DM 101 - Episode 1: The Basics (Dungeons & Dragons Help) 

I’m a new DM and the biggest lesson I’ve learned is- make a simple story and the players will make it complex by fucking up a ton.

Buttercup, my cat, spent half the video pawing at the screen as your hands moved and it was precious.

The timing of this couldn't be better, I'm going to start dming my first game next week for a bunch of people who have never played and some who have never looked into d&d before, and I've never played myself either. (And you're an amazing dm and so tips from you are awesome). So thank you for this series

Thank you so much!! This was very helpful. I am going to try and DM for my first time during a family vacation, when all my family gets together! I am a bit nervous, but this is exactly the sort of 101 class I need. Wish me luck!!

The players: *have fun* The DM: Penguins meme "Good job boys we've made a good game"

The most memorable moment in recent memory is me(DM) and my younger brother(SoloPC) calculating the price of cocaine in gp his character found on the beach.

I so need a random name list, so many times I've looked around the room and say things like "Oh...my name is... Shoe...man, Greg Shoeman" or "Dorit.... Dorithy. Yes, that's it." or "Lord... er... Lord Table... chair... Lord Tablechair of house Tablechair."

What rarely ever gets talked about is DM's notes. I mean there is no definitive way of doing them, but getting a look into what your basic prep notes for a single session look like would help alot. I'm pretty sure you use a Laptop on HR by now but it used to be just paper so getting a look into past notes might work. Dunno if you kept them but maybe even the ones for that simple dungeon you did in the first episode. Starting the Campaign on such a micro scale was pretty smart as a sort of "tutorial" so definitely gonna steal that one.

Man I really like that dice alchemy circle shirt

18:50 "new players will try different things" For example: one of the PCs in my campaign collects kneecaps from monsters and people hes killed.

"The game's intent is NOT to win; the game's intent is to HAVE FUN." Well said. I'm a high school English teacher who has started a club at school, and I'm hoping my childhood experiences playing D&D will somehow be imparted to the club, many of whom are beginners. I plan to DM their campaigns, but didn't DM as a kid, so I'm a bit fresh and expecting a steep learning curve. Thanks for your advice.

"Hmm, there's no rule for trying to throw a squid into space... I'll have to make that up." Could not stop laughing for a solid 5 minutes and had to pause the video.

THANK YOU FOR THE MENTION MARK!!! I love your new show

"Prepare your tools." But I thought you already covered your players- oh.

The way I see the Dungeon Master: The players write their own stories and the DM binds them together

wAIT- I love your shirt! I have one DnD shirt that says ‘When the DM smiles, it’s already to late’

Havent played in 20 years..but the boys from high school..want me to, dungeon master again..been so long..i love yer video.thanks bro

Mark i have a suggestion for your whiteboard lighting. i know there's this film trick where you put fabric over your lights (black velvet if i remember correctly) and the light that shines though gives you the light without the glare on the whiteboard. never tried this personally but hopefully this is helpful

DM'ing my first time in three weeks. Building the world now (I make fantasy maps for fun, so that part is the easiest), and I get the general idea of DM'ing, as well as being able to do many different characters and accents, but the general rules are what I am not 100% knowledgeable on. Hearing "don't break the action, just ask for an appropriate check to keep people immersed and the game flowing, as well as the rule of cool going" is something I needed to hear. I am nervous about doing this and doing it wrong, but most of my playgroup is amateurs. I'll also COMMUNICATE that this is my first time, it won't be home brew, but it will be based off my understanding and ability and as long as everyone is cool with that, we can have some fun.

