How to be a Good Dungeon Master

Being a DM is not for everyone. Being a successful DM requires a significant commitment of time and energy, and it should be stressed that being a DM for a persistent world server is often radically different from DMing a PnP game.

DMing isn’t easy, but it is rewarding. From creating the plots and adventures that shape the world experienced by our players, to helping manage the community itself, the DM plays a critical role in the success of ALFA. DMs have the opportunity to interact with scores of ALFAns, both players and other DMs, across entire servers. Instead of being responsible for a single PC, DMs will be concerned with numerous factions, PCs, NPCs and plot lines, and this brings with it a broader appreciation of the in-game dramatics that make Persistent Worlds compelling.

Some DMs will have PnP experience; some will have come to D&D only through CRPGs; some will have never played any form of the game than NWN2. Here is a rundown of some of the most common problems a new DM faces.

Technical Understanding

In other words knowledge of the DM interface, placeable/item properties and spell effects that NWN uses and how to apply them ingame at a moments notice. How to move yourself and the Players around the environment, spawn creatures, create treasure and possess NPC's is a valid start. Understanding the basic mechanics of the d20 system NWN uses is essential for skill and ability rolls that the Player may make outside of combat. As outside of combat and coded in events, your going to be the final arbiter on what that roll achieves.

Understanding D&D

A lot of DMing revolves around your knowledge of Faerun, often a put off for those without grounding in PnP rulebooks and the like. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts on this front. Browsing through the History Of Faerun and whatever documentation is relevant to your servers area can be time consuming but is very rewarding during play. While the impetus often falls on the players to play their roles, remember that your playing the role of the entire backdrop.

Your World - Our World

The tripping point often found by the unwary PnP DM's foot is this particular concept. You could run apocalyptic end of the world plots easly enough when it was your world, made up mostly of drawings, canon and your own imagination. In ALFA the setting is grounded in the areas made with painstaking toil, who's physical properties are governed by code rather than your imagination, and is under the control of several DM's at once. Ensure your ideas are feasable within such an environment.

Example: Apocalyptic plots are usually the worse case scenario, certainly they provide great impetus for the PC's to succeed, but what if they don't? Effectively the basis for motivating the PC's is an elaborate bluff, as you cannot simply end the server if they fail. In other words the credibility of your plot will fall through the moment a Player calls that bluff. Bad situation for DM, Player and Suspension of Disbelief, avoid it.

Teams

You will be part of a team of DM's in ALFA, so communication of your plots and ideas needs to stretch beyond your mind. Nothing becomes more frustrating than DM's running plots at odds to one another. While many of your choices made in-game will be of necessity reactions to players, it is always good policy to inform and work with your Team on pre-session planing.

Players

PnP players are a captive audience; ALFA players exist independently of any single DM. In other words, they can leave your plot whenever it moves them to do so. While this is by no means the common reaction to danger and adventure amongst Players, the urge to simply flee from a plot which threatens and challenges them is a present force to be contended with. Again, good communication with your DM team and those of neighboring servers will serve you best when dealing with such a wayward audience.

Take a Break - Persistence

ALFA is a Persistent World, where players may interact at any time; PnP interaction is limited to DMd environments. Simply put, much of what is D&D just doesn't work when jammed into the constantly changing persistent environment. While some groups may be perfectly content to take a break from playing in the middle of a dungeon, it is often the case that a DM must shorten such excursions to match the time they and the players have available. Working around such time restrictions is often half the battle when dealing with large groups, particularly ones from around the globe. So make sure your schedule is well known to your players and just what sort of time management they are prepared to accept.

Roleplaying the Unseen

Make very sure that all the areas you will need for your adventures are in the module. A particular useful tip is to have various blank areas prepared for the random turns a plot may take, just add placables and NPC's and off you go. As a NWN DM, its often your role to fill in gaps that the game engine leaves.

Level Disparity

All to often this comes up with such a multitude of players. The bored 10th level and their puny 1st level friends. In these cases a DM is often better off with intellectual puzzles, hazardous environments and other tools which level the playing field a little for all concerned. However while not placing the 1st levels in situations they could not possibly deal with is good policy, it can defeat the purpose of higher level Players character. It is often better policy to contain groups of similar level under one DM and one Plot to avoid such messy entanglements.

These differences may seem obvious, but some of the greatest difficulties faced by ALFA in the past have arisen from DMs (and players) not paying them sufficient heed. This Guide will highlight in more detail such situations where these tensions can be commonly found – and try and suggest approaches to ameliorate them.