Do:
Have good music. Suggestion- old Genesis, from when Peter Gabriel was with them.
Have an overall story arch; nothing too rigid because the pc wont want to get involved with everything in your head. But you want a basic list of McGuffins the pcs will have to go after and villains they wont be able to ignore. Something meaty but not so long you wont ever get through it.
Have a basic map of the world (as the pcs know it) drawn out.
Give them a cool arch enemy who they love to hate. Flesh out his/her goals, desires, powers, and pathos.
If you don't already, read lots of good fantasy and pick apart the way settings and characters are described.
Make different voices for different characters, its fun and players always appreciate it.
If you're in a position to enjoy some herbal "medicine," get a little baked, it helps you keep a picture of everything going on in your head.
Don't:
Get too baked, you might have fun but few others will.
Be afraid to kill all the players. A trip to the underworld is a surprising yet not unheard of turn in the usual hero's journey.
DM in your underpants, it's apparently creepy.
DM while wearing a cape, it's unnecessary.
1. As a DM, GM, or Storyteller your first job is to kill... *ahem* tell a good story. Prepare to have your narrative hijacked and stacks of creative works tossed out the window when PC's go off the map. Dread the words "Let's split the party", but prepare for loads of improvisation. Its a good idea to learn this skill early on and not try to make your campaign a "rail-hacknslash loot pinata".
2. If this is your first time DM-ing avoid allowing evil characters in D&D. My experience has been that most players fail to play evil characters as anything other than murderous psychopaths who end up killing each other or starting fights in heavily garrisoned towns/cities that end up with all the PC's dead or pretty well fucked. Basically once you've had a good amount of time as a DM you can see who's emotionally mature enough not to turn your game into a free-for-all GTA-in-fantasy-drag shitstorm, and who shouldn't be allowed to choose alignments for themselves. Restricting alignments isn't gimping characters, its providing a stopgap for asshat trolls from calling hijacking the game and ruining it for everyone "roleplaying".
3. Dice rolls as a DM are up to the DM exactly what they mean. DO NOT give out target numbers to players, don't give them a hint of what they need to roll to succeed. Depending on the situation fudging a dice roll is fine, do all of yours behind a screen. When fudging dice rolls BE FAIR, but not out of pity's sake. Do it for the spirit of the game. If a bad dice roll by you or a player could make a scene more dramatic don't touch it. In the same spirit if you're trying to add drama and the players aren't rolling bad, up the ante and change difficulty on them.
4. After long sessions, if the players become complacent and seem like they think they're invincible, don't be afraid to go Dark Souls on their ass. Bust out the [a href="http://wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/toon/TombHorrors"]Tomb of Horrors[/a], or [a href="http://wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/toon/BarrierPeaks"]Barrier Peaks[/a] or even drag their asses into Ravenloft. Point is, killing a PC to create tension and bring back the fear of mortality in a game is paramount. Don't abuse this, but use it when necessary. Unlike Dark Souls, you don't just get a second pass to try again. Permadeath is very important to hammer home. But again, too much and you alienate your players. Sometimes its good to let someone re-roll a character, gives them a chance to play something different.
5. Monty haul is not a good campaign. Overlooting, making ever more badass weapons and armor will end up hindering a campaign. Make magical items rare, something to be treasured. Also don't be afraid to add drawbacks of using a magical item, especially if its powerful. But do not make magical items that are badass commonplace. If you're going to add in magic items that are common, make sure they're things like "rock that casts Continual Light, 15 charges. After charges expire, rock turns to dust". Tools that take the place of other tools shouldn't be uber-powered or permanent, unless its a rare item. Make magical items mean something if they're powerful, but never make game-breaking items.
6. Learn when to break, either for lunch/dinner or session break. Marathon campaigns are fun, but do not make every session a marathon. Also its good to have side adventures or one-shot campaigns drawn up. Even allow other players to draw these up themselves. Sometimes a break from DMing is good, and playing someone else's campaign for a bit. Just don't quit in the middle of a campaign you made, that usually end gaming groups in my experience. If you're burning out, take a break and also inform your players that you need one. Don't last minute that shit either, barring family emergency or your own personal emergency.
