Ask a guy who's been GMing for 30 years anything.
>in b4 overage b&
>>48337639
Tell us about the games you've run, and how many have run to story completion versus how many have ended in disinterest, poor scheduling, or complete chaos.
>>48337639
post wrinkles or GTFO
Character death likelihood over the course of 30 years. Were you too soft in the beginning? Did you get maximum lethality for a year or two?
>>48337647
I've run games in dozens of systems and settings, and about half of them ended with a proper ending. The other half did peter out, or people had to leave, or real life interfered. It gets worse as you get older, unfortunately.
>>48337655
Well sure, son, here are some wrinkles for you.
>>48337661
If anything I was too harsh in my teenage years. One character only lasted about 15 minutes before getting smeared across the bottom of the canyon he had thought he could zip line across like Batman or something (this was a medieval fantasy setting).
But I mellowed with age and now I'm a bit more lenient, though still no softy.
Since there's less time as you get older, you also don't want to spend hours re-rolling characters all the time. And experienced players tend to be a bit wiser in their actions.
What systems do you prefer, and how many players do you run on average?
>>48337639
Favorite system?
Favorite setting?
Favorite moment(s) in campaign(s)?
Got any advice for a new GM?
>>48337781
I'm partial to Mage the Ascension, the old TMNT and Call of Cthulhu (or any BRP, really).
Four players is ideal, IMO. Any fewer and you lose the class and social dynamics; more and it becomes difficult for the group to plan. I have run groups of 9 players, but then players hardly get any play time or significant story interaction, combat is insanely slow, and people start to form factions. Really.
>>48337639
Post some proof that you're that old, please
>>48337798
System I would have to say "agnostic", because I don't really find any system to be ideal or even sufficient. I tweak almost everything till I'm happy...or until my players start complaining.
Favorite setting would have to be Planescape, for it's unique argot, casual philosophy and expansive multiversal locations.
Favorite moment would probably have to be, hmm, a long time ago when I mashed Talislanta, the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, The Sandman comics and the Labyrinth movie all together into one epic showdown of cosmic forces that the PCs had to navigate.
>>48337639
Presuming that you're genuine, my questions are:
What are some of your favourite PCs?
What was the longest campaign you ran?
What's the longest a player has played in your group while you were GMing?
>>48337814
Don't sweat the rules, they come and go over the years and no system is better than another. They're just toys in the sandbox.
Don't self-insert yourself into the game both if you're a player or if you're the GM. Play someone else, someone who's completely different and outside your comfort zone.
Don't let NPCs overshadow the PCs.
Try different games to see what you and your friends like. There are hundreds of fun games out there and if you stay with one too long, you'll never see all the possibilities.
>>48337825
I posted wrinkles and white beards, didn't I? What more do you want? Full beardal nudity?!?
>>48337639
Would you play at a young (18-25) DM's table?
I've read on the old Dragonsfoot discussions a lot of disdain for the new generation. I had the chance to start RPGs both at a very young age (10) and with a group of old grognards (in their 60s at the time), but it put me in a really shitty situation where I can't play with other people my age (20) because we rarely seek the same type of games, and I can't play with old DMs because they're usually opposed to playing with young people.
Can you explain this situation, if it's not something isolated?
Also, tell us some cool stories!
>>48337639
I once met this obnoxious dude who was apparantly a master dm and when he tried to explain role-playing games to normies he did this wierd sales pitch that made no sense and left everyone confused. Including the people who already played regularly
He also kept boasting about how he was in the army and saw some shit.
And that he knew everything and that as a veteran dm he is always right.
And to prove his point he mentioned he knew and understood string theory but he didn't explain what it entailed and I had to give a abridged version I remembered from watching some shitty youtube vid that tried to explain it layman's terms to the people who wanted to know what the fuck he was babbling about.
And he looked confused for a couple of seconds but then quickly composed himself and said something like "y-yeah, it's something like that, you know your stuff hehe..."
Question is, are you also like this transparant idiot, or do you know any?
not judging, just wanna know if there are many "master DMs" like that running around.
>>48337862
>Presuming that you're genuine, my questions are:
Presumption is the domain of the young, go right ahead.
>What are some of your favourite PCs?
As a forever GM with poor memory I have a better recall of my own NPCs than all the variations my players came up with, but a few PCs do stand out over the years. There was a particularly neat Gnorl Rhabdomancer from my Talislanta game, a distinguished Doctor from a CoC game, and a very obscurantist Son of Ether who manipulated geometry in my Mage the Ascension game.
>What was the longest campaign you ran?
3 years of Planescape.
>What's the longest a player has played in your group while you were GMing?
If you mean continuously in the same campaign, that would be the above 3 years. If you mean the same player over many campaigns, then I have a friend from high school who's been playing in my games for 25 years now.
