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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Adso" data-source="post: 1050021" data-attributes="member: 6706">While I am not the architect of the GMs program (that would be Ian Richards the RPGA Program Manager) I am involved with the new GM program and its design. We used to have a rate the GM section to session scoring, which gave feedback from the players. The feedback was tied to the old scoring, so a DM’s score which ultimately decided the DM’s level. The problem with this is that player’s could “hijack the GM;” withholding good scores for desired rulings. While this was never problematic in the old system where levels were merely bragging rights, when we looked to re-tool the GM program and have tangible benefits granted to higher-level GMs, we wanted to move away from this system for obvious reasons. There were also some questions in the feedback that didn’t work with the paradigm shifts involved with moving from 2nd edition to 3rd and beyond. For instance we use to have this question on the GMs rules knowledge. The example of poor rules knowledge was “constantly had to refer to his or her rulebooks to answer rules questions.My first Winter Fantasy as WotC/RPGA staff, Monte Cook came up to me and asked me if we could change this. “We want people to look in their book when they don’t know the answer,” he said. And Monte was absolutely right. I look back at my 2nd-edition books and wonder how I ever ran that game. But back then you fudged more. The rules were more like clunky, sometime arbitrary, and never systematic guidelines that you moved the narrative through. Opening the books typically caused more arguments than they solved, which IMO isn’t the case in the newer version of D&D. Tangent about 2nd edition aside, two of the things we knew we needed do in a GM training and reward program is create a way for GMs to rate GMs taking account player feedback, and better criteria that better suites 3rd edition. Just how we are going to do that, I am not yet at liberty to say. But I can tell you if you want to give a GM feedback…just do it. After the game tell the GM what you thought. Be constructive, don’t be vindictive if you think a GM error stymied your character, and be honest and diplomatic. Most GMs I know will appreciate it, analyze it, and take it to heart in order to improve their craft. Will you get those who don’t? Yes. While I wish that players appreciated ever RPGA GM and what he or she brings to the table, I know that will not happen. And while I also wish that every RPGA GM would be well rested, ready to adjudicate fairly and diplomatically, and be totally on top of his or her game, I know that’s a pipedream too. In the end, I think we have more successes than we do failures, and we are working hard to make sure the ratio favors success even more in the future.</blockquote>

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