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Brauron
2009-08-12, 11:10 PM
A new player is joining my D&D group in about two weeks, and I've been chatting with her, getting to know her, and vice versa. Additionally, she's been sort of "feeling me out" in regards to my DMing style and general DMing philosophy. I'm more than happy to answer any questions she has, explaining why I run games the way I do and giving examples. She also gives me hypothetical situations, asks me how I as DM would handle them, and compares my answer to what previous DMs she's played under actually did in those situations.

The two things I said that made her happiest were:

1) on the topic of character deaths: "I'm not here to work against the players. It's not my job to devise new and exciting ways to kill characters. I am here to work with the players to tell a good story, ensure my players have a good time, and ensure that I have a good time."

2) upon being asked if her character could use a type of axe from the Iron Kingdoms d20 setting: "Can you show me the stats for it?" (she does so) "Hmm, well, I'll tell you what. Just give me an in-character reason for your cleric to carry this axe, and you can have it."

I explained further that I hate simply denying things to players, at least things that wouldn't unbalance the game considerably. If a player showed up with an Umber Hulk PC, I'd ask them to reroll as a more standard race, but her having a special axe doesn't upset the game at all, so why deny it to her?

Heck, if a player wanted something more powerful then they would normally have at that level, and it wasn't game-breaking, I'd craft an adventure or series of adventures around obtaining it. If they want to enter a prestige class, maybe they need to track down an individual who can train them in its basics. If it's a magic item, maybe there's one in the possession of a local noble, who is willing to trade it for services rendered.

She was quite happy with all of this. She actually commented, "It's too soon to tell for sure, but I think you might be the best DM I've ever had the opportunity to play with, and I can already tell for sure that I'm going to have fun in your game." I was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day after getting that compliment.

So how about you, fellow DMs in the Playground? What's your little reward that cheers you on in your task of preparing and running adventures?

arguskos
2009-08-12, 11:13 PM
The reason I do it is to see my players laughing, smiling, and enjoying themselves. If I get lots of excited chatter about the session afterwards, then I succeeded as a DM.

Glimbur
2009-08-12, 11:15 PM
I do it to watch the players take the bit in their teeth and try to overthrow a city. So far it's working out for them.

HamsterOfTheGod
2009-08-12, 11:33 PM
Mongol DM: Wrong! Conan DM! What is best in life?
Conan DM: To crush the PCs, see their dice fail before you, and to hear the lamentation of their players.
Mongol DM: That is good! That is good.

mistformsquirrl
2009-08-12, 11:38 PM
Tons of things hehe <^_^>

But I think the biggest is the storytelling. I like it when my players go "... wow that was pretty damn cool."

Or when I pull out a gag, sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious, and get the whole table cracking the hell up >.> that's always good.

But yeah "Wow, that was cool" is my favorite reaction.

I generally am the same way really, I don't deny my players things barring extreme setting dissonance (and when I say "extreme" I'm talking "not even magic can justify it") or game imbalance - otherwise, it's fair game, because dammit - we're there to have fun and tell a kick arse story <^_^> not sit around nitpicking each other.

I admit, I do ask a fair bit out of my players - good backstories are a must... but it's only because *without* that, it becomes harder to make it enjoyable for them in the long run <^-^> so it's one of those things "You get out what you put in... +interest." (At least ideally, it doesn't always work of course. But usually it does.)

