I'm preparing to take the plunge into GM'ing. What would you be consider essential reading for a new gm? Books, websites, etc.?  I really want to focus in on being a good story teller.
I have played and tried to GM games since I was in elementary school, beginning with games like Shadowrun, Earthdawn, and Champions. Recently, I've gotten dack into gaming with a variety of other games (newer Shadowrun and Earthdawn, plus TOON! and Outbreak:Undead).  I've found examples of actual play and advice on how to actually GM a game in games to be lacking. I can only help but feel I am not alone as someone who isn't already a LITERAL dungeon MASTER.  I fully realize that there are an unlimited number of GM styles, personalities, etc. I do not think I am a very good GM though. No one else wants to be the GM, and few care enough to learn the complex rules that I often have to assist with and explain AS WE PLAY. Being left with the responsibility is quite overwhelming unless I create dynamic encounters or make it all up on the spot. I'm often left having no idea what to do.  Examples of Why I Think I Need Help  This question isn't about these examples so please don't dig into them in the answers - they're here to explain the basic things that leave me feeling like I don't know how to proceed as a GM.  I've read preparation is important, but last time I tried to make a story, the players immediately killed the primary character (a friendly person.) within about 2 minutes of starting the game. While I realize now that I let the dice take control over the story, it was rather difficult to continue a story that relied on this friendly character, with the players making enemies with the character's faction. It is still discouraging when my only other attempt at a prepared story ended with the players wanting to go in a complete opposite direction of where I planned. Both times, the hours of work I put into it were completely wasted, leaving me as ignorant as I always was before.  My group often wants to play Shadowrun, Earthdawn, or L5R- but I feel as though I am a horrible GM. The last time we played Shadowrun, I was bored out of my mind as we rolled hundreds of dice to do an obvious straight-forward "kick down the door" mission.   If I make security as I believe it should or as the forum threads describe their security or a few example missions I can scrounge up (examples of stories, not actual gameplay), my players literally feel completely hopeless as to how to achieve their mission without total failure.   One time when I was a teenager, I had players blow up at me saying "We have no idea what would work. You're telling us that our character's experience or the ally operative says that would get us killed, but what else can we do?" Since there are no examples of what players can do - I am left with the same feeling as the players. As an adult, I've had a similar occurrence where a player said to me, "I don't know what to do. I don't think we can even begin this mission." I had to make something up and just go with it, creating an NPC group (that fit in with the story) that goes in before the players to do something stupid so they don't have to. Mainly because I ALSO didn't know how to accomplish the mission, so I acted as the players would using my NPC group. Extremely boring and IMO a failed dungeon run.  I've had successful stories, but I've had more boring encounters than successful ones. Seeing as how roleplaying takes endless hours to complete a story, I do not see benefit in an activity that wastes more time than is enjoyable.  How Do You Learn To GM?  Where are the resources? Books, blogs, gameplay examples? Am I missing them? How did YOU learn to be a good GM? Or do you feel as bad at this as I do, even when it's a successful, fun encounter?
