1. New GM Quick-Start Guide: From Nervous Novice to Confident Storyteller
Stepping behind the screen for the first time can feel like marching headfirst into a dragon’s lair. You’re excited to lead your friends through epic tales, but the sheer volume of rules and lore can make even the bravest Game Master (GM) feel overwhelmed. Take a breath. You’ve already done the hardest part by deciding to start. This guide will walk you through the essentials of running your first tabletop role playing game (TTRPG) session with confidence and lay the foundation for deeper GM skills.
I feel it’s important to focus on some core principles: collaboration, preparation, and flexibility. The aim is to help you build confidence and a personal style without relying on any single source. Whether you’re planning your first session, are interested whether or not GMing sounds fun, or are a veteran looking for a fresh starting point, you’re in the right place. This guide is intended to help brand new GMs get their feet under themselves and feel supported going into their first session.
You’re a Facilitator, Not a Dictator
A common misconception is that the Game Master must control every aspect of the story. In reality, your job is to create a framework for players to interact with. A great GM sets up situations rather than writing a rigid story. Think of yourself as a facilitator: you present challenges, describe the world and adjudicate rules, but you also encourage player agency and collaboration. Don’t get me wrong here, some players prefer a little more hand holding, on the rails, style of GMing and if that’s the case, give it to them. What I’m saying is that if the players all seem to want to go off the rails a bit, and it makes reasonable sense to allow them to, LET THEM! This is their story too and you’re trying to help them tell it with you.
My players are the happiest when I can enable them to do what they want but give their characters obstacles along the way. Read that again. It is so important to distinguish whether you are setting obstacles up for the players or for their characters. Some players like an obstacle or two thrown in their path, and tailoring to suit the personalities at your table is important, but in my experience most players want their characters to be the ones being obstructed (even if they wouldn’t articulate it that way themselves).
How to begin: Start by brainstorming exciting situations rather than a scripted narrative. Ask yourself, “What would be a compelling conflict, mystery, or exploration opportunity?” Leave room for your players to surprise you.
How Much Prep Is “Enough”
I often see advice focused toward new Game Masters telling them to find a nice balance of preparation vs. improvisation before moving on to talk about all of the preparation techniques that have helped over the advice giver’s X decades of GMing. At it’s core, this advice is sound and the techniques shared are invaluable once internalized and put to use. Unfortunately this often causes a new GM to go into a prep spiral where they never feel ready for game day. At best this causes anxiety that they need to navigate through until they eventually find their flow. At worst, this novice GM never finds the confidence to play session 1 and ultimately cancels or forever-delays the game until their world and campaign are “done” (spoiler: that day never comes). Don’t get me wrong, I have seen my fair share of totally under prepared GMs (myself included!) but at least those GMs made it to session 1 to learn from their mistakes and improve. I’d argue there is are a countless, unknowable, amount of people who have never even gotten to GM for their friends due to a desire to be “ready” (which I at one point was guilty of as well!).
I tend to recommend that if you’ve never GMed at all before you start with a pre-made module/adventure. If you’re up to the challenge of creating your own world, by all means feel free, but that is a tall task while you’re also still learning and honing the skill of GMing. I also tend to recommend most GMs start with a one-shot or extremely short campaign. Below are some reasons I would use to convince my past self to try running a series of one-shots and shorter campaigns while still learning to GM:
You still need to confirm that you actually enjoy GMing and not just the thought of it.
It will avoid burnout if you need breaks between stints of GMing.
It lets you make mistakes without them feeling “permanent” or like they have long lasting ramifications on your campaign.
You can flex new GM strategies, tools, skills, and styles that aren’t always compatible with one another.
It allows players to drop out for a few weeks without feeling like they’re letting down the group. It also allows players to join in “late”.
Once you’re ready for session 1, I recommend you prep enough to not be lost at the table, but don’t try to account for every circumstance or feature of your world. Okay, random guy talking about Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons on the internet, that sounds great but how do I do that? Below is some general advice to start with, that you can expand on as you get better at and more comfortable with this whole GMing thing.
Outline a starting scenario. Write a one-paragraph summary of the opening scene, key characters, and the initial conflict. Don’t worry about how it ends yet, the players and their character’s choices will influence the outcome.
Stat out essential challenges. If you’re running combat encounters, prepare stats for monsters or adversaries. For investigations, ensure important clues can be discovered in multiple ways (e.g. through different skills or NPCs).
Understand your initial NPCs. If you know what NPCs you are absolutely planning on the party meeting with, make sure you have at least a loose sense of who they are. Brush up on their names, general attitudes, important backstory, and their role in the session and campaign.
