New Year's Resolutions

For those curious, I have a post up on Shattered Refractions with my New Year's Resolutions for myself as a Writer, a Game Designer, and as a Person. This post will cover my resolutions as a GM. I think it's safe to say that I have high hopes for myself in 2013. That said, let's take a look at my resolutions for myself as a GM. Feel free to share your own in the comments.

Better Portrayals of NPCs
This is a hold over from last year, but I need to improve on my portrayal of NPCs. I need to get better at RPing them out. I need to get better at switching between them on the fly. Mostly though, I need to get better at not shying away from them when things get rough and instead just diving into the character. I doubt I'll get this done this year, but I want more progress on this.

Old School Stylings
I've talked before about the Old School stylings that I've lost. I want some of them back. My Shadowrun game is helping with that. As has been reading through the RPG subreddit and reading GMing stories. It boils down to things I've always believed (you need the chance of failure for success to matter) but actually putting that failure on the table is a big step. For that, I need to be willing to risk a bad session in the hopes of a great outcome. Time will tell if I can pull it off.

Help My Players Improve
I've been gifted with several groups of great players, but no one is perfect. Everyone can improve somewhere. To do this I will need to challenge my players with new situations that can play out in numerous ways and challenge them to grow into those situations. To react to them in the appropriate ways when they act out of the norms of the world, and to do so when they act within the norms and see what direction they take steps in.

Better Preparation
Far too often I don't prep enough and have to wing it in session. the ability to wing it and improvise is good, but let's be honest we're at our best when we've prepared. Even if we're just prepared for improvisation. This is something I want to improve upon, and just like with before, I'm hoping to do it with my Shadowrun game. Shadowrun needs legwork done on the part of the PCs, and it also needs legwork done on the part of the GM. I just need to get down to it and do it.