17 August 2026 DM's Guide: Creating Magic Items, Magic Items, and the Appendices (pg. 114-230)

     

    Finished. The last part of the book lent itself to some skimming as there are many, many tables and a long section of alphabetical monster stats. But no matter! This was a fun little project for me. Magic is hard: hard to come by, hard to live with (i.e. you need to live a long time before you can become powerful with its use), hard to fashion, and hard to manage! I was struck by how many cursed items exist in the comprehensive list of magic items; things that are designed to make characters have a very bad day. I was also struck by how weird some this shit is (the Goat of Terror for the win!) These are detailed and exacting processes for the creation of items of power. Artifacts, in particular, are a lot of fun. We used so little of this stuff as kids! 

    I think it was re-discovering the Appendixes a few years back that got in interested in the old ways of play that are illuminated in this book. There is a guy on Youtube who goes by the name of Mr. Wargames, and he did a video series on playing solo AD&D. I watched a few, then took his advice and started rolling on the random wilderness generator. I was astonished, and delighted, to watch as a world took shape on the paper in front of me. As I said in a previous post, the randomness is a creativity pump. With some dice, a 50 year old book, and a notebook, and entire fantasy region came into existence in about 30 minutes. It was so, so cool...and something I hadn't done since I was 13 years old. 

    Dungeons&Dragons, in its current form, is an entirely different game. One of the things I was struck by in this book is how Gygax viewed the role of a Dungeon Master: it is his (or her) game and the players are in it. It is his or her decisions that matter, rules be damned. He can change it, shape it, modify it, or ignore it as he sees fit. AD&D is gamemaster oriented: you, the DM, are doing the work and the players are playing the game. While I can see how a bad DM could be a complete asshole and ruin a campaign by being some kind of despot, in my 44 years of play, I have never once seen that happen. 

Here is an example:

However, it is your right to control the dice at any time and to roll dice for the players. You might wish ta do this to keep them from knowing some specific fact. You also might wish to give them an edge in finding a particular clue, e.g. a secret door that leads to a complex of monsters and treasures that will be especially entertaining. You do have every right to overrule the dice at any time if there is a particular course of events that you would like to have occur (pg. 110).

And here, from the Afterword (pg. 230; all caps as printed in the book, highlights are mine):

IT IS THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME, NOT THE LETTER OF THE RULES, WHICH IS IMPORTANT. NEVER HOLD TO THE LETTER WRITTEN, NOR ALLOW SOME BARRACKS ROOM LAWYER TO FORCE QUOTATIONS FROM THE RULE BOOK UPON YOU, IF IT GOES AGAINST THE OBVIOUS INTENT OF THE GAME. AS YOU HEW THE LINE WITH RESPECT TO CONFORMITY TO MAJOR SYSTEMS AND UNIFORMITY OF PLAY IN GENERAL, ALSO BE CERTAIN THE GAME IS MASTERED BY YOU AND NOT BY YOUR PLAYERS. WITHIN THE BROAD PARAMETERS GIVEN IN THE ADVANCED DUNGEONS 8 DRAGONS VOLUMES, YOU ARE CREATOR AND FINAL ARBITER. BY ORDERING THINGS AS THEY SHOULD BE, THE GAME AS A WHOLE FIRST, YOUR CAMPAIGN NEXT, AND YOUR PARTICIPANTS THEREAFTER, YOU WILL BE PLAYING ADVANCED DUNGEONS 8 DRAGONS AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE. MAY YOU FIND AS MUCH PLEASURE IN SO DOING AS THE REST OF US DO!

    What a different view of the role of a Dungeon Master when compared to the current edition. From D&D Beyond's article How to Be a Dungeon Master:

In basic terms, the main responsibilities of the DM are to narrate the adventure, control the monsters during combat, roleplay any nonplayer characters (NPCs) that the party might encounter, and help move the story along.

