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<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 3405873" data-attributes="member: 3424">Of course it is. One important element that I think has been missing from the discussion so far is the DM perspective. What aspect of the game does the DM enjoy? What does he take pride in? What is his payoff? For example, I'm a challenge-focused DM. I enjoy creating fights and puzzles that walk the fine line between difficult and impossible for the PCs to overcome. My standard adventure is a string of challenges linked together by the evil plot du jour. I don't emphasize PC backgrounds or motivations beyond &quot;I want to fight the bad guys&quot;.An exposition-focused DM will take a completely different approach to the game. He might want to create a rich and detailed world for the players to explore, and his payoff might be the sense of wonder the players experience when they interact with his world and discover its secrets and realize how complex and surprising it is.On the other hand, an improvisation-focused DM might take pride in his ability to react to the players' inputs and weave different elements together into a cohesive story. Each game session might feel like something out of Iron DM, with each player suggesting explicitly out-of-game, or implicitly by his in-character choices, some element that he wants to introduce into the game, or some way in which he wants the plot to advance or his PC to develop.Each type of DM probably works best with different types of players. I think I'm a pretty good fit with my gaming group of mostly tacticians, power gamers, and butt-kickers (to use Robin Laws terminology). An exposition-focused DM will probably fit best with players who want to experience a story, and an improvisation-focused DM is probably best suited for players who want to collaboratively tell one.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 3405873, member: 3424"] Of course it is. One important element that I think has been missing from the discussion so far is the DM perspective. What aspect of the game does the DM enjoy? What does he take pride in? What is his payoff? For example, I'm a challenge-focused DM. I enjoy creating fights and puzzles that walk the fine line between difficult and impossible for the PCs to overcome. My standard adventure is a string of challenges linked together by the evil plot du jour. I don't emphasize PC backgrounds or motivations beyond "I want to fight the bad guys". An exposition-focused DM will take a completely different approach to the game. He might want to create a rich and detailed world for the players to explore, and his payoff might be the sense of wonder the players experience when they interact with his world and discover its secrets and realize how complex and surprising it is. On the other hand, an improvisation-focused DM might take pride in his ability to react to the players' inputs and weave different elements together into a cohesive story. Each game session might feel like something out of Iron DM, with each player suggesting explicitly out-of-game, or implicitly by his in-character choices, some element that he wants to introduce into the game, or some way in which he wants the plot to advance or his PC to develop. Each type of DM probably works best with different types of players. I think I'm a pretty good fit with my gaming group of mostly tacticians, power gamers, and butt-kickers (to use Robin Laws terminology). An exposition-focused DM will probably fit best with players who want to experience a story, and an improvisation-focused DM is probably best suited for players who want to collaboratively tell one. [/QUOTE]

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