Ok, we have tons and tons of shit gms do, and my gm is a douche threads.
What about one where we list positive qualities in a GM?
My gm for example
>His 'briefings' prior to a session are more than most GMs do.
>He's big on teaching, and he seems to be remarkably fair in that he doesn't drop surprises that are stupid/vindictive.
>Not afraid to homebrew; curveballs without being a cheapskate; hints of magnificent bastardry; knows his sources; cool as hell.
How about yours?
I've always been partial to a GM that runs a session zero, and plays out how the game will play, and takes input from players about what they want out of it.
>Be me 9 year old
>Join D&D club at school
>Play human thief because 'what's an elf?'
>DM is a tall. 21 looking guy with a pony tail
>Adventure start
>Dungeon run
>The room is completely dark
>...'I search the walls?'
>'You find a switch, a light opens further on to a treasure chamber' congratulations user here's some XP
Writing this down he doesn't sound that special, but he was my first and I wouldn't look at RPGs the way I do, if he was different.
Aww, that's awesome user!
A GM makes or breaks someone's interest in this hobby, sounds like your GM did a good job!
>His 'briefings' prior to a session are more than most GMs do.
>briefings
Surely you're not referring to last session recaps, right? I mean, every GM does a recap per session so the players can remember what they were doing, right?
My Gm.
>Strong consequences for actions, not only for the bad but the good too.
>Great on improv to the point you'd think everything was scripted if it wasn't so interactive.
>Amazing at voices and accents. Even female ones keep the whole thing immersive.
>Great writer, an find a reason to put in story elements to keep not only players boy characters interested. (Something I hope to be able to do one day.)
>Spends a lot of his free time making maps and they look amazing with a high amount of detail and depth.
All that combined, the experience of every session is really immersive.
People tell me I'm a good GM but in reality it's me flailing around trying to be at least a fraction as good as the one for my main group.
>He makes a world that works, with things that exist because they should exist, not merely to further the adventure.
>As a subset of that, in character time is very important. There are always about 6 things that need doing yesterday, and time to maybe do 2 or 3 next week.
>Of the stuff that we don't handle, there will always be some consequence to it. Not necessarily instant disaster, but you have things like other groups of adventurers hired to take care of the same issue, or just people getting mad at us, or even getting mad at other employers for occupying their group of heroes time.
>NPCs are active. They're not overbearing fucktards who prevent PC agency, but they do stuff, especially when they're out of sight of the characters.
>Creates blank spaces on the map, stuff that we don't know about but probably exists, and we're usually too busy handling stuff close to home to do much about it.
>And of the information we're given, a good chunk of it is wrong. DM warns us at the outset of every campaign that there are three categories of information: Stuff directly told to us, OOC by the GM, which is 100% true. Stuff that our characters see, hear, or otherwise sense, which is always true to the best of our cahracter's knowledge, but can be fooled by artifice or supernatural occurrences. And then there's what people tell us, which is very likely to be false, either deliberately or just honestly passing along incorrect information.
Do I get points for being a good GM by virtue of being the only one willing to run a game?
No?
No I didn't think so.
That makes you a This guy, for sure, but not quite a good GM if that's really the only thing.
>in character time is very important. There are always about 6 things that need doing yesterday, and time to maybe do 2 or 3 next week.
I'm going to steal this advice or whatever you call it, and use it in my upcoming campaign
Be descriptive, current GM of the game I'm in is good and can improv well but he's shit at describing things so your mental picture is rubbish.
No, we play a combat ops style rpg, mission a week. When the GM briefs us, it is like an old school RB6 briefing.
>all female gaming group
>none is fat
>none has acne
>none has horseface
I'd rather believe that people actually play FATAL.
There are all female groups that exist user, with good looking members. You aren't invited to them.
not that user, but can I get invited if I learn FATAL?
...
well that's just an unfortunate group of folks
I for one, think it's fortunate that such a ragtag band of misfits found an irl community to call their own.
>that picture
How does anyone get that far into a game of FATAL without a severe mental illness?
It appears that they are at a Red Robin burger restaurant. I recognize the straw type.
I have a few DM's.
Aron, you roll with our punches, and our terrible terrible decisions writing pages of story that we inevitably ruin from a narrative standpoint, but we all have so much fun, thank you.
You truly are one of the best DM's I've ever played with.
Yeah, its called the speed running community and it existed long before it got taken over by tannies
I know. Being forced to eat the slop at red robin.
...
