Farcaster
07-07-2008, 01:30 AM
Okay, it's time to get this show on the road. More than a month ago, I told you guys that we would be starting a new section called "Ask a GM." The purpose of new section is to be able to get advice from our panel of talented GMs. This could be anything from dealing with troublesome players, spicing up your game, how to outline a campaign, talking in funny voices to amuse your friends -- whatever. We may also field some specific system questions, but we may or many not have a GM who specializes in your specific system.
For now, we're going to start out answering one question per week. So, please, get cracking with those questions (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/newthread.php?do=askagm). You should especially try to throw these guys a good curve ball on their first few questions :lol:
It gives me great pleasure to introduce our GM Panel:
Anaesthesia (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=1378) is DM with about two years under her belt and around 5 years as a player. Her games of choice are D&D 3e and Toons. One of the more unique things that Anaesthesia brings to the table is her experience with running play-by-post games. This is an area I could not advise on at all, so I'm happy to have an accomplished PBP GM with us. Ana's GM'ing style encourages her players to think things through and work as a team.
cplmac (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=3066) (Patrick) comes to us with 17 years as a gamer and most of the past 9 years as a GM. He favors a fairly even balance of roleplaying and combat and views his sessions as much a social gathering as he does a game. His game of choice is Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Second Edition which he first started playing while with the 2nd Marine Division when he was over in Saudia Arabia during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
gdmcbride (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=40) (Gary) first started gaming in the early 80s as a wide-eyed, completely oblivious nine year old. Whatever GM'ing is, he completely failed to get it at first -- think Monty Haul pre-teen fever dreams. At the age of twelve, Origins came to Dallas and he managed to talk his mom into buying him a badge. There he played his first serious game and his eyes were opened to the potential of the hobby. That was twenty-four years ago and he has been locked into the way of the GM ever since. He describes his GM style as, "First and foremost, fun now. Not fun later. Fun now." Gary's list of RPGs that he is familiar with is far to voluminous to list. If it involves dice, he's probably right on top of it.
Grimwell (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=370) (Craig) has been gaming since 1981 and really never stopped. He's a huge fan of the D&D stuff, but has dabbled with World of Darkness, Marvel, Conan, Top Secret, GURPS, and a horde of other systems he just can't remember at the moment. He's fond of games that are gritty and tough, but not impossible. Fun is more important than sticking to the rules, or reality. He considers gaming to be a good reason to get people together for some beer, BBQ, and general chatter; as well as high adventure.
Farcaster (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=1) (Robert A. Howard) - Robert has somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 years of GM'ing experience. Since his first disastrous experience with running a solo adventure straight from the Basic D&D Red Box in which he nearly insta-killed his first player character, he's been trying and trying again. At first, this was out of necessity, since most of the time his friends weren't willing to give the DMing thing a go. Now though, he's been in the GM chair so long, he just can't resign himself to just playing for very long. He is most familiar with D&D, but has also GM'd Star Trek in its various incarnations, World of Darkness (1st edition), Marvel Super Heroes, and a few others that he can barely remember.
Robert also totally loves writing about himself in the third person...
Webhead (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=3316) (Jordan) was first exposed to RPGs in 1995 and was decidedly GMing his own adventures within weeks, even though he had no access to, or understanding of, any "game rules". Hopelessly fascinated and eager to tell exciting stories, his obsession with role playing games has lost no potency with age. These days, he has dabbled in dozens of different genres and game systems in pursuit of those games that bring to most joy to his game table. His wanderings have slowly begun to settle as he refines his notions of what, in his mind, makes for "good" RPGs, but that still constitutes a staggeringly vast array of games that he just can't bring himself to give up on.
For now, we're going to start out answering one question per week. So, please, get cracking with those questions (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/newthread.php?do=askagm). You should especially try to throw these guys a good curve ball on their first few questions :lol:
It gives me great pleasure to introduce our GM Panel:
Anaesthesia (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=1378) is DM with about two years under her belt and around 5 years as a player. Her games of choice are D&D 3e and Toons. One of the more unique things that Anaesthesia brings to the table is her experience with running play-by-post games. This is an area I could not advise on at all, so I'm happy to have an accomplished PBP GM with us. Ana's GM'ing style encourages her players to think things through and work as a team.
cplmac (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=3066) (Patrick) comes to us with 17 years as a gamer and most of the past 9 years as a GM. He favors a fairly even balance of roleplaying and combat and views his sessions as much a social gathering as he does a game. His game of choice is Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Second Edition which he first started playing while with the 2nd Marine Division when he was over in Saudia Arabia during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
gdmcbride (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=40) (Gary) first started gaming in the early 80s as a wide-eyed, completely oblivious nine year old. Whatever GM'ing is, he completely failed to get it at first -- think Monty Haul pre-teen fever dreams. At the age of twelve, Origins came to Dallas and he managed to talk his mom into buying him a badge. There he played his first serious game and his eyes were opened to the potential of the hobby. That was twenty-four years ago and he has been locked into the way of the GM ever since. He describes his GM style as, "First and foremost, fun now. Not fun later. Fun now." Gary's list of RPGs that he is familiar with is far to voluminous to list. If it involves dice, he's probably right on top of it.
Grimwell (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=370) (Craig) has been gaming since 1981 and really never stopped. He's a huge fan of the D&D stuff, but has dabbled with World of Darkness, Marvel, Conan, Top Secret, GURPS, and a horde of other systems he just can't remember at the moment. He's fond of games that are gritty and tough, but not impossible. Fun is more important than sticking to the rules, or reality. He considers gaming to be a good reason to get people together for some beer, BBQ, and general chatter; as well as high adventure.
Farcaster (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=1) (Robert A. Howard) - Robert has somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 years of GM'ing experience. Since his first disastrous experience with running a solo adventure straight from the Basic D&D Red Box in which he nearly insta-killed his first player character, he's been trying and trying again. At first, this was out of necessity, since most of the time his friends weren't willing to give the DMing thing a go. Now though, he's been in the GM chair so long, he just can't resign himself to just playing for very long. He is most familiar with D&D, but has also GM'd Star Trek in its various incarnations, World of Darkness (1st edition), Marvel Super Heroes, and a few others that he can barely remember.
Robert also totally loves writing about himself in the third person...
Webhead (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/member.php?u=3316) (Jordan) was first exposed to RPGs in 1995 and was decidedly GMing his own adventures within weeks, even though he had no access to, or understanding of, any "game rules". Hopelessly fascinated and eager to tell exciting stories, his obsession with role playing games has lost no potency with age. These days, he has dabbled in dozens of different genres and game systems in pursuit of those games that bring to most joy to his game table. His wanderings have slowly begun to settle as he refines his notions of what, in his mind, makes for "good" RPGs, but that still constitutes a staggeringly vast array of games that he just can't bring himself to give up on.