D&D General Best DM's Guide advice by edition [+]

[Maxperson]

Rule 0. All editions.

 

[overgeeked]

“It's a cliché, but it's also an important rule of narration: “Show, don't tell.” Imagine how the environment would look and sound in a good movie, do your best to describe it that way, then add details of smells and texture that a movie can't communicate. Don't tell the players that there's a pool of bubbling acid nearby, show it to them with a vivid description. Think about how acid might smell, talk about a cloud of noxious vapor hovering above the pool, and describe what the pool bubbling sounds like.

Your Only Limit Is Your Imagination: Your imagination is the only boundary in your description. You aren't limited by a special effects budget. Describe amazing vistas, terrifying monsters, dastardly villains, and bone-crunching fight scenes. Your enthusiasm and liveliness are contagious, and they energize the whole game.

Portraying Rules Situations: It's easy to fall into the rut of describing events merely in terms of the applicable rules. Although it's important that the players understand what's going on in such terms, the D&D game can be at its dullest if everyone talks in “gamespeak.” You know you've fallen into this trap when the table chatter is: “That's 26 against AC,” “You hit, now roll damage,” “31 points,” and “Now we're to initiative count 13.”

Instead, use such statistics, along with your knowledge of the scene, to help your narration.”

4E DMG.

 

[overgeeked]

“No matter how carefully you prepare for a gaming session, eventually the players do something unexpected, and you have to wing it. Relax. A lot of DMs feel a lot of anxiety about being caught unprepared, and they over-prepare as a result, creating tons of material they never have a chance to use.

With a little bit of focused preparation, some familiarity with basic improvisation techniques, and a lot of flexibility, you can handle any curve ball your players throw at you. You might even be surprised to realize that the game is better than it would have been if it had stuck to your original script.”

4E DMG.

 

[Yora]

David Cook, Expert Rules, 1981

Most important, the characters in the wilderness campaign do not exist in a vacuum. The DM should have events going on elsewhere that may affect (or be affected by) the actions of the players. There may be any number of "plots" going on at once, and the DM should try to involve each player in some chain of events. These should develop logically from the actions of those involved. It is important not to force the action to a pre-determined conclusion. The plot lines can always be adjusted for the actions of the players.

 

[overgeeked]

“One of the cornerstones of improvisational theater technique is called “Yes, and . . .” It's based on the idea that an actor takes whatever the other actor gives and builds on that.

That's your job as well. As often as possible, take what the players give you and build on it. If they do something unexpected, run with it. Take it and weave it back into your story without railroading them into a fixed plotline.”

Extended example of saying yes vs saying no.

“Instead of cutting off possibilities, you've made your campaign richer, and instead of frustrating your players, you've rewarded them for thinking in creative and unexpected ways. Make a note of the things you just invented about this wizards' cabal (adding them to your campaign lists), and use the cabal again later in your campaign. Everyone's happy!”

4E DMG.

 

[payn]

I really liked 3E DMG II. Its a book about homebrewing a campaign. I dont sweat the small stuff, you can pick that up anywhere, I like expansive subject driven advice in my rulebooks. YMMV.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Know the game systems, and you will know how and when to take upon yourself the ultimate power. To become the final arbiter, rather than the interpreter of the rules, can be a difficult and demanding task, and it cannot be undertaken lightly, for your players expect to play this game, not one made up on the spot. By the same token, they are playing the game the way you, their DM, imagines and creates it. Remembering that the game is greater than its parts, and knowing all of the parts, you will have overcome the greater part of the challenge of being a referee. Being a true DM requires cleverness and imagination which no set of rules books can bestow. ...

1e DMG p. 9

Also?

As the DM, you have to prove in every game that you are still the best.
Id.

 

[overgeeked]

“TIPS FROM THE PROS

Something amazing happened one time I was playing D&D with my 9-year-old son. When we finished an encounter, my son took over. He decided that he was going to search around one of the statues in the room, that he was going to get hit by a trap (an arrow would shoot out at the statue), and that he'd find a treasure there.

Hey, wait a minute. I thought I was the DM!

That was my first reaction. But I bit my tongue. I rolled damage for the trap, and I let him have his treasure. (I de-termined what it was—I wasn't about to relinquish that much control.)

He never enjoyed the game more.

I learned the most important lesson about D&D that day. I remembered that this is a game about imagination, about coming together to tell a story as a group. I learned that the players have a right to participate in telling that story—after all, they're playing the protagonists!

—James Wyatt”

4E DMG.

 

[Sacrosanct]

“TIPS FROM THE PROS

Something amazing happened one time I was playing D&D with my 9-year-old son. When we finished an encounter, my son took over. He decided that he was going to search around one of the statues in the room, that he was going to get hit by a trap (an arrow would shoot out at the statue), and that he'd find a treasure there.

Hey, wait a minute. I thought I was the DM!

That was my first reaction. But I bit my tongue. I rolled damage for the trap, and I let him have his treasure. (I de-termined what it was—I wasn't about to relinquish that much control.)

He never enjoyed the game more.

I learned the most important lesson about D&D that day. I remembered that this is a game about imagination, about coming together to tell a story as a group. I learned that the players have a right to participate in telling that story—after all, they're playing the protagonists!

—James Wyatt”

4E DMG.

Some of the most fun DMing experiences I've had were DMing kids for the first time. The stuff they came up with was great!

 

[overgeeked]

Some of the most fun DMing experiences I've had were DMing kids for the first time. The stuff they came up with was great!

Same. The sheer imagination, lateral thinking, and not being restricted by the rules is utterly fantastic.

It’s weird how we all say it’s a game of pure imagination and no limits…but, oh, by the way, here’s a 350-page book detailing all the limits. It’s infinitely more fun to chuck all that and just play.

A relevant quote from Matt Mercer:

“This is a testament to why I love playing with newer players. There’s a cycle I’m noticing, through the years of playing. Like a player cycle. When you first begin, you don’t know the boundaries that a lot of experienced players expect or understand. The more you know the game, the more you tend to, more often than not, stay within the confines of what the game establishes as the rules. When you’re new to it, you don’t really understand that so you take wider swings, you make stranger choices. You really kind of push against those boundaries because you don’t know where the boundaries are. You’re like a kid learning to how to walk for the first time and bumping into the furniture. And it’s wonderful, and eventually you kind of fall into those lines and not always, but sometimes you find yourself kind of subconsciously sticking, coloring within the lines because you’ve learned to do so. Then over time you begin to realize you’ve been doing that. And then you go back to being weird again. And that’s my other favorite point. It’s new players or extremely experienced players who have come back to reclaim their ‘stupid’ youth as players.”