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Inspired by the likes of Ian M. Banks and the Culture, Warhammer 40k, Star wars, Star Trek and a great many science fiction epics. We've decided to create our own sci fi RPG. The rules are just about sorted out. However, there remains one problem...

I have never been a Dungeon Master before. Even when I used to play the Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition board game with my brother, he was always a DM. Can you lend me a hand so that my various ship captains / explorers / force leaders will enjoy the experience?

The theme is they are agents of a large Galactic Organisation (think the Jedi or the Inquisition). Each has a ship that they control (with or without a crew / automation), and they go around doing their missions (quests) helping planets within (or sometimes not) the organisation. Medieval worlds, techno barbarians, super cities, hives, all that can be covered.

However, what should the first mission be? What opponents should there be around? And first and foremost, how can I occasionally bring my own hero character into it so i can have some fun with it?

Overall, my advice is 'show, don't tell.'

Make sure the players know the setting inside and out (which means you do, too) in a way that doesn't involve being given readings as 'homework.'

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:And first and foremost, how can I occasionally bring my own hero character into it so i can have some fun with it?

If you mean a character that accompanies the PCs, this can be a serious warning flag. 'GMPCs' is a term sometimes used for this, and they have a very bad reputation. Too many GMs intentionally or unintentionally end up with a character that makes the 'real' PCs seem unimportant. If the GMPC is in danger of overshadowing the 'real' PCs, the GMPC needs to be killed off immediately. Your GMPC can (for perfectly good reasons) have necessary skills and abilities for the adventure you're planning, which takes away the player's needs.

Remember, as the GM you get an unlimited credit line for villains, NPCs, scenery, etc. The players have much tighter rules they have to work within to make and play their characters. Don't make the characters

A favorite from mine: In a Star Wars RPG game, I set up a mysterious mentor type with a lot of clues to him being a Jedi-in-hiding. Knew a lot of stuff, occasionally said weird philosophical stuff, fondness for earth-tone-robes, etc. I didn't use this character long, but I think the PCs like him. Finally a big fight scene (On Cloud City) came up, and they were hustling to their (recently stolen, at the mentor's request) starship. The mentor stops, says he'll hold off the advancing stormtroopers so they can get away. He pulls out a lightsaber and takes a battle stance....

...And is promptly cut down by blaster fire. Sure, the PCs escaped, but that guy wasn't a Jedi. They later learned he was an explorer from decades before (and had found the lgihtsaber in some ruins, which tied into the greater plot...) and while he admired the ancient heroes, it takes a bit more to hold of a squad of Stormtroopers.

If I remember correctly, they party later got a crippled Jedi as a mentor. She was useful as a teacher but not much else due to limited mobility.

if the setting requires 'crew' or other essential positions on the ships, consider that NPC crew should be reliable but bland. They'll navigate/do repairs/whatever, but they won't unravel the secret safe route through the Weird Zone or repair the FTL drive int he nick of time unless a PC is involved somehow. They're just not the heroes.

Thanks, so if my GMPC starts off helping them, but turns to the baddies at some point, do you reckon that would be cool?

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:Thanks, so if my GMPC starts off helping them, but turns to the baddies at some point, do you reckon that would be cool?

As long as it comes off as "We should've known he was evil!" and not "Hey! He took ll our cool stuff!" it could be fun.

Sweet. Thank you. I've got idea for how this all should work now. Thanks for the tips.

I generally throw a character in that helps in the first session with smoothing out any major issues and setting up the tone, then moves to the background in a way that allows him to return, since I always hold out the hope that someone else will pick up GM duties occasionally and just let my f'ing play.

I can understand that.... I must 'teach' the rest of the how to GM also... Thanks for the tip. I really would like to be the focus of an adventure or two at some point...

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:Inspired by the likes of Ian M. Banks and the Culture, Warhammer 40k, Star wars, Star Trek and a great many science fiction epics. We've decided to create our own sci fi RPG. The rules are just about sorted out. However, there remains one problem...

I have never been a Dungeon Master before. Even when I used to play the Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition board game with my brother, he was always a DM. Can you lend me a hand so that my various ship captains / explorers / force leaders will enjoy the experience?

The theme is they are agents of a large Galactic Organisation (think the Jedi or the Inquisition). Each has a ship that they control (with or without a crew / automation), and they go around doing their missions (quests) helping planets within (or sometimes not) the organisation. Medieval worlds, techno barbarians, super cities, hives, all that can be covered.

