Weem's "Grade your DM-skills" Challenge...

Ok, here is the challenge.

Try and choose one (at least) aspect of your DM-ing skills/characteristics for each of the grade letters A, B, C, D and F based on how good or bad you are at them.

Here's mine!

A
Improv: I think immersion is a really important thing to have in a game, and immersing the players in the story is top priority (second to them having fun of course). I do not respond with "Uhhh" or "Ummm". I feel like I either know the answer to a question they might ask an NPC (for example), or I need be able to answer it quickly based on my knowledge of what the NPC would know of the question. Sometimes, in dialog, Uhh's and Umm's are appropriate - for example, when someone is hiding something. But the answer to the question "Where did you grow up" is not "Uhhhh... hmmmm... lemme look at the map" or "Uhhhh... he would be from [insert city] so yea, from there".

This comes up most often with dialog and NPC's and I consider this aspect of my DM-ing to be my specialty, but it carries over to PC actions as well. If they do something unexpected, they will never know I was not prepared. I respond as the situation would call for and keep the game moving. My goal in these situations (where PC's surprise you) is to make them feel like I knew they would do that. I represent the world and everything in it... I should not be stumbling around for an answer.


B
Creative/Unique Stories: I could do better at giving the players something new that they have not seen, but not much better (imo). Of course I get my inspiration from various sources and borrow ideas, but I always try to make them my own and keep the PC's guessing. I do not run modules and instead try and come up with my own stories and ways in which I can turn stereotypical ideas on their heads or twist them into something new. Of course, there isn't much left that hasn't been done - but I'm simply referring to what I have seen myself and what I know the players have seen, etc.


C
Encounter Building: I'm simply average here. There is a lot of room for improvement. I tend to think "well, realistically what would be here" and choose some monsters etc as opposed to thinking tactically as well in order to make an encounter more challenging/exciting. I'm okay at setting up dynamic encounters, with interesting terrain etc, but with regards to the combat aspect, I can get pretty lazy.


D
Preparation: I wait till the last minute to put things together. My NPC's I think about a lot as I want to get the immersion and feel right, but when it comes to putting pencil to paper for all other details (I don't use the computer for game prep) I wait too long and end up rushing things. This leads to me, after a game, saying "oh man, I forgot this" or at the next game saying, "sorry, forgot to mention this" etc. These kinds of details get missed.


F
I have been playing for 21-ish years and DM-ing most of that (probably 19-20 of em). All of the things I would have graded as an F over the years, I have worked on making better. So, I don't have anything I feel I completely Fail at. I'm interested to see what everyone else has for this - if anything.



Bonus Challenge...

Since new years is coming soon, and some people like to do new years resolutions (I have never had one yet) I'll ask... if you made a new years resolution to work on improving one aspect of your game next year, what will it be?

For me, it would be the "Encounter Building" I graded as a "C" above. I intend on working on this much more in the months ahead as we move closer to the middle of my second 4e campaign. My goal will be to make at least one of the encounters for each session memorable in some way - do something really interesting and fun with it.

Rules Mastery: A
I'm confident enough in my knowledge of the rules to keep my D&D game flowing smoothly.

Performance: B
Okay, I'm a ham---but I'm also a natural mimic, giving me a fairly wide repertoire of accents and speaking styles that I use to give NPCs distinctive voices. My players enjoy it, as do I.

Preparation: C
I am a lazy, lazy man. 4e has made game prep easier than any of its predecessors, but even then I find that I overlooked some crucial encounter element.

Improv: D
I definitely have room for improvement when it comes to adjusting to the unexpected. For example, my Scales of War group completely subverted the expected plot in their last session, and my deer-in-the-headlights reaction did nothing to instill their faith in me.

Mood: F
Okay, I like to make jokes (hey, with this face I was forced to develop a personality). Normally, this makes the game fun and light for all, but often I find myself unable to resist making quips even during the most dramatic scenes (I'm pathological when it comers to breaking tension with jokes)

A: Preperation
I know my players and plan for what they may or may not do. I prep a module at a time but usually have an extra module or more prepared just in case the group makes a turn I'm not ready for so I have something for them do

B: Plot
I tend to go over bboard and that can hurt the over all game thus a lower grade. But there are always plots for each character about them and where they are going.

C: Creativity
I steal and borrow the best ideas from all sorts of sources. I'm not as strong when coming up with something uniquely mine.

D: Improve
I'm not great for thinking up interesting things on my feat. Usually I cover this with the preperation. I always come up with ideas I should have used the week after I try to improvise.

