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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oryan77" data-source="post: 5023594" data-attributes="member: 18701">Hmm, when I went to reply to this and actually giving it some thought, I really am not sure how good I am at anything. Critiquing myself as a DM is actually hard to do, wow. I definitely know what I am bad at because I've had plenty of players complain to me, but the players that don't complain and seem to really like playing with me never tell me why they like me as the DM. I would actually like to ask my players if my grading is accurate <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />A: Preparation. I'm a freak when it comes to organization and prep work. If people only knew how much time I spend prepping and compiling notes. My excel file is almost 8 megs big. I practically have reference material for every WotC 3e book in my excel file. I've made references that show what creatures & gods exist on each plane, a complete monster index including their CRs, & a list of every tavern & inn in Sigil (& in other cities that PCs have been too) which includes drink & room rates and the name & race of the owner. It has a reference list of every magic item I'd allow in the campaign, including a list of magic items based on price. A list of names associated with races for when I need a random name. And a complete list of every item from every WotC sourcebook (equipment, mounts, poisons, special substances, potions, scrolls, weapons, armors, special materials, ect ect) so players don't have to search through different books when they are shopping. The excel file also includes all the standard references like classes, prcs, feats, spells, and of course my campaign notes. Not to mention how I prep a published adventure...I photocopy it, and highlight a majority of it using 3 different colored highlighters that represent different things. And I write up stats for every NPC I will use in combat, including monsters that are already written up in the books...it helps me learn their abilities.B: Improvization & Characterization. Players like the different type of NPCs I introduce in the game. I'm also good at creating a personality on the fly. They always say that I make each person very unique. That's the one compliment I have heard. I'd say I could use more work on my female NPCs cause I always feel like I play them too similar (usually tough and serious). But I try to give each NPC some kind of quirk or distinct quality that will make them interesting. I'm also pretty quick to think of ways to keep the game moving when PCs do the unexpected. This includes when PCs are interacting with the NPCs.C: Creativity. I'm a very creative person, but with D&D, since it requires so much of my time, I don't really spend time creating my own original adventures. I usually read published modules and then build off of that. I create a lot of my own material to include in it and I even create my own subplots for PCs, but I still mostly borrow ideas from other sources because it is just faster & easier to do.D: Silver Tongue. If players aren't really roleplaying, then it is extremely hard for me to get into character. If they just sit there and watch/listen to me roleplaying an NPC, then I feel like an idiot. It will cause me to be bad with words and I'll try to engage them in a conversation with an NPC, but if they aren't really responding, then I don't really know what to say myself. That's when I speak in 3rd person. Sometimes I try to set the mood during battle by having an enemy talk during combat, but it always feels so forced & I get the impression that it seems like bad acting from a B action flick. It's so hard to incorporate roleplaying during combat and I think it would add so much to the game if I could just pull it off. But players don't really respond to it either, as soon as combat starts, roleplaying is thrown out the window. F: Easy going. The biggest complaint I get is that I'm too restricting with my campaign. The sad part is, I don't even care <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> It is more important to me that I DM a game that doesn't appear "lame" to me than it is to let players have their way because "it's just a game". If I can't run a world without letting players dictate to me how the world "should be", then I simply won't DM unless I decide I want to run a campaign where players get to be co-DMs. Restrictions I put on the campaign are; no magic item shops (and this is a Planescape campaign haha), no lame character names, no playing PCs of the opposite sex, I try not to give PCs Wonderous magic items that another PC already has, no Powergaming, I give out half XP to slow down leveling, & I don't like to hear players using a character voice. But I do allow more things in the game than I restrict, & I do a lot as a DM for the players & their PCs, so I always just hope that makes up for the difference. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /></blockquote>

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