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Monday, March 4, 2013

Do You Consider Yourself Primarily a GM or a Player



I'm fairly certain I've asked this question around this time last year, but as my readership has grown (and the opportunities to play online have greatly increased with apps like Roll20) I figure GM's Day 2013 is as good a time to ask the question as any.

For myself, I primarily see myself as a GM. It doesn't mean i don't get nervous as all hell before every game session, even with folks that I consider "my friends" (although one-shot pick up style games up that anxiety level). It's just that I seem to be more geared towards the GM's side of the screen.

I do enjoy playing, but I find myself too easily distracted by "down time", especially with Hangout Style gaming, where I can surf the web when I'm not the focus. Being the GM makes in game web surfing much more difficult ;)

So, what do you see yourself primarily as: GM or Player?

20 comments:

  1. GM tried and true. I have almost zero ability to be a good player.

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    1. ...by which I mean, I've GMed so much that it has "pulled back the curtain" for me, so to speak, on the player side so I just don't enjoy it any more.

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  2. I almost always am the GM and I usually prefer this. It allows me to use my vast hoard of modules, sourcebooks, and zines for more than just reading material. It keeps me more engaged in the game to run it as a bonus.

    I can barely get my game group to read the rules for a boardgame let alone an RPG and modules. Though they will argue that I read them wrong, or that the heard different on Boardgame Geek.

    Any hope of getting them into Burning Wheel or Burning Empires is sort of moot. BOO HOO!!!

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  3. GM mostly. I rarely get to play these days.

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  4. I'm a GM first and foremost, but enjoy playing when I can. GMing is a huge creative outlet for me. As a player there's not much room to create, especially in between games.

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  5. Player. I GM a lot, but I'm a player more often.

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  6. Definitely a GM. Too much of a control freak to give up the reigns.

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  7. I find that I really do enjoy both.. as long as I play something different then I DM (I playing in a Pathfinder game but DMing a BFRPG game)

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  8. Recently about 50-50, though at the moment I'm only GMing.

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  9. I'm a referee mostly, but a player occasionally. I prefer the former.

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  10. Up until this past year, I mostly GMed, now, I do an equal bit of both and I'm digging it.

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  11. Since I mostly only get to play the games I've written, I always end up as GM, since I'm the only one who really knows the rules well enough to run! I'd love to get back into playing regularly as a player, but time just doesn't allow it... maybe someday...

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  12. DM. I have fun taking the role of PC but I always want to do more with the campaign than one PC should rightfully manage.

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. GM

    Im a horrible player who needs secrets, intrigue, plots and stuff to keep me well behaved. Games of "always betrayed by employer doing merc jobs and being finicky with survival trivium" i tend to turn evil. I may stop caring about what we are doing like sessions of fighting orcs in mountains while traveling for 2-3 nights. If I stop caring i turn cannibal or turn into the stupid merc on firefly. I will make over the top killing machines if a game seems full of competitive combat players but i dont really enjoy. I can behave on tournament games for 4 hours. GMs who kept me entertained best were with Cthulhu and RQ and super heroes whith lots of information, cospiracies and cosmological gobbledygook.

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  15. In most of my circle, I've seen the same thing happen over and over, with people getting into the hobby as payers, and then at some point taking a shot at running a game. If they go straight back to being a player after a bad experience, most of them will stick at that role pretty much forever. If they have a great game, they'll want to do it again.

    This is certainly what happened to me, and although i do like to play, I tend to pick the games I'm a player in very carefully. If there's nothing that i think would suit me, I just run a game. I think it's hard to capture the buzz of being a GM, but once you get a thrill from it, it's really hard to turn down the opportunity to feel it again.

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  16. Multiclassed GM/Player :)
    I usually end up being the GM but if there is another GM I am happy to play

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  17. I've spent most of my gaming career behind the proverbial screen (though it's been years since I used an actual GM screen). I do enjoy playing when I can.

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  18. I am primarily a GM, but I enjoy being a player when I get the chance. Back when I was in high school I was the GM of my group probably 60% of the time and a player 40% of the time. That was a good ratio.

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  19. I'll chime in with the 'DM-- mostly' crowd. Though it would be blumin' nice to be a player once in a while, I say.

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