I probably play about 3/4 of the time and DM the rest. We have a consistent group of 4-5 players (one of whom Skypes in) and three of us take turns behind the screen once we hit around Level 10; at that point we start with a new party at Level 1.
It is a bit tough getting started and the majority of the sessions are pre-made modules. By Level 3 I (and hopefully everyone else) have gotten into a groove and I find I like it even more than having my own PC. By then I use a Random Generator for a campaign idea and create from there.
How often are you playing vs. running it all? Which do you like more? Do some of your friends never DM at all (for whatever reason)?
Good hunting.....
I prefer DMing, but generally run games about 1/3 of the time. We all take it in turns - generally starting at level one and TPKing around level seven (or equivalent, if its not PF). Although we did just manage to play a DCC campaign through to tenth level.
I have two groups. One I'm a player and the other a GM, so half and half. I prefer playing (because its easier!) but I prefer being the GM to not playing, so...
The game I play in is all home brew campaigns while I tend to use premades (and then just change everything, I've actually used some more than once without my players ever knowing! or at least they never said anything).
I do enjoy being the GM but can get burned out. I don't know if I could do it exclusively.
I have been a GM for 36 years. I prefer it over playing. I GM three campaigns and currently play in none, although recently the numbers were two and two.
ATM, I am the only GM in our group, so I DM all the time. My preference is something like a 50/50 split - or perhaps even 66(play) to 33(DM).
But, as someone said earlier - you do what you need to, to get the game you want.
"How often are you playing vs. running it all?"
I would say I GM about 3/4 of the time in the past 8 years or so. One of the players in my current group has made a campaign of his own in which I am a player, so I'd say currently it's more like 50/50. Both of our games are sort of hiatus now, though, due to scheduling problems between all the players.
"Which do you like more?"
It really depends. The writer and creator in me likes running games because I have the freedom to make stories, plots, and characters exactly how I want them. When the inevitable GM burnout hits, however, I really like being able to sit back, roll some bones, drink some beer, and loot some treasure without hours of prep time.
Overall, I'd probably say I like playing marginally more, but the GM side of me is slowly overtaking the player side over the years.
"Do some of your friends never DM at all (for whatever reason)?"
Most of our gaming group do not run their own games. The aforementioned friend is running one, but only after about 6 years in our group (he ran a game or two before I knew him). Another friend had run a couple successful games, but is now pretty much exclusively a player. Yet another friend had tried to start a campaign but it never really got off the ground past the first session.
It really is true that GMs are much harder to find than players.
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90% of the time I am GMing. I get way more enjoyment out of being the man behind the curtain, providing for the fun of all.
I often say it is hard to go from Phenomenal Cosmic Power(TM) to itty bitty player space.
About half of the people I play with have taken their turn at GMing. Pathfinder Society does a good job of giving ample opportunity to swap places.
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For close to 20 years I was the DM of our games. I loved it, especially the creative/homebrew side of things.
As I've gotten older and have less time due to work and family commitments, I've had to turn to running AP's or premade modules instead. While still enjoyable, it's nowhere near the fun I used to have GMing and creating stories.
The best GM moments I had in terms of creativity came from online games I ran on this very website. It allowed me to create fantastic characters and gaming moments that just never seemed to happen at the table. Unfortunately, it was more work intensive than a face to face game as well, so I was rarely able to run for more than a year in those.
I have now effectively retired from DMing. Luckily I have a mate who took up the reins and seems to be enjoying running the second darkness game. I'm loving playing, though apparently I need some practice since I lost my Witch recently and nearly lost my Barbarian the very next session. Heheh.
I suspect I'll run an AP after this one if we're all still going. Running AP's can really burn out a DM and its nice to have a break. I own about 6 full AP's and love the idea of getting those stories told. It all comes down to if the passion returns I guess.
Cheers
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I DM about 3/4 of the time, primarily in our college RPG club. While I find that usually I like DM'ing a little bit more than playing because you get to create fun situations for the whole group, preparing for your campaign can get a bit tiring and sometimes you just want to relax and be the player once in a while. I'm starting to get into a 50/50 ratio this semester and am finding it works great.
