Quote from: Aos;496134I realize that everyone here is trying to avoid self-aggrandizement and all, but whereas I don't think the reffing is particularly difficult,  I have known and do know some dudes who suck suck suck suck at it and there is no denying that they are not alone in this regard. It's really not suited to everyone.

Which brings up another point: A bad GM pretty much guarantees a bad game session. A single bad player, OTOH, has to work really, really hard at sucking to ruin a game session.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;496220Which brings up another point: A bad GM pretty much guarantees a bad game session. A single bad player, OTOH, has to work really, really hard at sucking to ruin a game session.

Which is why its especially strange that in my experience, anyway, bad players tend to get the shaft in relatively short order whereas a bad GM can lord over a group for years before losing players.

Quote from: Aos;496227whereas a bad GM can lord over a group for years before losing players.

I've played in games with crappy DMs, which did not last more than one session.

The longest I've ever played in a game with a crappy DM, is maybe several sessions over a month or two.  These were games where the DM's crappiness was not obvious at first.

And even crap GMs have good days, and even good or great GMs have bad days. Joe DiMaggio didn't get a hit EVERY time at bat.

Quote from: Aos;496134I realize that everyone here is trying to avoid self-aggrandizement and all, but whereas I don't think the reffing is particularly difficult,  I have known and do know some dudes who suck suck suck suck at it and there is no denying that they are not alone in this regard. It's really not suited to everyone.

Oh yes, one time I played with a GM who managed to make everything in the setting seem tedious and boring. He really had trouble getting to the point when describing things.

Another GM I didn't experience personally claimed that improvisation and writing your own scenarios are doomed to fail, that the result will always be noticeably flawed and inconsistent. Only the prefab scenarios from his favourite RPG (The Dark Eye :rolleyes:) were worthy of being played and only in the most linear and railroaded way possible...

Quote from: RPGPundit;495957Are you of the opinion that anyone can GM?

Technically.... anybody can be a GM, but to speak more to the spirit of your question, no. It takes certain skills and attitudes to be a good GM and some people simply can't do it.

QuoteWhat are the basic skills require?

- Good communication skills.

- Excellent and unlimited imagination.

- Ability to instantly adapt to a change of plans (eg. when the players do something completely unexpected and insane)

- Good people skills (eg. for managing disputes, dealing with late or absent players, encouranging people to play their best, etc)

- Good sense of humor (and also not taking yourself too seriously).

- Good management skills (eg. running a combat with multiple NPCs while several other things are happening.

- A sense of responsibility. In other words, if you fuck up, you admit it.

- Good familiarity with the rules and background of your game.

- Intuitional improvisation (eg. there's no rule for how far you can jump so you make one up on the spot, etc).

- Immense patience and being slow to anger but...

- ...Also being able to make rules and enforce them diplomatically if possible and forcefully if neccessary.

QuoteDoes the skill set required to the GM consist of things so difficult that it is a "hurdle" in our hobby?

That's a fairly complex question.

First, it depends on what players want out of the game. If they're relatively new, then a half-ass GM isn't going to really make much of a difference, but if they're experienced, then that's not going to fly. Alot of players end up "settling" because they aren't willing to be a GM themselves.

Second, I would say that it is difficult to find people who have these skills simply because many RPG players and GMs don't have great social skills. In other words, they don't know how to communicate with each other in a respectful, encouranging way. A lot of people try to GM, but fail miserably because they have bad interpersonal communication skills.

QuoteDo you think that there is a lack of GMs (or good GMs) out there; or is that rubbish?

In my experience, there is definitely a lack of good GMs. I can always find someone running a game, but about 40% of the time they are pathetic.

Hard?
I never think of it in terms like that.

It's like breathing.  it just is.  More than almost anything in my life.  It is less of a 'doing' than a 'being.

When I played in the Marine Corps I played with a group of Infantry Men, who like myself had a lot of training in various CQB, MOUT and other assorted situations. Combat was a pretty serious thing for them-when it came around. They ran combat a lot like we trained-with small unit tactics literally torn from the book. We played at a newly built USO type structure that they'd set up for junior enlisted men and NCO's that was one part food court, phone center and a large lounge. But similar to my current group the social aspect of the game was really important to us: we all kicked in and bought pizza, we spent time hanging out before the game, and after.

