How good of a DM are you?

[Rel]

Took a while to get the poll up.

It's ok, Pants. It happens to lots of guys.

Not me of course...


And I'm a Good GM. What matters most to me is that the players have a good time and I think I'm fairly decent at delivering it.

But I constantly learn ways to improve from other GM's, many of whom I've met through ENWorld.

 

[Bobitron]

I picked just average. I tend to have great ideas that never come out in the application. I would say that I am better online at pbp DM'ing than in person. I like the slow pace that lets me come up with great dialog and descriptions that I could never do in person without massive amounts of prep.

For example, I am running a WWII game using D20 Modern and the Hell on Earth pdf, and spent a couple hours writing up a great description of what happened in the downtime between two missions. Wednesday night rolls around, and I'm presenting it. As soon as a line of questioning comes up that I didn't have answered in my prep work, the whole thing falls apart. I end up passing it around as a handout, which is obviously glanced at and ignored.

Maybe I should stick to pre-made adventures in face-to-face games for a while...

 

[Evilhalfling]

Im Pretty Good, intresting plots, many fights are cinematic and exciting, logical ecologies and placement of creatures. Long but realistic histories and legends surround the world.
Players have enough choice to frustrate me and the more clever and orginal they are the happier I am.
My style is not for everyone, and I know it.
I always look at convention games as a sign of how well I play with others.
in an average table of eight, 1 will be unhappy, 4 have a great time and 3 do all right.
and of the 10 games: 2 were clunkers, 5 excellent and 3 okay.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Hey look! A nice bell curve! Centered around "above average"!
People are so predictable.

Of course, I voted "pretty good". I can hold a game together and deal with a lot of problems and keep things balanced and be creative, but I certainly have many things I can improve.

 

[Crothian]

Hey look! A nice bell curve! Centered around "above average"!
People are so predictable.

Ya, I'm sure it has nothing with a large amount of really good DMs that hang out on the boards.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Ya, I'm sure it has nothing with a large amount of really good DMs that hang out on the boards.

Good DMs on ENWorld?! Bah, must be a myth!

 

[Shemeska]

Not a clue. I honestly have trouble rating myself or any of the stuff I write: storyhour or short fiction or otherwise. I'm wretched at critiquing myself. I'll leave that to my players, SH readers perhaps, or anyone wanting to play under me in my two games at GenCon.

 

[Teflon Billy]

By all accounts, I am awesome.

 

[nyrfherdr]

If there is a worse DM out there, I haven't met him/her. All I can say is that no one has threatened me with a gun yet.

I even screwed up the example adventure in the DMG. (Every version)

Game ON!
Nyrfherdr

 

[IronWolf]

Now the next poll should be - "Players rank your DM" and we'll see how the results pan out!

I marked myself as average. I think I do okay, but I could have a better grasp of the rules and I need to be able to improv more to help make NPC's memorable. Right now I think my NPC's are a little cardboard-ish. But... I will keep trying and hopefully I will get things to come together and improve on my weaknesses.

Despite that, I think I do run a fun game, just that it could be even better!