Post by Xxsuperheroxx on Feb 15, 2023 17:46:25 GMT -6
What follws herein is strictly for the eyes of you, the campaign referee. As the creator and ultimate authority in your respective game, this work is written as one Dungeon Master equal to another. Pronouncements there may be, but they are not from "on high" as respects your game. Dictums are given for the sake of the game only, for if ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is to survive and grow, it must have some degree of uniformity, a familiarity of method and procedure from campaign to campaign within the whole. ADVANCED D&D is more than a framework around which individual DMs construct their respective milieux, it is above all a set of boundaries for all of the "worlds" devised by referees everywhere, these boundaries are broad and specious, and there are numerous areas where they are amorphous as to make them nearly nonexistent, but they are there nonetheless.
When you build your campaign you will tailor it to suit your personal tastes, in the heat of play it will slowly evolve into a compound of your personality and those of your better participants, a superior alloy. And as long as your campaign remains viable, it will continue a slow process of change and growth. In this lies a great danger, however. The systems and parameters contained in the whole of AVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS are based on a great deal of knowledge, experience gained through discussion, play, testing, questioning, and (hopefully), personal insight.
Limitations, checks, balances, and all the rest are placed into the system in order to assure that what is based thereon will be a superior campaign, a campaign which offers the most interesting play possibilities to the greatest number of participants for the longest period of time possible. You, as referee, will have to devote countless hours of real effort in order to produce just a fledgling campaign, viz. a background for the whole, some small village or town, and a reasoned series of dungeon levels - the lot of which must be suitable for elaboration and expansion on a periodic basis. To obtain real satisfaction from such effort, you must have participants who will make use of your creations: players to learn the wonders and face the perils you have devised for them. If it is all too plain and easy, the players will quickly lose interest, and your effort will prove to have been in vain. Likewise, if the campaign is too difficult, players will quickly become discouraged and lose interest in a game where they are always the butt; again your labors will have been for naught. These facts are of prime importance, for they underlie many rules.
Naturally, everything possible cannot be included in the whole of this work. As a participant in the game, I would not care to have anyone telling me exactly what must go into a campaign and how it must be handled; if so, why not play some game like chess? As the author I also realize that there are limits to my creativity and imagination. Others will think of things I didn't, and advise things beyond my capability. As an active Dungeon Master I kept a careful watch for things which would tend to complicate matters without improving them, systems devised seemingly to make the game drag for players, rules which lessen the fantastic and unexpected in favor of the mundane and ordinary. As if that were not enough hats to wear, I also wore that of a publisher, watching the work as to make sure that it did not grow so large as to become unmanageable cost-wise. None of this was compromise, pre se, but the process was certainly a refining of what should logically be presented in the system.
Returning again to the framework aspect of ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, what is aimed at is a "universe" into which similar campaigns and parallel worlds can be placed. With certain uniformity of systems and "laws", players will be able to move from one campaign to another and know at least the elements principles which govern the new milieu, for all milieux will have certain (but not necessarily the same) laws in common. Character races and classes will be nearly the same. Character ability scores will have the identical means - or nearly so. Magic spells will function in a certain manner regardless of which world the player is functioning in. Magic devices will certainly vary, but their principles will be similar. This uniformity will help not only players, it will enable DMs to carry on a meaningful dialogue and exchange of useful information. It might also eventually lead to grand tournaments wherein persons from any part of the U.S., or the world for that matter, can compete for accolades.
The danger of a mutable system is that you or your players will go too far in some undesirable direction and end up with a short-lived campaign. Participants will aways be punished for a game which allows them to become strong and powerful far too quickly. Each will attempt to take the game out of your hands and mold it to his or her own ends. To satisfy this natural desire is to issue a death warrant to a campaign, for it will either be a one-player affair or the players will desert en masse for something more challenging and equitable. Similarly, you must avoid the tendency to drift into areas foreign to the game as a whole. Such campaigns become so strange as to be no longer AD&D. They are isolated and will usually wither. Variation and difference are desirable, But both should be kept within the boundaries of the overall system. Imaginative and creative addition can most certainly be included; that is why nebulous areas have been built into the game. Keep such individuality in perspective by developing a unique and detailed world based on the rules of ADVANCED D&D. No two campaigns will ever be the same, but all will have the same common ground necessary to maintaining the whole as a viable entity about which you and your players can communicate with the many thousands of others who also find swords & sorcery role playing games as an amusing and enjoyable pastime.
