IF you want me to DM, you better pick a different system

[Dagger75]

If they want to switch it doesn't have to be D20. I have a whole book shelf full of stuff. Earthdawn, Cyberpunk, MERP even Star Frontiers. Hell I would be willing to go out and BUY a new system if everybody said they wanted to try 7 Seas or Dragon Star.

I am hoping for Star Wars, I have A TON of stuff for a Star Wars RPG. I have a game that has been running for close to 6 years straight. Granted it is only Myself and 1 player but still has been very fun.

CoC, again ton of ideas. This is easy for me. But this game seems to involve some work by the players.

Spycraft, its Jame Bond for crying out loud. Who doesn't like James Bond. I still got ideas from when I ran a Top Secret SI game from way back when.


But here is the real sad thing, if they say screw you, we aint switching and nobody else wants to run I could honestly say I wouldn't mind having Sat nights free again. I have no life as it is but I could find other things to do.

 

[Umbran]

Am I being unfair?

Unfair? In the sense that the game needs to be enjoyable for everyone, not at all.

However, starting discussion with an ultimatum (however it's worded) is perhaps not the most fair way to go about it.

Also, I think you just might be misidentifying the problem. You say you might be burned out on D&D, on fantasy RPGs in general. But then you mention Star Wars, which is fantasy thinly veiled as sci-fi, and the d20 version uses mechanics very similar to D&D. You mention WoT, which is certainly fantasy, and again uses the d20 mechanic.

So, maybe it's not fantasy, or D&D in general. Maybe it's just the specific form your current game takes. Maybe not, but there are lots of ways to play the game, and you might want to consider some of them.

If you feel there's a problem, you also must be open-minded about finding a solution. Gaming is a cooperative effort (which is why the ultimatum is a bit less than fair). Perhaps a better message would be, "Folks, I'm not really finding the game inspiring right now. I'm not having a whole lot of fun. I'd like you guys to work with me to either find a way to make this game more fun, or find another game we can all agree on." Only after good-faith attempts to find a solution should you mention the possibility of you stepping down as GM.

 

[WinnipegDragon]

Sounds like you've got a group of lazy players, blech. I sympathise, man, that's gotta suck.

On a more general theme, I think most players have a "need" to know the rules of a game (if, indeed, they are even interested period) so that they know exactly where they stand and what their character can do.

I think this is where I get really frustrated. I am not offering a diceless system here, it is a game defined by rules, all of which you don't need to have memorized!

I think that once the stats are explained to you, you have an idea of what you want to do and how good your chances are, that should be all that's required. A good DM should make the game seamless, and the mechanics can be 'behind the curtain' as it were. I just wish they would try it more than once. the CoC game really broke my spirit.

If we (my wife is in the group, and is happy to try and change) weren't friends with these other players, we would probably have found another group by now.

 

[Dagger75]

Another thing I noticed when writing these posts..

What do Star Wars, CoC, Wheel of Time, Spycraft all have in common, well to me anyway?

They all have easy identifiable worlds. Every gamer knows what the Star Wars universe is. CoC and Spycraft all take place on Earth. Its easy to identify with that, make adventures and the players have an easier time making believable and likeable characters. Wheel of Time also has a "richly" described world.

My D&D game, I made my own world, so it could be hard for players to identify with. The probelm, I know NOTHING about Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms hold no interest right now. Ran to many games in FR. Kalamar seems to be the only world remotly interesting to me at the moment but again I know nothing about it. I have almost every sourcebook at my house but never really read them.

Oh well, I'll see what happens soon.

 

[Mirth]

Have you guys tried the Playing the Game/Talking the Talk boards here at ENWorld? I don't have a face to face group to play with right now, so all of my gaming is done PbP (play-by-post). Since I like to collect RPGs and play a multitude of styles, PbP has everything I need. Check out my sig for all of the different types of games I'm in. I've also played in Star Wars and OA games there and I just joined a Middle Earth d20 game. I'd love to play in a Mutants & Masterminds game, so I'm just waiting for one to open up again (which I'm sure it will). Just look for OOC threads with [Recruiting] in the title and join in the fun.

Good luck,

Jay

 

[King_Stannis]

To avoid breaking up the group, maybe you guys oughta play Risk, Axis and Allies or some other beer & pretzel game for a few weeks. It might recharge the batteries without the group drifting apart. Maybe then they'll be ready to try something different RPG wise or you will be ready for D&D.

You might also tell them that for every 5 d&d sessions you run you'll want to have at least a session or two of something else. That way you can do "one-shots" of spycraft, CoC, etc. Maybe you'll change some minds by giving them limited exposure.

 

[reapersaurus]

I tell themn they don't even need to buy the books, and I'll guide them through character creation and levelling. Why does it have to be about the rules? Can't you just roleplay a character and let me worry about the mechanics?! ARGGGGG!!!!

I am currently in this situation as a player.
Our DM has forced a switch from GURPS to HERO 5th edition for his world, yet has not told us anything about the differences in the systems, and hasn't completed our character-conversions, yet asks us the same question you did.

As a DM, you have to give the players the resources they need to accomplish their end of the game - it's not just roleplaying. There are many things a character can and cannot do, and part of roleplaying is deciding in every scene what your character can do in response to what the DM is describing.

If you don't know what your character can do, and the potential of success for a proposed action, than you easily could have your PC do the wrong things.
While the desire to not have any rules may seem to the DM to be 'easier', or 'better', as a player I'm not interested in that kind of gaming at all, unless the DM is such an incredible storyteller that I don't mind sacrificing the personal gaming element.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Y'know, if they refuse to learn a different system, and most of the other things are d20, the DON'T have to learn another system.

What you might try to do is run a d20 Modern, tell them 'it's just like D&D, same thing, just different classes' but then make them spies who are trying to stop the coming of some tentacled horror.

Hell, if they still don't want to wrap their brains around it, have a stealth-based cthulhu campaign right in your homebrew.

Just because they're making you play D&D doesn't mean it has to be classic dungeon crawls and fantasy towers. I've run a campaign involving invasions of Cthonian miscreants into Forgotten Realms...certainly made the world interesting for me.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, you're asking a message board that is very DM heavy, so the answers shouldn't be surprising! I'd have done what you were, though -- I'm a sucky DM when I'm not enjoying myself. That means no one else enjoys themselves either, and we're better off closing the books and flipping on the xbox or something instead.

 

[Pbartender]

Thats how I am feeling right now. I don't think I have burnout. I think I have Fantasty RPG burnout. Right now planning and running my D&D game seems like a chore. I have ideas for Call of Cthulu, Star Wars, Spycraft and even Wheel of Time, but D&D is doing nothing for me right now. I would love to run these other games.

The problem, out of 5 players only 1 would actually play in any of these. Some don't like Star Wars, some don't care for CoC, most hate Spycraft and Wheel of Time. I would love if one of them said they will run a game, but when someone else runs what usally happens is 5 games later I'm stuck running again.

So basically I sent an E-mail to one of the players who sees the rest of the group tonight and basically said this;

Either we switch games or somebody else runs. If this doesn't happen then I quit.

Am I being unfair?

Not at all.

Our group is just finishing up a 6-month hiatus from D&D. As a group, we got a little burnt out from the RttToEE. Since then, we've been playing Spycraft, 7th Sea, even a little D20 Modern and Star Wars... but no D&D. We're all just about ready to end our little 'vacation', so now we're starting a new D&D campaign next month when the revised rules come out.

Hang in there. Take a break if you need to. You can always go back.