Beginning GM: relax, and breathe

Before I launch into Session Zero, what it is and how to run it, I will provide some tips for a beginning GM.

It can feel very overwhelming to be a GM for the first time – I definitely felt huge nerves. Even when starting it with younger audiences, it can be anxiety inducing. What if I mess up? What if I forget all the information? What if the players are bored?

My advice is to throw all of those questions out of the window because it doesn't matter. What matters is that you have fun, and if you forget something, so what? Look it up, or make something up and move on. I can't tell you how many times I’ve improvised on a rule just to keep the game moving, only to find out later I had made the wrong decision. The world didn't end. My main rule is that I will be fair to the players if I don't know a rule and can't find the answer quickly. If the question being asked involves the death of a character or they are trying to solve a really difficult puzzle, then yes, I will pause things to look up the ruling, but otherwise I try to keep things flowing as smoothly as possible. My main rule is that you should always let your players’ characters try something as long as it isn't mean or harmful to real-life players in any way.

It's easy to get stressed, but you can remove all of this stress by knowing that nobody knows all of the rules by heart. Knowing all of the rules is an impossible feat unless you are some kind of robot. Have fun, let the players breathe, let yourself breathe, relax. It's just a game, and a really fun one at that, no matter what kind of TTRPG you are diving into.

Here are some other tips that I recommend.

You don't need to have an entire world created in the first session. You don't even need to have an entire world created at all. Many TTRPGs provide amazing pre-made adventures, concepts and ideas in the game box. It entirely depends on what you want to play.