Times Your Players Hurt You

That's a bit sad, yeah, but I understand your friend's position. I have loads of friends who would want to play in any campaign I run and I don't have time to run games for all of them. These days I just try not to tell the excluded people that I'm running anything at all.

So you don't invite that guy back and be very conspicuous about the fact that you've left him out.

>"Can I get an invite?"
Were you raised in a fucking barn? YOU put HIM in the awkward position of having to turn you down because you invited yourself like some urchin raised with no manners.
If you were hurt by the rejection, you deserve it for your hamfisted attempt to invite yourself.

> First ever DND game
> local hobby store
> Roll wizard, want some of that Gandalf shit
> New game posted up on the stores board
> Ihavenoideawhatiamdoing.exe
> know the DM so sign up
> 11 in int
> 5 of us in total (plus DM)
> 16 in str
> everyone know everyone
> Every Combat: Cast 1 magic missile, and then hit things with my staff
> Unfortunately we get a THAT GUY and a Mary Sue we cant say no to because they 'know the owners'
> Kill so much shit with my staff, start making enema jokes
> our DM is a goth chick
> Derail sessions with stupid jokes
> instantly that guy feels he needs to offer his advise on running a game because she 'clearly needs help'
> One session, DM saw me coming a mile away.
> once again that guy tries to offer her 'advise' that horror games dont work well
> Some riddle to pass through a door, answer required a letter of the alphabet.
> Goth chick calmly says if That Guy thinks the game wont work he is free to leave
> Recited entire alphabet
> That Guy gets angry and ends up saying something along the lines he will stay in the game to make sure she 'doesn't do anything wrong'
> I fell unconscious
> Goth chick ignores hm and just covers the basics
> No one could wake me, so I convinced the dwarf to carry me to the next rest.
> Fighter solved the riddle
> Just antics and stupid shit
> Guys started another game, didn't invite me
> feels bad man, but don't blame them

I was That Guy all along ;_;

...

Found the betanerd autist who never could pluck up the courage to say "Hi, can I play too?" to the other kids.

Your armchair social analysis is way off. Might want to work on that a lot more. Maybe leave the basement some time and talk to actual live people.

>All GM group
>All relatively good friends
>Great idea, let's take turns running our own game
>Remember the "Thieve World" writers rules?
>Can use but not kill or lore-break any other GMs NPCs or storylines
>Going good, meet about once a week and each "campaign" about five to eight weeks
>I've drawn forth rotation
>Finally my time to shine
>Take obscure area of map that was devoid of anything (literally a blank space)
>Build out nice crawl in ancient ruins and good story
>Everyone seems to love it except "Mike"
>Mike getting more and more pissed off and quiet
>Finally Mike rage quits and sits in a chair away from the main table stewing in his own shit
>Campaign ended that night, Mike is up next
>Week passes and we're all back and ready to play
>Mike refuses to run the game if I'm in it
>Says I "changed things too much" but I used empty land on the map and no other DMs lore or NPCs and changed nothing fundamental about the world
>Leave, whatever, I'm too old for this shit
>I am told later that I'm not invited back
>Mike is too intimidated by the amount of detail in my session
>Other GMs agree hard act to follow
>Tried to explain that I had the benefit of going fourth and Mike was fifth and had plenty of time to prepare
>It not you it's us
>Suddenly know how Tempus and Shadowspawn felt

The whole things made no sense as all of them had played in campaigns I had run at one point or another. They all knew how detailed I got about things. Just really disappointing because I thought the first three "campaigns" the other guys ran were great and I always thought Mike's CoC campaigns were outstanding. Really sucked.

It sounds like they just needed an excuse and it may have been something else, that reasoning is fucking retarded. Fuck em user

thumb tack in the knee eh? Reminds me of how my third cousin Widdle Tump (my his soul rest in peace) found his first love in the libraries of Candlekeep. Oh how Widdle Tump loved books, almost as much as he loved that Ogre mage wife of his.

I sympathize a lot more with your friend than you because I have a few different groups of friends on the internet. One group is weebs trying to force their magical realms, anothers fairly normal people having a good time, and another is /pol/lacks spending more posts sperging about muslims than actually playing the game.

I wouldn't want any overlap between those groups for obvious reasons. I'm obviously projecting a bit, but for all you know he could be doing you a huge favor.

