Advice for improving as a DM

[Rel]

no, it was a joke. i just feel bad that i will most likely stop palying dnd because of -----ing college

There have certainly been a number of people who have expressed the idea that college and the pressures of "real life" caused them to stop playing. But it is not a given by any means.

Nearly all of the guys I game with now are the same people who I gamed with while they were in college. We actually gamed MORE during their college days (with an occasional week off to study for finals) than we do now. My experience is that marriage takes a bigger toll on gaming than college and kids take a bigger toll than marriage. YMMV.

As to the OP, I honestly wouldn't sweat it too much. If the players are having fun and you're having fun then you are the very definition of a successful DM. I second the idea of a player questionaire though. If there are any areas that you need to focus on or steer clear of, that's the best way to figure that out.

If the issue is more that you want to try out some different things for variety, I recommend running some one-shot games or mini-campaigns and see how it goes. If you like running a different style of game and the players do too, great. If not then you didn't invest a whole lot of time into it.

Good luck and good gaming.

 

[Piratecat]

My Dad used to say that the more cars you drove, the better driver you became. That's true for DMing, too. Go to game days and cons and run games for complete strangers. . . it helps immensely! More importantly, play with complete strangers too and make notes on what they do better than you do.

 

[Shallown]

To steer back to the topic.

I found a few useful idea sa few years ago. I have been gaming for a while and like you most advice articles/books etc is old news to me. So here's my advice.

Focus on what you stink at.

Basically every sessionor few sessions choose an aspect of the game you are not great at. Mine for example is Combat descriptions. I get wrapped up in numbers and it becomes a "you hit, you miss" fight. So for two-three sessions I work on describing the fights better. I focus on improving one aspect for a while until it becomes more second nature than something to focus on. Then I choose something else I stink at and address it. Sometimes you have to go back and focus on something again to retrain yourself but that's okay. Most Gm's know what they are good at and what works for them so they also know what needs some work.

Also get feed back. I do a Q&A session 2-3 times a year. And keep it from being. "yeah we like the Game" which is useless since it tells you nothing. I make the players list 3 things they like and 3 things they dislike. When they have to verbalize it in specific ways you'll be surprised what you'll learn. Somethings you thought were cool they might not care for. Also once you do this you can go into ask the GM session. Which is ask about things they didn't get and you'll explain them even if the characters would never know why the Villian did X. If X no longer matters let the players know. This serves several purposes.
A) It builds trust; When players know you do things with a reason they have a lot more faith in you even if they don't understand why something happened.
B) it clears up misunderstandings; since they trust you more they may also just let something they don't get slide knowing you have a plan behind the scenes. Well sometimes you want them to have some idea of the plan and your carefully placed clues aren't getting through. This lets you know what the players pay attention to and what they ignore. If you explain the secret plan and the players say BS then you might realize your cluse were not clues at all to the players.
C) Makes you feel cool; It helps your confidence as a GM to know you had your bases covered. If you can answer 90% of their Questions then you Rock. Just rememeber not everything has a clear cut answer and sometimes the answer is metagame versus complex BBEG plot.
D) Invokes interest; when you can't answer a question due to it still being something that will impact the game suddenly the players will take interest in things they might have previously brushed off.
E) It makes you think; When you know this may come up you start thinking about your villians motives and why things happen in your world.
F) Makes the players think ; Now the players start wondering about why things happen instead of just assuming "Becuase" The players start examining others motives and this can only help roleplaying and involvement in the campaign as well as immersion into the GM's world.
G) I'm sure there must be other uses just can't think of them right now.

Hope it helps.


B
later

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I was in the same boat as you. Started DMing when I was 10 (1980) and DM'ed almost exclusively till I was 18. My players told me I was great, so I wasn't too worried about my skills. Then I went to college and started playing in other peoples' games and I was amazed at how much I learned. I wouldn't say that the other DMs were neccesarily better than me, but they had a lot of tricks, techniques, and approaches that I had never seen before that made the game more fun for me. I ended up adopting a lot of the ones I really liked for my own game. So that's what I would recommend: get involved in some other people's games. Not only can you learn from them, sitting on the other side of the screen does good things for your perspective. Oh, and read some story hours. They're great for ideas to steal and new ways to play the game. My favorites are Sepulchrave's and Sagiro's, so that would be my suggestion where to start, but there are a lot of other really great SHs as well.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Great advice Shallown!

