At least half of my players over the years never GM'd.

The rise of RPGA's Living Campaigns increased the number of players who took the hot seat because that version of GMing is just reading boxed texts and keeping everyone on the choo-choo train through the battle encounters. AKA, about the same GMing as running Descent, Warhammer Quest or other boardgame dungeoncrawler.

At cons, I tend to get more GMs at my table. I often have full tables of fellow con GMs because most cons give GMs priority sign-up.

I have a lot of players, but I'd say typically 4-5 in a group of 6 have not GM'd significantly.

Quote from: Opaopajr;1026295Have done so for quite a few. But I strongly encourage them soon after to get Behind the Screen. Reason is it tends to give them a taste of their own behavior, especially if they run for their own greenhorn friends, and they become less petulant and disruptive. They realize what effort it takes and become more appreciative of good player habits.

When you serve others, you quickly become sypathetic of those who serve you. (Also one of the reasons I believe everyone should serve -- suffer through -- a two-year draft into Retail/Customer Service. The agony helps bring back a touch of compassion and etiquette among those who went through the trenches. )

I was just going to ask - how many of you encourage your players to GM?

I think this is something that is vitally important not just for your group but for the hobby in general. Not everyone will like it, obviously, but they'll never know unless they try it. And you're spot on about players learning more about their own behavior as a player even after a short stint in the chair. I've seen it happen many times.

I also think that having more than one GM in a group has several good benefits:

1) Players that stick with one GM tend to fall into a rut of assumed behaviors. I always try to change things up a bit, but some of my quirks always come through and my players know what to expect when those things show. My taste in the types of campaigns I run, even when I try to do new things, will always shine through. Having other GM's gives a nice change of pace for everyone.

2) Friendly competition. When a player that has started getting comfortable GMing they'll start taking things they've learned from you or other GM's and creating their own spin on things. Which in turn you can learn from too. Nothing is better than having more than one GM in a group whose campaigns become challenges to try and outdo in fun-factor.

I like promoting new faces because they bring different voices to the table. I have received my share of compliments for GMing and requests for advice. But to me, though flattering and I accept as graciously as I can (and scarecely believing it myself,) I find that to be a distraction from learning from others' talents and life lessons. We all have something to share.

People bring a bit of themselves to the process of campaign creation and, for a want of a better word, storytelling (narrative description and improvisation,). I have only lived my life, so there is so much I can learn from other perspectives, drives, and internal coherency. Sometimes it is a bit of a peek into their psyche, too, but all "artists" develop their own voice. There is more than one way to see the world, and that's cool to me. :cool:

I want to de-mystify the process.

I find it's like a proto-school, a shared imaginary landscape where we all bring our preconceived expectations of coherency and go forth to make mistakes that'll have no lasting consequence. (Loved that advice: School is the Best Place Where to Make Your Mistakes. In Real Life Mistakes Cost Far More.)  It's instructive that way. It gives people who normally were shunted before a place to develop and test out mistakes instead of the real world. There's the occasional power fantasy and power trip, but eventually most of us get over ourselves in time.

Running your own game before an audience helps practice the everyday exchanges of navigating social life, IME. I think that's something worth sharing for people to grow.

Quote from: tenbones;1026392I think this is something that is vitally important not just for your group but for the hobby in general.

My motivations are more primal.  I can't help but teach in any group activity in which I'm involved where there are people interested in learning.  RPGs are simply one more manifestation of that trait.

Current game: everyone has GM'd at some point.  

Overall I'd say it's about 1/3 have, 2/3 haven't

I'd say about 2/3rds. It seems like there are always more people willing to do the light work of playing but not the heavy lifting of GMing.

Quote from: jeff37923;1026441I'd say about 2/3rds. It seems like there are always more people willing to do the light work of playing but not the heavy lifting of GMing.

That's largely been my experience. It all sounds good when people say "I wanna try to GM" - then they start, and realize there's a lot more going on than they thought.

I haven't taken a survey but based on what my players have said and conversations I have had. In group 1, we have three players and 2 have GM'd (sounds like pretty regularly). We just added a 4th player who has GMd quite a bit. In group 2, that is harder because it is somewhat rotational, but among roughly 5 people, I know 3 have GM'd regularly. Group 3 we have four players and I believe 2 have GM'd.

My group of 7 players has 3 regular gms and a couple who will do a one-shot now and then.

The ratios have varied a lot over time ranging from 0% to 100%. Currently 2 out of 4 of us meet your GM criteria, but that's the lowest GM to player ratio I've seen since probably 1983.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1026250The usual reason is "I can't do it" or "I don't know how."  Second most usual reason is "I'm not interested."

I'd reverse the order with more "not interested" than "don't know how."

Quote from: jeff37923;1026441I'd say about 2/3rds. It seems like there are always more people willing to do the light work of playing but not the heavy lifting of GMing.

And there's a connection between the perception that it is "too much work" and the level of commitment. Many players just are not as committed or into RPGs as are those of us who GM.

My current Stars Without Number group is 5 players. I know that this is the first game for two of them, so they haven't GMed before. Two others have, and one I'm not sure about.

If our group of 5, 3 have not GMed since I started playing with them. I have no idea if they have GMed outside the group, though, as I have never asked.

Group of 5 been together for over 20 years, everyone has years of GMing experience as we rotate game masters every year or so.

Out of the 16 or so players spread out over my various campaigns, I think only about 4 have ever GMed.