But to answer your question, no you're not in the wrong for feeling jealous.

>Always doubtful of my GMing
>Always ask how it was, or if people liked it
>Only one person answers honestly half the time, the others just either ignore the question, or answer it sarcastically
>Some time into the game, the person that answered honestly told me some flaws that I'd been having in the campaign (Bad at improvising, Tone would always clash, system we were using wasn't that good, etc)
>I promptly try to fix everything he says
>Everything is in chat, so I'll never gauge the true reactions of people
>This hurts even more when I put my backbone into important moments, but IC they react unimpressed and OOC there's not even a reaction

I just want to be a good GM guys, but I don't know if I'm even good enough

Man, reading these stories, I suddenly don't feel so bad when my players have unannounced absences from my game.

Not a GM but
>get into a character more than I ever have before
>put my absolute heart and soul into this character
>break character like twice in a 4 hour session
>wrapping up and GM awards those dumb goodboy points because 5e
>I am the only one who didn't get any
>that includes two people who said a total of 20 words over the course of the session

>Playing campaign with some guys
>Built and planned it for two years before running it
>Ran for three years with these guys
>Campaign ends in a satisfying way, time to start the next one
>Make it clear this new campaign, while set in a different time and location in the world, is the same setting as the first
>That guy asks me "What are the dwarves like in your setting?"
>There have never been dwarves in my setting
>Humans are the only non-original race in my setting
>He had made two characters over the campaign
>Players encountered at least 2 NPC's from every race
>He just paid so little attention or was so obsessed with his new character idea that he never knew
>All this for a guy whose sole character trait was his mildly amusing name

I've been bothered by players before, but this is the only time I've ever been hurt. Fuck you, you selfish, unintelligent, uninteresting, uncreative, waste of a human being.

OP here, and I know what you mean, I also ask for feedback a lot, but my players (being the ones who pay attention and interact) usually give me some good feedback, even the players that don't normally have a tonne of interest give feedback

I find it best not to keep second guessing yourself, and to just commit. Nothing will ever be perfect, and you'll be your own worse critic.

They hurt and can be frustrating as much though, I've had problems will that recently. but, you know, there isn't much you can do, its the nature of the beast that some people live different lives and shit

Shit, I've got a story that's not too far off from that.

>Couple years ago, about six months into GMing my first game
>Me and five players
>Cracks starting to show
>One player passive-aggressively hates me for whatever reason
>Meanwhile, private drama brewing between three other players
>Eventually the game falls apart
>Oh well, shit happens
>Fast forward a couple weeks later
>Starting up a new game to get back on my feet
>Figure I'll just run it on the same day of the week as the old game
>Best friend, one of the players from the original game, apparently has a thing that day
>Have suspicions, decide to ask
>Turns out they started running a game
>Right after mine died
>On the same day
>Basically the same players as my old game, plus one new guy
>Thought about inviting me, but wanted to wait until I was over my game dying
>In the mean time, the new guy and the old player who hated me said they wouldn't play if I was in the game
>Old player who hated me is also a really good friend of theirs
>Two players versus one, easy call

We're still good friends to this day, but I never really got over it and I never figured out what those guys' problem with me was. One of them I'd only ever talked to once or twice, but he spectated our OOC and IC chats, so who knows. That game is still running a year later, and I'm always torn between wanting to ask about it and be a supportive friend or just wanting it to crash and burn already so we can put the whole thing behind us.

how did you jumble this up

Record one of your sessions. It does wonders since you can take the self improvement into your own hands and it helps alleviate that awkward moment where players don't want to give harsher feedback since they don't want to feel like a dick.

It's been really helpful for me the couple of time I've done it.

> Le upboat

This is some top-tier advice user, I've done it myself, and how much my sessions improved is simply astounding.

>Best friend, one of the players from the original game, apparently has a thing that day
>Turns out they started running a game
>Right after mine died
>On the same day
>Basically the same players as my old game, plus one new guy
>Thought about inviting me, but wanted to wait until I was over my game dying
>In the mean time, the new guy and the old player who hated me said they wouldn't play if I was in the game
>Old player who hated me is also a really good friend of theirs
>That game is still running a year later, and I'm always torn between wanting to ask about it and be a supportive friend or just wanting it to crash and burn already so we can put the whole thing behind us.
I don't know why the fuck you're conflicted. If my supposed best friend did that to me, he'd be on really thin fucking ice. That shit is not okay.

