Your gaming experience: are expectations matching the reality?

[WayneLigon]

Moderate/Lesser.

Five or six years ago, that was High/Got what I wanted. I had two great groups, and one somewhat mediocre one. Then in the space of less than a year, three people left the state and both really good groups collapsed. One group formed from them, then it collapsed when two more people left, leaving me with the somewhat mediocre one.

I generally like what we do, but only one other player really matches my likes and dislikes to a 'T', whereas before the majority of the other gamers matched me. So, I take what I get. I'm running right now, and it's OK, but it's not what I want to be running. But it's something I know that at least everyone will accept and at least try to RP in.

After this campaign ends, I kinda dread the next one; it's not sounding at all what I like or want to see... and it's got me thinking that maybe I should quit. I've voiced concerns to the DM but I have before in previous games they've done and I got promises that were not fullfilled. I don't know, yet.

 

[Album Cover X]

I also answered high expectations and usually end up falling short...

But that would be my answer as a DM... I think most DMs (me included) tend to be hardest on themselves and their players actually enjoyed the game or they wouldn't be there after a time. I've been learning this as my players offer little to zero feedback... A no news is good news approach.

As a player (which isn't often) my answer would have been low expectations and better than expected results...

 

[EricNoah]

What are some things that bring the game "down" for you?

For me as a DM it can include...

1) Missing obvious paths the party might take. When they surprise you and you're not ready, the energy can die quickly.

2) Not having on hand an obvious piece of information or an obvious NPC.

3) Combats that sometimes get a bit bogged down (doesn't happen a lot in my games).

4) Players maybe too eager to attack and kill rather than investigate and question. Especially when you as DM have put some considerable effort into that particular avenue.

5) You just don't live up to your own ideal vision of how the game should go -- the info doesn't flow from you like you think it should, you don't have quite the grasp of the facts and need to stop and look things up frequently; your descriptions or (especially) NPC dialogue doesn't sound heroic, it sounds strange.

 

[barsoomcore]

I have high expectations. I expect my games to move fast, to provide thrills to the players, laughs and hopefully a memorable moment or two. I expect my players to provide imagination, determination and a little character to the game. I expect myself to be prepared, ready to handle the unexpected and considerate of my player's desires.

On average, I am surprised that all this comes together and a good time is had by all. Usually the problems that I see in a game are my own failures ("I could have introduced that clue a little less clumsily.") and are just things that I tick off for improvement next time.

Of course, every now and then there's a gloom in the air and the night goes poorly and everyone gets frustrated. That happens. And I'm a profoundly moody and insecure type, so often my expectations sink ("I suck. Everyone sucks. D&D sucks.") and that does no one any favours. But by and large, the games I run turn out better than I'd hoped. And I hope for a lot, I think.

 

[barsoomcore]

Game Downers:

1. Blowing an NPC's conversation. Sometimes I have something very specific I want an NPC to say or ask for or demand or whatever and when they meet the character and have a little discussion, I completely forget about it until after they've moved on. I do it ALL THE TIME.

2. When the players aren't taking charge of a situation and are waiting for me to provide some direction, and I've got no ideas coming out and everyone just kind of sits there listlessly. It's the worst feeling. "I go... talk to the innkeeper." "Um, okay. He's, um, fat. What do you want to know?" "I don't know. Does he know anything?" ...

3. Blowing a serious rule call. Usually not a big deal, but if you discover one round too late that you made a mistake and there's a life on the line, it's kind of a bummer to rewind what was a thrilling combat. Not the end of the world, but it kind of bums me out.

4. Forgetting a creature's or NPC's abilities. How many of my bad guys have gone down because I forgot to apply damage reduction? Oh, a tolerably round number, I assure you. Again, not the end of the world (more important that everyone had fun), but it can be frustrating.

You may have noticed that I have a memory like a sieve. It's embarrassing at times.

 

[der_kluge]

I answered mod/mod.

