I dm myself so cant really answer this so i am looking for some thoughts and your views.
A lack of self-importance.
Consistency, fairness, and an understanding that the game should be fun for all.
Well, first you have got to love the game; I mean really love it; willing to spend a whole lot of time preparing your world; working out details; doing a lot of reading and brushing up on a lot of diffent cultures and theological ideas; then, you have to be a good people person so that you can share that whole vision with others so they can love it two and you game takes on a life of its own. Passion, that makes the game great; a great gm has got to have passion.
I agree with pres man. Those are good qualities. I used to think that great DMs were born and not made, but I no longer am that arrogant. :)
Great DMs do several things well. They listen to their players and try to include reasonable requests in their games. Within that context, they strive to always challenge the group and individuals. They maintain pacing at all times, and keep the game moving forward. Most importantly, they balance the playstyles and preferences of the different players to motivate you to return week after week.
Once you get past the metagame thinking above (listen, challenge, maintain pacing, motivate, be fair and impartial), there are a variety of ways to get to great. There's no right or wrong way that you do things as a DM as long as you get out there and do them, time and time again. Practice, practice, practice, and never let your ego go to your head. Except when you're messing with your players. ;)
We have had this conversation a couple times over the last few years; some of those posts have what I consider some real gems from some of us long time GM's; they are really worth reading if any up and comming gm wants some tips on what works and what doesnt and how to handle various thing; we all do it a little different, but you can get lots of ideas from it; I saved one of my posts about good gming; if you want I can repost it here. Been a gm for almost 30 years so, I think I have a few ideas to share and have seen all kinds of gaming things.
That second post about; lack of self importance is a good one; a gm should be invisible to the game; a good gm is seen as his npc's take life; and in his/her descriptions of the world. For me, it is all about story building, setting the scene; interposing players, adding foils; each of my players is in the game with many, if not a plethora of game story treads to follow.
having the ability to "wing it" is crucial, IMO.
messy
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1.) A great DM realizes first and foremost that the game is supposed to be FUN - treating the game like a job, yelling at people, or being a dictator isn't a good idea.
2.) A great DM is prepared every game session, with necessary notes and stats accessible to keep things going.
3.) A great DM can improvise quickly and creatively when the party wanders off the plotline.
4.) A great DM challenges the players every session - the game is most fun when the players feel they are hanging by their fingertips from the edge of the cliff.
5.) A great DM plays monsters and NPCs appropriate to their intelligence. Dragons, for instance, are all the more dangerous because they are smart.
6.) A great DM appropriately rewards the players' successes. It sucks to overcome the BBEG and find that all he has is a chest with a few hundred copper pieces.
7.) A great DM gives the players opportunities to incorporate their character's personality traits and backstories into the campaign in a meaningful way.
8.) A great DM lets a character experience the consequences of his player's decisions; getting arrest, imprisioned, even executed if it would be the logical conclusion.
There are a lot more, I'm sure, but that's what comes to mind so far...
Charisma. Everything else is secondary.
Charisma. Everything else is secondary.
Hazel makes a good point here. If a GM cannot interact well and engage his/her players then everything else is moot.
A good GM must be a good storyteller. You have to be able to engage your players with your descriptions and NPC dialogue. Basically, if you can't set the stage, why should they add in their creativity to the scene in question?
Another point is that a GM needs to be decisive. Set your rules before anything happens at the table and enforce them. Arbitrate fairly but quickly. Long debate can happen after the game, doing it during a session ruins the pacing of the game and wastes the other players time. So don't waste long minutes looking up every nuance on a rule, quick reference, if its unclear, make a ruling, thats what a GM is for.
My DMing motto:
'The game is a game. The definition of game is not dice.'
Patience. More or less depending on the players. But the capacity for great patience.
I certainly think all these things are true, so I post not to argue, but to add. to ad the one thing I often find goods DMs lack, which would make them great DMs.
Pacing.
It isn't all about fights.it isn't all about talking. It's about the magic mix of elements that draw together to advance the sotry through fun interactions. when I can get a plot point out as a fight, or duing a fight, I'm at my evil-little-DM happiest., because they players are doing something they love (kicking @$$) *and* they're learning somethign about the ongoing plot.
