The Reward that makes the Game worth DMing

[Brauron]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I think you're an awesome dm for actualling considering the players. I hate all my past dms, except for one.

[elliott20]

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]

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.

[Eldan]

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]

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]

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]

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 ), 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[bosssmiley]

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.

[Pronounceable]

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]

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]

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]

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:

Spoiler

Show

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.

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]

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]

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...

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

[mikej]

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]

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...

1. I need the creative outlet.
2. 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]

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.