I want to be the best DM...

[Heathen72]

Two things improved my DM skills more than anything else.

1. Practice.
2. Playing under crappy DMs.

Playing under crappy GM's is useful of course- you learn what not to do, but playing under great GM's is what can really make a difference, if you can find one. A great GM opens your eyes to a broader world, shows you possibliities you never even thought were there.

With regards to the OP:

When I was regularly running a game everything I learnt related back to my GMing. I was studying improvisation, and the focus there on story instead of silly jokes improved my storytelling ability. I watched movies, and the different ways in which they were structured informed how I structured mine. I researched mythology, the hero's journey, writing techniques etc because of my passion to be a better GM. But the beauty of it all was, is that it all fed back into my being a better person. I now have a very good knowledge of all the things I researched, partly because I had put it into practice! When I directed my own theactrical productions (which I had written) I had good people skills and dramaturgical sense, developed via GMing

GMing is a great hobby. One of the best.

 

[Cyronax]

Some players never respond to even the most earnest attempts to build a better campaign. Luckily, in the last few years, I have found players that help me build a better story with their ideas and their input. The edition doesn't matter, IMO, but its a group effort for building the best game.

That said, I think I'm better as a DM thanks to some of 4e's inherent design principles. First (and possibly most importantly), in 4e most of what's been published is totally balanced. I can worry less about reading through new rulebooks to hex out certain prestige classes and now worry more about campaign and adventure development. Some might say that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but 3.X seemed to always lead to people wanting to switch up for something better .... it felt like a GD session of Rifts from Palladium sometimes.

Second, roles help define ... well ... roles in 4e. Its a useful device for organizing our thoughts. That said, I have been in situations where we succeed without more than strikers + a single defender for instance.

Third, ...uh maybe later.

C.I.D.

 

[howandwhy99]

Two things improved my DM skills more than anything else.

1. Practice.
2. Playing under crappy DMs.

My experience has been something of the opposite. Study has improved my DMing more than anything else. Theory then praxis in a game.

And playing under as many awesome DMs I can find of every stripe I can find. It may seem overly optimistic, but I feel everyone has at least one thing I can steal. Even if it is the knowledge of one way of failing and how.

 

[Piratecat]

Except for that one guy who, after one and a half years in my game I had asked him to be a little more focused on the game instead of playing WoW on his laptop, sent me an email in which he referred to me as Hitler no less than 3 times. I hope he was exercising hyperbole at least to some extent.

*sob* You told me you'd never discuss this in public!

Seriously, for me the best lessons were learned as a RPGA judge back when everyone was required to give you written feedback after each game. I ran a couple of hundred RPGA sessions in the 90s, and nothing draws your attention to a weak spot like one reminder after another that you could improve in that area ("organization", I'm looking at you!). Playing under really good GMs also helped tremendously; every time I game with someone who's better than I am, I try to figure out how they do it so I can improve.

 

[Haltherrion]

What about you DM's out there...

...is DM-ing something you strive to be very good at? The best at?

Or is it something you do for the enjoyment of it (of which there is plenty), and being considered good or the best doesn't really matter?

Like most on this thread, I set high standards. To that end, I critique my games and techniques and make adjustments.

After some very early pre-high school games I started to take ref'ing pretty seriously but it wasn't until post college that I really got into the self-appraisal and attempts to improve.

The motivation for this was actually a negative event- one of my players told me my game was boring at times. That's when I re-thought a sandbox approach and decided to take a more active role in the "plot". That's not to say players don't have plenty of choice but it does mean I usually have a story in mind and will see to it that it moves along once the players indicate interest in it. And it's not to say there are other ref approaches but for me the change was part of the attempt to excel as a ref and make sure my players were enjoying themselves and coming back for more.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

I understand your desire completely I'm also ridiculously critical of myself. I'm pretty much never satisfied with how I've run sessions, though I can point to a few that I really, really enjoyed. I do much, much, much better when I take the time to thoroughly prepare.

Know what's helped me a lot? Watching the Robot Chicken guys play with Chris Perkins. I've learned from both the DM and the players in that game. I wish I had more options for games to watch... any suggestions, anyone?

 

[Wormwood]

Study has improved my DMing more than anything else. Theory then praxis in a game.

I've found that reading up on theory has helped me *prepare* for games, but the only thing that has improved my 'on-stage' performance has been the hours I've spent staring at player's faces over a screen.

 

[Heathen72]

To add to my earlier point about self improvement.

Just remember that sometimes you need to allow yourself the freedom to not "be the best" and indeed, even to fail. Because sometimes focussing on "being the best" might not actually get you to your goal. Often you can end up trying too hard with these things, and as a result stymie your own creative juices. You over prepare, you get writer's block, or just stop taking risks because of the fear of failure. As a consequence, you don't enjoy yourself, and neither do your players. Of course, your drive to be the best demands a regime of rigid self criticism, which becomes either self indulgent or crippling...

