Why do you GM?

[Grogg of the North]

Because no one else is willing. Or so it feels some days.

Because I love spending hours writing, planning, agonizing on whether or not I'm being fair, researching questions on forums and cooking for the group only to have them %#$@* about how a darkness spell doesn't add to the ambient light level or, God forbid, they get placed in a scenario where their combat abilities may not solve the problem and they have to think outside of the %#&*ing box for once!

http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/slides/gamemasters.jpg

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Because, apparently, I like the abuse.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Because it's fun.

I need another reason? (I have a few, but just need the one).

 

[amerigoV]

While I enjoy many aspects that are listed above, a big one for me is Engagement. I really enjoyed 3x, but I found as a player things would crawl sometimes (looking up rules, higher level play, lots of fiddly bits, etc). All the little things about the system resulted in my engagement at the table suffering -- falling into "my turn? ok, um, I attack!"

As DM, I am constantly engaged in the game and thus have a better time. I DM'd 3x much more than I played it.


I found with Savage Worlds the opposite. While my engagement at the table can slip from time to time, overall the pace of the game and the mechanics (acing/exploding dice, bennies, etc) keeps me engaged enough to be happy as a player, and as a result a better (not disruptive) player. So overall pace and play experience is very important to me as a player.

 

[El Mahdi]

Because I'm a sadistic-minded control-freak!

 

[kitsune9]

I DM because I love it. I enjoy spending hours reading, writing and prepping for the best game of the session. Playing is fun, but DMing is awesome.

 

[innerdude]

Because I got tired of never getting to play in the kinds of stories I wanted to enjoy as a player, so I figured, "What the heck?"

And after a little practice, figured out I'm pretty decent at it, and my players have enjoyed my sessions. I really like the fact that I'm helping the rest of the group enjoy the game.

And I really like [MENTION=6668467]saskganesh[/MENTION] 's reference to "emergent" story. It's so much fun to watch players follow NPC or plot "hooks," and really interact with them, and do so in ways that are unexpected and cool.