D&D General Practicing DMing

[Scott Christian]

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?

I kind of break practice into different categories.

I practice RP stuff in the car. I try to use voices, display emotions, and mannerisms of upcoming NPCs. I also use this same time to predict what questions PCs might have for them so I can tailor their answers to match their personality - not just relay information. It's here I play around with word choice and describing distinguishing traits or habits. (Side Note: My last practice I was describing two goblins that the PCs might eavesdrop on. One was describing how he has to go poop and the other thought he was going to go look for coin (they raided a place). So they were arguing. I eventually changed poop to naughty word, then to crap, because that was the best word for the setting and these goblins. )

I generally mentally run the combat through my head. I try to predict what the PCs will do, and then decide how the opponents will handle it based on their tactical prowess. Some might always do the wrong thing, where others will head it off at the pass. I also practice manipulating maps quite a bit for this.

Lastly, I do practice time management. This is constant. There are times early on, I would run an entire session by myself to see how long the combat and exploration pillars played out. I would also practice reading any setting pieces I had for the adventure. Now, depending on the system, I am almost always within thirty minutes of the four hours I set for a session. But twenty years ago, eh, not so much.

 

[prabe]

Practicing GMing away from the table is hard, but I have thoughts on how one might improve without trying to exercise ...

I saw someone else suggest reading upthread on my skim through, and I second that. Fiction won't hurt, but if something nonfiction grabs your attention there's no reason to think it won't help--much modern nonfiction is at least as narrative as fiction. Expanding the set of ideas you've been exposed to is the helpful thing I'm getting at, here, so if you prefer to watch documentaries or videos or whatever, you can include that here.

I might also try writing something. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, gaming-related or not, whatever--the point is to get thoughts from the inside of your head to the outside. If you have some other creative hobby that isn't gaming, or gaming-adjacent, or even words, that might help at least as much--flexing different mental muscles and all-a-that. I'd think expressive hobbies would be the key here, the difference between making music and listening to it.

 

[LordEntrails]

Run one-shots. There are many Discord servers for pick up games. There are online conventions nearly every week. Their is online organized play. You can easily run online one-shots as often as you desire. And you can run in person one shots almost as often if you have a FLGS with organized play.

The benefits of one-shots is you can try new things with minimal impact. So what if your NPC improvisations don't work for a one-shot? No one cares. So what if something else you try falls flat. You and the players are not invested in some long campaign. etc

 

[damiller]

I was after the same concept, and I wrote up a small pamphlet with my ideas: its free and its here

 

[Swarmkeeper]

I was after the same concept, and I wrote up a small pamphlet with my ideas: its free and its here

Neat - I've downloaded this and will check it out later... thanks!

 

[damiller]

I'd be interested in any feedback you or others have, and I am currently working on "issue" 2.

 

[overgeeked]

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?

Not many resources that I know of. DMing is like improv and stand up and public speaking and problem solving and fiction writing and a dozen other things rolled into one. There's a lot of "you have to do it to do it". But there's some stuff you can definitely practice.

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.

One of the most useful resources I know of for DMing in general is Mike Shea's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. It's not practicing DMing away from the table, but it's focus is on what to prepare so that you can improv once you're at the table. Making maps and handouts and lists of names, etc, so that you're not stuck mid-game without these things that it's generally hard to improv. Focused prep, basically.

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.

The imagination is a muscle, basically. If you don't use it, it atrophies. Read fiction, watch movies, read poetry, look at art. Fill your brain with the kinds of things that inspire you.

The things a DM can explicitly practice away from the table are kinda limited. Practice saying boxed text so that it doesn't sound like boxed text. Rewrite it so that it's more natural sounding for you. Practice writing and reading aloud descriptions for towns, villages, people, roads, etc. Find great fight scenes in fiction and read them aloud. Write your own fight descriptions and read them aloud. Pick up some screenplays and stageplays and practice orating. Hone and craft those until they sound good to your ear. Practice describing physical actions of people you see. Even if it's on TV. Either in your head if you're not alone or out loud if you are alone.

If it's improv that is the bit you're wanting to work on, grab some improv books from the local library Viola Spolin is one of the big names. There's also Second City and various other improv troupes that have put out books and lectures and courses. Biographies about famous improv performers, like Tina Fey, have some info about how improv helped them. Using the exercises from the instructional manuals could help. There's also Improv for Gamers. A lot of it is about not shutting down others ideas and just going with whatever organically manifests. Gamers typically have some version of "say yes" or "yes, and" that comes from improv.

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?

It depends on the skills you think are lacking. Storytelling? Read up on story structure and dramatic pacing. Hamlets Hit Points and other stuff by Robin Laws can help. Engagement? That's usually a question of pacing. It's especially hard to do in combat...and the larger the group, the longer between turns. Again, studying storytelling and pacing can help. But so can changing things up so the players are more engaged when it's not their turn. Things like having them roll defense instead of the DM rolling attacks can keep them more engaged with the mechanics.

Hopefully something in that rambling nonsense made sense and might help.

 

[overgeeked]

My old Army sergeant taught about the same- the 7P's of success, but I recall it being only 5Ps. Proper Planning Prevents Piss-poor Performance.

Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

One of the most useful resources I know of for DMing in general is Mike Shea's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. It's not practicing DMing away from the table, but it's focus is on what to prepare so that you can improv once you're at the table. Making maps and handouts and lists of names, etc, so that you're not stuck mid-game without these things that it's generally hard to improv. Focused prep, basically.

Lots of great thoughts you shared - thank you!

I did want to highlight the bit I quoted as I agree 100% that Mike Shea's book helps streamline prep in a very straightforward way. For example, the simple act of describing the player characters that will appear in next session sounds a bit silly on the surface but it really helps to reinforce what you, as DM, are "up against" when designing your challenges. Such great advice throughout the book for beginners and veterans alike.

I just picked up his latest book, The Lazy DM's Companion, via Kickstarter. It's only in draft form right now and I've been too... ahem... lazy to look at it yet. I think I'll take your post as a sign that I should review it soon!

Cheers

 

[Laurefindel]

Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Ah, good old PPPPPPP