Quote from: Tyberious FunkOne of the players frequently interupted the game sessions with his snoring. And I caught at least two other snoozers at various times. But I never put it down to laziness...

It's laziness to put up with horrible GMing! Step on up and take over, or walk away, do something - as you did.

Quote from: Tyberious Funkrather, the horrible GMing (not me, thankfully). You'd think, as a GM, that if you had players falling asleep during your games that you'd take that as a hint.

Never had it happen to me... my players always have some kind of response. Okay, once or twice the response has been to call me names, walk out and never speak to me again, but hey, at least it's a response!

Quote from: Tyberious FunkOr their level of interest in the campaign.[...]... but nothing is going to get me interested in playing, say, Rifts.

That's fair enough. If I were to run a Rifts campaign, I would expect you to say, "no thanks" and go and find some other gaming for a bit. That's the "you" plural, not you personally.

If you're not interested, then suggest something else you will be interested in, offer to run it, and if that doesn't take, find another campaign and group you are interested in. Or go and be bored at home instead. Roleplaying is a social creative hobby requiring participation. Step on up, or step on out.

Hey, I think I just found a fourth motto of my GMing and gaming. Now the set is,

Quote from: Kyle AaronIf you're not interested, then suggest something else you will be interested in, offer to run it, and if that doesn't take, find another campaign and group you are interested in. Or go and be bored at home instead. Roleplaying is a social creative hobby requiring participation. Step on up, or step on out.

You're assuming that people attempt to maximise the satisfaction they can get out of their time.  In reality, most people are satisficers.  From Wikipedia;
 

Quote from: WikipediaThe word satisfice was coined by Herbert Simon as a portmanteau of "satisfy" and "suffice". Simon pointed out that human beings lack the cognitive resources to maximize: we usually do not know the relevant probabilities of outcomes, we can rarely evaluate all outcomes with sufficient precision, and our memories are weak and unreliable. A more realistic approach to rationality takes into account these limitations: This is called bounded rationality.

In other words, we seek to achieve a certain minimum level of a particular variable (or variables).  In gaming, this might be social interaction, or "fun" or whatever.  As long as the game reaches our minimum level, we'll still play (although some of us have higher expectations than others).  What you are suggesting... pitching an alternative game, or offering to GM, or whatever... these are the unknown outcomes.

I don't think people being "satisificers" explains bothering to show up to a game session you're asleep at. I mean, you'd get better sleep at home.

Plain old slackarsedness explains that sort of thing much better.

Quote from: Kyle AaronPlain old slackarsedness explains that sort of thing much better.

Funny thing is, I think that I'm being the lazy-ass when I have the players add their own parts to the setting because that means less work for me as GM!

Quote from: jeff37923Funny thing is, I think that I'm being the lazy-ass when I have the players add their own parts to the setting because that means less work for me as GM!

Of course you are. But it's a laziness which actually adds to the thing overall. When everyone adds a little bit, it works better than when the GM does it all, even if the GM does twice as much. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, synergy, whatever marketing buzzwords you care for... in this case it's true.

I think planning sessions are a waste of time. I want everyone to build their characters solo, give a 3 minute discussion of the character, and then jump into the game and start playing.

Hah! I am the anti CW Richeson!

In my defense,

1) I only run D&D.

2) I never create content for my world that is so different from the universally accepted D&D baseline that it would blow anyones perception of the game. I don't say "in my campaign gnomes are banned..and sorcerers are hunted" or anything. If it's in a book I have, it's in the game. It it's not something I planned for, I'll just make it happen. I did this with the Elan (psionic race) in my campaign. You bring any legally designed 1st level character into my game, no matter what books you use, and it will probably be good. All WOTC 3.5 sources are approved by default.

3) I never force or schedule campaign collaboration with the group, but I do reward contributions. The end result is- the guys who just want to play get to play. The motivated creative types get to contribute stuff and there's a small reward that sometimes convinces one of the guys who just wants to play to contribute something. The reward is never big enough to get jealous over. It's an XP bump.  

4) I use web tools to my advantage. The campaign group shares a wiki, online documents,  group email, and more specific D&D tools so if there is prep to do, it takes place in between game sessions. I make everyone store a copy of their character on the web, so if anyone ever forgets their charsheet, we can just print it out.

5) Never, never, never make people show up just for chargen. Thats boring as crap, and I don't want people to think there's some special destiny they should fulfill because we all worked it out before the game. That's really playing the game before you play it.

6) I never punish nonattendance. If you have to miss a session, you just miss it and don't worry about it. The next time you show up, your character pops right up. I don't care if that's unrealistic sometimes. If my game is good enough to keep people coming back I won't have a problem. I never have a problem!

7) My only expectation is you show up and be ready for adventure. My only promise is a 12-pack of coke zero and fresh chex party mix every session. Beyond that, you bring your own stuff.