GM Rating Sheet FAQ

Questions

1. Why is there no category for role-playing?
2. Why should GMs strive to get "better"?
3. Why isn’t the form anonymous? or Why do you need the players’ names?
4. Why do the other players get to see my rating of the GM? or Why do you have players pass the form around the table?
5. Doesn’t your system give more power to the last player to fill out the form? The last person can give the GM a lower score to “balance out” the rating if they think the other players rated the GM too high.
6. Does this form really provide any feedback? Isn’t this just a popularity contest for GMs?
7. Can I use your GM Rating Sheets at my convention/game day/home game?
8. Do I have to fill out the form? What happens if one or more players at the table don’t fill out the form?
9. After I GM a table, how do I calculate my averages?
10. What if I think the GM doesn’t deserve a 2 in a category, but I don’t want to mark them all the way down to a 1? Can I give them a 1.5?
11. Is the “Total” column my overall opinion of the GM or the sum of my other ratings?

Answers

Q: Why is there no category for role-playing?

A: 1) Role-playing is a too subjective a category. Having player’s rate the GM according to their own preconception of what good role-playing is would be of no value to the GM. The intent of the GM rating sheet is to create a more objective format for constructive feedback.

2) Role-playing is part preparation, part focus, and part fun. Most problems a player might have with the GMs role-playing can be more clearly expressed in these three categories.

3) Some scenarios require a GM to portray several NPCs and some do not have any NPCs. The five principles apply to all scenarios.

Q: Why should GMs strive to get "better"?

A: It is the GM's responsibility to provide a good role-playing experience for the players. While some people can do this naturally, most of us need to work at it. The GM Rating Sheet is a useful tool to easily see the areas in which you can improve.

Q: Why isn’t the form anonymous? or Why do you need the players’ names?

A: 1) Despite the reluctance some will have giving honest feedback to a GM if the GM knows who they are, we feel the potential for abuse is worse. Anonymous people bear no responsibility for their actions. A GM prepares for hours, maybe days, before they even get to the table and then they spend 4 hours focused (hopefully) on entertaining their players. To enable some jerk to abuse the GM anonymously after all that work would be grossly unjust. Most players would never abuse anonymity, but the potential is too great.

2) If you put down a comment the GM doesn't understand or you give a low score without a comment, the GM can later ask you what they did wrong and how they could do better. We understand that this has the potential for abuse too, but there is more trust and authority given to GMs from the start so we expect them not to abuse that trust. If GMs harass players they should be reported to the event coordinator.

3) Even if you give a perfect score (because the GM deserves it or because you feel pressured or obligated), you can still put comments about problem areas. A perfect score doesn't imply a perfect performance and there is always something the GM can do better next time. So even if your score doesn't reflect your true opinion (due to the lack of anonymity), you still have a feedback mechanism, and feedback is the ultimate purpose of this tool.

Q: Why do the other players get to see my rating of the GM? or Why do you have players pass the form around the table?

A: 1) It saves a lot of time to have all input on one sheet for purposes of data entry. Transcribing the points and especially the comments would be very time consuming. Our system gets it all on one sheet at the table, gives that sheet to the coordinator for recording and they fill in the averages at the bottom, and then back the GM at the end of the con/gathering so they can learn from it.

2) The system was designed so that very experienced and completely inexperienced players can arrive at the same score. This is done through the questions, primarily, but with an open sheet everyone gets to see each other’s scores and can gauge if they are out of line with what the rest of the table is seeing. They may determine that they are sticking with their (intended) score because they had a different experience than the other players or they saw something the others did not, but if that is not the case, they may reevaluate and decide they weren't reading the questions thoroughly or doing something else wrong due to inexperience with the form.

3) While there are a few who will never feel completely comfortable with the form not being anonymous, our experience with the form indicates that when people have a bad time, they aren't afraid to express it. For example, we had one player give their GM a 1 out of a possible 10! The rest of that table didn't give stellar scores, but they were all above 5 total so the other players’ scores didn’t unduly influence him.

Q: Doesn’t your system give more power to the last player to fill out the form? The last person can give the GM a lower score to “balance out” the rating if they think the other players rated the GM too high.

A: We really hope people won't rate GMs like that. In our experience with the form, they don’t. The questions we ask take care of a lot of that. This isn't a purely subjective rating and a perfect score doesn't mean the GM did everything perfectly. Because we designed the system that way, we expected a lot of perfect scores. And we did in fact have a lot of perfect scores.

Q: Does this form really provide any feedback? Isn’t this just a popularity contest for GMs?

A: 1) The categories and the associated questions are designed to be objective and are things GMs can learn to improve (see the 5 Principles document for more information). So just by filling out the form honestly, players are giving the GM feedback.

2) There are huge lines at the bottom for players to fill out. Please do so as this is the best form of feedback you can provide.

3) At the end of the event, the coordinator should give you all of your GM Rating Sheets back so you can look over the scores and comments at your leisure (so please write comments – the GM will have an opportunity to read them).

4) We calculate averages for each category so you can see what areas you need to improve.

5) We maintain a database of GM Ratings so we can give you your statistics broken down by categories long after the event.

Q: Can I use your GM Rating Sheets at my convention/game day/home game?

A: Yes. The GM Rating Sheet and the 5 Principles can be used by anyone, anywhere - and we encourage you to do so. We want all GMs to improve and we aren't keeping any of this as proprietary information. (That being said, no one has permission to alter these documents.)

If any organization is interested in using this on a mass scale (like a convention), please contact us and we will see what we can do to support you.

Q: Do I have to fill out the form? What happens if one or more players at the table don’t fill out the form?

A: If a player doesn’t want to fill out the form, they can just pass it on to the next person at the table. Since we calculate the average, not the total, there is no impact – i.e. the rest of the players’ ratings of that GM will still be calculated.

Our opinion is that you owe it to the GM to fill out the feedback. They worked hard to prepare and run the game for you and they deserve your honest feedback and a few minutes of your time.

Q: After I GM a table, how do I calculate my averages?

A: You don’t. That is why the bottom line of the table is labeled “For Coordinator Use Only”. Experience has shown us that GMs who attempt to calculate their own averages at the table are rarely successful.

Q: What if I think the GM doesn’t deserve a 2 in a category, but I don’t want to mark them all the way down to a 1? Can I give them a 1.5?

A: No. If you write down any number that is not one of the choices for that column, your entire rating for that GM will be ignored. Please do your best to answer the questions posed as honestly as you can. This is not a sliding scale for your subjective assessment; this is a tool to help GMs improve.

Q: Is the “Total” column my overall opinion of the GM or the sum of my other ratings?

A: It is the sum of you other ratings. Just add all your scores across. The result should be a number between 0 and 10. If you put a total that does not equal the sum of your other ratings, we will simply cross it out and write in the correct total.