Off topic:
after hearing about Turtles Forever http://tmnt.wikia.com/wiki/Turtles_Forever which sounds like something from a modern league of extraordinary gentlemen game and this talk of first time GMing/playing - I've developed an itch to run TMNT and other strangeness, the first RPG I ever played. I'll go scrounge up a copy and when I run it, I will record parts of character creation - rolling for random animal types and backgrounds
That sounds really awesome, Ross. I'd like to hear that very much. Also, after reading the Turtles Wiki page you linked to and trying unsuccessfully to find a functioning copy of Turtles Forever on the Internet, I must say I'm also rather excited about a 1987 TMNT / 2003 TMNT crossover, even though crossovers are typically the devil. I've never watched the 2003 series, but seeing that old 1980s Saturday morning animation style really brought me back.
On topic:
A friend of mine recently attempted a beginners D&D module for the second time after an abortive first try in which he didn't have any graph paper or minis and refused to let us look at the map. As a player who is new to D&D, let me just say that it's about 5,000 percent better when you don't have to visualize a battlefield with five adventurers and twelve or thirteen angry kobolds and keep track of all their movements entirely in your head. That said, I had an enormous amount of fun at the Take 2 game, realizing as I played that the game was successful in large part because my friend followed many of the suggestions that Ross, Tom, Cody and Aaron gave for first-timers, even though he hadn't listened to the show. He kept it simple--strictly combat with only a smidgen of roleplaying--and I assume he will continue to do so until we all get a better feel for the system. He was also willing to try again, even though the first time he ran it, the dungeon delve didn't go so well.
There is one bit of advice that I think the RPPR folks didn't touch enough upon, a tidbit that new GMs should discover early and remember whenever they run a game: if a player asks a question that you don't have the answer to, make something up. Improvise. Especially if it's a small detail that escaped your notice beforehand, like what the patrons at the tavern are drinking, or a description of the fence surrounding the pit of angry kobolds. Be ready to come back with, "They're drinking mead and toasting their fallen comrades," or, "It's a wooden fence, about ten feet high, scalable in two turns." Or whatever. It can make the difference between players engaging with the story and players fixating on a small but seemingly very significant hole in your story.
It's your world. Don't be afraid to blaze a trail through it.
