"I found all of this so fascinating that I very often fall into a research hole from which it's hard to escape. I love reading about all of these topics, but as a consequence I've spent way more time doing that than I have spending time becoming a DM who is good at applying that research."
In my book How to Run, I gave time to discussing pattern recognition, that was in turn based on research that I'd done that related to numerous professions, particularly emergency situations where there isn't enough time to hem and haw about what is the right thing to do. And I find that exact same ideal advanced by Dreyfuss, at the bottom of page 179, related to proficiency:
"The proficient chess player, who is classed a master, can recognize almost immediately a large repertoire of types of positions. He or she then deliberates to determine the move that will best achieve his or her goal. One may know, for example, that he or she should attack, but he or she must calculate how best to do so."
Time is the key factor. The firefighter inside a building during a full-on fire has to recognize, without puzzling it out, what is probably happening. The chessplayer hasn't the time to cognitively rummage through all the possible responses, and ever less so as the opening has expanded into the middle game. They succeed because they trust the many patterns of events and plays to produce an emergent answer.
But Martin, and many others, haven't spent enough time accumulating those events, in actual situations. Research is important, but practice and rehearsal are also important; so we do need to spend time participating in actual game to unlock our comfort level with the game's manifestation.
That's not really helpful. We've only arrived at the obvious. We need to play more. Unfortunately, opportunities aren't always there. Sometimes, it is pulling teeth to get players together once a month; that's only 12 times a year of playing and only 40-50 hours. That's as much as we're bound to learn after one week at a new job.
More time is needed. Suppose we try a workshop.
I began my online campaign in 2009 because, after talking bunches about how to DM and what to do, I felt pressure to provide evidence of my ability to run a game. I had an existing world already; I needed only to plonk down a group of characters into that world and produce the same sort of momentum that I would in any other campaign that I would run. Being in text, and played in comments, there were bound to be issues that arose ... and there was a learning curve involved, for both the players and me. As any time when I sit down to DM, I felt confident, ready and very excited to get started.
With this idea, I am much less certain. I've done as much as I can think of to demonstrate DMing through example, through the online campaign, through my writings here and through the deconstruction posts made available on the MasterClass blog. The better step at this point would be to make the reader the DM, while providing a context within which to do that DMing. The goal is still to produce a classroom. Individuals who only want to showcase their style of DMing, who have no interest in learning anything or expanding their DMing skills, wouldn't be welcome.
I'm often surprised that this isn't obvious. Why would I enter a creative writing class if I believed it had nothing to say to me as a writer? But there are also persons in such classes with a chip on their shoulder ... just as there are people who go to baseball camps and then gripe about fielding grounders or taking advice on their swing. They just want to play baseball, they say; but in fact, they're in a place with people who want more than to just play baseball. Some people want to be better at it.
Up front, of course, that's very discouraging. I am sincerely sorry about that. I would prefer any position at this moment than to dishearten any reader from taking part in what's presented below. I encourage you to trust me. My agenda here is not to prove I'm great, or better than others; it's to demonstrate that you can be better than you are. I'm going to make mistakes. This is also a learning curve. But if we can agree on our motives, we can make this workshop work.
This is the first room of the dungeon. The hexes are 5 feet across (sorry, I can't bring myself to depict this in 10 foot squares, I just despise that design), so the room is 50 feet by 30 feet. There are five doors in the room. Five players (let's not worry about details) have just discovered this room at the bottom of the stairs.
Your Assignment: Fill the room. Have a concept in mind, but don't go off into long discussions of why the room exists or what it means, because those are things the players will not be able to know. You can put objects into the room. You can provide exposition with those objects. But you can't add a monster of any type.
You can define if the doors work or not. You can add atmosphere, you can fill it with water, whatever works. You can add a puzzle, or a trap. BUT ... I strongly suggest that you keep it simple. It is more important that you have some idea of what ought to be on the other side of those doors, rather than building up a complicated room that will take the players an hour of game time to decipher.
Write your description in the comments, as though you are presenting it to me, the player. You are not limited to one comment, but you ARE limited to one concept. Feel free to delete comments you've written if you want to try another concept. Others, I hope, will also be writing their versions. Come Friday, we'll vote. Then I'll create the room according to the best choice, and then I'll make a random roll on the random dungeon generator and we'll open a door next Monday.
If this doesn't work, no great loss. Anyone can take part at any time. Please ask questions. Brainstorm the idea if you like; you can delete your question comments when you're ready to finalize your concept. Everyone who asks for notifications to the comments will get a full record through their email, if that matters to them.
