The best DM compliment I have ever received.

javapadawan · Feb 23, 2004

My husband and I were on our way home from our Friday night game session, DMed by a friend of ours, and we were discussing the battle we'd just finished with a mature shadow dragon. It had been a tough fight, but not one that I would count among those edge-of-the-seat, we're-all-gonna-die-here moments, the way I feel a fight with a dragon should be.

As we're talking, he says to me, "Ya know, I would have loved to see you run that battle. People would have died."

I can't even begin to describe how pleased I was at that statement, and I think I'd count it as the best compliment I've gotten as a DM (and a wife) thus far.

So, to stay on topic here, anyone else have a favorite DM compliment to share?

Aristotle · Feb 23, 2004

I've got a handful (I've been running games for quite some time)...

1.) I've had people (I run a mostly male table) get choked up when a long-term NPC died. This happened a few times, and while no words were said I took it as a compliment.

2.) I had a new player join my group while I was running White Wolf's WoD. As he sat down to make up his character one of my veteran players turned to him and said "go ahead and mark down the 'Hunted' and 'Dark Secret' flaws". When the new player looked at the veteran player and asked why, the veteran player looked over at me and replied "everyone gets those for free in this game". Heh, I'll take that one as a compliment too!

Shallown · Feb 23, 2004

I had a player once who changed jobs a lot but was mostly a waiter who I asked. "What you gonna do when you get a new job and can't play on sundays" His answer. "I don't take any job that I don't get Sunday off. Gotta Game"

I liked that. Also To have a player cry becuase of something you are describing and to really feel as sad/hurt as the character or a little of that hurt is also A compliment I have had.

later

Desdichado · Feb 23, 2004

OK, that's a fine compliment as a DM, but as a wife?

You should get on your husband's case more!

Psion · Feb 23, 2004

javapadawan said:
So, to stay on topic here, anyone else have a favorite DM compliment to share?

I used to make the players rate each other on the game on little slips of paper as an XP awards, and put any comments they had about the game.

After a particularly devious night of GMing, I was given to smirk inwardly when several slips had the same comment:

"You Bastard!"

javapadawan · Feb 23, 2004

Joshua Dyal said:
OK, that's a fine compliment as a DM, but as a wife? You should get on your husband's case more!

Heh, well, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a very good wife, traditionally speaking, so I'll take what I can get.

Henry · Feb 23, 2004

I've had very few outright "you're a good DM" compliements, but various things told me over time that I enjoyed hearing.

#1: I once had an old NPC show up near one of the PC's , and the player had genuinely reacted as if he'd seen an old friend - asking about business acquaintences, asking about life and family, etc. and looked actually pleased at the encounter.

#2: I've run a Star wars game that was so successful another player spun off another Star Wars game from it.

#3: I ran a 2nd edition D&D campaign successfully for two years contiguously, and had several players who ONLY played when I was running it.