I'm new to role-playing in every way. I have no knowledge of any roleplay rules or games or playstyles and what not. What I do know is how to write. Basically what I'm looking for is someone who is willing to ease me into this world of role-playing. Want I really want to learn how to do however is GM. If someone could teach me how to GM. Perhaps introduce me to that role. I have a specific game in mind in fact. But I just need someone to teach me how to run it.

At the risk of just dropping in my two cents on this, it's genuinely worth getting some play under your belt before you look to GM. In the first instance, you'll pick up some of the rules and playstyles which you genuinely need to have experience of to GM, but you'll also see what you like and dislike as a player which in turn will inform your GMing style.

At the same time (and perhaps being a little cynical and harsh here), if you go into GMing without some playing experience you may get a bit of pushback from your players, both because they may be able to use that player experience to push their luck against the GM, but also they may be less willing to invest their time as players in the hands of someone without a track record.

That being said, I hope you find a game that suits you and have a good experience when you do so. GMing can be a lot of fun, and it's a really useful skill to be able to develop.

I'll offer a counterpoint. Lots of people start out as GMs, so while being a player does help, it isn't necessarily.
You really just need are people skills, and be able to adapt to your players. Think of it as improvisational theatre more than writing.

A lot of people might be harsh, but a lot will also be helpful if you're upfront about being new, and make a point of being open to feedback, it shouldn't be too hard to find players.

You might have some bad apples but, player or GM, that's just something you gotta accept about getting into the hobby.



Depending on the game, I may or may not be of help with that, but I can at least give you general advice.
Feel free to rMail me or whatever.
This message was last edited by the user at 03:48, Tue 14 Aug 2018.

It would be worth it to start off playing something like free-form (join a couple games) just so you get the feel for it. I find free-form is a good place to start learning. From there, maybe venture into Dungeons and Dragons?

To be a GM, you just need to be able to facilitate a collaborative storytelling session.

The emphasis is on 'collaborative'. You're not writing a novel here, instead, you need to create a world, populate it with interesting people and entities, and let the players loose in the 'sandbox' to decide for themselves what to do and how to do it.

The GM can, of course, introduce some direction, some overarching plot - a group of dwarves and a wizard come to visit you on your birthday and tell you about a dragon's hoard, you find a mysterious holographic message in a second-hand droid you just bought, a flying Ford Anglia comes knocking at your suburban bedroom window, a Vogon spaceship destroys your planet to make way for an interstellar bypass... but your players need to have the freedom to react to what you've provided - you must leave far more than one possible course of action.

Freeform is pretty much just this - and is probably a good place to start. Later, you might want to quantify a few things - who is the better shot, Fred or Joe? Does Lisa understand what the Russians are saying? What are the chances of Gemma hiding from the guards? At that point a set of rules that quantify such things fairly and consistently may be useful.

What genres interest you? What is the setting of your planned game?

"Collaborative" can also be even more collaborative, with the players contributing ideas about the world. If you have a creative, interested group, it can be easier to accept and work with their ideas than to try to quash them in favor of your own.

I'd be interested in helping to further advise or help with the running of the game, assuming I'm comfortable with the system to be used.

I have a game designed specifically to get new GMs up and running for Pathfinder. rMail me if you're interested.

In reply to praguepride (msg # 7):

Whoa! Don't start with Pathfinder--what are you, crazy? It has a TON of rules (not even counting the first-party and, heaven forbid, third-party supplements) and the players are BOUND to know every single one of them better than you do. In their sleep. Backwards.
If you've honestly never roleplayed before and want to jump into GMing with a rules-based game (as opposed to freeform), why don't you try out something simple like Dungeon World or Microlite20? Those rulesets are straightforward and easy to learn, and you can really master the concepts without having a lot of prior experience. I like D6 for simple campaigns, personally, but its freeform magic systems can be a little daunting for beginners. (However, if you want a really fun, noir-style campaign setting, check out Bloodshadows. It was in MasterBook and d6 and I think it has a new system now, but the setting was always very interesting.)
Alternatively, if you like having rules but would rather not have to keep up a lot of them, there are also two-page systems like Adventurers or Hand-Head-Heart: Hobgoblin. Those are about as easy as it gets, and will give you a lot of experience in improvising GM rulings, which is one of the most important skills for any GM. (Be open to listening, be decisive, and be consistent.)

I mean, freeform is okay, but... it's different. My wife won't even play RPGs because she started out in freeform and she says rules suck. <g>