Pen and Paper: Dungeon Master

Grid Map for the first dungeon in the campaign, as copied from the module I am currently running. Future campaigns will most likely involve dungeons that I will have designed from the ground up.

With several year of experience playing Dungeons and Dragons, transitioning from a player toe the role of Dungeon Master was something I assumed would happen. However, me becoming a DM so quickly came by accident: a friend of mine introduced me to some of his acquaintances in McCarty, who turned out to be long-time DnD fans, and before I knew it, I was running a store-bought campaign for a group of 4-6 people on a weekly basis. Now that we are quite a number of sessions in, I've learned a great deal of what it means to be a DM, be it the enjoyable parts, and the "I want to throw these dice at you" parts.

Being a DM is a time consuming, exciting, and, far too often, thankless task. The role of the Dungeon Master is complicated and multi-faceted: he or she serves a the rule master and judge of the game, but must also act as the storyteller and entertainer of the adventure. He or she must be able to think quickly on their in response to the actions of the PCs (player characters), be able to plan ahead a great deal, and have good strategic and tactical skills to keep combat interesting. The best way I can summarize the role of the Dungeon Master is as being the foundation of the pen and paper game: a good DM is solid all around, and allows the players to expand and experiment with what they want to do while at the same time keeping the order. A bad DM is unstable, unbalanced in their methods of managing the adventure, and either severely limits the actions of the party or allows chaotic actions to run rampant.

There are several challenges in DMing: the one I first encountered, and I do believe it is the one all DMs fear the most, is simply organizing sessions: managing a half-dozen of college students with varying and conflicting schedules is like trying to herd cats. At the start of the quarter, the time slot for DnD was chaotic and unsure, but now I have been able to establish a consistent time of Wednesdays at 6:00pm  during which everyone is open. The second big challenge involves the cost: for a regular player, DnD can be effectively free. You can always borrow dice, and it's expected of the DM to bring all the required rulebooks and character sheets. For the DM, however, things can become extremely expensive: with several costly books to purchase, numerous sets of dice, figurines for both the players and enemies, grids for maps, and any little extra things you need, the cost quickly adds up.

Finally, there is the difficulty of actually running the adventure. First of all, the DM has to make sure the campaign is always moving at a brisk pace, which means I have to be quick when recalling rules and statistics, and just general setting fluff: time spent remembering what the "Evard's Black Tentacles" spell does or checking what the Monster Manual says of the mating practices of the Tarrasque is time lost from the actual adventure. Then there's the whole roleplaying part of being the DM: I've never had much experience with acting, and now suddenly I have to act out the roles of an entire universe of Non-Player Characters and enemies. I have to go from playing Joe the Farmer to acting out Mr. Murder McGenocide, then immediately shift to Vlarmgoth, The Chaos Maw. I think that the most difficult part of DMing is making sure the adventure stays on track while adapting to the actions of the party: since this was my first time DMing, I decided to simply buy a pre-made adventure, thinking that I wouldn't have to do much planning and just go through the book. Unfortunately, nothing in the book will help you in the face of the at times insane actions of the party: It says nothing of what to do when the party Warlock attempts to either mind control or seduce everything he sees, or when the Cleric tries to fry the dragon eggs she found, or when the Fighter gets her freaking arm cut off! There are a great deal of things that I have to adapt to, and it can get very hard to keep track of everything everyone is doing.

Despite all of this, I find being a DM as being extremely enjoyable: being able to plan out a session and see everyone enjoy themselves fills me with a great deal of satisfaction. Even when I pursue a more active role with the UW pen and paper club, I hope to continue this little adventure I have started with this small group of friends.