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.
Since you have experience DMing games for different ages than yours (or I expect that’s the case since you talk of birthdays and after school programs), what would be your advice to lead a game with kids that you think it’s different from just a bunch of friends playing specially if they are old enough that no theme is out of bounds.
Like I mention in some other comment, I want to start a game and DM both my kids and my wife using the Adventure Time RPG books based on 5E. My biggest issue is that both kids are quite far apart in age, 4 and 8 and I’m inexperienced being a DM so handling both and making the game fun for all feels like a daunting experience. So as an extra question, have you ever been the DM of a game where players had meaningful difference in age?