What's Your DM Style?

[Smilgram]

I don't run games very often, but I'm running a Shadowrun game right now for my group because the DM for our D&D game is busy at work. At the last game, the group was trying to escape after completing a mission in a city suffering from an outbreak of a VITAS plague while being assaulted by feral and intelligent ghouls. When they finally made it to a boat and they were attacked by an enemy rigger's drone (with machine guns and missiles), at which point one of my players commented to me:

"If I had to describe your DM style, I'd call it closest to Jigsaw (from the movie Saw). Whenever we get past one threat there's always one more complicated and deadly for us to face around the next corner."

After thinking about it, I'll take that as a compliment. I always thought Jigsaw showed a lot of intelligence and ingenuity in his challenges, yet always left a way out (even if it sometimes left you crippled for life). That's a good role model for designing fun games in my book.

How about you, how do describe your DM's style? What do you DMs use as a role model for how to design fun games for your players?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I strive to GM like a martini shaker: I take all the ingredients (which includes player actions), shake it all up, and then pour it out and see what happened. Set up dominoes for the players to knock down, make actions have consequences, put powder kegs on the table and let the players throw their sparks around.

[Yukitsu]

Make the players think whatever is happening was their idea.

[Amidus Drexel]

1. Plan what the NPCs are doing, and lots of statblocks.
2. Throw PCs into the mix.
3. Improvise, and then claim it was all in the original plan.

I think some of the best scenes I had in my last campaign I had to come up with almost on the spot.

I'm also not above having my PCs die; sometimes they even kill each other. My last campaign had a pretty high lethality rate.

[Toy Killer]

I'd probably say something akin to Joker. I'm a troper at heart, and I love throwing in little puns into my encounters and story lines that take a little bit for the players to realize. It flags the NPCs and such as being important to remember for later on (after all, I won't put the effort into a throw away concept).

For example:

Spoiler

Show

The PCs hear of help needed by a Queen. She tells the PCs that she has had a problem at Blackburn, the dwarven settlement hasn't made shipments in months and she sent a ranger to go and find out what has happened and he never returned.

Along the way to Blackburn, they find the quarry the dwarves used to make their product abandoned and eventually find the ranger. He tells them that a local artificer has been turning the dwarves into half-golems and are falling irrevocably evil. He had friends in Blackburn, and the twisted crimes against nature can't be stood any longer, offering a great reward if they can A)kill the three clay half-golems, two stone half-golems, one flesh half-golem and one Iron half-golem, B) bring him the tome that the artificer is using to make these half-golems and C) kill the artificer, and put bring her artificial heart to the Ranger in a wooden box.

They go into the town, every thing is wrecked and ruined. the PCs save some survivors, hunt down the golems and find the Albino artificer, return for the reward.

About a week later, someone will roll their eyes when they realized what transpired, and usually the baddie of the adventure has a new nick name (Snow White, in this case, if you didn't get the joke) for the Players to remember her by.

^I plan on using that one soon, actually...

Whatever I decide to name her and when I decide to bring her back, I don't have to remind the players what they did or how they know her because they remember the joke. Plus, even if I don't use her again, it's still funny out of character.

I have a tendency to make real world references in game from time to time, shout outs to video games and such (Like an evil bard that used 'Would you kindly' before making suggestions, or having homunculus that teeter about saying "Are you still there?" And going "OWWwww" like the turrets in Portal). When I make encounters/adventures, I tend to name them after movies and movie quotes.

[Morithias]

Find videogame I like.

Steal plot from videogame I like and make alterations to make it original setting.

Find eroges no one has ever played.

Steal characters from games no one has ever played. Only make minor alterations to fit the new setting, since no one plays them and I'm the only one who would know them (plus the games I tend to steal from you don't want to admit you play anyways).

Find players and ask them to make characters.

Alter setting and plot according to characters made.

Introduce them to the setting and basic plot.

Wing it!

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I'm a strange cross between an over-prepared DM and a seat-of-the-pants DM. I tend to latch on to some detail of the campaign or setting and lay out a lot of plans about what that character or group is doing or how that dungeon is layed out or what that culture is like and then be super prepared on that subject and ready to wing it if the game heads in a different direction. If I expect combat, I'll have stats ready for everyone I think the PCs will fight and even if I don't I'll have a vague idea of the stats of anyone the PCs might fight. Maps are generally drawn on the fly based on the type of room that would make sense in the current location, though if there's a dungeon rather than just a castle or natural cave I'll usually plan it out in detail.