7. Get to know your players, what their likes and dislikes are, both in and outside of the gaming sphere. You never know what information could be handy to make an experience more immersive and also allow players to feel like you made their lives part of the game. A good DM doesn't just draw on his/her own experiences but draws from the pool of knowledge that is players.
8. Get to know your tropes, how to use them well and how to avoid overkill. [a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons?from=Main.DungeonsAndDragons"]This[/a] is a good article about that. Yes its a tvtropes link, but trust me I wish I'd had this resource 18 years ago, it would have saved me a lot of trial and error.
9. Not everyone's cut out to be a DM, likewise having one or two bad campaigns or sessions is not a reason to give up. Not everything works out as planned, and sometimes the idea in our head never truly makes it on to paper or translates well into gameplay.
10. Research what makes a good villain. RESEARCH many other things too. Put a lot of thought into your game, use resources other than game books to get a unique feel.
11. On the contrary its perfectly ok to use pre-gen'd dungeons/campaigns. You don't have to be a creative genius to be a good DM.
12. Stamp out meta-gaming. Neuter rules lawyers with the golden rule, the DM has final say on any rule and the books are only guidelines. Be fair, but sometimes being fair is also being a bastard. Be a bastard when necessary.
13. Anything else is pretty much covered, be wary of munchkins/min-maxers, rules lawyers and other bad players. Break players of those habits if you see them forming. Remember that this isn't a video game and the goal isn't to max out your stats, its about playing a role. Setting limitations is a good thing, allows for much more critical thinking and great roleplaying moments.
Kill them all. With fire, acid, lightning, disintegration beams, meteors falling on their heads, cave-ins, poison traps, spike traps, frictionless floors next to bottomless pits, etc. Make them fear you.
Get to know your players and make decisions based on them. I've had groups that were content to sit in a tavern and do no adventuring what so ever, they wanted to adventure but wouldn't go find it(it was pretty obvious). I've had players who really wanted a magic item every session, didn't need to be powerful as long as it was magic. Figure out how you're players want to play and push your campaign towards that. Though don't sacrifice the group's happiness for a single player's.
DMing is an art and it's really hard to put out specific rules. Most of the time from a players point of view, if you get anything done, kill the enemy, infiltrate the fortress whatever players who aren't jerks will be having fun any which way.
The above posts already have some great points. I don't claim to be any authority, but here's some experience speaking.
- Listen to your players. Poll them before the game begins. Sit down with each one and ask them if they have build ideas, what they enjoy. They usually will come into a game with some preconceptions, and while you're under no obligation to accept any of them, you can at least throw a klepto thief a bone by having a challenge focusing on their busy hands, for instance.
- Be flexible. Players are humans. They'll surprise you. They'll come up with crafty crap. They'll somehow do everything except what you expect or try to lead them towards. Accept this, and work with it. If you want to focus on political intrigue and suddenly find yourself in an encore performance of A Scotsman In Egypt, relax, take a breath, and roll with it.
- Plan, but have some leeway in your campaign. Related to the above, a tightly wound, linear campaign will be smashed to pieces in 15 minutes flat. Remember, the more complex it is and the more players there are, the faster a structure comes down. (This is also literal in gameplay.) Don't be afraid to improvise as you go. If you have no road map and your players can't find one, they're going to get bored and frustrated, which doesn't help any of you.
- As mentioned by previous posters, aim for a fun experience. Don't crush them with melancholy, futility, or frustration (unless your players all agree for a touch of the dystopian or Lovecraftian horror). If they can't have fun finding a solution, you're failing your task as a GM.
- No ass-pulls and no punishing plays. There's nothing wrong with a hard campaign. Those are fine. They can even be enjoyable. My GM Mark ran us in a severely uneven guerrilla war on the side of the guerrillas, where we were scraping for every resource we could get. It was hard, but it was fair. All the rules of the game were followed consistently and logically, and we enjoyed it and praised his brutal creativity. Pulling an instant-kill or auto-hit trap out of nowhere just because someone's been beating your setups by making all their saving rolls as a grudge or punishment is social bullshit, and you will deserve the flak you get for it. Same with arbitrarily banning your players from using tactics, especially if you used them. If you're going to restrict something, write down some ground rules as to why, and apply them for everyone.
