As discussed last week, GMs are often really hard on themselves.
Yet we can’t all be doing a bad job now can’t we?
So I thought to myself, how about we talk some more about that.
I want to know that one thing you know you are good at as a GM. Tell us what comes easily to you and works well at the gaming table.
For instance, I’m very good at pacing. I make things move all evening long. When the group loses focus, I’m usually able to bring them back. When a fight drags on, I sometime let narrative imperative take over and opponents find better things to do than getting slowly killed by the PCs.
I’m also pretty good at description and mood setting. There’s nothing I like more than seeing a player’s stare go wide, when I evoke a scene or describe how a monster acts or a NPCs responds.
While, we’re at it, just so we can at least indulge in that GMing sport of self-torture, I also want to know in what area you would like to improve.
For instance, when I get tired, I tend to shed a lot of the flavor off the game and focus on the numbers rather than the story. During a fight I may end just counting squares of movement and declare points of damage. In that sense combat becomes a sub-game with only a fraction of the excitement that well-described fights can generate.
I also still get caught in the story’s logic and will prize what should happen in a story as I envisioned it over what would make the story more fun.
What about you? What are you good at when behind the screen and what would you like to improve?
For players only, what about your GM? Say one good thing about him/her and one thing you’d like to see get better.
If you notice that you could help one of us with one of our weaknesses, feel free to chime in with a tip!
As a GM, I like to think I get people involved and keep everyone in on the action. A failing of mine is “letting go;” letting the players create the story while I simply set the scene. I tend to get a bit too invested in my own writing as opposed to being as open as I ought to be to the players altering the story through action.
As a GM, I feel I’m good at coming up with a dynamic story that can immerse the players. My players always tell me about what characters from certain games they liked best. I also tend to reuse a lot of characters (in alternate universe versions) because they’re so memorable.
I also feel that my greatest strength is comedy games. I’m currently running a comedy Play By Post game using D&D 4th Edition, where some play-by-post metahumor comes into effect that my players really enjoyed. For example, whenever a skill challenge is declared, confetti falls and a fairy counts successes and failures. Also, there is an NPC companion they have who draws their grid maps for combat – at one point, she was knocked out before the battle, and the player’s characters had no idea about the spatial dimension of the area anymore, because Karin was unconscious and couldn’t draw them a combat map. So they instead had to have a skill challenge using improvised attacks, since squares and grid-movement broke down for everyone the second Karin couldn’t draw her map. I plan to use more aspects of the game that way. For example, enemies that draw on the combat map as an Encounter power, fuzzing with it so the directions are all wrong or there are multiple enemy markers or things of that nature. Or just making it blurry and unreadable.
My greatest weakness as a GM used to be challenge. My encounters in 3.5 were either deadly or lame. In 4e, they’re always right, but now my weakness is judging challenge based on the player’s perspective. Even if I can make all my encounters just right…how many do I make? What am I shooting for? Is it challenging to the players if they need to work hard to hit a guy? If they lose healing surges? If they’re forced to use Daily Powers? It’s still sort of hard for me to tell, from the player’s perspective, if they’re being challenged. To me, they never look like they’re being challenged enough, so I might go overboard trying to work them. If you have any tips on that, Chatty, it’d be so appreciated, man. Because I don’t know if I should just up and ask them if they’re feeling challenged…heck, do they even WANT to be challenged? So confusing. Might be the time of night.
Wyatts last blog post..Monsters Of Eden: Heroic Tier
I’ll my memories of games past, as I’ve only DMed once recendly.
As a DM I think my strength was mainly acting/roleplaying. I have a few vivid memories of interactions between players and NPCs that were greatly enjoyed by all – Martor, the gnome illusionist prankster who became a god-artifact and Paul the monotheist who believed in a single god come to mind instantly 🙂
As far as weaknesses go… I think I had a tendency to railroad a bit and panic if the players are derailing. Sure was confronted to pieces of that in my recent DMing session.
