D&D General The Best DM Advice Was Writren in 1981.

[Oofta]

Here's some more excellent DM advice, also from 1981 (from page 25 of the Expert Rulebook):
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There was a DM I really wish had read this advice. He was loyal to the random monster table which somehow inevitably meant that when we were crossing the street we'd be attacked by an ancient red dragon. I guess he was partially in our favor because we could always just leave our horses and cower in terror while the dragon ate the horses and left.

Got to the point where I just started naming all of my horses "Snackables".

 

[Sacrosanct]

There was a DM I really wish had read this advice. He was loyal to the random monster table which somehow inevitably meant that when we were crossing the street we'd be attacked by an ancient red dragon. I guess he was partially in our favor because we could always just leave our horses and cower in terror while the dragon ate the horses and left.

Got to the point where I just started naming all of my horses "Snackables".

Too bad that DM didn't read the introduction in the DMG either:

For example, the rules call for wandering monsters, but these can be
not only irritating - if not deadly - but the appearance of such con
actually spoil o gome by interfering with an orderly expedition

...

They are gathered together and eager to
spend an enjoyable evening playing their favorite game, with the expectation
of going to a new, strange area and doing their best to triumph.
They are willing to accept the hazards of the dice, be it loss of items,
wounding, insanity, disease, death, as long as the process is exciting. But
lo!, every time you throw the ”monster die” o wandering nasty is indicated,
and the party’s strength is spent trying to fight their way into the
area. Spells expended, battered and wounded, the characters trek back to
their base. Expectations have been dashed, and probably interest too, by
random chance. Rather than spoil such an otherwise enjoyable time, omit
the wandering monsters indicated by the die

 

[guachi]

Here's some more excellent DM advice, also from 1981 (from page 25 of the Expert Rulebook):

This is my single favorite piece of advice. It isn't just "do whatever you want" it's "pick a result from the range of relevant choices".

There may be any number of "plots" going on at once, and the DM should try to involve each player in some chain of events.

And this advice that Yora quotes is the hallmark of my favorite campaigns.

 

[Lyxen]

One of my favourite pieces from 1980, still more than valid today when you see some threads floating around and some people worshipping the RAW:

 

[CleverNickName]

The original DMG is riddled with advice about how you don't have to follow dice results if it ruins fun, or how you can ignore rules if it takes away from the fun experience, give the players the benefit of the doubt if they are trying their best (even preventing PC death!) and how trying to capture realism in D&D is a fool's errand. It repeats a common theme: use the rules when possible, but never forget the game is supposed to be about having fun.

And yet, so many self proclaimed grognards seem to keep forgetting those parts.

I can't speak for all self-avowed grognards, but I've certainly been guilty of this in the past (and I mean the recent past, too. Like, in the last 1d4 years.)

 

[Blue Orange]

There were tournaments which were obviously supposed to be brutal to allow someone to win. There was definitely a sense of the game being 'a game of skill' in the late-70s-early-80s era; you don't take pieces off the board in a chess game for narrative purposes, for instance.

Mostly, though, it kind of makes sense people would want to keep their players coming back, so fun would be more important than following the rules as written.

 

[Oofta]

There were tournaments which were obviously supposed to be brutal to allow someone to win. There was definitely a sense of the game being 'a game of skill' in the late-70s-early-80s era; you don't take pieces off the board in a chess game for narrative purposes, for instance.

Mostly, though, it kind of makes sense people would want to keep their players coming back, so fun would be more important than following the rules as written.

I think part of the issue is that people looked at the tournament mods and thought "this is how the game is supposed to be played" when really they were written for a very specific purpose. There's nothing wrong with killer dungeons now and then, but I definitely had DMs that took it to heart.

 

[darjr]

OK. I'll add something serious.

First, lots of folks didn't read the rule books and if they did, lots of it was skimmed and not committed to long term memory. How many times have you heard of folks going back and saying something like "I never knew this was in the DMG?!" or something similar. In fact this whole thread is kinda a testament to that.

Second, there was a sense from early TSR that other folks were doing it wrong. And usually in a way that made it sound like they thought DM's were too easy, too lenient, that campaigns were Monty Haul. Stated in ways that stuck in the memory of folks, like in the Strategic Review or Dragon Magazine or in other periodicals and zines. But also in things like Tomb of Horrors.

So I don't think it isn't any wonder that some folks think D&D should be.... tougher? That players need to "earn" things?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I can't speak for all self-avowed grognards, but I've certainly been guilty of this in the past (and I mean the recent past, too. Like, in the last 1d4 years.)

Oh sure. I have too in the past. But it seems recently there is a renewed effort by many in the OSR to claim WoTC is ruining the game by implementing advice that existed from day 1.

 

[DND_Reborn]

While having fun and enjoying the adventure is the first priority, as a DM I let the random encounter rolls fall where they may for the most part, only re-rolling if the encounter literally makes no sense.

One particular first random encounter for a multi-year AD&D 1E/2E game was an "very old" green dragon (I forget the actual age). The party, all 1st level, fled like most of the city, acting just to try to save people who otherwise would have been collateral damage. What was meant to be a random encounter became the entire first session, very much like Smaug attacking Laketown. However, the party had no part defeating the dragon--it was the clear victor--they were just about saving as many people as they could, along with themselves LOL.

Nearly 4 years later IRL, two of the surviving party members led the rest of their current group on an adventure to ultimately defeat the dragon!

So, what was an unplanned random encounter eventually turned into climax of one of the final adventures for this group of heroes.

I would add that the text on giving PCs clues for upcoming encounters using other senses, etc. is a great piece of advice for most DMs. This is often overlooked and I tell DMs when can it is one of the best tools IME for creating a more immersive game world. Plus since I do allow random encounters well beyond the power-level of the PCs, it helps them survive in such cases--unless they are foolhardy, in which case I'll TPK them without a second thought.