Dungeon Master For Dummies

Whether you've been a Dungeon Master (DM) before and want to
fine-tune your skills or want to get ready and take the plunge,
this is the book for you. It gives you the basics on running a
great game, info for more advanced dungeon mastering, guidelines
for creating adventures, and tips for building a campaign. It shows
you how to:

• Handle all the expressions of DMing: moderator, narrator, a
  cast of thousands (the nonplayer characters or NPCs), player,
  social director, and creator

• Use published adventures and existing campaign worlds or create
  adventures and campaign worlds of your own

• Conjure up exciting combat encounters

• Handle the three types of encounters: challenge, roleplaying,
  and combat

• Create your own adventure: The Dungeon Adventure, The
  Wilderness Adventure. The Event-Based adventure (including how to
  use flowcharts and timelines), The Randomly Generated Adventure,
  and the High-Level adventure

• Create memorable master villains, with nine archetypes ranging
  from agent provocateur to zealot

To get you off to a fast start, Dungeon Master For
Dummies includes:

• A sample dungeon for practice

• Ten ready-to-use encounters and ten challenging traps

• A list of simple adventure premises

• Mapping tips, including common scales, symbols, and
  conventions, complete with tables

Authors Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker wrote the hugely
popular Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies. Bill has been a
game designer since 1986 and leads the D&D creative team at
Wizards of the Coast. Richard is a game developer and the author of
the fantasy bestseller Condemnation. They give you the scoop
on:

• Using a DM binder to keep records such as an adventure log,
  PCs' character sheets, NPC logs/character sheets, treasure
  logs, and more

• Knowing player styles (role players and power games) and common
  subgroups: hack'n'slasher, wargamer, thinker, impulsive
  adventurer, explorer, character actor, and watcher

• Recognizing your style: action movie director, storyteller,
  worldbuilder, puzzlemaker, or connector

• Using miniatures, maps, and other game aids

• Using 21st century technology, such as a Web site or blog, to
  enhance your game

The book includes a sample adventure, The Necromancer's
Apprentice, that's the perfect way to foray into DMing. It
includes everything you need for a great adventure--except
your players. What are you waiting for? There are chambers to be
explored, dragons to be slain, maidens to be rescued, gangs of
gnoll warriors to be annihilated, worgs to be wiped out, treasures
to be discovered, worlds to be conquered....

Auteur

Bill Slavicsek began playing the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
roleplaying game with his friends during his formative teenage
years in New York City. This was in 1977, the same year that
Star Wars and Sword of Shannara debuted. This trilogy
of epic fantasy combined with comic books and horror novels were to
forever influence Bill's outlook on life and entertainment.
In 1986, Bill's hobby became his career when he joined the
staff of West End Games. There, as an editor and game designer,
Bill worked on a number of board games and roleplaying games,
including Ghostbusters, Paranoia, Star Wars: The Roleplaying
Game, and Torg: Roleplaying the Possibility Wars. Later,
Bill went on to use his vast knowledge of the Star Wars
films and associated extensions to write two editions of A Guide
to the Star Wars Universe for Lucasfilm, Ltd., and published by
Del Rey Books.

In 1993, Bill joined the staff of TSR, Inc., then publishers of the
DUNGEON & DRAGONS game lines, as a game designer and editor.
His design credits for the company include the ALTERNITY Science
Fiction Game (which he co-designed with Richard Baker), the
d20 Modern Roleplaying Game, the d20 Star Wars
Roleplaying Game, the Star Wars Miniatures Game,
Urban Arcana, Council of Wyrms, and the EBERRON
Campaign Setting.

Since 1997, Bill has been the Director of Roleplaying Games
Research and Development for Wizards of the Coast, Inc., the
company that now publishes all DUNGEONS & DRAGONS novels and
game products. He oversaw the creation of the d20 Roleplaying Game
System and the newest edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game.
Bill leads a talented staff of game designers, developers, and
editors who produce award-winning game products for DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS and other d20 System game lines, including roleplaying game
supplements and accessories, adventures and campaign books, and
prepainted plastic miniatures.

Richard Baker is an award-winning game designer and a
best-selling author. He's worked on the DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS game lines since 1991. Rich traces his D&D experience
back to 1979, when he began playing the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game
as a 7th-grader. He spent a significant amount of his high school
and college years playing D&D at every opportunity, and after
serving as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy,
Rich decided to take a shot at working on the game he grew up
playing -- and so he joined the staff of TSR, Inc., and became
a game designer. Rich's list of D&D design credits
numbers over 50 game products, including the Origins Award-winning
BIRTHRIGHT Campaign Setting, the ALTERNITY Science
Fiction Roleplaying Game (which he co-designed with Bill
Slavicsek), and the newest edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
game. He has also served as creative director for the ALTERNITY and
FORGOTTEN REALMS game lines. As an author, Rich has published eight
fantasy and science fiction novels, including City of Ravens,
Forsaken House, and the New York Times bestseller
Condemnation. Rich is currently employed as a senior game
designer at Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and works every day on new
products for the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game.

Résumé
Whether you've been a Dungeon Master (DM) before and want to fine-tune your skills or want to get ready and take the plunge, this is the book for you. It gives you the basics on running a great game, info for more advanced dungeon mastering, guidelines for creating adventures, and tips for building a campaign. It shows you how to:

• Handle all the expressions of DMing: moderator, narrator, a cast of thousands (the nonplayer characters or NPCs), player, social director, and creator
• Use published adventures and existing campaign worlds or create adventures and campaign worlds of your own
• Conjure up exciting combat encounters
• Handle the three types of encounters: challenge, roleplaying, and combat
• Create your own adventure: The Dungeon Adventure, The Wilderness Adventure. The Event-Based adventure (including how to use flowcharts and timelines), The Randomly Generated Adventure, and the High-Level adventure

• Create memorable master villains, with nine archetypes ranging from agent provocateur to zealot
  To get you off to a fast start, Dungeon Master For Dummies includes:

• A sample dungeon for practice
• Ten ready-to-use encounters and ten challenging traps
• A list of simple adventure premises

• Mapping tips, including common scales, symbols, and conventions, complete with tables
  Authors Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker wrote the hugely popular Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies. Bill has been a game designer since 1986 and leads the D&D creative team at Wizards of the Coast. Richard is a game developer and the author of the fantasy bestseller Condemnation. They give you the scoop on:

• Using a DM binder to keep records such as an adventure log, PCs' character sheets, NPC logs/character sheets, treasure logs, and more
• Knowing player styles (role players and power games) and common subgroups: hack'n'slasher, wargam…