101 types of GMs

[elliott20]

edit: apparently, there are stuff out there written about it. note to self, use the term "Game Master" or "DM" rather than GM lest I'm looking for a car dealer.

I would just like to start a thread about kinds of GMs you've come across

1. the novice: he doesn't know the rules, he doesn't really know what he's doing. But man, he's so excited about this game that he's about to burst into flames in his seat! often, this is someone who was really just pushed into the role of GM because he's the only one who has really read the books at all. could turn into any other kind of GM, depending upon their experience.

2. the railroader: he has a master plan, and the players are screwing it all up for him! Dammit, why can't players appreciate complex plot exposition when given to them? these guys are prone to create DMPCs to guide the players around, create impossibly inflexible situations, and generally force the players onto doing tight rope walks through his game. Really though, sometimes, you wonder why the guy just doesn't go ahead and write a book instead of involving other people in the creative process.

3. the combat fiend: like his player counterpart, this guy knows one thing and he knows it well: combat. His encounters are deadly, his minions are a force to be reckoned with. Playing with this game requires that you bring your A-game to the table. (That is, your A-game crunch ability) He might be a good story teller, or he could be a horrible one. It doesn't matter. What matters is that if you're GOING to fight, a lot.

4. weenie: a guy once said "say yes or roll dice" as an axiom for GMing. Well, the weenie forgot the second part of that advice. Maybe it's because he just doesn't want to upset his players by frustrating them, or maybe he doesn't put enough thought into his encounters, but the players pretty bulldoze right through him and sometimes can get bored doing it. (it was, after all, too easy)

5. the riddler: puzzles, puzzles, and more puzzles. This guy probably solves rubik's cubes for fun and times himself to see how fast he can solve it. You will never find yourself doing more puzzle work than with this guy. That's all fine and dandy if you too are a puzzle lover. But god help you if you're not the type who can do Sudoku in your head. At some point you'll get stuck, and you're going to be staring at a puzzle while the entire game comes to a complete halt.

6. the sociologist: this GM is often less interested in actually playing the game and more interested in using the system to perform social engineering. He might not produce a good storyline, but ask him what the GDP of the good elven nation of woodliness is and he can give it to you adjusted for last year inflation values too.

what kinds have you seen?

[Crow]

Do a search. Also, the common name for the "railroader" is actually The Conductor.

[nobodylovesyou4]

there was a thread just like this somewhere, but its lost in the annals of GiTP now. i do remember one gm type from it though:

7. The Historian. The historian has a world all fleshed out, knows the economics of the cities, what wars are being fought and where, etc etc. However, he has also worked out what has happened the last one thousand years, where it happened, and why. He will jump on any chance to give you a twenty mnute lecture on stuff you don't care about. Often a master storyteller, and he'll let you know it.

[elliott20]

ahh, thank you. my google-fu has been weak.

[Swordguy]

Assuming this one continues, it'll be interesting to see the proportion of "good" archetypes to "bad" archetypes.

[TheCountAlucard]

8. "The Coddler." This guy cares more about your character than you do. He'll give you wealth of a character twelve levels higher, and will have the big bad stop fighting, just to keep your character alive.

9. "Mr. Cutscene." A distinct form of railroading, this person treats it like a video game, letting the big bad make a long speech, even though the players have the surprise round. If a scene calls for you being hit on the head and knocked out, it will happen, without a single roll of the dice.

[nobodylovesyou4]

10. "The Director". This type of DM is better suited to making a movie, because you may as well be sitting around listening to him describe a scene from a movie to you. If a fight is going well, expect an NPC to come in and fight the enemy for you. Every battle is basically the PC's siting on the sidelines while the epic battle for the safety of the world unfolds before them.

[Hyozo]

11: The PC killer. This is the DM who plays against the players instead of with them. Sometimes he'll give you the toughest traps and enemies with CR's close to that of the group, most of the time he'll throw the CR system out the window and you'll never win a fight against his NPCs.

[The_Werebear]

there was a thread just like this somewhere, but its lost in the annals of GiTP now. i do remember one gm type from it though:

7. The Historian. The historian has a world all fleshed out, knows the economics of the cities, what wars are being fought and where, etc etc. However, he has also worked out what has happened the last one thousand years, where it happened, and why. He will jump on any chance to give you a twenty mnute lecture on stuff you don't care about. Often a master storyteller, and he'll let you know it.

