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OK, I'll look over your last assignments over the last few days. I encourage you to look over each other's profiles/posted google docs and we can discuss them here.
Next Assignment: please tell us about a few times a GM either did something very well, or something that could be improved. For the positive, feel free to include a link to the post or name the GM. For the negative things, let's remember this is a public forum and be a bit less specific to avoid publicly criticising people.
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I've known GMs who have over-extended themselves. If you're going to run a PBD/PBP game and expect the players to check in daily, great. There should *almost never* be a single - let alone multiple - time(s) that the players have to ping YOU re: regular movement.
On the other hand I've also known GMS who have gone the extra mile. Some great examples are finding/providing additional artwork, typing out the handouts because not everyone can clearly understand the fonts that are often used. Some even go so far as to provide background music while play is happening. All of these things increase the gaming atmosphere and allow for a more immersive experience.
Recently finished a great run of 1-02 where some unexpected things happened; one of the PCs tried to deal with an encounter in a way that was not covered by the scenario, and instead of getting us back on track (which would have been perfectly alright if done well), the DM adapted the scenario according to the PC's actions while staying close to the spirit of the scenario. Of course Society scenarios are less flexible, so it was very nice to feel off the rails. Here's the game in question. (Obvious 1-02 spoiler alert).
Also agreeing with the above: going the extra mile is not required, but always very much appreciated. Backgound music, clever use of maps, props or software features if playing in VTT, etc. During the recent cons I've been in a few games with awesome DMs who did all of above, others who did voices for the NPCs, it just makes the game so much more alive.
As far as "less than ideal" situations go, I've recently been in a VTT game where I doubted the DM even had read the scenario beforehand. He was constantly taking breaks to read, he was unsure about where we were going, prepared maps while we played, the ending was completely rushed and the game laste a whole hour over the alloted time slot even though we had to skip one of the quests. It just felt like a chore to go through, as the slow pace constantly breaked any RP or immersion. While I understand that it is impossible to know a scenario to the point where you don't need to refer to it at all, some things could very clearly have been prepared before playing.
A quick reminder to everyone - it is always a good idea to name the campaign as well as the scenario number. PFS1 1-02, SFS 1-02, PFS2 1-02 are all different scenarios (though many would actually say it was PFS1 0-02). I was wondering what the players had decided to do in the Mosquito Witch until I looked at the link. :-)
Oh, good one! I pretty much only play SF nowadays so I often forget to mention it!
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Good and bad, I’ve seen much of what’s been said already.
Some of the best GM responses I’ve seen, and this goes for PbP and pre-written modules more than other venues and style, is responsiveness to the situation in game and checking of rules or GM discussion. Good GMs in other styles can quickly call a rules break and make a ruling without dragging out the call, but PbP usually allows more time to think and good GMs I’ve seen can make the calls without any interruption of the game.
If say, someone notices a Skill challenge is particularly tough and the party is getting knocked out by the environment, like in Pact World Warriors, good GMs I’ve seen go and find the GM discussion and immediately adapt the outcome. In this specific instance, that involved responses like getting the players to focus on getting only one or two across (a player idea), handing victory to the one character that made it, playing up how good the “rescue” looks to those watching, and weaving that into the rest of the scenario. The GM also mentioned in ooc that they were looking into the issues, which is apparently common in the scenario, and the writer may have missed the difficulty for low-level characters. The game is no longer archived, but it was GM Jasonomicon at Roll for Combat that I’m looking at here.
I’m dealing with a few more situations like that right now, from both perspectives. I will note that I do not expect GMs to be proactive in this respect. There is a big difference between being prepared and anticipating all contingencies, the latter is unnecessary and consumes too much energy.
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OK, I'm going to be blunt here. Due to how weird many things have been for a lot of people right now, it is quite clear that this is not working out as a normal GM school. Now that we are down to 3 students, I'm going to close this down, but I have several things I want to do to make sure that those of you who have persevered are able to get as much as possible out of this.
1. I'm going to link to a previous GM school's discussion. I would strongly suggest that you read through it, and think about everything we discussed there. link
2. I'm going to match up each remaining student with a mentor who will work with you one-on-one as you GM your first game. I'll take care of this over either Paizo PM or else Discord PM.
I'm sorry that you didn't get the GM school experience I offered you, but in a world turned upside down, this is the best I can offer.
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I'm sorry that you didn't get the GM school experience I offered you, but in a world turned upside down, this is the best I can offer.
2020 has been nothing but one big Bugs Bunny style curveball. There was no preparing for this year. I think you've done an admirable job in a difficult and constantly changing situation.
The mere fact that you started and attempted this had me re-examine the way that I GM and look at games I'm playing in from a more critical perspective. So, thank you for that.
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For good GMing.. there are a lot of examples on discord. One thing I'm particularly impressed with are people who have a lot of props or images to really set the tone. I'm pretty good with text (and imagination) but I think it's really helpful if done well (and it's something I'm not particularly good at)
Two examples have been zeebevs's port peril pub crawl on Roll for Combat where he developed a 3D map of a pub. It really set the scene. Another was Deneve Callois' PF2 goblins game on Find the Path; he really set the scene with pictures, he'd post a 'scene-setting' picture every day or so. It breaks up the text and helps players reorient themselves toward the game visually.
The visual aspects to PbD are definitely an aid, and help break up the wall of text that can (and does) often result from a typical text based game. It's something I've just started working with and it seems to be working out fairly well also. I think I'm also going to include it in VTT games, just to give players something to look at, as well as to hep the immersive experience.