Whose Brain Have I Got?

Been reading your D&D entries and finding them interesting. I came across this D&D session:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FeiNEsLElA
It's informative (for me) and I can imagine beig a Dungeon Master quite duanting. Do you have to come up with a story days in advance and how do you know how to answer the questions being asked without sounding like you don't know what you're talking about?

They do sell pre-made adventures and even worlds, but yeah, most DMs do build their own (although you can certainly steal some of the pre-made stuff and incorporate into your world, which i've done). I've been using the same campaign for years so the world and history is already all built up, and you have a bunch of subplots bubbling in advance as well. Before a session you usually know which subplot your players are going to want to follow up on, so can can flesh that our more fully if necessary. I usually take the night before to iron out the details before a session, building the maps, adding monsters, puzzles, and traps, and trying to make sure the encounters are balanced (i.e., not too difficult or too easy). And making sure there's something of interest in the adventure for each player.

A lot has to be improv, too. The best sessions are where you provide a setting and just let the players interact with it according to their own character types, and they can basically provide a lot of the story on their own. You just have to be fluid enough that if they do something that you weren't prepared for, you can roll with it.

In terms of answering questions, if it's story related questions you'll generally know enough about your story that you can fill in details on the fly that you didn't think of in advance. If it's rule related questions, you can always look it up or just make a ruling if it's something not covered by the rules. But that's one of the reasons i've stuck with 1st edition rules all this time, because i know a lot of it by heart by now. And most of the players tend to know a lot of the rules, too, and will be sure to remind you of things, especially when it's in their favor.

the modules are terrible. i know because i tried DMing a couple of times and fnord suggested i use the modules so i wouldn't need to start from scratch. they're very restrictive. besides that, the ones i've used seem to assume someone will think it's good times having conversations with each and every person in the village while you piece together the "mystery". they also expect thorough room-to-room searches. this gets boring after a while especially if it doesn't advance the plot. you'd much rather be able to say "you checked all the rooms and this is what you discovered: ___." done.

fnord also makes it sound so easy. he irons out the "details" the night before. his details are basically what i would consider the entire adventure. creating the maps, making sure the encounters are balanced. that is pretty complicated when you've got 8 characters all with different abilities and personalities. he manages somehow.

i'm so terrible at it that i get bored with my own DMing and start killing off opponents before my players encounter them just so i can wrap the session up sooner. "well, i guess that's it. who needs a ride home?"

From the video I posted - and I can't say whether he's a good DM or not - it looks bloody complicated. I wouldn't know how to answer questions and I certainly couldn't make up what's going on in...say the forest. But I guess that's where experience becomes a factor. Last question do the monsters have their own hit points or do you make them up for the game?

From what i scanned, that video makes the game seem really complicated, i guess because none of the players have ever played before. It doesn't have to be so rule intensive. In that video the rules seems to be getting in the way of the game.

Monsters have Hit Dice, which describe how many (eight sided) dice you roll to see how many hit points it has. So a basic orc has 1 Hit Die, which means it could have between 1-8 hit points. A large dragon might have 10 Hit Dice, which means it can have between 10 and 80 hit points.

Thanks, all. I appreciate your answers. One day I might go to a D&D night.