tips for GM's

[capmarvel]

In the GM's section - something I would like to see is a guide on how to make encounters both challenging and entertaining.

Specifically, how about some tips/guides on gauging your PC's parties strength and coming up with the right balance of creatures/NPC's that could (but probably shouldn't) defeat them?

I think it is difficult (especially for a new GM) to determine how many zombies or orcs or trolls to throw at your PC's.     How would a new GM know to have the PC's run into 3 guards or 30 guards?   And what level should those guards be so they don't kill the PC's in 4 seconds or allow all 30 to be wiped out without any effort?

I realize there is a skill to "adjusting things on the fly" as well, but again a new GM would need some tips on that as well.

Personally, I'm coming at this from someone who used to play but hasn't played in years - so I have some "sympathy" for someone new to RPG's that perhaps needs assistance that a veteran GM does not.

[imported_Rasyr]

I may try to squeeze in one or two small tips, but I don't want to try to shove too much into the core book. There will be plenty of such material that could be put into a Game Master's Guide for Novus.

The trick here is to try and balance what we would like  to see against the desired final size of the project. I am trying to aim on a maximum size of 100 pages or less. Which means that there isn't a lot of room for expansion once art and the index is added into the mix.

[imported_Witchking20k]

A monthly/bi monthly GM download for $3 would be a good way to create an ongoing diablogue & not over-fluff the core rules.