When Age of Rebellion Beta was published, I decided to run the included module (“Operation Shell Game”), even though I hadn’t GMed in years and that didn’t go so well. But I loved the era and the system so much I had to give it another try – and had a pretty good time doing it, to my surprise. And so did my group, an even bigger surprise. So I decided to run a regular campaign for them, which I have been doing for the past year or so. I am just now getting to the point where I feel I have a few clues about GMing. The most intimidating, scariest part of running this game? All four of my players are helluva lot better GMs than I am!! The best part? All four of my players are helluva lot better GMs than I am–and they all want to help me get better at GMing!!
A – Know Strengths & Weaknesses
You probably have a pretty good idea of what some of your strong and weak points as a GM are, from what you like to do as a player. If you love building PCs even for games you aren’t playing you probably will have a knack for making up threats and NPCs and figuring out how to work around – or with – the PCs’ abilities. If you’re the player writing elaborate backstories and keeping campaign chronicles, plots and story arcs will probably come easily to you.
Your players, especially if they have GMed, can also tell you a lot about these as well as your style, after you’ve run a few sessions. And don’t worry. Unless you are GMing for dicks (and who does that?) it isn’t going to be that horrible. I finally got up the courage to ask my closest friend in the group, “What kind of GM am I?” I was convinced it was going to be a kindly-worded list of shortcomings. No, he told me that I was a GM who wanted my players “to have fun, above all. It’s what’s most important to you.” Doesn’t sound like much, but it was. It meant he had noticed something other than my fumbling over a rule or getting frustrated. The tone told me wanting them to have fun was appreciated – and that it didn’t matter that it might be different from his or anyone else’s outlook. Now not all the feedback I got was so positive, but I wasn’t made to feel I was a bad GM and always going to be one. In fact, after a bad session, my players were very supportive, reminding me that “That stuff happens to all us GMs” and, when I was ready, helping me figure out what went wrong – and right.
B – Modules can be your friend.
Seriously. Looking back to those couple earlier GMing attempts, I think one of the problems – and there were many – I had was I thought everything had to be made up by me if I wanted to be a Real GM, no doubt because that’s what my favorite GMs back then did. Heck, a lot of my favorite GMs today do that, and that’s great. But you don’t have to start from scratch! After I ran that first AoR module I tried another before I decided to try my hand at making something up. It wasn’t the best, but I got my feet wet. Since then, alternating between my own arcs and modules, works best for me, although of course YMMV.
Even if you are only going to use published modules, you should alter them to fit your group, even if it is just making sure it suits the experience level of not just the PCs but the players. Yes, the players. I found out the hard way that “intro” modules – those meant to introduce a system, as well as be suitable for low level/XP characters – may not be the best choice for my experienced players, even when they aren’t very familiar with the game system. Intro modules often assume PCs will take the obvious route that hits all the encounters – but good players are going to do what they think will get to the objective fastest, with the least amount of trouble. Even if that means they take out the power generators, grab the MacGuffin and meet up at the vehicles, leaving their GM to wonder what happened to 75% of the module. And at this point in my GMing career I had no clue how to alter on the fly.
If you use your own scenarios as well, tie the modules into your bigger campaign. We just finished a module in my campaign. I decided a module NPC had an item that was a clue to a question one of my PCs really, really wants an answer to. Everyone in the group had a good time with that social encounter, even the PCs who were elsewhere in the bazaar. Since I had a different PC who is a total non-combatant and another who isn’t much better, me and Co-GM had to tone down a lot of combat encounters. (Many modules assume everyone in the party is a skilled combatant.) We also overhauled the final part to allow a hated campaign BBEG to show up – although he didn’t get away, as far as the PCs know…
While you do need to make sure your modules (and your own scenarios for that matter) are suitable for your group, you don’t have to put in as much work to integrate them, if it won’t work for you. Just have a familiar NPC superior/patron/customer give the team the job or mission, rather than the module NPC, or have them start at their favorite watering hole. It’s also okay not to use every act of a module, whether it’s because the game session will run too long or because you realize it won’t work well for your group.
D-Letting the players help with planning
A player who does this is a true game buddy. They are willing to have at least part of the plot–session, module, story arc–spoiled for them. Because they believe in you enough, want you to keep running games for the group badly enough, to help you become a better GM. There are only a couple cautions I have for this if you want to try it. First, as with anything else you want to try, you need to be upfront about this and make sure your group is okay with it. Second, don’t have a player work on a part that will affect their PC. Not only will it spoil something personal to their character – not a way to thank someone helping you – it can create problems between the players or between you and them. Of course suggestions of what a player wants for their own PC are fine – just you provide the details and set the scene. One of the guys in my group suggested a member of his PC’s family might be at a location the party was going to. He gave me a name, profession and relationship; I took it from there.
E. Co-GMing
Sometimes help from an experienced GM in you group might take the form of Co-GMing. What I said above about help from players applies many times over to a good Co-GM. That is how I gained a Co-GM for the current part of my game. The group was interested in the AoR Dead in the Water module and encouraged me to run it with their usual characters, while I also worked on plans for my next original arc. One of the players offered to help me prep the module and even help run if need be. (My review of the module) I wasn’t sure about Co-GMing at the beginning of the regular campaign, or I might have asked if someone was willing back then.
I quickly became grateful I took Co-GM up on the offer as we went over the module in more detail. Moreso, as I wanted the events to tie into the past and future of the party, as well as make sure the encounters fit the group. I found it helpful to have someone with a knack for altering scenarios and encounters when I just knew something needed tweaked for our group but had no idea where to start. On the other hand, the feeling of “Hey! I AM getting the hang of this!” when we both had roughly the same idea of what to do was even better. That increased my confidence a lot.
Another advantage of having a Co-GM for this arc was that he was modeling how to deal with odd or troublesome situations as they came up, in real time. One of my weaknesses in GMing has always been “winging it.” Forums, like D20 Radio, and Running A Game chapters of rulebooks have plenty of good advice on GMing but I needed to see it in action, and it was easier to observe when I wasn’t focused on a PC. Not that a Co-GM should just take over running encounters for you if the agreement is that they do game prep and you run the sessions. It won’t help you learn, and can cause confusion for the players. Instead, Co-GM and I communicated via IM for the most part, if I needed help during the game. Sometimes, those IMs asked if I wanted him to run the encounter, which I might accept if I felt I was having so much trouble that it was affecting the players’ enjoyment. Mostly I took it as a strong hint that I needed to “Focus!” as so many masters have admonished their apprentices.
My campaign has gone on longer than I thought it would. And I am still having fun, as are my players. They tell me things they’d like to do or get, and mention modules that I might look into. One has even commented on a forum we frequent that “her game is fun.” (Public Acclamation!) I may not be a Great GM yet, but thanks to awesome players who had a little – Okay! Lots of! – patience and a fun game system I love, I can now say I am a real GM.
Linda Whitson
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