5 Responses to “Quick GM Tip: Running New RPGs”

1. Jon says:

   While I agree with the main point of this, that you don’t want to waste a bunch of time creating a bunch of characters only to discover that you don’t like the game, I think there’s better advice than “use pre-gens and do a one-shot”.

   For someone like me, I would struggle to get players for just a one-shot, let alone for a new system. I’ve just started up my first game of Kids on Brooms after only running DnD (and a little bit of Dungeon World), and getting players together for a new system was hard, especially being in Australia, so I’ve got a weird time zone for online play with any Americans.

   But using pre-generated characters has the same issue as creating your own characaters in a new system. Sure, if you’ve played the game before, you’ll understand the choices you’re making when you create a new character. But if you were handed a character sheet for a character you didn’t make, how are you supposed to understand any of the stuff on it enough to use that character?

   The better advice, in my opinion, would be to watch, or listen to, somebody else play it. Pretty much every game system you could dream of running is going to have had a podcast episode or an actual play on YouTube. It’s all there somewhere.

   I usually love your advice and I love everything you write about running games, but this isn’t really what I’d consider great advice for the majority of people.

   June 26th, 2022 - 3:13 am
2. Justin Alexander says:

   You can get your players to commit to a 25 or 50 session campaign, but you can’t get them to play a one-shot first?

   Your players have a very… specific level of commitment they’re comfortable with.

   I certainly agree with your premise that you should learn how to play the game before running the one-shot. That can include:

   – Reading the rulebook
   – Watching actual plays
   – Putting together a cheat sheet

   June 26th, 2022 - 5:54 pm
3. Jon says:

   I feel like I’m coming across argumentative, so I’m sorry about the tone. I just wanted to say that I think better advice would be something that works for more people. And I can say that in my experience, this wouldn’t work. There’s so many RPGs I’ve got in my collection that I’d love to run, and I just don’t have the people around me to try it.

   Because I live in Australia and have had to mostly run games online, I haven’t had any campaign go for more than a few months at a time. That 25 – 50 sessions comment? That hurts a little bit for dungeon masters like me. I’d love to run something longer than a few months, but eventually, real life gets in the way, and I’m not running for a dedicated friend group who do this every week.

   So every six months or so, I’m looking for new people. I got the box set of Mouse Guard nearly six years ago for my birthday. I’ve still never had the chance to run it. I’ve got a folder on my computer with a few hundred RPGs of various size in it that I’ve bought from DriveThruRPG and Itch.io, and I’ve never had the chance to run them.

   “Just do a one shot” isn’t helpful advice.

   June 27th, 2022 - 4:50 am
4. Tim says:

   I suspect that the Alexandrian is assuming you have players and you are trying to convince them to play a new game, as that is a very common situation. Particularly for D&D DMs who want to do something different.

   That doesn’t seem to be the case for you. In my experience, pretty much every game out there is starved for DMs and the farther you get from D&D, the more starved they are. If you want to play a game and need players, the best thing to do would be to find the discord/reddit/facebook group dedicated to that game and mention you are interested in DMing, whether its a one shot or a short campaign or whatever. Then duck behind the walls and fight to winnow down the number of respondents to something you can manage.

   June 29th, 2022 - 4:27 am
5. Justin Alexander says:

   @Jon: As Tim suggests, I think we’re at cross-purposes because we’re talking about two different things. This tip assumes you’ve got a group ready to play a new game and is looking at the best way to do that. It sounds like what you’re looking for is advice about getting that group in the first place.

   Which is really a completely different kettle of fish.

   There are a lot of different tips for finding new players. But, honestly, the thing I most recommend for people in your position is to run an open table. An open table lets you keep playing with people even when real life makes it difficult. And over time it’ll probably let you expand your gaming circle, making it easier to find the specific group that WILL get enthused about Mouse Guard or whatever other game you want to get to the table (in a one-shot, a long-term campaign, or something else).

   June 29th, 2022 - 4:56 am

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