Advice for new GMs

[AndrewD2]

Well I'm a new GM (or at least I'm going to be soon). The biggest problem for me is getting the nerve to run, especially since I've never played in HS a game. My gaming group really wants to play in a Champions game, but the only person that have played Champions before are currently GMing a game and he doesn't want to run two games.

 

I'm basically looking for some good advice for a new GM. Especially on getting started. Any help is great.

 

Andrew

[TheEmerged]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

1> Start with premade characters if possible/feasible. Character creation in HERO is the hard part.

 

2> There is no substitute for preparation. There is no substitute for preparation. This should be your mantra as GM. For example, one way to save time with END costs is figure out a few likely scenarios in advance and list them on the character sheet ("Half-move and main attack", "Standing Still and main attack", and "Likely backup tactic" are good starters).

 

3> Play out a couple of easy "test" scenarios before you try a full-tilt campaign. For example, let's say you have 3 players. Have one of the characters be the bank robber and two being heroes that happened to be in the bank. Start the fight in Segment 12 and watch what happens. It doesn't matter what the motivation is, anything before or after -- but the players will get a feel for what combat is like.

 

Think in terms of challenges, like the bread-and-butter of Insufficiently Scripted TV shows (less-correctly known as Reality TV). Work it out.

 

4> When you're ready for a campaign, make sure the players not only have a motivation but a reason to pursue it as a group. Loners make for good comic characters but lousy gaming characters, IMO.

 

5> Accept that players will miss obvious clues, forget important backstory elements, and go off on the strangest of tangents. The difference between a capable GM and a good one is to look like you know what you're doing when nothing is going according to plan. Insert crack about having a goodly stash of premade "standard" NPC's here.

 

6> Ignore ALL of the optional rules at first. Slowly test the ones that appeal to you and/or seem appropriate for the genre. Don't allow external pressure to affect your position -- I may swear by using Hit Locations instead of the "stun lotto" for killing attacks, but that annoys no small percentage of HERO players. Similarly I have come to despise the hurry/hip shot options, but some players feel they add an important degree of uncertainty to initiative issues.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

Don't be afraid to take 15 minutes of your session and replot out what to do after the players do something unexpected.

 

Don't bluff your way through encounters, make NPCs at least stated out (happend to my GM twice)

 

Find out what kind of game your players want, then try to make sure everyone has fun.

 

Don't forget what they can do, review character sheets early and often so that you arn't blindsided by the character who has 20" of leaping you forgot about (also happend to my GM)

 

start small, start simple, no 500pts heros, try like 50-100 pt normals in a heroic game

[Hawksmoor]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

Read the book and familiarize yourself with the rules. HERO is crunchy. Like Emerged said ignore anything that is optional. In that vein the $7-9 dollar Sidekick version of HERO is the way to go. Minimal amount of financial outlay and for the maximum amount of HERO goodness, all in a neat easy to use package that will not boggle your mind like Fifth Edition Revised (or the big bulletproof book. Hey! we can use BBB again!)

 

Stay corny and schitcky at first. Run a game of superheroes as you and your group imagine supers to be. Stop bank robberies, have fights on in and under the Brooklyn bridge, Stop meteors from leveling your fair city. Do fun things in cool places.

 

Encourage the players to roleplay their characters and not the system. Watch Superhero flims before playing the game. Cartoon Network's JLU and Pixar's the Incredibles are always favorites. They *help* set the mood.

 

Use us the HERO community for help and don' forget the search function or our inestimable Lord Liaden to mine the threads for gold like Villians, Heroes and NPCs for your games.

 

Hawksmoor

[Citizen Keen]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

Generic premade characters! These will save your @$$ so many times it's not even funny.

 

Not just "Standard Normal" or "Competent Normal." Stat out a "Scientist" or "City Guard" or whatever, and when your characters encounter Dr. Bob the Rocket Surgeon, you'll have a scientist statted out.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

When you make a mistake (you will - we all do), don't worry about it. So you rolled 12d6 instead of 10d6? Life goes on. Short the damage on another attack if you want to make it up to the player. Forgot the villain had Invisibility? Oh well, he can use it next time. Maybe it was a nascent power this run. Very few errors are gamewrecking.

 

If you make a rules mistake that's significant, you can discuss it with the group after the game, so everyone understands it won't work that way next time.

 

This one likely won't work for everyone. When playing a new game (and we classified both 5e and D&D 3.0 as "new" in our group, despite playing both Hero and Champions for years) we made a point of formally looking up ALL rules we had not previously encountered. It slowed the game down, but everyone was looking things up, so no one was bored. This ensured we actually read the rules, had a sense of what was going on and any changes from prior versions. Some groups may find this tedious so, as I said, it's not for everyone. For us, it promoted a better grasp of the rules, by both players and characters.

 

I also like "mock combats" which don't mean anything. These help the players get a sense of the rules, and both player and GM to get a sense of how their characters work under the rules.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

There are a couple of past threads from these boards that I think would be especially helpful to you.

 

General Game Mastering advice from veteran GMs, with some particularly pertinent to running HERO:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3304

 

Advice for a GM and players new to Champions:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9188

[Bengalelf]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

When I first started GMing Champions, combat seemed to be my biggest hurdle. To run a simple fight between the heroes and a villain group could take two game sessions, sometimes three. Three full nights of combat five hours of fighting real time and we were lucky to get through a whole minute in champions time.

Then I found through The Hero games, Hero Links the Hero Tracker program. Yes, it did take me a few months to figure out the program and fix the bugs in it. The program needs to be visited by Orkin. Once I got the program under control, I can now go through a combat in one game night about an hour per 12 seconds of Champions time. It took somme adjusting to get everyone use to the program, but now combat goes easy. I have even sent VIPER teams of 20-30 agents against the heroes only to have the combat go soomthly.

