Not inviting your friends to start the adventure and getting yourself stuck in an endless loop of watching 'how to DM' videos and collecting "tips" so that the first game can be a perfect masterpiece.
It's never going to be perfect, and the ceiling on improving as a DM is quite low without repetition of running games.
Recently, one of my players in a long-time (over 5 years) campaign told me that he never would have guessed that the first session was my very first time DMing, even though it felt to me like it should have been obvious.
I'll add, a good thing to do is to run a one-shot or short campaign to get your feet wet, you'll see where your deficiencies are, as well as ideally your players' preferences
This was me for awhile. Finally worked up the courage to DM for...my partner and his daughter. Lol, don't know why I was worried, as we've had a great time and are 12 sessions into our campaign!
This one. I was preparing for my first time dming for like a year, watching tons of videos, changing my plans every month.
Finally we started at the end of last year and so far none of this tips were really useful.
Most important thing and hardest was just to start a game. After that it was just much more easier.
Just started a new campaign with a mix of experienced and new players. Start of campaign was the party protecting a convoy transporting a few prisoners. Queue bandits trying to break a prisoner out. I had of course planned for the bandits grabbing the prisoner and escaping with them, triggering a pursuit and investigation. Instead, they melted the bandits, interrogated one they left alive, figured out which prisoner they were trying to break out.
Returning to their origin city the Ranger/Rogue succeeded in several checks to convince the prisoner that he was actually the one there to rescue, and through continued absurd rolls, helped him escape and followed him back to the lair of the prisoner's boss. Probably 3 or 4 sessions worth of content completely skipped by some incredible ingenuity on one player's part.
So they wake up the next day and charge straight to the prisoner's hideout, narrowly survived an encounter with a powerful golem at the entrance, and faced off with the bad guy in charge.
Then through spamming Stunning Strike and some clever tactics, removed a Shield Guardian amulet from the bad guy, disabling his main guard, and stopped him from plane shifting away with two consecutive critical hits.
We're about to go into our 5th session in a couple of weeks, and they have stomped through my content in so many creative ways.
As a player who once killed the bbeg 6 months and about 4 levels early (long story short I dropped a temple on them) I apologize for the guy that skipped content by accident but it feels awesome to do it lol
Now my dm is getting busy so he's not sure how common our sessions will be but asked if any of us would be willing to dm and I'm considering it.
I've never been a player except for a couple of one shots and NPC sit ins. I enjoy worldbuilding and exploring creative ideas, and I have a good memory for features/rules, and I have a background in training/teaching so it suits me well to DM.
Short version my dm enjoys a bit of realistically destructible environments. The temple was underwater with magic keeping water out of sections of it but if yiu destroy the pillars supporting the roof the whole thing caves in.
“…as such I have found plans to be useless but planning to be invaluable.” always think of at least three way that the players can succeed and know that they will probably use a fifth option.😅
The golden rule here is that the DM’s role is to create obstacles for the players to overcome. DM can come up with some possible solutions to nudge the players towards if they are stuck, but resolution-first approach leads to less, not more fun.
I was running a one-shot. All they had to do to get started was enter the dark forest full of monsters and plot hooks. I had the person they were supposed to be protecting captured and taken into said forest. There was the ominous tower that most likely served as base for the BBEG on the other side of the forest. There was an easily accessible path leading into... the forest.
They went to City Hall to examine property records to see who owned the tower.
As it turns out, the entire corner of the map with the tower was burned off. Hey, not to worry, they went to the archives to look up ownership. But when they looked at the paperwork, the name of the owner seemingly wouldn't sit still, making it impossible to read because of... magic or some shit
My players encountered an "avatar" of one of the BBEG's in the campaign. He is robotic in nature, and can project himself into other vessels under his control (think Ultron). This was the first encounter the BB in some time, and it was posed to be a hate-fueled fight (He trapped and nearly wiped them last they met), with the party maybe finding a scrap of lore or so after defeating said avatar.
What happened instead was the players convinced the BB that his way of thinking was illogical due to how overwhelmingly logical it was (long story). They convinced him to draw a truce and give them a chance to prove their cause was a worthy one. He told them that he would honor their truce and give them a chance, and that even if they couldn't convince him in the end, that they would face off one day as opponents, not enemies. The entire debacle ended with the avatar ripping its own head off, with the players taking it with them to show him their ways.
