Seeking GM Threads

[DarkOmens67]

Just a little rant.

As an OK DM/ST, it drives me nuts when I see 'Seeking DM' threads.

Ok, looking for someone to take over because the previous one left, I get it. These are not the threads that befuddle me.

1. Why ask for a DM and then proceed to provide your personal 'BIG 16'? Why not allow the prospective DM have the freedom to make options and choices? I have been gaming for over 30 years and have never encountered a storyteller that accepted so many parameters by a single player.

2. If a person has that many specifications, why not create their own campaign world and run the game themselves? Every DM/ST/GM started somewhere. We fell, made mistakes, some loved our campaigns while others hated them. Today the population of DMs is decreasing and people with grand ideas are needed to step in.

I'm sure there is more to say, but I'm trying to be nice.

[KillianHawkeye]

Why ask for a DM and then proceed to provide your personal 'BIG 16'?

Are we meant to guess at what this is supposed to mean? "Big 16" what? :smallconfused:

Anyway, being frustrated is normal, but I'm not sure what you expect to get out of this post. People have the right to be picky if they want to be, as long as they remember that beggars can't be choosers. But also, knowing what you want out of a DM doesn't necessarily equate to being a good DM. It's much harder to actually do it than it is to critique it (as with anything, really).

But I do agree that every player should at least try out being a DM, if for nothing else than to gain a little perspective of what it's like on the other side of the screen. Not everyone can really be a DM, though. It requires a lot of work behind the scenes, and many people either can't or won't do that work. So it really isn't fair to say "if you don't like my DMing, DM it yourself" or whatever.

[JNAProductions]

Just a little rant.

As an OK DM/ST, it drives me nuts when I see 'Seeking DM' threads.

Ok, looking for someone to take over because the previous one left, I get it. These are not the threads that befuddle me.

1. Why ask for a DM and then proceed to provide your personal 'BIG 16'? Why not allow the prospective DM have the freedom to make options and choices? I have been gaming for over 30 years and have never encountered a storyteller that accepted so many parameters by a single player.

2. If a person has that many specifications, why not create their own campaign world and run the game themselves? Every DM/ST/GM started somewhere. We fell, made mistakes, some loved our campaigns while others hated them. Today the population of DMs is decreasing and people with grand ideas are needed to step in.

I'm sure there is more to say, but I'm trying to be nice.

Because being a GM and being a player are very different experiences. As someone who frequently GMs, there are some ideas I want to use as a player, not as lord of the universe.

So long as you're not pestering potential GMs, like PMing random people on the site to run or game or anything like that... Why does it matter? If the game seems cool, offer to run it or play in it. If not, just move on.

[DarkOmens67]

Because being a GM and being a player are very different experiences. As someone who frequently GMs, there are some ideas I want to use as a player, not as lord of the universe.

So long as you're not pestering potential GMs, like PMing random people on the site to run or game or anything like that... Why does it matter? If the game seems cool, offer to run it or play in it. If not, just move on.

OK. So you want to try something out. I get that as well, at the same time you aren't going to list off two dozen requirements that a GM needs to fulfill. Most people usually allow the GM/DM some freedom to create a unique campaign.

What is the point? People need to have their priorities, that is fine. Having a dozen priorities is a bit much. A person seeking a GM, for a specific genre, specific level, and a specific setting. Those are acceptable parameters. However if a person is going to list off a mountain's pile of demands, they might as well create the world to accommodate such a detailed listing.

I agree that GMing is a different experience than playing; so, allow the DM/GM/ST the luxury of creating their own unique world and don't try to tell them how to do it. Solo-games are more accommodating to such expectations but it is impossible for storytellers to accommodate every player and their twenty wishes.

[Burning Spear]

OK. So you want to try something out. I get that as well, at the same time you aren't going to list off two dozen requirements that a GM needs to fulfill. Most people usually allow the GM/DM some freedom to create a unique campaign.

What is the point? People need to have their priorities, that is fine. Having a dozen priorities is a bit much. A person seeking a GM, for a specific genre, specific level, and a specific setting. Those are acceptable parameters. However if a person is going to list off a mountain's pile of demands, they might as well create the world to accommodate such a detailed listing.

