|
1. I heartily recommend using the Paizo Campaign Tools if you're not already.
2. Using the tools, I will set my default alias to Dungeon Master S (this is Chris Marsh)
"Um, Paizo Campaign Tools?"
Man, this is why I should always sit in the back row!
it's a chrome plugin that gives you a few extra options for managing your PbP experience.
And also Firefox
Ah. Thanks. I’ll look to see if it runs on mobile (I assume not, but a boy can dream).
Taking it simple then.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As you could tell, this is my GM alias.
Per the previous assignment, some examples I aspire to:
-The World's Most Interesting GM's use of aliases for NPC (scroll down to the aliases owned by him)
-Great post by Dire GM to have everybody pause before their likely first starship combat in starfinder (I'm here learning with Pathfinder, but I like this example of helpfulness when something comes up that's new to most of the party)
FYI, I'll be out of town and without access to computers/phone signal this next weekend, June 23-24. Per comments above we aren't really starting by then, so hopefully this won't be disruptive.
I posted with this alias earlier, but I’ll post again just so it’s visible in the same place as everyone else’s.
Here's my GM alias.
|
-The World's Most Interesting GM's use of aliases for NPC (scroll down to the aliases owned by him)
This example has me thinking that it might be worth creating a new account to GM from. Were I to add a dozen aliases to my account they would get lost in the mess that is all my past characters. I having a second account to GM from allowed? Is it a good idea?
You wouldn’t show those nice stars, though, if anyone looked.
Additionally, I think it would quickly become a hassle if you have campaigns to check under each account.
This actually is another perfect plug for the PCT, you can hide and show aliases as needed!
Going to learn about Paizo Campaign Tools now...
Ah. Thanks. I’ll look to see if it runs on mobile (I assume not, but a boy can dream).
Firefox mobile, yes. (Using it now) Chrome mobile, no.
Ah. Thanks. I’ll look to see if it runs on mobile (I assume not, but a boy can dream).Firefox mobile, yes. (Using it now) Chrome mobile, no.
Thanks, Bruno - I’ll check it out today.
Thanks, Bruno - I’ll check it out today.Ah. Thanks. I’ll look to see if it runs on mobile (I assume not, but a boy can dream).Firefox mobile, yes. (Using it now) Chrome mobile, no.
... and nope, not on iOS. The price of playing in a walled garden.
I am on a mac and just installed it for Firefox on my laptop. Unsure about mobile.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I hope to see all of you offer cool stuff! Get your listings in before the support deadline if you can!
Thank you!
Hmm
Thought: would the gameday be a good event to GM a first game after school ends? E.g., gm'ing a low tier of the special, so that I'd be running the same thing as many other GMs and have an instant line of support. Good/bad idea?
Okie. Perhaps I'll ponder a different scenario for gameday. I know I'm jumping ahead here since we haven't even started here :) Just wanted to think if there's an opportunity to help out there.
|
It looks like everyone has posted as a GM alias, except for Tusk MD who stated he does not want one, so we can move on to the next discussion.
ASSIGNMENT 2: Please tell us what you think a GM's job is.
I welcome not just your answers, but also your thoughts on other people's answers. Mentors, both your answers and your thoughts are also welcome, but please hold back a little so that eager students have a chance to answer first.
A moderator and a story teller, who through the scenario and rule set of the game tries to challenge and engage the players so that everyone has a good time and participates in the telling of the tale.
I feel as though a GM is the facilitator for the story, guiding the narrative and allowing the players to tell their stories through the lens of the scenario. Obviously, they are also the judge regarding ambiguous rules. They are also characters themselves as they guide NPCs within the story.
|
|
I think of good GMs as a guide. They are meant to bring you along a story, adjust information and details so the story runs smoothly, and facilitate interactions that give the characters choice.
The GM should be near invisible in that journey for the player. Rules intervention should be light if things are prepped and understood well enough in advance. The story can be paced and adjusted appropriately if the material is well-read.
The interesting thing about TTRPG medium is the immense choice a player can have. The GM should do everything to make those choices fun and easy.
The GMs job is to run a story for players to participate in. They should ensure all of the players are able to effectively contribute to this story in whatever way is most collectively enjoyable. This means giving them the most opportunities to interact with the elements of a scenario in ways that make sense to their character. I think this means looking out for: interactions sputtering out or dying (perhaps the characters didn't notice the hooks they were given to interact), players not pariticpating, players interacting negatively, etc.
Clearly, a group at a table has chosen a system, so the rules do matter, but they support the above, not supercede it (spirit > letter).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A DM's job is a labor of love. At it's core the job is to glue a table of players together such that they have fun. To quote the original DMG "Dungeon Mastering itself is no easy undertaking, to be sure. But Dungeon Mastering well is doubly difficult."
Honestly, that's it. That's the job. If the players as a group have a good time, your job is done.
How you do that is really the question. It is important, I think, to remember that ultimately single job.
How do you pull it off?
How do you pull THAT off?
The GM's role is to keep the players involved/engaged.
