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Do you have your own DMing philosophy? Had a great DM? Let me know! We'd love to hear those stories!
The Dungeon Master's Philosophy
Andrew
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I've been schooled in the "fudge till it's fun and admit nothing (to your players)"-school of DMing. By the way PF has GMs.
This is the way I play it too, preparation shouldn't take longer than to play it out.
You need to be quite well in improvisation for this to work.
The reason why I DM like this is not that I'm a bad planner, but that I'm quite lazy, and I don't like wasting time (there was a thread very recently where players killed a quest NPC they shouldn't have).
The problem I sometimes have is that I forget the contingency plan I noted earlier in my head and have to improvise a bit worse.
This style only works with players who aren't too rules lawyerish and are mainly in it for the fun.
Two important skills in GMing are Planning and Improv. The grognard that taught me stressed that Planning was the more important skill. Even the best Improv GM can't spin an epic tale without planning. And if a planning GM learns when to stop a derailed session, then they can always recover and continue later after more planning. Truly amazing GMs however need both skills.
One personal philosophy I have is that I always want to be secretly rooting for the PC's even though sometimes I make it seem like I'm not.
The GM should, above all else, be able to tell a story that engages the players and makes them want to keep playing...
The GM needs to use wisdom and experience to balance encounters and entertain his players. He/she needs to be flexible and quick to adapt to the changes that the players and the dice throw at them. They can also be flexible with the rules but should inform players of any rule changes so that they are in the loop. I feel GMs should always roll openly unless the roll needs to be in secret (like a spot check to detect the players). Respect the players and the dice. An open roll is an honest roll.
I like GM's who do not get bogged down on rules. My favorate GM would make a quick fair temp ruling to keep the momentum of the game. Later we might look up those rules when we have the time to find them and amend.
But above all one rule should stand above and overrule anything and that is to HAVE FUN.
*edited to just focus on GM's
For me it's better to roll in the open most of the time, and even dues ex machina is better then fudging rolls, as long as the players never perceive the ghost in the machine.
My take on it is that the GM is there to create a setup, not a story. The NPCs should have concrete plans and goals, but the GM should not. Create the world and the people in it up to the moment the PCs arrive, then let everything unfold based on what the PCs do.
Now, this is a general rule, not an absolute one. If the PCs are lost, it's okay to drop hints and or add in something that gives them direction. But if you know your PCs and your world well enough, you can set things up in such a way that your PCs always know something they can do next, even if they don't do it.
What you said about hints reminded me. I like transparency in a DM.
The DM should be a good friend.
*hugs*
People tend to over-complicate just about everything.
I have said before on these boards that I'm a "first principles" sort of guy. In virtually any endeavor you undertake, identifying and then pursuing those first principles will give you the best shot at being successful at whatever it is you are trying to do.
The "first principle" or fundamental function, purpose and goal of the GM is to provide a stage to allow the players to fulfill their goals for their characters.
One way to do this is to "tell a story." But if a GM gets confused and thinks "tell a story" is the "first principle" then they run the risk of becoming a railroading GM.
Another way to do this is to "provide a challenge." But if a GM gets confused and thinks "provide a challenge" is the "first principle" then they run the risk of creating an adversarial relationship between the GM and the players.
Another way to do this is to "follow the rules". But if a GM gets confused and thinks that "follow the rules" is the "first principle" then they run the risk of sacrificing inventiveness and creativity on the altar of "RAW".
I could go on and come up with an example of why so many GMs tend to become less effective than they could be. But the message should be clear by now.
For those who would say "Oh no, the 'first principle' has to be to 'have fun', that's the real goal." I would say that while first principles should not be highly specific, "have fun" is far too vague and amorphous to provide any guidance while "provide a stage for the players to fulfill their goals for their characters" is general enough to allow for a wide range of options but specific enough to provide guidance when the GM is confronted with a situation where the principle should be applied to make a decision to keep moving towards the goal.
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The object of this game is to create fond collective memories.
The object of this game is to create fond collective memories.
Great, a goal that is indistinguishable from collective scrapbooking.
The object of this game is to create fond collective memories.Great, a goal that is indistinguishable from collective scrapbooking.
Sorry it doesn't meet your standards. Some people think RPGs are as silly and quaint as scrapbooking.
Sorry it doesn't meet your standards. Some people think RPGs are as silly and quaint as scrapbooking.The object of this game is to create fond collective memories.Great, a goal that is indistinguishable from collective scrapbooking.
The only standard it meets is "platitude".
"Hey guys! I want to be a GM, what should I do?"
"Create fond collective memories."
".... right. Anyone else?"
Make the entire group have fun.
Sigh... sorry Evil Lincoln. Totally unfair for me to jump on your post that way. It is certainly a goal to create collective memories, just as it is a goal to make the entire group have fun. Both of those are things the GM needs to keep in mind. I was way off base to respond that way.
The GM does not exist to punish, kill, judge or torture the Player Characters. He exists to fairly portray the world and the inhabitants of that world, that might wish to help, or to punish, kill, judge or torture the Player Characters.
I see table top as a very complex computer game.
The players are the players.
I am the CPU.
It's my job to do everything the CPU would do in a computer RPG.
