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| How to GM; ...and be awesome at it | |
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| Topic Started: 17 Sep 2008, 12:16 AM (203 Views) | |
| Anne Bonny | 17 Sep 2008, 12:16 AM Post #1 |
The Pink Lady
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How to be a good GM So you’ve been in a few games already and you’ve got a really fantastic idea for a new rp. Great! Now what??? A gm, or “game master” is the leader of an role playing game. He or she is the person who comes up with the initial plot or story line, and starts the first IC and OOC threads. But being the starter of a game is much more involved that that. I mean, you can’t just write up an introduction, pass it out to the other kiddies, and then sit back and hope for the best. Nopers. There’s much more to it than that. And really, once you’ve created this fantastic idea for a game, why wouldn’t you want to stick with it and help it be successful? So here’s what else a gm does in an rp. Besides determining the original plot and setting for a game, the gm also decides on the events that happen in the game, as well as when the game has gone on long enough and reached a suitable conclusion. You also get to decide on the information that other players need to give you to join. Like a character sheet and what’s on it. The gm makes the rules. Sweet! You can do whatever you want in this game… provided you follow the other forum rules. So you can’t have excessive swearing in a game (unless it’s in the mature forum… check out those rules too), write in crazy colors, or treat other members disrespectfully. But, you can require that people in the game with you must post at least 2 paragraphs at a time, or that characters cannot have magic powers, etc. You have the power! And if members don’t want to follow your rules, you have every right to tell them to knock it off or get out of the game. Also, this means you get to tell members to follow the rules of the forum when posting. In fact, you don’t just “get to” tell them, you have to. It’s part of your job description as gm. In your game, you’re the boss. Awesome, right? But… don’t be a jerk, k? I mean really, no one wants to play with someone who’s going to be a bossy pants. Be patient and help your members out if they don’t understand the rules. See rule #5 in the rp rules for more info please. Oh yeah, and if someone really doesn’t want to follow your rules or the forum rules, don’t be afraid to call a staff member over. That’s what we’re here for. But really, members look to your for guidance, so please try to help them when you can. Just like a good leader takes advice and suggestions from the people around him or her, a good gm listens to the other players in his or her game. If another member has an idea on a plot twist or event in the story, be open to them. You don’t have to take every suggestion and implement it into the game, but at least listen and concider them. Other people have good ideas too, you know. Don’t forget about your other players too. If someone’s been missing for a few days, maybe you could send them a quick pm to check in on them, instead of just saying, “Oh, so-and-so isn’t here. His character’s dead. Let’s keep going.” We all have real lives, and we all should be understanding when people get busy. Maybe if you encourage your members to chat with you actively anyway, they’ll let you know when they’re going out of town on vacation or something. Now there’s an idea! One last thought before you go. It’s called a role playing game. The main goal here is to have fun. We can all get along. We can all find room to improve our writing skills. We all have good ideas for games and characters. And there is nothing more satisfying than having your little baby idea grow up into a successful game with lots of members. But the thing that can ruin a game faster than anything else is one member deciding that he/she is better than everybody else and telling people so. And all too often, it’s the gm who acts like that. You are not the best writer ever. You do not have the best ideas ever. Those are facts. But if you disagree with those facts, please keep that to yourself so we don’t all have to deal with your elitist attitude. Now… aren’t you tired of reading rules? Sick of me telling you what to do? Well, go put that excellent idea of yours into an rp then! We’re all anxiously waiting! |
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 8:01 PM Jan 8
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