Redelia's GM school (Inactive)

Game Master Redelia

Here is the profile of a GM whose philosophy I particularly admire.

Okay, so below is an initial draft (so I won’t be adding it to my profile, at least not just yet); I’m not sure it is a “philosophy”, but I think it conveys my expectations pretty well:

My GM philosophy is this: “We are playing a game.”

What this means to me:

· This is a game, so let’s have fun. We’re playing. If it isn’t fun, let’s find a way to make it fun (or let’s find something else to do).

· This is a game, so there are rules to follow. By agreeing to play this game, we are each agreeing to follow the rules. Among those rules, are those of common courtesy and being respectful to one another.

· This is only a game. I have a wonderful wife, 3 awesome kids, a high-pressure job, and a host of other demands on my time. I expect there are considerable demands on the time of my players as well. I anticipate there will be times that you can’t post. I only ask that you let us know in advance whenever possible and provide botting instructions when applicable.

· I’m not perfect. I will try my best to get things right; at times I will fail to do so. If you believe have made a mistake, please let me know and I will do my best to correct it.

I'm open to any thoughts/criticisms/high fives, etc.

Yep, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm asking you to come up with, Valen. Prospective players can look at that and get an idea of who you are and what you expect of them, and what they can expect of you.

The exact form of the answer will look different for different people, which is fine.

Okay, so below is an initial draft (so I won’t be adding it to my profile, at least not just yet); I’m not sure it is a “philosophy”, but I think it conveys my expectations pretty well:

My GM philosophy is this: “We are playing a game.”

What this means to me:

· This is a game, so let’s have fun. We’re playing. If it isn’t fun, let’s find a way to make it fun (or let’s find something else to do).

· This is a game, so there are rules to follow. By agreeing to play this game, we are each agreeing to follow the rules. Among those rules, are those of common courtesy and being respectful to one another.

· This is only a game. I have a wonderful wife, 3 awesome kids, a high-pressure job, and a host of other demands on my time. I expect there are considerable demands on the time of my players as well. I anticipate there will be times that you can’t post. I only ask that you let us know in advance whenever possible and provide botting instructions when applicable.

· I’m not perfect. I will try my best to get things right; at times I will fail to do so. If you believe have made a mistake, please let me know and I will do my best to correct it.

I'm open to any thoughts/criticisms/high fives, etc.

i dig this a lot.

· I’m not perfect. I will try my best to get things right; at times I will fail to do so. If you believe have made a mistake, please let me know and I will do my best to correct it.

Hah! I just realized that I even got something wrong in the above paragraph! I am not sure if/when I finalize my philosophy that I will actually try to edit or change that. ; )

I started writing this and then just kept writing and writing and ... So now it's too long. But I don't know what I would want to get rid of. What I've got here is part high-level philosophy and part a description of how I want to run games. Maybe if I separated this out into spoiler sections it would be easier.

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My GM philosophy:

First and foremost, I'm here to make sure that everyone has a good time, myself included. In a play-by-post environment this means that the posting pace is good, the role playing is at a high level, the game mechanics are clear and efficient, and players aren't fighting with each other. When all of these things are handled correctly, PbP can be one of the most satisfying gaming experiences around.

I like fast moving games so in general I expect players to post at least once per day during the week and once per weekend. However, most of the time I will post much more frequently than that. If players keep up with my posting rate then we can often get up to three or four posts per day. This depends entirely on a player's real life availability so I don't expect it. If a player is going to be offline for an extended period of time and will be unable to post, I prefer for them to me botting instructions, or just let me know. We all have a real life (probably) and that certainly can take precedence at times.

In my experience, play-by-post games offer a lot more room for active and engaging role playing. I suppose that this is because there is more time to craft a response as well as the fact that "on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." It's much easier to write out silly voices and actions than it would be to perform real time in front of your gamer buddies. Since improved role play is available, I encourage players to take adavantage of that by providing descriptions of your character, their actions, and even the environment. For example, instead of:

"Bob stabs Joe."

write:

"Bob holds the short sword tightly in his hand. The leather windings on the hilt are starting to get sweaty as this fight seeems to just go on and on. With a flash, seeing a gap in Joe's armor, he jabs forward at the dark looking thief."

