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How did you guys get into game mastering? Did you pick the short straw of your friend group or did you want to run the game? Do you only game master or do you get to play sometimes as well? I'm mostly a game master, but sometimes I get to be a player, I think I like running games more than I do playing, too much the control freak, I guess.
Welcome :)
I mostly DM, but not not exclusively. IMO it's important to spend some of my game time playing too. I started D&D in 3rd grade. I'm sure I was DMing by 4th. Don't know how or why, I think it was just that we all wanted to try our ideas. Maybe the teacher who got us started encouraged us to rotate DMing, don't remember. To me its not about control, but rather creativity and finding a way to give fun and surprising game play to the players. After ~40 years I gave up a desire to control the outcome a long time ago.
My introduction to RPGs was with Cyberpunk by R. Talsorian Games. A friend of mine, just showed up with this crazy cool book, that let you make characters capable of doing impossible things. I had never heard of TTRPGs until this, but I was only in my early teenage years. The thought of making "heroes" to fight the good fight, was all it took to get me hooked. I never actually ran Cyberpunk as a DM, that didn't happen until the release of Cyberpunk 2020. Now, I'm excited to see the official release of Cyberpunk Red, and really hoping to see it come here to FG for play.
A little while later, a different friend was talking about playing TTRPGs after school. He wouldn't mention the name of it right away, just said that I really needed to try it out(satanic panic). A group of us "band geeks" all showed up at is house and we made characters for 2nd edition D&D. We played second edition until we graduated, then the group fell apart. I have actively been running and playing in every edition since.
Then there was Vampire: the Masquerade. The mechanics were simple enough, and the storyteller system was a neat change. I always had a hard time finding players/groups for this one though. For some reason, most people are wary of playing a vampire game, likely for fear of being bitten. LOL.
Now, I tend to run more games than I actually get to play in, as a youth I played way more. I enjoy the crafting of a story, just as much as I enjoy experiencing it as a player.
I was the person who had all the books, so I kind of defaulted to being the DM. I really liked the story telling aspect of it, even when I was still just 10 years old... captivating.
I was introduced to D&D 3.5 while in college. Played in a campaign which I had to leave after my work schedule changed and I was unable to play anymore. Went looking for other ways to play games that fit my random college work schedule (1 fulltime job, 1 part time job, and fulltime classes). Found FG and was able to get into several games here. I became a GM after playing in several games and decided to try my hand at running a game (and at the time there was an even greater lack of GMs). That was over 10 years ago and I haven't looked back since. Granted my first few attempts here shite, but I learned a lot and met a bunch of people in this community I still game with today. While I am currently on a break from being a GM, I am already planning my return behind the screen and am actively looking forward to it.
I began DMing in the early days. Mostly because it was the best way to get a game together. I recently got to be a player for the first time in 30 years. I had forgotten how much fun it is to really dive into the personality of a single character.
One of my brothers introduced me to D & D back in the 80s, i believe i was around 9 or maybe 10 years ild.
From there i joined my brother and his friends playing games like GURPS, Twilight 2000, Car wars, there was a Spell jammer game in there too but i remember within 2 months that game ended but can not remember why.
At anyrate i eventually separated from my brothers friends and my own friends from school wanted to play. I was the default DM since i knew more about the game than most and i had the books by then.
I found i enjoyed the role of being DM more than player, and that holds true today.
I still jump in a game from time to time as a player, but i think I'm at least a decent DM where as a player im "mediocre".
I quit playing for nearly 30 years...from the mid 90s only rejoining the hobby in 2018 with dnd 5e and fantasy grounds.
Now im fully back , i really like 5e quite a lot.
Started playing in 1979 when I was 9 years old. I had trouble reading in school but really wanted to learn how to play. I struggled reading the PHB and DMG, but made it through. Was the first of my friends to get all the necessary books so I became DM by default. I love DMing and if I could only DM or play, I'd choose DMing every time. However, my ideal state would be DM one game and play in another (Just don't have the time to do both). I branched out and played many great role-playing games throughout the 80's. MERP, Role-Master, GURPS, Traveler, all the TSR clasics (Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Star Frontiers), ST:RPG, RIFTS, etc, etc, etc. As a fan of history, I also gained a great love for wargaming and owned almost every Avalon Hill wargame...A company I really miss today.
I was introduced to D&D by my older brother when I was about 14 back in the 1980s. I played all through high school and university, and continued for a couple years after university, but then moved away from my gaming group, and eventually came to Japan. I really, really missed it though. I hadn't played since 1995 or so, but last year, because of covid, a guy in my area started organizing groups and I got back into it.
I love playing, but I also love being a GM. Right now, I just play D&D, but back in the old days, I plays a LOT of games: gurps, merps, champions, cyberpunk, mechwarrior, and a bunch of others. D&D will always be my favorite, though.
I started as a player, and about halfway through my DM's two-year campaign he made it clear that he did not want to always run the game. So I volunteered to run the next campaign, and another player in our group is running a campaign after I'm done sometime in 2022 at the pace we're currently going at.