Whenever I see those horror stories I remember what was my DM for over 5 years. I sincerely think at no point he ever did anything that I liked. He ran modules that had stuff I liked, he sometimes allowed me to do things I wanted to do, but I can't recall anything he added that made things cooler for me. I'm not saying I wanted favoritism, NPCs or world events or even descriptions. I'd read modules years after playing them and see stuff I would had liked and he just took out for whatever reason. To some extent it's just a matter of taste. There's a reason why some people play VtM and others Shadowrun. But I've been mostly GMing for the last couple years and it's harder not to think about the group when preping stuff.>X is gonna love this NPC>Y is gonna get so mad when he figures out this puzzle>This dungeon is perfect for ZYou make something or find it and connect it to your audience. And you don't need to railroad or ask them to play along, because you though about them when making it.Why would someone GM and not design around their players?
>>96883630
Huh, good point. I do want to put stuff my players like into the game, I just don't know exactly what each one of them specifically likes.Aside from vague stuff like "interesting NPCs" or "good combat".
>>96883630did you ever tell him that
>>96883630Maybe you were just a shitty player. I bet the group was a lot more fun after you left mr sourpants.
>>96883630My old GM was obsessed with only furthering his story. Sure, he would throw players bones by incorporating their backstory, but almost all NPCs, puzzles, and dungeons were things he wanted, and if a player derailed or did things he didn't expect he'd get frustrated and take it out on the PCs, which ended up killing the game, as did throwing out half his players.
>>96883733You're not a real pepperoni fart anon, and this thread is fine.>>96883630>>96883802The main problem with players is that often they themselves don't know what the fuck do they want. When I gm I just rapid fire situations at them until they get fixated on something, and THEN it's the storyline that I start working on.
>>96883630>I remember what was my DM for over 5 years. I sincerely think at no point he ever did anything that I liked.All I see from your post is "I'm a retard who decided to stay forever in a shitty situation instead of doing anything about it.">>96884599>You're not a real pepperoni fart anonProof?
>>96884599Greasy pepperoni fart is an idea, not a man, anon
>>96883630>Why would someone GM and not design around their players?I think it more likely is a mixture of >taking into account some things about the players the gm notices and appreciates and can work with and>making sure they run something they like and are interested in as well in most cases. Probably a solid dose of >shit I can't get all these things to work together what do I do? uhh.... this'll work. and remembering that humans are fucking awful at knowing what they want, what that actually is instead of just the idea of it, communicating that to other people in a way that's congruent with what other people in a group want, etc. I've had the best time running and playing in games where there's a solid core concept the GM is very sold on and can express to the players while the player inputs are taken into account via game world choices, mixed with out of game world discussions like >okay so you're big choices are investigating the dagonite cult in the blue marsh, returning to the purple worm temple or a third option the party comes up with and agrees to at the end of the session and concluding it to prepable content a few days later with whatever input happens. Lets everyone have the opportunity to engage, make a few choices but keeps it focused.
>>96883630If you're actually around and are fine with a food analogy, I'd compare GMing to cooking a meal at home and the players as dinner guests. Most game masters do indeed keep in mind their players' tastes, what they like/don't like, what they're allergic to, and so on. But the GMs are also expecting to eat some of the food they cooked, or in this analogy have some fun of their own. Which means that there are indeed GMs focused more on what they enjoy and consider fun over what their guests/players care for.I don't know if it makes sense, but GMing is a weird aspect of ttrpgs since a huge part of it is incumbent upon how much preparation and direction is driven by one person, so it was the best comparison I could think up. Some GMs are focused on making a game for everyone to enjoy, some are more focused on their own. That's how people are.
