What do You Expect From a GM

I GM roll20, but do not use many of the features, such as API (I am not skilled in Java or SQL) and often do not go all out with the maps, instead using the interface as shared "whiteboard". Lately I have been thinking about recruting another couple players to our game, but before I did I was wondering what the community expectation is? Do you expect the Game Master to set up all the encounters ahead of time? Do you expect the game Master to use API? Do you mind a 2-3 minute wait while the GM through down a map or draws some lines in front of you?

I use the whoteboard as a sketch, sometimes the maps. Or pictures in the journal or the main area for the look of NPCs. I think really just define how you plan to present it and recruit accordingly, don't recruit based on what people want, and fit yourself to that, just my philosophy, because you're asking. Good luck.

Do you expect the Game Master to set up all the encounters ahead of time? Yes Do you expect the game Master to use API? Yes and no... API is really good when its set up for your game system, however because API is still very much in development its possible things will break with updates. So I wouldn't rush into it... API's that do things with tokens, chat and turn order are fairly solid. Record sheet bio's and such, not so much right now. Do you mind a 2-3 minute wait while the GM through down a map or draws some lines in front of you? Anything that takes away from immersion and player focus is bad.

As basically a full-time GM myself, I do everything I can to make sure I'm fully set up before the game starts. Which means making my maps, uploading and setting up Dynamic Lighting, tokens, stats tracked for those, and everything else that I can have some measure of control over. I don't use the API and I have never seen anyone use it. It's a novel feature, but after spending a lot of time trying to fix and get working a round-tracking script that just stopped working before I got a chance to use it. So while I respect the people spending their time writing scripts for their own use, I find it too buggy and disparate to be useful in any way. As for waiting to have maps drawn? Please, just don't. If you're going to have a map, have it beforehand if it's necessary. Like Stephen said, if you have to stop the game to plot out a map that you could have just dropped in, then that's prep-work you should probably consider doing before hand. But to answer your question about "What do you expect from a GM"? I'd say ROLEPLAYING. If I had a dollar for every GM I've met that was not comfortable first-person roleplaying, I would have enough money to buy them all Mentor status. You're a GM, you roleplay your NPCs. This isn't up for discussion, this is just part of the job. If you have to make excuses for how "your style of GMing" sees you as something other than a person who roleplays the NPCs to interact with players, you've failed to understand the point of being a GM, and should resign immediately.

Ndreare said: Lately I have been thinking about recruting another couple players to our game, but before I did I was wondering what the community expectation is? You should consider reading this article: The Same Page Tool Basically, if you attempt to change or adapt your GM style to fit the expectations of potential players or the community, you have a recipe for disaster. When you change for the players, you will be attempting to lead a group activity in a manner that you are not comfortable with or accustomed to. Good leaders are comfortable while they are leading. Stay comfortable, stay you! The solution is to tell the players details about your style before you start. Let them decide if they can adapt to your style. It seems harsh, but what other way is there? So, in your campaign forums, start a sticky thread that lets people know a little about YOU . Tell them you prefer to improv maps and use wandering monsters. Tell them that game mechanics are all by hand with no API. Why not also address player vs. player? Why not clarify your position on heavy RP? Then, if things go wrong socially mid-game, you can use your Same Page posting to support whatever solution you need to use.

What bob said is Plus five advice of Ancient Dread Dire status. Exactly.

I am going to take the absolute opposite opinion as some people here. If you set up all the encounters beforehand, with delicate maps, and all the actions prepared as macros, you produce an incredibly railroaded game and your players might as well be playing Baldur's Gate. Don't get me wrong, Baldur's Gate is a wonderful game. Just not what i want out of a tabletop game. If you are only running a hardcore dungeon crawl, i guess it works. But if you are playing anything even slightly more open or storyfocussed, i would put the preperation effort into that. Have a good story and good NPCs. If a situation is really complicated, quickly do a very rough sketch. If you can multitask, do this while talking. Or maybe one of your players will start sketching a situation if they are getting lost. If the situation is not complicated, you can very often just skip the whole map part. I would always much rather play in a game where the dm has spend the time he has to prepare on thinking up a good story and good NPCs, rather than one where he writes makros and sets up incredibly detailed encounters with complex maps, dozens of scripts and whatnots. Most of my games consist of a single page which mostly tries to portray the feel of the game i am playing through some art, and maybe also containing some of the necessary information and some open space to sketch upon.

Once the API matures... things like the PowerCard script I wrote and the Monster Importer I'm working on for D&D 4e... it will make running encounters on the fly so much easier. Just find the monsters you need, grab a token, paste some text into the gmnotes field and run the script. Properly setting up universal macros in the meantime and a blank monster entry with barebones attributes also goes a long way towards making GM'ing easier and running encounters on the fly less of a roadblock.

Thanks for the Feedback. I think I will keep doing what I have been and recruit based on that. currently I have only been seeing up the big events and known stuff to come. Most of the rest had been sandbox and role play. I appreciate the advice of recruit to my style rather than trying to change my style.

I generally just use the whiteboard as a sketchpad. Many, many encounters are either random, or made up when the players choose to go in a completely different direction than Planned. More or less what Sven is saying. If I know the plan is to assault the castle, I'll set that up, and have mini tokens and stuff. But just adventuring? It's narrative description, and the 9 players I have have told me they are more than happy with it. We did a scenario yesterday, 9 heroes with bows, and one dwarf with an axe, killed 35 orc scouts on patrol in 4 narrative combat rounds, playing the narrative style One Ring RPG by cubicle 7. Total time was about 45 minutes for that engagement. Then when the party arrived at a local nearby town under siege by an orc unit of 100, I expected the party would attack, and got ready to sketch a map. Instead, they narrated "One of us is a woodcutter, two are dwarves with axes. We are going to try cutting down tress above the village, rolling logs down the mountainside onto the orcs." I thought this a great use of a surprise one shot tactic, seemed like a great idea for a scene if it was a TV show or film, and they rolled it out with great critical success rolls. Surprised from above, the morale of the enemy broken, the orcs retreated, and town saved. The second encounter was all narrated took me 5 minutes,took the players three dice rolls, I didn't even use a sketch. This is why I prefer narrative style games these days. There are all sorts of players, seeking all sorts of games. Lay out your style and people will fit it. Some seek 4e, and a grid, some seek narrative style, some seek a tightly plotted mystery. Good luck.

This thread has devolved into Off Topic conversations about GM theory and is being closed.