Why do you GM???

[Guest taxboy4]

Why do YOU do it

 

Story tell / DM / GM / Referee???

 

Is it cos you are a power hungry uber freak with real world confidence and self worth issues?

 

Is it cos you suck as a player

 

Is it cos no one else will???

 

Or maybe its cos you enjoy giving people a good time ..and legally!!??

 

For me its cos i suck as a player and I like to be in control - a benevolent dictator if you will...

[Eosin]

I think it boils down to one prime but but several secondary things for me.

 

I like to create. I like to write and figure out a fantasy world (or a superheroic one, or one of dark magic and intrigue). I like to draw maps and read about NPCs and wonder what they are doing.

 

2. No one else usually wants to.

 

3. I like the good time aspect also.

 

 

I am a pretty good player.

[tkdguy]

Because I can!

 

 

 

 

And the fact that I come up with lots of ideas AND I'm the only one who had previous experience with the HERO system has something to do with it.

[Markdoc]

Frankly, I'd rather play than GM. There's plenty of scope for invention as payer, and I enjoy the social interaction/exploration aspect either way

 

But I'd rather GM a good game than play in a bad one, and not everyone is cut out to be a GM.

 

cheers, Mark

[MarioTani]

For me:

 

1) No one else it's going to do it

 

2) I find it funny

 

3) I GM? I choose the RPG System!

 

In this way I've succeeded in using MERP, CoC, GURPS and now Hero, later on some other player start to like the system and decide to use it in some of his own campaign so I can play it too

 

The selection goes on something like:

"Hey Guys, I wanna start a FH campaign, some one would like to be in? I need 5 players!"

 

If there are no new players this is enough as I GM only 3 settings one fantasy, une modern, one Sci-Fi.

[Monolith]

I do it because I prefer to GM. I have oodles of creativity just boiling up inside of me most of the time. Unfortunatly I'm not a good writer (all the people who proof-read my CU campaign book can testify to that ) so trying to get that creativity down on paper is not a simple process. That basically just leaves me with expressing my creativity through GMing. As a player you're more limited to expressing yourself through one character. As the GM you get to play many characters and get to interact with many different circumstances. Plus, for me, it's just more fun to control the flow of the story rather than trying to react to it as a player does.

[Guest joen00b]

I'm a control freak.

 

I tend to write grandiose games, get the players emotionally charged about the game to the point where it transcends just the game. We're there to have fun, and I go way out of my way to make the game creative, fun and intense all at once.

 

I'm far from the best GM, but I find many players enjoy when I run games because I do so with alot of fury. I really go all out to create the scenarios and challenges, putting alot of thought and effort into it. Many of the other GM's I've played under don't go all the way, it's almost like modern art: They're afraid to go out on a limb and really try something because it could possibly fail.

 

Hell, many of my ideas have failed once introduced at the gaming table, but at least I went out of my way to attempt to create the idea and bring it to fruitition. Not all ideas are good ones, but any that doesn't see the light of day is a bad idea.

 

I also try to create very subtle ripples throughout the campaigns, very gritty story lines, and it tends to make the players a bit more paranoid, which I've found has added a bit more excitement to the gaming. I'm far from the best, but I know I've been appreciated for the hoops I jump through in order to bring a great experience to the players.

 

Maybe it's the adoration of the players, I'm a bit of a gloryhound as well as a control freak...

 

[austenandrews]

Several reasons:

 

1) I have a small group and I'm the only one who wants to run. Plus I'm old and complacent, and don't much like casting about for new blood.

 

2) I like switching between many different characters.

 

3) I love worldbuilding and character-building. I have great fun thinking of a premise and constructing a large, fantastical setting around it. Like my present FH game, in which I established some fairly unique "world rules" and have enjoyed the last year and a half using them to reexamine many old fantasy tropes.

 

4) I like playing with game systems. I've got no less than six quite different magic systems in my FH game. I create them all myself and dole them in small increments to the PCs, all of whom are magicians. Last summer I did a short-run called Atomic Space Adventures for, I think it was five or six sessions. Even for such a throwaway cheese-fest, I took great joy in augmenting the Hero rules with piles of genre-specific material. It's glorious when the numbers come together well, and they did.

 

5) When a sessions works out well, the ego-boo is tremendous.