Good Thing To Remember: If you make a homebrew world, while it's good to prepare details about that world, it's also important not to _over_ prepare. While it may seem tempting to figure out ahead of time every little bit of world-building for your setting - I enjoy intellectual exercises more than most, so I get it - the game will ultimately be a collaborative effort. Ninety percent of the minutia you come up with for the setting will never come up in play, while aspects of the setting players do force into the game will almost certainly be details you never thought of. No plan survives contact with the players, and you'll need to accept that. Instead, leave plenty of negative space in the world, and let the _players_ or the evolving plot fill it up. The players will have backstories for their characters, and you should accommodate them where possible. It will make the characters seem more real, and make the players more invested in the world. If one of the PCs is the scion of the noble line, make a kingdom or duchy or whatever that their line were nobles OF. That if the party cared to go down a particular major trade route and over a mountain, they could wind up in the homeland of one of the PCs. Leave it flexible where you can - it keeps your options open - but have the details the players come up with fill out the greater world-building. Moreover, the players will give you more ideas that can be used to create plots later. They will do a lot of the hard work for you. So long as the ideas they invent don't violate one of the central conceits of the setting - or at least violate them in a meaningful way, that creates story opportunity and mystery - it's all good. Mark's Lightfall setting, for instance, has the titular Lightfall as a major world event. If a PC's backstory or motivation don't contradict that - or do so in an interesting way - it's acceptable.

My god the intro is incredible.

When our DM doesn’t have enough prepared we just “go shopping” and by the end he adds in a quick battle or something and it’s super fun as a player :)

first time DM... i.'m 14 and playing it at school with my friends, this helped so so so so much...thankyou!!!

Great video Mark! As a medium experienced DM (weekly for about a year) I enjoyed the basics. It reminded me of things I used to do that I had forgotten. The comments on prepping tools was big for me. One thing I would love a video on, that I have seen many people ask about and I see in High Rollers and CR is how to make a larger world feel alive. Most people can handle a town and a kingdom but when it comes to whole worlds/realms/continents a lot of people seem to get nervous/intimidated/lost. Making a living world is scary and enticing,

I was fighting my ADHD to watch this whole thing but it was very helpful

lol, you started this series when I started playing D&D, and now I'm watching it to get an edge in my first campaign! Thank you so much for you help.

Hey Mark, just wanted to say that this came right at the moment as my friends and I are soon going to play our fourth session, me being the GM (we play Pathfinder :) ) and I was beginning to doubt myself. Was I doing it right, are the players satisfied... The first few minutes made my day (as did the rest of the video, but you get the point). Great video, as always! Greets

That was a great video start! It will help (new) DMs to understand what this position means. I like the way you used the whiteboard! I was tempted to suggest to more video editing to list your points as you did in the beginning with "The Dungeon Master role". Would like to see more "textual" support in the video, a mix of your whiteboard and some added text boxes. (Or hold an important note as a protest sign..). This would help to memorize important parts and keep the viewer active (he has to read something instead just listening). EDIT: Another suggestion for your first point "When and where". I'm using the tool "Doodle" to schedule such session and it is great! It helped me A LOT in my study to meet up with other students and I'm using it now to find a time slot for each one of my players. Exited to view the next videos. Keep it up Mark, you are awesome!

This actually really de-stressed me. I've been wanting to start DMing for about two years now, got the three "basic" books but I was always too stressed about it. I can say that I now feel marginally more confortable, thank you for the amazing content! I know this was made four years ago, but still, somehow I just now stumbled upon it.

Dming for the first time soon and I’m so excited but I have no idea how to do skillchecks properly and I found this at just the right time

Hey man, I really appreciate your outlook on everything. I just got done with my first session ever of D&D. I was acting as DM for a small group of people who have also never played before. But watching your advice videos and you acting as DM gave me a good basic understanding of how I should go about things. Not being a set of rules and regulations, but being a catalyst for allowing them to try and accomplish their goals, no matter how mundane or ridiculous they may be. Thanks again, man and I hope you keep doing what you're doing. 😊

I started to DM two weeks ago. Both me and my players never played and honestly, I´m very thankful for this video.

"all you need to play is dice, a pen, and some paper" *cries in quarantine*

When all your friends can DM but dont want to :/ Now I have to DM

6:38 Excellent. I wish more people expressed this.

I love to see you working mark keep up the hustle.

