Do your players like you?

I don't like me

This, basically exactly. I am a DM of long standing and status with happy grateful players yet I always have that thought: "what if they secretly hate me or merely tolerate me?"

Sucks mega-hardcore.

I have come to the conclusion that people are only my friends because I'm a good GM.

All my girlfriends in recent years have said outright that they probably wouldn't have dated me if I weren't such a good GM. (Turns out being really good at something is sexy.)

All my male friends show up to RPG nights religiously, but couldn't be arsed to invite me to social events or hang out with me outside of games.

The players get visibly excited when discussing their characters and the game, but they won't discuss science, history, or business with me.
Why, Veeky Forums, why? Why can't I have real friends?

Because you are an unlikable twat who found his one niche and chance to have friends.

Or because you tie everything back into rpgs when not playing.

You're okay I guess

I'm hard to get to know and I am quite vague. All I want is someone to love.

I am so alone

Yes, they do
I'm afraid one of them actually love me

post steam id user, am willing to love

Yes. I'm fucking insufferable as a player, but when I DM, the same people tend to like me.

I don't know and I don't care.

What I care about is if they like my games.

Personally I like all of the players but can't stand our GM, he's a shitty person and completely unlikeable, but it's worth putting up with his disgusting presence if I can hang out with the people I like.

Lol, problem is you dont know how to receive love that why you alone.

>I don't see them often outside of game so it does feel like they don't care for me as a friend
>couldn't be arsed to invite me to social events or hang out with me outside of games
Same here, I feel so used after every session

i dont think so.

i kinda know the rules of a games really really well. so i know when they try to do something the wrong way. (especially prevalent during warhammer 8th) so i correct them and then i have to look it up in the rulebook to prove it.

nowadays i wonder if i should just ignore when people play a game wrong (as in making illegal moves)

I have become close friends with all of my players except for one, she is a girl in my college course and I run a game of d&d in the common room once per week. During game play she's interested and engages with the story, she's the only player that has turned up for every session so far.
As soon as a session is finished she gets up from the table and we become strangers, doesn't even say hi to me in class it's like a friggin light switch.

> RL group
Yes. We were friends before we started to play games together. Not sure about the new introduction; though; one of the players insists her boyfriend needs to learn DnD, and she has TERRIBLE taste in men. This one is at least an idiot instead of an idiot arrogant enough to cheat on her and disown a child.

> Online DnD
Yes.

> Online Shadowrun
Yes. They've also taken a shine to the most annoying shadowrunner ever.

>Just remember, they don't love us, they just love the uniform

I think. They are the best friends of my gf, so the jokes are not as often as they would like (good thing, it's a CoC game).

The sad frog in me is telling me to no but the soul is telling me yes. I do have a discord though. Uunicorn#0083

Can confirm, no one loved this robot.

They keep pestering me to DM even thou they know I abhore it.
They whine about me being not being okay with their meta-gaming and min-maxing.
I improvise nearly everything with only a few keywords as ideas.
I tried to give them puzzles and mysteries, npcs with motives and reason...
But no, anyone interesting was first on the kill list.
Any puzzle rendered meaningless by ingame mechanics they had.
Plots ignored, events skipped.

I've even considered going magic realm to make them quit asking me.

Murder their characters again and again and again, don't stop murdering their characters and everyone they hold dear

>you dont know how to receive love
Of course I do! Either with your mouth or...

I have tried that, it didn't work out as intented.
They now see their characters as completely disposable with little regard to roleplay.
They've never survived long enough to get to a medium or high level.
(Despite warning that their attempts are suicidal at best)
[I even jailed/captured them twice for crimes deserving death before I killed them the third time]
The party consists of 4 rotations of nobody with the original motives left.

It's not all doom and gloom, there have been some funny moments we still remember.
But it feels more like they want a murder simulator with indepth details on the kills; rather than roleplaying.

Murder just one of them but in real life

Some do and some don't. The only thing that pisses me off is that those that have problems don't have the balls to tell me and I learn it from others.

We're a group of friends who hang out weekly outside of sessions. I think I'll go so far as to say they kinda enjoy my company.

my "players":
1. all want to play D&D
2. none of them will DM
3. 2/3 won't even finish their characters, which is the only bottleneck now.
I just wanna use some of my 12 years old D&D books that were read for fun and nothing more.
Oh, wait, as soon as I decided to use 3.5 and my books, someone found everything 3.5 online in pdf form. Thanks.
No, it's fine, I'll just burn these $600 worth of useless paper.

So yeah, I think my players fucking hate me.

I don't feel used. I like to DM because my mind is a font of endless stories, possibilities and worlds.
I did just realize it might be because most things I invite the players to do is, ironically, wilderness adventures and urban exploration. Even in real life... I'm a GM.

It's okay, bro. D&D 3.5 isn't that good. Most people who still play it (at least where I live) are people I wouldn't play with.
Try Savage Worlds. Combat is almost as fast as advertised, and I've had a full-party character creation session that lasted only 20 minutes.
The core book is $10, and that's probably all you need. The books are a sunk cost. Sell those relics to someone who still likes 3.5.

Sure do! Mix of family, room mates, friends, and some people who are just excited to be trying out the whole role playing thing.

Playing in a public venue is kind of iffy (I've had to talk over Magic tournaments the last three games), but I haven't had a single soul flake on me yet.

