How Important Is Rules Knowledge In Being A Good D&D DM?

[satori01]

Certain things you need to have pat as a DM.

1) AoO, how they work and what causes them.
2)Basic 3.5 Formulas: Grapple is 1d20 +BAB +STR
Casting Defensivesly is Concentration check w/ DC =15+Spell level being cast.
and the Difference between Touch, and Flatfooted AC.
and what a player has to roll to beat SR.

Have a cheat sheet with the grapple rules, and the Condition modifers summarized. Both of those can printed from the SRD.

If you have those you can work on the fly.
The more prep time you have as a DM the better.

A lot of prep is easy. If you have a Cleric in the group, have a print out of the SRD summation of cleric turning handy.
If your players like to cast certain spells, be familiar with the
/Nacho Libre/ "Nity Gritty"/Nacho Libre/ of the spells.

Do not be afraid to look things up, but do so expeditiously.
Do not be afraid to let some rules slide by the way side if everyone forgets them, like say Death from Massive Damage.

A game session that runs smoothly that was 90% right in rules calls is better imho opinion than a game session that runs 98% accuracy with the rules but slowly.

SRD is your friend. Running a monster from the PHB that has improved grab, Cut n paste the Improved Grab rules right into the word doc print out of the monster.

Likewise do the same for spells with spell casters, or complex magic items.

A little prep with good use of the SRD can do wonders for boosting your effective mastery of the rules.

 

[Corsair]

I have neither a good sense of dramatic timing nor a tactical mind, and memorizing a 300 page hardcover (or two of them if you include parts of the DMG) is out of the question.

Except "memorizing a 300 page hardcover" is not what is needed. As long as you have the basics of combat and skill resolution down, you're fine. The main thing I must emphasize is that you should give yourself a quick refresher prior to each session.

Re-read the monster stat blocks of anything the players might encounter. Read how their special attacks work (improved grab, swallow whole, etc) ahead of time, so you aren't fumbling around. Read what spells they have memorized, and make a couple notes for yourself as a tactical cheat-sheet ahead of time. (Newer monster books are actually including this information, at least the MM4 did)

I'd also suggest learning to love the index. Post It notes in important or often referenced areas (such as the rules for grappling, Attacks of Opportunity, or anything else your group has trouble with) work wonders for shaving a few seconds off your time.

 

[Someone]

I'm not a fantastic DM by any means. I still have a long way to go in many aspects of the DM'ing craft.

Just like everybody else!

One area that I am slowly improving in, session by session, is rules knowledge. In the last year that I have been DM'ing I have found it to be one of the most important factors in being a good D&D DM (Please note the emphasis on D&D. I'm sure that rules knowledge is not as big a factor in being a good DM in many RPG's. However, I feel that it is very important in D&D.)

For example, there have been a couple of climactic final battles in my campaign to date. Some of them, especially the earlier ones, were flops. The PC's weren't really challenged at all as I underestimated what good tactics (which includes using your rules knowledge to your advantage) could achieve. One of them wasn't as challenging as it should have been because the main baddie was a caster. I don't have very good knowledge of what spells are the best to use in a given situation. As a result, the fight was a lot easier than it should have been.

In my experience, that has more to do with game experience that with rules knowledge. As you learn more about your players and they learn more about the game you'll instinctively learn to adjust the game to the group and avoid the spots where the rules fail. In a campaing I DMed, the players hardly knew the rules, but were nonetheless very good at designing strategies and tactics, and eyeballing when they could win and not. Similarly, with time you'll learn to adjust the challenges to your group - after all, the designers can't know who and how many they are, and the generic rules for encounters may give encounters not appropiate for your group, not to mention that they don't work well in some situations-

Poor rules knowledge can also slow the game down and make things boring for the players as the DM searches around, trying to figure out what the rules are for a given situation or action. Sure, you could just make an ad-hoc ruling on it but sometimes the rule may change the balance of the game. It may make some things more powerful than others. It may disadvantage some characters over others, resulting in some players not getting as much enjoyment out of the game.

So what do you think? Do you need good rules knowledge to be a good D&D DM or can you be just as good without really knowing the rules and just making ad-hoc decisions on the fly?

Olaf the Stout

I'm not saying anything new when I say D&D rules are simple, but detailed. The central rules are very easy (everything is just 1d20+mods must equal target number) but the number of modifiers and when are they conted may be complicated. The key is not to sweat about little details, re-read the monsters and spells you are going to use the next session and make sure you understand them and don't doubt on asking your players for some rule if you don't remember it on the spot. If any of them knows the rules better than you (and is an honest person), ask him to remind you if you overlook a rule.

