Three GMing links, three completely different topics:
• Young Person’s Adventure League: Bill Walton, who runs The Escapist, has updated the YPAL with The Tinkerer’s Toolbox, a collection of resources for GMing for kids, and The Navigator’s Notebook, which features convention reports about running Toon and Faery’s Tale for kids at Origins 2007. If you have kids and want to game with them, YPAL is a great resource.
• Robin Laws on Callbacks: “In screenwriting parlance, the act of including a story element to be referred to later is called laying pipe. When you do make that connecting reference, you’re making a callback.” Robin goes on to recommend that GMs encourage their players to make callbacks during play — something that’s easy to overlook yourself when running a game — which sounds like an excellent practice. Very nifty.
• Georgios’ GM Types: Along the same lines as Robin Laws’s player types, GameCraft member Georgios lays out seven GM types: Worldbuilder, Duelist, Plotmeister, Master of Ceremonies, Actor, Director and Provider. I’d argue that all GMs should use the Provider as a baseline — when your players have fun, so will you, and that consideration should inform every GMing decision you make.
I use all of those elements at some point in most of my games. Personality-wise I’m more of a Provider (anyone that’s played with me can testify to the fact that I invariably ask “did everyone have fun?” at the end of the game . . . it comes across as being really insecure).
As a Provider you have to be willing to address all the differeng GMing styles as necessary. You have to make maps and provide details like a WorldBuilder. You have to have at least occasional fights where you smack the PC’s around like a Duelist.
About the only thing I don’t do is the Master of Ceremonies and the Actor because props take WAYYY too much prep time and I *suck* at acting in person. I do well online, however, so I prefer to run games via AIM. I’d use something like KloOge if 90% of the games I run didn’t include weird things that aren’t quite covered in the rules: mediating programs don’t handle weird exceptions nearly as well as I’d like.
Re: callbacks
I agree with the commentary over on Robin’s blog that stated that the bonus to the PC for making a callback doesn’t have to be explicit. As a GM you can go “YESSSS!” and give a bonus when a player makes an unprompted callback, but it doesn’t have to be aloud and specific. …though it can be if the mood is right.
Re: GM types
I think most good GMs display some of all of the types listed. A good (great?) GM builds a consistent world/setting, challenges the players, works collaboratively to make a neat story, puts some effort into portraying important NPCs, and (as Martin aptly points out), keeps the fun of the game foremost in mind.
I’m sure every GM has strengths and weaknesses, but in the end you’ve got to be guiding the kind of play that the collective group of players are going to get jazzed about.
On a completely unrelated note, I just wish this summer gaming drought I’m experiencing would hurry up and get over with. 🙁
I’m apparently a plotmeister (there’s a quiz link in the comments).
It’s refreshing to see a discussion of different GM styles without necessarily invoking negative descriptions. Reading the different types, it does seem that each one has a good chance of being fun for a group if done right.
The ensuing web forum discussion mostly involves self-classification by various people (there’s even a quiz, heh), which I suppose is only natural.
What might be far more interesting is for GMs, after thinking about what types they feel they exhibit, then asking their play group to do the same judgement. There are sure to be differences; it would likely be instructive to think about what that means for how your group sees your GMing behaviour.
Oooh, I didn’t notice the quiz — apparently I’m a Worldbuilder. That sort of fits, I guess.