IcingDragon; "Force Feeding Plots"
Michelle "A Players Guide to DMing"
Jason "Evil Party Cohesion"
Jason "Labor of Love"
Sean "Challenging the Superparty"
Sean "Plot Threads"
Sean "Secret Societies"

I never played D&D in high school like the rest of my friends. I actually thought it was kind of dorky, but I did used to watch my friends play, and most of the time it was amusing to listen to them. Then one day, a few years ago, my friend Sean called me and said “Michelle, I need you to do me favor. Go down stairs in my old room and grab a spare bag of dice, a piece of paper, and a pencil and come to my apartment. So I said sure, grabbed what he asked and then drove to his place. All the usual ‘gamers’ were there when I arrived and Sean said “Good you’re here, now sit down and make a character.” I started to resist but he said “Look you watch all the time, you might as well start playing. Now follow the rules in that book,” pointing at a 3rd edition Players Hand Book “and if you have any questions just ask anyone here” and continued to look over the mountain of books in front of him.

That’s pretty much how I got started playing. Sean was the first DM (Dungeon Master for those that don’t play) that I have ever had, and to this day he is still one of the best I have ever played for. For me, in order to be a great DM there is several criteria one must meet. Knowing the rules whether they are from the book or they are house rules is very important, and you have to stick to them. You need to be fair, but strict. But to me, the most important thing you must have is a vivid imagination but not one that runs rampant. Just like any game D&D has set rules, but just like every game played at a table, most of these rules can be bent or broken. Knowing what rules to bend and which ones to break and when, is a sign of a really good DM. If you never break any of the rules the game could start to feel more like a chore and less like a good way to spend a mid week night. Though on the other hand; if you bend or break too many, you could easily loose control of the game all together, or make the game seem unbalanced and unfair to some players. Finding this balance can only come from trial and error, and many nights of listening to the players arguing with each other over the rules.

Have you ever heard the phrase lead with a firm but gentle hand? This phrase could also apply to D&D. You have to maintain control over your players, but in such a way that they feel like they are in control and not you. Out of character conversations can be distracting but they happen, some times you have to let it go and laugh with your players, other wise they are likely to think of you as that old crazy teacher from high school that you swore would have hit you with a ruler if she could get away with it. On the reverse of this; if you let them play around too much then you loose control, just like that other teacher that you used to lock out of the classroom. A good way to keep the ‘gamers’ in character is to turn off all other stimulation in the house, and maybe even add some back ground music to set the mood. No matter what happens, keep your cool and laugh sometimes, your players will appreciate it. Always keep in mind that it is a game and games are supposed to be fun. These things are nothing if you don’t have a good imagination, and a creative but controlled way of expressing it. Would “Lord of the Rings” had been half as good if Tolkien hadn’t spent many years attending to every detail of the world that he created? Sure it would have been a good story, but it would have felt like it was missing something, and that can make any story less enjoyable. That is exactly what being a DM is, it’s being a storyteller and your main characters are your players. Being the main characters, your players deserve to have a richly planned world, so that they can explore who they are and what is going on with in the world you have created.