Now in my personal experience I have noticed that most people who GM (and are good at it) seem to find they are the the GM more and more often, until they are always the GM.

I know this happened to me. I was mostly a player for years. I had one especially good GM for a few years, and after he left I increasingly found myself GMing the games. At this point I don't think I have been a serious player (save for a few sessions) for six years or so.

I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. GMing is hard, time consuming, and a good GM takes a lot of training, years really, just like any creative endevor. I see a lot of sub-par GMs, one of the reason I don't find myself playing much these days, it is just too hard to find a top-notch GM, and I would rather be the GM in a great game than a PC in an ok game.

What about you? Part or full time? Do you see this trend? Do you consider it a good or a bad thing? Thoughts?

I definately fall into the category of full time GM. I have been a gamer for 20+ years, and originally my core group of friends rotated GMing duties with game systems. As I started playing with other groups, I found myself running the game far more often then actually playing the game. Aside from stints as a player in some LARPs, I honestly cannot remember having been a player for more then 6 months in the last 10 years.

I will be honest, I think its a great thing for me. I am always in the game system I am most excited about. If and when I burn out of a particular system there is no question of if my group is changing games, but rather when. Also I am a consumate book nerd and love doing the prep work on a campaign.

So all in all, being a full time GM works for me.

Full time here. And, yes, it is damned time consuming like working a second job, but to be a good GM, I've noticed that the work is quite necessary. While I've played under GMs who will paste a quick game together in 30 minutes time for a half-drunk night of fun and pull it off decently well, such games tend to fail in the long run. I reckon the GM really has to care about the world for the players and characters by extension to do so as well.

However, I would argue that being a full-time GM is not a good thing. While, yes, it dose take practice to hone your skills, never sitting in the player seat can cause you to hone the wrong side of them and lock you into bad gm habits without realizing it. Without the fresh view of seeing the gaming experience from the other side, you can easily lose sight of the game it self and forget what it's like for the players, something a gm should never do.

Likewise, if you're not careful, it can lead you into a rut or burn-out if you don't take a break, let the batteries recharge, and get a fresh perspective on the hobby.

So, I'd have to say that it is better to be a player in an ok game now and again then a GM in a great game all full-time -that might ruin the great game. If you're a player in an okay game or even a poor one now and again, you'll pick up some tips and hints about what you shouldn't do or at least reinforce the lessons you have already learned to make sure you don't forget them.

I am a full time GM. I despise it with every fiber of my being; I wish to find an online game group that plays via MSN, or Ventrilo or something (I cannot do play by post which seems to be obscenely popular). I have a group of people, whom's playing style completely clashes with my GMing style (combat versus investigation) and in which, I have no idea of how to even do combat scenarios and make them interesting. Just rolling a die all the time is, dull... And with a group that doesn't appreciate me doing my stuff, I have been burnt out so many times, I have no idea. I'm jealous of those whom are able to do it. I may just need coaching is all. And a whip.

That's my rant. I apologize, but it shows sometimes that GMing is not all sunshines and rainbows.

Full time. And I would not want me as a player. I can´t help myself but turn pretty anoying, especially if the GM is less experienced then mean and makes "mistakes". I noticed this flaw of mine and try to work against it...

...but then again, their were only two time where I was ot the GM...and I do not think that this will happen again. Sadly.

Full time here. But in between Dark Heresy campaigns, one of the players does a 3.5 D&D campaign. So that makes everyone (especially me) VERY happy. It cuts the workload time in half for both GM's. and by the time the D&D game is done I'm positively itching to G.M. Dark Heresy! So it's good for avoiding stagnancy. But NOT good for character rank progression. It's a bit of give and take, but overall everyone is happy.

