What is going on

[sarge67]

OK,

Little rant, little advice.

I've gone to the game recruiting threads and boy was I perplexed. So many people looking for DMs, GMs, and STs. Not many actually looking for players.

As a DM/GM/ST, I have stretched myself a little thin (I'm running 4 games) and I'm sure that there are other DM/GM/STs in the same boat. The only way to fix this is players start running games too.

There are loads of games being recruited, so somebody has an idea for a story. Build the story, what town will the group be in, what are the various things about the town that make it special, who are the main people, who are the main bad guys, what is the mission you want in this story. It isn't hard, but it does take practice.

If you've played for more than 3 years or are really good at storytelling, jump in and try to run a short mission first.
Let people know that it is your first shot at DMing and nobody will laugh.
KEEP IT LOW LEVEL so there won't be meta-gaming.
Come up with about 4-5 different things people can come across because parties never follow a single plot unless it is forced on them.
Give them good tid-bits that attract them to one of your stories.
Have an experienced DM in your game and use their knowledge to help you.
Keep your numbers down to 2-3 people so you can manage the game.

As a DM, it gets old always being elected to run someone else's story. Why not try and run one? Nobody is going to laugh, we all went through growing pains and learned a lot over time. You don't have to know all of the rules, just make the story fun.

[Aedilred]

Not everyone has the ability, time or inclination to be a GM, and it requires a different set of skills in some ways to being a player. While I understand that it might be frustrating if you always find yourself in the GM seat or there are games you want to play but can't for lack of a GM, ultimately there's not a lot of point having a GM who doesn't want to be there and the game will suffer for it, if it doesn't die off quickly anyway (I think the majority of games on this forum fold within a couple of weeks).

Personally I don't entirely understand "GM-seeking" games unless it's an ongoing game where the GM has dropped out, but it seems to be a thing. I suspect that the dearth of GMs capable and interested in running somebody else's idea as a game is one of the reasons the recruitment board seems to be full of GM-seekers: those which need players fill up quickly and drop off the front page, whereas those which need GMs stick around for ages until eventually the players give up.

Ultimately if you don't want to run games, don't run them. While GMs have duties to their players, there is no obligation on anyone to take up the job in the first place.

[sarge67]

I agree with a lot that you said, but some not entirely.

I understand real life commitments; there are always going to be those who can't run because of their schedules. That runs both ways though, as a player and a DM. It is a part of life.

There are others that are nervous about trying it, that is natural. We were all nervous our first time, that is why one rule is to make it a short story. Get your feet wet, at the very least it will show a person the amount of work a DM goes through.

Finding people to run has always been difficult, but by getting those who can a little experience the easier it becomes for everyone.

I can handle 4 games, but I am just as concerned about those out there that may be in similar shoes.

[Knaight]

Have an experienced DM in your game and use their knowledge to help you.
Keep your numbers down to 2-3 people so you can manage the game.

If the problem is that there's not enough GMs for the games, recommending tiny groups that have established DMs in them as players is not going to help. The problem described is a distribution one, and requires a player->GM shift and not a GM->player shift, which would be required to implement the first suggestion. The second increases the needed magnitude of the shift.

[UmbralHero]

Perhaps there needs to be an easy way to encourage and teach worldbuilding/gamemastering. I haven't seen such a place on this site, and that could be potentially beneficial to this cause.

[Knaight]

Perhaps there needs to be an easy way to encourage and teach worldbuilding/gamemastering. I haven't seen such a place on this site, and that could be potentially beneficial to this cause.

There are some really solid resources, but they're extremely scattered.

As for the ease of GMing though, the big thing is that the dominant game is D&D. D&D is also pretty rules heavy, generally has a lot of material, and explicitly advises a prep heavy strategy. As a result it's a pretty intimidating game to start with as a GM, and while people do it there would probably be more people if some other games were better known.

[2D8HP]

There was a thread on the 5e D&D Sub Forum about this not to long ago:

Is there a DM shortage? What can or should be done? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500951-Is-there-a-DM-shortage-What-can-or-should-be-done)


As for the ease of GMing though, the big thing is that the dominant game is D&D. D&D is also pretty rules heavy, generally has a lot of material, and explicitly advises a prep heavy strategy.
The D&D that I first DM'd in 1978-79 wasn't like that, just the D&D tha players crave now:


Watching people play D&D?
Fun!
:smile:

Worldbuilding?
Fun!
:smile:

Playacting NPC's?
Fun!
:smile:

Rules minutiae memorization and adjudication?
A colossal pain in the ... neck!
:annoyed:

All those shiny abilities and options that make it fun for a player, make it more of a hassle to DM.

