[JohnKerns1991]

Hey, forum!  I'm a game master for the very first time. I've been a player for about 3 years, and think I can do well as a master. I was hoping for some tips and tricks to help me get started?

Thanks in advance! 

[Walks Through Walls]

There are several things that have served me well over the years.

1) if running a pregenerated adventure then be familiar with the adventure and NPCs. If running a home made adventure have at least a basic outline of where things will go and your major NPCs figured out.
2) Be flexible and if the group goes an unexpected direction modify the run to suit what happens.
3) be willing to admit when you make a mistake (and if possible correct the mistake)
4) Listen to your players, and try to make the game what they want so they have fun
5) Have fun yourself
6) Take notes for yourself for recurring people and/or places even if you make them up on the fly the first time

Those are what comes to mind right off the bat. I may post again later with some more if I think of anything big and it isn't touched on by someone else.

[James McMurray]

Try to say "yes" or "yes, but" more than you say "no." It gives the players more control over their own destines, which keeps them more interested in the game.

Know the PCs' capabilities. If you're wanting a knock-down drag-out fight but under power the opposition you get a duck shoot instead. If you overpower the opposition then suddenly people are burning a lot of edge to stay alive.

[Fizzygoo]

Always end a game session with "Good night. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the next session."

Defining theme also helps. Meaning, make sure you and the players have a clear understanding of what kind of style/theme the overall game will have. The most general would be "serious" or "silly" or "horror" or "black vs white" or "grey noir (hehe, grey-black)," etc. The very specific would be; "you're all ex-Wildcats undercover in Seattle and you will be reporting to a superior officer who will give you your objectives, this will be a serious game that will deal with dark motifs and severe moral dilemmas." Make sure the players are interested in the theme, listen to their suggestions, attempt to incorporate themes they would like to play in without killing the fun for yourself. When I started out my current campaign I made it clear that it was going to be a standard-you're-shadowrunners-style of play that leans towards the serious (what I consider the "standard-intro" campaign...but it doesn't have to be ).

As James said, "yes" is a better answer to what the players want their characters to do than "no," and that "yes, but, to do that it will take a free action to say that, then a simple action to do that, and another simple action to get that other thing out of the way, but before you do that you have to deal with this issue which will take a complex action, and to finish doing what you want to do you'll have to make an extended test (42, 1 year) in order to complete it." Then if they can figure out a better way to do it within the rules, good for them and they learn the game better

And Walks Through Walls points are all excellent. Especially the "have fun" part.

[Walks Through Walls]

Actually on reflection have fun should always be #1. 

This isn't because it is your game and you deserve to or being self centered, but the fact of the matter is that if you aren't having fun then your players won't either

[Loki]

Gamers are largely a creative lot (hoards of wolverine clones aside) so I feel I should amend Walks' otherwise fine list to "when the group goes in an unexpected direction.", because it will happen. It helps to know your players, if you can generate hooks to keep the more tangent prone or leader like interested in following your plot the others will (usually) follow. When it does happen anyway, be prepared to work it out on the fly. This is alot easier if your adventures are built without strictly defined paths to success. 

Fizzy's statement about everyone being on the same page cannot be overestimated. I've both had and seen great campaigns die because the GM (sometimes me) thought the players wanted the same thing he/she did. A Star wars camp that the GM wanted to run a Wraith Squadronesque game, half the players wanted Jedi academy, and the rest wanted a more free form camp springs to mind. My smuggler was soooo bored(I'm lookin at you Warewolf). The begining of the "Brown Pride" and "Mercenaries" play by post OOC threads are good examples of tightly defined campaigns.

