It’s fun, I promise!
I keep saying how easy and fun it is being a Game Master. Today I want to focus on just the fun stuff. Here are three things I absolutely love about being a GM. (*Please note you can substitute “Dungeon Master” or “DM” any place I say GM. It’s all the same title.) I’m going to mostly speak in terms of fantasy games, but a lot of this can be applied to any tabletop roleplaying game.
First, you get to roleplay a lot more than if you were just running one character. Second, you get to flex your creative muscles a ton. Third, you get to help your friends carve an epic path through the world you created. There’s probably food, drinks, and lots of dice rolling as a bonus.
I think playing scores of different characters and monsters is a blast. Yes, pouring depth and meaning into just one character is fun. Having an entire cast of characters on paper and in your head and having conversations with your friends’ characters is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in another game. You can improv a lot with just three lines of descriptions, objectives, and motivations.
I especially love it when my players want to talk to one of my Non Player Characters when we’re outside of the game. They’ll ask me what Matthias would say about something or what Selene would eat. We get into some weird discussions around here. Some of my various characters have become a part of me in a way.
Disclaimer: This is my blog. This is how I see things and how I feel. There is little factual information being presented. If you have issue with anything being presented, please contact me privately on X (Twitter,) Instagram, BlueSky, or by email. Otherwise, there are lots of platforms out there for you to vent your feelings and opinions, too.
Second, you get to infuse an entire universe with your creativity. Even if you’re using a prepackaged adventure, campaign, or setting- it’s still your creation. It’s fun to think that you control every single blade of grass, the oceans, the sky, and the ancient dragon flying through it. Plus you get to come up with everyone and everything the Player Characters meet, hear about, or encounter. It’s akin to reading and writing a book at the same time with my friends. Even the bits you come up with on the fly are your creations.
If you’re pressed for time or maybe you don’t feel like coming up with a whole wide world from scratch, there’s always the hundreds if not thousands of campaign worlds created by other people over the last 50 or so years. (I have an article coming up about “official, canon” worlds for Dungeons & Dragons 5E, but that’s a whole different story.) My point is, if you’re not comfortable creating tons of stuff for a fantasy game, you can still have a blast running it.
One of the things I love about the Third Editions and the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the massive wall of source material created by third parties. You can find worlds, adventures, whole campaigns, towns, cities, dungeons, and maps for everything on the World Wide Interwebs these days. There are prewritten, fully statted out NPCs by the bucket full. There are random tables for literally everything out there. (I make my own d12 tables, but I hear there are other dice.) If you’re not looking to do all the legwork, as long as you read enough to get an idea what’s going on, you can just roleplay NPCs and maybe roll some dice. You can literally have everything from the dragon all the way back to the stable boy handed to you on a silver platter, ready to run for your fantasy game of choice.
Please do what works best for you as a Game Master and your group. What works for me at my table may not work for yours and vice versa. The main focus is to have fun. There is no right or wrong way to roleplay.
Lastly, I have a confession to make. I’m forced to admit that maybe, just maybe there are one or two people out there on social media who don’t want to be a GM. That’s cool, too. Just showing up and being a player is great. I know people enjoy playing fantasy TTRPGs as much as I enjoy running them.
However, being a GM comes with so much joy when your friends’ characters do amazing and sometimes hilarious things. Maybe someone rolls a Crit Fail at just the right moment and everyone bursts out laughing. Maybe the fighter rides his shield down the banister and shoots four goblins on the way down. Maybe someone manages to negotiate a settlement between two warring houses that lasts for over a century. It’s all there and GMs get to see it all and sometimes even nudge things along to make them happen.
Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.
Jeff's Game Box 