Was there only one DM at your table?

[Hussar]

If they DM'ed the same system or similar, yes. But if someone in my group has never run AD+D but runs a mean game of GURPS I'd vote no; their GURPS experience hasn't taught them the rules and intricacies of AD+D.

I'd agree with that.

I guess that's why I specified DM. Pretty much only D&D defines its behind the screen monkey as the Dungeon Master (with a nod to Diaglo for Referee ;p )

 

[WSmith]

Back in suburban Southern New Jersey in the early eighties, I would say 3 out of 4 D&D players had some kind of DM experience, (albeit maybe not good experience) cause everyone was experimenting and wanted to try both sides of the screen.

 

[Ampolitor]

just me!

Well I ran three groups of players and I always turned out to be the DM. We tried to rotate it a bit but I guess some people are just better at being a DM than others, which kinda got to me after a while especially when I wanted to play! However I really enjoyed DMing after a while, still having fond memories the first time I ran Ravenloft!

 

[Grazzt]

My group had a few DMs (three of the five of us DMed actually).

We rotated game sessions often, and even played in the same homebrewed game world (different characters in different parts of the world). Most of this group (me, one of the other DMs, and one other person) still game together now and we still rotate DMing.

 

[Jackelope King]

I only played a few sessions of 1E well after the fact (circa 1993), and the guy running the game thought that it was a cardinal sin for a player to look into the DMG, and that he'd kick any player out who tried it, because players knowing what was in the DMG "ruins the game". (This guy seriously needed somebody to take a hack-saw to his viking hat.)

However two of the six players in the group also apparently ran their own games. So... yeah. Paradox? Just a bit.

For what it's worth, by the time I started playing 2e and definitely into 3e, everyone ran games (though one group member usually did more than others).

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I didn't play with a "group" in the traditional sense for the first few years of playing 1e. It was more of a mob and we would have a couple of pick-up games being run by whoever wanted to.

When I finally got over my promiscuous phase and settled down with a steady group, we pretty much had one DM in the group, but occasionally someone would want to give it a try and we would play another campaign for a little while.

 

[kenobi65]

We had one primary DM, but several of us served as "alternate DM", maybe a quarter to a third of the time. It was a fairly detailed "shared world"; the primary DM had one city (City-State of the Invincible Overlord) that was "his", but we all DMed in the same world.

We all had multiple PCs, of varying levels, though we always played one PC per player at a time. Which PCs we'd play would depend on what adventure was being run -- we did a lot of TSR and Judges Guild modules, and the "campaign" was only a campaign in the loosest sense (there was little or no metaplot).

Eric (the primary DM) would say, "I'm going to run White Plume Mountain, it says it's for levels X-Y, you guys figure out which of your PCs you're going to play." Then, we'd haggle over who'd play which class (in hopes of some party balance), and play that module (which might take multiple sessions). Once we finished that module, Eric (or another DM) would say, "Next, I'm going to run (module Z)", and we'd figure out a party all over again.

On occasion, we'd play a longer series of adventures (like the Giants / Underdark, or the Slavers) which would see most of us locked into a particular PC for a while, but that was the exception to the rule.

Back then, I don't think it ever occurred to us that each DM would have his/her own campaign, or dedicated PCs for particular DMs.

 

[Oryan77]

I always seem to be the only DM in the group. There's one other person that "DM's" solo games for his wife when I can't DM them. But it's 100% just a hack-n-slash fest where she starts out facing a new creature and combat begins. Then she moves to the next area to fight a new monster. Although it's technically DM'ing, I see that as nothing more than playing the DDM skirmish game. And no one in skirmish is considered a DM

 

[werk]

We only had one when we were all newbs to the hobby and he was introducing us to the game.

We later decided that he kinda stunk as a DM and all bucked-up and took turns at DMing.

Turns out that DM stunk as a player too. LOL!

 

[Evilhalfling]

The Early Years.

I ran AD&D, BEMC, 2nd ed. and Paranoia
Geoff ran Call of Cuthlu & HERO
Nick ran TMNT
John ran Cyberpunk & Marvel super heros
Mike ran Paranoia


The first time I played a D&D character was in college. 2ed with kits. - wierd.