As a kid, one of my favourite things to do was record myself doing various voices. I like to have a chance to bring NPCs to life and see how the players interact with them.
I also love it when everyone is engaged in the story during the session and, when I call it for the evening, we all get to talk about decisions the characters made and how everything is clicking together. I always worry a little bit that people won't have a good time when we play and my only experience of D&D will be watching Oxventures and Critical Role, but those worries vanish the moment we start rolling dice and having fun.
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Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
I started playing D&D in 1980. Stopped playing for a while and came back for 5e. I have been player and DM in many groups.
I DM for two main reasons. First, is that I love to "role play". Taking a piece of paper and some stats then turing that into a living and functional story is fun for me. As a player I will extend that into character development. As a DM I get to do that with the entire world! (How the Gods tremble at my wicked laughter.) I truly loved to run Ravenloft style campaigns as it taught me how to describe so many parts of a world. (Ever scare and cause PC retreat by truly describing every detail of a Lizardman attacking?)
Second reason I DM. I am that A-hole player that actually reads every rule book and memorizes them over time. I usually end up being the DM in a group because I can keep the game flowing by not having to stop and do DM research in a book during play. Yes, this DM does occasionally make a miss on a rule. When this does happen, the current group I play with are quick to correct me. We have agreed that it doesn't change what has been decided at the time but the DM gets a "Gibbs Slap" and corrects play at a later time.
Bonus reason. I enjoy the social aspect of the game. Creating a moral or physical challenge for the PC's to interact with and eventually solve.....or not. I like to support the people behind the PC's by helping them grow as people and players. There have been times when as a group we decide not to play that night but get together because someone has had an issue. At these times, it is more group therapy instead of hack a slash.
SW
Imagine:
A roving herd of chicken wings running to cross a hot sauce stream to take cover in celery forest. The panic being caused by a gaggle of flying geese dropping blue cheese on them. Then attempting to devour the slowest of the herd in a diving attack.
Yes. This is what my mind does all day long. Bwahaha
Always let the group decide what new items my PC/NPC receives. I never lobby or ask for anything.
Always let the group decide what route to take in traveling/dungeoneering. This is obvious but at time my group needs a hint or a push if stuck.
It is pretty much common sense. I have fun playing all the different classes. Trouble is a I forget to use a lot of abilities that the class has but that is what happens when you try to do both DM and play a PC.
The easiest way to get new people into D&D is to offer to run a game for them. So I DM a lot just to offer the experience to others. That's less that I HAVE to do it, and more that I'm happy to volunteer when offering to do that work will help make that happen!
This is my situation. Everyone was interested in D&D but I knew nobody else would take the initiative to kick off a game. I like running the game so I made it happen.
In one of my previous sessions, I had the party going after the big bad (a vampire) and they were going through a spooky haunted area to get to him. Two things happened during the session that make me want to keep DMing:
1) During the setup to one of the encounters, I was really laying on the dread and horror aspect of the scenario. It apparently was good enough that when my doorbell rang (pizza!) one of the PCs nearly jumped out of his skin. THAT felt good.
2) Different encounter, same session. This was a hag, sort of a pseudo-boss before the party could get into the Vampire’s lair. She attempted to placate the party and decided to make a deal with a warlock PC. She’d tell them the secret to kill the vampire, and in exchange the warlock would give her all the info he knows about his patron. The debate was going back and forth, with me obviously egging him on, until he finally made up his mind. He looked me dead in the eyes, said a cheesy one-liner (I wish I remembered what it was) and rolled an attack against the hag. It was such a tense moment that every single person, myself included, leaned out of their chairs to watch he dice roll.
Those two examples of people just purely getting LOST in the game are what keep me going. It’s absolutely a blast to be able to lead my friends through a story of our own creation.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
I'm a writer, and GMing is a way for me to exercise my storytelling muscles. Besides the worldbuilding, GMing forces me to be more nimble with my storytelling because, even though I may set the stage for an event, I have no idea how the players will respond. And when they do respond, I need to logically think through the consequences of what they've done and shift the story accordingly. I find that sort of challenge very satisfying.
Additionally, when I GM I get to play the type of game that I like the best. I actually spend more time as a PC than a GM; most of the year my partner GMs a game, and during the summer months we switch off and I run a game. While I enjoy my partner's games very much, they tend to be very madcap and zany. The games I run are a bit more serious and dramatic. In the same way that eating the same food every day gets boring, playing the same type of game every time would get boring, so I'm glad I have the opportunity to change things up.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Find being a DM just as fun as playing. Though the creative aspect is what draws me in.
Typically I'll draw up a one shot and see where it goes with the players. The story outline has multiple endings and or possibilities to grow into new places and areas. It provides freedom for the players to determine where they go and do even if they skip the main story and that's a lot of fun.
