I know there are probably a lot of these topics floating round on these boards but it would be nice to not have to dig thru all of them to find the ones I'm looking for. So I apologize if this has been done many times.

I've been on and off these forums for months but have started to regularly come back now as I am planning a campaign for my players.

I've ran them thru the beginners game and Shadows of a Black Sun but I haven't really GM'd anything in my rpg life let alone start a campaign. I've always been a player.

What episodes of the Order 66 podcast would be good to go back and listen to?

And what other advice would you give a GM first time starting out?

I plan to print out a few things to help i.e a list of what skills go with what characteristic etc. And I probably should start coming up with my GM(Galaxy Master as I call it ) Holocron.

I have a few ideas in my head for different sessions/encounters but nothing that could be a long running campaign. I don't plan on doing too much till I get their character backgrounds and obligations so I can try and incorporate some of that into sessions etc.

Any help you guys would be able to give would be very much appreciated.

1) develop a few npcs that you can use on the spot. If the players have a lot of interaction with one develop them further and use them to help bake the campaign.

2) let the dice help Drive the story. They fail a check? Why because it's dark. So now it's dark. Lots of that on a computer to an Nov slicer set up the system. Now you have a villain etc...

3) use set back dice. Lots of talents remove setback and they are useless if you don't use setback dice. I use 0-3 on each roll and always say why they are given.

4) have fun. If in doubt go with what is cool or fun.

5) let the players help lead the story. Been then and the dice a lot of the work will be done for you. (I love this system)

6) use destiny often... I'm bad at this.

One of the things I encountered while running Shadows of a Black Sun was one of my players was trying to deceive a NPC and he had no ranks in the deceit skill and was trying to shoehorn it onto the bargaining skill which he did have ranks in. Have I misread those two skills? Should I have said it was a deceit check and not let him try to use his bargaining skill?

I tend to sometimes struggle with the improv thing. I want to make it fun for the group but my brain just goes blank sometimes I guess.

One of the things I like best about the FFG SWRPG system is that anyone can try to do anything. If you don’t have ranks in that skill, you may not be likely to be able to do much in that area, but you can at least try. Anyone can swing a lightsaber. Anyone can hop in the pilot chair of a Star Destroyer. Whether you can do any of these things WELL is more a matter of how much skill you have, but for most things anyone can at least give it a try.

That said, deceit is basically lying to someone. Bargaining is trying to convince them that the offer you’re making is one they should take. There’s some overlap there, depending on exactly how you’re trying to do the two things, but they’re not really the same thing.

It’s your game, and your rules. And if you decide later that you accidentally did something wrong, the way I would be inclined to play it is to tell the players that the way you handled it was wrong, and that’s not going to be the way things work in the future.

But the past is the past, and I wouldn’t try to change it. I also wouldn’t let the players continue to try to make things work that way, once I’ve decided that is not correct.

If you pitch it as “no harm, no foul, but I’ve changed my mind and this is the way things are going to work in the future”, I suspect that the players won’t have a problem.

At the end of the day, it’s all about having fun. And telling a fun story, in a collaborative way. As GM, you get to set the scenery and the props and the story leading up to the current moment, but the players as actors get to decide what they want to do with that. It’s not you versus them, it’s the whole team deciding and telling the story, with lots of improv and unexpected things that would never have occurred to you — which is part of why it is so much fun!

You make a fair point. I do try and run it as a collaborative game. I guess some of them may still be in the mind set as "if you don't have that skill you can't do it." I really need to get them out of that and also into narrating their actions more. I've been burying my head in the core books and splat books as well as the forums here and that has helped immensely.

One thing I do need to learn more is to improv and roll with things more and let the players do what want within the narrative I've come up with. I think sometimes my brain panics when things go off the rails, which is why I'm struggling with coming up with a plot/campaign while still keeping it general enough so they have the freedom to collaborate and come up with crazy ideas as players tend to do.

My biggest piece of advice is not to dictate how the players handle a situation. Set things up, have an idea how your NPCs might react, and then stop planning. Some of the time things will go how you envisioned, most of the time it will not. Better to focus on the background and motivation for an encounter to better your improvisation than put a lot of work into something you have to scrap because a PC blew up your plot.

Also, don't worry about getting the rules wrong. They're a tool. If you use them differently than other groups, okay. If you and your table are having fun, then you are using them correctly.

There are two things I rely on for improv, maybe they'll help. First is, for all NPCs to make sure to know their motives and goals. This can be as simple as a one-liner, eg: "to serve the master" or as complex as you like. When the players come up with something unexpected, like "where's the nearest laundromat, we need to steal some clothes", coming up with with the shop owner or a few patrons can be a challenge.

