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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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

    Simple question, what do you perceive as harder to do?

    1. Player
    Harder- You have to know your character inside and out, and play them properly. This includes the mechanics, role in the party, and role-play the character. You have to work with the group dynamics and work with your fellow party members.

    You have to recall and decipher all the GM's stupid plot points, NPCs and clues. :)

    Easier- You get to react to the world and uncover it as you go.

    2. GM
    Harder- You have to make an engaging world, PCs, and Scenes for players to interact with, You have to know the rules well enough to not get buffaloed, or deal with the occasional rules lawyer. Your job is to set the pace, tone, and make judgement calls. You may feel responsibly for people at the table having fun.

    Easier- You word is law, and you can outsource some of the heavy lifting to players in a pinch. They solve the problems you pose, you don't solve them! You get to react to the players.



    I think both offer unique challenges, but for you personally what role is more challenging?
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    Titan in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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

    Harder? DM. Many more things to track, much more of a "single point of failure", at least in "traditional" games.

    More rewarding and, to me, more fun? Also DM. Which is why I do it more than anything else. In part because worldbuilding is a large chunk of my fun.
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  3. - Top - End - #3
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    Being a GM is a thousand times harder.

    I say this as I sit here feeling steamrolled and creatively exhausted, trying to plan for my next session with half my players either deployed or avalanched with family issues, and a small cloud of potential new players like quantum gnats, buzzing vaguely while not fully here or not-here, some of whom have never played a d20 RPG before.

    Like PhoenixPhyre, I enjoy worldbuilding and throw myself into it, but that also means I want to build everything myself and that leads to mountains of effort. Designing interesting encounters, that both engage the players and help advance the overall storyline, is another thick layer of effort, and one that I often have a great deal of trouble with. Creating histories, cultures, landscapes, languages all makes sense to me; but devising encounters and balancing game mechanics is a struggle more often than not.

    Add to that building, developing and playing every other person and creature in the campaign world—goals, motivations, personalities, abilities—to say nothing of keeping track of rules and class features, especially when I keep tripping over tiny and not-so-tiny differences between 3.5 and Pathfinder. I still sometimes ask my players for a Spot check or a Search check or a Jump check; fortunately they’re used to it.

    Scheduling, bookkeeping, XP; finding artwork and battlemaps that fit the mood and the environment; fighting with Roll20 and Discord, both of which were apparently designed by lobotomized apricots; trying to keep track of individual character arcs and player aspirations in the context of a complex storyline that they impact with every session.

    It’s a highly demanding part-time job with no pay, no benefits, and for the most part no help from anyone else. It has its moments, but it’s emotionally draining and incredibly time-intensive. I wanted to just be a player, but no one else wanted to DM, so I stepped up and here I am, right on the raggedy edge.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Titan in the Playground
     
    NecromancerGuy

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

    Being a GM is significantly harder and it goes up from there.

    The main burden on being a GM is that you have more to create. This is why GMing requires more prep time per week than being a Player does. This burden only increases if you are more ambitious in what you create, or if your tools are fighting you.

    Palanan covers this in more detail above.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    SwashbucklerGuy

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

    Being a GM. It's just more to deal with. More rules, more characters, more people, more subsystems. A skilled DM can make it feel like its a lesser load, can find ways to manage it better, but fundamentally it's just more volume and therefore more difficult.

    Not saying it can't also be more rewarding, only that it is simply more work.

    ---
    I think being a player can seem difficult, even if you are good. Especially when dealing with new people, a new system or a new campaign. Different groups can have different bars and learning curves. Figuring those out, especially when you're the new player in an old group can be difficult as those things aren't always communicated. And while that's hard, it's still not as hard as having to actually run and manage the entire game.
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    Firbolg in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    IMO being a GM is anywhere from 10 to 100 more difficult but about 4 times more rewarding.
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    Having been both, GM, no question. Planning out all of the sessions beforehand, actually running the thing, rules mastery, dealing with derails and unexpected turns, creating multiple memorable NPCs that have distinct personalities that you have to play (sometimes several in the same scene) ... absolutely more work, and the work is harder.

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

    GM/DM burnout is a very real thing for a reason: it takes more out of you.

    In other news, water is wet.
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    Troll in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    GM, definitely. I mean, GMing can in some cases be more enjoyable than playing, but it's still more work even then.