As for story style and setting, I'll start a game with a basic idea (knowing the main setting, who the villain is and what he's planning, sometimes with a few juicy set pieces I want to work in) but I'll leave lots or room for this to be adjusted and added to based on the PCs and their backgrounds and actions. If one PC is from a tiny village near the capital, then there's a tiny village near the cpital. If one PC had his family murdered and is looking for the one responsible, chances are it'll turn out it was part of the villain's plan that wasn't originally obvious. If one of the PCs has close ties to a certain powerful NPC, the plan could will expand to involve that NPC in some way. This way, there's a reason that this particular band of adventurers is facing down this particular threat which doubles as a reason the adventurers are together in the first place. If the villain is the guy who killed the cleric's parents, is an old rival of the wizard's mentor, who's in charge of the mercinaries the fighter is on the run from and whose evil plan happens to require the artifact the rogue stole, it makes perfect sense that these are the four people concerned with fighting him and it's more engaging and believable than four random guys meeting in a bar and end up overthrowing an evil duke.

I do borrow a fair amount from other sources. When I needed a background story for a queen and the founding of her nation from a period of relative chaos, I pulled the story from an obscure RPG that a grand total of 3 people I've ever met have played. The queen herself is a mix of the character from that game and a couple other characters from TV shows I like or was watching as I wrote the background. A powerful outsider who figures strongly into the campaign background has more than a little of The Doctor in him (mostly 2nd and 3rd with a bit of 10th) but with a strong dash of Obi Wan and a few personal interests and habits mandated by a PC's backstory. In my opinion, as long as I'm not distractingly blatant (I stick mostly to things that only one or two players would get if I referenced directly) and use them in ineresting ways, any of the various bits of culture bouncing around my brain is fair game.

[Tengu_temp]

Put story and characters above dungeoncrawling and gathering treasure.

Run a game with a specific premise, with PCs created specifically with that premise in mind.

Write a cool story for the game, but expect and encourage the players to get off the rails.

Create colorful and unique NPCs, but let the PCs be the stars and main characters.

Run difficult battles where it's easy to get knocked out, but hard to actually die. Reserve PC death for special, dramatic occasions.

Admit when you made a mistake and don't be afraid to retcon it. You're not some kind of untouchable authority figure looming over the table, you're another guy who wants the game to be fun, just like everyone else.

If a silly situation in the game made the players laugh, if something that happened to an NPC made them feel sad, if they got angry at a villain and if they felt awesome when the accomplished something - you know that the game was a success.

[genderlich]

I'm almost done DMing my first game. I'm obviously not a master, but I've had a great time, and this is what I've learned about myself.

Improvise a ton. Even when everything goes according to your plans, you will still need to make things up on the fly.

I'm probably more linear and obvious in my plots than I should be. I should work on that. I wanted them to go off the rails, but they never did except when they killed themselves.

My players keep saying "When DoctorStandard DMs, it's D&D Hard Mode!" I always bring them very close to defeat, making it all the more satisfying when they survive. But the only PCs that die are due to their own stupid decisions.

I kill off their allies... a lot. They only have one left alive, and she was thought to be a villain until the very end of last session.

I've tried to weave the characters' backstories into the plot, but only one really gave me anything to work with. Still, it turned out well.

There's a perfect balance zone between infodump and just not telling them anything about the plot, where they discover by themselves just enough information to keep them interested. I have yet to find it.

I'm never letting that one player be a 12 year old girl with the powers of a 11th level Oracle again.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I've tried to weave the characters' backstories into the plot, but only one really gave me anything to work with. Still, it turned out well.

This is my experience as well and I feel like it's a pretty good way to guage player expectations. A player whose entire backstory is "I used to be a soldier in an army but I got tired of following orders so now I'm a soldier of fortune" is probably looking to get something different out of a game than someone who sends you three pages about his character's mysterious lineage and possible ties to a powerful and ancient dragon. Being able to figure which one your group as a whole is closer two and balance the game so those on both ends of the spectrum get a game they can enjoy without alienating the people on the other end is one of the biggest challenges I face as a DM (with varying degrees of success.)