Going "blank" is pretty normal, the biggest hurdle is going from blank to not-blank. Once there is the smidgen of an idea, the rest will start to flow, so the second tool is a simple question and a die roll. The question can be anything relevant to the situation, and if you're at a loss, ask your players for the question. Eg, if they want a laundromat, the question might be "what type of neighbourhood is this, rich or poor?" Then the dice tell you the result. "You've somehow crossed into a wealthy area, there is a full service laundromat and tailor shop up ahead. The owner looks "...roll, roll..." stuffy and uptight, but he asks you politely how he may be of service". While the players are considering their answer, consider this new NPC's motive. This can also be resolved with a question and a die roll, but at some point you'll probably find that the ideas are already flowing and you don't need the dice...until the next unexpected turn of events.

For dice I usually use percentages or a d6. The EotE dice can be useful, but the point is to use a simple tool to jog your mind out of the blank zone and into improv rather than create more complications dealing with multi-axis results.

You are correct that there are perhaps dozens of similar threads, and you're doing yourself a disservice by not digging through them, there's a lot of gold in there when you have the time to read them.

Perhaps some intrepid individual could gather all this advice for a sticky thread, but it's not gonna be me!

5) let the players help lead the story.

Agreed. Along with this goes "don't be afraid to say 'yes' when they want to do something you didn't expect."

3) use set back dice. Lots of talents remove setback and they are useless if you don't use setback dice. I use 0-3 on each roll and always say why they are given.

6) use destiny often... I'm bad at this.

These two points in particular were difficult for me to learn. I'm still forgetting to add setback dice. It is pointless, since my players have skills that remove setback dice, but they get a gleeful look on their faces when they get to shrug off setback so it is important to make more liberal use of them.

The latter point regarding destiny tokens is crucial. Sometimes my players will roll poorly and I end up with a glut of dark side tokens. The system is pretty great for winds of change turning a crack shot PC into swiss cheese from one round to the next. Having light side destiny points helps them make it count when the chips are down. Flip the dark side points often.

Plan plan plan, and plan some more. Your players are going to go off the rails and improv, and you should go with it, but once you get to a stopping point, stop it, go back and figure out how to take the players actions and make it fit the original intended path.

Keep the players motivated. Give them goal and a solid reason to accomplish it and keep pushing them towards it. The players should never ask "where do we go from here?" unless that's literally in the campaign plan. A well designed campaign should almost work like a (and I hate to use this comparison) Call of Duty game (one of the good ones) where the player is so excited and motivated to push forward they don't even realize the entire plan was for them to follow that path you laid out, and while there may be different paths, then end is always the same.

That said, don't railroad them either. They should always feel they have free will to go wherever and do whatever. You should never place a barrier in front of them, or tell them they must go a specific direction. It's ok to make the occasional barrier when it's appropriate "Yeah... that stormtrooper isn't gonna take a bribe no matter how charming you are, it's just not what they do" but you should never have something just blocked for blocked sake.

I tend to sometimes struggle with the improv thing. I want to make it fun for the group but my brain just goes blank sometimes I guess.

I would suggest a little exercise to get used to doing Improv with the Edge dice.

Take a pregenerated character and put them in a basic setting that you choose (don't go into detail just say , cantina, landing bay, street, etc...) then decide what you would do as that character in that situation.

As was mentioned above only come up with a one liner to explain things and let the situation evolve. You can practice by yourself or get a single player to run the PC.

All of this really helps.

I'm going to talk to my players and see if they want the first session to be getting their ship or just how they meet.

Like I said earlier I have a idea or two for some framework for an adventure and an overall thread for a campaign and was thinking of giving them the start of the thread and let them do what they want on how to approach things and where they go to achieve what they need to do. That way it won't go off the rails per say because there aren't really any rails their on, if any of this is making sense.

I was also thinking of structuring it kind of like Burn Notice, where they have the main thing they need to do but in order to achieve it they need money or a favor or something. So they have to find jobs with a Hutt or crime boss etc. Then they have like 2 sessions or more which is just focused on the main thread. Are their any drawbacks to this approach?

Would having a kind of open structure be any good?

I love having an open structure. One of my pbp games has an open structure like that. They need to escape prison and get off planet or form a rebel cell on the planet.

It is hosted on nemeses.freeforums.com and called peaking cell if you want to see an example of how it could work.

I love having an open structure. One of my pbp games has an open structure like that. They need to escape prison and get off planet or form a rebel cell on the planet.

It is hosted on nemeses.freeforums.com and called peaking cell if you want to see an example of how it could work.

I will check it out. Would a open structure be a good way to go?