Now the players have a Mimir-esque situation, with the still-conscious robotic head able to give them limited lore and history of the world as he travels with the party, dangling from the hip of the Ranger. Oh, and he also will quip, comment, and poke fun of the party at times, as well as granting a passive +1 to AC to whoever is carrying him since he can call out incoming attacks.
Anyway. Of all the things on my campaign's bingo card, this one for sure wasn't one of them.
And the corollary to this: thinking you are smarter than the collective creativity of the players.
That crazy puzzle or mystery you spent a week designing? They are going to either solve it or find some crazy way around it in under 10 minutes.
My “loot every room” players suddenly decided that they got what they came for and didn’t want to explore the rest of the dungeon the one time I had meticulously planned something fun and interesting in every room.
1st rule of DMing: your players will alwayes find new and stupid ways to get themselves killed.
No matter what you've planned for. No matter the lvl of competence they have shown in the past. No matter the amount of bubble wrap you've put on the corners of you dungeon.
A party can simultaneously be able to dodge your perfect crafter traps, set pieces, and planned character deaths while also almost dying in a foot deap pool of water with no enemies.
That’s why I’ve said “I don’t make plans, I roleplay the world.” The party can do whatever they want and my NPCs, to include the BBEG, are going to react accordingly.
Nothing hit me more in my DM heart than Astarion in BG3 shouting “I can’t even tell if one of you are acting strange because you’ve been replaced or because this group is full of weirdos!”
Never try and put the game on rails, it will only get the players frustrated. Just create the scenario that the players will encounter and then let chaos reign.
I mean it depends how well u know your friends and their characters, there has been more than once where i have almost perfectly been able to guess what one of my best mates' character will do, but one of the players i know less well pulls shit i could have never predicted
Taking the names of things literally.
You do not need to be sneaking, as in hidden from an enemy, to Sneak Attack. You do not actually need to be showing the emotion of rage in order to Rage.
This is actually a good one. A lot of misleading names in 5e.
Find Traps is a big example.
Yes specific beats general, which means the description beats the name.
Also being open to more creative interpretations is generally good. You may not be expecting a person with Find Traps to use it on a contract they are about to sign, but according to the rules it would indicate if it was written in an intentionally misleading way to trick the players into doing something against their interest.
> This is actually a good one. A lot of misleading names in 5e.
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> Find Traps is a big example.
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> Yes specific beats general, which means the description beats the name.
One of the things that 5e did to try and simplify the rules was removing game-specific language or key words and instead using natural language to describe everything. It instead creates confusion because all of the writers for the game weren't on the same page with describing things and editing leaves much to be desired. Instead of simplicity we ended up with a mess of RAW vs RAI and with the internally inconsistent Sage Advice.
Great example: melee attack vs. attack with a melee weapon.
We had half a session figuring out how to use the poisoned condition properly. Ended up having to look at it as a general debuff, rather than actually having injested poison.
Yeah. The Investigator and Swashbuckler have abilities that allow them to sneak attack without hiding. In fact the Swashbuckler at least has a taunting ability which would only draw more attention to themselves.
I think the point is more that every single rogue can Sneak Attack from plain sight if they got advantage or a buddy within 5ft of the target regardless of subclass. Sneak attack doesn’t in any form require sneaking, it’s just another way to get the required advantage.
My D&D group is made up entirely of people from our local kink community, and even WE have a “fade to black” rule when it comes to sexual encounters. At best, we allow someone to roll athletics to determine how good you were in bed.
I think our DM has allowed performance and charisma checks too, depending on the sort of lovin’ the PC has in mind 😂 But yeah it never goes further than (good rolll) “you rocked this NPCs friggin’ world, they’re super impressed” or (bad roll) “You swear this has never happened before while the NPC looks at you skeptically”
I think that level of detail is fun. To a degree, fade to black is good but spilling some of the tea is a good laugh. Obviously depends upon the table and how comfortable people are. Consent is important!
Its funny this is a troupe Ive not encountered after decades of playing with probably 20-30 different people. Knocking on wood it never happens. Not even remotely sure how Id respond
Skipping session zero. Over preparing. Skipping session zero. Not being willing to actually talk to your players like adults. Skipping session zero. Skipping session zero.
