19 Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started GMing - Running RPGs

Advice for newer Game Masters wishing to avoid all the mistakes I've learned the hard way.

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#ttrpg

00:00 Intro
00:46 Common Sense
01:25 Find Your Own Voice
02:54 You Can't Learn All the Rules
03:00 Confidence in Judgement Calls
03:38 Communication & Consistency
04:12 Over-Prep is better than Under-Prep
04:40 Overpreparation can be Worse
05:48 You'll Always Have to Improvise
06:21 Players will do the Unexpected
06:46 Make Situations not Solutions
08:16 Too Much of a Good Thing
11:36 Meaningless Rolls Suck
15:10 Don't Ask For a Roll You Can't Accept
17:42 Redefine Success & Failure
19:02 It's About the PCs Not the World
19:41 Players Care Less About The World Than You
19:57 Encourage Roleplay Through Example
20:56 Players Might Have Different Tastes Than You
22:24 Don't Be Afraid to Suck
23:38 Outro

[hermanfrancis]

I love the "convincing the king to handover his kingdom roll" If the player gets a natural 20 the king thinks it's hilarious and offers him a job as the court's jester

[calibur]

No GM is infallible. I've been GMing for almost 42 years, and in my last session I made a cardinal mistake. I took away a player's agency and then killed the PC with bad rolls. It wasn't intentional. I'm running an ALIEN campaign under the sea, and the planned encounter didn't go as I had envisioned it. The PC was having an nitrogen narcosis-induced hallucination, and what they believed they saw was a ghost from their past opening a dangerous hatch. In reality, their PC was opening the hatch. Another PC was supposed to come along, stop them, and snap them out of it. What I didn't calculate was that the "sane" PC was suffering from so much stress that they failed to stop the hallucinating PC and was forced to run away. I let three rolls - "Just roll me one damn success without panicking!" Nope - fate wasn't having it. The hallucinating PC died and did major damage to the base. Retroacting the encounter would've been too cheap and anticlimactic, and the player was a good sport about it. I apologized to the player and group. I should have known better, but I had one of those "deer in the headlights" moments. All I can say is that you learn, move on, and try not to do it again.

[tigercrush]

One of the biggest advancements I've made as a GM came from the realization that we don't need to see and play every single thing. I've taken to referring to what "the camera" sees, thinking of it like a serial TV show.

So when a character goes to shake people down for information around town, instead of 1: playing out every single shake down with a bunch of meaningless NPCs or 2: doing one roll and saying, 'cool, here's the information you get, ' which can end up feeling like that action didn't really happen inside the fiction, we can have a middle ground where we discuss what the camera sees for this montage of kicking in a few doors, holding a lowlife by his collar, hunching over the bar and whispering with the landlord... And then we cut back to action with them returning to the rest of the group with information in hand.

It has really upped my level of satisfaction with my games and really helps keep the players viewing their characters acting inside the world.

[paulaseabee]

A tip for 'over-prepping':
Use a paper address book for NPC's. In spare time, say you're waiting for a train, rough out an NPC's skills, stats, personality etc. to be firmed up later. You can use colour-coded sticky tabs to denote what sort of character they are E.G. cultist, ally, walk-on canon-fodder etc.
Thus when preparing a scenario, you have a 'bank' of NPC's to draw on.

[bordenfleetwood]

"Don't be afraid to suck." - Really good advice, Seth.

I suck at running games. I'm seriously bad at it. I didn't start until age 30. I've never actually played a campaign as a character, and have no idea what it's like. All my players have been doing this longer than I have. Most of my maps and settings are bare bones, with only a few NPCs and quests, and even less window dressing...

...And my players LOVE IT. All of my crappy improv and desperate attempts to present things in a reasonable and plausible way? They don't notice how flimsy it all is. They consistently compliment me on how well prepared I am, and how deep and dynamic the settings are. How free they feel to pick a direction and walk in the full confidence that there is something to see or find.

I'm a really crappy GM, and I suck behind the screen... But the game is fun, and that's what matters.

[Sigourney-Cleaver]

The "Meaningless Rolls" setion perfectly encapsulates why I enjoy Delta Green's usage of passive skills and advice to only roll when there is a chance for failure. In my experience it helps players feel satisfied with their PCs ("Hell yeah, my computer engineer can break into this system no problem") and prevents hitting walls bc they failed and there are limited ways to get around it.

[mathsalot]

I remember my 2nd session DMing, I was running Dragon Heist for DnD 5e. I had been reading all the materials and preping for weeks. There was a fireball that went off right outside their orphanage/tavern and saw a figure slink into the crowd. The other villain took off across the rooftops toward the villain's secret hideout. The module said the one who was in the crowd escaped through the sewers and that was the end of it, but the other one was a detailed description of where he went and how. Guess which one my party chased after.

