Gelatinous Cubed

To help contribute to this month's RPG Blog Carnival (hosted in July by 6d6fireball), I thought I'd resurrect an old rant I made on ENWorld about, simply, how awesome Dungeons and Dragons really is.

I suspect I'm preaching to the choir here, obviously, but I think there's some interesting ruminations in here that are still thoughtful.

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The game simply kicks ass. Having gone through the last three editions now with a diverse group of gamers reflecting a panoply of interests, it has given me some insight as to why it's so much darned fun. So check this out:

D&D, as a hobby, is pretty unique in its appeal and in what exactly it appeals to in us. It's a surprisingly synergistic combination of both left-brain and right-brain activities that are the reasons why we keep coming back to play, week after week, and why it holds such a cherished place in our hearts. To many of you these may seem obvious, but I felt the need to recognize them and write them down.

It's a common question, asked by co-workers, family members, or, God forbid, prospective dates. And it's a hard one to answer.

Not that the basic concept is terribly challenging to get across, but a well-meaning gamer usually wants to not only explain what the hobby's all about clearly and articulately, but appealingly. And that's actually kind of difficult.

RPG gaming (yes, I know that's redundant. Sorry) is somewhat of a unique hobby to describe - the actual activity is somewhere between boardgaming, collaborative story-telling, rolling dice, and doing your taxes. There really isn't anything else out there like it to compare it to.

Dungeon Mastering can be pretty challenging, and it certainly requires a variety of different skills. Not all of them are necessary, but I think they all help. Here's a run-down of all the skill-sets that come into play by a good Dungeon Master, in what I see as the order of importance:

1. Enthusiasm!
2. Improvisation (inspiration & creativity)
3. Reading player reaction (empathy)
4. Understanding of the rules (knowledge)
5. Game adjustment (versatility)
6. Social mediation (diplomacy)
7. Some discipline (organization)

Part of the intent of this site is to record my brainstorming online and share it with other interested gamers. I thought I'd start this with the rebuilding of an original adventure I created about five years ago for my gaming group that my brother, at the time, claimed to be some of the best gaming he'd ever played in.

The adventure took place in my home-brewed world of the Vespyrth Reach, which was basically a by-the-numbers Greyhawk clone built of a variety of nations (mapping to, of course, a variety of alignments) struggling to tame a raw and dangerous wilderness. There was nothing world-specific about this adventure, though, so it should be adaptable to anywhere.