Along the same lines, if I can occasionally ggive the players a chance to win a victory outside of combat, that's great too. Convince a judge to put "The Mime" away forever because he's too dangerous to ever be considered sane. Talk the mad god into given up his quest to marry desruction. Win enough allies among the Bloodstomp orc tribe that they depose their warlord, and become allies in the war against the Lich King rather than his footsoldiers.
And then there are the odd rewards, that break up golds, prestige and land. The quirky things, that let players know their characters aren't just rich and power, they are also really *special* Pirates finding a trade route no one else knows about. superheroes given permission to call upon the Ganstar empire once as reward for showing then the error of their isolationist religion. Adventurers who talk their way into a king's heart, and he gives them permission to walk armed i his presence, and wear the color purple.
These are also matters of knowing story pacing, and when to wander off the aoth, or make the path a two-fer. A Great DM can surprise her players every game, by doing what they expect in ways they don;t, or ding something odd that ends up being just like a normal game, or sticking to the expexcted entirely just when they think she'll get really weird.
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A lot of good stuff has been posted, and I just wanted to throw in my two cents.
While a lot of abilities to pace, preparation and improv are all important, nothing is more important that good communication. And not just through out the game, but even before and after the game.
First, let your players know what they are getting into, and know what they want. If someone wants to play a game where they kill Mind Flayers, and you run a game without them, then you need to talk it out. Explain that there won't be any, so maybe that character isn't the best. Or perhaps compromise and add some mind flayers. Or perhaps run a different game where there are a lot of mind flayers. All these are possibilities.
Then, during the game. Players get new books, have new ideas, or perhaps just don't like their characters anymore. Maybe they don't even realize that something they are doing isn't fun yet, but it comes out in the game non the less.
After the game is done, ask them what you could have done to make it better, and give criticisms. Recently, one of my players promised the group he would play a cleric, full leveled (as in, all levels of healing) from 1 to 21. At level 5, he decided to change into Warlock and spend a large amount of the groups money on healing wands and scrolls. After it was all done, we explained that that was not cool, and that if he wanted to play a fighter/warlock type character, perhaps he should explain that.
Now the next game will be better.
I've played with a lot of DMs in a variety of gaming session settings. The DMs I have layed with run the gambit between, well - pretty poor to very good - maybe even great.
Some of these best DMs had virtually no understanding of the game system. One of them had never run a game before. All of these DMs had the qualities mentioned above: pacing, the ability to "wing it", and above all giving the players exactly what they wanted.
I'll admit that I'm not a great DM. I lack the dedication (and thus the flexibility) to be a great DM.
ok; here is a post of mine from way back; hope you enjoy it or that it sparks some discussion; it is all stuff a great gm should have, have other more specific to the role of a gm; but here is this:
With my gaming experience over the last couple decades, I can say that to be a great gm you have to find the right mix of input to your world between yourself; your players and outside sources. I think one of the most important thing is to know what kind of game your players want to play in. This might seem very basic, but is often ignored. I have found that most gm’s will say; I am running this module or I am going to run a campaign and give you the rules. What I suggest is that you poll your players and find out what kind of game they want to play in; then run that game. The first source that brought this to my attention was the Hero game system with Champions and Dark Champions whereas you set the tone of your game; for instance, my players choose from a list I created from this and other source material; to play in a High Fantasy, Dark Tone, Mature Audience, 1/3 comical 2/3 serious, with important world crashing concurrent themes. From this information I have built each of my storylines to be built upon what already happened mixed with new stuff. I have a notebook about 4” think jammed full of all the developed NPC’s in my game with playing notes complete with organizational notes for their factions their standing and together with each of the other people in their organization that the players have dealt with; other notes are in my campaign notebook for minor characters and foundational stuff.
So, basically, after you know what mix your players want to play; you need to build your world or flavor a world already completed. I suggest you find a nice map of any world you like and build your own concept on it, but this is not necessary but will help you avoid the problem of players knowing your world better than you do and telling how things aught to be. I suggest you start with the pc’s as the good guys; good guys are easier to run and give adventure hooks too; bad guys are just as easy really, but it takes a lot more work on the gm’s part as most monsters in the books are designed for good guys to interact with and or defeat. If you want to run a evil game; I have additional suggestions that I am not adding here.