- That said, write everything down. You're gonna get good ideas, or alternatives that you hadn't planned on. Something. They'll come and they'll often go without warning, and the last thing you need is to lose a possible option for your game. Keep something to write on. The moment you get an idea, jot it down, but resist the urge to share. Bounce it off players not in your group (internet is great for this). You want to surprise your players. Much like dice rolling, you can make your players worry about the sounds of pencil on paper with this sort of thing.
- Stay cagey. Players are crafty things and they'll often try to take every advantage you offer and many you didn't know you handed them. They'll catch on if you get predictable, and they'll often turn your own clever tricks against you. Similar to the above, be aware of what you give them, and work creatively with what you have.
- Reward intelligence and creativity. Players like to know that they're rewarded for their actions, and if manage to surprise you in a genuinely smart fashion, don't rage, but rather, accept that you have some clever people on the other side of the table, reward it, and take notes.
- Be firm but polite with munchkins. Expect a little optimization from your players--that's what they do. See the whole 'seeking advantages' bit above. However, unless your entire table is munchy, one or two munchkins can ruin your party balance and game plans above and beyond what's reasonable for you to account for. Put your foot down if they bring some kind of game-breaking or off-topic nonsense to the table. For instance, if they try to twink their way to an Assault BattleMech when your group is supposed to be a scout team (which I've had happen), or if they insist on playing a blaster-caster in a magic-less low fantasy setting, tell them that the rules are there for a reason and stand firm. If they pitch a hissy fit or threaten to leave, well, you've just seen their true colors under duress. Ask yourself: "Do I really want to have to deal with that at my table?"
- Where applicable, encourage a little temperament or alignment synchronization, and don't be afraid to mediate. You don't need all Good-aligned characters, but reminding people that this is a group game will go a long way to smoothing out arguments early. People who insist on targeting others within the party, however, should be discouraged. If they keep it up and are clearly hindering the party or pissing off your other players, this is when it's perfectly suitable to punish them. Other times, just letting the other players openly voice their opinions might make them wise up. If you feel you need to expel a disruptive person from the group, you're going to have to bite the bullet and make the call. Don't be ashamed to take a stand.
- Don't rage quit. I've seen some GMs rage quit on the second session because their carefully set up plans weren't going the way they wanted, their players weren't doing what they expected, or things were going slower than they'd hoped. Rage quitting and abandoning a campaign is not going to make people people want to play with you as either a player or a GM. If it isn't related to the balance or behavioral issues above, have patience and work with your players. A good GM rolls with the punches. A bad one shatters and blames their group, passive-aggressively insulting the players all the while (which I've experienced as a player, and put me off any further sessions with that person).
- Don't abuse power or lord it over your players. You're a GM, yes, and Rule Zero means that your word is the final rule, but remember that Rule Double Zero exists as well: a GM who acts like God and abuses their power at the expense of the fun of their players will lose those players. A god of a lifeless, static world with no experiences happening in it is a useless god.
- Finally, remember that people will remember the beginning and the end of a series of events more than what's in the middle. Start with something strong or memorable. For instance, the guerrilla war campaign I was in started with us already captured for being suspicious and needing to engineer a jailbreak before we were executed. We finally finished that campaign eight months later with a fiery siege and eventually burning the big bad's fort right to the ground. Scale the threat level accordingly (don't try to stop the jailbreak with a dragon, etc.) and you can become that one GM players whose sessions become war stories.
Hope this has helped you and any other prospective GMs a bit.
Apart from the obvious ones like "don't be unfair" and "don't abuse your powers to make your own fantasy":
1. learn to say yes! Your players wan't to smash open the inside of the ship to get out? Don't say "that'll kill ya" or "you'll never get through the wood" - unless you are playing a hyper-realistic game, learn to say yes and have fun! Can#t find a rule about how to swing on a chandelier or how to calculate how much damage a thrown treasure chest does? Improvise, don't say "can't find rules on it - do something else".
This is literally the most imortant advice I can give you.
