Are your games dying?

[Timothy]

a DM's Duty

About rudeness, the worse thing a DM can do is drop out of one of his own games.

I can understand players losing interest, and I think it's up to the DM to get that interest back. If not, recruiting new players so that the players who DO want to play still have an interesting time. This is what I am doing with 'a Game of Gods' right now.
A DM losing interest is something I think is very unlikely, but it happens. But if a DM looses interest, he can always make things more interesting by making the story more interesting, introducing permanent NPC's and so on. Or they can tell how they want the campaign to be developping, so that the players can react on that.

I feel that DM's have a duty to uphold. they are the ones that keep the game running, if they don't want to, they shouldn't have started in the first place. By starting a game a DM has to get it going, unless the players loose interest. But this duty shouldn't be too hard. My DM-ing style is one of improvising, and that almosyt seems to work, except with 'A Game of Gods' So I decided to put more development in it and take out more time to prepare the adventours.

Well, this post is getting a bit vague, but I'm sure you can understand what I'm saying.

 

[Zhure]

Psionicle, LHHS, Academy of Drell...

HA! I got mentioned. Third, but still mentioned! HA!

I think Drell has a long duration because it's a very detailed world but the players don't have to know the details to jump in. I can include tidbits as it goes along. It's also generic-fantasy enough to incorporate lots of concepts, so players can port over whatever character they want from other games (although this time I did make strict hit dice ceilings for PCs).

Another key is a limit to the number of PCs. I find six is optimal, because you can gloss over players who drop out and give them time to get their stuff straightened out and get back. More than six leads to too many subplots and waiting on too many people. Less than six leads to stagnation because the synergism is lower.

I also think the DM has to be ready to do things you normally shouldn't in P&P games. In PBP, you can split the party, as Drell is right now, with little danger of losing interest as half the players go to the living room while you game in the kitchen in P&P D&D.

I've only been in one PBP game on EN World that died and part of it is the players' responsibilites. They have to post, even if they have nothing important to do. It lets the DM know they're roleplaying their apathy rather than having actual apathy. Conversely, the DM has to post regularly. In my PBP games both as a DM and as a player, I try to set myself a schedule and post a *minimum* of five times a week.

A long while back I used to run an email campaign and it died. It was the most detailed and crafted campaign I've ever been in and it was my fault it died. It was IME well-written and beautiful, but *my* lack of discipline caused it to die.

My absolute favorite email game (I was a player) died for no known reason. In mid-combat. I think that was because of the DM lacking discipline, too.

I think my favorite PBP game on EN right now is the Iconics game. Not because of Gnomeworks or the players, but because of the set up. Although Gnome and the players are doing a fine job, as did P-kitty before, but because the characters are easy to follow, have good imagery associated with them, and are simple to grasp. Because of their iconic nature, they are almost caricatures of good characters; their simplicity is their strength.

(If an opening comes up in the Iconics game, give me a holler.)

In sharp contrast to that, a lot of PBP PC's are so detailed and so intricate, the DM can't get a handle because there are too many handles. Unlike novels, the DM doesn't have the same infinite insight into the minds' of the main characters as does the writer of a novel.

As of this writing, the one PBP game I am most fond of is the Game of Opposites: Heroes. It's the early stages, which is the most fun, because character generation is exciting and mutable. When (if) the game commences, it's hack & slash and neither the players nor the DM have to be terribly concerned with backstory. It lets everyone concentrate on the future and their current actions...

Greg

 

[Jemal]

My favourite thing about being a DM...
If you start to find your game boring, or less appealing that it origially was...
CHANGE SOMETHING.
You are the first and last decision maker, and as long as its not something that makes the game less fun for the players, it's a good thing. Especially if it keeps you from going the way of the flumph.

I think that's also the best way of keeping player interest, too. If their interest seems to be dieing out.. Throw them a random encounter, puzzle, interesting situation, weird NPC, etc, etc.. Ideas like that aren't too hard to come by, and should get the game going again, at least long enough for you to get something more interesting+long-term going in the game. (I actually have to admit that's what i'm doing in Intrigue in Candara right now... Stalling for time b/c I'm not finished some parts of the adventure...)

I've also got an idea on why people become DMs:

In my opinion and experience, the DM is just the person who has the most desire to play the game. If there's no current game (Or not enough, PbP style), and you really want to play, your only option is to make one yourself, if the others aren't up to it. Therefore, the DM is (usually) the Most dedicated person in the group.

Good bye, and Thank you for reading another edition of Random Ramblings.

 

[Timothy]

As of this writing, the one PBP game I am most fond of is the Game of Opposites: Heroes. It's the early stages, which is the most fun, because character generation is exciting and mutable. When (if) the game commences, it's hack & slash and neither the players nor the DM have to be terribly concerned with backstory. It lets everyone concentrate on the future and their current actions...

Greg

Thx for mentioning me too. I don't know who wrote it (I think it was Gray Gygax in an episode of once upon a soapbox, not sure) But someone once said that the moment before combat is the best moment there is in DND. You get to think of a strategy and you are allready enjoying the combat to be. That is what is the strength of A Game of Opposites. Both parties are focussed on combat and the preparation. Both parties are thinking up their own staregies. Snd the best thing is: I get to know the strategies and chars of both parties.

and what Jemal said is indeed true, although this can be frustrating if someone is DM all the time. Luckily my current party, this isn't a problem, as Rino is learning to DM now that I can't make it to the gaming sessions because of other things I do in my weekends.

 

[Jemal]

Timothy - Yeah, It sux a litle when you are ALWAYS the DM, but that's been the case IRL for me. I actually was DMing for 2 years before I ever played the game..
Maybe that's why I did so well back then, I was always thinking from a DM percpective, and didn't have any player pre-conceptions. And even now I always end up DMing, mostly b/c It's just habit.. If we get together and someone wants to game, everyone turns to me and says "So what're we doing?" They've each taken their turn behind the screen but eventually we come back to me...
Oh well, I enjoy it, and can't wait until the next time we get together. I've finally decided to ressurect the BETA campaign IRL, which is something they've been bugging me about for months.

herein ends yet ANOTHER edition of Random Ramblings.

 

[Timothy]

Hah, with thta kind of Rambling ability, you should join hivemind!