I agree that GMing is a different experience than playing; so, allow the DM/GM/ST the luxury of creating their own unique world and don't try to tell them how to do it. Solo-games are more accommodating to such expectations but it is impossible for storytellers to accommodate every player and their twenty wishes.
I think you are over-simplifying and over-reacting a bit much, but hey ho.. :smallwink:
Playing online comes with it's own issues, I HATE having to "apply" to a game and not get in, but that's how it seems to work on the webz.


anybody interested in hosting a 3.5,
6th lvl party in Daggerdale around the
Doom of Daggerdale's adv-timeline? :)
Elephant in the room feats-rules,
2 Flaws/ 2 Traits,
40 point buy, Game?.

I'd like to play through the Doom of Daggerdale's
adventure, set around 1358, then continuing on into
the other classic Adv surrounding Zhentil Keep 2nd Ed.
I just don't want to start as a lvl 1 mook, raising the
starting lvl to 6 as play by post is slow in progression.
Would you class this as a "Mountain's Pile"? :smallbiggrin:

[truemane]

OK. So you want to try something out. I get that as well, at the same time you aren't going to list off two dozen requirements that a GM needs to fulfill.
This is going to sound facetious, but it's meant sincerely: why not?

If I want to be a player in a game, and I have two dozen (three dozen, ten dozen, a thousand) extremely stringent requirements for what that game NEEDS to be, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It just means that it's extremely unlikely that I'll get what I'm looking for. But I'm still allowed to want it.

A request is not an obligation. It's not as though the first DM who reads any request is bound by law to do what I want. And if you, a DM, come across a an unacceptable, all you have to is... nothing. Nothing! Just keep on moving. The correct response is, literally, nothing.


Most people usually allow the GM/DM some freedom to create a unique campaign.
Lot of subjective value judgements masquerading as facts here. First off, Citation Needed. I'm not at all convinced that 'most' people do this. Second, the word 'allow' here is doing a lot of work. People requesting games aren't 'allowing' anything. They're requesting something. And someone else is offering something. And then they see if they can find enough common ground to move forward. And 'unique' isn't even a factor here. A campaign could emerge from a request with three dozen dealbreakers and be unique. A game could emerge from a request with no dealbreakers and be entirely derivative.

You seem to be trying to say that DM's who get to do whatever they want make better campaigns than DM's who custom make a campaign for someone? If so, that is demonstrably false.


What is the point? People need to have their priorities, that is fine. Having a dozen priorities is a bit much. A person seeking a GM, for a specific genre, specific level, and a specific setting. Those are acceptable parameters.
The word 'acceptable' is doing a lot of work here. What you actually mean is acceptable to you. You're allowed to have preferences for players, same as a player is allowed to have preferences for DM's. Which just means that, if someone has more requirements than you like, you're not the right DM for them. In which case, as above, you actually don't have to do anything at all. You can just close the thread and go do something else (possibly while shaking your head ruefully, if that's your thing).


However if a person is going to list off a mountain's pile of demands, they might as well create the world to accommodate such a detailed listing.
Strongest disagreement. I have a small bucket list of niche game ideas that I've been wanting to be a player in for years (decades in a couple of cases). I've run those games for other people lots of times in those years, and that's one kind of fun. But it doesn't scratch the same itch.


I agree that GMing is a different experience than playing; so, allow the DM/GM/ST the luxury of creating their own unique world and don't try to tell them how to do it. Solo-games are more accommodating to such expectations but it is impossible for storytellers to accommodate every player and their twenty wishes.
Or, alternate idea: just let people have their preferences and, if they don't align with yours, just walk away.

If someone is somehow forcing you to DM a game you don't want to, then I can understand your grievance. But just being angry at things people want, in ways you are under zero obligation to do anything about?

That's "Old Man Yells at Cloud" territory.

[KillianHawkeye]

Yeah, it sort of feels like the OP is complaining about things that have no practical effect on him at this point. :smallconfused:

[Jay R]

There are two brute facts behind this phenomenon. And you can't understand it without acknowledging them.

1. People want what they want, not what you think they "should" want.

2. There are a shortage of good GMs. Lots of players are failing to find somebody to run a game for them. By contrast, I've never had trouble finding players when I wanted to run a game.

3. And the more requirements you have for a GM, the harder it is to find one.

So the more requirements you have for a GM, the harder it will be to find one, so it's more likely that you will eventually need to resort to that kind of thread.

That's all.