Todd Roybark
Hero
As many DMs are, self reportedly, taking a turn on the player side of the DM screen, what insights have people gleaned from taking a spin at being a player?
D&D General DM or Player Poll
Mostly, my experiences as a player have helped me figure out what kind of campaign I'd most enjoy as a player, and that's what I try to run as a DM. Much of that has been gleaned from playing in campaigns that were in one way or another not the sorts of campaigns I'd most enjoy as a player.
The big lessons:
"Sandbox" shouldn't mean "go and find the fun." Dungeon- (or hex-, or any other) crawls should be run in such a way that they don't drag on for so long that the players lose track of the characters' reasons for being there; running them as grinds, especially, seems to lead to that problem. If you want to run a long published adventure, maybe you should prep ways for it to be less relentlessly linear than as-published.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
The biggest thing I've learned from being a player, after decades of being a DM only: the rules-as-written are just fine.
I used to love house-ruling, but being a player really broke me of that habit and I've learned to stop tampering with the rules. Don't house-rule stuff just for the sake of doing it, as if I were somehow "making it my own," or making it "work the way it should." The DM might think it's fun to change stuff around just for the sake of change, but the players find that stuff distracting and annoying.
Yes, even my stuff. Yes, even your stuff.
If I want to tweak something in the game to fit my setting or the table's play style, I'll do it with the existing stuff in the DMG. Feats are optional, use them or not. Multiclassing is optional, use it or not, it's fine. Even the battle mat is optional, so playing over Zoom or MS Teams is as hard as you want it to be. Are rests too long/short? Use the variant rest times in the DMG to fix them. Want psionics? Use the spell points system in the DMG, and describe everything as CoMiNg FrOm YoUr MiNd or whatever. The tools are in the DMG, you should use them.
JiffyPopTart
Bree-Yark
Odd poll. Hard to answer. I chose "What have you spend more of your lifetime doing, playing or GMing a roleplaying game" as my interpretation and voted player. In the 5e era i've been GMing way more.
Oofta
Legend
I have less than a page of house rules, and most of that is just campaign specific thematic restrictions like no dragonborn because they don't exist in my world.
So I'm always amazed when people say they have 30 pages of house rules. I mean, really? Maybe you just need to accept the game as is (implementing option rules as you state) or find another game that's a better fit.
But I think it's a separate topic.
Ezequielramone
Explorer
I see that the poll says most poeple here are voting. I think that also we, DMs, are more likely to read forums (and participate), news, etc about RPGs...
Coming back to the question. I started playing and I wanted to read every book, adventure, forum, etc. I just could not get enough (with everything in my life that I like), so it was natural for me to turn to the DM seat. I have been DMing sinse my initiation on the hobby. I play from time to time in one shots or short adventures. I don't have the struggle that some people have when they want to play but have to DM.
Coming back to the question. I started playing and I wanted to read every book, adventure, forum, etc. I just could not get enough (with everything in my life that I like), so it was natural for me to turn to the DM seat. I have been DMing sinse my initiation on the hobby. I play from time to time in one shots or short adventures. I don't have the struggle that some people have when they want to play but have to DM.
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