Post by Paul on Oct 17, 2011 21:54:52 GMT -6
This is a pretty good read for advice on how to avoid being a bad gm.
www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/311719-bad-dms-gms.html
Some of the things are rather silly. I wanted to point out a few.
My biggest peeve though is DMs that mess with the basics of my character, after we started playing. I don't mind restrictions on character generation, but after we've been gaming for a few sessions, don't say my elf is actually a drow who was polymorphed and needs to find a way to reverse the spell... No, he grew up as a gardener; he knows who he is.
This was done to Joel's character being a Pirate. Geoff should have given Joel the option to debunk being a pirate. Some deception rolls should have been used here if Joel didn't like the idea. There is blame to each the player and GM. I was trying to emphasis this to Joel when I was explaining that old picture with the guy that looked like his character. Mr. Blank, does the name mean anything to you? No? OK must be a coincidence then. Notice I didn't tell him that the research found out this was his long lost grandfather.
There has to be a level of trust. As a GM you should also be able to read into your players expressions. For example (this never happened) Jim groaned loudly when I explained that this new NPC is his character's brother. I need to pick up on that and adjust my story. Jim didn't like the idea, and now this guy is only pretending to be his brother.
This has a flip side to it as well and is a good reason to write up small backgrounds for your characters. Bob wrote up a bio for Rage and in that bio it mentioned a brother Tommy. I used that in a game and Bob thought it was one of my best games ever.
Why?
Simple because I took the time and interest in his writing. I took what I was given and made it about his character. I paid attention.
I'm rambling.
www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/311719-bad-dms-gms.html
Some of the things are rather silly. I wanted to point out a few.
My biggest peeve though is DMs that mess with the basics of my character, after we started playing. I don't mind restrictions on character generation, but after we've been gaming for a few sessions, don't say my elf is actually a drow who was polymorphed and needs to find a way to reverse the spell... No, he grew up as a gardener; he knows who he is.
This was done to Joel's character being a Pirate. Geoff should have given Joel the option to debunk being a pirate. Some deception rolls should have been used here if Joel didn't like the idea. There is blame to each the player and GM. I was trying to emphasis this to Joel when I was explaining that old picture with the guy that looked like his character. Mr. Blank, does the name mean anything to you? No? OK must be a coincidence then. Notice I didn't tell him that the research found out this was his long lost grandfather.
There has to be a level of trust. As a GM you should also be able to read into your players expressions. For example (this never happened) Jim groaned loudly when I explained that this new NPC is his character's brother. I need to pick up on that and adjust my story. Jim didn't like the idea, and now this guy is only pretending to be his brother.
This has a flip side to it as well and is a good reason to write up small backgrounds for your characters. Bob wrote up a bio for Rage and in that bio it mentioned a brother Tommy. I used that in a game and Bob thought it was one of my best games ever.
Why?
Simple because I took the time and interest in his writing. I took what I was given and made it about his character. I paid attention.
I'm rambling.