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CrimsonShade
2008-02-29, 12:20 AM
I've been the Dungeon Master of my group's Eberron setting for going on a few months now, and I've gotten bored of doing it. I know there's a lot of creative potential in being a DM, and I like the prospect of being able to create scenarios for players to go through, while still giving them the freedom to choose their path. I need some inspiration though, to get my apathetic butt to work. So, I pose to you a question: What do you like most about being DM?

evisiron
2008-02-29, 12:42 AM
Knowing that the players are enjoying themselves in a setting I created. :smallsmile:

Also, seeing a player doing something really creative without it being stupid).

Dark Knight Renee
2008-02-29, 12:45 AM
... Having a game at all. :smallfrown: When I'm not completely burnt-out, anyways.

Drascin
2008-02-29, 01:31 AM
The feeling of ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER!

...Nah, just kidding. Mainly, the fact that I get to weave stories and watch people react and add to them. The fact that it is the only way I can have any hope of gaming at all also helps... I don't even remember what's like to be a player, and I'm not sure I could go back to non-fudging zone.

Squash Monster
2008-02-29, 02:16 AM
Excuse to make lots of character builds.

That's pretty much it.

Krimm_Blackleaf
2008-02-29, 02:30 AM
World building. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38868)

Rutee
2008-02-29, 02:47 AM
Free reign to include references. Also giving out Exp. for amusing me sufficiently (I've had my players do relevant alliteration. "An Assassin Aide?" "Perhaps a Battle Butler.." in alphabetical order. I offerred them exp if they could get to Z.)

Maxymiuk
2008-02-29, 02:53 AM
All of the above, more or less.

Most of all, having a player tell me "I hate you. I hate you and I will personally hunt you down and kill you in your sleep. Can't wait for next week's game."

its_all_ogre
2008-02-29, 03:47 AM
the look on my dwarf fighter players face when he was stuck in a grease spell for most of weds session!
and the barbarian and sorc/rogue who got glitterdusted in same fight!

Charity
2008-02-29, 04:48 AM
What is best about being a DM?

To crush your players, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women...

yeah as if my players have women. kidding lads kidding.

Ziren
2008-02-29, 05:28 AM
Watching my players making stupid errors without my nonexisting character being affected by them. An example (not D&D):

The players sneak into a heavily guarded junkyard to rescue a hostage and are pretty efficient at that. As they switch of the electricity, the bad guys send one of them to repair the generator. My players decide to kill that guy so they won't have to deal with him later on. Then again, they had to make sure the thug would go down before he could scream for help, which would most likely reslult in the execution of the hostage. I was actually surprised on how good they thought this through, until one of them noted, that a grenade would surely kill that guy in one shot... And none of the other players objected him.

Caewil
2008-02-29, 05:36 AM
To murder them without using build cheese but through the application of ingenious tactics.

Pronounceable
2008-02-29, 06:38 AM
To listen on their plans (backup plans and backup backup plans) to overcome the next obstacle, the upcoming battle, the final puzzle. And then crushing them all in one fell stroke.

And worldbuilding.

Saph
2008-02-29, 07:24 AM
Knowing that the game isn't going to get cancelled . . .

Honestly, I prefer to play, but capable DMs are always in short supply, and I have to take my turn. (Three more sessions on my current campaign, and I can go back to being a player, yay!)

- Saph

Mr. Friendly
2008-02-29, 07:33 AM
***don't say killing PCs***
***don't say killing PCs***
***don't say killing PCs***
***don't say killing PCs***

Killing....P......Cs?

:smallbiggrin:

Real answer: Ensuring my players have a fun and challenging time.

clockwork warrior
2008-02-29, 07:36 AM
the disappointment mostly.....

i do enjoy world building, even if i wasn't the dm i think i would still be doing that. unfortunitly only a few of the other players can muster up the gumption to take the reigns every once in a while.

also, watching how simple tactics confound the players, and watching them act insanely paranoid and confused brings a smile to my face

Theli
2008-02-29, 07:45 AM
I DM so that I can be involved in exactly the kind of game I want to be.

Now if only I could find a DM that could run that way for me as a player...

its_all_ogre
2008-02-29, 08:49 AM
players being unable to see the obvious is a good one.
how do they know we killed the guard outside?
because you're carrying his armour? and covered in blood?
erm....
they're now making liberal use of create water, my fave spell at level zero, after every fight.

Danzaver
2008-02-29, 09:05 AM
Several things.

- Running all the characters (except the PCs obviously) in the world and holding all the cards. Whenever I play as a PC, I never /Ever/ stick with one character for very long. I just don't like being tied down to one persona.

- Having everything fall together perfectly and dramatically. This is a BIG one. A perfect ending with a perfect twist is a thing of beauty, and a joy to deliver.

- Feeling special, important and appreciated for my talents, and clever for being able to pull it off. Oh, and being the centre of attention. >.>;

- Fooling everybody. This also ties into the last two points. :P

- Amazing myself week after week that I am actually doing this, and apparently quite well.

