So, you
have expressed interest in becoming a DM? Wonderful! Here are a few
introductory tips. At the bottom of the page I have posted a load of
resources I personally use, or recommend for you to use to do more research.
It is
easier than some people imagine it is. Being a Dungeon Master. The
rules are merely guidelines, and can always be bended, altered, or broken in
the interests of everyone having fun. This is stated on the first page of
both the Player's Handbook and of the Dungeon Master's Guide. As long as
you are all having fun, you are doing it right!
This
advice is written with 5e DND in mind, specifically, but many of the concepts
and resources can apply to any RPG system. In fact, many of the great
DMs/GMs recommend playing multiple different games, to be able to draw concepts
as a DM from them where necessary in your game.
***
When
world building, start small. Don't try to recreate Exandria or the
Forgotten Realms or Middle Earth or Hogwarts from a blank slate. Start
with a single small town, flesh out a few shops and businesses. Some key
NPCs, anywhere from a handful to a few dozen. A few key factions, such as
a Carpentry Guild or a shadowy underworld of fences and criminals. Continue
worldbuilding as your players explore - don't try to front load it all, or your
brain will crash like a computer. Like an overtired toddler. Like
someone skiing in lava. Start small, expand it out later.
You don't
have to world build at all. You can just string one free module after
another together, or purchase a published adventure, and focus entirely on
running your players through those modules/adventures. Google "list
of free DND modules", or search on DMsguild or reddit for some. I will
be recommending reddit a lot. It is a wonderful resource, even just to
look through subreddit wikis for resources and advice.
***
As a new
DM, start your first session at level one. Feel free to reach level three
by the end of the third session if you want to accelerate, but start at first
level. I recommend you use milestone leveling, don't award XP. This
takes a lot of strain off of your brain, for your first time out.
Ban all
content that is not part of the core rulebooks. If it isn't in the
PHB/MM/DMG, it is not allowed. Maybe allow official WOTC (Wizards of the
Coast) published works, but absolutely no homebrew or classes/races/spells that
a player found online. Some of those websites are not trustworthy, nor
balanced or fair. You can always homebrew that stuff in later.
Don't allow it at the start.
Choose
between "theatre of the mind" vs using miniatures and battlemaps.
Use whichever works better for your brain as the DM in combat. Your
players will get used to either one, and both are equally good. I don't
use miniatures at all, when I DM - I find them distracting as a dungeon master.
You don't need music, but if you want it, a good place to begin is video
game soundtracks. Elder Scrolls and Pillars of Eternity should be a good
place to start.
***
Advise
your players: carefully read in the Player's Handbook everything about your
Race, Class, Background, and any Spells you cast or prepare.
Also,
carefully re-read Chapter 9, "Combat.", in either the PHB or the
Basic Rules. Request that your players do as well. Players woefully
under-use things like stabilizing a dying creature with a DC10 Medicine check,
or actions like Disengage, Dodge, and Help.
Make them
write down the page numbers on their character sheet for their relevant
abilities, spells, or rules!
***
Always
keep a list of setting-appropriate names on hand. This is probably the
most important piece of advice I can give. If you can scratch dozens of
brief nonspecific NPCs on notecards or in a text file, that is even better, but
a list of names is mandatory. Your players will attempt to grab random
passerbys for stuff, and may ask for their names. If you have a name
already picked out, you will look like an omniscient god as a DM.
(Quickly note who the NPC was after naming them - maybe they will come back
into the story some day in the future). There are examples in the
Player's Handbook sections for each of the races, or you can use a fantasy name
generator such as donjon.
When
planning an NPC (or, more often, making one up on the spot) here is a tip.
Imagine a character or an actor that portrays your NPC. Don't say
this out loud, this is for YOUR notes, for the DM only. It is another
magic trick. The suave badass NPC played by Pierce Brosnan is different
than the one played by Samuel L. Jackson. The bumbling fool played by Wayne
Knight is different than the one played by Jack Black. Use what you know -
whatever media you consume, make a note - "This NPC is played by Bellatrix
Lestrange" or "That NPC is played by Kaylee from Firefly" or
"This NPC is played by that drunk guy I met on the train three years
ago".
Suddenly,
having this actor/character in mind for your NPC can bring them to life.
It can give them mannerisms, expressions, personality, and opinions of
how to react to circumstances you didn't plan for them. Imagine Scarlett
Johansson as Black Widow asking someone to tell her what she wants to know.
Now, imagine Ross from Friends doing it. Do you see the differences
in your mental image for how the NPC will approach the scene?
***
How to organize your notes: do it however it makes sense to you.
Some use pen and paper notebooks. Others use a series of word documents and folders. Personally, I use Evernote (https://evernote.com/), a free application. It is great - searchable, tag-able, available in-browser, as a desktop, and as a mobile app on all mobile devices or tablets.
