What motivates you GM's? Options

[Abbandon]

What eactly motivates a games master to want to run the story and be the bad guys over wanting to be just one of the players?? I have a pretty cool idea for shadowrun campaigne but I'd much rather be a player in it then actually run it.

I cant see the fun in not having a character who developes and grows. Im not very good at making other people happy before making myself happy first.

So any tips or advice or just reasons why you enjoy being a GM??

[BishopMcQ]

For our group, we alternate. There are three people who enjoy being a GM out of our eight players, and so we take turns. This leads to everyone getting a chance to play, which we all like.

As a GM, I take pleasure in telling the story. Being a GM is like being the narrator in your own personal novel. I setup challenges and scenarios that will be difficult but with a little bit of courage, luck and skill, the heroes/anti-heroes as portrayed by the players will be able to overcome.

When my players come up with a clever way of bypassing an objective, or take a route I didn't foresee, I applaud them for it. I think too often, people think that because the GM plays the collected armies of thugs, goons and "bad guys" it must be GM vs Players. While this may work for some people, and I know a few GMs who enjoy the TPK, it doesn't work for my style. If I TPK my group, all the work that I have done prepping my campaign is completely wasted, because the players won't want to come back to that story, their next group of characters will be different and I am back to square one.

It's not about making them happy so that you are happy, it's about everyone being happy at the same time. I spend just as much time smiling and joking with my players from behind the screen as I do across the table when I'm a player myself.

[fistandantilus4....]

For me it's telling the story, seeing players reactions to scenarios, that sort of thing. I like to write and run the types of games I'd like to play in . I like to see interesting characters devlop, get up there in skills, influence, all that. mostly though I like to sit around with my friends and have a lot of fun. Someone's gotta be in charge and no one else wants to do it anyway.

[Grinder]

What fistandantilus3.0 said. :)

(See, I copy'n'pasted your name to get it right! :grinbig:)

[mfb]

i'm not much on GMing. i'd much rather play. when i do GM, it's generally because a) nobody else will, or b) i have something i want to show the players. a) isn't useful, here, so i'll talk about b).

it boils down to the idea that i like the characters my players are playing, and i want to put them in interesting situations. it's sorta the same thing as developing my own character, only i get to provide the stimuli instead of the reactions.

[fistandantilus4....]

@mfb: Exactly

@Grinder:*clap* congratulations. You have learned young one.

[Kagetenshi]

I'm with mfb—I have plenty of ideas, interesting situations, and soforth that I want to put into the gameworld, but since they're all in my head it isn't like I can be the player for them unless I say "hey, you, run this for me", and even then it wouldn't be my vision of it. Also, having a game is better than not having a game, and you can't have a game without someone GMing.

That said, plot threads also develop and grow. Sometimes they die, too (players fail something, decide not to bite, whatever), but there's usually growth and change there. The characters begin to be played slightly differently based on the experiences they go through. You get to see the "ahah!" moments as a player makes a connection between apparently unrelated events or ideas.

So on and soforth. Plus, GMing is less work up-front. Of course, the work done is greater than that that players have to do pretty much all the time after the very beginning, but at least for me, spending a day or two solid on chargen is a relatively taxing thing—I can make a character in under fifteen minutes, under thirty if I have 25+ points in Resources and don't have a few really expensive items to soak up the money, but I'm generally not happy with a character until I've checked, rechecked, rearranged everything, then slept on it and tweaked the character again. Being a GM lets me choose from my stock collection of good "first runs" to get a feel for the characters and playstyles, and then just react from there for a while.

~J

[Smilin_Jack]

[Lindt]

Im with K on this one. I do it because I have all sorts of ideas that I cant easly get to other people. But I love seeing my plot lines change and evolve, and see my players change and evolve, and what kinda trouble they get them selves into.
Or prehaps its the power trip...

[Grinder]

[nezumi]

I GM because otherwise no one will let me use my neat character ideas :(

In truth, I GM because I think I'm a better GM than most people I know. No offense against them, I've just been doing it longer, and I hang around with a younger crowd generally. So I figure it's my turn to GM and pass on the knowledge to train new, younger GMs, who will do the same forever. Plus, I generally get frustrated as a player. I get caught up on GM flaws because I feel like I know how I would handle it, and I think it would solve the problem quicker, as compared to how HE would handle it, which is stupid.

I'm currently the player in one real life game which is actually going pretty well. I GM a slew of online games, and go crazy when I'm the player because the GM never explains enough :P

[Adhoc]

I'm a GM because I like to come up with ideas for settings, locations, NPCs, plots, plot-twists and so on...

...and I love it when my players take the stuff I've made and spin it in a completely new direction. I like being a catalyst for the shared creativity and always enjoy the results.

...and I love it when we tell old war-stories about old scenarios that I made up.

...and I love all the awkward roleplaying events....

A.

[Kyoto Kid]

...I agree with Smilin Jack who by proxy also leads me to agreement with fistandantilus3.0 and mfb.

