How did you become a DM?

As an active player in Warhammer, Roleplaying was always there in the back of my mind. I began Warhammer to tell a story, of battles waged in a fantasy setting (who plays the game for strategy anyway... joking...). Even going further back, when I played Final Fantasy on the SNES or even Adventure on the Atari 2600, I was forging grand stories in my mind from (and, as in Adventure, quit literally) dots and squares. Not to mention playing Zork (which is just D&D with a jerk as a DM).
I first decided to jump in when I stumbled across a podcast on their third episode or so (it was the first podcast I listened to). I liked the art for the cover so I started listening. I was hoping it was a Warhammer podcast... but it wasn't. It was called Dungeon Masters Block (what is a Dungeon Master, anyway?). The story times were what drew me in. On this odd little podcast, they were telling stories and talking about adventures I dreamed of building (and sharing) and then went on to give ideas for more "stories", ideas that excited my imagination. And the rest is. History.

My intro to D&D was at a young age (around 8). I found a copy of the Red Box first edition set at a garage sale. I was obsessed with dragons and fantasy art, so I asked my mom to buy it, not even knowing what I was getting into!

This got me starting on my fascination with TTRPGs, but for years I was unable to play much. I participated in a couple games with a friend and his brother, but they moved away. My only other close friends at that time were two (different) brothers who were of the "home schooled christian" set. This was the late '80s and early '90s, so the satanist stigma on D&D was at its peak. They weren't allowed to play with me.

Fast forward a few years to middle school: I tried getting a couple friends into RPGs (by this time I was very into the Palladium RPGs), but I was 13 years old. I had no idea how to GM and nobody to ask. The games didn't last long.

Now we fast forward again, about 20 years. I'm in my 30s, recently in a serious relationship with a wonderful woman who just happened to have two wonderful sons. I had returned to school, and needed a way to blow off steam now and again. I discovered DDO, played that for about a year, but I don't really dig the MMO vibe. Too much min-maxing and gear/XP grinding, not enough narrative.

After graduation, I got a nice day job and work (still) on the side at a restaurant. At some point, I found out that one of my favorite authors, Patrick Rothfuss, played D&D on a podcast. These were the Penny Arcade sessions. Listening to those guys play D&D, hearing how much fun and creativity was happening, rekindled my interest in playing. I made overtures to a few friends, and some of them expressed interest, but none of them had ever played.

So I jumped in to a chaotic group of about 6 players and me, a DM with no idea what I was doing. I tried some pre-written adventures, but I don't love running pre-written content. I find there are too many assumptions regarding player motivations in the stories written for modules. So I went homebrew. That was about 2.5 years ago, and I've never looked back.

My partner keeps expressing wonder at how long our group has held out. She keeps saying that its not going to last; that people will drop out. Little does she know that if I can, I will still be running an TTRPG group when I'm old(er) and gray(er).

Note: To be fair to my partner, she just never got into the gaming world. She digs Yoga, running, personal improvement and energy work; she likes to follow business and finance. She keeps my escapism grounded in reality and has been ridiculously accommodating of my nerdy ways. I don't expect her to jump into the pool with me, instead she reminds me to get out and dry off sometimes.

I was first exposed to D&D at around age 6 (I'm 35 now), but didn't really get to be a regular player til around 14. Got into a group of older kids and a couple adults that met at a gaming store, playing AD&D (2e). After about a year, several of the players left, and the remaining 4 of us switched over to another system, Darkurthe Legends. We also played a few sessions of Vampire and Werewolf from Whitewolf. That lasted another couple years.

Summer of '96, I asked a bunch of my high school friends if they were interested in playing. GMing seemed like it wasn't too hard, as long as you knew the rules, and I knew Darkurthe pretty well at that point, so I stepped into that role willingly. Made some common noob GM mistakes, but everyone had fun, though we stopped when school started again. Next summer we played Werewolf, but people weren't as into it. The other group where I was still a player disbanded in the lead up to high school graduation. Though I still occasionally played for the next 15 years, I didn't do any GMing, and never landed in a consistent group. It wasn't until winter '14 that a coworker mentioned he used to play, and rekindled my interest in GMing. I picked up D&D 4e and found some other players through craigslist, transitioned to 5e that autumn, and have been consistently running games since.

In 1993 after playing 2nd edition for 2 years, I found that D&D was my primary hobby, but 2nd or 3rd place hobby for most others I knew. Since every single book i've read and movie i've seen gives me atleast one idea for an encounter, location or npc, I start compiling ideas into linked events and running them as adventures.

I ran 2nd edition for years, then go into 3rd, 4th and now 5th. Along the way I also ran Palladium RPG, Rolemaster, Shadowrun and Werewolf. They all went okay, but I always come back to D&D. On that note I found players and DMs who tried other games and come back seemed to enjoy things more, they were more willing to deal with concepts and not be rules lawyers.

halfacreoffun I was a DM for an uncommitted group. 2 months was about how long we lasted, too. The thing that really bothered me is that everyone said they were having fun and wanted to do it, but there were just so many excuses for doing other stuff. We got 3 games in over the course of two months before I threw in the towel.

Of course I blamed them for the group falling apart, but reflecting on it, I think it was a matter of unmatched expectations. I don't think I ever explicitly stated my goal of running weekly games, and the rest of my group had more active social lives. In all my previous experiences, table top RPG night was choice #1, not 2 or 3, for all the players.

Even so, it felt like a failure. This was Spring 2014, and 5e was just around the corner. I figured I'd learn that system well, and give it another go with a new group. I earnestly wanted to improve my craft enough that my games became people's choice #1 if it wasn't already. I was cruising the WotC forums when I found a post announcing the launch of DMB. I've been listening since almost the beginning.

I'll never use most of the ideas that get discussed in the episodes, but it's good listening to keep the creative juices flowing. Plus, since the forums here sprang into existence, it's a good place to bounce ideas off each other.

Yea at the beginning of the group I was in everyone agreed that the big weekly D&D night was priority 1 for everyone. Didn't work out that way but that's okay. It lead to something that I hope will be a great experience.