Okay, /tg/, give me your best GMing tips and secrets. Mine is

>>49645118
Don't use a GM screen. It blocks you off from the players and reduces your body language, which is crucial for communication and immersion.

>>49645118
Absolutely use a GM screen. It hides notes and rolls, adding a sense of mystery and uncertainty to your games. It can also aid immersion by hiding you from your players, making you seem more of a narrator to their tale rather than just another person at the table.

>>49645294
This. Kinda.

I use one but it's off to the side where I can hide dice rolls and reference quick rolls and hide the maps, but for the most part everything is handled in plain view.

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>>49645516
>>49645294
Use an obfuscating rolling box

>>49645118
Sometimes use a GM screen and sometimes don't. It shows your unpredictable and the players won't know what to expect from the campaign next! It also shows that you don't

>>49645118
Use a translucent GM screen. It allows the players to trust you better while still creating a solid barrier from the degenerate scum.

>>49645118
That's a neat idea for a screen. Make it out of better wood, take more care in the cuts, and add some decorative woodwork and I'd totally buy a screen like that.

>>49645118
Use a screen made from other GMs. It demonstrates the consequences that mary sues and special snowflakes will receive.

>>49645118

Use a DM screen, but place it on the other side of yourself from the players.

>>49645118
I've played many, many games where the GM has required a detailed backstory. I have played zero games where said backstory was ever used for plot hooks.

>>49645118
That's actually pretty good advice OP. I wish more DMs did that. I always make sure to leave some sort of hook in my characters... A favor to someone disreputable they owe, etc... but DMs almost never actually do anything with it.

Give the PCs ownership of some sort of property and you'll have them hooked.

>>49645118
I'd want that GM screen if I ever played IRL. That's a double-sided rolling tower, right? So you can roll publicly and privately?

>>49645683
Jesus, fucking this.

I get that it forces you to put some thought into the character, but if it's not going the actually matter in game then I might as well not have wasted my time and just made shit up as it comes along in game, if ever.

The best idea I've ever seen is instead of a backstory write a 3x3 of people relevant to your character. It only takes a few minutes and is way more convenient for the DM.

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>>49645516
>>49645579
>>49645596
>>49645630
>>49645661
You guys crack me up.

>>49645724

What do you mean by a 3x3? a post it note?

my players give me nothing besides " oh i wrote it on the back of my character sheet and then lost it."

>>49645118
Not much of a tip but I always like to bring a bottle of water because you talk a lot as a dm and that makes you thirsty.

>>49645118

Have players construct their characters along a theme. Halloween-y example: "Everyone is somehow involved in the business of black market necromancy, whether by supplying corpses or filching artifacts or being an actual necromancer." This gives everyone something in common, so it makes more sense that the group comes together and stays together early on, and it means that people's backstories are likely to have hooks which are convenient not only to the main plot, but also to each other.

>>49645690

Also, this. Players love boats and castles.

>>49645835
>Have players construct their characters along a theme. Halloween-y example: "Everyone is somehow involved in the business of black market necromancy, whether by supplying corpses or filching artifacts or being an actual necromancer." This gives everyone something in common, so it makes more sense that the group comes together and stays together early on, and it means that people's backstories are likely to have hooks which are convenient not only to the main plot, but also to each other.

this is basically what shadowrun does as a base, everyone's a criminal in kinda the same gig that come together because whatever reason, but they have a reason to be working with eachother already or to stick together

>>49645781
No, as in a sheet with 3 friends, 3 enemies/rivals, and 3 NPCs of relevance to the character of a category the DM thinks will be useful for his campaign.

3 NPCs in 3 categories. 3x3.

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>>49646362
>getting your players to write the campaign story and NPCs
>now that's a lazy GM

>>49645724
In a D&D game, levels 1-3 or so should be your backstory where you establish who your character is through actual play, which is more fun than writing a plot synopsis of their life.

Blart McFart's GM tip of the day:
Start your campaign off right by immediately dropping your players into an encounter. Though, this takes a little practice, and a good feel for your players, if done correctly you will immediately immerse them in your world and have them invested.

This is also a good way to grab the interest of more combat oriented players. After a fight, everyone will immediately be proactive on trying to piece the story together. "Why was that golem attacking us? Where did he come from? Will there be another?"

Using this method also allows plot hooks and adventures to unfold naturally. You can plant a hook as a treasure map on a bandit, or a freshly opened sewer grate with unusual sounds coming from below. Nothing brings a party together quite like escaping slavery.

>>49646454
Damn skippy.

I love your ideas.

My best secret is to let players do whatever they want, because that makes the game enjoyable for them (carrot-approach)
but if they try to do something which everyone would hate, for example,
I make them regret it, painfully and severely,
If they're really dumb, permanently too. (stick-approach)
They usually get the idea.
This way, the players drive the story forward by themselves and don't do anything dumb, but it still encourages creativity, ideas, characterisation etc.

Plan for nothing, be ready for everything.

Your plots don't need to be anything more than a hook or a problem to be solved. At most, you might have a rough idea of what will happen if the players don't involve themselves at all. The actions of the players and the way the dice fall will do the rest of the writing for you.

>>49645118

My top tip is asking what your players are looking for in an adventure. Do they want to be combat heavy, roleplay heavy, or just spend time at the tavern making dick jokes?

After you suss out the kind of campaign the party seems to like...

Never give it to them.

Yes, it turns out it was all a ploy. Now give me those character sheets.

Here are your new character sheets.

>turn off the lights
>Light an old-fashioned lantern

All of you are in the woods at night. Your only items are the things in your real-life pockets, the only light is coming from this lantern here.

You twig snap behind you, followed shortly thereafter by a scream.

Roll initiative.

>>49647548

A twig snaps behind you.

