Greetings

Welcome to Mastering Dungeons!

What is this blog about?

MD is my blog about being a Dungeon Master (or Game Master, depending on your preferred nomenclature). I am currently running a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign and thought that having a resource for new (or old!) DMs looking for tips and tricks would be helpful.

I see, how are you going to organize this blog?

MD will have several types of posts.
-One main thread will be "Follow the Campaign: [Campaign name here]" where I rehash the events of the most recent sessions of D&D with my group.
-A second series will be "DMing 101": opinion pieces I write zooming in on specific topics. These can range from world building to NPC interaction to house rules.
-I may come up with more types of series as time goes!

So, why should we even trust you? Who says you even know what you're talking about?

The best thing about the internet is that there are so many resources to choose from. Maybe you listen to a D&D podcast that really clicks with you. The best way to find out if you think this blog will be useful is to read it and see what you think of the posts. That being said, here is some background on my roleplaying chops
-Started 2nd edition with my parents when I was maybe 10 years old
-Played in and ran several 3rd edition campaigns with friends in high school
-Ran a 3.5 campaign for a new group in college
-Ran and played several 4th edition campaigns for the same group in college
-Ran 4th edition campaigns for my current gaming group
-Ran various one-shot non D&D games for my current gaming group
-Ran Pathfinder for my current gaming group, a regularly played game lasting nearly two years
-Starting a 5th edition campaign for my current group

Oh, cool. So, what kind of DM would you say you are?

My college group was certainly very hack and slash style of gaming. I viewed the games I ran for them as elaborate mini-series. The players were free to make their choices, but they were relatively predictable. Some would say this occurs because of a DM "railroading", forcing a game to follow a certain path. In this instance, it was a matter of knowing my players - what they wanted was a linear game with a decent story to usher them along.
After college, my current gaming group and I got together and found that 4th edition did not really satisfy us. We let some time pass before picking up Pathfinder  and giving that a shot. We fell in love with roleplaying again. My style adapted to be more open to player pursuits. What I tend to do is write skeleton adventures and paths. I suspect my players will follow about 80-90% of them, because it IS still generally predictable where they want to go and what they want to do, but I fill out a lot of details about how this happens WHILE we play. In this sense, I consider myself to be a relatively improvisational DM, which is something I will discuss in future posts.

I hope you enjoy the blog!