Can you find a GM when you need one?

[was]

...IME, it's not hard to find someone willing to GM. The difficult part is finding someone who is actually good at it.

 

[Sunseeker]

There are usually 1 or 2 other people willing to DM at any given time. I'm often one of the DMs.

 

[MNblockhead]

...IME, it's not hard to find someone willing to GM. The difficult part is finding someone who is actually good at it.

What makes someone good at it in your opinion? More specifically, what would make the game not fun for you as a player that is do to poor GM skills, rather than different preferences on play-style or campaign flavor?

 

[was]

What makes someone good at it in your opinion? More specifically, what would make the game not fun for you as a player that is do to poor GM skills, rather than different preferences on play-style or campaign flavor?

...Wow, those are good questions. Answering them here, however, might sideline the original question in this thread. Perhaps a new thread might better address them?

...Briefly said, IMO, a good DM is patient, has a decent grasp on the rules and knows that the game is collaborative endeavor.

 

[Blue]

I can find 5e DMs easily - we have a pay-for-play space that runs AL on Wednesdays, and a customer multi-DM multi-region homebrew that's in it's it's third season on Sundays. With a high quality of players. What I can't find are DMs for other games. I run 13th Age, and I'm looking for Fate Core or FAE (esp. the new Dresden Accelerated), Apocalypse World or other non-fantasy PBTA, or something odd like Don't Rest Your Head or Dogs in the Vineyard. Well, I can find a Star Wars (new Edge of the Empire set of rules) and Champions, so I guess it's not a complete drought of other games.

 

[Lwaxy]

It looks less bad than I thought.-

 

[LordEntrails]

I always find this an interesting topic. To me, it's like planning to play basketball, but not having a hoop or ball. It always baffles me.

BUT, I know it's not the same, and that it is a frequent topic. There is a pretty good blog about it I can recomend if you are trying to put a group togethe

 

[Lylandra]

Voted usually not, even if I am playing in two campaigns, and being the GM in one of them.

Why? Because I and my other GM love playing as a player. And we've gone great lengths to find a really good GM in the past. And never really found one. I consider this our own fault though because "the perfect GM" for our style of play is pretty hard to find as we like very specific (and to be honest workload-heavy) aspects of the game, mostly character involvement, heavy RP (playing multiple sessions without a single die roll or combat) and custom storylines. We simply cannot really enyoy your average kick in the door, slay the monsters, loot them dungeon crawl anymore... at least not as a basis for a "serious" campaign.

 

[Lwaxy]

That's the play style I used to have probs finding players for. Luckily, by now there are several players and even an other GM who don't mind going without battles for ages and only roll when it is fun to do so.

 

[Lylandra]

...Wow, those are good questions. Answering them here, however, might sideline the original question in this thread. Perhaps a new thread might better address them?

...Briefly said, IMO, a good DM is patient, has a decent grasp on the rules and knows that the game is collaborative endeavor.

Yep, we'd better discuss that in another thread. But from my own experience, a "bad DM" can ruin your fun pretty easily. Stuff like being frequently inconsistent/let your NPC act inconsistent or randomly, having a favourite player who gets all the shinies and the spotlight, ignoring your own input or interests as a player or constantly saying "that's not part of the module" "this solution is not intended"