10 Things All First-Time Dungeon Masters Need to Know

all right you decided to take the plunge you're gonna be a dungeon master for the first time ever good luck look look be a game master is amazing it's some of the most fun I've ever had in my life however if you're a new game master there are 10 things you absolutely must know take it from me as someone who's been a game master for longer than I've been alive these 10 things will save you lots of pain and frustration number one you don't need to have the rules memorized you only need to know and understand the core more basic rules it's okay to ask the players furthermore how things that their characters can do work mechanically like literally right now I'm running a Pathfinder 2 campaign and I don't know all the rules I'm still learning them I'm still getting better at it but I am doing the best I can and I'm figuring things out as I go but I'm not letting the fact that I don't know all the little bitsy rule here and there stop me from running a game for my players furthermore don't forget that players can help with the rules as well and that it's okay to look things up but sometimes it's just better to make a call and then look it up after the game the point is to emphasize playing the game and having fun with your friends and not worrying about all the little rules use the rules try to learn the rules but don't get all worked up and anxious over them also remember that the game master has the final call don't let your players argue you into a corner have a discussion maybe they have some points maybe you should listen to them and then consider what they have to say but you are the one that makes the final call as the game master remember too that if you don't know what a rule is or even where to find this thing you could just make it up it is way better to run a smooth game that keeps going than to run a perfect game that stops constantly to look up rules that is just boring I mean even if you look at Pro and Celebrity Game Masters like Matt Mercer and Bradley Mulligan they don't have every rule memorized and they often improvise things during play number two it is okay to make mistakes you're not gonna be perfect on your first go you're not gonna be perfect on your second goal you're never going to be perfect because everyone makes mistakes a lot of people get into the Trap of thinking that celebrity game Masters are the gold standard but even they make mistakes in my pathfinder 2 game I'm making tons of mistakes I'm gonna keep on making mistakes and I'm Gonna Keep On Learning that's life that's what comes with learning the rules you're gonna make mistakes and even if you do know the rules you're gonna keep on making mistakes just the way it is and even if you look at my fifth edition games which I've been running for nearly a decade or something maybe fifth edition hasn't been out for that long but I've been running fifth edition for a long time now and I still make mistakes not only on the rules but I also make mistakes as a game master like I just do things that in retrospect I'm like you know Luke that was a bad idea you should not have done that thing it just happens you're gonna make mistakes something to keep in mind too is that pacing can help mitigate this this whole mistake making thing in other words don't rush things Run the game at a pace and a speed that works for you and your players it is okay to admit your mistakes to your players and then make changes as a result I have often come to my players saying that I screwed something up or I should have done something different you just do it you admit you try to be vulnerable be open share and then work together with your players to improve and remember two ladies and gentlemen the more you game master the better you're going to become practice does indeed make better number three no matter how much you plan you probably won't be ready for everything that happens every game master preps for their games differently my personal gold standard is to plan or prep everything that I don't want to improvise at the game table then those things that I feel comfortable improvising I don't prep them out personally I must plan these things the adventure backstory or the premise the maps and the encounters everything else I can improvise NPCs dialogue room descriptions Etc one might argue that if I did plan all those other things out then my games would be better and I agree they probably would but you know everyone has limited amount of time and you gotta make your decisions on what you're gonna spend time on and some things I cannot improvise very well and so I spend my time making sure those things are planned but my point is this prepare the game to your own comfort level don't let someone else's opinion on how much prep you should do make you prep more or less than what you're comfortable with you're gonna have to find out what works best for you some game Masters prep their brains out and they swear by it other game Masters run by the suite of the seat of their pants apparently those games are fun I've yet to see a game I have yet to see a game run by the seat of the pants that's actually as fun and amazing as game Masters will tell you that they are but I've heard that it's a thing and I would love to be in a game like that I think it's like a unicorn right it's like there's a lot of game Masters who don't want to prep because it's work and they just say that they don't need to prep and they can run amazing games anyway and their games are probably not that great but then there are game Masters that can actually not prep at all and run amazing games and they're the unicorns like they're out there somewhere but there are very few of them most of them are just you know lying I suppose I have a friend who was in a game once with the game master who was like I don't prep anything like I just make it up as I go and it's it's awesome and this friend of mine was in that person's game and later on he told me Luke that person's game sucks like the whole game is just like garbage and I'm like yeah but friend like they were telling me how they don't prep and how their game's amazing and he's like no Luke they're lying out of their teeth dude their game is horrible man you can like you can tell they don't prep anything like and he went on to list different details and stuff anyway I can tell you stories about that but that's neither here nor now just wanted to offer some collaborating anecdotal I suppose evidence but even if you are a super prepper you're gonna get surprised by your players from time to time and you're gonna have to make things up as you go it's just the way it works in fact I have an entire video on how to improvise at the game table that I will throw a link to around here somewhere also remember that there are lots of products out there that contain pre made material that you can use in your games and this can help you reduce the amount of time you need to prep for your games for