Comments on: GM Performance Review

By: Hypnotoad

Hypnotoad — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:31:21 +0000

I think I will have my players do this, my pride may be bruised, but I want to optimize everyone's experience.

By: BryanB

BryanB — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:29:41 +0000

I like the reasoning behind your article Phil, but I think this process is too formal for me. First, I game to get away from the rigors of work and school. While I value constructive crticism from my players, I wouldn’t want to have it given to me in a formal evaluation like one get’s at work or on a term paper.

A GM Performance Review just seems too formal for me to use in a hobby. While I understand your goals and appreciate your purpose, I wouldn’t want to incorporate this approach into my hobby time. It just seems… too serious an approach for me.

I’ll explain my approach in Walt’s article.

By: zozeer

zozeer — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:58:26 +0000

Prep – Below. (my prep is done on the drive to the session…)
Story Quality – Sufficient. (there is not so much depth in my games. more of a beer and pretzels setting.)
NPC’s – Below. (Only important people get details, or conversation time, I hand wave a lot of npc interactions)
Storytelling – Exceeds. (when I talk they listen. )
Mechanical Knowledge – Sufficient. (I admit that in some places I forget rules that will be challenging for the players.)
Leadership – Sufficient.

By: longtooth

longtooth — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:20:11 +0000

I organize my game with yahoo groups, and there is a new app that is in beta that allows you to build a review form. I made up a DM critique form, but no one uses it much. As an art student, I value this form of feedback. I think most players would be uncomfortable giving it.

By: FreeRangeGamer

FreeRangeGamer — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:47:55 +0000

I’m with Clawfoot. It’s a great resource, but I think us GMs already beat ourselves up enough before, during, and after (well, I do at least) a session. The last thing we need are our players critiquing TOO much, as they’ll gladly do it in character.

By: Clawfoot

Clawfoot — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:22:21 +0000

I really like this idea, but I don't think I'll be giving this to my players, mostly because I don't think they'd be comfortable doing it, either face-to-face or anonymously. I might, however, post my self-evaluation to my own LJ or something, so that they can see it and comment on it if they wish. At the very least, they'll see that I am self-evaluating, and if they agree with me on what my weak points are, they'll know that I know about it and am working on improving it.

By: drow

drow — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:40:00 +0000

Step 5: brutally murder the character of any player who did not give you a glowing review. that'll learn them.

By: Razjah

Razjah — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:09:01 +0000

I love this idea and just ran the assessment with my girlfriend (she plays, woot!) The only change I would make is that I would use a 7 point scale instead of the subjective "exceeds, sufficient, below". The 7=exceeds, 6=really good, 5=good, 4=sufficient, 3=could use some improvement, 2=needs work (aka. "dude, come on!", 1=terrible. This may be because my group wants hard guidelines, or because my classes keep focusing on clear objective measurements.

By: llondra

llondra — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:42:34 +0000

@DNAphil - I really liked the criteria. Quantifying this is helpful to the GM and the players - even if you don't do a full-blown assessment, just asking for post-session feedback around these specific criteria can help the players better focus their feedback and make it more useful. Avoiding the, "So, how do y'all think it's going?" "Oh, it's great. Yep..."

By: DNAphil

DNAphil — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:21:30 +0000

No doubt this requires some tough skin to allow yourself to be critiqued by your players. It helps if you have had to have done this for work, though it will not be 100% the same doing it with your friends.

I think that the benefits outweigh the fear of being critiqued. As GM’s I think we all want to be better GM’s, and without understanding where our weaknesses are, how can we really improve.

Now if you are not sure that you want your player’s feedback, you can do a self-assessment, but you need to be very, very honest with yourself.

With the proof in the pudding, I am willing to post my personal assessment:
Prep– Exceeds
Story Quality– Sufficient
NPC’s– Below
Storytelling– Sufficient
Mechanical Knowledge– Below
Leadership– Sufficient

My players followed the same trends I did, with the predicted scores, a bit better than mine, in NPC and Mechanical Knowledge. But it’s clear that if there are two places that I really can make improvements this year, that is where I should be spending my time.

By: Scott Martin

Scott Martin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:31:56 +0000

I started the article thinking, "Yeah, that would be interesting. I know that I like to make sure that I'm doing a good job." I don't know why, but that feeling dissipated as I read through the article. It probably began when I marked myself as "needs improvement" when comes to vivid NPCs, particularly accents and voices... it's so easy to fixate on flaws. I think your final heading says it all. It is a powerful tool, and it could lead to big improvement. I'm just cringing aside from the hurt right now. [Or, worse, going through the self evaluation honestly-- then getting platitudes because our group's not strong on critiquing any GM.