Glad to know my minor contribution is still floating around. I'm still guilty of it too.

12. SWIM! SWIM FOREVER! This DM has an impossibly deep campaign world filled with dozens of competing factions, interesting NPC's, and fascinating histories. What it lacks is a coherent plot. The PC's wander about in a massive campaign world having no idea what they are supposed to be doing. Eventually, the players will be weeping for a railroader just to have some goals.

[EndlessWrath]

I've seen quite a few varients of all the ones so far...and quite a few mixtures.... such as railroader/weenie/swim swim swim/mimic when we had our Nd20 dm quit... one of the players took his PC and made the main NPC... trust me, we haven't killed him yet..its been a year...

otherwise:

13. The Mimic: One who takes everything story based from his favorite book/movie/tv show or even a previous campaign creating nothing truly original and making the game a complete mirror image of zed media thing. i.e. someone following a TV show like Star trek or Naruto, every meeting is the next episode....

14. ???-nators: The Clueless DM. Never plans ahead for anything but rather improvises everything. This form of dming...I'm guilty of.

15. The Submissionator: A specific form of ???-nators. One who never plans ahead but rather lets the players have the reigns.

[nobodylovesyou4]

15. The Submissionator: A specific form of ???-nators. One who never plans ahead but rather lets the players have the reigns.

I'm thinking it may be my fault, but I had a DM like this. Whenever he said something, I said, "No, do this instead," and he did. He figured that since I have more experience, I knew what I was talking about (I didnt).

Wow, that makes me sound terrible...

[thegurullamen]

I myself am a Sociologist Combat Fiend. Why not put that degree to work figuring out why the BBEGs of the world want to decimate and destroy the PCs while throwing 3,872 orcs, 14 malevolent intelligent artifacts wielded by fallen archons and a nine-headed tarrasque in their path?

More in keeping with the tone of the thread:

16) The Figment: This DM weaves the world the PCs play in with such a light touch, it almost seems as if he isn't there except to say whether or not an attack hits. Tends to offer the most immersive games, but sadly prone to DM Warping, gradually changing from an effective DM to one of the others listed above or below, especially The Mimic.

[EndlessWrath]

I myself attempt to be a mixture of all the good ones and none of the bad ones...but... I end up mixing everything. I've found a balance though between RP and

17) The Uncaring: The sadest form of DM, and usually the shortest lasting... This DM is indifferent about the game, and only is running one cause A) nothing better to do or B) was made to by a friend... usually this results in Quitting or making a short campaign.

18) the Balancer: a DM that plays a mixture or Role-playing and "Roll-playing" mixing intricate story-lines and unique characters with the element of chance given by dice rolling. I attempt to be guilty of this one.

[BRC]

I remember making these threads in the days of yore.
Let's try
19) The Headhunter: This DM dosn't just kill you. Any DM can declare that gravitationally inclined rocks cause total loss of life, but that's not good enough for The Headhunter. For Him, it's all in the chase, wearing your PC's down bit by bit before throwing you up against a CR appropriate, yet horribly unbalanced encounter. Afterwards he will laugh and hand you a blank character sheet for your next PC, he'll take the old one, to add to his collection.

[quiet1mi]

thats where my Npcs come from.... and if they are super strong and unbeatable, i will make that the villain of the next game

20)the rules lawyering war gamer who wants story in his game and has the super ability to be very long winded and run out of things to say when it gets to be the players turn to respond: I think it is self explanatory...

[Tengu_temp]

20. The Cynic - don't play an even remotely good character in his campaign. The world will eat you.
21. The Idealist - don't play an even remotely evil character in his campaign. The world will eat you.

[BizzaroStormy]

The Randomizer: You have no idea what you're getting yourself into and neither does your DM. This type of DM keeps a well organized binder full of all types of charts and has a die-rolling program written into his expensive calculator. Where will the group end up? A broom closet? A large yet empty castle? Tehe anus of a colossal red dragon? Only the dice will tell.

[darkzucchini]

Well I see myself in a couple of these, mainly the Historian/Sociologist. Anyway, here are a couple more that further flush out my style of DMing.

22 The Tactition: While this DM might not pit the PCs against such overwhelming odds as the Battle Fiend, but expect to constantly be fighting on the edge of cliffs, across bridges, in valleys surrounded by hidden archers. This DM is not satisfied with simply attacking the PCs every round, but must grapple the Wizard, bullrush the Rogue out of flanking, and constantly trip the Fighter. Expect heavy PC casualties unless the PC are also so tactically inclined.

