What are the three most important traits of the ideal GM?

>is hot
>has sex with me
>is a man

>wanting the same campaign/quests/schtick over and over

you know there's more to "diversity" than shoehorning in black people and obscure genders, right?

A broad scope of knowledge and ability is sort of a necessity for crafting a wide world and populating it with an array of characters. If your GM is an expert on only one particular field, you're going to wind up with an unbalanced setting that revolves around only a particular topic, and that can get boring rather quickly.

Even Willy Wonka knew that there was more to life than just candy. That's why his candy was the best.

Creativity
Fairness
Attention to detail

Well, depending on the group, either impartiality and objectiveness or the ability to pull strings just right is definitely up there. And on that note, I'd say the ability to read the group is also important, although that's something you have to just learn for every group over time as you play with them.

willingness to work outside of group time

willingness to work with players in secret to help their characters advance without others knowing that will happen.

creative improvisation awesomeness

>Familiarity with stories/storytelling

This is vital. As great at coming up with original ideas a DM might be, they really can't top a DM that's well versed in the classics and uses the best ideas from them liberally.

The best way to improve your DMing outside of DMing is to read as much as you can.

As
these two says. I do not mean genderfluid pony-transexual bi-queen sonic-kin shit.

Not a dick,
Not a pussy,
Not an asshole.

All you really need to know.

Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An amost fanatical devotion to the pope!

Creative, quick thinking, amicable

Seriously, nothing is more important for a GM than being open to new ideas and friendly to new players, alongside being able to roll with the punches and pull shit out of their ass just to make stuff happen.

1. Improvisational skills. The basis for engaging your players is being able to let their characters shape the story as much as you do. For that, you'll need to be able to take the story off the rails with them.
2. Tact. This one's easy, make the game world what your players want in addition to what you want.
3. likes DMing. I'd hate for The Ideal GM to wish he were playing his own character instead.

>there are three kinds o' people in this world chuck...

All my favorite DMs are jerks and assholes, but CREATIVE jerks and assholes.

>obscure genders

underrated post

Flexibility
Creativity
Being a succubus

Kudos for using a reference other than "Nobody expects..."

>yfw everyone would've expected that

According to my players, being the least willing to let the group die.

>gays/women

If you mean holding the game group together IRL, kudos on being a great person.

If you mean IC death, then they need a little sudden death in their fantasy lives.

1. Having a penis

All the rest follows from there

Adaptability.
Imagination.
Temperance.

that's four

tbqh I had to look it up to get the joke on why it was four

being shoggy's gm

Acting skills.
Creativity.
Patience.

>improvisational skills
This, goddamn.

Knows how to dialogue
Understands gray morality
Has a penis

>three most important traits

2 large breasts + nerd glasses.

How does one improve their improvisational skills?

By practicing even though you suck

This nigga gets it

Male.
Thorough.
Well-read.

You improve in several ways:

1) Practice: The More you GM the more you understand what players will expect.

2) Be familiar with the rules. You don't have to know everything, but know the vitals. Keep a few stat-blocks for enemies written down or memorized. Pathfinder does this well in that they give you a general guide of how monster cr's are calculated.

3) Understand "yes and..." This is vital. "yes and.." means playing off what your characters know. I never knew that urine was processed into a medieval detergent until one of my players bought it up. I included a stop by one of these medieval detergent shops several weeks later, perhaps the most fun I've had with piss and chamber-pots.

4)Steal. I had a class in college on Central Asia. I had a lot of those notes lying around. I then used them to make my first home-brew setting.

I did it by running a small side game every day for a week with no prep.

I was about to run a pretty large game for 2 family members and a bunch of friends. I got the 2 family members to let me run a game for them where they played escaped Kobold slaves on the run from the Lizardmen who had formerly owned them. One of them was a good guy freedom fighter and the other was an evil little fucker who just wanted to be the tyrannical king of the underground. I used a random online random map/encounter/loot generator as my only non-improvised elements.

It forced me to improvise almost everything. The Story. The reasons for the enemies to be there. Refluffing the loot so it fit into the super primitive setting. Reasons for these extremely different PCs to stay together. New Factions for them to encounter and why. And on and on.

It really helped me. But I can see how it might be hard for those that don't have family members interested in tg stuff. A bit harder to do in an online environment as randoms are bound to be less forgiving than family or close friends.

Cheat.

Don't try to improvise everything. Figure out what you're slow or bad at improvising, and prepare a tool kit that has what you need to go without breaking the flow.

It can be as simple as just a list of random NPC names to index cards with generic monster stats to a notebook filled with random dungeon room ideas. Just build up a collection of short templates that you can fill in with whatever the situation might need, and eventually once you get more experience you'll be able to do away with more and more of those tools since you'll have internalized them.

Creativity: between describing scenes vividly and improvising when the party goes off the rails(or being able to subtly shift the rails in front of them again), having a vivid imagination is important.
Resolve: being able to lay down the law, both in game and out when necessary, for anything from enforcing some sort of penalty when one player does an asinine thing to kicking THAT GUY to the curb after he burns his three strikes, you must be willing to do what needs to be done, for the continued happiness of the group as a whole.
Dependability: easiest by far to explain. Don't be an asshole, be available to your players if they have questions or ideas regarding their characters. Also, for the love of whatever gods lie between the stars, HAVE RELIABLE TRANSPORTATION. Nothing kills a groups desire to keep going faster than the GM/DM/ST/etc not showing up for three, four straight weeks, with the exception of maybe IRL drama.

Controlling/allowing balance
Always prepared
Non-existant (because he's ideal you stupcubus)

>ideals
>non-existent

Amicus tu, sed magis amica veritas

1) Planning - be that creating a world and filling it with things to do, interesting places, NPCs, and so on, or to anticipate your player's motives/actions allowing you to throw them a curveball now and then, which leads me to...

2) Adaptability - rolling with the punches because sometimes your players throw YOU a curveball now and then or every session as some GMs attest. Thinking on your feet and being able to improv is a vital skill which leads me to...

3) Being able to laugh it off - arguably the most important of all. Don't get upset that the players didn't do what you hoped they would. If you've followed part 1, then you should already have a contingency in place and so there's fun for all.

Speaking as someone who has played with obese neckbeards before, this is not even remotely true.

You act like the game wasn't built around being fat and wearing glasses.

Flexibility
Improvisation
Firm Hand with players (to prevent people walking all over them)

Attention to detail
Flexibility in all things
Willingness to have sex with me

>ideals

>triggered

Creativity
Fairness
The ability to "steer" as the players impact the campaign, rather than just sticking to the plan he made beforehand.