>rage reads back stories in a mocking tone before telling the player to start over
I will definitely be doing this in future
I hope that guy became an elementary school teacher or something, he sounds cool and good with kids
I honestly wish. My current DM does a half-hearted "does anybody remember where were were last time", which the answer half the time is "fuck no, you cancelled the last two sessions and we're already running every other week so it's been a month and a half. Fuck."
And I've had plenty of DM's that never did a recap at all, just a single line "You're in the cave from last time, with the pedastal, what do you do?"
I do a recap for my players when I'm running though. I pre-write them, and have the recaps posted online so they can read them all later if they wish. After running the recap, I usually have their characters give a quick one or two sentence reaction to the recent events (of the last session). This is done as an "in-character aside", something that's not canon but from the character's perspective. Similar to the little interview snippits you see in american reality TV or The Office. It really helps people get into character as we start a new session.
Why is the DM the only fucking person who can remember what happened a couple weeks ago?
*Hooded Kermit* DM the whole session in the mocking tone of voice.
I make my players do that shit. I correct them if they have false information but it's more an exercise for them not me.
>cestree's npc
>dedicated to supporting the PCs
>that blush
SLUT
oh shit i am a Rge
We do a weekly recap too just in case anyone forgot the details of what happened. It gets everyone back in the mindset and gets us focused.
CESTREE IS PURE.
Got a problem with the GDQ-Crew, user?
Girugamesh!
There are people that don't do this?
I've had three different DMs and they've all done session zeros, so I've done it with the players I'm DMing for. I thought this was standard practice.
Is pic related the same person as the person on the right?
And you know, the Red Robin menus on the table are a pretty good clue.
How dare you sir Red Robin is delicious.
Its not about the DM being the only one remembering, its about the DM being the main storyteller, and a swift recap from him can quickly bring people into the action again, where things were left off
He improvises. Doesn't show up with anything but dice and the rulebook of whatever game we're playing. No notes, no bullshit, no "I'm gonna make you play in my shitty novel." All invented on the spot. It's wonderful.
I do half and half, I let the players recap what they remember and fill in anything they forgot or misremembered.
The 100m dash is a historical sport and shouldn't be sullied with such racisim.
No, the noses and the cheekbones are different. The raccoon eyes the got going on are also different. This last one can be attributed to the difference in expression, but I think the one at the table also has a chin that juts out more than transphobia twitter poster.
Thats a rare and wonderful skill
cestree good girl, good girl.
Because many players are brain-damaged morons
>Wut Happen last session?
>Wut muh XP total?
>How much money do I have?
Fucking useless
Fucking preach.
>So lets go over what happened last session
Move through the group one at a time
>"Right so I puched some shit"
>"And I killed some things too"
>"Oh what was that item we got again?"
>"And that guy we talked to? Oh right, yeah"
I step in
> So. This is the run down of the session.
Every. Fucking. Time.
Yes, it's the same person. Honestly, she's a self-righteous prick.
Session Zero is completely unnecessary for a good campaign. It's a meme. For some reason it became popular among nu males on Reddit because some random game developers came up with the idea on one of their blogs. As a result everyone started shilling this "Session Zero" meme and huffing their own shit about it. No one fucking cares. Session Zero is utterly pointless, everything you do in that can be accomplished over email before the game. Why do you need to waste an entire session describing how your characters fit together? When I join a campaign, I want to play the fucking game, I do not want to waste four hours discussing how X player's character will fit into the story and what future character arcs he expects to have, when he might well die in the first session.
What the fuck has happened to this hobby? People used to just make characters, and play them. Then stories grew out of those roleplaying interactions organically. None of this pre-plotted forced meta-game shit where you try oh-so-hard to make it like your favorite drama TV show. Who gives a fuck? Stop watching Critical Roll and play the goddamn game, stop wasting your time on stupid gimmicks like this.
If getting treasure "makes or breaks" your interest in the hobby, then you are not the kind of player we should have.
sup foreign immigrant to our board. You should try not using shitpost board memes here, it makes it hard to take you seriously.
he was nine you autist.
But it's fun
>she's a self-righteous prick.
I bet "she" still has one
Why do you keep reposting this? For the (you) s?
Its called bridging newer players to the hobby.
While you can do it your way, its also good to make sure everyone knows what they are walking into, what rules are set and what people expect to get out of it.
No more; I made a Teifling, Oh sorry guy, they are not a thing in my world, roll a new character.
No more: Oh I wanted to play a pirate game, Oh sorry guy, this is a desert game.
Also a lot of people have trouble making actual characters yet alone playing and sesh zero helps that a lot.
