After buying the DnD starter set a few weekends ago - which is, oddly enough, one of the quickest ways of getting your hands on official(tm) game tokens, official(tm) boards and the all-important dice - I counted out the discount coupons, borrowed a friend's customer privileges card and went out to buy the hefty, murky and all-powerful "4th Edition Core Rulebook Collection". It rests now on my table, glowing softly in the white tubelight.
Had a quick flip through the Monster Manual (which is OMG fantastic! Every page with something you'd like to see in an adventure!), and then got as far as the classes in the Player's Handbook. Which is - quite frankly - scary. The thought of keeping all those numbers and calculations in my head while playing. Since I don't know anybody who DMs, I might have to grab friends and run my own adventure, in which case I'll have to *know* those rules back to front. Brr, etc.
On the other hand, the level of detail, the race descriptions, the places where they fill in the blanks ("elves are light-hearted but quick to anger") and the places where they draw back and leave it to the roleplayers and the DM to figure out the details. I also love that - besides the Three Books Themselves - it's extraordinarily light on the pocket. You can knock up the locations, dungeons, props, PCs et al with a bit of imagination and a lot of cardboard.
Next steps: keep going with the books, ask around to see if I can find the DnD community in Singapore, and check with friends if they'd like a chance to roll a character. And then see where it goes from there.
Here's an important tip about memorizing the content of the books...don't. Being a DM isn't about knowing exactly how much damage a rogue will do with his Sly Flourish and a Luckblade dagger. It's about making a fun and challenging game for your players. Yes, you'll need to do some rules adjudicating, but if you get it "wrong", the world won't end. Worry about putting together a story that's interesting, encounters that will be exciting...if you have the rulebooks close to hand, then you can always look something up. It's good to have an idea of where to find the info you want, but you don't need to know everything off the top of your head. I look forward to hearing how your game goes.
Aethan06:39 AM PST