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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4510625" data-attributes="member: 99">Come to one of our Game Days and we'll give you an official ranking. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />In an attempt to address the actual topic of the thread more seriously, I will say that, not so long ago, I was an "ok" GM.  Becoming a member of ENW put me on the path of becoming much, much better at it.I think there is a lot of wisdom to be gleaned simply from reading the threads here.  I also think that understanding who your players are and what their preferences are, in a systematic and mutual way, helps more than anything else.  For those purposes I HIGHLY recommend reading either Robin Laws "Laws of Good Gamemastering" or else the chapter on Player Types from the 3.5 DMG II (also written by Laws).  The concepts therein gave me a tremendous tool for making the game fun for specific players and the group as a whole.Finally, I think one thing that all GMs could benefit from is playing games with a broad spectrum of other GMs.  Thanks to the NC Game Days and going to GenCon I've gotten the chance to play with a huge variety of GMs over the last 5 years or so.  From a (very) few of them I've learned things not to do.  And from a lot of them I've picked up some techniques that are simply brilliant.  I'll give you two quick examples:At one of the NC Game Days, I watched Piratecat run a Dread game.  This was in a room with multiple game tables at it but they were spaced far enough from each other that people could easily move around.  I watched as he would walk all the way around the table and get behind some of the players as the game unfolded.  Having somebody standing behind you, especially in a game about horror, is CREEPY.  Especially when they do voices and sound effects as well as PC does.  It kept people very on edge and focused and I completely stole this technique for one of the Sky Galleons of Mars games that I ran that had a "explore the ghost ship" section in it.  Worked like a charm.The Universe runs about as awesome a Mutants & Masterminds game as you're ever likely to play (he and PC are about tied I'd say).  One thing that TU often does is have multiple battlemats running at the same time.  In a superheroes game, some of the PC's (and bad guys) have movement powers so huge that they can cover vast distances in even a single round.  Rather than try to constrain this, TU just runs with it and lets there be two encounters going at the same time.  Sometimes a PC can even be in one location on one round and another on the following round.  It allows for very interesting fights and I'd recommend the technique to any M&M GM.So there you go.  I could cite numerous other examples but my point is simply that, if you recognize some shortcomings in your GMing style, there is not need to give up.  Read threads here and try new things.  And, above all, play.  You can learn more in a single 4-hour slot at a Con or Game Day than in reading pages and pages of threads here.</blockquote>

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