As a possible future DM next winter, I'm just here for tips, I've only had one who was decent... He basically kept to a script though and in the breaks, before and after the game he kept talking about how he had not DM'ed for 4 years since one of his previous players fucked his GF when they all played together.
My first DM literally said to me when I wanted to try a paladin...
>"You can't, it's too hard for you"
Then next campaign with him he let's my friend play a paladin, I don't pick up the hobby again before 10 years later.
Shit GM detected. Go back to your build guides and let people who actually play games enjoy what they're doing.
Nice pasta.
I'm an old GM with old players, and I do session zero because that's 90% of the campaign prep I do. Can I do that via mail? Possibly, but I enjoy also having a beer with my future players, see how the group dynamic unfolds. It's a good exercise for everyone, not just new gamers.
>third from the bottom on the right
Girugamesh!
I whole heatedly agree. I've been gaming with my main group for about 6-7 years now and I still do sesh zero with them, even if its a relative time skip between arcs.
I was meaning, its a great tool in general for a DM and DM's need all the helpful tools they can get.
Prepare something simple, a small region map, a makeshift town/city map and write down a bunch of names for npcs the players will probably run into, and extras for extra npcs
Have something planned, or maybe a few somethings planned that draws the players attention. Treat the world as fluid, make changes based upon what the party does or doesn't do.
Finally, just relax. Think about what would probably happen if X thing happened and work it out on the fly. If you make a mistake, no big deal. You're the GM, you've got a game to manage, best make that easy on yourself.
I've improvised before, but I usually have at least a broad strokes. Only time I 100% made it up on the spot, it was pretty much Escape from Candyland. And it was arguably the best session of that whole campaign.
>tfw no one can remember what happened during last session a week ago
>when we play using text
>with a chat archive that literally goes back to the start of the game
Of course, we can't expect them to read the PHB, why should we expect them to read the game they're playing?
Because the DM spends more time thinking about the campaign. I used to be pissy about my players not remembering shit until I got to be a player for a couple of oneshots and I realized that even when I took notes I forgot a lot of the events and NPCs that had occured just a couple of weeks ago.
>The absolute state of GDQ
Thanks that was actually pretty useful desu
This is what I have so far for DMing my first campaign.
>Vetted possible players to ensure I'd only be getting quality people. (People who can make it every week for the specified amount and who aren't retards.)
>Explain what I expect from them as players, banned evil alignments(mentioned I don't like alignments in the first place), mention that I'm willing to homebrew and teach new people
>give them enough information about the story and setting that they can all easily make a character
>ask what they expect from me and work with them to see what is plausible for me to have
>incorporate player-centric side stories in-between and possibly in the main story
>make a few 'special' homebrew equipment items that I know are somewhat OP especially for each character, but I am fine with them having(if they die or leave, that's fine. I had fun making the equipment)
>fine with the PCs getting a bit powerful for their level, I'll adjust difficulty as I see fit
>allow people to make characters that are a bit min-maxed (sometimes is an unfortunate side effect of knowing the system too well) but account for it by making sure none of the other characters fall behind in usefulness
>hand-picked background music for every situation
Anything else I should do?
I've been doing session zero for a decade, before it had a name.
You sound like you're well on the way to being a good GM.
It's worse in my group. I have the best memory in the group, at least for Tabletop RPG campaigns (I don't even take notes and can do better recaps than the ones who do). So the DM literally asks me to recap for everyone before the next game starts.
>it's fun
That doesn't mean it's a good idea. Also your idea of "fun" is entirely subjective and therefore is not a valid argument.
Every single thing you described in your post can be handled with a single email describing the parameters of the campaign and what kind of characters to create. You do not need to waste an entire session on it. If you are going to waste 4 hours of my time NOT playing and having some fuck-ass discussion about the future of the campaign instead of actually playing, then I will be doing a 180 out of your house. Fuck off with that shit, it's actually rude and a waste of other peoples' time.
Not a shit GM. Been running games for 12+ years. Pretty sure if I was shit I wouldn't be getting new players all the time and have literal waiting lists for my campaigns.
Not a pasta.
Cool. So have I. Over fucking email. Or in the first hour of the campaign. But I don't dedicate an entire goddamn fucking session to it. That's just stupid.
>That doesn't mean it's a good idea
It literally does.
Games are played for fun. If the GM and palyers are having fun, then you're doing it right.
>Games are played for fun.
Wrong.
>If the GM and palyers are having fun, then you're doing it right.
Wrong.
