Meet up for weekly session of RPG

I mean, I make sure to make notes..

But then again, I run a once a month game

Sometimes there's a plot point that i know my character wouldn't be interested in so instead of vetoing it I try to sit back and wait for another player to steer the party in that direction. Doesn't always work out like that.

Cut him out. If he can't tell his GF that she can come over any day but that one its not important to him. A quick " I'm at anons house every tuesday evening." and she would not bother him. The fact that he did not even tell her that, shows he does not care if something is keeping him from playing.

He wants to keep playing to be part of the group but is probably relieved everytime he can find an excuse not to come.

Maybe you could talk to your GM about including plot points where the other PCs have to be involved.

>Mage has to do something with a device or research in the libraby of the local wizard college

>Rouge has to gain acces to some seedy contacts in the underworld

>Monk/Paladin/Priest has to negotiate with the local church to get acces to the tombs

Something tailored to their characters/class that you can't possibly do.

>be my 2008 self, be introduced to D&D
>Guy runs a game. I play badly, but love it. Get the tabletop bug then
>Second session, loved it as well
>Third session never comes.
>Me: "Hey man, anyone can do that thing you do?"
>Him: "Run games? Well, yes anyone who wants to do it can try."
>Me: "Cool let me do it."

Fast Forward to 2011

>Me, have literally only being a DM since. After a epic 2 year long campaign ends, not because it's over but because people stop being able to make it to game week, go to find online group.
>Find them
>First session comes along, is super awkward. It's my first time online and group dynamics not well established.
>Second session is really really good. Everyone, me include, has a blast.
>"Hey dude, thank you. You're a great DM." From severak players. Get excited, happy proud.
>Same thing happen every couple sessions. Great game, get some positive feedback. Negative feedback on occasion but still people care enough to tell me what's bad and what's good.

Fast forward to today:

>Finish epic campaign with great twists and everything.
>Nobody says a word when the game ends. Just 'goodnight'
>Start new campaign, everyone is dragging their feet to make their characters.
>Sessions, good or bad (from my perspective), go by with everyone being passive, doing nothing, never remembering the plot. Never saying if the game is good or bad.
>Me, very occasionaly: "Hey man/girl, was the game good? Did you had fun?"
>Them, everytime: "It was okay I guess."

I would prefer if they hated it. I'm literally tearing up writing this.

>the game isn't memorable enough
you should ponder this. it's not bad, your players keep coming back, but maybe you need to up the ante to make it amazing.

pro tipp: not every game session can be amazing. neither can every football game - be content with unmemorable sessions for a fair amount of time. outstanding sessions are just that - outstanding.

I know this. I feel it's the player equivalent of 'lesbian bed death'. You can't hold the same group for more than six months or they'll just stop appreciating you.

I offer a small XP incentive to the person who gives a synopsis of the last session to start the new one. Works like a charm and makes sure I remember everything that went down to boot.

>been GMing various systems for 8 years
>like to think I'm pretty good at it, people keep coming back every week.
>currently GMing a campaign
>two players start world building together
>"Oh, and we have this, and this, and we thought this was a great idea and we're doing it like this."
>their world building is bordering on masturbation
>It's a PF world with 10 different, 35 point races
>With magic coming from an ore in the ground.
>They even asked me if they should have 12 constelations, or 13.
>and all this other OC Donut Steel stuff
>after explaining some of what they have
>ask my advice
>give them my advice
>they blatantly ignore my advice

I told them twice that world building is difficult, and that the best way to ease the amount of work is to write only the stuff that the players will directly interact with and have some vague ideas or a skeleton of everything else you might think they'll interact with. Everything else amounts self- pleasuring over how original and unique and deep your world is and ejaculating on your player's faces.

On top of that, I hate when people ask me something, listen, then throw whatever you just said out the window. Like, why the fuck did you ask me if you're going to ignore everything I just said?

You sound like a really unpleasant person. Why does them genuinely enjoying a creative process offend you so much?

Might be a little beyond the scope of the thread but I want to tell someone about this, might as well be you fuckers.

