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How have you improved as a DM?
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<blockquote data-quote="5ekyu" data-source="post: 7496773" data-attributes="member: 6919838"><p>How have I improved as a GM?</p><p></p><p>it was thru several plateaus, which seems to mimic my learning pattern in other areas.</p><p></p><p>When learning Go, I described it as "suddenly seeing a new board". At points in the advancement, i would suddenly see a completely new set of values and objectives right there alongside the old ones but on top of them. Fights for survival gave away to fights for territory/corners/tesuji and then they gave away to fights for moyo (frameworks) and those gave away to not so much fights at all but for moves that "won" whether fought or not and then recognizing the way to exploit the win. </p><p></p><p>Each new step came after i had sort of plateaued at advancing in the former one. When i sought to see more.</p><p></p><p>Same with GM.</p><p></p><p>Started with DND in 1980 and the games were mostly tactical with some story and structure workjed in to serve as connector between the fights. The setting for the battles grew more and more rich and detailed and utilized. The rules evolved as we moved to higher crunch and other systems and other genres (TRAVELLER, HERO, STRIKER Trav others) but it still resolved around how rich and tactical a finale I could create.</p><p></p><p>The "new board" came thru games like VampireTM (first and a lot) and Amber and Cyberpunk2020 and others starting about the point where crunch was hitting a peak. VtM for all its math woes was a "new board" and we spent quite a number of campaigns with it. Amber taught a better lesson in scenery use and deployment. All let me explore a great deal about the value in style, story and made me a better GM.</p><p></p><p>Probably the next "new board" was a number of games - Serenity/Cortex, Screentime, OtE, Fudge and quite a few indie games and variations of them which let me explore the less rigidly defined setting - one subject to alteration on the fly even by player authorship but also by on-the-fly authorship by the GM. They also showed me the value of and impact of GP gimmick points (plot points, hero points, story points, fate points) especially heavy volume plot points as currency style play. These were informative and i learned from them, even tho the GP lesson was "don't like them much at all" and led to me turning off those systems. (seen today in my dislike of mophi 2d20 and Cypher.) </p><p></p><p>Along the way my game planning became much more "derived from the PCs" than "derived from my plan. </p><p>Along the way my go to for "whats next" was a dirty dozen list of hooks from the PCs races, classes and backgrounds/stories.</p><p>Along the way my focus for resolution went from "prove it works" playerside to "why wouldn't that work?" GM side. Say yes, unless you have a compelling reason to say no. (AMBER iirc)</p><p>Along the way i began to value most highly consistency over crunch and to develop my own dividing line between needed detail and too much detail.</p><p>Along the way it became "our game" not "my game."</p><p></p><p>etc etc etc</p><p></p><p>My bet is, as happens in other learning pursuits, my path to today was not unique.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="5ekyu, post: 7496773, member: 6919838"] How have I improved as a GM? it was thru several plateaus, which seems to mimic my learning pattern in other areas. When learning Go, I described it as "suddenly seeing a new board". At points in the advancement, i would suddenly see a completely new set of values and objectives right there alongside the old ones but on top of them. Fights for survival gave away to fights for territory/corners/tesuji and then they gave away to fights for moyo (frameworks) and those gave away to not so much fights at all but for moves that "won" whether fought or not and then recognizing the way to exploit the win. Each new step came after i had sort of plateaued at advancing in the former one. When i sought to see more. Same with GM. Started with DND in 1980 and the games were mostly tactical with some story and structure workjed in to serve as connector between the fights. The setting for the battles grew more and more rich and detailed and utilized. The rules evolved as we moved to higher crunch and other systems and other genres (TRAVELLER, HERO, STRIKER Trav others) but it still resolved around how rich and tactical a finale I could create. The "new board" came thru games like VampireTM (first and a lot) and Amber and Cyberpunk2020 and others starting about the point where crunch was hitting a peak. VtM for all its math woes was a "new board" and we spent quite a number of campaigns with it. Amber taught a better lesson in scenery use and deployment. All let me explore a great deal about the value in style, story and made me a better GM. Probably the next "new board" was a number of games - Serenity/Cortex, Screentime, OtE, Fudge and quite a few indie games and variations of them which let me explore the less rigidly defined setting - one subject to alteration on the fly even by player authorship but also by on-the-fly authorship by the GM. They also showed me the value of and impact of GP gimmick points (plot points, hero points, story points, fate points) especially heavy volume plot points as currency style play. These were informative and i learned from them, even tho the GP lesson was "don't like them much at all" and led to me turning off those systems. (seen today in my dislike of mophi 2d20 and Cypher.) Along the way my game planning became much more "derived from the PCs" than "derived from my plan. Along the way my go to for "whats next" was a dirty dozen list of hooks from the PCs races, classes and backgrounds/stories. Along the way my focus for resolution went from "prove it works" playerside to "why wouldn't that work?" GM side. Say yes, unless you have a compelling reason to say no. (AMBER iirc) Along the way i began to value most highly consistency over crunch and to develop my own dividing line between needed detail and too much detail. Along the way it became "our game" not "my game." etc etc etc My bet is, as happens in other learning pursuits, my path to today was not unique. [/QUOTE]
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