Beginning of the Journey as a Game Master

I have only ever played one session of roleplaying. For some reason role playing intrigues me. The past few years my wife and I have become huge board game fanatics and this renewed my interest in something broader and grander than the limits of boardgames. This lead me to starting to looking into roleplaying books. I had previously bought D&D 3.5, and it quickly died shortly after I bought the books. Seeing that they just released 5 really turned me off of looking at anything produced by Wizards of the Coast. The books are way to expensive for me to spend my money to have them stop supporting the system and move on and make me buy new books. Then, I found Pathfinder, and the realization that my old books aren't completely useless and I may be able to glean some information from them.

I ran out to my local game store and promptly picked up the Pathfinder beginner box to give it a try. Historically I have had metal miniatures for different games I have played. This box came with cardboard pawns, which...ARE AMAZING!!! I used to think that metal miniatures were the way to go, but recently I picked up a game called Dead of Winter, and the flavor the different artwork brings to the game is awesome. I love being able to differentiate the different people or things from each other with a lot of flavor. 

I ran a game with my wife and one of my best friends. I ran the module that came with the beginner box. I feel like I did okay for not having looked over it before I ran it, which I did purposefully with a misunderstanding behind running it. I had read that it would teach you as you go, which it does guide you through some different scenarios and the artwork and the quality of the book is amazing, although my did have a wrinkle in the first 10 pages of the game master manual. So, how did it go? A little rough, and I still feel lost where to go from here slightly.

So, what did I do? I ran out and bought the Core Rule Book.....Whoa!!!! That is a ton of information. After glancing through it, and skimming different sections I started checking if there would be interest in running a campaign, and there was. First thought was, there is no way I'm running a home-brew campaign, although that seems to be what a lot of people recommend. I have never GM'd and really have extremely limited experience(now 2 sessions) of roleplaying.

Since there was interest, I ran out and bought Rise of the Rune Lords, after talking with someone at the FLGS about what adventure paths would be good for  a first time Game Master, with really no
experience in roleplaying. I liked that he said that Rise of the Rune Lords introduces many of the monsters with flavor that is different from other worlds, and that it would work well for a new Game Master. Over the next couple weeks I picked up the Campaign Setting The Inner Sea, the GameMastery Guide, and Bestiary I.

If I wasn't overwhelmed, which I was, I am really overwhelmed now. Although I would have to add quite giddy. After scouring the forums of Paizo, which I really don't like their format, I found they have a wealth of information about each adventure path which is great. Wonderful amounts of details as well as examples of what to focus on to get your players tied in and stumbling stones that different people have experienced running Rise of the Runelords.

I am going to record my experiences as a new Game Master here, as well as documenting resources that have helped me. My next post will be how I made my own game master screen. It was not my idea, but I can see many alternatives that could be done and will put links to where I got my ideas and also what I have included as reference. I know as time goes on, I will need fewer tables on the back of my game master screen, but this is aimed at people getting into the hobby and my experiences.