That doesn’t sound like that much right? Honestly, what I wrote is probably still too much prep for your first session as a GM ever. I almost rewrote this with even less but I wanted it to stand as a testament of how easy I think it is for a veteran GM to over prescribe prep to a new GM. This may not be too much for me, and maybe is even a bit light on how my prep looks now, but as a new GM you have so much on your plate I really recommend you just make sure you and your players are having fun. Be honest with them about how nervous you are, they’ll understand. If I were to rewrite this, truly targeting a first time GM, I’d probably recommend session 1 be focused on the party interacting a bit in character with each other and with some NPCs you’ve prepared. I’d recommend you keep it short, and that it’s alright if the session ends a little early due to a lack of content.
While I’m clearly pushing for slightly too little prep over way too much prep, I do have to stress that you need to be familiar with the rules for the system you’re playing. Whether you’re playing Pathfinder 2e, Dungeons & Dragons 5e, or some other system entirely, make sure you know the basics of the system. If you’ve been a player in this system before, great, you’re already a step ahead, but you should still brush up on rules and interactions from the GM’s point of view. Even an experience GM can be intimidated running a game in a system they’ve never played before. If it is your first time every GMing, I would avoid running a system you’ve never played in if you can help it, but I realize you might be reading this as the GM for a group of friends that have never played a TTRPG at all before and you need to take the plunge. If that’s the case, thank you for taking on that responsibility and you’ve got this!
Now, what do I mean when I say “be familiar” and “know the basics”? I don’t expect you to know every single rule, cover to cover, for your system of choice. I do expect you to know the general flow of combat, how turns work, what the action economy looks like, and how player stats work. I’d like you to at least know how to be a player in your system and you can grow from there. You’re often going to be the most knowledgeable person at your table so you’re going to need to support the players with their own knowledge gaps. If you don’t know the right way to rule in the moment, and you feel it will take too long to find the answer, it’s okay to come to a decision that is valid for the session until you find the right answer at a later time.
Remember, your first session is about learning. Start small and adjust based on what works at your table. You are going to make mistakes, stutter, forget a rule, and feel overwhelmed at times. That’s normal. Just take the experience and level up your GMing skills with it.
Use Published Adventures Wisely
Running a pre-written adventure can be a lifesaver for new Game Masters. It provides a clear structure and plug-and-play encounters, allowing you to focus on pacing and the players. I even recommend using them in the section above as they take an enormous load off of a new GM. However, published modules are guidelines, not scripts:
Read the adventure once before the session. Familiarize yourself with the story beats, NPC motivations, and encounter locations. I would give the adventure a cover to cover read to understand the general intended flow.
Modifying to suit your group. As you gain more experience, feel free to swap out monsters, change treasure, adjust difficulty, or remove unnecessary sections. Tailoring the material can help it feel personal. If this is your first adventure, I would recommend avoiding major modifications and only adjusting difficulty to be easier until you’re more comfortable with what you’re doing.
Don’t panic when players go off script. If your group skips chapters or improvises, roll with it. Repurpose unused encounters or locations to fit the new direction.
Not all adventures are created equally. If you’re going to run a published adventure I recommend you read reviews, watch some videos, and select one that sounds well polished and good for a new GM. Some adventures are quite advanced, others poorly made, and you want to make sure you’re focusing on the right things and that the adventure is helping you. You should also speak with your players and make sure this adventure’s theming jives with them, they may even want to make characters that fit the adventure.
Create a Collaborative Table Culture
Your players’ comfort and engagement are critical. There was this old school idea back in the day that it was the Game Master vs. the players during a session. This is unfortunately still is misunderstanding at times with newer, and especially younger, GMs and players. I cannot stress enough that the goal at your table should be for everyone to be having fun, hard stop, period. If there is a reason that fun isn’t being had, or tensions are rising out of game, it often falls on the GM to handle as they are often the unofficial group leader. It is a group effort, but again often falls on the GM, to ensure people are keeping what happens in game separate from real world emotions. I have had players cry because their favorite NPC died in game, and in the context of the situation this was a beautiful response from a player and what I took as a compliment as a GM. A player crying because another player is being mean to them and using the game as a guise to get away with it is completely different and not okay. There is a bit of common sense required here, but it boils down to treat your players well and make sure they are treating you and each other well.
It shouldn’t solely be your responsibility to police this as the GM but, like I said, you are often the first person people look to when something needs to be handled. You are the arbiter of the rules and often this extends beyond the game for TTRPG groups. If you aren’t comfortable in this role, and you don’t feel you can foster an environment where everyone treats each other well, then you need to have an honest conversation with yourself on whether everyone will be emotionally and physically safe in the space you are creating for them to story craft and play a game. This is especially true if you are creating the physical space for them to play (e.g. it is your house, store, yard, garage, etc). Don’t be a jerk, don’t let other people be jerks.
Here are some ways to foster collaboration:
Session zero. Before starting your campaign, meet with players to discuss expectations, tone, preferred content, and scheduling. Decide on safety tools and any house rules. Use this to have a conversation to help set boundaries and encourage investment. Session zero deserves to be its own article and is.