And now onto less important stuff:
2. Learn what type of GM you are. Do you work better when you prepare a lot, or when you improvise? I learned this the hard way - I used to prepare everything beforehand, writing intricate scripts for dialogue even, and yet when I talked to my players the most memorable events and characters where the ones where I said "shit, forgot to write down who this guy is" and had to think up something that fits.
3. Learn to steal ideas, be it the ones of professional authors or even of your players. You can't write a story that is made of elements nobody has ever thought of. See a cool idea, take it and put it into your campaign! You have a rough outline for the story, but your players break it? Ask them what they think the story is. And then make that your story if that fits better. Don't be afraid to throw the entire outline away. Every campaign will be awesome.
EDIT: Forgot 4: Learn to fudge. Have something between you and your players so that you can cheat. It might not seem pretty, but it is necessary sometimes, simply because you made a mistake and your players shouldn't suffer from it. I remember almost killing someone just because I forgot to adjust the weapons of an orc raiding party, meaning they all had the hardest-hitting fuck-off double-handed head-choppers. All the hyphens.
A lot of advice here already but I'll throw in a couple of straightforward things that I have found useful.
1.) Never call for a die roll when failure isn't interesting. When character's don't find the clue, or get over the fence, or locate the secret door the game slams to a halt and you lose any momentum you've built up.
2.) Never penalize a player for awesome. If a character has two options; a) walk around his opponent and stab him in the back or b) do a standing flip over his head and stab him in the back; don't make it harder to do the latter. I know it sounds a lot harder, but all you're getting for the trouble of setting a DC is a less awesome scene.
3.) Listen to your players even when they aren't talking to you. Sometimes the ideas they have about what's happening will be better than yours, and if you make them right they'll feel smart and you get a better story out of it.
1) Don't over-prepare. Many of the others have said, but your players WILL go off the railroad occasionally. Don't waste your time preping the details weeks in advance. Just get the framework of your campaign up and wing it as best you can. You'll screw up when you're new, but don't let it discourage you, because it's just part of the learning curve.
2) Don't feel ashamed to give an adventure path/module a go. Many of them are great fun and really help new DM's get a sense for the various power-levels of monsters and classes (along with removing responsibility, so your players won't get butt-blasted at you if you accidentally TPK them). This is one thing I wish I'd done when I started.
Anyway, just go have fun. It's more about having good company than anything else, the rules are more like guidelines.
I'm a terrible storytelling / roleplay DM. However I can't offer some advise on the combat side of things. This comes from my experience with 4e D&D but could apply elsewhere.
- Offer some kind of description that represents the monsters hp. I use a simple system. Wounded is under 75 percent, bloodied is under 50 percent and brinkish is under 25 percent. If you're creative enough to convey damage in a more visceral way based on the events than do so.
- Give monsters extra vulnerabilities. In 4e, there are a ton of ice monsters with no vulnerability to fire and vice versa. Players enjoy it when they can find a reason to use certain damage types in combat. It mixes things up over the campaign and when done frequently can influence a players build choices.
- Abilities that 'stun' or skip a PC's turn entirely are almost never fun. Keep these powers to an absolute minimum. In 4e I almost always convert the stun affix to dominate. It's fun to roll dice and attack. Most players find it fun to attack one another in a non-consequential way as well. Dominate > Stun
- Give powerful monsters 'stages' in combat. Look at how video game bosses typically go through stages of difficulty before finally falling. Don't be afraid to do the same with your solo / elite monsters. It keeps battle interesting. I'll list a few general examples below:
1) Weapon based enemy: They unsheathe a lightning sword whose damage chains to nearby PC's on hit.
2) Brawler based enemy: Dirty Fighting tactics 1/round. Dirt kick in the eyes for penalty to attack rolls or blindness. Shoulder slam to push an enemy back a few squares. Sweep kick for close range AoE and trip.
3) Dragon: In 4e dragons tend to lack spells. I typically give them some of the staple D&D 3.5 spells on bloodied status or brinkish status. Fireball in particular, not save or die stuff
4) Undead: Upon being bloodied you describe the PC has having cut off their arm. The arm then acts as an added threat in the combat as it tries to immobilize/strangle/trip or generally pester the party.
