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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hammerforge" data-source="post: 4533228" data-attributes="member: 23564">Greetings all:Here’s a question that I thought I’d throw out there to see what people’s thoughts and experiences are. Please bear with me if this seems a bit rantish—it is, but I’ll try to keep the rant factor down to a minimum.  It is also a bit long, but I really want to express my thoughts clearly. Maybe some of you can reinvigorate my desire to GM with your own wisdom and advice.There was a time when I loved to run games. I enjoyed the creative outlet that it provided. I loved the fact that I was always involved in the game because of the very fact that I was running it. Whether I was running combat, playing NPCs, or whatever, I was always doing something—unlike being a player, which means you often experience down time at the gaming table while you wait for others to discuss their plans/moves/actions with the GM.Now, however, this is no longer the case. My love for running games has almost entirely faded away. I haven’t turned against DMing completely, and part of me still wants to run games in the future; but I’ve had some negative experiences that have left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Since I promised to keep the rant factor of this post down, I’ll focus on only one negative thing, which seems to me to be the most significant.As I see it, the biggest problem I’ve encountered while DMing is a lack of player contribution to the game. The pattern I’ve seen is that players come to the gaming table with a “Here we are now, entertain us” mindset, expecting the DM to provide a game for them that is, at the end of the day, not much different from a single-player video game: NPC speaks, PCs react; NPC attacks, PCs react; crypt entrance looms ahead, PCs react. Instead of taking the initiative to have their characters do things in and with the campaign world that their characters really would do if they were alive, they simply respond to whatever the DM throws at them with minimal role-playing (if any) and an occasional tactical decision.Now I wouldn’t mind this so much if said players did not become critical. Sure, I would like some player contribution from time to time because it can provide me with hooks that could make the story more interesting; but if the players are happy being merely reactive and are having a good time, so be it. The trouble, however, is that some of these players have criticized me at times for being boring and/or lacking creativity and will even possibly leave a game because of this perception.This baffles me. How can anyone blame the GM for not having fun if all they do is mechanically react to what the GM throws at them—much like clicking a mouse or pressing the fire button during a video game? The most fun I’ve ever had as a player was when I did unique things with my character, whether in combat or out—something that could never be done in a computer game. As a result, the fun I derived from any given game session was directly proportionate to the amount of initiative I took in role-playing my character. That is because—ironically—an RPG is really a lot like a computer game at least in one respect: Garbage in, garbage out. You get out of an RPG what you put into it. Should the DM, then, take seriously the charge of being uncreative from any player who doesn’t even bother to put any creative effort into his or her role-playing? The way I see it, I would have to wonder why such a player even bothered to get involved in a tabletop RPG to begin with. Wouldn’t they be happier sitting at home and playing an MMORPG or some other computer game that requires practically no creative interaction with the game world? If such players at heart really do prefer a programmed, mechanical gaming experience, how can they realistically find fault with the DM who delivers that (or seems to)?The end result of all of this is that when I come to the gaming table to run a scenario, I often don’t feel like I am pursuing a relaxing, leisurely pastime to have fun and unwind. Rather, when I run a game I frequently feel like I am making a presentation to a group of managers in a corporate setting, apprehensively wondering whether I will perform to their satisfaction. And that is just not fun AT ALL. Why take the time to prepare scenarios, stat NPCs and populate whole areas of the game world only to have your efforts come under picky criticism? Have RPGs actually ceased to be games (for the GM, anyway)?</blockquote>

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