When being a DM, what's important?

[Chrisetta]

It's a question I've been wondering about for the past few weeks now. I've been a DM for a feww games, D&D, Pathfinders, and Fate. But, as of recently I'm wondering what's all important when DMing? I know it's important to know the rules, but is the experience important as well? And what makes a DM really fun versus too strict/too loose?

[GunsmithKitten]

As much as it may sound like a cop-out, there is no hard and fast rules for DM'ing. Never has been.

Groups are eclectic and there are as many different types as there are groups themselves. No one will react the same.

Again, cop out though it may be, it all comes down to everyone having a good time with it. Even if the rules are raped and style thrown out the window, if all involved enjyoed the experience, it's still a success.

Nonetheless, there are a few common (not 100 percent applicable all the time, but COMMON) tips that I've found worked for me.

1: It's not a competition. Players are not there to "defeat" you. Like the Paranoia RPG GM guide states quite brilliantly "do not think of yourself as some all powerful Jehova, smiting those down who do not conform to your will. Think of yourself more like a Greek god, moving players about on the stage to set up amusing situations. The players are not your enemies; they're your entertainment!"

2: Ask what your group wants out of a game before you start it. Do they want a dungeon crawl? Do they want blood and thunder? Do they want intrigue? How serious do they want to keep the tone? Knowing this saves a whole lot of groaning later if you take it seriously and at least try to abide by it. Always get feedback. Never be hesitant to give it either.

3: Save the details for the important characters, but try to give everything at least a little bit of life. A stereotype or 1d personality here and there is just fine for background. Not everyone in your setting needs a life story dossier.

4: No plan survives contact with the player characters. Keep things flexible. Plan out as many possibilities as you can. One of the great things about doing a fairly open setting is that when the inevitable time your party goes off the rails, you'll have at least somewhere for them to go.

[Gray Ran]

There are a few different things that a GM absolutely needs to do. Let's call them best practices.

Be honest. Always. Unless the game specifically requires dishonest as a conceit of play (like Paranoia), you must always do the honest thing.

Portray the game world faithfully. An extension of the above. This doesn't mean adhering to reality at all times or mapping out all actions. It means that you must know what your NPCs want, what they intend to do, and what the physical rules of your world are. You must illustrate these things to the players. Otherwise the players will not have any footing in the setting.

Be a fan of the player characters. To paraphrase Apocalypse World, lament their failures and cheer for their victory. Never make them look like a chump when the player doesn't intend so. That way lies GM horror stories.

The fictional events are second to the conversation happening at the table about those events. Direct that conversation in meaningful ways. Make sure that everybody has something to say in a session.

Make sure that everybody's playing the same game. RPGers tend to come to games with a very specific set of assumptions that are going to be completely different from the other players. If you can make these assumptions explicit and come to a common understanding among the players of the exact assumptions that they should be bringing to the table. This will solve a good 90% of play problems right here.

Communicate. That's the key to a good RPG experience. Facilitate communication among the players and communicate your concepts clearly too.

[Gray Ran]

GunsmithKitten

4: No plan survives contact with the player characters. Keep things flexible. Plan out as many possibilities as you can. One of the great things about doing a fairly open setting is that when the inevitable time your party goes off the rails, you'll have at least somewhere for them to go.

I'd say, don't plan at all. Ditch the rails entirely.

Or rather, don't plan thinking that you'll ever predict what will actually happen. Plan what happens if the PCs never show up. Plan the motivations for the villains and their big schemes. Then you have something to bounce off of when the players interrupt that. All you need to do then is react and act.

[Seph Baelzara]

Tri-Stat came out with a neat little manifesto that covers a little bit of the above, while adding.



While this is by no means absolute, it is afterall, just a guideline. However, the bottom line over every game is if you're not having fun, you're playing wrong.

[Laertes Ursus]

If there is one thing I believe that every GM should strive for, it's consistency. When your word is law, treat it as such. Precedent should be important. When you say something, remember it. When you make a call, keep track of it. GM fiats and house rules should be recorded, because if Ragdar the Raging Barbarian can generate a literal whirlwind with his super-fast whirlwind attack once, why shouldn't he be able to do it again in similar circumstances?

Of course, as with everything, there is an exception. Because that's how TTRPGs work. Be willing to admit you were wrong. If something is fundamentally wrong, correct it. Of course, if it does affect the game world in a noticeable way, providing an in-game explanation is recommended.

