Want to give the Forever DM a break, but I'm lazy: Is there any good option for me?

[theonesin]

My group's been playing for a long while, but only one person DMs most of the time. A few have ran campaigns for chunks of time, but they fell off for various reasons. I've ran one DnD module(White Plume Mountain) for the group with some success, and attempted to start my own campaign but like 2 sessions in ran into writer's block and general panic on what to do.

Mechanically I tend to be one of the people in the group most adept at the rules, to the point where I can kind of act as rules lawyer(tending towards the DM's benefit if anything), so I always think I'd be a decent fit for DMing. But I freely admit that I am lazy, have a lack of motivation, and ZERO notetaking skills(not just in tabletop, but life in general), and feel I have questionable roleplay ability.

Maybe it's a forgone conclusion and I'm simply not a good fit for a DM, but I'll just throw this out there: is there any game or system that could somehow mesh with me and feel feasible to run?

[Mastikator]

If you're in a writers block ask your players what they want to do, if they can't give specific answers ask for general. Then just do short quests based on what they want to do, plus what you think makes sense.

[Faily]

If White Plume Mountain was a success, maybe check out another published adventure, or Adventure Path? The benefit of those is that most of the work is done for you and you don't have to think of what's the plot is going to be or what the party should fight. :smallsmile:

[animorte]

Assuming you're on 5e, Advent has some nicely organized things you can find right this way. (https://forums.giantitp.com/search.php?searchid=1131949)

[Spore]

Mechanically I tend to be one of the people in the group most adept at the rules, to the point where I can kind of act as rules lawyer(tending towards the DM's benefit if anything), so I always think I'd be a decent fit for DMing. ?

I'll let you in on a little secret. You can be lazy with prep work if you just bull**** your way through DMing. Which incidentally makes you realize maybe the hard rules are not so hard in the first place because most stuff is made up by the DM in between some framework.

Take a half demonic enforcer of one of the earlier 5e modules. By RAW he is a CR 5 80 HP encounter with no resistances, middling armor class, a single melee attack and the ability to cast firebolt. It is a decent fight for weak builds who are hurting for ressources. Imagine a rogue who picked skill expert to get skills with painting supplies, a cleric with Con 12 who loses concentration all the time and a fighter who is not aware how to control their character properly.

The character is the mayor's enforcer and generally a scary dude in-story. But once your group knows what to do he is a joke, even with minions. Give him the ability to cast Burning Hands (costing him a hit die each time) and up his AC a bit (demonic hide) or give him demonic resistance to normal weapons and suddenly the character properly portrays the scariness instory. (personally I had to even give him a second health bar and form because my players were so damn overpowered).

Yet such things happen all the time. I am no advocate of "let them punch the bad until everyone got their attack in, then let it die dramatically regardless of HP" but you have to adjust stuff. Similar to the dissonance of a HP 100+ fighter not being able to be hit ingame with several dozen cuts, a boulder and some fire magic, but rather some of the HP being "luck points" you need to do a bit of rules tweaking behind the scenes to make them memorable.

As such I tend to take established modules with a satisfying narrative and tweak the numbers because players need to be challenged since most modules are so easy. Keep in mind the type of player that wants and needs to relax during D&D too! Not everything needs to be tiptop.

[Just to Browse]

I'd suggest trying a game with more room with low note footprint and a small amount of prep. Blades in the Dark seems like a possibility. The tracking you need is mostly a handful of clocks with names on them, and a lot of your descriptions will be about things happening (as opposed to role-playing NPCs).

[Segev]

Running Tomb of Annihilation or Storm King's Thunder or even Against the Giants (from the same book as White Plume Mountain) would give you a decent campaign-length module to work from.

[Zhorn]

Running Tomb of Annihilation or Storm King's Thunder or even Against the Giants (from the same book as White Plume Mountain) would give you a decent campaign-length module to work from.
Seconding that.
Plenty of great DMs out there that run regular games and never a scrap of original content.

[Pauly]

I’ll suggest going to a PbtA. PbtA isn’t my cup of tea so take my suggestion with a handful of salt, but PbtA relies more on the players creating content than the GM providing content.
Usual caveats about PbtA requiring more mature players, players who know about and engage with the setting and players who are willing to actively create rather than passively process apply.

[gatorized]

Maze Rats.

[Satinavian]

I would recommend running existing modules. Preferably a full campaigns/adventure paths.

That might lock you into one of the big systems with lots of support, but it is the easiest way if "coming up with adventures" is not your strong point.

[Easy e]

Does your Forever GM want a break?

Often, we play 1-shots of various games when we are down a person OR when the GM needs a bit of time to prepare. This gives the group a chance to try their hand at different games and let's the GM be a player in something completely new.

Something more "narrative" and less mechanics heavy is great for these types of games. We have used Those Dark Places, Flashlight, Princes of the Universe, WEG Star Wars, Monster of the Week, Hard City, and others. These types of 1 or 2 shots allow for quick character build and generally the GM can improvise as they go. The players are doing the heavy lifting of the adventure.

As a lazy-GM myself just get really good at asking the characters to fill in the gaps like:

1. Why is this NPC important?
2. If they search, what did they find?
3. Who is their foe and why?
4. What just made this more challenging?

You can make really compelling stories that are interesting to the players, because they are doing all the work.

[KorvinStarmast]

Great Ork Gods.
A fun one shot, not too heavy.
A blurb from the game:

Great Ork Gods is a roleplaying game of rampaging Orks and their malignant Gods. Unlike many other roleplaying games, Great Ork Gods is designed to be played for an evening and then forgotten about. Don't take it too seriously; it's not that kind of a game. We had a blast, yes we did. :smallsmile: