Get a confidant

by Alan De Smet

More GM tips

Find someone trustworthy to talk about your game with. Tell them everything you're planning for your game. Tell them what your players are doing. Part of being a GM is coming up with neat ideas, then keeping those ideas secret from the players. Given that gaming is about socializing, this level of secrecy can be hard. Having someone to tell helps you resist the urge to spoil surprises for your players. Also, your confidant can help you spot possible problems in your plans; your game is important, why not get a second opinion? The simple act of explaining your plans to another person also gets the mind working in different ways and can help identify problems or inspire new ideas.

Michael Zenke has further thoughts on this in his article "Brainstorming with Other GMs." (That link appears to be broken. Try the backup link.)

Also, be a confidant. This is helpful even if the other GM runs a very different stype of game. Another GM's plans are great brainstorming material. For example, I'm not fond of "End of the World" plotlines, but helping another GM write such a plotline for D&D gave me some interesting ideas that I plan on using in Deadlands.