Hello Dungeon Crawlers! Welcome back to the world of Dungeons and Dragons. I have decided to start another short series on becoming a dungeon master. Without a dungeon master, there is no game, so I will be going into detail on what it takes to become a dungeon master and some tips and tricks when setting up your own campaign. I will start by going into depth on the evolution of the Dungeon Master.
The Dungeon Master (DM) was initially called the Gamemaster when the game came out in 1974. The Gamemaster was like a referee as they were the rules expert and neutral arbiter between players.
The term Dungeon Master did not come about until later and comes from the word “Gamemaster,” which is used to describe the referee of play-by-mail games and is used in contexts of Dungeons & Dragons when created in 1974. The term DM was used for the first time in 1975, created by the fanbase of players in the community.
The first time the term DM was used in reference books was in 1976 in the book called Eldritch Wizardry. This was also seen throughout Dragon Magazine in 1977, but Gamemaster is still widely used. Until 1979, the Dungeon Master wasn’t solidified until AD&D 1 and was named in one of the core reference books, the Dungeon Masters Guide.
In 1989 Wizards of the Coast trademarked the term Dungeon Master/ DM. They also changed the title of the Dungeon Masters Guide to The Dungeon Master Guide to accommodate the trademark. Many other games use the term Gamemaster to avoid this trademark from Dungeons & Dragons, like Pathfinder and Dungeon World.
This is just a short explanation of how the Dungeon Master evolved over time. In my next article, I will go into depth about what it takes to become a Dungeon Master and give a little overview of The Dungeon Master Guide. See yall next week!
Happy Rolling!
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