>starting up with a new game, new GM who some of the other guys know from MtG drafting
>party rolls up characters, it's going to be mostly RP with bouts of combat but no specific dungeon crawling
>start off in front of a bounty board, prominent quest for taking out the rumored leader of a troublemaking goblin tribe
>picture of said Chieftain included, like an old west wanted poster
>party sets out
>spends some time passing through the surrounding farms, talking with the local serfs and survivors of the raids
>mostly just property damage and kidnapping, low amount of deaths, talk of magic and rituals
>betterworkfast.jpg
>compare information against area map
>decide likely spots where the goblins may be camped out
>go check them
>find a large camp at one of the locations, a deep ravine with platforms and hutches encrusted on the sides like barnacles
>situated at the very bottom, on a small island, is an unusually ornate dwelling
>decide that must be where the chieftain is
>party decides to wait until nightfall
>sneak into the camp, pass to the island dwelling without incident
>begin to hear a woman screaming as we approach
>oh fugg it's a sacrifice
>burst inside
>goblin woman on her back up on a carved stone block (table? Alter?)
>surrounded by other goblin women and the like
>shaman decorated in bones and feathers at hand
>"it appears the goblin is giving birth"
>GM turns to the Neutral Evil rogue
>"roll perception"
>"you see the chieftain among the crowd"
>ends the session because he was work tomorrow
>the rogue lives off campus and leaves without significant comment
Good GM examples
Why is the title "good gm examples" if the first example is some magical realm shit?
It's oh-so-summer in here today.
Don't you know that you have to be 18 or more to post in here buddy?
>old gm who got married which sadly took him out of the lifestyle
>always had beer of varying sorts
>either had an extra organ with a rare genetic disorder that caused it to excrete lethal amounts of improvisation or he railroaded so subtlety no one ever noticed
>always asked us to make new characters that were related somehow so we never had the issue of "why is so and so even in the party?"
>always had us make characters far in advance then send him the info so he could accommodate them to whatever new setting he had in the works
>always provided coasters or paper plates
>always had a few sets of back up dice
>if we chipped in he'd actually have the pizza by the time we got there so we could just play all night with minimal issues on if the pizza was going to be 15 minutes or 40
I've met maybe 3 GM's so far that have checked off more than 2 of these things and never half as well.
Nothing says "I'm totes not a teenager" like inserting your pregnant shortstack fetish into your d&d game
>Nothing says "I'm totes a teenager" like inserting violence and steroids in your d&d game
Accursed women! They always get the best of 'em!
>implying that because I don't want to play in the GM's magical realm that I must only enjoy murder-hoboing
Usually I'd be happy when that shit happens but it was a bad break for him. She "forced" him to quit childish things like painting and collecting "dolls"(read miniatures) and playing pretend. I can understand a guy not having time for GM duties or even game nights when in a loving relationship but not when someone actively forces their partner to be more to their liking.
>implying that because birth is mentioned it enters the GM's magical realm
He sounds like a great person but the way you put it it seems he lacks a spine.
A man shouldn't let himself be pushed around by a woman, in my opinion.
Actually, let me amend my point.
A man shouldn't let himself be pushed around.
Sounds like your target is likely a new father. Your GM seems to be feeling your party with a light version of baby dilemma?
So every reference to pregnancy and childbirth is fetish material now?
We drift further from Yahweh's light every day.
long time GM of mine.
>large spacious room for gaming filled with couches and recliners
>8/10 times does a group dinner, but lets us know in advance if we're fending for ourselves.
>Insane levels of prep work to make sure everyone gets their awesome sauce moments. Whether or not you take advantage of it is on you.
>Errs on rule of cool for the players as long as it's not going to cause issues for the story.
>Fairly knowledgeable on the settings he runs. (Sadly this has become a requisite marker for quality rather than the standard)
>Is down to talk shop about character and game almost all the time.
Though he does a couple of downsides.
>Self imposed Forever GM. He is the worst PC i've had the displeasure of running for. Cannot let go of the reigns.
>Refuses to budge away from the table if he's wrong on a point of lore, or will cling to a technicality.
>Includes way too many subtle hints that go over our heads and gets mad about it.
Pretty much yeah. It really is true, Veeky Forums is getting shittier by the minute.
Well, contriving the situation so that the party has to watch is edging closer to suspect.
What a bitch
I absolutely adore my current GM, and considering it's his first campaign he's doing an absolutely stellar job.
>lives in Australia and woke up at 5 AM to be with me when I rolled my character, to give me a place in the story he had
>wakes up at 7AM most weeks to GM for us
>doesn't mind us joking around, but still knows where to draw the line and get us back on track
As for stuff in the game, one moment had me impressed.
>party are skulking around in a cave
>we run into a room filled with guards around a campfire
>roll and insight check
>tells me that the guards have been staring at the fire so their night vision would be reduced
I've never had another DM think up something like that.
Neither should a woman or anyone else.
I mean, speaking objectively, they probably do. Intelligence and social skills are very useful in role playing, as well as being attractive traits to women.
My GM is fantastic.
>Running Adeva Borderline
>Has helped me (the noob) with technical bits from the start
>Answers my world and character questions as appropriate
>Weaved my character into his plans, even when she had outliers that had to be worked around
>His story is thorough, invigorating and fun with plenty of drama/angst
>Given all the characters their own story arcs, which have also brought them closer together
>Gave me a cute husbando that is my character's voice of reason
A person shouldn't be pushed around.