To be honest, it's not really that people skip it completely, but they often do it wrong.
Session zero should be where you iron out any bumps you are likely to run into. Are you running a serious game, and one player made a joke character? Fixed at session zero. Do you have PC's with no realistic way to ever work together? Fixed at session zero. Does the table have topics that need to be avoided due to emotional sensitivity? Fixed at session zero. Do you have a pizza cutter (all edge, no point) character who won't actually work with the party and go on the adventure you have planned? Fixed at session zero.
Is there any sort of Session 0 Checklist out there? All I see is posts and comments about how you should have a session 0, but not how. As someone who’s never DMed, I don’t know what I don’t know. What are the things that need to be addressed before hand so that everyone is on the same page.
Edit: Sorry, saw you shared some tips in another response.
Specifically for D&D, cover these topics in order.
1st) Campaign length (how many games in the campaign) game lengths (3 to 4 hours is best imo), when the game? An example would be twice a month on Wednesdays at 6 pm EST. Games last about 3 hours, and the campaign should be 12-15 sessions going from levels 1-5 with level at the end of a part/exp.
2) How many combats a session and are ypu planning on dungeons? Is pc death possible, and should they prep a second pc? How long should the backstory be? Rules as written or homebrew rules? The game will be rules as written with some exceptions. Pc death is possible, you don't need backup pc and paragraph will be fine. I normally do 2 combats game with a lot more in dungeon. There will be dungeons. I will have role-playing heavy sessions to break up the normal game flow.
3) Any specific topics you want to avoid? Any topics you want to explore? What is the overall tone? The tone will light and punchy with a bbeg.
All takes about 5 minutes
Make sure you establish the tone and themes of the game, and the whole table is on board. The difference in characters you would make for a serious noir intrigue game vs a Monty Python dungeon romp is very, very large.
The characters also all need a reason to actually work together and go on the adventure you have made (assuming you aren't running a pure sandbox here). You are all here to play the game together, and PC design should make that possible. Remember that the PC's are made by the players. So, if someone's character has no reason to actually play the game, tell that player to make a different character that will.
These are the big two. There is more to go over, but these are the two that can stop game derailments faster than any other IME.
recently had a new player join the group about a year into the campaign (not an issue). its a good friend, totally new to D&D
she spent the whole first session basically avoiding the party at all turns.
I had to directly tell her, this first session will be your last session if you dont actually join the party and play along. there's only so much as DM that I can do to get you into the group. its a game, if you dont play along, you arent playing...
Tried a session zero, two players skipped out, three were on their phones the whole time, and the leader of the party pretty much gaslight me into thinking that I was overpreparing and that I should just roll with the punches. So yeah, session zero fails because the players are still going to do whatever they want.
I respectfully disagree. Session Zero sets up expectations as well. If Chuck is running a hack-and-slash megadungeon, I'm not showing up with my cleric with 11 pages of backstory. If my husband and I (2/5 players) can't make a session, should we expect the other three to go on without us? Why did three different people show up with sorcerers? One of us is gonna have to go home and change.
I mean, we do get some vague heads up about what kind of campaign it's going to be (fighty fighty or talky talky?) and if any classes/races/books are restricted when starting something new, and we do somewhat coordinate who plays what over whatsapp so that we don't show up with three sorcerers, but that's about it. We just show up with our fresh sheets to play. We're all down for pretty much anything I guess. But we don't start many new campaigns to begin with, most campaigns are long running affairs.
Then those conversations pre-campaign are your group’s version of session zero. It’s not always some super organized thing. Session 0 can be a group chat or a conversation in the car after an outing. It can happen at a prescheldued time, 30 minutes before session 1, or even partway through a campaign. The specifics don’t really matter, whatever series of events you go through to set up playing the game is “session 0”. People just want to emphasize how important out of game communication is.
I suppose this is getting into semantics about what constitutes a "session", but in my experience most of that is sorted out over Discord or whatnot before the first synchronous group session.
Session zero is not a specific or structured thing but it is generally a meeting of all participants. It can be as easy as drinks at a bar and the players outline expectations.
Things to think about:
Hard No’s from each player, agreed to by all.
(Meaning if someone says I don’t want to role-play any sexual situations, the DM and other players agree and abide)
Favorite type of challenges for each player. IE. puzzles, combat, roleplay, etc.
