Do's and Don'ts of a Dungeon Master?

[Professor Idle]

I'm playing a Dungeons & Dragons game with my friends online at the moment, and it inspired me to host my own D&D game in the real touchy-feely world!

I've noted a few problems the current Dungeon Master seems to have when creating his world of make-believe, and it got me thinking. Any really obvious traps new Dungeon Masters fall into? Any life-saving advice that totally sparked off your saga as a Dungeon Master?

Even if you have nothing to add, feel free to mention any really sucky stuff that happened to you while playing D&D. It might teach me something and it should provide me with a laugh or two at any rate.

 

[Alakaizer]

Don't force comedy. I was in a World of Darkness game and the GM made some stupid cracks at Twilight, which none of the players got since we knew nothing about it.

Don't let your players min/max. Have them roll their stats like everybody else. It's a lot more organic that way, and can hopefully avoid hostility and a wizard starting with only three hit points.

DO NOT let other players do your job. Earlier in the World of Darkness game, our group was plotting an infiltration of a corporate office when one of the characters mentions "My boss is gay," to attempt to stonewall our femme fatale. OK, that might have made it more challenging, but that shouldn't have come from another player during the planning stage. It should have been dropped on us by the GM during the mission.

Do give the players options on what they can do. Exploration is huge in D&D. You can also grant 20 xp per player per room explored. This rewards exploration, and can help your players gain at least some xp even if there is no combat.

 

[Genocidicles]

Don't make your own super powered, Mary Sue character that does all this cool shit that the player characters could never hope to match.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but loads of DMs I've played with did it to some extent.

 

[Requia]

Normal social conventions plus learn what you're players actually want from a game.

 

[sanquin]

Very important one: Do not, under any circumstance, expect the players to follow the story you thought about. They are not you. They might do things in a way you didn't even think about, or might want to do something different altogether. Just...always keep in mind that your players can very quickly stray from the path you gave them.

That doesn't mean, however, that you can't have a plot that you want them to follow. A good DM can guide them into the direction he wants them to go, while making them think it was their own decision. Though something as simple as a quest that you know the players will want to go for, works too.

Two examples:
One DM had noticed from previous games that we liked having estates of our own in the game world. So with a new campaign he let us start out in the army with the promise of fame and a title if the war was won. And once we had said estates and the land that went with it, we of course had to deal with what happened on our lands.

And the DM of the group I'm still playing in used the relatively easy 'get an item, find out it's an ancient weapon that must be destroyed because the enemy is looking for it' quest. But he wrapped it up in an interesting backstory and all kinds of different places to go to and things to do. Plus the promise of quite a nice reward for every quest of course.

TLR:
Make the players feel like they are in control and that their actions have an impact on the world, while still guiding them along the path you want them to take for the story to continue.

 

[waj9876]

Don't go for party wipes. These kinds of DMs are never fun.

While I could go off about all of my own experiences, I highly recommend watching Spoony's Counter Monkey series, where he talks about the various interesting D&D moments he has had through the years. The website itself is spoonyexperiment.com.

 

[Another]

Do: Let the players come up with their own plans, even if you feel what they should do is completely obvious.

Don't: Let your players make any character they want. Depending on what they are creating, player's characters can have issues with one another or may not make sense for their characters to be working together. So make sure you don't let a murderous rouge into your campaign if the goal is to do good deeds and another character is packing a paladin. Make sure every person's character has some defining traits so you can make sure the group will mesh.

Don't: Be afraid to fudge some of your dice rolls. If you get opening night crit on one of your players that kills their freshly made characters, just say it didn't hit for whatever reason or let them reroll. DM's have dice screens for a reason and you are there to guide the game in a fun direction. However don't forgo doing bad things to your players if they actively go against cues that you have hinted at or if a certain outcome makes sense for the plot/character. Basically, use your own discretion. Some of the best moments in tabletop rpgs can be deaths, but be fair and flexible about it.

Do: Attempt to encourage players to talk as their characters. Some players, especially new players, have a hard time letting themselves "be" their character, to much "my character says this" instead of just saying it. A good way to sidestep this is to consider all talking during conversation "scenes" (for lack of a better term) as in character, and require that they call out when they wish to speak out of character.

