A number of game books - especially OSR ones - essentially eschew detailed gamemastery advice from their GM manuals (or chapters). I think the reasoning goes something like "if you're reading such a niche book, you either have someone to teach you or know what you're doing".

But as I've been developing my home system Taiao, and slowly fleshing it out, I ran into an interesting problem where the book felt incomplete without the inclusion of at least a marginal effort to explain things to a newbie. If you're selling a gamebook it seems awfully odd to not explain how the hell you use it. At the very least, you'll be dealing with a restricted audience, although I doubt many people get into running games by picking up an OSR book off the shelf (you can only wish it was higher than it is).

The real issue is that a GM help chapter could easily devour as much effort as the rest of a system combined. In fact, quality GM help often comes in the form of being dedicated books, or extraordinarily lengthy blogs with decades of history and archives to crawl. The breadth of advice that could be spoken about running a game would dwarf the actual game materials themselves, if you wanted to be thorough. A lot of advice in existing manuals, if you take the time to read them, are rather scattershot; they're not much better off than the traditionally useless "What is an RPG?" chapter that nobody seems to be able to shake the need for. Nobody will praise you for having it but someone will raise eyebrows if you don't.

I've noted that certain systems cheat a bit. Old School Essentials contains names and pointers to Principia Apocrypha amongst other free online pamphlets, for example, and Simulacrum (of the OSR Simulacrum blog) does this too - essentially, pointing players and GMs to other dedicated resources. This seems to be effective enough in both offloading the worst of the teaching effort as well as getting people on the right track of looking for advice online, but it does put some more effort on the head of an inexperienced GM. I have to wonder if at some point they will instead look for a different and more friendly system to play. (Hello, 5e market dominance.) It is also prone to link rot if sites go dead or documents go missing off the public internet, and it's reliant on the user's search skills.

There's another problem that can probably be mitigated with more proofreaders and editors and playtesters than I can afford. How do you, as an experienced GM, actually know what you need to teach a new GM? My experience blinds me to the needs of a novice. My friends have been playing and running games for years or decades.

All I know is that I'll probably be tweaking this chapter until my system sees publication. But I'd like to hear other voices on the matter. What do you think is critical to teach a new GM?

Quote from: saki on June 17, 2023, 10:49:26 AM
If you're selling a gamebook it seems awfully odd to not explain how the hell you use it.

...

The real issue is that a GM help chapter could easily devour as much effort as the rest of a system combined.

Dat.

Limit it to a tight paragraph. Explain RPGs like you're talking to a 5 year old. Don't be afraid to sound trite, because it will sound trite to anyone who's played TTRPGs.
Then put it behind you and have a cold beer. (Or beverage of your choice)

My approach is that such GM advice consists of two different things:

1. Critical stuff that is directly pertinent to your game, not gaming in general.
2. Supporting stuff that grounds the game, gives design intent, clarifies rules, etc.

Ideally, put almost all of the latter into a separate document, that someone can read or not as they see fit.  If you are selling a printed book, I'd expect this to be mainly in a downloadable PDF, though of course if the whole game is PDF, that's somewhat moot.  Still, make an effort to not mix it in with the more critical things. The exception is concise, carefully headed key  statements that kind of bridge the gap between this material and the rest of the game.  A limited amount of that might naturally fit in main rules.

If you find it impossible to edit this separate book down into useful content, you can always never publish it. In my design work, I find it a handy place to put things that may or may not ever see the light of day. 

The former would be key examples, direction of how the game runs that might not match other games, etc.  Don't compare it to other games.  Just explain the intended approach. Anyone new needs that minimal bit as a start.  Anyone experienced will find it a quick introduction to what is different about your game. 

In other words, don't explain what "role playing" is in general.  Explain what people do when role playing in your game.  Don't explain how you can put together any general adventure.  Explain how you would put together a typical adventure for that game. People with experience know you can branch out from that.

If you want a concrete example, get a copy of the Moldvay Basic D&D rules, and study just how much useful information is crammed into the GM section in about 10 pages. It's not trying to be all things to all people, and it's not rambling around.  It's getting you started with some of the key bits.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on June 17, 2023, 11:55:16 AM
My approach is that such GM advice consists of two different things:

1. Critical stuff that is directly pertinent to your game, not gaming in general.
2. Supporting stuff that grounds the game, gives design intent, clarifies rules, etc.

This is pretty close to another divide I settled on earlier. Separating out material that explains function for in-depth readers and GMs looking to tinker with the rules. I've often wished that major systems would include those kinds of notes alongside their GM materials. Kudos to anyone who does end up publishing those notes. 

Take it with a grain of salt. Most GM advice makes me want to puke. I don't know. Maybe the shit is helpful to someone somewhere, but mostly it looks like eye-rolling platitudes to me.

That said, I can definitely think of examples of great advice I got from different RPG books. The good stuff is usually very specific. In the old Dark Conspiracy game book, one really innocuous thing that's mentioned in there about describing rooms to players is that they tend to investigate the last thing you mention first, the first thing you mention second, and the next-to-the-last thing you mentioned last. That's actually helpful. I don't care what your style is or who your players are, sooner or later every GM is going to have to describe some area. For me, I typically describe quite a few different areas in any given session. So I definitely get a lot of mileage out of it.