F:
Nothing comes to mind. I'm sure one of my players will be by and offer up a few dozen suggestions,.

A: Preparation & World Building - These kind of go hand in hand for me. I have always stove to make the back grounds of my game worlds believable. Whether structured creation myths or geo-political histories, it makes it much easier to suck people in if they can just believe that all this crap I'm spewing could be plausible. I love handouts, props and set-pieces for my games as well, so once I have an idea I'll spend days and weeks building props that get about 2 minutes of "screen" time.

B: NPC interaction - "Bob" the armorer and "Joe" the inn keeper have no place in my campaign worlds. Robert and Jonathan maybe (depending upon the set-up) but wither way, each NPC is a living breathing person with hopes, wishes, dreams and motivations, even if it's just to make as much money as possible. Even if they are created on the fly, quirks and nuances get noted, just in case.

C: Pacing -I can't always be on. Unfortunately, when I'm not, you'll know it. Sometimes I rush, sometimes I drag. I know it, I just can't seem to get it right all the time.

D: Getting Thrown off track by player actions - Yep, this train has been de-railed and the clean-up crew is nowhere in sight. I hate doing it but I have had to stop sessions and find other stuff for folks to do because my players do something so far afield I just sit there with my mouth open going "whaaaa?" My propensity for immediate response is inversely proportionate to the necessity of action.

F: I can honestly say after 28 years of being in the driver's seat I make very little glaring errors and even when I screw up I can cover it up pretty well. If I absolutely had to put something in here - I can't draw to save my life.

A - Improv... almost totally what I do
B - Organization... I have everything layed out for my games well in advance, minis, maps, handouts, even printed out stat blocks on separate pages for easy note taking during combats.
C - Encounter Building... I am about the same, it's pretty easy to have encounters, I just can't come up with reasons for them to occur (see F below)
D - Rules knowledge... I know em, but with 4E I really don't feel the need to learn every power from every character, I trust the players to know what they are doing and if it doesn't sound horridly broken I won't go look up the rule.
F - Plot... I suck at coming up with anything even remotely original for a story. There is just so much stuff already published that I think I can make everything just fine out of everything else, but if I tried to make something myself it would be terrible.

Good stuff so far!

Festivus said:

A - Improv... almost totally what I do

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Cool, so we share that strength

Thunderfoot said:

D: Getting Thrown off track by player actions - Yep, this train has been de-railed and the clean-up crew is nowhere in sight. I hate doing it but I have had to stop sessions and find other stuff for folks to do because my players do something so far afield I just sit there with my mouth open going "whaaaa?" My propensity for immediate response is inversely proportionate to the necessity of action.

Click to expand...

Yea, this is something I am bad with as well. I could have added this as a "D" as well

Crothian said:

D: Improve
I'm not great for thinking up interesting things on my feat. Usually I cover this with the preperation. I always come up with ideas I should have used the week after I try to improvise.

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Hehehe, yea, I do that anyway despite Improv being one of my strengths - think of something later like "daaamn, I should have done X, that would have been cool" but that could even be one of the downsides to great improv and thinking fast - when you are reacting and moving forward quickly to keep the flow, you can miss opportunities - but I have a feeling many people have those moments, regardless of strengths/weaknesses in this area.

Wormwood said:

Rules Mastery: A
I'm confident enough in my knowledge of the rules to keep my D&D game flowing smoothly.

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Oh yea, if I put "Rules Mastery" on my list, I might have something for "F" hehe - "D" at least. I was really good with the rules in the beginning (4e) but concentrate entirely on story stuff etc -- now I count on my players for most of the 'out there' kind of rules... stuff you don't see often, etc.

A - Pacing I really focus on how well the pacing in a game goes, because I consider it the most important. I'm willing to throw out anything else for the sake of pacing. Realism, game balance, my plots and plans, all have been sacrificed on the altar of pacing. I think it makes the games better, and my players certainly seem happy.

B - Characterization I think I'm pretty good at this, keeping my NPCs distinctive and memorable, my adversaries evil but not mustache-twirling. Could be better, and occasionally players get confused as to who is who.

C - Game Prep I'm not really a game prep person. My exalted game I prepare nothing specific, just fleshing out different adversaries and situations and see what the PCs want to do with it. Other games my prep sometimes falls behind, and I don't have all the props/handouts that I need.

D - Rules Mastery We play a lot of different games, and there's no way I can know all the ins and outs of every system, even the simpler ones. I tend to make a lot of common sense spot rulings, and my players are pretty good at helping me out.

F - like the OP, there's nothing I feel I'm really bad at.