Sometimes you need to allow yourself the freedom to not perform at your peak powers 100% of the time - to not be permanently "trying". Sometimes, to let creativity flow, you just need to just do the basics well. Keith Johnstone, the guru of improvisational performance, was renowned for yelling "be more obvious!!" at his students. He did it when they were trying too hard to be "original", because someone on the spot - striving too hard to be clever and original - can just freeze up, feeling that none of their ideas are adequate. Alternatively, they can come out with all sorts of clever-clever stupidities, which are only original because no one else in their right minds would normally put them in a scene...

One of his basic tools of creating a story was getting the people in a scene to simply "break the routine", i.e., take a simple story and change it, even in some small way, so that it is no longer so mundane. You can do this at every stage of the creative process.

An example: in classic chivalric stories the princess needs to be rescued from the dragon. This is now a routine that is well known to our audience, so lets "Break the Routine" 5 ways and see what it gives us:

1) The Princess is not captured by the dragon but loves the dragon,
2) The Dragon does not live in a cave, but on a cloud in the sky,
3) The Dragon was once a princess, and every hundred years passes on the curse to a new princess, who becomes the dragon while the original princess is freed,
4) The Dragon is on the endangered list, so the PC's are not allowed to hurt the dragon,
5) The princess is already dead. What do the PC's do now that they have failed in their commission...

I came up with these on the spot, breaking the routine in different ways
to see what appeals. On reflection, I would argue that number 1 has been done so much these days that it is a routine in of itself, and that number 2 is just a variant on Jack in the Beanstalk. I'd probably go with number 3 and see where it goes (which Princess do you rescue?) *

Do the basics well, add some simple twists, and focus on your players having a good time, and you will end up being a great GM.

*In fact, I like it so much I think I will run it!

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Seriously, for me the best lessons were learned as a RPGA judge back when everyone was required to give you written feedback after each game.
...

This sounds like a very good idea, and before I dash off an email to my group I thought I better ask this:

Where there specific questions/survey points in that feedback? I know the hazards of putting a large 'fill in the blank'
I also know that anonymous would work better, so perhaps a written or online survey that could keep the players name out of it would be better... something like surveymonkey

{Er, I am rambling..}
So.. if you were going to write a survey to get good feedback from our regular group, what would you ask?

 

[Haltherrion]

One of his basic tools of creating a story was getting the people in a scene to simply "break the routine", i.e., take a simple story and change it, even in some small way, so that it is no longer so mundane. You can do this at every stage of the creative process.

This is a very powerful technique applicable from writing fiction to refereeing to public speaking and more. Figure out what is expected by the players and do something different. It can really energize your story or campaign.

The players will come to realize that you aren't playing to stereotypes and will be eager to find out what is really going on. You can apply it for prepared and for ad libbed material- just pause, determine what you would expect if you were in the players' shoes and then choose something else that still fits the situation but is not an expected outcome.

The princess and dragon example is good. You can do it for anything. It can even be a way to poke fun at old cliche's: the players start in a bar looking for something to do and the patrons run them out of the bar because of all the trouble other adventurers have brought in the past. Or the job-notice in the town square for giant-rat-slayers is really a trap to press-gang some landlubbers into a pirate crew. The goblins the party meets in the woods on their first adventure are noble and discerning savages wronged by the elves. And so on...

It's something I try to do frequently when I prep scenarios. Last session in our final 4E Test run, the players knew they would have to deal with hordes of recently risen undead due to where the previous session had gone. The expectation: waves of mildly interesting undead dudes. The surprise? Not all the risen dead were evil or wanted to be risen, they were willing to help the players if they didn't play to their prejudices. Plus I pulled a few unexpected monsters on them and as they ran to a castle for refugee gave them real, material support from the defenders (players often don't expect help from friendly NPCs in a situation like this to matter much- nothing like that first ballista bolt coming out of the blue when the situation was dicey to pleasantly surprise.)

The more you play against expectations the more suspense you will build in your game. As long as you choose things that are sensible for the situation you really can't over do it. And if you never pick the cliche'd path, at some point picking the cliche is itself a surprise

Next time you watch a good action or suspense movie you enjoy, look for the places where the writer went against expectations.

You can even do this to avoid lulls and pauses in the game. Are the players approaching a spot in the game where the king's advisor is going to give them a long-winded exposition that they are going to have trouble following? Find a way to omit that that still delivers the information. (The exposition starts, a messenger arrives saying the barbarians have broken through, advisor says- "you'll just have to do without the info get going, I'll tell you what you need to know in your dreams" and then later give them snippets at night as needed.)

It's a powerful tool that the players will appreciate whether they consciously realize you are using it or not.