Whats a player to do?

[|)ar|{]

The group I play in has been together since 3rd ed came out and with a few exception we have had only one DM. He is an amazing DM and always creates a fun immersive experience for all the players and up until the last couple years we have had few complaints. Over the years his game style has begun to move in a direction that is leaving most of our players cold. Adventures have become more and more epic with less combat and standard settings and modules have been replaced with nothing but home grown stuff. Don't get me wrong I enjoy a save the world game as much as the next guy but not every game. And while his worlds gods and history are interesting I'd kill to play an eberron game or two. My question is how do I bring up the issue without offending him? I mean we don't have anyone else who really wants to DM so we kinda feel like we have to put up with whatever he wants to do.

Please help me guys. I only play two nights a month and if I don't get to start rolling some dice soon I may not make it.

 

[Crothian]

Be up front and honest with him. Tell him what you just posted that you think he does a great job but the game seems to be moving away from what the group perfers.

 

[|)ar|{]

Ya just tell your girlfriend that you don't love her anymore and you just want to be friends.... if only it were that easy.

 

[Crothian]

Ya just tell your girlfriend that you don't love her anymore and you just want to be friends.... if only it were that easy.

Unless the game is your girlfriend or the DM is your girlfrined then it actually is. Or are you all so emotionaly attached to this game that you can't handle change? It is after all just a game and if you are friends and mature adults you should be able to tell him the truth and deal with it. You aren't asking him to not DM. You aren't kicking him out of the group. All you are doing is asking him to modify how he DMs some and to perhaps run an Eberron game. If you are not willing to be honest with him about it, then whatever you do will fail.

 

[PwrMnky]

my 2 scents

It sounds like your endentured to the fear of not having a DM.

Because it sounds like to me that HE (the DM) is trying to challenge himself as a DM. He has every right to enjoy himself as the players. Sure, the players may all want something else ... but he sounds like he's trying new things.

I would actually encourage to have someone else in the group DM.

It's kind of like like working for local government:
> everyone sees a better way of doing it, but nobody wants to step up and do it.


Yup.

 

[|)ar|{]

Did I mention he is a stubbern man. I figure there is a good 50% chance that he will take it badly. With no other DM's around to take up the slack it could very well mean no gaming for a long while. I know I need to tell him but if I'm blunt about it I may end up with no gaming which would be much worse.

I was more wondering if anyone had ever had to deal with a similar situation and how they dealt with it. Is it common for long time DM's to become so self indulgent?

 

[DonTadow]

If he's as good as you say he is, then he'll accept that critism and tweak his game to include some more action in it. I've gotten lots of responses from players over hte years that have caused me to change the direction i was going or reexamine a plot line.

 

[Pbartender]

I mean we don't have anyone else who really wants to DM so we kinda feel like we have to put up with whatever he wants to do.

I think that's the root of your problem.

I DM a lot. While I'm completely willing to adjust my games a bit to ensure the players are having fun, I simply will not DM a game that I won't enjoy DMing... If I'm not having fun DMing, I won't feel the need to put as much effort into it, and the game as a whole suffer and the players stop having fun as well. I used to be all running exactly the games that my players wanted, and I was miserable.

Finally I gave up catering to their whims, and simply offered to run games that I knew I would enjoy. If they wanted to play it great, play it and stop bitching. If they wanted to play something else, that fine too... They could put it together themselves and run the game.

On the other hand, I also won't force my players to play a game they don't enjoy. If no one's having fun in one of my games, I have no problems with someone speaking up... Either I can come up with another idea that everyone enjoys, or someone else can run the game they want.

 

[Treebore]

Does the rest of the group feel the way you do? If so approach him as a group.

If you approach him as a group, and tell him that you like his DMing and all, but want to try out some other settings, he should be good with it. As long as your not expecting him to buy all the books if he hasn't already.

Or you can buy the books, bring them to the game, and read it during breaks, or whenever else you would offend anyone, and try and get him to check it out. Then he can decide to use it.

I have run into DM's who thought their homebrew was "awesome", or at least "way better than that published stuff", and they were wrong. I was just lucky enough to live in a community where I had other DM's to chose from. So I had the "leave" option.

In your case you are going to have to talk, and take the risks. Just be as diplomatic as you can, and the more of your group that backs you up the more likely he is to listen.

If he is so hung up on himself that he can't deal with the fact you guys want to try something else, well, either one of you is going to have to step up and try DMing, or your going to have to go without gaming, or give him time to "grow up" about it.

I am a good DM, but I know I am not great, so whenever my players wanted me to try something else, let them DM for a while, whatever, I was willing to do it. Even when they said they wanted a complete break and wanted to try something like Shadowrun, I was more than happy to do it. Especially since I really liked how Doug runs Shadowrun.

Besides, they were right. The break did all of us a lot of good. When I went back to DMing I had new energy and fresh ideas, and we had noticeably greater fun.

So give the talk a try. Hopefully it will go a lot better than you think. Who knows, maybe he wants to change things but can't read you guys well enough to see you feel the same.

 

[IcyCool]

Did I mention he is a stubbern man. I figure there is a good 50% chance that he will take it badly. With no other DM's around to take up the slack it could very well mean no gaming for a long while. I know I need to tell him but if I'm blunt about it I may end up with no gaming which would be much worse.

I was more wondering if anyone had ever had to deal with a similar situation and how they dealt with it. Is it common for long time DM's to become so self indulgent?

Someone here posted a little witicism. No gaming is better than bad gaming. And if this isn't bad gaming, then what the heck are you complaining about? Here's your plan of attack:

1. Talk to your GM away from the game and mention that you and a bunch of the players would like to play in a different type of game. If you aren't currently having fun in his game, then mention that. If you are, mention that you'd like to play an Eberron game after this one. If he doesn't want to run it, then someone else should.

Oh, and by the way, someone in your scenario is being self indulgent, and it isn't the GM.