It's challenging being a DM because the majority of what is happening is being made up on the spot. Being able to create and continue a story for players based on their decisions is what makes it fun.
Bonus is that it's the only time I get to use as many different voices for the NPCs as I can. Being a DM I can be more than one character. From honest to secretive or deceptive. From good to evil. From the goblin to the dragon. Plus the world is straight imagination. The caves, towns, cities. The meadow flowing with flowers than change colors as players walk by them to the darkest lair which holds a key to the heavens and anything else. Just pure fun straight outta my and the players heads.
Oh man, all my players are coming over on Friday night. Snacks are ready and we're going to order fish and chips. This feeling is why I DM!
Fish & chips sounds like a winner.
Let's see. I DM games at my house. The cleric usually brings crackers, a big cheese ball, and an assortment of cheeses. The rogue brings unusual beers every time and sometimes some interesting smoked meats. Occasionally, the bard stops off for Mexican food on the way over.
I provide the mead and and then I spend the next four hours trying to kill everyone. :) It's good to be the DM.
I think I enjoy DMing a bit more than I enjoy playing, and I think that's because the role-playing has never been the draw for me; also, I'm not very good at it. (Like John Wayne, I tend to play more or less the same character no matter how hard I try. I end up playing some version of me, which gets old.) The story, setting, and characters are what draw me. As DM, I get to frame the story and see what happens when my players get involved.
I've never used (as DM) a WotC (or TSR) adventure--I have zero interest in DMing someone else's game, which may say something else about me and my reasons for DMing. I guess doing the work is part of the fun for me. And I guess I enjoy creating stories, settings, characters, and adventures to entertain my friends.
In the 80s when I first started playing, I was strictly a player for several years. The DMs (one main DM and another with whom I occasionally got to play) were very good. When college was over and real life began, I missed it. So I started DMing. I guess (in a sense) that's like the "no one else would do it" scenarios above, but what I found was that I enjoyed DMing even more than I had enjoyed playing.
Anyway, I hope that's more or less the kind of thing you wanted to know.
DMing is one of those hobbies that allows you to really dive in and understand how the game works both from a rules perspective and from a practical perspective. I love warping the two together to give my players an arena to play in. I think it allows you to practice a lot of different disciplines as well. Reading different books to give you inspiration, doodling to convey concepts, analyzing movies and TV to give life to your characters. You can do all of that and apply it to your game. Very few hobbies allow you to tie it all together like DMing.
I love writing and telling a story. I love world creation. I love placing toys in places so the PCs can play with them. I love summoning the horde so that the PCs have something through which to wade. I love the roll of the dice and their clack in my dice tray. I love breathing life into NPCs and immersing my group in an adventure. But there is one thing I love more than the rest.
And I can sum it up in one experience from last Saturday.
We take a smoke break every hour or hour and a half. On this particular one, we had no NPC dialogue or anything. It was step outside and just chat for a few minutes. I went inside ahead of the rest to ready a small item or two and I hear my son, my brother and my two best friends outside, all but huzzahing over their victory they had just pulled off. Cheering about the game I had just run for them.
I'm addicted to DND and write stuff in crazy amounts, although I'm relatively new to it. I also like giving other people free reign to use character ideas, homebrew, and have more people to learn the game and possibly DM games that I can play in as well.
Like most people say though, the power is very fun.
I like telling a story, DM'ing to me is being able to tell a story that is in my head and get the feedback necessary for my stories to have an outcome that makes sense. I've tried writing them down, and they feel dull and disheartened but full of background, where in D&D I get to tell them that story and they take me to the backgrounds that need help, and they essentially write my stories for me. That feeling of satisfaction when a party of adventurers is brought from the ground up to determine the successes and failures of the major players in my world is something I rarely get to feel.
I also use the game as a means of stress relief for some trauma that I have received in the past due to some major accidents. Being able to get out of your head and into the head of Jord the Magic-Distrusting Wizard allows me to keep my demons at bay by putting them in another place entirely and having them dealt with or crushed entirely by that band of adventurers saving the kingdom.
Second, I'm, predominantly a GURPS guy, so, I'm more a GM than a DM.
HandofBobb also takes up GMing duties, but our players prefer my games over his. My style is a little more free-flowing and over-the-top, he's a bit more grounded. He's OCD and crafts things meticulously, which usually backfires because he can't plan for everything, I'm a master of improv and it takes someone doing something totally off the wall to catch me off guard for more than a moment. (It happens, and it's usually hilarious, but it's also incredibly rare.)
I enjoy setting up situations and seeing how they unfold with the characters. I have a general idea of how I think things are going to go, but I spend a lot of time being wrong.
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As a kid, one of my favourite things to do was record myself doing various voices. I like to have a chance to bring NPCs to life and see how the players interact with them.
