GMing experience

I never use modules, and I think anybody beyond their first time using them is a poor GM. 99 times out of 100 they are poorly written and not worth playing. The only thing a module affords is lower liability on the part of new GMs.

About four and a half years of experience with TTRPGs. I've played in 4e, 5e, Rougetrader, Pathfinder (though only for high level one offs), Eclipse Phase, Edge of the Empire, and Cyberpunk 2020. My DMing experience is a bit lacking though. I co-DMed a 4e game that lasted a semester and was the main writer for it, the other DM handled most of the mechanics stuff. After that I DMed a 5e game that lasted about two semesters

3 years DMimg
3 campaigns. The first one was that unfinished fanmade Fire Emblem Tabletop RPG floating around the internet. the next two campaigns were 5e D&D.

I got to play for the last year, but I put together a "mini-campaign"(more like a handful of one-shots with a loose connection to eachother) that I DM whenever the regular DM has to work on gamenight.

Only 6 campaigns so far. Couldn't say how long consecutively.

I've been playing RPGs since kindergarten, so I've got a total of about 23 years of experience as a Player and Gm.

I usually buy modules, see if there is interesting treasure or NPCs to steal.

If I find an interesting NPC I usually check if the NPC is set up as an interesting encounter in the book. If its not "This guy/thing is in this room with some other guys/things" and actually an interesting encounter I might modify it to fit my campaign and steal it.

Ran three sessions ever, since I only got into the hobby last year. First was Everyone is John, second was The Witch Is Dead (we didn't finish it, but it was great), third was the beginning of LMOP. I'm looking forward to doing the Redbrand hideout with my group, but they've all been extra busy with life. So I might get internet friends to try the adventure in the meantime.

>Aventures
Oh hey, I still need to check this out.

Started DMing five years ago, had a 4e campaign last four years from then. I've DMed in three other systems beyond dnd, and have had several mini campaigns

>20 years
>Countless campaigns
>dozens of systems from scratch
>players: innumerable

Get on my level.

what about you?

played for about 10 years, started GMing recently, 2 sessions of Call of Cthulhu ran from modules, going to run mutants and masterminds in about a month, currently making the world.

Four years of GMing experience in Pathfinder, mostly in a homebrew world that has seen a few campaigns.

Been DMing 5e sporadically for a bit over two years.

My circle of players is about a dozen, depending on the campaign.

Please, teach me

Let's see now. Coming on 7 years now myself. I'm currently working on a system as a pet project, but I generally prefer making detailed settings with their own companion rulesets.
I've run a half dozen games or so, most of which last for over a year, with a smattering of oneshots in between.

I really enjoy reading and running different games (where most of the oneshots come from), and am currently infatuated with the one role engine. I've had several successful convention games under my belt as well.

I make mistakes and learn from them, which is only aided by my core group being comprised entirely of gms.

I read a fuck ton of them and mill them for ideas. I will also run oneshots based on published content, but a lot of the fun of gming for me comes from world building. I don't think I'd ever be able to put passion into running a prewritten campaign.

I've been GMing since 2010, so 7 years. I'm running my 21st campaign right now.

A few dozen players, but five or so frequent ones, one who has been in every game.

I've GMed DnD 3.5 (1 time), Savage Worlds (6), New World of Darkness (3), Scion (.5), FATE (5.5), Star Wars EotE (1), Barbarians of Lemuria (2), Lasers and Feelings (1) and two systems of my own design. First was pretty bad, second was pretty good.

I would say I've had five campaigns I would consider largely failures, seven, including the current, I thought went very well, and nine that were okay.

I consider myself pretty good at being a GM. I've only ever played with one other who I thought was as good or better than I was, but that isn't a huge sampling of the talent out there.

played some AD&D in the late 90s, played a lot of AD&D videogames in the mid 90s, Dmed since the release of 3.0, lost count of # of campaigns, at one point in 2010 it was about 25hours a week of game time when I was dm, plus playing in 2 other 12 hour a week campaigns, played or run a few dozen different systems at this point, have a book shelf I peg cost me about 15k over that time period, a lot of homebrew and system overhauls, but never gotten the motivation to finish a "from scratch " system. Started a few, lost interest, but I still have the files if I ever change my mind.