It's easier to be the DM if your using stripped down rules like the 48 pages of the 1977 "blue book", but your players will miss their options.

One good part of being a DM is that you can make a game that you'd want to play:


When I started playing DnD the players weren't supposed to know all the rules:You are a DM aren't you? Because
As this book is the exclusive precinct of the DM, you must view any non-DM player possessing it as something less than worthy of honorable death.


The first version of what became D&D was the rules system inside Dave Arneson's mind.

The rules are there because players want some idea of what the odds are first, and it's easier to choose from a catalog than write on a blank page.

When D&D started there was no mention of role-playing on the box!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DSs2bX13hVc/SfSTvUzCu4I/AAAAAAAAA9A/9bUyti9YmUk/s320/box1st.jpg
While the 1977 Basic set did indeed say "FANTASY ROLE-PLAYING GAME"
http://i2.wp.com/shaneplays.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/dungeons_and_dragons_dd_basic_set_1stedition_origi nal_box_holmes_edition.jpg?zoom=4&resize=312%2C386
The phrase "role-playing" was not part of the 1974 rules.
http://i2.wp.com/shaneplays.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/original_dungeons_and_dragons_dd_men_and_magic_cov er.jpg?zoom=4&resize=312%2C494
Notice that the cover says "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames", not role-playing!
I believe the first use of the term "role-playing game" was in a Tunnels & Trolls supplement that was "compatible with other Fantasy role-playing games", but early D&D didn't seem any more or less combat focused than the later RPG's I've played, (in fact considering how fragile PC''s were avoiding combat was often the goal!) so I wouldn't say it was anymore of a "Wargame". I would however say it was more an exploration game, and was less character focused.
Frankly while role-playing is alright, it's the 'enjoying a "world" where the fantastic is fact' part that is much more interesting to me.

These rules are strictly fantasy. Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don't care for Burroughs'
Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill upon reading Howard's Conan saga, who do not enjoy the de Camp & Pratt fantasies or Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
pitting their swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find Dungeons & Dragons to their taste. But those whose imaginations know no bounds will find that these rules are the answer to their prayers. With this last
bit of advice we invite you to read on and enjoy a "world" where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!
E. Gary Gygax
Tactical Studies Rules Editor
1 November 1973
Lake Geneva, WisconsinWhile I'm ever grateful to Holmes for his work translating the game rules into English, perhaps he (an academic psychologist) is to be blamed for mis-labelling D&D with the abominable slander of "role-playing" (a psychological treatment technique).
It's too late now to correct the misnomer, but D&D is, was, and should be a fantasy adventure game, not role-playing, a label no good has come from!

“If I want to do that,” he said, “I’ll join an amateur theater group.” (see here (http://www.believermag.com/issues/200609/?read=article_lafarge)).
While Dave Arneson later had the innovation of having his players "roll up" characters, for his "homebrew" of Chainmail:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/04/the-original-dungeon-masters/

At first the players played themselves in a Fantastic medievalish world:
http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/2016/10/in-celebrate-of-dave-arnesons-birthday.html?m=1

So a wargame was made into a setting exploration game, and then was later labelled a "role-playing" game.
While it's still possible to play D&D as the wargame it once was, I'm glad that the game escaped the "wargame" appellation, which makes the game more attractive to those of us with 'less of an interest in tactics, however I argue (to beat a dead horse), that the labeling of D&D as a role-playing game is hurtful ("Your not role-playing, your roll-playing! etc.).
Just label D&D an adventure game, and people can be spared all the hand-wringing, and insults when acting and writing talents don't measure up to "role-playing" standards, and instead we can have fun exploring a fantastic world together.
Please?

Start with some basics, explain verbally that Dungeons & Dragons is a table-top adventure game in which you control the action attempts of adventurers exploring a fantastic world.

Tell them the DM describes a scene.

Players say what actions their PC attempts.

DM makes up a percentage chance of success.

Player rolls dice.

Then the DM narrates the results.

That's the game.

You will be the eyes and ears of the PC's.
Tell the players what their PC's perceive including what the PC's think the odds are. Ask them what the actions of the PC'S are like this:
"Fafhrd (use the PC's name, not the players name, this is to help immersion) you see the Witch King approach what do you do?".

Further explain that the PC's whose action attempts the players control have hit points, and when the PC's suffer damage, the PC's lose hit points. When the PC's have no hit points left, their PC's die. Stress this.
Then explain ability scores.
Start with Strength. Explain that most people have average Strength of 10, and that one in a thousand are so strong that they have a Strength of 18, and that one in a thousand are so weak that they have a Strength of 3.
Explain the other "abilities" likewise.

