The Mythical Perfect Game, Perfect Player, Perfect DM

[Drache64]

I see lots of people looking for advice on being a good player or a good DM.

I have had sessions where the whole party laughed, had fun, begged for more. I have had amazing players, I have had amazing DMs, I have been called a great DM, taught many great DMs and had much success in this wonderful style of gaming.

Then I go online and I share these experiences with the internet in many places, not just here but also facebook groups, reddit, etc. and had the internet poo poo all over our fun amazing experience. I shared my groups laughter, our amazing time, our wildly successful session and campaign, and it gets replies of "that sounds terrible", "I would never play with you", "that being a bad player", "that's being a bad DM".

I would say the bottom line is, there is no style of of play or player that will satisfy everyone, the barometer for a perfect game, player, or DM is the fun people have.

In short, have fun with your group, don't overly focus on being a perfect player or DM, but react to your player group, do what's best for them be you player or DM, and just share in the fun experience that this game has to offer.

[Imbalance]

Absolutely. If I only ever listened to Internet advice I'd never want to try anything.

[Particle_Man]

Although I will also add that the "mythical" part for me would include "and we all have enough free time and money to play as much as we want."

[Reversefigure4]

Well, no. It's very analogous to trying to have a movie or a book that satisfies everyone. No matter how well made the respective movies are, Empire Strikes Back and Gone With The Wind (two highly popular, 5 star movies, widely accepted as classics by the general public) both satisfy complete different styles and fans.

[Faily]

I see lots of people looking for advice on being a good player or a good DM.

I have had sessions where the whole party laughed, had fun, begged for more. I have had amazing players, I have had amazing DMs, I have been called a great DM, taught many great DMs and had much success in this wonderful style of gaming.

Then I go online and I share these experiences with the internet in many places, not just here but also facebook groups, reddit, etc. and had the internet poo poo all over our fun amazing experience. I shared my groups laughter, our amazing time, our wildly successful session and campaign, and it gets replies of "that sounds terrible", "I would never play with you", "that being a bad player", "that's being a bad DM".

I would say the bottom line is, there is no style of of play or player that will satisfy everyone, the barometer for a perfect game, player, or DM is the fun people have.

In short, have fun with your group, don't overly focus on being a perfect player or DM, but react to your player group, do what's best for them be you player or DM, and just share in the fun experience that this game has to offer.

I can honestly say you're not alone!

I have so many fun play sessions with my play-groups (both on tabletop and online), with scenarios and stories that we still laugh and reminisce about years later. Amazing GMs I play with and have played with. People who say they think I'm a great GM and always are interested to play if I say I will be GMing something.

And I've read so many comments on this forum and others, directed at me and at other GMs I know, and it's like "you're a terrible GM. I'd never want to play with you". Stuff like that. It's even become a running joke in some of the groups to jokingly claim "but that's a bad game/bad GMing!" at some of the things we do because people on the internet seems to think it is.

So you're absolutely right. Everyone has different things they enjoy and each group is different. What works for one group will not work with another, and very often when we hear about how other people have fun at their table we're not even getting the full context because we as outsiders don't see all the factors coming into play to make it fun for that group.