What even is Style?

[SilverStud]

Ok, so as the title mentions, what is style?

To give some context to this question, here is my short story.

I have been DMing for a while now, and thoroughly enjoying it. I get the odd complaint now and then (chance to improve: yay!), but mostly what I hear is this:

"I really enjoy your DM style."

"I think you have a fun DM style."

"Your DMing style just isn't what I'm looking for as a player."

What doe this mean? What are these people telling me?

What goes into someone's "DM Style"? What are some different traits and behaviors that could be considered, collectively, a DM's style?

Thoughts?

[mgshamster]

They're talking about the way you think and the decisions you make as a DM.

There's lots of different ways to DM (aka DM Styles). Some DMs are rules heavy, insisting on following the rules as written wherever they can. Some DMs are fast and loose with the rules. Some DMs run a game to make the PCs be heroic. Some DMs are out to punish PCs and players for daring to go against their pre-written story.

I've even seen DMs who get pissed and punitive for players daring to use math to prove a point.

What they're talking about is your personality as a DM and how you run a game. Seems you found some good players who mix well with your personality. Good job!

Happy gaming. :)

[Rysto]

It's going to be impossible to get a definitive answer. Different people are going to be referring to different things when they talk about "style", and sometimes they won't even be able to give you a precise definition if you were to press them. People's subjective judgements are often based on criteria that they aren't even consciously aware of. Some things that they might mean:

- The tone (http://theangrygm.com/tone-policing-sir-bearington/) of your campaign. Think of the works of authors like Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkien or Glen Cook. All of them wrote fantasy novels, but the tone of those novels is quite different. I'm simplifying a lot here, but Pratchett mainly wrote light-hearted, humourous stuff. JRR Tolkien wrote serious tales of epic battles between terrible evils and great heroes. Glen Cook also more serious fantasy novels, but there were a lot more shades of grey in his characters. Some people like all three styles, but other people have particular preferences, and won't enjoy games (or novels) that don't match the tone that they're looking for. There's likely nothing wrong with either the game's tone or the player's preference, there's just not a match here

- The core engagements (http://angrydm.com/2014/01/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/) that your game evokes. Basically, different players (and DMs!) enjoy different aspects of TTRPGs. Some people want to explore. Some people want to overcome tough challenges. If a DM's game doesn't engage a player in the their preferred way, they're likely to enjoy the game less. Again, the existence of such a mismatch doesn't necessarily mean that the DM is doing a bad job. If a DM doesn't enjoy presenting certain kinds of engagements, that's okay. DMs need to be having fun, too. But it does mean that there will be a class of players for whom their style won't work.

[Breashios]

It's going to be impossible to get a definitive answer. Different people are going to be referring to different things when they talk about "style", and sometimes they won't even be able to give you a precise definition if you were to press them. People's subjective judgements are often based on criteria that they aren't even consciously aware of...

This.

Then, what you can do...

When they give you the compliment, just smile and say "Thank you. I appreciate your input." (Or however you would express that simple Thank you in your own words.)

When they are being critical of your "style", say the same thing. Then later when you can speak with them alone, just ask for some specific things you might do to improve their experience (without promising anything).

It is important to do this in a one on one setting. You don't want to start a gripe session. Try not to defend yourself to them, just listen and incorporate what you can see would improve everyone's experience. Just listening to their input without comment may help them appreciate your "style" as well. Don't feel pressure to adopt any suggestions if you don't see how they would improve everyone's experience, unless you are certain it wouldn't hurt anyone else, but would improve that players experience.

[Tetrasodium]

Your best bet is to ask them what they like about it, sometimes you realize people love stuff you didn't even know you were doing. You could have four different players who say that to you & they all come back with a completely different thing that may or may not conflict

Player A: I love the way you describe the evironment because it feels so real & even more so when you layer on more as we do stuff. The way you went into all that detail about the needles on that bluegreen pine bursting into popping crackling flames around the orc falling to the ground from joe's fireball was so cool
Player B: I love the way everything we fight acts like it wants to live & doesn't just exist to be an exp baloon. Plu it's awesome how they talk to each other during combat
Player C: Honestly, I think there's too much combat, but I love the way dungeons & such unfold around us as we do all that creative stuff working our way through. I'd be happy even if there was nothing to fight in dungeons
Player D: I love that you have so many fights for us to kill things in.
etc

[Ninja_Prawn]

I agree with the above. The main pillars of style are your approach to the rules (strict RAW, flexible, fast&loose, homebrew), tone (serious, comedic, horror, etc.) and core engagements (largely determined by campaign structure: are you providing a world full of secrets to discover, lots of challenging fights, deep and engaging NPCs, etc.? It's possible to hit three or four of the main engagement types at once, but no one can fit all of them into the same game).

To those I would add that your writing/acting chops can count towards style. After all, you're having to represent a world full of characters and being able to sell them as unique and interesting when they need to be gives people the impression of a polished style. Maybe how you keep track of information is another aspect? Like, if you keep a big folder of notes or just wing it. For example, I put a lot of effort into curating my OOC thread(s), to make the game as easy as possible to play. That seems like a 'style' thing. I guess how you run the table in general is a style issue - how you deal with arguments and disruptions, whether or not you provide food & drink, that sort of thing.

[SilverStud]

Wow, that was really helpful. Thanks a ton, guys! I definitely have a better understanding now.

[Anderlith]

Its like movie/tv directing, some times you can just tell that a certain director did a movie because of something you see/experience.

Because DMing is just another form of medium you can develop a style as well.