Every DM wants a chance to play...?

[Orryn Emrys]

Much like most D&D veterans, I've always believed that, as a 'career' Dungeon Master, I would obviously enjoy the chance to let someone else take the reigns occasionally and allow me a chance to play. Of course, every DM is different... and a string of less experienced game masters have generally left a bad taste in my mouth. So I had kinda given up... until one of my current players convinced me that he could do it and do it well. Unfortunately, this led to another, less pleasant realization.

It turns out that he really can do it. I just didn't enjoy it.

Don't get me wrong... it isn't a power trip. That's what I first thought... but I think the issue was really much simpler for me. I just didn't find it challenging enough... focusing on a single character... his personality, his growth and development. As a game master, it's the challenge I relish... constructing and maintaining an elaborate setting, weaving a tale of complex challenges, developing and portraying a small army of NPCs.... Not to mention the general administrative, organizational, and judicial challenges of running a game.

Furthermore, although I tend to think of myself as an excellent roleplayer... and my character had a complex and dynamic personality with plenty of realistic traits and flaws... I find myself whoe-fully inexperienced at game play. I've been running games, with little reprieve, for about 15 years... but have played a character fairly infrequently. And here's the confusing part....

In the last several years, I've been blessed to work with a gifted and dedicated group of roleplayers... and I know they dig it! What am I missing?! If they can each find the construction, manipulation and development of a single character challenging and fulfilling enough to keep them coming back enthusiastically week after week for years on end... there must be something about the experience that I haven't got a solid perspective on....

In any case, I'm gonna try it again... I still run a game every week, so the challenge of doing so will still be there for me... but I'm going to join another game as a player and try to find that elusive challenge.... And I thought that perhaps some discussion on the matter might help me find perspective. I want to be on par with my own players as a fellow player... I don't want any dissatisfaction I am feeling to bleed through and affect anyone else's enjoyment.

And I thought that EN World would be the best place to find intelligent and experienced discourse on the matter.

Any thought?

 

[Rashak Mani]

I have seen other DMs suffer a bit of what you are going thru and part of it is being used to work in a world according to your rules and view. To step out and see "another" world and another set of ideas, reality and rules is hard.

Your just used to having so much more to do and being a player means so much less to focus on. You know why some gamers pile dice now !!! One reason why DMs have to keep a good game pace too.

Overall I think you should take it as a chance to see the "other" side. To remind yourself what makes players tick and also to check on other DMing styles. At the worse it means you get to RPG without hours of game preparation and notes.

In my case I am a player who ocassionaly DMs and I thou I like both I much prefer playing. DMing is fun and good... but takes a bit of dedication I might not always have. We tend to alternate among DMs just so that all DMs get to play and relax a bit.

 

[EricNoah]

"For whom is the funhouse fun?"

Perhaps the more experience one has as a DM, the less one is able to keep from "thinking like a DM" even when playing?

 

[VorpalBunny]

"For whom is the funhouse fun?"

Perhaps the more experience one has as a DM, the less one is able to keep from "thinking like a DM" even when playing?

Definitely. As another longtime "career DM" the opportunities to play are rare, but cherished. However, in almost every game I've played in the little "DM's voice" inside my head is constantly analyzing the game and comparing the DM's decisions and style to my own in the same situation.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

Suggesting that one who builds funhouses is less likely to find simple enjoyment in someone else's construction?

I know that, in the past, one of my basic failures as a player has been the amount of pressure my simple presence and attitude tend to place on a referee in whose game I am involved. Of course, I have spoken with this particular DM at length, trying to put him at ease that I have no intention of highjacking any part of his game... and I've consciously relaxed my opinions accordingly. I'm not going to claim that I agree with every decision he makes, but I obviously have a great deal of respect for the authority of a game master in the province of his game and have little difficulty relegating such concerns to an uninvolved portion of my psyche... specifically, not that of my character, with whom I am particularly concerned.

Still... it's a valid point. But I'd like to think that it doesn't have to conflict with simple enjoyment of the game....

 

[der_kluge]

I had the same problem. When 3.0 came out, a guy I met volunteered to DM, and we formed a group. 3 years later, we're all still playing together, but we're on our second DM now. The first DM was a most-excellent DM, and I enjoyed the opportunity to play for once (having DM'd most of my 2nd edition career). I find that playing under a different DM can be both aggravating and rewarding. This DM was good, though, so I was able to get ideas from his game. What's awful, however, is playing with DMs that aren't so good, because you're constantly thinking to yourself "I wouldn't have done it that way...".

This fall, I'm taking the reigns as DM again once the current game is concluded, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I also notice that it's greatly affected my purchasing habits. As a player for the last three years, I hardly bought any books. I've spent over $100 in the last 3 months preparing for my game.

 

[Monster Manuel]

I've been in much the same boat. For most of the time I was growing up, I was the only career DM on a (boring) 20x7 mile island. I had my pick of 30-45 players on any given day of the week. That whole experience spoiled me. I've tried to play in others' games, but I never quite got what i was looking for (With the exception of a great GM named DJ Allen). Part of this was that others might not have had the chance to mature as GMs or that they weren't as serious about it as I was, that my standards were too high, or that I had a very specific view of what made a good game. At any rate, I wasn't able to 'get into' the games these others ran for me. Part of if is what Orrin Emrys is talking about; there's hasn't been enough for me to do as a player.

My tastes run very cinematic, and very high concept, which is another possible reason for not enjoying a 'standard game' run by others.

At this point, though, I'm ready to play, at least for a campaign or two. I need to get a good grasp of what it's like to sit on the other side of the screen again. I'm actually psyched about the opportunity, since I'm sure there are much better GMs where I currently live.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Well I did forget to mention that I brought back to gaming 2 DMs that got tired of only DMing. They had been away from gaming a while... I convinced them to be players and they enjoyed it very much. For us it was great since both were excelent players... with some of the best characters we ever saw.

So gaming a bit can be good for tired out or busy ex-DMs

 

[francisca]

Mmmmm. I DM a 3E game, and play in a mutant 1E game. I think the rulesets are sufficiently different as to keep me from being bored as a player. Or maybe it's the over-powered-death-behind-every-turn setting. Dunno. But I've had no problem switching gears, and am really looking forward to playing 3E at GenCon.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

There were a couple of factors present during the recent experience I was recounting that I will try and avoid this time as well. First, the DM was so intent on running a successful campaign... which is my schtick, if you will - running long and involved campaigns... that he was constantly seeking my advice outside the game... even to the point of giving campaign secrets away at times, to get my impression of the players' probable response.... This did make it tough to suppress the sense that I should have some input on his decisions....

Secondly, and I'm not at all certain that there was anything 'wrong' with this... to compensate for the challenges I would not be 'burdened' with, I created a character with a rich history and a complex emotional tableau. I wanted a deep personality in which to submerge, thinking that the resultant challenge would give me options I don't normally possess as a game master. It's difficult to plumb the depths of one's NPC's when you have so many of them to keep track of and their 'screen time' is so limited....

Again, I don't necessarily think this was a bad move, but it did seem to emphasize my dissatistfaction with the whole experience. My new character in the upcoming game still has depth, but I've decided on a somewhat less confused and tragic individual, hoping that a character with more obvious flaws and superficial characteristics... in other words, one who hasn't yet hit his depth... will keep me less prone to be disturbed by the distractions that so frustrated me before. Worth a try, anyway.

BTW It's really nice to see that my 'problem' isn't a unique one. Needless to say, until EN World came along, I never had a chance to so much as exchange pleasantries with more than a couple of fellow DMs.