I especially appreciate role play that includes other player characters. On the other hand, if it is your turn in the iniative order, make sure that your post is not _just_ role play but it also should include your actions.

In terms of combat round mechanics, I use the "block initiative" technique. This means that at the beginning of combat, all participants are ordered based on initiative rolls. All allies that appear next to each other in the intiative order are lumped together as a single initiative block. Players within the same initiative block can go in any order. The order of posting (within that initiative block) is the order in which things occur. Enemies and NPCs are combined into their own intiative blocks that I manage.

I ask that each player keeps a current status line. The status line is how I know the important details about your character. This line should be in the following format:

CG Male half-elf rogue 1 | HP 9/11 | AC: 16 T:13 FF:13 | F +1 R +5 W +0 (+2 vs. enchantments) | Init +9 | Perc +6 | Low-light vision | Trapfinding +1

When posting die rolls, please include each modifier separately as well as an explanation of each. This helps me understand the roll and saves time since I don't have to ask clarifying questions. For example:

shortbow@blue,PBS,into melee,bless: 1d20 + 2 + 1 - 4 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 1 - 4 + 1 = 6

When there are contigent actions, such as a parry/riposte for a swashbuckler, feel free to post those actions and rolls in a spoiler. If the event that triggers the contingent action happens, then I'll open the spoiler and apply it.

The last important point has to do with dealing with conflict. Sadly, sometimes there are conflicts between players or with the GM. I ask that we all try to be adults and keep things civil on the message board. If things start to get out of hand then I'll ask for the discussion to move to PM. Sometimes I will have to be the boss and make a decision and ask the players to just be ok with it. If there are issues that seem to go on for too long, and as a last resort, I will get the VC involved. Hopefully I never have to go that far.

This "GM Philosophy" turned out to be quite a bit longer than I intended so I should summarize. My philosophy is to have fun by having frequent posts with high amounts of role play while minimizing the tedium of game mechanics and player conflicts.

MindXing —

That has some great information. I like it. However, if you do something that long, break it up with bold headers to make it easier to read!

My own personal GM statement is short:

I tend to GM one game at a time, and give it my all. As a GM, I am fast-paced and story-oriented. I reward both enthusiasm and roleplay, and love to share adventures with my players.

What can you expect from a GM Hmm game? Teamwork. Laughter. Discovery. Roleplay. Sound effects. Filks. Whimsy! I hope that you'll have a good time, get a chance to bring out your character's quirks, have good chemistry with your teammates and a chance for self-discovery.

However, right before that GM statement I have a spoiler marked ‘Top Secret’ that I want people to read and look at for an idea of how very weird I am. Players should know what to expect when they get one of my games. If they don’t want a rap battle fight scene in the middle of one of their scenarios, they’re probably with the wrong GM!

Hmm

Here is the profile of a GM whose philosophy I particularly admire.

Wow. So simple and effective. What this teaches me is that the GM philosophy should try to stick with describing aims and goals, and is served by *not* going into your particular flavor of supporting details. I suspect the rest of the profile will end up containing this other stuff, but I would want the philosophy blurb to be a thing that: 1. changes much less often; 2. give players an idea of what's unique or emphasized about playing with me.

...and I still don't have mine. I suspect this one will take a little longer than assignment 1...

Redelia wrote:

Here is the profile of a GM whose philosophy I particularly admire.

Wow. So simple and effective. What this teaches me is that the GM philosophy should try to stick with describing aims and goals, and is served by *not* going into your particular flavor of supporting details. I suspect the rest of the profile will end up containing this other stuff, but I would want the philosophy blurb to be a thing that: 1. changes much less often; 2. give players an idea of what's unique or emphasized about playing with me.

...and I still don't have mine. I suspect this one will take a little longer than assignment 1...

Yeah, I’ve been reading along and may need to work on mine a little longer. I’ll post by morning if I don’t have it finished tonight.

Please also realize, everyone, that this is not something where I'm asking you to pick something that you can't change. Your GMing philosophy will grow and develop as you do. I just want you to take the time to record what you think right now, partly for the exercise of thinking about it, and partly so you have a starting place for your future thoughts.

