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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iamntbatman" data-source="post: 7240610" data-attributes="member: 6907623">On the phone issue, as a player I really need to figure out how to make my phone be quiet except for the game-related things I'm using it for. I ignore all of my notifications and buzzings and whatnot during game sessions, but I use my phone for spellcards as that's quicker and easier than flipping through sheets of paper, and also for a custom soundboard I've made with tons of Hardanger fiddle clips for my bard, but I feel like my phone buzzing was distracting for other players at the table.Anyway, I'm totally on board with the side of the argument that players don't really owe the DM much. As a player, you're inserting your creativity into an interactive experience. As the DM, you're building that experience for people to interact with. Unless you're some god-tier master of improv, you're going to be doing far, FAR more work than your players in building out the world and preparing for whatever course of action your players might take. Even bothering to put that much effort into things in the first place necessitates having a dedication of a certain extreme level that just doesn't translate to the player experience. As a DM, if players are sitting around staring at Facebook, I think you either need to do something to get combat moving faster or make the game generally more engaging (or both). Make a more compelling world, better NPC's, better plot hooks. Get better at RPing your NPC's. Keep tension high. Try your best to make players feel like heroes making a difference in your world, but keep things dangerous enough to keep them on their toes. Players have the benefit/drawback of only really being able to add to the collective enjoyment of the game when it's their turn to do so, but the DM is adding to or subtracting from that collective enjoyment nearly all of the time.Basically, being the DM is a bigger investment with bigger rewards and a commensurate risk for disappointment when what you've invested doesn't get returns in terms of players enjoying it, immersing themselves in it and building upon it.</blockquote>

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