Hello everyone

My question is what is a Game Master I know what they are( i hope i do let me know if I don't met the mark ) I've be one more then I have been a player at the table. I ask for a written history on the characters I even reward them for a rich and colorful history( gear/ Exp) I try hard to work there history into the story. I can run a game better then make a character. I have been doing this for best guess 15 yrs now I can recover bretty well from a player that blind sides me with a new idea. I do what I can to make the game as good as I can and the player help me reach this goal time and time again. I allow some house rules and I will work with a player so they can have some new toys or abilities ( weapons/ gear or kung fu)

I panited all the models and space ships some times a player will help me out. (base coating for exp)

After every session I ask them for feed back I love this part they tell me what the love and hated and what I can improve on and I know we will talk about when there guy did this or when a vilian said that . or how badly some one rolled but. for the most part i get " it was good, I liked it, ya it was cool" I know they have fun they show up every friday night and we've ran till 2 am some nights. I put alot of work into my stories I even got my group into reading 40k novels anything to get them into the role.

My rant is coming to and end my fellow GM's do you have any tips or word to live by i am not a great GM I am stubborn and scared when my players read posts. I have read many post or duel weilding las cannon cog boys to what can only be found in a Goto novel.

If I am wrong for being annoyed with them let me know.

twist said:

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but your main complaint with your players is the lack of feedback, yes? If so, hell, your players seem to give you more then mine do. The best I get unless they were annoyed or displeased with something is some nodding of heads and positive-like sounds that can't really be classed as words. When asked what they'd like to see in the next session, their usual response is "I don't want my character to die"

However, I know they're happy, or at least content with the game. If they really aren't or are annoyed with a part of the game, they will tell me when asked as they have in the past. I reckon it goes back to the simple idea that it's usually those who are unhappy with things who will be vocal about such things while those who are happy or content really won't bother -they're happy with the direction and so, have nothing to add.

Your games are running long, your players have no complaints, they are engaged with the setting and willing to explore it outside of the game, I'd say your doing everything right. Just keep trucking down the road you've chosen. If things go wrong, I'm sure your players will be a bit more vocal and let you know, otherwise, their salience and attention should tell you that you're doing things right.

And, to further develop Graver's line of thought; if a player suddenly blindsides you with a series of complaints that seem to stem from a long running series of events, just politely remind them that you asked for feedback and comments multiple times and they should have spoken up sooner rather then stewing.

-=Brother Praetus=-

A gamemaster is and does whatever the group agrees fits their gaming style. There are loads of way running games apart from the traditional one. No GM, rotating gm, GM trough shared repositories for different part of the story.... Etc

A GM can be the movie director controlling every element surrounding the character or just the project leader sharing the responsibilities with the others. A guide or a master, an opponent, a judge or a player on the same team. A coach or a ninja or the person who house you are in but no different in any other aspect. Who knows.

The group defines the role. There is no single thing you can define as what a GM is or isnt. Even while running a traditional rpg the GM role varies to much to be defined with a set of criteria. A great master is one that fits his group.

If you problem is feedback. Get a bunch a markers of some kind. Pokermakers, pebbels etc.. Put them on the table in a pile. Tell the players to pass over one to anyone doing something awesome, including you, when they do something they really appreciate. You pass them markers to when one of them do great things. Fast silent feedback, direct and positive. The moment you or someone else does something great you will know. You can award extra exp this way by the number of markers too.

This is a good thing cause you will see what the whole group appriciate.

Thank you everyone those are all good tips I'll have too try them all in time. I guess I was just stuck on the idea of them telling me and not just understanding what was happening at the table Thanks again.

I had to read through your post twice to find the rant. It really wasn't apparent to me the first time through. To address the issue, I've put a few thoughts down below for you.

I think lack of feedback can have many reasons.

1. Players may not want to hurt your feelings if there is something they didn't like about your game.

2. Possibly don't want to be "The One" to have to tell you the feedback. Either they are uncomfortable with providing feedback or multiple people have the same thoughts and no one wants to gang up on you.

3. They may be afraid of retribution to their characters for providing feedback OOC. I'm not being accusing, but who knows what's going through their minds.

4. They may be a afraid of physical retaliation... unlikely with gamers, but I've see some with a violent streak. Mostly, we're just passive agressive.

5. Etc....

A GM puts forth effort to try and make the game fun for everyone. Players know when you put effort forth and they can tell when the effort isn't so good. If you're interested in honest feedback, you need to tell your players. Ask them pointed questions about how they felt about certain things that happened in the game. I'm sure when you're looking around the table, you can catch some of the expressions on the faces of your players and gauge when they are unhappy about something. Most players don't have good poker faces. I know for certain our group doesn't.

If players don't want to give you feedback face to face, prepare a feedback sheet at the end of the night. Give it to them and ask them to answer the questions as honestly as possible (questions, such as, What did you like?, what did you not like about the game? How did you feel the fight with the boss went? Was it too easy? too hard?)

If you can, leave the room for 15-20 minutes at the end of the session. Tell them that the only way you can improve as a GM is if you get honest feedback. That means you need to know the good, the bad and the ugly of how the game is going. This way the feedback can be anonymous. Let them pile up the feedback in the middle of the table and then you can read it after everyone leaves for the night.

You need to know what players like and don't like to be effective, otherwise it's easy to assume that everything is going well when it may not be.

Hopefully, your players will accommodate you.

Very nice thank you, I would hope they could feel alright telling me how they felt the game go.

Imagine you just watched a film with the director, who is your friend. What do you say afterwards if you liked it? If you didn't?

You don't want to sound like a fan. You don't want to hurt his feelings. I might say something a lot like "yeah, I liked it" and leave it at that.

Players will discuss the game more with each other more than with you. So find a player who is candid and whose judgment you trust and speak with him a few days after the session to gauge the groups reaction.

Ultimately though you have to trust your own judgment because different people like different things. The combat-loving player and the investigation-loving player are likely to be yinging and yanging throughout the adventure. So don't focus too much on each and every session. If your players are fed up for 2 or 3 sessions in a row then there is probably something amiss.

For all that RPG's are about communication, the players themselves are not always the best at communicating as themselves. I find that I get better feedback by email where the players can think about the response and it is not so confrontational.

Tam.

thank you for your posts there very helpful I've got my reviews by asking one on one style its worked out so far for me.