DM Tip of the Week- Know the Rules

It's time for this blog's first regular feature... DM tip of the Week. We start it off with...

Know the Rules
It's never very much fun when you have to leaf through books looking up some obscure rule every five minutes. In fact, this is one of the chief benefits of old-school games. Even so, you'll ocasionally encounter situations where you don't know a rule and need to luck it up. To prevent this, read through your ruleset of choice several times before you play. Also, make sure to look up any rule that you suspect will come up in advance (if you might have an air battle, look up manuverabilty and flying speeds, perhaps writing the needed information on some scratch paper). If all else fails, make something up rather than searching for a rule that's taking a long time to find.