Advice for first time DM. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Advice for first time DM. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Tokogaru
09-21-04, 09:13 PM Ok well our old DM said he's quitting but he doesnt want it to stop us from playing so he's giving us all his old books. We'll we drew from a hat and it seems I get to keep them on one condition...I become the new DM. We'll ive never done this before so can anyone give me advice? My players probably lean to 65% h&s and 35% RP.
Thomar_of_Uointer
09-21-04, 10:34 PM Be able to quote large sections of the PHB from memory, and understand the general idea of everything else.

Seriously, you should read the PHB cover-to-cover multiple times, untill you know the rules. Nothing screws up a game like having to look up the rules on turning undead. Don't worry about the DMG, that's 90% fluff.
DrMorganes
09-22-04, 12:27 AM Read the two sticky topics at the top of this forum (links posted below for easy reference) in their entirety. LOTS of really great information has been compiled for handy reference. Odds are many of your questions are already answered. ;)

What's a DM to do? FAQ (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=75741)

Useful DM Links (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=181536)

Good luck, and welcome to the world behind the screen!
nekrolog
09-22-04, 02:35 AM i think the most important rule of thumb for a new DM is just to know more than your players about the game. if they feel that they can trust you to know the rules, then they just focus on playing, not finding ways to exploit what you don't know. not that this EVER happens... :rolleyes:
roll8dn
09-22-04, 11:41 AM Just a personal opinion: unless you are very familiar with all of the various splatbooks, for your first game run a Core-Only one. I know that many players will complain about the lack of options (heck, I was one of them, once), but it will simplify your job immensely. That being said, read and re-read the entire PHB two or three times, with an emphasis on the Combat chapter. Knowing the entire DMG front to back is not really neccessary for your first few games, but you'll want to know it by heart as soon as possible. The Monster Manual can be used simply by looking in the back at the "Monsters by Challenge Rating" tables, at least until you get a feel for what you'll want to be using as a storyline. As I said, though, know the entire PHB by heart, and the Combat chapter by soul (learn through osmosis, if you have to: sleep on top of the book ;) ).

Since you said that your players break down to about 60% hack-n-slash, and 40% role-playing, perhaps going out to your local bookstore and picking up a module is in order. Some of the low-level ones run for about ten bucks (if you're broke like me that's a bunch of money, but if you can get everyone to chip in, it shouldn't be a problem). Most of them were written for 3.0, but can be converted to 3.5 with little trouble. A good, short module (of low level) that I'm fond of is the Forge of Fury adventure. It is a level 3 adventure and involves an abandoned Dwarven stronghold. It's pretty much just hack-n-slash, so you'll have to invent some RPing. That's okay, though, since you said your players prefer hack-n-slash. It also will set up fairly well for a further story arc, but I can't give away too much of what's in the module without violating the CoC and the OGL.

If you really want to put together your own storyline and problems, I recommend the classic "save the frontier town" type scenarios: they usually occur above ground and include all of the elements of a good adventure. These include: a lack of central government (unless you want to run a social campaign, dealing with all of the interconnected problems of a city [laws, guards, guilds, different economic backgrounds, reasons why adventurers wouldn't be walking around fully armed and armored, etc.] is probably not a good idea for your first campaign), immediate threats to the lives and livelyhoods of the local people (less "is this a good thing to do" questions than non-immediate threats), plentiful monsters (it's easier to imagine Orcs living on the fringes of society, raiding as they can, than to explain why the local army guarding the large city hasn't driven them off), and plenty of unexplored territory (gaining that sense of "the unknown" that drives people to explore). Good enemies are usually easily beaten at low level, but are working for higher level bosses, who don't like their minions getting killed (this makes for a good, continuing story arc).

I hope the above (somewhat rambling) ideas help you out; if not, feel free to PM me for whatever I can do for you. It's always a good thing when someone new wants to work for the benefit of the rest of us lazy players. Good luck.
LordofIllusions
09-22-04, 02:59 PM If your going to use house rules, and most DMs do, make sure that these house rules for your campaign are well established before the first gaming session. That way spoiled players(Or players that want to secretly be the DM) cannot argue with you over the house rules they agreed to play under.