They rolled a great to find him, and I didn't feel it was fair to say "there's no trace of him" But I froze, like a deer in the headlights, because I had NO idea what the sewer system looked like in that neighborhood. I had a forgotten realms expert at my table who called the "secret" final boss on session 1. I didn't know how to BS/improvise my way out.

I turned to my group and said, "Guys, I'm so sorry. I have no info on the sewers. I could make something for next week, but we wouldn't be able to play anymore tonight. The only thing they have is following the guy over the rooftops. I'm sorry I didn't think of this ahead of time."

Thankfully, I have awesome players. They just said, "ok. So we use those rolls to find the other guy. Which way did he go?" I've been DMing for 3 years now and always provide at least 2 choices that are fully fleshed out for them to take. I'm still leading the same group, and I'm so thankful for their patience and understanding while teaching me to DM by being awesome players.

[QuintMorrison]

Regarding the “It’s about the PCs, not the setting, ” I like to run my games as there is a story that is happening whether or not the PCs interact with it. If they did nothing, the NPCs will do what they planned on doing anyways. The PCs then interact with that and change it significantly. It’s still their story in the end, but it makes it feel for them more like they have an effect on how the world develops and changes rather than the amusement park of an mmo or single player RPG.

[Danmarinja]

Few pieces of my own advice:

- Problems are almost always better than puzzles - Anything where an issue needs to be solved is best when there's multiple ways to solve a problem, rather than a single way to solve a puzzle.

- The best game prep a GM can do comes down to making their games more adaptable. The less rigid each piece of the game is, the more useful it'll be to both GMs and players alike. Or, in other words, if players want to steal any item, animal or NPC, it shouldn't be enough to destroy the game's entire structure.

- Lethality is one of the most important tools in the GM's arsenal. When a GM is about to run an encounter, they should consider how lethal they want the fight to be. Sometimes a fight they can't lose is useful if players want to experiment with new abilities, but in my experience players love knowing they have a real chance of dying in any given fight.

- Sometimes players shouldn't roll dice. If the ultra strong warrior wants to open a heavy door, just acknowledge that they are too strong to fail, otherwise you run the risk of them fumbling, only for someone much weaker to open the door. And tell the player when you do this, it'll make them feel rewarded for their choices.

- Play with music and visuals. Give your players handouts between games. Reward the players that buy you snacks.

[dusty]

On the die rolls thing: I like to ask players occasionally (in a mysterious tone) to make some kind of roll. I don’t tell them what it’s for, I just tell them what die(s) to roll. Then, I react to the roll with sighs, groans, or sounds of delight/satisfaction, and take notes behind my screen. In reality, the roll is meaningless, my reaction and notes are fake, and it creates wonder and curiosity. One can abuse this. But, during a lull is a great time to use it. It’s all about the reaction-selling it.

[matthewhydro]

Wow, this is perfect timing. I have just started running CoC as a keeper and have been struggling. Thank you so much for this Seth!

[jacksonbarrington]

One of the best pieces I can give for starting DMs who have trouble launching their campaign is to give themselves a set start date. Something not to ridiculous or to short notice, something like 2 weeks or so is a perfect amount of time to motivate yourself into actually starting your adventure.

[cadenceclearwater]

Yes. Redefining the roll has made such a difference.

[MattCherwin]

"...or very often it's a stalling tactic...the game master isn't quite sure; they need a minute to think about it, so they blurt 'hey, roll the dice!'"

I feel personally attacked.

[UncleNavi]

Since this is a mistakes video, seems appropriate.
The only advice I've taken from this channel that ended up badly was to 'gradually take away a supporting NPC and encourage the players to take the lead'. I was running a very small group (3) in Star Trek and I pushed one of my players to become a captain instead of using the NPC they loved as an ongoing support and it kneecapped the game rather nastily.
Don't let GMPCs steal the spotlight, but promoting them to supporting extra or regular quest giver is an option too. Let the players decide if they want to keep your support (and don't be hurt if they're ready to let them move on).
"You will be the best of Starfleet." -Capt Sinjin Vir

[Donnakilluminati]

You are by far one of the best TTRPG content producers, not just on YouTube but on the internet in general. Your professionalism, your skill, your knowledge, are all in peak form. You have continued to develop and grow as a creator, however even your early content was. T such a high level of quality that it’s as watchable and enjoyable as recent videos.
Your videos are a huge relief and a huge source of joy in my life. Keep making amazing work.

[mildsoup]

Love the disclaimer in the beginning, really shows you know your audience, some of us can be very... literal...

[cian]

been running coc with two different groups and I'll usually decide if a game is worth running based on your videos, if anything your videos are the main reason I'm playing coc now

[dagoonite]

While I know all of these, I've been out of the chair for a while and these are good reminders as I struggle to get back into it. Finding players is the hard part.

[khpa]

Great vid, as usual. One thing I would add: you are not just a fun dispenser. You are a player too and should be having fun. A successful game is not just one where the players enjoy your game, but where you do too.