>Meet up for weekly session of RPG >DMing for the upteenth

>>52670189
My second session of the first campaign I ran for my current group, I started off with a recap of the previous session with an exaggerated fast-paced 1940s news reporter voice.

The players thought it was hilarious and now demand I do that at the start of every session no matter the game.

>>52670189
>one guy pretty much only plays because he doesn't want to feel left out
>yet he keeps calling off the sessions because his girlfriend came over etc at a short notice
>I confront him but he assures me that he actually wants to play and enjoys it

I don't know if we should just cut him loose from the campaign.

>>52670239
Suggest in a polite and friendly manner that it may be a better idea for him to step away from the table until he can sort out his real life things so as not to rob the other players from enjoying the game. After all, it's only a game, and you guys will still be there after he's figured his situation out. And then stop inviting him until he can clearly show that he's gotten his shit together.

>>52670189
>I am closest thing to our group's "that guy"
>Consistently make boisterous characters that take the lead of the party in every single situation
>Am pretty self aware and don't want to inhibit everyone else's fun so I take charge the first hour of every session then sit back the rest of the session
>As soon as I stop taking charge,
to the end of the session, the DM will give us an encounter and the entire group will sit silently.
>I prod "come on guys what are we doing?" And they just stammer "uh..Uh.." as they wait for me to take charge again.
>I reassume my role as main character with three beta bitch boys as my support roles.

I missed two sessions in a row for exams one week and when I came back the party had done ONE encounter in 6+ hours of play time. I know I run all over them and I feel bad but holy shit. Why play tabletop if you can't even handle making a decision about what to do in a fictional world?

>>52670351

I know that feel, man. I'm the de facto leader of my party, despite my charisma being garbage. All because I'm the only one willing to talk and take charge. Just a bunch of beta bitch boys who sit quietly and wait for someone to make decisions for them.

>>52670476
Isn't it bizarre?
My buddy literally made a character that acts as my "yes man", without ever discussing it with me.

The party's resident edgelord is the only person that even tries doing anything. It doesn't help that he's a moron though and spends all of his time scheming how to betray the party in the most glaringly obvious way.

>players either can't or won't remember last session
>most players do nothing while one or two pull all the weight
Are these common to ttrpg's these days? Or is this just a stage that rpg groups go through?
That is: are all groups like this all the time, or do we grow out of this? Do we weed out the forgetful and the timid over time? Or do we grow more involved and assertive as we game?

>>52670239
If there's ever any doubt, there is no doubt.

>>52670189
You're not alone. This is my group too.

I mean, I make sure to make notes..

But then again, I run a once a month game

>>52670351

Sometimes there's a plot point that i know my character wouldn't be interested in so instead of vetoing it I try to sit back and wait for another player to steer the party in that direction. Doesn't always work out like that.

>>52670239
Cut him out. If he can't tell his GF that she can come over any day but that one its not important to him. A quick " I'm at anons house every tuesday evening." and she would not bother him. The fact that he did not even tell her that, shows he does not care if something is keeping him from playing.

He wants to keep playing to be part of the group but is probably relieved everytime he can find an excuse not to come.

>>52670351
Maybe you could talk to your GM about including plot points where the other PCs have to be involved.

>Mage has to do something with a device or research in the libraby of the local wizard college

>Rouge has to gain acces to some seedy contacts in the underworld

>Monk/Paladin/Priest has to negotiate with the local church to get acces to the tombs


Something tailored to their characters/class that you can't possibly do.

>be my 2008 self, be introduced to D&D
>Guy runs a game. I play badly, but love it. Get the tabletop bug then
>Second session, loved it as well
>Third session never comes.
>Me: "Hey man, anyone can do that thing you do?"
>Him: "Run games? Well, yes anyone who wants to do it can try."
>Me: "Cool let me do it."

Fast Forward to 2011

>Me, have literally only being a DM since. After a epic 2 year long campaign ends, not because it's over but because people stop being able to make it to game week, go to find online group.
>Find them
>First session comes along, is super awkward. It's my first time online and group dynamics not well established.
>Second session is really really good. Everyone, me include, has a blast.
>"Hey dude, thank you. You're a great DM." From severak players. Get excited, happy proud.
>Same thing happen every couple sessions. Great game, get some positive feedback. Negative feedback on occasion but still people care enough to tell me what's bad and what's good.

Fast forward to today:

>Finish epic campaign with great twists and everything.
>Nobody says a word when the game ends. Just 'goodnight'
>Start new campaign, everyone is dragging their feet to make their characters.
>Sessions, good or bad (from my perspective), go by with everyone being passive, doing nothing, never remembering the plot. Never saying if the game is good or bad.
>Me, very occasionaly: "Hey man/girl, was the game good? Did you had fun?"
>Them, everytime: "It was okay I guess."