I can't write no good today.

>>49645118

Set a goal for the PCs to achieve, but don't worry about how they get there. You can't railroad them eternally.

Another thing I learned was from improv acting. It is illegal to give a hard "NO". In response to your fellow actors, there is only "no, but there's this option instead." Don't shut down the flow of things. Adapt to it. If you want automatons to walk through your adventures at a leisurely pace, write a novel. If you want unpredictable good times, then you should GM instead.

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>>49647548
I've done the complete opposite. Players played murderhobos with "Good" alignments for an entire campaign.

The only tool they had in their arsenal was the hammer of murder. Even the Paladin. But they were having fun, I was having fun, so fuckit.jpg

Last session of the game, they've got their fortress set up as a bastion of light. I hand the Paladin a Blackguard character sheet.

"You are all the BBEGs of your campaign. You have all proven to be insane to varying degrees, but the ex-Paladin takes the cake. The forces of light are attacking in a last bid to end your reign of terror."

They loved it.

>>49647548
"What do you want to play?"
"Too bad."

Yeah sounds like a fucking hoot.

>>49645118
Experiences I picked up over the years but not necessarily secrets or tips:

-If you are gonna run a narrative campaign of D&D or whatever, 3 people works best. Everyone has input and has their time in the sun. It CAN work if you have more than 3, but make sure everyone is on board.

--also for fuck's sake, tell your players a general idea of the world/what skills are useful/etc.. Nothing is worse than a player showing up with his carefully crafted new character who is some cavalier horseback and the whole campaign is fighting in caves. They may have just as well been a fighter instead of a gimped fighter.

-4 people are probably better suited for light story dungeon crawls

-5+ people is a lot but I find one-shots work best as it's consistently hard to get grown ass adults together for an extended period of time

--it's also hard to keep 5+ people focused on the task at hand because no one will remember "king so and so" next week.

---i find it works better to just do goofy adventures at this point with that many people

-an intro session is absolutely vital for the longevity of your games. This is where you set expectations. Also if you are "role playing" or "roll playing".

-set up a loose framework of things and fill it in as you go. You can't plan for everything players will do and if there's nothing for them to explore and discover, they get bored and leave your game.

-D&D and stuff is a party centered game and it's silly to make a lone wolf character, but I rather dislike that "the party is forever connected by umbilical cords. You only exist together" mentality. I try find unique ways to split the party or do solo runs if people can't make sessions.

>>49647501
This.
Plan less, characterize more.
Great plots are forgotten by the next campaign, great characters stay with the players.

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Here's a gm question

Do you use a map/ grid?

What kind?

Always keep a list of random names ready. Mainly for people, but a list of backup names for random shops and inns can be useful too.
In my experience, players will inevitably start interacting with a random background NPC or ask the guard what his name is, and it's hard to think of good names on the spot. Always write down name, even for minor characters.

>>49650541
Personally I just wing it with dice representing characters and general disposition on whatever free space we have on the table and it works just fine
And that's if we need to use a graphical backup at all

I've played with a grid though, another player had a roll-up vinyl sheet with a grid printed that would allow us to draw maps with board markers and we'd use another player's minis to represent the characters


Both work out well but I guess it's more dependant on your GM style and the space you have

>>49650541
Nah. I play Exalted and Mutants&Masterminds, and those are less "position yourself tactically" and more "you can be in a pretty much any point in the local area whenever you want to".

Hell, Exalted would absolutely murder the grid movement with it's timing system.
(as opposed to D&D's "you move once a round", you get an average of five to six discreet moments of time between each turn of your character, and EVERY character can move on EVERY of those moments. And with some movement boosters, you can move very far on them.)

In M&M you still technically only move on your turn, but you often can move half a fucking city on that turn, so I apply the "be wherever" rule too.

Players don't know what they want. They might know what they think they want, but most of the time it's not what they actually want. Your hardest jobs as GM are figuring out what they actually want, and how to give it to them while disguising it as what they think they want.

bump for interest

>>49648521

>-If you are gonna run a narrative campaign of D&D or whatever, 3 people works best. Everyone has input and has their time in the sun. It CAN work if you have more than 3, but make sure everyone is on board.

>-5+ people is a lot but I find one-shots work best as it's consistently hard to get grown ass adults together for an extended period of time

>-an intro session is absolutely vital for the longevity of your games. This is where you set expectations. Also if you are "role playing" or "roll playing"

These. It's really fucking important to make sure that all the players understand what kind of game they want and what you are playing. I would go as far as to have a talk with the players before even starting writing or deciding on the system etc.

My tips:
> Make sure you have time to talk about the game both before and after each session. Collect and give feedback. Usually it's also good to save some time for random smalltalk before the game.

> If possible, write your notes immediately after the session. I tend to have a google document that all the players can access for the "public" notes.

> Too much detail is a bad thing. Reserve character portraits for important characters and enemies. Same goes for background music.

> Try to share the spotlight as evenly as possible.

> COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR PLAYERS LIKE AN ADULT. If problems arise, deal with them.

And finally, the most important thing I ever learned from /tg/
> If you want to tell a story according to your vision, write a book. TTRPGs are a collective effort.

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>>49645118

Something that helps me is I write down a shit ton of ideas and have them handy for when I need a quick idea or change of pace. Just random quick plot ideas or hooks. No more then a sentence, and I make it something an NPC might say out loud.

"Is the Queen really dead?"

"It's gonna get cold tonight..."

"Jurgon is at it again, I can't believe it."

Shit like that helps with the your game's immersion, and if you're out of ideas cause your players decided to go to the random village on your map that you didn't plan for at all, they might pick up on something they think is interesting, and you can extrapolate an adventure out of it from there.

>>49648352
Sounds like a good time senpai