Doesn't mean it is.
But hey, this is Veeky Forums, where everyone is guilty until proven innocent!
So when does the GM get good?
In another story.
She's a cunt and he's spineless.
>moral quandary
>fetish
2/10 would boot from table
Wait. Whats the quandry? Their goblins. It doesn't matter if the goblins is newly born or newly a mother. Do they ping evil? Smite that shit. Do they not ping evil? They're goblins. Smite that shit.
No quandry.
The innocence of babies or somesuch shit.
Raising Gazorpazorp
You mean the complete opposite of any sort of reality? Babies are born without the ability to reason or follow morality, and they survive by manipulating the emotions of adults.
If anything, killing an elderly or disabled goblin that can't do harm is a moral quandary - goblin babies are going to continue to fuck shit up or die.
Our DM once gave one of his laptops (granted, an older one) to a player who had constant hand-tremors and was becoming increasingly self-conscious about the illegibility of his handwriting on his character sheet.
DM's not had to chip in for takeout since.
Nah m8. Paladin of baravar here. You stomp on those goblins baby or no. Either way any paladin should as goblins are universally evil aligned.
>Making sapient creatures innately evil without a reason beyond 'just because'
your setting a shit
Detect Evil is the worst thing to happen to paladins imo. It takes away from the challenge and fun of playing a pious knight when you can instantly and with perfect accuracy determine if someone is evil on the spot.
Probably why 5e dragged it out back and shot it, execution style.
They're not sapient. Also its dnd lore so blame gygax.
Honestly i just point at shithead's say "DINGDINGDING!! Oh, no! Found another one!" Then drag them away. No one questions it unless they want the finger of truth next.
>Int 10
>Not sapient
it makes perfect sense from the original morcockian alignment system where you have a literal battle between the powers that be going on above everyones head and any mortal who picks a side is tainted/marked by it
I'm pretty sure crows aren't sapient but they're smarter than most trump supporters and could probably get engineering degrees.
honestly, I think the sweet spot for the best DM I've played with is his sense of scaling and impact.
Pretty much every campaign we do has us powerful enough to make local impacts, not powerful enough toake global impacts, we always do have an impact, and unless we're damn careful, we will spawn unintended consequences out the ass.
Shame he's been on DM burnout for the last two years or so.
But doesn't the engineering field statistically have the highest average IQ among its inhabitants?
>DM goes by rules as intended rather than written
>Let's your characters do cool shit so long as it makes sense for said character
>makes combat rewarding by making it hard as fug to the point that we coined the phrase "If you don't almost die it wasn't a boss fight.", or making it laughably one sided because the PCs are badasses
>Creates engaging NPCs that we sometimes, somewhat to his chagrin, try to take with us in the party.
>Believable "bad guys" that we oftentimes identify with. E.G. Current campaign NPC was a "bad guy" from former campaign(this campaign takes place three months prior), and pretty much just wanted to help people before shit went downhill.
bro tier DM
>>moral quandary
>>fetish
>2/10 would boot from table
0/10 Shit DM detected
That's why the good to evil axis is nonsense. Just stick to good old law vs chaos and keep it a bit grayer morally.
There's nothing wrong with roleplaying an NFL player.
Oh man what a fucking bro. I have perpetual hand tremors too, you wouldnt believe how much it hurts to write. Makes me wonder why Im self imposed forever dm that has to take all notes by hand because I drive full time for a living.
But that's wrong you retard, that's wisdom, not intelligence, according to D&D stats. Sentience is actually, on D&D, defined as the ability to understand language, aka having an intelligence of at least 3. Since goblins have an intelligence of 10, that is, the average for a human, we can conclude they're exactly as sapient as humans, if probably inclined to being dicks.
PROTIP:
Everyone will tell you their DM is the best ever.
They're not telling the truth. They're just telling you what they think, because they don't know better.
I don't know why we have these threads.
>Everyone only ever had 1 DM
>People are not able to objectively think about the flaws and strengths of their DM
>protip in allcaps
You are a retard
man is this thread a pile.
>a GM who was using the stock encumbrance rules
>we had all rolled characters with poor strength
>GM makes a character
>doesn't make the adventure be about the character
>doesn't roflstomp foes or one-up any of us
>its a level 0 named Concord who carried all our stuff for us
>held all our loot but didn't steal it
>handed us stuff we hadn't thought to pack
>i miss that GM
>DM playing the game for you
Why wouldn't he just stop using encumbrance rules if he was just going to hand-wave them away with an NPC anyway?
It's like you never had hirelings
>complaining when the GM makes and plays Alfred for you
>GM use the encumbrance rules
>Then make a NPC to make the whole rule useless
Why play with the rule in the first place?
>hirelings
probably for combat
moreover, because I've done similar as that GM, it's probably because he wanted to use Encumbrance and have the party learn to work around it, but figured he'd need to ease them into the system seeing how they built characters. Suppose the GM wanted to run a game where Encumbrance really matters, like STALKER, but the party misses the point about weights. The GM still wants his party to understand and think about Encumbrance, but he's willing to throw them a soft ball to get them on board instead of trying to force them into playing by his rules.
Remember also that the mule is a character, who can have things to do, get captured, etc., and leave the party to deal with Encumbrance. He's essentially a modifier the GM can give and take away to modify the situation, while you can't exactly implement and remove encumbrance rules mid-game without some complaint.
This is good GMing.
Always have been an essential part of D&D