Do I miss the old days of paper and pencil with a calculator by your side. Yes I do, but I need a group of players who have been playing for years and are fimiliar with Champions, my current group has only about nine months of 5th edition under their belt.

The program really does save time in combat, one quick example is that it automately calculates the Post 12 for all villains. I could waste twenty minutes doing that before. Now one click of the mouse and its done.

I would learn combat first and then think about the program. Because I spent a good month (in my off time) doubling checking the program and figuring out ways to fix its bugs.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

bengalef, i've never found combat to last that long, a minute game time might be up to four hours, but far faster than an hour 12 seconds, though that depends on the combats. You can also roll damage, hit location and to hit all at once, that speeds it up

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

The suggestions in the section in the Fifth Edition rulebook, "Nine Ways To Speed Up Combat," greatly accelerate the process.

 

It should be noted that supers combat is generally more time-intensive than heroic-level combat, because supers generally have higher Speeds than normal characters, and more tactical options.

[Bengalelf]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

It would probalbly help if all of my players were paying attention. I seem to have the ability to lose players during combat. My party really enjoy rolling all of the dice rolls one at a time, no matter how many times I suggest the "nine ways to speed up comabt". The only thing that seemed to help my situation is the Hero tracker Program...:-)

[prestidigitator]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

Don't forget what they can do' date=' review character sheets early and often so that you arn't blindsided by the character who has 20" of leaping you forgot about (also happend to my GM)[/quote']

That's a tricky one. There's a lot to remember. I'd say that's one of the very important things to do, and becomes tricky when you get new characters on the scene, because you probably already have a storyline planned.

[AndrewD2]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

There are a couple of past threads from these boards that I think would be especially helpful to you.

 

General Game Mastering advice from veteran GMs, with some particularly pertinent to running HERO:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3304

 

Advice for a GM and players new to Champions:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9188

 

I'll be sure the check those out.

 

Andrew

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

It would probalbly help if all of my players were paying attention. I seem to have the ability to lose players during combat. My party really enjoy rolling all of the dice rolls one at a time' date=' no matter how many times I suggest the "nine ways to speed up comabt". The only thing that seemed to help my situation is the Hero tracker Program...:-)[/quote']

 

We generally expect players to follow the flow of the combat and be ready to declare their action pretty much as soon as their phase comes up. Sometimes, there's a question of "what would my character do" because the parameters have changed, but normally we se actions declared in a few seconds. I don't know how your players operate, but if their phase comes up and they:

 

- look over the battlemat, ask (again) who each figure is, who attacked me last time, etc. combat will drag on forever.

 

- measure every option, painstakingly counting hexes, also slows the game. If you want to do that, show me your enhanced senses - most of us can't tell 20 meters from 25 meters in one second. One way around this would be to use a tape measure rather than a hex map. You say "I'll make a half move

towards him and fire my EB", or "I close with FireStarter. If I get in HTH in a half move, I'll punch, otherwise I'll Move Through."

[Agent X]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

Never run a game with players you don't like.

Never run a game with players you like when you don't like how they play.

Never run a game because somebody needs to run a game.

Never run a game theme/setting/etc. you're not that interested in because it's the only kind the players will play.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

If you don't have fun, the players won't have fun

it's not competitive

Always ask players for suggestions, sometimes they have good ones

[The Monster]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

Don't insist on being the ultimate rules expert. It puts too much pressure on you internally, and you miss an opportunity to involve the players (and mabe find someone else who can/will GM!). In my group, generally about half to a third of the group has a copy of the rules, so there are copies for people to refer to. I make a point of asking players to look up rules for what they're doing, sometimes even if I know the answer already. Some of them will do it anyway, and the others will at least be interacting with other players as they check rules for them (better than another side conversation or comic book popping up).

 

 

Use published material - adventures, bad guys, etc. Don't be afraid to tweak it, to fit your campaign and to keep players on their toes if they've already read it. There's a lot of really good Hero sourcebooks out now.

 

 

As someone already mentioned, start low-power if your players are willing. I've had the best time running 50 to 75 base point heroes, pulp types without much that could be called "superpowers." Even if it's a supers campaign, don't try to make every villain a major threat by himself: teams of normals with a bit of training and equipment can put a healthy scare into standard superheros (a simple .50-cal machine gun is what, 2.5 RKA AF? And just mention the stats on something like a Stinger missile or chain gun, and watch the supers players check their defenses and cringe). The bad guys don't have to all be Doctor Doom to be challenging.

 

 

(In fact, I have a rule of thumb that says a group players can take down one of anything. I've seen ancient dragons taken down by a couple of lucky crits, demons hit with just the right stuff to trigger Vulnerability/Susceptibility, and so on that I just don't base adventures on One Big Baddie any more: it's too anticlimactic when they get that lucky shot in and end the fight suddenly.)

[gojira]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

Yet another noobie GM thread:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=654722

 

Some interesting ideas about character advancement and long term campaign issues.

[zornwil]

Re: Advice for new GMs

 

All good advice. I would just add, don't take it too seriously, it is a game, in particular a cooperative game wherein others will contribute and people already are showing up to have a good time and aren't going to be judging you. I don't mean not to run a good game or not to pay attention to quality, of course, but don't stress too much, it's easy to get wrapped up in details and worry about all sorts of things.

 

I would also add, let things go slow and play to your strengths. Do you enjoy playing characters? Then stress that, play the NPCs (be careful not to dominate of course, as the PCs are the stars). Do you enjoy speaking/narration? Cool, do that. Do you like making pictures? Concentrate on that, one picture is worth a thousand words after all. Don't worry if the first session has any big finale or resolution. Don't even worry if you suddenly find you don't have enough material or too much material; before going in, figure out what you enjoy and use that as filler, if needed!