How To Get Reviews As A Pro GM

Like many other businesses, a professional Game Master stands to gain a lot from good reviews. StartPlaying users often use reviews as part of their decision making process. It might not be the only thing that gets you hired, but a collection of praise for your specific skillset goes a long way. It lets prospective players know what you're good at, and if that matches what they’re looking for. 

As for bad reviews? You should be able to avoid those as long as you adhere to common sense best practices. In fact, we already covered the surefire way to avoid the #1 reason for bad reviews. 

Before you get out there and ask for good reviews, however, here are the essential things you need to know about StartPlaying GM reviews. 

Verified Vs. Unverified Reviews

There are two types of reviews on StartPlaying GM Profiles: verified and unverified. Verified reviews will have a blue checkmark as well as a number of how many games the user played with the GM. 

Only players who participated in paid games can leave a verified review. It’s fine if they used StartPlaying credit as long as the game has a price. Games listed for free will only result in unverified reviews. 

Furthermore, players who partake in both paid and free games will only have their paid sessions show up in their “number of sessions played” part of the review. 

How To Get Reviews

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StartPlaying will automatically send players an email asking to review the GM after a session ends. Some players will heed the call, and others won’t. It’s mostly out of your control. You can give a polite call to action at the end of your session by letting the players know they’ll get the email and how important reviews are to you. Just don’t lay it on too thick or continually ask. Once is enough. 

Another way to garner reviews is to send your review link to friends and players from your previous campaigns. You can find this link at the very top of the screen when you edit your GM profile. Pass the link along to your old players so you can start your career with a few good reviews instead of a blank page. These will, of course, be unverified reviews, but it’s still a great start. 

Final Things To Know About GM Reviews

There’s just two last points on reviews. First, a player can only give a GM one review. That’s because the review is considered for the GM themselves, not the game they just played. 

Finally, don’t worry too much about getting a lot of reviews. While it does look impressive when a GM has over 100 good reviews, players aren’t just looking at that figure. My players have told me that they value the number of games on an individual review just as much. That’s of course because a high number of games played means that user is really invested in that GM. Essentially, you want repeat customers to show up in your reviews. 

And that’s what you need to know about reviews! Be sure to share your link, and ask players for a review at the end of a long campaign. Most of all, keep running fun games and communicating with players, and you’ll have a bunch of great reviews in no time.