instance over on the DM layer store we have into the FAE a level one to five Adventure module designed to be easy to use for first time game Masters and we have layers and legends and loot and lore both of those books are filled with Adventures traps puzzles monsters magic items encounters and other 5th edition resources that game Masters can either drag and drop into their ongoing campaign or use to build a campaign from scratch both physical hardcovers and PDFs are now available and I'll throw some links around here for you as well of course throwing links links links links are free here have some number four you don't have to be a player first surprisingly few first-time game Masters have been players first like it's a thing they just see the game they're like I want to run the game and they just jump in and start game mastering like if you have to play the game before you ever start game mastering the hobby could have never gotten started in the first place it's like one of those chicken egg limos I suppose I've told this story before but like when I first started playing the game I literally saw a cool book at a game store Library I don't know where it was my grandma bought it for me and I got it home and I started reading it and it was the second edition player's handbook I believe and I as I was reading it I was like wait a second this is a game this is a game I can play this game with my friends I don't have any friends with my brother yay and then I started game mastering I was never a player first I was a game master at first and I did so throughout all of high school and college I was only a player all until like after college and then I discovered dungeon mastering was way more fun now I'm a player in just one ongoing game and I I mean I play at conventions too but you know that's just normal I think it's normal is it normal I'm like slowly learning that I am a not a normal person I am very odd and weird this is why I'm in my basement all day alone literally I'm alone in my basement all day okay that was weird number five you don't need to spend a fortune you do not need every book you do not need Miniatures and fancy terrain likewise you don't need fancy tokens or fancy virtual tabletop maps and a lot of that stuff can be found online for free anyway like don't steal stuff get the free stuff that people are giving you for free like don't be a Steeler person all right like we have a word for Steeler person Thief no no no no they call them Rogues now don't be a rogue and you don't need more than one or two sets of dice I literally have dice goblins right now that are trying to find out where I live so they can track me down and like hit me to beat me to death with their bags of dice but you don't you don't need that many dice you don't you want it it's it's a desire it's not a need some of you are probably like yeah but Luke I am like compelled like I have this disorder that makes me buy dice by the pound and if I don't buy new dice every week like I melt down and bad things happen if you're that person by the dice okay fine I will concede you that and by the way my experience playing in games with lots of fancy Minis and terrain is that sometimes they suck other games that have had almost nothing they use even theater of the Mind well those games can be quite amazing like the amount of physical crap you have terrain and Minis and all of this does not a good game make like the two are completely uncorrelated you can run an amazing game with Jack diddly Squat and you can also have all the terrain and Minis that look absolutely amazing and your game can suck so if you don't got that stuff and you don't got the money to go get it don't worry about it you can still have fun and don't let all the fancy setups that you see in streaming games make you feel like you need to match them streaming shows have their own budgets to get set pieces and all this cool stuff that you see like I have a budget to get this bookcase like this bookcase came from Walmart and cost me like under a hundred dollars right so like we have budgets to spend on this stuff so don't judge yourself by what you see on TV literally cost me under a hundred dollars on Walmart it was amazing now put it together was a pain in the butt but it was cheap it's actually three bookcases it's this is one that's another and then this smaller one behind me is a third and I just kind of like set them next to each other and I get like a fancy thing that has I can put my my poster in the back you know and it's all like woo fancy he's from Walmart though by the way if you're finding this information useful please give me a thumbs up and share this video with others one of the best ways you can help other game Masters is by sharing helpful comments content number six you don't have to create an entire world a misconception of many folks is that a game master must prepare the entire world an entire campaign before beginning I mean that could take years of work stuff is lots of fun on but it'll be time you gotta spend doing it with absolutely no guarantee that your players will late wait that long or that you'll even find players for that game so my advice is this just start playing you only need the region or the first couple of sessions or your first Adventure is going to take place and then you can grow the world out from there focus on that first town the locations immediately around it and the first Adventure only look Beyond those things if it's something that you want to do and you enjoy doing and then your players are actually gonna go there and remember you can ask your players to help build your world if you want to like you're not the only one that has to do it like if you enjoy it then yeah go nuts cool but if it's something that's not the most exciting thing for you then your players can help if you know if you can finagle them into helping also remember that there are pre-made campaign settings that you can just buy and use instead of building your own for instance let me show you something I have run most of my campaigns in this Forgotten Realms campaign setting right here this is actually the second edition version of Forgotten Realms campaign setting and I love it these old box sets are amazing I love them the old box sets that is the latest box set the last box set that came out was mostly a money grab um they don't make them like they used to I suppose and then most of my campaigns right now that I'm running we are transitioning to eberron because eberron is absolutely amazing and the dude who wrote eberron is a genius I love this campaign setting this this book by the way is like in my personal opinion the gold standard of how campaign setting books should be written so if anybody from Wizard of the coast is listening or any other publishing game publisher for that matter it's good stuff and by the way if you're interested I do have a couple of videos on my Channel about World building that you might find helpful I will throw links