tfw someone tells you that they prefer to be the DM and they think they are better suited to it than the role of a...

>tfw I prefer to DM and I think I'm better suited to it than the role of a player
>but have no one to play with, a shitty inconsistent schedule, and bad online experiences before
I wanna try FATE

Being a good player is like being a good actor. Being a good GM is like being a good director. Some people can do both equally well, either at a high level or a low one. Some are terrible at both. Some are good at one and bad at the other. As is the case with any two tasks which are related, but also require different skills. Like playing hockey and coaching hockey, or selling things to people and managing a store.

Why you would ever think that isn't true is baffling.

Arguably, being a truly good DM also involves being a good improv actor.

Not necessarily. A DM doesn't have to act out NPCs in character. He can just say "the dude tells you so and so".

that's fucking boring, and by extension you are boring. not getting into character, you might not as well not even play.

>being a truly good DM
Going "So umm, The Elf tells you to go talk to the guy" is not being a truly good DM

>Just about anyone can DM.

Not true at all except in the most vapid "you can technically do the task, though the results won't be much" sense. DMing requires a lot more than being a player, not just in terms of skills and knowledge required but also in terms of sheer hours of work. A DM is basically one step removed from a game designer, and very few people can actually design games that aren't total shite - especially on the fly.

You have a very narrow and incomplete understanding of how fun works, or RPGs for that matter. Being "in character" is not in any way a requirement - not even for players, and certainly not for the DM.

Felt that one through my monitor

If you're not memeing I hope it works out in the end for you.

That's what rules lite games like Microlited20 are for.

A person need only know 2 pages for the entire system, and they can improvise everything else as necessary, so system mastery isn't a necessity.

Or, they can run premade adventures. Sheer hours of work already done for them.

A DM's job really is only as hard as they make it for themselves. DM's typically enjoy challenging themselves, making their own settings, building their own adventures, sometimes even designing their own mechanics, but there's plenty of ways a person who might not be as strong in the design department can play to their other strengths.

This is true. I used to be a player, but I've been GMing for years now. I originally wanted to GM because I felt the guy who introduced me to gaming wasn't doing a good job at at it. I kinda naturally took over.

Every so often I have a player in one of my groups want to take over, and I think I've figured out how to tell which ones who will be good at it, and who won't. The ones that are good at improv and making snap rule decisions without fretting over the rules as written tend to do well GMing. The ones who focus too much on the NPCs and story usually get better after some time. The ones who worry too much about the rules usually have the heart in the right place but don't have a handle on running a game just yet.

Then there are those GMs who think the RPGs are like directing a play, trying to book the PCs into some grand storyline with well-thought out characters, twists, turns and the whole shebang. I hate to say it, but they tend to be some of the worst GMs as their plot falls apart in the first few minutes. They would be better if they threw away the notion that RPGs are like dramatic plays.

But the worst GMs I find, are the ones that not only start off with pre-written modules (I mean, we've all run one at some point) but the ones that keep running them, even years later. They never learn to stretch their wings as a GM, and so they become hide-bound to the rules other people make. And so their games feel very artificial and robotic, and even more rail-roaded than the previous example.

Even if you're GMing a mega dungeon module with no NPCs you need good improv skills.
What do the PCs see if they examine a wall they suspect has a hidden door? Do you roll a dice and tell them 'you find a hidden door'?

Or do you tell them, 'one of the rocks one the wall seems loose, and near it you swear you see a crease where there shouldn't be one'?

Both lead to the same point,
- opening the hidden door- but one is more interesting to play than the other.

What, then, is your idea of fun? Broaden our horizons, if you will.

> And so their games feel very artificial and robotic, and even more rail-roaded than the previous example.

That seems to be more of a conflict of style. There's nothing inherently wrong with rail-roading if the players understand the type of game they're going into, and the mentality of playing a premade adventure is very different from something like playing a pure sandbox.