Bob the Urgh
2009-08-13, 01:39 AM
I think you're an awesome dm for actualling considering the players. I hate all my past dms, except for one.

elliott20
2009-08-13, 02:34 AM
I generally look forward to seeing players have a good time.

but the crowning moment for me was when with one group, they got so pumped by the game that one point, they all actually stood up, raised their arms in the air and all gave out a victory in unison after they finally overcame the obstacle I gave them.

it was a tsunami that was only rounds away from killing everything on island the players were on. Sure, the players could get away without a scratch, but one of the players decided that he wants to do more than that. So he dropped a maximized empowered time stop, and pulled out every rule abuse he could think of just so he can lay down as many walls of force he could to direct the tsunami in a different direction. The other players saw him doing this and instead of just flying off to safety they started to pitch in whatever way they could. (of course, it was a time stop, so the help was far more limited)

just seeing that effort alone made me think that alright, they should be allowed to have a roll at stopping it. I made an ad hoc roll on the spot, and ruled that the force of the tsunami was not enough to overcome the barrage of force walls, trenches, and whatever other junk the players threw down.

so just like that, an island that I originally had slated to sink into the ocean and become a later underwater adventure survived by the player's efforts. Sure, I had to re-do a lot of work later, but man it was worth it.

Navigator
2009-08-13, 02:46 AM
Mongol DM: Wrong! Conan DM! What is best in life?
Conan DM: To crush the PCs, see their dice fail before you, and to hear the lamentation of their players.
Mongol DM: That is good! That is good.
:smallbiggrin:

Eldan
2009-08-13, 02:50 AM
I remember that when we actually played around a table the last time, about two years ago, most of our "campaigns" lasted maybe three sessions before someone said "I'm bored, let's start something new". Also, our sessions often tended to be quite... goofy might be the right word, actually. Here on these boards, I actually prefer mostly serious roleplaying, but as soon as our group sat down around the table, the game was filled with bad puns, half-baked plots and players doing stupid stuff.
Then I sat down and tried to start a slightly more serious game. I ran a pre-made adventure, which was the first time we tried to do that. I worked on it a little, to make it fit the group at least. The moment when I felt truly good as a DM was when the bad guys publicly humiliated the PCs. One of the players looked at me, with a serious expression on his face and said: "This is personal. I'm gonna kill these guys."
What made it special was that in all previous sessions, meeting the Bad Guy usually ended in someone saying something along the lines of "Oooh, I get it, he's so evil. He will destroy the world. I laugh at him, then stick an axe in his face. Where's the loot."
It was the first time I actually saw some real emotion beyond vague amusement or being annoyed from the players.

Kaiyanwang
2009-08-13, 04:07 AM
The First Reward: People Having Fun. As is beautiful give a present as receive one, is Fun make people Have Fun.

Other rewards:

- See people Curious of the story you made
- See people that want to tell a Story with you

- See people Curious of the world you made
- See people, for some moments, be part of that world

- See people think about overcoming challenges
- See people work as a team to overcome challenges

- Have the absolute power
- Use that power for the Greater Good

The Last Reward: Roll a dice behind a screen and smile.

Eldan
2009-08-13, 04:11 AM
Oh god yes. The "DM smile" is always funny.

My players once spent, what, fifteen minutes writing a page-long foolproof wish. I took it, glanced over it, said "okay" and then smiled. Of course, I had no idea how to break the wish, and no intention to, but damn was their paranoia funny.

Serpentine
2009-08-13, 04:15 AM
When the players (and characters) band together, analyse every aspect of the situation, and come up with an unexpected and clever (and far different to what I made allowances for) solution to a problem. Sometimes their solution is overkill (apparently I'm not as clever as they think :smalltongue:), but hey, at least that means it's more likely to work.
Exhibit A: Rather than hide a wannabe ship deserter in an island cave, they use invisibility, illusion, Control Weather and Call Lightning to fake his death.

Last_resort_33
2009-08-13, 04:39 AM
To hear people talking about your NPCs out of game time, as if they were real people.

"What are we going to do about Marios this weekend?"
"Well we could ask for help from Manaba"
"Nah, she's crazy, and she wouldn't help us if she wanted"
"I think she's a good person... if a little nuts..."
etc...

