What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

[Jay R]

First comment: we don't all DM the same way, and we don't all play the same way. So take anything I say with a grain of salt.

For instance, I usually have 4-8 pages of character development written by the time we sit down to play. Many people have no interest in that, but it's part of how I decide who my PC is, and what I hope he or she will grow into.

Similarly, I have never used a pre-printed campaign. So whatever effect they have, I've never dealt with it.

For the sake of argument....

I mostly wonder about how much easier "book DMing" is, that is running a pre-printed adventure module or campaign and really sticking to the script. It's just something I don't do because I don't enjoy it, but I wonder if that makes DMing "easier" or at least "easy as" being a player.

In my experience, a pre-printed module is almost as much work, since I have to make it fit my world -- the culture, politics, races, etc. I've never run a pre-printed campaign, but I expect that it would be *more* work, since I would have to learn somebody else's entire world. That might not be true for other DMs, but I would prefer to run a world I that created, and that works as I think it should.

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Also, it's worth pointing out that DMing and playing are differently hard. At the table, its about the same level of difficulty. As player or DM, I'm am fully engaged from start to finish, trying to track everything and keep full notes. But what I'm trying to do is different. As a player, I know what my PC has done; I'm trying to learn what the situation is, and decide how to react to it tactically.

As a DM, I know the situation; I'm trying to keep track of what effect the PCs' actions have had, and to rule fairly and competently, while simultaneously deciding how the NPCs react to it.

Both of these are full-time activities, and in both cases, I'm always just barely keeping up.

The biggest differences are away from the table.

When I'm playing (for instance) a gnome illusionist, I spend far more time researching everything he can do, or can grow into, in any situation that might come up in the next few levels. So I've drilled down far deeper on my PC's possibilities than I do as a DM. But as a DM, I need to understand what each of my players' PCs can do right now. Not what they might choose in four levels, like I do with my own PC, but everything they can do as they are. I also need to understand what each NPC might do -- in this game in this situation.

So my research as a player is deeper, but my research as a DM is far, far wider.

Fortunately, it's play, not work, in both cases.