Now, the ideal, perfect DM would be able to improvise a brilliant story and create inventive and imaginative dungeons out of thin air while making the players feel like that every single one of their decisions is vital and dramatic while crafting realistic, distinct, and multi-dimensional NPCs that the players get emotionally attached to, but more often than not a DM is going to have a few weaknesses and need to rely on some crutches. Some manage to let go of these crutches quickly while others cling to them forever, but that's not what makes a bad DM a bad DM.

What makes a bad DM is someone who doesn't understand their weaknesses, or understands them and chooses not to do anything about them. Relying on premade adventures is a weakness, but it doesn't make you a bad DM if you know how to make premade adventures fun and how to communicate with your players what kind of adventure you are running.

>Then there are those GMs who think the RPGs are like directing a play
I see what you're trying to say, but my experience leads me to disagree with you. Having any sort of skill or knowledge in acting or directing will give you an immediate leg up when it comes to GMing, especially if your focus is on the stage. Any remotely competent stage actor must have at least some improv skills and must be especially good at reacting to other people. It's less about forcing people into a dramatic story and more about making every story dramatic. Of course, knowing anything about acting won't instantly make you a good GM nor is it any guarantee, but there is significant overlap in the skill involved.

Different strokes, different folks. Some people don't like DMs who moonlight as poets or keep trying to advertise their unfinished novels, and they just want to play a game.

If they're all having fun then you've done your job.

>"I have this really awesome idea and I want to try and run a campaign sometime"
"Hey man, why not this time? I'd like to play a in a game since I DM all the time"
>"Aw... But you're such a good DM that I'd rather you run a game"
Were playing his campaign next week, feels good man.

>Just about anyone can DM.

This just straight up isn't true.

You'd be surprised what people can do when provided with the right tools and the right instructions.

Anyone can be. Not everyone will be.
That's partly what makes bad DM's particularly frustrating, because they can often improve dramatically just be fixing a few obvious flaws.

>tfw you're an attentionwhoring faggot

I can say I feel this way to a degree. The setting I started with (and still running) was one I was already familiar with and had passion for, so it helps me keep from burn out. Honeslty I REALLY wanted to be a player in it, but i care enough about it that I'd rather execute it myself.

Helps that my inital exerience as a player was 2 sessions. First was a 6 hour one with 10 players, each of us only getting about 8 turns total, before the GM got tired of us dragging our feet and TPK'd us. Second was half the people from before, and the GM instead running 2 separate campaigns. One in my group got us all killed in that session by leaving us to fight of the monsters alarmed by his setting off of trapped chests in search of fat lootz. Good times.

Reminder that people post on this board because they don't actually have an rpg group in real life, often because they're too fucking dysfunctional to stay in any for long.
We're terrible people to judge about anything when it comes to playing or dming and/or the 'proper' way to do so.

>tfw you're a bitter loner who can't find love

It's better to accept the role of forever DM than try to fight it.

>especially on the fly.
This shit right here. The ability to spontaneously run with things is the most important thing. Without this, you are just playing a shittier video game. I'd seriously go so far as to say anyone looking to become one should take a creative drama class.

YES! I get to be a player again!!

Fucking this.

Play on Roll20 or find people in RPG publics on VK, tovarishch. I act like this. Still forever GM.

>providing the bare minimum of environmental description or npc interaction is the same as advertising an unfinished novel

I already knew you're not an actual GM, or at the very least an active one, but I'm glad I'm not at your table all the same.

rip blondie

Nothing's wrong with that. OP might be one of the few guys who wish to be foreverGM... that or he feels a sense of defeat if somebody else GMs a game and the players enjoy it.

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with a friend picking up the mantle of GMing.

You can be a good GM while being mediocre at improv acting. GMing involves(I hesitate to say "requires" here, but one could argue for it) a large skill set, and you don't have to be good at every part of it to be a good GM - just being passable will do as long as you're better in other areas.

>He can just say "the dude tells you so and so".
I mean yes, he can. But GMs who do that are always stiff, boring, and in general bad. At least that's been my experience.

Pretty much. Play to your strengths, and improve your weaknesses.

Running pre-written material isn’t always terrible. Probably the greatest Shadowrun campaign I’ve ever run was pretty much just the Brainscan book run straight with a couple of extra runs to level my crew up a little along the way.

