My first time as a GM

[Aries Bachen]

I've seen alot of good advice and pointers here. I wish something like this forum had been around when I started GMing. Anyway, flexibility is key. You must plan for every contingency. Sometimes the characters will end up fighting with someone you intended for them to befriend, and the thugs that were suposed to jump them become allies. So I find it helpful to have generic stats available for anyone or thing the players may encounter. Also, and this is the big thing, you don't need to completely flesh out your world on paper. Such as exactly how enemy troops there are, the times and number of their patrols, and each of their mothers maiden names. I prefer to apply pressure where it's needed. This means to do only what is nessesary. You tell the players they are travelling through a patrolled area. If they are sneaky they may slip past most patrolls, but if they make alot of rakket they will most likely encounter a patrol. The same goes for combat. If the players are cutting down the enemy too quickly, maybe some reinforcements will arive. If the players are in danger of being overwhelmed, maybe after seeing a comrade die some of the enemies flee or go for reinforcements. It's that simple. I guess what I'm saying is that you don't need to generate alot of material to make your world seem like a real place. You need only to make it seem that way to the players. Plus you'll probably never use most of the stuff you've spent hours out of game working on. Not to mention stoping the game to search for that one piece of paper with the nessesary info on it can be a hassle and a game killer. As for maps, If you can provide good verbal descriptions of the areas in question you may only need a map of were the big action will go down. I preffer not to use maps so as to be able to move the action along quickly. I go into each combat scenerio with several things in mind. 1st: the range at which the combatants will be firing. 2nd: the terain. and 3rd the kind of cover there is to be had. As a side note, keeping in mind the ranges of the charaters weapons is also useful.
I hope this helps. Remember, there is beauty in simplicity.

[Jedi Skyler]

Yup. Just like the First Rule of graphic design: KISS.

Keep It Simple, Stupid!