Mazes and Monsters: The ‘prophets’ are DMs

This D&D player’s site does a good job capturing that in a “How to Be a Dungeon Master” post that emphasizes how it may be a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun: “In basic terms, the main responsibilities of the DM are to narrate the adventure, control the monsters during combat, roleplay any nonplayer characters (NPCs) that the party might encounter, and help move the story along.” Those are the key elements of NAR’s teaching: an adventurous narrative, in which the players are cast as brave heroes and warriors, a cast of monsters presented by the DM, and “the world” or the rest of the world, which consists of NPCs who speak from the DM’s script in the DM’s voice and exist only to “help move the story along.” And so, to protect the game, and the living they make as DMs, the “prophets” and “apostles” all rush to condemn the killings and the violence, and to explain that they never actually meant any of that stuff they said, and that they never intended for anyone to take it seriously.

Author: Fred Clark

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