I would prefer if they hated it. I'm literally tearing up writing this.

>>52670189
>the game isn't memorable enough
you should ponder this. it's not bad, your players keep coming back, but maybe you need to up the ante to make it amazing.

pro tipp: not every game session can be amazing. neither can every football game - be content with unmemorable sessions for a fair amount of time. outstanding sessions are just that - outstanding.

>>52672816
I know this. I feel it's the player equivalent of 'lesbian bed death'. You can't hold the same group for more than six months or they'll just stop appreciating you.

>>52670189
I offer a small XP incentive to the person who gives a synopsis of the last session to start the new one. Works like a charm and makes sure I remember everything that went down to boot.

>>52670189
>been GMing various systems for 8 years
>like to think I'm pretty good at it, people keep coming back every week.
>currently GMing a campaign
>two players start world building together
>"Oh, and we have this, and this, and we thought this was a great idea and we're doing it like this."
>their world building is bordering on masturbation
>It's a PF world with 10 different, 35 point races
>With magic coming from an ore in the ground.
>They even asked me if they should have 12 constelations, or 13.
>and all this other OC Donut Steel stuff
>after explaining some of what they have
>ask my advice
>give them my advice
>they blatantly ignore my advice

I told them twice that world building is difficult, and that the best way to ease the amount of work is to write only the stuff that the players will directly interact with and have some vague ideas or a skeleton of everything else you might think they'll interact with. Everything else amounts self- pleasuring over how original and unique and deep your world is and ejaculating on your player's faces.

On top of that, I hate when people ask me something, listen, then throw whatever you just said out the window. Like, why the fuck did you ask me if you're going to ignore everything I just said?

>>52673048
You sound like a really unpleasant person. Why does them genuinely enjoying a creative process offend you so much?

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>>52670189
Might be a little beyond the scope of the thread but I want to tell someone about this, might as well be you fuckers.

>DMing a game
>one player is qt3.14 grill, we're really close friends, I like her as more than that
>other player is my best friend, known him for even longer, also is obviously crushing on girl
>their characters flirt all the time, lots of unresolved romantic tension, think nothing of it
>after some questions, they tell me that they're IRL in love, have been a couple for months and have been keeping it a secret to avoid tension in the group
>I was planning on telling her how I felt and asking her if she feels anything for me literally that day
>I really am happy for them and wish them the best but I'm dying inside knowing that I might have had a chance if I had just spoken up sooner

jdimsa

>>52673208
It doesn't. They can write whatever they want to, I don't care. The main problem is ignoring my advice after they asked for it. It wasn't even, "Hey, that's might work, but we're going to try a different direction". Instead, they didn't aknowlege what I said and continued the conversation as though I didn't say anything. That is what agents me.

>>52670189
Amen to that. Every group I ever DMed were exactly like that. I'm starting to think it will always be like that and that its a core characteristic of the player character.

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>>52673228
>>I really am happy for them and wish them the best
I felt that feel. I remember feeling good that my oneitis declined my friend and then I felt like shit for feeling that. Relationships are shit.

>>52670189

Speaking from personal experience, a week is a long time to commit one time events to memory. Especially if the players in question have hectic lives or long work schedules. If the recap covers a lot of area it can be very easy to forget what happened. Usually if the players are given a push with a reminder of the very beginning of the session, they should be able to continue with the recap without assistance.

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>>52673228
I have felt this feel.

>>52672816

Sounds like you need a break from GMing. I have had the GM hat for 2 years in a row, and my sessions currently feel very stale. I had two amazing campaigns last year but the current one feels like work to me and we have had a month long hiatus due busy schedules.

I'd gladly be a player, but my group isn't interested.in GM'ing at least right now. They never will be

>>52673228

I know that feel as well, though it wasn't related to a game. I'm also fairly certain it was my last chance at a relationship as I'm a fat, socially awkward mess that's rapidly approaching middle age.

>>52670189
My current DM has rules explicitly to fix this--everyone who recaps the previous session at the start of the new one rolls a d? and gets that much xp. Varies with exposition, but it's a nice little boost that adds up over time.

>>52670227
Make them do it themselves. Maybe establish a rotating schedule among them. Don't give in. You gotta make them your bitches, not become their one.

>>52673309
>>52673376
>>52673421
Thanks guys. I don't know how I'm going to face them next time we game, but I'm damn well going to try to just keep things going the way they were.

>>52670351
It's the exact fucking same for me, except the few breaks in the "uh... uh..." are literally retarded ideas should I ever stop.

One other player even called me out on this in the few first sessions, I stopped taking the lead and the GM had to ask me to start again because the game slowed to a crawl.

