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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 2331335" data-attributes="member: 22424">To reply to the original question...I have been fortunate to only ever play under one truly bad GM (also very few of any other kind <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> ), although I have played under a few pretty good GMs with bad qualities.In my experience, the qualities of a good DM fall into three categories: rules mastery, story mastery and table mastery. Rules mastery is, of course, knowledge and application of the rules of the game, story mastery is to do with plotting, characterisation, tone, theme and pacing, and table mastery is control of the players themselves, in the adherence to table rules, desired tone, and the handling of intra-party squabbles.A bad DM, therefore, is lacking in one or all of these areas.A lack of rules mastery is easy to spot: they don't read the rules they're using, they make things up on the spot that have no bearing on the game, or they insist that rules from the previous edition still apply, even when they were removed for very good reasons. Alternately, they have too many house rules, or apply the rules inconsistently, whether favouring NPCs or one PC over another.A lack of story mastery is seen in the form of railroading, in really boring adventures, in characters with nothing to do or, conversely, no time to ever try to figure things out. Maybe they fly by the seat of their pants when they really should not, or perhaps they are so stuck with their predetermined plot that any attempt to deviate creates problems. In one case, an otherwise-good DM I know stated he wanted to run a "reasonably serious" Ravenloft game, and then made the mistake of allowing a character called Jigglypuff. Another, in the World of Darkness, insisted on including every supernatural type in the game in his chosen city (in a six-session campaign!) based not on the logic of their appearance, but rather by how kewl they were.A lack of table mastery can easily lead to the group as a whole breaking up, can lead to players walking out, and can lead to bad blood between all concerned.However, the only true sign of a really bad DM is this: an inability to recognise and learn from mistakes. Everything else is just experience.</blockquote>

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