DnD in a Dungeon Master Crisis? Game Master Shortage is Not New

Does D&D have a Dungeon Master crisis? There’s been some talk about whether Dungeons & Dragons 5e has enough DMs for everyone who wants to play.

The Hell Gate article It’s Not Just You: NYC Has a Serious Dungeon Master Shortage seems to have kicked off much of the discussion. Questing Beast responded with a video, which sparked a massive Reddit thread.

Before I get into whether I think D&D has a DM shortage, I want to take a closer look at one paragraph from the Hell Gate article.

What is the Dungeon Master’s Job?

Here’s a long quote from the article:

“Playing the role of Dungeon Master can be a rewarding job but it is sometimes thankless, and always taxing. D&D can be overwhelming to any new player; this is especially true for a DM, who needs to know all the rules, adjudicate them, create or manage the story, plan logistics for their group, and cater the experience to what each player wants. The amount of effort involved makes it inaccessible for new players and difficult for experienced ones to sustain long-term.”

Let’s break this down point by point:

• Needs to know all the rules — This is false. Dungeon Masters should never be expected to know all the rules. Some rules? Sure, but very few rules are needed to run a game. Plus, players should be expected to learn the rules about how their characters work.
• Adjudicate [the rules] — The Dungeon Master does have to make calls regarding the rules. There is no getting around this. However, this does not have to be difficult. In many cases, common-sense rulings can be made even without knowing the rules.
• Create or manage the story — This is false. The DM does not bear the weight of creating and managing the story alone. The DM should think of situations to throw the player characters into, and then the players build the story through their actions. No grand plots are needed for excellent games of D&D.
• Plan logistics for their group — No, just no. This does not fall on the Dungeon Master alone. Other adult human beings should help plan session times, be willing to host, provide snacks, or learn basic VTT functions.
• Cater the experience to what each player wants — Wow, here we go. Yes, the session should reflect what the players want, but it should also reflect what the DM wants. Players should “cater” as much as the DM does.

That’s my quick breakdown of the article. I go into more detail about the role of the game master in The No-Prep Gamemaster, Second Edition.

Here’s the point I want to make. We can make running D&D sound like a colossal task. But you can run a good session without putting a ton of pressure on yourself. And when someone else wants to try their hand at DMing, we can give them that same room to learn.

The Game Master Shortage is Not New

Game masters and dungeon masters have always been in short supply. In the early ’80s, finding a DM was hard. By the ’90s, it felt nearly impossible.

I became a “forever GM” pretty quickly. It took the surge in D&D’s popularity after 5e came out for me to finally get regular time on the other side of the screen.

According to figures from Wizards of the Coast, more than 50 million people have played Dungeons & Dragons at least once. With that many people trying the game, I’d expect more people to be running it, too. The question is whether the number of DMs has kept pace with the number of people who want to play.

One glance at Roll20’s game marketplace gives you a sense of how much has changed. You can find D&D games at almost any hour, sometimes with as little as 15 minutes’ notice. Could you have done that in 1984, 1994, 2004, or even 2014?

D&D Will Die Without Dungeon Masters

Will there always be more people who want to play a character than people who want to run the game? Probably. The hobby has lived with that imbalance for decades.

What worries me is what we tell people who might give DMing a shot. If we tell them the whole game rests on their shoulders and the job is so demanding they’d have to get paid to do it, why would they ever want to try?

Anyone Can Be the DM

If you want to play D&D, you can run a fun session even if you’ve never played before. All you need to get started as a Dungeon Master is a little imagination and a willingness to be fair to your players.

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