Ok, so you have your concept world in place with a map; perhaps a few villages sketched out, maybe a city and a whole lot of generic ideas of threads you want in your game, but nothing yet ties it together so you find you need a creation myth or maybe six or seven to give priests something to argue about. But you as the GM need some basic truths 1) how did the place, universe, world get created, spawned; hatch, whatever. I am not going to talk about tech level or industry or the basics of economy or land value and that stuff as the DMG and other sourced deal with that fairly well, the second thing you need as a gm is a story so 2) you have an adventure in mind; now is the big question; why do the players care, if ;you don’t hook at least half the characters with your npc’s sale of the adventure; it will be a flop; the pc might fall into the dreaded “well, this is what the gm has planed for us so we better do it” zone. Each of your players has a dream for their characters and you must work into your game the fulfillment of some or most of those dreams. Some want to solve puzzles; some what munchkin power; some want who knows what, but they all want a good story; so, at the end of every game session; ask yourself; would this have looked good on film. That doesn’t mean that each session is an action packed adventure, but it does mean that you should have all aspects of a story in your game meaning, tragedy, comedy, mystery and the others; pay attention in English class or ask an English teacher or get a book on it that describes these things; I could do it, but this is already a long post. The next thing to do is pay attention to movies, stories you read and people watching a little differently. Pick movie you like and ask yourself what is the draw for that movie then describe this sort of stuff to your players about your game. Consider trying to picture the scene in your mind before you run it; can you smell the air; what is the weather, all that stuff it arid and cool or hot and sticky;
I am not going to go over how to write an adventure, hooks or any of that stuff unless you want to do it as I have written this sort of thing in other posts. Neither will I suggest ways to get the individual players together in one group and headed in the right direction as this is handled in the books too and other than character background which should never be skipped over, pc don’t really care to much about this as the premise is already in their minds they are going to be together; they just want it to happen. What I will suggest is be prepared to run your adventure in any direction it might twist into; this is a cardinal rule, have your pc written down on paper with their gear, attitudes and goals; have a few back ups in case pc’s turn in a different direction; make up a list of random encounters that make sense for the area and completely write out the monsters and their treasure; do not make your players wait around the table for you to do a random encounter; this is just rude and makes you look bad and breaks trust with your players; lastly, listen to your players stories on non game days no matter how mind numbing they are; listen for what they like about the events that occurred and put more of this in your game for new stories; look at every situation in the world as food for your game; every social interactions and conflicts; every building layout and structure; everything.
When I think back on my gaming experience, the best times were when one of the players did something ‘crazy cool’.
I do not remember which GMs were the most fair, which GMs knew the rules cover to cover, which GMs could improvise the best, which GMs had the most detailed worlds. No, I remember the GMs who let the characters have their shining moments. Something I need to remind myself next time I am sitting at the head of the table.
The best DMs are the ones who know their players, know what their players want, and work with their players to craft the game that everybody will enjoy.
The worst DMs are the ones who say "Here is my campaign, you will play it. You don't like the quest? Go find another group."
In the particular case of D&D, adherence to the RAI is also super-critical. The only thing worse than a DM who considers the RAW a set of commandments from God is a DM who considers the RAW divine but never actually read the damn RAW in the first place.
That's not to say that a good DM doesn't know the rules, though. A good DM has to know the rules very well so he knows which rules he should ignore.
As laid out in Robin's Laws (or as I like to call it, the little bible of DMing), if you and your group are all having fun, you're Doing It Right.
The best thing I ever did as a DM was sitting down and asking my players to write up a list of the things that they most looked forward to/were the most fun for them when playing D&D. It's all about communication: if you know what they like, it's that much easier to make it fun for everyone. If the players are invested and having fun, then the DM is invested and having fun. If they have a backstory for their PC, integrate it into the campaign. Be flexible enough to allow the players and their actions/expectations to have a real hand in the world around them.
