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Thanks, guys!!
I've definitely pulled inspiration from a number of GMs I've known over the years, most notably my early home game GMs Shawn Bonsky and Colin Ruggero who taught me the value of emphasizing the story over the dice rolls. I know a lot of people get a lot of fun out of the mechanical aspect of building and playing their characters (myself included), but I feel like everyone has a lot more fun if the characters that populate the world around them feel multi-dimensional.
I organize a lot more conventions and game days than I otherwise attend, so I'm afraid I don't know many of the great well-known PFS GMs on the convention circuit (although I had fun playing a Kyle Baird game at PaizoCon back in 2009). With regard to local PFS, I always enjoy playing at the tables of James McTeague, Matt Morris, Jeffrey Fox, Brian Lefebvre, Jonathan Bruce, and Tim Stapleton, to name a few. I've learned a lot from each of their strengths and I still feel I have a lot to learn from each of them.
At Redcap's Corner, where I most frequently run PFS games, we have a library of hard copies of PFS scenarios for GMs to borrow to run games here at the store. Each of those is slowly but surely benefitting from the highlighters and insightful notes of each successive GM, and I'd be lying if I said that hadn't become a big part of my preparatory process. In general, I read through a scenario with three highlighters in-hand: yellow for important plot points, orange for important mechanical interactions (like skill DCs), and purple for notes on victory conditions. After I finish reading through and highlighting, I go back and make sure I understand any nuances of the plot that confused me on the first read-through. And finally I revisit each combat and make sure I have a good handle on the mechanics and strategy, annotating those combats if necessary (for instance, I always do the math in advance for Power Attack or Combat Expertise and add that as a note in the margins so I'm not calculating it on the fly).
I'll have to give some thought to a favourite story. I can think of a ton of really fun scenarios, but most of them involved a great group of players with a great group of characters helping me make sure the scenario is fun from start to finish.
