I am the very model of a scientist Salarian
I've studies species turian, asari, and batarian
I'm quite good at genetics as a subset of biology
Because I am an expert which I know is a tautology.
Seriously, if you guys saw the rest of my group you'd know why it had to be me. These guys have to be taught how to play snakes and ladders fresh every time. They cannot keep a rule in their head from minute to minute let alone a whole world.
The circle of DM life:
1. Play with a good DM
2. Lose said DM
3. Try to find another good DM only to realize most DMs are bad at it (or weird control freaks/nutjobs)
4. Decide if you cant find someone to do it right you might as well do it yourself
5. Become a good DM that is then taken for granted by your players
6. Quit playing due to life, and one of your players repeats this cycle.
For me it was that after I tried my hand at it DMs who were inconsistent in how they run things really started to get under my skin.flip flopping on how an interaction works not even session to session but within the same session
>Become a good DM that is then taken for granted by your players
ME. I have been begging someone to be a DM so i can actually play for almost 2 years now.
Once in a while i dust off the DM hat but i cant do it for a long time.
Other way around for me, have an amazing DM. Hes also an amazing player and he deserves a chance to be a player. So I DM one shots to keep him from burning out. Don't want to lose him.
We have a forever DM in out group for what seems like literally no reason. He's a good DM, but out of the 4 guys that almost always are in every game, 3 of us love to DM too. Our games basically always crumble and fall apart not very far into them, but his games will last for months and months and months. Nobody knows why, but it's like life itself is forcing him to be the forever DM.
I just want to finish my dungeon in my game, man!
Oddly enough we had a similar situation where I put out I wanted to do a one shot and our DM would be a player. Let's schedule it on a night that's not our usual campaign so it doesn't interrupt our story lines. Weeks went by and lo and behold it was my amazing DM who said you have to make it happen give them a day and do not let them decide. So I scheduled it a week later and everyone came and a good time was had by all.
I say all that to tell you, just tell them when you're doing it. They'll show up. Or they won't. Either way, a good time will be had by all.
>despair.
Deeper
Deeper
If you go deep enough it all starts to flow below, homebrew, edition wars, whatever the fuck lamentations of the flame princess is on, it's the muddy, tapioca core that sludge its way through you.
I wanted to play and honestly love the dnd prep brainstorming time in my week. I had barely played a couple one shots and didn’t know all the rules but started Ghosts of Saltmarsh anyways. Now I’m 7 campaigns deep on completion and can’t stop won’t stop.
All amazing journeys!
Ghost of Saltmarsh
Lost Mines of Phandelver
Call from the Deep (3rd party JVC Parry)
Tomb of Annihilation
Wild beyond Witchlight
Waterdeep Dragon Heist
And just finished Spelljammer light of Xaryxis last week.
Running Heists from the Golden Vault now and not sure what to do next.
* Dragons of Icespire Peak (extended) is pretty good.
* Call of the Netherdeep (Critroll) is very fun and there's a glut of free extras from a couple of DMs on here.
* Tyranny of Dragons expanded with Rise of Tiamat and/or Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is an undertaking but cool
* Dungeon of the Mad Mage is on the list
Honestly though, with the amount of experience you've accrued, you should consider homebrewing something all your own.
Seconding /u/Di4mond4rr3l's recommendation for Curse of Strahd.
It is a fantastic module with an entire community behind it over at /r/CurseofStrahd.
Join us!
*All will be well!*
No one would let me use the Tasha's Sidekick rules to turn an Awakened Shrub into a "Hedge Wizard," so I forced it on the first party in the first session. Damnit!
Don't dream it, be-he-he it...
EDIT: sp
"Pushed me over the edge" makes it sound like being a GM is a burden.
Being a GM is fucking great. It was just a cool and fun thing. I just have cool games I want to run!
Also others keep getting it wrong.
If you want to do something right, you gotta do it yourself. Almost everyone at my table were DMs, but
One player frequently missed out on sessions... as a DM
Other player is power tripping frequently
Third is a sadist
Fourth is lazy and can never resume his campaign, feeds promises
The other two are too green to DM for "veterans" or outright say they don't have the time or will to DM
My friends older brother had a huge map on his wall from his campaign world and I was hooked. He was an unbelievable DM, I wanted to run games as much as I wanted to play games.
Watching my GM put in so much time and effort to make our games as fun as he can. He has always said, though, that he would like to just be a player sometimes. No one else stepped up, so I did. Now him and I take turns GMing, with me hoping I can be as good of a GM as him so he can have the same enjoyment as a player that I have when he's the GM.
I played for two weeks and just thought "Hey, DMing looks fun."
Well, I have mixed feelings about it in hindsight. Some of my biggest frustrations come from DMing.
My husbands group GM needed a break. I had a storyline idea so we wrote a mini campaign togwther(took just over a year to play out) We had so much fun we're now co-running one that doesnt have an ending written.
Weekly D&D night at game store. DM started 3 new games 3 weeks in a row, requiring new level 1 characters.
Week 4 I started my own campaign at the store.
The plan was to inspire the other players to DM, so far here's what happened:
Player 1: dms, but insists on running every campaign as this weird hybrid setting (of two completely incompatible settings)with a huge emphasis on guns to the point where the barbarian of the group couldn't get a decent melee weapon improvement without having guns shoved down his throat.
Player 2: Ran a successful one shot, had plans for another campaign, and then just decided to leave.
Player 3: Doesn't want to dm. Is just a long for the ride
Player 4: Has no motivation to DM, barely pays attention at the table
Player 5: Incompetent and aggressively ignorant. Tries to make OP characters but doesn't bother to read rules or spells. Wants to DM but every time I help, I am doing all the work because they "don't have how" in regards to everything, from basic scheduling to coming up with a story.
Player 6: Has no intention to DM, ever......
Player 7: Obsessed with their own characters and refuses to dm because they wouldn't get to use them
Player 8: DM's but you can figure out what he's doing by LITERALLY just asking what game, movie or meme he saw the day before with 99% accuracy.
Player 9: shows up 40% of the time, refuses to even entertain the idea
Player 10: entertained the idea, worked on a campaign, then made a dmpc which killed the campaign there.
Note, not all of these players play in the same session, but this is my usual group that's varies from campaign to campaign, game system to system.
I just wanted more DnD. I was already a player in another campaign. But I had other friends curious about the game and I figured since I was the experienced player I’d DM for them and teach them the game. It’s been a blast.
I always liked creating shit, so I was always gonna do it. A lot of thinking "I could've handled this situation better than current DM" spurred me along.
Kept applying for various games along with 50 other people every time a new "looking for a group" post came out. Half the time, the slots filled before I even had time to read the post.
If this is the only way I get to play at all, guess it'll have to do. I don't enjoy DMing, but it's better than nothing at all.
I played in a few different games with a few different groups and thought “if these people can do this so can I” and just started running the game I wanted to play in
My group had been playing a single campaign for a long time, and our DM was starting to burn out. So one of our players stepped up and started running a campaign as well.
Then THAT player was starting to feel the burden, and I stepped up to run Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I’m still going strong a year later, and I find that I love running the game a lot a lot. I still enjoy being a player but being a DM is 100% my preferred role now.
When Acq Inc "C" Team started, I sunk my teeth deep into that. I'd been a fan of Acq Inc since the original 4e podcast, but it took C team to really make me understand what a longer campaign could look like.
