Behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen - Where to Start.

     Before you begin to DM the player characters your players rolled up need a place to exist.  They need a world, a country, region, village, city or ward.  This can be overwhelming, the sheer thought of creating a whole world, where to begin?  The good news is there are a number of D&D settings already on the market.  There is the World of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms; Dragon Lance, Thieves World, or a setting from a fantasy novel or a “home brewed” world of your own creation are all possibilities.  If you choose to use a setting that’s already in existence, just do some research and pick a spot to begin the adventure.  Over the years, I’ve found that they all work.

     If a home brew is what you’d like, two processes come to mind.  Starting with a small area and expanding it over time or creating the larger world, with broader strokes and working a specific area to start the adventure.  Regardless of which method you choose, it’s not necessary to have the entire world developed before you start.  Put enough stuff together to give the players some background.  If you’ve sat at my gaming table, you’ve likely had a character walk the legendary streets and alleys of The City of Sanctuary, possibly entered the Vulgar Unicorn Tavern and met “One Thumb” the bar keeper from the Thieves World setting.  In my current campaign, that city rests on the shores of the Dragonmere between Proskur and Suzail in the Forgotten Realms setting.  It’s sort of a combination or two settings.  But it’s worked for decades of good role playing.

     The current adventuring party has had several memorable sessions.  Their adventure began as their backgrounds brought them all together on a ship destined for the City of Sanctuary from an Island Kingdom in the inner sea.  They are currently home based in the City of Sanctuary where a notable non-player character resided and primarily works.  From there they ventured southwest of the city, exploring the basement of an old wizard’s tower just outside the city, that an enterprising young gnome turned into a successful brewing company.  After the party eradicated a number of pesky vermin from the basement the owner was able to expand his business and open a distillery.  Then they worked as caravan guards transporting his spirits across the region.  After weathering a storm at the Mabbet Farm, rescuing the families daughter from several Gnolls who kidnapped the child for an evil ritual, and discovering ruins abandoned by a group of Knights.  They’ve also been thru the villages of Aramoor and Broken Shield and the City of Proskur.  Most of their adventures have been within a 100 miles of the main city.

     Once you have a generalized area, modules can be adapted and dropped where appropriate.  In between sessions, you can update your world, and keep the players on their toes, while their reputations spread so can their horizons.  Create major personalities in the communities in which they adventure.   Pull things from books, stories, or shows.  Many of my spur of the moment sessions were actually adapted from shows or movies that had been recently watched.  The names were changed, and the era may have been different, but the plot and general story line was the same.

     Last option, perhaps my favorite is simply doing everything in a session randomly.  The main advantage to this method, is it requires very little preparation on the part of the DM and it provides great latitude to let the players do and go where ever they wish.

Behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen - Dice Rolls

     What happens behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen?  The most obvious answer is dice rolls that the players can’t see.  Now some players may feel a certain way about this secretive matter.  Dungeon Masters sometimes roll their dice openly in full view of everyone at the table, while others do not.  Neither method is necessarily right or wrong.  Many will do both.

     Rolling the dice in view of all the players can lock in a result, often the timing of which might hinder either the flow of the game, or cause events to occur that complicate matters both for the Dungeon Master and the party.  For example, the only Cleric might have fallen, unconscious, bleeding out, and before anyone in the party can render aid, a non-player character just happens to roll a critical hit on the prone and unconscious player’s character.  In my world, a natural 20 causes a secondary roll, if the second roll scores high enough for a critical hit, a roll is made on a critical hits table, which could result in death.  This can be a crushing blow not only to the party, but for the player who’s invested their time and effort into creating and playing the Cleric.  Depending on the level and experience level of the party, sometimes the character has had years invested in it’s development.  All gone in the roll of a couple of dice.

     What options does the Dungeon Master have?  Devine intervention or kill off the valuable member of the party. Devine intervention can be over used, after all, how often do the Gods intervene in the lives of mortals?  This is a solution, but should be used sparingly.  Generally, the latter option is reserved for extreme circumstances, often after a player continuously makes poor choice after poor choice.  Sometimes it’s necessary to kill off a particularly horrendous character for the good of the party and the sanity of the Dungeon Master, but these circumstances are rare.  Sometimes, the player will do something so egregious the Dungeon Master has no choice but to allow death to happen.  Try to keep these instances to a minimum while ensuring a bit of reality in the game.  My house rules include a set of very deadly critical and fumble tables, used advisedly, they prevent a common hack and slash game and encourage more role playing and a bit more thought being put into drawing of deadly weapons or hurling of deadly spells.