"Yes but" is better than no most of the time, but some players need the unequivocal NO! dropped on their heads to keep em from turning the "yes but" inch into a munchkin mile. As a largely reformed system breaker I admit there were times I took reasonable allowances and meta gamed them into game breakers, as such I suggest not tinkering with the rules untill you understand them fairly completely. A good example is TM fading resistance vs awakened drain resist. TMs use will+resonance, awakened use will+ 1 other mental. At first I thought mages were getting boned, my co-GM agreed and we discussed changing magician drain. Then I looked at the totality of drain mechanics for both and realized mages actually have it better. So I nixed an alteration that would have made drain/fading tilt even more in magicians favor. FYI I play the only caster in our group.

[Tagz]

My advice is to make a framework plot, but don't focus on details.  Just nail down the most important points because SR being what it is, it is very easy for the players to go off in a different direction then expected.  If you have too detailed oriented a plot you'll throw out half your details in frustration.

What I've found works well is to make the NPCs as flushed out as possible.  That's more then stats.  It's personalities, motives, knowledge, connection, and goals.  The players throw a curveball at me and I just think for a moment and decide "What would 'Rift-Wrath' do in this situation?", "How does 'Sweattooth' react to the news of the teams most recent actions?", etc.

And this isn't to say details don't matter.  They do.  Just don't put them down in cement before you're players have had the chance to write their names in the wet cement first.  After they take an action figure out what happens in the background, even if it seems like it won't matter to them or they might never even know about.  Something could always happen and it could become relevant again.  I have a whole ton of things "on deck" in the event _____ happens, due to something the players have done.  Like a manager that was fired as a result of one of their runs just waiting for a chance to get even.  Or a friend in a megacorp and they don't even know she exists, but they helped her and she wants to return the favor just the same.  That sorta thing.

[Man Who Walks At Night]

Keep extensive notes the first few sessions - and I don't mean about the plot or npc's, but about what the players ASK and DO.
This helps you be better prepared in the future.

If they ask for names of every person they meet, prepare a list of names.
If they ask a lot of questions from their contacts during legwork, add more details to the next plot.
If they like spending time watching the news, prepare some new stories for them.
If one of the players always wants to know what the weather is like, then prepare for this.

In other words, get to know your players and their reactions/actions and use your prep-time to work on stuff they are likely to. For instance, I don't take much time to prepare fights in my sessions, my players try to avoid it and I can generally improvise my way out of any fights which do take place. On the other hand then they do extensive legwork and I have to prepare a lot of details to make sure my campaigns doesn't come with build-in plot-holes

[Fizzygoo]

To consolidate the points made so far (and add one #11...and to have a little fun by making an anti-list):

Good GM Rules

1. "Have fun," rule #1 for GM and players alike.
2. Listen to your players so you know how to let them have fun.
3. Be flexible/learn to improvise for when the players go in unexpected directions.
4. Be willing to admit when you make a mistake, and correct it in an expedient manner.
5. Say yes to your players more than you say no, but don't be afraid to say no if you're being taken advantage of.
6. Define the overarching campaign theme/motif/style so everyone's on board.
7. Create a loose (GM-only) plot framework for overarching story-lines you want to include.
8. Be familiar with the adventure (NPCs, Tests for key info, plot points) wither pre-generated or home-brewed.
9. Take Notes (part I): About what your players ask about and what they have their characters do.
10. Take Notes (part II): About NPCs met, places visited, etc., especially if/when you make them up on the fly.
11. For new players create rules-themed sessions; "This is how AR works" night, "this is combat" night, etc.

Anti-GM Rules (AKA What not to do)

1. "Have fun," at the expense of those idiots on the other side of the screen.
2. Shut your players up, preferably by killing their characters that they spent the last month working on.
3. GM with a Chrome Fist, railroad those bastards into your preplanned ideal version of the perfect game.
4. You are never wrong. Weakness is for the weak.
5. Player's don't know what's good for them, you do. Tell them no, often and with authority.
6. Wildly shift from serious to silly in every scene, play with your players minds.
7. Create a tight plot for your campaign, see #3.
8. Only read the back text of the adventure book and the stats of the most powerful NPCs, use those as your standards, make everything else up.
9. Taking notes (part I) kills trees...so just take notes on how often you make your players cry and try to kill trees.
10. Taking notes (part II) See #9.
11. For new players throw them in a wild AR filled combat in the depth of a metaplanar equivalent of a VR representation of a space station zero-zone.

