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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nonei" data-source="post: 5119115" data-attributes="member: 88176">I want to be a great DM too... I want each session, adventure, and campaign to be better than the last one.  And the above factor is a huge hurdle.  Most people don't give good feedback when asked - they may not even know what parts they liked or didn't like, or they may be unable to express why.  So I have gathered suggestions from reading threads and also from my knowledge of active listening and teaching (I am a nurse that does health teaching, I train people to my job, and also a CPR instructor), and I have come up with a little list of suggestions that help me evaluate myself.1. The players will tell you what parts they like and don't like if you watch them: pay attention to the players' body language.  Are they sitting forward for the parts that are supposed to be tense?  Are they smiling and involved in the stories?  Are they interacting with the NPCs?  Are there any signs of boredom when there shouldn't be, like acting out (more than usual lol)?2. Take notes as you go along in a session.  In addition to basic story, include names and basic characteristics of the NPCs you made up (Joe, blacksmith, gruff, older human) so you can be consistent if they come back and want to talk to Joe the Blacksmith again.3. After a session, write down what you think went especially well, and what you think went badly, or even just "OK" - and why.  Think about what you could do differently in that situation in the future that would make it better.  If you're not sure what happened, you can brainstorm: is it an ongoing problem (they never like to talk to NPCs) or was it just once?  What else was happening?For example, our last session, I had the players teleported to a location that surprised them; they didn't know the intended destination, and were unaware that an evil being they had rescued had 'adjusted' the destination.  When they questioned why they were there, the (knowledgeable) NPC that met them commented "Didn't you tell the little man you were looking for a way home?"That was OK, but it would have been even better if the NPC had said "You were supposed to arrive on the surface, I'm not sure why you're here." - so the PCs could figure it out for themselves what had happened.  Which brings me up to:4. Show, don't tell.  Sometimes NPCs or documents are needed to tell the players something but if there is any possible way you can give them other sorts of clues, then do it.For the person that said he/she plays down their weaknesses and emphasizes their strengths: that's great too, but also use the opportunities you have to practice doing them the way you want to.  Liberally steal from anything and everything that sparks your imagination <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.So as an extension of the original question: What do you all do to help yourself improve?  How do you know what you are doing well and what you need to work on?  How do you figure out what it takes to improve?</blockquote>

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