People seeming genuinly upset when their favourite NPC turns out to be a traitor.

oxinabox
2009-08-13, 04:42 AM
being told at the end of running my first sesion (with my first group of players who weren't learning as i was)
that "I was a great DM" was a very proud moment. :smallamused:
that first season (after char gen) not everyone expected turned up (and they never did, you win some you loose some, eh).
I ran a Backstory game (off the top of my head) about what 2 the two character (who backstory knew eachother) had did.

next session:
After in the first 10 minutes the players got off the plane where the adventure was set, i just rolled with it.

Right now I start each seasion (after the players recap with themselves) with: "So, what do do you do?"
And the players create the the plot with there actions, and the way the world reacted to them.
Their main (long term) plane is to rob a large bank

They bought a house, burocratical authorities came a left a demand (a couple of days latter) that they show their forms, so records can be
and because they didn't show the forms on the same day as they bought the house. they were charge a late fee, compounded every hour.
And various beurcatic trick to increase it from a 5gp fee to about 216gp.
The PC's could afford, but they thought to get out of it by assasinating his supirior so he could be promoted (after feeling out the NPC).
Then they decide that they could frame the guy they were going to kill for a robbery, and so a robbery happened. then a murder.
and a sale.
I liked that. it was fun.
I leave the room so they can plan.

They act. the world responds, thus plot is formed.

powerdemon
2009-08-13, 05:20 AM
My DnD sessions are the only opportunity I get to see a lot of my friends so I enjoy that part a lot.

I too am fond of the "Holy crap that was cool" moments. I DM the second most often of our group and all my players tell me how much they enjoy my campaign. Any time someone compliments my DMing without being prompted makes me feel great!

Unique solutions to problems are always great! I especially love when players make good dialog choices that I didn't think of.

Last_resort_33
2009-08-13, 05:26 AM
They act. the world responds, thus plot is formed.

This is what I love about DMing... but you need proactive as opposed to reactive players, otherwise they don't know what to do and they get bored/want you to hold thier hand. I've been trying to train my players up to be proactive, and the games have improved for it.

Kaiyanwang
2009-08-13, 05:30 AM
This is what I love about DMing... but you need proactive as opposed to reactive players, otherwise they don't know what to do and they get bored/want you to hold thier hand. I've been trying to train my players up to be proactive, and the games have improved for it.

Me too I love that style but you make a good point. To improve this, is better be prepared and place 1-2 big events, so they always have something to do.

The events could not be linked to other "formed plot" but if they are is better.

nysisobli
2009-08-13, 06:12 AM
Well, i was a chess nerd throughout highschool, and i met my girlfriend.

Some say it was my dice that made her fall in love with me.

Im happily engaged soon to be married =D

Godna
2009-08-13, 06:42 AM
My Greatest Reward was the feeling of smugness from getting them to unknowingly create a stable time loop of 30mins of game play that turned out exactly turn for turn as i had wrote it and than proving it to them.

Totally Guy
2009-08-13, 06:43 AM
This is what I love about DMing... but you need proactive as opposed to reactive players, otherwise they don't know what to do and they get bored/want you to hold thier hand. I've been trying to train my players up to be proactive, and the games have improved for it.

I thought you were training the opposite. Every plan I came up with ended up with me ruining a npc's plan to accomplish my intended goal.

Plus Villain's act, Heroes react, TV and Comic wouldn't lie to us for so many generations. So maybe we should all start playing as vampires or something.:smalltongue:

bosssmiley
2009-08-13, 07:06 AM
Asking "Are you sure?" and watching the players tie themselves in elaborate knots trying to second guess themselves, the game world, logic and the rules all at once.

Douglas Hofstadter missed a trick there. :smallamused:

Pronounceable
2009-08-13, 07:16 AM
Mongol DM: Wrong! Conan DM! What is best in life?
Conan DM: To crush the PCs, see their dice fail before you, and to hear the lamentation of their players.
Mongol DM: That is good! That is good.

But I was gonna say that...

Rhiannon87
2009-08-13, 07:54 AM
I'll be honest, I enjoy playing far more than DMing... I'm relatively new to the DM's side of things, and while it's fun, I definitely enjoy myself more when I'm playing a single character. But our primary DM needs a break every now and then, as do the players-- the main campaign is high stress, generally speaking, and my game... isn't. It's inadvertently wacky.

