New GM advice

[Nakana007]

Getting ready to run Dresden for the first time ever with city (Omaha, NE) and character creation on Saturday morning. Looking for any advice or words of wisdom some of the experienced GMs here can give a rookie. Thanks in advance!

[Crion]

Best advice I can give: be prepared to throw your plot out the window. PCs are notorious for doing that, no matter the game.

If you don't want to throw the plot out the window, be prepared to hand out Fate Points and compel like there's no tomorrow. . .

[Mr. Death]

The stuff in this thread is a good place to start.

[Nakana007]

Thanks for the advice and the link!

[UmbraLux]

Getting ready to run Dresden for the first time ever with city (Omaha, NE) and character creation on Saturday morning. Looking for any advice or words of wisdom some of the experienced GMs here can give a rookie. Thanks in advance!

While beginning, don't try to remember all of the aspects in the game.  Pick one or two from each PC and from the campaign to concentrate on.  You can switch them for others next session and, eventually, you'll have them all down.  Do ensure aspects get used!  It's not the same if compels aren't around.  It helps if you players start self compelling and mentioning each others' compels.  Do make sure you and the players are interpreting aspects the same way.

I would recommend asking players not to abuse Declarations...and to house rule it if needed.  The same applies to thaumaturgy (which is essentially a stack of declarations). 

In many ways, FATE is a game played in third person.  Don't let any initial discomfort stop you - it smooths out and feels natural once you're used to it. 

[fantazero]

plan less play more

[Ulfgeir]

Don't let the rules get in the way of you and your group having fun.

/Ulfgeir

[fantazero]

Don't let the rules get in the way of you and your group having fun.

/Ulfgeir

Fates pretty loose with the rules as is. I always go with "if you can narrate and make it make sense, then yeah"

[Ulfgeir]

Fates pretty loose with the rules as is. I always go with "if you can narrate and make it make sense, then yeah"

Indeed it is loose with the rules compared to a lot of other games. But then, if you haven't been GM'ing before, even these loose rules may sometimes be a bit of a straightjacket. What I meant was that "the rule of having fun" trumps all other rules.

/Ulfgeir

[noclue]

If the game gets in the way of my fun, I play a different game.

[crusher_bob]

My advice is to be generous with FATE points.  The system tends to be considerably less interesting without a ready supply of them, because people are holding on o their last point or two to stave off disaster, rather than using them to do anything interesting.

The balance point to keep in mind is that having a high starting refresh should still be advantageous.  So you should be thinking about giving out somewhere between refresh and half refresh in fate points out between when you call for a fate point pool refresh.

So, for example, if you are playing 10 refresh characters, and refresh FATE points at the start of every 4 hour game session, then you should be thinking about arranging everyone to get around 5-7 FATE points per session.  To meet this ideal, you have to give out a FATE point every 10 or 15 minutes.

But how do I give out that many FATE points, you ask?  Develop the art of creating the minor cost for an action. 

[blackstaff67]

Be challenging, be evil, but don't be Evil or even (Evil).  Be tough but fair.  Remember that the villains don't have infinite Resources and Contacts and that even they have bad days or may get things wrong.  When in doubt, roll and shout.  Make sure your players are having as much fun as you are.  If/when you make a mistake, shrug it off and learn from it. 

[fantazero]

Be challenging, be evil, but don't be Evil or even (Evil).  Be tough but fair.  Remember that the villains don't have infinite Resources and Contacts and that even they have bad days or may get things wrong.  When in doubt, roll and shout.  Make sure your players are having as much fun as you are.  If/when you make a mistake, shrug it off and learn from it.

Also,
Don't Waste too much time "planning"
I played in a Dresden game where the GM basically put us in the middle of some terrible book he was trying to write. So what ended up happening is we the PCs took a backseat to whatever the "Story" of his novel was. It was not fun.  "I shoot him" "No you can't because he's in chapter 5" or "I shoot him" "you kill him, but then it turns out is was a Replica (ughhhhhh). Same GM would also spend waaaay too much time writing out  NPCs who should really have like maybe AN aspect, not a full 7. A low level mook should not have an infinite supply of fate chips and on the flip side a Black Court Vampire SHOULD NOT HAVE AN INFINITE SUPPLY OF FATE POINTS

Also write down the Skill list and what it can be used for. Familiarize yourself with it
had a problem where the GM *Hey the same one* didnt know Contacts was a skill and we had two Player Characters who highest or next to highest skill was ....drumroll...contacts. So when they wanted to use Contacts for something he famously uttered "Is contacts a skill?"

Speaking of which
If a player takes DRIVE as their highest skill, reward them with some actual driving sometime. Your players are bad asses, and the star of the show, don't treat them like secondary characters

[Mr. Death]

The best way to plan a DF scenario isn't so much to have a plotline in mind so much as to flesh out your antagonists, their motivations, and their resources, and just work logically from there. That way, they can act and react to the PCs in a natural way.

Basically, play the antagonists like PCs--they have a goal, and you walk through their efforts to reach that goal.

Also, never, ever be afraid to modify your plot if your players come up with something good you didn't think of. They have a part in creating the story as much as you do, after all, and that includes occasionally modifying a villain's plan because the PC came to a logical conclusion. Players should always be rewarded for creativity, initiative, and figuring stuff out on their own.

[Dr.FunLove]

@Mr.Death
Sage advice for any role-playing experience!