The Dungeon Master: A Job Description

Being a Dungeon Master (DM) is a pretty big job. It can be frustrating and time-consuming. It can also be very rewarding if the DM is up for the challenge. A DM must create an entire world (or memorize one that has already been published) and a story that the players can inhabit. The DM must have a fair understanding of some basic mathematical ideas as well as a complete grasp of the entire rule-book for the game he/she is running. Finally, the DM must be a councilor and a guide, willing to help players fulfill their dreams through the characters they play.

Basically, a DM must be able to create intimate encounters within a larger story. This means creating a believable and consistent setting in which magic, monsters, villains and heroes can be safely placed. This basically means creating a "world" along with believable inhabitants, physics (and metaphysics), cultures, economics, geography and everything else that a world needs. During the actual game sessions, the DM must display encyclopedic knowledge of the game setting, keeping details straight, not only for himself but for the players themselves--without which the players will flounder.

Then, the DM must be able to accurately judge the relative chances his/her players have to succeed in certain circumstances. That is, the DM must know the rules of the game well enough to balance encounters and obstacles as to avoid killing off the party, or making it seem like there's no chance at all for failure (both of which will destroy a well-devised campaign). This is especially important when we use NWN to play through a campaign, because NWN is not as forgiving as a live, table-top game. A solid understanding of basic probabilities theory is a must: (bell-curves, averages, equipartition, "Gambler's Ruin", etc. [even if he/she doesn't know exactly what these terms refer to, a good DM should be able to calculate, at least roughly, the chance of a given fighter of a given level with a given weapon to defeat a given opponent]). The goal here is to make the campaign easy enough to for your PC group to get through, but difficult enough to make it challenging.

Finally, a DM must have a number of social and managerial skills sufficient to the task of entertaining and managing small groups of very creative people. Role-players invest a lot into the characters they play and it's the DM's job to encourage that in every one of the players. The DM must have the patience to teach players about his/her world and help them to create characters that would fit into the DM's over-all story, finding ways, where appropriate, to fit the player's vision of the campaign. It also may mean helping to settle differences between players.

A DM is a referee, telling players what areas are out of bounds (say, which races are playable) and arbitrate rules in a fair and consistent manner. He or she is the leader of the campaign, inspiring, co-ordinating and facilitating the activities of the players. In the end, the DM is largely responsible for the success or failure of a campaign because so much rests on his/her shoulders.