Dwight D. Eisenhower on DM'ing

[satori01]

GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON, JR. QUOTATIONS

"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week."

“In case of doubt, attack.”

"

This I think is good advice for players. I have two players that will dinker and delay, for rounds at a time, and then complain that things do not seem to go their way, or that it is hard.

Actions are precious in D&D, and doing nothing in a game that allows for Aid Another, Flanking, Buffing etc is the absolutely worse thing you can do.

 

[thedungeondelver]

"We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem."

The variation on this from Bastogne, attributed to no particular soldier or general is:

"They've got us surrounded, the poor bastards."

 

[Rabelais]

Euripides... I'm not sure if he was a good GM or not, but I think he understood the relationships between player and GM when he said "Authority is never without hate."

 

[shilsen]

The variation on this from Bastogne, attributed to no particular soldier or general is:

"They've got us surrounded, the poor bastards."

Man, you really don't like reading previous posts ! Thunderfoot posted that 2 posts previously to yours.

 

[anton1066]

"When in doubt, win the war" Excerpt from the training manuel given to WWII pilots

 

[Frostmarrow]

"When in doubt, win the war" Excerpt from the training manuel given to WWII pilots

Sound advice. Something like "When in doubt, have fun" Advice given to newbie DMs.

 

[buzz]

Actions are precious in D&D, and doing nothing in a game that allows for Aid Another, Flanking, Buffing etc is the absolutely worse thing you can do.

Yes! I've learned that, if you really can't figure out what to do, ready an attack or at least Delay. Literally doing nothing for your turn is grounds for me smacking you with my copy of Ptolus.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

"When caught between two evils I generally pick the one I've never tried before." - Mae West.


Since someone has mentioned Nicci M: (originals here)

"A DM never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise."

"A return to first principles in a roleplaying session is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one roleplayer. His good example has such an influence that the good roleplayers strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to play a character so contrary to his example."

"Before all else, be armed."

"Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better." The whole game is built on this one sentence.

"DMs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."

"The DM is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us."

"It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver." It seems he had some rules-lawyers in his game.

"It is not alignments that honour men, but men that honour alignments."

"Roleplayers are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will DM will always find another who will suffer to be DMed."

"Roleplayers ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a roleplayer ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared."

"Of roleplayers we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain."

"Politics have no relation to alignment."

"Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more."

"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous."

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

"The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present."

"The question is, then, do we try to make things easy on ourselves or do we try to make things easy on our players, whoever they may be?"

"The wise man does at once what the fool does finally."

"The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when roleplayers succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes."

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."

"To understand the nature of the players one must be a DM, and to understand the nature of the DM, one must be of the players."

"Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times." It seems even Machiavelli dislikes those new-edition-bashers

"Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?!" Gunny Daly (lvl 23 epic half-orc barbarian)

"Ask me again in 500 years." Rincewind the Wizzard

 

[Davelozzi]

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed Player Characters can change the campaign world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead

Apparently Ms. Mead is unaware of that TSR published novels.