~~~
BlastedKid
09-22-04, 04:35 PM You don't have to listen to these guys who say you must know the rulebooks inside out. The most important thing is that your players enjoy the game you present. There are a number of ways you can achieve this.

1. Sounds like you've been playing with them for awhile and would know which elements of play interest your players most? Are they hack'n'slash, rule-oriented, heavy roleplayers, etc? I play with some guys who have developed more interest in roleplaying, with the exception of one guy who gets extremely bored when he's not killing something. You can't please everybody all the time, but you can decide what elements to focus on when preparing for a game.

2. Know the campaign. It doesn't matter if you have every rule photographically memorized if you are unable to carry on a conversation as an NPC or give the players a sense that your game world is dynamic and populated by thinking creatures. You don't have to memorize every detail, but make it all accessible. And before each game session you can familiarize yourself with scenarios you know might occur.

3. Most importantly, be flexible. Give your players free will. Players are usually pretty good about going with the flow, but here is a worst case scenario. In the most recent campaign I played, one of the PCs was charged with the task (via the DM) of misdirecting the rest of the PC party, away from a vital investigation into a massive invasion of chaotic beings (which the rest of us players did not know until we ended the campaign). The player did such a good job, he derailed the campaign entirely out of the DM's scope. The DM made it work, somehow, but we knew the world was doomed by our failure.
A good DM knows how to make things up on the spot, with convincing fabrications. Be confident and consistent when any adjustment is made to the plot.

You need to have a grasp of the rules for games to run smoothly, but don't be too self-conscious when you have to look something up. Just do it quickly and the players may not even notice.
Xychotic
09-22-04, 10:34 PM Hi,

In order to be a competent DM, you need to know the most frequently used rules (mostly just combat) or where to reference them. I suggest plenty of sticky tabs to quick locate various trouble/reference points.

By and large, the most important quality you could have is the ability to think on your feet. Nextly, either a good memory or competence in notetaking. Lastly, and possibly second most important, is consistency.

Once the players get active, they will almost invariably do something you didn't expect. That's perfectly okay, all you have to do is have an idea of how to wing it.

As for tips on good villains, I'll give a few now.

Lackies are vital. I know a particularly powerful NPC could conceivably just break out a can of whupass and spoon feed it to everyone in his way, we all know that that would bring the entire :censored: village/city/province on him and that's not the best approach. Not to mention, he can't be everywhere at once. The response is lieutenants. He's got various strategic lieutenants who act as proxies and decision makers and even councilors. If your villain is a normal person (as in, not an obvious monster), he'll need a normal facade or simply overwhelming force (the latter again acting as a magnet for the worst kind of attention).

The lieutenants will also have various grunts that do the dirty work. Grunts deal with people weaker than themselves. Grunts also tend to be cannonfodder. Need to get that merchant to pay protection, send a group of grunts to wreak havoc. Need to kidnap the mayor's daughter/son, send a group of grunts and a couple of competent captains. Lastly, if you want a recurring group of villains, lieutenants have better things to do than die. If the going gets rough, the lieutenant had best size up the situation and decide if he really should stick around or cut his losses.

And the sweet thing about it is that even if the party gets a lucky shot on a fleeing lieutenant or does something you didn't really want them to do; you can think about how the villain feels and how the lieutenants feel. Do they want revenge, will they send assassins, will a PCs family be targetted?

Of course, you could just go for a bunch of dungeon crawls. In which case my advice is moot. Ah well. Post again sometime.
WWAD
09-22-04, 11:51 PM Just get a handle on where to look things up when needed. It helps to print out a reference list, index, or have any sort of database handy if you're able to. There are plenty of indexes and quick reference sheets out there if you google hard enough. Just make sure they're for the version you're playing and use the most recent errata. Good character generation programs or spreadsheets should also include the reference pages for spells on the character spellsheets, so make sure you use that for NPCs and player sheets if you can.
Nived
09-23-04, 12:11 AM STICKY NOTES! They will be your best friends. Especially in the Monster Manual. When you're planning out the days adventure stick sticky notes hanging out the pages of everything you know will come up. Makes things move a lot faster. They're also great for passing notes to your players, or for just general notes.

Sticky Notes are a DMs best friend. I don't care what anyone else says.

You can never have too many sticky notes.
