Literally Run Whatever You Want
It was a year after I started playing D&D that I realized I wasn’t going to get to play as much as I wanted. This is a common experience for people who discover the game and love it; we’ve found a hobby completely reliant on several other people being involved to really experience it. It can be so limiting and disappointing. This was the main reason I decided to start DMing; purely selfish, purely a love of playing D&D. This proved to be a massive success for me.
DMs never have trouble finding players. Although this isn’t strictly true, it’s certainly much easier to convince people to come play in a game you’re running than to convince someone to take up the work of prepping and orchestrating a game. At any time, I usually have a main group a friends who play in my game regularly, and then a handful of people who would be happy to play in a random one-off adventure if I needed them. In addition to that, I have gone on free classified sites like Kijiji to ask strangers to allow me to run a game for them. When that didn’t work, I turned to friends and family who have never tried the game, but can be convinced. I once ran a 6 months D&D campaign for kids at my local library. The point is, DMs can find players. Do you know why that is? Because players need you.
When I was first breaking into DMing, I was at school and heard the song “Home of the Blues” by Johnny Cash. I was inspired to try creating a dungeon based on what was in the song, as if a bard had provided this tale as a clue to a lost place. It felt a little silly at the time, but I was curious to see how well I could make it fit. I wrote up a backstory, intro, and planned out most of the dungeon within an hour break between classes. The very same night I had drafted this (which would be my first real, complete dungeon), two friends called to ask me to run a game for them. I was nervous, so I told them I’d think about it. They called back 5 minutes later and told me they had decided that, yes, I was going to run a game for them that night. They were very good friends.
Though I agreed, I gave them an important stipulation right off the bat. “You have to play whatever I want to run, and you can’t think it’s too silly.” They agreed instantly. This situation would be played out for me in a similar manner over the next decade; DMs are in demand. People want to play this game that requires someone with experience and creativity to run it. You can run whatever you want. You can deviate from the written setting. You can pull features/characters/plot lines from movies and books you love and just run those. If you are ever nervous about running a game for people, let me reassure you, you have nothing to fear. Players need you, and anyone who agrees to play will be lucky they get to play anything at all. Use this knowledge to feel at ease, and to feel free to explore and grow. Admit your nervousness to your players, and jump into whatever comes to mind. Any player would be lucky to get to play in a game driven and inspired by your own passion and creativity.