Actually, I have for years wished I could clone myself, and DM me. I've DMed for so long, and played only a handful of times in the last decade. But even so, DMing has given me more joy than playing did.

SilentNight
2008-02-29, 09:51 AM
Excuse to make lots of character builds.

That's pretty much it.

Yeah, me too. I also enjoy the scenario and story concepting. The sad part is that most of those truly awesome and devilish NPCs will never see the light of day.

valadil
2008-02-29, 09:58 AM
I like entertaining people.
I like coming up with things those people have never seen before.
I like improvising when people react in ways I never could have predicted.

Most importantly I like weaving threads of a story together. Characters in my games have backstories. If I've done my homework as GM, plothooks from those stories get integrated into game. Maybe not as the main thread, but they'll be involved. Being able to link characters as I tie those threads together is incredibly satisfying to me. I think of myself as a creative person. It's very easy for me to add more plot to the game. That makes the game big and unwieldy. Linking plots together requires the same kind of creativity, but it shrinks the game and makes the story that much tighter so that everything fits together. I'd rather have a tightly woven story than 4 simultaneous but unrelated stories.

banjo1985
2008-02-29, 10:37 AM
- Definitely world building.

- Being able to tell a story, with th eplayers adding and directing it with their actions.

- Some epic fights and scenes, and seeing players gasp at a cunning twist.

- As someone else has said, you're not trying hard enough if at least one player hasn't declared they hate you at some point during the session :smallbiggrin:

- It means we're not stuck playing the drivel one of our other regular DM's comes up with.

Yeril
2008-02-29, 10:41 AM
Kobolds :smallamused:

Saithis Bladewing
2008-02-29, 10:52 AM
The players reactions and thoughts to my setting and the situation before them, and when they give me hugs and compliment me at the end of the game. I quite like the last bit. ^_^

Name_Here
2008-02-29, 11:00 AM
The insanity of it all. You watch for 30 minutes as your players carefully plan no less than 3 scenarios for storming a building that has a couple lower level enemies who were unprepared for an assualt and wouldn't have bothered to booby trap the place because... well they live there and then a couple sessions marching blindly into the BBEG's fortress like they own the place, never checking for traps and not even bothering to ask a merchant how many men the guy even has.

The fact that they spent more time planning out the fight than actually fighting it only to turn around and walk into a killzone of traps and murder holes amuses me to no end.

TempusCCK
2008-02-29, 11:26 AM
Telling people that I'm a Dungeon Master.

Running a successful campaign where everyone contributes meaningfully and has a hell of a alot of fun.

Messing with my powergamer players by putting them in weird social situations, IE: Have a friend named William, also named his character William, won an archery contest, and was therefore referred to as Bill the Archerman. William hates the name Bill, so whenever anyone calls him Bill he goes "IT'S NOT BILL!" to which, everyone in the game responsed to, without flaw "Oh, you're just being modest!" Drove him crazy.

Being forced to run a session with my friends with only a single sentence of what I might want to do with the night and turning it into a full fledged adventure. Therefore calling myself a storytelling stud for the rest of time.

Xefas
2008-02-29, 11:50 AM
... Having a game at all.

This.

Quite simply, if I wasn't the DM, there would be no game. I really wish I could be a regular player, but out of the nigh-decade I've been playing D&D, the number of sessions that I've been a player in can be counted on one hand, and all of them were non-contiguous.

Basically, if I tell my players "Well, I'm tired of DMing. Unless one of you wants to run a game..." they all just pack their stuff and leave without hesitation. Not a single one is willing to try, and when I blackmail one into doing it, they intentionally make the game horrible for everyone so they won't be asked to do it again.

But, a close second would be the whole group happiness thing. They say I'm a good DM, and they have fun, so it's still a good experience in the end.

Indon
2008-02-29, 12:01 PM
The joy of seeing the characters in my game interact with NPC's, seeing them break and ruin all that I've made only for me to joyfully construct the consequences.

And,

For massive joke fodder. We have so many inside jokes from my campaign...

strayth
2008-02-29, 12:04 PM
I like DMing the moments that make the players get chills, or excited, or genuinely scared for their characters. It's also fun seeing how creative they can be - not all the creativity is on the shoulders of the DM.

Also I like going "the goblin dies and his hand falls on the other goblin's butt" sometimes just to get a chuckle. :smallredface:

Jayngfet
2008-02-29, 03:58 PM
building things, whole worlds, dungeons, ways to get around the rules with a piece of rope(no one can count a dwarf's speed when he's zipping down a zipline ending 500 feet away across a narrow chasam).

and then there's the knowledge that you could be considered a god unto a world shaped by your own hands.

Da King
2008-02-29, 04:50 PM
Laughing maniacally behind my DM screen as the players are brutally murdered by kobolds.
*sniff. My little monsters have all grown up.*
Just kidding. The best parts are the world building and running the game.