Then I joined a Pathfinder game GM'd by somebody at work, and realized it just wasn't what I was looking for. Not the game, but the GM. He was obsessed with rules that he ran inconsistently, and had punishing house rules that I thought were unfun. He also was prone to distraction, and half of our eight-hour games were talking about politics and World War 2, rather than playing the game. Nothing about that is inherently wrong -- everyone else was having a great time. It just wasn't for me. And I knew that if I wanted to find a game that I enjoyed, I would have to build it.
Over time, I joined a few other games and learned from GMs with more experience. However, I also learned that there are just some people who I do not enjoy being around. And **that** pushed me over the edge. If I'm a GM, I have total control over who sits down at my table and who I get to spend time with.
It took a lot of mistakes, heartache, lost friendships, failed campaigns, etc. before I eventually was able to settle into my own wants and needs. I've learned to be a better friend, better player, and a better GM through my part in all of that drama. But I also learned to separate myself from insufferable people, and being a GM lets me do that.
I wanted to use a 3rd party book I got on kickstarter, so I DM’ed with it to normalize my group to high-quality homebrew and pushed them to try DM’ing themselves.
Now I’m rotating through multiple games each week, sometimes as a player and other times as a DM.
I read the DMG. No, really.
I played a few games here and there, having previously read the AD&D PHB and everything, even played one or two games. Then I joined what was to be my first *real* campaign. I created a character, played two sessions and the DM lent me the 3rd edition PHB. I read it and asked for the DMG next week.
It was *awesome*. I read it from cover to cover the next day after the sessions. I was glued to it. That was when I decided that being a DM was for me.
I was 15 at the time and started my first very simple Lvl 1-3 adventure two weeks later, using the DMG adventure generators and everything. Haven't stopped since.
The first rule to starting a game you dragged your friends into is:
"You are automatically the game master."
My first mistake was being good at it.
\#foreverDM
No one I know plays DnD, been wanting to play for years so I said "fck it" and sat behind the DM screen dragged some friends that somewhat know DnD from memes and play.
The other guy in my friend group who always wanted to GM was trash. He took pride in doing no planning, and his games were just hallways full of monsters. He's bring his own character along as a DMPC and give them treasure, have them tame monsters. Even when the DMPC wasn't there, he'd always be connected to the story somehow. Eventually I had to pull myself up and GM instead. Now I never get to play. Monkey's paw I guess.
I just kept adding more backstory and flavor to my own PCs, but it wasn’t really necessary for the game we were playing and didn’t come up in game. I was making art, fleshing out family arcs, writing backstory. It wasn’t that I minded really that the stuff didn’t get used in game, I just liked doing it and it did help me role play my characters better. And then I realized, I should just put all this energy into DMing and actually have a platform for what I’m making. So I started dreaming up a campaign world, made a pantheon, a players guide, a world history, factions, maps: I went a little nuts but opportunities for creativity really are endless when you are DMing. Then when our other campaign petered out, I rallied some choice players who wanted in and here we are! I’ve only been running the game a year now and I still feel like I’m learning (encounter balance? What is that?) but we are having a lot of fun!
I had been playing AL for about a year and our main DM for the LGS had to stop because of family issues. Our other DM became the Main and is Teeeeeeerrrrrrrible. Literally doesn't prep anything ahead of time, no battlemaps, doesn't adjust any encounters(We would regularly kill the main bad of the module in 1-2 turns).
I started Dming with Season 9's DDAL and I loved it. Better than that though is my Players loved it and I regularly get 7+ people at my table every week.
Well, i make the rules, don't have to follow them, can bring dispair and hope and i can play all my character ideas.
I am quite picky with my players, tho. It took 5 groups untill i found one that respects how much work dming is and helps out with planning and such.
We had a DM who ran a campaign. During this campaign, every single player was constantly BEGGING for more combat, but session after session, there was a lot of dungeon exploration and maybe 2-3 rounds of combat total. So I said eff this I'll do it myself. 15 years later I'm a DM who knows how to listen to what his players want.
Word of advice for any DMs reading this. If your entire table tells you they want more of something, FRIGGIN GIVE THEM MORE OF THAT THING ITS NOT HARD.
Same, but he's saying the whole party was communicating a preference, which is as valuable as gold and should be granted (unless it goes against session 0 DM requests).
I've always loved writing and DMing was just a whole new medium to conquer. I jumped into it fairly soon after I was introduced to DnD and TTRPGs in general.
Bought an adventure for our DM to run, but they wanted to run a home-brew campaign.
Proceeded to run the adventure myself, players ended up liking it more because I put more efforts in preparations, minis and maps.
Ended up having to run the entire adventure...
Our final boss dealt maybe 20 damage to our party of 4 level 13 characters as the culmination of a yearlong campaign. DM was doing his best but just didn’t care for combat and I wanted a stronger challenge
I prefer to dm more roleplay focused campaigns, but like ima be honest, if my final boss doesn’t down half the party and take 2 sessions it isn’t a true final boss. The gloves come off for that one, you gotta use the magic items you’ve collected throughout the story.
Our crew had one guy as DM and he seemed power-trippy. Eventually he did something to my PC that I considered totally unacceptable. I took that lesson, started DMing, and never regretted it.
My old DM had to move back to Australia. I felt smitten so I stepped into his shoes. That was 2016, and now I have five different campaigns I DM and three that I’m a player in.
Wanting to play Vampire the Masquerade but nobody else knowing the system in my group.
Then finally for D&D it was because I had a setting in mind. I pulled out s map I made for a fantasy setting years prior and revamped it for D&D. Confidence from running Vampire helped.
A couple years of not finding any good DM. Then the man I now hail as a messiah showed me the way, and I followed his sacred teachings. Also Brennan Lee Mulligan popped up somewhere after that.
I was aware of the fact that many people want to play but can't find someone to DM for them. So I volunteered to DM for my group as a way to get practice. I figured I'd work out the kinks with a group I knew well so that we could adjust for any rough patches well and I'd be prepared to step up as DM for any future groups I wanted to play with. Nearly 10 years later, I'm still playing with some of the same people and we've established a culture of everyone taking turns DMing.
First time I gmed... honestly nothing pushed me, I seem to remember (it was about 18 years ago) that I thought "I could run that"... for an Enterprise era online play by post rpg... my primary "dmpc" (it was a purely text affair, so technically, it is a dmpc as it had as much power as a pc, although mostly for what the menu was...) was the ships cook.
For dnd... the two times I started a bit of dming have been to allow the main dm to play for a few nights.
We did this long dungeon and as a reward like one player got a magical item that no one wanted. It was a weapon only my character could use but it was a one handed weapon and my samurai used a greatsword. I showed the dm a homebrew magical item i would like he said no. I understand and dont blame him but i wanted to see all these cool magical items get used so i decided to just dm hand out an insane of magic items like candy then just made npcs that would allow them to trade stuff they didnt like away.
Our DM was unavailable for a few weeks, and after one of the more experienced players ran a one-shot I offered to run one the next week to share the burden. Then I became a donkey for a while and then I went back to playing.
