10 Tips Every New DM Must Know | Dungeons & Dragons 

Because that’s what heroes do haha

Awww

One of my first sessions with my group actually involved me having them go through a dungeon to find a large diamond, worth 500 gp, and after a successful religion check, I gave a note to one of the characters, "As an acolyte, you have seen the clerics perform Raise Dead, and know that it requires a single diamond, worth at least 500 gp," so that they know 1) raising dead is quite do-able, and 2) how to go about it, and 3) save all the diamonds they find. Basically, I am setting them up to be able to Raise Dead, so that they can plan for it, and then if/when one of them dies, they won't freak out about it. Since we recently dealt with a real life death, I thought that in-game deaths would not be very good for us, especially my mother, right now. Also, I am planning on taking these characters into a secondary campaign where death is... different. So, I am planning in advance to groom them to have the response I want. Hehehe. Don't tell them (they don't read these), but I am also going to spring a situation on them where they will likely wind up using their resources to Raise Dead on some innocent bystanders. Hehehe. Sure, they're prepared for themselves, now, but if they spend that on civilians, they'll still feel the need to continue adventuring, with a specific goal of getting the supplies to raise themselves, if necessary, because I don't really pull punches, and have been known to add extra monsters during a fight, if they are crushing it too easily. I really like how you handled this, with the child. Not only could she create a new character, and try something new, but she had a built-in backstory, with real meaning in-game, and a real goal, and then she could choose which character to play as the game continued. Excellent for role-playing, and a great way to soothe a rattled player.

As a mid-twenties man, I cried when one of my characters died too...it was an emotionally intense campaign, though, and a character I had played for a few years. No shame in tears!

@@johnathanrhoades7751 none at all, it means it was a good group

LOL! Practically tripping over them!

That's the new dungeon master. Try to stay on his good side. He has no compunctions about killing PCS.

@@theDMLair oh please!? I have *pulls out 400 sheets* other characters Id love to play!

It took me a few moments to realize i in fact DID NOT click on the wrong video

@@theDMLair a good dungeon master indeed

Haha I was also strange for myself to click on a DM lair video and see ME lol hope you liked it!

My brother and I alternate DMing. He's doing Starter Set and I'm doing Essentials Kit, so we are both running modules set in Phandalin. I told the group, "Technically, my game is set in Phandalin before my brother's game, but it's a completely different Phandalin, because I am making some serious changes, because I AM GOD, and I can." They just shrug, and accept it, because "Hey! We're playing D&D!" Really, they don't care about the world. They just care about the game. Someday, five or six years from now, when we finally get through the printed modules, I MIGHT home-brew a campaign, but frankly, as much as I like adding my own stuff to printed modules, the idea of creating a whole world is overwhelming. I much prefer to take what's written and add my own twist to it, to "make it my own," and just tell my players "This is the module. Please don't read it." And I take my own advice. I bought my brother two books for him to run, after Starter Set, and I said, "OK, I looked up exactly ONE paragraph, and ONE picture, because I heard about them online, and then I put it down. Please take these books away now, so I won't be tempted to read more." If you're interested, the one paragraph I read was confirmation of what I had heard, that the module is designed to be played several different ways, so that you choose the BBEG from amongst a handful of NPCs, and the others can be allies or competitors. SO COOL! I rather like that even if I goof up and see a spoiler about it, I have no guarantee that the spoiler will be remotely accurate. Also, the picture I looked up was a sort of "Where's Waldo" style "cast of characters" that actually involved all the people who were part of the creation, including Matt Mercer (which is where I heard about it). I didn't tell my brother, but he told me later, "Hey! You should see this picture! It has Matt Mercer in it!" Hahaha. Great minds think alike.

Yeah it's hard to accept because dungeon Master's care so much about the worlds they create. And they feel that since they care about them so much their players should too. But it's just usually not the case.

I'm with the Dungeon Coach on this one, involve your players backstories into your world building they will care. I guess build your world around your players.

@@StormyQ I am still thinking up ways to get some stuff from the backstories into my game. With one player, I got it right in the beginning: "The white dragon ate your husband." Within two sessions, she had heard that the dragon was hungry, and was hunting to survive, and she just... forgave him. Just like that. Wow. She also suggested talking to the manticore in the first encounter, rather than going for combat. I love her. With all of them, I said, "Tell me your alignments, and which god would claim you, if you were to die right now. If your actions change from that alignment, or that ethos, you might wind up with a different god claiming you, but let's go with what you have right now." Why? Because whenever one of them dies, I mean to have them encounter their god, either in a "Welcome! You can stay in my version of paradise forever, or... Yep. Your friends are raising you. Tata!" or, if they've been naughty, "Who are you? I don't recognize you as one of my followers. Oh, I get it. You followed someone else, but didn't follow their ethos, and now I'm stuck with you?" I want them to understand that actions have consequences, but I also want them to understand that the gods welcome their followers to a good afterlife. Then, CURSE OF STRAHD. Spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler Ready? OK. In Curse of Strahd, when the PCs die, their souls are stuck on that Demi-plane, and their gods CANNOT claim them. So, they get to have their souls fly toward their welcoming god, and then hit an invisible barrier, see their god try to break it, and get all frustrated, and then have the being who created the Demi-plane of dread explain that NO souls leave Barovia, and the PC has a choice: Be reincarnated into a newborn Barovian, like all the other souls, or go back into their own body, but with... consequences. Heeheeeheeeeee! Curse of Strahd will take them to mid-level. I plan to home-brew a continuing adventure after that, for them to strive to finally get OUT of Barovia and back to a plane, any plane, where they can go to their proper heaven, when they do pass on (and stay dead). My players don't know any of that. All they know is that I am trying very hard to work their backstories, or at least their faith, into the game. I have had one PC be greeted by a mysterious lady, who welcomed the party into a mysterious door, where they had to fight some skeletons, solve a puzzle, pass through a trapped hallway (which was HILARIOUS!!! Instead of having the person with the highest perception check for traps, the dwarf checked the first trap, noticed it was at about his head-level, so he just held his shield in front of him and duck-walked through the hallway, letting the traps go right over his head. I laughed so hard!), then another puzzle, and another one, and then, they were welcomed into Tymora's Sanctuary, where they could gamble hit points to win cool prizes. Yes, I enjoyed playing Monty Hall, and it will never happen again, or they'll be too over powered, but it was fun, and they KNOW I will do cool stuff with their backstories, so it adds to the anticipation of "What will our DM do next?" They actually rolled on the magic item tables, so got random stuff, plenty of which won't actually be useful for them, and they won't be able to sell it. But one of them won a portable hole, so they can store anything they won't use, and have trade goods for later. I actually am planning on getting them an ally in the big fight coming up, if they give the right trade good to the right person.

