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This is what used to happen to me. I'd always be friggin' game master, always always always.....and then I'd say to hell with this; somebody else gamemaster; I'm tired of this mess. All you little whiners with your "you're an ogre; you railroad us--I wanna be a ninja humanoid dinosaur--waaa! waa! waaaa!"
So then somebody'd step up to bat, then I'd play once or twice, and I'd start missing it. Missing the power, the surge, the utter omnipotency that I could destroy the entire campaign world with but a whimsical brush of my hands, or...create the most elegant elvin paradise from out of my brain. I'd miss it, and I'd have to resume the royal deific robes again! Again the crown and the throne! Again the supernal act of creation! Mwahahahaha!
That ever happen to anybody else, or is it just (in my case) more evidence?
I know exactly how this feels. For the last two years I have been the only gamemaster. Just recently, we started letting one of the other players run. Ha ha ha ha. The player outcry for me to take up the god-stick has been tremendous. And on my part, I miss the chair. The solution to my problem. I run about 2 or 3 weeks and let the other GM run a week or 2 and then back to me.
Hehehehe. It must be a very contagious one, because I have it also.
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I experience this in a way. I have two groups that I hang with, one is just my brother and I, the other the first group plus two friends. I currently DM for both of them, but really like the freedom to be a player. Being the DM is fun, but sometimes I really miss the experience of not knowing what's behind the door. My solution is to use a DMPC. (Oh my God! He's insane! What did he say? Is he nuts?!) My group agreed to it, seeing as we only had four people anyway, and were presently surprised when I actually managed to use the DMPC as something other than a god-like munchkin. Probably the years of experience running two person games with my brother (we don't really go for solo games).
This week's command word is Broccoli.
yeah, happens to me; we all play in someone elses game till we all sit around at a restraunt sometime and someone says this game sucks and that i aught to run my game; sigh. i play even in sucky games with cheating gms with no plot line very little interaction and just watch his uber npc's do everything just to get a chance to play cause nobody else will step up and run a decent game; but soon as I get sick of it or complain everyone gets out dice and paper and says when you running a game; what level; can i play a so and so; seems my lot in life hehe I feel like a service industry.
Some people are players, and some are Dungeon Masters. It's just in the blood. All the control and power that Heathy mentioned... to see the frustration on the faces of the players when they fight the BBEG, the thrill and excitement when they beat him or take his treasure or complete a major story arc... and to know that you made that happen. To know that the world will work the way you want it to. Unless you can play under a person you trust to handle the game in a manner you like, being a player can be very uncomfortable for a person born with DM genes.
Some people are players, and some are Dungeon Masters. It's just in the blood. All the control and power that Heathy mentioned... to see the frustration on the faces of the players when they fight the BBEG, the thrill and excitement when they beat him or take his treasure or complete a major story arc... and to know that you made that happen. To know that the world will work the way you want it to. Unless you can play under a person you trust to handle the game in a manner you like, being a player can be very uncomfortable for a person born with DM genes.
That was perfectly put Saern, and I believe that people are just fit for what they are fit for, darn DM Genes! I am more a player, but my friends like and respect my DM games, still i'm not the one on the throne all of the time. I would rather be one to find out what is behind a door then know what is behind it, but the look on my friends faces are priceless when they find that hydra that the crazy prophet had warned of, or that vampire that they had beaten in battle, but had never found his crypt are behind the door...Priceless... The Player blood be in me, but the DM blood is bubbling to the surface, I wonder if you can evolve to both?
Sit Smashes Alot...smashing your problem to bits!
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Right with you Heathy.
It's good to play.
But it's even better to be the DM.
I tend to have trouble with (some) other people's DMing style. I find myself starting to think snarky little thoughts "I would have done this" or "hmmm, I would have moved this scene along by now" or "oh, that's not how an elven city should look!"
It's wrong, but I do it, and sooner rather than later I'm back DMing again.
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I've recently convinced two players in my group to try their hand at DM. I end up being an 'impartial' advisor, as well as the person who looks up most things. Still it's a break from constantly running the game, and that can be a good thing when burnout ensues. It's nice to be able to focus just on your character every once in awhile.
But at root, I am the DM. Forays into playerdom are always temporary and inspire me to get back behind the screen.
hmm sounds like we need a poll; are you a player or a gm hehe; must be an election year as I am suddenly all into polls.
Right with you Heathy.
It's good to play.
But it's even better to be the DM.
I tend to have trouble with (some) other people's DMing style. I find myself starting to think snarky little thoughts "I would have done this" or "hmmm, I would have moved this scene along by now" or "oh, that's not how an elven city should look!"
It's wrong, but I do it, and sooner rather than later I'm back DMing again.
100% agreement.
I've been the main GM for my games for far to long... going on 7 years for varies reasons...
A) No one really organizes the games except me, we play at my house. I have another older GM I play under sometimes at his house, but he doesn't do D&D, he does his own homebrew system normally, and its about an hour to his house so I don't go much even if he is having a game.
B) Everyone else I have let into the DM chair, has never lasted longer then a month, and most the time its a split game, we will do mine every other week and yours every other week, which never lasts longer then a month before everyone would rather just get back to my game (the pains of being a good DM).
On a subject of pains of being a good DM, the problem is when you find a good DM, you compare every other DM to them... example the best DM I ever played under has ruined me... no other DM has ever been close. I did the same thing to one of my friends, as the best DM he has ever played under he moved from Virginia to Texas and couldn't find a group he liked because he compared all the DMs to me (though he just recently made the move back and we are now planning a new tabletop game).
sounds like we need a poll; are you a player or a gm
DM, deffinitely. I like having some table time too, but at the core I love the power....hehe
I don't know that it's a power trip for me, that makes me love being DM. It's more that I feel a little sad sometimes when I see a really cool way something could go--an interesting plot twist or the opportunity for some character development but then nothing comes of it and it just dies on the vine. It's not hanging life or death over the characters, or wiping atrocity across the face of a setting for me. For me it's having the head of the thieves guild drip with slimy dangerousness, or really painting the impressiveness of a chain of mountains.
When things are going well--when the DM is at the top of his gang I'm much happier being a player--but when a campaign is in trouble and it looks like all I'd have to do is reach down and give it a little swat to get it going again. That's when I crave the big chair.
It's happened in a bunch of campaigns, and in a few of them the DM just threw up his hands and left. That's always the tragedy. Sometimes I can salvage things, take over the game and run it without my character, but usually that's just the end and it's really pretty sad.