well you know a scenario, the players will do something surprising. Roll with it; this is why a human is running these games and not a computer. Improvise, react, have fun. Be a fan of the players; your job is to challenge and help them have a fun time. It can feel like an anti-climax if the players come up with a neat plan that completely trounces the villain, but always remember that they will feel great if it all comes together right. It won't be an anti-climax for them so long as they feel that they were challenged and that their plan came off.
Don't be afraid if you get into games with your gaming heroes - designers, authors, pundits. You'll find that they're just as human as you. They may have experience or a voice, but it doesn't make them any better or worse than you.
Don't feel you need to stay at a table where you aren't enjoying things; talk to the GM or withdraw gracefully. Or throw yourself into it and try and make the most of it.
Have fun. That's the most important thing. If it feels like work then you're probably doing things wrong; even if you're publishing games it should be fun.
24 August 2024
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