The Roleplaying Forum's GM and Player Critique Thread

Have you ever felt insecure about how you are handling your character in a game? Think that you as a GM might be boring your players as your game lacks direction?

If you have one of these or similar problems then I hope this thread can help.

Just as the name says, this is a thread to give and receive critique, advice and feedback to and from your fellow RPers of the forum.

Still, due to the possibility of unpleasantness that critiquing brings let us set a few ground rules for the thread.

• It's only allowed to give criticism to those that come asking for it. Even if you have a good several things to say about somebody's RPing , if that person doesn't want to hear it in the first place it's very unlikely that they will accept your advice.

• You do not need to open yourself to critique before you offer advice to others.

• Be civil, polite and more than anything, only give constructive criticism to those who ask it. If the requester says that it's alright to be as harsh as you'll like with him or her, then, and no sooner than that, you can go nuts with the way you express yourself.

• Be aware, that if you request criticism you might hear some things you did not expect and may not want to hear.

If it becomes necessary I'll keep a list of those open to criticism.

And now, to get this started, I open myself to criticism as both a GM and a player. You may feel free to be as harsh with your words a you like with me.

I'll try to give advice on those I have played with in the past.

edited 22nd Mar '11 2:24:15 PM by daltar

Threadnecro.

I am pretty sure that there are a few people who want to have harsh words with me, and I'm OK with harsh words.

edited 26th Mar '11 7:34:16 AM by Belial

I have a few things to say, not bad things though. For starters, whar ever happened to Pocket Monstrosities? Did you abandon it or...?

I didn't realize this thread existed.

Man, at this point, daltar is probably unofficial mod of the RP fora.

I never intended to GM it.

I'll put myself up for criticism. Here's A Game of Chance, the RP i'm GMing.

Hmm I just read a little of it.

Is there any thing in particular you would like advice about? Or something you feel is your weakness?

Consistency in character, mostly. I post once near the beginning, then i post alot more during Day six or so and from then on.

STARBOUND 2, STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE MAN

I'm open to critique too.

I'm open to critique as well.

Please tell me what you think of my RP.

This is my RP, "Fight for the core."

If I critique myself, does everyone else who have the same frikin' problem listen and take notes?

From my point of view, a lot of GMs on this forum care more about playing then about GMing. Choose an RP randomly - it almost garantees to have GMPC. And either GMPC is a Black Hole Sue with plot centered around him, or... there is no plot from begin with and other then play as GMPC, GM's functions are minimal.

This phenomen is causing effect on me as well - every single RP that I opened on this forum has GMPC.

Signups are closed, but A Game Of Chance has no such thing. Only one random NPC and an NPC controlled by a player in the RP because its part of their character. No GMP Cs whatsoever.

edited 5th May '11 10:25:25 AM by InfiniteParagon

Minor note about "personality" entry in signups. This entry is open for the sign of all players and makes it impossible to play MagnificentBastards (since anyone can see that he is bastard in personal data) unless you post Blatant Lies in that entry.

Well, actually, as far as I understand Magnificent Bastard, there's little hiding that the character in question is a bastard, but the defining characteristic is how he or she makes it look damn good, and manages to generate fans despite being a despicable person.

Now, one standard part of signups that I'm starting to think can be done without is the backstory entry. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a good idea to have that info down somewhere, but I think a lot of RPs would gain a lot of depth if people focused on telling the important parts of their backstories in the RPs proper.

edited 13th May '11 5:44:54 AM by slowzombie

You could always make the back story rather vague, to put a sense of mystery to the character, and allows you room to expand on something later on, if you feel the need to retcon things.

Well, I haven't RP'ed on this site very long, but I'm open to anything that someone has to say about my writing.

Oh wow, a critique thread? You know, this is actually an amazingly awesome idea, so long as it doesn't end up derailing. Maybe I'll submit a character or two to scrutiny later.

P.S.: I think that GM have all rights to know Personality and Backstory of characters, but this doesn't mean all other players have to know. Unfortunaly, for many players what a player knows, so knows a character. So we have many situation, when characters use information they couldn't possibly have.

The amount of information in character data (visible to other characters) must depend heavily on setting: If the characters never met before and don't belong to organisation that gathers personal data on it's members, neither personality, not backstory must be mentioned in places, when other players can see them.

edited 28th Jun '11 4:33:42 AM by KazeKoichi

I have another thought. If you let other people to create your world, or a plot for you, you fail as GM. GM must always be in control. I don't mean you must always railroad (Not That There's Anything Wrong with That), you may follow some player's interesting idea, but be sure that players are not writing their own adventure. Remember, as GM, you are always responsible, and you can't carry this responsibility, if 50% of the game is created by other people.

Appointing Co-GM is OK, if you stay in touch. Also, you can let the players to carry on their ideas if you want, but make sure they discussed their ideas with you first, to see if they fit. If you can't do that much, don't be GM in the first place.

Eheh... this is actually kind of exactly what I need as a writer and R Per...

I haven't tried my hand at G Ming yet, but I play as May in The Massive Multi Fandom RPG, Jack in The Gambit and Kathy in Cthulhu and the Vampettes (although both of those are fairly young R Ps so far...)

It would be really great if I could get some feedback on any of these characters... I mean, May isn't an OC, so I'm not sure if she's the kind of character that this critique thread was designed for, but it would be good to get some feedback on her in particular, since I've been R Ping her for several months now...

edited 25th Jun '11 4:26:59 AM by KiriAme

Dunno how old this thread is (found it accidentally via a google search), but perhaps some-on could take a look at the latest Netland for me? I've been told I'm too easy of a GM, and I've noticed my descriptions are lacking sometimes. Also I teleport the players around far too often (though they tend to make it necessary...).

Quite interesting...

I'm currently having a go as a GM with Mortal Wills, Mortal Hearts. So far, some of the players are playing on and off due to other RPs around lately. I know that a few have school priorities, which is understandable.

You're saying that about Netland? Thanks, if you are. :P

I was talking about the thread. I'm hoping that it'll indeed help us who are either GMs or RP players.

One advice about railroading: handle with care! Rails are useful device to keep a party on track, but unnecessary rails always piss off players. Read a trope page about Railroading first. Ask yourself, is there any other way but rails to make players do as you intend? Try to figure at least two possible ways for players to take. Avoid blunt rails at all cost (if you need PC in exact place, transporting him via whirlwind is unnessesary, if you can just make NPC talk to him and send him to this place. Especially if this PC was searching said NPC in the first place). Lampshading rails is also very bad idea.

Be careful with revealing villains in the middle of the game, especially if they are Obviously Evil who do things For the Evulz: they tend to have brightly marked rails straight to their lair. Well-Intentioned Extremist can bring intrigue by making part of the party want to join his cause. Beware of TokenEvilTeammates: they tend to refuse the rails not because their players hate your guts, but because this is in character for them to do so. To get mad on someone for good roleplaying is absolutely bad form.

*

edited 5th Dec '11 7:36:37 PM by KazeKoichi