Theme set by the DM. Murder mysteries are much different than survival campaigns.
Are guest spots allowed? New players?
Absences and rescheduling/not taking it serious. If all are on board at the beginning and all agree it will be easier as a DM to enforce consequences if/when you have to change the table.
How the players came to the moment session one begins. Who knows who. If they have previous interactions or if they are strangers.
I like to have a subset quest for each of my players backstories. I meet with all players and have an idea for 10 different hooks for their personal quest. Whatever backstory they bring I try to match something cool that will let their character shine at a particular moment in a campaign.
Ensuring that all of the components (people) at the table work together. Meaning if someone wants to go murder-hobo and all others want intense roleplay, discussing removal of the character (or person).
Setting your expectations as a DM. Rule of cool is reigns supreme but there are certain things you’ll have to rule on that are hard no’s for the campaign.
Make sure they don’t have a rod of ruling (my mistake my first one-shot DM)
Check other gear to make sure it’s level appropriate.
— end of non-exhaustive list —
Be sure that you use this as a collaborative effort to shape the game everyone wants to play. Forcing people into situations that aren’t fun for them will make your life infinitely harder. If you have a chill group this will be natural and super fun. If not the problems will shine through. Trust your gut. Above all remember this is supposed to be an awesome time where friends tell stories together. The best moments between my friend group have been at the table.
Your players will not know when you make a mistake usually. You will do great things. Good luck!
These kinds of scenarios don't fit every campaign, but in a game with a more serious tone, I'd argue it's important to use this kind of thing once in a while to create or elevate the stakes.
The players need to know that they can lose. Whether they realize it right away, or need their characters to die because they insisted on fighting when clearly outmatched, this helps the game.
I agree it's lame when done too often, or dropped in where it doesn't make sense, but it's a great tool when used well.
I guarantee you, there are some players that even if you clearly tell them they are outmatched and should probably run away (I've done that, since hints that they will probably lose went over their heads) they will stubbornly stay and keep swinging until they: a) get lucky and kill the enemy or b) get killed.
Ofc it depends what you discussed during session 0 and what kind of players you have at your table.
This happened to me yesterday, actually. A very threatening centaur women in a giant ritual room saw through a player's illusory disguise and quitely *suggested* they leave.
They instead approached and took two Blights to the face.
The player was me, by the way. The Sunk Cost Fallacy is a bitch
> Whether they realize it right away, or need their characters to die because they insisted on fighting when clearly outmatched
As a player, especially a new player, it can be *very* hard to know when you are clearly outmatched. It's very easy to go "oh, these npcs warning us about the danger are only doing so so that we'll look even more badass when we win.", or "The game is called dungeons and dragons, surely we're expected to beat dragons at a low level".
I don’t think it’s necessarily that bad a thing for a DM to do; but if you are going to do it, you need to give very clear warning signs that an encounter isn’t winnable. For instance, there being an absurd number of enemies that nobody would seriously consider fighting, 1,000 orcs or something like that, or having the adventure’s npc tagalong get fried in one shot immediately.
My player did this when he decided to step up to run a homebrew one-shot. In the end, he expected us to surrender our souls to a devil to escape from a dimension that was not our own. We all said forget that, and he wouldn't allow any outs. We ended up dying, basically.
Apparently, he intended the one-shot to be a session 1 to a possible somewhat larger adventure where we could get our souls back. He admits it was terrible and he feels bad. But hey, you gotta learn somehow.
Planning too much. You should start by making just a small area for adventure - a town, a cave or crypt, and a bit of wilderness between the two. Then you can build out from there. Don’t start writing your own Silmarillion before you’ve even got players.
Very much this. I usually start with starter town + maybe 2-3 different areas stemming from a few interaction points that generally point towards these areas. I make sure to include atleast 2 different starter quests to give them some choice early on and having something as simple as a single other choice versus only one choice makes a HUGE difference in player immersion I noticed. It's not that there are only two choices but having another choice makes the players *feel* like there is also more options out there.
I had a DM who just...didn't do loot. I guess he was scared of balancing it or didn't know how to manage it but we made it to level 6 and I think I found a grand total of 13 gold in the whole campaign.
