Stephan Hornick
Community Goblin & Master of the Archive
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Borderland Explorer
Recently I had three game sessions that made me realize something.
The first was a game that I GMed. I'm usually a theater of mind GM with many vivid descriptions and I regularly hear from my players that they were constantly on edge during combat and loved the rise and fall of every moment (if I may say so myself). Of course there are exceptions.
Anyway, I don't find it hard to describe vividly in combat as a GM.
The second was a Borderland game run by @JochenL last week. Now I was a player. I had a hard time describing the actions in a way that was interesting, vivid or fun. At least for me it felt less than usual (when I GM myself). So I thought about what the reason could have been. Somewhere else I commented then that I had the impression that the combat descriptions up to that point didn't lead to it and that there was no combat story. Although I like combat story, this was not the reason for my lack of fulfilling decription, as I now realize.
The third was a dungeon fantasy game run by @Morvar yesterday. Although I had very much fun, I again noticed that after hearing great descriptions by our GM and then suddenly being asked what my PC does, made my decriptions fail me. It was not that I didn't know what to do. And it was neither that it was sudden. I was prepared. I knew what I wanted to describe. I have a vivid imagination. But nevertheless, it was not the same as if I had been a GM in that situation.
So what is it then? Do I suffer from an impression that I lack freedom to describe the surroundings? Is it the different tone of the GM descriptions and my own natural tone for descriptions that make me stumble? Or is it indeed the suddenness? Or my focus on rules and rolls when a player instead of GM?
I'm still trying to figure this out.
Do any of you have experienced similar shifts when becoming a player?
The first was a game that I GMed. I'm usually a theater of mind GM with many vivid descriptions and I regularly hear from my players that they were constantly on edge during combat and loved the rise and fall of every moment (if I may say so myself). Of course there are exceptions.
Anyway, I don't find it hard to describe vividly in combat as a GM.
The second was a Borderland game run by @JochenL last week. Now I was a player. I had a hard time describing the actions in a way that was interesting, vivid or fun. At least for me it felt less than usual (when I GM myself). So I thought about what the reason could have been. Somewhere else I commented then that I had the impression that the combat descriptions up to that point didn't lead to it and that there was no combat story. Although I like combat story, this was not the reason for my lack of fulfilling decription, as I now realize.
The third was a dungeon fantasy game run by @Morvar yesterday. Although I had very much fun, I again noticed that after hearing great descriptions by our GM and then suddenly being asked what my PC does, made my decriptions fail me. It was not that I didn't know what to do. And it was neither that it was sudden. I was prepared. I knew what I wanted to describe. I have a vivid imagination. But nevertheless, it was not the same as if I had been a GM in that situation.
So what is it then? Do I suffer from an impression that I lack freedom to describe the surroundings? Is it the different tone of the GM descriptions and my own natural tone for descriptions that make me stumble? Or is it indeed the suddenness? Or my focus on rules and rolls when a player instead of GM?
I'm still trying to figure this out.
Do any of you have experienced similar shifts when becoming a player?