I'm analyzing the DMG ("" the ultimate DM book) cover to cover in this forum and in my blog FWIW:

https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/add-dmg-cover-to-cover-from-a-bx-perspective/
https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/06/dmg-1e-cover-to-cover-index.html

I really like it but I do not think it's a good resource for beginners.

Maybe try Robin Laws or Lazy DM instead.

This is part of the problem with general advice. I think Robin Laws is almost the worst thing you could give a fledgling GM.  You need some experience to know that Law's advice is not general advice, but rather advice for a specific style of play.

Greetings!

Hmmm...I have to say the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, by Gary Gygax, and the Keep on the Borderlands Adventure Module. The giant Keep on the Borderlands book by Goodman Games is excellent. The Keep on the Borderlands Book by Goodman Games is a huge hardcover book which has the original module, but also expanded material, extra adventures, and special commentary and other resources. It is a fantastic book and resource.

As for DM advice for beginners, these are the resources I started gaming with at the age of 10 years old or so. At 10 years old, I read and comprehended these two works good enough to begin running campaigns and DMing with confidence, and growing skill.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: saki on June 17, 2023, 10:49:26 AM
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".

Not in the case of my Basic Rules for my Majestic Fantasy RPG.

Quote from: saki on June 17, 2023, 10:49:26 AM
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).

I think we all benefit when the author lays out their experience eating their own dogfood. 

Quote from: saki on June 17, 2023, 10:49:26 AM
The real issue is that a GM help chapter could easily devour as much effort as the rest of a system combined.

There are two thing one needs to learn, how to write tersely and what is really important to how their campaign work using the system. The rest is generally things that came about because of specific situations. For a core book you want to focus on what you did that was used across most of the situation you dealt with. The rest of your advice can be given later when you write your supplemental material.

Quote from: saki on June 17, 2023, 10:49:26 AM
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.

For me? It is because I lived in a rural city in NW Pennsylvania. Aside from a handful of close friends most of the time I dealt with novices. Novices to my setting, novices to the system, GURPS (for the most part).

But above I learned because I put myself into uncomfortable situations involving total strangers. Mostly by being part of organized gaming, running game store campaigns, participating in and eventually running LARP events. Even fired up a MMORPG server or two.  The easy thing to do out of all of these is get involved in organized gaming at a game store or convention.

And adopt the mindset that the player is not wrong but rather you could have done better. To a point. Even I have my limits where I get to the point of saying "Perhaps my campaigns are not for you.".

Quote from: saki on June 17, 2023, 10:49:26 AM
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?

Because I discuss classic D&D and sandbox campaigns so much, I decided to say fuck it and release two chapters out of my Basic Rules for the Majestic Wilderland RPG as a free download.

When to make a Ruling
https://www.batintheattic.com/downloads/When%20to%20make%20a%20Ruling.pdf

The world outside of the Dungeon
https://www.batintheattic.com/downloads/The%20World%20Outside%20of%20the%20Dungeon.pdf

So you can see what I did for yourself. Hopefully it will be useful. The two chapters amounted to 12 pages out of 200. But keep in mind the bulk of the book are comprised of lists. List of spells, monsters, and NPCs. From pages 47 to 56, then 80 to 200. There is only so far you can keep these lists terse without sacrificing utility.

What I try to do is make every page count by infusing the descriptions and explanations with short notes and a sense of a time and place to paint a picture that a larger world exists outside of what I choose to detail.

Again I hope this helps.

For a new GM, I would start with a hand-holding short adventure, a linear dungeon crawl with a combat encounter that can be evaded/negotiated away and one that can't, that then opens up to let the players have a few decisions to make and more opportunity for basic roleplay. By that point the GM has has a little experience at using some of the basic rules and knows something of the flow of gameplay, and that is when you can spend a few pages talking about sandbox vs. linear play, and other topics. Those would include gauging appropriate difficulty levels, tying PCs into the world by mentioning what people/groups they're involved with, and then adventure design. I'd then try to sell them on a booklet that describes a city with several open-ended things to get involved with (adventure hooks) and one specific mission they can go on from there, described in less detail.