This is fundamental worldbuilding. Take something with zero information and provide enough that it can then be expanded. I will be making comments, as an instructor, relating specifically to overused cliches and practicality. I will make my comments short initially; after each vote, I may try to explain why certain plans failed and why the preferred one succeeded. I may also discuss issues with the preferred one, but only if I see them.
Shall we try it?
The room is remarkably clean. There's a little sand between the stone floor tiles. The doors are heavy wood barriers, without markings or, it seems, a means of opening them. No handle. No hinges. Just planks of wood set inside stone walls.
ReplyDeleteAs you move through the room, your light catches glints on the floor. Possibly metal or shiny stones. When you approach the first door (on your right), it . . . changes. Before it was solid; now there's an indentation in its surface, much like the shape of a large sword.
The other doors likewise change when you come closer. Going counterclockwise from the entrance, each displays the indentation: a large sword, an hourglass, blank (no indent on the center door), balance scales and a flask.
(not sure how much more information you're looking for with this exercise. in a running, theredtbe a lot of back-and-forth and I would fill in details based on that interaction.)
Ozymandias, I presume the indentation is some sort of woodcut?
ReplyDeleteThe following is from Kees de Kunder, who is unable to directly post to the blog, and sent this via email:
ReplyDelete"First impression:
"As you descend the stairs, whose steps are slightly too deep for comfort, the air cools and a burbling sound reaches your ear. Upon entering the room the light of your torches is reflected in the water spilling from a large fountain, running in streams over the ground. Along the walls the dull glint of tarnished metal catches your eye.
"Extended description:
"The floor consists of rough sandstone flagstones,
"The granite fountain has a central, ring-shaped reservoir with five spouts shaped like demonic visages, one thoughtful, one wizened, one zealous, one aggressive and one lewd, going clockwise round the fountain. From the mouths of these, five basins are filled. Each of these has a drain from which a stream meanders to one of the doors.
"The doors are heavy, reinforced with bronze bands, engraved with irregular circular patterns. There are no visible locks on the doors, though the handles are awkwardly shaped. A small puddle sits at the base of each door.
"Two one-inch thick corroded bronze slabs hang between the doors on the sidewalls, both studded with holes of varying sizes."
[for the record; this may or may not apply to Kees and Ozymandias, it is up to them ... but if anyone should feel they already know how to DM in this fashion, do allow for those without the skill to get as much benefit as possible from this idea.
ReplyDelete[truth be told, should someone say, "the room is empty," that would be a legitimate answer, though cliched, obviously. Elaboration is wonderful; but it is not the only method]
You descend the stairway into a rectangular room, noticing the teeth of a portcullis as you pass beneath the arch of the doorway. Thirty feet wide, fifty feet long, it seems larger for the lack of contents. There are five sturdy wooden doors, two to your left, two to your right, and one in front of you. Between them are low, cushioned benches. Above these benches are rectangular, barred holes in the ceiling. You hear no noise that does not originate from you, and the only smells are those of your companions.
ReplyDeleteAs you descend the steps, your light falls directly on a stone block resting in the center of the room. It is about 3 feet high and 2x2 feet square.
ReplyDeleteAt first glance, the floor is hard-packed earth, but this gives way to irregular cobblestones as you approach the block. Looking down at the block's top, you see a circular bowled depression, about a foot across in the center. The inside of the bowl is much smoother than the hewn stone. There is a collection of irregular scar-like grooves which mar the rim of the bowl on the far side of the square top. There are a few dead leaves and standing water in the bowl.
The 4 doors on the sides of the room are wooden, with latched handles. They are intact but appear worn and eaten by rot. The door on the far side of the room looks much sturdier, and its planks are reinforced with bronze or brass bands - it is difficult to tell which in the torchlight.
The air in the room is very still, and even the sounds of your feet are muffled in your ears. You are gradually aware of the thumping of your own heart.
The walls are very rough: you think you see images carved into the bare rock, but it could be the flickering torchlight playing tricks.
(I would think I know how to DM, but where do I fall in terms of skill? I don't know. Regardless, I strong encourage any and all readers to jump in and offer their scenarios. I'm making mine up as I go so there's bound to be some inconsistencies.)
ReplyDeleteThe indentation is more like a hole than a woodcut. A simple silhouette, about 2-3 inches deep (or roughly the length of your index finger).
This looks good ... creative, promising from a player point of view, with high levels of detail.
ReplyDeleteAs you descend the stairs, you smell something musty and wet.
