GM advice thread

This anons get it.
D&d is awful specially as a first timer.
Run some other thing, ideally rules lite so you can focus on mastering your gm skills and not a fucked up system.

If you have to ignore 60% of the rules to have a good time, then you should probably be playing a different game, one that doesn't require you to read 300+ pages of rules, dozens of spaltbooks, expansion content, and erratas, and who's rules actually encourage and contribute to roleplaying instead of being an obstacle to it.

I have good players, we played DnD for years, right up until 5th edition (which was a step in some good directions, but shit with sprinkles is still shit), but it was still miserable to run. Just do a google search, pick up a good 100-page-or-less system that looks interesting, and try running your next game with it. Like I said, 80% of them will be easier to run and more fun to play, and that's a good thing regardless of the quality of your players.

Having to ignore over half the rules to have fun with a system means the system isn't good, and the only reason to play it is because nobody is familiar with anything else... a problem that will never will get better unless you take the initiative and be the one to at least TRY something different.

Lol too long didn't read.

We have fun ignoring the rules, if we wanna play something lighter we will.

Write as if every session will be your last.

Double on this

Can confirm. I've played in forum RPs where the entire rules were laid out in like 5 pages in and where the stats in the game were on the complexity level of Paper Mario (No numbers over 10, no need to roll anything larger than a 6-sided dice, no spell or class lists that took more than a page or two, ect) and I've honestly had more fun with some of those than I've had with DnD/Pathfinder games where I've spent dozen of hours reading/learning the rules and how to "play" the "game".

I'm not going to be so harsh as to say as DnD flatout sucks. It's designed to be a crunchy combat simulator that evolved from a wargame, and it does that well... but nowadays that's not the kind of roleplaying experience I want anymore, and I don't recommend it to first-timers by any stretch of the imagination.

If you can't find a system that does what you want, spend a night and make one, it's really not that hard, and can be a pretty rewarding experience.

>ideally rules lite
Ignore that, run something with a good solid rules base when you're starting out. The less you have to make up as a newbie the better. Once you're comfortable doing shit with rules as a backup, then try removing rules you think you don't need.

>If you can't find a system that does what you want, spend a night and make one, it's really not that hard, and can be a pretty rewarding experience.

This only applies to the most ultra-light stuff possible, and even then it's not ideal.

There is a staggering difference between the best and most interesting rules light games and games which just don't have many rules. The latter might work vaguely okay, but I'd always prefer to play a system with actual design focus and effort behind it, and if you're going to make your own system I'd really recommend against half-arsing it.

The game isn't you VS the players. You don't win if all the PC's are dead.

Honestly, DnD is too abstract to even do combat simulator right, it's certainly crunchy, but it's by no means a "simulator" in the sense of being remotely realistic. It's really just a crunchy arcadey combat game in between some role playing now and again.