Are you a good Dungeon Master?

[shaylon]

Not really. I mean my players didn't run away screaming the last time I dm'd but they might have wanted to.

I am playing now but plan on some one-shots in the near future to see if I am really as bad as I think I am. I suppose if I read some of those books I bought then I might have a clue as to what the heck was going on when I dm but that would require investing time in the hobby and unfortunately I never have enough.

-Shay

 

[Oryan77]

Having good players really helps make you a good DM. I used to be terrible when I first started DM'ing 9 years ago. Even today I wonder if I'm good. My current group thinks I'm good. One thing I noticed though is that I begin thinking I suck after a game where I DM'ed for bad players. When those bad players aren't at the table, the game is awsome and I feel proud of myself for running a fun game for everyone. I realized that it will seem like you suck when players argue with you, you are babysitting them, you are defending your actions as a DM constantly, or if you keep hearing heckles or criticisms at the table. That doesn't mean you are a bad DM though when it's the same players that make you feel bad at the end of a game. When you DM for the other players while the bad players aren't around, the game is somehow awsome and everyone talks about how much fun they had. So I would put 2 & 2 together....I suck when the bad players are there but the other players have a blast when I DM for them...hmmmm?

 

[Nebulous]

I know i'm a good DM because we've collectively had a lot of fun over years. I've even been great at times, but that's been fleeting success i rarely manage to recreate. I've had the problem in the past of having so many plot threads going on that the players lose focus. My attempt to make a "Free Flow" adventure turns into a miasma of half-followed clues and NPC's. I told my brother once that they currently had 14 seperate plot threads to follow or not, some interweaving, others stand alone. In restrospect, that was just too damn many.

And when i don't DM for a while i get REALLY rusty. It's hard for me to get back into the groove. That's sort of where i stand now, our group is mostly dissolved until i can find some new blood...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've found that the secret to good DMing that I've seen in my own games and watched in some others which I highly respect can be summed up in two words: "Say Yes".

When PC's come up with off-the wall ideas, or even just ask about something that you hadn't thought about, and the temptation is to close things down and keep them on track with a "No", instead say Yes and run with it.

I find this is the single biggest influence on fun games. Last week was my best DMing for a while (I'm getting rusty), and one of the high points was in the mournland in the midst of a battlefield between Karrnathi and Brelanders the party is attacked by a carcass crab. Things are looking pretty desperate and the party's Karrnathi wizard calls out the traditional Karrn war-cry and calls for aid in case there were any deactivated karrnathi skeletons and zombies on the battlefield... Well, she had the Undead Empathy feat and I thought "sounds cool" so a lone Karrnathi zombie stood up on the battlefield, saluted and charged to her aid, dying once more once the crab was defeated. It was an evocative moment, and I could have spoiled it so easily by saying (quite legitimately) "No, there are no undead lying around on this mournland battlefield".

I notice that Piratecat and Sagiro are both great at the "Say Yes" principle too

Cheers

 

[Crothian]

After reading this quote, and then reading through the rest of the thread, I wonder the following: If entertaining your players, does not qualify you as a "good DM", then what does?

Rules, being fair, doing lots of other things that a DM does. Being entertaining helps but it is not the only thing. I can be entertaining and be a bad DM.

Every single DM will give a different opinion on what makes a succesful game master. I think, that only the players at your table can tell you, with any accuracy, whether or not your any good.

Actually, unless the players have played for a while under a lot of different DMs they have no idea if someone is good or not.

10,000+ posts on EnWorld, does not make one the absolute authority on all things gaming.

I'm quoting this because this is one of the single most ridiculus things I have read in a while. Where did you come up with this? Never was it stated that posts made one a gaming authority. Also, never was it stated or even hinted at that I am the absolute gaming authority. So, why would you even need to post something like that? I expected to actually read on and learn that the sky was blue.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

But at the end of the day, I always feel like I'm doing a poor job. I never seem to be as good as I want. Despite my best efforts, and the positive feedback of my players, I don't consider myself a great DM.[/quoet]

I felt like that for a long time.

When I was 10 I started gaming with my dad and his friends. Those games were awesome. But the games I ran with my friends were never as good. I took about 12 years or so before I felt that I had become "good" at DMing. However, I stil suck at it sometimes.

 

[nakia]

It seems to me that being an entertaining GM is necessary but not sufficient to being a good GM.

The bottom line is your players have to have fun. If that's not happening, then I don't see how you can be a good GM, no matter how developed your NPC's, no matter how copious your rules knolwedge, and no matter how good you are at narrative structure. Gaming is a relationship between GM and players, a relationship that's supposed to result in fun for both sides.

Other elements, like rules knowledge, fairness, and creativity all come together with everyone having fun to make a good GM. A good GM can combine all of these and to make sure his players are entertained while doing something more -- stretching the players, creating memories, and letting people learn things about themselves.

 

[jim pinto]

modesty, they name is villain

i've been dming since 1986, for years i was a chart-nazi

i hated making decisions on the fly and i made charts for everything... even name generation, beard color, and tavern patrons.

it was stupid.

to some degree i still use these, but now just as tools, not as rules.

(see AEG's toolbox for more on this)

then, in college i played a game called torg and bought a game called "psychosis: ship of fools" and my concept of what gaming could be extrapolated. i went to game conventions and played with bad players and even worse DMs and i saw that i could be better.

i wrote new stories for every convention, running numerous adventures. i started to learn that dming wasn't just about running the game, but also ADMINISTERING the game... reining in obnoxious players and making sure the quiet ones get to do something. about changing things on the fly based on a good idea at the table, with no fear of losing control of the game.


over time i just got better and better at it... wanting to write the perfect session, the perfect campaign.

i learned that all great DMs suffer from this need for MORE, because we alone cannot run the perfect game... we need excellent players, who show up with the right frame of mind to play, and who realize that "winning" isn't the ultimate point of a session.

good DMing is about balance... its about knowing when to do the voices for the "pets" and when to back off... when to make the orcs easy to kill and when to add an ogre sergeant... its about short-lived victories that link to the next adventure, so that PCs aren't hoping back to the tavern to meet another "mysterious stranger"... good DMing is about challenging the PCs lowests stats, not their highest... about letting someone shine and giving someone else the trafgic subplot... about good ideas excectued well and bad ideas embellished into full-blown epics... and knowing where the two meet.... its about the charm of a small fishing village as the contrast to a coven of witches across the lake... about the cultist renegades with a map of capital's sewers.

good DMing is about setting goals, not accepting that bad gaming happens sometimes.

and its why good DMs never think they are as good as they are.

i am not the best DM there is, but i know i'm in the top 5%... i just need to game with the top 5% of players...

 

[John Desmarais]

The reason I post this, is I'm wondering how many of you other DMs are like that? Are we too hard on ourselves?

Am I a good GM? No. I am, however, a willing GM - which, at times, is more important.

(My perferred gaming group makeup is one in which there is a primary GM, who is not me; wherein I can run games whenever the primary GM needsa a break. I have lots of ideas for games that I occasionally want to be able to exercise.(

John D

 

[Kanegrundar]

I'm a so-so DM. I tend to stutter and stammer somewhat and get flustered sometimes when I can't find a ruling that I know I knew at one point. However, I've never had any complaints (all due to the fact that my group just loves to game and doesn't mind a bumpy road), get compliments on my adventure designs, and (most importantly) we all have fun no matter what. While there is much room for improvement, I get the job done.

Kane