I got to be the DM simply because our old DM dropped out, and no one else was willing to take over, so it was either me or no game anymore. At first I wasn't sure if I could do it- I'm a rather shy guy, so being at the centre of thing, and having to maintain a certain degree of control over a group of people does not come easily to me, but it turned out rather well. However, I never got the hang of DMing D&D. We used to play D&D 3.5, but when I took over DMing we switched over to Warhammer FRP 2ed. D&D, for me, just had too many rules, tables, I just knew I won't be able to keep all that in my head during gameplay.

As to curious things I learned during my time as DM- what you expect to be easy for the party will probably nearly kill them, while the big Boss Fight will go way to easily. They will solve quickly what you consider fiendishly hard puzzles, yet to overcome what you have not even considered an obstacle they will come up with the most insane, convoluteted plans. I myself used to do that as a player, and just didn't notice.

And then there is what I like to call The Three Laws of RPG games:

1. Never play against the party. (It's great to introduce some conflict of interests or personal tension, or even racial tension if you've got for example a party with an elf, a dwarf and a half-orc, but when push comes to shove everyone needs to know that the team will work together, and look out for one another)

2. Never split the party. (Sometimes it may seem a good idea. It's not. You will die. At least some of you, maybe all. If you want to see a TPK happen, this is it. I never had a TPK happen to me as a DM, but once it almost did with two out of three players dead, and it was because the split up. And did some other stupid things, but mostly the splitting up thing).

3.Don't play with people involved in a relationship with each other. (Having a couple among your players will likely screw up the party dynamic, but mostly it's to avoid the mess a break up, or other relationship trouble might cause to your gaming group as a whole. I know it might sound like some sexist "no girls allowed thing", but it's really not about that)

Ah... Good old times. In 1998 we were going to a DM club in our swords, hoods, armors. It was fun to the bones but it also took long time because of all these statisctics etc.

I haven't been the DM myself, but probably will have to soon, because our DMs (we currently have 2, depending on what game/campaign we're playing) wanted the rest of our group to find/invent some adventures and be the DM in those sessions.
Except when you are playing Paranoia, where you'd (probably) give the players something to fight/disagree over, wait (smiling) for everyone to come up with an evil plan to betray the others, then (still smiling) execute a random character for treason. Or all of them. At least that's how our Paranoia sessions usually work.

I never had to much trouble inside the party, really. Sometimes there are these moments when players start to rage over nonsensical little titbits though.

I once put them up against a runic gargoyle, which I gave some sort of spell that could shoot through walls with little effort (some sort of stone spike). There was ample cover, and the clue was that had to keep moving and distracting the thing, confusing it to close in for the kill and finish it of.

I said something akin to "so you are sneaking along as best as you can (the player failed his stealth check though) and suddenly less than 20 inch ahead of your face you see the stone wall kind of boiling in a spot where half a second later a long stony spike shoots from it with tremendous force"

The playes first thought it was some sort of trap, but when they took notice of the gargoyle and its spell, one started moaning about unfairness and OPness, and how the hell is it allowed for stuff to go through cover etc...

Through hints I dropped that the gargoyle relied mostly on tremorsense and vision, but that didn't solve anything; The moaner stood ground and decided to fight it like that stubbornly. Which of course nearly led to his death; which of course led to more moaning. Which was horrid

And one of the players gets hyped up easily. last time it was all about katana's. And he wouldn't listen at all when I tried telling him that Katana's can't pierce armor for shit.

"Tales of RPG woes" that's called in the ussual slang, no?

Oh, I just remembered one more thing- as a DM, never expect the players to do well investigating stuff. My first proper campaign in Warhammer FRP had this big conspiracy thing weaved through the whole thing, but the players never really got it. Even when I made things very obvious and let them capture someone who could lead them in the right direction they f&^% up the interrogation, and went forth clueless of what was really going on. In the end they they pretty much played right into the real villains hand disposing of all his puppets (who they thought to be the actuall bosses).

The thing is, those players were not stupid people. It's just that there is this certains single mindedness about all the players I've DMed. They don't look for anything hidden, other than a treasure chest. They don't question NPCs intentions or goals, they are not even aware they are ignoring some serious warning signs. As long as there is some obvious villain they can go and kill they will proceed towards that goal without a second though, no matter what you present to them along the way. If you want them to do some proper investigating, you cannot give them any red herrings.

That, and the opposite as well. I twice unravelled the DM's plans in ten seconds, even though they had hardly begun. If you want mystery, don't use well-known tropes.

I always disliked when people would do that. I was a player in a group once and the dm introduced a character just dripping with evil intent. The whole party decided to do whatever he said without question and when I brought up the fact that he shouldn't be trusted and that we should at least question his motives they all dismissed my "paranoia".

My friends and I dabbled into D&D 4th for awhile. I went with being DM because I'm generally the type of person who does well with roles like that.

I found it fun, I crafted some decent stuff with an overall narrative but I found myself getting frustrated as we went. I was frustrated because I couldn't see to please everyone. Some didn't mind hack n slash stuff but others would demand/whine about wanting city interactions. So I'd add that which bored some of the others. Mix that with my own depression/inadequacy feelings and I felt like I was never doing a good enough job and it eventually went from a fun little pass time to a source of stress. In general when I do something it's never good enough and D&D quickly went from fun spirited freewheeling to me obsessing and self hatred.

I think where I screwed up is I tried to please everyone in the group, tried to have everything tightly wound up with a pretty bow on it, and to be frank my friends were sometimes ass's. I also shouldn't have let their complaints bother me as much as I did, but it fed back into my own self-destructive cycle.

Every so often it gets batted around trying again but I generally try to avoid it. I don't have confidence in myself or my ability to actually pull it off now.

My favorite thing about DMing a tabletop rpg is probably the world building. Out of all the 6 campaigns I DM for my friends, I've built a massive world with different cultures, kingdoms, pantheons of gods and lore. I always find delight in crafting up lore around a certain kingdom, god, or organization in the world for the PCs to run into. And many times different elements from one campaign will bleed into another, giving my world a somewhat Marvel Cinematic feel~

The players in most of my campaigns build characters that are well adjusted to roleplaying, focusing more on that then the combat. Their characters' backstorys I'll incorporate into my world so the characters feel more real and will want to do adventures that I set up to their actual goals.

The players sometimes draw cool fanart even. :3

Keeping the entire party happy is a bit of a pickle sometimes. One of my players loves, quoting the DM guide from D&D ed 3.5 "kick-in-the-door style of play". If we go too long without combat he gets a bit bored and just has his character smoke a pipe while chilling out. :/

you can but try I guess, but in this regard it's certainly a blessing that my player band is made up from close friends, my father and my younger brother.

Besides, they know me and the tricks I use well, and I always manage to pull things of just that different from last time in a manner such that stuff is familiar but also a pleasant change every time over, kind of like a minimalist DM ;)

Since we played the game of thrones rpg though, I've been able to shift the focus more often toward talking and intrigue, which is a really welcome change.

At one point they happened to be able to overhear the plans of two people they would NEVER have suspected. The looks on their faces were amazing, and they did a splendid job of keeping their findings hidden and turning the tables on the conspuirators later on. Which to me was a real pleasure to watch :)

Oh, by the way... we need Dungeon Master on GOG :P

My group of friends used to do the whole "kick-in-the-door style of playing" when we first started out, thats one of the draw backs of combat-orientated ed 3.5. Eventually though we went on to doing more roleplaying, the less combat there was made what we did encounter more meaningful and less like grinding.