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The Dungeon Master is a strange creature indeed:

 
Face it. There are very few DMs out there who can pull a great session (or adventure, needless to say a campaign) without investing hours of prep time. Of course, we do it because we enjoy it, but it takes time. A lot of it.

When I was 15 years old, I had a lot of time on my hands. I remember writing adventures, plots and whole campaigns without even having a group to play with. 
I was young, free and very creative. I filled binders with stuff just for fun.

Now, I'm 35, married with 2 wonderful kids. And the one thing I'm missing (other then sleep), is time.

I find myself at 9PM after the kids are in their beds trying very hard to keep my eyes open.

So when I sit down to prepare for the next session, I need a system that gets out of...

D&D Next has brought up a lot of discussion (which is a mild word for Edition Wars) about previous editions and their ups and downs. A lot of people expect D&D Next to fix all their problems with 4e and D&D as a whole, while others feel that going back to previous editions (or at least releasing them again in some form or the other) is good enough.

Some fear that D&D Next, while trying to "unite" all versions and take the best out of each one, will end up to be the Frankenstein no one really wants.

In addition, D&D Next isn't coming in this year (according to this), so we still have almost a full year using whatever version of D&D.

So instead of waiting for D&D Next to fix all our problems, let's try to do it RIGHT NOW.

For me, these are the things that I want in my future version of D&D:

...

A lot of discussions in the forums revolves around an interesting question:

Quoting Chodeaboy who responded to the Uniting the Editions, Part 2 article:


Obviously, there is a point here (ignoring that fact that there is a business desicion behind every new edition). If players and DMs still find old material relevant and useful, re-prints could make them very happy. 

My old AD&D books are all worn out, and sometimes I'd rather leave them be than pick them up and risk another cracked binding or torn page. If these books were re-printed, I would certainly buy a new copy. Same goes for...

A new group of heroes emerges from the ashes of the old. You grabbed your DM binder, your D&D books, some dice and minis, and you're good to go.

The players gather around the table. Maybe you know some of them, maybe some are total strangers. You let the chatter, the smiles and the geek-talk go on for a while. Then you clear your throat, and silence decesnds.

All eyes turn to you.

You look around the table, enjoing that little moment in the spot light, realizing that for the next couple of hours, you are the Face of D&D.

If the DM sucks, D&D sucks. If the DM shines, D&D shines.

It is my belief that a good DM can make ANY set of rules work for his group. But some groups like specific aspects of D&D (like combat or role-playing), and some rule-sets need tweaking to work smoothly with one aspect...

I got really excited reading about D&D Next. It's great to hear about the making of a new D&D version.

The web is rife with discussions concerning the content of this new version, and the new community site (available here) is a good source of information in the mad sea of misinformation.

Creating a new version of D&D is not an easy task, especially when aiming to seperate the core of D&D (its essence?) from the many extensions, expansions and styles of play.

From Basic D&D, to AD&D, 3.0, 3.5e and 4e, control has moved from the DM's side of the screen to the player's. I personally believe this is a mistake.

The following sentence might sound harsh, but I really believe it is the truth: D&D is reduced to a computer/board game without an empowered DM. An empowered DM can make decisions. An empowered...

This week's Encounters session was short and simple. Which is great for a fast and exciting game, but doesn't lend itself to a very interesting blog post. My apologies for the brevity.

Attendance for Encounters at my shop has dropped off a little in the last couple weeks. I was down to three players for this session. I'm chalking it up to school starting and my older regulars having lives. I ran the encounter anyway, though I didn't upgrade the verbeeg to 6th level as I had planned. Used during this encounter were a drow witch, a human warden, and a halfling thief.

Compared to most sessions in this season, the fight with cousin Basal was quite straight forward. The players agreed to fight him until one side or the other yielded; they requested that Orlando not be hurt ...

I came back from vacation to find that last week's session was a bust due to the holidays. Not a big surprise. So, as with the week before I left, I ran both last week's encounter and this week's back to back, again using the published material rather than my planned upgrade to expedite matters. Six players were in attendance, no one opted to play a defender this week.

Thanks to a younger player who joined us during the last season of Encounters, the role-play portion of the encounters went much smoother. His interactions with the NPCs was a little brusque, but he made the effort to get involved with them while other players were waiting for something to happen. I'm still struggling to engage the rest of the group in simple play-acting. This isn't usually...

So last week I was too sick to run the regularly scheduled Encounters session and I wasn't able to get a sub. I considered several options for dealing with the problem, skipping the mudmen or otherwise narrating the scene. I didn't want to spoon feed the players too much information though and I wanted to make sure that they collected the equipment rewards I had put together for them. The chapter two encounters would be far more challenging without them, possibly unwinnable. Ultimately, I elected to run both session three and four without upgrades.

The level three characters made very short work of the level one monsters and we managed to finish both encounters in under three hours. I really would have preferred to have run my upgraded monsters, but I only had a three hour window and upgraded...

David Given wrote, "I would love to see a follow up post in which you talk about five things that individual players or DM's can do to make it more awesome--less about what WotC should be doing & more about what we as the community can do every week to grow the hobby..."

To clarify, I don't think WotC is doing too little. Far from it. The lengths that they are going to promote D&D are extraordinary and the amount of free product that they are throwing at us is simply unprecedented. And I do think there are plenty of little things we can do as individual players to promote the hobby. 

1. Collect data and maintain open lines of communication
While I am making sure that my new players have DCI numbers, I also make sure that I get their email address for my personal records. And, every time...