Yes... Depending on the game. I have another game on the same sight (fight it flight) which has a very defined structure for the moment. I prefer open you just have to be willing to adapt to the players. With own structure I find it very good to have an idea what the bad guys are doing even if the PCs are ignoring the bad guys at present. You also have to be willing to change everything. Say if your pcs join the bad guys you expected them to fight or just decide they want to do something comepletely different.

So yes it is a good way to go. I'd say try it and see if you like it. If you don't something different.

Let me know what you think of my game and of you have any suggestions, please.

I love having an open structure. One of my pbp games has an open structure like that. They need to escape prison and get off planet or form a rebel cell on the planet.

It is hosted on nemeses.freeforums.com and called peaking cell if you want to see an example of how it could work.

I will check it out. Would a open structure be a good way to go?

For the inexperienced... probably a very bad idea. It's probably the most common among RPGs as a whole, but this has more to do with inexperience and laziness then it being a good path.

Part of why rider can get away with it is the pbp format moves slower then in person, so there's more time to control and adapt. In person just dropping the players into a scenario and hoping they make it out is a lot harder to pull off. They inevitably get in over their heads, and can easily lose sight of any goal beyond the immediate one.

As a new GM, take the time and structure your adventures. You'll still have to improvise from time to time, but at least you'll know where everything is supposed to go and can keep things more or less on track. This isn't important just for story reasons, but for gameplay reasons. In this system not designing the encounters with the players in mind is risky, especially when vehicles (starfighters especially) get involved. That's a big part of the reason for laying out your adventures and encounters. It's not about keeping the players from doing what they want, or ensuring that Darth Steve doesn't show up until Act 3, it's about ensuring that the players are given options and choices that allow them to go from A to B to C in a manner that allows safe progression. If you don't know how the players can survive getting past the repeating blaster nest healthy enough to duel with Darth Steve later, then how do you expect your players to? After all, you know Darth Steve is waiting for them, the players don't.

Being a GM is work. Hard work. It's rewarding, and fun, and there's a lot to like about it, but you need to be ready to commit that time and mental resources to it if you want to be any good.

I love having an open structure. One of my pbp games has an open structure like that. They need to escape prison and get off planet or form a rebel cell on the planet.

It is hosted on nemeses.freeforums.com and called peaking cell if you want to see an example of how it could work.

I will check it out. Would a open structure be a good way to go?

For the inexperienced... probably a very bad idea. It's probably the most common among RPGs as a whole, but this has more to do with inexperience and laziness then it being a good path.

Part of why rider can get away with it is the pbp format moves slower then in person, so there's more time to control and adapt. In person just dropping the players into a scenario and hoping they make it out is a lot harder to pull off. They inevitably get in over their heads, and can easily lose sight of any goal beyond the immediate one.

As a new GM, take the time and structure your adventures. You'll still have to improvise from time to time, but at least you'll know where everything is supposed to go and can keep things more or less on track. This isn't important just for story reasons, but for gameplay reasons. In this system not designing the encounters with the players in mind is risky, especially when vehicles (starfighters especially) get involved. That's a big part of the reason for laying out your adventures and encounters. It's not about keeping the players from doing what they want, or ensuring that Darth Steve doesn't show up until Act 3, it's about ensuring that the players are given options and choices that allow them to go from A to B to C in a manner that allows safe progression. If you don't know how the players can survive getting past the repeating blaster nest healthy enough to duel with Darth Steve later, then how do you expect your players to? After all, you know Darth Steve is waiting for them, the players don't.

Being a GM is work. Hard work. It's rewarding, and fun, and there's a lot to like about it, but you need to be ready to commit that time and mental resources to it if you want to be any good.

That helps thanks. So if I structure it as different encounters to begin with and then as I get more practice at GM move up to a more open style?

I was thinking of just having like a backbone that the encounter is built on and have the players figure out what they want to do, having challenges etc in my back pocket to throw at them as the need arises. Then when they get past that encounter to the next one I have set up, which is general enough, that I just flow from what they did in the previous encounter (if it's like breaking into a building for example).

Something similar along those lines is what I was thinking of doing. Would that be the way to go or something a bit more structured?

I love having an open structure. One of my pbp games has an open structure like that. They need to escape prison and get off planet or form a rebel cell on the planet.

It is hosted on nemeses.freeforums.com and called peaking cell if you want to see an example of how it could work.

I will check it out. Would a open structure be a good way to go?

For the inexperienced... probably a very bad idea. It's probably the most common among RPGs as a whole, but this has more to do with inexperience and laziness then it being a good path.

Part of why rider can get away with it is the pbp format moves slower then in person, so there's more time to control and adapt. In person just dropping the players into a scenario and hoping they make it out is a lot harder to pull off. They inevitably get in over their heads, and can easily lose sight of any goal beyond the immediate one.