When you've been DM'ing for awhile though, sometimes it can be hard to step out of that role and actually let the session's DM do the work. This is a problem right now for me because I'm helping someone DM their first campaign (my group sees me as the "veteran" DM, even though there is another player that has been both playing and DMing longer than me), and it can be hard to distinguish when you're helping and when you're taking over until after the session.
I certainly do have friends who never DM at all, usually for one of two reasons:
1: They feel they do not have enough experience/creativity/confidence to run effectively (whether the rest of the group agrees or not)
2: They just don't have enough spare time for preparing a campaign.
For a long time I was the GM roughly 3/4 of my game time. In the past decade though, having found a gaming partner who enjoys being the GM as much as I do, I am now at roughly about 1/2.
I like playing or GMing. Or fishing if I can't do either. Or stargazing, or just playing my guitar...
I'm pretty easy to please really.
I GM probably 95% of the time. My current situation is actually very unusual because I'm actually PCing once a week (though I run two other games each week, too).
I always think I want to PC until I do it and then I usually end up disappointed. So, I never turn down a chance to PC, but I think ultimately, I prefer GMing.
As for other players that never GM--yeah, the vast majority of them.
I've gamed with only five other people (over the past 20 years) that were willing to GM regularly, and I met two of them within the last 6 months. I've seen 7 others (again, over 20 years) try to run a game, but only my wife made it through a full campaign--the rest made it maybe 3 sessions tops. None of them have any interest in GMing again.
What I've noticed is that other GMs seem to do a lot of work and often feel overwhelmed by it--they say it's like a job. For me, it's essentially zero work--I run the vast majority of it on the fly, and the rest, I'm just formulating in my head during mental "downtime" like the ride to work, in the shower, etc. I actually find it to be less work than PCing because I don't have to make a character that fits into anyone else's vision (i.e. the GM's and the party's).
I find that alot of my non-module sessions (which is becoming more and more as I get experienced) come from ideas I also think of during downtime.
My father-in-law works has a friend in the police force and he got several of those nice police notebooks (complete with interrogation tips, pupil dilation charts, crime scene grid maps, etc) and gave me a couple. I keep one in my pocket at work and whip it out to write down any sudden idea that comes to me.
I highly recommend getting one; they make you look real cool. Or, so I think.
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I play in 4 VTT games. 3 of them as a player, one as a DM. As for wich I like better? I don't really have a preference. One thing I like more about being the DM is that I can "play" in the world I created, and it is a nice change from Varisia. In each of the 3 games I play in, the game is located in Varisia. One in Riddleport (second darkness), one in Korvosa (curse of the crimson throne), and one over in Sandpoint... Not sure if the Sandpoint one will have bits of RotRL or not. But right now, I am getting real tired of Varisia. I much prefer playing in a sandbox-type game, whether based in Golarion or a homebrew world. I like the exploration of them, and not being confined to just a rather small area. I would love to have the option to have my character create its own kingdom some day, or set up a shop or such, but in an AP, it doesn't feel like that is an actual option (except for Kingmaker, as that is the entire purpose of that AP).
Unfortunately, I haven't found a sandbox game over VTT to play in that would open up this option. And there is no where near where I live to have a face-to-face game option, either, so I am stuck with VTT. I could go PbP, but I honestly don't care for the format.
I Gm about 3/4 of the time. It used to be 50/50 but the other guys don't seem to have the time or dont feel they need to now. I'm running s&s on book 2 and have at least another year or 2 of play left In out yet. The other guys take over when I start to get burnout, say after 20-30 sessions to give me a break for a month or 2. The fillers are either 1st ed or savage worlds. The trouble is I would really like to play a pathfinder game but have never had the chance, nor will I in my current group as I am the only one with the books and everyone else likes to play it and no one wants to run it, they marvel at my grasp of the rules and wonder how I do it lol ( in other words they find it too complicated to Gm but love to play the game)
I GM about 90% of the time, mainly because the rest of the group won't. I like GMing and playing about equally, although the lack of playing opportunities makes me hunger for that more.
Considering that I have only been on the players side of the screen a few times in the last ten years, I would have to say that I am the GM about 99% of the time. I run and host a game each Sunday and have for about twelve years. Before that I ran my game about three times per week for the previous ten years and did not get to play at all. To put this in perspective, I never played 2nd Edition, 3.0 or 3.5. I only Gm'd them.
