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RPGs / Re: Bad GM habits
« on: March 17, 2009, 02:11:33 PM »
I tend to under prepare. My improvization is my strongest asset when I'm in the zone. However, out of the zone I can be slow and not give the players the resources they need in order to advance the adventure.
I tend to try and give the players sandbox space without first defining the world they exist in, leading to players being unwilling to make up their own storyhooks or adventures. I have trouble judging my player's perception of the story. They have alternativally complained, sometimes in the very same session, that I am not giving enough direction and that I am railroading them. Originially I didn't know if that's me or the players but when you hear the same thing from different groups, you start to notice the common element.
I believe in a very real possbility of failure, and that failure helps to build story and characters. This often does not sit well with my players. I encourage them to do exciting things not directly covered by the game's rules and this often pays off visually and mechanically for the players. However, when it doesn't they tend to remember and seldom try something similar. Over time this has lead to a narrowed set of "tricks" that my players employ in most situations.
I can become snippy if my players get on my nerves. Many of my regular players are, even after some months with the systems we play in, always asking for explainations of the same rules every week. For example, one player, after nearly every action taken in combat, will ask if she gets an opportunity attack because of it. I never get vindictive but I can become very short with everyone when I am being asked to repeat information I believe is simple enough to understand.
I tend to bend rules as needed. If I need something to work differently in the Astral Sea for my story to work, than it works differently. Some players (one in particular) find this unforgivable.
Some of that probably sounds like I'm complaining about my players, and I am, but I feel that everything here is, at its root, linked to limitations on my ability as a DM. Even if they make it rudely, my players usually have a point when they site something I'd done that annoyed them.
I tend to try and give the players sandbox space without first defining the world they exist in, leading to players being unwilling to make up their own storyhooks or adventures. I have trouble judging my player's perception of the story. They have alternativally complained, sometimes in the very same session, that I am not giving enough direction and that I am railroading them. Originially I didn't know if that's me or the players but when you hear the same thing from different groups, you start to notice the common element.
I believe in a very real possbility of failure, and that failure helps to build story and characters. This often does not sit well with my players. I encourage them to do exciting things not directly covered by the game's rules and this often pays off visually and mechanically for the players. However, when it doesn't they tend to remember and seldom try something similar. Over time this has lead to a narrowed set of "tricks" that my players employ in most situations.
I can become snippy if my players get on my nerves. Many of my regular players are, even after some months with the systems we play in, always asking for explainations of the same rules every week. For example, one player, after nearly every action taken in combat, will ask if she gets an opportunity attack because of it. I never get vindictive but I can become very short with everyone when I am being asked to repeat information I believe is simple enough to understand.
I tend to bend rules as needed. If I need something to work differently in the Astral Sea for my story to work, than it works differently. Some players (one in particular) find this unforgivable.
Some of that probably sounds like I'm complaining about my players, and I am, but I feel that everything here is, at its root, linked to limitations on my ability as a DM. Even if they make it rudely, my players usually have a point when they site something I'd done that annoyed them.