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I appreciate it when a DM, and not even one who Im playing under, per se, doesnt just shoot down a ridiculously difficult to pull-off stunt.
Let the player make the skill check or whatever now matter how outrageous what they are wanting to do might actually be.
Im not saying the player gets to succeed, but at least let them go for it.
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The best GM's I've had have generally had memorable games because of a combination of the following traits:
They build their arcs with their PCs in mind. They will seek to include hooks and story elements that play up to specific characters' backgrounds, themes, or personalities.
They have well-developed NPCs.
They build creative encounters. They include a variety of monsters or NPCs to play off each others' strengths, and set up the battlefield to allow manipulation of terrain (a large 40x40 room free of furnishings rarely makes a good encounter).
They allow the PCs to pursue personal goals. One of the most memorable campaigns I've ever played in saw the PCs conquer two cities and start an empire. This was never planned, but after the PCs liberated the first city, they wanted to start running it, so the GM ran with it and took the campaign in a new direction.
They allow their players to try new things, and know how to handle it well. The best GMs rarely simply say "yes" or "no." Instead, they say "Yes, but..." Let your players fool around with cool ideas, and put an interesting twist on it. It gives the PC what they want while keeping you involved as an adjudicator.
I concur with martinaj and kyrt-ryder re a GM works with the players to allow them to pursue their character's personal goals within the party setup. This is what keeps players looking forward to the next session.
One other thing I would add is an ability to make the old new or always keep the game fresh. Once you've played long enough you get familiar with the adventure and campaign tropes. A great GM doesn't need to throw those out but does present them in a new or exciting way. If you can make orcs fearsome, memorable and unique opponents you probably know what you're doing.
Tailoring story arcs to character themes and advancement. Interweaving plot lines that seem unrelated so that they pop up when least expected. Think of the best plot developments you've encountered in a favorites book or novie. I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan and love to layer in details that foreshadow, but have learned to allow players to take the bit and run with it on occasion.
Top notch foes are a lot of work, but can really set a game apart. One of the best storylines I've every run was totally in the hands of my players. One 'realized' that an escaped underling from an earlier encounter was really the over-boss in disguise. The cock-and-bull story he concocted was in no way true, but it was better than what I had planned, so I went with it. A dozen-ish sessions later and I was refereeing an air barge assault on an Elven city while OUR HERO fought the newly elevated Over-boss as their sky ship plunged, blazing stem to stern, into the sea. The players still think 'I' planned it all.
A great GM is made by great players.
If the dm can portray his npc's well enough that if something bad happens to them, or the party helps that npc to accomplish a long term goal of theirs and the players actually feel sad or glad that things went that way, that speaks a great dm in my mind.
Know Your Players.
I'm a great DM for houstonderek because I run the kind of game he likes to play. I was a lousy DM for Jess Door and Silverhair because that sort of game wasn't their cup of tea. In theory, I could have run, maybe, the latter sort of game -- but I would have been nowhere near as good at it as I am at running my kind of game. No DM is great at every kind of game there is.
A good GM should apply the natural consequences of a players' poor decisions. I've seen some GMs who tend to roll over for the PCs and allow them to be as boorish and covetous as they desire because they're concerned about the what effect the apporpriate ramifications would have on their game. The end result is often a world in which the NPCs acquiesce to all the PCs demands and treat them as veritable walking gods.
a great DM, IMO is one who first and foremost is a great storyteller! If the DM can't move the story forward,the game is going to go nowhere. Rules mastery isn't essentail,as some of the best DM's I've had only knew the basics. All in all the DM needs to be flexible enough to allow players to develop the kinds of characters they want, while still maintaining a sense of balance within the world.
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In my years of playing, I have had several good DM's and one Great one. What made him great did so in any system he ran.
Preparation: He knew the game he was running; he knew the encounters, the Monsters, the NPC’s, the PC’s, and the story line.
Fluid and fast thinking: I put these together because one allowed the other for him. If something came up unexpected we could never tell that he didn’t know it was going to happen. He was so fast on his game that even when he was reacting to crazy things we did, it was like he had the shift planned. He had no issue shifting the focus of a whole night (or several) if the PC’s took it somewhere.
PC Involvement: Every move in the game had something to do with the PC’s. Your PC background was more than fluff, items you wrote for flair at level one would appear at level 10 as part of the game.
Love of the game: He loved running games, loved creating the excitement for the players.
Over my first 15 years of gaming I was luck enough to play off and on with this DM. We now live across the US from each other, but those games will always top my list.
