Five Signs of a Bad GM

While we have all encountered the What the hell is going on DM (GM) that is generally just a sign that they are new and have not run a game before.  These are associated with an established game. I don’t say this to discourage any beginning or aspiring GMs, as learning to run a game is a difficult and rocky road.

 

1. The most well-known, “The Montyhall” GM: The Gm giveth the GM taketh away. Named after the famous game show were people dress up in costumes and hope to get picked to play for the chance to win. Now do you want to stop here or do you want to give that up to get the chance to when this bigger prize?
2. The Killer GM: Well that is self-explanatory. “No, you can’t beat my world, you won’t even survive my dungeon. MWAHAHA!”
3. The God Wars GM: All players start out at an extremely high level with a lot of equipment, (The GM’s friends get more and powers that are not in the books in most cases.) the GM’s friends cannot get killed no matter what they do or what happens.
4. The Cow Herder GM: All players are led around like they have a ring through there their nose. usually seen as a subset of The God Wars GM.
5. The Celestial Ego GM: This GM has their ego invested in being GM and in their world. (NO YOU CAN’T HAVE FOUND THE FAITLE FLAW IN MY DUNGEN AND BEAT IT THAT FAST!) . May just be a new GM who has not figured out the game does not work that way and is supposed to be impartial…who am I kidding!
6. The Game on Rails GM…..

The Six signs of a bad GM

1. The most well known, “The Montyhall” GM:
2. The Killer GM
3. The God Wars GM
4. The Cow Herder GM
5. The Celestial Ego GM:
6. The Game on Rails GM: May be a subset of all the others. The GM has a plan that requires that the players do things in a certain order. This is like The Cow Herder GM but he does not necessarily tell the party what to do. May just be a new GM who has not figured out what the job entails.
7. The Axe To Grind GM:

SEVEN,  The Seven signs of a bad GM:

7. The Axe To Grind GM: Some times it is the thief or another class but usually it is the Magic user, but it can be any class in any game. Signs include, one class can not be in the game, all players HAVE to be the same class, or more common, for some reason there is no way to play the character as intended. If one monster attacks each player regardless of marching order and how narrow the hall is. This not only destroys the point of the thief and mage it removes all strategy and tactics from the game. It is understandable that most GMs cannot handle running a decker in Cyberpunk or Shaddowrun (Oh, look. Those are affiliate links, so if you buy something linked here, it helps support the VulcanJediTimelord.) because it is like having a psionic combat in the middle of a D&D game.

And now for something completely different:

There are numerous smaller problems with GMs, but many of those have an easy fix. One of the most frustrating is the GM who is chronically unprepared. Now as a GM, I have to say that all of us are unprepared sometimes even if the players can’t tell. However, if the GM is chronically unprepared and it is obvious to the players and affects game play then it is a problem. There are different solutions that frankly are based to a large extent on the age and experience of the GM. With a highschool party, it’s good to pick a game that involves dungeon crawls of some sort, compare designing a dungeon to creating a maze and spend at least an hour up to a full game session having everybody draw up dungeon floors which can be mixed matched and populated by the GM. Everyone, including the GM will of course be competing to design the best maze, labyrinth, or dungeon depending on what you want to call it. If it’s a college party, then you’re going to have to contend with such annoying interruptions to your gaming as labs, midterms, finals, and the greatest danger to the group of all, the GM having a date or worse yet, a relationship. Unfortunately, these are things you’re just going to have to work around. College is just the price you pay for room board and enough time to game. Now if you are adults in the working world, real life just happens to get in the way. Suck it up, it’s called splash damage. Hey kids, don’t worry, a lot of the con goers will get that joke. More experienced gamers/players will be able to work around these difficulties and have a decent game that seems prepared. For newer GMs the thing to do is pick a game that has modules and use them at first to train yourself to run a game and then to fill in on days when you are not prepared. This is an expense the players should chip in for, just like food unless you’re playing at one of the member’s place and happen to have a case where somebody is cooking or is the manager at a food establishment and they bring food. A common solution is to all chip in on a pizza in which the most difficult process in the game may well be agreeing on a pizza. Hint, a way to deal with this is to start with a super supreme or the equivalent and let people veto ingredients until you see what’s left. Start with food allergies and hope you don’t end up with a sauceless cheese pizza with a gluten free crust since that’s just bad cheese toast.

 

GM is such a nit picker to the rules that it’s just a bunch of mechanics and not an actual game. Talk to your GM, and if this situation can’t be fixed get a new GM. Hell if you think you can do a better job….

 

GM is all about story telling and ignores the rules to the point that you may as well be a bunch of kids playing cops and robbers. The rules create the challenge and inspire creativity. Talk to your GM, and if this situation can’t be fixed get a new GM. Hell if you think you can do a better job go for it. There is always a short supply of good GMs and most of us would rather be playing.

 

 

 

Now this isn’t entirely one sided. Players can do a lot of things to screw up a campaign, such as metagaming, rules lawyering, the party up and moves to the other side of the continent every time the GM has a minor challenge for them to deal with, splitting up the party, and stealing the GM’s dice. If you want to play, don’t steal the GM’s pencil, paper, or dice. Honestly, I can’t think of anything more annoying to the GM than these last three.

 

In summation: The five signs of a bad DM…I mean GM

• A big ego that interferes with the game in some way.
• Inability to maintain an impartial balance whether due to a big ego, lack of experience, or failure to have the ability to control disruptive players.
• Lack of creativity.

No wait, that’s it, there are only three.