4 years active (did some one shots and shit prior, but never took it serious).

Handful of month-long games, longest game lasted three years. One player/PC was there for it all. Pretty crazy shit.

In several year I had 3.5 failed campaigns. Maybe I'll be lucky with the current one.

Post your homebrew systems, boys.

Still in my first year as a DM, currently running 2 campaigns of Iron Claw in a homebrew setting. Getting close to the end of one of them. 13 players between the two, all of them consistent save for two or three. Currently working on a West Marches variant setting to bring in more players and roll the two playgroups into one.

Well for me ( ) it was a piece of garbage percentile system made by a middle schooler to imitate his favorite JRPG (pic related.) It was basically HOT GARBAGE.

Been with my circle of online friends for like 5 or 6 years now. About 15 or so of us, they come and go sometimes since it's really just a semi-private chatroom. I've run a bunch of games and played in a few more, but only three or four have gone anywhere.

DM ing since 2015
3 d&d 5E campaigns
1 cocv7

And right now gonna figure out a JJBA (original as hell realy) one and a warhammer fantasy one.

Ive posted two of them on Veeky Forums before and nobody cared for them. Id rather just keep the other three to myself.

A bit over two years. I ran 11 games, made one setting so far and homebrewed a magic system onto our current game. I have three regulars, but the most we usually have is like five people.

I've ran 5e, FFG Star Wars, Mutants and Masterminds, Dark Heresy, Only War, and Song of Swords.
I own WHFRP 2e, D&D 3.5 and 4e, Shadowrun 4 and 5, VtM, Deathwatch, and Call of Cthulhu, but haven't decided to run those systems yet.

GM since 2002
DND 3.5 to start, moving into gurps.
I've hand built every campaign setting I've run, excluding one or two set in Eberron (run in both 3.5 then gurps). I've had at least fifty different settings and campaigns over the years, and a hundred players among them.

Once you get a generic ruleset mastered, you are only limited by your dreams.

you can read kraut?

Around 8~9 years of experience of GMing a Kingdom Hearts RPG on the internet. 9 different "Sagas"/plotlines.

Freeform but with rules for character building and a homebrewed status system for comparisons*

I ran a game with some friends when I was seventeen. Three of my players were siblings and would bicker all of the time. Haven't GM'd since.

Oh god, a SaGa Frontier system would be clunky as hell.

>4 different races each with their own unique character advancement rules
>multiversal setting that has a kitchen sink of everything
>fucking Kamen Riders
>martial arts that are learned in a skill tree mid-combat

here. The only hombrew I ever actually ran was a dogshit fanasy heartbreaker for Warhammer Fantasy, and another for Warhammer 40k. I was like 15, definately don't wanna post *that*, though at least it created some funny memories, and got me started on actual RPGs.

Other than that, made a fairly complete modern day/post apoc system that I lost on a hard drive wipe and eventually just ended up turning into a Dark Heresy conversion. Also another one which is really just a setting & space for me to try out random ideas for mechanics (with the core mechanic having been D20 roll under, dice pool, tarot-card, and MTG-style card combat all at various points). Did a lot of setting fluff, never actually run a game with it, since I'd always get distracted before the game got to playtesting.

Playing since ~2005 (started on D&D 3.0). I'll just list the played systems, since we tended to do multiple campaigns on one system at a time.

