LogFAQs > #964198292

lihlih posted...

When I wanted to move onto DMing, I did a one-off campaign just to get my feet wet before devoting to a full game.
You can always try doing something like that to get a feel for it before committing to DMing a full game.

On top of that, there are a ton of really flexible game systems out there that you can use to build your own one-shots without having to really dig in to the more complex mechanics of DnD. For that matter, there are plenty of GM-less or GM-lite systems where you could get things rolling with a couple of prompts and then just join the game yourself as it sustains itself, so you get the experience of participating in a TTRPG and can build on that to support DMing more formally. So long as you can find a few friends to play with, it doesn't take much to get off the ground.

Personally, I've had good experience with Risus as a flexible system for homebrew one-shots (my first time ever GMing in any capacity, I slapped together a campaign that kept us occupied for a couple hours less than an hour before we were starting, and my group has done a few more games with it), and we had a good time playing Everyone is John as a GM-less option (bonus points where one of our players sketched out everything we did for added hilarity). They won't be as DnD-ish as DnD or other, more robust TTRPG's, but you can still have a good time if you've got a good group that's genuinely interested in having fun with each other.