IF YOU’RE A NEW DM PLEASE LISTEN TO ME…

I remember how I felt picking up the LMoP starter box from my college town game store back in 2015.

I imagine it’s how some of you are feeling right now after being gifted the new DMG or an adventure module for Christmas- full of excitement and inspired impatience to take your players on a grand campaign that lasts months {or even years} and sees all of their character arcs and dreams come true!

As any experienced DM reading this will guess, none of that happened. In fact, the opposite occurred. I shoehorned my players into a world they had no say in, pitted them up against undefeatable enemies for “dramatic effect”, and expected them to show up every week with smiles and gratitude on their lips. In blunt retrospect, I was a bad Dungeon Master.

2015 was a different time in the TTRPG hobby though. We didn’t have all the Dungeontubers and social media accounts we have now, and Critical Role was still in its infancy. All I could do was my best, but it turned out my best was just a bit misguided about what DMing was {and still is} all about.

That’s why I wrote this list. To pass along the most useful and positively impactful DMing concepts I’ve picked up over the decade in hopes of saving you the frustration of learning them yourself!

If this list does its job, you’ll leave with a DMing mindset that is more player-centric, embraces flexibility or rigidity, and is just overall more fun at the table for everyone.

I. AS THE DUNGEON MASTER…

“1d6 lessons I learned the hard way”

1;1 {Localized Worldbuilding} You can build your entire world inside its dungeons, not atop the endless landscapes that hide them {trying to build entire worlds is creatively exhausting and rarely yields prep that players enjoy engaging with}.

1;2 {Play Cycle} You will get more done and have more fun every session if you; Vividly describe the scene -> Clarify the acting player’s intention with their turn -> Call for a fair check/save -> Vividly describe the consequences of their success/failure -> Shift to next player -> Repeat.

1;3 {Turn Order} Prepping a spotlight moment for each character {ex. Meeting a familiar face, training with a mentor, discoriving a backstory secret, etc.} every session will keep your players coming back a lot longer than meticulously built encounters or worlds ever will.

1;4 {Trail Blazer} Your players WANT to be told what to do and where to go, they just don’t want to be told HOW they have to achieve their goals {do you get frustrated when your open world video game gives you a new mission/objective?}.

1;5 {Verbal Components} Always remember that TTRPGs are not and never will be the same an open-world video game because your players can’t push buttons on a controller to cause instantaneous changes to the game world {TTRPGs require a lot more back-and-forth communication to achieve the same outcomes, but that’s what makes it fun!}.

1;6 {Initiative} When you run your sessions in initiative-order, everything about your game becomes exponentially easier for you manage and referee {while also giving each player’s actions more narrative weight and tension}.

1;7 {Fast Travel} Nothing will give your group more playable time back at the table than being comfortable “skipping” the boring stuff {traveling across the city to meet a contact doesn’t always require a random encounter, and a voyage across the sea can be resolved with a simple skill challenge rather than a multi-session mini arc that ultimately does little but distract from the primary narrative}.

1;8 {Failure} You fail whenever a players’ action results in zero narrative progress or makes the character look incompetent/useless {even a failed check can look cool in the attempt}.

***

This post could’ve easily snowballed into a 1d100 list of tips and tricks, but less is typically more when it comes to TTRPGs. I only wanted to share the things I believe will have the biggest and most immediate positive impact on your game. If you’ve got your own hard-learned lessons I didn’t touch on, please share them in the comments!

We say these things in their unholy names, amen.

xoxo,

Father Doom