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| How come there are so many GMless games? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 27 2014, 08:33 AM (1,825 Views) | |
| Ferdinand Ro | Dec 27 2014, 08:33 AM Post #1 |
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Pokémon Trainer
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I am active on both rpol and mythweavers and I check out giantitp once in a while. There are alot of different game systems out there, where D&D is a very popular one. I see alot of demand for PTU also, but very few games show up or get started (about 5 active on rpol and 1 active on mythweavers). I am one of those people who can't wait to jump in a cool PTU game because the mechanics seem really great, but as many here, I can't find a game. What causes this gap between DM's and interested players? Does it have something to do with the setting? I'm very curious. |
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| Sgt. Cookie | Dec 27 2014, 08:46 AM Post #2 |
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Not sure what's going on
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Everyone ones to be the very best. But not as many people want to tell the story of someone else becoming the very best. |
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| Robot | Dec 27 2014, 09:15 AM Post #3 |
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Giant Mecha Enthusiast
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Ultimately what it boils down to, is being a Game Master is work. Some people really enjoy it, I myself have an odd love for tedium that I only just discovered recently. It takes a great deal of investment, both time and emotionally, to sit down with a group of people every week (session-oriented games) or plan out any appreciable plot in advance. Things like Panoramic Panda's encounter generator go a long way to helping a Game Master not have to sweat things like encounters, which is great. This becomes even worse when someone decides they want to develop an entire world themselves. |
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| CosmicOccurene | Dec 27 2014, 09:17 AM Post #4 |
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Pokémon Trainer
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GMing is a lot of work and a lot of planning. While it can be very rewarding, its also very stressful to run more than one game at a time. This causes a demand since most potential GMs already have a game going when others are trying to find a game. I have plenty of ideas of games that I think would be awesome to run, but I also want to be a player, and its tough (especially in a smaller community like the PTX crowd) to find a balance that fits with everybody. EDIT: Personally, I find worldbuilding the most rewarding part of GMing, although I may be a bit of an exception in that I've worked up an entire campaign setting that I've only run one (very successful) game in. Edited by CosmicOccurene, Dec 27 2014, 09:18 AM.
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| Robot | Dec 27 2014, 09:22 AM Post #5 |
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Giant Mecha Enthusiast
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I find world building rewarding as well, but I find myself in that position where it's like constructing a model. Almost don't want to hand it to someone else so they can play with it. x3 |
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| castfromhp | Dec 27 2014, 09:23 AM Post #6 |
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Mawile Ace
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Please don't use the Waiting Room for discussion threads like this. It should only be used if you're making a post looking for a GM, not to discuss the dynamics of doing so. I'm moving this to the PTU subforum. That said, I think in most given RPG communities, there will be more players than there are GMs to handle them. GMing is not only more demanding and requires preparation and work between sessions , but the common perception is that it's less fun than being a player, which is a shame really. Very popular systems like D&D, World of Darkness, and Pathfinder get past this a bit by having such a critical mass of players and GMs that finding a game is nonetheless not much trouble. There are numerous smaller systems, either homebrew like ours or simply from a smaller designer, which are similarly difficult to find games for. PTU in particular is somewhat more daunting to GM because of the additional bookkeeping and tracking that comes with your party not only having their Trainer characters but a roster of Pokémon for each Trainer. Unlike D&D, there also aren't a wealth of adventures you can just pick up and run, which means that you have to do all the work yourself in a mechanically complex system, and that takes time and commitment. Finally, I want to note that despite our very own forums hosting a burgeoning play-by-post community, I personally do not think PTU is a very good system for playing in that medium at all. Frankly, most tactical combat systems aren't, and it's lighter systems like Don't Rest Your Head or Monsterhearts which I think would work better for that format. The sites you listed are all play-by-post RP communities, so this may factor into it in some way, even if PbP is the -only- way many people have time to RP online. I know quite a number of people who GM now or have GMed PTU or PTA before on our IRC channel, and very few of them would ever consider running the system in PbP. |
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| CosmicOccurene | Dec 27 2014, 11:16 AM Post #7 |
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Pokémon Trainer
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I suppose that I have the exact opposite viewpoint than Cast, as I find that, for myself, pbp is really the only way for me to play PTX productively. Especially when GMing, the sheer amount of data and calculations confronting me were enormous. Keeping track of double the number of combatants per player was really daunting. Even as a player, I struggled to really characterize each of my individual pokemon instead of treating them just as 'my squirtle'. I will never go back to live ptx play, although I've had some success with more narrative based systems in live play (and D&D 3.5, which was for some reason always more successful than other game systems despite being very tactical in nature). |
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| Thast Frigmanus | Dec 28 2014, 08:24 AM Post #8 |
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Pokémon Trainer
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Hey guys I am new to table top rpg in general and what you guys have said makes a lot of sense on both sides. I have played one rpg ever and I often talked with the gm about the game and his opinion on gming and from an outsider looking in it looks easy because we see the final result but most dont undersand the time it take to put together a story like tht. Those who do are just lazy to put one together themselse and experience the final result of someone elses hard work. Its not a bad thing but it is common. Personally I think methods discussed above has there pros and cons and dont mind playing either one. If it helps at all I am willing to gm a PTU game. I have been working on a fanfiction tht can easily be converted into an rpg. Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with PTU format and such so I ask tht the players be patient with me until I get the hang of it. |
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| Emotive Unstable | Dec 28 2014, 09:55 AM Post #9 |
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Steelmaster General
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There's a simple, economics-based explanation called supply-and-demand. Basically, for everyone to be able to find a GM for a game, there have to be GMs ready and able. If there aren't a lot of GMs in "supply," so to speak, then demands can't be met and will be fulfilled over time. Especially by newer GMs. So basically, there probably aren't a huge amount around compared to how many games need them. |
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| Ferdinand Ro | Dec 28 2014, 03:16 PM Post #10 |
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Pokémon Trainer
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With all that has been said. I'm sure that players will most likely be patient with you as a new GM. Good luck with whatever project you start. I'm sure that whatever you try will be interesting to say the least. |
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