Things to remember always

[Dwayanu]

Don't invest so much in preparation that you'll be tempted to "railroad" or "deus ex machina" players.

[Stormcrow]

Never forget to... uh...

[AxeMental]

Randomly generate stuff every now and then (treasure, magic, rooms, traps etc.), keep your game/dungeon fresh, and yeah the odd pieces of magic found within can make for an interesting game (the best use brings out creativity in your players).


Oh, and be ruthless in places. People die, thats why dungeons are places you don't want to be (where only the foolish delve).

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Give the players meaningful choices to make--and the opportunity to find out information that would affect those choices. Bad choices should lead to death, good choices to loot and experience.

Try to shorten the interval between each choice.

[Stik]

The players will always surprise you.
There are six of them (or two or ten or whatever) and only one of you. No matter how smart/creative your are, their six brains can out-think your one.

You never know what the players will decide is important, so be prepared for your adventure to change at a moment's notice.
My players have become obsessed with capturing a master thief who is a lookalike of one of the PCs that I threw in for a comedy adventure.

The only one I can think of is "Use the third dimension"

Use the fourth dimension as well.
Time passes. Things change. A static world is boring.

Also, don't get hung up on "logic" or explaining things. Don't worry about realistic (where's the bathroom) or where do these monsters sleep drink or eat, etc. Its a fantasy game based in a fantasy world, if it were totally logical it wouldn't be fun. Mixing the proper amount and knowing when to throw it in is the mark of a good DM.

I hate to argue (actually, I love to argue, but that's not the point) but I have to disagree here.

Make the adventure/encounters make sense.
A dragon in a 100 x 100 room with no access to the outside is not logical, and will strain the "willing suspension of disbelief" necessary for a successful game.
An encounter with a small group of pilgrims on a road is fine, but not if the three prior encounters, and the three after it, are with rampaging bands of orcs. How did the pilgrims get through?

[blackprinceofmuncie]

I hate to argue (actually, I love to argue, but that's not the point) but I have to disagree here.

Make the adventure/encounters make sense.
A dragon in a 100 x 100 room with no access to the outside is not logical, and will strain the "willing suspension of disbelief" necessary for a successful game.
An encounter with a small group of pilgrims on a road is fine, but not if the three prior encounters, and the three after it, are with rampaging bands of orcs. How did the pilgrims get through?

"Make sense" is subjective. If the dragon is guarding a doorway and was set there as a guard by some powerful entity who used supernatural means to overcome whatever logistical problems stood in the way, "makes sense" within the context of the game world doesn't necessarily translate into "makes sense on first glance to the players".

As for the pilgrims and orcs. If the orcs are overrunning a well-traveled pilgrimate route, the encounter makes perfect sense.

I would have to agree with Axe here. Worrying about stuff "making sense" is simply going to limit your creativity. In a world where spells like Wish and Alter Reality exist, it seems to me that the definition of what could possibly "make sense" is extremely broad. My mantra is "create first, justify later".

It seems like the thing some DMs are most afraid of is hearing their players say "this is weird". I'm exactly the opposite. When I hear my players say that I'm ecstatic, because I know I've just piqued their interest in the game world and given them a little bit of the sense of wonder that only the presence of the unknown and unexplained can provide. When the players say "that's weird" that's exactly when the game gets interesting.

[JamesEightBitStar]

Use the fourth dimension as well.
Time passes. Things change. A static world is boing.

Static worlds bounce?

I don't exactly understand what is meant by "use the third dimension." I mean we should assume the world is fully 3D and has height, width, and depth, but I'd be surprised if DMs really had a problem with that.

[Stormcrow]

Use the fourth dimension as well.
Time passes. Things change. A static world is boing.

Ha! I'm running a game of Continuum tomorrow. This comes with the territory.

[grodog]

1. Create mysteries that you don't know the answers to: let the players come up with options, consult sages, and determine whether these mysteries are meaningful or not.

The TZGY medallions in T1 Village of Hommlet are a good example: they can lead PCs to explore T2, be used as key tokens within T2, or be random junk that no one cares about (or ever finds, perhaps).

