[SirDelta]

I GMed my first game today.
To put it bluntly I kinda sucked.  So my question is this.

How can I make myself a better GM?

I went in with an idea of what I was going to do, but I just couldn't figure out how to make it excitingin the character interaction department.  They said it was good, but I still feel I did pretty badly (I also stuttered a lot, but that's not something this forum can help with.).

[Onion Man]

My opinion: Improvisation theater.  Most communities offer summer recreational classes in improv at a community center or library for a couple bucks.  It'll build confidence, it'll give you tools to use when things go off the rails, it'll broaden your character range for voices and personas and such.

After that, practice.  Nothing will benefit you more than practice.

[Blond Goth Girl]

After a couple of games, the nervousness will dissipate.

Basically, take all the GMs you've gamed with and list what you've liked and disliked about them.  Even a bad GM usually has one good quality.  Emulate the likes and avoid the dislikes - worked for me.  Eventually, you'll feel like a natural.

[baronspam]

Different people have differnt styles as a GM.  I am good with story, plot, and character, but not much with performance.  I don't do well speaking "in character" for npcs.  The way I handle this is to play to my strengths and play down my weaknesses.  I write well, so I use handouts, between session emails to set the scene, read aloud text, etc.  I also am totally willing to speak in third person about what an NPC is doing/saying if I am not feeling the grove.  Sum up if you don't want to act it out. 

In all due respect to Onion Man, I very often use the line, "This is a game, not improvisational theater."  The style of game I tend to run and like to play in usually is very "gamist" if you are familiar with the whole gamist/narativist/simulationist paradigm. (althought I like some narative as well).  I like a good story, but personally I am there for the story, not the acting, if you catch the difference.  Use the mechanics of the system to build challenging obsticales and encounters (to borrow the DnD term).  You can build tension and drama mechanically, and with the situation, rather than trying to evoke emotion by portraying an npc in a certain way.  Narrate, and use good rules of writing.  Lots of concrete details.  Give them information about all their senses, not just what they see.  Plain clear language and selecting the right detials can be incredibly effective.  Worked for Hemmingway. 

And don't try to get too complicated at first.  An old black hat cowboy once said "a double cross points eight ways."  Your players will come up with things you never thought of in a situation.  They will bring plenty of their own complications to the game.  The first few times out of the barn keep the plot fairly straight forward.  More than one or two twists and you will be running around in circles.

[CanRay]

If the players seem bored, add violence.  Works for me, and my group never minded it.

...

Usually.

[Crash_00]

Just make sure you take that advice to mean ingame violence...otherwise you might lose a few players. 

That said, I'd have to chip in with the practice makes near perfect crowd.

My very first game that I actually GMed a campaign for was Hell on Earth and I was fairly horrible at first but three sessions in I was being called one of the best GMs they'd played under.

A few pointers to spice things up and help learn GMing better:

- Make your runs unique. They don't have to all be spy novel plots with a Shyamalan twist at the end, but which is going to be more memorable, a run where the group slugs through a dozen sec guards to extract a wageslave or the same run where the wageslave happens to be a mage that panics and meat puppets the street sam to escape with her.

- Play NPCs as people, not characters. You're an average joe rent a cop sitting in your checkpoint booth when a van comes smashing through the gate and out piles half a dozen runners with gear that rivals a spec op team (machine guns, SWAT armor, ect.). Do you pull out your pansy 9mm and start trying to drop these guys or hide under your booth and call in to the Knight Errant Rapid Response all the while hoping they don't notice you?

- Remember you player's characters when you make runs. It always adds a bit of realism when your hackers buddy Ready Eddey is the bartender instead of some ork with a bad haircut. Your players made contacts ready for you to use, they made backstories ready to use, and they made took flaws (usually) ready to use. It adds depth to your world to design your runs (and even modify the written adventures) around your characters.

- K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid). Keep everything simple until you get comfortable with GMing. My first run I GMed for in SR 3rd was a prototype steal. I downloaded some factory blueprints from the web, added some very complete security notes to it, and picked a random matrix security set out of the Matrix book back then. I had the group literally sweating in real life as they infiltrated the place, grabbed the prototype, and snuck out. I kept the run simple, but I described everything in detail and changed up things from the security plans. The guards did their patrols twenty minutes early, why? It was the playoffs. There was an extra guard at the rear door because the security camera was fried. A R&D scientist stayed late and was working hard to finish his project before the morning meeting. Just three little details changed and they had to rethink their plan on the fly. Remember that not all challenges are violent. (Although as CanRay said, violence definitely wakes everyone up.)

In addition, I also recommend John Wick's "Play Dirty". It's available on Drive Thru RPG and I found it to be absolutely full of wonderful ideas. Then again, some GMs despise it as well, so it really depends on your style of play. I'm a slightly sadistic GM.