 Gygax did understand that players and DMs are in the game together, and that the best games create a fantastic synergy. For example:

This is not to say that an occult power takes over. It is simply that the interaction of judge and players shapes the bare bones of the initial creation into something far larger. It becomes fleshed out, and adventuring breathes life into a make believe world (pg. 87)

    With that said, having cut my teeth on 1e and AD&D, I found that the role of the Dungeon Master in 5e was very, very different than what I had learned back in the day. The player characters are incredibly powerful, and have so many options (classes, subclasses, specialty classes, feats, bonus actions!) that it is impossible for a mere mortal like myself to keep up with all of them. Players just push 'paper buttons' as Mike Shea calls them, and their characters do insane things. A modern DMs job seems to be trying to figure out how to challenge the Justice League party as they stomp the shit out of everything in their path.  

    "I would prefer not to,' as the Scrivener said so long ago.

    Finally, Appendix N: Inspirational Reading. Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games (and creator of the incredibly fun Dungeon Crawl Classics) did something amazing: he went back and read all of the books on Gary's list and used them to create his own game, which is gonzo, weird, and wonderful. Jeffro Johnson wrote a wonderful book called Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons&Dragons that argues that the game as originally created was meant to be weird as fuck: dinosaurs, spaceships, mutants, lost cities flying through space, demons,cowboys, and ninjas all mashed together in an insane cornucopia of imagination, fantasy, and fun. This game is based on weird tales, in the best sense of the phrase. "To adventure amongst the weird," as Gygax wrote, "is fantasy enough"(pg. 21). 

 

16 August 2026 DM's Guide: Territory Development, a Sample Dungeon, NPCs, Construction, Problem Players, and Conversions (pgs. 93-114)

     I continue to be bemused by the organization of this book. The topics just seem...random. In this section, we range from how to develop a territory, followed by a sample dungeon, a long example of actual play, how to build things, what to do with asshole players, and how to convert your game to Gamma World and Boot Hill. A lot going on here, to say the least. My favorite part of this chunk was the NPC generator: you just start rolling on all these tables, and a personality begins to emerge. As I have played these game longer, I have come to respect randomness as a primer for imagination. Just by rolling dice, I came up with a concept for a guy who was a bit like Arthur Rimbaud: wealthy, world-weary, a bit gross, and a lot annoying. Fun! 

11 August 26: DM's Guide pgs 80-93 Saving Throws, Hit Points, Insanity, Experience, and the Campaign

     This is, literally, the most insanely organized RPG book I have ever read. Gygax starts to write about the mechanics of saving throws, then goes into a deep and moving discussion of heroic fantasy adventuring. I have never liked saving throws, but this section has given me a look behind the curtain at Gygax's thinking, which is helpful. There are five saving throws in AD&D (vs. 13 in Castles&Crusades). Personally, I think Dungeon Crawl Classics does it best with just three: Will, Fortitude, and Reflex vs. a DC, like "Make a DC 12 Will saving throw." Roll, add mods, beat the target. Easy-peasey. 

    On that note: generally speaking, I like a unified d20 mechanic. Everything is roll-high with modifiers added on to boost your number upward. Saving throws in more classically based systems are roll on a table. In C&C, saves are linked to an attribute, plus possible class and race benefits, but the SIEGE Engine needs to know if your attribute is primary or secondary, and you get to add your level..mostly. Needlessly complex. 

    His description of what hit point are is something I wish I had read as a teenager, or in my early 20s when I was running AD&D. I thought--incorrectly--that hit points were merely a measure of physical well being, and physical damage, but no: they are an abstraction of fatigue, wear and tear, and death by a thousand cuts, both physical and mental. I remember being frustrated by AD&D combat feeling like a treen that was being chopped down; hit, miss, hit, miss, hit, miss, but now I see that my understanding was incomplete. 

    Then instantly we are transported into the impacts of intoxicants, descriptions of various insanities, and how experience points work, followed by how to create a campaign world with a long discussion of social ranking, types of government, economic systems, monster and treasure placement/densities, and how many magic items should be left laying around. Somebody. Edit. This. Book. 

    Note: Gygax loves the world 'milieu,' and uses it no less than 72 times in the Dungeon Master's Guide. My computer counted for me: 72! 

