Hiya!
Sure, but there is a big problem with that line of reasoning. If that is what makes B2 a great module, then surely B1: In Search of Adventure is even better, as certainly it does even more to encourage the fledgling DM to stretch their wings and make up their own unique world. Page 2 does not address the fundamental problem that a novice DM has at this point in his career. That problem is that he does not yet know how to make stuff up. Encountering an exhortation to make stuff up is therefore useless, as the novice DM must immediately ask, "How?", and the text does not give a good answer. The only actual tutorial the DM has on what to make up at this point is the text of the module itself, which suggests, "Make up more stuff like this." Therefore, it is very much in the interest of the game and the budding DM's education, that the module present something that is actually really well done, so as to provide a template for all that future imagination. But B2 doesn't do that. It instead presents something fairly unimaginative, incoherent, repetitive, and one dimensional.
I still think I generally get what you are saying...it's just that we disagree on it.
If you are saying "The module doesn't help the fledgeling DM design new wilderness areas because there is no talk of it, nor is there a table or two, nor is there any guidelines on what creatures should/could be in what terrain"...which I think you are...then
I AGREE WITH YOU. However...in my experience and in my view, having a rough drawn wilderness map with 4 "encounter areas" and a lot of empty space is just BETTER at teaching someone how to "make stuff up" in regards to being a DM. When a newbie DM is asked to do so, and immediately asks him/her self "How?", they will likely do what I did. Look at the rule book, look at the module, extrapolate from there, play the game. As the game progresses the DM will encounter situations that simply are not covered anywhere (rules or module). The DM then takes what little knowledge they have and adjudicates the situation. Rinse, repeat. After a year or so the DM should have enough confidence and capability to run a game completely "on the fly". The DM will run his/her game with his/her particular style. I ran the game different than my friend Chris, and we both ran the game different than my father did. All three of us, however, had learned 'how to DM'.
As I said...I do think I get where you are coming from. I just disagree with your assessment of what is the best way to teach someone how to DM. My preference is very much a 'toss him into the deep end'. Yours seems to be a more step-by-step progression of examples. And, I just think the whole 'toss him into the deep end' approach just works FAR better for teaching someone how to DM.
Look, you are wrong in every particular. B2 wasn't written in 1975, but in 1979. By the time 1979 rolled around, not only had lots of people done things with grander conception and better execution than B2, but so had Gary Gygax. Gary had already written S1 Tomb of Horrors (1975!!), S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (1976), S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojanth (1976), T1 Village of Homlett, and most critically the entire GDQ adventure path. So yes, adventure paths were already a thing, if in a primitive form, at least out there. But Gygax himself though he'd already produced several real master pieces and better work than B2 (some of it not yet published) had been surpassed as a writer of modules. Paul Jaquays by this point had written under the Judge's Guild title, 'Caverns of Thracia' and was coming out with the equally remarkable 'Dark Tower'. Moreover, Laura Hickman had already written Rahasia, and her husband Tracy had written 'Pharoah'. So by 1979, lots of people - including Gary Gygax - had written much more sophisticated adventures than B2 which also were better templates or 'how to guides' to a novice DM than 'Keep on the Borderlands'.
OK, thanks for the reminder.
I wasn't thinking of the module in regards to all that had/was out. My bad. However, with the Moldvay box set, it came with B2 (iirc, after the first printing? not sure on that...it was a while ago after all!
). And, if someone was going to learn DM'ing with B2 or with Rahasia...imho, B2 is the better choice due in large part to its distinct lack of "specific story". Again...I think we just disagree with what is a better teaching method for new DM's.
So, to the point, Keep on the Borderlands doesn't actually teach a DM how to do the DM stuff you say it does.
And I say that yes, it does. It does NOT "hold your hand" and explain every thing. I contend that is a
good thing! It "teaches" a DM to
think about stuff in a more broader "campaign as a whole" way than a "logical story progression for this single adventure" way.
But, as I said many times before...I think we just disagree on what is a 'good' way to teach someone how to DM.