5) Ooze: As the ooze gets injured it leaves puddles of itself on the battle field. These could act as pools of poison / disease / acid or simply just a slippery surface that required acrobatics to stabilize on. Alternatively the ooze could splatter out on hit like in Alien and have a chance to burn the attacker. It could also start to spawn smaller versions of itself when struck with a weapon (this still damages the mob progresses combat though).
Have fun with the monsters but don't be cheap about it. This is about added excitement and a bit of challenge to the encounter...not about punishing a player for being a melee combatant or making your PC's feel cheated.
Speaking of Dragons, don't make the mistake of throwing in a fight with a dragon just because, especially not at low levels. The only way the players would survive a dragon is if it's a baby or child dragon, and then what's even the point?
If you insist on throwing in a dragon fight early on, make it bite the players in the ass later, when mommy comes around and finds out her baby has been shanked by a bunch of a**holes and decide to throw down, OotS style:
Hi there, fellow DM! In my experience in watching other people GM arcs in the forums and real life table top, as well as running my current game; I've learned these things:
- Have the plot focus on the PCs. Important NPCs are nice for information/resource giving, but the core of the conflicts/actions should be with the PCs. (You wouldn't believe how much I've seen stuff focus on DMPCs. Shit ain't fun.)
- Allow time for downtime. 24/7 battles/srrsness all day erry day gets boring. Let the players Roleplay them doing something in a city, allow them to have a conversation on the road every once in a while.
- Have a skeleton of a plot that you can adjust. Perhaps the PCs don't go exactly where you want them to find a thing. Move the thing in question (event/item/whatever) so they reach it anyways. It makes your life easier, and the PCs feel like they chose to go there.
- Spell out stuff. PCs don't notice things too easily unless you highlight and underline it. Give them a spot/listen check to notice the thing in question. This also applies to combative encounters with environmental hazards to use/exploit.
- Give the illusion of choice. Like the example above, a PC is happier if they think that what they did impacted something; even if they didn't at all. This isn't to say that players CAN'T make decisions ever, but if you want something specific to happen, your players will be happier when they think they chose to go that way.
Don't let your players min/max. Have them roll their stats like everybody else. It's a lot more organic that way, and can hopefully avoid hostility and a wizard starting with only three hit points.
I thought rolling your stats was the only way to fill in your character sheet? You roll your numbers and assign them to the six abilities in whichever way you like?
Incidentally, in the current D&D game my friend is hosting I'm a Wizard who's started with three hit points
I have a few rules I at least try to follow. Here they are in no particular order. Some of them may have already been stated:
Don't say 'no'. Never say "You can't do that", except when the character specifically cannot do that (when a warrior tries to cast a Magic Missile or something). Maybe warn the player (especially if he's inexperienced) that what he's about to do may harm him, but don't outright say that it's impossible. A lot of the coolest situations in RPGs can come from a player succeeding in what seemed like an impossible task or even miserably failing what he's trying to do. In fact, if he fails, try to at least make that failure somewhat interesting or entertaining.
Listen to your players. Was already said, but I'd like to elaborate on one particular thing: Several people in this thread have said that you shouldn't let your players min/max the hell out of their characters and that you shouldn't turn your campaign into a simple hack'n'slash lootfest. But the thing is...you should. At least if that's what your players want. If all they wanna do is hack down wave after wave of Goblins and Orcs...well, let them do that. For some (me included), that may be a rather boring way to play an RPG, but it's not 'wrong' if the players wanna do it.
Improvise, don't overprepare. Admittedly, that's something I'm guilty of. I'll soon start a new game with a new group and have been working on the story for almost half a year, and it's pretty epic. But like no plan survives first encounter with the enemy, no campaign survives first encounter with the players. There will always, always be something that you didn't think of, no matter how much you prepared. Maybe it's a case of you thinking "They can't possibly be so stupid as to try this". They can. Or maybe it's you simply forgetting that one of them has an ability that makes him completely ignore the supposedly impossible-to-bypass barrier. There will be things the players do that messes with your plans. Sometimes, players will even do it deliberately, just to see how far they can go. But sometimes, they just do something because they fail to see an option you thought was obvious. In that case, you have to improvise.
