I will be launching a Kickstarter soon for an adventure I've developed for D&D fifth edition! I'm really excited to see what you all think of it. Stay tuned for more details.

Game Master's Journey now has voice mail: 951-GMJ-LEX1 (951-465-5391)

Announcements

The Trickster’s Labyrinth Kickstarter coming soon!

Some discussion of future adventures from Starwalker Studios and an update on what I’ve been working on with my worldbuilding of Primordia

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Episode 141: D&D Product Replacement & How RPGs are Good for Us

Episode 142: Travel, Movement, Falling, Suffocation, Vision & Light

The GM as Teacher

Episode 136: Building D&D Encounters using the Unearthed Arcana

There is more discussion of the Unearthed Arcana building in episode 137, and some more in episode 138 and episode 139.

Part 1 of this discussion, the GM as Rules Arbiter.

Why I love running for a new players, and why I recommend running for new players when you’re a new GM

Why I don’t recommend having a session zero when you’re starting a game with new players

A better way to handle initiative in turn-based games like D&D

In my time as a DM I usually take the role of teacher above all else. My start as a gamer was as a DM, so I had to teach people how to play since day one, all the while teaching myself what worked and what didn't.

Use pre-generated characters for the first adventure/session. It’s unfortunate that this hobby begins with character creation.

Making a character takes some time, and depending on the game you’re playing, it may take a great deal of time. This goes against the writing and filmmaking accepted wisdom of beginning with the action. Starting your first session with an hour (or even half-hour) of character creation is not beginning with action. You want to make a good first impression. Hook the players with what’s cool about RPGs. For more experienced players, making a character is a lot of fun, but this is seldom the case with the first-time player (unless they’ve already had some exposure, e.g. read the book, etc.). However much time character creation takes, that time is better spent getting into the story and adventure.

In many RPGs, making a character takes some mastery of, or at least proficiency with, the system that a new player won’t have. If you do force your new players to make characters for the first game, they will often come to regret some of the decisions they made during character creation once they more fully grasp the system. E.g. they might take skills or abilities they end up never or seldom using, or they might take skills or abilities that they never use. It’s hard to make a character when you don’t even understand the game yet. This is even more true if you’ve never played any kind of tabletop RPG before.

I have seen players turned off from this hobby just by character creation. This was especially true with 3.x/Pathfinder, but it can be true with any game.

Once the players are hooked and enjoying the game, they’ll be eager to make their own characters.

You can either use pre-gens from the game company (e.g. a lot of beginner boxes will have these) or you can make them yourself. You can make sure that all necessary abilities are covered, that the characters are mechanically solid, and that they all have ties to the adventure and one another.