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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Balok the Strange" data-source="post: 2796784" data-attributes="member: 33073">I've been doing this silly game now for over 20 years, being behind the screen for most of that time. For many years, I had the joy of a fairly stable and consistent group of players who were all willing to run the RP like nobody's business. About 7 or so years ago, the group began to disperse and eventually it finally fell apart as most of them moved to different areas of the state.If been through three different groups since then, and each and every one of them is vastly different in game play. I even managed to get back together with a good portion of the original group for about a year in a traveling game that met every 6-8 weeks in one city or the other for a weekend of play.It's been rough, lemme tell you.The three new groups (two of which I ran games for) were all vastly different from what I had been used to. The first was full of newbies who were either stuck with anime and video game influences, or were completely unaware of how the rules actually worked. I seeded it with one of my old players who was still in town, but it was tough.Roleplay from some of the players was non-existent, and one of them we had to wake up to roll his dice ("Hey! WAke up and roll initiative!"). The campaign reached its conclusion, but it was rushed as the one long-time friend was moving away and I needed him for the finale.The second group was part of my Warhammer 40,000 club, and I ran some and played some for them. Problem was that the other guy doing the running is famous for never really completing anything, and after a few sessions over the span of about 8 months, that "Wierd Wars" game came to a grinding halt.The third group was run by another friend, and it was a Vampire game. It was my first experience with the World of Darkness, and the GM set me up as a Hunter, a little spoiler for the rest of the party. I had a blast, but I was only one of two people actually doing anything worthwhile (the other was Deb (Cathix)), and the way things went, my character's goal was to kill all of the other characters. The GM was good at storytelling, but we were sort of railroaded as his plot continued on with very little input from us. I ended up derailing the campaign (with his blessing) by killing the rest of the party by blowing up their hideout at noon. That was the end of that one.My current group is fairly good. I've got some experienced people who are willing to roleplay even the most mundane of things if it will advance their character's growth as well as serve the plot in some way. I'm very happy with them. At the moment, we are taking a hiatus from my game to playtest a setting designed by one of the other players. It's been the first time I've been able to role-play for an extended period of time, and I have found it most enjoyable.The old group I had gotton back with was a slight dissappointment. It seems that their play is all rote. They all do the same things, their characters are only recreatons of themselves with different faces, they get done with a fight and they say to the GM "Well, we're on auto-loot" as they routinely search the bodies and take absolutely anything of remote value (including arms and armor!). I could never get into the world in which they play (a homebrew) and I really could not get a grip on my character or his motivations. I eventually had to give up on that game.I've had a fairly mixed bag, and these are really just the highlights. I can't say that I have any good advice to give you except that it might be time to find greener pastures. When the game someone else is running doesn't work for you, it might be best to try elsewhere. If your own game isn't working as planned, you can always change it a bit to suite your audience. After every session of my games I have a "Torches and Pitchforks" session to find out if there was anything the players really liked or really hated. In this way I can finetune the game for that particular group of players. If I have people who like puzzles, I can provide them with ones to solve while the stick-jocks are off killing helpless non-human populations and stealing their goods and cash, as is their wont.You can always change the way that you play or that you run the game; you will rarely succeed at changing the way others play.</blockquote>

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