New GM, what advice can you give me?

    • Excellent question! Welcome Silis!

      First and foremost, I heartily recommend reading through the existing downloadable demo adventures available here on the forums... If you go to this link: Mini-Adventures!?
      ...you'll find the section called Mini-Adventures which not only introduces all of the different little "modules" we and other players have created, but also has some helpful sections up front about notes on presentation and helpful hints when running a scene in-game... Reading through the adventures themselves will give you ideas about pacing, descriptions, and storytelling while GMing for the world of Shard...

      Expanding beyond that, once you have access to the Basic Compendium, read through the various Example and Narrative descriptions peppered throughout the book in bold, dark-green text, and italicized text... These example descriptions and italicized narrative descriptions will help explain not only examples of how the rules work as if watching players and GM use them (in the case of the bold green Examples), but the italicized Narrative bits then give wonderfully evocative descriptions of how those scenes would play out. You'll find these in The Basics of Chapter 2, the Combat chapter, the Magic chapter, and even in the Character Creation chapter... and at the end of chapter 2, starting on page 41, you'll find sections including different campaign and gaming archetypes that would be common in Shard, and some advice on being a GM...

      From the very beginning of the Basic Compendium I highly recommend reading through the entirety of Chapter 1, which contains basic information about the world as an introduction and later in greater detail (including a fair amount about the people of the world and the social structure of it Houses and Lines), and has a fairly thorough 10,000 years of history, which really immerse you into the world itself... Reading this in conjunction with looking at the map found on page 330-331 will help familiarize you with the world itself, and the major events that shaped it...

      Interestingly enough, the beginning of Character Creation, especially the Power Level section on page 45 will help the GM decide what type of game they may wish to run, from low-level characters to legendary ones (I tend to run Heroic quite often), and skimming through the Professions section of Character Creation on page 116 will round out your thoughts on the various trades of the world, and the type of people your players will either be themselves, or meet as NPCs along the way... You can get a good feel for what people do in the world from lowest peasant or thief, to the most powerful lord or priest, and everything in between...

      A good read-through of the Skills section on page 147 is a must, because despite the animal type your players will choose, it will be the Skills that will determine most of what they do in every game, and knowing the full range of all the cool thing characters can perform is a great way to imagine the kind of challenges you can present to them to overcome!

      A REALLY helpful thing at the end of the Character Creation section is the section that gives you a really good step-by-step guide to filling out the Character Sheet starting on page 207, with images showing a sample sheet filled out, and numbers matching a brief but handy explanation for each step... Referring to this as characters get made will help first-timers deal with this process more smoothly...

      Now,...take a gander at the Bestiary on page 290... Nothing excites the imagination like descriptions of the strange creatures that inhabit your setting...

      Skipping then to the Glossary on page 310 is a MUST DO! The glossary of Shard terms and concepts really is a great window into many of the intricacies of the game; various fictional elements you won't find anywhere else currently, from all the gods of the world, brief descriptions of every country, a variety of different events and useful details that will inspire you!

      And lastly, check out the Appendices on page 320, where you can get a quick primer of pronouncing the many strange words you may find in our game...

      Honestly, though, reading through the entire Basic Compendium thoroughly is something any good GM will want to do before they try to run the game.... There's just SO much depth to the world, doing so will do you and your players a HUGE favor...

      Hopefully this helps!

    • My advice in addition to what Scott said is to draw upon movies, books, and any information you have at your disposal which can help you to paint a convincing picture of the cultural paradigms of the world, and the golden rule which is to have fun and allow your imagination to flow freely while giving the gift of an entertaining adventure to your players...
      I always think of the game sort of like a giant laboratory with all sorts of individual elements on the shelves and the game masters as mad scientist who combine those base elements to make new substances that can shape the reality of the fiction we create, this is especially important related to the animals/ monsters of shard since as of this time there is a limited number in the basic compendium, allowing your imagination free reign while using modified examples of creatures found in our own world can easily fill in the gaps with an endless array of new and exciting new encounter possibilities...
      lastly, never under estimate the power of a good sound track to enhance the particular mood you are hoping to create, In the words of Scott Jones, "if pictures are worth a thousand words, Music is word a million" and believe me this statement has proven to be true more times than I can count.
      Last but certainly not least.....remember we are just a click away if you have specific questions or need someone to discuss a storyline or anything else with.
      good luck and we hope to hear from you again soon with updates about how the game sessions are progressing!
      peace and good gaming to you from the world of SHARD!

    • It didn't come up whether you are a new GM in general, or specifically new to Shard. If you're new to GM'ing in general, here are two tips that I have:

      Your players will do things that you didn't expect and weren't ready for. It's perfectly okay to say, "Okay, five minute break while I figure out what happens next." Especially when I was starting out, I did it all the time.

      Looking up rules is okay, but if you're digging around and just can't seem to find an answer, I like to come up with a temporary ruling that everyone is okay with (usually erring in favor of the players), and then look it up later. Otherwise, you run the risk of your warrior's totally awesome attack losing some of it's coolness as you spend several minutes trying to find how some minute detail works.

      So whether you're new to GM'ing, or just new to Shard, good luck and have fun! :)