Comments on: Write Your Own Naughty List

By: Treasure Tables » Interview with Robin D. Laws

Treasure Tables » Interview with Robin D. Laws — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 15:59:59 +0000

[...] TT: I feel a bit odd even asking you this question, but I strongly believe that all GMs — even great ones! — have their faults. Along the lines of a recent post here on TT, Write Your Own Naughty List, what would you include in a list of your own faults as a GM? [...]

By: Treasure Tables » Interview with Luke Crane

Treasure Tables » Interview with Luke Crane — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:43:29 +0000

[...] I advocated writing a list of one’s own GMing faults as a tool to improve. Assuming “dysfunctional railroader” is on top of the list — or was — what else is there? [...]

By: Treasure Tables » Interview: Clinton R. Nixon

Treasure Tables » Interview: Clinton R. Nixon — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:08:58 +0000

[...] TT: Here on TT, I recommended that GMs write down a list of their own GMing faults as a way to improve their craft. What do you think of this idea, and what would be on your “naughty list?” [...]

By: ScottM

ScottM — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 22:40:53 +0000

Yes– as a player, I suggested this for the game I’m currently in. It’s relaxing now (9 months and 11 levels later), and that’s a good thing. It’s something I worry about when I run again though– particularly since the system they’re clamoring for encourages non-group play.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 18:03:53 +0000

In terms of your first list item, Scott, a brief discussion of the social contract involved in gaming — including, “Let’s keep the side quests to a minimum, so everyone can have more fun” — sounds like a good starting point.

By: ScottM

ScottM — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 23:54:47 +0000

I thought I’d already inflicted my answers on you. Since I haven’t…

+ I am reluctant to cut solo or partial group quests short, which can make for boring delays for the rest of the group.
+ To prevent the above, I’ve run games with less space for good characterization
+ I suck at managing player conflicts, especially when expressed in game (through characters, rules arguments, etc.).
+ I’m reluctant to dedicate adequate time, so I’m not GMing at the moment, despite requests.
+ I’m not good at voices, etc. for NPCs.

That’s what comes quickly– certainly not as complete a list as I’m sure is out there.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:07:31 +0000

(CJ) BTW, when I said “or two, tops”, what I really meant was one thing for the DM, one other thing for the players as a whole.

That makes a lot of sense — I like the idea of applying the naughty list concept to the whole group, and addressing things as a group.

By: DM T.

DM T. — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:11:23 +0000

One of my faults is:
Letting the players lead the campaign.
I just hate to pull the players by the nose thus, I allow them full freedom of actions. Doing this, can lead to
- Frustrated players, not knowing what they “Should do” next.
- A major adlibbind done on my account.
I don’t think I’ll ever get past that fault, as I grew to live with it. In the end, I just adlib some more details and throw the players another bone to their pile, hoping this one would grab their attention.

Another one (fault) is wide scope view.
I like to think up on ideas that may lead to, sometimes, a huge campaign. It’s the small details and parts that I sometimes miss in the process.
- End result? More in-game adlibbing on my account (I have a huge notebook, where I write all of my adlib stuff in).

By: Crazy Jerome

Crazy Jerome — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 03:58:01 +0000

Franklin’s Autobiography is probably where I got the idea, though I don’t remember for sure. It was one of my favorite books as a teen. Now that my son is reading it for school, I’m just now getting around to reading it again.

It really does work well. Curiously, I don’t think it works as well if you have a list of only one thing. Who wants to spend all year trying not to procrastinate?

BTW, when I said “or two, tops”, what I really meant was one thing for the DM, one other thing for the players as a whole. We had a lot of success alternating every two to three sessions between:

A. DM – better prepared, players – pay attention better.

B. DM – loosen up on the action, players – roleplay with each other more.

Note that A had some synergy going between DM and player improvement, while B was completely unrelated.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 00:43:37 +0000

David: I’d never heard of Ben Franklin’s “13 Virtues” — neat! It also ties right back into CJ’s point about going through the list step-by-step.

By: David Michael

David Michael — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 00:40:07 +0000

Making a list and improving one thing at a time is the core of Benjamin Franklin’s “13 Virtues”.

In his “Autobiography”, Benjamin Franklin described a simple yet powerful plan for self improvement. The core of the plan is to improve one virtue (out of a set of 13) each week. Instead of trying to improve in all 13 of the virtues at once (a nigh impossible task), you focus your efforts on improving just one. The following weeks, as you focus on the other virtues in turn, improvement in all of the virtues accumulates (hopefully). With 52 weeks in a year, you will have worked your way through the entire list of 13 virtues four times.

The truly useful part is: You can pick and choose your own collection of “virtues”. =)

You can find out more just by Googling “Ben Franklin autobiography virtues” or something like that.

-David

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 23:29:58 +0000

(CJ) Most people (and groups) will do a far better job of improving if they focus on one thing at a time–or two, tops. If you have 3 things on your list, you’ll get far better results improving them serially, than you will if you try to improve all three over the same time.
—
There are several reasons for this effect, but I think one of the nice bonuses where DMing is concerned is that *any* substantial improvement, in any area–makes the game more fun and fuels further improvement.

In terms of general advice, these are both very strong points — in fact, I’m going to edit my original post to include them (with attribution, of course!).

It’s interesting to see all of your lists so far — keep them coming!