Is it a GM Thing?

[Renton]

So. We're all familiar with the idea that playing styles differ, and in the end it's up to the GM to accomodate the preferred play style of the players. Ferinstance, people I have played with prefer a simpler dungeon crawl / kill 'em and take their stuff kind of game. Which is fine, and once I realised that my big stories were for naught, I saved a lot of time on creating adventures

For the record, my ideal style (whatever the genre) would be to base adventures around a tv season. Individual adventures take one or two sessions and are built around a tv episode type of format. We've all seen Buffy right? Adventures with a larger scope could be based around a feature film structure. The campaign as a whole is one year's season, so to speak.

Such a game requires a certain amount of cooperation from the players, I think. They have to sort of realize the structure the group is aiming for, and run with it. Which is not to say they need to be railroaded, but to pull it off well requires a sort of meta-awareness, and their own desire to play out a tv season.

What I am pondering is whether this desire/tension is a GM thing? The players I've known who are most likely to "play along" have GMed a lot themselves. Is it because GMing attracts a certain type of person? Are we all in some sense frustrated writer/directors? Or is it just me, and my players just by luck of the draw prefer a hack and slash game?

 

[SweeneyTodd]

Gah. Apologies if I'm reading this wrong, but the way you describe this is all too familiar.

You're saying "realize the structure", "meta-awareness", "play along". Please, please tell me you're not just trying to make this kind of play magically happen without talking about it. If that's the case, it's no wonder only the GMs "get it" -- they've had lots of practice picking up on subtle cues.

I say, heck with subtle cues. Just tell people how you like to play, and what you enjoy -- and ask them the same questions. You can get the kind of play you're looking for even with people who've never played RPGs before -- you just have to discuss it during and between sessions.

I don't think there's anything wrong with telling the other players, "Hey, let's do this like Buffy." They might be interested, they might not, but they can answer that question a lot better than we can.

 

[Renton]

I take your point, but I think what I'm looking at is the difference between a group Saying "sure we'll give that style a go", and players inclined to want to play that way.

I could no doubt get my group to go along with my plan, but based on past experience, the play would devolve into the same old hack and slash. The meta knowledge I'm talking about is not something the players should magically intuit after I plonk them down in an inn, but a willingness to work cooperatively to push the game in a certain direction.

I think the question I'm trying to answer is whether there is a "GM type" that is predisposed to play a certain way. More of a hypothetical question. Do we as GM's desire a certain style because we spend longer with our head in books envisioning a world? Quite a few gms express a desire to write, and,I think, sublimate those urges through their world building. I mean, other than desparation for a game, there is little "incentive" to GM a game rather than play; Its a lot of extra work, and in some ways you're deprived of some of the fun. The bang comes from your creation taking flight, something I'm sure GMing shares with writing.

Hopefully I made myself a bit clearer. On the other hand, maybe i'm just light headed from want of my lunch.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

While individual players might be inclined to play that way, the problem comes in dealing with the group. Suppose someone doesn't get it? It's pretty easy for one person who is out of tune to de-synch things.

And ultimately, I think it's simply easier to 'get' this sort of thing after GMing because you've seen the other side of the screen. You can look at things and say "I know what I'd put that there for" and use it appropriately. You might not even realize it conciously. But having been on the other side of the screen exposes a person to a whole new set of patterns and ideas.

By the way, I recomend at least menitoning the TV style thing. Even if it ends in hack and slash, if you can point to a TV format, it helps. For example, Teen Titans usually goes: Talk a little, fight but don't capture the evil guy, talk a little more, action sequence (sometimes a fight), a short round of banter, then the final fight. I've been explicit that my up-coming game is based off of the show. So not only do they know that it'll run along those lines (even if they don't realize it), but also that the tone and feel of the game will have the same humorous but action packed feel.

I'm not so sure that GM's necessarrally have a "style" but that could just be that I'm a GM (for love of creating worlds and game mechanics) and I've gone through a whole range of game styles and am still looking for ways to branch out.

Someone here once wrote about enjoying the game from a standpoint of the characters on the table, enjoying the game from a standpoint of a player manipulating a character, and enjoying the game as an overall whole that's larger than the people involved. That's an idea that's stuck with me, and that I try to present to all the people I play with.

 

[Renton]

Perhaps people are not getting me. This is a purely hypothetical question. My mentioning of my game group was merely an example. This was supposed to be more of a "what makes gms tick" thread, than a "help me coerce my players" thread.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Perhaps people are not getting me. This is a purely hypothetical question. My mentioning of my game group was merely an example. This was supposed to be more of a "what makes gms tick" thread, than a "help me coerce my players" thread.

It's hidden but:

...I'm a GM (for love of creating worlds and game mechanics)...

That's not all of it though. Part of it is that I love sharing ideas and concepts. Also, I like to see how people react to things. There's an element of play that's simply an amazing thing to be a part of. And I like to help bring that about.

I'm mostly a DM, though I'm also a player, and I love the game. I love games in general though.

 

[Crothian]

This was supposed to be more of a "what makes gms tick" thread,

My players having fun and showing interest in what I am doing. I don't care what I am running, if my players are really having fun and asking intelligent plot related questions and thinking of cool things for their character to do and progress; then I'm a happy DM. I feed off of that and my preperations for the game is easier and faster and I run a better game. And then that reinforces the players and it just builds off of each other.