Things I Have Learned Switching From Player to DM

[dreaded_beast]

1. As a player, I would always question the DM about rules. As a DM, I find it gets old after a while.

2. As a player, I would sometimes try different min/max combos. As a DM, I find it frustrating when players can breeze through monsters 2 CR above their level as a result.

3. As a player, I would sometimes try and split up from the party. As a DM, I find it difficult to keep track of different groups for an extended period.

4. As a player, I would sometimes play the silent, mysterious, and anti-social type. As a DM, I find it boring when players do not contribute to interacting with NPCs or each other.

5. As a player, I would sometimes start to dislike a recurring NPC or location, because I did not care for how they were presented. As a DM, I find it disappointing when the players dislike an NPC or area that I have grown to like.

6. As a player, I slowly became fearful of my DM snapping back if I questioned him to much. As a DM, I try to keep the lines of communication open between my players.

7. As a player, I later became fearful of presenting a new combo to my DM. As a DM, I am starting to become fearful of changing the campaign to address some of my needs, which may go against the players expectations.

These are just a few observations I have made since making the transition to the DM seat. There are some good, bad, and neutral points that appear.

However, I am not implying that one particular gaming style is superior over another, if your situation happens to resemble some of the above. These are just observations which I have noticed for myself. They are not meant to show the superiority of one play style over another.

Being a DM, I now realize there are some things I should consider when I play and vice-versa. Also, perhaps when I get more experience, I will be better equipped to handle some of the above issues.

That doesn't mean to say that I will totally change how I play the game as a "player". It means that, now that I am a DM, I can understand better some of the frustrations that arise and I can act accordingly as both a DM and player.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

1. As a player, I'd correct the DM and the players on rules. As a DM, I couldn't remember the charge bonus to attack to save my life.

2. As a player, I'd also try some min/max combos, which would rarely work. As a DM, if I don't watch it, I'll destroy my players.

3. As a player, every time the group split up, it would mean bad things. As a DM, every time the group splits up, it still means bad things.



AR

 

[shilsen]

1. As a player, I am a rules lawyer (the "handy reference who will bring up things which help/hurt the party impartially", that is). As a DM, I wish the group had more rules lawyers.

2. As a player, I always play PCs who will work within the context of the group. Even my loner types have reasons to work with the group. As a DM, I ban loner types who can't/won't have a reason to work with the group.

3. As a player, I'm a roleplaying powergamer. As a DM, I'm a roleplaying powergamer.

4. As a player, I like it if my DMs ask for feedback and are open to it. As a DM, I strive to get feedback regularly from players and meet them halfway.

5. As a player, I like a healthy dose of realism in my fantasy (think Terry Pratchett). As a DM, I like a healthy dose of realism in my fantasy.

6. As a player, I hate being railroaded. As a DM, I hate railroading and make sure that the players have a fair number of options, since it's easy for them to have the perception that they're being railroaded even when they aren't.

7. As a player, I hate the "he hits, he does X damage" approach to combat. As a DM, I try to vary combat as much as possible to prevent that happening (last campaign I tracked PC hp, which made me use descriptions, and not rely on numbers, whenever they were hit).

8. As a player, I like DMs who can deal with a weird move/decision by a PC and not have a knee-jerk reaction. As a DM, I try to not anticipate PC actions, so that nothing they do is truly unexpected.

9. As a player, even though I like overarching campaigns, I like them to have smaller segments and adventure arcs which the PCs can take up, complete or even ignore, as they choose to. As a DM, I try to provide the same to my players.

All in all, it's safe to say that I try to be the kind of DM that I'd want as a player and the kind of player I'd like to DM.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

1. As a player, I tend to get very problem- and plot-focused; the parts of the game that I concentrate my attention on are what is happening, what obstacles need to be overcome, and what details need to be kept track of. As a GM, I'm almost exclusively motivation-focused; the parts of the game I focus on are who the NPCs and PCs are, what they want, how they think, and how they act, and the details, plot, and obstacles are almost afterthoughts.

2. As a player, I tend to try to preserve NPCs, even if I have no intention of ever interacting with them again. As a GM, I ruthlessly slaughter NPCs, especially ones that are interacted with often.

3. As a player, I laser in on the parts of the ruleset that I want to know, get to know them VERY well, and ignore the rest. For example, I deliberately avoided figuring out the magic system in D&D for months, right up until the day I played a spellcaster. As a GM, I skim to get an overview of all the rules, and putting in NPCs who will be using something I'm not so familiar with means that I have to prepare a "cheat sheet" for them, where in addition to the usual NPC info I've scribbled down abbreviated versions of the applicable rules along with page references just in case. And even then, I still tend to push a lot of the looking-up-rules part onto the players.

4. As a player, I constantly feel the need to stand up, pace, lie down, and do anything other than sit in one place during the game. As a GM, I never move more than two feet away from my notes, and the most I can do is change the way I perch awkwardly on whatever furniture/pillow I'm using. (I just suck at sitting in chairs like a normal person.)

