Burning Questions: What Do New DMs Need to Know?

This week’s burning question: What are some basics to remember as a first time DM when starting up a new D&D campaign? DMing for the first time can be scary so here are a few tips to make DMing your first D&D (or any kind) of campaign easier.

This week’s burning question: What are some basics to remember as a first time DM when starting up a new D&D campaign? DMing for the first time can be scary so here are a few tips to make DMing your first D&D (or any kind) of campaign easier.

Remember that it's YOUR game. You can change it.

Mike Mearls, co-lead designer of 5th Edition D&D and Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Franchise Director, is constantly mentioning this. Flexibility is good – and empowering DMs to make their own stories is why the setting books for the current edition are more of a toolbox than explicit directions.

The corollary to this tip is that if the players don't yet know a plot point, changing it is even easier so give yourself a break. Did you have an important encounter planned for a location, only to have the players completely bypass that location? Then move it to a location in their new path. Even if you're running one of the official adventures, you can change it as needed for your players' interests, circumstances or to adapt to curve-balls from the players. Which leads to...

Remember that RPGs are collaborative storytelling, not a book


Some DMs are actually secret, wannabe novelists. Don't be that person. A rigid story where players have to do A and then B and C, etc. to resolve the plot will make them unhappy.

The whole point of an RPG is to take a story – created by the DM or a pre-written adventure – and see what happens when the players interact with that story. Embrace the interactivity and collaboration. For original stories, it's better to plan the villain's actions and an outline or a series of encounters/scenes that can be flexible and change because...

Players will rarely do what you expect so relax about it


“Expect the unexpected” is an understatement when it comes to players. It's easy for new DMs to stress out about that and try to railroad players to compensate. Don't. Sometimes the best story bits come from player unpredictability. Try to roll with the change and adapt it into your plot.

For example, while running Storm King's Thunder, a player decided he wanted a rival – another bard who was his older brother. He talked in-game about his brother being a terrible person and regularly derailed the plot in weird ways to “show up” his off-screen brother so I substituted his brother for one of the Kraken Society henchmen. That tied the player's digressions back to the story without forcing his actions onto a particular path – and eventually gave him the showdown he craved.

As with tip #2, generally the best long-term solution to player unpredictability is to plan an outline and encounters instead of a strict linear plotline. This way if they do things in an order you don't expect or skip certain parts altogether you can adapt. Or just be prepared to rewrite parts of the adventure to adapt to the player changes.

You don't have to have every rule memorized

Yes, you need a good grasp of the basic game rules, but you don't have to memorize every spell, feat, magic item, etc. It's OK to look things up if needed.

Also, players can feel more engaged and empowered if they can tell you how a spell works so it emphasizes collaboration. If you do need to pause to look something up, that can provide an opportunity for the players to take a quick bathroom break, so it's not necessarily bad. Or, just use common sense to make a ruling for now and look it for the long term. Matt Mercer has recommended this several times.

Above all, relax, have fun and DM. You'll get better with practice.

This article was contributed by Beth Rimmels (brimmels) as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!!
 

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Beth Rimmels

Beth Rimmels

Jay Verkuilen

Grand Master of Artificial Flowers
You don't have to be a professional voice actor or author to run a game.

This is a very good point. I pay 0 attention to streams and wouldn't even think of it, but you're right, noobs are likely to run into making that comparison. In many ways, it's like assuming that when you first start learning to play guitar you're going to be able to play like, oh, John Mayer, Tosin Abasi, or St. Vincent (to name excellent players in very different styles). That's not going to happen but it doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a go.
 

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jasper

Rotten DM
There is always one jerk at the table. If you don't see one, look in the mirror.
Signed Jasper current jerk dm.
edit to add
make that former jerk dm.
 

Piratecat

Sesquipedalian
*Kevin Kulp, also known as [MENTION=2]Piratecat[/MENTION] , never sucked as a GM. He was Born in GMing Perfection from the Womb, and Blessed Upon the World that We may Know the Template to Judge All GMs by.

