D&D General I DM because...

Azzy · Dec 27, 2022

I want to (and occasionally enjoy being the) DM, and all that goes with it (creating a narrative, world building, creating interesting NPCs, facilitating the fun of others, etc.). Also, the other DM in my group likes to take a break from DMing occasionally so we take turns so that neither of us are a "Forever DM".

HaroldTheHobbit · Dec 27, 2022

When I started gaming in the early 80ies I found GM:ing way more fun that being a player. It still is.

Baldurs_Underdark · Dec 27, 2022

I proposed to play a campaign. People said yes. I proposed to be the DM. People said yes. Done.

I enjoy DMing and the rest are all newbies who did not know the difference between a class and a race at the start of the campaign, so everybody wins.

Also, Session Zero promo team says: Don't forget to have a session zero.

Bitbrain · Dec 27, 2022

I DM because I like running games more than I do playing in them.

Brotton Goodfellow · Dec 27, 2022

I wanted to play after moving from one city to another and had to slowly recruit fellow weirdos from work, 90% of whom had never played before. It’s been 6.5 years, with very small breaks. I definitely enjoy playing the game as a DM more than a character.

Greg Benage · Dec 27, 2022

Voted "I wanted to/group wanted me to" because we took turns (Greg's world, Mike's world, Luke's world...). Our "worlds" were a collection of whatever modules and homebrewed dungeons we were running.

I'm still running 42 years later because it's kinda like writing a novel with all the difficult and tedious bits stripped out, i.e. the actual writing. I get to do world-building, sketch out characters with backstories, goals and motivations, and then...let someone else figure out what happens.

That, and then the other part, which is like hosting a party. Tough job.

Voadam · Dec 27, 2022

Greg Benage said:
we took turns (Greg's world, Mike's world, Luke's world...). Our "worlds" were a collection of whatever modules and homebrewed dungeons we were running.

We sort of did this too in the 80s and 90s but also left some things to each other's domains.

Voadam runs Greyhawk (later Ravenloft) everybody else leave getting the modules in those worlds (Temple of Elemental Evil, Slavers, Falcon, etc.) for him so as not to spoil them when he runs the game. B runs Forgotten Realms and Dungeon Magazine adventures so leave Dungeon stuff for him. J runs homebrew settings and adventures based off of fantasy novels nobody else in the group has read. N runs Warhammer and GURPS homebrew. I runs Palladium and Shadowrun so leave the Shadowrun modules to him. J2 runs Vampire.

Greg Benage · Dec 27, 2022

Voadam said:
We sort of did this too in the 80s and 90s but also left some things to each other's domains.

My recollection is that TSR modules came out infrequently enough (given how much we played), that we didn't really have that option. It was more of a "next up" situation. All our "worlds" were some kind of frankenstein Mysthawk as a result.

Voadam · Dec 27, 2022

Greg Benage said:
My recollection is that TSR modules came out infrequently enough (given how much we played), that we didn't really have that option. It was more of a "next up" situation. All our "worlds" were some kind of frankenstein Mysthawk as a result.

We usually spent a lot of time in any one module unless it was a short thing out of Dragon. Given that half of us did all homebrew or different systems it was easy to leave Greyhawk then Ravenloft stuff for me, and Dungeon for B out of the couple of us who were buying adventures. Monthly Dungeon in particular once it got going was more than enough for one person to run stuff in. 2e era also had a bunch of adventures. I never felt short on modules to run.