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In my years of playing, I have had several good DM's and one Great one. What made him great did so in any system he ran.
Preparation: He knew the game he was running; he knew the encounters, the Monsters, the NPC’s, the PC’s, and the story line.
Fluid and fast thinking: I put these together because one allowed the other for him. If something came up unexpected we could never tell that he didn’t know it was going to happen. He was so fast on his game that even when he was reacting to crazy things we did, it was like he had the shift planned. He had no issue shifting the focus of a whole night (or several) if the PC’s took it somewhere.
PC Involvement: Every move in the game had something to do with the PC’s. Your PC background was more than fluff, items you wrote for flair at level one would appear at level 10 as part of the game.
Love of the game: He loved running games, loved creating the excitement for the players.
Over my first 15 years of gaming I was luck enough to play off and on with this DM. We now live across the US from each other, but those games will always top my list.
Great stuff - exactly the kind of specific, personal experiences I was hoping for!!!
do not follow the exhaustive list of outdated assinine guidelines once upheld by weekly william. in any stage of his evolution. he is less assinine than before, but not really that imaginative. any monster with a statblock is exactly the same as the statblock says. he overplays tactics in the sense that he targets the healers and squishies first. he also doesn't have the best optimization advice. and passes off horribly suboptimal builds off as better than they are. all encounters conveniently have the terrain drastically in his favor. he will also fudge things to PC detriment if he must.
do not follow the exhaustive list of outdated assinine guidelines once upheld by weekly william. in any stage of his evolution. he is less assinine than before, but not really that imaginative. any monster with a statblock is exactly the same as the statblock says. he overplays tactics in the sense that he targets the healers and squishies first. he also doesn't have the best optimization advice. and passes off horribly suboptimal builds off as better than they are. all encounters conveniently have the terrain drastically in his favor. he will also fudge things to PC detriment if he must.
Sounds like you need to either find another DM, or start your own game. In response to another post, I find houserules are a good way to control assertive,egocentric players. It gives them the choice of either accepting the way the DM runs the game,or finding another.
He has to love what he does. Some GM's (not just DM's) just create the adventures because no one else will, and it shows. They might be burned out from not getting to actually play, or just burned out period from having to come up with something challenging and entertaining on a regular basis.
But if the GM really loves his role, it shows. I've had a couple of GM's over the years who not only relished what they did, they made you feel the same way. My first AD&D experience was a 2 year long campaign arc in college and I couldn't wait for every session to begin. After that I played in a 12 year long DC Heroes campaign that was the greatest game I've ever had the privilege of playing in. It's a shame those guys no longer take part in the hobby, because I'd pay real money to sit at their tables again.
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Water, 35 litres. Carbon, 20kg. Ammonia, 4 litres. Lime, 1.5kg. Phosperus, 800g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100g. Sulphur, 80g. Fluorine, 7.5g. Iron, 5g. Silicon, 3g. And fifteen other elements.
Shock collars, I use them all the time. Ask any of my players and I assure you if I am in range they will tell you I am the best DM ever! :)
Is suddenly head over heels in love with Dark_Mistress!!!
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Preparation: He knew the game he was running; he knew the encounters, the Monsters, the NPC’s, the PC’s, and the story line.
In my years of DMing and playing I cannot overstate how important preparation is to running a good game. Even when running a published adventure you have to know the whole adventure not just the part the characters are in. I ran Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and I easily put in two hours of prep for every hour of game time. It is necessary to prep more than you need in case you go through some parts faster.
Its funny because after I wrapped up RtoTEE one of my players tried to run an adventure. He did no prep. He read straight from the adventure for the part we were in. Because he had no extra stuff prepped he could not handle when we deviated from courses of action called for in the adventure. So the result was a rail road. That campaign died on its feet a few games later.
So I started a new one from scratch. Funny thing is I only had to spend the same amount of prep time as with the published adventure because they were all my ideas and I knew them well. I knew the game was well done when my players mourned the death of their beloved NPC guard captain at the end of the fourth session. Why? Because he was an old hand that always counseled caution and carefulness. He got killed because two players charged right into the thick of the enemy and he had to run in to help bail them out. They were genuinely upset at his death.
So to reiterate. Prepare, prepare, prepare. The rest will come naturally from that. That and letting the players be the heros.
The best GMs I have played under all have a few things in common.
1) Detailed game universes - I played under one guy who had notes on conversations NPCs had before the game started, back story on places, and a complete history of his game world. The best GMs games provide a genuine sense that the whole world moves and breathes without the players doing anything.
