Why did you start DMing?

[dave_o]

My first game was when I was 9 and this dude named Ben ran it. He was like fifteen or something but me and my buddy Evan felt like rad grown-up kids. The game was atrociously horrible -- an endless, pointless dungeoncrawl (no offense World's Largest Dungeon , I actually love that book) with the town named just that, "Town." Boring? Yah. Lots of combat? Sure. Fun? A little.

But the big thing was I was playing a Human Illusionist (AD&D2e) and I had to look in the Dungeon Master's Guide for some of my rules.

After a few games and a few other DM's doing a crappy job I decided, damn, I could do better than that.

So ten years ago at the ripe old age of nine I did.

 

[Hodgie]

Our main DM quit (both the group and the friend group) and no one would pick up the mantle. I was the most experienced player by years but had never GMd before, always assuming that I couldn't.

Push came to shove and I've been DMing ever since.

 

[Harmon]

I have never wanted to be a GM, but someone has to so...

My first group had at least three GMs of about eight members.

Next group everyone GMed- there were no Players only allowed, GM or get out.

Next group- there was only one GM so I felt obligated to let him play once in a while. It has been going on seventeen years. I have some recent burn out, but its getting so I can at least sit behind the screen again.

I have been at this for. . . . . oh, God, umm- twenty five years now, GMing all that time, and still wishing everyone else would GM so that I coule play more.

BTW- Thank you to all you GMs out there, you are God's gift to the gaming table, esp you that like to do it. Thank you.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

A group of guys I didn't get along with (I was picked on in school) came up to me and said, "We want to learn this game, but the books are long and hard to read, so read them and teach us how to play. You're smarter than us. You can be the DM." I thought it was like snipe hunting at first and told them to bugger off, but they convinced me they serious.

DM

 

[Dark Psion]

Because the other DM had random monsters attacking alphabetacally straight from the Monster Manual.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

Because I made our DM cry. She told me I had to DM, that she was going to "take a little break" from DMing.

Bear in mind, we were only 13, and I was playing a 1E Paladin.

 

[EdL]

We'd play a little D&D, a little Traveller, and a bit of other stuff. But I wanted to play some non-Glorntha Runequest. No one else wanted to GM it, so...

That was over 25 years ago. Not GMing anything at the moment, but I will again. Count on it.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Someone had to and I was the only one that wanted to learn the rules and read the books.

Pretty much the same thing.

I2K, who takes a drink

 

[Pants]

Originally, I wanted to DM because I liked creating worlds, making up stories and whatnot. My first session... back in good ol' 2e sucked. Hard. It was bad. So bad. It started out okay, though I probably shouldn't have had the two helper NPC's added in (Tiny the Halfling Thief and Sarah the hawt Cleric... I believe my only descriptive terms for her were hawt and... hawt...). Started out as having the PC's investigating a Noble to see if he was betraying his kingdom, then it devolved into a senselessly boring dungeon-crawl. Ugh.

I then ran another 2e Campaign because the other DM was tired of DMing. It was somewhat successful. It imploded a few months before 3e came out because of players not liking each other.

When 3e came out, I volunteered to run our first 3e game and I've been on Default DM duty ever since. I really enjoy DMing, but I get burned out quickly and I have the attention span of a gnat's ass, always jumping from one idea to the next.

 

[NiTessine]

Well, being the first gamer in my school, and being the only one to own the books, it kinda fell on me naturally to run the games. That was about nine years ago, and I'm still doing it. I'd just wish someone else in the group would take the screen every once in a while.