Playing Dungeons & Dragons, especially in the last decade, I was frequently the DM, the dungeon master. Same principle really: A typical group to play D&D needs 1 DM and 4 - 5 players, most people just want to be players, and DMs tend to be the limiting factor. But in D&D the DM not only has a larger responsibility for the game being fun than the other players, he also has to do a lot more work. Nearly all preparatory work for a game falls on the shoulders of the DM, which also means that he is usually taking on more of the cost than the other players do. I haven't been looking for new people to play D&D with since my last group fell apart.

What I did do since moving into a new region is looking for people to play board games with. And I have been pretty successful with that. I have a regular board game night in the friendly local games store, and two other groups of people with which to play on weekends. And at first I thought that this meant that I didn't have to be the DM anymore. Most board games don't have a dungeon master or game master, and players are supposed to be equal.

But it turns out that if you meet a group of random strangers at board game night, there is a large number of people who are very willing to play with others, but they aren't quite sure what game, and they haven't prepared anything. And the games shop has a limited selection of games that people can play. If you want to see another game played, you'll have to buy it and bring it yourself. And if you bring a game, you should also already have prepared it, read the rules, and be able to explain it. I've been doing that, but somehow I feel that I am the dungeon master again. The choice is always the same: Either have a harder time finding a good group, or make finding a group easier by accepting more responsibility.