D&D General I DM because...

[Oofta]

I enjoy both sides of the DM's screen. Even though I'm normally an introvert, I enjoy running a fun campaign for people and acting out all the NPC and running the NPCs and monsters. The creative side, making decisions about my world (I always homebrew) and trying to build something that makes sense is enjoyable.

While I get the itch to DM if I haven't done it for a while, another big part of it is that it's easier to find a group to DM for than it is to find a good DM. I've moved around too many times and D&D is one way to have a social life outside of my family, especially after a certain age where everyone else's lives tend to revolve around their kids.

 

[el-remmen]

. . . because I'm the best at it.

 

[Lanefan]

Other: I had an idea for a setting* and wanted to use it; and I had ideas for rule changes I wanted to experiment with (and didn't like some other changes my then-DM was making).

* - a few years before I ever heard of D&D a friend and I were working on a fantasy setting for a story; the story idea kinda sank later, so I used that setting for the first campaign I ran.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Primarily just because I wanted to.

However, whilst I'd DM'd a bit from time to time, I really first became a "full time DM" because I was part of a rebellion against our then-current, and frankly terrible DM, and no-one else wanted to DM (I was the least socially-awkward and most confident kid there, which is kind of funny in retrospect, esp. with my severe ADHD). Maybe if that guy wanted to keep DMing, he shouldn't have tried to make us kill baby orcs, huh? Even us 12-year-old public schoolboys had too much empathy and sense of right-and-wrong for that to fly. The DM even tried the "they're innately evil!" line but we just wouldn't believe it, given they were biological beings and none of us had come across this idea (sounded racist lol), so we took them to a monastery to Illmater so they could raise them. The ex-DM was briefly affronted but then became a player and was perfectly fine, kept playing together until a bit after I left that school.

(Interestingly, the logic the DM used was absolutely the same logic Gary Gygax himself used to justify killing women and children of "evil" non-human races. Good thing I didn't find that out until recently, from D&D's perspective, or I think that'd have been the last time I played D&D, and it'd have been WoD, Shadowrun, later Earthdawn and so on from then.)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I DM the kind of games I would like to play in.

Yeah it's important to do that imho. I've stopped running specific RPGs a couple of times because I realized the campaign I was running wasn't one I'd actually want to play in if I was a player, and I felt like there wasn't any real way out of that with that rules-set/setting (both were pretty specific - one was Dark*Matter/Alternity).

 

[Clint_L]

When I was a kid I started DMing as soon as I understood the rules well enough, and was the regular DM, though all of my friends tried it a little. But I was the guy collecting miniatures, models, a big bag of dice, reading Dragon and White Dwarf, etc.. I also created my own world with maps, gazetteer, monster manual, and so on. Then in my early adulthood we seldom did RPGs, though when we did it was always me running the game.

Nowadays, I have one group that includes two other potential DMs but they are younger and busier so usually I'm best prepared. I run the large majority of games. In my other home group, I'm the only one really interested. At D&D Club and summer camp, I run campaigns for the beginners, so I am the only option, and then they "graduate" to running their own games.

I really enjoy world building and using my miniatures and terrain, so I usually enjoy being the DM, though the beginner groups can feel more like work depending on the group. I do wish I got to play more often, though.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Other: I had an idea for a setting* and wanted to use it; and I had ideas for rule changes I wanted to experiment with (and didn't like some other changes my then-DM was making).

* - a few years before I ever heard of D&D a friend and I were working on a fantasy setting for a story; the story idea kinda sank later, so I used that setting for the first campaign I ran.

I mean, to me this reads as just a specific version of "because I wanted to."

"I had an idea for a setting" = "I wanted to run a setting idea, therefore 'I wanted to run, no other reason.' "
"I had ideas for rules changes" = "I wanted to run a game while experimenting with the rules, therefore 'I wanted to run, no other reason.' "
"I wasn't entirely happy with the rules changes my current DM was using" = "I wanted to run a game without some changes I didn't care for, therefore 'I wanted to run, no other reason.' "

Like, it's good to be specific. God knows I spend way too many words trying to be specific. But all of those sound like variations of "I just really wanted to run" with the explanation "...because of what running a game allows you to do." You wanted to run purely for the benefits that running a game provides--not because you were asked to, but because you desired it for its own sake.

 

[Incenjucar]

I like to facilitate creativity and joy in others. It gives me warm fuzzies when I can high-five players after they demolish the big bad in a tough encounter and manage to pull off some incredible twists I could have never anticipated.

 

[Lojaan]

Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
- DMs everywhere

(RIP Mordin sob)

 

[damiller]

I played when I first started, but he real lightening for me was DMing. I just have never been interested ENOUGH in one character to play them for long, and as a GM I get to play as many characters I want. Its work, but its work I really enjoy. I have spent countless hours figuring out how to be and do DMing better and better.

