Forever DM

Is being a Forever DM just a meme? Honestly the majority of my group wants to DM, and is waiting their turn, or in my case, looking for a second group to DM in the meantime.

Yes and no. Sometimes my group is in the same boat, but we've had a campaign going for about 4 months and since we've sunk hundreds of hours into it, we only want to do that campaign.

It really just depends how much investment the GM has. Taking turns works for one shots, but not often for longer campaigns in my opinion.

I've been dming for my group since 2011. During that time, I managed to get one guy to run a single session to give me a break

I've always DM'd because no one else wants to learn all the nuances or fucking read a book.

Almost everyone will try DMing once. If they don't burn out after two or three adventures that would be legitimately surprising.

Depends on your group. No one else in my playgroup has organizational skills or likes storytelling/world building/coming up with scenarios and characters, so it generally falls to me. We've tried to have other people GM but it almost always falls apart. My friend has tried to run several things but always winds up flaking out and leaving everyone hanging while he "just gets things together" for months on end, and now my GF is taking a shot at it but comes to me for help so often and for so much I've basically done most of the work for the campaign. I'm not sure how well she's gonna do actually GMing since she apparently hates coming up with stuff on the fly

It can happen.
I used to be a forever DM because I had a lot of ideas, a lot of free time, consumed more exotic media and nobody else wanted to DM.

These days, I'd rather be a player, because none of these are true anymore. But instead, I DM to avoid having to play under some of the guys in our regular group.

Me and a bud trade places every other campaign to get GM. He's the more calculated planed out type and I am the more on the spot + what ever fever dream, daydream delusions and drunken idiocies I remember and place into the campaign. So generally I host a campaign until he gets and idea and when he's is done we switch.

Though we had someone else even more slap dash than me DM once and it went OK.

Its my birthday Friday and all i want is to be a player for 1 session

Yes. When my group started we all did a DM for adventures (which were mostly prebaked noob adventures where we improvised) they the rest of the group decided I was the best DM. The problem is the pressure makes me spend a lot of time preparing which makes others like my campaigns even more since I usually have everything planned out to allow for them going off rails.

Heck no OP.

Many people out there are too cowardly to bother stepping up to DMing. Or continue after maybe one or two attempts. Thus the one that is able to do it, gets shoe-horned into.

Many of the "Memes" on Veeky Forums are sadly not as exaggerated as one would like.

I wish it was a meme.
Sometimes I pretend I'm a player when no one else is around. I make a character, maybe even fudge a roll or two because the "DM" would never know. I make my party, mostly busty elves or sultry tieflings. We go on quests, during the dark nights in the desert we have to huddle close for warmth. My survival checks the only thing keeping us going. My spells and/or martial prowess repels all would be race-mixing Orc scum. I save the world, win the girl(s), and my ego is stroked.

I'm always the hero in these fantasies, because I'm always the villain in the real game...

People are lazy. Being a GM takes a lot more work than being a player. Even people who think they want to GM have to actually get around to planning shit, and in my experience, people's mouths are usually bigger than their stomachs. It's not that I've never found other people to GM games, but there have certainly been dry spells, and it doesn't surprise me in the least that other people have found themselves stuck in that position. Personally, I love GMing, or at least I do in theory. So I'd be happy to GM most of the time (though I'd still like to be able to get in a little player time), if only all the people I game with hadn't turned into jaded assholes who lost that spark of enthusiasm that made GMing for them fun.

>It really just depends how much investment the GM has.
Initial experiences are critical for the sustainability of a GM. That Guys are annoying for players, but for new GMs they can be downright destructive and completely destroy any motivation to continue GMing.

The truth

I'm Forever DM because I can't stand not being DM. Or at least I haven't encountered a DM I've liked.

Also I'm not saying I'm good, I'm just saying I can't not DM.

>one of the players in my group steps up to DM
>we're all friends in the group
>we do his game and my game on different days, but I still finally get to play after a lifetime of forever DM
>Do one session
>the exact following week two of my players, one of them the DM of the other game, get into an argument over something really stupid
>something really stupid in my game that was meant to just be for fun (they had to decide on a design for a magical invention and the number of legs involved caused ragequitting)
>now both of our games are ruined because we don't have enough players.

It's all suffering

Used to be forever GM until I finally taught my players it's not that scary and can actually be fun. Now we rotate after doing about 6-10 session campaigns.

No, but it's anecdotal and usually what happens after everyone has had a turn at DMing. Once everyone in your group has had three shots at it? That's when you settle in to forever DM, if you were good at it and prepared, and everyone else was either lazy, sucked, or caused drama.

The second you switch groups? It starts over.

The forever-DM is just the one of us who works hard at it, likes it, and everyone else follows the easiest path by letting do it.

PS: everything I just said is anecdotal, too. And it's based on my own well-colored recollections.

