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Nerdarchy > Game Master Tips  > Good Dungeon Masters Know The Rules, Great Dungeon Masters Know How To Break Them
Dungeon Master

Good Dungeon Masters Know The Rules, Great Dungeon Masters Know How To Break Them

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Hello reader it’s Nerdarchist Dave and I’m here to take your Dungeon Master game to the next level. Rule zero of running a tabletop roleplaying game is the Game Master makes the rules. Your number one job as the Game Master, Dungeon Master, Referee, Storyteller or whatever you are calling the person running the game is help everyone have fun. It was in the fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide where I first saw something so simple yet magical. “Say yes.” Those two words changed my perspective completely with tabletop roleplaying games. It made me reexamine how I behave as a Game Master for tabletop roleplaying games.

Dungeon Master

Say ‘yes’ as Game Master

What does saying yes to your players really mean? Let them do and have everything they want? No. It means let them try whatever they want to in the game. No matter what it is they want to do, let them try. No matter how absurd it is. Just ask them “How are you going to do that?” If it’s impossible then set impossible odds like a 100% on the percentile dice. When the player drops the double zero and succeeds, together you’ve created a moment at your gaming table that will live forever.

I recently had a game in 5E D&D where my big bad boss enemy was a demon with spell resistance and proficiency in the saving throw. I needed to roll an 8 out of two d20s. I dropped a 4 and 6. This totally ruined my end fight and it isn’t the first time. I roll my dice in front of my players for better or worse and leave ’em where they lie. In the moment it sucks. I prepared for that battle and it was over in 15 seconds of real time.

I’m not going to lie it’s frustrating when it happens, but there is a silver lining to this cloud. Had I used my vast power as the Dungeon Master and fudged the dice there would be a price.

See, I could have made the fight last longer, my players would have won after a hard fought battle and never thought about it again. Now they’ll always remember the time Ted’s warlock banished the glabrezu before it could even take a single action.

Or the time Ryan’s character had a scroll of flesh to stone he was saving for his spellbook, but a half-dragon pyro-hydra was attacking the town. It was poised to obliterate one of the other characters. Ryan had to make a check to first read the scroll and then the monster again only needed 5 or better on the die. I dropped a 4. Boom! Instant statue straddling the city wall. That happened 15 years ago and still gets talked about to this day.

Dungeon Master tabletop roleplaying games

I am currently the Dungeon Master in a ongoing 5E D&D game. Two of my players wanted to play goblins. So I said yes of course and immediately set about to create playable goblins. The same players asked if it was all right to just use the halfling stats and run with it. Even better! No work on my part. We got rid of the Brave feature from the halfling and replaced it with darkvision and called it done. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: Nerdarchist Dave’s campaign began long before Volo’s Guide to Monsters presented goblins as a playable race for 5E D&D, and there is still one session left to complete this campaign.]

Both of the goblins are rangers. One of them is the Hunter subclass the other is a Beast Master with a giant wolf spider as his companion.The spider’s name is Ripnugget and the goblins ride Ripnugget as a mount.

When it comes to tabletop roleplaying games fun is king!

In the same campaign we have a dragonborn Wild Magic sorcerer. The player asked if we could make a change to his draconic heritage racial feature. Instead of choosing one and sticking with it we roll the first time he takes energy damage for the day or when he goes to use his breath weapon to see what his draconic heritage is.

These small changes really don’t effect anything, but the players, and myself for that matter, enjoy the game so much because of the little breaks in the rules. The moral of the story don’t let the rules get in the way of your fun or the fun of the players.

Until next time stay nerdy.

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david friant

My name is Dave Friant I've been gaming off and on for over 27 years. But here is the thing it's always been a part of my life I've kept secret and hidden away. I've always been ashamed of the stigma that gaming and my other nerdy and geeky pursuits summon forth. Recently I decided screw it! This is who I am the world be damned. From now on I'm gonna be a geek, nerd, or however folks want to judge me and just enjoy life. Currently one of my greatest joys is introducing my 13 yr old son to table top RPG's.

8 Comments

  • dragonmasterdean
    January 26, 2015 at 11:47 am

    Great article and I agree. The question I always ask the player is how is the character going to do that. Course, the question I can’t answer is “What does my character think?” I always have to chuckle at that. Do you guys have an email address for suggestions for topics and vids?

  • Alex Maxwell
    March 6, 2015 at 12:51 am

    Awesome.

  • David Schweighofer
    March 23, 2015 at 10:57 am

    Great article, I definitely can remember very similar situations in our roleplaying sessions. I definitely had very memorable moments just based on one timely dice throw. But I also choose more than once to ignore a dice throw.

    My trick consists to play with the DM screen. Fold it and remove it if you know no critical scene is coming anytime soon. For instance a combat with guards can be completely transparent. Some time before a more important scene that might need more guidance, setup the screen and shuffle your pages, as if you prepare something. That was, maybe even 30 min later you are ready to have some controlled dice throws.

    I even made some checks and told the players what happens, purposefully not looking at the dice. So players understand that sometime, the story supersedes the dices (only did this a few times though).

    You can really feel if the dice roll needs to be made in the open. The situation where the odds are against the players, where everybody is going to hold his breath and situations could turn into dramatic moments. Then having the dice decide everything is a win-win situation whatever the outcome is.

    Thanks for sharing your expertise and insight into D&D5, I have not played D&D since years. But discovered many other games that I recommend.

  • General Genuine
    January 14, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    The only criticism I have is that you may need a better editor. There were a bunch of dropped words and misspellings throughout the article.

    • Doug Vehovec
      January 14, 2018 at 2:04 pm

      Thank you for the observation! In the hurly burly early days of Nerdarchy it was just a couple of guys doing their best for nerds, by nerds. As nerditor-in-chief now I strive to always increase the quality of our content. My feeling is the message of our older content shines through and as the site progresses, like everything we do the quality improves.

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