There is a lot of D&D advice out there about making sure your players are having fun. And rightly so. As a Dungeon Master, you are responsible for creating the world, presenting the challenges, playing the monsters and NPCs, adjudicating the rules and keeping the adventure moving. You spend hours preparing encounters, designing maps, reading adventures and thinking about what your players might do next. So naturally, you want your players to enjoy themselves. But there is a question that doesn’t get asked quite as often:
Are you having fun?
Because the DM is playing D&D too. You just happen to have considerably more hit points, several hundred NPCs and an alarming number of voices to keep track of.
The DM isn’t the entertainment committee
There is sometimes an assumption that the DM’s job is to provide entertainment for everyone else. But that isn’t really how D&D works. Rather, D&D is collaborative storytelling, with a strong emphasis on collaborative. Everyone at the table contributes to creating the game, and the DM is one of those people.
Of course the DM should absolutely care about what the players enjoy. Their characters, choices and experiences are a huge part of what makes the game work. But the DM’s enjoyment matters too.
In fact, I would argue that it matters enormously. Because if the person running the game isn’t enjoying themselves, it becomes increasingly difficult to create a fun game for everyone else.
You are allowed to enjoy your own adventure
I get a huge amount of joy from being the DM, it might actually be the part of D&D that I enjoy the most. There’s nothing quite like creating situations and then watching the players completely misunderstand them, or introducing an NPC you’ve been waiting three sessions to reveal. It’s so satisfying to see your players pull together to overcome the terrifying monsters and obstacles that you’ve thrown in their path.
You get to play the villain and create the ridiculous shopkeeper with a completely unnecessary accent. And often, you get to sit there silently thinking:
“They have absolutely no idea what’s coming.”
That is fun, and we shouldn’t be afraid to admit it.
The DM is not a neutral game engine
There is also a temptation to think that a good DM should be completely neutral. The players decide what they do while the world reacts. Rolling the dice decides the outcome. The DM simply facilitates the process.
There is some truth in this. Players need genuine agency. Their decisions should matter, and the DM shouldn’t simply force the story toward a predetermined outcome. But being a DM isn’t the same as operating a complicated random-number generator.
You are allowed to have ideas, to be excited about an encounter and enjoy the villain you have created. Putting in an encounter because you think it will be cool is part of the job. The trick is making sure that your enjoyment doesn’t come at the expense of everyone else’s.
DM fun and player fun aren’t opposites
This is perhaps the most important point. The DM having fun doesn’t mean the players have less fun. Usually the opposite is true. A DM who is excited about the game is infectious. You can hear it in their voice and feel the energy when they introduce an NPC or reveal a monster. That enthusiasm spreads around the table.
I’ve played games where the DM is clearly having an absolute blast. They aren’t necessarily running a perfect adventure and the encounters might not be perfectly balanced. Even when the plot wandered off into a swamp somewhere everyone was having a blast and that’s what people remember.
Give yourself something to look forward to
One of the easiest ways to increase your DM fun is to deliberately include things that you enjoy. Love tactical combat? Create an interesting battlefield. Enjoy roleplaying? Introduce an NPC you can’t wait to play. Like creating puzzles? Put one in the adventure.
You don’t have to build the entire adventure around your personal interests. But there should be something in there that makes you think: “I really want to see how this goes.” That little spark can make preparation feel much less like homework.
Follow your curiosity
A simple way approach DMing is simply to ask: “What would be fun?” Not just for the players, but for you as well. Following your own curiosity can be an incredibly powerful DMing tool. Instead of trying to control the story, you become interested in discovering it alongside the players. You don’t need to know exactly what happens, instead be curious about what might happen.
The best tables have shared ownership
Ultimately, D&D works best when nobody feels solely responsible for making the game fun. The DM isn’t responsible for entertaining the players and the players aren’t responsible for entertaining the DM. Everyone contributes.
Players bring characters, ideas, jokes, decisions and unexpected solutions. The DM brings the world, the challenges, the characters, the consequences and the occasional gelatinous cube. Together, they create something none of them could have created individually. That’s the magic of the game and it means the DM deserves a seat at the table in more ways than one.
So, DM, are you having fun?
The next time you finish a session, don’t just ask your players: “Did you enjoy that?” Ask yourself the same question. If the answer is yes, fantastic. If the answer is no, don’t automatically assume you need to become a better DM. Instead think about what you didn’t enjoy. Maybe you need less preparation or a different type of adventure. Perhaps you need more combat, or less combat, or an NPC that you get a kick out of playing. It could even be time to hand the DM screen to someone else for a while and enjoy being a player.
Because D&D shouldn’t be a performance where one person works so everyone else can have fun. The DM is part of the game and your enjoyment matters.
So build the adventure you want to run. Create the villain you’re excited to play. Put the ridiculous monster on the table. Laugh when the players completely derail your carefully prepared plot. And when they do something you never expected, don’t think: “That’s not what was supposed to happen.” Instead think: “Oh, this could be fun.” Then roll the dice and see what happens.