    The only thing that's easier is that most foes can be built a lot more sloppily than a PC. And in some systems the foes are very mechanically simple. But honestly mechanics are not the part of GMing I consider "hard work" - roleplaying many characters, spotlight management, making decent rulings, prep and/or improv, and maintaining good pacing are all more difficult than that, for me at least.

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    Is there anyone who thinks being a player is harder? I don't see how that could be the case. Maybe in an odd system.

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Troll in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    If being a player is harder, why is it harder to find a GM? Many GMs wishes to be players if only there was someone else to take their place. Many players... wishes to find a group if only they could find a GM.

    Yeah GM is easily and by orders of magnitude harder, it's not even close. GMs often spend more time on prep than the players spend combined on their characters. The majority of the effort is on the GM alone.

    It's more rewarding to be a GM though. Also by far.

    Edit- the expectation on GMs is also orders of magnitude higher. To be a good GM you have to
    • Prepare a campaign
    • Consider each player
    • Consider each character
    • Consider more NPCs than the players can imagine
    • Make up a bunch of nonsense on the spot during play
    • Listen to everyone equally and not play favorites (even though some players are obviously more helpful)
    • Consider interesting quests that will compell players to action
    • Consider rewards for players that won't bone you in the long term
    • Have amazing understanding of the rules
    • Have amazing ruling capabilites


    To be a good player you have to
    • Know what your character can and can't do
    • Take notes and pay attention, maybe have a plan
    • Not be disruptive


    The GM has to be an amazing person, the player has to not be a jerk. The expectations are completely out of whack.
    Last edited by Mastikator; 2023-06-06 at 02:42 PM.
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  12. - Top - End - #12
    Librarian in the Playground Moderator
     
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    GM, without a doubt.

    Being a player means showing up. It helps if you have a basic idea of the rules, and if you want to invest some personality in your character, all the better. But baseline player is really easy.

    Being a GM means homework. You have to know the rules, know the setting, know the scenario (whether you're writing it or not). A fair amount of this can be half-assed, but even a half-ass GM job is way beyond a bare minimum player job of "Show up, keep breathing, respond to prompts."
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  13. - Top - End - #13
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    GM easily.

    Setting aside the massive labor of running a persistent open world, even when I would DM Adventurer's League modules (already packaged up for me), I'd have to read it 2-3 times ahead of time so I didn't bog down play by being confused about my own game, create and print out battle maps, locate and print tokens, decide and prep how I was going to play the NPCs and then all the usual stuff about running the game: knowing rules for everyone, not just your one subclass, answering questions, mediating disagreements, etc. It was satisfying and enjoyable -- especially when your table next week had all the same players -- but definitely more effort than *playing* a game which was "Show up, be engaged and hopefully know your To Hit modifier and/or spell list".

    I've also run plenty of home brew but the point is that even "easy mode GMing" out of a module for a 2-3hr one-shot was still way more work than playing it.

  14. - Top - End - #14
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    Daemon

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

    I will say it's easier to be a bad GM than a good one, by a lot. But let's not try to be bad GMs or players.

    And having good players does lighten the load--I know I can prep less and ad lib more if the players are really into the game and their characters. Well...really prep differently. But differently in a way that I personally find easier. More situations and scenarios, less exact maps and DCs and decision trees.
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    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    As fun as it would be to disagree with literally everyone, I have to agree that being a GM is harder, though by how much depends a lot on both system and GM style (and the players, I suppose. While I seem to have been fairly lucky in that department, some players seem to increase the workload and/or stress level by a lot).
    Last edited by Batcathat; 2023-06-06 at 02:57 PM.

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    Firbolg in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    Quote Originally Posted by PhoenixPhyre View Post
    I will say it's easier to be a bad GM than a good one, by a lot. But let's not try to be bad GMs or players.

    And having good players does lighten the load--I know I can prep less and ad lib more if the players are really into the game and their characters. Well...really prep differently. But differently in a way that I personally find easier. More situations and scenarios, less exact maps and DCs and decision trees.
    This cannot be over stated. Good players(not meaning beings able to memorize the rules or play tactical 5D chess) exponentially drop the GMs work load.
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  17. - Top - End - #17
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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

    Quote Originally Posted by stoutstien View Post
    This cannot be over stated. Good players(not meaning beings able to memorize the rules or play tactical 5D chess) exponentially drop the GMs work load.
    And increase the reward even faster. Playing with detached, mostly-not-into-it players is hard work and low fun. Playing with involved, actively-biting-at-hooks, actively creating hooks players who mostly handle the interpersonal stuff so the GM doesn't also have to play table mommy? Way less work and way way way more fun.

