"Old Schol D&D"

[stingray20166]

I don't understand: what was the GM *wanting* to do? were the players supposed to be figuring out what he wanted the characters to do, or were "random city encounters" the whole point? (maybe they would go up in difficulty as you levelled up?)

that's a lot of question marks, but I gotta lotta questions

Kwill, the other player and I have exactly the same questions.  

This is a major failure of Social Contract (if I am using the term correctly) in that all we know is that GM's Buddy wanted to play "[GM]'s Game".  Oh, and that the game is ludicrously Sim and only GM's Buddy wants to play that way.

At one point, after being refused I belive my second guard job at the jeweler's, I said "I kill him".  I was joking, but I think that Mike had it right in that the solution is to come up with a plot ourselves.

But Ron is right in that this would have been a big "F* You" to the other players.  I could have had fun by deciding my character was a killer, but where does that leave everyone else?  

My solution for next time is to talk to the other players ahead of time and set something up -- maybe we can all go back to the jeweler. :-)

And I do want to point out that this group has been largely succesfull in the past and nobody is really upset at this point.  It's more bemusement and boredom.  Which is why we are only giving him one more shot at GM'ing.  :-)

[Mike Holmes]

Crap, what happened to my response? I know I posted something about this, but now it's gone.

Anyhow, the point was that I never advocated being an ass. I wouldn't advocate being a killer, and none of my examples were like that. Even the "Oceans 11" idea would be predicated on the idea that it would be about getting the other PCs to help out with the heist.

What I'm saying is not that you should try to screw anyone, but that you should just adopt the normal duties of GM in certain areas (namely in generating plot), with all of the responsibility that this would entail. For example, it would probably mean involving all of the other PCs in each adventure that you got into. Perhaps even coming up with ways to make their characters central to the plots. Instead of your friend being in trouble, have your contact say that the other PCs friend is in trouble, "I talked to Hrothgaer, and he told me that your pal Nurmon needs somebody to take care of the goons trying to extort money from him in a protection racket."

No, the idea is to just assume that the GMing duties have been split, and that you're now the one in charge of generating plot, while he's the one in charge of displaying the setting.

Mike

[jrients]

When I have found myself in similar situations I just throw myself upon the mercy of the court.  "Look.  I'm a hack-and-slay man by preference.  I don't do find-the-plot or figure-stuff-out very well at all.  I just plain don't know where the adventure is supposed to be at or how I am suppose to get hooked up to it.  Please, throw me a bone."

If that kind of begging is rebuffed I know to look elsewhere for my gaming.

[Mike Holmes]

And that works just as well as a conversation starter. :-)

Mike