You studied the RPG books. You recruited the players. You started a New Game. Every week (or weeks or month) you get everyone together and run them through a world you control! … What if you don’t like it? What do you do when you find yourself running a TTRPG game you don’t enjoy?

The DM is a player, too. If you’re not having fun, there’s no game. We’d never recommend trudging through a campaign you hate just for the players or your pride. Your time’s too valuable. For the game to go on, you must get it back to a point where you enjoy running it. How do you that?

In this episode, hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave make sure their games stay fun — for their players and themselves. Along the way, we’ll talk about how we lean into the things we enjoy and cut the things we don’t, even when those things may seem essential to the game. Plus, we’ll go deeper into DMPCs and how they can be one way for unhappy DMs to reconnect with the fun of the game (and how to keep them from overshadowing your players).

1:00 A new DM who isn’t having fun in Icewind Dale

3:00 DMPCs: Do they make the game more fun for the DM or are they just one more thing to manage?

6:00 What do you do when you start a new game as the DM and it’s not fun for you?

8:00 DM know thyself: What specific parts of DMing do you actually enjoy?

11:00 Don’t be afraid to pull a “Princess Bride” and run your own “good parts” version of the module

16:00 Never listen to what anyone online says you’re doing wrong

19:00 “Your DMPC should be like Gandalf”

22:00 How to make DM prep work more reasonable and more fun

27:00 Run the kind of campaign you’d enjoy reading/watching/playing in

31:00 RPG environment and the limits of survival-focused settings for super-heroic D&D characters

34:00 Encounter difficulty and how the feel of fights should change as you go up in level

40:00 How do you fix a game you don’t like DMing?

43:00 Stop doing the things that make you miserable and find your own DMing style

47:00 Are you playing any NPCs you enjoy being?

50:00 Are you playing with players you enjoy DMing?

55:00 Final thoughts