Your greatest weakness as a GM and/or player?

[Ragitsu]

What would you say your biggest weakness is as a player?

What would you say your biggest weakness is as a GM?

Finally, if you attempt to minimize your weakness, how do you do so?

[CrosshairCollie]

At this point, my lack of enthusiasm. I've lost a lot of interest in gaming (well, in everything, really), so I can't work up the energy to run a game, or do much outside of barebones character creation. Our group hasn't gamed in about a month or more, and ... I'm really not sure I care. I think I could give up RPGs completely now and not miss them.

[Ragitsu]

At this point, my lack of enthusiasm. I've lost a lot of interest in gaming (well, in everything, really), so I can't work up the energy to run a game, or do much outside of barebones character creation. Our group hasn't gamed in about a month or more, and ... I'm really not sure I care. I think I could give up RPGs completely now and not miss them.

Back when you were in your groove, what was it?

[Old Man]

What would you say your biggest weakness is as a player?

Boredom. By which I mean that I want to play. I really can't stand it when my character is unconscious, low SPD, or otherwise unable to participate in whatever's going on. This is why I tend to minimax my characters somewhat--not because I need to dominate the game, but because I want to play.

What would you say your biggest weakness is as a GM?

My weaknesses as a GM are many. Probably the biggest is that I'm just not able to switch gears very quickly, so improvising action or dialogue is extremely difficult. Couple that with difficulty tracking lots of numbers and a tendency to take player actions a little personally... and I'd rather be a player, thanks.

That said I do enjoy helping out the GM, either with bookkeeping or by using my character to advance the plot when my teammates aren't getting it.

[Cygnia]

Both as a player and as a GM, it's my lack of trust with people I don't know. I've been burnt too many times by jerks, Mary Sues and powermongers that I'm now very unwilling to take a risk and work with people outside my comfort zone.

[Cancer]

As a GM, I don't have a lot of tolerance for a lot of styles of gameplay. I am the kind of vengeful SOB who will make previously-unimagined things to knock out the powergamer when he sticks his SPD-1-point-above-campaign-max-when-he-turns-his-Aid-on invisible desolid 5-SLs-in-Stealth ninja a$$ in places he shouldn't. I come down hard with the full-AFV SWAT team when the butt-kicker starts a random fight because all he wants to do is beat up cheap opponents and doesn't give a rip about this plot b******t. And I get intensely frustrated when obvious things are deep unfathomable puzzles to the players. ("'The knob!' he cried." is one of my favorite lines from Bored of the Rings.)

I'll do my weaknesses as a player in a different post. Hopefully I'll be able to keep that one under 6000 words.

[Nolgroth]

At this point, my lack of enthusiasm. I've lost a lot of interest in gaming (well, in everything, really), so I can't work up the energy to run a game, or do much outside of barebones character creation. Our group hasn't gamed in about a month or more, and ... I'm really not sure I care. I think I could give up RPGs completely now and not miss them.

Yeah, this sort of sums up me right now. I've been having problems engaging in anything I once found enjoyable and have also found nothing to replace it. I suspect strongly that I have some form of clinical depression. Luckily, even depressed like this, I retain a fairly analytical detachment.

As a player, my two biggest weaknesses are a desire to cram everything into one character. This is related to my second biggest weakness and that is I GM far too often. I want to play everything in one character because I so rarely get to play that I don't get to explore different character concepts very often. Also, constant GMing has built in the almost physical need to know the plot. Being as players are supposed to discover the plot, it can sometimes be frustrating for me not to have the knowledge immediately accessible.

As a GM, my biggest weakness is preparation. Part of it is the realization that, though I have been a long-time proponent of the HERO System, I have begun to develop a strong dislike of it. It might be a temporary thing, but most days, I just want a system that does not have so many nooks and crannies. Sure, you can define the common cold in precise terminology but do you really need to? Sometimes I think that the HERO System is the path to madness. It demands that you create so many things that you soon feel the need to write up every last flaming detail of anything that can possibly be part of the game. My "solution" has been a complete rebellion of that concept. I just don't engage. And by not engaging, I do absolutely no prep work for most game sessions. Luckily my greatest strength as a GM is improvisation.

And that was probably far too long-winded.

[teh bunneh]

My greatest weakness as a GM is that I'm simply too awesome.

[Xavier Onassiss]

I come down hard with the full-AFV SWAT team when the butt-kicker starts a random fight because all he wants to do is beat up cheap opponents and doesn't give a rip about this plot b******t.

I'm not sure you should consider this a weakness. Life is too short to game with idiots like that.

[Blue]

Player: I hate to admit it but I'm just not a fast thinker. It takes me a while to figure out the best way to do something. When I rush in, I get my character killed.

GM: I over write. Rather than just letting the players run with it and doing improv of the details, I don't want my game to fall apart under a lack of detail so I manage to come up with way too much background info and reasoning and try to cover the possibilities. And that makes my campaigns short because it's exhausting.

As a player I tend to let others take the initiative, which doesnt' make sense with some of the characters I've made. But it certainly avoids the problem I mentioned. As a GM, I tend to run a lot less. I still get ideas and ache to run them, but I just let it pass.

[Old Man]

My greatest weakness as a GM is that I'm simply too awesome.

You just volunteered to GM the next campaign, dude!

[Ragitsu]

Maps. As long as i'm working on a single room, I don't mind drawing (digitally, of course) a map for it. Larger areas...no way. Thankfully, I don't often run games where maps are critical to the gaming experience.

[Peregrine]

As a GM: I'm lousy at actually running game sessions outside of pick-ups or one-shots.

As a player: the dice hate me.

[teh bunneh]

You just volunteered to GM the next campaign, dude!

I'm already GMing a game. Show up. Bring a 12-pack and some snacks.

[Ragitsu]

As a player: the dice hate me.

I'm not sure if "bad luck" can even be a player weakness.