[fuunsaiki]

warofexodus, on Aug 25 2004, 03:46 PM, said:

The only problem i have with the hole thing is that i cant tell a good story.  I have know problem makeing the make PC's or any other thing it's just the story if you cant tell a story then you should not be a DM.  And with that i would rather be a player than any thing else. with that said do you know where i can get into a group and play.

Well, the trick is, as I found out, is not to tell the story, just let players unfold it as you go along. When I first started that was my problem, I controlled everything and all the players did was walk around town and fight monsters. Like it says in the DM Guide, Deus Ex Machina is the worst way to DM a game.
Like I said before, the players tell the story with their actions and how they interact in the DM's world, you must keep that in mind or else you end up with a very linear game.

[fang]

I like being a DM because you have control over what happens and you can make it more interesting.

[AmatureDM]

I've done a bit of both, the longest-running campaign I'd really been in, had been very mundane, your typical join the local militia, train, train, train, beat up the bad guys, train, train, train, beat up every local monster or half-orc monster in the district, train, train, train. It was really quite mindless for me, and I didn't understand why people took so much joy and pleasure from defeating the half-orc/half dragon monstrosity that was suffering from arthritis.

So I wrote up my own campaign, modified 3rd edition with my own rules, and set out to look for players. *sigh* It took going to an online forum to even find enough people interested enough to get the action going. I'd get 1 or 2 in my area, we'd set a time, place, etc, and then they'd never show up. I DM'd there for about a year, and everytime a player came along and said, pretty, pretty please, it looks fun let me play! I'd take them in, etc. It got to the point where I had 15 players, and as I quickly found out, that'll burn out a DM faster than anything.

And really, I had a lot of fun DMing and comming up with separate adventures for each player, theyre were a lot of plots and twists and fun things to keep me entertained for hours comming up with the next big plot twist.

Then my newest boyfriend got me involved in his gaming group, I told him I'd DM'd for a year and was on DM Burn-out Vacation, and he was all impressed. I have to say, all that time I was DMing and playing as a player in the forums, had me thinking, okay, I'm a good role-player. However I quickly found out that isn't the case, because with real-time playing you have to think quickly, and in the forums I could and have literrally spent days looking at the problem, examining it from every angle, and then posting my best solution.

So I went in thinking: I'm a good role-player we'll all have lots of fun, even though I don't know much on the background or system.

Well.... now I've been playing it for 4 months, I'm currently thinking: What was I thinking? These guys are elitest advanced role-players! I constantly feel completely out-classed by the lot of them.

And how... how the hell did he come up with the idea to jump on the roof of the humvee perform a dc 35 balancing act while it was moving forward at 100 mph, and then when it hit a stationary red corvette, he does a forward flip, his feet gracefully touching the car's roof as he continues into a second forward flip, (making a performance check dc natural 20) which he by dumb luck absolutely makes, pulling out his rocket launcher, firing it twice, then putting it away, and quick drawing his machine gun, while landing on his feet?! The ghouls and vampires he was going to shoot, just stopped in their tracks and started applauding!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have even considered this! And it's like that all the time, but whenever I try anything remotely similiar with my characters, that character usually dies, or the current one which got critically injured and is going to be staying in the hospital for the next 4 games because I was trying something equally as stupid. Even though my character has a similiar dex modifier, and in game is a trapese swinger with more ranks in tumble and perform than the character that did the beforementioned backflip.

I feel woefully inadequate as a player most of the time when we all sit down and play together with that particular group, and I feel like I'm obligated to keep playing, because it's my boyfriend's group, and it's important to him that I continue to show up and play. Although, it is a decent-sized group 3 players to 1 DM which is a lot better than the othe groups I'm in that have 9-14 players per 1 DM.

I was thinking of dropping out of those big group campaigns and doing Eberron Campaign setting, and luring 4 people away off to my own world, by running it the same day, different table which I think would make things easier for everyone involved. But then, I've never actually table-top DM'd before, so again I feel like a rank amature stepping into something that's probably going to be hard for me to do.