I use a laptop while I DM in real life, using evernote. I post monster statblocks in there that I might use, I take notes on NPCs that I plan or invent on the spot, I note key decisions my players make... I make a new note for each session's pre-planning, and a second note for notetaking during and after gameplay of anything I need to remember.
You can also share notes with other people, for collaborative projects. I actually used it for work that way. You can add and annotate images, it is an extremely flexible and customizable application for your creative workflow. I actually have started using it for everything, from cooking recipes to work to DND! :D
Use whatever system works for you. I use and recommend Evernote, and apparently Microsoft Onenote (https://www.onenote.com/) is also free, high-quality, and has similar functionality. Or Google Docs would work, too!
***
Have fun
yourself. Everyone forgets that the DM is a player, too!
Make sure
all your players are having fun, but this is not your sole responsibility.
It is the groups responsibility to all work together to keep having fun.
This is collaborative storytelling - not Players versus DM (unless you
want it to be, in which case state that up front). Your job is to make
the players into Heroes, to present challenges for them to overcome.
Talk to
the players, and keep an open dialogue. Some want to min-max and dungeon
crawl for some hack-and-slash kill-monster-get-loot. Some want political
intrigue, mysteries, and theatre as they roleplay their characters
personalities. Make sure you are all on the same page, or agreeing to a
happy medium. Talk about what you each expect and want out of the game
before you start playing.
***
I had a
DM for a one-shot game steal and use the following trick from a different RPG
system. Go around the table and ask Player #1 "How did <Player
Character #2> save your life, and why do you owe <Player Character #4>
a favor?"
Remember,
the characters know each other, but the players might not know how or why. The
characters have spent days, weeks, months together, but the players have spent
mere hours. This should probably be backstory, or history, and make very little
reference to any events that have transpired during your sessions and
adventures.
Don't
give them time to plan it out beforehand, make them tell the tales in character
(or from their characters perspective/interpretation of events.). Have them all
make stuff up. On the spot. Improv it. It does not need to be deep, or
detailed, or make a massive amount of sense. "Our caravan attacked by
bandits and Yam gave Zeke a hand in the fight, that's actually how we
met." "Zeke was being framed for a murder, and Trebor discovered the
true assassin and cleared Zeke's name".
This
should build a sense of camaraderie, companionship, bonding. It should help
them form attachments to each other, and by extension the world around them. It
can tie into their personalities, their super secret headcannon backstories, or
just be a light piece of character fluff. It will be harder to improvise for
some players, easier for others, and that is okay. You, the DM, should not be
interjecting much. Let them make stuff up and interact as characters talking
out these stories.
It should
only take ten or fifteen minutes of game time, I highly recommend it!
***
KEEP A
LIST OF FANTSAY NPC NAMES HANDY.
MAKE YOUR
PLAYERS WRITE DOWN PAGE NUMBERS ON THEIR CHARACTER SHEETS FOR THEIR ABILITIES.
ALL YOU
NEED TO RUN A SESSION FOR THE FIRST TIME IS A STACK OF PRE-GENERATED CHARACTER
SHEETS, A FREE MODULE, AND PLAYERS.
***
Lastly, I
will refer to my own personal Rule Zero for DND.
Rule
Zero:
All
players must play characters who have some kind of in-character reason for both
A) being with the party and B) being on the current quest, adventure, and/or
campaign. Feel free to play an edgy loner; paranoid hermit; kleptomaniac thief;
or ten-pages-of-backstory-guy. However, all players have an obligation to do it
in a way that is fun at the table for the rest of the party, too. Discuss this
with your group as needed!
All
players at the table should be having fun, and if someone is not, that is the
only way you can play DND incorrectly.
***
RESOURCES
Basic
Rules, the completely free and official Player and Dungeon Master rules from
Wizards of the Coast - https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules
Blank and
pre-generated character sheets from WOTC - https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets
donjon
random generator (names, monsters, encounters, dungeon maps, entire NPCs, towns,
treasure/loot, everything you can imagine) - https://donjon.bin.sh/
Watch
Critical Role, where professional voice actors live stream themselves playing
DND - http://geekandsundry.com/critical-role-episode-1/ (compilation of DM advice from
Matthew Mercer - https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/wiki/matthewmercer)
The Angry
GM, a great blog - http://theangrygm.com/category/how-to-gm/
Matthew
Colville 'Running the Game' youtube series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_
Adam Koebel and Steven Lumpkin 'Being Everything Else' youtube series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuGFF6RJgaMrlxVxEB7XsBerrIFgnqZIa
DMs
Guild, an official WOTC website where you can download adventures or homebrew
content - http://www.dmsguild.com/
Kobold Fight Club, Encounter builder / generator - http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder
All of the various DND subreddits. I recommend /r/dnd, /r/dndnext, /r/askgamemasters, /r/dndbehindthescreen, and /r/rpg to start. All of them have wiki's filled with hundreds of great resources, make sure to check them out!
Good
luck!
-Dasbif