>3.X (player)
>AD&D 1e (or was it Palladium? Player)
>Call of Cthulhu (3e? Player/GM)
>Shadowrun 3e (GM/player)
>Trailblazer (player)
>Homebrew card-based system (GM)
>Shadowrun 4e (player)
>Paranoia XP (GM/player)
>AD&D 2e (player/DM)
>Dread (player)
>D&D 4e (DM)
>Dungeon World (player)
>Final Fantasy d20 (player)
>Vampire: the Masquerade (Revised, player)
>Shadowrun 5e (player)
>FATE Core (player/GM)
>D&D 5e (DM/player)
As well as multiple one-offs, Fiasco games, and too many failures to launch to count (like Traveller, etc.)

My longest ongoing campaigns have been in AD&D 2e and D&D 5e--there's two 5e campaigns I'm in, one of which I run, and they're both been going for close to two years or longer now. The AD&D campaign(s) went to three?

The core group is six people counting myself (we started in '08 and established the core in 2011 or so), with a B-team of people poking in and out at about 3-4 strong.

>1 year of planning and speculation
>"players" keep putting it off
I have finally given up on them and decided to just start via Roll20.

About 20 years, lost count of how many games and adventures I've run, over ~14 or so systems. Currently building my own from scratch.

>4 systems from a GM with only 8 years of experience
Thanks for the laugh user. Are to share your material?

>are to share
God I hate phones.

*care to share

My bet is at least 3 of those are rules lite or even one page "systems". Hell. Maybe even all of them. No way is he talking about some book worthy affair.

6 years
0 campaigns that ever went anywhere
probably like 20 one shots/failed campaign starts
general frustration
a couple half assed systems made that I never got to test
not a single player who I ever really vibed with among a pool of probably 30 people
I am the problem

To crush your player characters.
See their character sheets ripped before you.
And to hear the lamentations of the Players.

Been DMing on-and-off since 2011. I've run 6 adventures with varying degrees of completion (adventures last between 2 to 9 sessions). I've only ran D&D 4e and 5e thus far. I tried getting the group to try out Shadowrun change things up, but no one is willing to deviate from D&D.

The group hasn't changed much since 2013 and I'm generally considered "the best" DM out of the three people that sat behind the screen (which is flattering, but we're all kind of garbage at it---in our own ways). I'm a much better player than a DM.

Currently, I'm preparing to begin my 7th adventure. I'm working on a Dark Sun 5e conversion (utilizing a lot of fan-made material already and what I have from 4e), and the following adventure will be a Mass Effect adventure in 5e as well (would work better with a new system, but the players don't want to learn anything new). I am trying to keep these adventures fast-paced and short since I get burned out and/or bored when the adventure drags (my pacing is terrible).

Played a spotty campaign three years ago that's still technically ongoing, but we met months apart and had 9 regular players. It was a total mess. Currently I'm two months into GMing my first campaign, and I'm always looking for feedback and tips from either here, other places online and most importantly, my players. I'm a total scrub! Thankfully everyone's having lots of fun, and I got my first official PK last week. Not truly christened until that delicious firsts TPK though.

2-3 years since I've started playing, 2 since I've started GMing, 3 campaigns under my belt, but only one is significant in any way whatsover

12 years, 6 campaigns, 0 systems from scratch, no current game.

Started DMing 1st edition in 1984, also ran 2nd and 3rd Edition, longest campaign to 14th level.
Dropped out before 3.5 edition, came back after moving to a new town and have been running 5th edition campaign regularly for the last 2 years.

Have also ran multi-year campaigns of Champions, helped organize multiple yearlong Blood Bowl tournaments, Gorka Morka, Warhammer, and played in countless short term campaigns of everything from Chill to Shadowrun.

With a local group of players with stable and compatible work schedules, I plan to run this Nehwon 5e campaign to around 20th level, probably ending it in 2-3 years from now.

DMing and GMing since 1978.

Now get off my lawn before I turn the hose on you!

My first GM experience is in an hour.

God have mercy.

It's going to be ok user. Your players are nice people r-right? and they'll understand. They'll come back for your second game. And they'll probably enjoy this one too despite your mistakes. (If they notice your mistakes at all.)