However, what should the first mission be? What opponents should there be around? And first and foremost, how can I occasionally bring my own hero character into it so i can have some fun with it?

So do the missions happen with multiple ships and crews or are they all on their own separate missions? That part is a little confusing to me. The first adventure sets the tone and gets everyone ready to enjoy the game. It should start by showing some of the story an draw the players in. There are multiple ways to do this, but one of the easiest for the starting GM is to start square in the middle of the action: Fire fight, space combat, what have you as this limits your need to spell out exactly how every one came together initially, and also means you don't need to worry too much about the exact mission parameters up front. Once the fight is over and everyone is pulled in, then you can start filling in the blanks.

As for your own hero, be careful. Players hate it when NPCs do the work for them or are the only ones who can do the work that needs to be done. I find GM run characters based used to offer advice, guidance and direction when needed, but not to get directly involved in decision making and group actions. Let the players play the game. If they are stuck and completely have missed a clue you NPC hero can come up with some "interesting fact or detail" that they over looked that will put them on the right track to the answer. There are plenty of times as a GM that I wish I could say just one thing in a PC conversation, but you can't and you just suck it up. In an established campaign I can have dozens and dozens of NPCs to work, track and control and have no interest in effectively running my own PC. Again, though, when including NPCs in what is going on, the players need to be the ones who shine. For example, the NPC helps get them in the door, but once there they have to solve the situation themselves.

Good luck. Once you get things rolling you will be fine. Any good GM will tell you that general thoughts about a mission/plan are more useful than spelling out every detail of a mission for the players as the players will rarely, if ever, follow the course you expect them to when completing a mission.

Skriker

The heroes all have a spaceship each. As they are agents of this organisation working as a team, they all fly together. they don't split up.

As far as the GM character goes, I probably won't have him there in more than an advisory role, with maybe once or twice where he fights alongside (then against?) the heroes. I do like the idea of running dozens of NPCs though.

Thinking about it, I think I will start the mission in the heart of the action. A war sounds epic enough for such a thing.

Without wanting to rain on your parade, I'm concerned about this ruleset that you've written without ever running a game previously. How much experience do you have behind producing this ruleset? I assume the others involved have experience running games? As a side question: are you planning on making it public?

I find it difficult enough to DM my D&D game with my years of playing under my belt sometimes. A lot of times I "handwave" the rules when I feel they're getting in the way of the story.

Making sure everyone knows the setting is important. Alternatively, or perhaps additionally, make sure the setting is flexible enough that it doesn't break when the PCs make choices. You don't want to be the fluff-nazi who has to say, "Well, you're part of such and such, and they wouldn't do that, so you'd probably not take that course of action."

A good first mission might be how they get their ships or something like that. Graduation day from the Space Academy or something? Perhaps they stole them while escaping a prison planet that they were wrongly incarcerated in? Opponents could be classmates with a chip on their shoulder or the bounty hunter paid by the prison planet (perhaps run by a corrupt official) to chase them down? These things are pretty cliche, but I think cliches are acceptable when getting the party together. It's when the entire game is a cliche that you run into trouble.

You should never have your own "hero character" involved in the game, because every NPC is your character. If you must have your own, then perhaps he should be a legendary guy who went places and did things, but finally died/disappeared. Occasionally, the players run into situations where they stumble upon something he did, or didn't do. Bonus points for making him leave behind as much unintended evil as he did good. Double bonus points for not making him the core of every adventure. It's a very fine line to walk, and if you aren't 100% sure you can do it, then leave him out. GMPCs kill games. A good balance I have on this in my Ravenloft game is that I have badasses that exist that the party meets, but they do their own things and have their own lives, concerns, and goals. The most important part is that they're generally unaware of what's "really going on". Sometimes the party befriends them, sometimes not. Sometimes the party goes to them for help, and sometimes the NPC goes to the party for help. At the end of the day, it's up to the party if the NPC helps or not, and sometimes even lives or dies. They actually went around actively recruiting people they knew in game to gang up on a ghost.

My advice is to avoid "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal" all together. It's a rather abused trope.

daedalus wrote:Without wanting to rain on your parade, I'm concerned about this ruleset that you've written without ever running a game previously. How much experience do you have behind producing this ruleset? I assume the others involved have experience running games? As a side question: are you planning on making it public?

I find it difficult enough to DM my D&D game with my years of playing under my belt sometimes. A lot of times I "handwave" the rules when I feel they're getting in the way of the story.

