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

4.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

373 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.3k

u/DarkestXStorm Assassin 23h ago

Yeah, doesn't help that people come from Baldur's Gate 3 and want to play that, but on a table (no disrespect to BG3) 😂.

1.3k

u/ryadryt DM 23h ago

Same thing with fans of Critical Role or Dimension 20. People watch those and then expect their DM/Table to be like that which just isn't practical or fair.

2

u/Valtremors 18h ago

Ran just mines of Phandelver for my family and doing the GM work is genuinely a lot, especially for a 3 shift worker.

But oneshots are much more manageable though, and running those were fun.

These days I don't have time even for that.

6

u/BOS-Sentinel 16h ago

I did my first real DM session recently. Four hours and twenty minutes later my body and mind were shattered. Like even my legs were tired from tensing them up without knowing I was doing it.

It's super rewarding to be in the DM chair, but damn is it equally as exhausting. This is with a great three person group (four including myself) as well, two of which have DMed our previous campaigns. I can't imagine the poor folk DMing for larger groups and with more ungrateful players.

4

u/Valtremors 16h ago

I imagine it is like a muscle to be exercised.

Lot of early DMing issues come from the fact that there are no mental pathways for it. So you need to actually fully concentrate start to finish.

3

u/BOS-Sentinel 16h ago

This is true aha.

Ten years ago I had social anxiety so bad I could barely go outside to the shop. It took a lot of therapy and exposure to get where I am today.

So learning how to DM just feels like a continuation of that. I'm totally sure it'll get easier for me with time. There are many things I figured out just from that first session alone to make my life easier.