I am, finaly, part time, though my DH game is now dead and i'm working on a new game (Deadlands: Reloaded, natch). I was full time for a while and all it did was burn me out and i saw myself taking it out on my players. Of course, since none of them wanted to take their turn behind the shield so i could play, i feel little pitty for them, but it was still not a good situtation. Hopefully i will be able to get a DH game started on alternating weekends with my new group, and then i will be super happy

I do all of the running for DH, having inherited it in a way where we used to alternate game sessions with myself and another bloke doing GM duties, but he's now doing a 50-50 running/playing for our RT game with another fella, where I'm a full time player in those. That is split in two ships, a solo frigate with my Navigator in A-Team and a cargo hauler with raider escort in B-Team where I've got an Explorator- in the case of A and B Team's, we're part of the same trader dynasty, just with different parts in the expansion of the dynasty, so if need be we can have characters floating between the two.

With DH at the moment I just love running the game and have a lot of fun with the guys who I've been playing with since about 1994-95ish, I still have my DH Assassin character floating around as a major NPC and contributing to their Influence factor off doing various bits and pieces in the background, info gathering, causing trouble, killing people, pissing off the inquistor... etc. So at any point he's got an idea and wants to step in an run a game or two I can just switch back over to being a player again there and his character can be in the background.

probably Part time I guess. My DH game of 2 years finished recently, problem players.... suffice to say he's on my 'will not GM for ever again' list. my group has two main GM's, me and a friend who is currently running a Hunter:the reconning game, though its the first game I've been a player in since 2005! Good times

Part time. But only in regards to different games. I'm GM in Dark Heresy, Artesia and a homebrewn colonial era america Cthulhu. I'm a player in Werewolf, Exalted, Amber, Mechwarrior and few other games.

Used to be Full Time, but have swung into Part-Time.

I'm mostly playing now, although for many years I GM'd only. I'm enjoying the break, but I still can't wait to be behind the screen again when the opportunity allows.

Part-time. Always part-time. I also tend to handpick my groups based on the type of game I'm planning on running. There are a lot of people I'll game with who I'll not run for, for varied reasons.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Full time and beyond. And probably so spoiled I could not be a player evermore as I would always think about the meta-level during play and whether something is improvized or according to the script. After 20 years of GMing no wonder it seems. Especially in case of Warhammer and 40K as I am some kind of fluff nerd and would certainly be a god **** nitpicker all the way as a player.

I spend a lot of time preparing sessions and NPCs and stuff (almost half the weekend most of the time). Whenever working life gets more stressful and takes its toll though, it is first of all at the expense of my GMing as the preperation time of the sessions decreases and thereby the quality and depth of the setting in my games as such. I hate it when I do not live up to my own expectations in this regard...

With DH i'm a 50-50 guy. Myself and a mate run a campeign each that has a Lot of cross over (what happens in one game is reflected in the next) and we work well like that as the games are two very different styles of play.

when it comes to other games such as AD&D(Planescape, Ravenloft & homebrew), Blue Planet (another FFG game that's sadly now dead), Shadowrun & Vampire then i'm GM and not player.

We're still playing through our first campaign, and I'm the GM of the campaign so I've done nothing but GM so far. I am really looking forward to playing the game (probably Rogue Trader as I have no interest in GM'ing that, or Deathwatch when it comes out) before I go back to GM'ing.

Preparing so much stuff really takes it out of you.

BYE

Velvetears said:

Wasn't Redbrick working on a third ed of BP ?

Brother Praetus said:

Could be an interesting off-line discussion.

The last few years I've tend to be a GM if I'm roleplaying at all. Between last october and this june, I had played precisely one con scenario and was running a near-weekly Rogue Trader game (which is still ongoing). In june I started playing again and had forgotten how much fun it could be on the other side of the table. That and I hadn't actually played any Rogue Trader and very little Dark Heresy. If I had to choose one role, I think I would stick to GMing even with the risk of burnout. I enjoy creating campaigns.

Kyorou said:

I know the msn group for it is still active, but i've not kept up on it. Loved the setting, great rules system as well (though i did convert to % system as players complained they Always succeeded and rarely failed despite heavy modifiers and i prefered the conversion job i done as well ).

The world Will be featuring in one of my Dh games at some point in the future as i think it would work Very well in the DH setting (native Xenos, subversive cults, rare biotech STC type things and LOTS of gribblies with very big teeth).

