To all hesitant maybe DMs: what’s your reward?

I knew our Dungeon Master was leaving the country in August but I didn’t jump at the chance to fill his shoes, at least not initially. I wasn’t excited or convinced I’d have fun. The DM does more work than the players so what’s the reward?

I had DMed in middle school, high school, and briefly in college. I’d say I had fun one of those times – in college I ran a campaign that lasted not too long but who can remember that far back anyway?

In that campaign the players started off as followers (you know how in old AD&D a level 9 guy could build a keep and attract followers and some of those could be “special” if you rolled 99 or 00 on a d100 or something?).

But the guy they were following was an evil asshole and they were good or neutral. Some fun orders that they didn’t want to follow ensued and I don’t remember how the campaign ended – probably fell a apart before there was any real conclusion but I remember revealing the secret to my friend Brett who said it was a fun, awesome idea.

So what’s the payoff for being a DM? For me it’s remembering that time 12 years or so ago when I and the players had fun figuring out a cool plotline.

So I am DMing again because I have another cool plot idea. This time it will be harder to tell who the good guys and bad guys are – well some bad guys are obvious but players will have major decisions to make that influence who rules where. It should be fun for all, including me.

So to all hesitant DMs:

Do you have a fun story? One you think is so fun that it’s worth putting in some extra time to make sure it gets told? If so, be the DM. If not, stick to playing.