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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bleys Icefalcon" data-source="post: 5592595" data-attributes="member: 6670542">I can feel the pain of the op.  I, too, have been called the DM of Legend.  People would flock, from near or far to be in one of my games.  Like you, I have DMed for various groups, that have come and gone, over the course of the last (gasp) 35 years or so.  And like you it seems I peaked early.  And like you, it looks like I've lost some of my touch. How I lost that touch is somewhat opposite, though - back in the day I would take the time to seriously prep for my campaigns.  WIth tons of painstaking detail.  Of course we are talking pre-internet, pre-high definition television, pre-two teenage children and all of their needs and hobbies and extra-cirricular activities.  The last few years I am lucky if I have 5 minutes to prep with everything else that's going on.  Now I run most games by the seat of my pants, and while I am good at the impromptu, and being omprovizational overall, my players can see when I am doing it - and while generally we have fun, it does take away from the game when I am at a loss for an NPC name and croak out Hank the Sorcerer.  We only game 1 day every two weeks, and it tends to run from around 2 PM until ??? - towards the end, I admit, I get exhausted from winging it all day, and I start making mistakes and forgetting key things.  It's actually hurting my game and taking away from the enjoyment of the game by my players. I "liked" being the DM of Legend... that is until Bill, who played Daphon the Dragonrider from back in the day came our way from the other end of the country to spend a week in our neck of the woods, and - as luck would have it - we had a game that weekend.  After the game which involved much laughter, the slaughter of the Fell Knight Ironlung, and the transformation of the Halfling Rogue Rickkets into a Ferret, we all shook hands, slapped backs and went our way - except for Bill who played Daphon the Dragonrider from back in the day. Bill '"Uhh, what was that?" Me "What was what?" Bill "Dude, you dragged us around all damn night with invisible chains hooked up to our noserings!" Me "Wha?" Bill "I don't know what happenned to you dude, but that was a <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> game - you made every damn decision for us, and pretty much forced our hand in going only one way when we could make a choice" Me "Oh... yeah, I guess I sort of did try to drive the story along" Bill "Sort of? You shoved it down our throats.  What I loved about your games was you would present us with a scenario, and you'd leave it up to use what we did.  Tonight seemed like a crappy TSR module." Me "Hey come on, you gotta admit, Rickkets getting runed into a Sentient Ferret was pretty cool." Bill "You've lost your way.  When you remember how to DM, invite me again - until then, I'll pass" Lengendary Status: Revoked And Bill, who played Daphon the Dragonrider from back in the day flew back to San Diego. And like the op - I am not 100% sure I am committed to rectify my mistakes.  Perhaps it's time to let someone else take the reigns in our campaign, perhaps it's time to step away and find something else to do with my time.  I don't know.</blockquote>

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