So for me, I guess it's the seeing everyone having fun and enjoying themselves. And if I occasionally have to fudge a die roll or end a spell a round early in order to keep that going, so be it. I'm not there to make my friends suffer.

Aotrs Commander
2009-08-13, 08:12 AM
The look on the fellow-Naruto-fan player's face in my last session when I introduced the chieftain of the Hook Horrors as the 'Hook'-kage...

Or that time the BBEG turned out to be Cthulu Juju the Demon Monkey; and the appearance of the Big Bad Evil Guy, who is known as the BBEG for short, that is so that time can be saved on the telling of his name, was Cthulu Juju, for that is how he was named and designated so as to be identified and differentiated from other villains who were not Cthulu Juju (etc...)

Or the utter panic on the player's faces when that evil apparent cleric lady shapeshifted into a dragon...

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-08-13, 08:22 AM
A few things:

1) Getting them to actually love/hate the NPCs. I had one NPC last game who they'd almost had a chance to defeat but had slipped out of their grasp and disappeared mid-battle. (They eventually discovered he was using mind-altering magic to escape, which made them hate him more.) He sent a ton of notes to them, always addressing them "To the Freaks" (because everyone was playing a weird-looking character with tons of templates) and signing them "~An Enemy." Every single time I handed them a typed note from him, they read it aloud and thought of ways to kill him, and sometimes they talked about him more than about finishing the actual plotline!

2) "Getting" the players--you know, that one thing you do that the players absolutely hate you from the depths of their soul for in the first few minutes, and then keep saying how awesome it was for years afterwards. Spoiler'd for length:
That enemy guy from the last point? They never caught him. When they caught up with the BBEG and sent him back to his own multiverse, they discovered that it was that guy who was his right-hand elf, that guy who had been telling him where they were all the time, that guy who had been causing most of their problems. The Enemy sent them a note that was obviously hastily-written (I used a messy handwriting font) at the very end of the battle; the bottom said "P.S.: Turn over for more." They were all reading it together, and when they turned it over they found 5 explosive runes and a sepia snake sigil. They were all wounded from the battle and were brought down to single-digit HP...except the one NPC who had been hiding with them and who had been helping them find the Enemy due to an intense rivalry and due to the fact that they had been friends for years yet the Enemy had erased all of his memories of him to hide better.

They tried and failed to resurrect him; when they searched him to find out why, they discovered that his thinaun dagger was gone, which had been a present from the Enemy when they were still friends. He couldn't have known their ally was there...yet under the explosive runes, on the only part of the note that wasn't blown away, was this: "See, [ally's name]? I told you I would have the last laugh. That dagger has been waiting for this for many years; you should probably check the foci of your contingencies more often." The fact that the Enemy had been planning this for years, that he had mindraped his best friend and then stole his soul, the fact that he was so completely evil as to do all the horrible things he did...one player's yelled "The next time we play in this world, I will hunt this elf and tear him limb from limb and send his soul to the deepest possible layer in the Abyss" actually woke up some other people in the dorm. :smallbiggrin:

3) Seeing players come up with a totally off-the-wall idea and adapting to it. My last campaign involved the construction of a giant flying turtle fortress complete with disruptor cannons and the capture of a githyankyi scout ship which they later made sentient, the enslavement of an entire race on the Plane of Shadow which they turned into kaorti, and the establishment of an interplanar trade network. Yeah...not exactly what I'd planned for.

Scarlet Tropix
2009-08-13, 08:46 AM
Pulling off a dungeon/adventure so unspeakably awesome that the players all swear an oath to come back and watch it if I ever play it with a different group.

It only happened once but it made me quite happy.