[Yurith]

lol. U cant find players and i cant find a DM.

[dmvegi]

I've been palying for just under 10 Years now, and i've been a DM for 8 of those years, I do occasionally get to be a player, but becuase my campaign is more expansive the other players enjoy myne a little more so every chance I get to be a player I really put so much effort into my character. Obviously this comes from only a tiny bit of effort of making hundreds of NPC's, So at the moment i think being a player is the best part, but of course there is nothing more staisfying than when your players enjoy the world you've created just as much as you have as you made it.

[Vaskre]

I definitely enjoy being a DM more than a player, but I'll still enjoy playing. Just usually the DM goes too slow pace-wise for my preference. I want action dangit, not moping around in some random Vale, staring at burned down trees! Give me the goblins! Give me the giants! I'll take 'em all on! *gets out his dwarvish waraxe * "Which one of ye yellow-bellied ogre-brained kobold-lookin' rats wants t'fight?!?!"

I really do DMing though, not that I've Dmed very long. I like challenging my PCs, presenting them with puzzles and riddles (haven't had the chance for this yet much though.) and other challenges. Such as simply using tactics to take down higher CR monsters, or groups of baddies. To something as simple as figure out the general plot (Guhhh right now they're on the wrong track, though. They think everything is happening because of some boss-type brain-eating munster and it's actually an alchemical recipe! -sigh- They'll get there.. eventually.)

So in truth, I enjoy both, but as a DM, I get to let my imagination run wild. And I do so love my imagination.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Well, I have never actually played a character, but I would love to for a change. My friends sort of decided I would DM from the start, and it has stuck. Unfortunately, I am tired of knowing what is around the corner, so I have started making my campaigns more freeform, giving my players a lot more room to do whatever they way, and hope they surprise me. I must say, though, that I really would like to just play a character for a change. Be surprised there is an ogre running at me rather than wondering if my players are going to fall for that trap a third time. (Yes, I have thrown the same trap at a party multiple times and had them fall for it each time. In fact, each time, they literally dove head first into it.) I don't know; it's probably why things keep getting darker and darker in my campaign.

[Drizzt Ranger]

I would have to say player. Although being DM is very fun because you get to create the entire world, I prefer to be a part of the action rather than the one controlling it. But DMing is still very fun.

[DargonK]

Dm is something i'm about to find out in the next week, same sort of situation. Don't know how i will go and a little worryed if my campaign will take of or not.

But i think i prefer being a player, less work and you get to play the game more

[Antouron]

I really enjoy being a player because it is so much less work and there are so many surprises involved in playing. DMing is a lot of fun though as well because you have all the power. And let's face it, who doesn't want power?

[Dthclaw]

Wow, another topic I seem to have not replied to. Thus far, I've only DMed, and I am in fact in very much the same boat as Raven. Would be nice to not know what's going on for a change.

[Shadowkami]

I have only ever played as a PC, but our DM is leaving for college next year, so someone will have to take over... and I know that I am NOT going to let any of the other players take over (all want to be necromancers as soon as they can)

[Lyinginbedmon]

Or they want everyone else to die so they can get a Holiday...

[Shadowkami]

No, I dont want them to die... I just want a holiday that does not involve me being kidnapped, stabbed or used as a shield! (can you even get proficient in 'human shield')

[Dthclaw]

New Feat: Defend With Anything
Prerequisites: Shield Proficiency
Benefit: You make a grapple check once per round to grab the nearest thing, living or otherwise, as a shield. This impromptu shield provides no armor class bonus, but instead provides 50% cover. If the check to overcome cover fails, the grappled shield takes damage instead.
Special: When using this feat on living creatures, an unwilling meat-shield will try to break your grapple every round. Magically coerced meat-shields require only the one check.

Yes, you can become proficient in Human Shield.