     Keeping most of the dice rolls behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen allow the DM as he or she is commonly called, to maintain a good flow to the game.  Often, a non-player character will score a brutal hit, on a badly injured player character, sometimes dealing maximum damage.  By keeping the dice behind the screen the DM can fudge the roll, however they see fit.  The DM isn’t in a completion of players vs non-player characters or monsters, it’s the job of the DM to orchestrate the story line, in a manner that everyone has a good time, while ensuring the scenarios in the game aren’t easy for the players but not insurmountable either.  Sometimes, this requires the Ogre, who still has 50 hit points left to realize he’s outnumbered by a very badly wounded party and simply turn tail and run, when he may have been able to defeat the party and take their lives and their possessions.  This can happen regardless of the monster’s morale roll on the dice, unless it’s in plain view of everyone.

     Many players, will often come up with some impossible concept, or want to try a feat which is well beyond their skills, background or ability.  This is often met by the DM rolling some random die behind the screen and looking the player in the eye directly to tell them, “You failed.” Never even looking at the roll.  Sometimes if it’s a remotely plausible idea, and would enhance the game, give it a low percentage change of working, the players need never really know if the dice roll was successful or if it was simply allowed on a whim!

How to Build a Camp Shower

Building a camp shower will provide not only a bit of privacy, but also can be a welcome luxury at the end of a long day in the outback. There are two methods of building this shower, one is more modern and would use PVC pipe and fittings, the second would use primitive methods using natural materialswhich could be used during a historical reenactments. Either method could be built either free standing or could be hung from a tree branch.

Necessary Supplies (Modern Build - Free Standing):

Four 6’ sections of ½” PVC pipe

Eight 4’ sections of ½” PVC pipe

PVC pipe cutter

Eight ½” PVC corner pieces

Two 6’x8’ vinyl tarps

Cable zip ties

Bricks or sand bags

Camp shower (available at any outdoors store)

Necessary Supplies (Modern Build - Hanging):

Four 4' sections of 1/2" PVC pipe

Four ½” PVC elbow pieces

Eye-hook screws

String

Metal washer

Two 6’x8’ vinyl tarp

Note: To build primitive version, substitute PVC pipe for wooden poles; substitute zip ties for twine or leather; substitute vinyl tarps for canvass tarps and substitute camp shower for canvass bucket (to increase water flow, punch holes in bottom of bucket. Lash wooden poles together using either twine or leather thongs.

Step 1

PVC pipe comes in standard 10’ lengths, so you will need to cut them to size using a PVC pipe cutter so you have four 6’ sections and eight 4’ sections. The shorter sections could be cut to 3’ lengths but that give less shower area.

Step 2

Start with the base of the shower enclosure. Connect four 4’ pipe sections with four PVC corner pieces. These corners are also called 90-degree side outlet elbows.

Step 3

Attach the four 6’ PVC pipe sections vertically to the corner pieces.

Step 4

Attach PVC corner pieces to the top of the 6’ PVC pipes and connect the 4’ pipes to them to form a tall cube.

Step 5

The shower enclosure is 6 feet tall. Turn the 6’x8’ vinyl tarp on its side so that it is 6 feet tall as well. Using the pre-drilled grommets, hang the tarp on the PVC pipes with cable zip ties or shower hooks. Attach the tarp to the vertical PVC pipe as well. For maximum privacy, overlap the two pieces of tarp so there are no openings.

Step 6

Decide which side will be the opening of the shower enclosure. Do not connect the side grommets to the vertical post on this side so the tarp can be opened and closed. Place bricks or sand bags on the PVC pipes at the base to help keep the structure from blowing in the wind.

Step 7

String the portable sun shower above structure and let the solar power of the sun heat the water before showering. Structure can also be used as a changing area. Wooden pallets may also be laid down to prevent standing in mud. Just ensure you sand the pallets down or wear shower shoes.

The hanging shower is the same concept, just doesn’t require as many materials, you’re actually only building the top portion of the frame, and omitting the 6’ wall poles and base.

The Wayward Trekker

The Wayward Trekker is a Blog about Trekking, it will include our adventures here and abroad. Backpacking, camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking, historical reenactment, hunting, kayaking, travel and wilderness survival are just a few of the subjects that will be touched upon here. For those who also enjoy role playing games like, Dungeons and Dragons, there will be blogs pertaining to that genre too.