Stack Exchange iOS app nearing beta We're getting very close to releasing our iOS app on the App Store.  Since the , we have taken on hundreds of users, fixed a lot of bugs, and we have approached feature completion for v1.0.  We're still working on finishing touches and fixing crashes - but there aren't too many of those these days.  We believe we'll have this out in .    Current Alpha Testers:  We want to extend to you a huge thank you for using our app and giving us feedback.  We've made a ton of improvements that filtered through  here on meta.  We're pretty greedy, though, and we want more of your feedback as we get close to beta.  If you've been using the app, please leave an answer to tell us how you think we've done so far.  Don't go easy on us - we want to get this as right as we can before hitting the App Store.  You might even consider telling us how many stars you would give us if we were in the store.  Also, we created a room called  for more casual discussion about the app.  Everyone Else:  The alpha will continue in the interim, and we still .  The invitations are sent out once a week (usually), so if you don't get an invite right away, don't panic.  We'll get to you.  Bugs or feature requests should be reported here on meta and tagged .  Update, 5/1/2014    As of today, the app is submitted for review.  A great big thanks to all our alpha testers!  Your feedback has been invaluable and has truly helped us make the app much better than it would have been without you.  So what now?  Well, we intend to keep the alpha test group around, except now we're considering it the "beta channel".  It's still important to us, particularly since the update cycle through the AppStore is slow.  We'll still roll out updates in the same way that we have been.  We will also from time ask for targeted feedback on specific features.  And, lastly, if you're just now getting here and wished you had signed up for the alpha, feel free to sign up now anyway.  The form is still there, and we may still let in additional users to the beta channel depending on what our "active users" count looks like. How to solve $x^3=-1$? How to solve $x^3=-1$? I got following:  $x^3=-1$   $x=(-1)^{\frac{1}{3}}$  $x=\frac{(-1)^{\frac{1}{2}}}{(-1)^{\frac{1}{6}}}=\frac{i}{(-1)^{\frac{1}{6}}}$... What happens to a lens when you turn the focus ring during AF mode? What happens to a lens when you turn the focus ring during AF mode?  I have read that this causes damage, or can cause damage. But what is actually happening? I've done this recently with my Canon EF 50mm 1.8 lens.  Is a lens damaged after doing this once or does it have to happen multiple times? I'm trying to prove that for $p,q&gt;0$, we have $$\int_0^1t^{p-1}(1-t)^{q-1}\,dt=\frac{\Gamma(p)\Gamma(q)}{\Gamma(p+q)}.$$    The hint given suggests that we express $\Gamma(p)\Gamma(q)$ as a double integral, then do a change of variables, but I've been unable thus far to express it as a double integral.  Can anyone get me started or suggest an alternate approach?  Note: This wasn't actually given to me as the $\Gamma$ function, just as a function $f$ satisfying $$f(p)=\int_0^\infty e^{-t}t^{p-1}\,dt$$ for all $p&gt;0$, but I recognized that. This is in the context of an advanced calculus practice exam. How to add thickness to a curve? How can I add thickness to a curve? I already tried with the extrude and depth options in the curve settings, but it doesn't work properly. I am studying General Relativity and some basic QFTs. It bothers me a lot that different books use different metric signatures, i.e. $(-+++)$ and $(+---).$ Can anyone tell me the advantages of using both of them, or why some people prefer the former while some prefer the latter? I would like to know which one should I while tackling different problems. I'm trying to figure out the name of a movie I saw on TV as a kid, in the mid-to-late 90s, in the US, in English, on daytime TV.  I remember it being kind of Starship Troopers-esque, but everyone had these glowing lights in their chests.  They glowed in different colored patterns, and I think it had something to do with whether you were attracted to someone or not (I was probably like 7 when I saw it, I didn't really understand the context of that part yet). Local timezones on servers considered harmful? I'm curious as to what other administrators' experiences with timezones, in the context of remotely administered servers, are. In my career I've come across several conventions;   Always, always, always use UTC.   Always, always, always use the timezone of wherever base HQ is. Use the local time of the people who happen to be administering.  Use the local time of the server location.    In some places, I've come across multiple and conflicting conventions. My own preference has been to use UTC, always - with no daylight savings. But for one reason or another, it seems that most people prefer to use some concept of local time, with daylight savings. Although it seems like a straightforward technical matter, discussions around changing conventions always seem to trend towards religious schisms.  