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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 485751" data-attributes="member: 2013">Well, I know hong will probably chime in with the "everyone thinks they're more competent than they are" article again, but I do in fact consider myself a good GM.  Why?  What are some of my "secrets?"Why?  In over 20 years of DMing, my players have always said they have had a good time.  That's probably the #1 indicator of a good GM.A Secret?  Good players.  By that I don't mean "experienced players," necessarily.  Instead, I mean "players who want to use the game for the same goals you do" - in my case, that's to have fun, tell a good story, and live out some high fantasy.Why?  I make it a point to describe monsters but never name them.  The proof that I'm good at it?  Five months after I started my first 3e campaign, one of my newbie players (started RPGing with that first campaign group) got the MM for Christmas.  The next time we gamed, he came over and flipped through the MM, pointing out Azers and Kytons and Krenshars and Mummies and Allips and told me, "that's what we fought!  As I was flipping through the book, I was able to recognize the picture based only upon the verbal descriptions I got from you!"The Secret: Never use monster names.  Call them what the players call them ("Bugbears" were "ogres" for a long time IMC - until one of the PCs checked the pictures in his MM).Why? NPCs in my world are alive - because all of them are caricatures (sp?) of people I have met IRL - and I have met thousands of people from many countries.  I exaggerate accents and characteristics, but behind every one of my NPCs is a real person.  That means they never lack for depth.Another Secret: Know your gaming world inside and out.  I have used the "Known World" (not the "Mystara" abortion that it later became) campaign setting since time immemorial and I know it backwards and forwards - including the tweaks I have made so that a PC can't just pick up a book and know what's going on.  Corollary: It's generally better to use a world your players are NOT familiar with (so you can spring surprises on them without having to make up the surprises yourself).  That's why it's generally a good idea to stay away from the Forgotten Rums (but see below).Why? A desire to balance rules accuracy with speed of play.  My PCs know in advance that we will play by the rules - and if a question comes up, I will make a ruling on the spot based on common sense and in the interest of speeding up play.  I will review the ruling after the session - and announce whether it is to be upheld in the future or reversed in the future - but no matter what the ruling is, past events are not altered.A Secret: Steal mercilessly from other sources - like the Forgotten Rums.  Spells, personas, events, monsters, dungeons, all can be easily integrated into your campaign and if you change the names, the players aren't likely to even realize the difference.Why? I listen to my players.  I get constant feedback.  I listen to what they want.  I don't give them all of it - but I give them some of it.  For example, I had a ranger that wanted a "pet" dire bear as an animal companion so that he could ride it.  I told him no (he was 1st or 2nd level at the time).  He continued to mention that when he got to higher levels he was going to find and train a bear.  At 6th level, he decided to take the Leadership Feat.  His cohort?  An awakened black bear - not exactly the dire bear he was hoping for, but he quickly grew to love the black bear and soon the bear was as much a part of the ranger's persona as anything.  If you give them "close" they're usually satisfied.  And it makes them feel like they have a hand in the "story" rather than me just "moving them along."A Secret: Keep your players on their toes - when you see a neat trick on the ENWorld boards, throw it at your players.  Make them think!  My players had to deal with a sorcerer who just kept summoning stuff to keep them at bay.  They had to deal with a monk with a ring of jumping in a huge room with chandeliers (a great robin-hood-esque scene).  They had to deal with three-dimensional combat while in flight.  They had to deal with sundering attacks.  Don't get into a game of "line up the monsters and PCs and let them whack on each other until one side falls."A secret: Make time pass.  Even if you're not one to keep track of time to the day - or even the week - make sure time seems to be passing.  Have the old blacksmith get hit and crippled by a falling tree, and his apprentice take over the smithy.  Maybe that family that the PCs saved from the kobolds moves to the big city.  A character might receive a letter telling him that his sister has given birth to twins.  Have that young lass they saved at the beginning of the campaign return a full-grown lady, seeking to thank the characters again.  Make sure the characters have birthdays once in a while.  Change the seasons - if it was snowing two adventures ago, make sure to mention that the gentle rains of spring are starting.   Basically, keep the world changing - even though it should revolve around the characters, make sure the world always seems to be in motion.  Every adventure, find one thing that either changes the PCs' world (be it a seasonal change, one of their contacts dying - to be replaced of course) or reminds them of what they have done in the past (the rescued damsel in distress returns to thank the PCs properly).  Little things like this add a lot more than we generally think.A secret: Let the PCs do the book-keeping.  Assign one PC to keep a "journal" of who the PCs visit and what they do.  That way, you don't have to remember that Bill is the village armorsmith.  Instead, when they ask what's in the armorsmith's shop, ask them, "which one?"  They'll drag out the journal and say, "hey, let's go to Bill's, he said he might have some splint mail ready for us next time we visited."  It takes a while to train PCs to do this, but once you train them to do the recordkeeping and give you subtle clues (from the above, you get a reminder that the armorsmith's name is Bill and he sells heavy armor) it makes your job a lot easier.A secret: Create an "alter-ego" party of NPCs.  Give them similar (not the same) stats/equipment/feats as the PCs (and have them be the same in number).  Run them through the adventures you create (or at least the traps and battles) before you run the PCs through - this will help you gauge whether or not your encounters are too easy or too deadly.  This also works as an excellent way to have a "friendly competition going" - see the "final secret."A final secret: Have an agreement with the players - you won't try to railroad them if they don't play the "beat the DM game."  By this I mean that when the PCs complete one adventure, have three (at least) hooks ready, each to a different adventure.  This gives the PCs a choice of what to do, without putting it on you to prepare for EVERY eventuality.  Nothing sours a DM faster than players who say, "well, he obviously has prepared for X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, so let's screw with him and do H and I."  An agreement whereby the players will stay within the paths the GM has prepared, while the GM will always provide multiple paths for the players to choose from is a great way to help keep the game going.  As the PCs choose paths, close some of the old paths and open others.  Why close the old paths?  Well, maybe the PCs decided to escort the crown prince from a village to the capital city rather than clear out the local goblin caves.  When they return to the village, another party of adventurers has already cleaned out the goblin caves (maybe that party of "test NPCs" you have from the point above, eh?).  However, because the goblins are now no longer keeping them down, the local group of dwarves has been able to trade with the village - and several of the local craftsmen are upset at the competition and are vandalizing dwarven caravans... the dwarves hire the PCs as impartial outsiders to investigate.  While the caves may have "closed" there is now a "detective" option open!More later as I think of it. ;-)--The Sigil</blockquote>

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