Be neutral. You're the one telling the story. You're not participating in it (unless you're telling some kind of post-modern meta-story, but I doubt that). Don't give the players tips or hints, unless they're really stuck. Don't introduce a DMPC to be a permanent party member and even if you do, let the players control him and don't let him partake in their strategic discussions. This is their story, you're just telling it. They are the heroes. Not you. Also, don't be antagonistic. Don't try everything you can to kill the PCs. Of course, death should still be a visitor that is to be expected, but that should mainly be because of bad luck with the dice (but if they're having a catastrophic streak of bad luck, you should still fudge your rolls) or stupid decisions by the players themselves, not because you decided it would be fun to go on a killing spree.
Reward good decisions, don't punish bad ones. And especially don't punish good ones. Let's say your players are on the brink of death and they decide to retreat. Let them retreat. Don't make the biggest and baddest monster go after the weakest hero while he's retreating. It was a sensible, logical and intelligent decision to retreat, so don't punish them for it. Other example, a bit more meta: Let's say you have one player who is a really good roleplayer. He portrays his character's personality consistently, only talks OOC when necessary and, well, is just good at roleplaying. And then you have another player who is incredibly bad at roleplaying. He rarely talks in-character, his character's personality is all over the place (a complete and utter idiot in one scene and a brilliant mastermind in the next or something) and it's apparent that he only wants to smash monsters. You should reward the good player (e.g. with bonus-XP, though not too many) but not punish the bad player (e.g. by taking away XP or something like that). With luck, the Munchkin will get that he will be rewarded if he plays more like the roleplayer.
Beg, borrow and steal. Maybe you're like me, and as soon as you read the first few lines describing the setting, a story just starts forming in your head. But maybe you're not and you still would like to tell your own story. In that case, get inspired! Maybe in the sourcebook, you find a character you want to implement, a magic artifact the players could search for, an interesting place they could visit, etc. If that's not the case, look at the characters themselves. Do they have backstories you could build upon? Maybe you could even connect them. Let's just take a clichéd example: Character A has never known his real father, but he's got some kind of strange birthmark. Character B inherited some kind of magical item from his father and tries to find out what it is and can do. And Character C had to witness his hometown being burned down when he was a child. Now, let's say you send them after some kind of evil sorcerer who's after the magic item of B. During the campaign, the characters could find out that this sorcerer is responsible for burning down B's town and that he's also the long-lost father of A, as evidenced by the fact that he has the same birthmark. And BOOM you have a reason for the characters to travel together AND a reason for them to go after the villain. And maybe even some internal conflict (B and C want to kill the sorcerer, A tries to redeem him or something). And if that doesn't help: Read Fantasy stories, watch Fantasy movies and so on. Adapt your favorite stories as campaigns. You're not trying to win an Oscar or tell the most original story ever told, you're here to entertain your friends and yourself!
Give your players as much freedom as possible, but not too much. That's mostly for character creation. RPGs are about playing the role you want to play, so don't limit the kind of roles the players can play. Although there may be situations where that isn't possible. Maybe the story you want to play requires the players to play certain classes. Maybe all your players play Lawful Good Paladins and Clerics and there's one who want's to play a wanted Chaotic Evil assassin. That's not impossible, but improbable and you have to decide whether it fits. If you decide it doesn't, well that guy has to find a new character.
You have the power. Don't abuse it. As DM, you're both kind of the god of your own world and also a judge in terms of rules. You decide both what happens in the world (and what kind of consequences the players have to face for their actions) and how the rules are applied. If you decide that it would be better for the story to ignore or loosen a certain rule, that's it. You're the one who decides. Your players have to learn that. On the other hand, you shouldn't abuse that power. Be fair in your decisions. If a character has a chance to do a roll to see if he survives, let him make that roll. If he does something stupid, don't make the consequences harsher than they have to be. Of course, when the character stands in front of a 500ft deep chasm and the players says that he "turns around and steps back"...well, he's dead.
Diversify. Something I think many DMs, especially new ones do is thinking that every session has to culminate in a big battle. That's not the case. Of course, if your party is focused on fighting monsters, they want to do that. But if your party is varied enough, give them different objectives. Maybe one session is about killing a monster, but the next is a stealth mission. And the one after that hinges on diplomacy or deception, or heck, even a murder mystery. You can tell a lot of stories, so do it!
