D&D General DMing Hard Stop

[abirdcall]

In my session 0 now I talk about how I'm there to have fun too and I'm trying my best.

I've had players treat me like it's my job to entertain them.

I also have a discussion about how all the players should be thinking about what would be most fun for everyone else.

It's working out well after a few troublesome players in the last few years.

 

[Oofta]

In my session 0 now I talk about how I'm there to have fun too and I'm trying my best.

I've had players treat me like it's my job to entertain them.

I also have a discussion about how all the players should be thinking about what would be most fun for everyone else.

It's working out well after a few troublesome players in the last few years.

I think there's this myth that the DM's enjoyment of the game doesn't matter. I think that's a mistake, if the DM ain't happy ain't nobody happy. Obviously the DM should listen to the players and try to provide a fun game, but you simply can't make everyone happy and if you try you often end up making no one happy.

 

[GwaihirAgain]

Funny thing is, I was the PC in kind-of-sort-of similar situation. Our group had been doing a quest equivalent of the rod of many parts, except that instead of a rod it was a crown. Anyway, when we nabbed the last piece my wizard grabbed it mentioned that he thought he was the best person to keep it safe and teleported away.

The PC was true neutral and, in a word, arrogant. But the important part of all of this is that I never tried to hide that I was absconding with the last piece when I left. Although I had never hinted to the other players until the moment that I would do this, I had discussed it with the DM ahead of time. In addition, I had no expectation of that PC continuing with the group. I accepted that I was going to cut ties and we were going our separate ways and that the PC had become an NPC should the other PCs decide to pursue him.

So I think something like this can work but the player of the PC has to accept the consequences of their actions. Also I think that while it was a surprise reveal, it helped that I didn't try to hide what I was doing and it didn't harm the group directly.

I like this. I like this sort of roleplaying, Ive had (another) player who has pulled this sort of thing off successfully as well.
The player cited in the original post is not following this playbook.

It was surreal. I was almost like his player couldnt help himself, and the afterwards justified his actions with a variety of metagame roleplaying reasons. He never had any consideration of what would or wouldnt be fun for anyone else.

 

[Hussar]

I used to think I could burn out on GMing, but that wasn't true. What was actually happening was I was burning out on the players I GMd for.

Preach it brother.

I've certainly run into that.

 

[aco175]

I think there's this myth that the DM's enjoyment of the game doesn't matter. I think that's a mistake, if the DM ain't happy ain't nobody happy. Obviously the DM should listen to the players and try to provide a fun game, but you simply can't make everyone happy and if you try you often end up making no one happy.

Last weekend I DMd the scouts on the winter cabin campout. I took the Delian Tomb from MCDM and found that someone had free maps of the locations to use. I needed to pare it down a bit and skim over the introduction and travel to the tomb since I found in the past a group of middle-schoolers tend to kill each other in the tavern. I made basic PCs for everyone and dove in.

It went great with very little wandering or not having any of the 6 players fooling around for 2 hours. It has brought me up a bit for my Against the Giants weekly game. That has become a bit of a slog and I need to spice it up some from the crawl that it is.

 

[MNblockhead]

I've killed campaigns where I wasn't having fun being the DM. Particularly a Star Wars one. My players knew too much about Star Wars and while they were all having fun, I was having a problem surprising them.

Yeah, this is why I avoid being a GM in games based off of popular IPs. The most recent example is that I baked the Expanse RPG on Kickstarter. Enjoyed reading the book and the game mechanics are good. Ran a one-shot adventure which was okay, but I knew after one game that I would never want to run a campaign in the setting.

 

[damiller]

i'd never have thought about PLAYER burnout. But yea, I can see that being a thing, and not the being burnt out on the game.

As I think about what I would hope to do in this situation, and what I have done in this situation, I'd check with myself first to see HOW un-ok I was with this (and previous) behaviors from this player. Then proceed from there. That way I am aware what doesn't work for me, and if its bad enough remove them from the game. Long ago I realized I can't abandon my standards just so I have a group. If I discover the behavior is completely unacceptable to me, then I don't even have a discussion, I try to give them a heads up and then just let them go to another group.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

, I had discussed it with the DM ahead of time.

This is the important thing. I have done similar things, but always working in cahoots with the GM*.

*Last time my character turned out to be an enemy spy was in a Traveller one-shot.