>DMing a game
>one player is qt3.14 grill, we're really close friends, I like her as more than that
>other player is my best friend, known him for even longer, also is obviously crushing on girl
>their characters flirt all the time, lots of unresolved romantic tension, think nothing of it
>after some questions, they tell me that they're IRL in love, have been a couple for months and have been keeping it a secret to avoid tension in the group
>I was planning on telling her how I felt and asking her if she feels anything for me literally that day
>I really am happy for them and wish them the best but I'm dying inside knowing that I might have had a chance if I had just spoken up sooner

jdimsa

It doesn't. They can write whatever they want to, I don't care. The main problem is ignoring my advice after they asked for it. It wasn't even, "Hey, that's might work, but we're going to try a different direction". Instead, they didn't aknowlege what I said and continued the conversation as though I didn't say anything. That is what agents me.

Amen to that. Every group I ever DMed were exactly like that. I'm starting to think it will always be like that and that its a core characteristic of the player character.

>>I really am happy for them and wish them the best
I felt that feel. I remember feeling good that my oneitis declined my friend and then I felt like shit for feeling that. Relationships are shit.

Speaking from personal experience, a week is a long time to commit one time events to memory. Especially if the players in question have hectic lives or long work schedules. If the recap covers a lot of area it can be very easy to forget what happened. Usually if the players are given a push with a reminder of the very beginning of the session, they should be able to continue with the recap without assistance.

I have felt this feel.

Sounds like you need a break from GMing. I have had the GM hat for 2 years in a row, and my sessions currently feel very stale. I had two amazing campaigns last year but the current one feels like work to me and we have had a month long hiatus due busy schedules.

I'd gladly be a player, but my group isn't interested.in GM'ing at least right now. They never will be

I know that feel as well, though it wasn't related to a game. I'm also fairly certain it was my last chance at a relationship as I'm a fat, socially awkward mess that's rapidly approaching middle age.

My current DM has rules explicitly to fix this--everyone who recaps the previous session at the start of the new one rolls a d? and gets that much xp. Varies with exposition, but it's a nice little boost that adds up over time.

Make them do it themselves. Maybe establish a rotating schedule among them. Don't give in. You gotta make them your bitches, not become their one.

Thanks guys. I don't know how I'm going to face them next time we game, but I'm damn well going to try to just keep things going the way they were.

It's the exact fucking same for me, except the few breaks in the "uh... uh..." are literally retarded ideas should I ever stop.

One other player even called me out on this in the few first sessions, I stopped taking the lead and the GM had to ask me to start again because the game slowed to a crawl.

>Going on 11 years as foreverDM
>Once every couple months I bitch about not being able to play. Ever.
>Players decide to be "fair" and let me play
>First guy that dm literally reads word for word off a one shot that we did years ago
>First guy can't keep track of critters and damage, so gives up
>Second guy tries, says 'i dont' need any premade adventure'
>Spend 4 hrs listening to him describe the city and every single person in every single building
>Third guy steps up, Tries to do a hybrid premade/homemade
>First lv1 encounter is 3 ogres that attack by throwing rocks off of a 50' ledge onto us, while they order their pack of wolves to attack
>We all die of course.
>Players all look at me and say, "Well, guess it's your turn again bro..can we get back to the real game now?"
>Fuckmesidewayswithashovel

It's a common sight, sadly. The majority of players are shit, and they won't become better. Ever. I blame vidya for this. The only way to cope with it is assemble a large pool of players, find out which are actually good and make a new group out of them.

>Make them do it themselves

Yeah that won't work at all. I'm the only one who thinks fast enough to actually make it work. Anyone else at the table tries they'll just trip over themselves.

I don't really mind it, I just don't quite get what's so funny about it.

So long as they are entertained, normies don't give a shit, friend. If they keep coming back, they like it; but expect nothing from them. They are lazy and weak. Brave new world!
>Like, why the fuck did you ask me if you're going to ignore everything I just said?
They just wanted to loot yer ideas, m8. Nothing more, nothing less. You were just an object to be used for their gain. At least you weren't this poor fucker who got hosed: sorry 'bout that, brother. That fucking sucks. Don't waste time wishing them well, and stop dying inside - get out there and get a girl right now to make the hurting stop.

>I'm a fat, socially awkward mess that's rapidly approaching middle age
Erm, user: have you seen tumblr lately? Yer good, m8.

It's not about actually doing it, it's about stopping catering to their retarded whims if you don't want to. If they fuck up, they will stop. If not, due to fast thinking or rehearsing before or else, everybody wins.

>It's a common sight, sadly. The majority of players are shit, and they won't become better. Ever. I blame vidya for this.
The funniest thing about that is that some of the regular vidya players are still the least shit at that, because they are actually glad they are off the rails.