For now it is purposely abstract and motivational.

GM Valen wrote:

My GM philosophy is this: “We are playing a game.”

i dig this a lot.

Thanks. Obviously, we should play a game together sometime!

Ok, version 1.0:

In my home campaign, we play at a 4'x8' table, and our time is limited to a few hours every couple of weeks. In PbP, we have room to stretch and can take all the time we need for every turn. This is our chance to push our roleplaying, test out character ideas and try tactics that we might feel too rushed to risk in a face-to-face game when we're on a clock.

Core Philosophy
I'm not perfect, and neither are you. As long as we both realize this, we can have a lot of fun.

Why are we here?
I want the players to succeed. I want them to overcome adversity and to experience the story with them. By setting the stage and providing a challenging experience, I hope to allow you to help tell that story.

I am not here to tell the story myself. For everyone to have fun requires full participation.

You are here to help tell a story and to have fun with a group of other players. Surely you have other goals as well, and I hope that I can help you to achieve those goals.

Prime example of keeping communication of life events. While also a true statement for me

I am posting this across all my tables so sorry to those of you reading this for the second or third time.

I will be away and without internet starting Tomorrow though Monday. If you need to bot me there is a BotMe! Spoiler in my profile.

Have fun and see all of you Monday.

One of my prime bugbears is overanalyzing things and trying to find the perfect solution or at least the most optimal one.

Normally it's seamless and doesn't rear an ugly head, but it is happening here. I will attempt to parse this a bit better after the dentist this morning to get something solid and intelligent.

Sorry for the inconvenience and delay.

Please also realize, everyone, that this is not something where I'm asking you to pick something that you can't change. Your GMing philosophy will grow and develop as you do. I just want you to take the time to record what you think right now, partly for the exercise of thinking about it, and partly so you have a starting place for your future thoughts.

Indeed. I'm not at all the same GM I was when I started (considering I was a middle schooler in the late 1980s, I should hope I'm not the same.) Additionally, I'm not even the same GM in my games now. There's a huge difference between PFS, home games, other systems, and settings.

Here goes nothing:

"We are here to tell a story together. My job, as the GM, is to guide this part of your characters story. That means that I will challenge your character. But I will be fair about it. Everyone is important and has a say, like in any good story. I will keep you as players accountable and I expect you to keep me accountable as well. Just remember, we play to have fun, and I am not doing my job right if that doesn't come through."

Something to add about my personal habits as GM and additional philosophy:

I think there's an interesting topic of discussion that I want to pull out of Dungeonmanster S's post above. He states that he does not use possessive adjectives to refer to players. I do, but not in the sense of 'my shoes', but rather the sense of 'my family'; I'm using 'my players' as shorthand for 'the players who have chosen to put their fun into my hands, and so I have a responsibility to.' If we were speaking in person, tone of voice would make this difference clear, but in a text-based medium like we use, this is not clear. Hopefully those who have come to know me on the forums would realize which I mean because they know how I treat players I GM for.

The point I'm trying to make is that we want to be careful to try to speak in a way that isn't going to be misunderstood. We also need to give someone who writes something the benefit of the doubt; if it has two reasonable interpretations, don't assume they meant the one that is more negative.

One of my prime bugbears is overanalyzing things and trying to find the perfect solution or at least the most optimal one.

Normally it's seamless and doesn't rear an ugly head, but it is happening here. I will attempt to parse this a bit better after the dentist this morning to get something solid and intelligent.

Sorry for the inconvenience and delay.

If the term 'GM philosophy' is contributing to your search for perfection, feel free to instead think of it as 'what I want my players to know about me before we start to play.'

And we're off! Would the following players dot in HERE

Each student should be notified of which table they will be at in the next few days, and your mentor should let you know which quest you will be running. Next week we will start setting up threads and maps. If you already know how to do these things, please wait for instructions, since there will be some particular things I want you to do to make this easy for everyone.

Just an FYI, I will be on vaca starting tomorrow throuhg next Thursday. I will be in limited electronic contact, but will try to post when I can.

My philosophy:

I seek to remove friction from the unfolding story. I see to player interactions, rules interactions, and story interactions so the players enjoy participating with the world around them.