I'm probably going to have to tell one of my friends that I'm running a game that I don't want to invite him to in the near future. What's the best way to let him down politely?

To be fair, I'm not inviting anyone from my current group because I want to run a game that's different to their preferences, but he's the only one that's most likely going to ask to come along, and I don't want to come off like a dick.

Honestly, if its really, really outside of his preferences, I'd just sit him down and explain that.
I'd consider being level with him and seeing his response to your premise if you explain it to him, and if hes keen or not keen you can decide from there, maybe it's something he will enjoy but not know it yet

English, do you speak it mother fucker?

Thing is, I already ran a game like the one I want to run with this group, and it didn't really work. It was a sandboxy game with low power levels and high lethality combat (GURPS low-tech on 100 points, if you want to know) with a focus on interaction rather than combat and with an overall serious tone. In the end, the group didn't enjoy it, so no biggie, we moved to a more traditional fantasy set up with dungeon crawling and more linear style and a lighthearted tone, which went over pretty well in the end. Since then most of the games I've run for them have been like that, combat focused linear experiences.

Thing is, I still want to run a less curated experience, which is why I looked for a different group that is (hopefully, we'll see, if not I'll keep looking) up for it.

My problem is, even if I tell my friend that this game is really not up his alley, he'll insist that he enjoyed that first game, even if he visibly didn't. That in and of itself isn't much of a problem, but I also want a game away from him personally since he tends to make snowflakey characters that are a handful to deal with and his roleplaying style borders on That Guy-ish. He's still my friend though, so I'm happy to run games for the group with him but I kinda want to try a more serious game for a change of pace.

I guess I'll just have to talk to him and hope he understands that "I want to spend some time apart" doesn't mean "I don't like you anymore."

My players ambushed me in a dark alley and forced me to DM for them.

Then they go on Veeky Forums and shitpost about how bad the campaign is.

Seems like if it doesn't really involve your old group he doesn't really need to know if it has no impact on him.

It's not like they wont find out, since eventually they'll get around to asking what I'm doing on Saturday nights instead of hanging out or something.

>be running a chronicle
>two of my best friends as the players
>concept is gud, i ask for feedback and they respond positively overall
>one day guy uses a power that requires me to focus on him for a while, storytelling
>other friend gets bored and it's obvious but there's nothing to be done until this is resolved
>friend starts complaining of boredom
>explain that there's only two people in the game and that im fully aware of the boredom with intent to solve it asap
>things cool down after a while
>same friend who complained about being bored starts debating systems with me
>debate systems so much it seems like we do that more than RP
>friend becomes irate because he interprets system incorrectly and then literally disowns me, never to speak to me again
>we were friends for several years, but it ended over a tabletop game

One bad call isn't worth throwing a friendship away over. Yeah, it was a really shitty and stupid thing to do, and they admitted as much, but it's at least an understandable mistake that ended up escalating. I think we've all made dumb mistakes that have snowballed into bigger mistakes, it's not worth burning bridges over. If anything, I can at least pat myself on the back for being a good person about the whole thing.

Just tell it to him straight, man. Just say, "Hey, I really think this game isn't going to be something you'd enjoy, and I'd like it if everyone into the game was into the idea". If there's some other reason you don't want him in the game, hopefully he'll at least get the hint.

You're not wrong, but this would be something that you would talk about when and if it happens, Like if this one guy isn't the only one whos been left out of this one then It won't exactly be a massive issue I think, but Idk your friends so yeah

here. Believe me, not telling the person is just going to make it a whole lot fucking worse when they eventually find out. Now you've started a game without them AND intentionally hid it from them. Not a good idea.

That's fair, It depends on person to person, and I just had a thought that bringing it forward to them can make it seem like you may be rubbing it in or wanting to make a scene
Its one of those things that varies hard imo

>It won't exactly be a massive issue
Well I sure hope that's the case. I'll just casually inform the group as a whole when we hang out before I actually start the game and see where it goes from there.

Don't tell the player, tell the whole group. That way it won't feel personal.

Start by assessing if they like or not the previous game, ask if they prefer what you are playing not with them or that other style. Don't tell about the other game yet, tell it's for feedback and improving.