2) Vivid NPCs - It is the GMs job to speak for 99% of the universe. The best GMs make that 99% seem diverse and complicated. When they speak for an NPC you can hear the backs story and subtext coming through in their words. GMs that exemplify this the most can even speak without saying which NPC is talking and the players can follow right along without breaking immersion.
3) Good preparation - Other posters have commented extensively on this point. The best GMs are prepared and have both a good idea of what they want to do with the game, and the ability to adapt to what the players are doing at any given moment.
4) Love for the characters - This isn't really a skill or talent that you can develop, but really comes down to finding people you like to play with. But a great GM can find something to latch onto with the characters in their game, and kind of acts like the fans for the hero. One aspect of both playing and gamemastering that often gets ignored is being the audience.
5) Good challenge level - A great GM is able to balance risk with reward. They always make their players feel like dangerous situations are truly dangerous. And that the rewards they receive were earned and not just passed out as a matter of course.
Know Your Players.
+1
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If the GM starts getting drunk I start leaving the table that night :PNah, those are the hallmarks of good players. I put in 99% of the work for the game when I DM, so someone else can get me fed and drunk ;-)snacks
delicious snacks
beer
Ask my PFS players at the last OwlCon if they had fun. 8am slot, I was still wasted from the night before's activities, and everyone had a blast.
;-)
If the GM starts getting drunk I start leaving the table that night :P
Dude! Look at my freakin' avatar! Do you think I can DM sober?
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The best GM I ever played with is Pierre Fauvel (in case he ever reads this).
1) He would allow you to play the character you wanted, no matter how outlandish or "broken" it seemed. He also would allow you to try anything you wanted, except when it was obviously opposing another player's fun in a major way
2) He would never put the kid's gloves on. You got the character you wanted, but now you have to accept the consequences of your choice, both good and bad. Nothing was ever "all good, nothing bad" with him. There was always a price for your character to pay
3) He would create epic (high-level ?) stories that could become quite weird, but where the action was always centered on the PCs, even if they were low-level
4) The end of the only campaign I finished with him gave me a sense of closure. Our PCs had lost much but not all and those still alive went on to rebuild their lives
Basically, our games with him as a GM were meaningful.
A great GM plays vicariously through the PCs, not the NPCs.
Also, somewhere on this forum I saw this advice, and I love it:
When faced with a situation that breaks or is not covered in the rules A bad GM says: "No." A good GM says: "Yes, but..."
Fine, I guess I'll give you guys a shot. I've had some pretty bad experiences with drunk DM's, but by the same token I've had some pretty good ones with guys who were smoking something... illegal... so I guess you guys deserve a chance :)If the GM starts getting drunk I start leaving the table that night :PDude! Look at my freakin' avatar! Do you think I can DM sober?
I'm of the Kirth School.
There is a party atmosphere at my games.
You really only cross the line if you drink more than you would drink in a social setting like a party. It has happened on rare occasions, but for the most part, the booze is a social lubricant like at any other social event.
Then again, I worked in a brewery for years, so maybe it's the crowd I run with.
A great GM...
- Knows the system well (Counters rules lawyering instantly, never a need to come to a screeching halt to check up on rules etc)
- Is able to wow the players (You remember the moments, not the games)
- Has the patience of a saint (Seriously, I think I could qualify as a monk by now)
- Knows when to discuss and when to put his foot down (You have the FINAL word, but should not need to come to that)
- Understands the needs of the players (Some people want whiz and bang, some people want high drama, finding that middle path is hard)
- Knows when to say "Sorry" (Sorry, we're full, you can't join. Sorry, you are just too disruptive, and have to leave. Sorry, I screwed up. Sorry, I let a bad one rip :P)
It's not easy.
The ability to think on your feet or to admit when you can't. If the players throw the GM a curveball, he should be able to work with it and let the players continue what they want. Now this doesn't necessarily mean to do so on the spot. A GM should feel free to admit that he needs a 15 minute break to think of something or even postpone until next session. However the old thought of "yes, but" is what it breaks down to.
Of course preparation is also key along with knowing your players, but I feel that that trait is absolutely important and has allowed for some of the best session we have ever had.
If the GM starts getting drunk I start leaving the table that night :PDude! Look at my freakin' avatar! Do you think I can DM sober?
+100
but by the same token I've had some pretty good ones with guys who were smoking something... illegal... so I guess you guys deserve a chance :)
+100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
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With further thought given to the subject, the best GM (and the best game system BTW) is the one that gives you zero frustration when you want your character to do something he should be reasonably able to do.
In other words, when your character has a real fighting chance (or you feel like it anyway).