The four major principles of being a great Dungeon Master

1. Listening

Listening means paying attention to what the players want out of the game, and making sure they know that you have heard them.

Listening means stepping back to allow players to solve problems and plan strategies. Instead of micromanaging and telling players what to do, give players the freedom to think of things you might never have thought of. Step back to allow the groups creativity to flow.

Pay attention to the characters goals. Listen to what they want and where they are headed. Listen to your NPCs as well. Great role-playing and character moments will come more naturally when you can see what characters want. Send characters in a certain direction and make the story happen by putting obstacles in the way.

If you have an idea, no matter how weird or silly it is, write it down. Listen to yourself and your ideas when planning a session. Don't dismiss your thoughts and ideas. Allow yourself to use crazy situations. The goal of the game is to be creative, allow yourself to create. Always listen to yourself and your fun ideas. You never know when they could come in handy. Stay open to new ideas. It's okay to plan something just for fun!

Pay attention to players predictions and ideas about the plot or the story. Their ideas might be better or more interesting than what you already had prepared. Use them. Change your plans if you hear a more exciting idea. Adapt your plans to make a story more exciting. This makes your story more interesting and lets the players think they are smart for predicting things.

Listen to feedback. This is the only way you will be able to grow and become a better game master. Be open to criticism and new ideas. Don't take it personally. Your ego is not your game. Your game will improve infinitely if you can listen to feedback and adapt to new ideas and techniques.

2. Adapting 

Adapt to the feedback.
Allow yourself to be able to change and grow. Listening and learning mean nothing if you can't adapt to the new ideas. Take action and adapt the game to what you have learned. Learning and growing only happen when you try new things. Take action.

Change your best laid plans and adjust the pacing to let your game flow smoothly. Allow the story and plot to change when you need it to. Be adaptable as to how you get to your ultimate goal. It's okay to change paths and allow new paths to reach the same conclusion or encounter you have planned. The ideas of "how to get there" might become different every session.

The more you stick to trying to keep the players on one story path, the more rigid and boring your story becomes.

Allow you and your players to try new things and take new paths. Let those new paths lead to something you already had planned anyway. This will make the pacing and creativity flow a lot better and allows players freedom to come up with their own ideas about what to do.

Learn to change and alter course along the way. Adapt to different terrain on the path that is your story. You need to be adaptable enough to step over roots and turn corners when the path demands. The more you cling to staying on one path, the more frustrated you and your players will get when the story doesn't follow your exact plan.

Choose to be adaptable on the path that is a fun game, or stick to the and rigid path of ruin. Don't focus so much on getting to the goal that you might miss out on the fun along the way.

Let your villains and NPCs adapt and react to what is going on. The more your villains can immediately respond and adapt, the more believable and alive your story will become. Role play your NPC's and improvise their characters as you go along. Spend your attention on being a specific character instead of trying to run the whole game.

Adapt your mindset to running your characters instead of being a game master that is just talking to the players.  If you are in a specific encounter with a villain or NPC, try to play the role instead of trying to run the game.

Stories and game sessions need to flow freely, improvise with creativity and fun as the ultimate goal. Allow yourself to let go of your plans to let something new develop. Every game and every session will be different. Give them room to grow.

Adapt to players styles and ideas. The nature of the game is ever changing. Work with the group and their play styles. You don't necessarily need to change your style, but you should be able to let players play how they want. Unless it gets disruptive or problematic. Everyone at the table should be allowing different play styles, not just the DM.

The game will always have numerous moving parts with many people who have different ideas and play styles. Accept that the game is ever changing and allow yourself to adapt to that. The quicker you can accept the change, the quicker your game will get better.

The ultimate goal of the game is to have fun, if a member of the group is dismissing or disrupting someones play style, then that person is taking the fun away from someone else.

Create a more believable and interactive world by constantly adjusting it. Players will want to explore and find out new things about your world all the time. Don't be afraid to improvise and make things up. Giving the players something to see and interact with right away is always more interesting than giving them nothing or denying your players a chance to explore.

How do you listen and adapt without going crazy? Balance.

3. Balancing

How can you listen and adapt without loosing total control? Try to balance the game as much as you can.

A good game master isn't the captain of the ship nor the helmsman. The Good GM is the navigator, who can see where the ship is headed and what path it needs to stay on. The good GM nudges players and story in the right direction without fighting for the wheel. A great GM can balance between what all the players want and adjust the movement of the game into something exciting for everyone.

