D&D General Practicing DMing

[not-so-newguy]

After our last session, I came away feeling that I didn't carry out my role as DM in as crisp a manner as possible. Setting aside that we can be our own worst critics from time to time, it did get me thinking: Are there resources out there for someone to practice Dungeon Mastering away from the table?

There are certainly endless articles and videos on how others do things. Some of those are really great (e.g., IMO, Slyflourish.com and Matt Colville's Running the Game among others) but I'm looking for a little bit more than absorbing advice and then trying to play it out in actual games.

Much like musician practices scales and parts of songs/pieces leading up to a performance. Or an athlete does drills and practices plays between games. Or an artist doodles or what not before tackling a final work. Or a salesperson might practice their pitch in front of a mirror or family before calling a client. Or anyone might visualize doing something in their craft before doing it physically.

So, does anyone out there have suggestions or resources that instruct us how to practice Dungeon Master skills between sessions?


EDIT to add: deliberate practice is kinda the concept I'm going for here. What can we, as DMs, do outside of playing our weekly/bi-weekly/monthly sessions to practice?

Do you ever get a chance to be a player rather than DM? I've learned a lot by switching back forth

 

[Maxperson]

Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Well now we have 8 Ps.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Let's not forget that the other players at the table have just as much impact on the "performance" as the one playing the Dungeon Master.

Moving on. In the past, I've taken Gamemastering classes, and have gone to Gamemastering workshops. None of them were all that great. I mean there was lots of good advice, but what I'm looking for is critique and feedback. I would like to take a class where we run short scenarios with each of us taking a turn as Gamemasters and get immediate feedback from our fellow gamemasters.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Go to conventions and play with lots of other Dungeon Masters.

 

[pogre]

It has been suggested here several times, but getting on the other side of the screen from time-to-time gave me the biggest jumps in my DMing.

I very much prefer to run games. I probably did not participate as a player once in ten or fifteen years. However, when 5e came out I made a conscious decision to play more to get insight. It helped me a ton to create a more enjoyable game. Particularly it helped in the areas of pacing and creating hooks.

I have dropped a lot of things from my old game as I did not enjoy them as a player - one example would be mazes. If the players come up with a clever plan I try to give every attempt to make it work instead of trying to thwart it at every turn.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Our current campaign is West Marches style and so I do get to play most other weeks when I’m not DMing. That has been really great - it’s not exactly “practicing”, but being on the other side of the screen certainly has helped inform my DMing.

 

[not-so-newguy]

It seems like you spend a good chunk of your time running/playing games already, perhaps taking on hobbies or an area of interest outside of D&D that complements DMing.
Examples:
Becoming better skilled with VTT
Build your own terrain for in-person games
Take an online class (or teach youself?): History, computer, creative writing
Go for a hike / take a long walk

 

[Swarmkeeper]

It seems like you spend a good chunk of your time running/playing games already, perhaps taking on hobbies or an area of interest outside of D&D that complements DMing.
Examples:
Becoming better skilled with VTT
Build your own terrain for in-person games
Take an online class (or teach youself?): History, computer, creative writing
Go for a hike / take a long walk

Good stuff and a fun cosmic coincidence that you invoked "take a long walk". This morning, I just finished reading Digital Minimalism in which the author lauds the benefits of long walks to help him work out challenging tasks for work. I often listen to podcasts during walks or runs - but maybe I could replace that listening a few times a week with mulling over game scenarios in my head. Thanks!

 

[Asisreo]

I'd say, isolate the skills you think you need to work on more and practice those.

Like, if you're bad at describing. Practice describing your chair or your room or your spouse/friend. Have a thesaurus nearby so if you think "blue" is too vague or uninteresting, you can look up a more apt synonym.

If you're bad at combat, pull a player that likes combat and practice playing just one-on-one encounters with him, focusing on pacing and descriptions while trying to keep it interesting.

If you're bad at socializing, welcome to the D&D club. One day we'll figure it out.

 

[Manbearcat]

* Practice your situation framing (making it provocative, making it curiosity-piquing, integrating it with player input).

* Practice your consequence/complication-handling as an outgrowth of particular initiating parameters of situation + action declaration intent + mechanical resolution + principles/premise of play (especially making these personal to one or more PCs).

* Practice running various archetypes of conflicts (kill, capture, flee, pursue, drive-off, convince, convince crowd, adjure/banish, ploy, sneak, journey).


You can do these things without a hefty through-line of “what has come before” (so you don’t have to actually play to get there) which would constrain/guide these things naturally during play. Just make a few characters > stipulate some modest backstory > frame situations and run conflicts with interesting decision-points and meaningful consequences/complications. This is the lifeblood of play. You can get good at this (and it behooves you to do so) without running a session with a fictional through line. It’s the same as anything else. Get good at the fundamentals…then put it together in an actual game/competition.