This Guy Is Living His Best Life as a Professional D&D Dungeon Master

Paul Bellow · Nov 1, 2017

If you've never played Dungeons & Dragons before, you might imagine that it's as easy as getting a bunch of friends together and deciding who gets to be the reality-bending wizard and who gets to be the surly dwarf before setting off to fight fantastical creatures together.

But none of it works without the dungeon master, the most necessary and difficult role to play. The dungeon master sets the scene, creates the story, voices any characters not controlled by the other players, fights players as enemies, and enforces the rules.

John Dempsey, who lives in the Toronto area, has played the role of dungeon master since the 80s, when he first started playing D&D. He now runs DM for Hire, and has professionally hosted D&D games for first-timers and veterans alike since 2016. He also made an appearance at the end of a 2016 music video from Toronto band BADBADNOTGOOD, where he pitched his business in an air horn-filled clip after the band played a killer game of D&D.

I called Dempsey to talk about DM for Hire, player etiquette, and the role of Stranger Things in D&D's recent popularity.
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https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...agons-stranger-things-dungeon-master-for-hire

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This Guy Is Living His Best Life as a Professional D&D Dungeon Master

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