[DL] The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly... GM's! :-)

[Derek Carmichael <dcarmichael@apple.com>]

> On 6/14/01 9:03 PM, Allan Seyberth wrote the following:

> I actually had a GM tell us that we were running behind schedule for the
> storyline ?!?

Wow!  That's pretty...well...lame. :-\

I was in a game many moons ago where the GM wasn't very good at improvising.
If you deviated from his "story" (read linear plot! ;-) you got slapped down
and forced back on the One True Story Path.  <shiver>  That was a real
bummer.

Although as far as ultra powerful NPC's go.  Way back at the beginning of
time (meaning: my early gaming days :-).  How I role-played an NPC (if they
were confident and "unafraid" of the PC's posturing for example) made my
players think: "Uh-oh, Derek likes this NPC.  We'd better not mess with
him."  :-)  Also I found that any NPC that was at least as competent (or
more so) than the PC's was looked upon as a unstoppable.  (Of course this
being our early days, if the characters couldn't blast through something and
had to think, they occasionally got a little frustrated!) >;-)

I think if I were going to try list the One Single Trait that *I* consider
most important for a GM I would have to say it's a toss up between fairness
and flexibility.  So I guess my "list" is the TWO Most Important Traits. :-)

Take care,

Derek "Ramblin' Man" (at least at the moment!)