GMs: Do you enforce/encourage a certain style of play?

[RFisher]

By style of play, I’m talking primarily about how the players play their characters.

Not intentionally. I try to not give rewards (or penalties) based on style. I try to let the players experience the game in whatever way they enjoy most. Of course, we all have to find something of a middle-ground should what one participant wants out of the game conflict with what another wants.

 

[Hjorimir]

Come to my games ready to role-play; otherwise you won't enjoy yourself. I run immersive campaigns and the players need to play within that environment accordingly. Verisimilitude of a breathing world is important to me as a DM and where I find a large part of my enjoyment in the hobby.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I enforce a no-evil play. There's enough evil that can be seen in the world already. If I want to spend a night focusing on raping, pillaging, and murder I'll turn on CNN (or any major news carrier) and listen to their propaganda. When I game I want it to stimulate something I can't get from watching the news: Good feelings about life.

Other than that, I play a combat lite game, so I prefer playing with people who enjoy RP over combat. But that isn't a hard-fast rule.

I prefer psionics to magic, but I'll take either.

I prefer to not play with CN (especially theiving rogues) but I'll play with them if necessary.

 

[Ourph]

I try to encourage minimal character development and first person roleplaying when I'm DMing. I find that too much of the former makes character death all the more problematic and contentious and the latter just annoys me. I don't do anything mechanically to enforce either preference, but I certainly don't reward them and, on occasion, I'll ask a player who's delving too deeply into his character's persona (and as a consequence boring the rest of the group or seriously slowing down play) to say whatever he's got to say in a more direct manner so we can move on.

 

[Mark CMG]

My encouragement of roleplaying happens in-game by my attention to roleplaying the NPCs and, perhaps, slight favoring of those who roleplay more with the incidental clues and other bits that would wind up coming in-game in one form or another anyway. For example, I'm just fine passing on gathered information to someone who merely states they are bringing a skill to bear and asking me to roll the dice in that regard but I prefer to work that same information into the game through roelplaying when the opportunity is available.

 

[Phlebas]

Before starting my last campaign I e-mailed out a set of options for the potential players including a few 'style options'

the players all signed up for the magic university city, with a lot of role playing and more 'tongue in cheek' feel instead of the more dark & gritty resistance fighters or military scenarios

Because we talked throught the style at the start of the campaign, it hasn't really been too difficult to end up with a style i enjoy as DM, and players also stick to.

It helps that I've gamed with on & off for the last 15 years over half the players in the group, so that always keeps a consistent tone, and also means Players arent shy about criticising or querying situations after the session.
I tend to encourage a lot of background to characters, even to the extent of running extra session and basing games around PC desires rather than vague plot - it all helps !

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

I suppose that my style encourages hack-n-slash, third-person roleplaying and little backstory. I've been struggling to improve over the years, so I'm not sure what style I will end up encouraging as time goes by.

 

[Dargon]

I don’t reward a special style of gaming but I usually run my game in a “high realism level”. Because of that cautious and planning are what most often is the best move to keep them self-alive.
Enemies and problems/quests are not introduced with CR to mach the players skills.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I suppose that my style encourages hack-n-slash, third-person roleplaying and little backstory. I've been struggling to improve over the years, so I'm not sure what style I will end up encouraging as time goes by.

Me too. I've been struggling to have more hacking, slashing, and more classic dungeon bashing adventure in my games. I'm working on it.