[Theori]

I'll preface this by saying I have personally run a total of two events. I'm not master DM, nor do my thoughts on this come from a place of understanding exactly what its like to be a regular DM. However, with the recent -at least percieved- shortage of DMs, I feel like its a good time to make these suggestions and encourage this conversation.

Events are important. There are a lot of things you can do in E3 that doesn't require them, of course, but if you want to make an impressive unique weapon or piece of equipment, get the materials to build a floating lighthouse, or make steps towards big, world-shaking goals that aren't necessarily well suited to only player-on-player interactions, your first port of call is an event. Often, player goals necessitate events, which makes a DM an extremely valuable resource. However, that means that when DMs become scarce, it can negatively effect character arcs. So how do we mitigate that? The answer is.....I don't know. Thats what part A of this is about; answering the question of why DMs are few and far in between as of current. I encourage DMs currently not DMing to give their reasoning; not to judge, but to help us all understand.

Part B is to make some suggestions on how to make DMing easier, and make active DMs more visible. See the suggestions below:

• Make the DM role in the Discord freely assignable/unassignable. By that, I mean set up a channel with reactions that assign/remove the DM role (I've seen a fair few discord servers do it, I know its possible). This way, active DMs can be visible in the discord, and DMs who aren't currently running events get bothered a little less with messages asking them to run.
  
  
• Write up an actual guide to DMing. The current guide in the Dungeon Master's subforum isn't a guide to DMing, its a guide to how to use DM commands and a couple of blanket Do Nots. Looking at that, the idea of DMing can be daunting. I believe new DMs could be significantly benefited by some more detailed guides on, for example: Balancing ECs, Setting up an event's narrative arc, and Rewards and Punishments (i.e., some example tables of appropriate rewards/punishments for CoI/CoD events).
  
  
• Set up a role for people to volunteer as event ECs. I know I personally am not great at verbing, and I feel like there's the risk of fights feeling too/disappointingly easy because of my lacking skill, and so want to have someone a bit better play a boss. Having an easy way of finding people willing to EC would make this a lot easier. On this note, rewards for ECs, too. Nothing on the scale of DM rewards, of course, but having a tangible reward like x AP, or a 3000 coin loobox for ECing could make it a bit more attractive.
  
  
• More DM Reward Options: Yep, time to suggest the return of DMP from spires. I'd suggest this as a third potential reward for DMing; 1000 ap, a 15000 coin lootbox, or a DMP. DMP could be spent on things like subscriptions, permworks on a character, pet eggs, or other things deemed appropriate rewards by admins.
  

Mind you, these are just a organised version of some stray thoughts, so other suggestions are welcome. With events being as important as they can be, it feels like there needs to be some improvements to the DMing process to encourage people to give it a shot!

[Jumpy]

I feel like the DM role should only be given to people who have more of a handle on DMing rather than just any average joe out there. From my personal experience there are people who definitely should not DM ever, and some who need like 7-8 events to get to a point where they can take on bigger challenges.

That being said, if you have a CoI to run just ask your friends. DMing simple events isn't too overwhelming and there are definitely a lot of people who can give you tips (me) if you're lost.

[CurledSpiral]

A guide to DMing is just a guide to basic narrative framework. Most people just need to realize what the three arc structure is and roll with that.

Like the suggestions though.

[Arrow]

dming is a thankless job.