I've started the "focus on one thing I stink at" method myself. Its hard, I'll say that. I would recommend that you let your players know that you are doing this so they might be able to give you quick feedback. For instance if you are working on more descriptive combat (something I haven't focused on yet, but need to), it will help if the players understand the change. Then if they feel you are going over the top and slowing things down to the point the fun factor is dropping they can let you know that its getting to be too much.

I like the "ask the GM" session idea. Sounds like a great way to fill in some blanks and make the players understand the things that are in your head that never get revealed in the actual game.

 

[billd91]

Getting exposure to the way other people DM games, whether good or bad, can be a valuable experience. You start to think about how you would do things differently.
You might also want to start writing things down. Come up with a DM Journal in which you not only record what's been going on but what's going on behind the scenes. Get into the heads of the NPCs who are/will be reacting to the PCs when you're between sessions and have more time to think about it. I find that having an understanding of what an NPC is like and feeling helps me to react and wing it better in the session when PCs do things unexpected.
I think the most important thing about improving as a DM is having the right attitude. If you're open to new ways of doing things, open to improvements suggested by others and commited to actually trying them, you've already got a leg up on the issue.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

If your players are having fun, you are doing nothing wrong.
If you are having fun, you are doing nothing wrong.

Darn skippy.

Now, to improve your abilities as a story teller... Read out loud in your spare time

Yes. And use silly voices where applicable. My wife loves it when I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to her because of Marvin's voice. Of course, if you don't have somebody who wants to listen to you read out loud, then you might be better getting an audiobook copy of the title and listening to somebody else's silly voices -- which is how I got started on Hitchhiker's long ago with the Stephen Moore audiobook.

On a related/side note, there are frequently interesting people who tell interesting stories at Ren Fairs and the like. You can watch them to get a good gauge of what a proper flow of intensity looks like.

Netflix is a wonderful service -- they deliver lots of strange and unusual films that you can pillage for plot points right to your mailbox. I certainly wouldn't say "Avoid things that have been done before," as I'm using published adventures, but I would say "Avoid things that are popping up all over the place" -- evil on the edge of reality has been in Hellboy and Captain Herlock as of late, so it may be a bit cliche for your players at the moment. But see point #1.

Finally, note that you having fun is more important than your players having fun. You can get different players that enjoy different gaming styles if necessary, but you're stuck with yourself.

::Kaze (would/did start with looting Slayers for a conventional campaign, or maybe take a gander at Last Exile for an Eberron campaign. Or ignore these recommendations if you don't care for subtitles/anime.)

 

[evildmguy]

A bit more formal

Greetings!

I was about to post something related to this but now I can do it here.

I am going to be a bit more formal because, like most things, I think there is a formula that can be done to improve any part of our lives.

1) Have fun. That's the point of the game. As long as you and your players are having fun, then the DM is doing their job.

1a) Recognize that some player's ideas of fun won't be yours and that they might drop out. They might come back after dropping out or they might not. It isn't a statement of your DMing but of what they enjoy. Also, realize that if you recognize that someone is disrupting your fun, and most of the groups, you may have to ask them to leave. Styles will clash and hopefully people will understand that.

2) Run your own game. Don't let the players tell you about your game but certainly let them help you with rules. RPGs have a lot of rules and it is tough to keep them all in mind at once. Ask for help if you know your players know the rules better. In the end, though, especially if you have proven yourself as a DM, hopefully the players respect the type of game you are running and will give it a chance.

2b) Recognize that not all players will like your style of game. If you love Dark Sun, and your players don't, it might take some work and trust on both sides to show them how much fun can be had in Dark Sun. Understand that you might have to make changes to your game if you don't want to lose any players. In fact, you might have to decide what you will do if most are fine with the change but a few don't want to play it. Again, this isn't about you but about their own style and preference of play.

(I was in that boat when I asked my players to play Alternity. Fortunatley, it has worked out very well, better than I could have hoped.)

3) What type of game do you want to run? High Fantasy? Space Opera? Modern? While a GM should be able to run any genre of game, I think it is best to have a few specialties. This is because of their interests and what they like to do. A GM that reads and loves fantasy books and novels who gets really excited about their fantasy game is going to be better than the GM who prefers SciFi but decided to run a fantasy game.