This conclusion is the result of my evolving views and bolstered by my recent PbP experiences and GMing for my kids and their friends. Things like furthering a plot, giving the PCs space to tell their stories, etc. are all means to this end. Different methods are effective at engaging different players.
It is great when you have a group that all largely responds to the same methods (ideally ones that are enjoyable/effective for you).
However, in organized play (and/or play with kids, newbies, etc.) when you are likely to have a variety of play-styles, interests, etc. at the table, the GM should ideally be able to use a number of methods, both in game (deep immersion, extra opportunities just to roll dice, etc.) and out of game (allow for--even reward jokes at the table, take more breaks, provide coloring pages of NPCs and items, props, etc.).
The GM’s job is essentially to make sure everyone at the table (in this case the figurative table) is having a good time. A GM should know the rules of the game, but should also know when to bend them to create a more engaging, memorable experience. At the end of the day, a good GM’s players will have had fun.
He said the "bend" word! :P
As the GM, I view my role as something like the stage manager for a play. It's my job make sure the props are all in place before the curtain goes up, sometimes to run the lights and sound board, sometimes to stand in the wings and prompt the players or give them their cues, and to keep everything on pace so that we don't have to pay overtime to the backstage crew (the simile may break down a bit at the end). When I do my job well, and the players do theirs, we all have a good time.
I agree with most of the above.
The primary goal is to make sure everyone has fun.
I also feel that a GM needs to enforce the rules (and to make sure that any rules lawyers at the table are NOT enforcing the rules on other players).
While I can see how some people might feel that is "getting in the way of the story", I've seen too many people just try to flaunt the rules to allow them to do whatever they want.
This type of "cheating" interferes with other player's fun.
I'm not sure how to blend those two polar opposites.
|
|
Brunoreturns, I don't think you and MacShack are truly at polar opposites. I think that your 'rules lawyers' may be near one pole, and at the other pole would be the idea of ignoring the rules, not just bending them.
However, you are right that there are some important issues here. Some player and GM combinations might not be much fun because of this. This is part of the reason that is is good to make sure your players know what kind of GM you are before the game starts, usually even before they sign up for the game.
I believe we are still waiting for some answers, and I also encourage you to keep talking with each other about what has been said.
I know that I struggle with the rules issue in the real space game that I am currently running. One of my players is a complete RPG novice and I don't want to overwhelm them with nitpicky rules. On the other hand, I don't want to just let that player get away with anything. It is a real balancing act that I am still figuring out. And I am positive the PbP will be no different.
It is difficult for me to summarize the GM's job in a simple sentence or two because I think that the GM must perform many different roles and it's not clear to me that any one of them is the most important all of the time. These roles are (in no particular order):
- pacing -- The GM needs to make sure that the game doesn't get bogged down. This can happen due to the players going off into the weeds, players continuously repeating an ineffective action, or players just going missing. The GM needs to recognize when this is happening and steer things back on track.
- communication and clarity -- In a PbP environment it is very easy for the players to become confused or misunderstand what is going on. The GM needs to start with providing the appropriate level of detail in postings but also watch for signs of confusion and be ready to jump in to add clarity when needed.
- entertainment -- Nearly everyone is playing the game in order to have a good time. The GM needs to make sure that posts are fun, engaging, and entertaining. Just writing out mechanical die rolls and perfuctory descriptions of the results is poor GMing.
- rules -- One unavoidable part of a GM's job is understanding the rules and adjudicating rule disputes. This has to be balanced with the entertainment part of the job.
- player conflicts -- One sad part of a GM's job is dealing with conflicts between players. The GM has to keep conflicts to a minimum otherwise it ruins the game for all of the players.
Like I said to start with, I don't think there is a simple answer. But I guess that's why they pay us the big bucks.
A lot of things have already been touched on while I was at work, so I'm going to go all 'Zen' on folks.
GMing is a labor of love that gives back what one puts into it three-fold:
-In the fun accomplishment and play of one's players
-In the realization of growth and development as a GM
-In the development of a 'living narrative' that breathes on it's own in memory.
To dial it back a bit (and to avoid the worry-bird) these are three important things a GM should think about as they are running a table.
If the players are not having fun, and accomplishing things, they will lose any interest in participating, killing a table faster than anything else.
If the GM isn't learning new things every day; including how to deal with their players, balancing the challenges while keeping it challenging, learning new tricks and shorthand to make their lives easier, then they fall prey to the 'nails in search of a hammer' syndrome.
And it's only a small step from there to full-on Antagonist Mode.
Sure, situations can be impossible. Sure, players can be difficult. But the most rewarding experiences I've had as a GM are when I've been able to grasp the 'difficult' players, bring them into the game, and then show them the story they are helping write into creation.
At the sake of a brief foray into ego, there was a group of individuals who truly appreciated being the most 'broken' group of characters within a different organized play campaign.
They'd disrupted entire 'Special'-equivalents with some of their antics, for good or ill. Every other GM in the campaign that had this group at their table gave me the following advice, almost to a 't': "Don't give them an inch, they'll run all over you."
