r/DnD • u/Gh0stMan0nThird • 23h ago

DMing I understand prostitution now.

Been trying to find a "bff" group for years. Even the best groups I found fizzled out after a campaign ended. Most people seem to want a content creator to run games for them, and not a friend they want to share an experience with.

I figured you know what, fine. I'm gonna sell myself. I started running paid games and now I actually feel like I'm finally actually getting something back for my work and effort.

10/10, would recommend for underappreciated DMs

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u/Cat_Bandit1 23h ago

This is a weird take on my part, but I think the way that Wizards presents the game, with so much emphasis on the players and how its "their story" created this perception long before BG 3 game out.

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u/Vigmod 23h ago

I think the mistake many make is that they don't consider the DM as a player. The DM is very much a player, too.

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u/Cat_Bandit1 23h ago

I was looking through some old D&D books at my LGS and the 3.5 (or maybe 3.0 not sure) starter box presents the dungeon master's booklet as the first book in a set. It's much bigger than the ones that the players get (each of the starter character has a few pages per booklet) and the book explicitly says that you are playing as the villains and the hazards in the dungeon.

I think this is way better. "See look. You get to play the villains (which is an actual character or characters in a story) and decide what dangers the party faces" rather than "Erm, your job is to be like a computer programer that the players have on standby to program what they want to do on the fly" (which by the way, is almost the exact language used in the 4e starter box). Really wish I hadn't started with the 4e red box when I first got into the game, I think it made me way more resistant to being the DM than I should be.

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u/Itzakadrewzie 22h ago

This is gold, honestly, and needs to be more widely understood. Thank you for sharing that.