My Philosophy as a D&D DM
When I was in grade 7 or 8, I made some forgettable joke to a friend of mine about how nerdy we were. He laughed and jokingly responded “we should make a D&D group!” as if that would be the next step on the nerdiness train. I laughed right back. And then we looked at each other, and we stopped laughing. And we decided to start a D&D group for real.
We started mere months before 3rd Edition D&D came out, so we played a starter set of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons filled with fun quests, classic Larry Elmore art, and explanations of THAC0 (which really wasn’t that confusing from playing Baldur’s Gate, anyway). I’ve been a fan of Dungeons and Dragons ever since, embracing new editions, playing with new players, and embarking on new adventurers.
It’s one thing to be a player character, but it’s a whole different level to settle into the role as Dungeon Master. You get to be in control, but even more importantly, you get to see how much your players are having fun. You learn a lot of what you like in D&D and a lot of what you don’t like. I very quickly discovered my own single guiding rule that governs how I see D&D, and how I intend to play it — inside the imaginary world with your heroes, and in the living room with your friends.
When you set out to play D&D with a new group, it can be tough and intimidating. You don’t know the level of everyone’s commitment, people don’t know all the rules, and you worry about keeping people entertained. So having a simple, guiding principle can make it easier for everyone to get on board.
Here’s mine:
“We are all here to have fun playing D&D.”
That’s it. To me, it’s pretty simple, but broken down it hits all the points that are important.
We are all here: We all have to be sharing in this enjoyable experience. If one person isn’t into it (or only one person is into it) then something has gone wrong.
to have fun: Absolutely a must. If we’re not having fun, we’re doing something wrong. Notice, it’s not you’re doing something wrong. Collectively, we need to be having a good time, and if not, we need to adjust as a group.
playing D&D: We can all be here to have fun doing many things — we can play board games, video games, just hang out and talk, whatever. But if we have gathered to play D&D, we need to actually play D&D. When a group is playing a video game together, and their just not into it, usually, it’s no big deal. Just put down the controller, and others can continue on. But with D&D, a lot of thought and effort goes into making the game work. Players have come up with backgrounds, and researched how to create their perfect characters. Dungeon Masters have built encounters, adventures, sometimes whole worlds. The group is in a collective mindset, and are trying to commit to the adventure being laid out in front of them. So someone who wants to do something other than play D&D in that moment can really ruin it for everyone else.
So that’s it. Follow this philosophy and your games can also be filled with intrigue, laughter, and plenty of critical hits.
