What are your strengths as a DM?

[barsoomcore]

Oh, yeah, I rock. Uh-huh. Whatever.

But I AM good at some things:

Incredibly (no, I mean INCREDIBLY) Complicated Stories That Interweave, Go Down Dead Ends And Twist Back On Themselves Over Years And Years And Drive My Players Completely Insane: Don't think I really need to add much to that. My players spend HOURS discussing what might or might not be going on in my campaign. They get so frustrated trying to figure it out that they throw things at me. They (I'm not kidding here) beat their heads on the floor out of frustration. I throw them a bone every now and then, but they're all pretty much permanently scarred by my evil mastermindy ways.

NPCs: My NPCs are really good. Players get weepy when their friends die, go berserk when they run into their enemies and follow the inspirational leaders around like puppy dogs.

Crazy Stuff: I can almost always come up with completely kooky, off-the-wall stuff that totally throws my players for a loop.

Does it seem like most of the things I list as strengths are things that make my players hate me? Hm.

 

[Aaron L]

I'm a horrible DM. I only really ever run because our real DM needs a break.

What I'm really good at is world building. I love it. I have a world with an intricate history that I continuously expand upon, a complete planar cosmology, a detailed solar system, ruined galactic dynasties and ancient planar wars, but when I run I tend to throw too much information at the players I wish I could actually make good games, but I guess you can't have it all.

 

[Aeris Winterood]

So many strengths and such few space

Ok, so not that many strengths... I guess that I am quite knowledgeable with the rules, ie... hardly any lag time trying to find X or Y....

I can wing-it pretty good. I guess that is a strength. My pc's never seem to go down the path I want them to, and I wont railroad them. So they invariably end up trying or doing something altogether unexpected where I have to wing-it all the time.. Which is cool too, I like that they thinnk out of the box most of the time.

I just need help with flavor text and NPC chatter... My pc's always wonder why every orc, ogre and giant always say the same things... "Die f**kers!!!!" ... They laugh and just say, "well, you know, it is a vulgar world! "

 

[hong]

Re: So many strengths and such few space

I just need help with flavor text and NPC chatter... My pc's always wonder why every orc, ogre and giant always say the same things... "Die f**kers!!!!" ... They laugh and just say, "well, you know, it is a vulgar world! "

Use third-person style. Instead of trying to come up with witty quotes under pressure (which usually fails), just describe in general terms what the bad guys say, and the impression they give (terrifying, comic, bored, etc).