>>52670189
>Going on 11 years as foreverDM
>Once every couple months I bitch about not being able to play. Ever.
>Players decide to be "fair" and let me play
>First guy that dm literally reads word for word off a one shot that we did years ago
>First guy can't keep track of critters and damage, so gives up
>Second guy tries, says 'i dont' need any premade adventure'
>Spend 4 hrs listening to him describe the city and every single person in every single building
>Third guy steps up, Tries to do a hybrid premade/homemade
>First lv1 encounter is 3 ogres that attack by throwing rocks off of a 50' ledge onto us, while they order their pack of wolves to attack
>We all die of course.
>Players all look at me and say, "Well, guess it's your turn again bro..can we get back to the real game now?"
>Fuckmesidewayswithashovel

>>52671441
It's a common sight, sadly. The majority of players are shit, and they won't become better. Ever. I blame vidya for this. The only way to cope with it is assemble a large pool of players, find out which are actually good and make a new group out of them.

>>52673466
>Make them do it themselves

Yeah that won't work at all. I'm the only one who thinks fast enough to actually make it work. Anyone else at the table tries they'll just trip over themselves.

I don't really mind it, I just don't quite get what's so funny about it.

>>52672816
So long as they are entertained, normies don't give a shit, friend. If they keep coming back, they like it; but expect nothing from them. They are lazy and weak. Brave new world!
>Like, why the fuck did you ask me if you're going to ignore everything I just said?
They just wanted to loot yer ideas, m8. Nothing more, nothing less. You were just an object to be used for their gain. At least you weren't this poor fucker >>52673228 who got hosed: sorry 'bout that, brother. That fucking sucks. Don't waste time wishing them well, and stop dying inside - get out there and get a girl right now to make the hurting stop.

>>52673421
>I'm a fat, socially awkward mess that's rapidly approaching middle age
Erm, anon: have you seen tumblr lately? Yer good, m8.

>>52673561
It's not about actually doing it, it's about stopping catering to their retarded whims if you don't want to. If they fuck up, they will stop. If not, due to fast thinking or rehearsing before or else, everybody wins.

>>52673548
>It's a common sight, sadly. The majority of players are shit, and they won't become better. Ever. I blame vidya for this.
The funniest thing about that is that some of the regular vidya players are still the least shit at that, because they are actually glad they are off the rails.

Hell, you'd expect someone trying to write novels to be able to roleplay a little bit, but no.

>>52673526
Yeah, the curse of the forever gm - almost never play, and when you do, you wish you hadn't. Damned vidya gaems and rap music! People can't think anymore.

>>52673675
>People can't think anymore.
I disagree because, ummmmm, I dunno.

>>52670351
>>52670476
>>52671441
You just have to sort the wheat from the chaff, go though many players until you can assemble an elite cadre of motivated, dramatic and well spoken people. No everyone has the luctury of doing this but if you can this what you must do to find a good group. It won't happen on its own.

I take it we are all gm's itt...so, is there a different mindset to the gm? Why are players such shit? Human nature/laziness? Is it us gm's who are to blame? That is, do we encourage our players to be lazy consumers of our entertainment, instead of compelling them to be producers of entertainment themselves?
Now, I am oldschool, so I'm not hyping the new narrativist/meta-gaming rpg idears...but are these 'shitty' players the result of passivity? Timidity? Lack of imagination?
Or, maybe to put it another way: why are we so good? What makes us itt different from these 'shit' players?

>>52670189
I got a player in my group who, even though this is everyone's first campaign of a tabletop game ever, is adamant that he secretly wants to somehow join forces with the Evil wizard and become all powerful. But is annoyed when i tell him the other players will most likely kill him or the authorities will.

>>52673744
You are not inherently good. Neither is any other GM. It does not make you special. It does not make you more smart, charismatic, or else. You are probably as shit as everyone else, only less lazy.

>>52673831
Let him do it. But, warn him that you'll take his character as an NPC when he actually proceeds with the betrayal. He'll most likely drop it. Or don't warn him, and drink his tears.

>>52673454
That's actually a great idea. Especially for systems with piecemeal character progression like Numenera and Fate. I'm gonna do this from now on.

>>52673872
He is a little shit stirrer overall play wise so im definitely just gonna drop it on him when and if he goes through with it

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/tg/, why can't I find gamists?
I just want to be able to occasionally be able to have a combat and not shot call everything.
>Hey let's blow big abilities we can only use once per day on a trash encounter far below challenge
>Ha haaaaaa I have trash defenses and most of my abilities are long range, but I'm going charge him
>Dude why am I almost dead xd?
I know gamists have the munchkin stigma, but there have to be a few people around who actually have an interest in the mechanics of the game, right?
Fuck, it makes it really hard to play a non-intellectual character because I feel like I'm metagaming when I make suggestions otherwise.