[Anderlith]

My style is that the PC's are professionals at what they can do but they aren't special snowflakes, if they are smart enough, strong enough, & fast enough, they will become legends. If you are cunning & wily you'll make in far in my games, I reward those that think on their feet. I like to craft my own worlds & always progress from level 1 to level 20 in the storyline.

When I run a monster encounter the creature is going to act like it should, retreat is an option & they will use tactics if they are intelligent enough (I have ran several nasty encounters such as crippling several party members from a single undead minotaur, to 6 tiny vipers poisoning half the party into unconsciousness). The players should treat the world as real, that way they are more enthralled by the story.

[Karoht]

*sitting in lawn chair at the beach*
What's my DM style?
...DM style...
...DM style...


To be honest, if it doesn't feel like an awesome music video, I'm probably not giving it 100% that day.

[Totally Guy]

I just do what the game tells me to do.

[BootStrapTommy]

Sandbox. I sandbox. I put the players in a box full of sand and left them rip.

However, I have a cat and he tends to use the sandbox as a litter box, so occasionally the players dig up cat ****. And it usually explodes in their face.

I also absolutely love players who think on their feet and out of the box. Thus I often change plans based on any brilliance the party may muster. However, I strictly enforce consequences for their mistakes.

[Zelphas]

I'm fairly new at DMing, but what I've found is that I tend to have a basic idea of what certain places look like and what people live there (I made my own demiplane for my first campaign), and then I fill in details as the players ask about things. My players, oddly enough, seem mostly happy to chug along the rails I've tentatively placed for them at the moment, so I haven't had to create anything entirely new yet, but I make up a lot as I go.

[hymer]

I'm a builder at heart. I sometimes use published material for NPC stats and other ideas, but I like to build - NPCs, nations, plots, histories, languages, subcontinents, bloodlines, cosmologies, gods, technologies... So when I came across the notion of the sandbox campaign, I felt right at home. If only it weren't so time consuming, I'd probably DM like that nearly all the time.
But another part of what I do, which I emphasize, is I ask the players to trust me. And of course do my darndest to live up to that trust, and apologize when I fail.

[Yora]

1. Plan what the NPCs are doing, and lots of statblocks.
2. Throw PCs into the mix.
3. Improvise, and then claim it was all in the original plan.

I think the result is even better if the players think they are putting you and the NPCs on the defensive, trying your best to salvage the original plan despite the heavy opposition of the PCs.

[DigoDragon]

My style? Hmm, I'm not sure if i'm describing it correctly but I like to set up my campains to put the players the "Big Damn Heroes" moment. The campaign starts with some minor issue, then quickly escalates to problem on a national scale and the PCs then gotta show up at ground zero and put the problem down (Usually with violence).

Rules-wise I play semi-loosely. Like for Shadowrun 4e, I usually don't roll against fake SIN/license rating to see if the Runner's card get's found out. Instead I just play it as the fake card's rating is the number of times that the Runner can use it before it needs to be ditched.
Worked out for my players this way.

[Dienekes]

I'm the over-prepared GM. I stat almost everything, create plans, back-up plans, contingency back-up plans, and more. It works mostly because I only GM for my close friends and I've gotten fairly good at predicting what decisions they'll make. And in the off chance they do mess up a big plan I tend to have enough prepared scenarios that I can put one of them in without worry.

[OverdrivePrime]

I'm a world-creator, sandbox GM. I've got my various metaplots going on in the background, always moving forward, ready to interact with the PCs should they become interested or stumble into them.

I create the continents, the towns, the cultures, and throw in various ruins, dungeons, NPCs and motivations. Because life is busy with a toddler around these days, I've also got a few purchased adventure paths that I've retooled to fit into my world.

The PCs get to run free and bump into stuff... and I get to see what happens. We all have a lot of fun.

[Karoht]

I usually have an origin and 6 potential endings, and not a care in the world how I get there.
My Starcraft campaign (D20 modern, heavy duty homebrew) is the first game I've run where I have an on rails plot for each session, mostly because the players seem a bit tired of the sandbox lately.