I sucked so badly. Oh my goodness. And that was fine, because I just needed practice. For me, that was running about 300 RPGA games for strangers during the mid-90s. It was a great chance to figure out what I loved about my GMing style, and what needed some work. No one is ever going to figure that out until they're running games.
 



cthulhu42

Explorer
Nope. Ignore alignments. Ban them from your games. Or even better: play an RPG that doesn't have an alignment system.
So you're advice for new DMs is to not play D&D.

Awesome.

For those new DMs that do want to play D&D, establishing a moral baseline can be hugely helpful. Many young players see D&D as an outlet for immature murder fantasies, or a way to be destructive with no real world consequences. The alignment system, as archaic and unpopular as it is, can help focus a group toward cooperative, heroic goals, and that's a huge help to a new DM, no matter what system they're playing.

But that's just my experience after 37 years of running RPGs. Take it with a grain of salt.
 

Jhaelen

First Post
So you're advice for new DMs is to not play D&D.
Indeed.
In my experience D&D is a terrible system to actually learn how to roleplay. I only have 34 years of experience to back this, though. Perhaps part of the reason is that the RPG scene in Germany is different from the US. For most players their first RPG is probably still 'Das Schwarze Auge' (The Dark Eye), although Pathfinder has gained a lot of ground.

Anyway, 'immature mature fantasies' have never been stopped by D&D's alignment system. I've seen paladins commit the most atrocious actions in their service for the ultimate good. It's simply not a problem that can be solved by game mechanics. It's something that has to be addressed by roleplaying.
 

dwayne

Adventurer
Alignment is relative to the morality of the religion or philosophical out look, one persons god vs another who is in the right and the wrong. It is a matter of your perspective, as a christian based out look is not the same as a person who might be Buddha. This is something that should be left up to that of the gm running a game and should be determined by the group and gm together to arrive at a system they all can play with in. As for example i am of a more christian out look which i believe the system its self is that of a more western america sense of morality so might not fit within that of another religious out look or philosophical perspective. Not saying anyone is better just stating the group with gm should use it as a base or a way to make a system they can be happy with. I for one prefer the allegiance system from the old d20 modern system, as you can have two who are of same alignment at odds with each other because of an allegiance, has a more bit of realism.
 
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Celebrim

Legend
DMing is mostly lonely fun. That is to say, to be successful at it, you must enjoy spending many hours each week preparing notes on your game. That is I think the thing that DMs have to understand the most.

A novice DM should limit their ambitions. The easiest thing in the world for a new DM is to bite off more than they can chew. Find out if you enjoy preparing to run a game. Initially, plan only 3-4 weeks in advance. That way, you can at least get one good adventure in if it turns out that you don't actually enjoy preparing a game. Most likely, you should begin by adapting a prepared adventure module for play. Here, the fact that the game is your own is great advice. Fill in the details you think the module leaves out. Fix what you think it gets wrong. Focus on story elements that you think might be cool but which the published work pays little attention to.

Above all, minimize the amount of time you spend fantasizing about individual scenes, particularly if you are fantasizing about how the players will respond to the stuff you are preparing. Understand that you are preparing possibilities, and that (almost) nothing is going to happen like you think it will.

One of the hardest things about DMing is that as a social activity, it may turn out that the group you are in and for which you've prepared an adventure, won't really enjoy it. Sometimes this is your fault. Sometimes, you can be a decent DM that has prepared a good game, and the problem is that you are not all on board the particular sort of fun that you've prepared to have. That's no one's fault. An experienced DM will be able to figure out what his player's enjoy and tailor the game for that, but there is a limit to that sort of thing in that the DM must have fun as well, and there are some groups where you might be perfectly happy as a player, but don't enjoy DMing simply because it's not rewarding enough for you after doing all that labor to prepare the game. Remember, you the DM are a participant in the game too. You are in some sense always sacrificing for the sake of the game, but the game has to be fun for you as well (and perhaps for you above all).
 

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