>>52673048
New poster here. I don't know the age range of you and your players, but I can tell you from experience that many young players go through a phase where their imaginations get swept up in the world-building craft and they start to apply their real world knowledge (from adulthood) into it, all the while with an ear towards "this will be our gameworld" and not necessarily have the GM experience to know when something is necessary or unnecessary. They're just having fun doing it and gaming is the excuse to do it.

I had a group of gamer friends who got into map-making for this reason, using newly learned computer skills to create detailed maps of a fantasy world without thinking of how those maps would be practical in any way, or what the relationship between any given geographical or political feature would be. They just felt like they were creating.

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>>52670227
>Take something awesome and insist on repeating it until it becomes stale.
Christ, I hate how nerds do this.

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>>52673526
Yep. This.

GM'ing is an art. I hope it's not a dying one. You have to be able to hold several ideas in your head at once, be able to bring in new ideas on the fly, and give the whole mess a forward momentum.

That being said, Pathfinder actually trained me pretty well with encounter structure and using a battlemat. Five-Room Dungeon planning also helped tremendously. The rest is all movies, comics and paperback fiction I grew up with.

>>52674013
Oooooh, that's a good Pepe

>>52674124
Ya but...dammit i wanna play.

>>52670351
I am glad I usually get to be the DM/GM since this always happens to me.
No matter when I enter the party or what kind of weiner I am playing I always end up becoming leader or at least the idea man.
My players are a lot more independent when I am just telling the story.

>>52670227
I wouldn't do something like that cause I find it kinda cringy, but I usually do a "previously on XXX" kind of thing, like the walking dead show does in particular, and just recap some of what's been going on. I don't do the voice or anything but I do lead up to it like that just because it makes it feel more like a TV show, and I structure my games more and more like TV shows, trying to end on a natural resolution point or sometimes a good cliffhanger (actually I have cliffhangers a lot just because I need a cheap way to create suspense).

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>>52673715
I fell into a group like this almost by accident in the late 90's. Ran into a guy at a a new job who as into sci-fi, fantasy and roleplaying. He introduced me to his circle of friends and I gamed 2e D&D with them until the group broke up. I remember mentioning in passing I had the west End Star Wars PRG and got shanghaied into runming a Star wars game that ended up lasting almost two years and had morphed into an amalgamated sci-fi campaign that crossed multiple realities and settings. Then 3e D&D came along. I ended up running three 20+ level campaigns and was happy to do the work, because by this point my group was working together like a well oiled machine. That was brought home by the times Iwould sit in on another group's session or run a pickup game for another group. The whole thing finally broke apart in '08 when people moved, got different jobs or just stopped having the time. It was great while it lasted, though.

>>52674201
I used to go through that. Then I'd get to play and be bored when it wasn't actually my turn to do something. I was used to having every second of game time filled with something I had to do. I scratch the itch of wanting to be a PC by occasionally creating an NPC and dropping it on the group.

How do I get better at rp stuff /tg/ I got into a game for the first time and I find I just kind of sit back at the moment

>My character is in some foreign nation he's never even set foot in because we decided to follow that plot point
>End up just following the lead of the guy who has been living there for all his life
>He's a druid and I'm a ranger, we both ended up getting good at a lot of outdoors stuff, but he's slightly better

>>52673589

That actually made me smile. Like warm fuzzy type smile.

>>52674546
I'm glad me and the tumblrinas could help!

>>52674029
>They just felt like they were creating.
This is interesting - the baby steps of creativity and imagination. We need to encourage this sort of thing in more people if we want better players *(and more gm's so we can play).
This is a good point - thanks, anon!

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>>52673526
>>52674255
Guess I'm lucky then

> Start playing games with friends from university
> Eventually someone suggests ttrpg
> I've been playing before I was 10 so I said yeah, I have some experience
> They suggest I DM

Fast a bit forward

> My adventure is a bit crappy, honestly
> Eventually, everyone pass out during an encounter
> Players use this opportunity to declare the game is not being that fun anyway
> One player approaches me and say he would like to try DMing
> He tries for the first time
> Its great
> I play
> No preparing adventure, no worrying about anything, just relaxing and having a good time
> Might have been the best ttrpg experience I ever had

Sucks it didn't last that much. I actually considered not moving out of town JUST FOR THOSE MONDAYS.

>>52673872
>You are not inherently good
Then why tha fuck am I the only one putting in all the work? Less lazy, you say? Is having a viable work ethic the only thing that separates the gm from the player? We work harder, and that's it??
I don't think so. I also don't think I'm smarter or more charismatic, or more 'else' than my players...but there's definitely SOMETHING different. Out of all the folks I've played with over the decades, only one (1) other has also become a gm of regular games. That's a poor percentage.
I mean, it can't just be laziness, can it?