As this book is the exclusive precinct of the DM, you must view any non-DM player possessing it as something less than worthy of honorable death. Pepping players there will undoubtedly be, but they are simply lessening their own enjoyment of the game by taking away some of the sense of wonder that otherwise arises from a game which has rules hidden from participants. It is in your interest, and in theirs, to discourage possession of this book by players. If any of your participants do read herein, it is suggested that you assess them a heavy fee for consulting "sages" and other sources of information not normally attainable by the inhabitants of your milieu. If they express knowledge which could only be garnered by consulting these pages, a magic item or two can be taken as payment - insufficient, but perhaps it will tend to discourage such actions.
I sincerely hope that you find this new system to your taste and enjoy it. The material is herein, but only you can construct the masterpiece from it, your personal campaign which will bring hundreds of hours of fun and excitement to many eager players. Masterful dungeoning to you!
Credits & acknowledgments
The following is an alphabetical list of all those persons who in some way contributed to the formation of this work. Naturally, each did not make an identical contribution, and those with whom I normally play AD&D, as well as those kind enough to review the initial manuscript, had more influence and engendered more ideas than did those others with whom I do not Have the privilege of continued close association or contact. Nonetheless, all are herewith credited and thanked, that each will know what his or her own contribution was! Dave Arneson, Peter Arneson, Brain Blame, Mike Carr, Sean Cleary, Jean-Louis Fiasson, Erie (the well-known Barbarian) Gygax, Luke Gygax, Al Hammack, Neal Healey, Tom Holsinger, Harold Johnson, Timothy Jones, Tim Kask, Rich Krebs, Len Lakofka, Jeff Leason, Steve Marsh, Schar Niebling, Will Niebling, Jon Pickens, Gregory Rihn, John Sapienza, Lawrence Schick, Doug Schwegman, Dennis Sustare, Jack Vance, James M. Ward, Jean Wells, and Skip Williams.
Also to be thanked are those uncounted DMs and players who have been eager to improve advanced gaming and have spent their valuable time to give me the benefit of their thinking by letter or through personal contact at conventions. Your efforts to find ways to do things better, to point out ambiguities or flaws, and general desire to aid and encourage me are appreciated!
Bob Bledsaw of Judges Guild must also be given credit. He and his associates have certainly contributed to the overall improvement of fantasy adventure gaming, making the undertaking easier and encouraging still more interest in role playing.
Finally, no list of credits would be complete unless I especially thanked the artists who have been so much help with the entire compilation of ADVAVCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. These artists are Dave Sutherland and Dave Trampier. Thank you, gentlemen!
If by any chance I have neglected anyone, please forgive me as the task of finishing the DUNGEON MASTER GUIDE has taken some two years; and during that time I have read hundreds of pages of suggestions, done thousands of pages of research, and written about twelve hundred pages of manuscripts. A job begun in 1976, often interrupted, has at last been completed. Notes made months or years ago have a way of getting lost in the last minute rush at the finish.
Gary Gygax 1979
When you build your campaign you will tailor it to suit your personal tastes, in the heat of play it will slowly evolve into a compound of your personality and those of your better participants, a superior alloy. And as long as your campaign remains viable, it will continue a slow process of change and growth. In this lies a great danger, however. The systems and parameters contained in the whole of AVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS are based on a great deal of knowledge, experience gained through discussion, play, testing, questioning, and (hopefully), personal insight.
Limitations, checks, balances, and all the rest are placed into the system in order to assure that what is based thereon will be a superior campaign, a campaign which offers the most interesting play possibilities to the greatest number of participants for the longest period of time possible. You, as referee, will have to devote countless hours of real effort in order to produce just a fledgling campaign, viz. a background for the whole, some small village or town, and a reasoned series of dungeon levels - the lot of which must be suitable for elaboration and expansion on a periodic basis. To obtain real satisfaction from such effort, you must have participants who will make use of your creations: players to learn the wonders and face the perils you have devised for them. If it is all too plain and easy, the players will quickly lose interest, and your effort will prove to have been in vain. Likewise, if the campaign is too difficult, players will quickly become discouraged and lose interest in a game where they are always the butt; again your labors will have been for naught. These facts are of prime importance, for they underlie many rules.
Naturally, everything possible cannot be included in the whole of this work. As a participant in the game, I would not care to have anyone telling me exactly what must go into a campaign and how it must be handled; if so, why not play some game like chess? As the author I also realize that there are limits to my creativity and imagination. Others will think of things I didn't, and advise things beyond my capability. As an active Dungeon Master I kept a careful watch for things which would tend to complicate matters without improving them, systems devised seemingly to make the game drag for players, rules which lessen the fantastic and unexpected in favor of the mundane and ordinary. As if that were not enough hats to wear, I also wore that of a publisher, watching the work as to make sure that it did not grow so large as to become unmanageable cost-wise. None of this was compromise, pre se, but the process was certainly a refining of what should logically be presented in the system.