5. As a player, I groan inwardly when I recognize a movie, TV, book, or musical reference that a GM has cribbed for use in a game. As a GM, I start to assess everything I watch, read, or hear in terms of how easily I could file the names off of it and put it into a game.

6. As a player, I often feel like a plot is really complicated and am surprised when it turns out in the end to have been pretty simple. As a GM, I make really simple storylines and am surprised when it turns out in the end that the players have felt like it was really complicated.

7. As a player, I'm no good at running a genuinely evil character. As a GM...I'm no good at running genuinely evil characters. Though I'm told that my dangerously insane NPCs and selfish, borderline sociopathic NPCs are top-notch.

8. As a player, I lose interest in "epic" storylines quickly, but make an effort to make the best of them. As a GM, I don't even consider running "epic" storylines.

9. As a player, I often get really bossy and demanding with NPCs, and am frustrated when my character cannot simply browbeat them into doing what I want. As a GM, I am very fond of running NPCs who either cannot browbeat anyone into doing what they want, or NPCs who snap like dry twigs when PCs start applying a little pressure, or both.

10. As a player, in most games I like writing up additional material for the game (bluebooked conversations with NPCs or PCs, background stories, in-character documents, etc.). As a GM, I can barely get around to updating my game notes in advance, and almost never feel motivated enough to prepare in-character documents to pass out to players.

11. As a player, I sometimes feel the need to look at a map. As a GM, I often resent it when someone asks to look at a map.

12. As a player, I keep my dice close at hand, and think about what kinds of things I might be doing and what sort of roll that might require. As a GM, I sometimes forget that there ARE dice until the moment when they're needed, and hardly ever think about what rolls might be needed next.

--
so i'm about as messed-up on average as anyone else, i guess
ryan

 

[cybertalus]

1. As a player I kind of like dungeons. As a DM they bore me silly.

2. As a player I tend to blend my style to the style of the group. As a DM I have a hard time adapting out of my preferred style.

3. As a player combat is fun. As a DM, combat is a chore.

4. As a player I *hate* equipping characters. As a DM I *hate* equipping NPCs, but at least I have those nifty charts in the DMG to work from.

5. As a player I like to write an extensive background for my character that grounds him in the world, but hate it when the DM never incorporates any of it into the game. As a DM I wish more players would provide me with extensive backgrounds that I could make use of in the game.

6. As a player I have a knack for remembering the rules, which book they're in, and what they're listed under in the index. As a DM I have an amazing ability to forget even the simplest of rules.

7. As a player I love it when I get to use some class ability or magic item feature for the first time. As a DM I hate it when players use some class ability or magic item feature that I'm not familiar with. Also as a DM, I dread using a monster's special ability for the first time.

8. As a player I'm bad to make comments during the game that lead to conversations totally unrelated to the game. As a DM, I'm even worse.

9. As a player I'm in the middle of the scale of laziness. As a DM, I'm so lazy the scale needs to be extended to chart how lazy I actually am.

10. As a player I'm sometimes shy about role-playing my character. As a DM, I am a total ham and seldom miss a chance to role-play an NPC.

11. As a player I usually remain seated, only occasionally getting up to stretch. As a DM, I've gotta stand up.

12. As a player I prefer to only use the core rules because it means that all the rules that apply to my character are contained within three books. As a DM I prefer to only use the core rules because it means that I only have three books worth of rules to misremember.

13. As a player I don't appreciate the DM as much as I should. As a DM, I eat up every scrap of appreciation I get from the players.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

3. As a player combat is fun. As a DM, combat is a chore.

I so agree with this one.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

6. As a player I have a knack for remembering the rules, which book they're in, and what they're listed under in the index. As a DM I have an amazing ability to forget even the simplest of rules.

I can totally relate to this one. Unfortunately I play maybe 3 times and year and DM the rest of it.

 

[Halivar]

1. As a player, I love big, elaborate stories that my character gets forced into. As a DM, the players hate my big, elaborate stories that their characters get forced into.

2. As a player, I like to utilize every tool at my disposal to keep my character immune to the DM's machinations. As a DM, I like to utilize every tool at my disposal to keep my story immune to the players' machinations.

3. As a player, I'm always looking for an opportunity to get the DM's pet NPC's killed. As a DM, I'm always looking for an opportunity to get my own pet NPC's killed (I love tragic stories!).

 

[Ottergame]

1. That's your job.

2. It's your job to take that into account and scale challenges accordingly.

3. That's your job.

4. It's the player's job to make an interesting character concept, but you can help.

5. It's your job to make locales interesting, and avoid stale NPCs.

6. That's exactly what a good GM -should- do, listen to players and accept the fact you might make a bad rule calling.

7. Don't worry about it.