Never let cohorts or other NPCs overshadow the PCs. If one wants to play as one character, they belong on the other side of the DM screen. Nobody likes to see the DM's last character come in and take over the show.
Some great points here. I especially like play fair and play consistently. Nothing worse then a DM who is inconsistent or who plays favourites among the Players.
All DMs have strengths and weaknesses. A Great DM should know his or her strong points and emphasize those while generally minimizing his or her weak points.
Know what kind of a game your running and communicate this to the players. make sure their on board for this game. There are a lot of different styles of D&D and one can be phenomenal at one style and merely passable at another.
Two examples of different styles of story telling might be 'story now' vs 'story before'.
'Story now' is highly interactive. The DM does not make the story, he works with the players to make the story. Basically this game has no plot, usually the DM simply knows the setting backwards and forwards (and its usually a constrained setting such as a single city). The players can do whatever they want in this setting and the DM will react to whatever they do in a 'realistic' and consistent manner. A great DM in this style needs to be able to wing it really well but he does not need to be able to tell an epic tale, after all he has no more idea about whats going to happen next then his players - they decide. Pacing, while useful is not actually all that critical here since its the players themselves that will be determining the pacing the vast majority of the time. He has to be great at roleplaying as well because thats likely to be most of what the PCs do in the city. They go from one NPC to another and they mostly talk while they try and accomplish their individual agenda's.
Another style of story telling would be 'story before'. Age of Worms is an example of 'story before' Here the DM must be a great story teller because she has made the entire story. Its best if the story is some kind of stirring epic that will get her players hearts racing. Since the players are bellying up at the table to participate in her story it had better be a really fantastic one. The players have given up much of their own autonomy in this kind of a game and in return they expect the DM to put her best foot forward and to take them to a land of of epic adventure - the highs in this style had best be really high. Battling snow wyrms at the top of the world is the type of thing we are looking in this style of a game. Here the DM does not need much winging it talent. Her players expect her to lead them to the cool adventure local - thats why they showed up. On the other hand prep time and attention to detail is critical - if one is going to tell an epic one had best be prepared. Notice here that the roleplaying does not necessarily have to b exceptional. Because she controls the story she mostly controls the social interactions. That means that they can be scripted by and large ahead of time.
Note that I have decided, here, to break the game up by determining how the story is determined but there are many other ways of breaking the game up.
If ones group is made up of powergamers one really needs to know the rules backwards and forwards and ones PCs expect to be bad ass and face bad ass opposition. Non-powergamers on the other hand usually want to focus on their characters personal development. These types of games often focus less on the rules and more on improvisation. Knowing the rules backwards and forwards is much less important then being willing to change, make up, or completely ignore the rules in order to help with character development.
One can have 'story now' or 'story before' and also have either powergamers or characters with a lot of personal development.
I think a great DM is one who cares enough to make sure he knows what you want, but who doesn't always give it to you.
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There is only one thing that makes a great GM, In my opinion. do your players enjoy the game? Is your GM-ing interfering with their fun? If it is, then you aren't a great GM. working on the fly, voices and accents, props. These are all just tools. It boils down at all times to whether or not people enjoy it when you GM. That makes or breaks it for me.
I personally go out of my way to make sure that I include things that make my players laugh. It can be corny, cliche, whatever. I even included a floating exclamation mark over the head of an important NPC in my D20 modern.
And they loved it. That's what counts to me. And that's why I count myself as a "Great" GM. Anyone think I'm wrong?
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The Thread asks the question, "Great" DMs.
Too many of the posts call out things that are necessary for not being a bad DM. Just because a DM doesn't railroad campaigns, knows the rules and is fair does NOT make him or her a Great DM! It just means he/she's not a flea-ridden, mange-eaten, swamp-donkey, WotC-quality skank-ho. These are skills and social abilities that a DM must have to merely not suck.
A friend of mine is a good DM. Knows the rules, doesn't railroad, listens to the players, is fair & consistent, has fun, improvises well, prepares. All in all a good DM. But certainly not a great DM.
-W. E. Ray
The Thread asks the question, "Great" DMs.
