First thing's first, I don't actually know if D&D 5e is suffering from a DM shortage, but this topic gets revisited a lot in the YouTube spaces that I frequent. I can't back up this position. I also can't back up if it's just D&D or all TTRPGs.
There is no published ratio of players to GMs, no official report on DM availability, no formal study on how many people want to GM vs play. WotC, Paizo, Chaosium, Mongoose, and Modiphius have never released this kind of data. So the DM shortage is not a documented fact; it's anecdotal.
The closest thing to a real number that we get is Roll20 which shows that 20% - 25% of users ever run a game on their platform. There's also been snippets of interviews from industry professionals saying DMs are the ones primarily purchasing TTRPG products. This implies that data may exist supporting a gap in players to GMs, but it does not indicate a shortage.
But let's suppose it's D&D 5e in particular with a DM shortage and that every other game has just the right number of GMs (yeah right).
Poor DM Support
When is the last time Wizards of the Coast (WotC) released a supplement book for DMs only? That's my first observation. Not a book for monsters, magic items, settings, or adventures, but tools and instructions to teach GMing and to make GMing easier. For that kind of advice and instruction, people go to the internet. Isn't it weird that amateurs on the internet are the ones capitalizing on this, not the industry professionals? You've got The Angry GM who writes a hell of a blog, advice books by independent authors, and not to mention dozens of YouTube channels with a cumulative thousand hours of advice about prepping and running the game. Where is the official DM support? Are you thinking about WotCs' Sage Advice stuff? Pfft.
Where is Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine or a successor magazine?
Where is the Dungeon Masters Guide 2 and 3? The ones that break down the internal math that the D&D 5e designers use and teach it to you? It's not there. It's these internet DMs who figured out and taught that 5e's design aims for easy rolls to have a 60% success rate, and hard rolls to have a 40% success rate. The should have come from the designers.
How about DM guidance for problem players? I don't mean the kind of players who are sometimes blatantly rude or disrespectful, I mean the ones who make broken characters who spoil the tension and challenge in every scene, or goofy characters who spoil the tone? Where are the hot tips for world building, making after-session notes, or fast prep? How do I read an adventure and break it down into manageable chunks for my notes and prep? Where are the combat hacks? What if no one understands or agrees on a rule? Conventional wisdom says make a ruling and move on. Are we assuming everyone knows how?
How about basic instructions on how to use the books? Something like:
- Players Handbook (PHB) is for rules reference
- Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) is for instructions on the rules
The PHB lists the rules and defines them, but the DMG explains how to think about them, how to use them, and when not to. You need both. If you're missing the DMG, the rules of the game feels like instructions on how to play, and you get a really rigid, stiff game that eschews DMing skills and DM authority.
To some people, if the official books don't say something, it might not be the legitimate way to play or understand the game. How I described the Players Book and the DMs book above is fair, but it's not explicit in the books; Therefore, some people will never acknowledge this delineation or benefit from it.
GMs Need Authority and Instruction
Maybe the DMG 2 should give the DM more authority so that players aren't walking over them and their games like a door mat? That section should be called Put the Master in Dungeon Master. Did I say section? Maybe it should be a chapter. Players want to pick a spell but it's too powerful? Tell them "not in my game". Players think they should be able to play whatever fantasy race in the book? "Sorry, that doesn't suit my setting". Broken character build? "I'm lowering your ability scores and HP to balance your character". How about a rule that tells players that if they expect the GM to treat their characters seriously, then players should treat the setting and NPCs seriously? And to have respect for game's tone.
Putting the master in Dungeon Master isn't about arbitrary and capricious rulings by a tyrannical DM. It's about clarity, boundaries, and tone protection. It's about being able to establish the kind of game that you can handle running.
DMs, what do you do when the players don't understand what a rule means and they want to fight over it? How about an explicit No Rules Lawyering rule or No Exploiting Weaknesses in the Rules rule? How about a section on game fouls and what to do about them? What does it mean to be That Guy and what do we do about him when he shows up? How about a section on telling players "no" or "not at my table" or "get out"?
How about a section that advises GMs about pacing themselves to avoid burnout or how to prep your players so that their expectations align with your campaign setting? GURPS has a one-page, fillable campaign form that establishes what kind of game you're running. Why not D&D? Where's the official session zero checklist?
The current DM book might cover some things, how about another book to cover them in more depth? How about a section that teaches adventure structure and setting creation? About improv? About creating and portraying NPCs? How about dungeon and wilderness procedure which is actually seriously lacking in D&D 5e. Break this down for me and show me how it works.