When we sat down to play together, they were deep roleplayers AND mechanically savvy and... I kind of *broke* them by engaging with their roleplay and giving them natural consequences for their shenanigans.
At the end of the scenario, they came up to me as a whole and shook my hand and thanked me. Not for the immense fun we had, but *because I gave them the consequences of their actions* and didn't back away from it *while still keeping it fun for everyone*.
Though some of those players are no longer with us, *THAT* right there is what resonates with me.
I had done something that no one else in the campaign had apparently done, which was A. 'Keep it Fun' and B. 'Gave fair consequences for crazy/stupid actions'.
GMing is also about preparation.
When I'm given a scenario, I'll be rather compulsive about reading it and re-reading it and then testing myself on spots on it, and then asking others what *they* think/did on their runs of it. The ultimate goal in such a case is to be so conversant with the scenario that if the players (for the sake of example) decide to do something outside the expected bounds of the scenario (for whatever reason) I have a good way to address it.
On the fly, without flipping through NPC stat blocks, just rolling with it because of preparation.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
One way I like to think of the GM is the heart of the story, while the players are the blood. The blood is the most important part: without blood there is no life. But the blood will stagnate and die if the heart doesn't keep pumping, moving that blood forward. Not the strongest metaphor, but both are essential for the life of the story. My friend and I like to say something when we GM: "If the players have fun, we have fun." The GM is there to help the players believe they are in the story.
|
|
- player conflicts -- One sad part of a GM's job is dealing with conflicts between players. The GM has to keep conflicts to a minimum otherwise it ruins the game for all of the players.Like I said to start with, I don't think there is a simple answer. But I guess that's why they pay us the big bucks.
agree on all your points and I missed this particular one in my response. this is a skill that requires tremendous practice. not just at the table, but in life. the ability to listen, truly listen for what the source of the conflict is is very difficult.
Oi....
I think most of what I would say, has already been said really. To me, A GM's purpose is to be the window that the players see the game through. They set the scene, so the players can imagine the setting their players are in. They make rule and judgement calls, so that the story can continue. They challenge the players, because through adversity, the PC's can grow, and the story can be more entertaining.
This being said, something that has *really* bugged me from a different organized play was this theory of 'Oppress the player characters until they feel like they have no options, then loosen the screws a bit'.
It made things seem sort of 'hollow' because the GMs that espoused this never seemed to have any character fatalities for truly stupid actions, whereas the GMs that were 'playing it straight' were often criticized for being 'murderous' and 'anti-PC'.
...and having played at each of the type tables, I'd much prefer the 'playing it straight with consequences'?
What do others think?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If any of you are going to Gen Con, there is (typically) one of the greatest GM seminars in the world offered there. It's run by Tracy Hickman (a name all GMs should know ;-)). It's called XDM or X-treme DM. It is absolutely worth going. If you're not going, then I endorse the book too (link goes to Amazon.)
Alas, I am on the pain-train* to GenCon, and neat things like Seminars are not really on the agenda this year.
Alas, I am on the pain-train* to GenCon, and neat things like Seminars are not really on the agenda this year.** spoiler omitted **
Thank you for volunteering! Are you GMing for either of the specials?
Thank you for volunteering! Are you GMing for either of the specials?
Alas, I am on the pain-train* to GenCon, and neat things like Seminars are not really on the agenda this year.** spoiler omitted **
Absolutely not*.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thank you for volunteering! Are you GMing for either of the specials?
Alas, I am on the pain-train* to GenCon, and neat things like Seminars are not really on the agenda this year.** spoiler omitted **
Absolutely not*.
** spoiler omitted **
Agreed, ran six games during PaizoCon and my voice is still recovering.
|
|
Please feel free to continue the ongoing discussion, if you have anything more to say. The results of the discussion so far should help you with the next assignment.
ASSINGMENT 2: Please include a brief GM philosophy in your GM profile (or main profile, if you're not using a GM profile). Please also include your philosophy in a post here. Please feel free to look at the profiles of other GMs for inspiration. It's also fine to post a 'rough draft' here for discussion, if you would like.
I will, after the discussion for this assignment gets going, share my philosophy and also point you to a few of my favorite philosophies other GMs have posted.
(Mentors, I would encourage you to take this opportunity to read over any GM philosophy you have posted and perhaps adjust it if you need to. Feel free to post here, since some examples can be very helpful.)
Behind the scenes, I am going to be working with the mentor GMs to start getting tables assigned, so you should be hearing more about that in the next few days.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just a quick note to say I am really enjoying using Paizo Campaign Tools. Wish I had known about this before. :) And wish it was available for Safari.
|
|
They can vary in length. I've seen some good ones that are a sentence; I've seen some good ones that are one paragraph of four or more sentences. Mine is the following:
I believe my job as GM is to make sure my players have fun, are challenged, and feel like their characters contribute to making the world a better place.
Some people will use their answer to the question about a GM's job as their statement of GM philosophy, but for others, that won't say what is important for their players to know, so they do something a little different.