When you know for sure (and they have stated themselves) that they prefer one style over the other, tell them you will be running this other style with other people because you want to try it without bothering them with a game they won't like.

pretty much what said

Fuck me, meant

Also, if after this they still want to play tell them you will run this kind of game for them once you have improved on this style. That the other group is already full and another game will be too much for you at the moment.

Make clear that it is not their fault you are doing this and that you won't stop playing or hanging with them for this.

>Forever DM
>Want to be a player at least some of the time; I enjoy DMing but it grows tiring; I want the experience of influencing the game world from the other side of the table; being able to make anything happen doesn't make it satisfying or fun
>Over the years, players try a few times to DM; none of them have the player rules fully down, let alone put in the effort to properly learn DMing, and they all fizzle out due to scheduling or them hitting walls
>Continue to forever DM through thick and thin, running several campaigns and countless player antics and events that make me really question how much attention they pay, effort they put in, and what they get out of it
>Players make decisions that force us on hiatus to conform to seasonal group members
>They keep trying to DM, because people from their other friend circles are curious about D&D but I'm far too busy entertaining all of my friends already
>Some of them finally buckle down and start learning, relying on me for advice with rules, gameplay, and specific campaign ideas/details
>None of them want me to play because I know too much or they're full up with the other group members
>The one who does want me to play has godawful scheduling due to a screwy domestic life and can never actually play either way

>I try to join a public group at FLGS, and it's a clusterfuck with a game I don't like in a wank setting with a group that feels like every Veeky Forums meme and stereotype made flesh
I relish this special hell I'm in

Which game you don't like that can be worse than DnD? Are they playing FATAL?

3e

I'm getting like
3 to 6 different stories here, are you just making word salad

Tell them that they are huge pricks
Mike especially, holy shit fuck mike
And fuck your "friends" fuck em all

> Complain about combat heavy, crunch focused 4E campaign (Specifically said they want to play it despite my grognarding because they like MMOs).
> Complain about remembering shit / consequences in story heavy setting and sprinkled non-combat encounters when we run two separate campaigns (Pathfinder / VtM)
> Complain about both elements when i create a consequence free high fantasy setting perfect for murderhoboing.
> Complain when i get burnt out and don't want to DM after 1.5 years of this shit every fucking fortnight.

Just gonna pack it in get drunk and play boardgames at this point.

One mate runs a campaign but it's literally once every 3-4 months 2 hour drive away.

Your friend's the sort of guy who'd fuck a man in the ass without the common courtesy to give him a reach-around.

I bet he can suck a golf ball through a garden hose.

Maybe the GM expected more from you.
I always encourage my slightly socially disabled players.
And have higher standards for the better ones.

Don't do this to yourself user. You're better than that.

This is like NTR in roleplaying friendship form. You got your best friend and your game stolen by some passive-aggressive SOB and a literally who and didn't do a thing to stop them.

>Yeah, it was a really shitty and stupid thing to do, and they admitted as much, but it's at least an understandable mistake that ended up escalating.
Sure. Everybody fucks up. The real problem here isn't that he did something shitty and stupid, but that's he's still doing it.

>In the mean time, the new guy and the old player who hated me said they wouldn't play if I was in the game.
"Then hit the fucking road, because this guy is my best friend and I won't exclude him." Or put more diplomatically: "I'm sorry, but this guy is a good friend of mine, and he included me in his game, so I can't very well exclude him from mine. I hope you'll change your mind and stick around, but if you decide to go that will be your decision, not mine."

Good fuck, some of the shit in this thread is absolutely misery.

While he should have said from the get-go that he already has a full group in mind, he's totally within the right to not invite you.

He probably just assumed they were hiding underground.

'I have a full group, don't wante to invite any more people'.

(They are probably not very good friends).

That could be. It could also be that the other guy just isn't a very good friend, period.

thats a can of worms, because obviously he will inquire further than that

>user: "he is my best friend!"
>friend: "he is a guy I play games with"

>planning a horror home brew that's set in rural Minnisota with a friend
>it's designed to only have 4 players
>I've got a god awful stutter so he'll GM while I play
>super excited
>start getting the crew together
>two guys from our other campaign, myself, and my ex-girlfriend
>not happy about the inclusion of the ex, but she's a great player so I don't bitch about it
>suddenly legendary player from an older campaign moves back to town
>friend says we need him in the game and I agree
>that puts it at 5 which will break the game
>suggest we scrap my ex
>friend can't do it because she just got him a job
>eventually we decide to draw straws and leave it to random chance.
>I pull the short straw

Fate was not kind to me. After all that planning and all the excitement I had built up towards playing in the setting we'd built it all vanished because of a straw pull.

