How to Run an Effective Role Playing Game

If you are a fan of traditional pencil and paper role playing games, you know how important the "Dungeon Master", or "Storyteller" is. He (or she) is the one who prepares a game or storyline in advance, and then, with the participation of the players of the game, acts out that game. The Dungeon Master is in charge of controlling all the monsters and other characters besides the player's, and ultimately the Dungeon Master has the final say in everything.

So you could sum up the role of the Dungeon Master or Storyteller by saying, he (or she) is God. And as you could expect, this is a very important job. The best Dungeon Masters may spend hours, and possibly even days preparing a certain game - and this doesn't even count the time it takes to actually play out the game with the gaming group. But there are some things for the Dungeon Master to keep in mind while developing his or her game that can really make the experience a much more enjoyable one for every player involved.

First, try not to "lead" your player's from one event to the other. Try to design your game as to allow for as much player freedom as possible; many Dungeon Masters design their games and storylines as an outline or a series of notes, as opposed to preparing a solid story. Because you never know exactly what your players are going to do, you should try to keep your games, events, and scenarios as open-ended as possible.

Also, remember that people who are playing a game crave action - that's why they are playing the game in the first. Nobody likes a boring, dull game with no action; but as the Dungeon Master, you have the ability to make action happen! If you feel your game's pace has slowed to a crawl, or isn't even moving forward at all, don't be afraid to make something big happen and shake things up. You are the Dungeon Master remember - and what you say goes.

Finally, try to be fair to all of your players. The key to a good role playing game is not only the Dungeon Master's ability to tell his story, but the actions of the player's characters in game, too. If you are unfair to one player or another, or if your players feel like they are doing too much work for too small of a reward, they might not come back for your next game.