I think for our group, the chance to just escape from reality every other week and slaughter some beasties is all we really need.

For me, as a DM, I'm often disappointed because the power level of my party is quite high, and I feel like I don't do enough to challenge them (despite this, two of the players have died, and been raised in the course of the game, but both times because of failed saves).

I think in looking back at my campaign, I could have done a lot more to introduce twists and interesting story lines, and things of that nature. True to my nature, I spent most of my preparation time writing up low-level details of a dungeon. Which, while it was fun, detracted from where I really should have been spending my time - designing the overall campaign. I look back now and finally having completed the plot circle, so to speak, I see areas that I could have improved upon had I done that in the beginning.

In general, I've decided that one can never become a master DM, because there is always something to learn about this artform.

 

[der_kluge]

Game Downers:

1. Blowing an NPC's conversation. Sometimes I have something very specific I want an NPC to say or ask for or demand or whatever and when they meet the character and have a little discussion, I completely forget about it until after they've moved on. I do it ALL THE TIME.

2. When the players aren't taking charge of a situation and are waiting for me to provide some direction, and I've got no ideas coming out and everyone just kind of sits there listlessly. It's the worst feeling. "I go... talk to the innkeeper." "Um, okay. He's, um, fat. What do you want to know?" "I don't know. Does he know anything?" ...

3. Blowing a serious rule call. Usually not a big deal, but if you discover one round too late that you made a mistake and there's a life on the line, it's kind of a bummer to rewind what was a thrilling combat. Not the end of the world, but it kind of bums me out.

4. Forgetting a creature's or NPC's abilities. How many of my bad guys have gone down because I forgot to apply damage reduction? Oh, a tolerably round number, I assure you. Again, not the end of the world (more important that everyone had fun), but it can be frustrating.

You may have noticed that I have a memory like a sieve. It's embarrassing at times.

I don't think you're alone on these. My problems include:

1) not realizing a property or ability of a creature. In our game early on, the party encased a BBEG lizardman in an otiluke's resilient sphere, surrounded him, dropped the sphere, and beat him to a pulp. After he was dead, I realized that his helmet had a 2/day dimension door effect. D'oh!

2) having to stop to figure out whether a door is locked or not. Last game, the party went through cooperative Dungoeon #1, and while I changed many of the rooms, the layout was very similar, and I had to check to see if the door was locked or not, and often times it's not listed. And some of the doors have prisoners in them, so they are locked from the outside, so that kind of confused the matter.

3) resolving a bizarre situation. Some weird things have come up in our game. Like the time we spent 15 minutes looking up how much damage a shield bash does. (turns out, it's in the equipment list). Last week the nymph vampire (don't ask) had an anti-life shell up, and several people tried to dimension door near her. We debated it for a bit, but decided that it worked, but then they wouldn't be able to move. Originally, I was going to rule that they would be shunted from the anti-life shell, but opted against that. Now they are wanting to know if they can resurrect a former comrade that was turned into a vampire from the pile of dust they collected from her remains after they disentegrated her with a celestial brilliance spell. That's not in the rules anywhere.

 

[diaglo]

depends.

for OD&D i have high expectations and they are pretty much met or surpassed every time.

for the last 4 years i have very low expectations and for 6 of 8 campaigns they weren't even close to being met.

 

[Ron]

I have average expectations and bad experience. I used to run most of the games with good to excellent responses. However, about two years ago I became so tired to be the DM that I decided to take a break for a while. Since then, I was in two long (D&D and Wheel of Time) and two short (something else) campaigns. I was really bored in all cases, especially in the D&D game, although this is the possible result of being such a long campaign. I'm taking a time from gaming since January and I hope to run a game sometime in a couple of games, but I am not expecting much from it.

 

[the Jester]

for the last 4 years i have very low expectations and for 6 of 8 campaigns they weren't even close to being met.

Hopefully the single game I ran at your house didn't let you down...