As far as my DM is concerned… I don’t know what I’d suggest he improves. He’s already pretty good. I guess he could allow himself to be a tad more inspired by his player’s interpretations of things, but I don’t remember every being really disappointed by his ideas (and he’s been my DM for what? 8 years?). As for qualities… I think I said enough on my blog recently. Though I’m not sure I was feeling all that well when I wrote that…
Eric Maziades last blog post..Goldrake aka Grendizer aka Goldorak Stickfas custom
My primary strength is characterization; my game features somewhere between a hundred and a hundred and fifty (I think) named NPCs, and I can remember almost all of them well enough to pull them out at a moment’s notice. And most of the time, not only can I do that, but I can manage to stuff any given conversation so full of subtext and little detaily bits that people will still be making new discoveries on the third run through the log.
My weakness is mechanics; the more the game starts to depend on them, the more I lose interest. I have a very hard time running combat, particularly when the group splits up in several directions and I’m having to coordinate two responses while answering someone else’s OOC question while dealing with someone else complaining…. I got far too used to back when I had an assistant to foist the fights off on so I could keep putting the story together, let’s put it that way.
And I’m too reactive; I depend on my players for ideas, and when they don’t give me any I tend to flounder.
Ravyns last blog post..The Generic Villain on Architecture
My strenght, Imagining convoluted plot that rarely are what they appear AND making the player find them (I’ve seen some GM having big plots in the background but letting so little to the player that they never got it). Also I’m a pretty good improviser.
What I lack is the descriptive aspect I tend too much to convey combat as a tactical game more then a roleplaying game. In the same vein I have a hard time of being less self conscious and do voice acting for NPC’s. I’ve been working on this still got a long way to go… 😉
I think I do a pretty good job of description and characterization, setting up scenes and combat so that the players can see it in their head while keeping things going at a pace that doesn’t drag.
Personally, I think managing a lot of interwoven plot threads is something I could improve upon. I’ve only tried it a couple of times now, and I don’t feel like I’ve got the hang of it and handling the curveballs that my players love to throw my way. What I really need is a wall sized dry erase board in my attic fortress of solitude, where I could map it all out and stare at it in large, as opposed the crabbed script of my design notebook.
-Ben.
Bens last blog post..My Spawn of Dajobas
I think one of my biggest strengths is improvisation. I used to be pretty bad with it, but I’ve developed to the point that I can run entire sessions with zero prep time if necessary. I’ve started campaigns with no more than a map, a list of names, and a couple of vague story ideas and had them turn out well, so I’m pretty pleased with that.
As far as weaknesses go… I tend to be too reluctant to kill characters at times. I’ve been working on that. I also hate when the party splits up; I find it difficult to devote enough attention to everyone in that situation to keep them involved in the game.
@Ninetail: (IMO) Death in a single character game like D&D should serve the story or serve as a lesson against foolish choices. That doesn’t mean there should be a sense of mortality– including a few redshirts that you build up over a course of a session or two only to take an arrow to the face can do a lot to remind characters that death is out there. Also, reminding them that returning from death is ritual performed by clerics *for the faithful* encourages roleplaying as a party member’s restoration hinges on the groups’ successful quest (with the benefiting player fulling the role of a Temple representative/guide/questor that perhaps allows a future NPC/questionable class playtest/interesting concept to be taken out for a short term spin) and return. I also find that a good critical hit system (other than just double damage) can put some quality fear into players– when anyone can spin up the infinitely lucky kill shot, there’s some consideration about when to engage, and the “I bend my knee to no man” syndrome pops up less frequently. Add a healthy dash of Kobiyashi Maru encounters, or encounters that designed to overwhelm the party, and the players should begin to realize that the world is a dangerous place that deserves a healthy respect.