I am also saying this because players and GMs are getting more sophisticated in their playing. Just as TV shows and movies are being nit-picked, so too are gaming sessions in terms of sticking to the material. If I am playing a Modern game, I expect it to follow the standard rules of science. If those are broken, I expect the GM will explain, eventually, why the change happened. Therefore, knowing the subject matter (history, modern history and future science) helps to create an air of verismilitude which really adds to the game.

4) Research the type of game you want to run. This is not as tedious as it sounds because hopefully you are researching something you already enjoy. There are going to be books out there that can be used to give your campaign a very firm basis in the type of genre you are running. This can mean researching current computers and speeds, cars and their handling or firearms and how they work. Being able to talk the talk as an NPC adds to that verismilitude I was talking about earlier. Knowing the parts of the gun and how they work allows you to include these kinds of details.

For example, I am running a fantasy campaign. Most fantasy campaigns say that they are using some real world history, usually Medieval Europe, as their basis. However, no RPG that I have seen has ever then talked about what 90% of the population does. They immediately talk about the 10% of nobles and adventurers that are exceptions to the historical accuracy. So, I am researching what daily life was like for people in the Middle Ages. It is a fascinating read, because I like history and I like having these details, and it really gives me lots of ideas as well. (Amazon will have a ton of books with "daily lives" for those interested. I am reading Daily Life in the Middle Ages by Paul B Newman and it is very good. I think anyone running DND should read this. There are also daily life books on Romans, greeks, etruscans, aztecs, vikings and many others.) This book tells me all about the clothing, building materials, foods, weapons and armor, architecture, cleaning, playtime and fighting methods of people during those times.

Now, please don't misunderstand. NONE of this will probably be the focus of an adventure. I probably won't deal with exactly what their clothes look like or if they are wearing the proper items. What I do is use it as my background descriptions. Even then, I don't make them lectures but to enrich the scene.

"You notice their fine linens are similar to yours but are more worn."

"This Inn, known for its tuna pasties, is quite crowded when you enter to meet your contact."

"The buildings are all similar except for one which has used more stone than the others around it. That must be where you need to go."

Obviously, there is a fine line between having good detail and having too much and that can only be learned with practice and knowing your audience and what they like. However, imo, each of these gives a place more character or an NPC something to remember them by and I think that makes the game more fun.

4a) Research the areas you are basing on real life. Try to bring as much of that research to the table as you can, again without it being too much. For example, if I have an area based on a real world historical country, I should probably find out things like names they would use, clothes they would wear, how they look, their governmental system, etc. Again, hopefully this will be fun for the DM because most of this is going to end up in the background and used for flavor or the odd detail instead of being the focus for anything.

For example, I found a random name generator and decided that I wanted an NPCs name to give a good indicator of from where they came. So, I made my areas and assigned a type of name (Norwegian, Welsh, German, Russian, etc.) to that area. Then, I created a list of names that were common names for that area. All too often, in the past, I created unique names for EVERY NPC the players met. Now, they meet some of the same names and it makes sense. Again, a small detail that adds to the verismilitude of the game.

5) Try and figure out your weaknesses and work on improving them. This was said but it can't be said enough. If you aren't good at adventures, there are a lot of books on writing that talk about plot and elements of an good story, which is what the DM is trying to tell. If you aren't good at NPCs, there are books on making characters. Again, these tend to be more for writing than gaming but most, if not all, of the principles apply. If you aren't good at the rules, set aside some time every week to review the rules, especially ones that are used often or came up in the last session. I can pretty much guarantee you that there is a book out there for any aspect that a DM wants to approve. It probably won't be a gaming book but most of it will be helpful at the table.

5a) Critiques - I do critiques every week. I start out, talking usually about myself and anything that stood out to me. I also talk about what I didn't like and what I would like to see improved. I usually focus on me but I could talk about anything. I start with myself so that I don't appear to be responding to any constructive criticism my player's have about me. Each person gets a turn and talks about something. I usually ask them to answer "was it fun? Are you coming back?" as the two basic questions. I have had a lot of luck with this and I think it has helped my game a lot.