The smart GM navigates by advising and adapting to ever changing situations without railroading.

Balance your story along with the players ideas. Balance is adding what the players want without stepping off of the path altogether.

Balance means running encounters that are focused on role-play or exploring instead of just continuous combat.

Balance means having a few easy battles among the harder ones.

Give every player a chance to role-play and a chance to use their different abilities to solve problems. Instead of letting just one player trying to control everything. Balance means giving every player an equal amount of attention and game time.

Balance means seeing problems with players and the game. Take care of those problems and get them back in harmony before they destroy the entire game.

A campaign needs balance between the high stakes-high energy sessions and the quieter character driven storytelling sessions. Use some simple plots to balance out the intensity.

Balance how much information and lore you are giving your players. Instead of pausing the game and making everyone wait for you to spout exposition to a single player, write down what is important and hand it to the player when you have time.

If you are droning on about the history of your dwarven cities, you need to pay attention to how the players are reacting to the information. Are they paying attention? Or are they bored out of their minds? Balance means being brief and giving players only the relevant information and then moving on.

Take a short rest to re-gain your GM spell slots!

Take breaks from the game every few hours. Let yourself and your players relax without feeling the need to constantly be preforming. Renew your mental batteries. Drink water.

It's okay to take breaks between sessions and campaigns. Take a break from running games if it gets to stressful or too much work. If you allow yourself to get burnt out, the game won't be enjoyable for anyone. A tired and stressed out game master means a boring game.

4. Most importantly, HAVE FUN

Having fun is being together with your friends. Having fun means playing with people you actually want to be around.

Have a safe place to be creative, without worrying about other agendas.

Having fun means experiencing good interactions and feeling connected to the group.

Having fun means the game isn't stressing you out or making you worried about it.

Having fun means you are excited to run a game and you are excited to see what your players can come up with.

Having fun means your story line is moving forward and you are confident in where you are going.

Having fun means that you enjoy the creative process, working with your players and adapting to create a story together.

Having fun means you are excited to play again.

If you aren't having fun, then you should not be doing all the work to run a game.

If you are stressed out and feeling pressure to preform, or have anxiety about the next game, then you probably aren't having fun.

Having fun means making sure your players are having fun too.

Having fun means feeling accepted and respected by your players. Your players are willing to work with you and your story. Your players are accepting your play style. Your players are not arguing or complaining about your game.

If you are not having fun, why you are doing this?

Preparing your first D&D/RPG game

Preparation.

First you'll need a story idea. You don't need to create an entire world or an entire village. Just focus on a simple quest or character goal that can start your story. Offer a few story ideas for your players to choose from.

You can also work with your players to create a story along during session zero.

Start with one "dungeon" or "encounter" and work from there. A dungeon basically means anywhere you will have the players explore with while fighting monsters and role playing with non-player characters. A dungeon could be whatever you want. A city, a forest, ancient ruins, a cave, or anything else you can think of.

Don't over prepare. Just plan on the first session and a few ideas of where the story could go after that. Unless you are playing all day, one 3-4 hour session shouldn't have more than 3 or 4 encounters. Including at least one encounter that involves role-playing instead of combat.

The easiest way to start a story, or create a quest, is to create something the party needs and then put obstacles in the players way. Obstacles like monsters, traps, city guards, pickpockets, or villains who are trying to achieve the same goal as the players.

Here are some more ideas for coming up with a story.

   

Draw a map. Add Some Bad Guys

I think it is easier to start small. Especially when you are first starting. Draw one map of your dungeon, village, or cave. It doesn't have to be a pretty work of art or be to scale, this is for your own notes. Add where the monsters, animals, and traps could be.

Where are the NPC's that the players will run into?

Your dungeon doesn't have to be huge and complicated either. One night of play won't need more than five to ten dungeon rooms. 

Does your game start with someone giving the players a job? Do the players get what they want right away or do they have to go through multiple steps that take up a lot of sessions to finish the story? It can be as long or as short as you want it to be.

Aside from the map, Make a list of monsters or enemies that you might want to use during play. I say "might" because a good role player can talk their way out of some deadly situations. Have you list of enemies with all the stats you think the monsters might need.

This extra list will give you something to add just in case you run out of prepared content and need to insert another encounter quickly. Having this ready will enable you to avoid making players wait while you prepare another monster or the next step in the story.

To keep things simple, just focus on the enemies HP, AC, Attacks, special moves and ability checks or saving throws. I usually don't prepare ability scores or saves, unless they are big important bosses or long term villains. 