If you play a game of chess, but instead of playing Chess you just make up whatever rules you want, you are still playing chess wrong. It doesn't fucking matter how much "fun" you are having. Take your false parameter and shove it up your ass.
Why do you care so much? obviously a majority of GMs prefer doing a session zero face to face so that you can discuss the game.
It also gives players a good opportunity to co-create their backstorys, making them care more about the party as a whole.
Also, nobody's has said that you need to spend several hours. You can do all of a session zero in 1 hour.
Dig that sand out of your cooch ffs
>you are still playing chess wrong. It doesn't fucking matter how much "fun" you are having.
If we're having fun then it doesn't matter if we're playing chess wrong or not.
I wanna be your gm.
>Or in the first hour of the campaign.
So you literally do Session Zero, you're just having an autistic fit because there's like twenty shitty 'actual play' podcasts that let normies into your club. A club that you already state you have a waiting list for.
>For some reason have a reputation as being a good GM
>Think that one of my players is a natural GM and would really love being one
>Encourage him to GM
>He's really nervous and keeps asking me for advice/running ideas past me
>He starts running a campaign
>It's awesome
>He's still a novice but you can really see his talent
>Game is loads of fun and soon he'll be the best damn GM I've ever known
>"Thank you for being my mentor user, I really appreciate it."
>mfw
Can't wait for the next session, I've not had this much fun as a player in years.
Observe:
Conservative
Liberal
>this pasta is correct
>tfw you realise how shit Veeky Forums has become by the amount of people shitting on a completely valid and reasonable opinion
...
Hey, 58211147!
I'm not even going to give you a (you). That is not a valid opinion, that is reactionary badwrongfun to what is a general good practice of DMing. And you know why?
>Not a shit GM. Been running games for 12+ years. Pretty sure if I was shit I wouldn't be getting new players all the time and have literal waiting lists for my campaigns.
12 years ago = you play 3.pf. Of course you don't need a session 0, everybody is too busy at home building their character according to the most popular meta charop guides.
>Every single thing you described in your post can be handled with a single email describing the parameters of the campaign and what kind of characters to create. You do not need to waste an entire session on it. If you are going to waste 4 hours of my time NOT playing and having some fuck-ass discussion about the future of the campaign instead of actually playing, then I will be doing a 180 out of your house. Fuck off with that shit, it's actually rude and a waste of other peoples' time.
Or, you know, setting up a game is a collaborative effort, that takes a bit of back-and-forth, and people just generally enjoy spending time together.
I kept waiting for some of these stories to turn into gay sex experiences but then I realized I wasn't in a /v/ sleepover thread.
Wait... Why are you playing games if not for fun? Like, do you sit there going I'm gonna do all this work and make this whole world and wrangle these neckbeards for four hours every week for... No reason? To waste time because you have nothing else to do? Even people who play games for money in sports have fun doing it I'd assume.
>People tell me I'm a good GM but in reality it's me flailing around trying to be at least a fraction as good as the one for my main group.
I'm pretty sure that's every GM. Probably projecting here but still.
>>Games are played for fun.
>Wrong.
>>If the GM and palyers are having fun, then you're doing it right.
>Wrong.
I'm imagining Sheldon Cooper browsing Veeky Forums to write something like this
Why is /v/ more/y/ than /y/, and /a/ more /v/ than /v/?
On that note, why is /pol/ trying to leak into Veeky Forums?
I'm wondering if the logic is that you can't have fun unless you are doing it 'right'?
/pol/ is full of alt right dipshits who can't keep their verbal alt right diarrhea in the toilet so they smear it everywhere like coked out chimpanzees.
Point made, move on. Talking about how /pol/ ruins threads ruins threads.
I'm that poster you quoted. Are you implying o was trying to bring pol in here? Some of these stories just reminded me of /v/ sleepover threads. To answer your question though, this board is 40k heavy, on top of the occasional HFY, not to mention the elf hate thing do you really need to ask why it attracts them?
>Even people who play games for money in sports have fun doing it I'd assume.
You'd assume,but some people? Forget about it.
...
I tried to do that when I ran shadowrun. I roleplayed the Johnson, I had handouts of satellite photos of the area, etc.
It all crashed to a halt when I left school and lost access to free nigh-unlimited laser printing.
I'm the only one who takes detailed notes aside from the dm and now I've got people asking me for the two years of a campaign I wrote up, roughly 2 a4 pages or so per session, only from what my character saw, was told or heard about later.
The others either don't write a thing or jot down maybe a name or what they received as loot.