The Guide to Dungeon Mastering: Get Rid of Those Grids!

Welcome to an informal chat about DM basics. I'll be giving tips and tricks that I've learned over the years.

I began my adventures in tabletop gaming playing exclusively using theater-of-the-mind. I say this because everything went weird when we started using grids.

Now it started out fine, we had a means to visually track character locations and ranges but something just felt off about the entire thing. At the time I was never able to figure it out but that is the magic of looking backward; hindsight is 20/20 after all.

I figured out that the problem was the grids. Gridded lines on a play surface are a good abstraction but everyone instinctually places their figures inside the lines. This is not how things would normally operate as grids do not appear in nature. Nothing is nicely organized by neat 5-foot squares!

It's not an issue for everyone but I've found that it can be immersion breaking which is why I have removed grids from my game. I have not removed miniatures but that is a separate issue.

This is the point I am making:
You can use miniatures without a grid!

So, how do we make this work? The biggest thing to worry about is scale, most editions follow a simple setup (1-inch = 5-feet) but you are free to use any scale you want. The trick is to make it consistent and base it around a 1 inch rule.

Why 1-inch? Because that is the default size of a standard mini base. Make something relevant to that size and your system will be applicable to all minis.

The next thing to worry about is movement speed. Thankfully most editions give this stat in feet as opposed to grids (major exception being 4e) so the best method I have found is to make something to measure movement.

For example: I use the standard system (1-inch = 5-feet) and the standard movement speed of a medium sized character is 30-feet. I do some simple math and that equates to 6-inches, so I cut a length of string or measure a stick and use that as a base. Repeat as necessary.

That method also works when measuring range for attacks and other things. All told a very small amount of work is required to make this work. It just needs the players to get on board and that is the easy part.

In short, getting rid of the grids will make your games far more immersive.

Next time: I'll be talking about increasing that immersion for your group!

The Guide to Dungeon Mastering: Picking an Edition

Welcome to an informal chat about DM basics. I'll be giving tips and tricks that I've learned over the years.

This is a topic for new players more so than anyone else. But let's start with my experiences:

I was introduced to DnD via 3e and 3.5e then joined a group playing a modified version of 2e. Later, I bought into the hype that was 4e and through a multitude of reasons I determined that I didn't like it. I currently run a game with modified 3.5e rules and join in on D&D Encounters so I can experience 5e.

In short, I have played every major version of the game that has been popular in the last 20 years.

Some people might argue that I am qualified to say which version is the best; to which I claim that there is no best version now shut up silly voice in my head. The question comes down to what do you want the rulebooks to do for you and this is because every version of the game does at least one thing well, but remember that the rules are never written in stone. In fact I think that deserves a bullet point.

• Rulebooks are to used as a guide only.

It is possible to go completely out of the realm of the books and oftentimes the game improves when this occurs. With so much freedom, how do players find the right edition? The good news is that I've got a system for that:

1. Get a group together.
2. Determine the DM.
3. Edition is based on DM's experience and availability of books.

Getting a group together is often the hard part (especially if your friends are not interested in RPGs) but there are resources out there. Roll20 serves as a virtual tabletop so that groups can play over the internet and they also have a Looking For Group (LFG) service. There exists a Subreddit known as r/lfg which serves the purpose of getting groups together online or offline. Otherwise, go old-school and put an ad in a local game or comic shop as that tends to reliably work out.

Once you have your group you can determine which among you should be the DM. Alternatively, you could volunteer for the job in your ad but only do so if you truly desire the job. The DM (or GM, I'm a DnD guy after all) should want to do it and should be at least familiar with the game. Beyond that I can attest to the merits of learning on the job but don't be afraid to offer help to your DM.

Finally, I feel that the edition should be the DM's call. The reason for this is simple: The DM is running the damn game! If the DM has 3.5e books and wants to run that game then let him run that game. Just ask to borrow the Player's Handbook so you can create a character.

Here is where it starts getting complicated.

Earlier I mentioned that rulebooks are to be used as a guide only. Well, now I'm going to say that they are important; kind of...

Think of the rulebooks as a reference for a report. They serve as a guide for how accurate things are but this is only good if you have the ability to reference them. So, you need books. In DnD there are three books that are required for play: Player's Handbook (PH), Monster Manual (MM), and the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG). Players only need access to a PH in order to play; but anyone who wants to be a DM needs all three books (on the other hand Pathfinder is a system that is very similar to DnD but condenses itself to a single book).

