It’s kinda crazy for me to think about. Story time! Otherwise just ask me anything :)
Around 11 years ago, I sat in the lounge that the Video Game Club occupies once a month on college campus. I looked over and saw a group of gamers go into one of the meeting rooms attached to the lounge - but instead of laptops or gaming consoles, they had books and dice and paper. I scoffed and thought they were too nerdy and cringey - I then went back to munching Doritos, chugging MtDew, and playing Borderlands/Skyrim/Pokemon for the next 12 hours lol.
Thankfully I was saved from my misguided views. A member of the VGC invited me to try out DnD, his group had an open spot. I was hesitant, but I craved more creativity in games that just couldn’t be supplied. So I decided to try it out.
Ended up not having a great time. One player was entirely checked out for 80% of the time and was a scumbag during the 20% he was engaged. The DM either was very new, or just had some very questionable calls. There were of course some fun moments but not a great impression.
I knew the game had potential. And I knew I could run it better.
So 10yrs ago today, my Players Handbook arrived, which is when I really began my journey to learning the rules, how to make characters, and how to run the game.
I’ve since had a few successfully completed long term games, including one that was over 5 years. I’ve ran a game at a convention, I’ve done some paid birthday parties, in person and online long campaigns, even some very successful afterschool programs while I was a teacher for a few years.
At my peak, I was running 4 games weekly. Since then I’ve slowed down a bit more and focus on two good weekly games.
Willing to share tips or stories for any who ask :) otherwise I just wanted to share this milestone.
When you said officially I imagined you had stumbled your way into becoming an official DM for WotC, running games somewhere in one of their basements, as a job.
As someone who has been a DM for 20+ years, my advice to green ones is that now is the time for you to drop just playing D&D and learn of other pastures, there is a world to explore when it comes to RPGs, or a few. Take a look at some other games/systems, it’ll make you a better DM.
Eventually you get to the point where you’re just writing your own systems and/or mechanics
lol I wish
And personally, every time I have dabbled into other systems it just makes me like 5e more lol
I read over some of your other comments talking about this, and have to say that a Pokemon game is a weird choice. Avoid adaptations of X Popular Thing, and look for original games. It’s in those that there’s stuff to learn from.
You don’t need to agree with every rule from other games, and you don’t even need to change your preferences for 5e. But there’s stuff out there that will serve you as inspiration, and change the way you understand things in the books you’ve read before. Start by looking at games in a similar genre, fantasy, high-fantasy, low-fantasy, swashbuckling, sword & sorcery. You’ll probably find at least one piece of advice or implementation of a rule that will make you understand the hobby/DMing better in every game out there.