On july of 2017, Me and my group had our first experience with D&D, with me as DM. i was a bit under prepared and because of that the game took more and more time. at the end of the session we didn't even had finished the tutorial dungeon i created, panicking with the problems and setbacks the session was a disaster. On december i managed to get the group back to try again, this time more prepered and calm, the group maneged to finish the session having fun and i was pleased to have fixed my frustration of the fiirst time DM, thanks to you Mark! and also, thanks for geting me and my group into D&D.

I had a player who attempted to cast Acid Splash. I had just started DMing, and I asked him what the description he wrote down for it was (I have all of my magic user players write down notes about their spells), and he began reading off the description of "Power Word Kill" (he was 1st level). Had a pretty good laugh at that, then looked it up in the PHB. I think the moral of the story is: it's ok to use the books midgame (edit because of a good reply): sometimes.

Can you do a video on play D&D over the internet please as there’s no where near me where I can play in person but it looks really fun

At 19 minutes in when he mentions mental health it made me cry a little, because I've struggled with mental health issues my entire life and the stigma and ignorance have made it so much more difficult. I'm so grateful to see people recognizing it and working to make the world better for everyone. I'm also super stoked to DM for my first time this weekend, thank you for all your tips! So helpful! I'm much more confident now!

Great video, man! I love your points about the DM being narrator and adjudicator, and not the storyteller. The story is told by everyone at the table. Also dead on about not needing to be Matt Mercer to be a great DM. I think most players' expectations are much lower and they get (or they should) that what they watch on Critical Role is PROFESSIONAL ACTORS who are putting on a show for an audience. Anyway, great stuff. Looking forward to more.

Adam Koebel never gets enough mentions as an awesome DM, he's got some great DM help series including some game planning and Q+A

This is awesome. I’m going to start DM-ing the 5e Essentials box for my college age daughter and her boyfriend and haven’t played or DM’d since I was in middle school (1986) and this video brought it all back, not just how to DM but all the great campaigns and side quests I played back then. Thanks for this amazing video.

I love this! Been planning out my first dnd session as a DM for a while now. My friends and I are very eager to begin our first ever game, but I havn't felt confident enough. This video gave me a lot of good insight, thanks! Looking forward to more episodes!

I'm a middle schooler who became interested in DnD when a friend from a summer camp proved to be very involved in it. Over the rest of the summer, I binged the beginning of High Rollers and loved every minute of it, and your storytelling was a big part of why Ioved it. After asking a few friends about it, we decided to start a campaign. I am an aspiring author, so I thought that I would DM and write my own campaign. Thank you for this resource!

I would love an explanation of exactly what LARPing is, more of just curious of how you play it. Like character creation, rules etc. (Btw great video, D&D is so much fun, just started Princes with my friends.)

Good advice especially about mistakes and communication. New DMs are often really worried about screwing something up but that’s inevitable and failure is the best teacher. Often players won’t care or even notice anyway.

I said "Storyteller" when you did. I realized they are more like the person that creates a Mad Lib book. The players fill in the blanks and that can change everything. X-Factor.

I've been trying to be the DM for my wife and kids (both under 10) and this was super helpful! I haven't played since the 90's so all these tips were appreciated! Thank you!

25:00 So true, you don't need anything to play. First DnD game I had was with just a dice app on a phone (which we had just downloaded at the time). The players then made up stat-less chars and the DM just kept track of their supposed HP in his head.

I started a club at my school and we decided to play some D&D and they all said I should be the DM cause we all have NEVER played at the same time I have not ever played so our first meeting is like 2 days away and I’ve been going from video to video and this is one of the best ones I have found! Thank you for everything!

wow you explained everything super super clearly and this was helpful! thank you!

This is one of if not the best starter guide to gming. It was a random youtube recommend and needed something soundtrack the Saturday morning house cleaning routine. Unlike many of the youtube videos which are largely people that have never played the game but want to dress up as an elf or think telling people 2mins after picking up the manual is fine - seemingly a problem for Americans. This one is presented from years of playing and is genuine advice I after 30 years of playing would also give.

