Do DMs make bad players?
4 November 2009 in Articles by Iain M NormanMaking the Switch
I’ve recently switched from being DM to running a PC. After many years of DMing this is the first time I’ve had a chance to really spend a couple of weeks playing, attempting to get into character, and drawing character portraits.
Apart from a couple of sessions here and there I’ve not played a PC for any length of time since 1992, that was at university where I also DMed more than I played. It could be said that I’m not a very experienced player of RPGs, particularly in this latest case where it’s the first time playing D&D 4e for me.
Learning the ways of a PC
I’m struggling to be a good PC, and I’m convinced being a DM makes me a bad player. I’m constantly second guessing our DM, questioning the need for dice rolls, adding up encounter budgets, and other annoying habits. I hasten to add I’m not doing this out loud at the table.
It’s detracting from me concentrating on my character somewhat.
And then there’s the points where my inner rules lawyer raises his hackles…
If there’s a ruling I don’t like I can be vocal about it, mainly because I know the rules to a greater depth. Usually it’s not a ruling our DM has decided upon because he wants it that way, but perhaps a misunderstood rule, or ignorance of one, so he’s often thankful to have it pointed out.
I question the need for me to do this? Some might say there’s no need, others may say a group needs to stick to the rules to some degree to handle player expectations and retain a certain amount of world predictability.
Most of my problems as a player stem from there being not enough to do, and having too much spare time. As DM you rarely have a break from the action, even if the PCs are discussing something amongst themselves, I would often use that time to be preparing. Especially if they were discussing something I was unprepared for!
As a player there’s a lot of downtime for me. Waiting for combat to come round to my turn for example. I try to fill some of this by assisting the DM with initiative tracking, but still having to wait in combat is something I’m not used to, which leaves me time to start questioning and second guessing.
I’m still enjoying each session and can’t wait for the coming week each time, but I can’t help feeling that sometimes I’m being an arse.
Learning from playing
On the flip side though I think that some experience of being on the other side of the screen will help me be a better DM.
As a player I’ve felt we’ve not got much done each session. I’m definitely of the “Storyteller” player archetype, I think perhaps many DMs are. They want to see the plot move along and develop, as plots are what DMs spend a lot of time thinking about.
As a comparison I revisited some logs from our previous campaign, and looked at them from the point of view of a player. I was surprised at how little we got done each session, it was quite similar to our current campaign.
This is a point I could look to improving next time I DM. As well as looking at ways I can help get more done from the players side of the screen.
So how about you?
Does DMing make you a bad player, or is your DM a bad player? What have you learned about DMing from being on the other side of the screen?
Since the dark days of the late '70s, Iain has been playing and running RPGs of one type or another. When not with his wife and children or working as a software engineer/Photoshop monkey he spends spare time either shooting pointy sticks at pointless paper targets or spending time enjoying the varied worlds of role playing.10 Comments to Do DMs make bad players?
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I don’t think they inherently do, but you have to be willing and able to give up the control you normally have over the table to the other DM.
I can’t say I’ve learned much from the other side of the screen though. I’ve barely ever gotten to see it.
I was a player first; it took me quite a while to even consider DMing. But having served as a DM had a strong effect on my playstyle. Before DMing, I’d been rather hesitant, basically followed the plots people offered me. After, I started seeing it less as a plot and more as a mess of characters and events creating a vague sort of direction; I gained interest in interaction and characterization and lost patience with fights for fights’ own sake. Parts of my style grew from things that had frustrated me or that I’d been trying to avoid when I was behind the screen; I became proactive because of players who couldn’t make a decision without a plot hook, tailored the general lateral-ness of my ideas and solutions to what I figured the DM would accept, and learned to use just about anything as a tool from having spent long evenings trying to anticipate what sorts of things my players might bypass my events and challenges by exploiting. Having seen behind my own screen meant that I wanted to see what other people were doing behind the screen as well, to learn from them–and in one case, where my GM had been playing in one of my games for a year before he started running, wanted to know what was going on and make suggestions so it’d make for an even better story.
I also found that DMing, particularly in the play-by-chat format my group used, had side impacts on some of my other skills, particularly show-don’t-tell description–but that’s another story.
@Sam You’ve hit the nail on the head there with the concept of control. I think mostly the reason is a small amount of ‘control freak’ and no longer being the centre of attention.
I am a bad man.
Acknowledging and admitting to that is a start though!
@Ravyn Do you mean DMing has taught you to show not tell and therefore impacted well? Or vice-versa?
It’s taught me a great deal about show don’t tell, particularly since that was pretty much the only tool I had. When you can’t see your players, physical props are difficult, you can’t get anything across by gestures or pantomime, and it breaks immersion (a rather important concept to me) if you have to stop and explain that such a thing works a certain way rather than just being able to insert it offhandly in a pre-existing description. (Being able to self-edit helped.)
@Ravyn It sounds like novelist training
While it didn’t make me a *bad* player, spending so much time as DM certainly limited how good a player I could be. On the plus side, it’s fair to say that I quickly gravitated to the role of party spokesman, and I did all I could to keep the party on track (something I always wanted from at least one player while I was DM).
On the minus side, your comment about “not having enough to do” was spot-on with regard to my play style. I fidgeted, doodled, even played solitaire on my laptop when nobody was looking (I tracked initiative and kept adventure notes on the laptop, so I always had it on).
I didn’t intend to be disrespectful by doing those things, but the game seems a lot slower when you’re not controlling it.
I’m glad it’s not just me! Beginning to sound like an Ex-DM support group. *grins*
I will let you know my thoughts when I finally get back onto the other side of the screen. Rules-wise I’m pretty lax, so I can’t see that being an issue. Plot-wise, however, I think I’ll always be trying to be one step ahead of the DM, trying to get to the end of the story before I’ve even experienced walking through it. I’ll probably also be busy stealing ideas for my own campaigns…
You’ve described there Esspkay, in few words, exactly what my problem is in the main. It’s plot and wanting to get to the end of it!