Hey everone!

I am completely new to RPGs of this type (pen and paper) and have only GMed the beginners game so far.
There is one thing I am wondering about when reading the premade adventures.

Some of the text is in read, and I understand that this is the text that should be read to the players (I am translating it and making it my own to make it easier to play the game in our language)

There is also a lot of text that explains the surroundings, what is happening in the buildings, what the PC's see and the like that are not in the red boxes. How do I approach this information? Should I tell the PC's about this? Should they ask me about their surroundings? How much more info than the info in the red boxes do you read or describe?

Thank you for answering and helping me getting into this! Thanks

An example: In trouble brewing, there is a part when a rodian girl comes into the cantina. There i a lot described about how she looks and what she does, but nothing of it is in a red box, as if I am not to tell the players about this. But if I don't, they won't know that she is there.

I halfly understand this myself, but I just wanted to hear your thoughts and maybe the reason why something is in red boxes and something isn't.

You can describe that to your players if you want them to know, but that's primarily for your benefit as the GM. It's important that the GM knows exactly what's going on and how the NPCs think so they can better react when player characters do something the writer of the adventure didn't take into account.

Ok, but for example when what happens in the surroundings is pretty important to get the story going, I should tell them?

To continue on the example I wrote up earlier: How would they know that characters they need to speak to enter the cantina without me telling them?

I think maybe can describe areas of the bar, and they can say where they will hang in the cantina to ask questions.

Like if they go to the bar ask people near the bar, ask the bartender, ask people standing, ask people in booths, or maybe even just try listen into conversations.

You would probably tell them they are their for information.

I would probably tell them about the rodian once they've gone to whatever area you decided she is in

Give them just enough information to give the flavor of the location, any npc groups, and anyone that you want them to instantly notice. After that, let them ask questions to get more information. As players get excited they tend to want to ask questions and interrupt anyway.

So get out the important details and overall feel of the encounter and then back off. Feel free to re-feed pertinent information with the questions that they asked or anything that might have been forgotten.

Or you could say there is a rodian girl, and then just also make it up some random other characters so they know she is their but they don't know she is important

I've been playing RPGs for years but I'm a novice GM and have only run the Arda adventure. The way I ran that adventure was that I'd read verbatim the stuff in the "read to players" boxes. Everything else, I said said in my own words if it was important to the players to hear. I think this is so that the adventure writers can call your attention on stuff that they feel must be said while also giving more fluff information which the GM can choose to use or discard as they please.

I hope this helps.

Ok, but for example when what happens in the surroundings is pretty important to get the story going, I should tell them?

To continue on the example I wrote up earlier: How would they know that characters they need to speak to enter the cantina without me telling them?

IMHO that cantina scene was a poorly written part of that adventure, so I'm not surprised you have questions. I think the first rule of GMing pre-written modules is to make them your own. Read them ahead of time, identify parts that don't work well (all modules have these parts), modify them appropriately, tell the players whatever you think they need to know in order to continue. In some ways it's easier to recover from accidentally giving too much away than not giving enough and leaving the players confused about what to do.

So you're definitely not limited to reading what's in the red boxes, you can describe whatever you see fit, very often that's part of the fun.

As others have said, you absorb as much of the details of the environment as you can, and describe in your own words what you think is important or interesting for the PCs to know. It's one of the challenges of GMing (and storytelling in general) to get important information to the players in a way that seems more interesting than just "You have to talk to this droid to get into the bar. What do you do?"

You try to mesh it in with your descriptions of the environment and the players pick up on what they want to interact with.

You might describe the basics of what they see:

"You're on the streets of Mos Schuuta, on Tatooine. Pourstone buildings line the street as all manner of people, droids and animals shuffle by, going about their business."

Then add some smaller details, some of which might be significant for the players:

"A Jawa tries to hop on the back of a ronto overloaded with crates. It takes a couple of tries but eventually climbs on. People pull shawls over their face as the wind picks up, blowing sand all around. A young Rodian girl bumps into you as she hurries across the road, looking behind her fearfully."

At this point, almost any group of PCs would pick up on something--this Rodian girl is in trouble and we might be able to help her.