ReplyDeleteThe room appears 30' wide and extends beyond your torchlight. The floor of the room is covered by perhaps an inch of water, and you can see four doors, two on the left wall and two on the right wall. In the corner to the right of the stairs you see a few decaying barrels, and you see a molding wooden writing desk and chair between the two doors on the left wall. In the distance, you hear the occasional drip-drip of water.
A ripple periodically moves through the water from the nearest door on the left.
Upon further investigation, the barrels appear to have contained fine sand, like that used to draw circles for magic rituals. A sizeable, albeit wet, pile of it remains.
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ReplyDeleteWhile descending the stairs, you smelled a faint copper odor while a floor of stone appeared.
ReplyDeleteThe room you're now facing has three humanoïd bodies.
The first is a human sprawled face up in the middle, resting in a black puddle of liquid, a dagger clutched in his right hand. He wears a dark padded armor, torn and showing a large vicious-looking gash on his torso.
The second is a naked humanoïd with oily skin and terrible, black claws, with what look like multiple stab wounds and a deep cut in its left side.
It is face down in front of the third, a dwarf sitting against a door in the wall opposite to you, eyes still opened, a black stain coming from his mouth to his torso, like blood having gushed out. He wears a leather armor, a stained sword is on the ground just near his right hand, and his blackened left hand is holding his lower body.
The rest of the room is devoid of furniture, the walls just bare plaster with cracks here and there showing rough stone behind.
There are five doors, two on either side in addition to the one in front; all are of plain wood, simple in craft, with a solid look to them, and each bear a metal handle, barely tarnished.
On the left side of the wall you entered through, three backpacks, worn but serviceable.
The floor, finally, is a little smoothed by passage, especially around the doors.
I'm excited to give this a shot! I'm referring to the top of the map as north.
ReplyDeleteThe air becomes cooler and more damp as you descend the steps. Other than the sounds of your movement, the only thing you hear is the occasional drip of water hitting the worked stone floor.
You descend into a large room, which does not have any light sources. The walls are made of the same stone blocks as the stairs and they are expertly fit together. The room is about 50 feet long by 35 feet wide. The ceiling, which is about 8 feet high, seems to crowd close to you.
There are five wooden doors with metal hardware here. The two doors on the eastern side of the room, one towards the north and one towards the south, are unremarkable. The single door on the southern side of the room is thicker than the others, and there is a wooden bar blocking it.
The other two doors are on the western side of the room. The hinges, handle and the other metal of the northwest door are extremely rusty. There are a set of roughly-man shaped wet footprints that lead from the stairs to the door to the southwest, which is otherwise unremarkable.
Descending to the base of the steps you see a rectangular chamber of moderate size, about as far as you could throw a hammer.
ReplyDeleteThere are five doors, two on either side wall and another directly across from the steps, all wooden with metal bands and all closed. Beside the closest door on the left is a large wooden row of shelves. There are about a dozen "slots" on these shelves in all, all but one of which contains a set of white boots of uniform size.
The floor is of polished marble laid in large hexagonal tiles making the room seem brighter than it must certainly be. There are no light sources within the room itself however.
The front rank will feel a tingling pause when they move to investigate, as the air feels strange beyond the threshold of the stairs, like a silent hum along the skin. It feels charged, and the hairs of your head and arms will rise and cling to what they touch as they move through it. The sensation passes after a few moments.
You progess down the southern staircase, and after about 40ft, it opens up into a rectangular room, about 50ft west to east, and 30ft north to south. As with previous rooms in this place, the walls are made of a strange greenish brickwork, that glows faintly. The air here smells stale, and the cobblestone floor is covered in a patchy layer of dirt.
ReplyDeleteIn the center of this room is a stone pillar, about 10ft in diameter, with a lever on the north side. It looks similar to a light switch, if such a switch was about two feet long, about five inches thick and made entirely of pig iron.
This room has six exits in total. The staircase to the north, two doors on the west wall, two doors on the east wall, and a single door on the south wall. Each door is of similar make, made of solid planks of wood bound together with riveted strips of iron. Each door also features a pull ring, and you can tell by the hinges that they're all likely to swing inward.
Through the door to the south you can hear faint, indeterminate yelling, and the sounds of metal striking metal.
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ReplyDeleteI dont think I've ever run a party that could handle being given a mildly mysterious room and not spend at least half an hour searching every square inch for traps/treasure. Its burned into my mind that if anything is to get done the party must be pushed from behind (the Lady's henchmen) and pulled from the front (bushwhacker Pike/Lee).