DM instruction is a deep well of content, and they put out one dedicated DM book for the 2014 edition and one dedicated DM book for the 2024 edition. They are sorely lagging behind. It's incredible to me.
How about advice or instruction on different playstyles or modes of play? Like the West Marches style of play which accommodates an open table. We need an essay about not building broken characters or exploiting weaknesses in the rules because accommodating these specific things contribute to the workload for a GM.
How do you handle adversarial players, competitive players, and interpersonal conflict? How do you manage schedules and communication? When do you kick people out? How do you handle spotlight hogs, joke characters in a serious campaign, or rules lawyers derailing a session? How do GMs teach players the written and unwritten rules? The best that the 2014 book did was tell you in a very corporate way to be respectful. With respect, that's not advice, that's corporate CYA. It lets the corporation wash their hands of any colorful scenarios that might emerge by letting them stand on a ground of "we encourage respect". And let's face it, 9 out of 10 adults don't need to be taught about respect.
GMing 5e Isn't Fun
Ultimately, if you want to get people to do something, incentivize them. IF there is a lack of DMs, that means the incentive isn't there. The only incentive you should need is fun. The problem with DMing for 5e is it's very effortful to do, and it's not proportionately rewarding.
5e Attracts Tourists
This is not intended to be an insult. 5e is not a niche game for niche people, it's a massive game that's intended to have as much broad appeal as possible. That means tourists can access it. Tourist means people without discerning taste, genre literacy, foundational knowledge, or realistic expectations. It's a cultural outsider of the hobby with low or casual interest. The is a not commentary about their worth. Not everyone who plays 5e is a tourist, and if you're reading this for fun or if you find this enriching, that's not you. Probably. 5e is generic. It has everything about the fantasy genre without any consideration for identity. Its identity is everything and anything all at once. It asks little of you. It gives tropes and it gives you room to insert your own. That's how you get Big Bird from Sesame Street as a Paladin or a Ninja or a Power Ranger. Or Joe Rogan as a Druid. That's why its generic.
Therefore, it could be that the problem is not the system itself, rather it's the people who are attracted to the system. When you run GURPS or ICRPG, you're running a game that doesn't have as broad reach. GURPS is a game that requires a lot more system understanding and it requires the users to have their own genre conventions because the game offers you hundreds of tiny pieces and asks you to make sense of them. You are expected to make them into something. That requires will, effort, and creativity. It takes time to learn all these pieces and it appeals to people who appreciate an intrinsic reward. People who do this make something special for a small, intimate group of people. That's a sign that the participants are not casuals, noobs, plebs, or tourists. ICRPG has massive appeal but it's too indie and needs to be discovered. It's not your first game, it's a game you graduate to when you're ready move on or when you've outgrown D&D 5e. Like GURPS, it requires creativity. ICRPG also asks you to give up your shiny things. There's less player tools and less safety nets. ICRPG asks you bring your heart, wits, and guts. Tourists are less likely to find it and more likely to bounce off.
Tourists aren't bad, but they need the most onboarding and the most initiation into the hobby culture. They bring their own influences from other hobbies or interests and expect them to mesh. It often clashes instead. No one knows what to expect, and they anticipate too much. No one is prepared for what happens when you mix different friend groups together and find out what they're like when they get a to embody a powerful, evil character and have a beer. That's the kind of situation that 5e creates. These could be people who have only played Dark Souls and seen Marvel movies, or they could be people who love watching Critical Role for the jokes, characters, and story, but who don't really care about the game itself. No one is on the same page. It leads to disappointment.
If you're reading this and you don't think that's a problem, either you're really good at this or you have some really good friends. Or maybe you're really easy going. For others, this is hard to manage.
Managing Expectations
D&D 5e is kitchen-sink fantasy. It's very broad and very generic. Because of this, expectations are a son of a gun to manage. Because D&D can be so many different kinds of games and fantasies, you never really know what you're going to get. Imagine I ask you out to a movie and you ask "what's playing?" I list the movies and ask you, "what are you in the mood for?" We narrow the choices down to one specific, coherent experience based on our tastes and mood. A D&D 5e group is like five people who can't decide on which movie to watch, so they overlap five projectors playing different movies onto one screen.
I've come up with some interesting metaphors to describe D&D 5e before, but I'm really proud of that one.