Make sure you have lots of extra blank paper to keep track of hit points and other notes during the game session.

To keep things easy, look up the challenge rating of monsters. For your first game it's OK to keep them simple. Challenge rating 1 or lower. For level 1 players.

I hate math and therefore I don't waste time and energy keeping track of experience points. Instead, have characters level up at the end of a session or at the end of a specific quest.

Once you know what classes your players have, you can add class specific details to your map. If you know you have a rogue, add some locked doors or traps they can disarm. If there is a druid or ranger, add an encounter with a mundane animal or horses so they can use their handle animal abilities.

For your magic users, add some runes or a scroll for them to read. If you have a paladin, cleric, or monk, make sure they have a temple or monastery to visit.

Add some NPC's with the same classes that your players might want to interact with, a fellow soldier, explorer, or contacts in a temple or thieves guild.

Add some loot and treasure to your map for the players to find. If you are playing 5th edition, there won't be any magic items at level 1. Always have some healing potions available at low levels.

Host Session Zero.   

Once you have a good story idea, ask your players if they are down with it. Sometimes play styles can get very different and dungeon masters have different styles as well. So make sure everyone is on the same page at first.

Session zero is spent making characters, getting to know play styles, establishing rules and other fine details of the game. 

The most important aspect of a session zero is getting each of the players characters to have a specific goal to work towards. If players start with a specific goal, they have something that motivates them to be a part of your game world. Character goals are a huge help to you as the DM because you can craft a lot of story around what a character wants to do.

This is also good to have the characters backgrounds intertwined. The first session is so much easier without the awkward role-play from brand new characters. I say skip it. Make the party already know each other and have already agreed to work together. 

Characters develop more in game than they do out of the game anyway. The players won't break your game as easily either. If they're already working together, it won't be awkward when one player wants to try to kill the bartender. The other players should help each other out and should jump in to stop some murder-hobo foolishness.

If this is your first time running a game, keep the character creation simple, so your group won't be overwhelmed with too many rules. Have your players start at level 1. Have them only use the races and classes in the handbook. You'll have enough to worry about without having to look up some obscure spells or abilities. More on session zero.

Be Adaptable When Running the Game.

Don't expect the players to do exactly what you want them to do. This turns into railroading and the players will end up with no choices at all. Being adaptable and being able to make stuff up right away is one of the best skills a DM can have.

There will always be something the players will ask about that you didn't think of preparing. Don't be afraid to make things up in the moment. No matter how much you prepare, there will always be something to improvise.

It is totally OK to have traps or encounters that don't have a planned ending. This gives your players a chance to be creative and lets you have fun with the players problem solving. You set it up, they knock it down.

Let your players try ridiculous things. If you are saying "no" to every good idea they come up with, the players won't have any fun and will see that trying to be creative is a bad thing. This destroys the spirit of the game. RPG's group games are designed for people to work together to solve problems. Don't destroy the dynamic by saying no to every great idea that pops up. A good DM works with the players.

Give your players the illusion of choice. Do they want to go explore in the forest? Or head to the ancient ruins? Either way, they will come across the one dungeon you have prepared. Because your job is to put obstacles in their way. You don't need to invent an entire new map just because the players chose to go right instead of left. Make it easy for yourself. Put the players where they need to be to advance the story. Skip travel time if you have nothing planned for it.

More Ideas about being adaptable here.

Running the Game.

This is where all your preparation and over thinking will pay off.

Instead of wasting time traveling, start the players off in front of the dungeon. Start where the action is. Set up the scene and then let them decide what to do. How will the characters get across a moat with no drawbridge? How will they get past the magic stone door blocking the entrance to the dungeon?

Make sure you are sharing the spotlight. If one player wants to do a thing, pause that player and ask what the other players are doing. Make sure every player is involved. Even if it's just to follow what the main player is doing. At least give each player a chance for their ideas to be heard. Let them talk one at a time, make them take turns talking if you have to.

As the dungeon master, you decide when to start and stop the action. If a player tells you that they are doing a thing, then say that the character does the thing. When the DM says it, it lets the party know what's happening and you can describe it in order to move the story forward. It also tells your players that you have heard and acknowledged what they want to do. If the DM doesn't say it, it didn't happen.

Make name tags for the player characters, so you and the group know the characters names. It's also good to have their race, class, HP, and AC recorded so you don't have to ask them every turn.

During battle, have a player keep track of initiative or put the name tags in initiative order. This will speed things up for you.

