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Originally Posted by Killfacer
I've started trying to run a game of D&D with a couple of mates. I've been charged with the duty of being Dungeon Master which is cool but none of us really know the rules properly.
I keep having to make up dice rolls and parts of the storyline as I go along. Its fucking hard work.
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Welcome to your newest addiction — once you’ve run a few sessions, you’ll wonder why you ever worried about it!
As I said above, I’m an extreme rules-phobe. Certainly the arcane shell-game of D&D — roll xDx, add the Base Attack Bonus, then the Weapon Bonus, then calculate how many squares your PC can move before/while drawing her weapon (oh wait, I forgot the Skill Bonus) then take away the value of the armour the opponent is wearing … then add the number of full moons in the ancient Sumerian calendar, multiply by the value of the Golden Mean and then divide by pi — befuddles a mathematical illiterate such as I. Luckily, I can usually rely on one of my gaming group being a “figure-rigger”!
I usually prefer to use rules systems like those of HeroQuest or Savage Worlds. I run my Red Star game with BESM 2e.
As GM/DM, you might think of your job in terms of 4 Fs. Keep in mind that your players will forgive most things as long as they’re having
fun! The fact that you say that none of your players are any more familiar with the rules than you yourself are, means that they won’t notice when you
fudge a decision — as long as you are
fair in your judgements, and as long as you keep the game
flowing.
Oh, and remember that you’ll
always have to improvise plots, NPCs etc as you go along. You may have heard the jokey military adage, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy” — well, it’s just as valid for RPGs! No matter how carefully you lay your plans, one player will probably manage to sink them — think of the damage three or four could cause!
Finally, don’t forget that YOU are GM! Don’t be afraid to let the players improvise (within limits!). Don’t hesitate in your rulings (and especially don’t stop the game while you consult the reference books) — just make a decision and stick to it. And don’t be afraid to use the GM’s pixie-dust if you need to — if the Halfling Thief has run a good race, they get to live, no matter how potent the book says that the Spitting Cobra’s venom is; on the other hand, if the Elven Ranger is being a major pain-in-the-arse, don’t hesitate to drop them into a field of Ssumáni, a dark-purple plant found on Tékumel, which will corrode their soft tissues and consume them completely unless the rest of the party can haul them out PDQ.
You might also find Matthew Finch’s article “A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming” useful — you can download it as a free PDF from
www.lulu.com/content/3019374 .