Locus
09-26-04, 01:06 PM My best advice for new DM's is to read a lot... all kinds of fantasy books, not just watch the movies but READ the book..
This gives you a lots of inspiration to new and original campaigns, as well as you get even better to tell the story(as the role as a DM is all about). The rules isn't the most important thing, but to have fun.. :D
With some nice house rules and players that's intrested in having fun, the game will turn out great.. :twitch:

PS. Ok, so you have to learn the rules, but if you know the basis of DMG,PHB and MM you will get good control of the group... :turkey:
danielinthewolvesden
09-26-04, 04:36 PM Just a personal opinion: unless you are very familiar with all of the various splatbooks, for your first game run a Core-Only one. .

Yes, exactly. And as DrMorganes has said, read the two stickie topics here.

One more thing. get one of the players to be your "assitant DM" who will ahndle intiative. They will have a whiteboard, or cards or even have just a pad of paper, but their job will be to announce who's turn it is, and also announce who's next. This takes a LOT of grunt work off you.
DeWayne
09-26-04, 11:03 PM First, Know the Scenario. It will help you come up with answers that are consistent with the storyline when the players ask questions. Sooner or later, you'll have a player tell you that things "can't" be the way you described them because some rule says blah, blah, blah (this usually means you've got a rules lawyer, or someone that isn't smart enough to figure out why things aren't the way they expect them to be.)

Knowing the scenario really well is the best way to defuse these arguments. It also helps to remember when you're working up the adventure that, while the players do have a right to expect the basic structure of the rules to be followed, developing an interesting and challenging adventure is more important than the 'letter of the law.'

Second, Know the Monsters. Combat can slow things down because, at any given moment, most people are sitting there waiting for their turn in the initiative order to come up, but you can speed things up if you get all of the important info on each monster for all encounters (including those on your 'wandering monster' table if you use one) written out in advance. Believe me, you want to avoid this:

DM: "As you make your way down the drafty corridor an arrow flys out of the darkness and (pause for die roll) hits Thomas the Cleric for (pause for die roll) 3 points of damage. Everyone roll initiative! (pause to determine initiative order) Okay, everybody take a ten minute break while I work up the monsters." Your players will kill you - and you'll deserve it!

Third, Know your Players. Most groups, sooner or later, end up with someone who thinks the game should center around his/her character hitting things with a sword, axe or whatever, and they whine whenever the game is going in another direction. It's generally best to give them something to kill. This will usually keep them happy.

However, remember that if they kill wantonly or stupidly, there may be legal consequences - don't pull your punches on these. Pulling a weapon on a member of the city guard or the nobility is generally considered a bad idea leading to a quick trip to the hangman's noose.

Try to include stuff for everyone to do - based both on the character's abilities & skills, and on the player's gaming style.

Fourth, Give some thought to treasure. Think about what kind of treasure the specific monster or bad guy is likely to have and use that rather than something that makes no sense off of some table in the DMG. If they have magic items (scrolls, potions, wands, weapons, armor, etc.) they will use them against the PCs. If the bad guys are bandits, a lot of their treasure is going to be stuff they stole from caravans (i.e. cargo), and so on. I've found it helps with the whole 'suspension of disbelief' issue if details like this in your adventures make sense.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck.
Jecca-neko
09-27-04, 07:15 PM STICKY NOTES! They will be your best friends. Especially in the Monster Manual. When you're planning out the days adventure stick sticky notes hanging out the pages of everything you know will come up. Makes things move a lot faster. They're also great for passing notes to your players, or for just general notes.

Sticky Notes are a DMs best friend. I don't care what anyone else says.

You can never have too many sticky notes.

I agree entirely. I use them a lot for my games too. I mostly use them to bookmark pages in the books I am using so I can quick reference them if I need to. But they're good general purpose paper too.
trapspringer
09-27-04, 08:26 PM You will screw up. A lot. There is nothing that can be done. You are doomed. At least for the first few sessions. Run a single shot capmaign. Then another. Then Another. Then try a 4 game session.

Stick to low, low levels.

Stick to the core books.