Have players look up rules so you aren't slowing down the battle. If someone needs to look something up, move on to the next turn so the whole table isn't waiting around.

Tell players that you expect them to know what dice to roll for their attacks and what their spells and abilities do before they get to their turn.

If you want to stay sane, take breaks at least every two hours. Don't be afraid to ask if players want to take a break.

If something comes up and you want to think about what to do next, it's OK to pause, and take a break, and think about it for a awhile. You aren't the computer running a video game. You need breaks too. 

Have fun! 

The most important rule is to have fun.

Don't overwork yourself and turn the game into another job.

Creating worlds and stories is supposed to be exciting. Being creative is the best thing we can do in this life.

Enjoy it.

Take a break if you aren't enjoying the game.

Don't overwhelm yourself thinking about building an entire world from scratch. Steal stories from books and movies. If you feel bad about stealing ideas, read this.

Use published adventures if you don't want to create your own. No one cares that an idea or two is stolen. The players are there for the same reason you are, To have fun!

   

For more insight, information and inspiration please visit gamesmastery.com 

  

Creating an Unforgettable D&D Character

   Today I'm focusing more on personality traits and backstories. Nothing here about numbers or stats. So you can use these ideas for any rpg system.

   There will be a lot of questions for you to think about. Get brainstorming!

   Choose a Race. 

Do you want pointy ears? Demon Horns? or the extra abilities you get as a more versatile human?
 
   A lot of players choose race to boost their stats based on their class. You want to be a strong fighter, be a half orc or a dwarf that boosts strength. A halfling thief will have more dexterity than most. I'm sure you want to do something you don't get to do in real life.

   Don't be that player who wants to be a dragon. It makes the game harder for everyone. You can totally do it if your DM lets you of course, but you should definitely ask about that one first.

Find the class and their abilities that are right for you.

How does your character like to fight?

How brave/stupid are they?

Would they rather heal their friends instead of seeking out a fight? Be a cleric or a bard.

Would they make tactical plans instead of jumping headfirst into battle?

Would they prefer to make weapons or brew potions instead of fighting?

Would they rather sneak up behind their enemies or karate chop them to death? Rogue or monk.

Would you like to throw fireballs or sing a song to inspire your friends?

Do you spend all your time hugging trees and raising animals? Druid.

Personalities are not classes!

Classes are simply what determines the abilities your character uses.

Personality is how they act and feel, how they interact with the world around them.

Remember, that classes aren't necessarily a characters personality. 

All barbarians aren't stupid, like Bruce Banner. All clerics aren't brainwashed religious nuts. 

The comic Rat Queens does very well to turn character tropes around. A fighters day job could be a talented chef.

Batman's personality is a lot different than Deadpool's. But their goals are almost the same. Protect innocence people and make their world a better place.

   Use a personality you like. if you can't think of a good idea it is okay to copy a famous movie star or character from any other media. 

  Do you want to be Indiana Jones or Jack Burton? Are you John Wick or Marty Mcfly? Is your character more like Jack Black than Will Smith? Could you be the next Picard or Mal Reynolds? Steal a personality idea and make it your own. Are you Arya Stark or John Snow? Are you more like Legolas or Bilbo?

  Find words that describe a personality or emotion you can base your character on. Are you loving or closed off? Boisterous or stoic? Lazy or intense? Bossy or rude? How do other people perceive your character? Do they want you at all their dinner parties? Or do they tolerate you like an offensively dull co-worker? Is your character only nice to certain people? Are they introverts who can only talk to laid back people?
 
Develop a voice or accent for your character.

   This adds personality right away. It also helps everyone at the table know if it's you or your character talking. Do you want to sound like LeeLoo or Wonder Woman?

   Maybe your character was burnt in a planet full of lava and now you sound like Darth Vader or Stephen Hawking. You don't have to have a specific accent. Maybe your character talks slower or faster than you do.

 Simple backstories are the most effective.

Try to tone down the idea into two or three sentences.
 
   Give us a simple elevator pitch; I'm a cut purse who grew up on the streets of a shady port town. I ended up traveling with a caravan of merchants to sell snake oil. Now I'm adventuring to meet my long lost sister and maybe make some extra gold along the way.

   If you can tone it down this simply, it becomes a lot more memorable and exciting. No one wants to read your 5 page history. You can write that history of course, but find a way to tone it down and get an essence of the character.