    Edit: apathy is just about the worst. Players that are just like "meh, whatever." suck to GM for. Because you have to drag them through everything without getting any emotional feedback/energy from them in return. Even hate is better than apathy IMO.
    Last edited by PhoenixPhyre; 2023-06-06 at 03:06 PM.
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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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

    Well, since I don't get to play as much as I used to I find it harder. Mostly learning the "tricks" of the system/class and staying in character is a lot harder than I expect every. single. time.



    I actually find GMing pretty easy as I "outsource" a lot of the work to the players to do. Sometimes, when I sit down to play I don't even have anything but the 1st scene sketched out in my mind. The rest develops as play goes along and I follow the lead of the Players. Typical set-up is an In Media Res and there are no "We meet at an Inn" type beginnings. The players then show me where to go and what they want to do, and I just add some details as we go along. Sometimes, I actually have to lay out a potential path, but my folks are pretty self-motivated.

    Therefore, I don't "prep" a world like so many others do, I just let it develop as we go and take notes as I go along. My typical set-up is that they are in the borderlands of a great and decaying kingdom that can no long support these outlying regions, so there is plenty of space to fill in. The players themselves fill in a lot during character creation as I ask them questions about their character to help me and them get a feel for it. Then I feather those things in as well.

    If it is your typical "Out-on-the-Frontier" style game it is even easier as have the "fun" is exploring and learning stuff.
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  19. - Top - End - #19
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    GM by a landslide. Much much much harder. You basically have to cover everything. I actually swap GMing duties with another person at my table, so I see this side by side in the same exact game setting and system. I sometimes have near panic attacks if game day comes along, and I realize "crap. I have to write up X, Y, or Z, and have this done by start of game session". As a player? All I have to do is show up with my character sheet. And just sit back and enjoy the game.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mastikator View Post
    Edit- the expectation on GMs is also orders of magnitude higher. To be a good GM you have to
    • Prepare a campaign
    • Consider each player
    • Consider each character
    • Consider more NPCs than the players can imagine
    • Make up a bunch of nonsense on the spot during play
    • Listen to everyone equally and not play favorites (even though some players are obviously more helpful)
    • Consider interesting quests that will compell players to action
    • Consider rewards for players that won't bone you in the long term
    • Have amazing understanding of the rules
    • Have amazing ruling capabilites
    Yup. You touched on this, but it bears repeating. Everything the GM puts into the game has to be considered carefully, not just as an effect in the short term, but also in a "how might this be horribly abused or imbalanced in the future?". You have to write storylines, create NPCs to fit into those things, and craft all of this such that it both makes sense, the players can follow along naturally without feeling like they're being railroaded *and* not make some really massive mistake and leave a gaping hole in your adventure for the PCs to march right through.

    And yeah. You have to know the rules as well or better than your players. You have to know the setting as well or better than your players. And if you are fumbling around, trying to find materials, or figure things out while the players are sitting there waiting, it's going to be a poor experience for everyone.


    Quote Originally Posted by Mastikator View Post
    To be a good player you have to
    • Know what your character can and can't do
    • Take notes and pay attention, maybe have a plan
    • Not be disruptive
    Yup. Literally just show up with your character sheet (and know the rules enough to know what the stuff on that sheet means). That's it. Everything else is handled by the GM. Ok. Yeah. You have to play the character and not be a jerk (I'd hope that's a minimum for both positions though). Now to be fair, I usually take on the role of "party treasurer/recordkeeper". But that's like nothing. One spiral notebook. Open to new page. Write start date/location (maybe adventure name if the GM named it). Pencil in a box to one side with the watch schedule (once that's determined). Er... And write down stuff you find, and put names next to them for who got what. Maybe doodle some notes about important things, names, places, etc. That's like 1/1000th the work the GM puts in for any given adventure. I don't have to come up with anything. Just take notes. How hard is that?

    You also have the advantage as a player that you (your character) is actually gaining "stuff" while playing. You get the experience (both personally and on your character sheet). Your character gains items, skills, etc. You "advance" in some way. GMs don't take nearly the kind of pride or interest in changes to their NPCs as players do to their PCs (I can write an NPC with pretty much anything I want, but can't do that with my PCs). There's a little more tangible reward/gain for the players there. When players "win", it feels good and is a victory. The same sort of thing doesn't exist on the GM side. The GM "wins" when the players have a good time, which usually *isn't* about the "GM winning", or at least not the GM's NPCs winning. That's usually "bad" for the players. So the GM has to balance "difficult/challenging" with "fun/rewarding". And that can be tricky.


