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CTLC
2010-01-28, 05:47 PM
I am unfortunately in a bit of a mess. In my school there is a nerdly games and hobbies club, inside of which we play, guess, DND [DYNOMITAH]
anywho, there are currently two campaigns, one arcana only campaign with one group and one DM named DMA. The other campaign is a three party group with three DM's , head DMB, DMC, and DMD. Here is the problem:
DMA is a good dm, but the plot is weak, and the limited choice makes it worse.
DMB is a pretty bad main DM, person is too lax, doesnt understand CR, doesnt care about gp, and writes awful plot, when person writes plot at all, so far there hasnt been any.
DMC is again a good DM, but with DMB being so bad, DMC is made even worse, person is cinematic, but plot doesnt even pretend to exist here.
DMD never shows up, and person's group has never happened as far as i know.

so, my friends and i have a few options, none of which i love.
1. tell the DMs that they are kindof awful... awkward and wont work
2. try to replace the DMs directly, still a weak, offensive, option.
3. start a new campaign, with out major fail, in which case we would have two groups, rebels and SWAT types in a new city. There are a few issues, we may not have many people join, we would be able to DM and play though [one friend is a decent DM, but very cool, very good with plot, and makes the game actually work.]

best case scenario is 3 without any getting angry, with DMA joining as an assistant DM to my friend, and some people joining so we can play the game.

any advice before we try option 3? this is a really awful situation i know, but what can we do, we really cannot play this campaign [the 3 party one]much longer without going insane.

Halp? :smalleek:

storybookknight
2010-01-28, 05:56 PM
Simple. Say to the GMs "Hey, how would you like to play in a game instead of running it? Person X has a great idea for a campaign (it helps to have a great idea for a campaign) and wants to run it. What do you think of switching?" Then explain the campaign idea. If you set it up ahead of time, have the players who are dissatisfied with the current situation say "yeah, that sounds pretty cool, what do you think, DMB?"

This also works with the excuse "got a new book and wants to try it out".

KurtKatze
2010-01-28, 05:58 PM
Adress DM A to this Forum and make him read the section which gives tipps how to dm ^^

I found this very helpful and so far I think my Plot is nice and thought through as well thanks to the stuff i found here. If his ego is not too huge and he's very convinced that he is unimproveable (?) maybe he'll do things better in the future. I mean hey, if u have a great dm there why not help him get better.

CTLC
2010-01-28, 06:02 PM
Simple. Say to the GMs "Hey, how would you like to play in a game instead of running it? Person X has a great idea for a campaign (it helps to have a great idea for a campaign) and wants to run it. What do you think of switching?" Then explain the campaign idea. If you set it up ahead of time, have the players who are dissatisfied with the current situation say "yeah, that sounds pretty cool, what do you think, DMB?"

This also works with the excuse "got a new book and wants to try it out".

im very afraid that due to the personality of the DMs this would fail miserably. DMB especially.

i will show them the dm tip section, but they are all deep set in their ways...

Glass Mouse
2010-01-28, 06:10 PM
Well, if they're the "never plans" variety of bad DMs, it sounds to me that they don't even want to DM. I could be wrong but when people don't put time or energy into something, they don't enjoy it.
The plot thing could be because there are multiple DMs. Personally, I don't really like to develop plot if it isn't "my own." But maybe that's just me.

I definitely suggest option 3.
Only, don't go "let's do this new thing because the old thing sucks!"
Go "Let's do this new things because it looks awesome!"
Basically, what Storybookknight said.

Dust
2010-01-28, 06:15 PM
High School tabletop 'clubs' never work out well, in my albeit-limited experience.

AslanCross
2010-01-28, 06:16 PM
Simple. Say to the GMs "Hey, how would you like to play in a game instead of running it? Person X has a great idea for a campaign (it helps to have a great idea for a campaign) and wants to run it. What do you think of switching?" Then explain the campaign idea. If you set it up ahead of time, have the players who are dissatisfied with the current situation say "yeah, that sounds pretty cool, what do you think, DMB?"

This also works with the excuse "got a new book and wants to try it out".

This. This seems to work with the OP's idea of "start a new campaign."
If the group is not having fun, then there really is no reason to continue playing under that DM.

Hazkali
2010-01-28, 06:16 PM
I agree with Glass Mouse, it very much sounds like they don't want to DM. This could be generally, or they could have gotten bored of the current campaign but feel they have to keep going with it.

One issue might be the way in which the club runs campaigns. If your club is held after school, might it be that everyone's a little too tired to get into 'the zone'?

AslanCross
2010-01-28, 06:19 PM
If your club is held after school, might it be that everyone's a little too tired to get into 'the zone'?

This might also be an issue. I teach in a science high school with a very high-stress environment, and my games used to last 1 and a half hours starting at 4 PM. While we enjoyed somewhat, there really were times when the players were just far too wasted to contribute meaningfully.

Now that I run games on weekends from 9 am - 3 pm, my players seem a lot more creative and also make calculations more quickly.

Umael
2010-01-28, 06:27 PM
You know, I never understand the first option.

You are playing a game because you want to have fun. You are playing with particular people because you are hoping that they will make things more fun. When they fail to make things fun, you change things so they are fun or you don't play.

That means you:

1) Go up to them and say "I am not having fun. This is why."
2) Address what it is that they did that is wrong. Don't label the GMs, just give the points why what they did didn't help you.
3) Ask them for suggestions on how to change things for the better.
3a) If everyone likes the suggestions, give them a shot.
3b) If you can't agree on the suggestions, walk away. Do something else, more fun, with your time.
4a) If the suggestions still don't work, go back to Step 1.
4b) If the suggestions work, congratulations! Enjoy!