Ummm, are you the rules police? Who cares how much experience they have behind producing the ruleset? Why does that concern you at all? I know 8 year olds who have written their own games with minimal knowledge of other game systems, of course they usually play as if 8 year olds wrote them, but that doesn't change the fact that they wrote their own game. They came up with an idea and ran with it, just like these folks have done. Yes experience and getting it "right" are important if you plan to release the ruleset to the public, but it seems to me this group put some of their own ideas down on to paper and are planning to use those ideas to, *GASP*, have fun. I know this is a difficult concept for some gamers to grasp, but fun is the name of the game. The ruleset could be completely and utter nonsense with holes big enough to fly a star destroyer through, but if they have fun with them and enjoy using them more power to 'em.

GMing is only as hard as you make it. First and foremost you need to decide what is more important: Perfect rules and perfect execution of said rules or the story. You then proceed accordingly. If your focus is story then you should never let the rules get in the way of the story whether they are home written rules or the latest greatest rule release from some major game company.

Skriker

Skriker wrote:
Ummm, are you the rules police? Who cares how much experience they have behind producing the ruleset? Why does that concern you at all? I know 8 year olds who have written their own games with minimal knowledge of other game systems, of course they usually play as if 8 year olds wrote them, but that doesn't change the fact that they wrote their own game. They came up with an idea and ran with it, just like these folks have done. Yes experience and getting it "right" are important if you plan to release the ruleset to the public, but it seems to me this group put some of their own ideas down on to paper and are planning to use those ideas to, *GASP*, have fun. I know this is a difficult concept for some gamers to grasp, but fun is the name of the game. The ruleset could be completely and utter nonsense with holes big enough to fly a star destroyer through, but if they have fun with them and enjoy using them more power to 'em.

Oh, I don't know. Perhaps I've been there before and recall the pitfalls and frustration? Maybe I'm interested in the rules because that kind of a game sounds fun to me? Maybe it's because I want to be sure I'm offering the correct advice? Maybe I've just realized I have too much time to waste writing responses. If you care to check some of my other threads, you'll find that I take active interest in both, improving rules, and making sure my players are having more fun. I'm guessing you won't care to though.

I'm bothered that you directly quote me, including a section in which I directly state that I sidestep rules in the name of keeping the story awesome, and then ask me if I'm the "rules police". Makes me think you didn't actually READ what I wrote. One more for the list, I guess.

As far as rules creatio goes, dissatisfaction with commercial rulesets has made me develop a slew of wargames rules that my group do use regularly alongside Warhammer and Warpath. As far as RPGs go, this will be our first, but considering that I run a Micronation (Google that, because I can't be bothered to explain what that is), micromanagement and overseering is no new thing to me. We all agreed to make it work somehow, to use simple rules that could be flexible in a multitude of settings, but with the story first. Therefore, if Pax Cthonica Warships advance have a chance to pillage some worlds, then chances are, they will.

The heroes are freshly recruited agents on their first mission, which means that, although they are new in the agency business, they are all experienced in a special field (reflecting a certain class, such as Psionics, strategy and so forth). Their spaceships will belong to the organisation that they work for, and will be replaced if they get destroyed (if the hero survives, that is!).

I am prepared to do whatever it takes to keep the game going. You have no fears, as this thing won't be going commercial. y first objective will be to keep the players interested, and I am prepared to fudge some rules for it if thats what it takes.

daedalus wrote:Oh, I don't know. Perhaps I've been there before and recall the pitfalls and frustration? Maybe I'm interested in the rules because that kind of a game sounds fun to me? Maybe it's because I want to be sure I'm offering the correct advice? Maybe I've just realized I have too much time to waste writing responses. If you care to check some of my other threads, you'll find that I take active interest in both, improving rules, and making sure my players are having more fun. I'm guessing you won't care to though.

I'm bothered that you directly quote me, including a section in which I directly state that I sidestep rules in the name of keeping the story awesome, and then ask me if I'm the "rules police". Makes me think you didn't actually READ what I wrote. One more for the list, I guess.

If I misread your post my apologies and mea culpa, but your post came across as worrying that this person had "foolishly" created their own rules without experience, which was my point. What you say above did not come across in your post at all. As for checking other threads, that is all fine, but when responding to a post it isn't like we all have time to go and read all of someone else's posts to understand a point they didn't clearly make in the post we are responding to. If you had read all of my post you would see in the second paragraph that I agreed with your position about not letting the rules get in the way.

Skriker