‘Why can’t anyone make a decision?’ My first time as a D&D Dungeon Master

I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was a kid, but my first time directing the action was daunting. I certainly wasn't expecting what came next

Four bedraggled adventurers stand together on the shore of a desolate island, shivering in the evening mist. They don't know each other, and their motives for being here are unclear. But as they make stilted conversation they see, emerging from the briny waters, figures dressed in the rags of sailor outfits, moaning and shuffling and horrible. The adventurers stand around, roll some dice and chat some more, as the undead seamen lurch ever closer. Looking on at this desperate scene, I think to myself, What the hell? Why can't anyone make a decision? We've been here for half an hour! We've not even begun the proper adventure yet!"

Dungeons and Dragons has always been there in the background of my life. When I was a kid in the late 70s, my dad's best friend got into it; he'd show me the rule books and dice and tried to explain to me that this was a game about imagination, about pretending to be elves and wizards and warriors on a completely made up adventure. In the 1980s, as I got into video games, we saw the first fantasy adventures based around D&D lore - games with lots of stats on screen, and monsters inspired by Lord of the Rings. Then finally in the 90s I played with a group of friends at university. We huddled in cold rooms with rulebooks, character sheets and cheap supermarket cider and quested into the night. But I was never the Dungeon Master.