...it starts with the story angle, however there are openings for the PCs to affect the direction of storyline through their actions. I usually have a number of events occurring in the background simultaneously that the PCs are not aware of unless they happen to stumble in that direction. If they go off on a tangent, the main story still rolls on albeit now as a background thread. It is especially fun when the "left turn" actually expands the storyline and/or indirectly impacts one of the other threads. Granted, it is is tough way to write a campaign but makes the world seem more real in that there are other events occurring.

I also keep an eye on RL news events as well and have in the past incorporated them as hooks and plot devices when they appeared to fit the nature of the campaign. Often times I do not just transplant the actual news story, but something that catches my eye within it to which I ask, "I wonder how the characters would deal with this?" I based a recent scenario on the poisoning case that involved Polonium 210. Instead of going after a single individual, I had a terrorist group going about setting off dirty bombs near crowded areas that created a cloud of highly contaminated smoke and dust that would drift from the blast site.

Meanwhile there was a series of newsstream reports throughout concerning the heist of Medical equipment from the University Hospital (including the machine that goes *Ping* :D), the area was in the grip of a severe arctic cold snap with a rare snowstorm threatening to hit the city, a known celebrity was in town, and it was the Christmas Holidays.

[Darkest Angel]

I like to GM because I'm an evil sadist. I like to watch players squirm as they try to figure out what the hell is going on. It's also the only way I can get my hands on the milspec gear I can only dream of as a player. :grinbig:

Seriously though, I like to make up the stories and plot twists and turns. I try not to plan too far ahead, because I know players will always scupper those plans for the plot, but it's nice to see what direction the players can end up taking you in within the overall big picture.

At the end of the day it's about everyone having fun, afterall it's a game and games are meant to be fun right? It's not about killing players, killing PCs is easy, and not fun. Setting them challenges that could get them killed, now that's fun, especially if they do pull through it.

Now I know on here a lot of GMs have issues with munchkin number crunched player characters with no background; that doesn't really bother me, if they can produce a legit character sheet and some semblance of what the character is like, then that's enough for me. Yeah, part of me is the EvilGM™, I am more than happy to throw charisma 1 troll killing hands adept of doom into social situations well out of his depth and watch him squirm, but that's purely in the name of character building, you actually get the best role playing when you throw players way over their heads, and those "arghcrapwhatdoidonow?!" moments are always the most priceless - said player become centre of attention (where he wants to be) and everyone else gets a giggle. Come the chapter finale though, everyone gets to shine at what they do best.

Ultimately though, it's about the story and the characters in it, and where they take you with it.

[Kyoto Kid]

[Smilin_Jack]

[knasser]

I GM for two reasons. One - I have simply too much creativity to restrain it and GM gives me somewhere to put it whilst being a player does not. Secondly, I like to perform - vivid descriptions, tense plots, waving my arms around, etc. Again, I get less of this as a player.

I like to play. It's a chance to relax in a way that GM'ing isn't. Also developing a character is fun. But I'm pretty much entirely a GM.

[Rajaat99]

I GM for one simple reason, it's the closest I will ever get in my life of being a GOD!

[fistandantilus4....]

Then you've certainly picked an appropraite handle. ;)

[dog_xinu]

[Angelone]

The post above is very good advice-wise. I don't gm often and really only do it when my groups gm is burning out or needs a break. What I generally do is try to think of a few things that are going on and let the players find them. Like if they call their fixer he has plot 1, if they decide to hit the town they run into plot 2, etc. If for some reason they don't do anything then the fixer calls them, but I like the whole "hands off" gming.

I honestly hate gming, because I just get so selfconcous and worried if the players are having fun or not. Which they keep telling me they do, especially the other gm :S

[mfb]

if your players are good, and you can keep a lot of balls in the air, you can trick 'em into running a game for you. basically, you just expand their world. make them start things, rather than just doling out jobs and situations for you to react to. create a stable of NPCs with their own goals and motivations that intersect the PCs. make the PCs protect an asset, and then you get to have your team of runners try and get that asset. have your NPCs do legwork by going to the PCs and hitting them up for information--in the process, dropping clues that the PCs need to do their run.

[tisoz]

I too would much rather play than GM, but someone has to GM. When it is someone else, I get to feeling a bit guilty and try to give them some playing time.

What I like about GMing is playing NPCs that are not allowed as PCs, and having access to anything in the gameworld that makes any sense at all for the NPCs to have. In other words, access to all the cool stuff PCs can't afford or are wise enough not to try using too much.

My favorite type of game to run is one where the PCs have some plans or goals so I get to take characters and put in normal roadblocks (and some abnormal every now and again) to them fulfilling their plans and goals. Competition usually develops with others competing for the same resources, or with those whose goals conflict.

[Garrowolf]

I would much prefer to GM then ever play. I almost never play anymore. It's too confining. I love the crafting of setting and story. I started off GMing when I realized that I could tell a better story then the guy that started me off. I spend most of my free time working on various games and settings.

So I guess the underlining factor is that I have too much creativity to be bound by being a player. I love to GM.

[2bit]

fostering the development of characters, and telling a good story with them.

What I hate about being GM is that I always know what's going on behind the curtain.