Being a Dungeon Master is a serious business!

Greetings fellow gamers!

Here at "Confusing Blather" I shall express my opinion on different matters related to D&D. For starters I shall speak about the importance of taking the Dungeon Master's business, seriously.

As of recent, many of my new players think that a Dungeon Master's job is easy enough to have a take at it. Nothing could be more farther from the truth! One cannot realize the extent of work and preparation a Dungeon Master undergoes, to have a good D&D gaming session without effectively participating at the game as a player first, for a prolonged and steady amount of time.

I must admit I am quite riled at this uprising of bad quality Dungeon Masters and there is a reason to it. It took me one year in which I played D&D almost every week-end, just to understand the mechanics and various finesse elements. Then, another year was spent in studying various materials and books like Dungeon Master's Guide™, Player's Handbook™, and even the Dungeon Master for Dummies™! This painstaking research, which as my father described resembled that of a scientist, was taken to great lengths to understand not only the rules as they were and the intricacies of the mechanics, but also to understand the why. Why the bonuses of the same type stack? Why does the arcane spell penalty exists? And after all this research has been done, I approached the position of Dungeon Master with great care and shyness. It was a disaster and I admit it but not because of lack of knowledge, but because of lack of experience dealing with a large group of people. But as I kept playing the game as a player then trying whatever I have learned from my betters at my games, I myself became better at understanding the why's and what's.

It comes thus as no surprise as to why I am so upset of these failed attempts at Dungeon Mastering by those that think they can handle it after playing this game for two or three times. No my friends, you cannot handle it. Dungeons and Dragons is more than a simple game. It is an immerse incursion into an adventure made possible by the Dungeon Master. The characters you play are more than extensions of the player's will but actors in a play that almost never ends. This is what a Dungeon Master must understand: that this "job", this "position" is not a mere role you take at a game table. You would sully the very core of what a Dungeon Master actually is!

First and foremost a Dungeon Master must know the rules BY HEART! And when I say by heart, I do mean it. Indeed there are obscure rules that need be checked from time to time into manuals or various conflicts that arise from those, but at the game table the Dungeon Master's word is law. How then can his or her word be law when the said Dungeon Master has a bare understanding of the rules that make the game work ? It is important to know the rules for within their limitations an adventure is crafted. Thus a good knowledge of the monsters, a definitive knowledge of the encounter building process and an exquisite knowledge of the mechanics is necessary. Otherwise the "fun" element of the game, its streamline process and its suspension of disbelief, will be disregarded by the players who in the end will come in just to bash kobolds and to burn villages.

I was against railing the adventure and therefore the players and in the end I reached the conclusion that both players and the Dungeon Master need to agree firsthand on how the adventure will proceed. The main plot and a guideline must be traced so that the players know what to expect from your story. It will still keep its unpredictability and its surprises and the players won't derail it because they think there is nothing to do. Also prevents the Dungeon Master from using overpowered encounters just to drag you into the city and continue with his story. This is but one example of finesse a Dungeon Master needs to ... well master it.

Alas! seeing the new generations of Dungeon Masters and their folly to believe they can hold a game with homebrew content when they don't grasp the rules, makes me angry. Because they show disrespect to a position that means something even to this day. So do you want to be a Dungeon Master? Learn the rules properly by playing the game thoroughly and ask your Dungeon Master on various aspects of the game on which you lack understanding. Experience comes first as a player and THEN as a Dungeon Master and not the other way around!

Enjoy!