As far as a preference, I would definitely say that I prefer to be the GM. I really enjoy the creative storytelling and roleplaying aspects of the GM's chair. Plyers get to play characters. Gm's play whole worlds.
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I currently GM both of the home-game groups that I play with. I enjoy it plenty, but sometimes I do want a change of pace. I've begun going to Pathfinder Society to get my fix of plain ol' playing.
I'd love to find a couple of folks who are willing to GM a bit, either Pathfinder or any other system. But so far it seems that I'm generally the biggest RPG hobbyist among my group of friends.
It depends. I only have time to game once a week, usually, and I've been running a campaign since June 2011. Since then, I've GMed nearly 100% of the time.
(I have put the campaign on hiatus for a few weeks from thime to time while I had to go deep into design, and on those weeks, we played a some one-shots and two-shots that someone else ran.)
When this campaign is over (summer 2014, at the rate we're progressing), I'll hand the GM reins to someone else. That will have been a three-year run.
I've DM'd probably 75%+ over the past 20 years, and have run 6 or 7 campaigns spanning more than a year, in a variety of settings and systems. In that time, I have only played as a player in one or two campaigns that lasted more than a half dozen play sessions before the GM got burnt out. Recently, I've had the privilege of seeing my players become comfortable enough to want to run their own games (D&D home brew, and now Oriental Adventures) with our group and have relinquished the throne, but I'm already planning my next campaign (Changeling:The Lost).
I prefer to play with an awesome GM (which only happened once ever) but prefer to GM rather than play with an otherwise adequate GM. The best part for me is the control over the tone, like keeping the action light-hearted in a Feng Shui superheroes campaign, or dark and gritty and horroific in Supernatural, or world building and inevitably apocalyptic in my home brew D&D settings.
As mplindustries, I'm a wing it kinda GM, making up the content on the fly to fit my story thread, rather than anguishing over details in endless prep time. For me, the story is entirely about the characters, the plots and subplots, and the sporadic "reveals" as the characters uncover some gamechanging bits of lore/secrets/mysteries, and so sweating the stat blocks along the way isn't a rewarding use of my time.
I use to GM about 90% of the time but these days I find I play more than run a game because more players want to have a go at running a game.
I prefer to GM though mainly because I get more enjoyment out of the game than I do playing.
It seems most of the responders (myself included) are primarily, if not exclusively, GMs. I wonder why. Perhaps GMs typically go on the boards more often than players?
I enjoy GMing more, which is fortunate because that's all I get to do for now. I do love playing when I get to, but I get a real jive out of figuring out how a group of typically unrelated characters ends up with the same goal.
I GM less than 5% of the time and I greatly prefer being a player.
Similarly, I greatly prefer reading books over writing books.
I currently GM about 2/3 of the time, although I would prefer to do so less than that and play more often.
It seems most of the responders (myself included) are primarily, if not exclusively, GMs. I wonder why. Perhaps GMs typically go on the boards more often than players?
I think it's two-fold:
1) GMs tend to be more invested in the game in general, which includes seeking out game fora.
2) The people who primarily PC on the boards are less likely than a GM to come to a thread with a GMing related title. This is both because they have been subconsciously trained for many years not to read GM related things and because it might feel silly to respond to a thread just to say, "yeah, I don't GM," and then be subject to potential grilling and ostracizing as to why. Not saying they would be, of course, just that it might be their perception.
Similarly, I greatly prefer reading books over writing books.
If you wrote a book to run a game, I am not surprised you didn't enjoy it. I, and many other GMs, don't write anything down before hand. To me, it's more about generally understanding story structure and using that knowledge to enhance what the PCs are doing. When I GM, the PCs drive the story, not me--it makes it exciting because I don't know what's going to happen, either.
But yeah, GMing is definitely not for everyone, regardless.
I was a player for about 5 years, then I took a 10 year break, and for the last 2 years I've been GM'ing 1/2 - 2/3 of the time.
I really enjoy both aspects, and I get to play more now that I discovered the PbP boards here a while back.
I think I prefer GM'ing face to face, but playing on the PbP boards, although I have had (and am still having) a blast GM'ing the Mythic Playtest on the boards.
It's usually between me and 2 other guys in my group as far as GM'ing, but the one was doing it so long for the group before I came that I wanted to give him a break and just enjoy playing. The other is sometimes flaky so he doesn't do it as often.