Too many of the posts call out things that are necessary for not being a bad DM. Just because a DM doesn't railroad campaigns, knows the rules and is fair does NOT make him or her a Great DM! It just means he/she's not a flea-ridden, mange-eaten, swamp-donkey, WotC-quality skank-ho. These are skills and social abilities that a DM must have to merely not suck.
A friend of mine is a good DM. Knows the rules, doesn't railroad, listens to the players, is fair & consistent, has fun, improvises well, prepares. All in all a good DM. But certainly not a great DM.
-W. E. Ray
OK you opened the door. If hitting all the right areas well is not a great DM then what would you consider the definition of great DM?
...I think one of the most important thing is to know what kind of game your players want to play in. This might seem very basic, but is often ignored. I have found that most gm’s will say; I am running this module or I am going to run a campaign and give you the rules. What I suggest is that you poll your players and find out what kind of game they want to play in; then run that game. The first source that brought this to my attention was the Hero game system with Champions and Dark Champions whereas you set the tone of your game; for instance, my players choose from a list I created from this and other source material; to play in a High Fantasy, Dark Tone, Mature Audience, 1/3 comical 2/3 serious, with important world crashing concurrent themes. From this information I have built each of my storylines...
My biggest concern here is that in having your players define the game you run the risk of having them play to your weak points and avoid your strengths. It may be that your willing to play anything but I have to wonder in that regards.
If your players had come back with 100% comedy, mature audience (read 110% bathroom humour), silly tone, fantasy style varies as we want a swords and sorcery version of teen flicks such as Animal House. Think Harry Potter except that we are the prankster wizards whose goals are to steal the female wizards panties and play embarrassing pranks on our instructors - usually ones that involve stolen panties. Ultimately we want to get the girl and humiliate our rival. Combat is light to nonexistent role play is high (if of a very lowbrow sort).
Would that be the game you would want to run? Would it showcase you, as a DM, in the best possible light?
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RPG Superstar 2013
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I would say my best moments as a DM come from two sources: being manipulative, and being good on the fly.
On the first, when I create encounters, I start from an unusual place: I think about each player having a big moment every session or two, that satisfies what they love in the game. A chance to be really useful, a chance to roleplay opposite someone really dangerous. A chance to use their newest feat. Sometimes even a spectacular failure.
Anyhoo, I work that into campaign design. The monsters, their tactics, and their design choices (feats and gear and such) are usually built to work out these memorable scenes.
I had a party, each carrying an important relic of their faith, learn that more relics of other faiths are being hoarded by a nemesis in the underdark. She was going to weaken the gods that opposed her with a ritual that would harm the followers of religions when she destroyed the relics of their faiths. Thousands could die, and her massive army would set against weakened churches and seek momentum.
So the party sets out on a dangerous trek to rescue these items. They encountered the chamber where no magic functioned, and the relics lay on black velvet blankets. When the door closes behind them, they realize the relics are fakes, and they have brought the only real relics to their enemy for destruction.
One relic was an adamantine maul. Without that, they couldn't get out. So I got my 'You bastard!' moment, and then they narrowly escaped by using their not-currently-magical maul and drawing lots of attention to themselves. Manipulation, with built-in rewards.
Good on the fly? Practice throwing out names. Try to have an understanding of the cultures your game is set in so the names have a sort of cohesion.That helps put your players into a place. Having consistent names and architecture really gets the player invested in your setting, and from there, everything you describe has cinematic value to them.
I guess that's my two cents. I do agree with molech about the not a bad DM vs great DM. I have seen some great DMs in my time, and I think they have much more than just preparation and commitment.
I would add that a great DM is on his players' side. I want them to succeeed, even as I want them to be immersed in danger, challenged and even defeated occasionally.
Hope that was helpful and not too self-aggrandizing.
Molech makes a good point, here are a few things that I think separate the good GMs from the great ones.
1. The ability to make the world come alive. A great GM can make a session feel like a trip to somewhere else. The game becomes more that just a collection of source books and stats, it becomes a living breathing place. If after the game it feels like you've come back from a trip to another place then you know you GM has done an incredible job.