There's also deeper and broader implications to it that belie its surface level simplicity and specificity. How many novice GMs get to prepping their adventure and think in terms of, "First A will happen, then B, then C..."? If you give them this advice, that may prompt them to think in terms of, "Oh, I get it, so first I should present B, then C, then A..." and you've just steered the GM clear from the railroading track. It also gets you thinking about how to do your descriptions in order to get the effect you want. Or conversely how to better forecast what players will do given a set room description so you can prioritize how you prep for what comes after that.

That's how good advice works.


Here's what shit advice looks like.

"Be sure to keep your game moving forward quickly to keep it exciting."

"Be sure to allow for lulls to vary up the pace and give players a chance to reassess."


Both statements are true. An average GM might very well benefit from either or both pieces of advice. They're shit for two reasons. First, it's vague on how to do that. The good advice I listed above gives GMs something actionable, like here's how to describe several features in an area. But second and possibly bigger reason it's bad advice is, you have no idea what the fuck kind of maniac might be reading this advice. If Speedy Gonzales is running a game, the stupidest most shitiest advice you could ever possibly give is "Be sure to keep your game moving forward quickly to keep it exciting." That's the last thing you want to do.

It's one thing if you're consulting with a GM one on one and you've taken the time to get a feel for how they're already running things. Then you know which way to turn the screws to fine-tune it. But if you're writing it into a book, do not publish generic advice like that. It has no place at all in print. Yeah. I realize that's what's typically done. I realize that's normal. I realize that's what all the cool kids are doing. I'm aware of the argument of how can all these fat fucks possibly be wrong. But at the end of the day, you don't have any say or control over the incompetence of others. You do you, and that's it.

Is it likely that your book gets picked by newbies?

Unfortunately, beginners will probably start with 5e (which often does a terrible job teaching DMs) os some other famous game.

If people are reading my games, I assume they are neck-deep in RPGstuff (blogs, games, experience, etc.).

My own books have many GM TOOLS (random tables etc.), but I save the advice for my blog.

One problem is that advice does not apply equally to all play-styles.

If you want to put GM advice in your book, consider spelling out which parts are more important to your game (e.g., "Game time is of utmost importance. Failure to keep careful track of time expenditure by player characters will result in many anomalies in the game". [...]  "YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.").

EDIT: I have read the OP  again and I see you are dressed most of these points already. So, my main advice is in the  last paragraph, above.

Quote from: saki on June 17, 2023, 12:43:32 PM

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on June 17, 2023, 11:55:16 AM
My approach is that such GM advice consists of two different things:

1. Critical stuff that is directly pertinent to your game, not gaming in general.
2. Supporting stuff that grounds the game, gives design intent, clarifies rules, etc.

This is pretty close to another divide I settled on earlier. Separating out material that explains function for in-depth readers and GMs looking to tinker with the rules. I've often wished that major systems would include those kinds of notes alongside their GM materials. Kudos to anyone who does end up publishing those notes. 

Come to think of it, I added a small chapter on "designer's notes" for my "Old School Feats" book, explaining some of the reasoning behind the rules.

One could easily write a whole book on GM help. Many authors have done this, but IMO one of the best implementations of the concept is How to Be a GURPS GM, by Wilson and Punch.

If you're broadly familiar with the system and writing a GM chapter, I'd reckon it's a must-read. I'd at least skim the headings, and distill the many paragraphs to a workable length.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on June 17, 2023, 11:55:16 AM
My approach is that such GM advice consists of two different things:

1. Critical stuff that is directly pertinent to your game, not gaming in general.
2. Supporting stuff that grounds the game, gives design intent, clarifies rules, etc.

Ideally, put almost all of the latter into a separate document, that someone can read or not as they see fit.  If you are selling a printed book, I'd expect this to be mainly in a downloadable PDF, though of course if the whole game is PDF, that's somewhat moot.  Still, make an effort to not mix it in with the more critical things. The exception is concise, carefully headed key  statements that kind of bridge the gap between this material and the rest of the game.  A limited amount of that might naturally fit in main rules.

If you find it impossible to edit this separate book down into useful content, you can always never publish it. In my design work, I find it a handy place to put things that may or may not ever see the light of day. 

The former would be key examples, direction of how the game runs that might not match other games, etc.  Don't compare it to other games.  Just explain the intended approach. Anyone new needs that minimal bit as a start.  Anyone experienced will find it a quick introduction to what is different about your game. 

In other words, don't explain what "role playing" is in general.  Explain what people do when role playing in your game.  Don't explain how you can put together any general adventure.  Explain how you would put together a typical adventure for that game. People with experience know you can branch out from that.

If you want a concrete example, get a copy of the Moldvay Basic D&D rules, and study just how much useful information is crammed into the GM section in about 10 pages. It's not trying to be all things to all people, and it's not rambling around.  It's getting you started with some of the key bits.

