The Crafter DM: a manifesto

I am here to create.  That’s why I run games. 

I’m in a state of continual creation, and I never want to phone it in. If there isn’t something new in today’s game, I don’t want to run it.  I’m not spending 4 hours of game time, plus prep, just to move the timeline forward.

I don’t play as a "pastime".  I play for creative fuel.

I must make the time I spend WORTH IT.  And for me that means, making something new.  Every time.
As GMs and DMs, we spend hours readying our game.  Thinking.  Prepping.  Worldbuilding.  Great.  Wonderful.
But I’m talking about something else.  Not “what” the story or world is, but “how” the session is run.


The CRAFTER DM:

•Today’s game will be different than every session before it.

•I will craft something new, bold, and different, and bring it to today’s game.

•Whether it’s a miniature, a prop, music, art, a new mechanic, costumes, poetry, a new authorial POV, I will craft something new that my players will experience.

•What I craft may not live up to my hopes.  My model might look janky.  My mechanic might crash and burn.  My poem might be cringe.  But I choose to focus on process not product.  I will make something new, and I refuse to let perfectionism stop me.


Fear no Failure

Cultivate the humility to create without self-doubt. Play.  Be anti-perfectionist.

It’s just a game.  It’s playing with Barbie dolls, except we’ve added dice.  If we want to think about it this way, the DM is not much more than a glorified banker in Monopoly. 

As long as you’re taking player safety seriously and are cultivating an above-table conversation, the rest is your playground.

Now, go make incredible things!