I'm glad to see all the progress being made on this assignment.

Most of you should have received instructions for how to check into your table from your mentor, but GM Poblano Pepper is not going to be mustering until early next week, so do not worry if you have not been contacted yet.

Sorry to be a little late. I was traveling over the weekend and while I had both my laptop and good intentions I found little time to dedicate to the hobby I love. Too much family and driving involved.

Are there any of you who need more time for the current assignment?

As a part of this assignment should we also be updating our profile with our philosophy?

I did so.

Which got me wondering what else should be there...

Yes, when you are satisfied (for now) with your philosophy, please do include it in your GM profile.

We will be talking about one or two other things that need to be there in later assignments.

It looks like the following students are not yet done with the current assignment:
GM Blue Moose
GM DamonLuos
GM MacShack
GM MindXing
GM Valen
GM Weenerton
Tusk, MD

(since this is a written medium and tone of voice is missing, I want to make clear that I'm not trying to embarrass anyone, I just want to make sure each of the above students knows they still need to do something for this assignment)

Please also be working on anything your Table Mentor has asked you to do. It appears that the two Pathfinder tables have assigned a particular quest to each student, so please make sure you have acquired the PDF for the quest series for your table and read carefully the quest you will be running. I believe the Starfinder table will be set up later today; if not, I will start working with you guys to pick quests and things.

Please remember that if you have any questions, all of the experienced GMs that are here want to help. You can ask questions here, or in the discussion thread at your table. My private message mailbox is also open to any of you.

profile updated.

Between Bronchitus and No internet since Thursday i have been rather bored. Now comes the catch up

Poblano's Words of Wisdom.
We are all here for fun and mutual Enjoyment of a common hobby. My intention as your GM/storyteller is to ensure everyone has a chance to enjoy how they wish to play while also creating moments and memories together.

Nice!

I’ve updated my profile with my philosophy.

I have updated as well. Also, I am not sure, but I don't think I've been invited to a table yet.

Thanks for the reminder! I have tweaked my philosophy and added it to my profile.

I'm now profiled! (Usually, that it is not meant as a good thing...)

Progress so far:

Students who have not yet completed the current assignment:
GM Blue Moose
GM MindXing

All students should now be settled at a table with a mentor; if this has not happened to you, please let me know.

I believe most students now know which quest they are running, so they can complete

ASSIGNMENT 3: Read your assigned quest. Note any maps that your quest uses, and any NPCs with pictures in your quest. Also look for any abilities in stat blocks in your quest you need to look up, or any rules than you need to read over.

I am hoping that everyone will be done with assignment 3 by the end of this weekend.

Please also do anything that your table mentor asks you to.

Next week, we will get your maps and campaign threads set up. Please wait for directions to do this, even if you've done it in the past; I have specific instructions this time.

My profile is posted now. I took the advice of adding headers and also split out my philosophy from "how I play".

Previous assignment:
GM Blue Moose, you still need to list your GM philosophy in your GM profile.

Current assignment:
Create the campaign, gameplay thread, and discussion thread for your quest. (Do not create a recruitment thread, since you already have your players.)

After you have created your campaign, please post a link to it in the discussion thread that your mentor made. You may ask any questions or request help either here or in your mentor's discussion thread.

I've posted in each table's thread about this week's assignment. If I noted anything for you to do, please try to finish it up by Monday, because we will be moving on to making your maps then.

Created mine: Inkstains.

A reminder that I'm away without internet from July 14-22 (starting this next Saturday).

Next assignment:
Please go here for instructions. If you have any questions or encounter any difficulties, please ask me or your table mentor for help. When you are done, please post in your table's discussion thread with a link to your maps.

These instructions have been prepared to share with the entire lodge, but they have not been edited quite enough for general sharing yet, so you guys are acting as my 'beta testers.' Please let me know if any part of them is unclear, even if you are able to figure it out.

For step 19, you may put the map link in your campaign header, in your GM alias header, or both.

I will try mightily to get this done before my time away, but it might not be until I get back.

map for Basilica is up and ready to go. I'm also on vacation next week but should be able to land a post per day.

Map is up for Adrift.