And most important, don't worry too much about following exactly the rules. A little imbalance won't break your game, unless is very blatant, and that requires a serious misread. If you want my advice, start the campaing at level 1, core only, and proceed from there when you're comfortable with the rules.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

Rules knowledge

Some time ago I read an Interview with Monte Cook. He admitted that he often has to look up modifiers and such things in the rulebooks. If one of the Designers of the 3rd Ed. has to look up rules, nobody has to be ashamed if he does not know all the stuff.
What can help though is preparation, lots of preparation and then some.
My group has 5 players and their PCs are in level 12-13. The last mayor encounter took us 6 hours to play out (it involved 8 Demons, one 13th lvl. Cleric, one 15th level Sorcerer and an undead temple of Orcus). I usually spend 2 hours of preparation for every hour of playtime for an encounter. For the above encounter I prepared about 10 hours.
I look up all the abilities of the monsters, make notes of tactics. Look up the grappling rules (for the 100th time). Look up the spell like abilities and how the monster can use them best. Think what tactics the players will likely use and look up the rules involving these tactics (bullrush or strike an objekt fo example).
I think I have a fairly good knowledge of the rules but prparation helps me to run most encounters without mayor stopgaps.

 

[DragonLancer]

You only need a basic grasp of the rules, enough to know how the system works. Then only learn what you need to.

As an example, before my last campaign (Shackled City) I had never really bothered with the trip rules. Then one of my players went for a Half-Giant fighter specilised in tripping. So from that I have learnt the tripping rules.

 

[delericho]

Rules knowledge is a very important skill for the DM. However, of all the skills required to be a good DM, it is probably the least important. What's more, it is also the one that it is easiest to improve - just practice.

Far more important are the aspects of storytelling required for the game - characterisation, pacing, creating open-ended plots to avoid railroading, and so on. These are pretty difficult to learn, not least since just plotting the campaign like a TV show or novel won't work (due to player input). But, again, these can generally be learned through practice, and by watching other DMs at work. There are also some good books about such things that you can generally lift one or two ideas from.

And then there are the aspects involved in handling the table itself. In some ways, the DM has to act as an informal leader for the group, keeping off-topic conversations to an acceptable level (for everyone), keeping an eye on intra-player personality conflicts, keeping everyone awake, etc. These are probably the hardest of all, since these are your friends (usually), and you have no actual authority, so have to exercise a light touch. This is made most tricky because you can't learn by practice - make a bad mistake, and you're likely to find yourself without a group, and minus a few friends as well.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Knowing the rules is important. It's part of the good DM's toolbox.

Three tips:
1. Have players look up and reference the page of something that they want to use in advance if it's not commonly done. Tripping, for example. Then they can give you the book or read the cite depending on your preference.

2. Have a one-minute rule. If you can't find a rule in one minute, make a judgment call and move on. Agree to revisit the rule question later, and not to penalize a player harshly if you got it wrong. Example: someone died because of your ruling. You decide they had actually stabilized at -1 because you got a damage call wrong and appeared to be dead.

3. Variation on #2 but equally important. Delegate a rules lookup to a player if you need to know an outcome, but not to adjudicate on the fly. This works well because you can keep the fight moving while you put the folks around the table to work for you. It doesn't work well if the particular result is going to be critical. Example: the BBEG is next, and the attack action might prevent/eliminate his action.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

It really depends on your group..

I have played under DM's that were complete noob's and didn't know the basics of the rule-set, but since some players had rules mastery and were willing to prop up the GM's story line the game went great.

I have played under DM's that knew the rules forwards and backwards, but couldn't adjust to unforseen character actions...the famous "I go left!".... That game didn't last long.

IMHO, it is important that someone at the table is familiar with the commonly occuring rules and is willing to support the game with that knowledge. Preferably that person is the GM.

With 3.x, understanding the core concept of the game makes the rules much easier. In the PHB there is a section about settting DC's.. 5 is easy, etc..
FOr most of the skill checks out there, this table of difficulty can sub for the skill descriptions. Open lock? that door is really difficult to open, I would even say it would be a formidible task... hm, thats DC 25!

But the biggest advantage of understanding the rules is being able to gauge the useability of house rules or 3d party supplements. Noob DM's get bit by new mechanics that have a loophole in them, while DM's that have a better understanding of the rules will spot that before they allow it in play.

And I agree with Varianor Abroad's tips..

 

[Shadowslayer]

Rules knowledge is a very important skill for the DM. However, of all the skills required to be a good DM, it is probably the least important.

Disagreed. Not for D&D. And not if you're trying to keep to the RAW.

Of course, if the RAW falls to the wayside and you handwave a lot, then you'd be correct.

 

[Psion]

I think it largely depends on the playstyle of all involved... some expect a certain degree of rules adherence.

At the very least, if you don't know the rules, you should know how to be self consistent and know how to apply the system basics in an ad-hoc manner, else I anticipate you will run into problems.