The rest of the group mainly are people who had a long hiatus and are just coming back to gaming.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Checking my Paizo account, I have about 25 tables of GM credit in the 2 years I've been participating in PFS Organized Play (currently my only Pathfinder activity), so that comes out to about once a month that I'm GMing on average.
I actually enjoy playing a tad more than GMing, but I don't like the idea of being a total freeloader. If even ~60% of PFS players would GM at about the same rate I do, we'd have plenty of GMs and no one getting burned out, so I keep doing it. Also, when I GM it gives me a chance to teach some people how various rules actually work, which will hopefully (when my players themselves end up GMing) improve the experiences that future players have.
Myself, I both play in and GM. Been GMing for 25 years, but I must admit the adrenalin gets pumping way more when playing. Lets see, let me run down the playing and GMing list.
Playing in a KM AP (run by my best bud and brilliant lad GM_solspiral) Playing in a in between the AP's society game, run by another bud. Playing in another AP society game also run by the other bud (which may be the most funny game I have every played in, our party is...ummm..interesting.)
GMing JR currently along with working on a 3pp, trying to do my taxes, repair my house, make the wife happy, herd 12 cats, and find a new job. So yeah, I know the time crunch that GM's can feel. But I really do love GMing, I put allot of love into moding my JR game, and I greatly enjoy the looks my players in that game (including the illustrious GM_solspiral) give me every time on of my tweaks comes up. Pretty much I end up at 50/50 playing vs GMing. That actually works out really well, when playing I get more time to work on 3pp and future game session stuff. And when GMing I get to test out my billion ideas on my unwitting test subjects, errr I mean, friends.
I’ve found over time that it depends on how many groups I’m currently involved with and what they are playing…
Currently, I’m playing in 3 to 5 games, running one Pathfinder game, spinning up a Palladium Multiverse campaign, and have just getting started in PFS a bit (where I’m currently a player). I’m also kicking around the idea of a pbp or other online game and am currently active in boffer LARPing as a player.
Historically, I find I GM a lot more than I play, but I’ve been making an effort to go around looking at “best practices” for GMing and seeing how other folks do things to see where the game culture currently is in a lot of areas that my normal gaming group and myself may vary way far from current center (especially in things like psionics, guns, PvP, MagicMarts™ and PC death).
A lot of it also depends on the game setting… I have a lot more fun with some games and game settings as a either a player or a GM than I do vice versa and some games just require more work than others for anything other than off-the-cuff gaming if you don’t want them to have an express hand basket to the end of the good-intensions paved road.
-TimD
Right now, it's about 50:50 for me. I prefer being a player more, if just because I don't feel as... scattered, for lack of a better term, when all I have to worry about and focus on is my one character.
Similarly, I greatly prefer reading books over writing books.If you wrote a book to run a game, I am not surprised you didn't enjoy it.
Ha! I wasn't suggesting an exact equivalence; I just meant that one requires much more creativity and preparation than the other.
More often than not I get stuck running the games I play in. I would rather play, say by a ratio of 1-4. I don't mind running, but I don't *like* it. That said, as I am still active duty Army, I move a lot and if I want to play at all, I run. At least at first to get folks to play at all.
Most current: Me running
First Previous: one session in someone else's game, this group grew out of the next on the list...
Second Previous: Someone else running, started at 3rd and got to 8th before the group dissolved due to everyone moving in a two month span.
Third Previous: I ran it for a few weeks, till we lost half the group (work issues...)
Fourth Previous: I ran it while in Durkadurkastan
Fifth Previous: A friend ran it from 4th to 10th level
Sixth Previous: I ran it.
I usually am the DM and I do enjoy it more than playing - but I enjoy playing, too.
At the moment, I GM 2-3 sessions a week for a total of 6-18 hours, and I play a fairly stable 4-6 hours per week.
I vastly prefer playing, but we suffer from a dearth of GMs, so I have the choice of GM'ing or not playing at all, and I prefer the former.
(For those curious, I'm GM'ing Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star almost every week, suffering while GM'ing Kingmaker maybe once a month, playing in Carrion Crown almost every week, and playing in a homegrown Runequest campaign maybe once every 2 months. I've got a Crimson Throne campaign on ice, but as you might be able to tell, I don't have time to GM yet another campaign at the moment.)
