what makes a good gm? what makes a bad gm?share bad gm stories if you have them
>what makes a good gm?not taking advice from jewtubers
>>96783380>what makes a good gm?Social skills mostly. Which is unfortunate.
im going to be DMing for the first time in a couple of weeks, what are some big dos and donts that might not be obvious i should know?
>>96783726One person, not necessarily you, must keep and enforce the regular schedule.
>dm told us nothing about the campaign or its setting except a 30 minute screed on guilds that the party was expected to memorize
>>967837261. You must sustain a regular schedule. Plan the next session almost right after the current one.2. Remember to ask players in order what they do as if they have turns in a board game. It is not always necessary, but it is TTRPGs 101 to make everyone have a spotlight and fun. Be sure people don't talk over each other in dramatic moments. If one player's turn takes too much, put him on hold and move to the next.3. You need to understand that modern TTRPGs are far from perfect (or even 5e), so home ruling, rule zero, and improvisation may be necessary to keep the game at a decent pace. Everything that slows the game down kills it. Not sure about the rules? Make a ruling on the spot. Discuss or look it up later.4. If players are indecisive or talk too much, let adventures come to them by themselves. Like a sudden knock on the door. Don't let players waste their own time by yapping about nonsense. They thank you themselves later. No, they are having fun wrong.5. If you run a campaign, decide how long it should be. For example, ten 5-6-hour-long sessions. Don't plan it as some infinite, aimless journey at first.6. Don't prep too much. Write down things in bullets. Improvise. More than 2 hours is for sure too much. Put encounters you designed in front of players, depending on what players choose to pursue, and if it fits the context, instead of where and when players physically are on the grid of your imaginary vidya game level. Remember that the imaginary world can and should move too.7. Write PCs into your narrative, give them personal quests depending on what players want. Maybe they all should have dark secrets? The adventure must be their story as well as yours, or they won't even fear the death of their characters.8. Hand-wave the economy or think it through.9. A good player is fit or wants to be fit, and can do push-ups. A healthy body is a healthy mind.10. Get inspiration from real-life events, personas, and places, not just from fiction.
>>96783726>big dos and donts that might not be obviousRolling is counterintuitively "the game part of the fucking game" and "the thing that kills pacing".
>>96783380To crush your players, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their OCs.
>>96783726>don't give players incentive to go against each other for stuff>be reasonable, don't bring outside drama into your session>don't overprepare, be ready for improv>don't just scale enemies to player levels, include weaker prior enemies for some fights so players actually feel stronger>don't just negate player decisions by having enemies that can do everything like teleport or effects that can't be countered for example magic that cannot be dispelled everywhere>try to have at least one fight per session so combat people don't get bored, there can be exceptions to this though>make sure you have some vision of where the campaign is going to eventually go>I wouldn't recommend following premade campaigns since players can often come up with solutions they do not account for, better to make your own>provide actual reasoning as to why people can or cannot do something>don't slavishly follow the rules if something makes sense for a player to do
>>96783726>im going to be DMing>DMingLost cause already. No amount of advice is going to help
>>96784713>>96785238this all sounds good, thank you anons. it sounds like im on the right lines; id say ive broadly ticked most of these boxesthe only thing ive somewhat gone against (which ive seen elsewhere as well) is ive probably done more planning (and the plans are more granular) than most people would suggest, but thats just because i know the guys im dming for and they want quite different things out it (one likes the roleplay element and wants a fleshed out story whereas the other cares less about the story and wants a video-game-esque rpg system of branching choices), so im just putting in a bit of extra work to cover my bases and try and make sure they both have fun
>>96783380learning the balance of tailoring your style to fit how the group actually plays in practice while also leaning into your strengths, another big thing is finding ways to improve your GMing for that group and specific game actively between sessions through analyzing what went well and what didn't this week and across the whole past campaignmaking a game for yourself and never deviating from it even if the players don't mesh with it doesn't necessarily make you a bad GM, I just wouldn't call that good GMing and it's what leads to "That GM" stories it's important to not get your head stuck on "well a good GM would do this, right?" because ultimately what you're doing is only for the specific people present and you're not working for Gamemasters Incorporated, the whole thing is just contextual problem solving based on your experience and perceptions as a sort of team leaderreally what it boils down to is "tailor your game for your group, but don't forget you're one of its members"(that's what I think anyway, the boring objective answer is 'if the group likes it, it's good GMing')
>>96784029In general you need at least one player you can count on to be an assistant tard wrangler. That's why most GMs are such good players to have around.
>>96784713>3. You need to understand that modern TTRPGs are far from perfect (or even 5e), so home ruling, rule zero, and improvisation may be necessary to keep the game at a decent pace. Everything that slows the game down kills it. Not sure about the rules? Make a ruling on the spot. Discuss or look it up later.retarded adviceyou fuckers parroting this bullshit is why none of these newfags read the damn bookmodern game systems are indexed, it takes 10 seconds if you're not a complete mongoloid
>>96783380I've been both of these.>Good DMBuild a world that your PCs can feel invested in and rewards their choices, whether smart or not while still allowing for failure from time to time.>Bad DMGet annoyed at the table of theatre kids and walk away because you're not getting what you need as a DM to be interested.
>>96783726DON'T fuck up.EVERYONE is relying on YOU to have a good time.
>>96783380>what makes a good gm?Being a player once in a while.>what makes a bad gm?Forgetting what its like to be a player.
>>96783380Good GM is one whose players like playing with him. That's really the only rule. All else is autism.
>>96788596You're the retarded oneALL rules in ALL systems are nothing more than suggestions to the GM on how it may be useful to run things. SUGGESTIONS.GM is the one person who actually makes it all work, and everything has to make sense to him or it won't make sense to anybody. The game happens inside GM's head, not in some book.ONLY BAD GMS FOLLOW RULES THAT SOMEONE ELSE WROTE. Good GMs acknowledge them as struictly non-binding guidelines.AND PLAYERS SHOULD NOT LOOK AT RULES AT ALL.t. 35+ year GM in dozens of systems
>>96788596Suck my balls, retarded no games. I've seen how you know the rules in hundred of local spam threads.
>>96790222>>96790642based grognardI'm breaking my permalurk to say thank you for your sanity. As an intermittent lurker, it's crazy how noticeable the decline has been here.
>>96788596literally what advantage is there to autistically sticking to the official dnd rules? knowing them is advantageous i guess for if youre running a campaign with knew people who are also familiar with the official rules so they make a good baseline so your players know what to expect, but in a group of people you know and where you can just tell them what youre doing to set the expectations, what material downside is there to deviating from the official rules? genuinely asking
>>96788596Only retard here is you mate
>>96783380>what makes a good gm?You and the players are both having fun>what makes a bad gm?any other outcomeShit thread.
>>96784925Thanks Conan