Also, I should probably stress the words 'strive for'. Rare is it that a GM is always perfectly consistent. We're human, we mess things up. It's life. If you can spot the oopsie before your players, then you're doing a good job.

[Requiem ex Inferni]

GunsmithKitten

4: No plan survives contact with the player characters.

Great example of this - my friend is running a 19th level gestalt campaign in Pathfinder, and he had planned several big encounters designed to test the players, including a battle of endurance, a fight with a mythic pit find archduke, and the grandaddy of all epic monsters, the Tarrasque itself. He told us that he would be doing everything in his power to push us to the limits, and said in no uncertain terms that the possibility of a TPK was very high.

He did not take into account that two of the characters are Gunslinger gestalts (my Gunslinger/Ranger and another guy's Gunslinger/Alchemist). We SLAUGHTERED the Tarrasque*, because he had not been able to plan ahead for the Gunslingers (and this is a guy who's been GMing since AD&D).

The Tarrasque did nearly kill several of us in return, however.

[Requiem ex Inferni]

A DM's job is fourfold - storyteller, judge, opponent and entertainer all in one. He provides a story which the players, through the actions of their characters, determine the ultimate outcome of; he acts as the mediator for conflicts and has final say on how to interpret the rules; he provides challenges for the players to overcome and enemies to defeat; and he ensures that everyone at the table, including himself, is enjoying the game (a great DM is one who can put the players through the meat grinder and have them wanting to come back for more because of how much the enjoyed it the first time).

The key is balance; you have to be able to juggle those four roles simultaneously. Occasionally doing one role over the others may be necessary, but ultimately balance is the key.

[Gray Ran]

Requiem ex Inferni

A DM's job is fourfold - storyteller, judge, opponent and entertainer all in one. He provides a story which the players, through the actions of their characters, determine the ultimate outcome of; he acts as the mediator for conflicts and has final say on how to interpret the rules; he provides challenges for the players to overcome and enemies to defeat; and he ensures that everyone at the table, including himself, is enjoying the game (a great DM is one who can put the players through the meat grinder and have them wanting to come back for more because of how much the enjoyed it the first time).

The key is balance; you have to be able to juggle those four roles simultaneously. Occasionally doing one role over the others may be necessary, but ultimately balance is the key.

This really depends on the game at hand and what the players (and the GM is a player) want out of the game.

Story teller: There are so many ways to make story happen in a game, and not all of them require prep or even a lot of GM juggling.

In Fate, prep is centered around seeing how the PCs tick and creating a scenario with stakes that hooks into that. In Tokyo Brain Pop the progression of events is almost entirely out of the GM's hands -- the players drive just about everything and the GM's job is to keep everybody on task and set it up so that they can drive it.

Judge: Not necessarily. If everybody is playing in good faith then interpreting the rules ought to be a group effort.

Opponent: There are plenty of games where the GM is an opponent. D&D is one of them. But more often than not, the GM is instead a facilitator for the other players.

Like, in the Smallville RPG the GM doesn't make antagonists in order to challenge the PCs, they make antagonists to drive wedges between the PCs. The PCs, responding to the disruption of the status quo, fight and bicker and hurt each other, because that's how you grow your character in Smallville is by getting hurt.

In Golden Sky Stories the GM is not even supposed to think about challenge. They're there to create a dilemma that will, through the players fishing for XP and using magic powers, create cute, emotionally resonant, and colorful scenes.

Entertainer: Entertaining the other players is not solely the job of the GM. Expecting to be entertained at the table without putting anything in yourself is a selfish way to play and, often, a drag on the other players. Everybody at the table should work toward the entertainment of the other players, whether that's through working together to overcome challenges, pitching in to develop a world that everybody can immerse in, or creating a powerful story together.

Everybody should be engaging in everybody's fun, not just the GM. A great GM is one who can help bring everybody's ideas of fun together in a way that everybody can enjoy.

The GM only has 3 absolutely mandatory jobs and the first two jobs are also the job of every other player at the table.

Honestly facilitate communication and help to meet the other players' needs.
Make the PCs' lives not boring. Make stuff happen and engage in the stuff that each player came to do.
Portray the world faithfully.

And there's different stuff that goes into these three jobs which the only the GM needs to worry about. A couple of these are in my post up-thread.

I suppose my point is, the GM is just another player and their responsibilities are variable depending on the needs of the game and the players. Communication is key, because if everybody's communicating their needs and listening in good faith then everybody can help cover each others' weaknesses, including the GM's.