Returning again to the framework aspect of ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, what is aimed at is a "universe" into which similar campaigns and parallel worlds can be placed. With certain uniformity of systems and "laws", players will be able to move from one campaign to another and know at least the elements principles which govern the new milieu, for all milieux will have certain (but not necessarily the same) laws in common. Character races and classes will be nearly the same. Character ability scores will have the identical means - or nearly so. Magic spells will function in a certain manner regardless of which world the player is functioning in. Magic devices will certainly vary, but their principles will be similar. This uniformity will help not only players, it will enable DMs to carry on a meaningful dialogue and exchange of useful information. It might also eventually lead to grand tournaments wherein persons from any part of the U.S., or the world for that matter, can compete for accolades.
The danger of a mutable system is that you or your players will go too far in some undesirable direction and end up with a short-lived campaign. Participants will aways be punished for a game which allows them to become strong and powerful far too quickly. Each will attempt to take the game out of your hands and mold it to his or her own ends. To satisfy this natural desire is to issue a death warrant to a campaign, for it will either be a one-player affair or the players will desert en masse for something more challenging and equitable. Similarly, you must avoid the tendency to drift into areas foreign to the game as a whole. Such campaigns become so strange as to be no longer AD&D. They are isolated and will usually wither. Variation and difference are desirable, But both should be kept within the boundaries of the overall system. Imaginative and creative addition can most certainly be included; that is why nebulous areas have been built into the game. Keep such individuality in perspective by developing a unique and detailed world based on the rules of ADVANCED D&D. No two campaigns will ever be the same, but all will have the same common ground necessary to maintaining the whole as a viable entity about which you and your players can communicate with the many thousands of others who also find swords & sorcery role playing games as an amusing and enjoyable pastime.
As this book is the exclusive precinct of the DM, you must view any non-DM player possessing it as something less than worthy of honorable death. Pepping players there will undoubtedly be, but they are simply lessening their own enjoyment of the game by taking away some of the sense of wonder that otherwise arises from a game which has rules hidden from participants. It is in your interest, and in theirs, to discourage possession of this book by players. If any of your participants do read herein, it is suggested that you assess them a heavy fee for consulting "sages" and other sources of information not normally attainable by the inhabitants of your milieu. If they express knowledge which could only be garnered by consulting these pages, a magic item or two can be taken as payment - insufficient, but perhaps it will tend to discourage such actions.
I sincerely hope that you find this new system to your taste and enjoy it. The material is herein, but only you can construct the masterpiece from it, your personal campaign which will bring hundreds of hours of fun and excitement to many eager players. Masterful dungeoning to you!
Credits & acknowledgments
The following is an alphabetical list of all those persons who in some way contributed to the formation of this work. Naturally, each did not make an identical contribution, and those with whom I normally play AD&D, as well as those kind enough to review the initial manuscript, had more influence and engendered more ideas than did those others with whom I do not Have the privilege of continued close association or contact. Nonetheless, all are herewith credited and thanked, that each will know what his or her own contribution was! Dave Arneson, Peter Arneson, Brain Blame, Mike Carr, Sean Cleary, Jean-Louis Fiasson, Erie (the well-known Barbarian) Gygax, Luke Gygax, Al Hammack, Neal Healey, Tom Holsinger, Harold Johnson, Timothy Jones, Tim Kask, Rich Krebs, Len Lakofka, Jeff Leason, Steve Marsh, Schar Niebling, Will Niebling, Jon Pickens, Gregory Rihn, John Sapienza, Lawrence Schick, Doug Schwegman, Dennis Sustare, Jack Vance, James M. Ward, Jean Wells, and Skip Williams.
Also to be thanked are those uncounted DMs and players who have been eager to improve advanced gaming and have spent their valuable time to give me the benefit of their thinking by letter or through personal contact at conventions. Your efforts to find ways to do things better, to point out ambiguities or flaws, and general desire to aid and encourage me are appreciated!
Bob Bledsaw of Judges Guild must also be given credit. He and his associates have certainly contributed to the overall improvement of fantasy adventure gaming, making the undertaking easier and encouraging still more interest in role playing.
Finally, no list of credits would be complete unless I especially thanked the artists who have been so much help with the entire compilation of ADVAVCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. These artists are Dave Sutherland and Dave Trampier. Thank you, gentlemen!
If by any chance I have neglected anyone, please forgive me as the task of finishing the DUNGEON MASTER GUIDE has taken some two years; and during that time I have read hundreds of pages of suggestions, done thousands of pages of research, and written about twelve hundred pages of manuscripts. A job begun in 1976, often interrupted, has at last been completed. Notes made months or years ago have a way of getting lost in the last minute rush at the finish.
Gary Gygax 1979