There are things, previously mentioned, that are cool that the text does teach (evocative fantasy setting, interactive rooms with secrets to find, etc.) but what it does not in fact teach is the very thing you claim makes it great - how to invent and expand on a setting. That it needs to be expanded on is unquestioned, but in point of fact it only demands that it be expanded on without really giving good guidance on how to do so. In fact, quite often if you take the text seriously it actually gives either no advice or terrible advice on dealing with the sort of problems that will inevitably arise in the play of the adventure, to the extent that it will even quell the very invention you claim it encourages.
I would say 'just read my last sentence above again'. It
does teach how to invent and expand on a setting, but it does so in a way you disagree with. It presents a small little micro-cosm of civilization and wilderness. This is an example. This example is intended to be used by a new DM to do that inventing and expanding. As the DM does that inventing and expanding, he/she
will run into things that have them scratching their heads.To me, this is a
good thing. It is not a failing, it is a strength. It forces a DM to make decisions based on their own understanding up to that point. All of these decisions...for good or bad...is the very meat of "how to DM".
I do agree that some of the advice isn't very good (the whole "give the PC's potions of healing...a gift from a family member" thing just does NOT work out in the long run!). But the majority of the advice and module is good...from my POV at any rate.
For example, one problem that will inevitably arise with a novice DM and a novice party running B2 is the party will wander off the edge of the map. You might suppose from your words that the module then encourages the DM to simply continue inventing, drawing new caverns, new villages, new lairs, and towers and populating them with challenges and treasure. But it doesn't. What it mostly encourages the DM to do is "get the players back on track" by employing invisible forcefields, talking animals that tell the players that they are going the wrong way, and devices of that sort. Isn't that the very thing you are claiming is a bad way to teach DM'ing?
The part you are referring to is on page 12, "Adventures Outside the Keep". The beginning of that section sets the scope; "Naturally, they will be trying to find the Caves of Chaos, but this will take some travelling...". If the goal of the players (and the DM) for that session is to find the Caves of Chaos, then sure...go for it. What I learned from this was simple: It's a game, so if everyone wants to delve into the dungeons, and they start to wander off the map...just tell them so. "Guys, you're going off the map if you keep heading east". That is the best and most effective way of "not wasting time" when everyone wants to find the caves and go into them. Of course, it's also appropriate for the DM to just hand wave the wondering and say "After four days of travel and searching, you find the caves...here...[marks on map]".
In this regard, again, I agree with you that it could have been better handled. It still works just fine though, even if you use the examples given "A talking magpie says: Caves of the Beast, head to the East, eerRRAAWKKK". Some DM's will keep using this and it will become normal for their group. Other DM's won't like it and will find other methods.
The problem here is that before we can even talk about this successfully, I have to rudely stomp on the hubris underlying your whole argument, which is that I don't get it and you and I have different ways of DM'ing. How the heck do you know how I DM? Look "Keep on the Borderlands" doesn't just suck from a "logical story progression" perspective, but also from a "how to build a setting to explore" perspective. Certainly you can build a great setting that also happens to have the Caves of Chaos and a the Keep on the Borderlands in it, but the module doesn't in fact tell you how to do this. It just sort of assumes that you can, asks you to do so, but provides little or no internal help as to how to get there and in fact - if you just have the text as a guide - repeatedly leads you down the wrong path.
I don't think we are going to be able to talk about this successfully either.
I don't know how you DM. I'm telling you how I DM and how I learned to DM and that I think learning how to DM the way I learned to DM is a good, solid, and superior way to learn the craft. As I've been trying to say...
NO,
B2 does not, in fact, tell you how to do X, Y and Z! But you claiming that because it doesn't explain how to do X, Y and Z that it is somehow "bad" at teaching someone how to DM just doesn't make sense to me.
Teaching me how to disarm a grenade? YES! I most definitely want a "Do X, then do Y, then do Z". Teaching me how to paint a bowl of fruit? NO! I most definitely DO NOT want a "Do X, then do Y, then do Z". ... ... Obviously I see the whole "teaching" and "learning" of how to be a good and effective Dungeon Master as more of an Art than of a Science.
^_^
Paul L. Ming