For _ sake, know more than your players
bjjrick
09-27-04, 10:45 PM Educate yourself, not just on rules, but how a good GM should be:

I offer the following:

http://www.dragondogpress.com/unclefiggy/gm/index.html

http://www.roleplayingtips.com (Subscribe to this)

http://www.gamegrene.com (Read these articles)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tokogaru 09-21-04, 09:13 PM	Ok well our old DM said he's quitting but he doesnt want it to stop us from playing so he's giving us all his old books. We'll we drew from a hat and it seems I get to keep them on one condition...I become the new DM. We'll ive never done this before so can anyone give me advice? My players probably lean to 65% h&s and 35% RP.
Thomar_of_Uointer 09-21-04, 10:34 PM	Be able to quote large sections of the PHB from memory, and understand the general idea of everything else. Seriously, you should read the PHB cover-to-cover multiple times, untill you know the rules. Nothing screws up a game like having to look up the rules on turning undead. Don't worry about the DMG, that's 90% fluff.
DrMorganes 09-22-04, 12:27 AM	Read the two sticky topics at the top of this forum (links posted below for easy reference) in their entirety. LOTS of really great information has been compiled for handy reference. Odds are many of your questions are already answered. ;) What's a DM to do? FAQ (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=75741) Useful DM Links (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=181536) Good luck, and welcome to the world behind the screen!
nekrolog 09-22-04, 02:35 AM	i think the most important rule of thumb for a new DM is just to know more than your players about the game. if they feel that they can trust you to know the rules, then they just focus on playing, not finding ways to exploit what you don't know. not that this EVER happens... :rolleyes:
roll8dn 09-22-04, 11:41 AM	Just a personal opinion: unless you are very familiar with all of the various splatbooks, for your first game run a Core-Only one. I know that many players will complain about the lack of options (heck, I was one of them, once), but it will simplify your job immensely. That being said, read and re-read the entire PHB two or three times, with an emphasis on the Combat chapter. Knowing the entire DMG front to back is not really neccessary for your first few games, but you'll want to know it by heart as soon as possible. The Monster Manual can be used simply by looking in the back at the "Monsters by Challenge Rating" tables, at least until you get a feel for what you'll want to be using as a storyline. As I said, though, know the entire PHB by heart, and the Combat chapter by soul (learn through osmosis, if you have to: sleep on top of the book ;) ). Since you said that your players break down to about 60% hack-n-slash, and 40% role-playing, perhaps going out to your local bookstore and picking up a module is in order. Some of the low-level ones run for about ten bucks (if you're broke like me that's a bunch of money, but if you can get everyone to chip in, it shouldn't be a problem). Most of them were written for 3.0, but can be converted to 3.5 with little trouble. A good, short module (of low level) that I'm fond of is the Forge of Fury adventure. It is a level 3 adventure and involves an abandoned Dwarven stronghold. It's pretty much just hack-n-slash, so you'll have to invent some RPing. That's okay, though, since you said your players prefer hack-n-slash. It also will set up fairly well for a further story arc, but I can't give away too much of what's in the module without violating the CoC and the OGL. If you really want to put together your own storyline and problems, I recommend the classic "save the frontier town" type scenarios: they usually occur above ground and include all of the elements of a good adventure. These include: a lack of central government (unless you want to run a social campaign, dealing with all of the interconnected problems of a city [laws, guards, guilds, different economic backgrounds, reasons why adventurers wouldn't be walking around fully armed and armored, etc.] is probably not a good idea for your first campaign), immediate threats to the lives and livelyhoods of the local people (less "is this a good thing to do" questions than non-immediate threats), plentiful monsters (it's easier to imagine Orcs living on the fringes of society, raiding as they can, than to explain why the local army guarding the large city hasn't driven them off), and plenty of unexplored territory (gaining that sense of "the unknown" that drives people to explore). Good enemies are usually easily beaten at low level, but are working for higher level bosses, who don't like their minions getting killed (this makes for a good, continuing story arc). I hope the above (somewhat rambling) ideas help you out; if not, feel free to PM me for whatever I can do for you. It's always a good thing when someone new wants to work for the benefit of the rest of us lazy players. Good luck.