I'm lucky, if you want to call it that, only part-time here.

In our DH group we have 3 that can run, and another who has once, but he's not so good on longer term, as it seems he's ADD. I have yet to run for the group I play in, although I started a separate group, and 3 of the players from that group have made characters for my game, though only one is making the game on a semi-regular basis.

I used to run FT on 3.5 D&D, and 2nd ED for years before that. I also had a long running V:TM campaign that started about a year after that edition came out and ran through Gehenna, although by the end, I was more PT, as several had taken up the reins to GM several story arcs.

I love games with the meta-game story arcs, and I'm always trying to figure out what going on behind the scene, even if the GM who is currently running has no such plans.

The issues I tend to have is having players who seem biased when they're running games, but always want more as a player than they ever allow in their game.

I tend to use characters I created to run as player, as NPCs in my game (never waste a resource).

I have been the full time GM for at group af D&D players for about 4 years. And i was really burning out, especially after we switched to 4th edition, i just felt like at random dungeon generator from diablo

But about 6 months ago i started playing as a Player in af DH group, and it really gave me my gaming mojo back. Now the group i used to GM D&D in also plays DH, and the energy is back in the group, with people roleplaying mutch more..

In the last 10 years or more I have not played a game for more than 3 months at a stretch, and usually I was still running every other week at that. I'd say, all together I've played less than a year and a half out of the last decade.

Which means, yes, I am a full time GM. Typically I prefer it this way, as it allows me an outlet for my creativity and though I do have some ok-decent GMs in my group I am by far the best and would usually rather run one of my games than play in another. In fact, when I am forced to take breaks - because as Graver stated, after a while you get burned out and need some time to cool off, and recharge - I rarely play, but simply sit the campaign out and do other things.

I have seen my players evolve and devolve as gamers over the 20 years I have been playing and - mostly - running. (I don't think I've gone more than six months without running a game in that time; even during the first decade where I played more, I also ran on a regular basis) I turned hack and slash gamers into excellent story oriented role players and then saw mmos change their tastes and turn them back toward H&S/Powergamers ... as the saying goes, if you do anything long enough there will be times you utterly hate it.

Still, I stick to it and when my players aren't whining because their characters got hurt or being obstinate because the player is mad at me for some real life issue, I am usually happy I do it. Really, though, after gaming with the same people for all this time, I wish I could find replacements for some of them in my area.

I'm a part-time GM, starting in DH for the first time with Edge of Darkness, and following that on with several related missions of my own writing (and one that someone had put up on Dark Reign). Given how bad our usual GM is, most of our group actually prefer it when I run games. They were disappointed when we had to trudge through Baron Hopes with our usual GM (and I mean trudge, it was horrendously slow in the exploration parts, and the combat was "meh" at best).

What didn't help was when the GM decided to crap all over our Tech Priest. From a great height. Credit to the TP player for keeping cool after losing a Fate Point, his Gun Servitor (picked up from one of my missions), apparently having hardware inside his head affected by zombies that can't hurt him, and also 5 wounds. Though he was conveniently left outside the mine he was in, not far from where the rest of us were killing mutants with abandon.

We've got 2/3 other players thinking up missions, and long-running campaigns, so we never have to put up with that kind of crap again. The consensus was to ensure he never GMs a game of Dark Heresy ever again.

Sorry about the rant.

I was until recently a FT GM, however, my domestic partner has begun GMing games and thus I find myself in the Part Time category for the first time in over 10 years.

Alexis

*smiles*

I was a player in our gaming group's two 5-year long D&D 3.5 campaigns. We were planning to follow them with a (then newely-released) DH campaign with the same GM, but he was hit with some family emergencies that precluded his GMing, so, as the player most knowledgeable about the 40K universe, I was drafted into serving as the DH GM. This is my first GMing experience since my AD&D days in the mid-'80s. My DH players are now mid-third level; so far, GMing has been an interesting combination of fun and stress...