An introduction

Welcome to my blog “Reading the DMG”.

I suppose the best place to start is an explanation of what I’m doing followed by my motivation. What I intend to do is to read and comment on the AD&D (that Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) Dungeon Masters Guide one page at a time. The coverage rate is approximate, of course. The comments will most likely be on the contents though I know myself well enough to suspect that there may be some digressions.

Explaining my motivation is a bit less straight-forward. In part it is a writing exercise. I find that it is hard to get started with writing- something I normally enjoy doing- of late. When I had a similar ‘block’ in high school I simply copied another book, by hand (Stephen King’s “The Gunslinger”- I got through about 100 pages). No wanting to do that (or explain that to my spouse, I thought forcing myself to write a reaction piece every day would be good practice. Additionally, I’ve not yet tried my hand at blogging and thought it would be interesting to try.

There are other reasons, both immediate and larger, that inspired me. The immediate one was the death of Gary Gygax last Tuesday. This inspired me to crack open my old AD&D books and modules, in a nostalgic sort of tribute. One thing that struck me was how these books were probably the most ‘advanced’ thing I’d ever read as an eleven or twelve year old (it has been long enough I don’t remember exactly). I remember reading the DMG (it was a Christmas present, probably in 1984) and being both fascinated and somewhat bewildered at both the language and organization (or lack thereof). I’m curious to how these books, and the DMG in particular, impacted me as both a person and a writer. Seeing as how I hadn’t opened my DMG for about two decades (aside from a glance at the occasional table for a chuckle and once for a class- a story I will come to later) my memories of it are tinged with more than a little nostalgia and fogged by the intervening years; I thought a free look might be educational.

And thus begins my journey of of 240 pages…