6) Notes - Keep notes. First of all, find a style that works for you to make your notes about the adventure and other long terms goals. This is tough but worth it. Second, find a style or way to take notes during the session so that you can remember what happened and where things might have to change in your adventure outline. Third, review those notes, at least once before the next session and preferably twice. Remind yourself what happened, where the group left off last time and what is coming.

6a) Along with notes, find tools that help you DM, whatever those tools are, and use them. For me, I have a laptop, so I have looked for and found many computer utilities to help me run my games. Even with a desktop, many of the tools I use would be useful for someone but they might require some printing to have at the table. I used to use a ledger sheet for 3E initiative because it helped track everything very well for me. I used things such as this to speed up my prep time and to focus on the characters and adventure during the game.

I apologize for such a long response, especially because it is a re-hash of what many of said. However, something that I thought was missing was the fact that like anything, there are things that can be done to improve how a person DMs. It does take work, like anything, but I have found it to be very fun and quite rewarding for the knowledge itself. Putting it to use in my games is extra!

I hope this helps!

Have a good one! Take care!

edg
Alternity Pimp

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

As previously mentioned, ideas will come to your from everywhere. I keep a notebook with me and write down ideas all the time. They may be random notes like "Inn with the Mob" or "Battle in the Clocktower" and random ideas that float into my head "Time Gremlins, what the heck are these guys." But they begin to form into adventures as you start to see connections between the two.

Something that I find very useful is asking the players for help. I'll ask the players for some secret that their character has or for them to come up with theme music for their character. This has several effects. PCs will put more time and thought into their characters, they will give you a direction to help take them, and it gives you NPC groups and characters to throw against them. Example, when asked, the PC gave me two things; he has a scar from the "Black Sky Dogs" and early in his life he received a blessing from the air god. This immediately allows me throw threads of his character's story into my adventures, plus it gives me at least two good hooks for adventures focused on his character.

Hope this helps.

 

[NewJeffCT]

change things up a bit

I know the feeling – I started gaming a few years before you when I was 12 or 13 in ’78 or ’79. As with you, I was almost always the default DM while growing up. And, once I graduated from college in 1989, my gaming got cut back considerably as my college friends also graduated and moved to ‘exotic’ places like Texas, Florida and New York City. I satisfied my occasional gaming urge by playing D&D computer games like “Pool of Radiance” or “Eye of the Beholder.” I still read fantasy novels and the like, but I found other interests to occupy my time – biking, basketball journalism, etc.

However, in 1998, I was stuck in a marriage that was spiraling downhill quickly. While I would never have cheated, I needed something to distract me.

Enter the internet. I found a gaming group that was not too far away for face to face gaming and emailed the DM. He seemed like a good guy, I met the group and had a blast gaming with them on a weekly basis as a player.

I have tried to DM a few times since, but it just has not clicked for me. With old age (I am 37 now), I am not nearly as quick witted as I used to be in running NPCs and just not as smooth. (If my old gaming group from school got back together, they would no doubt talk about a few of my famous NPCs – the old lady shopkeeper with a bad temper, the thief that lost the party’s money gambling & whoring, etc)

I tried to change things up a bit. Don’t change your style, but change the story and/or the NPCs.

What I did was to try and take some non fantasy stories and work them in to a D&D plotline. The excellent novel “Black Hawk Down” was now an adventure where the PCs were supposedly support for a ‘Special Forces’ type mission for their kingdom in a distant, unfriendly colony. The PCs were supposed to be there just to support the main strike force to take out a rebel leader, but the main ‘good’ guys were taken out early and the PCs were left to try and complete the mission by themselves and also rescue their fallen comrades (I did not see the movie of the book)

Or, take a fictional character from a non fantasy/sci fi TV or a movie and base an NPC on this character – I had fun with a Charles Emerson Winchester (MASH) based snobbish cleric from a wealthy family or a saucy, older barmaid with a high sex drive based on Carla Tortelli from Cheers. A so-so movie can be made to be very good with just a few memorable characters. Imagine if the grungy old captain played by Robert Shaw in ‘Jaws’ was played by a wooden actor? That movie would have been totally different. And, just the opposite, good material can be made bad by the wrong choice of actor or actress (good book – “Striptease”, good supporting cast in Burt Reynolds & Ving Rhames, but the lead should have been an actress that was good with light comedy & satire instead of Demi Moore… Moore looked the part, but her intense, serious performance was not what was needed)