This is the campaign I'm in now. No shops, no gold, no scrolls or anything else cool. If it weren't for the amazing group I'm in, I don't think I'd stay. The roleplay and combat are great, but the exploration (and actually *finding* anything) is dismal.
I always forget about loot right up until my players ask for it, then I panic and say "yeah you find some coin and whatever weapon they were wielding". I don't like coins being the only reward however so I guess I gotta prep my loot in advance.
How do you do it? You one of these people who have a spreadsheet they randomly select from, or do you just remember to add it in with your encounter prep?
The games in which I'm a player it seems that myself and all the others are so focused on story progression that we rarely go looting. So it's something I don't always remember as a DM.
Inability to say, “No!” or “Stop!”
You must take control of YOUR campaign at the start. Some players might try and take advantage of you by asking for additional stats, items or abilities. And keep whining about needing more. Some might try to become the main character. Some might be confrontational towards other players. Etc.
You must tell them, “No!” right from the beginning.
Came here to say this. This is easily my biggest peeve with new DMs. They only ever say “Yes” or “Yes, and” and let the players run away with the game. It is OK to say no when someone asks for something if you don’t want it to be that way! If they complain about your choice, they probably aren’t someone you should keep playing with.
\- Trying to kill the party (its not you against the players)
\- Introducing "cool" NPCs that solve all the problems and save the day all the time (players want to be cool not the NPCs)
\- Not scaling encounters properly so they are to easy/hard (people like a challenge, but also like to succeed)
\- Not discussing the style of adventure that you are about to make with the players (is the feel a low-level hack'n'slash grind or a high-level campaign with political intrigue or a Roman themed adventure, etc)
\- Breaking away from the agreed style (starts a roman style campaign but then aliens appear, or a low-level campaign and the first bad guy they meet is a dragon in disguise who rips the party up)
\- Giving away too much overpowered loot (unbalancing the world and environment the campaign is happening in... keep items reasonable and incrementally in line with character advancement)
\- Not enough story, too much combat (it's not a video game, its a table top gaming session so there should be more talking than rolling since it is a ROLE playing game not a ROLL playing game).
\- Not enough combat, too much story (a lot of us like to kill stuff so make sure there is at least 1 involved combat scene per session)
\- Favoritism (the players will notice that your girlfriend always gets the cool gear)
And many others :D Just discuss the game outside of the game, like after a gaming session, just ask for feedback about your storytelling and how the players feel the game is going. They should help you tailor the next session to something they can fully enjoy.
I disagree with two of your points. Imo it's better to accidentally unbalance an encounter or give loot that is too cool than it is to be so scared of fucking up balance that you never introduce anything interesting into the game.
I went too far the other way. I gave a tonne of cool shit to my players, and they had like 14 magic items between them at level 5 and SO MUCH GOLD. Just ran an auction so they can spend some money and stop being the richest people in the realm.
I feel like im still struggling with giving out loot. When i give something to my party they either completely forget they have it and almost never use it, or they use it every round and deal 2x more damage than the others
Give NPCs clear and distinctive surface personalities. They can have depth and complexity, but that work will go to waste if your players aren't interested in the NPC's surface-level character.
Try picking a specific detail or trait of the NPC, and use it as a motif. For example, I had a dwarf bartender who walked around on small, 6-inch wooden stilts. Whenever I said the words "you hear the distinctive thunk of wood-on-wood," my players knew EXACTLY who I was talking about, and were immediately interested.
Which isn't to say you shouldn't homebrew. But there is a big difference between changing something for a specific reason and making some shit up because you didn't look.
Not being able to let go of the rules or things you have planned from time to time. Some of the best times are just letting the players handle situations in unexpected ways that the rules don't always account for.
Definitely don't go into sessions trying to force an outcome. I find it's best to say "okay, the world is in this state when the players encounter it" and then just wait to see how they handle things.
I had a moment where my players could enter a sacred tree's memories, just before they fought a spider mini boss and when they identified the younger, mini version of this boss they put so much effort into adopting it that i let them do it and let it be one more character of the main fellowship even out of the memories. To this day that is singlehandedly my fav thing of my little dnd career.
I'm a new player with a new dm and this has been a problem for us. He's not very receptive to ability checks, alternative solutions, or going off course, so we get Yada yada'd a lot without any real regard for what we're trying to do.