>>52675985
Where u from u got players so based?

>>52670351
>be the boisterous leader that keeps the plot moving in one group
>be the quiet support that does whatever everyone else is doing in another group
It's a weird feeling.

>>52674046
This shit almost ruined Monty Python for me. Couldn't go five minutes without some loser quoting the Holy Grail for the umpteenth time.

I hate it when I'm being the DM and players start questioning everything I do during encounters, at a point of absurd:

> PC: "dude, that giant rat couldn't move 4 squares"
> DM: "it didn't"
> PC: "but I saw it! it was there before, and now it is here"
> DM: "it moved 2 last turn and 2 this turn, that is why it is 4 squares from where you remember it was"
> PC: "whatever"

* next session *

> PC: "those giant rats were so overpowered!!! they had 4 square movements"
> DM: "..."

That shit annoys me the most. Also, its more about how the player question it rather than what he questions. "hey man, are you sure you moved this guy correctly? seemed a lot" is acceptable way to ask me, I might have made a mistake and if so, I will go back. But if you go like "wtf?! wasn't that guy there?? did he just move 4?? that can't be right !!", I will feel like moving my fist into your face.

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>>52676163
I have been DMing for about three years now with a guy that loves Monty Python.
I hate the black knight so fucking much at this point.
If you have to keep bringing up The Holy Grail.
Reference.
A.
Different.
Scene.

We are going to try Dark Heresy soon.
If he makes more than one Spanish Inquisition joke I might end up on the news.

>>52676332
Just do what I do with the bronyfag and pretend not to get his references. People hate explaining jokes.

>>52676332
What makes it worse is that Monty Python has SO MUCH MORE amazing material but everyone just wants to quote the one fucking movie or the Spanish Inquisition. I've never in my life heard anyone reference the dead parrot sketch and that one had me in stitches for a week.

>>52676407
That is actually a grade advise for many situations.

>>52673872
I don't know about that man.

Lately I've been thinking. Some people are super-expressive, they take to a tune very easily. I tried for years to play guitar, but I never could, now I keep the guitar more as a momento of a lesson learned.

Some people are just naturally good at storytelling.

>>52676415
oh god, i remember that.
God, sometimes cornhuskers can be so clever, but other times they are such idiots.

>>52676415
>>52676754
to be fair, monty python has a lot of really shitty content too. Like the silly walk thing. Its a bad sketch thats funny if your stoned

>>52670189
I feel your pain OP. I'm just a PC but I put the effort write down every event, conversation and fight that happens in the session, even going as far as to write the entire thing on a Google doc for the rest of the group. I can only hope they're not dissuaded by the wall of text and that they get around to reading it.

>>52676754
I watch MST3K for the zingers.
But 90% of its awful.

>>52676779
It feels like community theater. You get to watch someone else live your dream. The characters are relatable and likable enough that you want them to succeed.

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>>52670189
I know a guy who usually makes characters with some kind of flaw. Normally I love it for the roleplay, but lately I've noticed that if this flaw actually comes up in a negative way with another player or an NPC, he starts getting defensive and passive aggressive about it OOC as to why it even needs to matter.

It's getting to be too much effort to actually try to roleplay something if I'm just going to end up being yelled at by our GM for 'trying to break up the party' or whatever else I've been accused of lately.

>>52673228
Think about it this way: at fucking least they didn't plan on telling you 24 hours later.

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>>52676407
He already knows I am a fan.
I didn't think he would still be doing it three years later.
I guess that is one of the pitfalls of playing with good friends.
>>52676415
I know right?
Even if you don't count the series Life if Brian and The Meaning of Life have plenty of good quotes.

>>52676965
Yeah, they probably saved you from making a scene.

>>52676764
Well yeah, you can't hit it out the park every night. They didn't always make good jokes/sketches but the ones they did that were good were amazing.

>>52676996
>We're the People's Front of Judea

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>>52676940
I sort of have a similar situation.
I have a player who lost an arm after challenging a special werewolf to a one in one battle.
Every time any PC or NPC says anything out of the way to him he brings up the arm.
It could be completely unrelated like the time he got turned down by an NPC girl and started talking about how he lost his arm and how honorable it was.
I should have let the werewolf smack his brain out instead of taking pitty on him.

>>52670189
You would love me.

I can recall every game I have left off at. There is a game my group stopped playing 5 years ago that I could tell everyone who they were, where everyone was, and what the BBEG was doing. I can do it with shitty one offs we did, stuff we concluded, and even games that never started. Just typing out this post made me think of more games and characters. There are roughly 15 different different games I could reboot right now if someone asked me to.