2 August 2026 DM's Guide: Exploration and Combat, Including Spell Casting (pgs. 47-80)

     As I've said, I played the shit out of this game for about 20 years, but I never actually played it rules as written (RAW). This next section covers outdoor travel, air combat, underwater combat, types of ships, the planes of existence, infravision, ultravision, and invisibility. Then, combat, which is extraordinarily granular--weapon speeds, initiative, surprise (including while taking a dump, pg. 62), encounter reactions (something I've definitely never used), and grenade-like weapons.  Morale, pursuit, evasion, combat positioning, and rules for a monk's open hand melee on a chart that includes level, height, and weight of opponents! Grappling, pummeling, and overbearing, attack roll matrixes, and turning the undead. A lot going on in these pages! 

    Of particular interest is the section on spell casting during melee (pg. 65). It is not easy to be a wizard in this game. If a caster is interrupted during spell preparation, they lose their spell.  I quoth the Gygax: "Intelligent monsters able to recognize the danger of spells will direct attacks against spell casters if not engaged by other opponents so as to be prevented from so doing." Spell casters cannot use their dexterity bonus while casting, and must be motionless (so no movement). Compared to the D&D 5e rules for wizards in combat, this is incredibly difficult stuff. 

28 July 2026: DM's Guide--Magic pgs. 38-47

    Magic. Meh. There, I've said it. Never a huge fan, and have seldom played pure spell casters when given the opportunity in D&D. Sure, throw a spell here or there. Have some cool magic items. Monsters can do this or that. Fine. But when I started playing 5e in 2019, I learned very quickly that magic can be, and is, a game shaker. It became--for me as a 2e DM thrust into a 5e ruleset--a great source of frustration. I simply could not get over how powerful the characters, especially the spellcasters, were. Turns out that's the overall vibe of modern D&D, but spells were my first indication that things had gone very, very wrong in the game.

    If I have ever read this part of the DMG before, I don't remember, but it was eye-opening for me. There is a passage that opened up a whole train of thought about role playing and clerics:

Lesser clerics, then, draw only upon their education, training, and experience to gain spells, just as higher clerics do when they renew their first and second level spells. In order to gain third, fourth, and fifth level spells, however, higher clerics must reach intermediaries of their respective deities in order to have these powers bestowed upon them from the plane of their deity. When clerics become very great, they must petition their deity personally in order to receive the powerful words which enable the casting of sixth and seventh level cleric spells. It is obvious, therefore, that clerics wishing to use third or higher level spells must be in good standing (pg. 38). 

    I mean, that's awesome! It opens up tremendous opportunities for great gaming. I wish I had thought of it!

    With regard to wizards, I have speculated over the years about just what in the fuck magic is. Like...why, though? Where does it come from? What does it do? What, at its essence, is it? I sort of concocted this idea that magic was a force like gravity that was created by the planes of existence, and that wizards could tap into this force through arcane words and gestures. Imagine my joy when I read the following: 

All magic and cleric spells are similar in that the word sounds, when combined into whatever patterns are applicable, are charged with energy from the Positive or Negative Material Plane. When uttered, these sounds cause the release of this energy, which in turn triggers a set reaction. The release of the energy contained in these words is what causes the spell to be forgotten or the writing to disappear from the surface upon which it is written...The triggering action draws power from some plane of the multiverse...The energy flow is not from the caster per se, it is from the utterance of the sounds, each of which is charged with energy which is loosed when the proper formula and/or ritual is completed with their utterance... When spell energy is released, it usually flows to the Prime Material from the Positive or Negative Material Plane. To replace it, something must flow back in reverse. The dissolution and destruction of material components provides the energy that balances out this flow, through the principle of similarity (pg. 40).

    That literally explains it to me. That's why a caster needs spell components! That's where magical energy comes from!  45 frigging years, man, and I never read that page? Shame on me.

    Gygax then goes on to offer some commentary and clarity on a number of cleric, wizard, illusionist, and druid spells. I imagine these explanations arose from issues at the tables he played at. I skimmed a bit. 

