Specifically, what he wants us bloggers to do is
- Name three “ best practices” you possess as a GM. What techniques do you think you excel at?
- What makes those techniques work? Why do they “pop”?
- How do you do it? What are the tricks you use? What replicable, nuts-and-bolts tips can you share?
That doesn't, usually, mean that you should just let him automatically be successful. Look at the rules, and find a roll or two he can make. Set the difficulty depending on how suited the character actually is for the stunt, and how much you would like to see it successful. That rodeo ride could be resolved through a series of strength checks. The dragon-run could be a dexterity check or an acrobatics check, depending on the system. The akimbo crossbow flying might be simply attack rolls, with some negative modifiers.
If the character succeeds, there will be high-fives all around, and the players will talk about afterwards how awesome it was that time Bob the Elf surfed a shield down the stairs while shooting orcs left and right. If the character fails, that gives the opportunity to throw in some nice complication or other, heightening the tension, and making the encounter memorial anyway through the failure of the stunt. A GMing success either way.
2. Steal with hands and feet. There is inspiration everywhere. Movies, books, songs, roleplaying anecdotes, setting backgrounds, documentaries, everyday events. If you stumble across something that is cool, keep it in mind. Then once you have the time, consider how you might use it. If it is obscure or ubiquitous enough you might be able to use it outright. Otherwise it might just take a bit of tweaking. Or maybe it is purely inspiration, and only the core essence remains once you are finished with it.
The refrain of this little number for example inspired me to have a short adventure revolving around a relative of a player who fell in love with ice fairy, and would freeze to death if he stayed with her, and go mad if he didn't.
The world is filled with creative people, and you can't possibly be as creative as all of them combined. So when someone has come up with something cool, use their work. That way you will seem ten times as creative as if you had to come up with the stuff yourself.
Not only that, but it is filled with incredibly and cool real-life stuff too. Sometimes truth is, if not stranger, then at least as strange as fiction. Monsters, cultures, places, events, and much more can be found on wikipedia or in books or documentaries. If you use all that as well, you'll seem twenty times as creative, and your setting might seem more real to boot.
3. Don't cling to your plans. This is related in some ways to the first point, but writ large. While you may have plans, for the adventure or for the entire campaign arch, you should always be prepared for the fact that the players may have other thoughts. Don't be afraid to make it clear that this was the adventure that you had planned for tonight. But also, always make it clear that there is no pressure. They can choose to do something else, if they would rather not do that adventure for some reason.
This also means that you have to be prepared for that straying off course. There are two general ways to prepare. Preparation or improvisation. Generally I myself try to have a little something prepared, if I suspect the players might decide not to bite the plot hook. Not a lot, because most likely it won't be used, but enough that I have something to base my improvisation on if that becomes necessary. Having some other adventure hooks, with general ideas about what those adventures would be about, is a typical trick.
Being always prepared to drop your adventure keeps you from forcing the players down a path that they really don't want to take. Your players won't thank you if half of them lose their characters assaulting the dread necromancer's fortress, when what they really wanted was to leave the country from the moment they heard about him.