I'm so fucking glad this is the shit i can remember without even trying and not stuff I'm going to be tested on.

>>52677085
>SHOVE OFF!!
>SPLITTER!!

>>52673228
>>52673228
Yeah, I am pretty much in the same stupid boat.
Details are different, but same gist.

>>52670189
I always give a LAST TIME, ON DRAGON BALL ZEEEEEEEE style recap of the last session. I don't even ask if they remember anymore.

I make a recap of every session available in handouts for my roll20 game. If they're large handouts from particularly important/long sessions I summarize them otherwise i read the full thing. Typically 1-2 paragraphs. Players appreciate it, especially helps with players that miss a session. It's something you SHOULD do.

>>52670189
I always ask my players what happened last session. If they don't remember, they are thrust into the situation at hand.
Some of my players now keep a record of every event that happens to them, and since we are doing this online I can also access it.

>>52670239
If he doesn't respect you enough to respect his plans with you, he's not worth inviting.

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>helping someone make their first ever DND character
>"Can my character be a real actual person from real life that's been transported into the game!???!??!???"

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>>52678137
UGH
G
H

>>52673744
This is the one specific flaw GMs cant really have, as it results in there being no game so you're not a GM. So lazy participants accrue player-side.

>when the autists in your game get jealous of how everyone gives you attention
>they think they can start their own game
>they do one session with your players and a few autist friends who didn't make the cut in your game
>they do one session
>never do it again because they didn't get the same reaction and investment that you inspire

>>52678137
You're telling me you're too good for the dnd cartoon?

>>52673228
>I might have had a chance if I had just spoken up sooner
If it makes you feel better, you probably didn't.

>>52673872
Don't fucking try that shit, man. Being GM puts you head and shoulders over anyone who refuses, and people who refuse because "I'm no good at it" don't even deserve to lick the GM's shoes.

>>52676332
>>52676415
>People who quote Monty Python

Guaranteed sign of bad humor.

I mean sure they're watchable, but nowhere near the obsession levels.

>tfw your players remember more about the game you run than you do

It's a pretty good feeling when a player brings up something that happened 15 sessions ago, something minor and seemingly unimportant now.

I feel bad for DMs whose players can't even remember what happened the week before. Could be that the players suck, or could be that your game is a forgettable mess.

>>52670351
I feel your pain, bro. My group are all cool people, but when it comes to playing pretend they're just unable to play the game. If they aren't rolling dice they're lost.

Worst is the way I always shoehorn them with my characters probably just made them even worse off, so now even when I'm playing a socially inept character I'm forced to lead our party to whatever the gm is trying to lead us toward.

It drains the fun, which is why I'm starting to run my own game, give our usual GM the reins of party babysitter.

>>52670189

If you've played for the umpteenth time, then memory tends to blur together. If I ask you what were you doing June 3rd 2010, you're not going to remember. Maybe that was the day you graduated high school. If I asked you what you recall from that experience, you'll remember that more explicitly.

>>52670189
It's something of an old-school idea, but I like the idea of giving different players out-of-game roles. Someone is the mapper, and someone else records the events of the previous session.

>>52671441
Idk if I got lucky or what, but I play with 4 good friends of mine and we don't have problem 2. Problem 1 definitely happens, but we usually play ever other week, so a number of us forget with school and whatnot, myself included. But we're all pretty assertive on occasion, but not enough to hog it.

>>52670189
It's more of a problem because players don't think about it outside of sessions. Back in the '90s I had a group that was invested full time into the game so coming back to each new weekly sessions felt like no time had really passed since the last one. Then again we were also teenagers with a LOT more free time and no worries so that made it easy.

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>>52670189
>Be the DM
>Have to ask for feedback from players
>Suddenly player quits
>I ask him why
>Suddenly has five paragraphs worth of complaints for me
I mean, I wasn't doing enough for him as a DM to a player, but he could have told me earlier.

>Heavy shit Goin down
>country on verge of civil war
>Rebel leader and hero to the commoners agrees all they need is one push for a revolt
>tone change to somber as he appears to have figured out what that push must be
>begins adressing the party one by one thanking them and the like seems to be sad
>that guy: Oh oh he's gonna betray us or sell us out or say to make an army or say to escape or or
>party tells him to shut up
>the rebel leader finishes his words takes a drink and explains his plan
>That guy guesses about 5 more things until the rebel leader says he just drank a lethal poison and for the party to tell the people that the loyalists did this
>That guy:Lol told you guys I knew it

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>>52673548
>I blame vidya for this.

There is truth tot his, although my problem is a different one in a sense that players have zero to little initiative and essentially put a "what are our options A, B and C to choose form?" front when presented with dilemmas. They basically cannot think for themselves and god help you if you expect them to use skills creatively or just roleplay their way out of the situation. Premade choices and hard checks are all the rage with modern players.

