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Great poll. I think the only thing missing is Improvisation as it's own category.
 Being able to change things on the fly when a player or group does something totally out of left field or if an opportunity arises to do something unexpected yourself when players leave their brass underpants off. 
Some of my groups most memorable moments are the ones that were completely situational and off the top of my head.
 I'll have some ideas on what's involved but it won't come together until it's actually happening. 

May 17, 2012 -- 7:16AM, Chimpy20 wrote:

May 16, 2012 -- 2:23PM, crazy_monkey wrote:

And I hate puzzles.  Loathe them with a fiery passion.  Because I stink at them.  :P     

I think many DMs feel this way. My players love puzzles but I have a hard time thinking of good ones.

I really want to see loads more puzzles in 5e published adventures, to makes us DM's life a bit easier by not having to devise them!

I love making puzzles.  Love it.  I could write a book of puzzles.

I think that the only way to determine wether or not a DM is a "good" one is to observe the game they're running.

No matter what you might think of the DM, as long as those they're DMing for approve & fun is being had....

 
  

Puzzle maker: Not needed. Not every adventure needs to include puzzles. Even what could be an in-game puzzle can be played as an Int check. I don't include them, because I haven't polished a way for the characters' Int to factor in them, but I'll do as soon as I manage to do it. I do love solving puzzles, though, but I don't think they are necessary.

Actor: It does appear in every adventure. Even monsters can be memorable with a good Actor DMing. I find that this improves the table experience greatly, and helps the players figuring out which NPC is talking any time. A poor or mediocre acting, though, doesn't spoil much the experience.

Demiurge: Pretty useful unless the DM is running a published adventure (or even a published setting with enough details). Even when the world creation is leaky, though, a good improvisation can save the day for the DM, so it's not so much needed.

Writer: Again, not as necessary when running published adventures, but even then it's more useful than Demiurge. For some game styles (like mine), this one skill is foremost. Other people can find it a secondary skill, but still pretty useful.

Marshall: A good Marshall's work isn't just making every encounter challenging. They can just as like adjust their own efficiency to a wide range of challenge levels. If they aren't good at it, some encounters (even bosses) can be very easy, and some others can be too difficult (a TPK from a warmup goblin ambush). If they don't adjust their skills, there can be weaker monsters and stronger monsters, but every monster would feel the same from a strategic POV (a kobold slinger would be just as clever as a drow assassin)

Rules creator: Even when the core rules are OK, often players end finding situations not covered, or badly covered (such as the RAW rules would be absurd). So this skill is very useful, but improvisation can solve these situations without having to create a rule on the spot. It's acceptable (IMO) to make a fast ruling and let the players know that you're going to edit this rule after the session, so rules creation 'on the spot' isn't that important for me.

Judge: Most. Important. Skill. Not only knowing the rules, but also, sometimes, interpretation of the system so that situations that can be interpreted in more than one way are ruled in the way that best fits in the game making it more enjoyable for everyone. Also, sometimes a good judge can overlook certain rules (even rules that are enforced in other situations) for the sake of a nice game.