[CanRay]

Just make sure you take that advice to mean ingame violence...otherwise you might lose a few players. 

Oh, um, right.  Exactly what I meant.  *Hides entrenching tool behind back*

[Onion Man]

I think I've been misunderstood, prolly my fault I'm rarely specific in text.  I think learning the basic elements of Improv is the single thing that will improve any GMs table presence more than anything else, save for practice.  I'm not saying to turn the game into an Improv drill, but knowing the rule of yes, boundaries without borders, the illusion of free will, suggestion, and basic handling will definitely make a difference at any table, and it doesn't hurt to have a golf bag full of characters you can pull out and "act" when you're doing face-work.

The meta aspects of group dynamics is at least as useful to a GM as rules knowledge.  If you have table presence and a grasp of dynamics, you can hide a lack of rules knowledge.  If you have every rule memorized but have no table presence, you're basically a rules lawyer reading box text from time to time.

[Crash_00]

I've can't agree with that more. I can't act worth a damn and I rarely talk in character (my group made me swear to never try to voice a female NPC again even), but I was lucky enough to have a great since of drama and it shows when I set the scene and when I bring in each NPC.

I've got a gaming buddy from college that still brings up one scene from a D&D campaign we had every time we try to play. I NPCing a fat halfling sitting on a stool at the time that was holding information out (the halfling was, not the stool) on the PCs and was in the middle of negotiations when my chair snapped in half and I went sprawling backward to the floor (damn cheap dorm chairs). Without missing a beat I was howling that that stool had cost me 10 gold and that I'd give them the information they wanted if they'd just help me get back up. I've never seen a group of RPers laugh that hard in my life. (Of course none of them helped me up, but then again I got to sick a dragon on them later  ).

Another good way to build up your creative side is to try some creative writing. You don't have to write a book, just work on short pieces, two or three paragraphs each and when you've written what you want it to say go back and fluff it out. If you find that you're using the same words over and over, go and look up synonyms for those words and switch them out until you read through it and think, wow that was good. Do this enough and your vocabulary will increase without you noticing it and you'll have a much easier time describing each scene in detail with the flavor you want it to have. After all which sounds better:

A.) You're approaching the bar from the trash littered street and the single flickering AR tag alerts you "No arms allowed." By the burst of static in the center, you fairly certain your meat arms are fine as long as you check your guns at the door. As you enter you choke on the black smoke of Cram and Novacoke that seems to cling to everything, adding even more grime to the years of dust and neglect. Three trolls in the back glance up at you and the one with golden teeth manages to croak out "Hey chummers, thought you'd never make it."

B.) The outside of the bar is covered with trash and dirt. The inside is just as dirty, oh and a doorman asks for you guns on the way in. Once you're all inside a troll at a table smoking cram looks up a waves you over.

Just a little practice at creative writing and you should be able to get from example B. to example A. in no time. A little practice at GMing and improv will get you to be able to do it on the fly.

[nakano]

Honestly the best advice I can give is to NOT be afraid to use published missions/adventures while you are getting your feet wet as a GM.  That way all the structure and information is right there for you.  I have been gaming a long time and when I start running a new system I always prefer to at least read through, if not run a couple of "store bought" missions/adventures just to get a good feel for the system as intended by the developers.  Personally I find it an invaluable experience.  That way plot etc. is handled while I can concentrate on character interaction

[Walks Through Walls]

SirDelta one thing to keep in mind is you are your own worst critic. My first games I never thought went as well as everyone else thought they did.

I like to have an idea of what is going on, and the main NPCs fleshed out. I also usually have maps of buildings made so I can show them to the players, but I also have some general backup plans of what might happen and what else is going on in the world around them so if things derail I can drop back and punt so to speak.

A couple of people have mentioned having memorable non-player characters, but I like to have detailed descriptions just as much. Use two or three sense and paint the picture for them. Shadowrun is rich in genre and background information so take advantage of it, and use it to make things memorable.

When I was running a game in second edition there was only a small blurb in the Seattle source book about Dante's Inferno. My players liked the idea so I made up the details of the bar. It was a bar that was built down into the ground and was made of a glass like substance that was smoked and translucent in areas. Because of this you had to check "Anything that goes bang or boom" at the door. The players ate it up and it became a cornerstone of the game.

Hope this helps

[Gnomercy]

I'm fairly new to GMing myself, and I'm actually worse with published modules (I'm learning this the hard way, both with Shadowrun and other systems I've run)....while it's nice to have all the details right there, I lean too heavily on those details and have trouble adapting when my players do something that the writers didn't expect.  For example, I recently ran SR mission 4-00 and had to deal with everything from the rigger sending drones everywhere to the team stealing the smuggler's boat :-)

The nervousness eventually goes away....trust me.  I actually forget rules when I'm nervous, so I've had a fantastic group that helps clarify rules when I blank (or they let me roll with whatever calls I make then we cooperatively look rules up after the game).