The question I ask every DM/GM ever is: What is your stance on players preferring to be the more exotic or odd races like Djinns, Goblins, Gnolls, etc? This is likely the big thing for me since I find the “classic” races quite boring in DND/Pathfinder but the one experience I had with getting to be something abnormal was very maliciously punished by the DM

Love it. I haven't DM'd (or even played) for almost 12 years now. I remember discussing this sorta stuff a lot back then, but the idea that you want to encourage the players to want to do something vs essentially forcing them, is really, really great!

I'm a new DM as well as a new player and this was really helpful. Looking forward to catching up on your content!

Finally a NOT pay-to-play game with easy tools to get

Hey mark, I just want to say a massive thank you. A couple of months ago I started a DnD home brew campaign with some friends from college and your tips and numerous streams have helped me massively to become a better DM so, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you. Keep being awesome.

I really like this type of series especially as I am still a fledgling DM inspired by HighRollers. I currently create names beginning with a single sound and then deciding what sounds nice for the rest. However, I was wondering how you create your names and if you had a list of names, if you could give it out. I was also wondering what you would recommend to do with players who only do a simple backstory like "I was a mercenary." I've encountered a couple of these players and have offered them help by bouncing around some ideas but sometimes they stick with it. I am afraid of doing something relating with their backstory (since it may be something they do not envision their character doing) but also afraid that they would not be involved with the campaign. I would like to thank you once again for all of these series (both on this channel and HighRollers) and for helping those seeking answers.

Mark you are genuinely my favorite Dungeon Master ever, I know a lot of people really look up to Matt Mercer but to me you're the best! I know it wont ever happen but I would love if someday to be a player in one of your amazing worlds

Thanks Mark, great tips there! I'm about to embark on my first D&D campaign as a DM and this is great help. Some good ideas here and gave me a good perspective on going forward. The biggest issue holding me back from going forward is dealing with the character creation process. I feel I have to know all these things about factions, potential skills and their paths, high-level options, etc. People ask me questions about that stuff and I feel overwhelmed....I don't know all the answers. I wish there was an easy quick-start for new characters, where it focused on just what you need for the first few levels (or even just 1st) and you could learn about the other stuff later, as you play the character. I don't know if that makes sense but it just seems like there's a novel about each race and then another novel for each class. Too much to sit down and just say I want to play a half-elf rogue, let's go. Now that I type this though, maybe I'll look into those on-line character generators as a starting point for my players. They have shorter descriptions of everything and are more to the point. I'll check that out as an option, instead of me giving them the PHB to digest.

I got asked to do-dm for a Module, so this DM 101 is really helping

i played dandd three days ago for my first time and i think it was the best one i ever played. we got a very experienced dungen master who play dand d for 15 years which help us a lot.

I'd love to start playing d&d but I've got no friends

During this Covid 19 deal and being isolated with the family.....We are learning how to play D&D, these videos have been very helpful. Thank you.

#CONSEQUENCES

Dude, thank you so much. Your last bullet point really hit home. Relax! I ran my first game last night and I was FREAKING OUT about how I didn't do this or didn't do that and I was pretty close to not having fun, but my players had a blast. This video was super helpful! Can't wait to watch the rest of them!

Hi mark! As a part-time dm I find that my main issue is an extreme lack of confidence... any advice would be helpful! Thanks!

im in the middle of watching high rollers on youtube and decided to look up how to be a better gm. i was pleasantly surprised to find you at the top of the list!

My dm had us fighting a troll in a cave. Me and a cleric were on a cliff, I was a rouge that was sneaking and jumped on the trolls back and one hit killed it, my dm was pissed.

Super super helpful! Goes beyond mechanics with some awesome advice about managing expectations (both your own and your players'). Thank you!