I also heavily adhere to Rule of Fun. I don't challenge my players with high level save or dies or absurd amounts of damage, I challenge them with enemies who use simple and basic tactics, with important encounters involving more advanced tactics. Think Tucker's Kobolds, but the DM isn't being a jerk.

[supermonkeyjoe]

I tend to be fairly well prepared but in very short amounts, I never plan ahead further than the next session, I will have a variety of NPCs and encounters ready to drop into the mix at a moments notice, Various events will occur unless the PCs intervene, as the PCs interfere in one scheme or another they will grow and develop until finally climaxing at the end of the campaign at which point I will look back on it all and inform my players that it all went exactly as I planned

[valadil]

I run simple plots, but I run 12 of them at the same time. When the players find a dead body, they don't know which plot(s) its attached to. Sorting out which information goes where becomes nontrivial.

I like to keep my games urban. Hard to have simultaneous plots in a dungeon.

I like humor that comes from the characters. I don't like characters that are reduced to jokes. I also like absurd situations. The sort of thing where a casual observer would wonder WTF we're playing, but there was a logical series of events that led to the situation the players are in.

I feed off the players' hate. I personally offend them with my NPCs. Then I let them kill those NPCs. It's a stupid formula but it works really well. The way I see it is if you have an irrational hatred towards an NPC it becomes a whole lot easier to portray a character who shares that same hatred.

[willpell]

I'm probably best described as something of a benevolent megalomaniac. I tend to be somewhat controlling and to have a narrowish plot - not quite railroady, but often without a lot of mapping other than in the places I'm most certain the players will go, and thus a tendency to nudge them away from going elsewhere. But on the plus side I do really try to ensure that the players are enjoying themselves, to the point of bending the world around them to as great of an extent as they're comfortable with, while still making an effort to provide surprises. My campaign worlds are virtualy always vast in scope, but sketchily enough described that I can zoom in on whatever the players are drawn to; I aim to provide versimilitude by having the world seem to operate itself, but virtually never to the point of forcing the players to participate in important events that they don't care about, or to die just because a high-level NPC felt like going on a killing spree across their path.

[LordHavelock]

1. Plan what the NPCs are doing, and lots of statblocks.
2. Throw PCs into the mix.
3. Improvise, and then claim it was all in the original plan.

I think some of the best scenes I had in my last campaign I had to come up with almost on the spot.

I'm also not above having my PCs die; sometimes they even kill each other. My last campaign had a pretty high lethality rate.

This, and always be ready to let the players fill any details you didn't already have in mind or are not story dependent.

I remember I had planned the campaign to go a certain way, but one of the players had written up such a cool backstory for their character involving their lost father (one of the other characters was his half-brother) that they decided that instead of pursing the adventure I had planned, they wanted to go the elven capital and see what they could find. I rolled with it, turned in to one of the most fun adventures we've ever played.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

*sitting in lawn chair at the beach*
What's my DM style?
...DM style...
...DM style...


To be honest, if it doesn't feel like an awesome music video, I'm probably not giving it 100% that day.

I...I feel the compulsion to write this entire song now.

[Karoht]

I...I feel the compulsion to write this entire song now.

Yeah, I have that effect some times.
I was going to push further with lyrics but I figured that might sour the humor just a little.


And yeah, I do try to line up story and action set pieces that would indeed make some pretty cool music videos.
PS-Lindsey Sterling. If you don't know who she is, look her up. I love setting up sessions with at least one of her songs as partial inspiration to a scene or two.

[Sylvos330]

I'm a Sandbox DM but to add onto it I tend to make my players characters really powerful and let them run around with their power.

My last game was VTM, it was a Sabbat game and I was using the Elder rules. Their pack ran all over the world and wrecked everything they came accross. I set up an encounter with werewolves and Pentex, each wanted the other wiped out so the players took out both camps. The werewolf combat did scare them a bit but in the end they came out alive with some fun Famori powers and Werewolf magic items.

I think I may be sick in the head...

[yosimoshe]

Start with what the players ask me to do, continue with altering it halfway in, adding their guesses about it, claiming it was my idea.

[Siegel]

I just do what the game tells me to do.

Yeah me too. I tend to only play games that have good GM advice and !procedure!.
But i also like to put difficult choices in front of the PCs that will close up certain paths for them.