As usual, brilliant post 

I think there needs to be a bit describing what you do as a GM.  For this I like to put in an examples of play, mainly player (including the GM) dialogue with a bit of mechanics.  It's also useful to new players to understand how the game works.  Telling folks how to GM _well_ is another thing entirely.  Many books are written on this, and I'd rather point folks to one of those rather than say it all again myself.

My system has its own separate GM Guide precisely because I live in hope of a day when WotC is not the gateway to other RPGs (and WotC's efforts to turn D&D into a digital walled garden don't hurt my chances on that).

I start with the sound advice that the GM isn't alone in trying to have a good time and so can offload a number of things onto other players as he desires; initiative tracking, damage tracking (just do it additively where they're just adding up damage dealt and you'll know when the critter drops), etc.

The idea behind that advice and putting it first is to make it feel less daunting for a new GM.

The second thing I have is a checklist for handling rulings; does what the player wants to do even need a check or is the outcome obvious? are there any consequences for failure? how long should it take? what trait should you use for the check? how hard should the check be? What should the consequences of success or failure be?

It's barely a page, but for a new GM who's faced with something the regular rules don't cover, having a short checklist to follow gives them a tool to aid them until they internalize it.

Next up, I talk about setting the tone for your campaign in the form of several axes; serious vs. silly, linear vs. sandbox, and heroic vs. horror; with a discussion of how to tweak the rules to achieve your desires (ex. for a more serious tone you might want to add lasting injuries that can take weeks or even months to heal or could even worsen and kill you if untreated and changing "raise dead" into an EMT-type ritual that only works if begun within a few minutes of "death"... for lighter-hearted game you could extend the time between recovery checks to avoid death or even rule that "death" is instead just unconsciousness for a period of time).

I then discuss how to present the setting in terms of different genres... the default is a post-post-apocalyptic in the ruins of an advanced scifi civilization setting, but with just some variance in description and perhaps dropping a few bits of gear you could range from a Dark Ages Europe to standard fantasy, to modern post-apocalypse, to space opera... as four examples of how a GM could make the setting their own.

I then talk about player motivations (which are also part of the player book in terms of putting names to what appeals to them, but this is more examples of things to play to their interests and things to watch out for that could cause a problem at the table).

Then advice on different ways to start the campaign (do they meet in a bar? do they already know each other or even have a shared past?) and whether you want to put any limits on the availability of races, backgrounds or classes to fit your campaign (the system is quite broad in default options because it's easier for a new GM to just not use something than it is for them to try and add something.

The next section is all the GM facing rules, for things like terrain effects, afflictions (diseases, curses, lasting injuries), encounter-building guidelines, rewards and a number of already tested optional rules for both character generation (such as randomly generating attributes, races, backgrounds and classes) and combat (ex. theatre of the mind considerations like determining cover and number of targets in an AoE).

Then it's on to world-building, with basic and advanced versions that include a bunch of tables you can use for reference or roll on to build a region, and populate it with various realms (heroic and hostile), settlements and ruins to explore and then add a number of events both historical, present and pending to build adventure hooks off of.

Once you have the world you need to populate it, so the following chapter is on creating NPCs and how to build custom opponents/monsters of varying levels of complexity.

The back 60% of the book is the "bestiary" with several hundred pre-gen opponents for the GM to use.

GM advice for beginners is simple- run games. Mistakes will be made. Make note of them and develop solutions for not repeating the same ones and keep playing. No volume of advice is going to actually prepare a new GM to run a flawless game from session one. It is an art that is learned by doing. So my advice is to run lots of games, absorb the feedback you get good and bad, and keep going.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on June 17, 2023, 11:55:16 AM
Ideally, put almost all of the latter into a separate document, that someone can read or not as they see fit.  If you are selling a printed book, I'd expect this to be mainly in a downloadable PDF, though of course if the whole game is PDF, that's somewhat moot.  Still, make an effort to not mix it in with the more critical things. The exception is concise, carefully headed key  statements that kind of bridge the gap between this material and the rest of the game.  A limited amount of that might naturally fit in main rules.

If you find it impossible to edit this separate book down into useful content, you can always never publish it. In my design work, I find it a handy place to put things that may or may not ever see the light of day. 

Yes. And I would suggest the second document be free, online, and a work in progress with updates as necessary. No need to be perfect out the gate.

Quote from: Isomer on June 17, 2023, 03:12:04 PM
One could easily write a whole book on GM help. Many authors have done this

would someone give more suggestions on this please? so i won't have to sift through all the bs myself >_>

p.s. great thread everybody. this is the stuff i joined this forum for, thank you <3

Quote from: Klava on June 20, 2023, 02:12:09 AM

Quote from: Isomer on June 17, 2023, 03:12:04 PM
One could easily write a whole book on GM help. Many authors have done this

would someone give more suggestions on this please? so i won't have to sift through all the bs myself >_>

p.s. great thread everybody. this is the stuff i joined this forum for, thank you <3

I don't have time to make a list atm, but Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering is well regarded.  In a recent thread, a lot of people, myself included, put the AD&D DMG at the top of the list.  The advice is interspersed with the rules, and some of it is contestable, but it's all worth thinking about.