Ways to tell if one of your players might be a DM/GM

[Tdata]

Sentence finishing...

A player might be a GM if you are describing what is going on/being seen and he completes your description(even if it is the initial telling of the description so he would NOT already know it) because he thinks you are taking too long.

BTW, has anyone here seen the video The Gamers: Dorkness Rising?

It is hilarious!!!

 

[Dausuul]

Your player might be a GM if she:

• Is constantly suggesting better tactics for the monsters, and reminding you when you forget their special abilities.
• While forgetting to apply her own armor bonus.
• Figures out your evil plans, but doesn't tell the other players because "it's more fun if they don't know."
• Argues both sides in a rules debate.
• Avoids using spells like teleport, detect thoughts, and find the path because they short-circuit the plot.
• Uses nothing but spells like teleport, detect thoughts, and find the path, and can be heard muttering "See how you like it!" with each casting.
• Upon clearing a dungeon, wants to take it over and stock it with fresh monsters, then lure other adventurers to their doom.
• When the party needs to recruit hirelings, immediately goes to the tavern, because "that's where you always hire people."
• Complains that her own character is overpowered.
• Hijacks the entire campaign by inventing an imaginary uber-wizard out of whole cloth, pretending to receive messages from the uber-wizard, and having these messages send the party on quests that the player made up. (I have actually had a player do this.)
• Posts on ENWorld.
• When you show up late for a gaming session, you discover they've started without you.

 

[Thunderfoot]

[Jeff Foxworthy voice]
If your player shows up to a session with more monster miniatures than the actual DM....he just might be a DM.

If your player quotes the page, paragraph and line number of an obscure rules question buried in a 1est edition AD&D DMG....he might be a DM

If your player continually forgets that he's a party member and starts helping the monsters during combat.... he just might be a DM.

If your player says, "because I'm the DM, that's wh..." and then looks sheepishly for the Funyuns... he is most likely a DM.


(3 out of 4 of these happened to me, I am guilty of the other - I will never divulge which one)

 

[Moogleproof]

A player might be a GM if you are describing what is going on/being seen and he completes your description(even if it is the initial telling of the description so he would NOT already know it) because he thinks you are taking too long.

BTW, has anyone here seen the video The Gamers: Dorkness Rising?

It is hilarious!!!

Yes, I've seen it. A lot of jokes/stabs at the RPGers

I think there's a sequel as well?

There was one time I did enjoy a lengthy PC background; it was a homebrew swords & sorcery PBEM and a guy called Janne Kemppi (who is responsible for my S'mon moniker) wrote the origin story of his PC, Yukio (later known as Yukio the Godslayer), a kind of female kung fu renegade magic monk. It was absolutely awesome stuff, full of great villains and epic conflict for me to use in the game.

The name ringed a bell, so I googled a bit and it seems (if he's the same guy) he's given a few lecturers at cons and been co-writing books on manga/anime, AND he lives in the same city as I do! Small, small world. But I don't remember running into him, though.

But more on the prime topic: the DM has read my character story and apparently really enjoyed it. You can never now for sure with friends, but certainly sounds like he did, there wasn't need to change anything about it even though the game is in his somewhat home-brewed D&D 3.5 core setting. So I guess my ramblings didn't go to waste.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

For example, you might suspect your player is also a GM if he writes 13 700 word character background for you. Like I just did...

As a counterpoint, such a player could really like being a player. Most of the time I have no desire to run a game but I develop my characters with the same passion that a GM develops their campaign.

 

[bouncyhead]

Your player might be a DM if..

When you ask for their armour class they say 'just roll and tell me what you hit.'

 

[Moogleproof]

As a counterpoint, such a player could really like being a player. Most of the time I have no desire to run a game but I develop my characters with the same passion that a GM develops their campaign.

That's certainly true. As a player you have an opportunity to develop a single character much more deeply than a GM would, since he has the rest of the world to consider. And I don't mean to bash anyone's NPCs by saying this. Personally I think my NPCs are often better than my PCs. Not sure why that is, though. It may be because I'm more used to presenting a character through a story and having other characters to support the presentation of that character, which I can't really do if I'm a player instead of a GM, if that makes any sense.

 

[jasper]

Laughs and rolls on the floor during tpk.
Giggles when any one's pc is DRT (dead right there).
Has a chart for how he is going to be rolling dice that night. Aka I roll 33. Blue d20 from left hand off of Piratecat's soda can with a wrist flick.
Backs up his pickup truck to the door to just unload books and gaming equipment he may need to play that night.
Makes a photocopy of other players pcs just for insurance and error checking purposes.
Loudly demands you play RAW in your homebrew game or the opposite.
3 days later emails you a post game review pionting out rules violations on both sides of the table, problems, what you did wrong and right. Which comes 1 meg.
7 days later the hard copy arrives. 1 pd weight with postage due.