"Lazy" GMs and "overworked" players

[EricNoah]

Players should have the references necessary to play their character -- PHB and any relevant add-on material. They should know how their special abilities work, they should be prepared to look up and explain or elaborate if I need more information on how a spell works. They should know the rules, and if they ask to do something but don't know how it works rules-wise, then they leave it to my mercy to follow the rules and apply them.

My group is great this way-- very responsible, willing to accept the consequences of a poorly thought-out plan or a rule/spell that they really didn't understand well but chose to use anyway, etc. It's all a learning experience, even now this far into 3E.

 

[The Sigil]

IMC it's fairly simple...

Players are allowed to bring the PH to the gaming table and nothing else. If they want splatbook stuff, they have to okay it with me first and give me a photocopy of the relevant section of the book if I don't have it (I consider this fair use - but it's never come up as I have more books than all my players put together).

Players are aware that when they are "newbies", they have one adventure (about 1 month real time) in which I will pull punches, show them the ropes, and help them adjust. After that, the kid gloves come off and while I'm not out to kill them, I'm not going to make things easier than they should be. That gives them time to read the PH, should they so desire.

I have loaner copies of the PH (I bought 3 when they were about $12-14 each at Amazon.com or buy.com or bn.com or something) that players may borrow. For most of my younger players, this is more than sufficient - and since they don't have a lot of disposable income, it's convenient for them. The older players usually bring their own PHs so they don't have to share, and many of them have fair libraries at home (though none of them are close to my library, fed by near-addiction ).

As far as snacks go, my wife and I created a "D&D Box" - all the stuff that we accumulate throughout the week that we don't finish or don't like goes in the box. Usually you find cereal bars or funny-flavored popcorn, or half a bag of chips, or something similar in the box. Players may eat stuff out of the box or bring their own. I bring my own.

As far as adventures go, I make it clear that once they start an adventure, they are more or less expected to finish it - but at the end of each adventure, I have three to five more hooks for them, so I let them choose their own subsequent adventures (it's very open-ended). Their responsibility is to focus on the task at hand, my responsibility is to prepare more tasks. I vary things quite a bit - I would say I'm about two parts combat to one part diplomacy to one part puzzles to one part detective work to one part "bookkeeping" - about very 6-8 weeks we have one session devoted to "bookkeeping" where we give the characters some "off-stage" time and where the players just hang out and watch movies or play video games or skip altogether. I've found that helps us become friendlier "in-game" as we explore more common interests than just gaming. As they say, "game with people you would otherwise hang out with."

--The Sigil

 

[Rel]

I've got a great group of players and we switch off the GMing duties every 3-9 months on average. Each GM has his own style and some spend more time preparing for the game than others, which we all respect.

This issue about buying the relevant books begs an interesting question: Does your style of campaign impact the player's willingness to invest in materials specific to a particular character?

What I'm getting at is if you have a "deep immersion storytelling" type game where characters rarely die and a player can generally expect to play a character for several months if not a year or more, it seems well worth it to invest in a splatbook or suppliment pertaining to his specialty (like buying Masters of the Wild if you are playing a Druid).

But if you play in a more "kick in the door" style game (say, maybe a RttToEE game) where character deaths are not uncommon and creating new characters happens fairly frequently, the "dollars per session" average that you get from a given suppliment may not come out so well.

Whaddya think?

 

[dren]

I'm the DM and I buy the books that most interest me, which is almost exclusively monster books. I don't use the splatbooks for NPCs, I have no desire to use Epic rules, have no use for other Cosmologies so no Planar Manual, and use my own gods so no Dieities either. While I have FRCS & OA, I use a homebrew rules so these are of limited use to me.

If players want a spell, feat, PrC that is not in the Core Rulebooks - I want a copy and I rule way in advance if they can use it. Except for the married couple, each player has at least a copy of the PH, most have various splatbooks in official WoTC or other publishers. They can also print things from the net or make up their own stuff. I am exceedingly generous and have never turned down a request yet.

I give players absolute freedom. Their choices overwhelm them, and they are free to change their minds in the middle of an adventure at virtually any point. Some players constantly want to change missions, others want to fix one thing then move on. The middle of the road players usually have the sway. But I have around 20 -30 pre generated dungeons, plus a few doven free ones found on the net...I am ready to change pace/focus any time they want to.

I know 3e very well, but some rules are simply my own version, or a previous rules version of the spell. Players know which version I use, and I tell them when there is a variation in the official rules. If there is going to be a chance for failure I let them know. If they want to change their mind and go back to the begining of their action, I allow it. They may disagree with something, and I give them a chance to speak their mind, and I will change it 10-20% of the time. I also allow players when they roll for a skill to check through their skill list to see if they have impromptu synergy skill bonuses to apply to any of the rules/rolling....they scrounge for any potential bonus they get.

Adventures are hard but fair. Wandering monsters are killer however, in the same geographical areas I use the same WM check table regardless of party level. But in the current group I have, nobody has even winced at death. The monsters killed them or their bad rolling or bad choices did them in, not me. I'm the refereee. I'm there to have fun just as much as them...and I don't care about the PCs one whiff, I care about the players, because they are my friends.

I work hard at my games, and my players appreciate it. I tell them when they did good, and I also suggest things, after the fact, when they made a bad choice. (No move is ever a dumb move, remember that, and never criticize!!! This goes to both players and DMs!) Each time one of the players play a game with someone else, they come back and tell me how much they missed my Dming....it feels great. And I have a lot of fun.

dren

 

[tburdett]

Everyone on our group has their own PHB and whatever WotC splat book that they need to play their character.

Whenever I see a used DMG for sale I pick it up and give it to one of the players as a gift. Eventually everybody will have one and I can start passing the DM'ing duties around.

 

[Frostmarrow]

We are a group of eight people of which six can be expected to be in the same campaign. All members of the group owns at a very minimum all hardbound (including D&Dg and MotP) and all splat books (excluding ABHB).

In addition to these most members own at least one campaign setting and several adventures.

Two of the guys own a gaming store and they bring piles of books to the gaming sessions and we can nothing but pay up.