I thought this would be handy. A one stop post which quickly summarises (is that redundant phrase?) what's exciting in an adventure, and what isn't. What should you have, and what should you avoid?

The Good

Exploration - making every crest of a hill a new adventure

Social interaction - Charming, intimidating, cajoling, seducing, bluffing, persuading etc

Mystery - puzzles, dilemmas, working things out with brain power

Tough Decisions - most choices characters make should be difficult ones. Yes you can burn down the barn to destroy the orcs, but what about the dozen villagers trapped in the loft?

The Bad

Too much combat

The Ugly

Railroading - wherein players don't really have any meaningful choices to make, the GM merely prods them from one encounter to another, regardless.

I do agree with all the above, but I would add :

Meaningfull combat : something is at stake in a combat - every combat should be a mean to advance the plot, or to make the setting come to live. Avoid "random encounters" the players know they will win and are only there to "fill a gap". A good combat should have the players take part into not only because they have to get throuuth it for the plot to advance, but because its part of the plot - or because you want them to discover something about the world.

Also, combat the characters can't win are ok, but stage them in a way the players can, at some point, before it's too late, get out of it and feel good about the way they devised a good retreat tactic - this way they will fell they acomplished something, even if they did not "win" the combat. Also let them plan and plot their revenge...

Let every character shine : try to have, in every scenarion, something planned for every character/player style. Also, listent to the player - if tehy want something for their character, let them try to gain it. If it's impossible to gain, let them gain something closer but with a drawback.

Also, don't be afraid to involve the characters and players - I once had a "shy" player "infested" with a demonic soul - and lend him some powers and some clue (never pushing him, but giving him some opportunities to play out this "other personality" in exchange for a tainted boon) and it worked great - soon, he was one of the more active player of the game, taking his role very seriously, and having a lot of fun playing out his character. Sometimes, all the "shy" players need is a little direction. Always plan a way out of those inflicted conditions, but make them a double challenge - if they want out, they have to act and take decisions. Involve them - A player that appears to be only there for combat can be made interrested in roleplayoing by giving his a social condition (his "implanted soul" have some agenda of itt's own and try to take control in social situations") and a socail player can be made interrested in combat by giving him the same thing (meybe every ennemy he kills, he can have a limited access to his memory). Give a motivation to the players to act out of their "confort zone."

Finally, don't be afraid to build up the world - let the characters buy themseves an inn, let them influence the local politics, let them have a "homebase" that belong to us... sorry, to them. Make them work for those asset, but never refuse it - you can alway get them out to adventure, and if they become too much interrested by the managing aspect, destroy the asset and tie the destruction to the adventure at hand - but always provide them a way to get them back on their feet. The strongest motivation is for them to be able to get back/save/rebuild/defend what they spent time getting in the first place.

Sorry for the typos, it's late and english is my second language...

All GM's and player groups are different. The important thing is that you're having fun. What you have posted is just your subjective ideas on what constitutes good GM'ing. Other groups and GM's will think completely otherwise (and will be correct as long as they're having fun).

The mark of a good GM, in my opinion, it the ability to adapt a system and story to what the players thinks is fun. Say he's planned a social/mystery scenario with little combat, but it turns out that the players really feel like fighting. A good GM will then adapt the scenario on the fly to include more combat. Personally, I do agree with that too much combat is a bad thing, but it's really up to the group to decide what they like.

When it comes to railroading, I think it's a bit strong to put it on your "ugly" category. Are you seriously running all your roleplaying without any railroading? You're just deceiving yourself in that case, some railroading is in principle always included if you run adventures that you have prepared in advance. I've played in a campaign (Star wars) with complete freedom, i.e. a fishtank method, it was horribly boring. Then again, I'm heavily into the story-telling side of RPG's and for stories to be told you need railroading in some form.

I've been Gm/DM since I started gaming in '81. Here are a couple things that I always keep in mind..and they oftentimes don't have to do with the scenario, but have to do with just running a good game (first) and scenario design (next):

1. Establish expectations at the beginning of EVERY campaign and the beginning of every game. Make it a habit. "Here's how you run the game..."