    I can see a little bit of DNA from this book in the Dungeon Crawl Classics rules as I think about it. Not only is there a brief section on character backgrounds (secondary skills table on pg. 12), but there is a longer section about spells, spell books, and spell acquisition that makes wizards even harder to play. So that's a brake on the power, too. Being a wizard is really, really hard, but the payoff is enormous if you can survive long enough to become seasoned. All of this is new to me, or I read it so long ago that I've forgotten it. Much to think about. 

 

27 July 2026: DM's Guide--Pages 9-38 Characters, Dice, and Parasites (plus diseases, gems, and wereboars)

    There is a lot going on in the first 38 pages of this book. Gygax begins with an overview of who this book is for (Dungeon Masters), how the dice work (distributions) where to buy miniatures (from TSR), how to generate ability scores (various methods), character aging...and then the chances of parasitic infestation. I was reminded of J.R.R. Tolkien beginning his 1,000+ page fantasy epic with a detailed breakdown of the types of pipe weed one would find in the Shire. Holy shit. People have suggested that the DM's Guide of 1979 is poorly organized...and they are 100% correct! 

    Nonetheless, I have not read this thing since I was a kid, so I'm making my way through it. By page 14, we are into a detailed table about diseases with descriptions of each kind (connective system, joints, urinary system). EGG uses the term 'milieu' so frequently that I had to look it up to make sure I understood the definition (the social and physical setting in which people live).  Next up: descriptions of abilities, then followers per class, then right back into the depths with warhorses, spying, and ways for thieves to set traps and climb walls. 

    Monsters as player characters? Not encouraged. Alignments and alignment languages (which is so fucking odd), the cost of changing alignments, then money, the value of gems, and types of armor with descriptions. Squeeze in dexterity armor class bonus and weapon types 'to hit' adjustment notes, followed quickly by rules for hirelings, a long part about sages, and henchmen. 

    I've written before  about EGG's thoughts on time in a campaign--something the author says (in all caps) "YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT," before transitioning with no segue to character spells. 

    I am not making this up. It's like he just...wrote whatever popped into his head at the time and put it in without rhyme or reason. It is amazing.

Quotes of Note:

"In a well planned and well judged campaign this is not too likely to happen, for the superior DM will have just enough treasure to whet the appetite of players, while keeping them lean and hungry still, and always after that carrot iust ahead" (pg. 12).

"To adventure amongst the weird is fantasy enough without becoming that too" (pg. 21).

26 July 2026: DM's Guide--Preface

 

    In 2012, Wizards of the Coast released a copy of the 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide. This premium version was a way of fundraising for the Gygax Memorial, and is a complete facsimile of the original. I have my own OG book, of course, but it is old and wrinkly and showing its age, so I picked up this copy from Noble Knight Games in order to re-read it while taking notes, underlining, highlighting, etc. I am not going to read (and in many cases, re-read) every jot and tittle of this classic, but I am going to go through each page slowly and mindfully, learning what I can from this source of wisdom. 

    In the preface, Gygax (who really does write in what others have called 'High Gygaxian') talks about the importance of having a common set of rules in order to allow people from all over to play the same game together. In other words, because there is an agreed upon framework, player A could use his characters in a campaign being run by anyone, anywhere. Sounds like common sense, but I imagine there were a lot of variances at tables early on...just as there are today. Everybody house rules! That's just part of the game. When this was written, I don't think (?) there were many other TTRPGs out there (maybe Runequest and Traveller?) so Gygax's advice makes sense since the majority of people playing were playing his game (AD&D). The Holmes basic set--slightly different, and simpler rules--would turn into the Moldvay line (BECMI), neither of which used the exact AD&D rules. 

    I don't think I've ever played AD&D RAW (that is, rules as written). We certainly played a lot of 1st and 2nd edition D&D, but we never used all of the rules, and would often play a bastardized mash-up of Basic and Advanced. The thing about D&D back in the olden days was, you couldn't really learn how to play the game from the books! Someone had to teach you, then you sort of figured it out yourself as you went. It's little wonder that we were playing is wrong all those years (wrong meaning 'not using all of the rules'). Not that it mattered. We still had a blast!