This was a thought I had, and posted recently on EN World
I was talking to my brother about 2 months ago regarding what he saw were problems with the game he was running. Aside from some player issues here, and lack of knowledge of the rules there (he just came from 3e) he mentioned that he just wasn’t that excited during the game and that he thought it was making the game less enjoyable for the players as well.
He is a paramedic, and as such is pretty worn out when it comes time to game which is understandable, but he decided he needed to make a conscious effort to ramp up the energy during his games.
It kind of struck me when he said it because, I am generally excited when I DM but sometimes I do not bring that energy into the game enough myself. So, I decided I was going to sell my next games better. I was going to do more leaning in, and show the players how excited I am not just to run the game, but to see where the story takes their characters.
It was a conscious effort – one I thought of before each of my last two games and they both went very very well. My players enjoy my games (they say) but the last two have been very fun, and the players have been very excited both during and afterwords. My excitement seemed very contagious and their energy appeared to soar. Even players who normally start to fade as the night goes on (they generally sleep early) were fully engaged through to the end.
It would seem to go without saying that as a DM if you are not excited, your players won’t be either. However, until now I hadn’t realized that my level of excitement could be expressed more strongly, nor that the change in the players demeanor could be affected so obviously.
Anyway, I just thought I would share that for those interested. A little something to keep in mind if it’s something you had not considered, or if your own game is lacking in excitement.