Don’t get me wrong– I’ll use a “fate point” set up of 1pt/level to avoid the completely inappropriate lethal critical, but those do nothing to prevent player stupidity. Too often players disrespect NPCs. Let Death roam the table some, be willing to kill when you know it’s appropriate, think about what the characters would do with fallen foes, obvious healers, battlefield-skirting magi? Right, they’d focus fire and make with ruining. Taste the blood and become liberated. 🙂
@Yan: You and I are a peanut butter and chocolate combination waiting to collide into gaming deliciousness. Chatty should facilitate our communication to have an exchange of “How to…” because I think it would be outstanding…
@Ravyn: I find that generating “news” that will occur for a certain timeframe in a location keeps things moving for me– I create a list of events that will happen if certain conditions are met, and sometimes those conditions are “will happen no matter what.” It keeps the locale from getting stale and helps create flavor for rumors and town information gathering. It also helps seed additional plot threads. For split groups, I try to do a round of one group and then the other, making sure I always tell the person who’s “on deck,” and sometimes leaving a group at a point where some small amount of planning or metagaming might be helpful– so they have something to preoccupy themselves with if they don’t want to listen in on what’s going on with the other group (which is hopefully just as entertaining.)
@Wyatt: Yes. Askthemyes. “How was that combat?” “What did you think of using X?” “How did the terrain affect you in that battle?” “Did you ever wonder if you would lose?” I’ve found players appreciate things a lot better when they’ve got to claw and scrabble for it and you’re only going to properly gauge that with time and feedback. Sure you can get the raw sense of it based on the outcome, but think about the specifics fo the encounter and stick to what you present– ask “Were there too many foes?” and not “What if I added 4 minions?” because the second question asks them to judge what they didn’t experience, and it’ll be pure speculation. The first question comes from the experience, and (IMO) has much more value.
-Ben.
Bens last blog post..My Spawn of Dajobas
Oh Wow! What a response!
@Rafe: The way I got players to input in my story (because I ‘m a bit like you) is to ask them for ideas about where the story should go before I actually write it. Works like a charm… as you’ll see in my next Adventure Prep post.
@Wyatt: I think we’re brothers in the sense that I love to play silly games. The whole metahumor thing is sensational. I have to borrow that in my upcoming online game.
As for Challenging players, Ben’s tips are right on the spot. Players want to be challenged, although they will not ask for it… if asked, some will actually err on the side of easy in order to keep their PC alive.
James Wyatt said that he trusts the numbers of the game intrinsically. If you use at least one opponent per PC (using an occasional Elite to replace a pair) and aim to have each monster roughly the same level as each PC, you got yourself a good challenge.
A good group of player will succeed with limited difficulty (expect one or 2 PCs to go to negatives, but they won’t stay there).
Increase the level of some monsters (and the budget) by 2-3 levels over the party and you got yourself a harder encounter.
If you see players burning through dailies, you know you gave them a ‘hard’ challenge, try planning a long rest or reducing the difficulty of the following encounters.
@Eric: Maybe you should start writing your scenes without mapping the resolution of it in your mind. Setup your obstacles and the problems the PCs must face and don’t plan the ‘likely actions’ you expect players to take. Then you won’t be railroading them and you won’t have a choice but to deal with whatever solution they find!
@Ravyn: If combat bores you to tears but your players want it, why not delegate handling combat to one of your players? Make this into a mini game, and focus on describing the atmosphere, the NPCs quips and threats and describing the gruesomeness of wounds and such.
As for spitting the party, our social contract more or less says ‘Don’t do it unless you HAVE to and all players are okay with that’ Otherwise I keep it in the ‘a few minutes on each scene and then rotate to next one’
@Yan: Now who might that other DM be? I wonder! 🙂 Like Ben says, I really look forward to DM a game with you! We could build on our strengths!
@Ben: Thanks for stepping in with your tips man. For the convoluted plots, a relationship chart helps a lot. Or be like Yan and have that chart in your head through his patented ‘Mastermind Indexing system’
@Ninetails: I don’t kill PCs either, I don’t think its a weakness, unless players stop fearing death. I try to make PCs have a hard time in fights and I try to aim at this point where all players think they might not make it out alive. But I don’t go out of my way to kill PCs, especially the ones that go unconscious.
As a GM I shine at two things: choosing players and building on seeds.
