The art of dungeon mastering

[vault keeper]

Hi all, i have a question.

I would like to ask you, in the Dungeon master's guide, which parts are mainly devoted to explaining and giving advice on how to be a "good" Dungeon master?
I mean, i am interested in those parts of the DMG where Gygax is not talking about rules, but primarily about the art of dungeon mastering. which chapters are most eloquent on this subject?

Apart from the chapter titled "Conducting the game", is there really something else worth perusing in the DMG for this purpose?

thanks

[Stonegiant]

really the whole thing. I mean yes he is using AD&D rules but the principles apply to any game IMO.

[Falconer]

“Time in the Campaign” (p. 37 IIRC) was hugely inspirational for me.

[Benoist]

really the whole thing.

That's the right answer. Really.

The DMG is not a manual to use a toaster oven. It's like a conversation from one DM to another (you). You can't just turn on "autopilot" and hope you won't miss anything of import. If you do that you just end up picking up little bits and pieces here and there, but you miss the essence, the big picture.

[ThirstyStirge]

Gygax wrote a book about the subject. I used to have a copy of it someplace. The hobby is really a Baskin-Robbins of gaming options. If you are the referee you are free to develop the game any way you want. Don't sweat the small stuff.

[JCBoney]

really the whole thing.

That's the right answer. Really.

The DMG is not a manual to use a toaster oven. It's like a conversation from one DM to another (you). You can't just turn on "autopilot" and hope you won't miss anything of import. If you do that you just end up picking up little bits and pieces here and there, but you miss the essence, the big picture.

Absolutely. That's the brilliant angle of the 1e core books. EGG pretty much assumes you know how to play D&D and instead concentrates on imparting advice and experience to the reader through PHB and DMG... with some of the same in the MM.

That's what I like about TSR in that period... it was less of a business with "here's step A and step B" and more of "hey, we're a bunch of gamers and this is what we did and this is what happened... try it and see what you think."

It seemed to work fine with a virtual autocrat like EGG.

[AxeMental]

Hi all, i have a question.

I would like to ask you, in the Dungeon master's guide, which parts are mainly devoted to explaining and giving advice on how to be a "good" Dungeon master?
I mean, i am interested in those parts of the DMG where Gygax is not talking about rules, but primarily about the art of dungeon mastering. which chapters are most eloquent on this subject?

Apart from the chapter titled "Conducting the game", is there really something else worth perusing in the DMG for this purpose?

thanks

Its the entire thing, true. But its also common since...it becomes clear once you start playing and find your feet. I once asked Gygax why he didn't spend more time with examples to make the rules and art of DMing more clear, and he stated something like, "DMing and playing the game is very simple and easy with so few rulles, he wanted to focus on fleshing stuff out to make a more satisfying world to get the DM to think of things like gem types and the effects of illnesses for the players".

Anyhow, a good DM has a good imagination and has read fantasy (or at least has a bond with it in their soul) that much he implies in the reading list. A good DM is willing to include things he might not have thought of when suggested by Gygax (so humble) but also ignore things that don't work for him (or that seem incorrect to his way of thinking).
I'm not sure this is stated, but if you play the game you figure it out quickly.

Honestly, some of the very WORST DMs I've run into had practically memorized the DMG and PH but never "got it", while some wives of players and newbies have been allowed to DM (with less then an hour of instruction ... "here are the tables, here are the stats of the monsters, this is how alignment works etc.) and produced some of the best gaming experiances any of us in our group have ever had. I'm talking neutral DMing, cool monsters, good tempo, use of common sense, etc. they were simply "naturals". At its essense DMing is like breathing. What slows you down is uncertainty with rules and spells and such...but that stuff just slows you down, just don't get flustered. Bottom line, You can't put in words what makes a good DM, you can only say read the rules, then "play the game" and figure it out (the way you just read the monopoly rules and figure out how to be a good player in that)...its obvious to others at least. DMs are players too, just another sort (they control the monsters as PCs in a way).

Another thing.....a good DM has good taste. The nitwits that actually prefer 2E (and all the romance novelesque bullshit that implies) and 3E power gaming would probably never make good 1E DMs because they like the wrong stuff about RPGs. Gygax couldn't explain to someone how to be cool. You either are or you aren't. DF is rife with guys like that. They sit around and can explain any complex rule but you can just tell, when they DM their game is as dead as kelsey's nuts. You have seen them, "I started with 1E AD&D back in the 70s...but I moved on to more evolved systems. I find 1E inferior to 2E or 3E...blah blah blah". The truth is, these guys never got 1E to begin with...never were one of the "cool kids". And despite their pride, they never will.

[Benoist]

Honestly, some of the very WORST DMs I've run into had practically memorized the DMG and PH but never "got it", while some wives of players and newbies have been allowed to DM (with less then an hour of instruction ... "here are the tables, here are the stats of the monsters, this is how alignment works etc.) and produced some of the best gaming experiances any of us in our group have ever had.

It goes both ways. I've had DMs who said they knew the DMG but only picked up a quote here and there when it was beneficial to their own points of view, and who in the end usually ended up using only the matrixes and tables for terrible results at the game table. Likewise, I've seen people who just understood the game throughout for amazing results. Some beginners can indeed be wonderful, while others will just suck through and through.

I think it basically comes down to "getting" what the game is really about, and what makes it tick. That the fantasy of the game milieu isn't so much conveyed by the rules as the situations that make use of them (or not). Some beginners get it right away. Some veterans never got it and still fumble around pretending to have mastered the game "for good". Some of them even design for the new versions of the game nowadays... *cough* *cough*