A: Sharing Food: Even as the DM, if I bring food I bring it to share.

B: Giving Rides Home: When not playing at my own house, I'll be happy to drop folks off along the way. My vehicle seats seven.

C: Creativity: I just don't come up with that many good ideas. Can't put an encounter together to save my life. Setting is as bland as bland can be.

D: Keeping PCs Alive: What can I say? The players just have to do it themselves, as I am absolutely no good at it.

F: Rules: I mean, have you even looked at the ruleset I am using? Worse yet, I've got no one to blame but myself.

No wonder my games suck!



Happy holidays!

RC

Hey, don't discount sharing food. Its at least as important to gamer culture as polyhedral dice and escapist fantasy.

Shellbelle gets the A in that one, not me, insisting on cooking dinner for each game and pestering the ones that don't eat like an overprotective mother. Two of our players were on diets where they had 'cheat days' where they could eat whatever they wanted. They both rearranged the diet schedule so cheat days were on game days. That way they could partake in whatever she had prepared.

Hmm, when I went to reply to this and actually giving it some thought, I really am not sure how good I am at anything. Critiquing myself as a DM is actually hard to do, wow.

I definitely know what I am bad at because I've had plenty of players complain to me, but the players that don't complain and seem to really like playing with me never tell me why they like me as the DM. I would actually like to ask my players if my grading is accurate

A: Preparation. I'm a freak when it comes to organization and prep work. If people only knew how much time I spend prepping and compiling notes. My excel file is almost 8 megs big. I practically have reference material for every WotC 3e book in my excel file. I've made references that show what creatures & gods exist on each plane, a complete monster index including their CRs, & a list of every tavern & inn in Sigil (& in other cities that PCs have been too) which includes drink & room rates and the name & race of the owner. It has a reference list of every magic item I'd allow in the campaign, including a list of magic items based on price. A list of names associated with races for when I need a random name. And a complete list of every item from every WotC sourcebook (equipment, mounts, poisons, special substances, potions, scrolls, weapons, armors, special materials, ect ect) so players don't have to search through different books when they are shopping. The excel file also includes all the standard references like classes, prcs, feats, spells, and of course my campaign notes. Not to mention how I prep a published adventure...I photocopy it, and highlight a majority of it using 3 different colored highlighters that represent different things. And I write up stats for every NPC I will use in combat, including monsters that are already written up in the books...it helps me learn their abilities.

B: Improvization & Characterization. Players like the different type of NPCs I introduce in the game. I'm also good at creating a personality on the fly. They always say that I make each person very unique. That's the one compliment I have heard. I'd say I could use more work on my female NPCs cause I always feel like I play them too similar (usually tough and serious). But I try to give each NPC some kind of quirk or distinct quality that will make them interesting. I'm also pretty quick to think of ways to keep the game moving when PCs do the unexpected. This includes when PCs are interacting with the NPCs.

C: Creativity. I'm a very creative person, but with D&D, since it requires so much of my time, I don't really spend time creating my own original adventures. I usually read published modules and then build off of that. I create a lot of my own material to include in it and I even create my own subplots for PCs, but I still mostly borrow ideas from other sources because it is just faster & easier to do.

D: Silver Tongue. If players aren't really roleplaying, then it is extremely hard for me to get into character. If they just sit there and watch/listen to me roleplaying an NPC, then I feel like an idiot. It will cause me to be bad with words and I'll try to engage them in a conversation with an NPC, but if they aren't really responding, then I don't really know what to say myself. That's when I speak in 3rd person. Sometimes I try to set the mood during battle by having an enemy talk during combat, but it always feels so forced & I get the impression that it seems like bad acting from a B action flick. It's so hard to incorporate roleplaying during combat and I think it would add so much to the game if I could just pull it off. But players don't really respond to it either, as soon as combat starts, roleplaying is thrown out the window.

F: Easy going. The biggest complaint I get is that I'm too restricting with my campaign. The sad part is, I don't even care It is more important to me that I DM a game that doesn't appear "lame" to me than it is to let players have their way because "it's just a game". If I can't run a world without letting players dictate to me how the world "should be", then I simply won't DM unless I decide I want to run a campaign where players get to be co-DMs. Restrictions I put on the campaign are; no magic item shops (and this is a Planescape campaign haha), no lame character names, no playing PCs of the opposite sex, I try not to give PCs Wonderous magic items that another PC already has, no Powergaming, I give out half XP to slow down leveling, & I don't like to hear players using a character voice. But I do allow more things in the game than I restrict, & I do a lot as a DM for the players & their PCs, so I always just hope that makes up for the difference.