EDIT:
Oh, and any time the players manage to use your own in-game politics against you. They grow up so fast.

valadil
2009-08-13, 08:51 AM
Brauron, your new PC is right that you have the best attitude/philosophy a GM can have :-D

I prefer playing, but I still GM periodically. I do it because...

I need the creative outlet. I enjoy making my players happy

mikej
2009-08-13, 08:56 AM
I'll never know. I prefer to play rather the DM. For the first few sessions I did DM, I found the interaction with NPC's and the players to be fun, also breaking thier "it moves, then kill it" mindset with fascinating role-play options. It's all about the challenge, either you're behind the DM's screen ( or whatever you use ) or in front of it.

Brauron
2009-08-13, 09:01 AM
Brauron, your new PC is right that you have the best attitude/philosophy a GM can have :-D

I prefer playing, but I still GM periodically. I do it because...

I need the creative outlet. I enjoy making my players happy


Thanks!

I built my philosophy by playing under/observing about fifteen other DMs. I puzzled out what they did that I thought worked best, and what they did that I thought just flat-out didn't work. And I work to incorporate what I like best into how I run things, while avoiding bad ideas.

For example, one combat in the first campaign I played in got bogged down because the DM decided to look up whether casting Invisibility on the Rogue would allow him to Sneak Attack the Ogre. For some reason he thought it wouldn't work *shrug* but the combat bogged down and we all got bored while he looked through the PHB and MM. That's where I first discovered the Rule of Cool -- if an action can lead to awesome things happening, and makes the PCs happy, let it work. Check the rules later.

The_If
2009-08-13, 09:19 AM
I'm not a DM of any sort(yet), and frankly I've only had experience with 3 so far.
Two have been mediocre and terrible, but the third was wonderful. I had some trouble understanding 3.5 grappling and as I reached for the book he said "Nah, don't bother with that black hiole. I'll come up with something and we'll write it down next time."
It was amazing to have someone put the narrative first, especially after having a previous guy retroactively deal damage based on a misread roll. At the end of the day I thanked him, and he smiled so wide it looked like the top of his head would fall off.
Everyone who's like this (smiling or Rule of Cool/Flow of Play) is equally awesome. Thank you.

Sipex
2009-08-13, 09:25 AM
I love making my PCs happy and letting them have fun. Sometimes this is done by freaking them out with appropriate story, getting them to hate/love an npc (our wizard is currently searching for a young girl who's being passed through a slavery chain. Not the main story but it's a personal goal of his since he met her), giving them chances to use the rule of cool (our rogue sliding down a railing on a trash can lid, our warrior leaping from a tree and impaling her enemy with her spear) and giving them laughs.

For instance someone in the party will be trying on a belt which changes the wearers gender and can only be removed by a remove curse ritual (we play 4.0). They won't know it until it happens but my party is very good humoured so they'll all enjoy it.

Jair Barik
2009-08-13, 09:30 AM
Making the players go wow
its amazing how much fun they got out of seeing an NPC Assasin pull a pair of loaded handcrossbows from his robes and dual wield fire them at the enemy (despite it being highly ineffective)

truemane
2009-08-13, 09:48 AM
I don't play table-top anymore. But when I did I was most often the DM. It's all been said already, but I got the most satisfaction when the story and game world and the experience were so immersive that, even if only for the smallest moment, they didn't play the game, they lived it.

I can remember a time when the PC's had broken into the BBEG's fortess and were poking around looking for stuff, when they heard the sound and voice of his bodyguard approaching. They had been soundly beaten by this guy once before, and when I said it was his voice, all five of them sat straight up and their eyes went wide and their mouths dropped open and one of them blurted out, "Oh my god we're all going to die."

Fear. Actual, real, honest-to-goodness fear. Because of something I made up in my head. Beautiful.

I love Dm'ing. I love the juice of it, that the whole game hinges on your abilitiy to make the imaginary seem real, that it's all up to you. When a PC throws you a curve-ball you have to take it in and give them something real and consistent and interesing in return.