 

-AA

[Guest Worldmaker]

Worldbuilding and creating storlines is my bread and butter. I don't call myself "Worldmaker" for nothing, after all.

[GrimJesta]

I like to create. I like to write and figure out a fantasy world (or a superheroic one, or one of dark magic and intrigue). I like to draw maps and read about NPCs and wonder what they are doing.

 

Worldbuilding and creating storlines is my bread and butter. I don't call myself "Worldmaker" for nothing, after all.

 

That sums it up for me.

 

I actually dont like playing that much compared to GMing.

 

-=Grim=-

[Fitz]

I GM for one main reason -- because most of the time it's the only way I can get to play in the sort of campaign I want.

 

When I can, I'd much rather be a player than a GM, and in fact I'm not really a very good GM because I'm too scattershot -- I get plenty of ideas, but often I get bored with them quite quickly.

[farik]

I like to tell a story but I really enjoy not knowing how it's going to turn out. I enjoy creating a history and playing multiple characters. I love playing but after awhile I feel a compulsion to step behind the screen and take my turn entertaining the group.

[Delthrien]

Mostly because...

 

I'm not smart enough to get out of doing it...

 

I like the challenge of coming up with interesting plots, but alas I'm not always up to the challenge. On the whole, I think I like playing better than GMing but if comes down to GMing or not having a game, gimme the screen and I'll fake it for as long as possible.

[MordeanGrey]

Why do I run games? Well, to torture the players of course!

 

Actually, I have grand story ideas running through my head that I try to bring to life through the game. Maybe someday I'll take a shot at writing a novel or something, but until then, running the game lets me express my ideas and get some feedback. I certainly have mountains of resources from previous games to use for background information if I ever get around to writing a book.

 

In the meantime, it's a fun way to get together with my best friends and take a break from the real world.

[Vondy]

1. I love to tell stories and exercise the imagination. This is my primary reason for game mastering. I get to tell a story that the players interact with.

 

2. If I run I get to set the tone for the campaign world. I tend to be picky about versimiltude and consistency. I also prefer grittier, more realistic games.

 

3. I love villians. When I was five years old and saw Star Wars in the theater my favorite character was Darth Vader. Luke annoys me, though I like Han. I love running the villains.

 

4. I've traditionally been the only experienced GM available. Hence I'm stuck with the job.

[Chuk]

Originally posted by Markdoc

Frankly, I'd rather play than GM. There's plenty of scope for invention as payer, and I enjoy the social interaction/exploration aspect either way

 

But I'd rather GM a good game than play in a bad one, and not everyone is cut out to be a GM.

 

This is pretty close to my own feelings on the matter -- it's not even so much that other people's GMing is so much worse than mine as that they're likely to be running D&D or some campaign world which I find boring. My preference would be "Player in a cool World, GM in my own World, Player in a mediocre world, or GM in a mediocre world". Except that last one won't happen unless someone pays me.

[Old Man]

For me it's because I'm "the GM guy". Other people might but they like to play more than they like to GM.

 

I'd like to think they also chose me as the GM guy because they know I will be fair.

[John Desmarais]

Re: Why do you GM???

 

Originally posted by taxboy4

Why do YOU do it

 

It insures that gaming happens...

 

John Desmarais

[CorpCommander]

It saves me a lot of money

 

I GM to save money.

 

I have deep, psychological scars. They are well ingrained and would require years and years of therapy to excise. Worse, untreated they could lead to halucinations, manic/violent behavior, a disconnection from reality and so on. Treating them would require lots and lots of expensive therapy and weekly visits to a board certified shrink and perhaps lots and lots of pills and expensive perscriptions.

 

But why bother will all of that? Why not put them to work? GMing is very similar to deep psycho analysis - you put your crazy ideas out there, the players listen and react, this causes the subconsious of the GM to respond in kind and the next thing you know you have a game going. The players think you have the greatest adventure all planned out when in reality you as GM have no control over the process and its the damage and the disease taking over for a few hours each time.

 

The benefit is that the demons are quieted and in fact quite befuddled. My sub-conscious has no idea why the conscience is asking it how many XP that last freaking nightmare scenario was worth. Thus feeling a bit cornered the sub-conscious comes up with a number, any number, and slinks off for a while... only to return in time for the next gaming session.

 

Anyway the voices are telling me to get off the internet and go beef up the rPD and BODY on the giant squid. My work never ceases...