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Grumble grumble...
- Thread starter Greenfield
- Start date
Oryan77
Adventurer
Come on now, don't lie. April Fool's isn't for another 3 weeks.
Greenfield
Adventurer
Generally, pretty well. Game quality varies, but everyone gets a chance to play and you don't run into DM burnout.
Or were you asking about the mechanics of it? I've covered it before, but I'll give you the Reader's Digest version.
We start a campaign with a map and some general guidelines. We've used Middle Earth, the real world, maps from Steve Jackson's site, Forgotten Realms, it doesn't matter. We invent/agree upon some major issue or problem as the driving story arc.
Each player makes up their character, and the city/state/nation they come from. They're brought together to deal with that major issue or problem, and that's the group's long term goal.
Someone starts things rolling by being the first DM. They get to lay a lot of the ground rules. Their adventure takes place in the land their character calls home, and their PC sits it out or operates as a background NPC.
When their tale is done, someone else takes over, and the party finds that their mission now leads them to the land that the new DM's character calls home. The old DM's character becomes active and the new DM's character goes inactive. After that's done we find ourselves pursuing leads in yet another part of the game world, and someone else becomes DM, and so it goes.
When you're DM, your character is off doing something or other that earns them EXP and treasure to match what they would have gotten with the group, so DMing isn't a character penalty.
Some rules issues get worked out in committee, since they involve everyone who has to play and/or DM with the decision.
Now, do we ever find all the parts to the broken artifact, track down all the forgotten lore or lift the curse that hangs over the world? Yeah, eventually. That, however, happens at the end of the campaign. Mission accomplished, world saved, heroes retire, etc.
Olaf the Stout
Hero
Talk to the other players and see if they feel the same way as yourself (I'm guessing they do). Then sit down and explain to the DM that you really don't enjoy playing through a railroad adventure every time it is his turn to run the game.
I'm sure many games could be saved if the players simply talked to the DM and let him know what he was doing and why it wasn't any fun for them. Sure, some DM's will just have a hissy fit and storm out, but most should be able to listen to what their players are saying and make appropriate changes.
Olaf the Stout
I'm sure many games could be saved if the players simply talked to the DM and let him know what he was doing and why it wasn't any fun for them. Sure, some DM's will just have a hissy fit and storm out, but most should be able to listen to what their players are saying and make appropriate changes.
Olaf the Stout
Greenfield
Adventurer
Nah, nothing harsh.
He's usually a pretty good DM, though he does tend to give the plot line away. It's just that every now and then his story, and it's outcome, become inflexible. He doesn't want us to be able to gain any information? Then we won't. It's not like he's planning battles that can't be won (I've played with a DM who did that. A couple of them, in fact.)
He'll be finished next week, or so he says, and then we rotate the DM duties again. Life, and the game, goes on.
He's usually a pretty good DM, though he does tend to give the plot line away. It's just that every now and then his story, and it's outcome, become inflexible. He doesn't want us to be able to gain any information? Then we won't. It's not like he's planning battles that can't be won (I've played with a DM who did that. A couple of them, in fact.)
He'll be finished next week, or so he says, and then we rotate the DM duties again. Life, and the game, goes on.
Herobizkit
Adventurer
Well, how about starting an (anonymous?) after-game survey about what was liked, not liked, suggestions on ways to improve, things you wish would have happened/not happened, etc...? DMs love feedback, even when they say they don't. It also gives them a voice should they choose to use it by addressing each point.
Greenfield
Adventurer
Well, we have a house rule to cover this. After a DM has finished his/her run the group can take a vote on whether that adventure really happened, or was it just a collective nightmare.
We've only ever had to do that two times in the last decade though, and this one doesn't rise to anything like that level.
We've only ever had to do that two times in the last decade though, and this one doesn't rise to anything like that level.
yeah, some DM's just get that way sometimes. the guy running my current game is great at the insane situations we get into. our game last night seemed like something out of a cartoon. this is what the first 4 hours of our session last night, lol
Me and another character just wanted to get the deed to his house back. so we killed some milkmen to get their stuff and sneak in and because my friend is an evocation specialist he blew the hell out of the milkcart... (just as a side note were mostly a chaotic neutral party) after being denied entrance to the front gate because our milk cart looked like we got hit by a meteor, my partner slipped in an explosive rune note to the milk and we went to the back... after a maid got the crap blown out of her by it (she died btw) we scared the guard in the back with a massive bluff check pertaining to swamp gas and the manor being built on an explosive pocket... he was a new guard. we walked in the back door and hid till the night. so in the night we killed 1 guard and took out the lord and lady of the house. searched their room got into the safe i got stuck with a tracking rune(the deed to the house wasn't even there...), we fled with a fly spell and found out about the tracking rune the next day. couldnt get the rune off so my partner cut off my hands and we disolved them in a bowl of acid and when i was passed out we went to a drunk cleric and got regenerate cast.(we cut off my hands cause my DM uses a NPC named lord robert to keep us in line and hes the one who cast the rune, we didnt know the people were his friends.) after being hired to help secure the house we just broke into, we went off on another side-quest so lord robert could have a week to beef up the security of the manor.
some DM's can handle a session like this on the fly, some can't. were a pretty crazy party, theres alot of details i left out cause its just to much to type. but too many of our sessions look really similar to the looney toons.
Me and another character just wanted to get the deed to his house back. so we killed some milkmen to get their stuff and sneak in and because my friend is an evocation specialist he blew the hell out of the milkcart... (just as a side note were mostly a chaotic neutral party) after being denied entrance to the front gate because our milk cart looked like we got hit by a meteor, my partner slipped in an explosive rune note to the milk and we went to the back... after a maid got the crap blown out of her by it (she died btw) we scared the guard in the back with a massive bluff check pertaining to swamp gas and the manor being built on an explosive pocket... he was a new guard. we walked in the back door and hid till the night. so in the night we killed 1 guard and took out the lord and lady of the house. searched their room got into the safe i got stuck with a tracking rune(the deed to the house wasn't even there...), we fled with a fly spell and found out about the tracking rune the next day. couldnt get the rune off so my partner cut off my hands and we disolved them in a bowl of acid and when i was passed out we went to a drunk cleric and got regenerate cast.(we cut off my hands cause my DM uses a NPC named lord robert to keep us in line and hes the one who cast the rune, we didnt know the people were his friends.) after being hired to help secure the house we just broke into, we went off on another side-quest so lord robert could have a week to beef up the security of the manor.
some DM's can handle a session like this on the fly, some can't. were a pretty crazy party, theres alot of details i left out cause its just to much to type. but too many of our sessions look really similar to the looney toons.
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