Six Principles for Old School Dungeon Masters

Art by Gilead

Six Principles for Old School Dungeon Masters

1) The most important thing a DM should ask the PCs, and repeatedly ask, is, “What do you do?” This question creates the atmosphere that makes D&D enjoyable for players, directing and redirecting the momentum toward their choices.

2) Descriptions of situations, NPCs, and scenarios should be concise, brief, and to the point. Unless the DM is a talented actor, dialogue should be reported rather than directly acted out. As dialogue progresses, a sort of magic happens, and characters naturally seem to converse with NPCs without the awkwardness of falsetto voices or fake accents.

3) If players have a request or idea, no matter how outlandish, the DM should provide the possibility for it, but they can adjust the statistical likelihood to make it almost impossible. For example, let’s imagine a player asks if their familiar, a cat, can tear out the throat of an evil necromancer after the party has fallen. A 1 in 20, or even a 1 in 100 chance, is unlikely, but the benefit of the dramatic tension is worth it. The inverse, the discouragement associated with shutting down the idea, is not worth it.

4) Whether the DM is using a module or creating one, the DM needs an “objective” third party to mediate between their role as DM and the players’ choices. This third party could be a description of a town, an NPC, an encounter, or a social scenario. To an extent, this third element adds concreteness to the world, moderating the whimsy of the DM and the tendentious nature of the players, creating something approaching an even playing field.

5) The DM should strategically adopt an antagonistic stance toward the players. This makes the encounters feel as though the stakes are high. However, the DM should never cheat; the players should never suspect the DM of putting a finger on the scales, as this might incentivize them to cheat as well. Instead, the DM should make it clear that they will use their resources honestly, with integrity, and to the best of their abilities within the reasonable constraints of the enemies' abilities and potential.

6) Finally, the DM should not retcon any awarded treasure or magical items. If a campaign becomes unbalanced due to a mistake, it is better to end the campaign than to retcon. Retconning something that provided the players with a sense of joy risks making future DMing sessions feel unreliable.

Fire and Ice: Teegra: Society, Totalitarianism, and Freedom

I recently read Teegra, a new comic by Dynamite that supplements their ongoing Fire and Ice prequel series. The series explores the events leading up to Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta's 1983 animated film of the same name, in which the evil Ice Kingdom and the sorcerer Nekron attempt to conquer the world.

Revisiting this world through the comics has sparked my interest in the deeper themes of Fire and Ice. When I first watched the film in the early 2000s, I was enthralled by the stunning visuals that combined Frazetta's dynamic art with Bakshi's rotoscope animation. However, the story and characters didn't resonate with me as strongly as the visuals.

Now, the prequel comics have illuminated what I believe to be a central allegory of Fire and Ice: the conflict between freedom and totalitarianism, a vivid reflection of the Cold War era in which the film was made. This theme was prevalent in popular culture during the 1980s, as seen in films like Red Dawn (1984) and Rocky IV (1985), which pitted rebellious American heroes against Soviet-style authoritarian regimes.

In the world of Fire and Ice, the Ice Kingdom represents a dehumanizing, authoritarian state ruled by a supreme leader (think Stalinist Russia). The Fire Kingdom, in contrast, symbolizes a passionate but unruly and disputatious democracy that values personal freedom above all else. This allegory is exemplified through characters like Teegra, who defies an arranged marriage in favor of her own autonomy, and her brother, whose forbidden love challenges societal norms.

Interestingly, this theme aligns with the values often espoused in sword and sorcery fiction. The genre's archetypal hero, Conan the Cimmerian, rejects the oppressive traditions of his homeland to pursue a life of freedom. However, while the Ice Kingdom is both technologically advanced and totalitarian, Cimmeria is depicted as a barbaric yet authoritarian society bound by tradition.

In sword and sorcery, sorcery often serves as a metaphor for technology and science. The Ice Kingdom's advanced sorcery parallels its totalitarian control, while the Cimmerians' lack of sorcery reflects their primitive yet oppressive society. 

This tension highlights how, surprisingly, both primitive and advanced societies can be antagonistic to personal freedom in the sword and sorcery genre. I am reminded of Elric's  Melniboné.

Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, drew inspiration from theosophical concepts when crafting the world in which his stories were set. Theosophy, a spiritual and philosophical movement established by Helena Blavatsky in the late 19th century, sought to synthesize ideas from various Eastern and Western religious and occult traditions. Jeffrey Shanks, in his article "Theosophy and the Thurian Age: Robert E. Howard and the Works of William Scott-Elliot," argues that Howard's fictional Hyborian Age can be interpreted as a reimagining of theosophical prehistory, particularly in its depiction of the rise and fall of civilizations. The Thurian Age, a period in Howard's fictional timeline, mirrors the cyclical nature of Blavatsky's (i.e. Theosophy's founder's) "Root Race" theory, which proposes that human evolution progresses through stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization before inevitably descending back into savagery. This cyclical model of societal development in Howard's works bears a striking similarity to the ideas put forth by Blavatsky in her theosophical teachings. 

The Fire Kingdom in Fire and Ice doesn't quite fit into Howard's savagery, barbarism, and civilization model. It is a kingdom, a state, and a society, but one that is unruly and seemingly respects individual freedom. This concept of a society that values personal liberty might have resonated with how some Americans utopically imagined their democracy during the 1980s (through the lens of popular culture), particularly in contrast to the perceived oppression of the Soviet Union.

As I delve deeper into the world of Fire and Ice, I find myself increasingly fascinated by how it mirrors the political landscape of the 1980s while also drawing upon the tradition of sword and sorcery fiction and its underlying philosophical influences. The Dynamite Fire and Ice comics have not only rekindled my appreciation for Bakshi and Frazetta's creation but also revealed the thought-provoking allegory at its core, inviting us to consider the relationship between society and freedom.