Hell, you'd expect someone trying to write novels to be able to roleplay a little bit, but no.

Yeah, the curse of the forever gm - almost never play, and when you do, you wish you hadn't. Damned vidya gaems and rap music! People can't think anymore.

>People can't think anymore.
I disagree because, ummmmm, I dunno.

You just have to sort the wheat from the chaff, go though many players until you can assemble an elite cadre of motivated, dramatic and well spoken people. No everyone has the luctury of doing this but if you can this what you must do to find a good group. It won't happen on its own.

I take it we are all gm's itt...so, is there a different mindset to the gm? Why are players such shit? Human nature/laziness? Is it us gm's who are to blame? That is, do we encourage our players to be lazy consumers of our entertainment, instead of compelling them to be producers of entertainment themselves?
Now, I am oldschool, so I'm not hyping the new narrativist/meta-gaming rpg idears...but are these 'shitty' players the result of passivity? Timidity? Lack of imagination?
Or, maybe to put it another way: why are we so good? What makes us itt different from these 'shit' players?

I got a player in my group who, even though this is everyone's first campaign of a tabletop game ever, is adamant that he secretly wants to somehow join forces with the Evil wizard and become all powerful. But is annoyed when i tell him the other players will most likely kill him or the authorities will.

You are not inherently good. Neither is any other GM. It does not make you special. It does not make you more smart, charismatic, or else. You are probably as shit as everyone else, only less lazy.

Let him do it. But, warn him that you'll take his character as an NPC when he actually proceeds with the betrayal. He'll most likely drop it. Or don't warn him, and drink his tears.

That's actually a great idea. Especially for systems with piecemeal character progression like Numenera and Fate. I'm gonna do this from now on.

He is a little shit stirrer overall play wise so im definitely just gonna drop it on him when and if he goes through with it

Veeky Forums, why can't I find gamists?
I just want to be able to occasionally be able to have a combat and not shot call everything.
>Hey let's blow big abilities we can only use once per day on a trash encounter far below challenge
>Ha haaaaaa I have trash defenses and most of my abilities are long range, but I'm going charge him
>Dude why am I almost dead xd?
I know gamists have the munchkin stigma, but there have to be a few people around who actually have an interest in the mechanics of the game, right?
Fuck, it makes it really hard to play a non-intellectual character because I feel like I'm metagaming when I make suggestions otherwise.

New poster here. I don't know the age range of you and your players, but I can tell you from experience that many young players go through a phase where their imaginations get swept up in the world-building craft and they start to apply their real world knowledge (from adulthood) into it, all the while with an ear towards "this will be our gameworld" and not necessarily have the GM experience to know when something is necessary or unnecessary. They're just having fun doing it and gaming is the excuse to do it.

I had a group of gamer friends who got into map-making for this reason, using newly learned computer skills to create detailed maps of a fantasy world without thinking of how those maps would be practical in any way, or what the relationship between any given geographical or political feature would be. They just felt like they were creating.

>Take something awesome and insist on repeating it until it becomes stale.
Christ, I hate how nerds do this.

Yep. This.

GM'ing is an art. I hope it's not a dying one. You have to be able to hold several ideas in your head at once, be able to bring in new ideas on the fly, and give the whole mess a forward momentum.

That being said, Pathfinder actually trained me pretty well with encounter structure and using a battlemat. Five-Room Dungeon planning also helped tremendously. The rest is all movies, comics and paperback fiction I grew up with.

Oooooh, that's a good Pepe

Ya but...dammit i wanna play.

I am glad I usually get to be the DM/GM since this always happens to me.
No matter when I enter the party or what kind of weiner I am playing I always end up becoming leader or at least the idea man.
My players are a lot more independent when I am just telling the story.

I wouldn't do something like that cause I find it kinda cringy, but I usually do a "previously on XXX" kind of thing, like the walking dead show does in particular, and just recap some of what's been going on. I don't do the voice or anything but I do lead up to it like that just because it makes it feel more like a TV show, and I structure my games more and more like TV shows, trying to end on a natural resolution point or sometimes a good cliffhanger (actually I have cliffhangers a lot just because I need a cheap way to create suspense).