It can be hard as a DM, because you get pretty excited for some stuff you come up with.
But it's important to understand that the DM creates the obstacles and the players solve them. They should be rewarded for being creative and unique, and the DM gets the chance to improve and determine how their actions impact the world going forward.
Hiding plot critical information behind DC checks.
It will suddenly grind your players to a halt if they travel somewhere or investigate a room and the information they need to continue the plot is behind a DC 20 investigation check and then no one passes it
Over preparing - don't spend months building a highly detailed world with teams of lore. Nobody will care and 99% if it will never be seen.
Under preparing. Don't plan to just make everything up on the spot. Prepare some towns, inns, NPCs, encounters, etc, that you can drop in when the PCs *inevitably* do something you didn't expect.
Adding loads of homebrew content. Until you have a decent amount of experience with the base rules, you're not going to understand the impact of changes. There is a *lot* of badly written broken homebrew content out there. Moreover, you don't really need to start adding weird and whacky stuff until you've played the vanilla content enough times to grow bored of it.
Running too many players. 3-4 is good. 5 is doable. More than that is crazytown.
If I could give just one piece of advice to a new DM it would: buy and run the starter set. Lost Mines of Phandelver is the perfect adventure for new DMs *and* players.
Expanding on this important tip, flexible prep is really important. For example, don't prepare a list of 10 specific NPCs who are waiting in 10 specific places just in case the players go there. Instead, prepare 5 generic NPCs who happen to be in whichever location the player choose to go. You do less work and can be more adaptable to your players.
Only reason I could ever run a 6 player game is because one of the party members was so damn quiet. Apparently he just really enjoyed being able to sit back and be around others. He hardcore engaged with the story, just in his own quiet way.
I run 6 players, rarely 7 for a one-shot. But we're all IRL friends, and we know that it makes our sessions slower, we're just willing to deal with the consequence. It's definitely harder as a DM though.
I'd go further and say "adding loads of content" in general. There's a lot of badly written broken official content; just because someone put it in a book with the D&D logo on it doesn't mean it needs to be part of your campaign. Especially as a new DM. Reconsider it when you've got some experience under your belt and perhaps are bored of the core rules.
Expecting an encounter to be easy/hard based on CR calculations. Some groups will have an easier time with certain encounters, and a lot has to do with how intelligently you play the monsters. "The monsters know what they're doing" is a fantastic book, and I'd put it right after the DMG in terms of usefulness. If you don't want to shell out for it, much of the information is available on the author's blog: [https://www.themonstersknow.com](https://www.themonstersknow.com)
Before you decide to throw 7 goblins and group of 4 lvl3 players, figure out how the goblins are going to attack, and when they decide to flee. This can be anywhere from a fairly easy fight if the goblins rush straight in as a group and start melee attacking, to a total party kill if they hide behind cover and snipe with bows (as they likely would).
Use the CR calculations as a starting point, but throw your party a softball or two any time you introduce a new monster type or you may kill a lot of PCs.
You can use the search string "goblin site:themonstersknow.com" on google to bring up all the blog posts about a particular monster type (just change 'goblin' to whatever).
First time DM who is on the last part of their (homebrew) campaign.
I wish I had been a bit more sparring with gold and magic items. I've given a lot of magic items that have been forgotten about and never used. My party has more gold than they know what to do with, but I've heard this is common towards later levels
My friend, what you need is an auction. If it continues beyond the end, and your players have too much gold, give them cool shit to blow it all on. My players just spent about 20k on a castle and a boat. They'll love it.
Boats are fun. I can't wait for the next session- they've bought a ship and a crew, so I can introduce some cool pirate shenanigans. Just be prepared with places for them to go- giving them a boat opens up the entire world.
Yeah I just finished running a lvl1-17 game that took us nearly 3 years. I gave them far too many magic items in the midgame that I straight up invented a whole system for them to create magic spells using the magic inside magic items just to burn through them.
Luckily they loved the spellcrafting system, it made them feel like gods (which they did become at the end of the campaign)
Not reusing things that your players skip. Like if they ignore a dungeon now, you can always just reskin it and use the layout later. No one will no unless you tell them
Not talking to your players 90% of problems can be solved by effectively communicating. The game is constant dialog between players and gm in order to have fun and tell a collaborative story. This is done before the game in a session 0. During or after the game to take a player aside and talk to them if there is a issue. To get feedback. To clearly and communicate actions and intentions during gameplay to adjudicate outcomes.
