30 Day Challenge: Wrap-up, posts 29 and 30

I'm going to post both of these in one post, since the first question is too stupid to merit it's own post.  And then, I'll be DONE with the 30 DAY CHALLENGE tag, a challenge that I might have been a little bit ill-advised in taking on, since it was catering to a specific gamer demographic that I don't match.  Oh, well.  I did it, and because I'm a sucker for those kinds of things, I'll probably do something like it again (although probably not as aggressively.  I still need to finish the A TO Z challenge after all, and that's only 26 entries.)

Day 29: What is the number you always seem to roll on a d20?

None.  My d20s are random, so I get all of the numbers with roughly equal frequency.  As is the case with any d20 that isn't somehow defective.  Duh.

Day 30: Best DM you've had

Now that's a tough one.  Plenty of times, I'm the DM.  When I'm not, I most frequently play with my current group, and all of the other DMs (besides me) prefer to run pre-written campaigns or adventure paths.  This isn't my preferred way to play, so although I've had some great times in those games, and the games are pretty good, and the DMs certainly know their business, it's hard for me to call them the best DM I've ever had, because they specifically haven't been running the game in the style that works best for me.

I've had some other GMs here and there, although frequently only for one-shots, that I've quite enjoyed.  One of them is a guy that has run several campaigns that I wish I could have been in, since they were so completely and totally right up my alley.  This is a guy who thinks the way I do, both as a player and a GM.  Sadly, other than a convention one-shot or two, I've only ever had him as a player in one of my games (one of my most successful games ever, though, I'll add.  And largely because of his contribution to it.)  This guy is Corey Reid, the author of the Barsoom Tales story-hour turned novel, and the author of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND--a multimedia extravaganza, including a True20 setting, an Old School Hack variant game, and now an indie-published comic book (ten years from now, I expect it to be a full-length feature film.)

What makes Corey's GMing style so congruent and compatible with me and mine?  First off, I'll point out his willingness (in fact, even preference) for a rather loose preparation style, leading to a rather laid-back running style that easily rolls with it when players do "unexpected" things--in fact, I think he actually prefers players to do something crazy and unexpected.  Secondly, he's a guy who doesn't take gaming too seriously.  If someone's being wildly entertaining by being somewhat silly, well, that's to be encouraged.  If they're being wildly entertaining by being rather dramatic, well that's cool too.  The operational buzzword being "wildly entertaining" is what he's managed to figure out how to encourage, tease out, and reward.

I'll also point out that when I was last in a one-shot convention game with him, there was one guy who wasn't quite on the same page as the rest of the group.  Corey managed to really make that work; get him on the same page without forcing it, letting him have his thing, yet simultaneously not derailing the game for anyone else.  That was an extremely deft bit of DMing, if I do say so myself.

Sadly, Corey doesn't live anywhere near me.  He used to live sorta near me when he was in Toronto and I was only 4-5 hours away in southeast Michigan, but now he's gone much further afield.  The chances of us playing together again anytime soon are very, very low.