Do You Consider Yourself A Good Player, and Why?

[WanderingMonster]

I'm a better DM than player. I tend to try and milk the DM for advantages during PC generation, which I imagine I would find irksome if I were DMing myself. When I play in the current group (as opposed to DM) I tend to fall into the leader role, even if it's not called for. My long standing role as DM pigeon-holes me into that default leader position.

It's wierd. But I do love to play.

 

[Roland Delacroix]

I voted no for similar reasons listed above. I've been mainly DMing for the past 5 years so I tend to be a bit ruleslwayer-ly. I also stay too much in character when the other players are just screwin around sometimes, from my strict RP L5R games.

When I first started playing i had some really bad DM's. In those games my character never did anything effective, he was always useless no matter how creativlly i played him. I tried to compensate with RP'ing, but in those days we all did hack-n-slash. I eventually quit playing with those DM's but today I still get paranoid about making sure my character has at least SOMEthing to do in a group. Because of this I tend to min/max quite a bit and bug my DMs alot about stuff.

I also come up with some really whack ideas sometimes. Luckily the other PC's are usually sane enough to say 'yes' to the good ideas and 'no' to the bad ones.

EDIT: OMG the biggest thing. I have the most terrible memory. I'll game on Monday night and again Thursday night and have no idea what we did 3 days ago. Two weeks ago I showed up, asked where we were, I said something like "uh, last i remember we found a passage under a mountain or something? and killed a chimera?" My Dm- "Thats good tony, but that happened 3 months ago..."

When I remember to I have to take pages of notes. After 5 min of reading before the game it all comes back to me.

 

[pogre]

(unless we're talking about a DM that has trouble adjusting to being a player)

That is me - as mentioned by many other DMs here.

I will say I have had players in my campaign that make running such a pleasure it just was not the same if they could not make a session. Generally, these are players who are "into" the game and genuinely get excited about in game events. They do not have to be "in character" all of the time, but they do have to dig their character and try to further his/her goals.

 

[jgbrowning]

i'm not a very good player. much better DM.

joe b.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I am a good DM of Dungeons and Dragons.

Why?

Because when I DM, my players have had fun.

My yardstick for being a good DM, is how much fun the players have. Everything else is secondary.

- - -

I am a good (but only fairly good, not really good) player of Dungeons and Dragons.

Why?

I have managed to find the fun that was to be had, usually, out of the games I played in, without ruining the fun for everyone else.

This is not as easy as it sounds.
Sometimes, there is not very much fun in the game to be found, and certainly what fun there is to be had must be worked for. D&D does not work by itself - it requires creative contribution and effort.
What's fun for one player may be unfun for others, and trying to have fun can come at the expense of other players period. I have avoided this whenever possible.

 

[Buttercup]

I can't answer this poll, because I think I'm somewhere in the middle, and there isn't an option for that.

I think I'm sometimes very good and sometimes not so much. I'm better with certain kinds of characters than others. For example, I once played a painfully shy, conflicted cleric/sorcereress, and I think I didn a pretty good job with her. Right now, I'm playing (In a T20 game) a chip-on-her-shoulder scout with lots of gearhead type skills, and I don't think I really have a feel for her.

I'm better at certain kinds of games than others, too. I like a bit of roleplay, but I also want to bash heads. A game with none of that isn't fun for me, and I don't think I do that well with it. OTOH, a game that is nothing but hack-n-slash isn't fun for me either.

 

[Deadguy]

I had in the end to say 'No, not a good player'.

I think in part it's because I DM a lot, and I have the same problems that many here have adapting to playing from DMing - the rule-lawyering, the questioning of setting details, etc.

At the same time I know that my characters tend toward being too quiet and too passive. I tend to take what the DM throws at me, and spend too little time creating story of my own. I have a hard time in a group with loud players, where I tend to fade into the background rather than insist that I get heard and get involved. I get frustrated when I can't seem to do anything, and I have been known to cheat on the dice to make my paltry actions effective. Oh, and I get overinvolved in a character and become emtional and irrational if that character is suffering for what I feel are arbitrary reasons.

Am I a bad player to DM for? I think at least one DM probably thinks so - though he hasn't droppped me from his game yet. Others seem okay with me as a player, and there is one DM who positively loves my characters (nice feeling)!

When I pour so much time and effort into role-playing I sometimes get a little sad that I am not better at either DMing or playing. I could blame it on my early experiences in the game (growing up in a village meant that most of the time there was one player and one DM; I find large groups uncomfortable). But it doesn't mean that I want to stop role-playing. I still haven't found another hobby I enjoy so much.

 

[wolff96]

I voted yes, because I provide a lot of backstory and other aids to weave my character into the story. I tend to stay in character throughout the game session. I try not to hog the spotlight, but I will speak up and talk to people if no one else is.

However, there is also a bit of a "no" in that, because I am a Rules Lawyer. I strive to be impartial -- I point out things both for us and against us -- but I know that makes me an annoying character to DM for.

 

[godfear]

There really does need to be a middle-ground answer.

I am because I'm excited about the games, know the rules well enough to manage my own character (and help others with theirs), I'll interact with NPCs and roleplay with the DM and other PCs when the situation calls for it, roll with the rules and world view changes the DM applies, and take the leadership role if there are none others to fill it.

I am not because I know the rules better than the rest of my group (and tend to rules lawyer because of it), slip out of character far too often, joke disruptively (though I try to monitor it and smack myself down when I notice), and am rather coarse in my OOC dealings with the other players (more so when I DM).

Yea, I've got my shortcomings, but like the others who took the middle ground or admitted to being a bad player, at least we know there are some problems, and hopefully seek to rectify them.

Pax.

 

[Balgus]

I don't see myself as a good player in RP terms, but a fun player to have at the table.

I always try to lighten the mood in any situations (except in combat) and i try my best to play along with other players and characters.

Sometimes you have suspend the reality of the game (funny how that works) to have a game worth playing