2. Always keep an advertisement for new players up..even if you don't need them right now. If you've got rag-tag players who are unreliable and holding your game hostage, replace them or let them know..'Youre either in or out."

3. Always have a HOUSE RULEBOOK and a "discussion group." Good idea to start a Yahoogroup and put it there..you can also have discussions and scheduling there instead of individual emails or 1970's style telephone calls to schedule. Your house rulebook ALWAYS needs the following at a minimum: 1) Character replacement/death rules (replacement's come back with 10% less xp..whatever), 2)

4. Keep the action moving. I know some GM's like to let the players flounder, but sometimes they need some prodding and a reminder of the clues they have so far. Forgetting clues and tired players does not warrant "punishment by the GM" of the "you have the clues..you figure it out" mentality. THE NUMBER ONE SOLUTION is for YOU to get excited and keep pushing your players. I like the OLYMPIC order mentality. During a combat turn or even social action, "John you're up; Bob, you're up next/prep your action; then the monsters are up." John will already have rolled and started his action. Other tips for keeping action moving: LOTS OF WFRP3 DICE. references on GM screen.

5. Have ONE PLAYER that you trust to look rules up. Do not stop your game for rules look-ups unless a PC is going to die. KEEP THE ACTION MOVING.

6. Consistency & regularity (you play rain or shine). Have a rule. You play as long as (2 or 3 minimum) players are present. No player holds the game hostage.

SCENARIO/ADVENTURE/CAMPAIGN DESIGN:

1. Have NPC's that are the same career as each of the PC's (both more or less competent/powerful than the PC's). Self-actualization of player characters..it is nice to have something to measure up against.

2. Combat..keep it moving..add some "terrain." Avoid the boring-ass toe-to-toe-line-them-up WFB type combats. Have monsters run away more..and return to fight another day.."Hey, it's that goblin with the red patch over his eye..he's back!"

3. Mystery. Have a clue list for the PC's. The progress marker IS NOT ENOUGH unless you list those clues/events for the players to see. THis helps keep them get on track. Don't forget to frequently give players options of places to go and ALWAYS say with that "or try something else." Sometimes the players are tired. "Would you like to go to the temple of morr, talk to the surgeon, go to the city watch/public records, stake out the sewer grate, OR TRY SOMETHING ELSE???"

4. Railroading. Railroading sucks IF your players and you are experienced and focused enough where they are constantly coming up with ideas. Railroading IS GREAT when your players are tired or until you guys are experienced enough to be thinking outside the box..but if you give them the option above "OR TRY SOMETHING ELSE???" you'll get creative output from players WITHOUT punishing them. Most GM's are not educators and public relations experts and feel that they need to MAKE THE GAME SUCK until the players do something...Gee, does that sound like a good plan???

5. Background: any backgrouund you use should be revealed to the players (IMHO) otherwise it's just extra work and it will contribute to burn-out. If you've got players who know the world and have a book..let them read up on clues.

6. Regional Maps..waste of time. Other than knowing generally where something is, players don't sit there and use them UNLESS IT'S CRUCIAL to the scenario. Too many GM's get hung up on maps. Unless it's a dungeon crawl..BE MORE DESCRIPTIVE

Good luck!

jh

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one time or another (not too often), prepare a cut-scene scenario : other characters in another setting, with other goals. Why not play some merchants being attacked by this Bandit they're looking for ? Or a few minions tied to the GrandVillain of your campaign ? BUT ALWAYS tied to the campaign.

In my last campaign, they played a band of skavens who had to poison the supply water of a nearby town. It was fun, one-shot. After the session, their players heard how the city they wanted to rally was upside down due to a mysterious disease, and later they finally met the skavens they played.

It may be an occasion for Players to get a different character, just for the night, so the whiner with his priest of Shallya plays a BigAxe-Bragging-Wargor this time.

one tip i just added to my GMing recently, my players love it.

Hurlanc said:

that's so great and simple. I'll try it real soon.