LordofIllusions 09-22-04, 02:59 PM	If your going to use house rules, and most DMs do, make sure that these house rules for your campaign are well established before the first gaming session. That way spoiled players(Or players that want to secretly be the DM) cannot argue with you over the house rules they agreed to play under. ~~~
BlastedKid 09-22-04, 04:35 PM	You don't have to listen to these guys who say you must know the rulebooks inside out. The most important thing is that your players enjoy the game you present. There are a number of ways you can achieve this. 1. Sounds like you've been playing with them for awhile and would know which elements of play interest your players most? Are they hack'n'slash, rule-oriented, heavy roleplayers, etc? I play with some guys who have developed more interest in roleplaying, with the exception of one guy who gets extremely bored when he's not killing something. You can't please everybody all the time, but you can decide what elements to focus on when preparing for a game. 2. Know the campaign. It doesn't matter if you have every rule photographically memorized if you are unable to carry on a conversation as an NPC or give the players a sense that your game world is dynamic and populated by thinking creatures. You don't have to memorize every detail, but make it all accessible. And before each game session you can familiarize yourself with scenarios you know might occur. 3. Most importantly, be flexible. Give your players free will. Players are usually pretty good about going with the flow, but here is a worst case scenario. In the most recent campaign I played, one of the PCs was charged with the task (via the DM) of misdirecting the rest of the PC party, away from a vital investigation into a massive invasion of chaotic beings (which the rest of us players did not know until we ended the campaign). The player did such a good job, he derailed the campaign entirely out of the DM's scope. The DM made it work, somehow, but we knew the world was doomed by our failure. A good DM knows how to make things up on the spot, with convincing fabrications. Be confident and consistent when any adjustment is made to the plot. You need to have a grasp of the rules for games to run smoothly, but don't be too self-conscious when you have to look something up. Just do it quickly and the players may not even notice.
Xychotic 09-22-04, 10:34 PM	Hi, In order to be a competent DM, you need to know the most frequently used rules (mostly just combat) or where to reference them. I suggest plenty of sticky tabs to quick locate various trouble/reference points. By and large, the most important quality you could have is the ability to think on your feet. Nextly, either a good memory or competence in notetaking. Lastly, and possibly second most important, is consistency. Once the players get active, they will almost invariably do something you didn't expect. That's perfectly okay, all you have to do is have an idea of how to wing it. As for tips on good villains, I'll give a few now. Lackies are vital. I know a particularly powerful NPC could conceivably just break out a can of whupass and spoon feed it to everyone in his way, we all know that that would bring the entire :censored: village/city/province on him and that's not the best approach. Not to mention, he can't be everywhere at once. The response is lieutenants. He's got various strategic lieutenants who act as proxies and decision makers and even councilors. If your villain is a normal person (as in, not an obvious monster), he'll need a normal facade or simply overwhelming force (the latter again acting as a magnet for the worst kind of attention). The lieutenants will also have various grunts that do the dirty work. Grunts deal with people weaker than themselves. Grunts also tend to be cannonfodder. Need to get that merchant to pay protection, send a group of grunts to wreak havoc. Need to kidnap the mayor's daughter/son, send a group of grunts and a couple of competent captains. Lastly, if you want a recurring group of villains, lieutenants have better things to do than die. If the going gets rough, the lieutenant had best size up the situation and decide if he really should stick around or cut his losses. And the sweet thing about it is that even if the party gets a lucky shot on a fleeing lieutenant or does something you didn't really want them to do; you can think about how the villain feels and how the lieutenants feel. Do they want revenge, will they send assassins, will a PCs family be targetted? Of course, you could just go for a bunch of dungeon crawls. In which case my advice is moot. Ah well. Post again sometime.
WWAD 09-22-04, 11:51 PM	Just get a handle on where to look things up when needed. It helps to print out a reference list, index, or have any sort of database handy if you're able to. There are plenty of indexes and quick reference sheets out there if you google hard enough. Just make sure they're for the version you're playing and use the most recent errata. Good character generation programs or spreadsheets should also include the reference pages for spells on the character spellsheets, so make sure you use that for NPCs and player sheets if you can.
Nived 09-23-04, 12:11 AM	STICKY NOTES! They will be your best friends. Especially in the Monster Manual. When you're planning out the days adventure stick sticky notes hanging out the pages of everything you know will come up. Makes things move a lot faster. They're also great for passing notes to your players, or for just general notes. Sticky Notes are a DMs best friend. I don't care what anyone else says. You can never have too many sticky notes.