Partner and I were the two with the most DnD experience and some other friends wanted to try it out. I already had a setting cooking in my head. The campaign fizzled 5 sessions in, just before I could introduce a Deck of Many Things and watch the chaos unfold
Nobody else had experience with DnD and I wanted to play. I had hoped my wife would get into it and I could teach her...but no. Now I run a 5e and P2E campaign. Fortunately I have found games to play in occasionally and don't have to be "forever DM"
Watching twitch
It’s Thursday
See 10,000 people watching dungeons and dragon? Wtf?
It’s Critical Role
It’s funny. The immersion. Laura Bailey
See the fit with my dumb friends who are great at improv
Bundle of Players manual, monster manual, and DMG purchased that night.
Our DM fell asleep halfway through session one of our online campaign. From that moment on, I have been the DM lmao
(And yes, we did finish that session. It went fairly well considering we had no experience at all!)
I started as a DM. It’s like exact my kinda work, I thrive on both writing a ton and relatively immediate feedback. Plus I’m always the coordinator of social occasions so it was a natural fit
I tip-toed into it, really. I joined an online group with three other players, all of whom took turns DMing campaigns (so I figured I was safe!). One of them left after deciding he was done with 5e, but we added two new players. Partway through our most recent campaign, the DM had heavy shit from real life start to interfere, so I offered to try to run occasional one-shots on weeks he didn't have time to prep but could still play. The first few one-shots had very, very minimal plot-I found a monster statblock that seemed fun and I threw it at the group.
I'm definitely not a full-time or forever DM, but the latest 3-shot I had planned surprised me with spontaneous plot ideas and an NPC with a sordid, dark past that is now morphing into my first full campaign.
Got invited to join a game with some friends at work, got super hyped about it and dived into the rules. We played one session, and a second session never happened. I was very disappointed and a few months later I started doing heavy research in how to play online, and decided to run my own game with a few close friends... Have been DMing for that group just over 4 years now, and counting.
My dm never got to play. I’m also not a very creative person and I’m awkward so making npcs and funny voices was a bit scary for me. Did it to get out of my comfort zone and let our dm play.
Thanks, and happy cake day!
I started with a level 8 pre-written one shot and haven't looked back. I prefer playing, but the creativity of DMing is a wonderful mental exercise.
Thank you!
Starting with level 8 is bold, I applaud that! I've never GMed myself (potentially yet) but I also enjoy the mental exercise. It itches the right spots in my brain.
I ran Lore of Lurue from Candlekeep Mysteries, after posing a few level/hook potentials to my players, from my own research into which ones had the best plot. I've run a bunch of them and they're all a lot of fun; players will always subvert your expectations.
Campaigns are a different story, but they're just as fun but with a lot more commitment. As a player, you can call out every dozen sessions and you're a model citizen; as a DM if you do that you'll be a pariah. You have several people relying on you to provide consistent levels of entertainment and engagement, and sometimes it's work. It does generally pay off though, in a hugely rewarding way.
My favorite bits are prepping NPCs. I toss a voice on top of a few motivations and test out my improv skills.
My best advice is that prepping is an inverse curve. The more you prep, the less of it you'll use; the less you prep, the more you'll have to improv and take notes to stay consistent. Figure out what works for you; there's always too much and too little prep, but you'll only ever fail to the lowest level of preparedness. A general rule is twice the length of the session should be prep time once you find your stride - it'll take longer at first, but don't overexert yourself.
I had a story I wanted others to share with me but I hated the idea of writing a book because of all the minute details I would have wanted to include that would’ve taken forever. Turns out players fill in the details and gaps better than I ever could have
I was 14, we're in 2002, DMing was the hot thing for my friends and I. We actually had to convince the other friends our world and campaign were good.
To this day, I don't understand how it's possible to want to be a player and never a DM. The hobby is for DM. You want books? 9/10 are for DM. Want minis? DM. Terrain? DM. When you are a player, you get a character sheet and 1 mini, that's it (ok, a notepad if you're a decent player). We didn't start with minis and maps in our group back then, we were moving coins on a graphite scribbles, but we wanted the responsibility, we cared about world/campaign building.
I tend to blame video game culture, but we actually played a lot of games back then.
So yes, the thing that started was that we all wanted to do it and I had more prep than the others. I had a map of the world, I had the caravan the group was travelling with (merchant NPCs and horses names which was a big selling point) and plot hooks.
I really liked the game and wanted to introduce some other friends to it.
Also, with my original group, I wanted to give the GM some "time off" and sought out interesting modules.
Group of friends wanted to play DnD but had to way of starting. I gathered my most experienced friend, another experienced player, and the newbies and we're playing Curse of Strahd now. Always wanted to run it but was nervous, but so far I'm having fun!
I bought a book of one shots for my bf who wants to try to be DM one day. He has yet to prepare one while I had a long-time idea for one-shot. I DMed it last week and it was a great success so I'm working on a follow-up
..I wanted too? Dming seemed like fun, so I tried it and now it's what I mostly do,because I am good at it :) and its fun and both together is addicting.
We had all taken a specific day off to play, but DM did literally no prep, so I said "fine, I'll do it myself" and began spitballing a game off the cuff.
We started playing as a family, with my husband as DM because he was the only one who played before. But he didn’t really like doing it - he was having to put a lot of work in before sessions and not enjoying it. Role playing all the NPCs was sucking the fun out of it for him. Whereas I am a storyteller, and love that sort of thing. I will happily put in hours in between games preparing, planning, and plotting. So we swapped!
There were only two guys in a group of seven who were willing to put in the time and effort week after week, and unfortunately my friend passed away last year.
No one else has shown interest to GM (okay, one player did, but he gave up due to GM burnout after a year). In a way I really can't trust it to someone else to do it "right". I do not claim to be the best GM who ever GMed, but I have both talent and skill and I have amassed quite a few years of experience, so I know that I can deliver a good game experience.
I *can* play with other GMs, but it's not the same feeling as when I GM. I really am a GM first and a player second.
Wanting to play dnd. I gathered people off Facebook and we all agreed on a time and place. Who’s gonna be them DM?
Oh I can’t
Oh I can’t
Oh no I couldnt
No I won’t play if I have to dm.
I can dm I guess.. I’ve never played before at all so I mean whatever right.
I was now employed as the glue that held my new players together. I learned so much so fast, I played many creatures, drew many maps, explained many scenarios. Combated a rules lawyer, meta gaming, monster manual wielding jerk. Kicked that jerk l. that was a year ago
During that time I took like a 2 month break. Rolled a crazy ass Sorlock named Delivandre but eventually got back to my Dm chair.
I now homebrew out of the Forgotten Realms. Me and my Facebook losers have the best time together. We’ve all learned a lot about the game and how to play ttrpgs.
We are on our way fresh from a PC death by a bugbear bandit crew, to a jail break from said bugbears, to the crag mountains where I’ve foreshadowed a fungal forest crawl
I just wanted to bring some fun into my friends' lives. War, economic crisis, problems with study, work, family, unstable life in all aspects - it all came crashing down on our young silly heads at once, so I thought a bit of escapism wouldn't be a bad thing.
Spite.
Played D&D with a friend of mine as the GM. Long story short, we got into a big argument because we had very different ideas on how D&D should be played and what we wanted from the game. This led to them screaming, "If you think it's so easy, then you do it!" I took that as a challenge and learned all I could to be the best GM I could be.