 

[Richards]

In the beginning (AD&D 1E), it was because I was the oldest of four siblings who wanted to play a campaign amongst ourselves, so the DM role naturally fell to me.

Later, when I had two sons and wanted to introduce them to AD&D 2E, I was the only adult (and the only one who had played before), so the DM role naturally fell to me.

Later on, when a co-worker wanted me to introduce his son to D&D, I was the only one who had played/DMed using the 3.5 rules, so the DM role naturally fell to me.

But despite having been thrust into the role of DM, it's something I've greatly enjoyed and something I would have volunteered to do in any case. And now I also get to play my own PC in another weekly Wednesday campaign while still DMing my own campaign on alternate Saturdays.

Johnathan

 

[Pedantic]

I don't know if this is a problem per se with the poll, but my experience has not usually involved a group separate from a DM as several of those options imply. Usually I'm out recruiting players, or I float an idea to one friend who's interested and we track down another, or sometimes someone will approach a broader group of my board game or Netrunner playing friends with a proposal and some subset will take them up on it.

There is generally not "a group" as an established entity pushing for someone to DM or having feelings about a given DM, the group forms in reaction to a DM declaring intent or polling for interest.

 

[Stormonu]

I started DMing, because I wanted to, and everyone else just wanted to play.

Modesty aside, I kept DMing because I was better at it than everyone else I ran across. As someone who suffers from Imposter Syndrome in just about everything in my life, this is pretty huge to me.

 

[MGibster]

I DM because the tears of players is the only way for me to taste life. Oh, and it's fun to DM as well.

 

[Voadam]

I DM because I want to.

I have occasionally been asked specifically to DM and did so because I wanted to, not just out of a feeling of obligation, even when it was one of my son's friend's mom (a friend of mine) asking me to run a game so her son could try it out. The current game I DM is one where I was asked specifically. I was in an online group after covid hit and playing for a while, the DM got burnt out and asked if I would want to DM. I did and the rest of the group was interested.

I generally spend a good amount of time on both sides of the screen.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I come from a round-robin tradition where we all take turns as Dungeon Master. We each take turns running our own adventures in our own worlds that we create or purchase.

In 2005 I started running games in earnest when I got the band back together again, so to speak, after a six year hiatus. I offered to play Dungeon Master simply because I was the one organizing the reunion. Before that, I was a Player 90% of the time; secretly working on my personal fantasy epic.

My new gaming group for the past 10 years also participates in round-robin style Dungeon Mastering (however, I feel the current Dungeon Master is trying to hold onto the reigns too tightly and I'm about to organize a coup).

 

[pogre]

I am glad the vast majority of responses are because people wanted to. I am certainly in that camp.

Occasionally, I get the impression most people DM because they have to, which sounds pretty miserable to me. I do hope this poll is more accurate for most groups out there!

 

[Stormonu]

I am glad the vast majority of responses are because people wanted to. I am certainly in that camp.

Occasionally, I get the impression most people DM because they have to, which sounds pretty miserable to me. I do hope this poll is more accurate for most groups out there!

I think it's going to probably be skewed on this site because we're here because we like the game, and I think Morrus has done polls here that show the majority of us posters haved DMed (and DM more often than being in the player's seat). I mean, you aren't exactly going to get responses here from those who ditched D&D because they were forced to DM or found it unpleasant.

 

[gnarlygninja]

A combo of usually being the only one willing to do it, and then on the rare occasions someone else does I'll start to think of all the things I would have done differently and then it starts the cycle of me doing it again.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Thus far, 77 distinct respondents have chosen some form of "I wanted to," out of 88 total respondents. That's a whopping 87.5% (exactly) of all respondents thus far saying they DM, or have been DM, because they personally want to.

It would seem that, at least among active participants in this forum, the overwhelming majority of DMs are people who specifically desire to be DM--though there's a meaningful contingent of them who do so at their players' prompting as well.

By comparison, only 18/88 = 20.5% (approx.) are DM because their players specifically sought them out to be DM for the group (regardless of other reasons for being DM.) Further, 34/88 = 38.6% (approx.) are DM because there was a vacancy to fill and they happened to be the one to fill it (regardless of other reasons.) There's some overlap between "they wanted me specifically" and "they needed someone and I stepped in," but not that much (6 respondents.)

It is, however, noteworthy that for both categories with enough responses to be more than statistical noise ("I wanted to" and "I accepted"), the "filled a vacancy" option is ahead of the "I was specifically requested." This implies that, for active users on this subforum, there's a meaningful distinction between being nominated for the DM position and volunteering for said position. That is, whether it is viewed as an obligation, service, favor, or something similar, there's a chunk more folks doing their DMing more or less as an offering/benefit to their group, rather than because the group sought them out and specifically asked them to be DM. The solid majority do it purely out of a desire to do it though, and that's not counting the handful of (exclusively) "Other" votes that I, personally, would have classified as being "because I want to."