Where do you shine?

[Darkness]

NPCs. I can take a pretty bland storyline and locations and still make it all shine through good NPCs.

Tactics. I'm a wargamer at heart. A computer wargamer, that is.

Giving my players much of the power and responsibility over the game - and challenging them to their limits.

 

[diaglo]

i suck as a DM. i am a dimbulb.

but i have the most fun letting the players run off on tangents. or get caught up in planning over some small word said that has no relation to the main plot.

 

[derelictjay]

Where I shine.
That would be interesting traps and situations (I can scare the bejeezas out of my players with these).
Combat tactics, I've laid waste to many a party with my tactical ability (but I'm a soft DM and I usually let the players live)

Where I don't Shine:
Descriptions. I'm very absent minded and often leave out important information.
Roleplaying. I hate to say it, though I love it, I often am a very poor roleplayer.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Best at dungeon crawls and interesting use of monsters. Worst at remembering all the rules to make the interesting monsters work properly. :\

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Where I don't Shine:
Descriptions. I'm very absent minded and often leave out important information.

Me too, I often forget important details, which usually is in the PCs favor.

 

[der_kluge]

I'm often very good with details, and creating a "living" environment. My dungeons and cities are not stale places - the monsters move around, and they feel quite alive, at least to me. I often include descriptions of the weather, and the environment, and often incorporate it into the game. So, if it's raining, I'll be sure to remind them of the mud underneath their feet, or how the doorknob on the door is wet.

I'm often weakest with monster tactics. I'm just not a tactician or strategist.

I'm good with allowing players to run with tangents, and good with NPC role-playing, but I wouldn't consider these my strongest.

 

[Doug McCrae]

My players have told me: World creation, that the world/game is very interactive and they feel they are living it rather than playing it.

Nice one. I feel that's really the Holy Grail of DMing.

 

[Doug McCrae]

My greatest strength is oneoffs. Lately I've been trying to learn how to do campaigns.

 

[Gez]

Creating worlds and all that. That's what I'm good at.

I'm also frighteningly good at creating epic campaign plots so ambitious I never manage to get past the intro part when I finally start running it... :\

 

[Psion]

I'm also frighteningly good at creating epic campaign plots so ambitious I never manage to get past the intro part when I finally start running it... :\

Been there, done that.

Got to the point that I said to myself, "Self, you have got to start planning things that the PCs will be playing in the immediate future, not after the PCs are at a level that they won't reach until after the players have moved away."

Worked, too.