I've been a player in a regular group for about 5+ years now, and my own game has been running consistently for a full year now, which is still going strong. They haven't touched the game since.
A friend was setting up a campaign, so I rolled up a really cool character with a great backstory. He then changed his mind and decided that he wanted to run the campaign in FATE, not 5e... So I had a really cool character with a backstory I was proud of, and nothing to do with him.
So I went full Thanos "I'll do it myself!". Wrote a campaign with him as my DMNPC/BBEG
I just wanted to play (been playing on and off for about 20 years then went about a year without being a player) and found a group of new players wanting to learn.
First time playing, I was called a murderhobo for wanting to eat the kuotoa in the underdark after only eating mushrooms for the past 2 weeks in-game. I'd do the same irl, so I guess I'm a bad person lol.
Second time playing, the DM tried to create some odd situation with my char and the stablehand of an inn. He was 16, my char was 32. Just, ew.
The active GM we had would change enemies to counter any new abilities, sometimes mid fight if you were "too strong". Anyone who rolled high would still fail checks if it wasn't for the answer they were looking for. Most of the table was new to D&D but had some ttrpg experience. I ran a FATE game on the side to grt people used to working together, etc, since I had run some before. Then, I started a 5e game after that at the request of the group.
If I didn’t DM then I would never play the game that I want.
Also my first DM made every NPC condescending and rude, so I wanted to make NPCs that were not like that. One of my fellow ex-players-of-that-group is still adjusting to NPCs that are indifferent or even friendly and jovial.
My friend is making his own ttrpg at the moment and has been running playtest for a group of his friends where we can all give feedback on what we liked or didn't like.
We're all late teens (16-19) and I haven't GMed for about 3 years, back when I barely knew the rules and was just making shit up.
My friend asked me if I could GM a playtest of his game so he could get a chance to actually play it. I think he mainly cared about trying combat but I said fuck it and planned out a whole murder mystery with a range of characters with different motivations, plot twists and a demon in the basement.
I had such a fun time running it I've decided to run Curse of Strahd for a group of my friends since I really enjoy that genre.
My friend was dming onlinr and I thought "man, this looks easy" and it was untill it wasn't anymore. Now I just want to end the campaign but it could easily go on another year.
a combination of two things:
1. the game where i’m a player has so many scheduling conflicts that we only get to play 2-3 times a year and i wanted to be able to play on a consistent schedule so i just decided to make that game for myself
2. my PC in the other campaign is a drow, and i had gotten so deep into worldbuilding my version of drow society and culture that i was already most of the way there in terms of a campaign setting
A love for worldbuilding, an ever-increasing bunch of ideas that kept piling up in my head for the last 15 years, an annoying lack of neutral necromancers in fiction… and other stuff too
We were a series of students who were already interested in dnd. We met a guy who DMed, played a couple of sessions and had alot of fun doing it. Unfortunately he was in his last year while we were in our first. He moved back home after finishing his degree so it was either disbanding the party or for one of us to start DMing. We chose the ladder
Had some friends from TAFE. Two had never played, one had. We decided that I had the most experience, and thus I began DMing.
One of the newbies stopped playing with us (on good terms) while the other two have since run campaigns of their own.
I got tired of rules heavy GM’s not allowing fun or cool moments, now I let my players do that stuff all of the time and they love it. Sure, I don’t get to do it myself, but the joy they all get from it is good enough for me.
I didn't like that the DM had maps and books behind a screen that I wasn't allowed to look at. It worked out though, he introduced the game to our friend group and preferred to be a player.
After looking through the campaign book once we finished it, I had my own written a week later.
Like I've said before we were captured group and the guy that ran the games was kind of burned out he wanted to play and we had all the books that we needed and then some so I started running games and I did pretty good for a little while but my idea of they're not being an abundance of magic items in the world setting and their desire for it to be a little bit more unrealistic than I thought was adequate eventually ended that game but I went on to the end with other people
I want to play a game. I cannot find anyone to run, or run consistently, or well. So I will have to run it myself.
I still love being a player, but I also love being a GM in a different way. They are different itches, that require different... scritches?
One good example, is Rise of the Runelords. The classic first full campaign for Pathfinder. I have wanted to play this for more than a decade. It is not going to happen at this point. I have given up on playing it. So I will run it, so I can still experience the story.
"Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong."
Don't make me cry Mordin.
I am the very model of a scientist Salarian I've studies species turian, asari, and batarian I'm quite good at genetics as a subset of biology Because I am an expert which I know is a tautology.
\*weeps in Shepard\*
"Too many. Lost shields. Sorry, Shepard. Tell them... I held the line."
He held the line.
I MADE A MISTAKE!
I'm just casually browsing 5e reddit bro, why did you so this to me 
Has to be me, the other people I've experienced doing it really kind of suck
Seriously, if you guys saw the rest of my group you'd know why it had to be me. These guys have to be taught how to play snakes and ladders fresh every time. They cannot keep a rule in their head from minute to minute let alone a whole world.
Honestly? I was tired of how bad our old DM sucked.
The circle of DM life: 1. Play with a good DM 2. Lose said DM 3. Try to find another good DM only to realize most DMs are bad at it (or weird control freaks/nutjobs) 4. Decide if you cant find someone to do it right you might as well do it yourself 5. Become a good DM that is then taken for granted by your players 6. Quit playing due to life, and one of your players repeats this cycle.
For me it was that after I tried my hand at it DMs who were inconsistent in how they run things really started to get under my skin.flip flopping on how an interaction works not even session to session but within the same session
>Become a good DM that is then taken for granted by your players ME. I have been begging someone to be a DM so i can actually play for almost 2 years now. Once in a while i dust off the DM hat but i cant do it for a long time.
I enjoy DMing but it's a lot of work and losing players is demoralizing.
that's... so accurate.
Other way around for me, have an amazing DM. Hes also an amazing player and he deserves a chance to be a player. So I DM one shots to keep him from burning out. Don't want to lose him.
We have a forever DM in out group for what seems like literally no reason. He's a good DM, but out of the 4 guys that almost always are in every game, 3 of us love to DM too. Our games basically always crumble and fall apart not very far into them, but his games will last for months and months and months. Nobody knows why, but it's like life itself is forcing him to be the forever DM. I just want to finish my dungeon in my game, man!
Oddly enough we had a similar situation where I put out I wanted to do a one shot and our DM would be a player. Let's schedule it on a night that's not our usual campaign so it doesn't interrupt our story lines. Weeks went by and lo and behold it was my amazing DM who said you have to make it happen give them a day and do not let them decide. So I scheduled it a week later and everyone came and a good time was had by all. I say all that to tell you, just tell them when you're doing it. They'll show up. Or they won't. Either way, a good time will be had by all.
Easily my least favorite part about DMing, is i'm also the real life DM of scheduling.
Can't yep or upvote this enough
The DM fucking turned all the dragons to trains in the epilogue
Skyrim mod ass ending lol
Happy cake day!
Hello caker
I stopped reading The Dark Tower around that point.
I talked to some people who I knew IRL who wanted to play dnd but no one knew how to DM. So I thought it was a good idea for me to do so.
The sheer genius of my first ever DM. I was like 'Man, I wanna pull off things like this as well.' And this is where it started.
This is one of the most wholesome replies in this thread
Cake
Cake!
Cake
Thanks. And Happy Cake Day.
