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We're supposed to kick off a Rogue Trader campaign some time this Summer and sadly I've been thrust into the role of GM. Any good tips and tricks for a first time GM? Besides reading through the scenario over and over again in preparation.

Had any GM's you've really liked? Rip off whatever it was that you liked about their style. Unless you really are being forced to GM and don't want to, in which case aim for an early TPK and be done with it!

What scenario are you doing Brook?

while i can't speak to the 40k RPGs specifically... in general, as a DM/GM, try not to steal the spotlight. if you're new as a GM, you'll find the lure to make an NPC that can do everything better than the PCs quite strong. NPCs are there to help or plug a hole that the players deliberately left open (like a D&D group of 4 players that doesn't have a rogue because they have a fighter, mage, cleric, and barbarian... not enough players). also, try not to kill players unless they really deserve it. i'd generally fudge 3x the dice in favor of the players rather than the other way around. basically, if they did something incredibly stupid (like assaulting a star wars hutt's main base armed with a pistol despite my warnings of snipers in the towers as well as a half dozen guards in front) then i'd let the dice fall where they may. if i happened to just crit a player twice in a row and would kill him despite him playing smart, i'd ignore the crit/extra damage.

Maybe this'll help. These are the first few scenarios I wrote for our campaign. They pretty much went as planned, with the players doing interesting things and thinking of solutions that I hadn't thought of yet. It has a lot of 'assumed knowledge' (ie. it assumes that the characters aren't dying as the scenario often mentions them by name), but these have worked so far across many hours of play.

warboss wrote:while i can't speak to the 40k RPGs specifically... in general, as a DM/GM, try not to steal the spotlight. if you're new as a GM, you'll find the lure to make an NPC that can do everything better than the PCs quite strong. NPCs are there to help or plug a hole that the players deliberately left open (like a D&D group of 4 players that doesn't have a rogue because they have a fighter, mage, cleric, and barbarian... not enough players).

yeah i've fallen into that pit trap several a time. now i have really annoying npc that "can" do everything better than the npcs. it essentially gives them a patron and lets me vent a little when they're acting a bit rediculous Definately avoid this.

warboss wrote:also, try not to kill players unless they really deserve it. i'd generally fudge 3x the dice in favor of the players rather than the other way around. basically, if they did something incredibly stupid (like assaulting a star wars hutt's main base armed with a pistol despite my warnings of snipers in the towers as well as a half dozen guards in front) then i'd let the dice fall where they may. if i happened to just crit a player twice in a row and would kill him despite him playing smart, i'd ignore the crit/extra damage.

I have to mostly disagree with this, never just kill someone, but if someone dies never BS them back to life or ignore the crit that will kill them. Dying is a part of the game and speaking as a player it really kills the sense of "realism" when you know your dm "won't" kill you. Although there are exceptions of this of course, overall let the dice fall where they may...

Here's a tip of my own, don't DM if you don't want to. You've got to have the desire to DM to be any good at it and judging by the "sadly" and "shanghaied" i'd say your not too psyched to DM. Being a DM is a responsibility to your fellow gamers, who expect a fun time and of course a good game, none of which can be acomplished by a reluctant GM. Talk to your group try and work something out and good luck

robertsjf wrote:Had any GM's you've really liked? Rip off whatever it was that you liked about their style. Unless you really are being forced to GM and don't want to, in which case aim for an early TPK and be done with it!

Well, my FLGS is big on this sort of thing, but they referred me to Warseer and BoLS, two places I prefer to avoid like the plague.

H.B.M.C. wrote:What scenario are you doing Brook?

I plan to run the entire Rogue Trader scenario pack found in the Lure of the Expanse book that FFG did a while ago.

warboss wrote:while i can't speak to the 40k RPGs specifically... in general, as a DM/GM, try not to steal the spotlight. if you're new as a GM, you'll find the lure to make an NPC that can do everything better than the PCs quite strong. NPCs are there to help or plug a hole that the players deliberately left open (like a D&D group of 4 players that doesn't have a rogue because they have a fighter, mage, cleric, and barbarian... not enough players). also, try not to kill players unless they really deserve it. i'd generally fudge 3x the dice in favor of the players rather than the other way around. basically, if they did something incredibly stupid (like assaulting a star wars hutt's main base armed with a pistol despite my warnings of snipers in the towers as well as a half dozen guards in front) then i'd let the dice fall where they may. if i happened to just crit a player twice in a row and would kill him despite him playing smart, i'd ignore the crit/extra damage.

I am aware of that. My characters will fulfill minor roles, such as piloting a shuttle, or being the scion of the charter during a negotiation. As for fatalities, I'm not planning to play mean, but this is Grim Dark we're talking about, if they die and can't burn a Fate Point, they die.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Maybe this'll help. These are the first few scenarios I wrote for our campaign. They pretty much went as planned, with the players doing interesting things and thinking of solutions that I hadn't thought of yet. It has a lot of 'assumed knowledge' (ie. it assumes that the characters aren't dying as the scenario often mentions them by name), but these have worked so far across many hours of play.

Thanks, most interesting. I am indeed keeping an open mind as to what they might come up with, as not every solution is provided in the book or by my super-soviet-fuelled mind. I am also hoping that these Rogue Trader characters are a bit more durable than DH characters, I still weep over the short life of my Adept.

