GM Confessional

[aramis erak]

You've obviously never encountered people who will simply take the swordbush method until they get a character close enough to what they want. You can force someone to use random character gen, but one way or another they can find ways to generate new characters until they get what they want (unless what they want is ultra-specific in a way the random gen system interacts with).

No, I'm just more stubborn than those of that type I've encountered. They usually go away thinking it's their idea to go.

 

[Thomas Shey]

No, I'm just more stubborn than those of that type I've encountered. They usually go away thinking it's their idea to go.

Which is why in my initial response I excepted the last of your suggestions. All you did there was do a "get new player" in a laborious way.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I have never, not once, applied light/sources in a relevant manner.

I also don’t know how to handle languages spoken, which is a problem, because one of my players LOVES that stuff.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I put in grand plots and mysteries that persist across the campaign (as opposed to just for an adventure or three) that are related to the uber-plots of the campaign. But while I liberally sprinkle clues for the length of trhe campaign, I forget that I have visibility to the whole thing and the players don't. It's the rare player that takes things that come up from various different sessions and stitches them together.

This is me as a GM. I love plots schemes within mysteries wrapped in an enigma served with a side of myth. I desperately WANT the PCs to use those crazy plot-ruining spells and abilities to figure it out so they can appreciate my genius. But they never do.

 

[Committed Hero]

After the game I am a lot like George Costanza and the comeback: I think of great things I should have done.

 

[Guest 7034872]

I'm still fairly new to DMing, so some of my listed weaknesses are likely curable with more time and experience while others assuredly are not. In no particular order:

• I still talk too much during sessions. I've even interrupted players sometimes. Really not s'posed to do that...
• Most of the settings I build cater to my own aesthetic preferences, which gets repetitive.
• I'm a little too soft as DM; I've caught myself indulging in Monty Haul a few times. <-- This one, I think, is a simple problem of inexperience and not knowing how properly to calibrate the whole monsters-versus-players-versus-treasure thing.
• I'm not very good at improv when the party breaks the game. <-- Again, an inexperience issue, I think.

Those're my big ones.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

My biggest problem is building up to and prepping truly harrowing situations, and then in the moment not having the stomach to actually wreck the PCs. As soon as they come up with neat improvisational plans I become a fanboy and the challenge sort of melts away.

Ideally I'd still be a fan of their off-the-cuff plans, but also hurt them and theirs a bit more than I do.

 

[Reynard]

I'm still fairly new to DMing, so some of my listed weaknesses are likely curable with more time and experience while others assuredly are not. In no particular order:

• I still talk too much during sessions. I've even interrupted players sometimes. Really not s'posed to do that...

This is context dependent. You are also in charge of pacing, which means sometimes you have to cut players off when they are spinning their wheels or soliloquizing.

• Most of the settings I build cater to my own aesthetic preferences, which gets repetitive.

This is a hard one to overcome, because the GM is responsible for so much world building we tend to gravitate toward things we like and are familiar with. Incorporate some random tables into your prep.

• I'm a little too soft as DM; I've caught myself indulging in Monty Haul a few times. <-- This one, I think, is a simple problem of inexperience and not knowing how properly to calibrate the whole monsters-versus-players-versus-treasure thing.

Are you playing 5E? You can ignore magical treasure almost entirely if so. Give them items that are cool, important to the story, or have personal meaning to the PCs.

• I'm not very good at improv when the party breaks the game. <-- Again, an inexperience issue, I think.

Do you mean when they go off script? That is definitely an experience thing, expecially if you are running a pre-written adventure or campaign since they don't usually give you good advice on what to do when the PCs zig instead of zag. If you are running home brew adventures, try and prepare plots less and situations more. Present a circumstance and have a strong understanding of who the important NPCs are in the situation and what their motivations are. With that knowledge, improv is much easier.

For example, you want to run an adventure where the PCs have to stop the Thieves Guild from stealing the crown jewels, so you have the captain of the royal guard come to the PCs and ask their help in stopping it. Instead of laying out a series of scenes like a story or script, define all the players. Figure out where the jewels are. Determine what the Thieves Guild would do if the PCs were not to get involved. Figure out why exactly the captain of the guard is trying to frame the PCs for the theft (natch). Then, let the PCs figure out what they are going to do to save the jewels and respond to their moves, using everything you know about the situation.

 

[MNblockhead]

My biggest problem is building up to and prepping truly harrowing situations, and then in the moment not having the stomach to actually wreck the PCs. As soon as they come up with neat improvisational plans I become a fanboy and the challenge sort of melts away.

Ideally I'd still be a fan of their off-the-cuff plans, but also hurt them and theirs a bit more than I do.

Emphasis mine. I see this as a mark of a great DM. Challenging and exciting combats are great, but nothing beats players coming up with cool ideas on the spot that help them survive, win, overcome a challenge. When someone comes up with a cool idea and the entire table is excited about it, even if it might not work per RAW, sometimes the rule of cool applies. Besides, 5e rules are fuzzy and flexible enough I can usually find some way to justify it.

I also believe that the same should apply to the DM. When the DM thinks of a cool thing the NPC/monster can do on the spot, the best players should also be fans of the DM.

Any time the game is fun and we can share a cool moment together, we all win.

 

[Guest 7034872]

This is context dependent. You are also in charge of pacing, which means sometimes you have to cut players off when they are spinning their wheels or soliloquizing.

I know. I've recorded our sessions and watched them, and I definitely need to lock down my motor mouth. It's better than it was, but still needs a lot of work.

Are you playing 5E? You can ignore magical treasure almost entirely if so. Give them items that are cool, important to the story, or have personal meaning to the PCs.

I am, and in retrospect what you say is wise. I don't even recall how many magic items they've acquired that they've never used.

Do you mean when they go off script? That is definitely an experience thing, expecially if you are running a pre-written adventure or campaign since they don't usually give you good advice on what to do when the PCs zig instead of zag. If you are running home brew adventures, try and prepare plots less and situations more. Present a circumstance and have a strong understanding of who the important NPCs are in the situation and what their motivations are. With that knowledge, improv is much easier.

Yeah. I wrote my own, so it's not as bad as when using the prefab modules, but it's pretty obvious to everyone when I start using one of my random encounter tables to fill a gap in my prep.