So last Wednesday night, I went to my local comic & games store to pick up my books and say hi to the games manager as well as a couple of people who I knew would be playing in the weekly D&D Encounters that Wizards organizes. Due to a lot of people showing up, Kris convinced me to help DM a table. Well a bit later...an emergency came up which forced the owner of the store to leave and have Kris step away from the group that he was DMing in order to watch the rest of the place. When my original group was done I went from that table to the other that had been waiting for a DM for about an hour or so. At this point I felt like it was my duty to make sure that these people have a good time since they've been patiently waiting and to add to the mix, new players were in the fray.
That night, I consciously realized that the effective rule of mirroring is just as effective when DMing as they are in closing sales, building rapport, and well...life in general. Between the two groups I probably had 3 or so different ways of playing manifest. I'm a narrator by nature when I play D&D (to me if there's no narrating or role-playing, I should be playing something like Warhammer). I played my first couple of rounds as I normally would play and then after that if I could get a general idea of what the individual players were like and wanted out of the game, I would cater to their play style. Crack a joke based on their personality and you've got a friend for the rest of the session while getting a positive reaction from the rest of the table. If you're the kind of guy who just looks at stats, bonuses, penalties and status effects, I'll go straight to the meat and potatoes and give you the numbers back and if it hits, I'll tell you if it's good, ask you to roll your damage and off to the next player we go. For the new or shy players that are getting into it, I'll help and do a description of their character's actions for them and how it effects the bad guy and then try to nurse them into it. In the case of 4E with all of the power names, it's easy to get things rolling. They might just read to me the flavor text at first and then you might see them changing it up a bit with their own flare in the next round.
I do have one rule. When you cause a hit against a monster of mine that kills it (not always with minions) I will make you describe how your character delivers that killing blow. And it's extremely rewarding to see the newer or quieter players get out of their shell and have their eyes widen as they tell me how they've slain the monster and fit in as much badassery as possible.
Mirror your players as a DM, and if you do it properly, you'll notice them mirroring you at times too. Great way to see if you're building rapport, especially in a group where you weren't friends prior to sitting down at the table to play with some funny shaped dice.
That night, I consciously realized that the effective rule of mirroring is just as effective when DMing as they are in closing sales, building rapport, and well...life in general. Between the two groups I probably had 3 or so different ways of playing manifest. I'm a narrator by nature when I play D&D (to me if there's no narrating or role-playing, I should be playing something like Warhammer). I played my first couple of rounds as I normally would play and then after that if I could get a general idea of what the individual players were like and wanted out of the game, I would cater to their play style. Crack a joke based on their personality and you've got a friend for the rest of the session while getting a positive reaction from the rest of the table. If you're the kind of guy who just looks at stats, bonuses, penalties and status effects, I'll go straight to the meat and potatoes and give you the numbers back and if it hits, I'll tell you if it's good, ask you to roll your damage and off to the next player we go. For the new or shy players that are getting into it, I'll help and do a description of their character's actions for them and how it effects the bad guy and then try to nurse them into it. In the case of 4E with all of the power names, it's easy to get things rolling. They might just read to me the flavor text at first and then you might see them changing it up a bit with their own flare in the next round.
I do have one rule. When you cause a hit against a monster of mine that kills it (not always with minions) I will make you describe how your character delivers that killing blow. And it's extremely rewarding to see the newer or quieter players get out of their shell and have their eyes widen as they tell me how they've slain the monster and fit in as much badassery as possible.
Mirror your players as a DM, and if you do it properly, you'll notice them mirroring you at times too. Great way to see if you're building rapport, especially in a group where you weren't friends prior to sitting down at the table to play with some funny shaped dice.
Solid advice!
ReplyDelete> When you cause a hit against a monster of mine that kills it (not always with minions) I will make you describe how your character delivers that killing blow.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!