What Ghostofman says is true. If you are going to improvise like this it is better to make the encounters underpowered until you get a feel for it. It is easy to overpower the players quickly in this game. Having extra time to think about it is a great advantage and as was said above if you need to take a moment do so.

I've used it effectively in live action games as well as play by post, and my players loved it in both situations. For live action games it is usually a side plot and not the overall campaign (though i feel it could be). It is also a matter of feel. The last time I used this in a live game was with a D&D group and two of the players ended up dying. Not because it was overpowered but because everyone else ran and they didn't. I'm ok with that as it was a heroic death (they are ok with it also).

All this being said. you will find your own style one that you like. If you want to try something do it then adjust next session (or even mid session if you need to). Keep asking questions, there is a

lot of great advice on here and a lot of skilled GMs with different styles = a lot to learn for all of us.

I love having an open structure. One of my pbp games has an open structure like that. They need to escape prison and get off planet or form a rebel cell on the planet.

It is hosted on nemeses.freeforums.com and called peaking cell if you want to see an example of how it could work.

I will check it out. Would a open structure be a good way to go?

For the inexperienced... probably a very bad idea. It's probably the most common among RPGs as a whole, but this has more to do with inexperience and laziness then it being a good path.

Part of why rider can get away with it is the pbp format moves slower then in person, so there's more time to control and adapt. In person just dropping the players into a scenario and hoping they make it out is a lot harder to pull off. They inevitably get in over their heads, and can easily lose sight of any goal beyond the immediate one.

What Ghostofman says is true. If you are going to improvise like this it is better to make the encounters underpowered until you get a feel for it. It is easy to overpower the players quickly in this game. Having extra time to think about it is a great advantage and as was said above if you need to take a moment do so.

I've used it effectively in live action games as well as play by post, and my players loved it in both situations. For live action games it is usually a side plot and not the overall campaign (though i feel it could be). It is also a matter of feel. The last time I used this in a live game was with a D&D group and two of the players ended up dying. Not because it was overpowered but because everyone else ran and they didn't. I'm ok with that as it was a heroic death (they are ok with it also).

All this being said. you will find your own style one that you like. If you want to try something do it then adjust next session (or even mid session if you need to). Keep asking questions, there is a

lot of great advice on here and a lot of skilled GMs with different styles = a lot to learn for all of us.

And that is why I'm asking here .

I think I will structure up some encounters that will make up that adventure with some other encounters that if they veer from the one they're on I can still bring them back with a different encounter that leads to the same or a similar conclusion. Then I will look at how things went, talk to the players and adjust accordingly to what the feedback was and go from there.

I think that's the best approach that I can do so far. Get some more experience with more playing.

Plan plan plan, and plan some more.

Just keep in mind that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Not that the players are your “enemy” per se, just that plans are necessarily made in something of a vacuum and then tend to evaporate when they hit real atmosphere.

Also, any one specific plan has no value in and of itself, but the process of getting really good at coming up with lots and lots of plans in a short timeframe is a good exercise to practice.

In other words, a [particular] plan is useless, but plans [in general] are priceless.

And an interesting example if you want to track it down are older Shadowrun canned adventures. They were written like any adventure, but each major section included a small trouble shooting section explaining how to correct errors where the players might do the unexpected or skip something important.

And an interesting example if you want to track it down are older Shadowrun canned adventures. They were written like any adventure, but each major section included a small trouble shooting section explaining how to correct errors where the players might do the unexpected or skip something important.

Could you get them on pdf or something like that? Cause being from New Zealand I can see me having a hard time tracking them down.

I suggest picking an episode from here - http://www.madadventurers.com/category/field-recordings/tales-from-the-hydian-way/

that might answer a question you have or talk about a subject that interests you in GMing theory.

I am an advocate of the original content. Take the adventures and encounters supplied by FFG's line, and paraphrase on it. Re-skin it to your needs and with your names and places. Use some of the skeletal elements to weave the same story with your own favorite trope, like timed events (AoR GM Kit Episode 2, Suns of Fortune Five Brother Shuffle encounter), elaborate dealing (Long Arm of the Hutt free site adventure, episode 2) or Full scale investigation of a single location (Jewel of Yavin adventure book).

And an interesting example if you want to track it down are older Shadowrun canned adventures. They were written like any adventure, but each major section included a small trouble shooting section explaining how to correct errors where the players might do the unexpected or skip something important.

Could you get them on pdf or something like that? Cause being from New Zealand I can see me having a hard time tracking them down.

I don't know about Shadowrun, but there are a lot of old Traveller adventures available as PDFs that are entirely suitable/adaptable. Check out drivethrurpg.com ...