How much do you run of the following?:
>Original campaigns in your home-made world
>Original campaigns in a prebuilt world
>Prebuilt campaigns in a prebuilt world
Have you found that how much you run of these categories has changed over time?
How often do you find yourself ad-libbing the rules in question?
Like say a guy wants to do an action: do you look up what a fair DC would be and have him roll it and try to follow the result or do you just eyeball what you think the result would be and go from there?
>>48337877
A time stamped pic of your most worn out gaming memorabilia, like a character sheet from 1986 or something
>>48337905
>Would you play at a young (18-25) DM's table?
As long as the social circumstances in real life were not awkward or had unpleasant legal complications (such as being invited to a co-ed dorm room at a college), I don't see why not. I've run games for younger players at the few cons I've attended and it's been alright. There is unfortunately a certain disconnect between generations that takes a great deal of energy to bridge...or simply a dozen sessions so that everyone can get to know each other's assumptions and expectations. I certainly try to encourage younger players, and try to help out when I can (such as when newbies here ask for advice).
Some of the other older GMs I know are quite afraid of being perceived in the wrong light if they play with younger guys/girls. It's too easy to be accused of being a pervert these days and explaining why you're "hanging around teens" takes too much effort to your social peers, who will look at it askance no matter how plausible the explanation. I'm a professional and so are many other gamers in my circles.
>>48338024
That's pretty enlightening. Having DMed for my kid sisters and they're friends (7-12 years old) recently, I can see how the age thing can create some barriers : I had to learn to take off the brother cap when DMing while still keeping an eye out for some potential issues like what they might do in a gaming environment, but everything runs smoothly. It's still pretty funny when one of them curses in-character and starts giggling, but they do take the game seriously and don't do or say things "just because". It's really amazing how much moral dilemmas they bring to the game, leading to great in-character conversations about good and evil! My youngest sister always asks monsters why they behave like they do, which sometimes turns it into peaceful solutions that my usual players would never come up with. Like finding a way to make the kobolds, goblins and human villages forming alliance and *slowly* learning to get along.
Sometimes they just want to stab things though.
>>48337942
>There was a particularly neat Gnorl Rhabdomancer from my Talislanta game, a distinguished Doctor from a CoC game, and a very obscurantist Son of Ether who manipulated geometry in my Mage the Ascension game
Storytime. STORY. TIME.
>>48338147
Seconded.
>>48338147
I second this request for storytiem
>>48337968
It's definitely changed over the years. I used to do a lot of original content, my own partial settings mixed with published ones. Nowadays I tend to run mostly published adventures just because of time constraints, but I always tweak them in various ways. And I just have some time to run my own cyberpunk setting for a bit now.
>>48338011
>How often do you find yourself ad-libbing the rules in question?
For the systems I'm familiar with I ad-lib quite a lot. It adds spice to the published and keeps cynical old players on their toes, since they've practically memorized all the standard RPG monsters and items.
I highly recommend ad-libbing to new GMs. It's part of what makes GMing fun. I don't mean just mechanically such as your example with DCs, but also creatively. Change the NPCs in an adventure. Make your own magic items. Flip the alignment of a key NPC. Be creative.
What was your first game? Do you remember how it went?
>>48338014
Sorry, I'm on a PC, not a smartphone. That's PC for Personal Computer. Do kids these days still use those or did they go the way of tapes? ;)
I do still have binders full of old printouts which are remarkably well preserved considering they were printed on terrible paper on dot matrix printers. In WordPerfect. Google that.
>>48338147
>>48338185
>>48338171
My apologies, gentlemen, but a) I'm at work and can't spend a lot of time here and b) the specific details are lost in the senile corridors of my mind as this was, hmm, 25, 18 and 17 years ago respectively. I think. The Rhabdomancer kept people's secrets in various nut shells. Perhaps another time.
>>48338208
Is it possible to do good GM-PC's? Like, say your party is only 2 or 3 adventurers and having an extra healer/tank/whatever would really help balance things out.
Or is it always a bad idea?
>>48338310
It's certainly possible, but keep them out of the way, and have them drop in and out based on the NPC's agenda, needs and how the party treats them. In other words, play them as minor but independent real people, not plot props. They can get insulted, wounded, scared and they just might have to go back home for the harvest season.
I would recommend some experience before inserting such GM-PCs, it's a tricky balance. You have to disassociate your needs as a GM and as a player from what the GM-PC would actually want.
>>48337916
Whoops, missed this one.
Am I like that transparent idiot? Not right now, but I was when I was a teenager. I tried to impress the few girls that used to hang out with the gamers by pretending to know much more about martial arts than I actually did. Wasn't a resounding success.