Myou
2009-08-13, 10:37 AM
Grateful hugs. :smallsmile:

Project_Mayhem
2009-08-13, 10:55 AM
It's the free pizza that does it. I'm a poor student, and getting a few meals a week payed for is a bonus

eepop
2009-08-13, 11:07 AM
Its delayed gratification, but nothing is quite like having players say to each other years later "You remember that one time when such and such happened? That was so awesome!".

When I heard like six years after we played it two players talking about
"Do you remember that time that Turkin charged into the barracks and killed like a dozen guys by himself? That was so awesome!"

They then went on to talk about cool moments from that campaign for like an hour.

Jack_Banzai
2009-08-13, 12:28 PM
I think my favorite moment as a GM was after a long and extremely complicated Vampire: the Masquerade campaign involving a ton of city politics, a huge cast of unique characters, a couple of dozen intersecting plotlines, and a satisfying conclusion. I had my players begging, literally begging to revisit the setting. Phone calls and emails from various sources for weeks afterward. That was a beautiful feeling.

Dienekes
2009-08-13, 12:44 PM
3 simple things.

1) crafting a great memorable story

2) That odd sensation when the PCs actually surprise me

3) To watch their facial expressions when something terrible, or something that completely screws them up occurs, often by there own doing. (I will always treasure that shocked, surprised, and scared expression when one of my PCs effectively framed themselves of murder)

Jarawara
2009-08-13, 02:05 PM
A memorable moment for me:

I had just pulled the 'totally unexpected, cool uber-ploy' on my players, putting them in a situation they could not have expected, when one of my players looked over at me and said...

Player: "Jar, you surprise me."

The simple honesty of that statement caught me off guard, and so I answered with a very solemn, heartfelt voice:

Me: "Thank you, I really mean that."

I welled up with pride, knowing I had truly caught them off guard and delighted them... wait, what did she mean by that... doubt began to close in around me...

Me: "Uhhh... Surprise. Is that a good thing?"

Player: "Yes, yes, I like being surprised."

Me: "Ah, ok then. I shall now return to my previous welling of pride."

I then sat there with a stupid grin plastered on my face as my players LoL'ed at me.

*~*

Yep, throwing my players for a loop is a good thing. Having them compliment me for throwing them for a loop is a GREAT thing. :smallcool:

powerdemon
2009-08-13, 02:07 PM
Yep, throwing my players for a loop is a good thing. Having them compliment me for throwing them for a loop is a GREAT thing. :smallcool:

True that man.

Umael
2009-08-13, 02:19 PM
Lots of things, when the game is done right.

For me, one of the best moments I ever had was while running one of the most enjoyed games (d20 Rokugan, incidentally), in which I would throw obstacle and role-playing after obstacle and role-playing at them. It was the culmanation of weeks and weeks, something like 18 games worth, of RL waiting.


During the third game session, the PCs go rescue a Crane Clan courtier who had been kidnapped by bandits. The courtier in question is a rather beautiful but somewhat frail woman. The first PC to get to here is a Crab Clan bushi (very brusque, aggressive, duty-bond, gruff... you get the idea). I decided right then that she fell in love with him.

That NPC showed back up a few times, most notably as a brief stint as a pirate (for those of you familiar with the setting, she allied with the Mantis Clan for a bit), before the big show. It was at the end of the first half of the campaign, when the player of that Crab was going to be leaving to go to university. He told me that he couldn't make it for the second-to-last game session (of that half of the campaign), and maybe not for the last game session.

On the third-to-last game session, the group was sailling back to the mainland, mission accomplished, when an evil talisman given to the Crab activated. A Shadowlands monster showed up in his cabin, grabbed him, and took both of them through the ship hull and into the water. End of game session, his PC is gone, maybe permanently.

Second-to-last game session, the PCs find a Jade Monk, who has incredible power against Shadowlands creatures.