I also love it when everyone is engaged in the story during the session and, when I call it for the evening, we all get to talk about decisions the characters made and how everything is clicking together. I always worry a little bit that people won't have a good time when we play and my only experience of D&D will be watching Oxventures and Critical Role, but those worries vanish the moment we start rolling dice and having fun.
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
Its fun
I started playing D&D in 1980. Stopped playing for a while and came back for 5e. I have been player and DM in many groups.
I DM for two main reasons. First, is that I love to "role play". Taking a piece of paper and some stats then turing that into a living and functional story is fun for me. As a player I will extend that into character development. As a DM I get to do that with the entire world! (How the Gods tremble at my wicked laughter.) I truly loved to run Ravenloft style campaigns as it taught me how to describe so many parts of a world. (Ever scare and cause PC retreat by truly describing every detail of a Lizardman attacking?)
Second reason I DM. I am that A-hole player that actually reads every rule book and memorizes them over time. I usually end up being the DM in a group because I can keep the game flowing by not having to stop and do DM research in a book during play. Yes, this DM does occasionally make a miss on a rule. When this does happen, the current group I play with are quick to correct me. We have agreed that it doesn't change what has been decided at the time but the DM gets a "Gibbs Slap" and corrects play at a later time.
Bonus reason. I enjoy the social aspect of the game. Creating a moral or physical challenge for the PC's to interact with and eventually solve.....or not. I like to support the people behind the PC's by helping them grow as people and players. There have been times when as a group we decide not to play that night but get together because someone has had an issue. At these times, it is more group therapy instead of hack a slash.
SW
Imagine:
A roving herd of chicken wings running to cross a hot sauce stream to take cover in celery forest. The panic being caused by a gaggle of flying geese dropping blue cheese on them. Then attempting to devour the slowest of the herd in a diving attack.
Yes. This is what my mind does all day long. Bwahaha
As a DM I play along with the group.
I have my own PC/NPC.
couple of rules I have.
Always let the group decide what new items my PC/NPC receives. I never lobby or ask for anything.
Always let the group decide what route to take in traveling/dungeoneering. This is obvious but at time my group needs a hint or a push if stuck.
It is pretty much common sense. I have fun playing all the different classes. Trouble is a I forget to use a lot of abilities that the class has but that is what happens when you try to do both DM and play a PC.
This is my situation. Everyone was interested in D&D but I knew nobody else would take the initiative to kick off a game. I like running the game so I made it happen.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
In one of my previous sessions, I had the party going after the big bad (a vampire) and they were going through a spooky haunted area to get to him. Two things happened during the session that make me want to keep DMing:
1) During the setup to one of the encounters, I was really laying on the dread and horror aspect of the scenario. It apparently was good enough that when my doorbell rang (pizza!) one of the PCs nearly jumped out of his skin. THAT felt good.
2) Different encounter, same session. This was a hag, sort of a pseudo-boss before the party could get into the Vampire’s lair. She attempted to placate the party and decided to make a deal with a warlock PC. She’d tell them the secret to kill the vampire, and in exchange the warlock would give her all the info he knows about his patron. The debate was going back and forth, with me obviously egging him on, until he finally made up his mind. He looked me dead in the eyes, said a cheesy one-liner (I wish I remembered what it was) and rolled an attack against the hag. It was such a tense moment that every single person, myself included, leaned out of their chairs to watch he dice roll.
Those two examples of people just purely getting LOST in the game are what keep me going. It’s absolutely a blast to be able to lead my friends through a story of our own creation.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
I'm a writer, and GMing is a way for me to exercise my storytelling muscles. Besides the worldbuilding, GMing forces me to be more nimble with my storytelling because, even though I may set the stage for an event, I have no idea how the players will respond. And when they do respond, I need to logically think through the consequences of what they've done and shift the story accordingly. I find that sort of challenge very satisfying.
Additionally, when I GM I get to play the type of game that I like the best. I actually spend more time as a PC than a GM; most of the year my partner GMs a game, and during the summer months we switch off and I run a game. While I enjoy my partner's games very much, they tend to be very madcap and zany. The games I run are a bit more serious and dramatic. In the same way that eating the same food every day gets boring, playing the same type of game every time would get boring, so I'm glad I have the opportunity to change things up.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Find being a DM just as fun as playing. Though the creative aspect is what draws me in.
Typically I'll draw up a one shot and see where it goes with the players. The story outline has multiple endings and or possibilities to grow into new places and areas. It provides freedom for the players to determine where they go and do even if they skip the main story and that's a lot of fun.
It's challenging being a DM because the majority of what is happening is being made up on the spot. Being able to create and continue a story for players based on their decisions is what makes it fun.