Have you seen Dungeons of Drakkenheim? The world the game takes place in is EVERYTHING. A city struck by an Eldritch meteor, mutating everything within its field of foul Haze. A civil war. A kingdom shattered. Fifteen years later, rivaling factions fighting to take control of the lost city, sweeping the players up in shenanigans. Rather, it should be said, your players won't care about your game world *if you don't make them a significant part of it and give them the power to heavily and readily influence its fate*. Don't bring your players along for the ride, *they are the ride*.

Yeah, a lot of the "no prep" DMs don't write anything down, but do spend a great deal of time thinking about their game and how the session might go. They just don't think of that as being prep.

I have alot of prep but I'm a shower thought dm and then I turn the stuff into concrete

@@dovahchicken935 So... a lot of heavy lifting then... ;o)

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 very heavy ;)

@@dovahchicken935 BUT I tried just turning the stuff into styrofoam once... AND my laziness did NOT pay off. ;o)

Things that can come up later. Never waste my friend HHhHah

hope it went well man! I'm also the DM for my friend group - And I've never really even played, just watched a ton. We have had small sessions that really never counted, but we just had our first real one and it went extremely well!

Hope it went well.

This is exactly my situation! I'm an author and take very intricate notes so I wasn't the worst choice, but I've hardly played DND before! Sources like these are so helpful

How did it go?

@@caster8605 been going amazing! Me and a freind host dnd club for over 10 players! I also run an online campaign!

Yeah telling people 30 min of prep per hour of play for an experienced DM is wildly misleading. Even if you omit general world building time.

It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one

An excellent end to a quiet night.

@@josiaht9227 May all your nightshifts be quiet, and your rolls be 20's

A fellow night owl!

Lmao I came here to comment the same thing!

I was about to coment this too 😂😂😂

Me: who’s listening to the video and sketching a map

This is good advice. Thanks.

Thanks Cyrus. I may have been overlooking the natural 20's. I should add something to the game to reward the roll =)

Maybe the nat20 saved you from a fight after all? There would have been a fight when yoj fall asleepnor render uncaucious but the threat decided not to attack due to your rigorous rounds around the camp.

Nat 20 reward = damage die + damage die rolled + modifier.

Hey, no reason you can't watch the pretty kitties while still gaining some useful information! If anything, I'd say that the feline presence makes it all the better!

Same, I was close to writing a similar comment myself *G*

You do not need chin hair to be great. The beard is within you, rustam isan! The beard is within you!

@@derekstein6193 I used to my favourite spell: Spiritual beard.

@@rustamisan1283 the best thing about that spell is the action economy

Just buy the officially licensed dm costume, your players won't respect you until you do.

*laughs in being a female*

beautiful beard!

Yeah, if you can rip off a map and not have to draw it, that's a big advantage.

We actually knew that you did, so both made this video for you! YOU GOT THIS!!

33+ years. Listen to Bruce D.

I was looking at the background too, and when I'm a player I like the dms world

Thanks Kritari! this was super fun to do, good luck with that beard tho!

So how did it go?

@@davidguthrie3895 Really well! Thank you! I was a bit worried about certain things in the module I was using and things I changed. But the player and I both had fun! And he's excited to use that pc again in the future or something else I may run.

And to think I just shaved mine.

Does a desperado gunslinger beard work ?

Yeah a beard always helps! :-)

Check

25 years old and still no beard. Guess I'm effed

You have to read between the lines... and use a dark-light 🤣

You're looking at the wrong edition 😃 👍

Unforgivable

It's in there somewhere....

It does now

Im always relegated to forever DM, didn't play PC ever xD

Same, they befriended one, released the others :-) He died literaly in the next room but it gave them a good reason to ragekill the rest of the cave. Good RP there xD

We had the exact same thing happen!

Why thank you Tristan!

Awesome! thanks John!

Film it I want to watch it

@@yourdad501 I don’t know lol, shy crew

@@Tebow-1337 do it secretly unlock your inner rogue

If you can't grow your own, store bought is fine 👌

I shaved my leg hair and glued it to my face do not recommend it

You could play a rogue so you can wear a mask too and nobody will ever find out you don't have one.

Sweet good luck with your game session dude!

@@theDMLair thanks mate! It all went well. I’d just like to say, you’ve made learning to run DnD so much easier. We were all fresh to DnD this time last year, and it was quite daunting jumping into the dm chair not having played myself. Since then we finished the Lost Mines of Phandelver, and are into five sessions of Curse of Strahd. I’m learning each game and getting more confident. Thanks again for all your help.