I see table top as a very complex computer game.
The players are the players.
I am the CPU.
It's my job to do everything the CPU would do in a computer RPG.
I was thinking about this in a game recently. I was getting annoyed at players texting, and I thought, this is one advantage an Xbox has over me. It can't get annoyed, impatient or distracted and let that effect what it does.
Things that I try to do as a GM (in order of when they pop into my head as I type)...
1) Present a compelling story, with interesting character with whom the PCs can interact. Remember that the story should be about the PCs-- they are the heroes of the game and the protagonists of the story!
2) Present reasonable challenges for the PCs to overcome. Not all challenges are created equal: some should be a cakewalk, but others should involve risk and require creativity to resolve. This could mean combat (and it frequently does), but it could mean other challenges as well.
3) Remember that RPGs are a collective storytelling experience: Pick up on what the players tell you; include their backstory/goals/enemies/friends into the overall plot. This may involve writing sub-plots or side-quests speficically for one of the PCs. (Just be sure to spread the love around!)
4) Enforce the rules, but don't be a stickler. IMO, the overall plot is more important than dice rolls.
5) Check in with the players periodically on an individual basis. Find out what's working (and not working). Fix what you can, but set player expectations appropriately.
6) Spell out your home rules in advance, preferably in a hand-out or campaign website.
7) If you're not having fun as a GM, you're doing it wrong!
People tend to over-complicate just about everything.
I have said before on these boards that I'm a "first principles" sort of guy. In virtually any endeavor you undertake, identifying and then pursuing those first principles will give you the best shot at being successful at whatever it is you are trying to do.
The "first principle" or fundamental function, purpose and goal of the GM is to provide a stage to allow the players to fulfill their goals for their characters...
I can really see how this would be a very popular way to play but some kind of universal application seems problematic. I mean in a Call of Cuthulu game everyone is going to die (or go insane), though I suppose they might accomplish some of their goals before the inevitable happens.
In effect I tend to think this first principle should be changed to allow the players to fulfill the players goals...which may or may not involve having their PCs accomplish their PCs goals.
Certainly when I think of my group I'm not sure this first principle really works - not perfectly anyway. I know from experience that what my players really want more then anything is awesome encounters where they get to use their cool powers, the more interesting and cinematic the encounter the better.
OK so why not the big endless dungeon with encounter after encounter in it? Well turns out they don't actually like that...the endless arena does not provide the right kind of cap ends on the encounters. To make the awesome encounter truly memorable (and here I'm agreeing with Evil Lincoln) they need a reason to be fighting that dragon or beholder and they need to have accomplished something when they beat it.
More importantly I've come to realize that its very difficult to have an awesome encounter follow quickly on the heels of an awesome encounter - my players are usually to fatigued by the first encounter to really enjoy the next one (so I can do this if I can time things so that fight A ends a session while fight B starts the next one - a trick I definitely use).
Thing is they are not highly motivated to set that up themselves. Ultimately they want an awesome story to tie together their favorite part of the game - great encounters. Its this that turns fun encounters into awesome memories but its not something they want to do much on their own.
In effect they have abrogated the job of making the storyline to the DM but expect the DM to make them believe they are participants in some kind of epic fantasy story.
Nor do I think this is all that unusual a situation - fundamentally this is the model of what an AP is...a linear but well thought out story and we know that APs are very popular. While customizing APs are very popular they are still ultimately linear - PC goals can't be allowed to divert to far from the AP without making it unusable.
End result I generally don't plan on more then one combat per four hour session realizing that I need a fair bit of entertaining filler for the rest of the sessions elements - filler that should make the anticipated awesome encounter even more fun, though it can also build on the unfolding story (i.e. make the encounter that will take place six sessions from now more fun).
Hence I can't agree that the idea that allow players to fulfill character goals is really a universal first principle. Its a good one for many groups but there are a lot of styles of play out there that don't follow this model - in fact in the early days it was not even really part of the game. Early D&D was a cerebral game of adventure survival at least as dependent on the players skills as it was on the characters abilities. Lots of people still like to play in this style of game...mine don't but the style they do want is closer to this then it is to character objective fulfillment.
Im getting ready to run a whole group of newbies through rise of the runelords. My goal is to keep it simple and keep it fun. Most of all i need to be very patient. None of these new players have tabletop experience. Lord what is this burden i have taken upon myself? Lol. Wish me luck! :p
Sigh... sorry Evil Lincoln. Totally unfair for me to jump on your post that way. It is certainly a goal to create collective memories, just as it is a goal to make the entire group have fun. Both of those are things the GM needs to keep in mind. I was way off base to respond that way.
Apology accepted. There really aren't any wrong answers in a thread like this. Heck, I was tempted to rail against Fleshgrinder's CPU comment, but what good is that? Ultimately, if that's what his group expects of him and he delivers, then he's satisfied my earlier statement.
When you dig down, all different play styles have different requirements. I consider impartiality to be paramount when I'm running an adventure path. I'm really an interpreter of that material, not a creator. But for a lot of other games, impartiality takes a back seat to story.
That's why my original response was so deliberately ambiguous. Few statements hold true for all GMs, but that one does, I think.