1500hours on Roll20 DMing alone. Multiple years offline. But I'll Still watch :3

I want to thank you so much. I have been so incredibly confused about all of this. I'm starting a group with my fellow freshmen in high school, and none of us have ever had any experience whatsoever besides this one time I did a One Shot with my Uncles friends. But since I'm the only one who knows anything about how it works, they elected me as DM, and in one week I'm DMing for the first time. I got some materials, but I dont have the money for a premade campaign book, so my everything is kind of precarious, and I just had a lot of trouble writing a campaign, and even more so trying to understand how I can help the game move along. All of this has helped me so much. Thank you.

can u do a video on minis and terrain

There's a lot that i haven't really considered, i thought I should've made a list of prepped-up NPCs on the go just in case, but all I had to do was to make a name list. i admit my first session as a DM I didn't really communicate well, I stopped the fight sequence for 5 minutes to figure out the dice, I didn't consider what my player wanted to do. this helps me a LOT! thank you!

Make a mistake, say for instance, my mistake of giving all the players the exp for the encounter and not splitting it between them so they reached level 3 in two sessions?

I wish I could give you more than one like. Mark Hulmes is one of the great D&D luminaries, not joking. Mark, I'm so glad you exist.

I can´t describe how much better I feel about DMing for the first time, after watching this. thanks!

I'm DMing at an SEN youth group I volunteer for and I'm very excited as are they so thank you for this series!

12:04 I encourage my players to inform me of spells and abilities that we haven't run or don't run often. This helps me apply it properly and helps ALL of us learn.

I'm playing DND for the first time today, DMing for my sister and mom in a sort of campaign. I still need to learn more about the game mechanics, but I figured the first encounter out (more or less). I'm so excited :3

I just got into D&D and I love it. I will be DMing a session in my group soon and I am kind of nervous and am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I’m a noob. But your video has given me so much confidence. Thank you! You’re an awesome dude, and I’ll be coming back for more help!

More than two years later the whiteboard still definitely works, and was very helpful. Cheers Sherlock

As a young dnd player( in experience and age) this was really helpful and encouraging as I’m trying to help my local game store by being a dm and I have been looking for ways to learn and this was a big help

Holy shit...been listen to their podcast for the last 8 months and this I the first time seeing this guy! Rip shadow

My wife and I just got a players handbook and are starting to make some characters, all because of High Rollers and your DM skills. Keep up the good work!

So I'm just getting started and I'll be DMing my first game with my mates who haven't played DnD before either. You videos are helping a lot

I'm new to DnD and this helped so much, and I want to say thank you.

As both a DM and a player, I can say this opened my eyes a lot for both. Will definitely watch the rest of the series.

What a magnificent whiteboard! So jelly!

I’ve been playing d&d for about three years now but I have been wanting to dm for a while, so thank you for creating this series

Cheers mark, as a DM myself its great to see you helping new players or encouraging players to take it up. If only your videos were here when I started, I jumped straight in at the deep end and learned the game and to DM all at once, really intimidating. Keep up the good videos!

A geoup of my closest friends all decided they wanted to play dnd and i volunteered to dm because i felt like id be pretty good at it. We did our first adventure last night. We did the death pit of moloch. It went horrible none of us understood the rules and our strongest guy kept getting murked and i was so oberwhelmed by the amount of zombies and goblins i was controlling in the last room. All that said. We had so much fun and laughed and i learned a lot so next time will go much smoother i think. Your video is helping me so much and i really appreciate the time and effort you have put into this to help us beginners out here desperately trying to understand. ❤

Spot on! 100%! As a guy who's been playing D&D since I was 6 (28 years ago!), and DM games for a large part of that time, you have nailed all the key points!

I'm running my first dnd game with my friends and this is all our first time. It is super stressful. After watching this it has helped me to relax. Thank you

Mark! I'm so glad to see you doing a series like this! I've been learning this stuff for 5 years now, and getting perspectives from more GMs is an enriching experience. I hope this series is a critical success!

This really helps has a new Dm learning how to be the Dm for my campaign I never really thought of the fact that the players also played a major role in the base story

Hey mate thanks for uploading this video! I will be DMing my first ever game of D&D using the Curse of Strahd campaign. I have no idea what I am doing but I'm confident that I will learn very quickly. This video has been a huge help and is the best of its kind, in my opinion, on youtube. Please upload more soon! My campaign starts in February haha

I have learned a lot from this and I am a first time dm

Thank you for your soothing voice, a forever DM and lover of storytelling.