What do you like best about being a GM?

[Varianor Abroad]

What Rel said!

That and how often can you watch grown men and women come close to weeping when you toss a little plastic polyhedron down on the table and call off a random number? It's like winning the lottery.

 

[Samnell]

I've often said that good GMing is very much like watching your kids open presents on Christmas morning.

For me it's sort of like that, but the Christmas presents can slaughter the kids' imaginary friends. And sometimes the kids can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and get severely traumatized.

But I don't actually have kids. I have players. The players are harder on the carpeting and consume more diapers.

 

[Edgewood]

I guess what I love most about being a GM is that moment of dawning comprehension when a plotline is revealed or a nasty twist that they did not see coming is sprung that causes a player to just stop and forget that he's simply playing a game. I enjoy coming up with unexpected plots, especially ones that take a well established character and make them grow in new directions.

I also love sitting around the table with my friends just before we start the game. We banter and joke, and then suddenly, one of the players says starts to reminisce about a past in game event. Or they talk fondly about another player's character who is now passed away. That to me is a great reward.

If I was to say what I dislike about GMing I would have to say nothing at all. It's why I always do it. I love weaving a tale...

 

[Kuld]

I love it when there is a room full of people having a great time playing.

I really love it when they say, wow, that was a good adventure.

The best, I would have to admit, is after an all-day session, everyone is bummed that we have to call it a night.

What I least like are rule lawyers (I calls’em sea-lawyers), who’d much prefer arguing for an hour about a mundane ruling rather than just playing through it and bringing it to my attention (If I am indeed wrong (Yea right)) after the session.

 

[MadMaxim]

The power... The power... THE POWER!

But seriously, I like to make up adventures, encounters and storylines. It's entertaining for both the players and myself. I get to make a ton of NPCs (yes, most of the time I actually like to prepare for a session) and go through all my different books for cool class combos for NPCs and deadly creature combos for deadly encounters. What I don't like are whining players of which I currently have one... :\

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

When I'm a player, I usually don't get to "use" most of my character backstory. When I'm a DM I do.

 

[JediSoth]

It's the power....the ULTIMATE POWER!!!!

Seriously, I do like being in control of all the NPCs and monsters. I like creating the scenarios and circumstances and having everyone react to what I'm doing. I like always having something to do during the game (I hate times when I'm a player when I'm just sitting there idle).

When I'm a GM and I'm not actually gaming, I like the prep work and then watching everything come together during a game (if it does come together...it doesn't always).

JediSoth

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I enjoy facilitating a good time for everyone, and making sure everybody has plenty of juicy conflicts. It's not very satisfying to play both sides of the board at once, so to speak, so I let the players decide what their goals will be, and I make sure there's enough opposition and conflcit that achieving those goals isn't a certainty. When a player puts their head in their hands and goes, "Oh God, what do I do?", I'm happy.

I like conceiving ideas for campaigns and pitching them, and playing fun supporting characters, but those are less important than the first two reasons.

 

[wedgeski]

The best and worst things about being a DM are for me the same thing: being responsible for the players' fun. Sure they add and detract from the evening by their own actions, but ultimately the buck stops with the DM. That's a hefty responsibility, and the challenge of trying to meet it is what keeps me behind the screen.

 

[Odhanan]

OK, so there must be some reason that some of you run your own games instead of being players all the time. Is it the ability to create a "world" of your own? To make up campaigns with interesting plots and adventures? Being the chief Storyteller or Playwright? Being able to roleplay a lot of characters? The sheer ego boost of providing entertainment to several people who are hanging on your every word? Or something else?

A bit of all this I think. The main reason seems to me to entertain people with my imagination and see them respond to it with their own. So that's sort of an ego thing, but not that bad of an ego thing, if you see what I mean.

For me its always been the first two and the ego trip thing.

For that matter, what do you least like about being a GM? Having to deal with problem players?
The amount of time it takes? Keeping records? For me it's always been the latter.

I have an ulterior motive for wanting to know - it has to do with a commercial product that I'm cooking up.

What I like least about being the DM is being the one "in the know". That is, I know what's unfolding in most cases. It's cool to surprise and thrill players, but I'd like to be thrilled and surprised myself from time to time. Luckily, it does happen when I DM with players who are pro-active, who want to do stuff and come up with their own plans, schemes and ideas they bring into the game via their character. That's probably one of the things I like the most in-game.