This. DM'ing is a lot of sacrifice and work. It's sad to see people that just take it so easily for granted. Fuck 'em. To all you DM's that have suffered, I recommend just taking your game online. You'll have to chew though a lot of shitters but you'll eventually strike gold.

My own story isn't nearly as bad as anything here, more of a common sense warning. When I was in high school, I ran a long lasting game. It was great fun, my friends loved it and we were all able to commit to it. Come college our time started to get fragmented and I was eventually able to give it a satisfying ending. Good.

Lesson learnt, don't drag things out.

College to uni, I start another game but intend it to be a lot shorter because I know how busy we'll all end up becoming. Ideally the games would be short, then we'll start entirely afresh and try new systems and settings.

>Run first campaign.
>People loved it. Fantastic!
>Create second campaign.
>Players half-arse it, want more of Campaign 1.
>Do a small story for Campaign 1.
>Players love it.
>Try Campaign 3.
>"Fuck that, more of 1! More of 1!"
>Eventually relent and put all my effort into bloating out 1.
>It becomes huge, I poured a ton of effort into it with mapmaking, art, the lot.
>..and then the players have a massive fallout and the entire group crumbles. The handful who still want to play eventually become too busy as I predicted long ago.

There's also the friend of mine who took up GM'ing because he loved the high school game so much and is now in a group where the players all love the game but hate each other.

Sucks, but at least you weren't kicked specifically unless foul play was invovled. someone had to bite the bullet

>Be forever GM
>Running Mekton for a change of pace on Saturdays
>Enjoy the game, players seem to enjoy the sessions as well
>New GM shows up in town
>One Saturday, during game
>"Hey user, we're all playing in New GM's game, he's running on Saturdays"
>Scheduling conflicts mean Saturday is the only day that works for players
>New GM ain't got room for old GM in game

I don't fault the New GM, I'd just like to hear from the players that the game was trash, rather than this passive-aggressive garbage.

Okay, so there's this group of people I hang out with and excessively wargame with for years. I'm talking 6-8 hours a day for maybe 4 days out of the average week. We do some other stuff on the side, but it's mostly wargaming.

It's a bit more exciting than it sounds because we're creating, tweaking and developing the system, which is a pretty innovative cooperative deal, and there's a decent bit of collaborative storytelling involved with setting up the scenarios (and on a good night, we spend almost as much time on that as with the actual battles). But after a while, I start to get tired of the game. Some of it could just be how often we play it, but our campaigns start to lose some of their heart too. People are no longer as concerned with the story, and we just start throwing scenarios together that undermine any sort of plot and lead to bad match ups of characters. Since I was the last one to join this group, the others have a bunch of preexisting characters and since they don't believe in retirement, they start pushing to revive old campaigns. I'm out voted, so I end up having to make a dimension travelling character who jumps from campaign to campaign, never really knowing what's going on or what abilities everybody has (and frequently being overshadowed in terms of power to boot).

Anyway, due to this a bunch of other factors, I eventually get to the point where I feel like playing is doing math homework. It's just no fun for me anymore, and I'm unable to get people to change their approach or preserve the integrity of the campaigns I really care about, so I'm forced to take a step back. Now, I did not by any means expect everybody to stop gaming out of concern for me. What I did expect was that maybe the group would significantly (but not dramatically) increase the other things they did so we could still hang out fairly frequently, and that they wouldn't drop me like a hot potato. Sadly, that was not to be the case.

If you're going to suffer, at least entertain us with cringy stories of this 3e group.

No big deal. If you're not enjoying it, don't do it. As with my post there about the other GM, you end up with a group of people who can't stand each other but like the game. The game alone isn't going to magically make everything better if there is no chemistry.

Move on, find something new and good people. Don't end up stagnant and incestuous because you depend so heavily upon one thing for entertainment.

