I am really new to the experience of GMing and I have been running a weekly session for the past two months now.

However I am really struggling to get to grips with being a GM. I tend to find it hard to figure out how to do the following:

• How to effectively scale combat for a party of 8.
• How to run the players finding and buying gear.
• I also very often forget to do certain things, like if they get some loot I forget to question them on their encumbrance. I sometimes even forget to introduce obligations I've inserted into prewritten adventures.

Any advice from some experienced GMs about my problems adapting to the task of being a GM.

1) A group of eight is huge, you might want to consider splitting them up into a pair of fours, just saying...

2) Depends, usually I just run this one on the side really fast, "Do you want to buy anything before you get going?" After that they roll their Negotiation or Streetwise check, and it goes by the book. Though if they are looking for something fairly common (stimpacks, comlinks, rations ect) I usually just handwave it and sell it at market value with no check if they aren't concerned about pinching pennies.

3) You just have to work on it. Fortunately things like Encumbrance shouldn't be a problem unless your players make it one. The world won't end if your players go over their Enc a little and you don't remember to drop the penalty on em. I never tracked Enc myself until I had a player show up with: 2 Suits of armor (both being worn on top of each other of course), 10 Thermals, 12 rifles, a light repeater, three pistols, 8 grenades, six medkits, and a gianormous stunrocket launcher, not to mention a dozen other odds and ends.

I thought it was a streetwise to locate the item then a negotiation if you wanted to barter for a better price?

Also I would split them up however the nature of the group and the venue makes it a little difficult, besides they all get on with each other and I am pretty adamant that I don't want to split the party. We've done very well with 8 for the past 8 sessions.

I thought it was a streetwise to locate the item then a negotiation if you wanted to barter for a better price?

Also I would split them up however the nature of the group and the venue makes it a little difficult, besides they all get on with each other and I am pretty adamant that I don't want to split the party. We've done very well with 8 for the past 8 sessions.

Nope, just Negotiation. The idea is you make one roll to do it all. Successes indicate you found the item, Advantage can be spent toward getting better deal. If you're looking for something super specific or niche, an appropriate Knowledge roll is also a substitute.

Streetwise is used when looking to purchase something illegally on the black market.

Combat for a group of 8 is tricky, but quite doable. It's likely to take some time to play out, but as long as you don't mind that it's nor really a problem. Just get the initiative order down on a piece of paper, and go down it one turn at a time.

The thing you really need to keep in mind with a group that size is that you need a good number of NPCs to fight as well. And I'm not just talking minions, but separate people (or minion groups) using multiple initiative slots. Because if you only have a few NPC initiative slots in a round but 8 player initiative slots then your players are going to gang up on the NPCs and whittle them away before they even have time to act. I'd strongly advice you never run with less than 5 separate NPCs or NPC groups per combat unless you want your players to have an easy time of it.

Yeah, a huge part of this is the group of 8. That is honestly too many people to run in any kind of rpg that isn't designed for it. Of course you won't be able to scale combat and of course you won't be able to remember obligations and how having your players buy and look up gear doesn't take forever is beyond me. You need to seriously consider finding a way to split up that group or see if you can get another player to co-GM. If you have a co-GM you can just split up the party and only have then come together for big set-pieces.

Something else you might try with that group is having a rotating cast of 2or more people playing NPCs in the games. Have them control the NPCs in combat and roleplay them in interactions with the group. You don't have to give the characters full writeups, just a motivation, how they normally act, and some quirks to roleplay. This will keep everyone in the same game, keep it fair by being random, and also take a load off of you as the GM.

I am really new to the experience of GMing and I have been running a weekly session for the past two months now.

However I am really struggling to get to grips with being a GM. I tend to find it hard to figure out how to do the following:

• How to effectively scale combat for a party of 8.
• How to run the players finding and buying gear.
• I also very often forget to do certain things, like if they get some loot I forget to question them on their encumbrance. I sometimes even forget to introduce obligations I've inserted into prewritten adventures.

Any advice from some experienced GMs about my problems adapting to the task of being a GM.

I would not be as concerned about the group of 8 as the other posters have suggested. It is certainly doable. If they are all friends, as you say they, should be having fun just hanging out together. Regardless of the game you are playing.

If you are using the published encounters you could simply double the number of adversaries in each encounter. But be careful. Don't double the size of a minion group, add a second one of the same size. You will also need to avoid focusing fire on any one party member. Even if they present their tank to the bad guys and hope to have him soak all the hits. Have the original group of bad guys focus on the tank and have the second group "circle around" to engage the rest of the party.

I would suggest you have the players prepare a shopping list before the game, and include on it, the rarity of each item. Let them add the item to their character sheet. You can have them make the negotiation roll before game starts and rather than saying they cant find the item if they fail the roll just charge them more for it. Buying and selling gear is very fun for some players.

I wouldn't worry about keeping track of the minutia so long as the story, or your enjoyment, doesn't suffer. If it ever matters what their Encumbrance is, make the check then. Task them with ensuring that the numbers are right and trust them to be honest. If you feel like one of them is wrong, or cheating, ask yourself if it matters before you correct them. I think the fun of the game is more important than adherence the rules.

Good luck and remember that the measure of a good GM is how much fun their players are having , not how accurate their rolls are.