I got through 3 sessions of ACKs. The previous ForeverGM, who I had expected to be a pillar of support and guidance, threw game-ending tantrums every session the moment anything went wrong for him (i.e. got KO'd, failed to negotiate a discount, got a poor reaction roll, etc). They literally didn't make it into the main dungeon because the ForeverGM was spooked by the idea that there were two kobold guards who might call their friends, when the previous session they had been down a man yet demolished about two dozen kobolds without taking a scratch. Sometimes I think back and wonder if he was crashing the game on purpose.

I made a few follies, like overemphasizing how poor and unknown the players were supposed to be at the start of the game. I wanted that to serve as a baseline, so that they could return to town as conquering heroes laden with beastman heads and treasure and feel like badasses, but they just kind of got discouraged. I also sold the system as way more lethal than it actually was with the houserules in place, so the players were more cautious than anyone wanted them to be. I was also a nervous wreck veering between stammering out descriptions and playing NPCs who were absolutely repulsive douchebags who couldn't care much for the players. I don't consider myself a very socially adept person and entertaining people is not my strong suit.

I've washed my hands of it since then. Maybe another chance will come, maybe not. Either way I'm loving being a player again and I'm spared a lot of time and stress that accompanied GMing.

>7 years, 4 systems from scratch,
Alright. And they were all considered garbage probably except by you- the person wearing the rose tinted glasses.

19 soon 20 years of experience. Batting an average of DMing 1 campaign and playing in another game once a year maybe a little less. So we'll ball park it at 17 and 18.
Played more systems that I can count, not including one ofs at conventions and such.

Carefully cultivated the perfect group (for me) of players/DMs, that I've stolen away from other group. Have many more that would join my games at the drop of some rule books (but I secretly think they are trash).

Wrote a system, ran a short 4e one-on-one that I gave up on when the player no longer had any interest in doing anything of consequence, tried to get campaigns going in a variety of other systems, but I have no friends and no motivation so those haven't really gotten anywhere.

Been DM'ing 5e for a little over a year now for a group of 4 newbies; been really enjoying myself. I started them off with Lost Mines of Phandelver so we could all learn together, then at the end of it I offered them up the chance to make new characters at level 5, continuing the world from there.

Anybody else run off the starter kit? I'm curious to hear what directions other DMs took the world in after everyone hits level 5 and Nezznar is out of the picture.

For me, Nezznar the Black Spider was now part of a dastardly-bastardly group called "The Beasts of the Ashes", who are a bunch of egotistical mastermind assholes bitter about what happened to the societies living in Neverwinter Woods after the Orc war 100 years ago. (Long story.) BBEG is a Lich that they're trying to resurrect. The magic focus in Wave Echo Cave is one of several magical focuses that they plan to offer as tribute to resurrect their Lich buddy.

Miraculously no one has died, and they handle shit so creatively that I just throw dragons and iron golems and shit at them and don't even break a sweat. I just ran the "Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" from Yawning Portal as a fun side thing for them, and a few hickups aside, they did really well. They're all around level 8, and it was recommended for level 5's, but it's still an ass kicker regardless. They flat out skipped a lot of rooms just trying to get out of there.

When someone's missing from the group, we run a one off adventure as "The Alleycats", who are this ragtag group of vigilantes that live in Waterdeep. They do Robin Hood ass "fight the man" kind of shit. The fun catch, is we have 8 established Alleycats, but the players play a different one every one off, even though they made one of them. They roll a d8 at the start of every one off to see who they play this time.

My coworker got his friends interested in D&D, and now I'm going to be running a campaign for them too. Very fun.

Mistakes were made(don't fuck with electric ovens) but everyone seemed to have fun fighting a very angry Santa!

Thanks for the support user, made my day.

5-7 years
1.5 campaign
working on a campaign setting
new group is 2 newbies in their early 20's

rough times

GMed off and on for the past three years, mostly on play by post.

Six months ago I started monthly GMing. And then my weekly game's DM dropped off the face of the earth after handing me his notes.

...It's not great but it has it's perks.