I DM more then i play. (about 80%/20%)
My group has 4 others who are more than capable of running as a DM, but all of them prefer being a player.
I suppose of the lot of us i am the most comfortable being a DM and don't mind it at all. The others are nice enough that anytime i feel tired of being the DM all i have to do is mention it and one of them will step forward to run something else until i say i'm up for it again. Having a mostly same core group for 11 years and counting helps with the ease/comfort of being able to say how you feel without worrying about how it's recieved.
100%/0%
I don't get many request to be a player, and in the few threads I've tried to join, I have not been selected as a player. I Dungeon Master all of the time, no really, all of the time. It's just that sometimes my players are not real people, shhssss, don't tell anyone, or I may have to go back to the place, you know, that special place.
And this year makes 37 years as a DM
I...I'm not real? I can't leave the Holodeck?
I am the DM by default for our group, and have been for 25 years. I LOVE to play when I get the chance to, though. But I'll admit the creation of a homebrew setting is one of my great joys in life, so I guess I'll say I prefer being the DM (though I'm starting to suffer from writer's block and am having trouble coming up with interesting new adventures. It may be a time for a break to play something else).
I mostly GM. I vastly prefer being a player, but if I want to play any RPGs at all, that's not an option.
I DM most of the time. Started DM only a few months after I learned how to play back in 1996, due to a mixture of me loving to create settings and maps and my friends being lazy bastards.
17 years later, I play with roughly the same group of friends, and I still love creating settings and maps, and they are still lazy bastards. So I DM.
Still, I love to play as a PC from time to time, as sometimes I miss the thrill of having no idea where the story is going and also not needing to prep anything for a game. Sometimes one of my players provides DMing services for alternative games, but the last time was over 4 years ago, so I'm kind of pressuring the group to get someone else to DM at least a short adventure once we finish our current Pathfinder campaign.
That said, I do like DMing more than playing.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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I GM half the time now, because I participate in two AP groups: a Carrion Crown game that I GM, and a Jade Regent game in which I play.
Generally, I prefer to GM. I really enjoy playing, though, and I need to break up constant GMing with playing from time to time. The current half on/half off scheme works perfectly for me.
I have been GMing various games since the late 80s.
Mostly GM. And generally prefer to. I have too many stories I want to tell.
I'm currently running three games (one live, two PbP) and playing in one. I just had to cancel a fourth (second live) because I was running out of time to prep for it in favor of the longer-running live game.
In theory, 1/2 the time. In practice it's about 2/3's.
We have it set up so I run Carrion Crown one week and play in Serpent's Skull the other week (same group of players, though we have 1 less in Carrion Crown).
Issues with scheduling on some weeks, however (the Bard player can't make it fairly often, and Serpent's Skull's GM has his own game he was already playing in when we started every month) mean that I generally GM whenever the Bard player CAN'T make it, which lately is either "Not at all" or "Not on Sundays", and "Not on Sundays" sometimes coincides with the SS GM's "I game on Saturdays in the other game" bit.
As for how much I enjoy each? I like both about the same, MAYBE GMing a little more. I definitely get that "scattered" feeling Harrison mentioned, but that's usually just when we're starting out the session. I tend to have everything planned out well beforehand so once we get rolling and I can just say "Well, what do you do?" and be secure in the knowledge that I have SOME kind of response to whatever the answer is I'm comfortable.
Playing is its own kind of fun though. I can't chortle at whatever nonsense the game might throw their way, but I get a lot more character on character interaction, which is its own special brand of amusement.
The friendly (though sometimes mean) rivalry between my Lawful Evil Sorcerer and the Chaotic Evil (in name only) Magus is my main source of fun most games. Almost got him killed a couple of sessions ago because I chucked him into the water (oh the fun you can have when you roll 16 for Str on a non-Str character. They never expect it.) for the hell of it and it turned out there was a big 2-headed snake in there ready to chomp on him.
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Once every two weeks for about 12 years now. During some of that time, I've been a player on alternating weeks; second games have been somewhat sporadic, but mine has been pretty much continuous.
I wouldn't say that I enjoy GMing more than playing, but I will say this: if I haven't GMed for a while, even though I'm playing, I get antsy. If I haven't played for a while, but I'm GMing, I don't.
So GMing is more like a need for me than a want.