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Alright, you sly son-of-a-gun, you got me. I'm going to run my first Narrative TTRPG. What do I need to know?
A while back I asked for some advice about running a haunted Beaver Dam game, and a few people popped up to ask why I wasn't trying out a narrative RPG system instead of using classic DnD.
Well, you got me. After some discussion (particularly about the painful amount of time to conduct a high level fight in 5e), we're going to try out the Dungeon World system instead. I've never run a TTRPG like this, and I'm rapidly working through the rulebook to figure it out. But rules only take you so far, there's a lot of learning that only comes with experience.
So for those of you with experience, I ask you: What do you wish you would have known before running a narrative TTRPG?
The players must be messed around with! Roll frequently whether you have a reason or not. Not "there are no traps", but "you don't SEE any traps".
Many threats are dumb, but smart threats should be smart. A dragon isn't just going to sit on the ground and let you smack it. A wizard is going to have just as many buffs and contingencies as your own spell casters.
It's fine to have designed set pieces, but be prepared for flexibility in how, when, and where you deploy them to the possible extent. The first rule of game mastering is that the players never do what you expect if given the flexibility. Railroading in the form of forcing things is considered bad juju, but manipulating the world to get them to the right place or encounter or putting in incentives to make them WANT to do the thing are great ways to work around it.
For me, it was finding others to play in it as well. Watching Let's Plays, reading hacks of the game and house rules, etc, actually using the Touchstones that inspired the game system. At some point for me, it "clicked" and I was able to shift from games like D&D (though I haven't played it much over the last decade my brain was still locked into it as all other games we played were largely inspired by it or had even more complex system mechanics) to being focused on how this is supposed to run in a rules-lite, narrative first, willing to break rules to make it make sense, and consensus of the group even when couch as "this is a likely one off but we'll see where it goes". I'm not likely to regularly go back to these games anymore either, narrative games are amazing.
For me, I'm playing one game, and running another game of it with some friends in the Blades in the Dark system. We've got different interpretations of things as simple as the "death bells" that toll (I felt like it was supposed to be something closer to the actual person that died rather than their read as more of a district wide thing) - both are equal and have bearing and both change how the systems, factions, people, etc would handle it. Thinking thru the downline as @WiseassWolfOfYoitsu noted of "smarter" enemies is important. Having it district wide mean that it was like constant sirens, there is always -someone- dying in Duskvol, people probably ignore them if they aren't the Wardens or meant to keep an eye on it. Whereas because mine are narrated as closer to the person, it's an alarm system for anyone nearby even when the "kill" is silent, planning or delaying the bells in some way is a known obstacle and making killing even harder to do yet my players have just reformed the crew as Assassins (long story but it's also an interesting change up from standard character creation).
I've not gotten the chance to play Dungeon World (though on my list), let me/us know how it goes!