If they approach her and say "Hey, what's wrong?" then you're gold. If not, you can keep describing what's happening.

"You watch as she tries to enter a cantina, only to be stopped by a couple of Aqualish thugs. The thugs start harrassing her--you can't quite hear what they're saying, but they're pushing her around."

At this point the PCs would almost certainly realize what's going on, and intervene either out of charity or because it just seems to be something to do.

Ok, but for example when what happens in the surroundings is pretty important to get the story going, I should tell them?

To continue on the example I wrote up earlier: How would they know that characters they need to speak to enter the cantina without me telling them?

You can tell them. Think of it like a television show or movie, where even thought he focus is on the "Players" the camera will occasionally focus on a point/person/or item of interest. Then tweak it to fit the exact situation...

Player group with a male Rodian player character: As you [insert mundane action here] you happen to glance at the door in time to see a rather attractive young rodian girl enter. Her green shirt with brass details suits her well, and as she approaches the bar you also catch a glimpse of her smoking gurfatawas, but that's probably just a rodian thing.

Player group with a female Rodian player character:As you [insert mundane action here] you happen to glance at the door in time to see a rather attractive young rodian girl enter. Her green shirt with brass details suits her well, though you're not sure if you'd show off that much of your gurfatawas, but that's probably just a rodian thing... then again if your gurfatawas were that green maybe you would...

Player group with a no Rodian player characters:As you [insert mundane action here] you happen to glance at the door in time to see a young rodian girl enter and go to the bar.

Thank you so much for all the great replie! They have given me a lot to think about and a lot to work with! We are having our first session on sunday, and hopefully it will be at least as much fun as playing the beginners game.

One more quick questions: Any thoughts on how many hours the adventure from the core book will take? I am really interested and wondering how much time these adventures will take to complete. I ofcourse understand that it depends greatly on the players and what they do, but I was thinking just the base adventure.

Thanks for all the help

With an experienced group, I ran it in "8 hours". Which was probably six actual game-play hours. I'd take it at about 150% to 200% for a new group.

With an experienced group, I ran it in "8 hours". Which was probably six actual game-play hours. I'd take it at about 150% to 200% for a new group.

Wow, that's longer than what I expected! But I am working on translating and making documents to help me run the adventure now, and I have so far written 8 pages, which is already one page more than I had for the beginners game that took us about 3,5-4 hours.

Really looking forward to see how far we get on sunday!

Any thought on how to end a session if we can't finish the adventure?

The day is planned like this:

1: Finish the characters

2: Play session (4-5 hours)

3: Dinner

4: Play session (4-5 hours)

Should I give them experience to use after the first session or wait until the end of the day? Thanks for all the great feedback so far!

Give them experience after each session. If you happen to play two session in a day, try to have the end of the first session be at either a good cliffhanger or an organic pause in the action.

Welcome to the forum!

Right. Lots of good advice here, little or nothing to add, but giving extra hints about surrounding activities and things like that based on their skill set could be useful - for instance someone with knowledge underworld or streetwise might get some tips without a skill check in some situations, at least to get things rolling (be it action or dice horrible pun...) a character with a high perception or vigilance might also notice stuff others may not, at least to get stuff started and teach players to look and ask for stuff. You shouldn't lead them by their nose, but at the same time they need incentives, hints, tips, something to work with, that they know they can work with.

Give them experience after each session. If you happen to play two session in a day, try to have the end of the first session be at either a good cliffhanger or an organic pause in the action.

We always do it at the end of the day - then we don't have to deal with everyone figuring out what they're going to buy half way through. Of course, for us, "Dinner time" is called by the GM at an appropriate time for dramatic tension or useful pause.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

I am finished with my notes now, and it ended at 14 pages in a google document! I have a few more preparations to make, but I am really starting to look forward to sunday and the first session besides the beginner game! Hopefully it will be at least as much fun as that was!

Good luck... don't kill the party (unless they are totally asking for it)

Good luck... don't kill the party (unless they are totally asking for it)

Hehe, I will do my absolute best in not letting that happen! That would be a major buzzkill I guess. They have used over a week on their characters, backstory and everything, so I guess that would be kind of a downer if they died the first day!

Kinda.