GMs are an endangered species!

[GMMichael]

You too can help the endangered species. Just for pennies a day your can help restore the species. Send $99.99 to Jasper add redacted redacted. That is just 27 cents a day.
Oh who are we kidding just send DMMike 1 issue of prophylactics, 3 lipsticks, 3 pair of nylon stockings, Mickey can pay his own way to vegas.

You forgot heels. I could work some wonders with heels.
[MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION]: ask, and ye shall receive:

good DMs are non-existent.

Spencer Crittenden: not seen since 2017. Wil Wheaton: no Titansgrave since 2015.

Looks like everyone's in a bad mood today. I could have called the thread RPG Trends That Undermine the Traditional GM Role, but isn't that a little boring?

Seriously, (I know, hardly the thread for it, /and/ out of character for me) GM - and, especially, DM - scarcity is self-correcting. The harder the game is to GM, the scarcer GMs become, the greater the 'reward' for DMing. The easier a game is to run, the more players can hop into the GM role when there aren't enough to go around. The system will tend towards equilibrium, even if the dynamic seems to favor one or the other.

This actually is the thread for it. Although I'm not sure I buy it; if a game is hard to GM, doesn't that mean that people just choose a different game to play?

 

[Jacob Lewis]

All the other GMs asked me to let you know that they're not gone. They're just busy running games. And they stopped inviting you because your ideas are a little unsettling.

"Scary" is what I think they actually said. Not me.

 

[jasper]

You forgot heels. I could work some wonders with heels.

...?

You did not post your shoe size or colour. So that is on you.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

These days, maybe? In the old days, I know a lot of us just muddled through it, oftentimes ignoring a bunch of the rules until the game became at least somewhat playable.

This actually is the thread for it. Although I'm not sure I buy it; if a game is hard to GM, doesn't that mean that people just choose a different game to play?

 

[Umbran]

Spencer Crittenden: not seen since 2017.

Who?

Wil Wheaton: no Titansgrave since 2015.

So, I have to ask, if you walk by a restaurant, and see someone eating a hamburger, do you start jumping up and down, pointing at their meal and hollering, "OMG! Cows are going extinct!!!1!!!one!" I hope not. Not only because you'd be disturbing some poor innocent's dinner, but because the loss of an individual or two is not relevant to discussion of the health of a population.

But, here, let me assuage your fears. I ran a game for a friend of mine, to teach his daughter about RPGs. She went on to run her own game. One of her players started also run games. So, Messrs Crittenden and Wheaton have been replaced in the GM pool. There is no cause for alarm. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I could have called the thread RPG Trends That Undermine the Traditional GM Role, but isn't that a little boring?

Boring. Constructive. To-may-to, to-mah-to.

 

[SkidAce]

[MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] , you are bringing sensibility to the parody of the sky is falling thread.

Methinks thou dost protest too much....

 

[Umbran]

[MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] , you are bringing sensibility to the parody of the sky is falling thread.

Methinks thou dost protest too much....

No. Just enough. Or have you forgotten the role of the straight man in comedy?

(Really, dude, I use an XKCD cartoon to make a point. Relax.)

 

[GMMichael]

RPG Trends That Undermine the Traditional GM Role

Fine, there's the new title, in case your Troll-Tolerance is set below 20. (I recommend mid-range, around 125 or so.)

I'll just go update the OP...

BTW Spencer Crittenden DMed Harmonquest. Which was awesome.

 

[Celebrim]

Fine, there's the new title, in case your Troll-Tolerance is set below 20. (I recommend mid-range, around 125 or so.)

I'll just go update the OP...

BTW Spencer Crittenden DMed Harmonquest. Which was awesome.

Eh. It's just occurring to me that perhaps I'm not the only semi-autistic humor challenged participant on the boards.

Also seriously, you have to be really over the top to separate yourself from the sort of extreme points of view that are all too common at EnWorld.

Also seriously, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure that this is satire, it doesn't stop me from wanting to discuss this as a serious issue.

Also seriously, despite the self-parody (?) of the original post, are you intending to start a more serious discussion, or should I just be going along with the joke?

"Asking for a friend."

 

[Tony Vargas]

This actually is the thread for it. Although I'm not sure I buy it; if a game is hard to GM, doesn't that mean that people just choose a different game to play?

Not if the game that is hard to GM is D&D. Then they go through a cycle: the DM wanting to try something else, the group being unable to agree on what else to play, the DM burning out, someone else running something terrible for a short while until the DM (somewhat recovered) can't stand it anymore, and back to the DM running.

OTOH, sometimes the hard-to-GM aspect of the game is kinda the point. The GM runs the game the way he likes, and the players either toe the line, or get the old "if you don't like it /you/ run for a while!" That usually shut's 'em up...
… I mean, hypothetically.