This thread is dedicated to GMs who just want to vent a bit.

I was a forever GM for years. Had the free time and the disposable income to make pretty big campaigns. I frequently gave players their own physical CRB for whatever we were playing, their own dice, and any other supplies. The goal being to make it as easy as possible for them to join. Literally, just show up routinely so things can move forward. I always had the sessions geared to operate fine with one less player because flakes and life happens. Food and drinks were also provided for the group.

I stepped away from being a GM to go back to the player's side of the equation and not one swinging dick has made anything other than a one-hit since. Nothing is prepared, GMs flake constantly, and zero consideration is given to players time sacrificed while the GMs gets pissy if the players don't go fully on rails because it fucks with their over arching story. Not "refusing the bait" but the players want to check out a store before heading straight to a designated plot spot in a town without an immediate threat involved? GMs seethe.

What the fuck, man? Is this what player's were dealing with when I wasn't running a game? No wonder I kept being asked to GM everything. It's some egomaniacal nonsense.

>>96004685 (OP)
If running games pisses you off, then stop running them. It's not rocket science

I actually like GMing and think being a player is boring.
once in a while one of my players asks to do a one shot and it disappoints me cause I love GMing so much.

>>96004696
Illiterate retard

>>96004696
Sounds more like the opposite. Not running games pisses me off for similar reasons (although OP's are a lot more extreme). Maybe because I've been doing it for 25 years I find it annoying when other GMs don't put in the effort. I can be patient with some things, but it's frustrating.
I have had some good experiences coaching GMs, but you have to find one who's open to doing so. Works best with your most enthusiastic player who wants to give it a try and likes the way you run things.

Players are ALL retarded and refuse to remember the most basic rules

just have a basic idea for the session and improv everything else, its easy.

>>96004756
You can run a session that way, but it gets cracks in the foundation pretty quick if done too liberally.

Don't get me wrong, any GM worth a damn will have mastered the art of the Ass Pull, but SOME planning is gonna be necessary. Plot hooks, leads, NPCs of note, etc are all pretty necessary stuff. Having the Rectal Manifestations point to those NPCs, plot hooks, etc and it seems natural is the magic of a good GM.

>>96004742
>Implying I bothered with whatever rant OP posted in the first place

>>96004804
Unironically a skill issue.
Have 3-5 points of "script" (literal points, 3-5 simple sentences), improvise the rest. Have similar thing for campaign events.
This way, you can have 20+ meet-ups "planned" on a single sheet of notebook paper.
Besides, anon didn't say "don't plan". He said "have a basic idea". Most idiots who try improv don't have that and end up with full random situation, which quickly becomes both tedious and impossible to maintain.

>>96004804
Also
>Plot hooks, leads, NPCs of note, etc are all pretty necessary stuff.
Not in improv
You need the most basic outline, and that outline uses placeholders. Meaning anything beyond one- or two-word placeholder is pointless effort.
Do kids still write html for shit and giggles? That's like the best example of how basic this stuff has to be and how the actual script just exists to glue random bits together.

>>96004812
I literally said that you CAN run a game that way, retard.

I just said relying on it too much is when you get problems and you need to plan some things.

Your entire post is agreeing with my post even though you think it is disagreeing with my post for some bizarre reason.

>>96004828
>Now let me repeat what I said already, learning nothing

>>96004833
Fuck, wrong missed image.
Here, the one you should get

>>96004804
>>96004812
>>96004823
I've heard somewhere about running games the same way players play them: they don't do hours of planning before showing up, they just make an initial effort on their character sheet and that pulls them along, reminding them what they can do. So, a GM would have a "GM sheet" with all his options and toys, like factions, NPCs and their goals, worldbuilding quirks and whatever else he needs to dynamically react to player choices. It's similar to other pieces of advice regarding "prepping situations, not plots", but I like how it's worded.

>>96005180
I'd go a step further, since this can still be understood as a level of planning that's not really needed.
That important NPC? You don't actually need a sheet (unless you are playing some convoluted mess of a system with bazillion factors, that is). You need to have written bulletpoints about that NPC, and the system will carry the rest. So you write "Noble knight, really good swordsman", rather than making an actual, full sheet for the guy, and then when needing to make any rolls at all, you improvise the actual values needed. Knowing the system you are running is infinitely more efficient than having character sheets for all the NPCs you plan to use today, and you don't have to make new ones each time, you just remember how the system evaluates things.

>>96005203
Some examples, to make it easier to grasp:
>Cthulhu by Gaslight session, mid-May
Mad doctor performing evil experiments. All I had written down was "Scientist, well-off, no morals, easily excited about his work" and whenever having to roll anything for him, just eye-balling the target values. His henchmen were standard beastmen stats, I remember those.
>WFRP 4e, late May
I just remember various example enemies after so many years, so I don't bother writing this shit down, I just jog my memory
>Outgunned, mid June
The game does this for you, since you simply declare the difficulty of enemies and power of allies on a 2-5 scale, the rest is automated, because the game is fully reactive to players, rather than stuff happening on its own. It REALLY helps with the random bullshit style of action movies the game is evoking.

I had a single sheet of paper for running each of those campaigns (which lasted respectively 5, 4 and 6 meetings), and most of it were notes taken by the end of the sessions, to remember where I wrapped shit up. I can't remember when I made a sheet for an NPC, rather than just noting down a sentence or two about them to keep them consistent.
Meanwhile players think that my notepad is some sort of extensive campaign bible with all the details written down, even if I never flip the pages of it and it just sits in front of me.

>>96005203
Actually that's kinda what I meant as well: not a sheet per NPC, but a comprehensive GM sheet with all kinds of stuff on it for quick reference.

>>96005227
>players think that my notepad is some sort of extensive campaign bible
Kek, though I'd have to write a bit more than that simply because I forget things a lot.

my strategy is to prep just enough to improve everything else.
if I know the general layout of the terrain(what buildings are in town, who is where, etc) and the goals and motivations of all the NPCs then no matter where the players go or what they do then I have all the into I need to improv any scenario.
I call it building wide, rather than tall.

>>96004685 (OP)
Dumb frogposter

>>96004685 (OP)
I have one player who's generally good fun to hang around, a good roleplayer, and enjoys reading VNs (so I know he's not totally illiterate). But if I put a gun to his head and told him to open a TTRPG rulebook, I know he would rather take the bullet. We've been in at least three campaigns together, with one with both of us as players, one with me as GM, and one with him as GM. (Yes, he has the audacity to run a game for a system he's never read. It sounds stupid, but I've had two other GMs just like this.) He has never opened a rulebook, and probably never will.