Having spent a large portion of the summer rejoining the RPG world over skype, I have seen first hand examples of masterful gaming and fear inspiring screw ups.
With the big 'Campaign cancelled' reshuffle I found myself now occupying the seat I would never have chosen for myself, that of the GM.
I have a bit of a history with GMing, the last time I did it was about 6 years ago, and I hated it, I ran a home brewed system and a home brewed world. And of course it all fell to pieces within 3 sessions. Ever since I kept myself to forum roleplays and those too left a sour taste in my mouth.
So picture my horror of having just logged onto skype, being invited to join a call with my fellow PC's and being informed that I was to be Game Mastering their next adventure.
Having learnt from my previous experience, this game is based around a self modified version of 'Fate' and has a fully fleshed out world. Within the weak I had things planned and ideas for what to run my fellows through.
But what I could not prepare myself for were the PCs themselves.
Now I reach out to the Escapist community and request the advice of those with greater experience than I.
My strengths as a GM lie in ingenuity, adaptation and world building. With a little bit of improvisation thrown in.
But it's harder than you would think to manage 3+ players, especially when they all have their own unique way of trying to add to this world.
My problems lie in keeping a tight leash on my players additions to this world (to the point that one continually tries to rewrite the magic system), maintaining a consistent theme and also ensuring that things don't get bogged down. It also doesn't help when you have 3 completely incompatible characters, all with their own stories and backgrounds that need to be woven into the world without that cheap BS of 'It was a conspiracy all along and everything that has happened was planned from the start, MWHAHAHAHA'.
Save me escapist forums, for you are my only hope.
With the big 'Campaign cancelled' reshuffle I found myself now occupying the seat I would never have chosen for myself, that of the GM.
I have a bit of a history with GMing, the last time I did it was about 6 years ago, and I hated it, I ran a home brewed system and a home brewed world. And of course it all fell to pieces within 3 sessions. Ever since I kept myself to forum roleplays and those too left a sour taste in my mouth.
So picture my horror of having just logged onto skype, being invited to join a call with my fellow PC's and being informed that I was to be Game Mastering their next adventure.
Having learnt from my previous experience, this game is based around a self modified version of 'Fate' and has a fully fleshed out world. Within the weak I had things planned and ideas for what to run my fellows through.
But what I could not prepare myself for were the PCs themselves.
Now I reach out to the Escapist community and request the advice of those with greater experience than I.
My strengths as a GM lie in ingenuity, adaptation and world building. With a little bit of improvisation thrown in.
But it's harder than you would think to manage 3+ players, especially when they all have their own unique way of trying to add to this world.
My problems lie in keeping a tight leash on my players additions to this world (to the point that one continually tries to rewrite the magic system), maintaining a consistent theme and also ensuring that things don't get bogged down. It also doesn't help when you have 3 completely incompatible characters, all with their own stories and backgrounds that need to be woven into the world without that cheap BS of 'It was a conspiracy all along and everything that has happened was planned from the start, MWHAHAHAHA'.
Save me escapist forums, for you are my only hope.