The last game session, the player makes it. I brief him on what happened while he was gone - his PC has no memory of what happened, but his previously minor Shadowlands Taint has exploded, turning his character into a demented and twisted mockery of his former self. We worked out a little scenario (more like a script, but he loved it because we were both creating the story) of how and why and what would happen when his character gets re-introduced, mostly involving him and his nemesis, another Shadowlands Tainted mockery of a bushi.

So group is talking to their daimyo (liege lord), Hiruma Kage, with the Crane and a few other important NPCs around, when this rival shows up in a dramatic entrance. Kage's men get ready to kill the Shadowlands monstrosity, with the Crab PC bursts in, denouncing his rival and demanding the two fight. Kage orders the other PCs to back away, content to let the two Shadowlands creatures duke it out, willing to deal with the victor.

Very dramatic fight takes place, in which the rival actually manages to strike and drop the Crab PC. As the rival is gloating, the Crab PC gets back up behind him and takes the rival's head off with one strike.

Before Kage orders his men to open fire with jade-tipped arrows, the Jade Monk steps forward and places his hand on the Crab PC. The Shadowlands Taint fades away, leaving the Crab PC as he was.

After some RPing back and forth,
Kage: What happened here was quite significant. Now, I have one last request of you, as daimyo.
Crab PC: (OOC) Great, here it comes. *expects to be ordered to commit seppuku* (IC) Of course, Hiruma-sama.
Kage: I request that you marry (the Crane) and take her name.

Every Single One of My Players: (OOC) WHAT?!???

*laugh*
They NEVER saw it coming.
I have gotten most of them with my twists and turns in the story (all very reasonable in the context), but that was the ONLY time I got every single one of my players off-guard.

Another_Poet
2009-08-13, 03:21 PM
She actually commented, "It's too soon to tell for sure, but I think you might be the best DM I've ever had the opportunity to play with, and I can already tell for sure that I'm going to have fun in your game." I was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day after getting that compliment.


I think I sense love in the air :)

Rixx
2009-08-13, 03:31 PM
My DM is wonderful. he's really good at making the world really immersive, and he's a masterful improvisor. He used to have a little trouble balancing encounters for us, but he's gotten much, much better about that, so now we have consistently challenging (but not impossible) battles.

He can really bring the characters we interact with to life, too. He's a really good voice actor, and can create and mimic different voices and manneurisms really well. He can tell us we hear a voice behind us, speak a line, and we all know immediately who it is.

He can come up with these really deep characters out of nowhere, too. I remember when we were doing the standard "shopping around for items" grind, I told him, "I go and see the shopkeeper, who I'm sure has some memorable quirk." He took that as a challenge, and after about 30 seconds of thinking to himself and making faces, came up with Trunk Stoneberry, a Dwarven former adventurer with a low, grisly voice who constantly told us disturbing war stories and freaked our characters right out. (He has since been rolled up.)

He's also really good at giving us good out-of-battle challenges, and rewards us when we perform well. For example, we got captured by Elves for intruding in their forest, seeking refuge from a townful of angry people. However, since we were all very cooperative and well behaved during the ordeal (depsite his multiple attempts at tempting us to do something rash or unwise), he rewarded us - the elves, sympathetic to our plight, gave us some magic items when they released us.

He also outwitted my character with a bard character of his. the embarrassing thing, though - he outwitted me. Out of character. I totally fell for his tricks, constantly.

He lets us play off each other really well, too. He'll often present us with situations that let us just bounce off each other as characters, and all the people I play with just love getting into character and seeing what happens. For example, I have a female character who has a mild crush on another player's character, who seems to reciprocate the sentiment at least a little. We're both male (and straight), and don't find it weird or awkward at all - it's just how the characters interact with each other, and we have a lot of fun with it.

My fellow players and my DM are all super awesome. I don't think I'll ever find a better tabletop group again.

