D&D General Top 3-5 articles you would recommend for a new DM

[jgsugden]

The right articles are going to depend upon the DM and their players. D&D is going to be best when you start by understanding what the group wants to play - Faux Critical Role, World of Warcraft, Animaniacs, Gloomhaven, ...?

For a new DM that doesn't know what they want to do, however, I don't send them to an article. I run a game for them. I do my version of Lost Mine of Phandelver, and then I give them one more session where we 'Groundhog Day' one of the areas they enjoyed, but I show them how I might run it differently if I have different goals for the session (playing a tone the group would enjoy, creating a tenser environment, creating a funnire vibe, letting players play a larger role in the storytelling, etc...)

 

[toucanbuzz]

It's hard to "crash course" DMing in a webinar or two or use a "top 10" clickbait article to learn to DM.

Power Score's blog site has links to amazing advice articles and DMing tips from some of the greatest names in the game. Chris Perkins is highlighted because it's great stuff, but you'll find links to more. I say big because these include a lot of people who made the game what it is today. And a primary rule of being a DM is "don't be afraid to borrow, mimic, and copy" from those who have come before. You'll be glad you did.

In addition, if you've access to old Dungeon Magazine articles, they were a treasure trove of DMing advice (no matter the edition) from people who trailblazed and were finding what worked and didn't work when running a game.

Next, the original Red Box of D&D started future DMs with a "choose your own adventure" booklet to ease you into the game. The advice to be gleaned was start small, start simple. It's okay to run something limited like "you're going into the dungeon to rescue your brother before the goblins eat him" adventures with a few simple battles and traps before you run your own version of Game of Thrones.

Finally, it's okay to DM without accents. Accents aren't integral to the game, and they aren't roleplaying any more than me using a "falsetto" voice means I'm running great, believable, female NPCs. Instead (and this is from some old Dungeon magazine articles), try the power of 3:

• an auditory trigger (e.g. he speaks with a drawl from the side of his mouth),
• a visual hook (e.g. the first thing you notice seeing him was the outlandish red hat), and
• a quirk (e.g. he tilts his head to the right and scratches his nose when acting deep in thought).

Alternately: "there's no wrong way to DM if your friends are having fun and know you're trying."

 

[Richards]

The definitive top 3 articles:

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Johnathan

 

[overgeeked]

That blue haired girl on You Tube that has pretty basic, but popular, videos has a number of supportive encouraging vids for new dms. She’s better than you’d suspect.

There are quite a few blue-haired girls on YouTube, but I’ll assume you mean Ginny Di.

 

[overgeeked]

Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is probably the best how to text on DMing in years. After that I’d suggest the 4E DMGs.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Jer]

Buy them an Essentials Kit and then act as their mentor while they DM through it.

DM articles, much like film reviews, are best consumed once you have some experience and can separate out differences in taste and style. There's plenty of DM advice that is good advice for some people and would be game crashingly bad for others - but without the experience of knowing what kinds of DM you are figuring out which is which is likely impossible.

The best way to learn to DM is experiential - get some friends who are willing to play while you learn how to do it, find an adventure that is designed for starting DMs and then start doing it.

 

[Iry]

There are so many great recommendations here, but mine is the Three Clue Rule. I cannot count the number of times a failed check has stopped forward progress in a game, and the Three Clue Rule really helps keep things moving forward.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

There are so many great recommendations here, but mine is the Three Clue Rule. I cannot count the number of times a failed check has stopped forward progress in a game, and the Three Clue Rule really helps keep things moving forward.

Link is broken...

Another great resource for ability checks is by one of ENWorld's own:

D&D 5E - How to Adjudicate Actions in D&D 5e

According to the Basic Rules (page 3), the basic conversation of the game is: 1. The DM describes the environment. 2. The players describe what they want to do. 3. The DM narrates the results of the adventurers actions. Somewhere between 2 and 3, the Basic Rules tell us (page 58) that the DM...

www.enworld.org

 

[Yora]

What is a Dungeon Crawl by Gus L
Exploration Play by Gus L
Don't Prep Plots by Justin Alexander
Your Demon Lord Doesn't Need That Many Hit Dice by Joseph Manola
Four Things You've Never Heard of That Make Encounters Not Suck by Angry GM

 

[jayoungr]

I find the Sly Flourish blog to be a great source of advice. It has a whole series of articles for the new DM, but possibly my single favorite article is this one:

A New Dungeon Master's Guide For Building Encounters

For updated guidelines to more easily determine the deadliness of a combat encounter, please see the Lazy Encounter Benchmark: A Simple Measure for D&D Encounter Deadliness. Note: This article is repo...

slyflourish.com

And for strategy guides for individual monsters, I'm a big fan of this site and its accompanying book:

The Monsters Know What They’re Doing

Monster combat tactics for Dungeons & Dragons 5E

www.themonstersknow.com