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Message: <blockquote data-quote="weem" data-source="post: 5118637" data-attributes="member: 9470">...at least the best that any of my players have played with.I have recently been looking at my connection to this game with a more critical eye, trying to determine what it is that keeps me so into it. Particularly the fact that I love DM-ing and, if required to,I would never actually "PLAY" (as a non-DM) again if it meant I could continue DM-ing. I was asking myself, "what makes you devote so much time to a game that you technically don't 'play' in yourself."Now, of course DM-ing is rewarding in its own way - obviously for me it's more rewarding than actually playing it - so I am definately not questioning that aspect at all. I develop stories, play the part of NPC's and Monsters - all those and many more goodies that make DM-ing fun... but, there was something MORE than that. Something has me reading about other peoples games, their houserules, listening to podcasts and focusing on how to make my game better - it consumes quite a bit of my free time. Not only am I soaking in the lessons of other games, I am critiquing my own each time... what did I think went well and why... what didn't, and how am I going to fix/avoid it next time, etc.Why was this? After all, if I stopped learning anything new about DM-ing years and years ago, I could still DM and would still be having fun with it today.That's when it hit me... my brother told me recently that I am the best DM he had ever played with... and he has played with plenty... at which point a friend of ours said the same thing. I have not DM'd for him in years, and he has played and run many games of his own. I realized at that point that this was what was driving me... I don't just like DM-ing - I want to be a damn good one, if not the best someone has played with.It was a very strange realization for me. I have never cared to be the best at anything. I am a web designer/developer. I do (I am told) very good work... but I have never cared at all about being good at it. I have played many video games... none of which I ever master, very few of which I ever beat. I played football in Highschool and earlier, but being the best or even winning for that matter never really mattered to me.The fact is, there is no other activity in my life that I work so vigorously to be the best at than being the best DM, or at least as I mentioned, "the best my players have played with".What about you DM's out there......is DM-ing something you strive to be very good at? The best at?Or is it something you do for the enjoyment of it (of which there is plenty), and being considered good or the best doesn't really matter?</blockquote>

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