So far it sounds like the answer to which edition should I get? is best answered by which edition am I most familiar with? That much is true; however, what if you are brand new and trying to figure this out for yourself? Those books I mentioned are not cheap and a newcomer cannot be expected to buy every book for every edition ever made. How does a newcomer choose?

See step one.

Decide based on what your group wants to play. If you are all brand new then I have a great solution. Choose 5e, it is the most recent version and will be supported by Wizards of the Coast for years to come. Also, it was created with new players in mind. 5e is the edition that is the easiest to get into and I will gladly run this edition in the future.

I've said a lot in this post but now I'm about to say the most important thing of all.

• Forget my rules and pick an edition dammit.

You see, we can argue about the proper protocol behind picking an edition to play but the short answer is that it's not really all that important. A good DM can make any edition work and good players will help make that DM's job easier. While there may be some differences to make note of between the editions that doesn't change a simple fact: No one is going to understand the game until they start playing.

This brings about the biggest point that I can make: It is impossible to find the "best" edition without first trying everything that is available to you. Why do I like 3.5e? Because the rules offer enough freedom for the players to do literally anything with just the core rulebooks. Why did I like 2e? Because I had fun with my friends who were playing it.

So stop arguing about the editions and just take a vote already. I'll play 4e again even though I don't like it.

The Guide to Dungeon Mastering: Making an Adventure the Players Love

Welcome to an informal chat about DM basics. I'll be giving tips and tricks that I've learned over the years.

I got into role-playing games in the early 2000's due to the friends I had in my Boy Scout troop (426 FTW). We had plenty of activities organized for our camping trips but the informal activities were our favorites. Most of us played Magic and we would have tournaments between our scheduled hikes, but we had the most fun at summer camp. This was when we would have all the time to organize something bigger.

That was the first time that I saw those books bearing the name Dungeons and Dragons but I was hooked. We played every night for that week long camp and we loved every minute of it. We didn't have any real motivation beyond what craziness we could come up with. In short, we loved the freedom that the game mechanics offered us.

Unfortunately, we understood that we wouldn't be able to continue playing after the week was over so we decided to go out with a bang. That culminated in a Friday afternoon session comprised entirely of the DM trying to achieve a fair total-party-kill. He threw everything at us but we overcame; the dice loved us and wanted the game to continue. Finally, he threw a titan our way that almost decimated us, until the ranger decided to use his remaining wish to explode the titan's heart.

The DM destroyed the world in the blast. Out with a bang indeed.

It wasn't until a couple years later that I found another group to play DnD with. This was when I figured out some differences: my first experience was with the third edition (3e) but this group was using the second edition (2e). Also, the first group stayed within the bounds of the rulebooks (despite how freeing the game was) while the second group hardly ever looked at the books. That was when I learned just how much the rules didn't matter anymore.

But enough backstory let's get to the point.

My first time as a DM came with that second group that I played with. I had been the party's rogue for several months and I noticed a change in myself. At the beginning of my RPG career I didn't care about story (shocking!), I wanted loot and craziness. After a while I craved continuity and complicated plots and (for whatever reason) the rest of the group obliged. Then I ran a couple of games for them and everyone had a good time. We all had fun with my short plot-based adventure.

Fast-forward about two years when I was in the military. Fourth edition (4e) launched a couple of months prior and I was itching to try it out. I convinced some of my buddies from basic to play in the barracks and I went about attempting to write a plot-based adventure like my previous group enjoyed.

It fell apart. No one was interested in the world or the hooks. They wanted to throw dice and kill things while amassing as much loot as they could carry. I was thrown for a loop and I couldn't figure out what to do. I was also discovering that I didn't like 4e as much as the hype had lead me to believe I would. After a couple of sessions we dissolved the group and I proceeded to look for the same experience in video games.

So, I made a mistake with that last group. I assumed that the players would loved what I loved about the game, but I forgot that they were brand new to this type of game. I should have looked back at my first sessions and thought about what kept me coming back week after week. It was the thrill of combat and rolling dice on the table. I grew to love the plots but I wanted to kill baddies at first. I was just like that third group.

The lesson I can give to DMs of all experience levels is this: Find out what your players want out of the game. They might enjoy a conspiracy filled campaign where no one is as they appear or they might just want to delve into a dungeon and kill things.