So I end up being effectively isolated from this group of people I apparently mistakenly thought were decently good friends of mine. I mean, we hung out all the time and joked around and had fun, but I guess in the end, it was all just about the wargaming. We do end up watching some television as a group, but I'm given backseat priority to wargaming. We'd agree to watch, and I'd go over there, and then have to wait around for hours because they started a battle half an hour before they knew I was showing up. But I had spent basically all my time with the people and didn't have a lot of other folks to hang out with as a result.

But whatever. I'm bitter about it, but I adapt to the way things are. Meanwhile, I look forward to the times when my best friend comes up from out of town to stay with me a few days and role-play. We had previously played together in bigger groups when we lived in the same town, but circumstances being what they were, we were just playing one-on-one shit at that time. But that was okay. We had a great dynamic, and since we got together only sporadically, we could put a lot of detailed prep into things, and it was really fun.

Anyway, my best friend was also friends with folks from the wargaming group, and I knew how much he'd dig out on the game, so I started feeling a bit guilty for effectively keeping him all to myself. Since I really had no interest in jumping back in to the wargame, it would mean less time to hang out and role-play with my best friend, but I felt like it was the cool thing to do. Sometimes you have to think of your friends. Since my friend normally came up for 3 days, I figured I'd maybe lose one of those, but we'd still have two good days to do stuff.

You see where this is going, right? So friend is enthused about the wargame and ends up playing into the wee hours of the morning (while I head home after one battle). Now, he's staying with me, so he comes back to sleep, but gets up the next day and...

>Now, he's staying with me, so he comes back to sleep, but gets up the next day and...
Tells me that they've got plans to play some more. But he tells me we'll be able to hang out later on. Only that never happens. So I hardly get to spend anytime with him.

And the next time he comes up, it's the same thing. He's staying at my place, but going over there to game. He says we'll hang out later, but he always ends up playing another battle. And to make matters worse, he knows I was rather bitter about the way things worked out with the group, because I had previously vented to him, so it's not like he could claim to be somehow oblivious to this all.

So that time is a bust for me too. Cut to the next time he's arranging to come up and he starts going on about how awesome it is going to be to wargame. So I'm looking forward to yet another occasion where he will come up and sleep at my place, but ditch me to wargame. I'm really depressed about this and decide I have to say something. I'm not accusatory or anything, I just try to tell him that I feel left out. He gets pissed because he apparently thinks I'm trying to manipulate him and makes a point to aggressively correct me when I say I talk about being excluded, saying "you mean you chose to exclude yourself." And I'm not talking about a friendly, "dude, I'm sorry, I feel bad, but you kind of chose to exclude yourself" or anything like that. This is more a dismissive, "fuck you" sort of thing. But I shrug it off, and continue to try to explain where I'm coming from.

But he keeps doing the same thing, and it's starting to really piss me off. I mean, I think it's pretty fucking shitty to come from out of town to visit your best friend and sleep at his place, but fucking ditch him to go do shit with other people, but I'm not calling him out for being an asshole. I'm just trying to get him to recognize how unhappy I am with situation.

[almost over]

Anyway, after a while of him being dismissive and hostile towards me, I boil over and start responding in kind. Long story short, I don't have to worry about him staying at my place and going off to game with other people. I get cut out of the loop entirely, and he comes into to town to wargame without ever seeing me. Apparently, none of the friends I thought I had were worth a damn, and the only thing keeping my depression over this in check is my anger at how I was treated.

I feel bad about it but I'm not inviting my old DM into the game I'm running. He's like never available and he gets to run all of his games/characters as a fotm as possible. It's a really frustrating experience and I just don't want to deal with it in my first time DMing.

Am I a bitch for pretty much ghosting him on the subject?

>DMing for some friends I've known for years
>One keeps making stupid decisions and doesn't care about the plot or NPCs at all
>Another is barelly aware of what's going on in the game
>Third one tries to push shit forward as much as possible because "waaah it takes too much time" when the game has been running for more than 1 hour
>4th one plays well but skips sessions a fucking lot and only informs me like 20 minutes before the session is scheduled
>the rest skips sessions on those days as well because he informed them, but not me, beforehand

I think you are just in a no-win scenario, the only thing I can think that MAY work is that you are practising and you dont want him to see all of the holes or issues that come with first time DMing. Can always fall back on schedule thing, because this is a commitment that he has to agree to and if he cant then so be it

It feels like you put this guy in a position where he had to hurt you rather than him intentionally trying to do it.