2. Make some things hard to very find or hideously guarded or both. Truly powerful magic items and rich treasures should be rare, and should be guarded cunningly with vicious traps, twisted magic, and/or tough monsters. That way if the players find these areas, and overcome them, the treasures will be worth it, and the battles for them will be memorable and retold for years to come.

[BlackBat242]

Please to remember
the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

[AxeMental]

Stik, don't get me wrong "realness" has its place in AD&D. The "normal" world (when your not running into monsters or magic) should be very predictable (agree with laws of nature and logic) and fit the setting. It should look smell and feel like you might expect if you went into a time machine and went back 1000 years to Europe (or perhaps more like the Hobbit, but you get what I mean). The setting (a place with torches and lamps, guys with swords and armor, etc.) is paramount to the game anything that is different then "normal" should stick out as strange and terrifying to the average zero level NPC. If you make magic or monsters too common for instance, they'd loose their unusualness and become humdrum (like those idiotic city streets lit by magic you find in later settings).

As for your examples, yes, if you made things too illogical too often your players would loose there grounding. But, as BPoM pointed out, magic and monsters play by their own seemingly illogical rules no one (not even the DM) has to understand. It jus "is" afterall its magic and its monsters (ie not human).

The more unexpected and illogical the rarer something should be. For instance, orcs living next door to lizard men living next door to zombies isn't that strange, but is unusual and shouldn't be overused. Orcs living in the same room as ghouls and zombies is very strange, and would seem to break some basic assumed laws. This should occur more rarely (and is so odd the DM should have (or come up with) an explination for at least himself. A dragon in a room with only a human sized door is very wierd too. But every situation can easily be explained away by the DM (not that the players need an explination, they can fill in their own blanks NEVER TELL A PLAYER MORE THEN HE FIGURES OUT ON HIS OWN).

The mark of a good DM is knowing how far to push the bizzaro envelope and when. Its also a good idea to mix it up (some dungeons to have alot of wierd stuff, others less so) always keep your players interested and on their toes.

Anyhow, you kind of missed what I was meaning. I was referring to DMs not going anal into explaining every little thing (like where's the bathroom, what do they eat, how do they sleep, how does enough air get down here etc. etc. etc.) thats stuff the players aren't focusing on and usually could care less about. Movies and TV don't include this stuff, why should the DM (we just assume it goes on, right). Occasionally its neat to explain or show this stuff (just to add some interest) but in general it destracts from the "wierdness" of the place. That doesn't mean to not include sleeping quarters and kitchens for orcs, it just means you don't always have to. If the players ask what do these 14 orcs eat and do all day in a particular room make it up on the spot (any half way decent DM can do this in a second) "Oh you see some hey in the corner and a sack full of salted meat, oh and a pile of crap in the corner. It does seem odd these guys were just hanging out in here" let them figure out the whys on their own.

[BlackBat242]

(like those idiotic city streets lit by magic you find in later settings).

Well, in a world where any 5th-level priest can easily create a permanent light source (Continual Light spell), I see no reason a Lawful ruler/Mayor/town council would leave their streets (at least the ones in the better parts of town) dark (and thus easy for thieves & footpads to rob people in). Most Churches would support the effort to rid the streets of crime, so such lights would be fairly common.

That is a result of trying to allow characters to do too much at too low a level... a problem that started in 1E (or earlier, I don't really know about OD&D, though).

If CL had a duration of, say, 1 week per level, it would be just as useful to PCs, but would not be as useable for such "tech-replacement" uses as the example cited.

Permanency spell is so high a level as to be rarely used, and so would not be used on such a frivolous thing as street lights.

[Algolei]

(like those idiotic city streets lit by magic you find in later settings).

Well, in a world where any 5th-level priest can easily create a permanent light source (Continual Light spell), I see no reason a Lawful ruler/Mayor/town council would leave their streets (at least the ones in the better parts of town) dark (and thus easy for thieves & footpads to rob people in). Most Churches would support the effort to rid the streets of crime, so such lights would be fairly common.

Wouldn't they also be worth something? If you cast continual light on all your street lamps, I'd bet someone would steal them. And if not, my PCs would.

[Stonegiant]

Live or die its all in how you play the game

[Gentlegamer]

To paraphrase Gary's advice from an old From the Sorcerer's Scroll:

Be a Dungeon MASTER, not a Dungeon MILQUETOAST.