GM Mentoring Project

Hey GP GMs!

I had a couple ppl express interest in learning about the FFG Star Wars system, and GMing in general, so I started a Tutorial thread.

All are welcome! Swing by if you're interested in learning about FFG Star Wars, or GMing on Gamersplane in general!

GAME LINK

Hey GMs I am prepping for my upcoming Birthright game. There will be noble houses, royal courts, and intrigue. I have zero experience running or playing anything political. I am wondering if any here could help prep me for the political aspect of the game and possibly even coach me on opportunities to make political moves during the game.

I've ran and played in quite a few political games in the context of other systems (specifically, Burning Wheel and Vampire), so I could give you some non-mechanics/narrative advice, based on what I've seen work (and not work)?

PM me?

PeMsquared sent!

Being new to PBP I would really like to utilize a mentor for D&D5e. However, I was also wondering if there was a guide or template to go by for setting up your game forum and sub-forums to create.

I was trying to search these forums for something like that but do not see a search feature.

There's no search feature at the moment, but I can help you out. What specifically were you looking for in regards to your forum setup?

Is there a guide or template to go by for setting up your game forum and explaining what sub-forums to create ot make the experience better for players (and DM running it)?

There's not at the moment, but I'll tell you what I generally do.

1. Create 'Character Creation' and 'Out-of-Character Chat' threads. The use of these is obvious and they are tremendously useful.

2. Create a sub-forum for setting information. In this, I'll usually have a thread for known NPCs, locations, and the overall story so far.

3. When I make a thread for the actual gameplay, I will generally do it in 'Chapters'. I will name it after the basic story for the upcoming part of the adventure. When that part is over, I'll make another. This keeps the story in bite-sized chunks for easy reference later on.

4. I also create a subforum called 'GM Screen' and make it invisible to the players. This allows me to keep notes within the forum without allowing people to see what I'm planning

Thank you!

Contributed by @naatkinson:
• 5E House Rules Compendium

@Contributed by @lenpelletier
• The Phrontistery - For every GM trying to find a cool, rare word for something

Both links added to the list of GM resources in my original post.

Thanks to @CaveJohnson for this handy cheat sheet!

https://crobi.github.io/dnd5e-quickref/preview/quickref.html

Added to the list of GM resources in my original post.

hahaah i forgot all about posting that, I've got alot of other links that may or may not have came from here
if someone will remind me on friday night i'll go thru my bookmarks and post XDD

That's an oldie, but a goodie, amigo.

Any GMs out there want to share their best practices for keeping their players engaged while the GM is either tied up IRL or struggling with writer's block? Obviously, you post something in OOC. But soon it's been a few days, but you're still indisposed and they're still waiting on you. You could post another OOC apology, but I'm sure you guys can suggest better alternatives.

Wait two days, post "Shuffling in the bushes! Roll Initiative." Then wait two more days. Then say, "It's a hippo in lipstick! You all beat its initiative go to town."

There, that's like 9 days.

Depending upon the campaign, you could try having characters summarize their perception of other characters' actions. This can be a fun writing activity as the GM can encourage "stretching the truth" as they recount how heroic (or cowardly!) a party member acted in a recent battle or negotiation. As nothing is canon with this, they can have fun with it and even project (from their own character's perspective) the motives for why another character acted the way they did. The added benefit this activity may serve is to allow a player to see how other characters view his/her character.

Ask the players what they think is going on behind the scenes or in other areas of the game world. When you come back, you'll have a ton of new story lines to pursue. You might even end up replacing your story with bits of theirs.

Jabes i think yoru doing a good thing in the sea game. Idk if it's a reference to other games. I think the hardest thing you've done is haveing as many key players as we do but with a little plot push everyone would pickup and RP like their supposed to me thinks.

Hi guys,

I'm fairly recent to GP and I may be already overstretching as a player... but I'd like to try doing some GMing (at some point).
Any mentor around with free time? Not sure if I have it myself... but let's see how it goes :)

What I'm looking for is (long-term):
1) Establish some connections to discuss GMing in the long run
2) Try using/creating a minimalist set of rules system that will generalize well for PbP (so I don't need to read 500 pages of rules!)
3) Adapt a couple of published games to see how these rules work in practice.
4) Slowly develop my own game

CESN: If you want a game that's good for pbp without a lot of fiddling, go with 13th Age. Cypher might be good too; I'm not as familiar with it. It's more universal than 13A, but 13A can be reflavored pretty easily, and has an SRD online.

If you want to discuss 13th Age, shoot me a PM.