Advice for new Loremasters

[Captain Curmudgeon]

I'm currently familiarizing myself with TOR and am now in two Play-by-Post games on a couple of different gaming websites. Eventually I want to try my hand at being a Loremaster.

For those of you with lots of experience as GM's/DM's/LM's, what advice would you share with those who are about to step up and be a Loremaster for TOR? What general advice would you give, and what advice would you give specific to TOR?

[Geomtje]

Just do it! As someone who just started, I have noticed that I have learned the most by doing it and to take some time afterwards, sometimes during, with the players to evaluate what works and what doesn’t. I know that it might not be the answer you were looking for, but it helped me the most, out of everything.

Preparation wise, there are many different sources and everybody does it differently. I decided to coppy the structure of the introduction adventure to prepare for my first adventure and develop my own style from there. Adding and changing things that work for me and removing things that do not, each time I am preparing. Its a constant process.

[Falenthal]

One of the pinned threads in this forum is a FAQ, compiled by zedturtle.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6618

There, you can find a category of FAQs labelled "Loremastering". In it, you'll find some links, of which probably the most useful to you could be:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=751

and

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=876

Hope it helps.

[The_Vanguard]

Now I’ve had some trouble at first with TOR‘s quirk of using two entirely different rulesets for PCs and NPCs. You don‘t just have to learn the rules, you also have to be able to tell them apart or things will get messy.
Players only have to know the PC rules, of course, so it can help if you have one or two players that get to know their own rules good enough to correct you if you try to stick some NPC rules to them.

Best general GM advice I‘ve ever heard:
There is no No. Say Yes or roll the dice.