The rise and fall of the Dungeon Master

The 'Dungeon Master' (DM) is an anti-pattern where the original developer of a legacy system becomes a bottleneck during rewrite projects. DMs know all the traps but are conflicted: they want to help yet fear the new system exposes their old mistakes. This leads to unconscious sabotage, defensive behavior, and project failures. Common strategies to mitigate include blaming technology, bypassing the DM, or separating them from the team. DMs should let go, start fresh, or relearn. The problem is systemic, not personal, and solutions require cultural change like pair programming and collective ownership.