Not really! I love being a DM. But then unlike my two friends I wasn’t the regular DM weekly for 12 years. So there’s that.

For forever DMs out there. Do you ever get to play?

Do you take regular breaks?

How does DMing work for you?

And thanks. I see you.

🙏❤️

  • Thebazilly@pathfinder.socialEnglish
    39·
    2 years ago

    Don’t tell my friends, but I actually like GMing more than playing now. It’s fun to have the galaxy-brain “always on” feeling and multitask information. (And it’s always your turn in combat!)

      • Thebazilly@pathfinder.socialEnglish
        14·
        2 years ago

        Practice makes perfect!

        I’d say the most important thing is knowing who your NPCs are and what they want. That’s what you should prepare outside of sessions. Once you have that, it’s a lot easier to deal with players throwing curveballs.

        A constrained scope helps as well. Give the group a prompt like “make characters who want revenge on the Lich Queen” or “make characters who care about the city of Korvosa.”

      • Dee@lemmings.world
        9·
        2 years ago

        Use a different, simpler system.

        DnD and PF are on the crunchier side of the spectrum for ttrpgs, as much as I love PF2. There are tons of great systems you can learn all the rules to in a matter of minutes and run awesome campaigns in without all the crunch. Personally, I love the crunch but it’s not for everyone so you shouldn’t force it if it’s not for you. Simple doesn’t mean dumb either, a great example is the newer system Shadowdark. Dungeon Crawl Classics is another solid choice, there are a bunch of others though. Like the indie system The Electrum Archive or TEA. The rules are free, simple, but engaging (with inspiration from Morrowind and Dune so bonus points from me).

        Don’t confine yourself!

    • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
      2·
      2 years ago

      I get that, but then I also love that sense of figuring out a creative solution to some social interaction or encounter. I only ever played once, but man I had a blast.

  • Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.ca
    8·
    2 years ago

    My group’s had a pretty good thing going for 6ish years now. 3 out of the 6 if us all love DMing, and so we rotate beween new campaigns every couple years and all of us get a chance to play. We actually have 2 going on right now, and I’m a player in both. My last campaign ended in 2021 and I’ll be taking over for one of the campaigns in a couple months

  • ZenSmoke420@ttrpg.network
    7·
    2 years ago

    This is why my group has like four different games going. I run one, and three of the others also run their own. I get to play twice a week and run a game every other week.

  • Sunspot@beehaw.orgEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    I’m the forever GM, but my players also insist I play a PC in the party, so I kinda still get to play. I think they know otherwise I’d never be a player. LOL

  • Squirrel@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    I just wish I had the creativity, ability to improvise, and dedication necessary to DM. It’s the fact that I’m lacking in all three that keeps me out of that position.

  • Tyrannosauralisk@kbin.social
    3·
    2 years ago

    Forever DM since DnD 3.0. I averaged roughly one played session per two years. Until when I transitioned to PF2 I got 2 sessions of beginner box and 2 sessions of AP run by a volunteer. It was greatly appreciated and helped a lot with the transition.

    RE DMing, I phase it in and out. Its mostly a winter thing for me - too many good-weather-dependent hobbies in summer complicate scheduling so things need to wrap up in spring. I’m preparing to start back up in a month or two, probably every-other-weekly roughly September to April/May-ish.

    Also, Baldurs Gate 3. It’s so good (it makes me wish for a PF2 ruleset adaption mod, but even under 5e-ish rules it’s great).

    • Nepalman230@ttrpg.networkOPEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Hello! Thanks so much for sharing this. Please, can you speak more about Baldur’s Gate 3? How did the classes play? And is there environmental interaction like the studios other games?

      Thanks again!

  • Eagle0600@yiffit.netEnglish
    3·
    2 years ago

    Yuuup. Hey, look at this cool We Be Goblins adventure Paizo did for Free RPG Day. Why don’t I run that? What’s this? An adventure hook in the back of it for one of their Adventure Paths? Sure, I’ll run that. Skip to five years later and I’m half-way through running another Adventure Path and I’ve done several other shorter adventures besides.

    That said, I’m not the only member of our group that GMs, just the most reliable.