Survey says ...

[BlueNinja]

Since this will be my last gaming session with my group for around eight months (hopefully not longer!), I have written up some GM surveys, which I am going to have them answer at the end. Below are some of the questions I included, separated by the type of question they are.

On a scale of 1-10 (1=teh suck, 10=teh awesome!), please rate the following:

How was the last game session? ____

Is Aberrant an awesome system? ____

How was the game campaign overall? ____

How did you like advancement speed? ____

Where do you rate the storyline? ____

Where does (PC name) rank? ____

Where does (NPC) rank? ____

How fair do you consider me as GM? ____

How fair do you consider the rules? ____

How much do you like my desserts? ____ (I included this one because rather than bring money for our food break, I usually bring baked goods of some kind - cookies, cake, brownies, pie, etc.)

Please answer the following with more than one-word answers.

What could I do better as a GM?

What am I doing right as a GM?

What should I do more often as GM?

Which episode plotline did you like the most?

What other rulesets would you be interested in playing in?

True/False questions (feel free to leave more detail)

I am prepared as GM for the session. ____

I railroad the players towards certain outcomes. ____

I provide you with sufficient information to achieve objectives with your own methods in the plot. ____

You look forward to the next campaign I have planned. ____

Cloud would so kick (PC)’s ass in combat. ____

Circle whatever you think I need more of, and cross out whatever you think I need less of:

Friendly NPCs

Combat

Unfriendly non-combat NPCs

Political intrigue

Skill use

Mystery/Investigation plots

World travel

Puzzles/Riddles

Character-specific plots (ie background hooks)

Kewl loot

Huge XP awards

Dungeon crawls/Random encounters

Cheesiness

Spies/Espionage

Unicorns, hugs, and glitter

Desserts

Money

Blatant character theft (ie, putting Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist in as an NPC, which I did in one episode for laughs)

Has anyone else tried using a survey (whether like this, or not) to garner feedback from your players, or from you if you're the player?

[Matt]

When I ran tabletop games I used to do this sort of thing regularly. I think you pretty much have it covered. You have a couple that I wouldn't ask, such as what do you think about me as a GM or how fair do you consider the rules. You aren't really going to get any good feedback from those, and I think you asked better questions elsewhere.

Some of the other questions that I would ask were:

• Who was your favorite NPC?
• What was your favorite combat?
• What was your favorite location?
• Do you think the villains were too tough, not tough enough, or just right?
• What can I do to make this next series successful for you and your character?

I would also ask very character specific questions to figure out where people wanted to go with their character. I'd also ask some things like "What power or ability does your character possess that you don't feel you've been able to use enough?" That one really helped me tailor things to what the players wanted.

[BlueNinja]

Actually, I did get some feedback about my GM style. One of my players felt that one particular NPC (their 'boss' and a nova of over a dozen years) was "too powerful and had no reason to hire us". Half my group had various feedback on the idiosynchrocies of the Aberrant rules (which none of them had ever read prior to my campaign), so I think it was well spent. One of them in particular disliked how much certain skills seemed to dominate certain episodes (Investigate, Subterfuge, Science) yet liked the overall style (which was more mystery-exploration than action-adventure). The Cloud question was actually the most useless, as only one of my four players has actually played Final Fantasy 7.

[El'Jinn Uu]

Heh heh heh...

I threw a pikachu in my Rifts game once... It was in the middle of a major Rifts summoning that was ripping up and swiftly elevating the giant city from the center outwards, And there was Allotta ash and lightning and fire, but One of the players succeeded the perception roll and saw it running by the window of their 'earth mover' turned apc as it was being hoisted up into the air...

He laughed abit.

I Also threw in a 'Klingon Bird of Prey' + crew during a Phase World game... But they were from a false reality that had been invented by the dreams of the players.

As to your OP about the 'Questionar' essay, I stopped doing this when after a few times of doing it, my players began ALWAYS giving me more their complaints. Eventually they got Way too negative and ended up Talking themselves into disliking my games. After one of my players giving me a call one night to "Tell me what needed to be Fixed" and he got down right insulting about it...

I walked away and didn't call any of them for 6 months!

Just warning you Blue that this could happen to you as well. Just be careful to "Keep your players under control".

[El'Jinn Uu]

BTW, why are you not gonna be playing with you group for 8 months?

[BlueNinja]

I'm in the military and will be deployed starting next week. Since three of my four players are civilians, no gaming with them until I return from deployment.

As for the survey, I haven't done one with this group, or even anything beyond an informal "How do you like the game?" when I've been running. I got good feedback about what they liked, what they didn't like, and some suggestions of what they'd like to see that I didn't include.