23. Davy Jones: Fear water, for water is the player killer. The PCs in this DM's world know to avoid the water, which is unfortunate, seeing as many combat encounters take place on bridges, boats, or underground pools. Only in this DMs game will PCs take Skill Focus: Swim. Seriously, I think over have the combat deaths that I have had in my games over the past few years have been due to drowning. Hurray for grappling underwater!!!

[Treguard]

24. The Pedant: "You're making camp for the night, do you have your bedroll? What about your flint, firewood, food, fodder for the horses, cooking pot, water, blankets (hey, it gets cold in the desert at night!)" etc... Meticulous to a fault, this DM, striving for realism in his game, will let no action go unaccounted from a party's inventory. Whilst this may at first seem beneficial in immersing the players within the campaign's world, such a DM can become bogged down in detail (the location of money on a person/ a fragile item after a nasty fall etc), slowing the action to a crawl. Worse, such DMs are prone to becoming petty, punishing their players for forgetting such minor details and following it through to the letter.

Often tags along for the ride if the Historian is in the driving seat, confusing players with obscure cultures, customs and laws that only the DM would truly know of.

[elliott20]

25. The Space Nut: This GM loves Sci-Fi. Every game, no matter what kind of background, will have SOME level of Sci-Fi elements thrown in for good measure. Fantasy? you'll see iron golems with highly sophisticated a mechanical parts. Modern? futuristic weapon labs. Pulp? Far-future tech that humanity has only dreamed of. Not necessarily good or bad per se. But rather, if you've gamed with him before, you know exactly what he'll throw in for flavor.

26. The Signature: Every campaign references something else you guys have done before. It might be just a little nod to the past, or it could be an outright story-arc featuring the cast of the last campaign. When done right, it really puts a smile on the player's faces since they feel they've directly contributed to the world somehow. when done incorrectly, the players will feel like they've done it all already.

[krossbow]

27. The B-movie scientist: Gives players access to wildly dangerous situations without considering the possible repercussions. What could possibly go wrong?

[Xyk]

28. The Enthusiast: has a different voice for every NPC, and really gets into the backstory of every NPC. Sometimes, it is good to have nameless NPCs. These impress me when combined with improvisers.

29. The Monotone: Has the same voice for every character, no matter the situation (be it torture or overjoy). There are often more nameless NPCs.

I tend to be a conducter sort. Except when I play. I often play chaotic selfish characters who really have no reason to save the princess from the castle of evil. The monetary reward is really not needed for me to be completely happy, and the risks vastly outweigh them anyways.

My conducting is really just "go fight the dragon"
PC "no thanks"
Me "there'll be beer!"
PC "to the dragon!"

[Dairun Cates]

Assuming this one continues, it'll be interesting to see the proportion of "good" archetypes to "bad" archetypes.

It almost always ends with a good 10:1 ratio of bad to good if not way worse. There's a lot of reasons for that. It mostly boils down to people focusing on the negative and if you get a good GM, you're only going to have 1 type written down here.

[Totally Guy]

1. the novice: he doesn't know the rules, he doesn't really know what he's doing. But man, he's so excited about this game that he's about to burst into flames in his seat! often, this is someone who was really just pushed into the role of GM because he's the only one who has really read the books at all. could turn into any other kind of GM, depending upon their experience.

I'm so pleased with the story I've got planned I just want to tell all my players and as they're the ones I play D&D with I've got no-one else to tell. Very frustrating.

[Hopeless]

30) How about the one who rewrites the rules using earlier editions when it becomes apparent he can't pull off his shenanigans without cheating?

For example one week getting the pcs to make a spot check with only one player getting a critical success thereby allowed to make an attack of opportunity on a swooping dragon.
Using a control water spell to create a 40' wall of water in the shape of a crude fist interposed between it and the rest of the party moving said party down to the floor of the swamp some 10' down only to be told the following week that the dragon wasn't surprised managed to close its wings plow through said wall (taking damage) and still managin to use its breath weapon ignoring the fact the target are now 10' from where they were and it hasn't had time to adjust for this and it still managed to pull out of its dive and fly off (note it closed its wings prior to hitting said wall).