  How did your characters family die? Oh wait, not everyone is an orphan?! Your aunt and uncle didn't die in a fire and inspire you to fight the empire? Maybe your parents got killed when you were a baby and now their killer is a dark lord who wants to attack your high school.

As far as backstories go, you can make up whatever you want. Don't worry about being totally original, because it's all been done before. Put your own spin on it. Who cares if it's already been done, as long as you enjoy it.

  Keep your backstory pretty simple. If it gets too long, it gets harder to add things to it later on during the game. The DM needs something to work off of and your fellow party members should have a way to add their characters to your story.

   Plan with the other players and dungeon master. Maybe the players are all from the same village that was destroyed by orc bandits during the rat wars and now all of you want to get revenge. Maybe your character is a mob boss and your party needs to take out a few rival gang members.

Make sure your character has a goal

  I think the most important thing for a character is a goal. This can directly be related to how you character sees the world and how the world sees you. Do you want to find love? Or do you just want the world to see how smart you are?

   A goal could be as simple as wanting to live alone in your swamp and it eventually brings you love and adventure. Having a goal or a mission will help out the DM with adding your character to the story. Give the DM something to use so your character can be directly involved with whatever is going on.

   Are you looking for your missing brother? Trying to save a soldier named Ryan? Do you want to learn a new powerful spell? Or obtain a legendary weapon? Do you want money?  Or fame? Do you want to save your homeland from a dragon who invaded years ago? Did your mommy get killed by vampires and now you have sworn revenge?

Character goals work with personality.

What does your character care about?

If your character had to fight, what would it be for? Family? Friends? Money? Political power?

Does your character want to control armies or own a large shipping company?

Would your character fight for her homeland or find the easiest way to survive?

Is your character an explorer or scientist? Do they want to study magic or exotic creatures?

Do you want to study mythology or history of your world?

Do you want to craft epic magical weapons or technology to make life easier?

Does your character want to see an elf city in the trees or visit the astral plane and talk to angels?

Do you want to own a castle and have a fancy title?

Don't create a character that won't interact or play well with the group. 

RPG's are group games! You need to be interacting with the party and helping them out.

  Your lone wolf type won't be every fun if they aren't talking to anyone. It's OK to be a loner as long as you are still a part of the game. There is no reason a group of characters would work with someone who doesn't work with them. The characters have every right to kick your character out of  the party if they aren't playing well.

   If you want to lone wolf it, talk to a DM about running a solo game. Or make sure the rest of the group agrees before the game starts.

Work Together
   Create with the entire group brainstorming ideas. It also makes the beginning of the game easier if all the characters already know each other and have a common goal.

How to plan a new RPG campaign with your players; Session Zero

Session zero is the first session starting a campaign for your game.

This is when you first get your players together, everyone meets to create characters and decide on the type of game and play style. 

Session zero will be more character building and planning than playing. The players and the DM work together to come up with a story. 

A good DM will add the players stories to their pre-planned campaign.  

How do you roll your stats?   

Do your players want to roll stats before or after choosing a class? 

Are you rolling stats and then choosing classes based on the rolls? 

Are you min-maxing? Point buying?

Right now, I make up the stats for players without rolling, just to save time. 

Whatever you do, make sure everyone rolls the same way, then no one will be cheating with unbalanced high numbers.

Keep character creation simple, especially if you are a new DM. 

Stick with simple races and classes from the core handbook.

If you are starting as a new DM, there are enough rules and other things you will need to keep track of.

Don't let your first game get bogged down because a player wants to be a half-dragon half-owlbear sorcerer with special abilities. You'll end up wasting most of your time looking up weird abilities and game rules instead of actually playing. This will also leave other players behind who are playing more traditional characters.

Starting simply is the best way for you and your new players to get used to the game mechanics and how the game flows.

Once you have some more experience with your players, you can create new characters and add them to the game. 
     
Say no during creation and yes during game play. This works well to keep things simple to start with, and then during the game say yes (within reason) to all the fun things players will want to try. 

Make the Characters already know each other before the game starts. 

How do the characters know each other?

Did they meet in a tavern like every other story? 

Were they all hired for a job to do together? 

I like starting the game with the players already knowing each other and working together. This makes planning a lot easier and more creative fun for the players to imagine how they met and decided to be friends. Instead of the awkward tavern scene where everyone is trying to introduce themselves.

This will make planning a story easier for the DM, there will be multiple backstories at play with adventure hooks or character goals already set up.

 What are the player character goals?

 What are your characters wants and needs? 