Don't: Extend travel time between locations to more than is neccesary. If you have a lot of plans for events during travel, great! Use them! But describing travel with no events gets tedious fast unless you are going for a campaign where travel is the main goal. For example, I'm in a game right now where we are guiding a caravan through an unmapped desert, and its more of a survival game.

Do: Have Fun!

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Don't make every NPC equivalent to, or better than, your players. They are the heroes of the story.

Don't shoehorn them into following a strict storyline. Always be ready to think out of the box and on the fly; it's what they have to do, and it makes everything unpredictable.

Don't let them play complicated classes as their first characters (if they are new, or if you are worried about keeping track of them).

Don't let a more experienced player Rules Lawyer you. If someone disagrees and it can be resolved quickly, that's fine. If it happens a lot and slows down the flow of the game, tell them you will review it with them after the game to prevent it from happening in future sessions. Nothing kills the fun like stopping the game for 20 mins to find and discuss a rule.

Don't let them build any character they want; make sure they discuss group cohesion first. No sensible group of heroes goes out monster slaying without covering most of the bases: tank, dd, skills, healing.

Don't let experienced players Meta-Game. Just because they've played a game where they have fought (X) monster and know all its tricks, doesn't mean that his character in YOUR game has!

Don't let one player hog the spotlight. If it seems certain players are seeing less "screen time", take a minute and review their character. Take in their skills, training and/or spells. Look for a way to add a situation that lets them stand out. Keeping a game balanced between combat, skills and social is key to keeping everyone involved, and reminds everyone that they can't do everything.

 

[feeback06]

I think the most important rule for a DM is to remember that both you AND your group should have fun. If that requires bending a rule, or changing your script then so be it.

 

[Ryan Minns]

Don't confuse player knowledge with character knowledge. That's really my only issue sometimes.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Good advice here for a new-ish DM as myself. I'm making my own campaign now too, and am about to start it in a little over a week. Seeing this thread gave me some good ideas! Unfortunately, I dunno how I can add to it, being a DM that has only done one campaign in this role. Thanks, though, guys!

 

[Mangod]

I'm playing a Dungeons & Dragons game with my friends online at the moment, and it inspired me to host my own D&D game in the real touchy-feely world!

I've noted a few problems the current Dungeon Master seems to have when creating his world of make-believe, and it got me thinking. Any really obvious traps new Dungeon Masters fall into? Any life-saving advice that totally sparked off your saga as a Dungeon Master?

Even if you have nothing to add, feel free to mention any really sucky stuff that happened to you while playing D&D. It might teach me something and it should provide me with a laugh or two at any rate.

I strongly recommend watching Noah Antwiler's Counter Monkey series, it contains some great advice for DMing, and is usually funny and/or awesome to boot.

For examples of what can happen when players go off the rails for one reason or another, and how you can salvage it:

Or for what you should do when the players are just straight up sabotaging the DM and/or themselves:

And for what can happen if you don't plan encounters around what your players characters can/cannot handle:

He's got a bunch more videos that I also recommend, but these are the longest and most epic of them, so take an hour or two out of your schedule if you can and watch them.

 

[Raine_sage]

It's good to have new DMs sit down with their players during character creation and go over what kind of game you want to run, vs what kind of game your players want to play.

Things to hammer our during session zero:

- The reason the PCs are adventuring together. Or, if you want to have them meet for the first time as the session opens, ask them to make characters that work well together. This doesn't necessarily mean restricting alignments. My current group consists of Two lawful evil assassins, Two lawful good divine players, and two chaotic neutral vagabonds. As long as personalities mesh well you can include anything you like. Conversely if you want to encourage inter player conflict let the players know up front so they can plan accordingly.

- Your setting and what kind of game you would like to run. Sandbox or plot driven, will there be a BBEG or will sessions be episodic in nature. Will the players be traversing a large world or will the entire campaign take place in one city. Will it be politics and roleplay heavy or mostly about smacking things with swords?

Basically getting all of your players on the same page from the start will save you a lot of grief in the long run, and avoids nasty surprises.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I think one big thing for a DM is to have a plan. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have every single moment scripted (and given player agency, that's just asking for disappointment anyway). It does mean, however, that you should at least sketch out your NPCs, locations, general storylines, encounters, etc. ahead of time. It's important to be adaptable, but a DM that has a general roadmap for the experience is always going to be better than one trying to make everything up on the fly.

