Top 3 Things a New GM Needs to Know

Burning Empires General Questions
1

Hey All,

I’m about to start running my first Burning Empires game next week. I’ve been running Burning Wheel and Mouseguard since the beginning of the year, more or less, which is why I’m about to ask the following question: what are the top three things I need to keep in mind when running Burning Empires specifically? Each of the three games has a different shtick, and I’ve found that unless I specifically look for the differences between games it takes awhile to really get the game to work well.

So, top three things? Thanks in advance!

2

Hit them H.A.R.D. from the First scene on.

Dont make it to much about the Worms fdom the beginning on.

Make them Not Start Out as a Party of friends or allies.

3

Pretty much the same things:

Play to win. Do not pull punches.
Foster inter-PC strife and hard decisions.
While the aliens are scary and all, if you’re starting from the beginning, the best antagonists are sympathetic humans.

4

Play each NPC like they’re a player, they have their beliefs, go for them. Be fair but play for keeps.

5

Try to make it, that “fighting” for their belief means not fighting against the Vaylen, at least in the beginning. There should be a real struggle there for the players.

6

Just did the first session last night, will put up a play report sometime this week.

7

I’m a bit late, but in later sessions, build on what they’ve done. Corrupt and twist what they’ve done when you can.