GMs - Do you get bored when you're a player?

[Retreater]

As someone accustomed to being a "Forever GM," I find myself growing bored when I'm a player. Having one character with one action with potentially minimal impact in a combat, waiting until my turn comes around again, possibly fighting a creature immune or highly resistant to my attacks - it's just not as exciting as controlling a squad of bad guys, shaping the story and world, controlling the pace of the game, etc.
Does anybody else feel the same way? Any tips about transitioning from being a GM to a "good player?"

 

[BookTenTiger]

Yes, absolutely!

I always need something extra to manage when I'm a player. I'll ask to run initiative, keep track of group treasure, run some NPCs, etc. I'm usually also doodling what's happening in the game or taking notes.

 

[Theory of Games]

Does anybody else feel the same way? Any tips about transitioning from being a GM to a "good player?"

Always. It's boring running one character

Best advice: help the GM with whatever. We appreciate it.

 

[sevenbastard]

Push ups. Whenever it's not your turn start doing push-ups easy way to bring your strength score up.

Alternatively play a game with sorter turns like B/X or another old school system.

Regardless it's smart to think about how you keep your players engaged when you are behind the screen. If you get bored as a player chances are your players are getting bored too.

 

[payn]

I'm pretty happy as a player, however, a lot of GMs find me to be a bit much. I like setting, plot, political intrigue, etc.. Since im down to a single character, im pretty involved in exploring everything with that character. So, if you are not delivering on several fronts, i'll likely get bored and just sit back until the game moves on. I expect combat to be moderate in relation to the RPG we are playing. If combats are dragging its usually not because I have one character.

I guess my tips would be to focus on "shaping the story and world, controlling the pace of the game, etc" as much as possible from your player seat.

 

[CleverNickName]

I get bored during combat scenes, for all the reasons you mention. For the rest of the game I'm pretty focused and engaged in the story, having a good time--especially if the DM has written some interesting lore, NPCs, and puzzles.

 

[thullgrim]

100% this. It can be especially hard for me because the guy runs short term stuff when I need a break likes to run stuff like Shadowdark or Deathbringer. I tend to run heavier, the spectrum from Savage Worlds to GURPS. I go from having all the characters and mechanical elements engagement to approaching none.

 

[GMMichael]

. . . Having one character with one action with potentially minimal impact in a combat, waiting until my turn comes around again, possibly fighting a creature immune or highly resistant to my attacks - it's just not as exciting as controlling a squad of bad guys, shaping the story and world, controlling the pace of the game, etc.
Does anybody else feel the same way? Any tips about transitioning from being a GM to a "good player?"

In D&D? I stay busy trying to look up the rules that I need for my character and his next action (no small task), and I also like to ham it up if the acting player makes any references to my character. A little down time gives me more time as a player to visualize things. As DM, I don't need to look up rules because I can either fudge them or find out from the rules lawyer what the rule is, and I just don't get to visualize things very often because it's a hard knock life, for us.

In Modos RPG, you'd get three actions that you could take just about whenever you want, so, less involuntary waiting. And if a creature is resistant to your physical attacks, you could switch to mental or metaphysical attacks, try something other than attacking (which might also be more mental or metaphysical than physical), support your allies (granting them a +4 bonus in many cases), develop your character with failure and earn some hero points back, use the hero points you have to achieve something cool that could sway the battle, trying halfmaxing your rolls to see if it keeps your damage in the positives, get into offensive posture and use your actions for defense to tank the creature, etc. . . .

 

[hawkeyefan]

Nope. I’m the GM for my longstanding group about 90% of the time. But I’ve also joined an online group with folks from here on ENWorld and in that, I’ve always been a player. I don’t get bored being a player at all.

It helps that we don’t play games that are boring for players, I think!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, I have a hard time sitting still and staying on-task as a player. I used to be better, I think, but not lately. I would hate to DM for me.