Why all players but no DMs?

[catsclaw227]

Very few players will really take the time to reverse engineer a BBEG to decide if it is legal or not. As long as it played well, have fun.

QFT -- none of my players have ever complained. Yes, the magic item configuration would need to be guessed at, but if the players "sneaked up" on the NPC then who's to say that he had all his stuff with him anyway? then its simply a matter of getting 4-5 magic items together.

 

[Hussar]

18th level mage's magic items? A set of bracers, two rings, a cloak, pair of boots, a periapt, two wands, a staff and a dagger. What do they do? Oh, does the party want to identify them right here? No? Good, you have time to decide how to allocate the items.



ACs are scaled off of players. I tend towards mages having fairly high ACs due to paranoia, so 23 touch, 31 regular (35 with shield), 18 flat-footed. I can go back and adjust the ratio of magic items/stats/spells retroactively if need be. High level BBEGs are likely to burn XP in stat wishes, which gives me more flexibility in their loot.Very few mages IMCs use permancy, especially as BBEG. Too many dispel magics to waste it.



Sure. Party finds books. Books are warded (possibly just Nystul's aura) and it will take a some time to read through them all and compile a list. I'll get that to the party via email after the game, mmmkay?



I agree that high level casters should not be "spur of the moment encounters" but I have players that will occassionally take a flying leap of logic and decide to do something insane. This means that the "Wizard of Wha", who had been a rumor that I expected to flesh out over the next month, is now starring in the day's session. If they players take a significant tangent, DMs should be prepared to wing it now to make a good game session and then figure out the hows & why-fors afterwards.

Very few players will really take the time to reverse engineer a BBEG to decide if it is legal or not. As long as it played well, have fun.

And if you really didn't like the way the quickly cobbled-together-BBEG folded, have the body dissolve into a puddle of water, ala simulacrum. Poof, you've just indicated he is at least 25% more powerful and the party won't have the same element of surprise next time.

WUT he said.

BTW, that 18th level wizzie doesn't HAVE to have all that value in actual coin. Didn't he have a house? Any traps in the house? Heck, spellbooks worth lots too. 18th level wizzie is worth a CR 18 treasure. Done.

IMO thats a deal breaker. If a book, game or movie changes genre halfway through, I find a new one

Meh, I'm not even sure if its true anyway. The difference between "heroic fantasy" and "comic book heroes" isn't all that far. At low levels, the party goes out, kills stuff and takes their loot. At high levels, the party goes out to a flying castle, kills stuff that can level small cities and takes their loot. About the only difference is scale.

 

[Akrasia]

I suppose that I’m 2:8 in favour of GM’ing on the Piratecate scale.

... D&D 3.5 is the hardest for me to prep for at higher levels because of the crunch level involved ...

Having run two 3e campaigns, I have to agree with this. It’s probably the main reason why I’m very reluctant to GM 3e ever again, and vastly prefer GMing other systems (C&C, WFRP, True20, etc.).

... I did stop running D&D because of the amount of time it was taking to set up to a degree I was comfortable with. (That's even after abandoning things like calculating XP's.) Fortunately, I have a whole raft of other games that are, for me at least, a lot easier to just pick up and run with.

Yeah, there are plenty of other great games out there. Finding willing players, though, can be tricky …

 

[wedgeski]

I'm off the Piratecat scale. I prefer DM'ing by a huge margin, but do take a break to play a one-shot every now and then.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I enjoy both playing and DMing. As a long time player, but relatively inexperienced DM, I think I enjoy the challenge of DMing a little more; I feel like I can improve more noticably which is very rewarding. More recently I haven't had the time I want to prepare for DMing. As a result, I have been avoiding DMing, which has made me itch to do it more.

Maybe in a couple more years when I'm done with working on my Masters part-time I'll be able to devote the time I want to it again.

 

[Kryndal Levik]

I DM about 99% of the time- I prefer it that way, and really enjoy it. Going to be "just a player" at GenCon this year, though.

 

[jmucchiello]

I think I'm around 7/3 on the Piratecat scale. My problem is I don't the time to prepare 52 weeks worth of weekly gaming material. Neither do my fellow DMs so we take turns. I only run 13 weeks of the year and while that is lower than my prefered scale, at the weeks I am running I feel like I'm giving my best effort.

 

[Aaron L]

I LOVE craeting background material, setting details, just creating a gameworld.


But I am bloody awful trying to come up with aventures. And I get so nervous about DMing on the nights leading up to the game sometimes I vomit the night before. And when the game actually comes up, I forget every single rule in the books.

Im a bad DM, otherwise I enjoy it a little. I try every so often, I guess I forget how bad I am at it and how miseerable I get, and it usually only lasts maybe 3 sessions.

I did manage an actual compaign once that lasted a year or so. The players all seemed to have lots of fun, and they were always eager to play again. Thats the only reason I consider myself a DM even slightly.

 

[Asmor]

I LOVE craeting background material, setting details, just creating a gameworld.


But I am bloody awful trying to come up with aventures. And I get so nervous about DMing on the nights leading up to the game sometimes I vomit the night before. And when the game actually comes up, I forget every single rule in the books.

Im a bad DM, otherwise I enjoy it a little. I try every so often, I guess I forget how bad I am at it and how miseerable I get, and it usually only lasts maybe 3 sessions.

I did manage an actual compaign once that lasted a year or so. The players all seemed to have lots of fun, and they were always eager to play again. Thats the only reason I consider myself a DM even slightly.

You're too hard on yourself. That's a good sign. In fact, I'd say (and this is in general, not just with DMing) that you're probably a lot worse when you have no doubts and "know" you're doing awesome.

Don't be too hard on yourself, man. Everyone feels that way. Just loosen up and enjoy the game. Remember, it's just a game, and the whole point is not to simulate an entire world down to every little detail with incredible realism, but rather to have fun. The most important thing is to ensure everyone, yourself included, is having fun.

 

[bytor4232]

I've definatly seen this trend. Its wierd, because growing up all of us were Machiavellians in my gaming group, so getting the DM seat was a rare occaision. I actually enjoy the lack of DMs out there

If anything, I think prep time for 3.5e is a lot easier with the amount of material out there. I really don't understand DM burnout, been doing this for pert near 20 years, and love every game session. Sometimes I get busy, being an adult with responsibilities, but its still the toughest job I'll ever love.