Brauron
2009-08-13, 03:35 PM
I think I sense love in the air :)

Heh, well, I'm in a very happy relationship, and she's in a very happy relationship, so I don't think so. Though oddly enough, she and my girlfriend have the same first name.

powerdemon
2009-08-13, 03:36 PM
Though oddly enough, she and my girlfriend have the same first name.

All the better! You'll never accidentally say the wrong name! :smallbiggrin:


Sorry, had to make that joke. Back to the topic :smallwink:

Shademan
2009-08-13, 03:41 PM
All the better! You'll never accidentally say the wrong name! :smallbiggrin:


Sorry, had to make that joke. Back to the topic :smallwink:

a joke like that wins a monocle from the gentleman-perv!

Rhiannon87
2009-08-13, 03:49 PM
Something that I try to do when I notice it for my DM is praise his intricate plots and backstories for villains. The man is getting his doctorate in psychology and goes out of his way to make sure that what people are doing in the campaign has a sort of personal, internal logic to it. For instance, we were dealing with Strahd in Castle Ravenloft, and he kept totally mind-f**king us with telepathic messages and psychological warfare and stuff. He seemed oddly fixated on a few things, though: my character's brother (who she'd never met), sex in general (kept offering characters incubi or succubi), among other things. And then we find out his backstory and I'm all like "holy crap that all makes sense now!" Our DM was beaming.

Similarly, he recently set up a group of thieves that hit the party and stole a bunch of our stuff and beat us up horribly. After we murdered them with murdery death and he explained just HOW we were able to detect our weapons and the guy in charge on the other side of a door literally a second before the inn we were all in exploded (psionic power called Fiery Discorporation, used for fun and profit), we were all like "damn, man, that's just awesome". Again with the beaming.

Considering the number of times we berate him for murdering our characters or rib him for failing saves when it really benefits us, I think some praise for a well-executed plan goes a long way. Although usually in the latter case he just seems kind of stunned/flabbergasted that he failed a save by 1 and now his Ocular Demon is made of glass.

Nero24200
2009-08-13, 04:04 PM
I think one of my best moments DMing involved a romance between two PCs.

The group were in a city, due to previous games they had taken upon themselves to hunt the tarrasque and where there to find infomation (since this city was the last to come under attack). Since it was late IG, I expected the PC's to simply rest.

Instead two decided to explore the city (the third player didn't seem to interested in the campaign, or future ones, it's now at a point where he doesn't join us).

I like to put alot of thought into the towns and NPC's incase the PC's try something unexpected. When the two decided to try a IC date, they went about town. WIth the amount of detail I was able to give them when they went to various places, they seemed impressed.

To this day they think I actually planned it out simply due to how well I was able to describe the scene, date and all, when I honestly didn't expect they would and improvised the entire time.

Korivan
2009-08-13, 04:08 PM
In general, I'm just happy when the players are advancing and having fun becoming attatched to thier characters. I'm not a fan as a DM watching a person just throw away a character and go with something else just because they got bored with the current character. I also love it when I see the players working together to overcome the stuff I throw at them. The selfishness and backstabbing of Evil campaigns never sat right with me. Ever since we've switched from 2nd to 3rd and ditched a few problem players...Its...been like a long good shower after a hard days work in the sun.

I'm not very good at planning story's out, usually I have to come up with something on the spot. I love seeing it work out for the players and when they enjoy a good plot. But after a few years, I can honostly say I know my players. 60% fightin, 5% puzzles, 30% fun, 5% HOLY &*#$!!!(surprises if you didnt guess :smallwink:).

On a side note, the newest thing that makes it all worth it is watching my 5 month old son pick up my huge D20 and "roll" my players fate. Its funny watching them tell him to roll low. "NO, not another critical hit!!!. Bad Baby!!!

thubby
2009-08-13, 04:20 PM
seeing them racking their brains trying to get around one of my many dynamic encounters is always fun. (i have done horrifying things with low level mooks)

though i gotta say, the best is probably my players remembering my NPCs. one of the reasons I started DMing is because i always had a million character ideas that as a player went unseen.