Not sure if this helps, but know you're not alone!

[John Shull]

I have found that I do best when I keep it simple, let the characters find their way, but really play the players more than anything else.  When your running the game some will blank out on some spots but they will also lean in on others.  When they lean on part of the story hook they like let them make connections, perception checks, you think a contact mentioned his name one time maybe, and let the details work themselves in.  Most also seem to be more attentive to what you say when they find they have to look around a bit on some details.  Also some will flat out surprise you with ideas you never considered.  Always reward that with dice at the moment and Karma on the end.  I find once they get a head of steam up its off to the races most times from there.  Aside from that have a strong understanding of the rules and applying them briskly and colorfully. 

As a side note I would also say you will find that the crew you play with will start leaning toward one type of caper or another.  They like stealth work, shoot em ups, extractions, etc and you should try and work on giving them a epic caper they can really make a mark with.  Also what the other guys said, when in doubt shoot it out, does work.  Also I have found that you can make it the easiest win they have ever got and they will still act like they won the super bowl.  So don't go out on a limb and match them up with even teams against when yours just moving them out into the next act.  You can put up a well armed walking talking target on the range for everyone and they will positively delight in turning them into chunky salsa.  It is the way of the shadows.  It gets things moving, gives you a great place to drop clues, and makes them think more things are going on that they don't know about.

[Cass100199]

Plot points. Keep your story that you're telling down to plot points. Then, no matter what the team does, you can always lead them back to specific points in your story to get back on track.

And don't be afraid to plagiarize the shit out of movies and books. The story/ plot is already laid out for you. Hell, I used to give extra XP to whoever figured out my source material first.

[broklynite]

I haven't played all that much, but I always enjoyed it when I did, years ago. So, for the hell out it, I bought the 20th anniversary edition, and managed to corral a bunch of my friends into playing a game. It was meant to be my bachelor's party, and I pointed out that since all of my friends are fellow nerds, they wouldn't feel comfortable doing things like going to a strip club or drinking or anything (they are all very straight-laced types) that I couldn't picture anything more fun than sitting around a table and chatting and playing a game with my friends. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I realized that none of my friends had the slightest experience in RPGs- one of them had some with electronic RPGs, but that was as far as it went. So I arranged a couple of play sessions so that people could create characters (I warned them that it would take a solid evening, but nobody listens...) as well as play a mini mission (Snack Shack, ahoy!) to get them comfortable. Well, the guy who is my best friend, and was the best man at my wedding, is a nice person but will drive you insane. They decided that they wanted to play the Snake Shack before creating characters, so they would have a rough idea of how things work and all. That seemed reasonable to me. My best friend had the highest roll and was the first to go.

THREE. HOURS. LATER. He made his first move. The entire time he was sitting there and arguing with the other players about what should be the most appropriate move, not playing IC at all, and just making everybody miserable. What was his first move? To delay his turn. I kid you not. So, everyone else goes, and he decides that, being the paranoid "character" that he is, he will stand right by the front of the store, near the entrance, facing away from the store...

This was the highpoint in my evening. When the wall exploded inward, I made sure he got it right in the face. By this point, the evening was getting late and he left, just when somebody else arrived to take over his character. To everyone's surprise, the game suddenly picked up speed, and people had a nice time.

We have the occasional game night now. While we feel obligated to invite him, he always comes up with some excuse not to come (not that he disliked it, he's just a pain in the ass person who needs to be argued with just to get him to do something that he wants to do). Normally, we'd argue him around, but these days, we just smile, nod and say that we understand and won't pressure him.

Since that night, I've learned a little bit more about DMing. I want the players to freely chat- that's what part of the fun is for. But if they start fighting over really niggling little details, they stop having fun and things turn into an argument. So, when that happens, I interrupt their arguments to tell them something like "The Johnson grins, seeing how long you are all taking to figure out whether or not to accept his offer and lowers it by 100 Nuyen." It's nothing too nasty, but it's enough to prod them and make them realize that they are just sitting and rehashing the same arguments over and over again. Keep the players on their toes at least somewhat. They are playing a game, not having a conversation. I should never have allowed my friend to take three solid hours of arguing. Everyone ended up sitting around being miserable and bored. Of course they will want to discuss options, and that's a good thing. But if they spend more than ten minutes figuring out whether or not to do something as simple as turn left or right at a corridor, it's time to have some guards come up behind them and give them a boost in some damn direction. They will be thankful for it, because they enjoying *playing the game*.