Locus 09-26-04, 01:06 PM	My best advice for new DM's is to read a lot... all kinds of fantasy books, not just watch the movies but READ the book.. This gives you a lots of inspiration to new and original campaigns, as well as you get even better to tell the story(as the role as a DM is all about). The rules isn't the most important thing, but to have fun.. :D With some nice house rules and players that's intrested in having fun, the game will turn out great.. :twitch: PS. Ok, so you have to learn the rules, but if you know the basis of DMG,PHB and MM you will get good control of the group... :turkey:
danielinthewolvesden 09-26-04, 04:36 PM	Just a personal opinion: unless you are very familiar with all of the various splatbooks, for your first game run a Core-Only one. . Yes, exactly. And as DrMorganes has said, read the two stickie topics here. One more thing. get one of the players to be your "assitant DM" who will ahndle intiative. They will have a whiteboard, or cards or even have just a pad of paper, but their job will be to announce who's turn it is, and also announce who's next. This takes a LOT of grunt work off you.
DeWayne 09-26-04, 11:03 PM	First, Know the Scenario. It will help you come up with answers that are consistent with the storyline when the players ask questions. Sooner or later, you'll have a player tell you that things "can't" be the way you described them because some rule says blah, blah, blah (this usually means you've got a rules lawyer, or someone that isn't smart enough to figure out why things aren't the way they expect them to be.) Knowing the scenario really well is the best way to defuse these arguments. It also helps to remember when you're working up the adventure that, while the players do have a right to expect the basic structure of the rules to be followed, developing an interesting and challenging adventure is more important than the 'letter of the law.' Second, Know the Monsters. Combat can slow things down because, at any given moment, most people are sitting there waiting for their turn in the initiative order to come up, but you can speed things up if you get all of the important info on each monster for all encounters (including those on your 'wandering monster' table if you use one) written out in advance. Believe me, you want to avoid this: DM: "As you make your way down the drafty corridor an arrow flys out of the darkness and (pause for die roll) hits Thomas the Cleric for (pause for die roll) 3 points of damage. Everyone roll initiative! (pause to determine initiative order) Okay, everybody take a ten minute break while I work up the monsters." Your players will kill you - and you'll deserve it! Third, Know your Players. Most groups, sooner or later, end up with someone who thinks the game should center around his/her character hitting things with a sword, axe or whatever, and they whine whenever the game is going in another direction. It's generally best to give them something to kill. This will usually keep them happy. However, remember that if they kill wantonly or stupidly, there may be legal consequences - don't pull your punches on these. Pulling a weapon on a member of the city guard or the nobility is generally considered a bad idea leading to a quick trip to the hangman's noose. Try to include stuff for everyone to do - based both on the character's abilities & skills, and on the player's gaming style. Fourth, Give some thought to treasure. Think about what kind of treasure the specific monster or bad guy is likely to have and use that rather than something that makes no sense off of some table in the DMG. If they have magic items (scrolls, potions, wands, weapons, armor, etc.) they will use them against the PCs. If the bad guys are bandits, a lot of their treasure is going to be stuff they stole from caravans (i.e. cargo), and so on. I've found it helps with the whole 'suspension of disbelief' issue if details like this in your adventures make sense. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck.
Jecca-neko 09-27-04, 07:15 PM	STICKY NOTES! They will be your best friends. Especially in the Monster Manual. When you're planning out the days adventure stick sticky notes hanging out the pages of everything you know will come up. Makes things move a lot faster. They're also great for passing notes to your players, or for just general notes. Sticky Notes are a DMs best friend. I don't care what anyone else says. You can never have too many sticky notes. I agree entirely. I use them a lot for my games too. I mostly use them to bookmark pages in the books I am using so I can quick reference them if I need to. But they're good general purpose paper too.
trapspringer 09-27-04, 08:26 PM	You will screw up. A lot. There is nothing that can be done. You are doomed. At least for the first few sessions. Run a single shot capmaign. Then another. Then Another. Then try a 4 game session. Stick to low, low levels. Stick to the core books. For _ sake, know more than your players
bjjrick 09-27-04, 10:45 PM	Educate yourself, not just on rules, but how a good GM should be: I offer the following: http://www.dragondogpress.com/unclefiggy/gm/index.html http://www.roleplayingtips.com (Subscribe to this) http://www.gamegrene.com (Read these articles)