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Author Topic: 1002 bad GM Tips  (Read 16576 times)

GreatWyrmGold

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #165 on: January 05, 2013, 09:42:20 pm »

There are quite a few rules which are not fine.  Not paying attention to your players wants/desires, is a perfect example of bad GM-mming.  You may be able to get away with it, but it's inherently bad.  [also various letting RL prejudices get in the way of everything]
Caving in to your players wants and desires is also bad. And, um...I'd forgotten about the prejudice ones.
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TCM

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #166 on: January 06, 2013, 12:16:01 am »

176. All the players have posted and you can write the next turn, but you've developed a sickness/painful ailment. You should still write the turn. Sure it might be something you shit out in 5 minutes through a migrain, but it's better than making the players wait a whole 12 hours since the last turn.
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Harry Baldman

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #167 on: January 06, 2013, 05:10:37 am »

There are quite a few rules which are not fine.  Not paying attention to your players wants/desires, is a perfect example of bad GM-mming.  You may be able to get away with it, but it's inherently bad.  [also various letting RL prejudices get in the way of everything]
Caving in to your players wants and desires is also bad. And, um...I'd forgotten about the prejudice ones.

You should let your players do what they really want to do in the interests of having fun (it's what they're there for), but you shouldn't let them always succeed at it, because that takes away the challenge and the fun of the game.

177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and let them screw around however they please. Let them make their own fun. Saves you a lot of trouble, that's for sure.

178. Give your players world-destroying/reality-altering/self-immortalizing powers from the get-go.

179. Killing a god is something a group of people can accomplish as a leisurely afternoon activity.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2013, 07:12:55 am by Harry Baldman »
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Xantalos

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #168 on: January 06, 2013, 05:11:33 am »

177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and let them screw around however they please.
>.>
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10ebbor10

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #169 on: January 06, 2013, 05:18:04 am »

177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and let them screw around however they please.
>.>
That's not a bad game idea. It's an interesting GM exercise.

Revised 177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and punish them if they fail to do what you want.
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Harry Baldman

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #170 on: January 06, 2013, 05:29:29 am »

177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and let them screw around however they please.
>.>
That's not a bad game idea. It's an interesting GM exercise.

Revised 177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and punish them if they fail to do what you want.

Well, it may be an interesting GM exercise, but it only makes for a fun game if overarching objectives do indeed emerge soon after the beginning. If the GM doesn't provide anything meaningful to do and relies solely on the players to come up with fun things to act upon, the players usually lose interest and get bored soon enough. The good GMing comes in when the GM forms objectives, adversaries and so forth based on the players' actions to further the whole 'having fun' aspect. I was just pointing out that if you plop the players into a world and tell them to do whatever, this doesn't bode well for player interest.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2013, 05:33:33 am by Harry Baldman »
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Xantalos

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #171 on: January 06, 2013, 05:34:45 am »

177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and let them screw around however they please.
>.>
That's not a bad game idea. It's an interesting GM exercise.

Revised 177. Who needs objectives, story or plot hooks? Just hurl your players out into a campaign setting and punish them if they fail to do what you want.

Well, it may be an interesting GM exercise, but it only makes for a fun game if overarching objectives do indeed emerge soon after the beginning. If the GM doesn't provide anything meaningful to do and relies solely on the players to come up with fun things to act upon, the players usually lose interest and get bored soon enough.
I should know. Not from GM'ing, but I tried playing in one of those once. Apart from minimalist RTD's, it doesn't work very well because I always try to destroy everything in the end.
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Harry Baldman

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #172 on: January 06, 2013, 06:01:11 am »

I should know. Not from GM'ing, but I tried playing in one of those once. Apart from minimalist RTD's, it doesn't work very well because I always try to destroy everything in the end.

Don't you try to destroy everything in minimalist RTDs as well?
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Xantalos

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #173 on: January 06, 2013, 06:03:57 am »

I should know. Not from GM'ing, but I tried playing in one of those once. Apart from minimalist RTD's, it doesn't work very well because I always try to destroy everything in the end.

Don't you try to destroy everything in minimalist RTDs as well?
I do seem to have fallen into that rut, yes.
Still, at least I don't have actual omnipotence, right?
Because good things would not result.
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GreatWyrmGold

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #174 on: January 06, 2013, 08:49:19 am »

I should know. Not from GM'ing, but I tried playing in one of those once. Apart from minimalist RTD's, it doesn't work very well because I always try to destroy everything in the end.
Don't you try to destroy everything in minimalist RTDs as well?
I do seem to have fallen into that rut, yes.
Still, at least I don't have actual omnipotence, right?
Because good things would not result.
Except that one time everyone did for a while...that was a mess.
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TheZoomZoll

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #175 on: January 09, 2013, 03:55:09 am »

180.Somebody doesn't understand something?
Make them use it properly.

vadia

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #176 on: January 09, 2013, 09:27:37 am »

177b (yes it's out of the count order which is 180) Throw characters in a setting w/o plot and don't give players enough ideas of what the setting is.

(I generally make characters with certain goals in mind already so I'd do well -- if I understand the setting well enough.)
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freeformschooler

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #177 on: January 09, 2013, 09:36:55 am »

181. Not comfortable with an existing ruleset? Make one up from scratch and tweak it every time you don't like a result!
181b. Not comfortable with that ruleset either? Okay, now we're using FUDGE instead!
182. Who likes dice? You! Use every type of dice you can find from D3s to D99s.
183. Trap your players in an enormous puzzle room for a long period of time until they can figure out your vague solution.
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vadia

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #178 on: January 09, 2013, 09:39:46 am »

184 Base something off of player's knowledge not character knowledge

(I didn't know about area 51 in an x-files game.  I think either skully or Mulder would know about it -- just maybe.)
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GreatWyrmGold

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Re: 1002 bad GM Tips
« Reply #179 on: January 09, 2013, 05:38:42 pm »

Well, you could expect your character to have heard of aliens in Area 51...but the GM should expect your character to treat it as a hoax 99% of the time (or, rather, expect 99% of characters to do so) barring proof.
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