Down Below in the description to them for you number seven you as a game master don't tell a story this is probably one of the most erroneous things I hear game Masters say when they claim to be storytellers and my customary response is to shout you are not writing a book you're running a game but we do need to qualify that a little bit you see the game master does participate in the storytelling however so do the players everyone at the game table as a Storyteller the game master and the players the game master sets up the backstory and the premise of the situation or the adventure at hand The Evil Princess has kidnapped the dragons two children and is demanding the dragon raised to the ground the next Kingdom over and then the players continue developing the story when they decide what their characters say and do in response personally would just go in and like that evil princess and then rescue the dragon makes sense evil princesses these days and of course the game master continues to participate in storytelling as they decide what the bad guys are going to do while the players are playing through the adventure tabletop role-playing games are collaborative storytelling games everyone participates now as a game master it's okay to know what kind of story you want to tell but you shouldn't Define the beginning the middle and the end the players should be filling in the details of the story the game master facilitates the story by providing objectives opposition and the environment around the characters also don't forget that you are also playing a game which is where Dice and game mechanics come into play there needs to be a balance in both the narrative and the game by the way I do have an entire video where I rant more about the game master not being only a Storyteller if you're interested I'll throw a link somewhere for that number eight the players are supposed to have fun but so are you some people will tell you that as the game master it's your job to make sure everyone is having fun well that's just not true in fact I would say that that is an impossible task in respect to fun your role as the game master is to ensure that the environment exists where everyone might have fun however you simply cannot ensure that fun happens in my pathfinder 2 game we're not all having fun all the time my players and I are experiencing some frustrations many of them I'm sure are because it's a new game system and we are all getting a feel for it like them for their the characters and how things work and and me for running that game system so what I'm doing as a game master is paying attention to my players getting feedback from them and adjusting things on my end so that I can create better circumstances so that fun is more likely to happen some things to remember not every player is a perfect fit for every table and the game master shouldn't feel like a failure if someone just isn't enjoying your style like I've had players who didn't like my games and they bounce for whatever reason it happens to every game master if players aren't enjoying themselves try to change things up and see what works it's okay to improvise and find out what kind of game The Players want as long as it's also the kind of game that you want to run finally never forget you as the game master are supposed to enjoy the game as well it shouldn't feel like work you need to make sure that the game you are running is a game you enjoy if the game master stops having fun the game is probably doomed and will not last for long number nine it's okay to set boundaries you don't have to allow every race or ancestry or class especially if you don't own the books they come from you don't have to allow Homebrew available on the internet in fact I almost never allow Homebrew phone on the internet in my games it depends on where they get it from but sometimes this Homebrew is just like wow I mean even official Homebrew from professional developers can be poorly balanced so you're well within your prerogative to just say official stuff only if you want you can also limit what is available based on the game world you are using or creating not every world has the same magic or Tech levels GMS might not want Gunslingers and inventors like Alchemists and artificers some game Masters might want to run a low Magic World and only allow Wizards and not Sorcerers for example now there may be pressure from players to allow everything and anything you need to resist this if it doesn't fit into the game you want to run now most players are okay with some boundaries especially if the game has tons of fun however if you have a player that just throws a fit anytime X thing that they want isn't allowed in the game well you're probably better off without players like that anyway number 10 remember there are a lot of different games out there yes d d is one of the most popular and well-known systems but it isn't necessarily the best fit for everyone my recommendation is to try out a bunch of different systems to see which ones you like sure start somewhere but don't stop experimenting something I make an effort to do is when I go to conventions I try out a new game system for example when I went to Gary con this year I played in a few castles and Crusades games in fact I have the books like right there for castles and Crusades other conventions I played Carl Cthulhu I think it's really beneficial to dabble in several systems to see which you enjoy the most however at the end of the day you want to find a game that works with the genre and type of world you want to run in also find a game with the level of rules or crunch that you're comfortable with and finally find a game that fits the kind of stories you and your players want to tell collaboratively but that's just what I think what do you think throw your tips for first time game Masters Down Below in the comments let's try to make the comment section a valuable resource for new game Masters and don't forget if you'd like to support the content my team and I create and get some professional game master resources you can use in your games head on over to the DM layer store where you can get into the FAE layers and legends Loot and lore and even back issues of Lair magazine now if you'd like to learn what exactly makes a good Adventure so you can run the best games possible for your players check out this video right here and until next time happy game mastering

Channel: the DM Lair

Views: 50,623

Keywords: d&d, d&d 5e, dnd, dnd 5e, dnd 5th edition, dungeons and dragons, dungeons & dragons, rpg, role-playing game, roleplaying game, dungeon master tips, DM tips, dungeon master advice, DM advice, the dm lair, luke hart, d&d for beginners, playing d&d, running d&d, game master tips, pathfinder, pathfinder 2e, game master, GM tips, first-time dungeon master, first time DM, new DM tips, new game master, new dungeon master

Id: WcPBZZiAKpA

Length: 20min 10sec (1210 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 12 2023