2. The ability to make full characters and places. This has a lot to do with number one. A great GM can make every country and land encountered feel like somewhere fun to explore. He or she can make the monsters you find seem terrifying and dangerous regardless of their level. He or she can make NPCs that you love, hate, fear, respect or all of the above.
3. The ability to correctly properly manage difficulty. I know this has been mentioned and any GM worth his salt should be able to come up with a challenging, but not too deadly adventure. This requires a pretty fine hand. The great GMs I have had the privialge of playing games with can walk this line perfectly. Great GMs can make an adventure that feels like a chalenge where you fight tooth and nail for your goals but at the end feel like a hero.
4. Above all, the GM must know how to tell a good story. A great GM can weave all elements of a game into a complete whole greater than the sum of its parts. The story is, after all, the only thing you can really take away from a game. I remember some games that I was fortunate to play in where we could tell the story of our adventure to people who didn't even play the game and they enjoyed it.
I'm sure there are plenty of other factors that add up to GMing greatness, but these ones stick out in my mind particularily.
GREAT DMs tend to cater to both the players and the characters more. Different players and groups want different things from their sessions.
Mine are heavy role players, we do accents,voices, new slang, and well developed characters. They want more story,character interaction. Some groups want more blood, others mystery... Whatever floats your boat. This makes it fun for the people involved. This I find is the most important, you have to cater to the home team so to speak. Give them what they want in a way that's fun for you.
The other big thing the best DMs do is cater to the characters. Adventures are designed to involve the characters, there are parts designed for certain characters to shine. Also, the do not place the character outside of their element, or just enough outside of it that they are challenged, but not useless. Ever see a Swashbuckler fight a dinosaur? I thought it was funny... but I wasn't the swashbuckler. ;)
Charisma. Everything else is secondary.
Aw mann, I am screwed then.
*goes off to call players and cancel this week's session*
The only non-joking thing I can add is that a good DM is like a good friend:
They listen.
They know when to be tough and when to take it easy on you.
They tell you the truth about the consequences of your actions
They support you in hard times and revel with you during the celebrations.
If you break something of theirs (like the Tarrasque), they don't sulk.
If you stymie their plans, they let you know, but try to make the best of the ensuing chaos.
They are patient but firm.
They are dependable and reliable and warmly acknowledge your dependability and reliability.
They keep their opinions to themselves most of the time.
They give you pizza...
That's all I can think of for now.
Happy Solstice
-Syl
A great DM is slowly roasted over a fire. Of course, de-clothing and shaving the DM prior to roasting is necessary. You can use any number of glazes, but a Sage and Butter rub is my personal favorite.
Now your starting to sound like my players.
The Thread asks the question, "Great" DMs.
Too many of the posts call out things that are necessary for not being a bad DM.
Point
Although, since I believe a "Great" GM should have all of the qualities of a "Good" GM, would it not be appropriate to establish the fundamentals?
I certainly think all these things are true, so I post not to argue, but to add. to ad the one thing I often find goods DMs lack, which would make them great DMs.
Pacing.
It isn't all about fights.it isn't all about talking. It's about the magic mix of elements that draw together to advance the sotry through fun interactions. when I can get a plot point out as a fight, or duing a fight, I'm at my evil-little-DM happiest., because they players are doing something they love (kicking @$$) *and* they're learning somethign about the ongoing plot.
I will second the pacing aspect. Along with pacing comes storytelling. The two kind of go hand in hand.
One of the greatest compliments I every got was after I had finished a couple years long Denver-based Shadowrun campaign. One of the the players commented that I had managed to pull of an epic story. He said that as the game was ending, all of the pieces started making sense to him and that he finally realize how much of an impact the players had on the story events.
The truth is, I did not plan any of it. I had simple listen to player speculations and woven some of their ideas into the story. In the end, they felt that they had made a huge impact and had managed to figure out the events in such a manner as to leave no loose ends.
While I do not consider myself a great DM, I think of myself as a very good DM. If I can work the players speculations or personal goals into the main plot of the story, I will. It typically helps make for a better story. After all, one of the main goals of a DM is to tell a story about the characters.