D&D General The DM Shortage

[Malmuria]

I didn't know there was a DM Shortage until I saw this thread.
I should charge more for my services, I guess?

Though, the existence of paid DMs speaks to a DM shortage, perhaps?

There is also a point to be made about the expectations for a DM, whether there is a "shortage" or not. Does it fall to the DM to: know all the rules, look up PC abilities, help players level up, maintain group campaign notes, buy all the books, create a multi-arc story, weave PC backgrounds into that story, be entertaining, do voices, balance encounters just so, create homebrew rules for things not covered in the dmg, buy 3pp supplements, deal with power imbalances among the PCs. set up the VTT or in person maps/terrain/handouts, select custom music, schedule sessions, make ad-hoc adjustments if/when players no show, and resolve interpersonal disputes?

To be fair, this probably isn't an edition-specific problem, though it does seem sometime that dnd play culture has evolved in this direction ("matt mercer effect" etc)

 

[Celebrim]

Running a good game is hard and is a lot of work. DMs need 10-20 hours of free time to run the game aside from the session time. Running a game can at times amount to your only hobby, especially if you are writing your own adventures.

As such, for the hobbies entire history there have always been more players than DMs and probably at any time half the people in the hobby have wanted a game but had no one to DM. That's the nature of the hobby.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think the heavier load that a gm is expected to carry while running the game & lack of soft tools to influence the direction of gameplay combines in a way that makes it seem like a much higher bar with lower reward than it once was even compared to crunchier editions.

When players step up or consider stepping up they start trying to solve some of those problems and run into areas that 5e designs against. It seems like 6e is making an effort to do better but we don't have enough pieces to guess how much better yet. At least so far wotc seems to have shown little interest in providing tools to the gm & those players who stepped up frequently burn out after realizing that it wasn't just that last book that neglected to include content for them as a gm with gm problems.

 

[Malmuria]

Running a good game is hard and is a lot of work. DMs need 10-20 hours of free time to run the game aside from the session time. Running a game can at times amount to your only hobby, especially if you are writing your own adventures.

As such, for the hobbies entire history there have always been more players than DMs and probably at any time half the people in the hobby have wanted a game but had no one to DM. That's the nature of the hobby.

Or, you can pick up an OSR module or 1 page dungeon and spend 30 minutes reading it before play?

 

[Xamnam]

DMs need 10-20 hours of free time to run the game aside from the session time.

???

 

[Vaalingrade]

The natural result of a hobby that has long depended on experienced players to teach and DM for new players with bare minimum support for learning how to DM on one's own getting a sudden huge infusion of new players.

The barrier to entry for a new player to just leap in and be a new DM is too high and everyone's paying for it and/or trying to make it a dumb Generation War talking point.

 

[Reynard]

The accuracy of "10 or 20 hours" notwithstanding, there is definitely a disconnect between expectations and reality when it comes to first time DMing. The WotC produced starter sets should be focusing on this and teaching the process. By the end of Phandelver a 10 year old should be able to run a campaign.

 

[MGibster]

I typically DM for my regular gaming group, though we rotate duties once in a while. The few times I've attempted to run games outside of my typical game group, it hasn't gone so well. Even when I manage to get a group together, we all agree on when, where, and what we're playing, I very often have people not showing up or dropping out before the game ever starts. A lot of gamers are flakey.

 

[hawkeyefan]

The accuracy of "10 or 20 hours" notwithstanding, there is definitely a disconnect between expectations and reality when it comes to first time DMing. The WotC produced starter sets should be focusing on this and teaching the process. By the end of Phandelver a 10 year old should be able to run a campaign.

Yeah, I agree that WotC should create some kind of product that actually explains how to DM. There have been arguments in the past about what product that should be… the Starter Set, the DMG, whatever… but whatever it is needs to get specific.

And it needs to burst some of these myths. GMing a game need not be super hard. It doesn’t need to eat up all or even a significant amount of your free time. You don’t need to create a whole world before you play. You don’t need to make all the decisions yourself.

I’d think a small anthology of prepped scenarios, with notes on design decisions and why they matter, would do wonders. Have the first be a simple linear scenario with a small dungeon at the end… rescue the townsfolk from the goblins or something similar. Explain the utility of this, how this type of scenario can/should be used. Offer advice on running the simple NPCs, the townsfolk and the goblins.

Then the next scenario can be a little more involved. A larger location, or oppositional factions within town. And then the third can expand again.

From village to world. Actually explain how to craft this stuffand how to run it. And not with vague language, but with specific actionable advice. No more of this “it all happens by magic” crap.

Teach it like you would any other skill.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I started DMing because one of us (friends and I) had to do it.

Been a forever DM since 3rd ed came out.