D&D 5E Dirty Secrets?

[Chaosmancer]

My dirtiest secret is that I'm a girl. Apparently.

I hate to ask for clarification, but is it "Apparently my secret is that I'm a girl" or is it "My secret is that apparently I'm a girl" because the two are quite different

 

[NotActuallyTim]

My dirty secret is that I constantly recycle content from old games into new ones using only name changes, and not very good ones at that.

 

[ccs]

I guess my secrets would be that:
1) I never write up spell lists for my caster NPCs. They simply cast spells as I see fit - within the limits of their lv/slots/types etc.
2) Outside of combat, I reward your ACTIONS more so than your dice rolls.
Ex: "I search the room, I rolled a 37 on investigation." With no further description that alone won't yield much.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Hmm I would have to say my (most unusual?) secret is that I actually prefer DMing online than in person.

Reason is, online, it's easy to do "hidden" rolls from players (we have an "all combat dice in the open" policy, which I like) and most importantly - while players are discussing stuff they want to do, side treks and whatever, online I can quickly pull up a few pictures behind the scenes and then present them to the players as if I had this planned all along! In conjunction with random name generators, treasure/pick pocket generators, random encounter generators, even quick map generators .... you can improvise like crazy with confidence!

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

Just in case my avatar isn't a dead giveaway, my dirty secret is that I'd rather be playing Ars Magica.

Wait, am I even allowed to say that here?

 

[Ganymede81]

Deceiving people like that is a pretty thing to do.

Further doing it because you believe it to be in their best interest because you know best is condescending and arrogant.

There is nothing wrong with playing Magical Tea Party and there are plenty of games designed around that. Why not remove the deception and play one of those games?

My dirtiest DM secret? Sometimes I'll go online and insult/belittle people for running their role playing games in a manner different from my own.

 

[fuindordm]

My dirtiest secret is that I've always wanted to run a meatgrinder campaign but can't find the players for it. These days everyone wants their own arc... spoiled youngsters.

 

[GameOgre]

My dirtiest secret is that I've always wanted to run a meatgrinder campaign but can't find the players for it. These days everyone wants their own arc... spoiled youngsters.

So? Put their story arch in the middle of a meat grinder!

Also the BEST meat grinders are all about the story in regards to why you are devoting so much time and energy delving down into the meat grinder.

Megadungeons are a lot of work for everyone and stupid hard for characters. Both players and player characters need a reason to keep at it week after week. Give them one heck of a great reason!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

My dirty secret is that I really like the player characters and do not want them to die. I keep the illusion going that I like to kill PC's as if It gives me DM Creed with my fellow DM's. I run the game as slightly antagonistic while in reality I am a pushover and love to see the pc's beat the crap out of my favorite npc's and villains.

I really love it when they are in a (unbeatable) situation and then they think outside the box and find that one thing the godlike genius 5,000 year old lich didn't think of and trash him. I like to look stricken and flip through my notes in frustration (like I really have pages and pages of things the lich did think of)and disgust and then weakly try and negate the idea with a weak reason why it wouldn't work and see that gleam in their eyes and let them provide work arounds and reasons why I am wrong.

I came here to say basically exactly the same thing. My players think I am out to get them. They think I am one of those DMs who likes to kill PCs, despite decades of PCs largely failing to die - all it took was a couple of serious TPKs years ago and one near-TPK when we started 4E to convince them I'm out for blood.

 

[Blue]

Sorry, "lay pipe" in the writing meaning of put in place a lot of groundwork to come up later. If I establish a lot of facts in early sessions when those come up in later sessions it all loots like it was planned from the beginning.

Let me make up an example: "We knew the faerie queen was interested in the girl in the first village, now we know why!"

But in my case the "why" is fluid until later in the campaign. I would have a reason the Faerie Queen is interested in the girl, but while I originally think her great ancestor is a faerie noble who was exiled but the long-lived Queen knew and watches his decendants, later int he story I might switch it to that the girl is the current generation and could be used to stage a coup against the ancient Faerie Queen if that's the direction the story is going. Or if the party doesn't know anything about the faerie blood, it could be that she has some secret among herself hat the faerie queen is interested in. Or whatever.

In other words, throw out lots of richness and stuff that isn't related to the current adventure, and then interpret them as I need later in the campaign as long as it still stays within what the players know.