I've met quite a few socially awkward people like that who bluster to impress or compensate too, but my greatest shock was when one of my players who always bragged about being this uber-elite commando martial artist turned out to bean elite commando who eventually started a dojo.. No kidding. Life can be surprising.
>Sorry, I'm on a PC, not a smartphone. That's PC for Personal Computer.
Me too, kid. Last time I checked though, they make plenty of PCs with cameras so how about you fire yours up and take a timestamped pic. You're going to have to use a piece of paper and writing implement, not sure if they still teach you how to use those in middle school though.
>I do still have binders full of old printouts which are remarkably well preserved considering they were printed on terrible paper on dot matrix printers. In WordPerfect. Google that.
Let's see them then """grandpa""" because otherwise nothing you've said is actual proof you've done anything beyond develop a thing for retroclones.
Do you run with the same group you've been for a while or do you offer pickup games?
What's the best way to find a new group?
>>48337639
I'm looking to learn how to GM Savage Worlds, having never played it before, but I like the fact it's apparently simple with a minimum of book keeping.
How do you learn a new system's rules completely from scratch? Is it simply a case of reading the rulesbook cover to cover in a sitting or is there a better method?
>>48337639
>>in b4 overage b&
Well done, OP, I chuckled.
>>48337842
>Favorite moment
...you are aware that Dungeons: the Dragoning exists, right?
>>48338147
>>48338171
>>48338185
>>48338293
They're right, though. You can't say something that invites storytime on /tg/ and then not deliver.Well, you can, but it's frowned upon.
Also, the paper doesn't have those green lines on the back, does it? the ones that are basically music staves?
Oh, and for my question: do you remember when White Dwarf wasn't Games Workshop's personal sales catalog? And if so, do you have any from that long-ago era?
How does it feel to have one foot in the grave? Do you feel like you are running out of time?
>>48338506
Mostly the same group, with some additions and dropouts over the years. And some random groups occasionally for short games. I don't offer pickup games.
If you're in school the best way is to look around for the RPG, Games, Miniatures or Anime Club. If you're out of school, I find sites like:
penandpapergames.com
http://www.rpggamefind.com/
meetup.com
and the ENWorld player registry
can all be helpful.
>>48337639
What's the favorite villain you've thrown at your players? Favorite magic item?
>>48338513
I've never really found a shortcut for "getting" a whole system, but what I usually do is get the basics of chargen, combat & skills down first, then worry about the other rules later as they come up in play. Don't sweat the small stuff like modifiers, money and such.
>>48338525
>...you are aware that Dungeons: the Dragoning exists, right?
Aware of it, yes, but I haven't read it. Is it related?
>green lines
No, I never liked to use foolscap for RPGs.
>old White Dwarf
I didn't collect any magazines when I was younger. I only started reading Dragon in my 30s, so no.
>>48338536
More like a finger in the grave, I've still got an estimated 38 years ahead of me, but yeah, you start to feel pressure to get something useful done in your lifetime. Like publish an RPG, oh the irony.
>>48337639
Do you play as well as GM, and if so, how much do you play compared to GM'ing?
Jeez, there are actually other older players/DMs here? 42 year old here. Getting hard to find gaming groups that aren't online, mostly because it just feels so goddamn awkward to stroll into a gaming club/store as a dude who could be the dad of everyone present.
>>48338738
Dungeons: the Dragoning is a mashup of various /tg/ related things thrown under planescape as a general setting. It's really fun.
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Dungeons:_the_Dragoning_40,000_7th_Edition
Stay away from the homebrew content.I'm one of the people who worked on it and I'm telling you that. Homebrew your own stuff or prepare to wade into that shitfest and take only what works for you.
>>48338690
>What's the favorite villain you've thrown at your players?
A titanic Cyber-Dragon in a Rifts game.
>Favorite magic item?
Those are player toys, I don't really have favorites. I try to customize magic items to the setting, genre and player desires. We had fun with a modified Lament Configuration box that did all kinds of horrible things.
>>48338767
About 95% GMing and 5% playing. I genuinely prefer Gming.
>>48338798
41 here. Yup, there are some here. For adults I found good results on meetup.com and penandpapergames.com, then word of mouth.
>>48338807
Thanks, I'll check it out. I didn't know it was based on PS.
>>48338925
>meetup.com and penandpapergames.com
Those are both primarily used by NA people, aren't they? I live in northern Europe, so that makes it significantly more difficult.
has GW really changed the face of gaming?
>>48339073
Try Facebook, look for "one-shot group" with your city/province name, might be someone in your area.
Google+ also has a large gaming community and plenty of people who are willing to try online first, then meet in person.
>>48338807
>that spoiler
Which bits did you do?
