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....

In 1980, computers were instruments of science and mathematics, military secrets and academia. Stern administrators lorded over sterile university laboratories and stressed one point to the wide-eyed students privileged enough to set foot within them: Computers were not toys. Defying authority, hackers seized control of monolithic mainframes to create a new breed of computer game: the roguelike, cryptic and tough-as-nails adventures drawn from text-based symbols instead of state-of-the-art 3D graphics. Despite their visual simplicity, roguelike games captivate thousands of players around the world. From the author of the bestselling Stay Awhile and Listen series, Dungeon Hacks: How NetHack, Angband, and Other Roguelikes Changed the Course of Video Games introduces you to the visionaries behind some of the most popular roguelikes of all time and shows how their creations paved the way for the blockbuster videogames of today—and beyond.

Computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a special genre of computer games that bring the tabletop role-playing experience of games such as Dungeons & Dragons to the computer screen. This genre includes classics such as Ultima and The Bard's Tale as well as more modern games such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. Written in an engaging style for

Design your own fantasy D&D epic filled with adventurous exploits, cloaked characters, and mysterious monsters If you're a Dungeons & Dragons fan, you've surely thought of becoming a Dungeon Master. Learning to be a DM isn't as hard as you might think, especially if you have Dungeon Master For Dummies tucked into your bag of tricks! Whether you've assumed the role of Dungeon Master before or not, this illustrated reference can help you run a D&D game, either online or in person. From organizing your first D&D game to dealing with difficult players, this book covers everything a DM needs to know. Written for the newest edition of D&D by the experts at Wizards of the Coast, the game's creators, it shows you how to: Run your very first campaign, from shaping storylines and writing your own adventures to dealing with unruly players and characters Build challenging encounters, make reasonable rulings, and manage disagreements Recognize all the common codes, tables, and spells Understand the parts of a D&D adventure and how to create dungeon maps and craft monsters Shape storylines and write your own adventures Find your style as a DM and develop a game style that plays to your strengths Script an encounter, vary the terrain and challenges, and establish rewards (experience points and treasure) Decide whether to use published adventures Use and follow the official Dungeon Master's Guide Develop a campaign with exciting themes, memorable villains, and plots to entrance players If you're getting the urge to lead the charge in a D&D game of your own, Dungeon Master For Dummies provides the information you need to start your own game, craft exciting stories, and set up epic adventures. Grab your copy today, and you'll be on your way!

Even a Hero is my enemy if they get in the way of my sleep! I, Keima Masuda, am a Dungeon Master in a fantasy world focusing all my efforts on avoiding as much work as possible. And finally, those efforts are being rewarded. The inn I built by the dungeon is super popular and super busy (Thanks for taking care of all that, Niku!). Heheh. Won't be long before I don't have to work at all...! Sure, a Hero's finally came to visit my dungeon, but... what?! He fell in love with Rokuko?! "Oh no, Keima! H-H-He proposed to me!" ...Yeah, this guy's a pain in the butt. Let's get him out of here! This is the third volume of my own dungeon story, where I work as hard as I can to one day not have to work at all! Hero or not, I'll take down anyone who interferes with my sleep!

I’m Keima Masuda, a Dungeon Master aiming to do nothing all day! That’s the idea anyway, but for some reason I’m the town chief, the pope, and I’ve got a noble daughter under my care. To make matters worse, a pair of beastkin siblings Ichika used to adventure with came to town. Seems like the older brother’s in love with Ichika... and he wants to fight me for her? He’s misunderstanding something, but I won’t let anyone get in the way of my sleep! Time to beat the crap out of him and go back to sle– "Dude! Rokuko’s knocked out!" Seems like it’s not time to sleep just yet. This is volume eight of my own kind of dungeon story! If it means saving Rokuko, I’ll show what I’ve really got!