    Quote Originally Posted by Easy e View Post
    I actually find GMing pretty easy as I "outsource" a lot of the work to the players to do. Sometimes, when I sit down to play I don't even have anything but the 1st scene sketched out in my mind. The rest develops as play goes along and I follow the lead of the Players. Typical set-up is an In Media Res and there are no "We meet at an Inn" type beginnings. The players then show me where to go and what they want to do, and I just add some details as we go along. Sometimes, I actually have to lay out a potential path, but my folks are pretty self-motivated.

    Therefore, I don't "prep" a world like so many others do, I just let it develop as we go and take notes as I go along. My typical set-up is that they are in the borderlands of a great and decaying kingdom that can no long support these outlying regions, so there is plenty of space to fill in. The players themselves fill in a lot during character creation as I ask them questions about their character to help me and them get a feel for it. Then I feather those things in as well.

    If it is your typical "Out-on-the-Frontier" style game it is even easier as have the "fun" is exploring and learning stuff.
    How long do these games tend to go though? I find that you can do this for a short while in a setting, but at some point, the players start to expect some kind of story or plot or... something. Some reason why they are where they are, doing what they are doing. And yes, you can absolutely craft that based on PC backstory and player proposed ideas, but you still have to actually craft that stuff. And you have to make it make sense.

    There's a definite skill to taking 5 or 6 separate player backstory and/or proposed storyarcs and weaving them together into a single coherent set of scenarios for the PCs to actually play through. Sometimes, things just mesh up well. But sometimes? It can be a struggle. Again though, that's stuff the GM has to do that the players really don't. Even if you are asking your players for detailed backstory and storyarc objectives (not uncommon), the player doesn't have to consider how those things are going to "fit" with anything else. You have to do that part. And that's by far the hardest part IMO.

  20. - Top - End - #20
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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

    Most of the campaign are 8-12 sessions of about 4 hours per game session. So 32-48 hours or so. Then it is time to let some one else take a shot at it.

    I don't really do long drawn out campaigns myself, but some of my fellow GMs prefer that. I typically start with a inciting incident and some vague idea of the campaign end state objectives. All the stuff in between?

    Of course, I will be the first to admit that I could be a bad GM too. :)
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    SwashbucklerGuy

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Atranen View Post
    Is there anyone who thinks being a player is harder? I don't see how that could be the case. Maybe in an odd system.
    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.
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    Daemon

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

    Quote Originally Posted by False God View Post
    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.
    IMX, "book DMing" is of varying difficulty depending on the module being run. At least for bare-bones DM jobs. It's really really hard for me, because I have...opinions...about running things. And running anything by just following the script is hard for me. So it feels really constraining to me and thus more stressful to "do well".

    But I could imagine it's a lot easier if you don't have those issues. Especially if the module and the players get along well and the players lean in and accept the constraints of the module.
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  23. - Top - End - #23
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    The volume of work required to be a GM is much more. That’s why published campaigns are a thing.

    Leaving aside volume of work/time considerations.
    If you have proactive and engaged players being a GM is easier. You put a skeleton out there and the players build up the muscles, sinews, skin and hair themselves.
    If you have passive and distracted players being a GM is much harder. It’s the proverbial herding cats.

    As a player if the other players are engaged you put your energy into your character. If the other players are unengaged you put your energy into working with the other characters. It’s more fun if the other players are engaged but it’s more or less the same amount of effort.

    tl;dr - good other players = easier to be a GM, poor other players = easier to be a player.

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Atranen View Post
    Is there anyone who thinks being a player is harder? I don't see how that could be the case. Maybe in an odd system.
    Me. Yes, I'm weird.

    Now obviously this takes some explaining. TLDR is that when I run games; 1) it's games that the prep is easy & fun*, and 2) once my prep is done the game just flows.

    * keeping in mind that this definition of fun includes trawling off in the Atomic Rockets website and writing game subsystem simulator programs

    First thing I do for GMing is ditch games that don't sing to me. They can't have dull parts, tedious subsystems, glitchy math, having to constantly override the rules to keep it working, or have mechanics that end up as a sarcastic joke. This is mostly subjective, but stuff like blinding everyone on the battlefield with total darkness to negate the attack penalty from being pitched around on a ship in a storm hits both the "glitchy math" and "sarcastic joke" points.

