I GM probably about 75% of the time, trading off GM duties with my wife. Usually I have a PC as well since one campaign has been going on for about 5 years now, but I always either find a way to write him out, or he takes a backseat in roleplay (so I usually try and write him out; he's the party face when I'm not GMing).
Currently, however, I just waste time on the boards here and dream about playing. But, that's hopefully changing starting tomorrow. Running We Be Goblins for a couple of co-workers and friends of theirs, and if schedules can get worked out, I'll be GMing for either a bi-weekly or monthly campaign.
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Play most of the time...in fact, I'm pretty close to vowing not to GM for PF ever again. I just find it far less interesting and rewarding than GMing for a system that's less constricting. I love Golarion and Paizo's adventures, though, and might on-the-fly convert them to my system of choice (probably Swords and Wizardry for that purpose). Being less constricting, that would be possible, whereas the reverse would not (at least not on-the fly).
I'm stuck with the GM role because none of my players want to take it on. If I don't become the GM, there is no game at all at my table. As much as I enjoy being a game master, sometimes, I desperately want to be a player, but can't...
DMPC! DMPC! DMPC!
I'm a player.
I wish my players GMed more. I suffer from GM fatigue pretty quickly now, mostly because I just can't think of any fun adventures.
It always baffled me when my players would have a really hard time thinking up a character. I'm like, what do you mean? There are at least 4 characters I want to play at any given time. How can you not even have one?
But then I realize they play the game at least three times as often as me, and with my campaign switching, they end up running through characters pretty often...
Another player is running a campaign this Saturday. Hoping it isn't a one-and-drop. It's hard to know how to run a game if you never play in one.
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From 1978 through 2009, I think I GM'd about 90% of the time. I think I have as much fun playing as gm'ing but that wasn't true of the others in my group.
I took an unwanted hiatus from gaming for about a little over a year starting in June 2009 but, since getting back, we played Dark Heresy (me playing) for about 6 months then switched to Pathfinder (Kingmaker). We haven't switched back but, theoretically, we're supposed to be doing a 50/50 split.
Now....I probably PC 75% GM 25%. Before recently it was 100% PC....after I got a little burned out on GMing....before that it was probvably 50% PC 50% GM.
For most of the last 20 years the most time I have spent as a player was about 50%. That period lasted about 2 years. The rest of the time I seem to run about 95-100% DM.
I started RPGs late, got in my first group as a player via meetup.com in early 2004, a 3.5e game. Played with them until April, when I started a job that didn't have a fixed schedule. Didn't really play again until the second half of 2005, when my schedule and opportunities changed again, and I began playing with some guys for the semester I was at college full-time.
Then, in 2006, I started DMing a 3.5e campaign with my brother and his friends. Been running that campaign off-and-on since then, with most of the actual body of the campaign occurring in 2008, I think. Need to wrap it up this summer though since two of my players are going out-of-state for grad school.
I expect fully to DM (sorry, GM!) my next campaign because I get frustrated when the gamemaster runs too far from the rules (RAW and RAI) and I've heard about some campaigns around here that I was happy not to be a part of. My next campaign will either be Masque of the Red Death 3.5e classes and setting with a Pathfinder rules backbone, set in London in the 1890s, or a pure Pathfinder game set in Golarion. I'd like to run Carrion Crown, but after our current 3.5e campaign (the main body of which has been Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave), and knowing how long it took, I'm probably not going to dive into an Adventure Path right away.
Eventually, what I'd like to do is become very proficient at running a single campaign so I can completely immerse myself in it and run adventure modules in it more than once with different players, or even the same players. I know it's metagamey, but I'd love to run the same group of players through the same adventure twice and see if they do things differently. I'd kind of like to immerse myself in Carrion Crown that way, and build a whole ongoing Ustalav campaign with it as the backbone. (Does that sound crazy?)
Oh, so short answer, I DM/GM more.
Well, I am the only DM/GM for the three groups I run for.
Old Timers - Game running from the mid 80s. It is a 6+ hour trip for me to get to them and I make it there once a month for a weekend marathon. I have been the only DM for this game from the get go.
Young Guns - Game running from the Early 90s. I met this group at a Con and they adopted me like a pack of lost puppies. Several have tried DM / GM and it never really worked out, so, I'm it.
Kingmakers - Game that started up not too long ago. This group was started by a friend who has somehow (Sneaky little varmit he is) worked himself into all three games! He saw the Kingmaker AP and met some other folks at a FLGS looking for a DM for this AP and well, was kind enough to volunteer me. Great guy, huh? Good thing I like him, eh?
So, I haven't really played in what, close to 2 decades now and really don't think I could anymore. I'm too used to being on 'that' side of the screen.
I should also say, I am blessed with Three Groups of very different players / play styles and all are mature, fun and work well together and keep it as fun for me as it is for them!
Have Fun Out There!!
~ W ~