Bonus is that it's the only time I get to use as many different voices for the NPCs as I can. Being a DM I can be more than one character. From honest to secretive or deceptive. From good to evil. From the goblin to the dragon. Plus the world is straight imagination. The caves, towns, cities. The meadow flowing with flowers than change colors as players walk by them to the darkest lair which holds a key to the heavens and anything else. Just pure fun straight outta my and the players heads.
Oh man, all my players are coming over on Friday night. Snacks are ready and we're going to order fish and chips. This feeling is why I DM!
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
Fish & chips sounds like a winner.
Let's see. I DM games at my house. The cleric usually brings crackers, a big cheese ball, and an assortment of cheeses. The rogue brings unusual beers every time and sometimes some interesting smoked meats. Occasionally, the bard stops off for Mexican food on the way over.
I provide the mead and and then I spend the next four hours trying to kill everyone. :) It's good to be the DM.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I think I enjoy DMing a bit more than I enjoy playing, and I think that's because the role-playing has never been the draw for me; also, I'm not very good at it. (Like John Wayne, I tend to play more or less the same character no matter how hard I try. I end up playing some version of me, which gets old.) The story, setting, and characters are what draw me. As DM, I get to frame the story and see what happens when my players get involved.
I've never used (as DM) a WotC (or TSR) adventure--I have zero interest in DMing someone else's game, which may say something else about me and my reasons for DMing. I guess doing the work is part of the fun for me. And I guess I enjoy creating stories, settings, characters, and adventures to entertain my friends.
In the 80s when I first started playing, I was strictly a player for several years. The DMs (one main DM and another with whom I occasionally got to play) were very good. When college was over and real life began, I missed it. So I started DMing. I guess (in a sense) that's like the "no one else would do it" scenarios above, but what I found was that I enjoyed DMing even more than I had enjoyed playing.
Anyway, I hope that's more or less the kind of thing you wanted to know.
Recently returned to D&D after 20+ years.
Unapologetic.
DMing is one of those hobbies that allows you to really dive in and understand how the game works both from a rules perspective and from a practical perspective. I love warping the two together to give my players an arena to play in. I think it allows you to practice a lot of different disciplines as well. Reading different books to give you inspiration, doodling to convey concepts, analyzing movies and TV to give life to your characters. You can do all of that and apply it to your game. Very few hobbies allow you to tie it all together like DMing.
I love writing and telling a story. I love world creation. I love placing toys in places so the PCs can play with them. I love summoning the horde so that the PCs have something through which to wade. I love the roll of the dice and their clack in my dice tray. I love breathing life into NPCs and immersing my group in an adventure. But there is one thing I love more than the rest.
And I can sum it up in one experience from last Saturday.
We take a smoke break every hour or hour and a half. On this particular one, we had no NPC dialogue or anything. It was step outside and just chat for a few minutes. I went inside ahead of the rest to ready a small item or two and I hear my son, my brother and my two best friends outside, all but huzzahing over their victory they had just pulled off. Cheering about the game I had just run for them.
That makes it worth it.
Thank you.
ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
I DM because of a few reasons.
I'm addicted to DND and write stuff in crazy amounts, although I'm relatively new to it. I also like giving other people free reign to use character ideas, homebrew, and have more people to learn the game and possibly DM games that I can play in as well.
Like most people say though, the power is very fun.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
I like telling a story, DM'ing to me is being able to tell a story that is in my head and get the feedback necessary for my stories to have an outcome that makes sense. I've tried writing them down, and they feel dull and disheartened but full of background, where in D&D I get to tell them that story and they take me to the backgrounds that need help, and they essentially write my stories for me. That feeling of satisfaction when a party of adventurers is brought from the ground up to determine the successes and failures of the major players in my world is something I rarely get to feel.
I also use the game as a means of stress relief for some trauma that I have received in the past due to some major accidents. Being able to get out of your head and into the head of Jord the Magic-Distrusting Wizard allows me to keep my demons at bay by putting them in another place entirely and having them dealt with or crushed entirely by that band of adventurers saving the kingdom.
Let's have some fun shall we?
To defeat my ancient nemesis BOREDOM
also cus i like to make crazy stories and to see my players rip said stories apart tooth and limb
also also because i like to break the rules and flex my stupid logic, i cant do that as a player
Cant forget to mention that feeling you get when the party complements the dm, it always makes my day
First and foremost, this.
Second, I'm, predominantly a GURPS guy, so, I'm more a GM than a DM.
HandofBobb also takes up GMing duties, but our players prefer my games over his. My style is a little more free-flowing and over-the-top, he's a bit more grounded. He's OCD and crafts things meticulously, which usually backfires because he can't plan for everything, I'm a master of improv and it takes someone doing something totally off the wall to catch me off guard for more than a moment. (It happens, and it's usually hilarious, but it's also incredibly rare.)
I enjoy setting up situations and seeing how they unfold with the characters. I have a general idea of how I think things are going to go, but I spend a lot of time being wrong.