    Second thing is trim off the excess fat. Decide which subsystems I won't use. Limit the number of monsters and reformat the stat blocks so there's no book checking in the middle of game. Max 3 or 4 cheat sheets of the common bits & bobs that usually need lookups. One cheat sheet each for the major subsystems, that includes combat. Grab/make a dice roller app if it'll help, especially for random tables (one app for dice & all tables or it's a no-go).

    Third thing is testing. Take an hour or two to run through all the bits as fast as I can with just my prep. Does it play well? Did I need to recheck the books for stuff? What needs tweaks to feel right? Did anything stop me from improvising? Can I draw a decent map in a minute or two? (not in an online vtt I can't, so that's out)

    Fourth is the setting. I do sandboxes. I have bunches of stuff set up, one starter adventure that ends in a bunch of other hooks, some generic prepped bits, and some random generation stuff.

    That's it. Once they're past that initial adventure they're on to doing something and I'm not generating the plot anymore unless I really really want to do something specific. I draw maps, pick stuff out of my setting & monster selection, and have the universe react. Oh, and take notes of the friends (few) & enemies (many) they make along the way. They get stuck? Enemy (or agents of) kicks in the door and starts shooting. And there will be a clue on some dead body for them to do something with.

    Paranoia, AD&D, DtD40k7e, Champions, call of Cthulhu, Traveller. It just flows, easy like. I prepped, it was good prep, it sustains me for a year or more of GMing. And since I don't throw it away I can pick it right back up again and run another campaign in that setting. I'm doing this for fun. It's not work and it's not hard.

    I find being a player harder. D&D has gotten dull and repetitive, but the D&D flavor of the month is all that's on offer here. Online doesn't work, around 7 PM people start whining about it being midnight or they have to go to work in an hour or such. That's just geography, it's not gonna change this epoch. I just can't bring myself to give a **** about D&D mechanics any more, and it's mechanics just get more intrusive or stultifying or jank every edition since Y2K. The people are good, the D&D is like old congealed grease pizza. I'm over the themed 5/10/15-room dungeon filled with interchangable hp blobs that have a random unpredictable abilities. It doesn't matter if you slap a selection of extraplanar adjectives on it and call it a mysterious portal of exploration, it's still a theme dungeon with a dozen nodes and a batch of "wear down the hp blob" fights. It's hard, as a player, to give a **** about D&D.
    Last edited by Telok; 2023-06-07 at 01:42 AM.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    Quote Originally Posted by Atranen View Post
    Is there anyone who thinks being a player is harder? I don't see how that could be the case. Maybe in an odd system.
    To follow up a little on what Telok said. I agree with his comments about where being a GM can be easier.

    What can make being a player harder:
    - Making decisions on incomplete information. The GM always has complete info.
    - having to solve moral dilemmas. The GM sets the quandary but doesn't have to make the decision.
    - working with other players who have different agendas to create plans. The GM has complete fiat to make their own plan.
    - taking actions and hoping the other players will back you up. The GM’s NPCs will always work as a team if desired.
    - you only have on PC with limited resources. the GM has an unlimited number of NPCs with unlimited resources,

    In short PCs have to deal with uncertainty and limited resources. GMs have to deal with prep.
    Last edited by Pauly; 2023-06-07 at 01:49 AM.

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    Troll in the Playground
     
    Flumph

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Pauly View Post
    - taking actions and hoping the other players will back you up. The GM’s NPCs will always work as a team if desired.
    That's true, something which can be aggravating as a player and isn't even a concern as GM.

    Personally speaking, the fact that I don't like feeling like I'm blundering around, but also don't like bugging people to do particular things, means that I'm lukewarm on systems that have too much teamwork involved. I like teamwork in the sense of "each member brings unique skills to the party, and we're stronger together than separately" but not in the sense of "we need to plan everybody's turns together".

  27. - Top - End - #27
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: What do you perceive is harder? Being a Player or a GM?

    Being a game master is often by design set up to be more work than being a player - simply by the virtue of game master also being a game's organizer, while a player is usually just a participant. A lot of the challenges are, however, completely different. Most of player-facing difficulty is game difficulty and many things that would be hard to a player, a game master can sleepwalk through. On the flip side, a player typically doesn't have to worry of organizing and game design details.

