D&D 5E What's fun about being a DM?

BookTenTiger · Sep 7, 2020

Lifelong DM here.

Often I see posts about the hard work of being a DM, groups searching for a DM, the various responsibilities of a DM...

This thread is not about any of those things.

For those of you who love to run the game (and I am one of those), what is fun about being the DM? What drives you to take a seat behind the DM screen? What do you love about it?

pogre · Sep 7, 2020

Rolling LOTS of dice!

I enjoy framing scenes and encounters and enjoy watching my players interact and sometimes deconstruct those!

At the end of the day providing a platform for my friends and I to get together and have fun is the main reason I enjoy it.

Asisreo · Sep 7, 2020

The satisfaction of knowing my players had a good time. Doesn't matter if it was a balanced time, a terrifying time, a serious time, or a wacky time.

I just want to know that my players appreciate the work I've done for them. Might sound like a selfish request but I like knowing my work is meaningful and joyful.

Another satisfying moment is seeing those f**** beg for their lives under my foot, but that's secondary to the first.

toucanbuzz · Sep 7, 2020

Not knowing where the story is going to go. Ever.

When players solve an encounter in a completely unexpected way, or the dice roll against all odds, leaving us with a crazy memory.

Creating realistic NPCs that take on a life of their own. When players care about them, whether it be love or hate, it's job well-done.

Coming up with twists and turns that players haven't seen before. Easier when I was 12.

Getting people together who end up becoming friends, even if life later takes us apart. A DM can be a magnet that attracts players and a glue that holds them together.

aco175 · Sep 7, 2020

Creating a good story that the players enjoy. Even if I use some pre-made modules in the whole campaign, I try to make a few side adventures to fill in some things and make it player focused.

I like making the modules themselves. I have not made a world in a long time and just use FR, but creating places to place around Phandalin or another location is fun for me.

Zabalorf · Sep 7, 2020

I like the spontaneity of it all. Sure I can outline the points I want to hit next sessions, but the unpredictable stuff that happens on the fly brings me the most joy.
I also really like making maps, creating fun combat encounters, picking loot, creating lore and NPC’s, etc.
You also get to play more than anyone else at the table, and it gets easier the more you do it.
The euphoria at the end of a fun session as a DM is unbeatable, especially the brainstorm of ideas of what to do next kicks in.

Ashrym · Sep 7, 2020

1. Creating a story in which players participate.

2. Creative encounter design in fun.

3. PC's role-play play a character. DM's role-play the world including a wide variety of many characters. Feel like something different? A new NPC coming right up.

4. In a non-PVP game the DM creates battles to fight against players. The intention is to lose but it's still fun.

Fenris-77 · Sep 7, 2020

Punishing the guilty?

bloodtide · Sep 8, 2020

The joy of creation, making a fictional person place or thing.

Then using and playing with that created piece of fiction: using it in a shared fictional world and seeing what happens.

And Then getting and seeing other peoples reactions to that created piece of fiction.

Shiroiken · Sep 8, 2020

What's fun? Designing a story, setting it up, and seeing where the party goes with it. Sometimes it goes sideways, but that surprise is part of the fun.

On a side note, it mostly scratches that itch. IME, most perma-DM's have to DM. They may take a break, but campaign ideas will boil within the subconscious until one becomes so strong it cannot be contained. DMing isn't a hobby, it's an obsession