Good DM/Bad DM

[CleverNickName]

I am the DM for our group, and I have been for about a dozen years. So I had to click on the "don't judge me" button.

The last DM I remember having was back in high school...Joe, I think his name was. He ran the game with that old "DM versus the players" mentality, so all of the PCs usually died in the first hour. ("I win," he would declare.) Maybe not all of his games were like this; maybe he was just picking on me because I was new. I wouldn't know, because I stopped playing after 2 sessions.

 

[Sagiro]

I have Sagiro. I'm spoiled.

Yeah, well, I have Piratecat, so I'm double-super-extra-spoiled. And considering that everything I learned about DM-ing, I learned from you, it's just as accurate to say that you spoiled yourself!

 

[Mallus]

I voted 'above average/flashes of genius'. It's hard to say, though. I DM for some great players --from ENWorld: shilsen, Rolzup, Atlatl Jones. How much of our campaigns success is me and how much is them?

It's a collaborative effort. We play (well) off each other, co-creating settings, co-DM'ing the games, etc.

 

[Oryan77]

I know the title of the thread is Good DM/Bad DM, but what if I'm a Naughty DM? I usually take roleplaying in a whole other direction...I'm not creepy about it though...usually.

 

[Umbran]

My guess? It's just like Lake Wobego, and all the kids are above average.

Well, yes, but that's in part how you ask the question. It is a quirk of polling - to most people ratings of the form "Below average, average, above average" and "poor, fair, good" are basically equivalent, so we end up answering a different question than the one asked.

You ask us to rate our GMs against some "average" GM performance. But, really, how many of us have experience with enough GMs to know what the average of all GMs is like? Probably few, if any. We cannot really answer your question.

We (being people in general) usually approximate by saying that "average" performance equates to whatever we personally would call "fair" (or whatever the middle of the rating scale is). What we call "good" maps to "above average" and what we'd call "poor" maps to "below average".

However, the group you are asking is going to be pre-selected for devoted hobbyists - people who are having a lot of fun with gaming. We are pre-selected to have GMs that give us a lot of entertainment, and who are thus ranked "good" in our own minds. Therefore most of us will answer "above average".

 

[the Jester]

Angels weep at my dming amazitude. I say this because I always have too many damn players and a long waiting list besides.

 

[Wombat]

I am a good GM. I have had my players tell me this often. I have had players from games 30 years ago remember the games fondly. I have had current players tell me what they like. I do not consider myself brilliant, because I know my shortcomings, but at least I know I keep the customers satisfied.

That counts a lot in my book and makes me quite happy.

 

[maddman75]

People are lined up to get into my games. The other two guys we game with on a regular basis are great GMs as well that I largely see eye to eye on. The only difference is in game taste - I like 4e, nWoD, and indie-hippy games. Another likes oWoD and 3e, and another likes BD&D and Savage Worlds.

 

[haakon1]

I haven't got a DM. The DM is me and I don't want to send my players here in case they are meanies

That's OK, it's an anonymous poll, so you'll never know what they really said.

And you could choose "bwahahaha!" without them knowing it!

 

[haakon1]

Which one? I have several DMs (some better than others). I also DM myself

Like the question says: "Whoever DM's you most often as a player."

So that would mean:
1) Don't answer about your own DMing.

2) If you have multiple DM's, choose the one who most often runs games you are a player participant in.

3) This is where I didn't specify in the limited characters for the poll question, but left it to your imagination to figure out: If you have multiple DM's whom you game with on precisely the same frequency, choose the one whom you've played in the most sessions with.

3a) If you can't recall that data point, use the DM you've played with the longest.

3b) If you can't remember that, or are currently DMless, answer about the DM whose session you were in most recently.

3c) If you've never had a DM ever or in a really long time, or don't want to give a real answer for some other reason, but you can always choose the "lemoncurry/I like to answer polls" answer, which in this case is "bwahahaha".