    The differences are pronounced for me when I serve as a convention game master. Smaller hobby groups manage to share organizing duties more evenly between each other, so the differences in what they do is less pronounced before play starts.

    ---

    EDIT:
    Quote Originally Posted by False God View Post
    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.
    Running modules versus your own material is similar to playing music from notes versus playing from memory. As in, you better have put as much effort into learning how to read someone else's notes as you would've put into making your own material, if you want similar results.

    Now, speaking as a game designer, it's totally possible to make game material so that it takes less out of a game master to pick up and hold a game, than what many traditional games do. There's also a variety of approaches that can achieve this. But I'm so out of touch with mainstream modules that I can't say if, for example, contemporary D&D modules are up to snuff.
    Last edited by Vahnavoi; 2023-06-07 at 06:16 AM.

  28. - Top - End - #28
    Titan in the Playground
     
    KorvinStarmast's Avatar

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Mastikator View Post
    If being a player is harder, why is it harder to find a GM? {snip} The expectations are completely out of whack.
    Yes.
    Quote Originally Posted by LibraryOgre View Post
    A fair amount of this can be half-assed, but even a half-ass GM job is way beyond a bare minimum player job of "Show up, keep breathing, respond to prompts."
    As a player, I am not a fan of players who "show up, keep breathing, respond to prompts." And I don't mind letting t hem know that if it is their entire approach.
    From time to time, during a session, a player may revert to that mode and we all get it. The problem becomes when the player is mailing it in during each session. At that point, I'm happy to let them know that they are encroaching on the table's fun.
    The games are better if we are all playing.
    The play's the thing.
    Quote Originally Posted by PhoenixPhyre View Post
    And having good players does lighten the load--I know I can prep less and ad lib more if the players are really into the game and their characters.
    Quote Originally Posted by stoutstien View Post
    This cannot be over stated. Good players(not meaning beings able to memorize the rules or play tactical 5D chess) exponentially drop the GMs work load.
    True.
    Quote Originally Posted by PhoenixPhyre View Post
    Playing with detached, mostly-not-into-it players is hard work and low fun.
    For the other players as well. See above. (Which is why I like our Quartus group so much: all of us have buy in).
    Quote Originally Posted by Vahnavoi View Post
    But I'm so out of touch with mainstream modules that I can't say if, for example, contemporary D&D modules are up to snuff.
    The content itself is decent, but how it is presented is, due to being in book form and overly verbose in a lot of ways, for a lot of DM's an annoyance. Kurt Kurageous has some very pointed, and IMO spot on, observations on how WotC in particular needs to improve the presentation and organization of an adventure.
    Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Works
    a. Malifice (paraphrased):
    Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
    b. greenstone (paraphrased):
    Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
    Gosh, 2D8HP, you are so very correct!
    Second known member of the Greyview Appreciation Society

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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

    On the subject of Book GMing versus Your Own Creation:

    No surprise, I find book GMing to be much harder to do because my ability to ad lib as needed is constrained by the written material. It is much harder to "wing it" and therefore follow where the players want to go.
    *This Space Available*

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    RangerGuy

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Atranen View Post
    Is there anyone who thinks being a player is harder? I don't see how that could be the case. Maybe in an odd system.
    Being a player is sometimes emotionally harder for me, because I can't turn off the DM part of my brain. I don't argue with another DM's rulings when I'm playing at their table, but having once held complete creative freedom over the rules of the universe, it's very hard for me as a player whenever the fun solution I had in mind doesn't work -- especially when I feel like *I* would've let my players succeed with this idea if the roles were reversed.

    This goes hand-in-hand with the other difficulty of being a player: split focus. Sure I get to have my cool moments, but by necessity I can't be talking nonstop and have to share the spotlight. That makes it even more frustrating if my turn in combat comes up and whatever thing I wanted to do doesn't have any effect -- great, time to wait for the spellcasters to shuffle through their cards yet again, call me in 30 minutes.

    DMing is 1000 times more challenging mentally and requires loads more preparation and poise, plus a ton of soft skills, or the game falls apart. But being constantly plugged into the action means that the GM gets to participate in the entire session. There's no "dead" time for me when I'm DMing like there always is when I'm a player (and yeah, even if you're actively listening or helping throw focus to another player, you will inevitably feel disconnected from the session at some point or another.)

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