I fell into a group like this almost by accident in the late 90's. Ran into a guy at a a new job who as into sci-fi, fantasy and roleplaying. He introduced me to his circle of friends and I gamed 2e D&D with them until the group broke up. I remember mentioning in passing I had the west End Star Wars PRG and got shanghaied into runming a Star wars game that ended up lasting almost two years and had morphed into an amalgamated sci-fi campaign that crossed multiple realities and settings. Then 3e D&D came along. I ended up running three 20+ level campaigns and was happy to do the work, because by this point my group was working together like a well oiled machine. That was brought home by the times Iwould sit in on another group's session or run a pickup game for another group. The whole thing finally broke apart in '08 when people moved, got different jobs or just stopped having the time. It was great while it lasted, though.

I used to go through that. Then I'd get to play and be bored when it wasn't actually my turn to do something. I was used to having every second of game time filled with something I had to do. I scratch the itch of wanting to be a PC by occasionally creating an NPC and dropping it on the group.

How do I get better at rp stuff Veeky Forums I got into a game for the first time and I find I just kind of sit back at the moment

>My character is in some foreign nation he's never even set foot in because we decided to follow that plot point
>End up just following the lead of the guy who has been living there for all his life
>He's a druid and I'm a ranger, we both ended up getting good at a lot of outdoors stuff, but he's slightly better

That actually made me smile. Like warm fuzzy type smile.

I'm glad me and the tumblrinas could help!

>They just felt like they were creating.
This is interesting - the baby steps of creativity and imagination. We need to encourage this sort of thing in more people if we want better players *(and more gm's so we can play).
This is a good point - thanks, user!

Guess I'm lucky then

> Start playing games with friends from university
> Eventually someone suggests ttrpg
> I've been playing before I was 10 so I said yeah, I have some experience
> They suggest I DM

Fast a bit forward

> My adventure is a bit crappy, honestly
> Eventually, everyone pass out during an encounter
> Players use this opportunity to declare the game is not being that fun anyway
> One player approaches me and say he would like to try DMing
> He tries for the first time
> Its great
> I play
> No preparing adventure, no worrying about anything, just relaxing and having a good time
> Might have been the best ttrpg experience I ever had

Sucks it didn't last that much. I actually considered not moving out of town JUST FOR THOSE MONDAYS.

>You are not inherently good
Then why tha fuck am I the only one putting in all the work? Less lazy, you say? Is having a viable work ethic the only thing that separates the gm from the player? We work harder, and that's it??
I don't think so. I also don't think I'm smarter or more charismatic, or more 'else' than my players...but there's definitely SOMETHING different. Out of all the folks I've played with over the decades, only one (1) other has also become a gm of regular games. That's a poor percentage.
I mean, it can't just be laziness, can it?

Where u from u got players so based?

>be the boisterous leader that keeps the plot moving in one group
>be the quiet support that does whatever everyone else is doing in another group
It's a weird feeling.

This shit almost ruined Monty Python for me. Couldn't go five minutes without some loser quoting the Holy Grail for the umpteenth time.

I hate it when I'm being the DM and players start questioning everything I do during encounters, at a point of absurd:

> PC: "dude, that giant rat couldn't move 4 squares"
> DM: "it didn't"
> PC: "but I saw it! it was there before, and now it is here"
> DM: "it moved 2 last turn and 2 this turn, that is why it is 4 squares from where you remember it was"
> PC: "whatever"

* next session *

> PC: "those giant rats were so overpowered!!! they had 4 square movements"
> DM: "..."

That shit annoys me the most. Also, its more about how the player question it rather than what he questions. "hey man, are you sure you moved this guy correctly? seemed a lot" is acceptable way to ask me, I might have made a mistake and if so, I will go back. But if you go like "wtf?! wasn't that guy there?? did he just move 4?? that can't be right !!", I will feel like moving my fist into your face.

I have been DMing for about three years now with a guy that loves Monty Python.
I hate the black knight so fucking much at this point.
If you have to keep bringing up The Holy Grail.
Reference.
A.
Different.
Scene.

We are going to try Dark Heresy soon.
If he makes more than one Spanish Inquisition joke I might end up on the news.

Just do what I do with the bronyfag and pretend not to get his references. People hate explaining jokes.

What makes it worse is that Monty Python has SO MUCH MORE amazing material but everyone just wants to quote the one fucking movie or the Spanish Inquisition. I've never in my life heard anyone reference the dead parrot sketch and that one had me in stitches for a week.

That is actually a grade advise for many situations.

I don't know about that man.

Lately I've been thinking. Some people are super-expressive, they take to a tune very easily. I tried for years to play guitar, but I never could, now I keep the guitar more as a momento of a lesson learned.

