Advice for a New GM - Help Appreciated

[MReader]

Hi, everyone! I'm new to the TOR forums, as you may have noticed, and I'd like some advice regarding a game that I intend to start at my school sometime in the next few months. I have never been involved a Tabletop RPG in my life, and currently feel rather like Bilbo Baggins must have felt upon realizing that he just got himself involved in his first terrifying adventure beyond the Edge of the Wild.

I've done a bit of research on how to run a good campaign, and have started taking notes based off of the information in the Adventurer's Book, the Loremaster's Book, the Lake-Town Supplement, Tales from Wilderland, and The Heart of the Wild, along with several other Tolkien-related books. But before I continue with that, I'd like to know how you have all been running your campaigns, the secrets of how to keep people interested, and little tips and tricks that you think make TOR games more enjoyable.

Thanks in advance for reading this!
--M.

[farinal]

Make your NPCs come to life. Gestures, mimics, accents or some kind of characteristics etc make them memorable and make the players care about them.

Do not railroad your players. Give them choices or at least the illusion of choice.

[Yusei]

I personnally have a hard time making the NPCs come to life. I usually try giving them accents or gestures, but then forget about it because I'm too busy thinking about the plot and the following events. If anyone has advice regarding that, I'm interested.

Regarding GM-ing in general, my tips would be:

- have them do what they want to do. Don't give them (too many) fights if they want mysteries, and vice versa.
- find what makes the characters tick, and use it
- give each of them opportunities to shine, once in a while
- try to create a living world. Introduce NPCs early, not just before they become useful. Have them come back in multiple adventures. Make sure your group's actions change the way the NPCs behave around them.
- allow the players to influence your story, and even to create NPCs, places, events. You can veto anything, but in most cases you won't have to.
- don't railroad them, sure, but keep it simple and make sure they have a clear objective, and can find ways to reach it.
- however, don't explain everything. Don't overdo exposition. Have them create explanations for stuff. Sometimes they will be right, sometimes not, but that doesn't matter. In some cases, you can even decide their explanation is better.
- don't overdescribe stuff if it's not important. Keep in mind that your friend's imaginations will fill the gaps.
- challenge them. Do stuff that hurts, once in a while. Kill beloved NPCs when it serves the story, but make sure they are beloved first. Killing a redshirt is useless.
- don't just throw trouble at them. Have some quiet time where they can roleplay, create bounds with NPCs, and enjoy the world.
- alternate between drama and fun. Keep it a little bit silly if you want to keep in tone with the Hobbit.

[Mordagnir]

Figure out what interests your players and exploit it.

For example, I tried to imitate Tolkien's tendency to describe flora in exquisite detail during one session. My players laughed me out of town; not only did it kill the mood but it represented wasted effort on my part since I'd spent an hour and change researching flowers and other plants appropriate to the area in which they were traveling.

On the other hand, I remember playing Dungeons and Dragons with a buddy and his wife. The buddy was the gamemaster and presented us with a room in which we discovered an enormous banquet detailed down to the garnishes. My buddy's wife loved it since she's a big foodie.

Everyone has more fun when you play to players' strengths (though not necessarily characters' strengths).

[Stormcrow]

Make your NPCs come to life. Gestures, mimics, accents or some kind of characteristics etc make them memorable and make the players care about them.

Don't bother with this gimmick. Give your NPCs beliefs and goals that don't revolve around the adventures of the player-characters, and give them their own personalities. This is how to make someone memorable.

Do not railroad your players. Give them choices or at least the illusion of choice.

I always see through that kind of illusion. Give them real choices.

Unlike most other role-playing games, in this game the referee is not the sole "narrator." The game lets every player become the narrator for a while, subject to the loremaster's rulings. Don't settle for players waiting for you to tell them everything that happens; demand that they take their turns describing the action. This is especially true of the fellowship phase, where each player gets an extended turn of narration, but it's also true during the adventuring phase, whenever a player chooses to perform a task.

Don't make the game about killing bad guys. That gets boring fast. I also recommend against an epic quest at the beginning; players may resent being shoehorned into such things when there are other things they'd rather be doing.

[SirKicley]

Here's a piece of advice that I haven't yet seen posted: Try to find some of the podcast and/or Play-By-Posts that have been shared for reading enjoyment. I don't have any such links handy as I don't typically peruse them, but I know many on here have links to them. Perhaps they can help.

If you take the time to read/listen to actual gameplay, you will become more confident on how to proceed. Having never done RPGs yourself, I can only imagine how alien or foreign this concept is.

If you're lucky, you'll have a couple of players who are familiar and enjoy RPGs and help keep things afloat. To have never done RPGs, and being cast as the LM for your first ever RPG experience is quite an undertaking.

Good luck!

[MordorsB1tch]

Write a long list of names for npcs the characters randomly encounter and keep it handy. Tie every NPC to someone famous or someone you know so the appearnace comes easily to your mind.

For example, The captain of the Dalemen is called Bregan. He looks like Clint Eastwood from the movie Unforgiven. Now you will never forget what he looks like and he can be eaisly described. Do not tell the players, keep your famous people=npcs list secret.

Be nice to your players, but not too nice. Don't let them run the game...let them be part of it.

These work for me.