Game Day now a days is kind of like an event: I always cook or prepare some sort of food. Everyone brings something to drink, mixers or food. people with kids bring their kids, and I have a machine set up in the basement for them to play games and watch movies on. Spouses sometimes attend and hang out with each other. (A lot of us with wives have great luck, our wives get along well.) One player even brings his dog from time to time, to socialize it with people, and let it play with my dog.

Now I realize not every one has this kind of atmosphere going on at the table but that's what I keep in mind when I bring someone to the table. Who am I going to let into my home, around my wife and kids; and my players wives and kids. Getting admitted to our group is kind of a big thing-because to us it's like an extended family.

Quote from: Serious Paul;496297One player even brings his dog from time to time, to socialize it with people, and let it play with my dog.

I don't know why it is, but my long-running group loves having a well-behaved dog around when we play.

The mental faculties to handle the math and have a grasp the rules of the game you are running are essential for running a group.

Quote from: David R;495996Soylent and Serious have go the right of it. Gaming is a social activity and at the end of the day how difficult a specific role is depends on the interactions of the people involved.

As to what I like to be called. I find "Your Eminence", is an accurate title for the role in question.

Regards,
David R

this...:cheerleader:

Quote from: Ian Warner;496164I don't think GMing itself is difficult. The Preperation and devising your own adventures is what stops my local group from taking my place.

That's been my experience, too.  A lot of people don't want to GM because they don't want to put in the time or can't come up with ideas.

Personally, I find the most arduous tasks of being a GM the ones that have nothing to do with game prep:
* Having to act as "event organizer" to get everyone at the same place at the same time every session and to tell you who is coming and who isn't.
* Having to act as "sergeant at arms" during a session to make sure the game actually moves along and doesn't devolve into nothing but social chat.
* Having to have the patience of Gandhi to avoid smacking people when you have to repeat something for the twentieth time because they aren't paying attention or have the memory of a goldfish.


Now, I'm not the only one who likes to run games in my group.  Sadly, the couple others who do are terrible.  Here are GM pitfalls I hate:
* Make sure you have something interesting for the PCs to do, particularly if they come up with action-oriented character designs (hint: playing Star Wars with nothing but smuggling missions where nothing really happens is not fucking interesting).
* Don't include a Mary Sue GMPC.  Ever.  And certainly don't plan the campaign plot around it.
* Be able to think on your feet.  Or plan better.  If you have to stop the game for literally 15 minutes or more while you sit there with a blank look on your face and try to decide what monsters are in an encounter, you are fucking doing it wrong.
* Save the boring book-keeping stuff for out of session.  We don't need to waste an entire session trying to decide on which supplies to buy or how to distribute gold.  That can be done outside of sessions.
* Similarly, if you are the GM, don't spend an hour or more trying to decide what magic items were in a treasure pile for the monster we just killed.  Either plan it ahead of time, or do it after the session and let us know later.
* Know when to end an argument over rules.  Don't spend an entire 3 hour session debating a rule with a player then trying to search online for an "official" answer.

I think the most important skill for a good GM to learn (and anyone can learn it, yes) is an awareness of pacing.

If the PCs are government investigators and going door-to-door asking questions, don't play out the Q&A at every house.  It's okay to gloss over the majority and zero in on the one or two people that have interesting things to say.

GMing isn't easy - you need to know the rules, how the move the adventure forward and how to deal with players.

But it's only as difficult as the players make it. Hopefully the GM will have players that let him learn the rules and cut him some slack where needed.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;495971I think the hardest (or at least most demanding) part of GMing is the time investment. Doing the work is a pleasure and running a game is too, but it requires time. For a lot of gamers that is probably a hurdle.

In terms of the skills required, I liken it to public speaking. A certian amount of natural talent helps but you become good by doing it regularly. Eventually your brain learns how to do all thst GMing stuff like thinking on the fly or jumping into a new character.

I would say the hardest part is learning how to structure adventures, how to present them as notes to refer to (where needed), how to plot them (in terms of accomodating what the players might do or want to do) and how to file rules information (such as NPC stats and combat tracking details, where appropriate).