D&D needs to be something specific. It really does. Why? Because you're not interested everything. You have specific tastes. One of my biggest complaints with 5e is that managing expectations is a massive problem. It's a massively understated problem. Unfulfilled expectations are massively disappointing. I will write ten more essays on this subject specifically before I die. Watch.
No one wants to wake up one morning and realize they've committed to a game and a group they have nothing in common with.
The Likely Cause of a (Supposed) DM Shortage?
It's DM burnout. DM's report exhaustion, prep burden, rules or systems burden, conflicts of expectations, conflicts with personalities, lack of authority, lack of tools, or lack of system clarity.
One of the problems is the asymmetry inherent to the game; one person does all the work, the other four do none.
Every player should take a turn being a DM and they should run their own campaign. This teaches them appreciation for the role. It will enrich them and by extension everyone. Here's a hot take: if you've never run your own campaign, the feedback that you can provide to your DM or fellow players will never be as valued as someone who has. Note that I didn't say valuable, I said valued. If you haven't done it yourself, you don't actually know what it's like and so your opinion hasn't been informed by experience.
DMing is a rite of passage. Every player should be expected to take a turn and DM. No exceptions. Players are consumers. GMs are producers. Being a producer makes you a better consumer. As a thought experiment, I want you to imagine two gaming groups. Both groups are seasoned at TTRPGs. In group one, you have one forever DM and players who have never DMed. In group two, everyone has DMed a campaign. Which group do you want to be a part of? You would rather be in group two because everyone has been a leader, teacher, and a creator. This means some maturation.
Yes, I am suggesting is that players who haven't crossed the DMing threshold are contributing to DM burnout. For anyone keeping score, this is not WotC's fault.
Here's What This All Means
D&D 5e is not for beginner DMs and that's why there could be a shortage. D&D 5e is a mess. It's one hundred games in one. Every game has a hundred variations. There are too many different kinds of players with different tastes, and D&D 5e is trying to appeal to all of them at once. Finding the iteration of D&D 5e that works for you takes trial and error. Now imagine one core rule book set that tries to make that work for groups of five, hundreds and hundreds of times. Now combine that with the task of learning leadership / managerial skills you might not have, and the struggles of having your creative labor scrutinized by people who might not appreciate it on a weekly basis.
Your mission double-oh Joe, average Joe, regular Joe, is to make it work.
Good expletive luck!
Actual Data?!
We have data that shows that the average D&D campaign lasts 6 sessions:
Here's Why This Matters
If there is a DM shortage, it's important to confirm it and then it's important to identify the causes. Naming the monster is the first step to slaying it. We want more DMs. We want this hobby to grow. DMs grow the hobby, not players. We need to take care of the DMs.
Here's What Should Change
If I were in charge of WotC, here's what I would do. I would release D&D 5e Basic. Once upon a time, there was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons which was crunchy and full of tables and all kinds of crap. Then there was the Dungeons & Dragons Basic. I'm bringing it back because less is more.
D&D Basic was the essence of D&D. It was the good stuff without all the mess, the bloat, and the complications.
D&D 5e Basic would not be a starter set. It would be its own product line. It would be fully supported, and published side-by-side with D&D 5e. D&D 5e Basic will have fewer and simpler classes, fewer and simpler fantasy races, fewer spells, fewer magic items, fewer, simpler rules. I'm cutting the crap and I'm giving you what is recognizably D&D 5e, but I'm curating it. I'm giving you to the essence of it. The best of it. It's going to have a more refined tone and genre. It's going to have a narrower scope. It's going to have a setting that's grounded, so you understand what works and what doesn't. I'm restricting alignment to enforce group cohesion. Combat is going to be simpler and faster. Exploration is going to be clear. Social Interaction is going to clear. It's going to logically led to only a few styles of play.
When you look at D&D 5e Basic, you're going to be filled with a sense of wonder, but you're going to know what kind of game this is and you're going to know what kind of game it isn't. And so will the players.
It's going to easy to learn, to run, and to play. It's going to be fun to prep and run.
Conclusion
I want to reiterate my introduction. The DM shortage is anecdotal. We need more data. I think GMing for 5e is a son of a gun, and WotC continues to support players, but not GMs. All of these things contribute to GMing for 5e feeling like hard work rather than a fun, creative pursuit. GMing 5e was the most frustrating and least fulfilling experience in TTRPGs I've had. Make no mistake, the frustration comes from 5e in particular. Other games were smoother.
For more commentary on Managing Expectations, see these posts here:
