Where do DMs usually start out?

[Henry]

It would possibly be more helpful to also know WHEN these DM's started out (what was the first year they DM'ed), because observation has shown me that older DM's who started in the 70's and 80's usually started with Homebrew, and newer DM's (1990's and 2000's) started with published campaign settings.

 

[DragonLancer]

My first every D&D campaign was Dragonlance. The Chronicles trilogy was what got me into D&D in the first place.

 

[diaglo]

homebrew.

always start with homebrew.

it has a much better flavor. even if i don't filter out the stuff on the bottom. i just warn my players to leave the dregs.

 

[Mark Hope]

I started with Keep on the Borderlands, so I guess that qualifies as a published setting. However, as soon as the PCs moved beyond it's confines, I began to flesh out the rest of the world on my own, so it became part of m homebrew. For the first few years of DMing, that was pretty much the pattern - I'd incorporate bits and pieces of published material into my own homebrew setting. The Dark Sun stuff that I run is pretty much the only setting that I run in its original state - everything else has been gobbled up and absorbed by my homebrew.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Starting with OD&D, I'd say homebrew, though it was nominally Mystara. Then again, we were young and there was so little detail about the world that I could also say that it was nominally homebrewed as well.

Once we switched to AD&D, we quickly gravitated to the Forgotten Realms and stayed there for until I rediscovered the joys of homebrew a few years back.

 

[diaglo]

Starting with OD&D, I'd say homebrew, though it was nominally Mystara. Then again, we were young and there was so little detail about the world that I could also say that it was nominally homebrewed as well.

Once we switched to AD&D, we quickly gravitated to the Forgotten Realms and stayed there for until I rediscovered the joys of homebrew a few years back.

OD&D was never Mystara.

 

[physicscarp]

I first stepped behind the DM screen around 1994 to run a Dark Sun campaign. To that point, I had only been a player in a standard fantasy homebrew, and I was eager for something different. That campaign, burdened with 7 players (many of who were disruptive jerks), did not last very long. When the Revised Dark Sun box set was released (1997?), I again took up the DM's hat with a core group of close friends and we had a blast for the next three years.

I've tried one homebrew since then, and I've found that I get the most enjoyment out of "playing in others sandboxes" rather than making my own. I'll gladly add my own touches to an exisiting campaign even if they deviate from the canon (after all, Dregoth had to invade Raam sometime!), but I like an existing framework to already be in place.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

The first game I ever ran was using the 1st Edition boxed set of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and the first 2nd Edition product of the FR setting, Forgotten Realms adventures. I ran the game for three and half years off and on with my best friend.

 

[fredramsey]

I would point out that the age and year the DM started gaming will have a lot to do with the above question, as in the early years there were not too many published worlds available besides Greyhawk and Blackmoor, and that was only if you were lucky enough to start with or have access to the original small box set.

 

[Starglim]

I've just realised that the first campaign world that I ran was the Forgotten Realms. It honestly never clicked with me before what map I was using.