Or you just mistook him discussing it for him trying/building up to inviting you. You're not obligated to be a part of everything your friends do, nor are they obligated to be a part of everything you do. I think this is even on that 'Geek Social Fallacies' list.

They were never your friends. They were using you for their own benefit. They didn't care about you. But we do user, and we know you can get a group of actual friends who, may or may not like gaming, but will like you for who you are.

>what's going on in the game
>>Third one tries to push shit forward as much as possible because "waaah it takes too much time" when the game has been running for more than 1 hour
I have the reverse problem in my games. People won't shut the fuck up stupid stuff shit so nothing gets done. What should take an hour gets extended into 3+.

Won't shut up about stupid stuff*

Jesus, my grammar is awful this morning.

I'd be fine with at least some extension
Like, he's pushing shit so fast nobody actually has time to loot the place they just cleared
Of course, a plan to counter his shit has been put in motion, chaoric stupid player nr.1 is unsuprisingly on board with shitting in player 3's cereal, while also doing random shit like "I want to hunt for something while we camp on the road" and the like, just to drag the sessions longer

The third guy sounds like fucking cancer
Like, don't get me wrong, I'm sorry about everything going on but fuck that third one
I'm glad is happening and someone is at least on your side

See, I know players 2 and 4 well enough, to know they'll jump on board with this as well, without me specifically asking them to join on the plot, so I'm kind of using player 1 as a tool for my plan, but hey, as long as mr speedy speed boy learns to stop being autistic, it's all worth it

>running Ops and Tactics campaign
>all but one player seems to be at the very least somewhat invested
>This player is quiet even in situations where reactions are warranted
>throw silent hill esque monster at them (in a game where they were mainly fighting soldiers and cops)
>not much reaction
>other player ran a MAID game a month or so back
>The quiet player ends up being the most vocal and entertaining characters in the game
I'm not sure if it's because I'm a relatively new GM and we've got 7 players or if he's not into the game. And to be honest I'm scared to ask.

Sounds like he clearly has a preference user
If he wanted to quit he'd bring it up
If you got 7 of the niggas and everyone is having fun, I'd count this a fucking phenomenal first DM attempt. Look at some of these horror stories in this thread and count yourself lucky

Oh my (now former) best friend and I were once tight, but people change over time and it seldom seems to be for the better. But I appreciate the sentiment.

The path ahead is obvious here:
Operator maidos.

It could be a bit of both.

When I'm playing in my boyfriend's game I don't participate a great deal. I'm not a fan of his setting and his friends are a bit odd.

It could work.

Reading about heroin addicts is less depressing than this thread. Playing this shit for 8 fucking hours 4 days a week? Holy shit what the fuck is wrong with you. You people need some perspective. I used to play gurps dnd robotech ravenloft and a whole bunch of other shit I forget. This was in middle school, high school a bit. Playing anything past a few hours is probably going to get someway stale. But that's not important. What you should be asking yourselves those of you who have online "friends" you play with.... are they really friends as in the flesh and blood version? No they are not. They cannot be until you meet in real life and have some sort of bonding experience. Playing children's games with them online is not it. This shit is like some horrible drug to some of you here. An outlet to the only social contact or conversations you have. That is sad and you know this. Those of you who are older with real lives... there is still something drastically wrong devoting so much time to what in reality is not a lasting creative achievement. Playing make believe with other supposed adults is not a healthy activity. No wonder you're all so easily hurt by these interactions.

This is a waste of a life and this thread proves it. It's like watching addicts justify horrible shit. Just horrific actually.

I never get any inspiration points either. Our main DM doesn't use them, and the others have so far given them for doing something absurd.

I guess it could be a fun mechanic, but overall inspiration just seems to encourage people to play wacky characters. Well, I guess the point is to have fun together.

Umm...I know this is a bait post but I was wondering where you get that all of these events are online from?

>are they really friends as in the flesh and blood version? No they are not. They cannot be until you meet in real life and have some sort of bonding experience.

I know this bait but
You make it sound like you and your friends touch dicks or something and say its not gay because its bonding

Inspiration points are cool for some settings

I DM M&M and I think it gives people incentive to do stuff that is less optimal and more cool for in combat because there is a reward for it. Same goes for roleplay as well.

Honestly this. People make different friends for different reasons, and mixing groups can often be embarrassing or disastrous.