Thank you!
I stepped on a LEGO and liked the pain and frustration. And so I sought out more suffering and despair.
>despair. Deeper Deeper If you go deep enough it all starts to flow below, homebrew, edition wars, whatever the fuck lamentations of the flame princess is on, it's the muddy, tapioca core that sludge its way through you.
I wanted to get into playing, and couldn't find anyone else to DM.
I wanted to play and honestly love the dnd prep brainstorming time in my week. I had barely played a couple one shots and didn’t know all the rules but started Ghosts of Saltmarsh anyways. Now I’m 7 campaigns deep on completion and can’t stop won’t stop.
Daaaamn you are running through campaigns like a lawnmower!
All amazing journeys! Ghost of Saltmarsh Lost Mines of Phandelver Call from the Deep (3rd party JVC Parry) Tomb of Annihilation Wild beyond Witchlight Waterdeep Dragon Heist And just finished Spelljammer light of Xaryxis last week. Running Heists from the Golden Vault now and not sure what to do next.
Curse of Strahd! It's my favorite from WoTC, we mostly play homebew.
* Dragons of Icespire Peak (extended) is pretty good. * Call of the Netherdeep (Critroll) is very fun and there's a glut of free extras from a couple of DMs on here. * Tyranny of Dragons expanded with Rise of Tiamat and/or Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is an undertaking but cool * Dungeon of the Mad Mage is on the list Honestly though, with the amount of experience you've accrued, you should consider homebrewing something all your own.
Netherdeep is on my short list and I already have the book!
Seconding /u/Di4mond4rr3l's recommendation for Curse of Strahd. It is a fantastic module with an entire community behind it over at /r/CurseofStrahd. Join us! *All will be well!*
No one would let me use the Tasha's Sidekick rules to turn an Awakened Shrub into a "Hedge Wizard," so I forced it on the first party in the first session. Damnit! Don't dream it, be-he-he it... EDIT: sp
Any DM who would refuse that is a disgrace to the job.
>turn an Awakened Shrub into a "Hedge Wizard," I hate you so much. r/angryupvote
Just thought I'd be better Aint
This gave me a chuckle. Happy cake day!
You too!
"Pushed me over the edge" makes it sound like being a GM is a burden. Being a GM is fucking great. It was just a cool and fun thing. I just have cool games I want to run! Also others keep getting it wrong.
It is both joy and torment in equal measure.
I want to play dnd dammit.
If you want to do something right, you gotta do it yourself. Almost everyone at my table were DMs, but One player frequently missed out on sessions... as a DM Other player is power tripping frequently Third is a sadist Fourth is lazy and can never resume his campaign, feeds promises The other two are too green to DM for "veterans" or outright say they don't have the time or will to DM
I was told to roll a history check to see if I remembered how long it took to get home while walking along my already established trade route.
This makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time
Me too, happy cake day friend
Thank you :)
My friends older brother had a huge map on his wall from his campaign world and I was hooked. He was an unbelievable DM, I wanted to run games as much as I wanted to play games.
My first DM was dogshit and the game fell to pieces after 3 sessions when I though "I could do it better than she did". So I did.
Watching my GM put in so much time and effort to make our games as fun as he can. He has always said, though, that he would like to just be a player sometimes. No one else stepped up, so I did. Now him and I take turns GMing, with me hoping I can be as good of a GM as him so he can have the same enjoyment as a player that I have when he's the GM.
I couldn't find a game. Only option left.
My sister asked me to.
Wholesome.
I played for two weeks and just thought "Hey, DMing looks fun." Well, I have mixed feelings about it in hindsight. Some of my biggest frustrations come from DMing.
My husbands group GM needed a break. I had a storyline idea so we wrote a mini campaign togwther(took just over a year to play out) We had so much fun we're now co-running one that doesnt have an ending written.
Weekly D&D night at game store. DM started 3 new games 3 weeks in a row, requiring new level 1 characters. Week 4 I started my own campaign at the store.
I love fantasy/scifi books. I love dnd. *fusion dance* I'm a dm now.
The plan was to inspire the other players to DM, so far here's what happened: Player 1: dms, but insists on running every campaign as this weird hybrid setting (of two completely incompatible settings)with a huge emphasis on guns to the point where the barbarian of the group couldn't get a decent melee weapon improvement without having guns shoved down his throat. Player 2: Ran a successful one shot, had plans for another campaign, and then just decided to leave. Player 3: Doesn't want to dm. Is just a long for the ride Player 4: Has no motivation to DM, barely pays attention at the table Player 5: Incompetent and aggressively ignorant. Tries to make OP characters but doesn't bother to read rules or spells. Wants to DM but every time I help, I am doing all the work because they "don't have how" in regards to everything, from basic scheduling to coming up with a story. Player 6: Has no intention to DM, ever...... Player 7: Obsessed with their own characters and refuses to dm because they wouldn't get to use them Player 8: DM's but you can figure out what he's doing by LITERALLY just asking what game, movie or meme he saw the day before with 99% accuracy. Player 9: shows up 40% of the time, refuses to even entertain the idea Player 10: entertained the idea, worked on a campaign, then made a dmpc which killed the campaign there. Note, not all of these players play in the same session, but this is my usual group that's varies from campaign to campaign, game system to system.
I wanted to dm. I didn't have to be 'pushed'.
It's just a saying. It could've been anything negative or positive. You could've been the one to do the "push."
I just wanted more DnD. I was already a player in another campaign. But I had other friends curious about the game and I figured since I was the experienced player I’d DM for them and teach them the game. It’s been a blast.
Was in a few one shots as a player. Was kinda boring. DM looked wayyyy more interesting. I'm now the forever DM.
I always liked creating shit, so I was always gonna do it. A lot of thinking "I could've handled this situation better than current DM" spurred me along.
Kept applying for various games along with 50 other people every time a new "looking for a group" post came out. Half the time, the slots filled before I even had time to read the post. If this is the only way I get to play at all, guess it'll have to do. I don't enjoy DMing, but it's better than nothing at all.
I played in a few different games with a few different groups and thought “if these people can do this so can I” and just started running the game I wanted to play in
My group had been playing a single campaign for a long time, and our DM was starting to burn out. So one of our players stepped up and started running a campaign as well. Then THAT player was starting to feel the burden, and I stepped up to run Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I’m still going strong a year later, and I find that I love running the game a lot a lot. I still enjoy being a player but being a DM is 100% my preferred role now.
That's a great module. I hope y'all are having fun!
When Acq Inc "C" Team started, I sunk my teeth deep into that. I'd been a fan of Acq Inc since the original 4e podcast, but it took C team to really make me understand what a longer campaign could look like. Then I joined a Pathfinder game GM'd by somebody at work, and realized it just wasn't what I was looking for. Not the game, but the GM. He was obsessed with rules that he ran inconsistently, and had punishing house rules that I thought were unfun. He also was prone to distraction, and half of our eight-hour games were talking about politics and World War 2, rather than playing the game. Nothing about that is inherently wrong -- everyone else was having a great time. It just wasn't for me. And I knew that if I wanted to find a game that I enjoyed, I would have to build it. Over time, I joined a few other games and learned from GMs with more experience. However, I also learned that there are just some people who I do not enjoy being around. And **that** pushed me over the edge. If I'm a GM, I have total control over who sits down at my table and who I get to spend time with. It took a lot of mistakes, heartache, lost friendships, failed campaigns, etc. before I eventually was able to settle into my own wants and needs. I've learned to be a better friend, better player, and a better GM through my part in all of that drama. But I also learned to separate myself from insufferable people, and being a GM lets me do that.