Also, watching Spoony's "Counter Monkey" can help and visiting sites like TVtropes to learn about common tropes and clichés and how to use them is also useful.
Whatever you plan your players will find a way to foil it
There always will be a JERK
I have played only in one D&D campaign and I was the jerk. I mean I could just for fun go deep in milking ants. Indeed.. not that I knew the rules by then by the meta game. Lets say meta and me.. we share a room.
Now I run a Risus Campaign myself. Risus it not D&D I know but you know the same problems can show up and so far. Sometimes it is hard to coral the players. I had players disappear for three times to wanting to return. They could.. at a price.
Risus is muchos easier then D&D but it can fall to the same issues. Players not being fully there 100%, players having a rotten days, players disliking other players. Players.. you get my point.
The stories, well I learned that I can try to pull them along a set story line but. You know, as much as some of them try to "cheat" the system I actually rather create a basic skeleton of a mission. I create a world where it happens in and I let it run. You would be surprised how good it goes.
You don't always have to fully prepare. You can also have help troops, write there different "story lines" and you know if your players choose to go west and use a boat... they might not meet the orks.
I know that in D&D you kinda need to rally them more. Give them a mission. Okay. Still even within a set mission there are sidepaths. And they can use the sidepaths so they might not meet your well planned Demon/Necromancer .. didn't happen. Oh well keep that idea of the demon/necromancers and use it another time.
Last time I actually made it easier for them. Lets say that their fighter was rather erm. kept busy .. so I had to slide the attention to the thief/mage/etc side. No problems. Always have options for if players are kept busy.
One piece of advice. Recognize the difference between play acting and role playing. Way too many people equivocate the two. Let players refer to their character in the third person so long as they are making decisions based on what that character would do. I've had some play actors who were really bad role players and some role players who were really bad play actors. Of course the two aren't mutually exclusive.
Having said that.. play acting is cool and all. It can add some spice to liven up a campaign. However, it doesn't amount to much if you can't role play.
Back in the late '80's there was a module called "The Keep" which was a direct 'port' of the movie by the same name. Even the villains made the transition to paper.
OT: One rule to follow at all times. If a rule in the book either breaks your campaign, or doesn't mesh well with the players, or even makes the game slow down because of silly dice rolls, eliminate that rule. The game is about having fun, not rolling dice all day.
If you want to get a general idea about how to run the game, I would recommend getting a module made for the level of characters in the game. They do make them, they're out there. In the late '70's, the basic set came with a module to play it with, called "Keep on the Borderlands". This module covered levels 1-3 (not suggested for starting with lvl 0 players, as lvl 0 is generally reserved for normal non-adventuring people.
if you're hell bent on making your own campaign, by all means do so, but when you do, be sure you understand that in a wilderness setting, people can go any which way they choose... it'll be your job to fill the areas (regardless which way they go) with things to do, and who says that the destination has to be dead north? Why not south? Or east? The campaign will not change, but if the players travel far enough, the monsters will.
Another thing to be sure you add. Something that tests them. I don't mean something they have to beat on for days to kill it. I mean a nasty puzzle here and there. Don't rely on the intelligence or wisdom scores to solve it. Make them do it themselves, but if they insist that they can solve it by those scores alone, get nasty. They can notice things that might be different, but by no means should the answer be given to them. My favorite little puzzle was this.
In front of you is a door/chest/lock/what have you, and a scale. There are 9 gold coins scattered around the scale.
Investigation reveals a bit of parchment that says the scale can only be used twice, and one of the coins is a fake. The fake coin is lighter than the rest. You must find the fake coin.
The solution goes as such: 3 coins on the left side, 3 on the right, and 3 in your hand. If either side of the scale is lighter than the other, that side has the lighter coin, and the other 6 are real, and can therefore be discarded. If it levels out, the lighter coin is in your hand, and the other 6 can be likewise discarded. Then one coin on each side, and one in your hand. If either side is lighter, that's the fake. If it levels out, the fake is in your hand, and you've solved it.
Things like that... things that make the players stop and think about what they're doing can make your game infinitely more playable.
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