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By Root 427 0

of D&D have been released, these books have been changed and updated, but the same three books remain essential. The Player’s Handbook contains information needed to create and run a character, including character classes, spells, feats, skills, and even possible deities for characters to worship. The Dungeon Master’s Guide is what a DM will need for running a campaign, including information on how to distribute experience points, create NPCs, and treasure that can be purchased or gained as rewards. The Monster Manual is also a tool for use by the DM that gives stats for various monsters that the players may fight in the game. In addition to these three core books, there are a large variety of additional materials available for both the DM and the player. For example, a player may acquire a book that is specific to the character class he or she wants to play. I used a book called Tome and Blood (Cordell & Williams, 2001) designed for magic users that listed additional spells and additional classes that my character could eventually gain. Likewise, a DM might use a book that details a campaign setting, such as Forgotten Realms.

Again, we might say that the writers of the rule books are primary authors, but as I have noted, these rule books are not the final say on the way that the game is run. The DM has control (authorship, if you will) over the campaign world and the rules used in his or her game, and this is particularly true of a home campaign where the DM can institute new rules. Rather than use a pre-made campaign settings (as one would in the RPGA), Scott created Sorpraedor himself, and he wanted certain things to be true about the world that did not line up perfectly with the rule books. In terms of being a continuity editor, the changes he made to the rules were also important to maintaining the realism and consistency he wanted in his world. To explain the way the DM, the rule books, and the players interact, I turn to an email exchange between Scott and Mark. This exchange occurred after Mark had been playing in the game for approximately a year and half. At this point, he began to feel frustrated at the amount of treasure his character received and asked Scott to explain his philosophy on this point. Mark writes:

Realize that a real discrepancy exists between where Cuthalion is, and where I expected him to be in terms of wealth and magic items... This discrepancy exists because a smaller amount of treasure is being handed out than I had anticipated, and the free market economy you created is eroding the value of what we do take away. Cuthalion is a 9th level character—almost 10th level. 9,000 GP shy of where the v3.5 DMG would put his wealth as a 9th level character.

Mark refers here to his expectations for his character, and it seems clear that these expectations come from the DMG rule book. His character has significantly less in the way of gold pieces (GPs) than if he were to start a character at 9th level and take the recommended amount of gold from the rule book. This discrepancy concerns Mark because he feels that players might be encouraged to discard a character they are currently playing and start over with a character that has more gold; something he considers doing with Cuthalion. An inconsistency like this would not happen in the RPGA where it is important that characters of a certain level are equal to other characters of that level in case the player moves to a different adventure with a different DM.

However, Scott’s response to Mark clearly shows how and why a DM might change rules from a book to fit a specific campaign.

Part of my philosophy for the world is that magic isn’t uncommon, not by any means, but it *is* special. Wars are fought over it, entire races die in pursuit of it, eons of conquest and feuding have been wagered on acquiring and taming it.

In the world of Sorpraedor, Scott does not envision that any character can just walk into a store and buy the powerful magic item that the player sees in the DMG. In fact, to maintain consistent logic within the world, he made certain