Wanted: DMing advice

Fersboo

Fersboo

Hello Everybody!

I am a bit rusty with DMing as I haven't run a campaign in close to 15 years. I've just purchased Spycraft 2e and want to gather a gaming group and start running a game. My first plan of action is to get familiar with the material/game mechanics, however as with the Underpants Gnomes, I'm not sure of the second phase of the operation.

Step 1: Select material and achieve familarization.

Step 2: ?

Step 3: I and my gaming group have fun!

Any advice would be appreciated.

Additionally, I am planning on incorporating elements of the following movies/tv shows and would like some other plot devices/settings that I may have missed.

Ronin
Mission Impossible
007
Burn Notice
A Team
NCIS
Law and Order
Outpost (Near Future)
Heat

RaseCidraen

Hey Fersboo!

I'm no expert, but I guess, Step 2 is planning. I don't like to plan too far ahead, but I like having a bit of an idea where I'm going. You can either go balls to the wall and throw a ton of planning together, but you run the risk of the players ignoring all of your hard thought out plot hooks and just starting up a farm. (I hate that this actually happened to me once...one of the first few times I was DMing, too. That was discouraging.) Personally, I take the Michael Weston Approach: I know where I want the PCs to end up, roughly (say, an adventure conclusion, or even a story arc), and I know what kind of people they'll be interacting with (Sam/Fiona/The Client, etc), and have some fleshed out innocent bystanders, and some not-so innocent ones, but I try and keep my plan flexible to account for player whims. I've had to scrap many an adventure due to a missed plot hook, or a change in campaign direction. The problem with not planning at all is you can get completely swamped, and it's easy to run out of ideas in the middle of a session.

I hope that this helps, and if you're planning on playing online, I'd be interested to learn more about your campaign, and maybe play in it! (I havent run spycraft, even though I have the book, somewhere.) Drop me a line regardless!

Desertpuma

The best place for the information you are looking for is www.crafty-games.com/forums/ ... As a veteran of Spycraft, there is no better place than the forums of the game company who made the game.