ReplyDeleteStanding by for criticism, correction, or dismissal of the whole damn idea, Alexis.
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ReplyDeleteJustin, read the rules. There is no encounter in this room.
ReplyDeleteAt bottom of the stairs is a large room. Not overly large, but maybe twice the size of the room we are in right now. There are no immediate sign of the bandits down here. Just an empty room with the remains of a smashed barrel lying in one corner. Sven, the room does look like good solid Dwarven craftsmanship. Though it has definitely been around for a while, there are no sign of cracks or sagging.
ReplyDeleteThe room has five doors, two to each side, and one across from the stairs. The door across from the stairs is locked with a solid looking padlock, and has a runic circle written on it, somewhat sloppily. However, the second door to the right stands slightly ajar. You don't see any light through the crack.
For those who have joined us, be sure and read this post I wrote today:
ReplyDeletehttps://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2019/04/five-points-on-displaying-dungeon.html
The stairs descend into a 50x30 foot room of old stone of Dwarven craftsmanship. There are two wooden doors on the left and right sides of the room flanked by high relief carvings of Dwarven soldiers on the left and craftsmen on the right.
ReplyDeleteThe far side of the room is dominated by a high relief carving of a crowned dwarf on a throne, with another door below it.
On the floor near that door are several crates and sacks, some filled with foodstuffs and other supplies, others empty.
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ReplyDeleteBroad view: Large statue of an Orc in center, facing North, holding a broken sword, inscription at base
ReplyDeleteStatue details: Material worn down by age, several empty inlays once held jewels, one jewel remains (but requires close inspection to find)
Inscription details: In Orcish, "Halls of Bashag the Proud"
South exit (non-standard): Door locked, active Alarm spell
The damp, dark, powerfully odorous room at the foot of the stairs immediately makes you uneasy, both for the filth and imagining what kind of horrors could make such a place their home. A single torch doesn't illuminate the whole room but anyone brave enough to explore will find a large chamber filled only with scattered trash and semi-solid sewage soaking in the inch of water on the floor, 4 stone brick structural supports near the corners of the room and, most forebodingly, five locked grates blocking passage into further sewers. The largest at the far end of the room is broad enough for 4 men to walk abreast, angles upward, has a rather new and solid grate, and likely rejoins the surface shortly, though you can't sense anything that directly proves this. The other four angle downward. These sewers are smaller, only wide enough for two men abreast. The grates on these are significantly more corroded and in fact a reasonably strong man should be able to, say, Bend Bars quite easily. The low roar of draining water covers regular speech and any sounds of approach short of a full charge.
ReplyDeleteOk, let me try this again:
ReplyDeleteThe floor is dominated by a tile mosaic that depicts an owl in flight.
Between each of the side doors is a relief of an owl in flight.
Hanging from the ceiling is an unlit, owl shaped, oil lantern made of brass.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71TeqDrj9DL._SR500,500_.jpg)
Each door has a brass door handle shaped like a roosting owl.
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/15/b8/84/15b884246e3f17822f06c5119ec6a698.jpg)
In each corner of the room is a small, round table; each holding a brass, owl shaped candelabra. These contain only stubs and are covered in melted wax.
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d3/44/82/d3448205501780582f9153069a5e0f51.jpg)
The floor is made of stone tiles, loosely fit together with sand between them. The walls are smooth cut stones (good craftsmanship). The doors are heavy oak, with hinges on the other side.
ReplyDeleteWhen a person approaches a door, it changes. An indentation appears in its surface; it's a cut about 2-3 inches deep, shaped like an object. Going counterclockwise from the entrance, each door has the following shape: a large sword, an hourglass, blank (no indent on the center door), balance scales and a flask.
Close examination of a door reveals that it is tight in its frame, due to warping and age. There's no sign of a handle on this side. The fifth door is offset a little; it's possible to force it open with a proper lever (like a crowbar).
The room is silent and there is a thick layer of dust on everything. There are a few wooden benches of which one has fallen apart and a locked wooden chest of drawers (The wood is so brittle that it can be disassembled by hand. Besides decayed draperies, it contains a valuable golden ring and a key.)
ReplyDeleteIn line with the most recent post, I'm a big fan of Pandred's hexagonal tiles.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered doing more of these kinds of "workshops"? Perhaps on the Patreon blog? I didn't participate when this was happening (don't recall why, it was a year ago...), but would be interested in more content like this (not necessarily dungeon-related).
ReplyDelete