Rodney Thompson Looks Behind The Screen

WotC's Rodney Thompson is the author of the first in a new series of articles on the official D&D website, "a regular column by Dungeon Masters for Dungeon Masters that presents helpful tips for use in your D&D campaign." The first article looks at the creation of an adventure cheat/prep sheet, incuding the adventure, interludes, character arcs, encounters, and more.

You can read it here. Additionally, check out the DM Support Group video below!

[video=youtube;teHtEpCk64Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHtEpCk64Y#t=123[/video]
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[GMforPowergamers]

It's not going to hit my top ten things I need, but it would have been helpful 15 or so years ago. I think it is a great start to the new DM articles...

 

[Gecko85]

Good article for new DMs. If you're not a new DM, the article is not for you. Move along.

I would have loved articles like this when I was starting out.

 

[Roger]

I like the idea of it. Prep is one of those things that tends to be really personal to individual DMs, has been my experience. Certainly room enough here for people to talk about their particular preferences.

 

[turkeygiant]

Good article for new DMs. If you're not a new DM, the article is not for you. Move along.

I would have loved articles like this when I was starting out.

Maybe they should split this series of articles up into two separate series, one with basic tips for new DMs and one with more advanced tips for experienced DMs. I was just kinda expecting more in-depth/outside the box DM advise like what you see over on the MtG site, or even like what the Kobold Press guys post in their blog.

 

[Eilserus]

This might just be me, but they need to bring back Forging the Realms articles. And add in Forging versions for Greyhawk, Darksun etc. in their own columns. That way we'd see some coverage until/if books are released for campaign settings.

 

[JTorres]

My guess is these articles will evolve into more complex pieces as time goes on. The hint dropped at the beginning of the article about guest columnists from outside the walls of WotC makes me think we'll see articles from many of their past designers and I'm assuming those will be a bit beefier than the initial offering. For now, this is a good start not just for new DMs but people like myself who recently got back into D&D after a very long hiatus. I would have liked to have seen a template based on Rodney's set-up offered but that's just me being lazy; it'd be easy enough to put something like this together.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I thought the article was ok. I'm more interested in seeing a DM house rules style article; what house rules they use, why they use them, how they change their game.

 

[Dausuul]

Good article for new DMs. If you're not a new DM, the article is not for you. Move along.

Or, y'know, read it anyway because it's got some really good ideas that you maybe haven't seen before. I'm definitely going to be using some of this.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I thought the article was ok. I'm more interested in seeing a DM house rules style article; what house rules they use, why they use them, how they change their game.

That type of article is going to be more for the Unearthed Arcana column. Find the link to the Ebberon article, and you'll see in the bold "what this column is for" they seem to be doing for a standard opening paragraph, they mention it there. This column is just doing what it says on the tin... tips for DMs, not variant rules.

 

[Gecko85]

Or, y'know, read it anyway because it's got some really good ideas that you maybe haven't seen before. I'm definitely going to be using some of this.

Yeah, I liked it too...I should probably re-word that, but didn't want to be snide (per the warning earlier in the thread). How about "If you're not a new DM, know everything there is to know about DM-ing, and know there's no possible way you could learn anything new, the article is not for you. Move along." Better?