Some people are just naturally good at storytelling.

oh god, i remember that.
God, sometimes cornhuskers can be so clever, but other times they are such idiots.

to be fair, monty python has a lot of really shitty content too. Like the silly walk thing. Its a bad sketch thats funny if your stoned

I feel your pain OP. I'm just a PC but I put the effort write down every event, conversation and fight that happens in the session, even going as far as to write the entire thing on a Google doc for the rest of the group. I can only hope they're not dissuaded by the wall of text and that they get around to reading it.

I watch MST3K for the zingers.
But 90% of its awful.

It feels like community theater. You get to watch someone else live your dream. The characters are relatable and likable enough that you want them to succeed.

I know a guy who usually makes characters with some kind of flaw. Normally I love it for the roleplay, but lately I've noticed that if this flaw actually comes up in a negative way with another player or an NPC, he starts getting defensive and passive aggressive about it OOC as to why it even needs to matter.

It's getting to be too much effort to actually try to roleplay something if I'm just going to end up being yelled at by our GM for 'trying to break up the party' or whatever else I've been accused of lately.

Think about it this way: at fucking least they didn't plan on telling you 24 hours later.

He already knows I am a fan.
I didn't think he would still be doing it three years later.
I guess that is one of the pitfalls of playing with good friends.
I know right?
Even if you don't count the series Life if Brian and The Meaning of Life have plenty of good quotes.

Yeah, they probably saved you from making a scene.

Well yeah, you can't hit it out the park every night. They didn't always make good jokes/sketches but the ones they did that were good were amazing.

>We're the People's Front of Judea

I sort of have a similar situation.
I have a player who lost an arm after challenging a special werewolf to a one in one battle.
Every time any PC or NPC says anything out of the way to him he brings up the arm.
It could be completely unrelated like the time he got turned down by an NPC girl and started talking about how he lost his arm and how honorable it was.
I should have let the werewolf smack his brain out instead of taking pitty on him.

You would love me.

I can recall every game I have left off at. There is a game my group stopped playing 5 years ago that I could tell everyone who they were, where everyone was, and what the BBEG was doing. I can do it with shitty one offs we did, stuff we concluded, and even games that never started. Just typing out this post made me think of more games and characters. There are roughly 15 different different games I could reboot right now if someone asked me to.

I'm so fucking glad this is the shit i can remember without even trying and not stuff I'm going to be tested on.

>SHOVE OFF!!
>SPLITTER!!

Yeah, I am pretty much in the same stupid boat.
Details are different, but same gist.

I always give a LAST TIME, ON DRAGON BALL ZEEEEEEEE style recap of the last session. I don't even ask if they remember anymore.

I make a recap of every session available in handouts for my roll20 game. If they're large handouts from particularly important/long sessions I summarize them otherwise i read the full thing. Typically 1-2 paragraphs. Players appreciate it, especially helps with players that miss a session. It's something you SHOULD do.

I always ask my players what happened last session. If they don't remember, they are thrust into the situation at hand.
Some of my players now keep a record of every event that happens to them, and since we are doing this online I can also access it.

If he doesn't respect you enough to respect his plans with you, he's not worth inviting.

>helping someone make their first ever DND character
>"Can my character be a real actual person from real life that's been transported into the game!???!??!???"

UGH
G
H

This is the one specific flaw GMs cant really have, as it results in there being no game so you're not a GM. So lazy participants accrue player-side.

>when the autists in your game get jealous of how everyone gives you attention
>they think they can start their own game
>they do one session with your players and a few autist friends who didn't make the cut in your game
>they do one session
>never do it again because they didn't get the same reaction and investment that you inspire

You're telling me you're too good for the dnd cartoon?

>I might have had a chance if I had just spoken up sooner
If it makes you feel better, you probably didn't.

Don't fucking try that shit, man. Being GM puts you head and shoulders over anyone who refuses, and people who refuse because "I'm no good at it" don't even deserve to lick the GM's shoes.

>People who quote Monty Python

Guaranteed sign of bad humor.

I mean sure they're watchable, but nowhere near the obsession levels.

>tfw your players remember more about the game you run than you do

It's a pretty good feeling when a player brings up something that happened 15 sessions ago, something minor and seemingly unimportant now.

I feel bad for DMs whose players can't even remember what happened the week before. Could be that the players suck, or could be that your game is a forgettable mess.