[CanRay]

Only one I can think of is that any adventure you come up with after drinking far too much rum is probably going to either be a great adventure, or suck really badly.

[Faradon]

Always end a game session with "Good night. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the next session."

Outstanding! Love the reference, I just may steal that for a time...

Now to create an NPC pirate with a clever nom de guerre!  *gets to work*

[LonePaladin]

Here's a tip for handling NPCs. Every time the players interact with a new NPC, give them some sort of quirk or personality trait that you can show off without actually describing it. Some examples:

• The party's fixer is a good-ol'-boy CAS ork who's always grinning. Whenever they're talking to him (on the phone or IRL), spit out your biggest grin and over-do the hick accent.
• The go-ganger that's relevant to a mission (or even a contact) just can't stop picking his nose. If he's not actively digging for gold, he's still got a free hand wandering near a nostril.
• Mr. Johnson has bad allergies, and the pollen count just doesn't like him. He's always sniffing, or blowing his nose, or just sounds stuffy.
• A shopkeeper who happens to have some gray-market swag in the back of the shop never gets enough sleep. Maybe he spends his nights partying, or stays up late playing an MMO, but he's always yawning, and his eyes never open fully.
• That dwarf mechanic has really bad breath. It's like, incredibly bad, the sort that could melt soldering. It's so bad, you swear you can see it. Doesn't help that he breathes every word.

Whenever the NPC in question comes into play, immediately start acting the trait you've given him. Don't point it out to everyone, unless it's something that isn't immediately obvious (like bad breath). If your players pay enough attention, they'll eventually catch on that this NPC always has this trait -- and you won't have to tell the players who they're talking to.

[James McMurray]

Just remember to write down those traits if your memory is anything like mine!

[Critias]

#1 tip I try to give in this type of situation -- relax.  Have fun.  You know what gamers tend to like, so you're already ahead of the curve.  You know your target audience, and that's half the battle.  You'll make mistakes, but don't let them deflate your confidence or ruin the fun;  if you get stumped on a rule or there's a dispute, just say "we'll look it up later, but for now let's keep gaming, here's how we're gonna house rule it for the rest of the night."  Don't let the awesome bus stop moving, just be clear with players up-front that you may slip up and your plan is to keep slinging dice and telling a good story instead of worrying about it.  If you do house rule, be consistent about it.  At the end of the night, maybe dole out an extra karma or two to anyone who might have gotten screwed over by a split-second call, and then, at the end of the night, take the time to ask for feedback, take the time to look up rules, and learn from your mistakes so they don't happen again.

Relax.  Have fun.

[Exodus]

Show don't tell, outright telling the players something doesn't engage the imagination quite as much.

Avoid untouchable adversaries and GMPCs, I can't elucidate my hatred of this "Harlequin" character I've read in so many official published adventures. I've been a PC in a couple games with these supercharacters and it was always boring and intensely agonizing after the second time we orchestrated a massive overkill just to see the enemy/annoying ally in the next scripted scene. Also, by extension, no GMPC should do more than toe the spotlight from time to time. If possible avoid GMPCs altogether.

You might also want to avoid having your characters by the balls, the carrot works better than the stick. I've got a horror story of how fast a game of Star Wars d20 went downhill and permanently died, ie. said GM hasn't had any takers for his games anymore AT ALL, because of too much stick-based railroading.

And of course the tips regarding the proper application of Chekov's Gun apply fully

I've found this to be useful for keeping things running smoothly
http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/gaming/gmtips.html

Oh! Lastly, read up on using body language and intonation to subtly influence people. Being able to basically "brain hack" your players is a wonderful tool.