Then there's aging the cleric 60 years and saying he needed greater restoration to recover with his own church refusing to cast this unless he pays 28,000 in gold and when he returned with the money was told there was no cleric's available since they were supposedly out fighting a demon horde although the cleric just came back from fighting said army.

Then he was assassinated in a church by the first cleric of his own faith he has met in the entire campaign outside of waterdeep who turned out to be an assassin this is after weeks of travel where every settlement encountered outside of waterdeep had been supposedly attacked by demons but no cleric's of helm in any of them.

Sorry went a little too far there by the way he claimed the assassin was following the group and he merely used the cleric going to the church alone as a suitable target even though had that been the case the church would have had other priests present or even practitioners something he ignored.

[ericgrau]

Well I see myself in a couple of these, mainly the Historian/Sociologist. Anyway, here are a couple more that further flush out my style of DMing.

22 The Tactition: While this DM might not pit the PCs against such overwhelming odds as the Battle Fiend, but expect to constantly be fighting on the edge of cliffs, across bridges, in valleys surrounded by hidden archers. This DM is not satisfied with simply attacking the PCs every round, but must grapple the Wizard, bullrush the Rogue out of flanking, and constantly trip the Fighter. Expect heavy PC casualties unless the PC are also so tactically inclined.

23. Davy Jones: Fear water, for water is the player killer. The PCs in this DM's world know to avoid the water, which is unfortunate, seeing as many combat encounters take place on bridges, boats, or underground pools. Only in this DMs game will PCs take Skill Focus: Swim. Seriously, I think over have the combat deaths that I have had in my games over the past few years have been due to drowning. Hurray for grappling underwater!!!

Do you happen to be DMing a group in or near Orange County that I can join?

[Dihan]

31) The Introvert - This DM just just shouldn't be a DM. This DM is unable to get the players to focus on the game. He can't grab the attention of the players and when he finally does nothing has been achieved throughout the session. It doesn't matter if he knows all the rules and has a decent plot, just expect the game to not even start at all.

[The New Bruceski]

It almost always ends with a good 10:1 ratio of bad to good if not way worse. There's a lot of reasons for that. It mostly boils down to people focusing on the negative and if you get a good GM, you're only going to have 1 type written down here.

Happy families are all alike...

[sonofzeal]

32) The Ad-Libber - almost nothing in his game world exists up until the moment he needs it. Requires frequent time off to slap together new encounters or details as needed. On the upside, there's very little railroading...




I'm an Ad-Libber, I'll admit. I plan the material for the next session, and maybe have a vague idea what'll happen the session after that. My player have been pretty good about staying on the "rails" such as they are, but my notes usually end up changing in some way halfway through the session. Other than that I'm a bit of a Combat Fiend, although I try to spice it up with fairly frequent social and problemsolving plots. Still, I have a strong history of trying to TPK with even-CR encounters.

[UglyPanda]

33. The NPC Factory: It rhymes! This DM will spend hours upon hours each day crafting NPCs with interesting backstories, creating custom races and items for their use, give them unique voices and personality, then completely forget about the campaign world. Every city or town is completely interchangeable while the NPCs roam free.

34. Invisible Monorail Conductor: If you're being railroaded, you can fight against it or accept it, but at least you know where you're going. What the Invisible Monorail Conductor does is to railroad you without giving you any idea of the plot or the next destination. Often this can boil down to:
DM: "You have a McGuffin, you don't know what it does. What do you do next?"
PC: "Umm..."
DM: "Wrong answer, roll for initiative."
This is often related to or caused by Swimming forever.

35. Sadistic DM: One of the original DM archetypes, the sadistic DM is one who takes pleasure the the PC's pain. Thusly, one should never: Trust NPCs; Expect fair compensation for fair work; Have a BBEG that can be killed through normal combat; Pass over anything that was given a description; Pick up anything that might be treasure; Let the DM know you don't trust him/her; etc. Of course, this is a cyclic pattern of behavior. The second everyone partakes in these precautions, the DM will suddenly embark on a nice streak. This streak of nice behavior will last exactly long enough for you not to expect the next trap that is set for the PCs.

36. Alignment Weathervane: This DM hates Clerics and Paladins with a passion. Anything said player does is treated as a test of character, whether it be killing an enemy or feeding homeless orphans. While real-life morality deviates wildly, the DM's opinions do not and Paladins will fall quite often.

Edit: Heh, I edited my post to add that last one in, and next one ends up being related.