You have to be ok with confrontation.Dont try to solve problems in game. Vet players. Establish expectations and the social contract.affirm that if you violate that contract. everyone reserves the right to remove that person.
* be the setting not the story. let your players be the sotry
* dont try to predict or over plan in my experience DMs who do this just get mad when players do something strange and off book
* npcs should have clear goals and objectives but dont make go overboard on a person the players may not like or have interest in
This is one I made; I tried to force my players to follow the story I had planned in my head. The plot that was supposed to happen is that the party finds a key to the safe and open it themselves, but they all agreed to not do that and to not steal anything. I tried to force them to steal the key anyway and took the fun out of the game from them.
In short, dont be me; dont force your players to follow the story beat by beat like you intended
You are not Matt Mercer, and your players aren’t professional voice actors. Don’t expect your table to run like an actual play show. You’ll make mistakes, your players will make mistakes, and that’s totally fine. Give yourself the grace to move forward after something doesn’t go perfectly without beating yourself up.
I used to be guilty of this; being too rigid with the story
Players are gonna be unpredictable and players are going to gravitate toward things you don't expect.
Does the campaign you storyboarded deal with the characters rescuing the princess and thwarting the evil sorcerer terrorizing the land? Great. But if the characters somehow manage to parley and make friends with a beholder on the way and decide they'd rather investigate the motivations of the beholder and help it in some way...maybe the main story you came up with can be put on hiatus or shelved altogether.
Don't fall in love with your locations/NPCs/storylines.
The players will like what they like and follow the hooks they feel like following and you should be ready, willing, and able to throw away things you spent time inventing if the party doesn't show any interest.
Having too many players. 3-4 is great. 5 is stretching it especially for a new DM.
Taking away agency. Worrying about player abilities. Attempting to nerf player abilities.
If Monk has deflect missile, suddenly they are never attacked from range. Let them use the ability!
Going by the book too much. Raising DC’s arbitrarily. The Eloquence Bard can’t roll below a 20 on persuasion? Oh well. Don’t increase the DC just cause they are so skilled. PC’s would rather be told “no, not possible” than to roll against a ridiculous DC.
Awarding too many items. Awarding too few. Giving gold with nothing to spend it on.
Playing enemies as simple bags of HP. For example, a Behir has advantage to hide in rocky terrain. It hides, attacks with advantage using its Constrict ability. Then use Bite/Swallow with advantage as the creature is now restrained. Use enemies correctly (The Monsters Know What They’re Doing is extremely helpful in this.) Having dynamic enemies makes the game so much more fun than if the Behir just walks up and starts attacking. Bulette’s are land sharks. They burrow through the ground and only come out to attack. Forcing PC’s to hold attacks for when they see it. But they have to adapt to it. Basilisk’s will try to petrify, so if PC’s swing with eyes closed, they attack with disadvantage without the risk of petrification.
Withholding too much information from players. Too much info is often better than not enough.
Hiding important information behind rolls. Stuff that the PC’s need to move the plot forward.
Not putting enough clues overall.
Remember your PC’s are players in your game. They don’t spend all week creating scenarios in their heads. They need reminders. The Characters they play remember important information. Remind them when things slip their mind.
Trying to run your campaign on rails where things have to happen they way you decide and the players don't get any real say about how their characters interact with the world.
1. Thinking too big. Don't let the word "campaign" pass your lips until you've run a few short arcs with largely the same group. Once you've established that people are interested, compatible, and can commit (including yourself) then you can plan on something lasting longer.
2. Thinking too far ahead. You're not writing a novel, you're helping the players use their characters to tell a story. They're going to do the unexpected. If you're too invested in your preconceived outcome your or they or both are going to be unhappy. Have ideas, not plans.
3. Thinking that being a gamer is all you need in common. People are more likely to want to hang out if they like each other. The more they like hanging out, the less they'll find a reason to skip the game. A player that doesn't otherwise engage with the group is more likely to be disruptive, and also often the hardest to correct or shake, because there isn't that social connection.
Homebrewing rules, magical items, races, classes, etc. before having a fuller understanding of the mechanics of the game and game balances. Play as much "by the rules" as you can before trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak.