Shared world building. Ask players to contribute small details about a setting: a tavern’s name, a cultural tradition, a rumored monster. Collaborative world building improves immersion and reduces your workload. When you have three of the same enemy (lets use bandits) fighting your party, ask them to describe them. Now it isn’t bandit #1, bandit #2, and bandit #3, but rather “The red haired bandit”, “The bandit with one eye”, and “The hungry looking bandit”. You got descriptions you may not have thought of on your own, your party feels involved and engaged with your world, and if one of those bandits live and you describe them in a scene six sessions later the party is far more likely to remember them.
Regular feedback. After each session, ask what worked and what didn’t. Checking in with your group allows you to refine your game and keep everyone engaged. After every major story arc I like to ask my players what their goals as players are and if they’ve changed, what their characters’ goals are and if they’ve changed, and I check in on whether they feel like I’m providing the style of game they want.
Embrace Improvisation
No matter how well you prepare, players with always surprise you. Improvisation isn’t about winging everything; it’s about being ready to adapt. We’ve already covered that you cannot prepare for everything, and I just said that you can’t wing everything either, GMing is about finding that balance. Be ready to pull an idea out of a hat or an NPC out of a list of names, and then breath some life into it. I find improvisation to be the easiest when I put myself into the minds of the NPCs or creatures involved in a scenario and act as if I am them. Why is that spider attacking? Well, she is the mother of dozens of egg sacs that she has to protect. She won’t chase the party further into the cave because once they are no longer a threat to her babies, she is fine returning to her hiding spot and waiting for easier prey.
If you have prep that you weren’t able to use earlier in the campaign or session, keep it in your back pocket to use if an opportunity presents itself. Perhaps that inn the players didn’t go into in the first town can be replanted as a farmer’s house the players went looking for in the fields of corn. Change a few NPCs out, make the previous barkeep the new farmer, and the rat problem the barkeep needed help with in the basement becomes a barn the farmer needs cleared out. This is still improv, but you’re starting with something instead of nothing. Random tables for names, NPCs, menus, and many other things can also serve as a mix between prep and improve. Don’t be afraid to take a second, look down at your notes, think, and then answer a player. You’re secretly scrambling for an idea in your unorganized mess you’ve created half way through a session that’s totally gone off the rails, while the player is thinking, “I can’t believe they have something prepared for this!”
I can’t write an improv section without talking about the famous “Yes, and…” we’ve all heard of. Yes, this is generally good advice, and I recommend you use it as long as you understand its limitations as well (see what I did there?). The general premise behind this is that if a player wants to do something outlandish you don’t tell them no, but rather you say yes and then spin it in a way that makes sense or add onto it to make it work. This is awesome improv advice, but TTRPGs aren’t a comedy sketch on a stage either. In many cases, “Yes, and…” works and I recommend you use it, but sometimes you really do have to tell a player something isn’t going to work. Whether you allow their character to do something and they face the repercussions, or you go out of character and warn the player that it isn’t going to work, their 2’9 gnome is NOT going to seduce the ancient red dragon known as “The Destroyer of Worlds”. Now “Yes, and…” can still work here if you spin the gnome’s seduction attempt as an attempt to distract the dragon while the rogue steals the “Gem of Saving Worlds” from behind them. “Yes, and…” is excellent advice and incorporating it seamlessly will improve your games, but make sure you use it reasonably and don’t feel like you have to allow every idea your players ever have to work.
Build a Toolbox of Resources
Part of becoming a confident GM is knowing where to look for help. You don’t need to do this before session 1 but if you are looking for useful places to learn and grow throughout your journey as a GM, here are a few resource categories to explore:
Rule references and cheat sheets. Create or download a condensed rules summary for quick consultations during play. This is typically what GMs have on the other side of their GM screen. How does character size affect the rules, what does feared do, how does grappling work, how much damage does falling X feet do, and other useful quick rules.
Random generators. Names, NPCs, weather, and dungeon generators can all help save you time and energy.
Adventure reviews and lists. I touched on this a bit earlier but it is worth looking at reviews of adventures you may be interested in. Many reviewers often compile lists of adventures by level, theme, difficulty, or rating. These can help you find your next module without sifting through endless titles.
Community forums. Join forums or online communities where you can ask questions and share experiences. Talking with other GMs is invaluable for honing your craft.
Final Thoughts
Becoming a great GM is a journey and not something you can do without a lot of trial and experience. You’ll make mistakes, learn from them, and gradually build a style that suits you and your players. There’s no one right way to run a game. The common threads are passion and a commitment to creating memorable experiences for your players. Gather your dice, sketch out that starting scenario, and invite your friends to the table. Your adventure as a Game Master starts now. In upcoming articles, we’ll delve into crafting unforgettable villains, improvising entire sessions from a single hook, and balancing crunch with narrative freedom. May your rolls be high and your stories legendary.