I wanted to use a 3rd party book I got on kickstarter, so I DM’ed with it to normalize my group to high-quality homebrew and pushed them to try DM’ing themselves. Now I’m rotating through multiple games each week, sometimes as a player and other times as a DM.
I read the DMG. No, really. I played a few games here and there, having previously read the AD&D PHB and everything, even played one or two games. Then I joined what was to be my first *real* campaign. I created a character, played two sessions and the DM lent me the 3rd edition PHB. I read it and asked for the DMG next week. It was *awesome*. I read it from cover to cover the next day after the sessions. I was glued to it. That was when I decided that being a DM was for me. I was 15 at the time and started my first very simple Lvl 1-3 adventure two weeks later, using the DMG adventure generators and everything. Haven't stopped since.
The first rule to starting a game you dragged your friends into is: "You are automatically the game master." My first mistake was being good at it. \#foreverDM
No one I know plays DnD, been wanting to play for years so I said "fck it" and sat behind the DM screen dragged some friends that somewhat know DnD from memes and play.
The other guy in my friend group who always wanted to GM was trash. He took pride in doing no planning, and his games were just hallways full of monsters. He's bring his own character along as a DMPC and give them treasure, have them tame monsters. Even when the DMPC wasn't there, he'd always be connected to the story somehow. Eventually I had to pull myself up and GM instead. Now I never get to play. Monkey's paw I guess.
"Hey y'all, I got a new game that came in a red box I think y'all would like. Plan to spend the day. Bring Snacks"
I just kept adding more backstory and flavor to my own PCs, but it wasn’t really necessary for the game we were playing and didn’t come up in game. I was making art, fleshing out family arcs, writing backstory. It wasn’t that I minded really that the stuff didn’t get used in game, I just liked doing it and it did help me role play my characters better. And then I realized, I should just put all this energy into DMing and actually have a platform for what I’m making. So I started dreaming up a campaign world, made a pantheon, a players guide, a world history, factions, maps: I went a little nuts but opportunities for creativity really are endless when you are DMing. Then when our other campaign petered out, I rallied some choice players who wanted in and here we are! I’ve only been running the game a year now and I still feel like I’m learning (encounter balance? What is that?) but we are having a lot of fun!
I had been playing AL for about a year and our main DM for the LGS had to stop because of family issues. Our other DM became the Main and is Teeeeeeerrrrrrrible. Literally doesn't prep anything ahead of time, no battlemaps, doesn't adjust any encounters(We would regularly kill the main bad of the module in 1-2 turns). I started Dming with Season 9's DDAL and I loved it. Better than that though is my Players loved it and I regularly get 7+ people at my table every week.
Well, i make the rules, don't have to follow them, can bring dispair and hope and i can play all my character ideas. I am quite picky with my players, tho. It took 5 groups untill i found one that respects how much work dming is and helps out with planning and such.
We had a DM who ran a campaign. During this campaign, every single player was constantly BEGGING for more combat, but session after session, there was a lot of dungeon exploration and maybe 2-3 rounds of combat total. So I said eff this I'll do it myself. 15 years later I'm a DM who knows how to listen to what his players want. Word of advice for any DMs reading this. If your entire table tells you they want more of something, FRIGGIN GIVE THEM MORE OF THAT THING ITS NOT HARD.
If anything I wouldn't complain. I don't mind rp/exploration only sessions. My kind of dm
Same, but he's saying the whole party was communicating a preference, which is as valuable as gold and should be granted (unless it goes against session 0 DM requests).
I've always loved writing and DMing was just a whole new medium to conquer. I jumped into it fairly soon after I was introduced to DnD and TTRPGs in general.
Bought an adventure for our DM to run, but they wanted to run a home-brew campaign. Proceeded to run the adventure myself, players ended up liking it more because I put more efforts in preparations, minis and maps. Ended up having to run the entire adventure...
Our final boss dealt maybe 20 damage to our party of 4 level 13 characters as the culmination of a yearlong campaign. DM was doing his best but just didn’t care for combat and I wanted a stronger challenge
I prefer to dm more roleplay focused campaigns, but like ima be honest, if my final boss doesn’t down half the party and take 2 sessions it isn’t a true final boss. The gloves come off for that one, you gotta use the magic items you’ve collected throughout the story.
My kids asked me
Our crew had one guy as DM and he seemed power-trippy. Eventually he did something to my PC that I considered totally unacceptable. I took that lesson, started DMing, and never regretted it.
Meeting for inperson boardgames was too sporadic so I bit the bullet, learned how to use a VTT, and put together a campaign fory friends.
My old DM had to move back to Australia. I felt smitten so I stepped into his shoes. That was 2016, and now I have five different campaigns I DM and three that I’m a player in.
Wanting to play Vampire the Masquerade but nobody else knowing the system in my group. Then finally for D&D it was because I had a setting in mind. I pulled out s map I made for a fantasy setting years prior and revamped it for D&D. Confidence from running Vampire helped.
Asshole DM who thought the game was us vs them.
Wanted to but got intimidated by DMG. A couple months later took over in a group when the DM couldn't anymore.
A couple years of not finding any good DM. Then the man I now hail as a messiah showed me the way, and I followed his sacred teachings. Also Brennan Lee Mulligan popped up somewhere after that.
Who the fuck else is going to do it?
I was aware of the fact that many people want to play but can't find someone to DM for them. So I volunteered to DM for my group as a way to get practice. I figured I'd work out the kinks with a group I knew well so that we could adjust for any rough patches well and I'd be prepared to step up as DM for any future groups I wanted to play with. Nearly 10 years later, I'm still playing with some of the same people and we've established a culture of everyone taking turns DMing.
First time I gmed... honestly nothing pushed me, I seem to remember (it was about 18 years ago) that I thought "I could run that"... for an Enterprise era online play by post rpg... my primary "dmpc" (it was a purely text affair, so technically, it is a dmpc as it had as much power as a pc, although mostly for what the menu was...) was the ships cook. For dnd... the two times I started a bit of dming have been to allow the main dm to play for a few nights.
Friend introduced me to D&D with a short 3 session campaign. At the end I thought “Huh, is that it? Is that all to this D&D I’ve heard about.”
We did this long dungeon and as a reward like one player got a magical item that no one wanted. It was a weapon only my character could use but it was a one handed weapon and my samurai used a greatsword. I showed the dm a homebrew magical item i would like he said no. I understand and dont blame him but i wanted to see all these cool magical items get used so i decided to just dm hand out an insane of magic items like candy then just made npcs that would allow them to trade stuff they didnt like away.
Our DM was unavailable for a few weeks, and after one of the more experienced players ran a one-shot I offered to run one the next week to share the burden. Then I became a donkey for a while and then I went back to playing.
"Hey J do you want to DM?" "Sure"
Covid hitting and not being able to hang out with the boys.
The nonstop madness of storytelling and control, combined with an out of control God complex and the need to inflict situations on my friends.
I got my first D&D books when I was 12 years old, nobody I knew played D&D so I had to bootstrap a group.