Oh, it's real. I've played about 4 sessions with my group, and DM'd probably over 50 by this point.
See, my players like to THINK they're going to DM, and then none of them ever do it. They enjoy building characters and talking about the world and discussing ideas, but none of them ever actually see them through. And if they do, it's for 2 weeks, or it's being GM'd by the one guy who can't actually speak for toffee and runs the game where there was a genuine 30 minute plot development about a guy wanting apples in a game where we were supposed to be protecting someone from an assassination, because wtf is tone or pacing.

A forever DM is just the one person who actually gets shit done and does it competently - usually, but not always, this co-incides with being the person who has the most free time or consumes different media to everyone else. They're not everywhere, they might not even be common - but they're certainly real.

People who are forever DMs are just power hunger railroaders who can't stand the idea of not being 100% in controll of their shitty story.

>Is being a Forever DM just a meme?
In the case of my group it is merely a meme. Each member has a game they wish to run and for a while we rotated GMs weekly (we only meet once a week). It was nice but since October of last year we have been taking monthly turns which has allowed for larger stories. Pity my month (December) was a clusterfuck due to the holidays, finals, and a few other things.

Feel free to change things up when it comes to GM duties user as you and your group may find a particular time frame that fits what everyone wants.

Forgot to mention we all run different systems and as such the group has become fairly well rounded with our options. The current rotation is D&D 5e, Savage Worlds, Dark Heresy, and a homebrew d6 dicepool system.

It is not a meme; for I am the forever GM.

If I stopped GMing, no-one in our group would play again, I don't think.

I'm a forever GM, but I like GMing, so it doesn't matter. In case of most of my players they're mostly like"Yeah, I would love to GM one day!", but are too fucking lazy to even read the rulebooks or prepare themselves accordingly, so it's not gonna happen.

this, but I have one player who has read the rulebook and has tried to GM but all of his NPCs have the same personality and when it comes to making up rulings on the fly he is absolute crap, he usually forgets them just as he needs them ("roll perception for dismemberment" was a long running joke for a while)

I've been DMing for my group (and 2 others rarely) since 2004... (and my brother and one of his friends before that), and have gotten to play as a PC 2 times since then. One for a single session (led into them wanting to try 5e and my DMing), the other for 2 sessions (ended right after because the players were asses and wouldn't stay to help the DM clean up).

No, not a meme

>player says he wants to give GMing a shot
>let him
>he draws a city map and makes a list of factions
>does no prep work between sessions
>can't improvise at all or even come up with a name for an NPC on the fly
>campaign falls apart and ends
I have GMed for so long that I basically have no choice but be a Forever GM or die on the inside at the job being done poorly or outright wrong

Man, your group has some long sessions. Even if you're going weekly that's still at least 6 hours every week. Your GM has some serious stamina, I already start feeling drained if my sessions go on longer than 4 hours...

Not him, but "hundreds of hours" was probably used figuratively user

I'm always kinda anal about expressions like that, if I mean less than 100 I always go for "dozens of hours" instead. I probably shouldn't expect other people to do so though, you're right.

I'm the only one in my group who is a) willing, and b) capable. I have six players, and none of them, literally and factually none, would do a good job of it. It's a combination of laziness, lack of interest, lack of quick-thinking abilities and ability to adapt, lack of vocal eloquence and lack of confidence.

I'm happy to DM because I'm confident I do it well, but it does take a fuckton of time, and I don't think they appreciate it. I'd like to be a player sometimes, but in my current group it will never, ever ever happen.

Weakling. I DM'ed a 12 hour one-shot with randos once.

Death House, man, what a long-ass intro game that is.

It's not a meme. I lived this reality for a while until I convinced one of my friends to try it. Even though he still DMs for my group every now and then, I still DM for the vast majority of sessions.
Not that I mind too much.

>not being helpful or giving him guidance
>not allowing him to learn at all
You only have yourself to blame

One of my players is forever DM. I can tell he needs a break because when one of my other players would ask me a question in the early sessions, he'd answer it without even thinking about it.

At first it was kinda disenheartening because I'm the GM but now it's just sorta convenient. They ask him everything and I can listen in on any rules I'm fuzzy or sketchy about.

He spends a lot of time second guessing me though. Especially since I like to abandon rules in favor of entertainment and making the players feel awesome.

Are you me?

Me and my group never really played with people who knew a lot about dnd and we alwaysjust winged it with me as GM. we usually play 8-10 hours a session, 1 a week. I'm the only one who can build an 8 hour campaign in a week so I've been pinned as forever GM. but there is some small hope; my group is finally showing interest in GMing and one of them did a one shot where i got to play a character. session was a lot of fun.

Try giving him a module to GM? If he really enjoys the world building part, which it sounds like, maybe he could make for decent GM given some training and help.

I am the Forever DM of my fourteen year old group, have been since its inception, and none of us would have it any other way.

Numerals acknowledged.

Why do you DM a group of 14 year olds?