I love being a Dungeon Master
this is the most artistic thing i made on canva so far
Here's the thing: Being a player is fun and all, but none of that is possible without the work of the Dungeon/Game Master (DM/GM). I personally believe they have the most fun part of the game, creating the vast worlds and universes that weave the threads of stories which each of the players sew in together to make something awesome. It is both a creative and leadership role that requires a person to take in charge and say how things work mechanically, while also constantly creating narrative paths for the players to journey on. The DM is the glue that holds an adventuring party together. They organize the group, set the scene, and watch over how the players interact with one another. DM's get to play a wide assortment of characters, paint a picture of the scenery and ongoing situation, and control over the most complex things that makes societies function. All of that or the players to explore, interact, and obliterate with fireball.
I have played the role of Dungeon Master very occasionally, and have now just gotten into a get good hold of what my own DM'ing style is after many mistakes and disastrous oneshots in the past. The primary reason on why I took up the post of being the DM is so that the "Forever DM" of our group can have a break and enjoy being a player with a ton of fun character concepts which I enjoy integrating into my games. As of writing I currently run two campaigns, both of which are close to ending because I prefer having a limited number of sessions just for the sake of having less pressure and burn out. The world of which the campaign is set on is based on the first ever campaign I ran since the start the beginning of the pandemic, where me being a nooby DM at the time who has no idea on how things even work, put 4 people at 15th level characters in a completely homebrewed world with 3 sessions a week. I clearly hated myself after session 5, but managed to actually get in some good lore in there that helped me build my new world.
Blood and Coin (BnC) is my very first and only homebrewed setting which I have created, destroyed after the failure of my first campaign, and built up again just so I can have a redo and play DM again and I'm considering making another post all about the lore of BnC in the future, but what is important though as of now are the two campaigns being played in it so far: "Strixhaven Academy" and "Within the Depths". Both games are being played by the same table, with the latter having an additional player who I am introducing to D&D for the first time. Although I plan on inviting more people to play in my games in the future, the fact that school exists and school sucks is making that near impossible right now.
Strixhaven Academy or just "Strix" was the first campaign I officially ran after I revived BnC as a campaign setting which I have used as a place for me to put in a bunch of oneshots in the past. The basic premise of Strix was basically that a group of college students in my medieval-mordern mish mash world need to do a project as part of their grade requirement for their "Expeditious Adventuring" Class. Based on the name alone, the reason why I ran Strix was because of Wizards of the Coasts releasing teasing the release of their new sourcebook, "Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos", along which had new unique subclasses which are under Unearthed Arcana. It was very cool as a concept, and since me and my friends are going off to college soon, I said fuck it and decided to make a D&D campaign out of it for 10 sessions! It had a lot going on for a campaign just about "finishing a group project", the party interacted with gods, uncovered a hidden necromancer cult of some sort, and now have travelled back in time to obliterate their Astronomy Teacher who was revealed to be the main antagonist of this story. I'll discuss more of it in a different article when the campaign ends and I decide to make a little wrap up about it. We are 8 sessions in so far, with the 9th possibly being a two part special and the 10th being a epilogue of all things (that is what my players discussed so far, and I'm rolling with it). I'm personally surprised on how well it is going, and how much I have improved based on player feedback. I have no idea on how it came out so well, but I'm very happy for it. Strix is the "Main Campaign" within my world's current story arc, and a lot of things in other campaigns will be based off whatever happens there. So says the will of the Matron of Faith.
Within the Depths is a campaign I have based from my sudden interest in Lovecraftian themes, watching Filipino horror films, and finding very cool homebrew mechanics for Corruption by Matthew Mercer online (for free!). The game is run every other Thursday after Strix, but admittedly is not as good as Strix, but hey it's good nonetheless for a side narrative of the current phase of BnC. The basic plot here is that a mayor of a small town has made a call for adventurers, asking them to investigate what could potentially be a assault against a trading caravan set to arrive to help the town combat a sickness of some sort. As of right now, they have travelled to a cave where they fought a cultist of some sort and found a very old artifact belonging to the God of Madness in my world Oloken'Hai. One of the characters, by virtue of their backstory, was very interested in taking the artifact for themselves and dashing away with it. Although it created the potential for some REALLY good roleplay, the RPG Horror Story issues of meta gaming came up and things (in my opinion) broke down from there, but everyone still had fun on the end. We are having a session today, our 3rd out of 5 planned sessions, and who knows what will happen next.
As a small side note for Within the Depths the player I mentioned earlier with the backstory connected to the artifact messaged me and said they have lost motivation to further play with the table due to everyone else's lack of commitment towards immersion and being in character. As a Dungeon Master, I fully understood that point. It was a mainly creative difference and nothing bad against the party. The player still had fun on the table anyway and said they were open to be in another game with me on the helm if ever possible, and I offered them the chance to form their own table and contact me if they need a D&D DM. It was much more pleasant than I was expecting, and I pretty much had full reign over that players character at this point as a NPC, and I have very good plans for how this session will go.
As of the moment, I am working on creating another short campaign for the month of October since it is "le spooky month" (or Halloween). I never really liked Halloween, but I personally adore the sheer horror and occult themes of the season. And recently, Wizards of the Coasts released an announcement that they are planning to release a new supplement related to the fey wild and other cool fairy tale stuff. Coincidentally, my friend introduced me to a homebrew pack called "Sina Una", which is entirely based out of Philippine Folklore, Legend, History, and Culture. Therefore, being the happy proud Filipino I am, and needing a cool setting to basically fit in-between my two larger North American-European based continents, I am working on a new setting for my world that basically combines all the big things!
After a long while of research, voice acting practice, and some reading through the Sina Una pdf, the campaign "The Heart of Kandaya" was born. The campaign basically focuses more on the spiritual side of Blood and Coin's world, integrating many pre-colonial aspects of Filipino culture into the significantly smaller world of the Sina Una Archipelago. The Heart of Kandaya is about the babaylan (Filipino druids/shamans), warning their Datu (village chief) that the deadly weather hitting the whole archipelago is caused by a unbalanced within the island of Kandaya itself as the island is the spiritual center of the archipelago. Run thin on resources and men to solve the problem due to the more urgent need of helping their village recover from previous natural disasters, the Datu made a call to both foreigners and locals of neighboring islands to take up the quest for a reward. That whole semi-confusing premise is as much as I would allow myself to reveal. I am going to have a session 0 with my players, consisting of 2 veteran D&D players, and 2 newbies I have invited to play for the first time, to pretty much explain the plot, homebrew mechanics, and all the other D&D basic stuff for new players. I am personally very excited for this one as it will allow me to explore deeper into the history and lore of my country, and as a Filipino making a whole fantasy plot around this new setting, it makes me very happy and proud to know the interesting lore of the Philippines.
In conclusion: I am a Dungeon Master who runs many campaigns, and I love doing it. It gives me something big to do, and is a motivation for me to actually finish my school work early for once. DMs get the chance to pretty much be God and create a whole world straight out of their imaginations and showcase it to the people they invite and play in it. It is something that grows and develops along with you as you change your own literary styles, interests, feelings, and personality. It's going to be hard at first, but with enough time and patience, anyone can be a good Dungeon Master. One just needs to find the style that best suits them. Hell, I might write an article with tips on how to be a good DM. The world of fantasy and imagination are both limitless, even Gary Gygax himself says that Dungeon Masters do not need any rules for their games. The handbook is just a guideline, not law. I just love the amount of creative freedom the role brings, and the feeling of utter joy of seeing new players get into the game and enjoy playing it.
This whole article seems to be a very long-winded way of me of basically saying: "I Love being a DM".
-YugiBearz
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