Let's see, so far what I do know is that we will be using minis for most of the combat and other situations, though I have told them that I won't be building / outfitting every bit of the session. They will sometimes have to do it the old fashioned way and imagine things. In the party so far we've got a stereotypical silent and brooding Arch-Militant with bolter and chainsword, a Seneschal who sucks at negotiating and the third player hasn't decided on his class yet. But chances are I'll be provided to fill in the required slots where needed, be it Astropath to read psychic star charts, a Void Master to pilot shuttles and a Rogue Trader to interact with the other factions.

Ooh, new emote.

Yes, yes Brook that's very interesting but please, feed my ego, tell me how awesome my scenarios are.



Just kidding.

So you're running Lure? Well let us know how it goes because I'm very interested in playing Lure (not running it, I want to play it).

And if you're worried about wounds, give everyone +15 wounds and be done with it. I did that with my campaign and people can survive firefights (in fact, the Arbite in the group is only alive today because of two things - his 30-ish wounds, and the fact that he has the Talent that halves Critical Damage).

From my experience, RT characters do start off a bit tougher than DH. Usually it is only a difference of 1 TB, but they also get wicked starting gear that helps.

Good luck on GM'ing, it's no easy thing.

Yeah, they have better starting stats, but far fewer talents and skills than a DH character with the same amount of experience.

Rogue Trader is a great game, but can be challenging to DM, especially if you are inexperienced. A few things:

This is NOT D&D, your PCs are powerful influential people. Don't expect doors to stop them and don't let people disrespect them. Help them to feel powerful and larger than life, but still give them a challenge. This is HUGE for Rogue Trader, it is NOT a traditional RPG. They are larger than life, give them larger than life things to do.

Going along with don't take the spotlight, don't let YOUR story overshadow THEIR story. You are NOT a novelist or a playright. You don't get to decide who lives, who dies, who gets redeemed, and what cool stuff happens, they do.

Your job is to provide interesting situations where cool stuff can happen. For instance, for a fight you describe the rooms they are in, in detail. Reward them for using the enviroment in combat, Provide interesting villains with backstories and ways to be backmailed/redeemed/befriended.

Pay attention to the characters they create. If they created a holy paladin than they probably want the opportunity to stand up for justice, make tough moral decisions, and save the damsel in distress. If they made a sneaky assassin than they want the opportunity to solve problems with a knife in the right back. As they say, cut out character shaped holes in your story.

Use a DM screen for the following reasons:

Always appear to be in control! If you appear to be in control you can make up rules, fudge roles, and handle unexpected situations fluidly. A DM screen helps with this. It lets you fudge rolls if you think it will help the story.

Don't be a slave to the dice: The players need to feel like the world is internally consistent, so you must always keep up the pretext of following the rules strictly, but there are times that the story will be much more fun and interesting if you fudge things.

Don't ignore the dice: The caveat of the above. Some of the best parts of the game involve randomness, situations arise spontaneously that you couldn't have planned for. Be willing to fudge the rules, but be careful about how often you do it. If they think you are just changing things as you go than the suspension of disbelief will be lost, and the game will suffer.

Don't let the game get bogged down in combat unless your group really enjoys that. For most groups, cinematic battles are preferable to tactical ones. Again, a good DM screen helps with this.

Use lots of 1hp mooks and give your characters opportunities to kill them in interesting ways, they like that. The look on their face when they use their shiny new area affect ability to take our 30 guys in a cluster could melt a glacier.

Finally to reiterate: YOUR JOB IS TO HELP THEM MAKE A FUN AND EXCITING STORY! Don't let anything get in the way of that, not rules, not your story, not your favorite NPC, not by giving them too much treasure, not by dominating or belittling them, and not by letting one of them ruin things for the rest. Make it cool, make it fun, and don't let anything keep you from doing that.

Have fun.

Practice BSing. Really there is no more valuable skill. Campaigns are fun, and good for new DMs and players, but soon they will shoot holes through the campaign and it will be your job to patch up the holes. Thus practice your ability to make stuff up really fast.

My campaigns are all bullet points and lines for how to connect point a to point 1. The idea here is that a player will stumble upon point A. This gives me numerous thing to do, being points 1, 2, and 3. How I get them there depends on what they have been doing and why. That is all made up on the spot. It lets the campaign be flexible and makes the players feel they are involved, and not be pushed down a railway plot.

Avoid railway plots, for the most part. You can have a railway plot so long as let the characters get off the trail a little, but don't let them stray to far. Or open ended, which is where your BSing skills are going to come up more and your performance here will determine how they players enjoy the game.

To practice go ask a local well known DM for some help. Tel him/her that your new and would greatly appreciate if they could give you some help with unexpected events. Ask for scenarios and then make up solutions that would fix them. Have this person review and give pointers on how to make it better. Your ability to BS your way carefully and eloquently through and unexpected situation will be what makes the game good and what makes it great.

Hope this helps.

That's all good stuff from everyone above, especially Riplikash and Try Again Bragg.

I don't know how tightly-scripted the pre-written stuff is, but I find it helpful looking at each encounter before running the session in terms of how to break it, rather than play it 'as intended'. It helps avoid a WTH? moment should your players employ 'creative' tactics to get round a situation.