How open are you to suggestions and advice from your players?

Well, taking into account if they aren't having fun then the game lacks purpose, very.

>>52275564
Hal was the best part of that show

>>52275564
I think a more enjoyable experience can be achieved when the gm is open to suggestions from the players, and works with them to create a game world that they'll enjoy, yes.

>>52275608

This

Roleplaying, or any other sort of traditional game for that matter, is a social engagement you undertake for mutual enjoyment. If someone isn't enjoying the experience, something is going wrong.

Specifically as a GM, I love taking advice and suggestions from my players. You can always learn to improve yourself as a GM, assuming you know it all just prevents you ever moving past that point, and it also plays very much into my style as a GM. Some people write huge amounts of comprehensive notes, I prefer to have a broad, flexible structure that I fill in on the fly, often with ideas my players present me.

A neat little trick is to provide your players with a few seeds and plot hooks, little things that seem to lead somewhere. But instead of having your own idea where they go, listen. I can guarantee that- Well, it takes the right kind of player, but with my group at least they often come up with stuff more interesting and fun than what I could have thought of myself. So the cycle goes around. I feed them tidbits of information, they figure out what it means amongst them and I take inspiration from that for whatever the truth may be, and use that revelation and plot progression to sow more seeds.

We also play a lot of systems which build this into the mechanics, with declarative knowledge skills rather than interrogative ones.

>>52275564
Not very since they can't be bothered to read the rulebook before suggesting houserules

>>52276990
Agreed, although I'll add that his dynamic with Abe and the all black poker group was truly something special.

>>52277048
>If someone isn't enjoying the experience, something is going wrong.

Not at all true. For example, if a player in my group watches or enjoys Critical Roll, Cards Against Humanity, Big Bang Theory, World of Warcrap (craft, really, but it's such a fucking stupid game I can't resist), Dark Souls, Sky Rim, Steven Universe, Homestruck, My Little Pony, Rick and Morty, or any cartoon in general really, or any anime (unless they keep it to themselves enough to never mention it), I immediately make a mental note that their fun is not the priority. Why? Because they often draw inspiration for how they play, how they act in game, and what kind of characters they make, from these influences. Skyrim faggots always want to play some argonian homebrew bullshit. MLP shitters want to do some sort of pony character (same with furries and foxes, and I kick furries from my games outright). And people constantly make stupid-ass references to Rick and Morty and Steven Universe, which do not belong in my RPG campaigns at all.

So no, I do not care for the enjoyment of, nor do I take suggestions from, the kinds of people who enjoy this kind of garbage media. Why? Because they try to inflict that garbage onto my games and ruin any semblance of tone every time they open their mouths. They can stay but I am not pandering to their stupid prepackaged shit they want. Invent your own character. Nothing anime related. No furry characters. If you want to do that kind of shit, you'll have fun watching absolutely zero percent of the campaign relate to you, and more than likely you will be outirght killed for acting like a demon from the 21st century.

>>52277242
>hating anime
>literally the best medium in the whole universe
kys

>>52275564
I am not interest in self-improvement.

>>52275564
I'm very open to players suggestions. In fact most of my game is shaped by players.

However I am not open to players arguing with me until they get their way. I've kicked people I've known for years because they insisted on aguring for hours rather than just accept that I said no and gave them my reason.

>>52277683
You sound like someone I would uninvite from my game.

>>52275564
Pretty damn open. I love taking the players' ideas and integrating them into the story. It's to the point where I've homebrewed up a bunch of variant classes and custom monster races for the campaign. We've got a shadow demon who changes shapes into a progressively more dangerous form, a bard who sings in truespeech, and a warrior witch who uses 'brews per day' instead of 'spells per day'.

They fly around on an airship fighting dragonkin.

>>52277242
None of the things you mentioned, despite my group consisting of people who each enjoy some of those things (everything but the big bang theory), have ever come up at the game table with the exception of world of warcraft because my friend tried to run a brief game for us set in the warcraft universe, and it was pretty good. Enjoying something doesn't mean you're a meme spouting autist. I love the shit out of the dark souls series but my paladin has never praised the sun to express that.

>>52278668

Don't reply, anon. It's a troll, and not even a very good one. They listed a huge number of inconsistent buzzword media properties in a vague attempt to get a response from someone, combined with meaningless platitudes they're using in place of an actual argument. That sort of low quality shit doesn't deserve it. Well, except for counter-shitposts like >>52277683

Rarely. The players usually don't know what they really want. They would enjoy the game less if they got what they asked for. It's better to observe what situations they seem to enjoy the best and keep those in mind, without sacrificing the general thrust of the campaign.

>>52277242
Virt, dont you have some hotel to be creeping up?

>>52277242
Fuck dude what's wrong with Dark Souls

>>52277242
Hello Mr. Killjoy!

>>52279262
Pretty much all computer RPGs are garbage. Dark Souls is no exception.

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2MB, 300x225px

>>52275564
Considering my players are all friends and three of them have run games before, pretty open.

>>52277242

You're either a pleb with legit mental issues, or an uninventive b8er. Probably the latter, but whichever it is, kys.