After a couple of session with new players I know what miss in a group and invite an extra player or two to balance things right. Recently adding a single player to a combat oriented group I subverted the space and time and make them a storytelling freaks. They changed from 4-5 combats in a session to a surprising (for them) 2 combats in 5 sessions (and a lot of roleplay in between)
The other thing I shine at is planting seeds and let them grow. Is something I was doing a lot of yeas ago but it came popular with the Lost TV series. I do cool/strange/interesting things now and do not bother to find an explanation now, then 5 or 6 levels ahead I bring then back into play. This is great to give players a sense of unity and coherence of the campaign.
Recently I let them trade an information with a witch for a couple of “sevices”. The witch give them the information, but I have not yet idea of what to do with the trade offs. Something will come into my mind later, in the right moment, and will be great.
Gomezs last blog post..[D&D 4E] [Encounter] [PDF] A graveyard and a hero
Like Ninetail, I’m an improviser first and foremost. I find sessions go much better if I don’t plan and go with the flow. Prepared sessions just end up with my trying to impose my own half-baked vision of how things are supposed to happen – not good.
So now, I just start with an initial setup, and run with it. That means less prep for me, more freedom for the players and a better time all-round.
I’m very pessimistic so whenever I’m asked what kind of GM I am, I say
that I don’t have a clear idea of where I’m going with the story
that I am so lazy, I don’t even make notes about the plot
that the details of in-game information sometimes escape my mind
that I don’t do well with giving NPCs accents
that I keep ranting about how bad I am
that being patient, I wait too much before acting
that I’m susceptible to emotional mood swings, causing the gaming quality to go up and down randomly
luckily, my players are often of the opposite opinion
I have a good idea of pacing
I’m not afraid of using subtle humour
I create multilayer plots with intertwining elements to have everyone engaged
Instead of railroading I guide the clueless and let the others go wild
I keep to the feel of NPCs and locations
I step in when there’s an inter-player conflict
I weave player ideas into the plot
I’m a strict adherent of the Rule of Cool
Interesting post, I wrote a very similar one today about how to keep the mood up while playing.
Recently I ran a RPGA adventure to a group, and I think I’ve got the right tone, switching between rolls and role-playing. Every time I saw a player drifting, he or she rolled for something, or got asked something by a NPC.
Like you said, I suck as a DM when I’m tired too. Sometimes I even cancel the session or suggest a different game for the night. I also ask my regular players their best: if you don’t really want to play, stay at home. I rather have an empty seat than a yawning player. Usually works fine for everyone.
Cheers!
Daniel Anands last blog post..O Bom DM – Mantendo o jogo animado
A Plot web works less well for me on doing more than creating relationships. Converting that into a braid– what I call the interlacing of plotlines, a term I stole from a Shakespeare professor– is the tough part. Which plot line should lead, how do I occasionally hightlight the two subplots and avoid clumsily foreshadowing the two other hooks/complications I want to utilize in a couple of sessions.
Right now figuring out the interdependencies takes a long time, requiring me to have a substantial gap between campaigns. But then, that’s what I’m trying to improve. 🙂
-Ben.
Bens last blog post..My Spawn of Dajobas
@Ben and Chatty: Great, thanks a lot! I’ll get right on the ball with that advice.
Wyatts last blog post..Monsters Of Eden: Heroic Tier
Yeah, I tend to be very good at describing settings, situations and characters…especially physical environments. This in turn has led to some pretty fun combat scenes, as players make use of all the cool details in a particular area.
I’m a little less good at bookkeeping on the fly; I tend to ignore or fudge numbers on monsters, just to keep the game flowing. This never usually becomes a problem to the players, but it’s something I recognize that kind of drives me crazy. And I still do it! There’s nothing I hate more than tracking all the different numbers and effects that might be part of a given group of enemies. It’s so un-fun, but also so necessary to a good game. I must improve!
PatrickWRs last blog post..Reading Gygax for the First Time
Hmmmm.
I think I’m best at creating worlds. I can come up with an internally consistent, interesting world for the players to run around in.