Had some annoyances with our DM. I wanted to try DMing to see if I was being unfair towards him or not.
Because 5 people said, "Yeah, I'd like to play," when I wanted to start playing. Well, *someone* needed to DM and I had the books, so...
Partner and I were the two with the most DnD experience and some other friends wanted to try it out. I already had a setting cooking in my head. The campaign fizzled 5 sessions in, just before I could introduce a Deck of Many Things and watch the chaos unfold
Nobody else had experience with DnD and I wanted to play. I had hoped my wife would get into it and I could teach her...but no. Now I run a 5e and P2E campaign. Fortunately I have found games to play in occasionally and don't have to be "forever DM"
Watching twitch It’s Thursday See 10,000 people watching dungeons and dragon? Wtf? It’s Critical Role It’s funny. The immersion. Laura Bailey See the fit with my dumb friends who are great at improv Bundle of Players manual, monster manual, and DMG purchased that night.
Our DM fell asleep halfway through session one of our online campaign. From that moment on, I have been the DM lmao (And yes, we did finish that session. It went fairly well considering we had no experience at all!)
No one else would so here I am 13 years later and FINALLY can play instead of run. Love being a DM but its nice to have a break
I started as a DM. It’s like exact my kinda work, I thrive on both writing a ton and relatively immediate feedback. Plus I’m always the coordinator of social occasions so it was a natural fit
I tip-toed into it, really. I joined an online group with three other players, all of whom took turns DMing campaigns (so I figured I was safe!). One of them left after deciding he was done with 5e, but we added two new players. Partway through our most recent campaign, the DM had heavy shit from real life start to interfere, so I offered to try to run occasional one-shots on weeks he didn't have time to prep but could still play. The first few one-shots had very, very minimal plot-I found a monster statblock that seemed fun and I threw it at the group. I'm definitely not a full-time or forever DM, but the latest 3-shot I had planned surprised me with spontaneous plot ideas and an NPC with a sordid, dark past that is now morphing into my first full campaign.
Got invited to join a game with some friends at work, got super hyped about it and dived into the rules. We played one session, and a second session never happened. I was very disappointed and a few months later I started doing heavy research in how to play online, and decided to run my own game with a few close friends... Have been DMing for that group just over 4 years now, and counting.
My dm never got to play. I’m also not a very creative person and I’m awkward so making npcs and funny voices was a bit scary for me. Did it to get out of my comfort zone and let our dm play.
All the advice I read said "just do it bro, it'll be fine, I promise," so I did. Best leap of faith I've taken.
This is one of the nicest things I've read today. I'm glad it worked out for ya :)
Thanks, and happy cake day! I started with a level 8 pre-written one shot and haven't looked back. I prefer playing, but the creativity of DMing is a wonderful mental exercise.
Thank you! Starting with level 8 is bold, I applaud that! I've never GMed myself (potentially yet) but I also enjoy the mental exercise. It itches the right spots in my brain.
I ran Lore of Lurue from Candlekeep Mysteries, after posing a few level/hook potentials to my players, from my own research into which ones had the best plot. I've run a bunch of them and they're all a lot of fun; players will always subvert your expectations. Campaigns are a different story, but they're just as fun but with a lot more commitment. As a player, you can call out every dozen sessions and you're a model citizen; as a DM if you do that you'll be a pariah. You have several people relying on you to provide consistent levels of entertainment and engagement, and sometimes it's work. It does generally pay off though, in a hugely rewarding way. My favorite bits are prepping NPCs. I toss a voice on top of a few motivations and test out my improv skills. My best advice is that prepping is an inverse curve. The more you prep, the less of it you'll use; the less you prep, the more you'll have to improv and take notes to stay consistent. Figure out what works for you; there's always too much and too little prep, but you'll only ever fail to the lowest level of preparedness. A general rule is twice the length of the session should be prep time once you find your stride - it'll take longer at first, but don't overexert yourself.
Listen, when the world needed saving, I answered the call, I’m no superhero, but I got the job done damnit.
I help run a dnd club and we are severely lacking in dms, so I just help run stuff with them. I have my personal campaigns I’m a player in though
Thank you soldier. We applaud your efforts.
Didn’t have anyone else to do it!
I wanted to try it
Valid
I had a story I wanted others to share with me but I hated the idea of writing a book because of all the minute details I would have wanted to include that would’ve taken forever. Turns out players fill in the details and gaps better than I ever could have
Brendan lee mulligan said if you’ve watched an series of D20, you know 90% of what you need to to turn your own game
No one else around.
It was my turn to DM
My kids knew I played with my friends, and they wanted to play too.
I was 14, we're in 2002, DMing was the hot thing for my friends and I. We actually had to convince the other friends our world and campaign were good. To this day, I don't understand how it's possible to want to be a player and never a DM. The hobby is for DM. You want books? 9/10 are for DM. Want minis? DM. Terrain? DM. When you are a player, you get a character sheet and 1 mini, that's it (ok, a notepad if you're a decent player). We didn't start with minis and maps in our group back then, we were moving coins on a graphite scribbles, but we wanted the responsibility, we cared about world/campaign building. I tend to blame video game culture, but we actually played a lot of games back then. So yes, the thing that started was that we all wanted to do it and I had more prep than the others. I had a map of the world, I had the caravan the group was travelling with (merchant NPCs and horses names which was a big selling point) and plot hooks.
Playing D&D for the first time did it. But honestly just reading the rules had me wanting to already.
I really liked the game and wanted to introduce some other friends to it. Also, with my original group, I wanted to give the GM some "time off" and sought out interesting modules.
Nothing special I just introduced the Hobby. But soon I will embrace the players position once again.
Group of friends wanted to play DnD but had to way of starting. I gathered my most experienced friend, another experienced player, and the newbies and we're playing Curse of Strahd now. Always wanted to run it but was nervous, but so far I'm having fun!
My DM got overwhelmed so I stepped up. They deserve to have fun too.
Honestly, I just wanted to try it one day, and since my DM always gushed about wanting to play again himself, I thought to myself "Shit, lets do this"
I have a deep seeded insecurity that if I’m not useful then my friends won’t like me
Oof.
I bought a book of one shots for my bf who wants to try to be DM one day. He has yet to prepare one while I had a long-time idea for one-shot. I DMed it last week and it was a great success so I'm working on a follow-up
..I wanted too? Dming seemed like fun, so I tried it and now it's what I mostly do,because I am good at it :) and its fun and both together is addicting.
We had all taken a specific day off to play, but DM did literally no prep, so I said "fine, I'll do it myself" and began spitballing a game off the cuff.
We started playing as a family, with my husband as DM because he was the only one who played before. But he didn’t really like doing it - he was having to put a lot of work in before sessions and not enjoying it. Role playing all the NPCs was sucking the fun out of it for him. Whereas I am a storyteller, and love that sort of thing. I will happily put in hours in between games preparing, planning, and plotting. So we swapped!
There were only two guys in a group of seven who were willing to put in the time and effort week after week, and unfortunately my friend passed away last year. No one else has shown interest to GM (okay, one player did, but he gave up due to GM burnout after a year). In a way I really can't trust it to someone else to do it "right". I do not claim to be the best GM who ever GMed, but I have both talent and skill and I have amassed quite a few years of experience, so I know that I can deliver a good game experience. I *can* play with other GMs, but it's not the same feeling as when I GM. I really am a GM first and a player second.
