DMing Styles

The first game of D&D I played was run by Will Koch, in Amy's Basement. It was my freshman year of high school, 3rd Edition D&D, and we were first level.

I remember a floating platform with something breakable on it that we were trying to get down... fighting choakers, and eventually throwing a rock at an arrowhawk. This prompted running around the room grabbing something of importance it was guarding before it ate us all. I was playing the freshly created Yakra the Dwarf (fighter, of course). It was high magic, high fantasy, and allowed for the occasional fantastic act to occur when someone had a brilliant/crazy idea. Plot was minimal, and the world only existed as far as it was relevant to that nights (and they were all one shot deals) events. There were no mats, no minis - It was all in our head.

This was the flavor of the games I played in high school, from both Will and another local DM. It should also be noted that Will had a cape he wore when he DM'ed.

Five years later, my players are in a high magic, high fantasy world of heroic and fantastic deeds. I don't wear a cape, but I wouldn't be opposed to it.

My point to this is, DM's learn their styles much from the games we have played in. The games I've run have evolved and shaped to my specific style - We use a grided mat and minis, I have diagrams and printed papers to hand out. The world is relatively well developed (Not nearly as some that I've read about in some Blogs *cough*). I use the 3.5 rule system faithfully, with only a handful of clarifications and limited house rules.

(This is going somewhere...)

Last year I had the privilege of playing in Andrew's campaign. It was the first game run by someone outside of that group from Jersey, and a wholly different experience. **Opinion Alert**. It was extremely plot driven in an Über-Developed background, relatively low magic, and deviated from the 3.5 ruleset in ways I cannot even begin to describe (not saying thats bad). We used gridded mats, and had the occasional 3-d model of an area. Pictures of NPC's were shown on a laptop, and got extensive recaps in PDF format.

As of Saturday night, I'm now involved in a campaign run by Michael C. (who's first D&D experience was at the hands of Andrew). It was...
-Plot/RP Driven
-Well Developed Background
-Low-ish Magic
-Numerous Changes/Alterations to the 3.5 Ruleset
-3-d Model of our first dungeon site.

Seeing the pattern? This is a fine thing to happen, its always nice to see someone imitate something you do (sincerest form of flattery or something). Amy is even in the pre-process of planning a mini-series, and I have a strong feeling from talking to her that it will be in a mix of my style and her old liking for Myst games.

From what I gather from Captain Shar (sp?)'s blog, there is much of the same going on there as Andrew's campaign (DM created classes and new rules, for example).

What does this all come down to? Think about your knowledge and feelings about D&D. Think about how shaped they are by your DM's and the people you play with. Now - Go try playing with different people. I'm looking forward to playing in Michael's game, eventually Andrew's again, and possibly Shar's(?), for not only the purpose of fun, but for learning about what my game isn't, and what other options D&D offers for groups.

You Are Missed

...except Amy, Michael Craig, and Mackenzie. I still see you around.

The rest of you all have gone off to exciting new places. Messiah is suddenly gotten more boring (possible?). I suppose then that you'll need blog-news about whats going on at Messiah. Now I know that posting news on a Blog is totally radical and never-before-done, but bear with me.

-Its been really rainy. Bleh.
-Anime Club has started successfully under the reign of Brice and I. Some 20+ people at the first meeting.
-This welcome week's theme was "Branching Out". Newbling shirts were blue on grey, workers shirts were blue on hot orange.
-Michael C. is going to be running a D&D campaign, which currently has signed up myself, Amy, Rosie+Michael (who are engaged, btw).
-There is a distinct lack of masked superhero's.



So yeah.