The first story ideas should be taken from your players and their backstories that you establish in session zero.

 A characters parents were killed by a tribe of orcs? Murdered by roaming bandits? Those can be your villains!

By making it personal to the characters, the players will be more invested in your story.

Maybe a player wants revenge against a six-fingered man and ends up in a plot where the evil prince wants to take over a kingdom.

By adding obstacles, random encounters, run-ins with bad guys, and swamps that are on fire, you can turn a characters goal into a 12 session long campaign. Just based on a simple backstory.

Establish the first mission or story line, directly related to one of the characters goals. 

If the PC's are already established as friends, they'll be that much more willing to help each other with their characters goals. And you won't need a traditional adventure hook.

 Add characters and their back-stories to your world.

 Do you have and elf from a forest? A rogue  from the city? Have them come from the city you have already created. The forest you already have established in your world.

This makes the players feel like they are actually a part of the world. Create the story together instead of telling your characters what they want and where they are from.

Establish your house rules. 

Before each session, players should be reminded of how you expect them to act during play, and what the consequences are if they don't. RPGs are designed to be played in groups, so every needs to be on the same page. Play along to get along. 

If players are not following the rules, don't invite them to the next session. Don't waste time with people who are ruining your fun. having fun is the only way to win D&D.

Set boundaries right away. 
(do you let players fight each other? do you confirm critical hits?).

 No cheating on dice rolls. 

Teach the players that they should know what they are going to do before their turn. 

Make sure players know what dice to roll and what their bonuses are.

Are you using experience points or leveling by story arcs?

Do you use Inspiration points or Bennies in your game?

What is your maximum limit of players? How do you handle a player who doesn't show up?

Establish tone and genre of the game.

 I'm sure you already have a few ideas for stories. Give your story ideas to the players and let them choose what to go with. 

Is it funny fantasy adventure or a super serious spy thriller? It is a gritty western or a space exploration game?

Figure out a general tone as well. If you are trying to play in a haunted house or a Lovecraftian horror setting, it won't go very well if the players aren't acting horrified or allowing themselves to go a little crazy. Make sure the players are playing along and buying in with the tone of the game.

Establish a party alignment.

Are all the players good, and want to answer every distress call they hear?

Do you have an evil player who is planning on betraying the group? If so, will the players characters even work with someone like that?

Do your players want to be murder hobos and disregard the ramifications of their actions?

Will players want to do an evil campaign where players just want to see the word burn?

What is your play style? Does it match with the players style?

Do your players want to hack-and-slash everything and take the loot?

 Do you want to run a role play heavy story full of intrigue and moral dilemmas? 

Do players want to solve puzzles and get past traps?

 Is exploration important to the players?

 Do players want to be entertained and watch the DM act things out all night? 

If the players don't agree with your DMing style, that's O.K.! They can play in another group.
As a DM you can always find more players.

Some new players won't even know what they want until they've played a few sessions. 

 Start the game with a practice battle or encounter. 

This is especially important for beginning players and dungeon masters. Take time in session zero to figure out the flow of battle. 

How long does it take for someone to take a turn? 

How much damage does your characters normally do? 
What are the basic rules? Standard actions, and bonus actions. 

My favorite session zero game was when the players wanted their own pirate ship. The first battle I gave them was to kill the captain and take command of the ship. Help the new players learn to use their skills and abilities. 

 It's okay if people make mistakes. Especially when it's someone's first game. Let it happen and move on.

Make a Schedule and stick to it.

How long will this game last? Is it a one shot or an ongoing story?

Will your prepared story last 4 sessions or 2 years?

 Set a group schedule for the next few sessions so the group wont fall apart right away. 
Games always eventually fall apart no matter how excited everyone is. 
A game that lasts years is a lot more rare than you would think.

 People are always busy. So plan as much as you can with as many group members as possible.
If you plan in advance, everyone will be more likely to commit to a time. 

Talk about trigger warnings. 

Establish what your players don't want to happen during the game. 

How will you handle romance, torture, and other sensitive subjects?

The simplest way is to fade to black. Characters go to sleep together, fade to black and now it is the next morning. Skip the details. 

As a GM, do you want to roleplay flirting and romance? Will you spend time playing a character who is getting tortured?

Every group is different and every situation is different, so it is important to establish this beforehand.

A simple and common method is using a card with an X drawn on it. leave it in the center of the table and if the subject gets too intense or unwanted, players and point to it showing you that the subject should be skipped or avoided. Work with your group to agree on the details.

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