Fuck that gay shit, I'm gonna fight. I didn't get into this hobby just to facilitate everyone else's fun.

Yes. I'm like that. Took me a while to accept it, but while I'm a good DM, I'm a bad player. Go figure.

Oh, you sweet summer child.

That a)doesn't need good improv skills b)doesn't have to be actually improvised and c)doesn't relate to acting

>tfw one of your players is such a fucking rules lawyer you asked him to GM and he was amazing but now he doesn't want to do it any more because he thinks people are trying to get rid of his character or some shit

>bare minimum

You don't understand what that means, and that's how I know you don't GM, because you'd kill your players with boredom with your painfully dull and unneccesarily long descriptions.

Do you also think it should be forbidden for GM's to use adjectives?

yeah i wanna play again i need a new group. i prefer DMing since i do shitloads of world building in my head and have even made my own syatems for games. ive ran things where people were dirt poor and starving in a disease infested swamp town, running trade ships on the ocean and managing stock of supplies and crew and everything, being space pirates and having cool salvaged gear and following a weird primitive shamanistic religion with divination, WW1 style trench warfare in a low fantasy setting, etc. i had so many cool ideas and my group was half full of idiots :(

They definitely shouldn't be included if we're talking about "the bare minimum."

You're so full of shit it's coming out of your mouth.

You probably think you're not wasting people's time with your pitifully inept descriptions.

Can you two get a room and kindly fuck off?

I am currently building up a group of close friends to start up the Night Shift setting in FATE accelerated.
Using roll20, and no one is allowed to connect, until he can prove to me to have a blood alcohol content high enough to make the operation of motorized vehicles illegal.

The other setting idea, I am offering to the players is parole officers IN SPACE. But Night Shift seems to win out.

My foreverGM is great in that role, but as a player transforms into an almost cartoonishly game-sabotaging that guy.

As someone who is an eternal DM, sure!

I WANT TO PLAY SO BAD

I disagree. Just because you know how an in game object works doesn't mean you know how the PCs will tackle it. Er go, improv skill is a must

Man, you sound like you'll have a better time just playing a board game.

And either you've never GMed or you're trying to justify a lazy style. Either way, it sounds like your games suck.

Trying to direct a play where the actors have no script and most likely aren't looking to you for directions is an act in futility.

Ok, a)the user you're responding to isn't the first guy you responded to, I am
And b) that's not overly descriptive. In fact, the example I gave was a paraphrase from one of Gygax's own sessions. So in a way, that's the way the game was intended to be played.

While I'm certain there are some GMs as full as you are, I'm fairly certain that you're just b8 at this point. That being said I'll leave you with this: D&D is not a combat simulator. It was never meant to gloss over everything until you get to 'The good part'. Combat is not 'The good part'. D&D was meant to be a dungeon crawling simulator. Hence good visual descriptions are key.

Don't expect anyone to respond to you from now on.

>just b urself
insightful observation ribbonposter

owch
sad but fucking true
suicide pact anyone?

>Best sort of win win situation.
This.

>misses the point

That's a pretty impressive miss, all in all.

But what's wrong with that?
I'm far better at providing a narrative than playing as a character. Besides that, I'm the only one in my group that's really capable of being a competent dm.

>mfw only experienced player so now I have to DM instead of play
Atleast my party is chill with DMPC and I think I do it good. That and I enjoy homebrewing some mechanics like spells and weapons but that's really it.

In many ways, the work of a player is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement.

We thrive on meme characters, which are fun to create and to play. But the bitter truth we player must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average one scene NPC is probably more meaningful than the time our characters spend rendering them so.

But there are times when a player truly risks something, and that is in the embracing and defence of the new. Veeky Forums is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.

Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary session from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the session and its GM have challenged my preconceptions about role-playing is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core.

In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for the insipid idea: Anyone can DM. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what it truly meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.

I will be retuning to their apartment soon hungry for more.

>your
Please imitate your jpg, and carry it through.

If you've planned the area in a reasonable way with a well developed world around it, then you can safely minimize the amount of improv skill necessary to react to unforeseen choices.

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