The only complaint I've ever had levied against me is that I don't really do long campaigns, and one of my players is the sort who wants to use the same character for eeeeeeeeeverything.

I could stand to be better about that, I guess, but deep down I just want to play ALL the games.

Apparently a lot of players are like this.
I run a uni game and one of my players mentioned that he'd seen another of the players recently in a bar (one who was missing the current session) and that the dude had practically blanked him.
Although to be fair the other guy isn't openly "nerdy" at all and works as a club promoter so I kind of get it.

Greybeard forever DM here. I am going to run a game and tell the best story possible not make nice with players.

It could be autism. Not Veeky Forums, "autism" but literal autism. I have a cousin who can only remember my name if I wear a shirt he's seen me in before, maybe the speds you play with cant recognize you without a DM screen in front of you.

"You know, after gaming with you, I have hated you a lot less."

>Or because you tie everything back into rpgs when not playing.
Do people not like this? I don't really LIKE anything else.

Who cares?

They show up and we play. Pondering over deep unspoken feelings like and
is for self-conscious needy numales.

wew lot of salty tyrant dms in here.

I love their lack of self-awareness

Were friends outside the game but in the current game it's pretty much constant bullying because i didn't pick the same race as everyone else.

It's starting to wear on me a little even though i know it's just the setting and characters.

To be fair, puzzles in tabletop RPGs are shit. They're either so easy as to be pointless or something that only makes sense to the DM, and I've never seen one with an in-setting reason to exist.

I mostly play with/GM for either childhood friends that I've known most of my life, friends-of-friends, or very occasionally a friend's spouse or acquaintances thereof. The first are the closest thing I've ever had to brothers, the second are some alright guys and we get along well enough, and the third are generally tolerable.

So yeah, I feel like I'm good.

no, nobody does.

Why would I spend time with people who didn't like me?

In my game it was in a SciFi setting and nobody had the skills or language to operate this control-panel.
They gave it about 5 minutes before abandoning the quest entirely.
There was an instructions manual dropped on the floor in the next room, there was a keycard in a jacket in another part of the complex, fingerprints on a keypad, a memo of a scribbled by a forgetfull guard...
If they hadn't killed everyone they could force someone to do it. I even sent in 2 extras, seperatly for this option.

>my rampant self-doubt still leads me to wonder how they could possibly enjoy spending time with me.
This. I fear that all my friends secretly hate me and just put up with me out of pity.

None of us particularly like each other anymore. It's mostly because we're just ambivalent to each other after slowly drifting apart for three years. For example, a few players refuse to play anything but pathfinder. I hate pathfinder and would rather play nearly anything else.

I am a player of long standing and I hate my GM, I only tolerate him because the rest of the players in our group are 10/10 and I want to snatch them up for my own games when his finally peter out.

Have you tried not playing D&D?

Nope.
the only reason i have friends is because im too nice to people in college and help others. they'll drop me like a hot plate after june next year.

As a DM, just drop out and keep in touch with the other players. If you hate your DM it isn't worth sticking around.

I think so, but I'm not entirely certain why

In my case I fear that since we are all social outcasts and have no other friends they're forced to be my friends due to having nobody else. It's a sad happy family we are.

I think so, aside from one player. I don't know why he even shows up, he doesn't get involved or pay attention, and we don't really have much of a connection out of game either.

Have you tried killing something? How about planning with them to murder your neighbor?

>won't discuss science, history, or business with me.

Are you knowledgeable in these topics?

How can one not make a personal connection to a regular DM that they at least think is okay?

your discord didnt work hun, are you sure you dont want some love?

You run three games?

How often do you run sessions?

Whatever. Sounds like Mr. ClubPromoter needs to grow up a bit and learn how to treat people in a friendly manner.

what players?

Your friends

Yes we're all good friends.
Which is why I'm paranoid they don't like my game and they're just being nice.

Not really no. I'm only the quasi-forever GM because our best GM has gone on a "temporary hiatus" that has lasted years and shows no signs of ever ending.

I'd just stop, personally.

Playing a game shouldn't only be fun for some people, it should be fun for everyone involved. There should be a middle ground.

If that middle ground isn't being met, even after a discussion about it, there's no reason to play. If you're not having fun, then you have no obligation to keep it going.

Especially since the situation, from what it seems like to me, has turned into an exchange of you and the group trying to one-up each other.

I guess. I run a game for a group of my best friends so it's hard to distinguish between whether or not they like me as a GM because I'm their friend or because I'm a good GM.

Playing with GM's with decades more experience than myself gets me thinking they just don't know what they're missing out on.

I'd give myself a 6/10. They haven't told me I'm shit.

I'm sure they like me well enough, though I don't talk to most of them outside the game all that often. I used to sometimes, but I've just kinda gotten tired of it over time; not really sure why.

They seem to all treat me as the kid of the group, though. Not really in a condescending way, but it definitely feels like there's a bit of a "little brother" mentality going on. I am the youngest in the group, at 24, but none of them are older than 30. It might be some complex of mine to think that, though.

This 100%, except I'm a player.

My what?

No. They never told anything explicit but I could tell that they didn't like my presence.

That's why I left. I'm sure they're gonna have a better time without me.

I hang out with everyone except one dude who's a mutual friend, my dming is godawful so they stay for some reason

I ran one session, which everyone really liked.
Then everyone stopped talking to me. Go figure.