Next the PC's backgrounds.
Somehow (Worldbuild a reason by Crom!) the PC's speak the language of the region the adventure starts in, but they come from somewhere else, "a small village", "the forest", :the Hall of the Mountain King", together you can add details later.

What gods do the PC's worship?
None.
They worship a goddess who goes by many names:
Tyche, Fortuna, Dame Fortune, The "Lady" (luck). Her holy symbol is dice used as a necklace, and her worshippers hymn is "please, oh please, oh please! ".

Introduce the rest of the Pantheon in play, through what the PC's see and hear. Likewise the Geography.

What brings them to the adventure site?

Treasure!

I'd have to say that I would like to start the campaign In medias res, by the DM telling us something like:
“In the Year of the Behemoth, the Month of the Hedgehog, The Day of the Toad."

"Satisfied that they your near the goal of your quest, you think of how you had slit the interesting-looking vellum page from the ancient book on architecture that reposed in the library of the rapacious and overbearing Lord Rannarsh."

“It was a page of thick vellum, ancient and curiously greenish. Three edges were frayed and worn; the fourth showed a clean and recent cut. It was inscribed with the intricate hieroglyphs of Lankhmarian writing, done in the black ink of the squid. Reading":
"Let kings stack their treasure houses ceiling-high, and merchants burst their vaults with hoarded coin, and fools envy them. I have a treasure that outvalues theirs. A diamond as big as a man's skull. Twelve rubies each as big as the skull of a cat. Seventeen emeralds each as big as the skull of a mole. And certain rods of crystal and bars of orichalcum. Let Overlords swagger jewel-bedecked and queens load themselves with gems, and fools adore them. I have a treasure that will outlast theirs. A treasure house have I builded for it in the far southern forest, where the two hills hump double, like sleeping camels, a day's ride beyond the village of Soreev.

"A great treasure house with a high tower, fit for a king's dwelling—yet no king may dwell there. Immediately below the keystone of the chief dome my treasure lies hid, eternal as the glittering stars. It will outlast me and my name,"

100 years ago the sorcerer Zenopus built a tower on the low hills overlooking Portown. The tower was close to the sea cliffs west of the town and, appropriately, next door to the graveyard.
Rumor has it that the magician made extensive cellars and tunnels underneath the tower. The town is located on the ruins of a much older city of doubtful history and Zenopus was said to excavate in his cellars in search of ancient treasures.

Fifty years ago, on a cold wintry night, the wizard's tower was suddenly engulfed in green flame. Several of his human servants escaped the holocaust, saying their rnaster had been destroyed by some powerful force he had unleashed in the depths of the tower.
Needless to say the tower stood vacant fora while afterthis, but then the neighbors and the night watchmen comploined that ghostly blue lights appeared in the windows at night, that ghastly screams could be heard emanating from the tower ot all hours, and goblin figures could be seen dancina on the tower roof in the moonlight. Finally the authorities had a catapult rolled through the streets of the town and the tower was battered to rubble. This stopped the hauntings but the townsfolk continue to shun the ruins. The entrance to the old dungeons can be easily located as a flight of broad stone steps leading down into darkness, but the few adventurous souls who hove descended into crypts below the ruin have either reported only empty stone corridors or have failed to return at all.
Other magic-users have moved into the town but the site of the old tower remains abandoned.
Whispered tales are told of fabulous treasure and unspeakable monsters in the underground passages below the hilltop, and the story tellers are always careful to point out that the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of the older, pre-human city, to the graveyard, and to the sea.
Portown is a small but busy city 'linking the caravan routes from the south to the merchant ships that dare the pirate-infested waters of the Northern Sea. Humans and non-humans from all over the globe meet here.
At he Green Dragon Inn, the players of the game gather their characters for an assault on the fabulous passages beneath the ruined Wizard's tower.

:smile:



To avoid "railroading" don't drop the PC's into a situation that is lame with their having no choice in the matter
Instead, as in treasure seeking examples, the DM has dropped the PC's into a situation that is AWESOME! so of course the players would choose it.

Don't forget to have someone say:

"When do we get there?"
"Real soon!"

"Demon Dogs!"

"What is best in life?

"This goes to eleven".

"What about you centurion, do you think there's anything funny?"

"A shrubbery!"

:wink:

Your welcome.

I've also found that paradoxically the less prep work I've done, the more my players seemed to like it.

We need more DM's.

Good luck.

If a rules and prep light game was acceptable now, I think that would go a long way to ending the DM shortage, but I don't know how much the expectation for rules and prep heavy games is do to players or to standards that potential DM's expect of themselves.