Also, as others have said, don't be "that DM." You know, the one that does everything they can to kill or trick the players at any moment, especially if the players are new. Playing D&D is as much a shared storytelling experience as it is a game. Give the players an exciting and challenging experience, and don't hand them everything on a silver platter. but be okay with them "beating you."

 

[Doctor Teatime]

When I started DMing I found it a lot easier to use a pre-made adventure rather than build my own. While it ultimately comes down to personal preference I'd recommend new GMs to start of with pre-mades to at least get a feel for what adventures can look like "behind the scenes".

 

[Smooth Operator]

Don't play a rulebook hardass(unless expressly asked for), if your players aren't clear on the rules or mechanics don't just leave them to slam their head against the wall until they figured it out, and don't stonewall them if they want to do something cool that isn't strictly in the rulebook, just take their suggestion and mold it into something that still fits the balance.

Do keep painting the picture so players know their options, and lead anyone who is in a slump on their way, reiterate their options because having an awkward silence while everyone waits for one player is just a game killer.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Get constructive feedback from your players, it helps me out a lot. YOu can find out what works and what doesn't sometimes bu doing it, I ask after each session if anyone has feedback. Recently I had one of my players let me know that some of my NPCs do too much info dumping, which sucked some surprise out of things, I have changed that and he's happy with how it's going.

Don't let one player hog the spotlight. If it seems certain players are seeing less "screen time", take a minute and review their character. Take in their skills, training and/or spells. Look for a way to add a situation that lets them stand out. Keeping a game balanced between combat, skills and social is key to keeping everyone involved, and reminds everyone that they can't do everything.

This is a very important tip. Whilst a player or players are doing something, any player that hasn't had much to do, I just ask "What does _____ do while they set up the campfire?" after a while you won't have to do it and they'll get the hang of sharing time. It works for my group at least.

I think the most important rule for a DM is to remember that both you AND your group should have fun. If that requires bending a rule, or changing your script then so be it.

I second this advice as well!

Last thing I will say, is once you have had a few sessions with them, be sure to reward good role playing. Extra exp for the person who actually used his head to figure out how to get past an obstacle. At the same time, if a player gets too big for their boots, rein them in. Give the character a hard time, but be fair. Don't forget, your objective is not to defeat the party, it's to challenge them and have fun.

 

[Rblade]

some little things:

-do: roll dice every now and then for no reason. keep the players guessing.

-don't: fudge dice rolls unless it's absolutly vital. If the players get the feeling every encounters ends with everyone on 1 hitpoint they start to feel patronized. Although I agree they have their place if the players are starting to really feel down. This nuance depends entirely on what kind of party you have.

-I think it is pretty reasonable to be liberal with auto successes if someone has an awesome idea to solve a situation. Players feeling epic are happy players and it makes the world a more wonderous plays if adventurers pull off wonderous feats.

-Do: If you have enough time it is a good idea to have a couple of template dungeons/castles/mazes etc on hand so if the players wonder of the beaten track you can still throw well prepared content in their path making them feel like they can really go wherever they want to go. It's not about freedom, it's about the illusion of freedom, suspension of disbelief if you will.

-Do: this also goes for things like random NPC list. Just a list of names with 1 main character trait. So if the players run off to a part of town you haven't prepared for you can at least whip up an original name quickly and make him feel like a person right away instead of your sockpuppet.

-Don't: some wise things were said about avoiding powertripping and letting players over rule you. Remember you make the rules, so they will have to accept that the NPC's might have access to magic that isn't in the PHB. Although they should technically be able to get it if they really set their minds to it.

-Do: flavor the ever living hell out of your magic items. A +1 longsword is just a mark in the players to hit collum. But if it is engraved and has a history that identify will partly uncover. Cool visuals, little roleplay bonusses like being able to function like a weak torch or something and maby even an adventure attached will make the item come to life and make players get attached.

Do: really think about what should be in a room, people or creatures are using this room what should that make it contain. You don't have to go into every little detail but you should mention enough miscellaneous items that have no plot value to paint the picture of a space someone or something lives in. You absolutely want to avoid having zelda like rooms with just one chest in the middle containing the plot relevant mcguffin