Who was your favorite and what made them so good?

[hawkfu]

Hey, as a GM of a Champs game right now, I'm curious what has made a good GM for you guys. What's your best experience as a player and what made the GM so good?

 

Thanks,

 

Hawkfu

[ThothAmon]

Re: Who was your favorite and what made them so good?

 

Money. Fit, oiled semi-naked chicks writhing in time to a hip hop soundtrack. And the odd bit of gaming...

[Chimpira]

Re: Who was your favorite and what made them so good?

 

Michael D. Thompson. He was not my first GM but he was the first to show me that gaming could be more than just go there, fight that, rinse and repeat.

 

I tried playing games for a couple of years and it was an on off thing mainly because it was always just an excuse to fight things. We were good, they were evil, so of course we never had to really care about our actions. The interaction with NPC's was when the king (or Ruler or land owner or whatever) told us which dungeon to go to to save princess (or daughter or little boy or holy relic). Every GM I had used modules.

 

Mike was like a breath of fresh air. I had a concept for a superhero character in my head for years and he finally gave me an opportunity to create it. He paid attention to the background of the characters and elaborated on it during games. He populated the world with NPC's of different motivations and we interacted with them. The storyline was never simply go there and fight that. There was consequences for your actions.

 

It was a game of such intensity that after I became the leader of our group (We had gone through three leaders before that), I had butterflies in my stomach everytime that we fought someone new. I did not want to get anyones cherished character mangled. We learned to think through situations and not simply rely on our powers. If we could negotiate, we would do so but if we had to fight we did and every battle had a MOMENT. You know what I mean, when after a little while and you are sitting around with your friends swapping war stories and you bring up something that happened that was cool or heroic. Sixteen years later I can still remember every fight and why they happened in that game.

 

It was the only game that I had ever been in where a player that just had a string of bad luck requested to be anyones sidekick. He was mine and by the end of the game, not only had that character come into his own but he married my in game sister as well. Heck by the time I retired, my character had become an Iconic figure in that universe and I retired with a wife and two stepchildren, one the daughter of a slain member of our team and another was my archenemy, whom was so foul and powerful the only way we could find to defeat him was to revert him back to infancy, I then swore everyone to secrecy and took him to raise as my own, hoping that he will turn out better this time around.

 

I retired my character so that he could look after his family. Occasionally when the team needed his help or advise I would bring him out and the GM more than encouraged that.

 

Mike taught me to never feel bogged down by the rules and to adapt to the situation as it came up but never beyond what the NPC's or villians would know. It is alright for the players to come up with a plan and for that plan to actually work. The players change the story and that is fine. The plot is not more important than the players. The NPC's are not more important than the players. It is not the GM versus the players. Character background is not just something to acquire powers from.

 

Mike had his faults as well and I learned through his example to try and not make those mine. Although we live far apart, we still talk. I have to say with all honesty if I can bring just 1/3 of the passion and ability Mike brought to his game to mine..... Well that would be an amazing time for myself and my players.