>>52670331
>>52671462
>>52672673
>>52677836
Thanks for the input, guys. I'll sort this out.

>>52671441
>>52673548
>>52680262
I play relatively passively in the D&D games I join, not because I'm not interested, but because the ones I join tend to have new players. I'd rather they make the decisions because it can
A) Be more fun for them if they're the ones in charge.
B) Its harder to metagame if you're not the one making all the choices.

Plus its fun sometimes when you see them do stupid shit and then the DM has to do some handwaving deus ex machina type shit to keep the gang from being beheaded in town.

>>52670189
>Players ask an NPC something or reads some kind of clue
>They get a specific response
>Players quickly forget the details
>Gets mad at me when they are put at a disadvantage later that session because they forgot it

"Dare not draw your blade in the presence of the ancestors, or you will feel their wrath."
"Make sure to give him the antidote immediately."
It's not like I'm flooding them with information like this but I do it every couple of sessions and the players miss most of them.

>>52680342
This is why smart players keep notes.

>>52680354
It's like they're allergic to notes or keeping messages pinned.

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>>52680354
>>52680371
I guess you could work around that with some fancy GM notes on shit like aged paper or something, but that's way too much work on GM's part for players who probably wouldn't appreciate it anyway.

>dat feel when my old GM had hand drawn and aged documents for us he carried around in a folder

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>>52680250
>Suddenly has five paragraphs worth of complaints for me
Ouch, familia

>>52680354
>mfw I note down literally as much as I can
>mfw I get laughed at for it

Am I being autistic? I just enjoy documenting the stories in case I might want to read the notebook (yes, a notebook) after the campaign ends. (I know I won't have time to do so though)

>>52680958
More power to you. In a year when they can only remember the gist of the campaign and some memorable situations, you still have diary of the events, which can be used for inspiration etc.

>>52672816
Change groups would be my advice. What timezone are you in?

>>52680981
I also feel like it's the least I can do for the GM who I can feel actually puts effort into our adventures

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>Well, time to make characters. What would you like to play? There is fighter who-
>I was thinking about making a character like Corvo from Dishonored but acts like Kvothe from Name of the Wind, you know? He acts like a good guy but do bad stuff and at the same time he is charismatic and play a lute. Ah, and I would love to have magic, just like in the Mistborn series where they can jump walls. It would be awesome. I really hope you give us swords just like in The Way of Kings, this legendary itens, I would love to my character have one of them too.

>>52670189
I have the most wonderful snivelling, underhanded bard in my group. He has a flair for hiding whenever trouble rears its ugly head, and is very much a back line fighter, if you could even count that as fighting. When his companions are a wolf-taming barbarian/druid and a frontline shifter druid with a gorilla bodyguard, nobody really has line of sight to what he gets up to.

The real magic is in his ability to doctor the truth. He "double-taps" corpses, making sure his vibrantly decorated crossbow bolts adorn the heads of most of the corpses on the battlefield, once they are safely dispatched by other means. He also chronicles the entire adventure in his journal both IC and OOC.

If anyone cares for a recap of the previous session, I always tell them to peruse the notes that the group has taken, which leads to them trying to dissemble what information they can from his exaggerated ballad of the heroic bard who carries his woefully inept lackeys.

>>52681124
>Corvo from Dishonored
fine
>Kvothe from Name of the Wind
who?
>acts like a good guy but do bad stuff
fine
>charismatic
fine
>play a lute
get the fuck out

>>52680958
Not autistic because later on you can reread for fun. And also it's a kind of "thank you" if you give the gm a copy because he can relive the adventure if it finishes, or you can type it up onto a Google doc like other people in the thread so that everyone in the party can access it.

>>52681124
>people want to emulate the fantasy series they enjoy
>this is bad somehow
Grow up shithead, this entire hobby grew from this exact process

>>52681254
>anon projects and looks stupid because he can't open a jpg

His post is about not knowing who the fuck the characters are.

>>52681124
>Way of Kings
>Mistborn
>Name of the Wind

Eh desu they're recent enough fantasy books, and they're not entirely terrible - mistborn gets better later at least.

Your fault for not reading books, anon.

I read them while commuting.

>>52680991
GMT 0

>>52681883
Are you free on saturday evenings?

>>52670351
Wish I had that problem.

>Get suckered into an "open world" "non-linear" "sandbox" game.

>Can't do jack shit without the party being attached to the hip, and everyone wants to do their own thing.

>Try to take turns, end up never getting to do what you wanted and forced into shit you don't care about like say a wizard trying to fucking revive a familiar which took an ENTIRE 4 hours with no combat, exploration, or even roleplay.