I’m working now to better observe my players’ wants and needs. I want to make the game really fun for everyone, and to do that, I need to be better at understanding the ingredients that satisfy each player.
Brent P. Newhalls last blog post..Save Yourself Time With Google Maps or MapQuest
Strength: Keeping the big picture in mind, improvising, closing a game when necessary, opening new story threads when that is necessary.
Weakness: Acting, having characters be like living and breathing people. I just have no idea how people actually work. Also, describing; everything is so clear and vivid in my mind’s eye that I plain forget to tell players what it all looks and feels like.
@ChattyDM : Great tip (again)! I’ve actually realized my railroading tendencies when I DMed for my group of 10 year olds – but the tip you gave me back then helped me handle it in a way similar to the tip you gave me right here 🙂 Not sure I can actually avoid thinking about possible resolutions (its deep within my nature), but I can certainly work on expecting something else.
Eric Maziades last blog post..Goldrake aka Grendizer aka Goldorak Stickfas custom
I’m happy to see that most people can focus on what they do well.
@Vampir: Good thing you have helpful players to punch through your self-doubts (dude, relax, really bad DMs lose their games).
@PatrickWR: There are cheats around that. First, think about pooling all the monster’s HP and remove one whenever damage to the pool reaches a ‘threshold’ equivalent to monster’s average HPs.
@Brent: Learning player motivations is key for sure!
@Tommi: For a minute I thought you were saying you didn’t know what being Human meant… scary! A good starting point is to deal with caricatures. A NPC with very few but very strong traits based on tropes are easier to play… and as you grow used to them, they develop a life of their own.
I feel that I’m good at opening lines, improvisation and description.
I’m less good at remembering previous events…
Silent Hunters last blog post..Remembrance: The Air War
My strength seems to be portraying characters well. I often seem to have players form real attachments towards some NPCs. I seem to be talented at other raw creative efforts as well. Where I’d like to improve is plots. It’s not that I can’t spin one out at the drop of a hat. I can readily spin several of them if I’m helping someone else but for some reason I can’t find them when I go looking for my own use. In the same vein I’d like to get better at the art of storytelling, of spinning a good narrative tale as I go. Basically that boils down to both the behind the scenes plot and it’s presentation to the players.
Chatty, Ben: Thanks! You’re right about the delegation; I used to have an assistant for that, and goodness knows it’d get one of my players to quit getting bored; I might give that a shot at some point.
It’s actually easier to get away with splitting the party in my format (which could explain why it happens so much); all I really have to do is open up a new chat window. It’s just that everyone wants their part to happen NOW!, and in the middle of a battle, or when a few people are trying to talk an enemy down while someone else is chopping up zombies, it can get a bit awkward.
Ravyns last blog post..The Traps of Names
I see that a few have a hard time with plots and how to expose them to player… I have a lot of trick that I could share to help… Maybe a guest post…
But the basis to make a succesful convoluted plot you need a few organization/group each having a simple and clear motive that are at odds with each others you then throw the player in the middle of it.
When you wing/prepare, you just need to remember the organization the player are dealing with and its motive.
The frequency of your game should be the thing setting the frequency at which you unvail plot element. Don’t be affraid to reveal a little bit more, since the player do not have the hole picture they will usually need more hint then you might think in assembling things together.
I’m just covering the surface here but that should help.
I’m really good with the rules. I know the rules for whichever game I’m running well, and can usually answer questions quickly. I’m also good at improvising rules quickly and coming up with interesting new “subsystems.”
I need work in:
*Roleplaying
*Improvising
*Working characters into the story (though that’s as much because my players don’t make it easy with their oft-generic characters).
*Rely too much on combat simply to fill up time
Asmors last blog post..Friends & Foes: The Skreed
First post for me. 🙂
I’d say my strength as a DM is my ability to improvise. Often I’ll just make up a few hooks while getting ready an hour or two before we start. I’ll print off a random dungeon map, and just run with whatever happens for the afternoon (our sessions usually last six to eight hours). I shouldn’t really be proud of this, given that I have two to three weeks between every game, but all of the players’ favorite adventures have happened under these circumstances. Besides, I can plan all I want, but the guys will never do what I expect them to.
