Does your group DM?

[Quasqueton]

Are all the players in your group willing to DM? Does everyone take a turn, at some time? Has a Player been banned from DMing in your group?

Are Players who never DM moochers?

Are DMs who never let others DM powermongers?

Does DMing make one a better Player?

Does playing a PC make one a better DM?

Quasqueton

 

[Mouseferatu]

Some. (Edit to add: Those who are willing take turns. Nobody's been formally banned, but there are some people we'd be more likely to let take a turn than others. )

No.

Some of them.

Sometimes.

Sometimes.

 

[Quasqueton]

If you are going to reply like that (I have no problem with it), note that I actually asked 7 questions -- you only gave 5 answers.

Quasqueton

 

[Mouseferatu]

If you are going to reply like that (I have no problem with it), note that I actually asked 7 questions -- you only gave 5 answers.

Quasqueton

Edited.

 

[Crothian]

Are all the players in your group willing to DM? Does everyone take a turn, at some time? Has a Player been banned from DMing in your group?

In my D&D group there are 5 players. 2 of them don't DM because of kids and time constraints like that. One of them used to DM for us but his wife is having a second child and he has more important things to do at home. Of the other three I used to DM and one of the other guys is DMing now. THe third guy is interesting in DMing again (he's not done anything but one shots for us) and probably will once he gets used to the new job.

Are Players who never DM moochers?

Some are but some of them don't have the ability to DM.

Are DMs who never let others DM powermongers?

Yes

Does DMing make one a better Player?

It can and it can make you a worse player. It depends on the style of game one DMs and what style of game they are PC for.

Does player a PC make one a better DM?

I think so as it really helps a DM see what is like on the other side of the screen. IT is a very different place.

 

[Sound of Azure]

Are all the players in your group willing to DM?

I really don't know about my new group, as I'm yet to play. I'll have to make these comments about my old group.

Most of them were. One was not interested at all. Two ran games, but not D&D. Another guy was willing, but we wouldn't let him.

Does everyone take a turn, at some time? Has a Player been banned from DMing in your group?

We had one guy who dmed 50% of the time. Myself and another player DM alternately on the main DM's off times, staving off burn out for all three of us.

We had one player we banned from DMing after a two week stint he had (2 games per week) back in college. He seemed to take unnatural enjoyment from describing exactly what the enemies did to our PCs' barely dead corpses after they had killed the PCs (which they inevitably did). Not a pretty picture.

Toward the end of my time with that group, we relented and allowed him to run one off tournament-style arena games (which were pretty fun).

Are Players who never DM moochers?

They can be, but generally no.

Are DMs who never let others DM powermongers?

I've never met anyone like that. One guy I knew never played in games and always DMed, but he certainly allowed others to DM. Probably a taste conflict.

Does DMing make one a better Player?

It's given me a better appreciation for teamwork, as well as for the effert a DM puts into their setting, so in my case- yes.

Does player[sic] a PC make one a better DM?

I think so. It helps keep me in touch with what players want.

 

[T. Foster]

We've currently got 9 members in our group. 4 us have have already taken turns as DM, at least one more will eventually (as soon as he finishes writing up the various adventures he's been working on for ages). The other 4 players are all "newbies" who'd never played D&D before this group, and maybe eventually one or more of them will want to take a turn as DM too, but probably not anytime soon.

No one has been banned from DMing. We had one guy who had a "forced hiatus" for a couple months because we were all bored with his adventure, but he's come back since then (and is, in fact, our current DM) and things are running much more smoothly now.

I don't think DMing necessarily makes someone a better player; if anything I think it's the opposite -- players who are also DMs in my experience are much more concerned with the rules (and second-guessing the DM's interpretations thereof) and much more prone to metagame thinking (as in "he wouldn't throw this type of encounter at us unless he expected us to do thus and such..."), both of which IMO are very annoying habits.

I do, however, think that playing a character makes someone a better DM.

 

[BroccoliRage]

Most of the time I end up DMig i my group because my buddies don't ever wat to. I have the most experience, so I usually get tossed up on the chopping block. Occasionally one of the others will step up and I'll get opne of my all too rare chances to play, but usually I end up becoming the sacrifical lamb.

DM's who never LET other DM are just being selfish. DM's who have players that never WANT to DM no matter how many times it's offered in advance are just unlucky.

Said players are not mooches, they are just playing a game the way they like to. Being a DM can be a burden at times.


Being a player makes one a better DM most definitely, but being a DM doesn'y make one a better player.

 

[Umbran]

Three of the players in my group have run games, but only one other has run the game for this particular group. He wasn't having much fun, and had little timem for it, so he stopped. I picked up for him. There's no "taking turns" DMing, and nobody's ever been "banned" from running the game. Nobody else in the group has any desire to run the game - if I didn't do it, there'd be no game at all.

Players who never DM are most certainly not moochers. Not everybody has the desire to run a game. Not everybody is good at it. Why force them?

Conversely, not everybody has a lot of fun playing. While there may be some control-freak GMs out there, many just have more fun GMing than playing. And that's okay, too.

DMing can give someone extra perspective that can be constructive when playing, but not always.

I have seen a few good GMs that have never played, but usually I think the ones with at least some play-experience do better.

 

[Pbartender]

Are all the players in your group willing to DM?

Yes. Some are better than others, and some DM more often than others, but everyone is willing.

Does everyone take a turn, at some time?

Nope. It's completely voluntary. Whoever's got an idea for a game proposes, and we play the one that everyone's most interested in.

Has a Player been banned from DMing in your group?

No.

Are Players who never DM moochers?

Not normally, no... they could be moochers, but it's nothing to do with not DMing.

Are DMs who never let others DM powermongers?

By the same respect... Not normally, no. Though that doesn't mean they aren't powermongers for other reasons.

Does DMing make one a better Player?
Does playing a PC make one a better DM?

On both accounts, yes, it often does... If nothing else it gives a greater appreciation for the preparation, concerns and motivations involved in the other side of the screen.