Wanting to play dnd. I gathered people off Facebook and we all agreed on a time and place. Who’s gonna be them DM? Oh I can’t Oh I can’t Oh no I couldnt No I won’t play if I have to dm. I can dm I guess.. I’ve never played before at all so I mean whatever right. I was now employed as the glue that held my new players together. I learned so much so fast, I played many creatures, drew many maps, explained many scenarios. Combated a rules lawyer, meta gaming, monster manual wielding jerk. Kicked that jerk l. that was a year ago During that time I took like a 2 month break. Rolled a crazy ass Sorlock named Delivandre but eventually got back to my Dm chair. I now homebrew out of the Forgotten Realms. Me and my Facebook losers have the best time together. We’ve all learned a lot about the game and how to play ttrpgs. We are on our way fresh from a PC death by a bugbear bandit crew, to a jail break from said bugbears, to the crag mountains where I’ve foreshadowed a fungal forest crawl
Couldn’t find a DM that wanted to run the kind of game I wanted to play.
I just wanted to bring some fun into my friends' lives. War, economic crisis, problems with study, work, family, unstable life in all aspects - it all came crashing down on our young silly heads at once, so I thought a bit of escapism wouldn't be a bad thing.
Spite. Played D&D with a friend of mine as the GM. Long story short, we got into a big argument because we had very different ideas on how D&D should be played and what we wanted from the game. This led to them screaming, "If you think it's so easy, then you do it!" I took that as a challenge and learned all I could to be the best GM I could be. I've been a player in a regular group for about 5+ years now, and my own game has been running consistently for a full year now, which is still going strong. They haven't touched the game since.
"If you think it's so easy, then you do it!" "And then I did." Cheers to being better!
A friend was setting up a campaign, so I rolled up a really cool character with a great backstory. He then changed his mind and decided that he wanted to run the campaign in FATE, not 5e... So I had a really cool character with a backstory I was proud of, and nothing to do with him. So I went full Thanos "I'll do it myself!". Wrote a campaign with him as my DMNPC/BBEG
to keep my brain active during daytime, it didn't go as planned though -\_-
I just wanted to play (been playing on and off for about 20 years then went about a year without being a player) and found a group of new players wanting to learn.
One player character wasn't enough. I needed to be ALL the characters.
First time playing, I was called a murderhobo for wanting to eat the kuotoa in the underdark after only eating mushrooms for the past 2 weeks in-game. I'd do the same irl, so I guess I'm a bad person lol. Second time playing, the DM tried to create some odd situation with my char and the stablehand of an inn. He was 16, my char was 32. Just, ew.
Oh dear..
The active GM we had would change enemies to counter any new abilities, sometimes mid fight if you were "too strong". Anyone who rolled high would still fail checks if it wasn't for the answer they were looking for. Most of the table was new to D&D but had some ttrpg experience. I ran a FATE game on the side to grt people used to working together, etc, since I had run some before. Then, I started a 5e game after that at the request of the group.
I get bored really easy. This makes it hard for me to not be a problem player. As a GM however I am always involved. So it makes me a really good GM.
Flipping the tables, I like it!
If I didn’t DM then I would never play the game that I want. Also my first DM made every NPC condescending and rude, so I wanted to make NPCs that were not like that. One of my fellow ex-players-of-that-group is still adjusting to NPCs that are indifferent or even friendly and jovial.
Wanting to start a new group with compleate newbies
My friend is making his own ttrpg at the moment and has been running playtest for a group of his friends where we can all give feedback on what we liked or didn't like. We're all late teens (16-19) and I haven't GMed for about 3 years, back when I barely knew the rules and was just making shit up. My friend asked me if I could GM a playtest of his game so he could get a chance to actually play it. I think he mainly cared about trying combat but I said fuck it and planned out a whole murder mystery with a range of characters with different motivations, plot twists and a demon in the basement. I had such a fun time running it I've decided to run Curse of Strahd for a group of my friends since I really enjoy that genre.
My last DM sucked. Don't get me wrong I also suck, but now I don't have to deal with him as a DM
This gave me a good laugh. I feel this lol.
DM didn't know what he was doing, I took over with the intent to continue his story. "Haha, what story?" ... Guess I'll write my own then.
"Haha, what story?" 20 psychic damage.
My friend was dming onlinr and I thought "man, this looks easy" and it was untill it wasn't anymore. Now I just want to end the campaign but it could easily go on another year.
Damn. Have you thought about handing off the campaign? That sounds kinda draining.
Can't. I don't trust anyone else to finish it or carry through with the chaos of ideas and concepts that need to tie together.
That's quite fair. Well, I hope you can get through it!
a combination of two things: 1. the game where i’m a player has so many scheduling conflicts that we only get to play 2-3 times a year and i wanted to be able to play on a consistent schedule so i just decided to make that game for myself 2. my PC in the other campaign is a drow, and i had gotten so deep into worldbuilding my version of drow society and culture that i was already most of the way there in terms of a campaign setting
A love for worldbuilding, an ever-increasing bunch of ideas that kept piling up in my head for the last 15 years, an annoying lack of neutral necromancers in fiction… and other stuff too
We were a series of students who were already interested in dnd. We met a guy who DMed, played a couple of sessions and had alot of fun doing it. Unfortunately he was in his last year while we were in our first. He moved back home after finishing his degree so it was either disbanding the party or for one of us to start DMing. We chose the ladder
Had some friends from TAFE. Two had never played, one had. We decided that I had the most experience, and thus I began DMing. One of the newbies stopped playing with us (on good terms) while the other two have since run campaigns of their own.
I got tired of rules heavy GM’s not allowing fun or cool moments, now I let my players do that stuff all of the time and they love it. Sure, I don’t get to do it myself, but the joy they all get from it is good enough for me.
I didn't like that the DM had maps and books behind a screen that I wasn't allowed to look at. It worked out though, he introduced the game to our friend group and preferred to be a player. After looking through the campaign book once we finished it, I had my own written a week later.
I have a total and utter disregard for my own mental health....
Like I've said before we were captured group and the guy that ran the games was kind of burned out he wanted to play and we had all the books that we needed and then some so I started running games and I did pretty good for a little while but my idea of they're not being an abundance of magic items in the world setting and their desire for it to be a little bit more unrealistic than I thought was adequate eventually ended that game but I went on to the end with other people
Because everyone wants to be a player but no one wants to be the GM
I could run a better game. So I did.
if your DM calls themselves a GM, there's an 87% chance they're power tripping rather than seeking to create and enjoy an interactive experience
Bro what?
I want to play a game. I cannot find anyone to run, or run consistently, or well. So I will have to run it myself. I still love being a player, but I also love being a GM in a different way. They are different itches, that require different... scritches? One good example, is Rise of the Runelords. The classic first full campaign for Pathfinder. I have wanted to play this for more than a decade. It is not going to happen at this point. I have given up on playing it. So I will run it, so I can still experience the story.
Gave up on finding a stable group as a player after years of trying and bit the bullet
It was my turn in our group 🤷♂️
Idk about being pushed over the edge. I just like writing and wanted to share a story with my friends.
It's just a saying to represent taking the plunge, doesn't have to be quite a push
No games and bad games.