My weaknesses as a DM are, of course, results of my spur of the moment style. I don’t include as many skill challenges as I’d like. This is okay for now, because my group really loves combat (one of our guys practically grits his teeth whenever there isn’t any fighting), but I know I want some more variety.
Also, my descriptions of the scenery tends to be little more than functional. “Here are the walls. Doors here and here, windows here, and a table with some chairs around it here.” Doesn’t do much for atmosphere.
My greatest weakness as a DM is specific to D&D 4e. I can’t handle Strikers. I have a bow ranger and a WotC playtest barbarian in my group that really frighten me. At level five, those two, with very little help, handled a few level eleven encounters. I’ve looked over the rules, changed my tactics around and threatened them with horrible odds, and they always come out on top. When I try to frighten them, they grin. The ranger does between 20 and 30 damage every turn, and the barbarian does about the same while also scoring heaps of bonus hp. Neither of them are fragile, either. They both have pretty good defenses. Any recommendations for dealing with these two?
@Crade
If you have already ramped up the danger level with brute combat and they shrug it off then you need to go in two possible directions.
1- Encounters that can not be solved by their strengths, ie puzzle solving instead of combat or needing a particular non-combat skill
2- attack them with lower level creatures
Yeah #2 seems counter intuitive so let me ‘splain… or at least sum up in terms of my game.
I have high level characters that can take on really tough fights. Village of Fire Giants not a problem for them. Giant Rats on the other hand terrify them.
–small creatures that attack in close quarters without warning
–disease – just needing to use spells up is a good thing
–kill as many as you like, there will always be more
–so I only hurt you 5% of the time for a max of 2 HP each – given a couple hundred rats that takes down a lot of characters
–zero glory in bragging about how many rats they killed
–rats are very versatile dungeons, forests, cities, give them extra fur in the cold and watch the group willing run towards the mind flayers to get away from the teeth gnawing at their feet under the snow’s crust
–boredom – if you insist on always walking around armored and weapons at the ready then I will have something to attack you with
–mix in one mental attack during all this (confusion spell by a hidden spell caster, etc) and every rat they see from now on is a spy for some villain
In short pick something common or easy and develop it until they squirm every time they hear claws scrabbling close by
BOB
@Bob: I agree; the problem I sometimes run into is not wanting to kill off a character even when they very much deserve it. I think I tend to just get too wrapped up in the storyline and give too many “Are you sure?” prompts. It’s not that I don’t do it (learned that lesson a long time ago), just that I’m too reluctant to, sometimes.
I consider the party split thing more of a weakness, really. I’m not sure what to do about that one, other than ask, out of character, at the start of a campaign, that the PCs stick together as much as possible. My standing policy is that when a character decides to split from a group, I handle the group first, and the character second — and the group gets proportionally more time than the lone wolf. That helps matters.
I should post about that, come to think of it.
@Crade: I suggest using less brute force and more low cunning. Do a search on “Tucker’s kobolds” for some inspiration. Use the 4 Ts: tactics, traps, terrain, and trickery. Wear them down with guerrilla warfare. Present the group with swarms of minions that hit (or better yet, shoot) and run, making it hard for the strikers to close with them to deliver all that damage. If the strikers pursue, lead them into an ambush, once they’re strung out away from their healers. Speaking of those healers, those shoot-and-run minions with the bows just went back to fill them with arrows, now that the strikers are otherwise occupied. The fighter? He’s still busy dealing with that “trapdoor full of a million scorpions in the ceiling” trap he stepped beneath.
If the enemy can’t beat them in a stand-up fight, don’t make it a stand-up fight.
Ninetails last blog post..Losing Your Religion
@Chatty: I haven’t lost any game in three years, it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon… they keep telling me I’m their slave!
You’re doing good work then.
Time to make them into YOUR slaves so you can eat and drink on their tab!
If only… my games are mostly online, free food and drink is beyond my grasp!