>>52673309
Remember kids, it's DOWN THE LANE, NOT ACROSS THE STREET!

>>52670351
>Hey guys lets play a detective game
Me:Alright I made a detective
Player 1: I made his maid.
Player 2: I made someone nostolgic for a decade before their time of which little media still exists (to the point where the cannon sources for the setting actually made a huge deal about it), also he's an insane combat medic that does cancer research in the detective's office and somehow receives state funding.

>>52670189
But a whiteboard and let your Players put notes on it.
You ever seen an detective type shows on TV? Give them little clues and things they an pin on it (With magnets or whatever)
They'll do the work for you at that point, coming up with bullshit conspiracies for you to run with.

>>52681124
/pfg/ game?

>>52682185
Sure am, do you have a discord contact?

>>52680250
I've had that.
>Ask what people think frequently
>A player starts getting distant, always has stuff coming up
>Basically ghosts the campaign
>I'm his fucking roommate
>Learn 3 months later, from another player that apparently he got bored with his joke character concept.
>Despite me outright saying he was welcome to retire it, make someone that could connect to the way everyone else was taking things, or maybe retool some things.
But no. He'd rather not play a character summed up as "hey wouldn't it be funny if a normal person could do this thing?"

>>52680958
My character makes notes in game because they are exploring a "new" continent. I've been compiling a pdf with (bad) drawings of all creatures and special plants he encounteres each week to give to the DM once the campaign is finished. I might even get it printed.

Not sure if this is appropriate or autistic

>>52670351
This is the same, only the other person who tries is incompetent and I have a drinking problem so when I drink we tend to get literally nothing done.

>>52681401
>Liking Name of the Wind
It's a damn public humiliation isn't a legal punishment anymore, because if anyone needs to have tomatoes thrown at them in the stocks, it's you.

>Forever DM here

Do not sweat it when your players do that. My players only talk about how much they love the game I run, but I, too, still have to remind them what they did last session. As long as the players are having fun it does not matter.

>>52683760
Anon, if your dm doesn't marry you after this, just marry me.

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>give every player to mold the story on their own
>make it a point via NPCs and sometimes as DM that this moment is gonna be dire and they have to decide the fate of many
>"dunno, what do you suggest? it's your story!"

I can't wrap my head around a group who are willing to be railroaded. They come off as being the observers of the world-events than the center even when they've done so many that makes the world see them as the important heroes. Am I wrong thinking this way? I've expressed that they are the heroes and not that NPC they like who they always turn to for decisions and they just say "we'll leave it to you, man!" and even seldomly participate in social interaction.

Ultimately most session has me playing 3-4 NPCs talking to each other while trying to attempt to get the PCs into the conversation and they go "What say you, NPC #3?" and I'd go "But I was asking you, your opinion is very important to us" which ends up going nowhere.

My brain is too tired.

>>52676103
Is that English?

>>52684614
>I can't wrap my head around a group who are willing to be railroaded.

They sense or know from experience that DM has a great story to tell. Railroading and going off completely on some tangential plot thread are equally horrible. Not to mention all too classic problem of players not really knowing what to do with freedom when they're given.

>>52684984
In my 9 years as DM, I never heard a statement more true than this:

>Players don't know what they want.

If you ask a player what they want and give it to them, no matter the format, they'll not have fun. The best thing to do is to learn from their behavior how to best entertain them, but you need to be very clever and cunning to pull this off, which I'm not.

Give a player freedom and he'll be bored. Give them a clear plot hook and a lot of them will just ignore it out of a sheer sense of antagonizing the GM and not 'following his plan'. A lot of players actively believe that following the path the DM lays for you is, somehow, letting him 'win' and thus 'losing. So they try their best to avoid obvious plot hooks to sense they control the adventure. But even if you evolve from those, they will eventually get upset it doesn't necessarily lead somewhere great. Or they won't like where it leads. Or they will say it's leading there too fast or not fast enough.

My most successful campaigns I treated players like video game characters. Giving them choice, but limited choice in specific moments. Sure if they find a way out i'd reward them for being clever by giving them good things and playing along with it. But those moments were exception, not rule.

>>52683846
Name of the Wind is fucking awesome, if you think otherwise it's because you've no soul and no taste.

>>52685682
Don't feed the too cool for school hipsters.

>>52670351

This is exactly why I broke up with my GF, she did this in both boardgames and RPGs. Yet she insisted she enjoyed them.

I don't want to dom all the goddamn time.

>>52681126
Without more information, that sounds like a fun character.

>>52685682
Not that anon, but it's the definition of someone having to stick the landing. If book 3 sucks, that series blows. And it's paced like molasses.

>>52683760
Post it