I’ve been playing DnD also better known as Dungeons and Dragons for the better part of a decade now and I’ve been running games as a Dungeon Master for about eight years. In my time of both playing and running DnD, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes but I’ve also picked up some tips and tricks along the way that have helped me become a better DM.
For the more veteran DMs out there, these tips might seem pretty obvious, but for those beginning their journey as a Dungeon Master, this can be a helpful guide. DMing and the game of DnD can be difficult at times and I want to share what I’ve learned to help mitigate that difficulty.
Session Prep Is Important But Don’t Over Plan
While session prep for a game of DnD can seem daunting for newer Dungeon Masters at first, I can confidently say it’s not as scary or as difficult as it might seem. While you generally want a plan or a goal for the session, you don’t need to plan out every minute detail. Eventually, your players will do something that will disrupt your session which could throw all your planning into the trash.
Instead, have your notes be more of a river that can flow and adapt to what your players do in the game. For example, if you want them to go to a certain town for plot reasons and they instead go to a different town, just have the plot reasons happen in that town instead. If your players don’t want to visit the wizard you want them to visit, instead have the wizard come to them in the form of a surprise ally during a tough fight.
Your notes should be descriptive enough to know what you want to happen for the session. But also keep them fluid so that if the party throws a wrench in them, you won’t need to toss your notes into the trash.
Don’t Be Afraid To Borrow From Other Sources
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While it’s understandable to want your first Dungeons and Dragons Campaign to be original and memorable, don’t feel like you have to come up with everything on your own. I routinely borrow stuff from some of my favorite franchises such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Fullmetal Alchemist, Warhammer, etc for my DnD games.
Borrowing could be as small as a name for your villain or even as large as entire plotlines with stuff switched around. One of my favorite things to borrow from is the underwater level in the first KOTOR game. Players need to go fix/retrieve something while fighting/avoiding deadly sharks or other sea creatures. With the amount of storytelling that’s been done, nothing is ever truly original these days.
Just look at when George Lucas made Star Wars. He was inspired by Flash Gordon serials, the Dune books, and the dog fights in space were inspired by WWII dog fights.
Use Random Tables For Your DnD Game
Random tables can be incredibly useful whether you’re prepping for your next DnD session or running the session itself. If you Google them, you can pretty much find random tables for almost everything needed for your next dnd game. They’re especially useful for building large sprawling cities and towns. A d100 or even a d20 list can help immensely when needing a store, residence, etc.
Players vs. Dungeon Master
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I’ve seen both veteran and newer DMs make the mistake of getting into the players vs DM mindset, myself included. It might seem natural at first to think it’s players vs DM but DnD is a team-based game and a game can’t happen without the DM or players.
A DM should never try and intentionally kill the party the same way the party shouldn’t go out of their way and ignore everything the DM sets up for them. Give the party obstacles to overcome but never try and outright kill them because more often than not, poor decision-making and bad dice rolls will do that for them.
Yes, And?
“Yes, and?” is an important improv skill that DMs both young and old should learn when running their DnD games. While there is a time and a place to say no, I find that the “yes, and” approach works better because the player doesn’t feel like they’re being stopped from doing something.
For example: Instead of telling a player no they can’t jump a 100-foot gap, instead say “yes, and” where the player can attempt to jump the gap, and if they fail and fall, they fail and fall. The fall doesn’t even need to kill them, it could instead be they landed in the Underdark and now the party has to rescue said player.
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