Warlord Ralts offers up GMing advice based on his work- and time-intensive GMing style. It won’t work for everyone (especially GMs who aren’t fond of prep), but there are some gems in this thread — like creating a notebook with a section for each PC, and writing notes about that character after every session.
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Yeah, there were some gems… but a whole lot of “do the standard, cause it’s the standard”. For a first time GM, it’s a good check list– but intimidating, since it throws everything prep intensive at you from the start.
There is a lot of stuff to at least consider that he highlighted.
That’s pretty much how I viewed it, too. If it were specifically aimed at novice GMs, I’d want to see some attention paid to making it seem less intimidating.
I don’t think Warlord has an audience in mind, though — apart from the very general “GMs who might be interested in my approach.” Sifting it for elements that work for you seems like the best way to deal with the flood of information.
I loved his advice on divination. I’ll keep that in mind if my players ever get hold of divination.
The rest is a little too work intensive for my tastes.