What are you using? What do you consider to be the advantages and disadvantages of each approach? I’m making a little movie with using multiple computers. I can't use the network so I've divided the frames of the animation over the computers. Unfortunately now there are frames missing. What I'd like to do is using 1 machine to render all the missing frames. For example: 4-24-35-64-143 but ideally in such a way that I don't have to re-start blender multiple times. Is this possible somehow? How can it be that, if like charges repel, they don't repel themselves? In other words, why don't charges break apart?  About the possible duplicate: I want to know about charges in general, not just that of an electron. My response to :  Thank you very much for the extensive explanation. Unfortunately it's a bit above my level (I'm a first year electrical engineering bachelor student). This is how I understand it: If the charge is the sum of multiple separate charges, there has to be an external force that keeps this charges together. However we most often think of electrons and protons as point charges. In other words, we don't think of them as if they are made up from different (smaller) parts. But the idea of electrons and protons as point charges has its own problems. I didn't know that the electric field has a mass. From the formula, I understand that $m\propto \frac{1}{r}$. This would mean that $m\rightarrow \infty$ as $r \rightarrow 0$ (or $r = 0$), which of course is physically not possible. But there is a way to calculate the radius of an electron based on the mass, the speed of light and the constant of Planck. (Unfortunately I don't know why.) You can get around this by a technique called called renormalization, which causes the integral to converge. Unfortunately, I don't understand the rest of the answer due to my level in physics. Nevertheless I am grateful for you answer. It would be awesome if you could confirm or correct my understanding. Asking the position of a person in a sequence How to ask the position(?) of a president (like 10th) of a country, correctly? Problem Statement  Let $f(x) = x^3 + ax^2 + bx + c$ and $g(x) = x^3 + bx^2 + cx + a$ where $a,b,c$ are integers with $c\not=0$   Suppose that the following conditions hold:   $f(1)=0$ the roots of $g(x)=0$ are the squares of the roots of $f(x)=0$      $$\text{Find the value of} \: \: a^{2013} + b^{2013} + c^{2013}$$   My attempt  Let $f(x) = (x-p)(x-q)(x-r) \: \:$ and $g(x) = (x - p^2)(x-q^2)(x-r^2)$  Expanding we get $$f(x) = x^3 - (p + q + r)x^2 + (pq + pr + qr)x - pqr$$  $$g(x) = x^3 - (p^2 + q^2 + r^2)x^2 + (p^2q^2 + p^2r^2 + r^2q^2)x - p^2q^2r^2$$  And so we have $$a = -(p+q+r) = -p^2q^2r^2$$ $$b = pq + pr + qr = p^2 + q^2 + r^2$$ $$c = -pqr = p^2q^2 + p^2r^2 + r^2q^2$$  Then we get the following relations  $$a = -c^2$$ $$b = a^2 - 2b \implies 3b = a^2 \implies b = \frac{c^4}{3}$$  From $f(1) = 0$ we have $a + b + c = -1 \implies \dfrac{c^4}{3} + c - c^2 = -1$  However, upon graphing this function, I saw that there are no integer solutions for $c$. Have I done something wrong?  Edit  For future readers, my approach can simplified alot if you replace $r$ with $1$ since $f(1) = g(1) = 0$ Taking a screenshot (within X) How can I take a screenshot in X.org?  I am unsure if the Print Screen button will "just work" and I don't know how I would go about testing it. How to build a dmg Mac OS X file (on a non-Mac platform)? Is it possible to build a .dmg file (for distributing apps) from a non-Mac platform? And if yes, how? Expressing an opinion: to me or for me? I installed Ubuntu 13.04 on my Vista 64 bit machine and I thought it was going to uninstall Vista but it didn't, now I have both systems.  How do I get rid of Vista? If we fail to reject the null hypothesis in a large study, isn't it evidence for the null? I have a Python module installed on my system and I'd like to be able to see what functions/classes/methods are available in it. I want to call the help function on each one. In Ruby I can do something like ClassName.methods to get a list of all the methods available on that class. Is there something similar in Python? eg. something like: from somemodule import foo print(foo.methods)  # or whatever is the correct method to call modular arithmetic, solving $ax + b \equiv c \pmod d$? For example $151x - 294\equiv 44\pmod 7 $. How would I go about solving that?  The answer says to simplify it into the $ax\equiv b\pmod c $ form first, but I have no clue on how to get rid of the $294$... help? The tag  and meta-tag  syntax generate much nicer looking results than merely surrounding your tag with [square brackets].    However, they only work when you're talking about the site you're on.  On Area51, in Chat, and on Meta sites, this is frequently not the case, leading to attempts at syntax like [[tag:failure]](https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/failure), which produces:    Hmm, must be some subtle syntax thing:   : [tag:failure](https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/failure) []: [[tag:failure](https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/failure)] : [tag:[failure]((https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/failure))] : &lt;a href="https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/failure"&gt;[tag:failure]&lt;/a&gt; : [tag:failure][1] \n\n [1]: https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/failure : [more text is a [tag:failure] too](https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/failure)   I give up!  How can I create a link to a tag on another site with tag markdown?