GM feels/advice thread

>>52363609
I'm in a similar boat.
I've been considering starting a new group as it feels more and more like I'm the only one who still wants to be there.
I put a lot of my free time into it and no one appreciates it. They just treat it as a social gathering.

It'd be nice to be a player for once and have them see how much work goes into it. Its more than just showing up.

I don't have answers but I can share in your pains.

>>52363609
>its not muh turn so im not paying attention

these people don't belong in any tabletop group.

>>52363609
>GM feels thread

When your players will never understand the themes and metaphors you put into your setting, no matter how hard you try to explain them. They're otherwise very good players, but they just don't get it. I have to dumb everything down for them to understand.

After a while I just sort of stopped trying to make things complex and multi-layered, now we're playing some bullshit in Forgotten Realms and we're all having fun.

>>52363609
Your players sound like absolute cunts. I'd find a new group, people like that never get any better.

>>52363609
Sounds like your players are there to hang out with you and each other, not to play the campaign you love.

If they've acknowledged the issue and are okay with you taking drastic measures ("yeah, I always accidentally end up not paying attention, I swear I still love your game"), you may want to enforce the good old attention + timed decision rules: if you don't know what's going on, you lose your turn, and if you haven't been listening to combat narration and coming up with your action before your own turn, you don't get to act either.

If they don't improve, maybe it's time to go back to just doing movie night with them, and to find a better group for you.

>>52363609
How do I deal with players who play "GM chicken" short of kicking them out of the game? You know the sort, the ones who take some sort of suicidal course of action because they're betting that you won't actually punish them for it, and when you do, they start whining and complaining.

>>52365576
Talk to them outside the game and ask them to stop. If they get unreasonable about it, kick them out of your fucking game.

>>52365621
Yes, the problem is that with that strategy, I've eliminated nine players in the past five months, and only have one "regular", and it's getting to the point where I'm the "psycho GM" who will kick you out of the group at the drop of a hat in my LGS.

>>52365576
Maybe clearly tell them the mechanical risks and rewards of their actions, like they're in a video game?
>You want to pretend not to be the wanted criminal, but his harmless twin? Okay, you'll need to roll a 17 or higher on bluff. If you succeed, you'll get to the next corridor unharmed, otherwise the guard sees through your ruse, calls for reinforcements, and gets a free attack against you. Still sure?

Also, it might simply be that your players want to try silly and amusing, or cool but impractical things. If you can have fun letting those actions work, that's a way to solve the problem. Otherwise make it clear when you talk to new players that trying funny or flashy shit will potentially get them killed.

>>52363609
Burn them! Burn them all!

Alternatively: Have a no phones at the table rule. If you have to set up a box to put their phones in so that they actually pay attention, do it.
If that doesn't work, definitely burn them.

>>52365766
It's not really they're trying stuff that's silly and amusing, it's usually that they go out of their way to pick a fight with any NPC who shows a reasonable degree of competence or I let information out that he or she is powerful.

I've even started giving them easy access to divination homebrew stuff to tell them when enemies are out of their leauge, but warnings like "He, alone, is about as powerful as your entire group, and that's not counting the 6 flunkies he has with him" don't seem to discourage these people.

>>52365665
Perhaps the problem actually -is- with you, then, rather than the players?

You might be misinterpreting their intent. Maybe the plan seems suicidal to you, but not to them, and their insistence on going through with it isn't due to them bluffing you, but because that is legitimately what they want to do.

>>52363609
>>52363675
Fucking tell them that you feel like shit when they look like they don't give a fuck. Explain to them that you need their energy too and you can't get that when they barely interact with you and the game.

>>52366124
you really shouldn't tell them stuff like that, some people take things like that as a challenge.
Also saying someone is as powerful as their entire group really isn't saying much sometimes,
a few lucky (or unlucky on the enemy's part) rolls can turn an overwhelming challenge into a joke