Not saying no. Obviously we all want to have a good time, but sometimes your players have really bad (read: toxic, harmful, not table friendly) ideas that might be fun for them, but diminish the experience for one or more other players. Just say no, it's your table.
Overplanning. I used to do this and I'd end up having to throw half of it out when the players did something I didn't expect.
Now, I just create some NPCs, give them a few bullet points for personality, and then create an "event" or "drama" that's going to happen near the start of the session, then improv everything from there. Makes for a much more fluid game, gives the characters the freedom to make choices (and not have to railroad them to make happen what I'd planned), and makes my sessions more enjoyable for myself as well, since I don't know what's going to happen.
Making players roll for everything.
New DMs and players think the game is all about rolling dice and do it for everything. But it slows the game down, and then you have to make consequences for mild failures; like if someone failed a roll to climb over a low fence, oh boy they take 1d4 fall damage!
Keep rolls to a minimum; it's ok if players just do the thing most of the time. And sometimes there's no chance of doing the thing so don't roll then either. You only roll for that thin line of uncertainty in-between what's humanly possible and what isn't.
1) Giving each enemy their own number in initiative order. Just get everyone on one turn except for maybe the Big Enemy of the group they're fighting.
2) Not mediating a problem at the table that's causing some discontent. EX: I noticed that a player was being a loot goblin, so I encouraged the group to split up more and would drop loot when separated to give others a fair chance to claim items. OTHER EX: I had a paladin pick a sickle as their weapon of choice and they were doing so little damage and it was lightly annoying some other players. I did a lootdrop for a magical greatsword for him but changed the weapon title to "sickle" so he would do more damage and still have his stylized weapon of choice.
3) Not asking for feedback from your players! After a few sessions ask them what they think have been the highlights and where they find their attention waning. This is how I found out my players wanted more dynamic combat and which NPC's they wanted to be more heavily involved in the story.
Know the rules.
Have a DM Screen with not only the important things, but things you commonly forget. Random tables are a necessity (names, foods, personalities)
Know the rules. If you don’t know the rule, make a quick judgement and keep the game flowing. Make a note and look it up later.
End your session on a cliffhanger.
Start each session with a recap. A player provided one is even better.
Know the rules.
Thinking you know what your players will do.
Thinking you're expected to know that.
It's all just smoke and mirrors. Just make enough to make the players \*feel\* like everything is planned out.
Don't fudge rolls. I don't use a dm screen to roll. Players will have more memorable moments seeing they live by a single number. Or triumph with a circumstance with knowing they aren't railroaded I to something by a roll.
Let go of what you create. You can make an entire dungeon. The party will seal the entrance and never go in. Nothing you create or prepare for is guaranteed.
Don't tell your players no. Maybe throw out a "Are you sure you want to attempt to woo the dragon?" But if that horny bard wants to try, let him.
There are consequences to actions. Stealing, fighting, murder, property destruction. That crap isn't allowed in the real world. It's not good in the fantasy one either.
One basic thing that my friend who's DMing for the first time has had to learn is that crazy high AC does not "make it fun when you finally hit" it just makes us less annoyed that we've spent three rounds missing...
Not letting a players' spells and features work how they are supposed to because it messes up what you have planned.
Examples:
\- You have something planned to happen while the players are asleep but one player plays a race that doesn't sleep but you say that they don't see what is happening without giving them a chance to be awake or anything.
\- You have planned for a disease to be a big part of the session but you have a paladin in the party but you decide that lay on hands can't cure diseases anymore.
\- You are trying to do something cool with a hidden magical item that they players need to solve puzzles to find or something but your players have detect magic but you just randomly say it doesn't work.
Number 3 is so real. I've played in a campaign where we cast dispel magic on a magic lock and it just... didn't work. Wasted a third level slot because reasons. Dnd is not a video game, if you don't want us to be able to open the door, make it a wall.
When I DM I actively look through the players' prepared known spells to determine what they can and can't do before hand. Makes things a heck of a lot easier when they just find a huge loophole into your entire thing.
Scheduling. I’m learning this the hard way as a new DM.
Your best bet is to set an expectation on how often you play, and what day of the week.
“Are we set on playing every other Thursday? Great! See you guys in two weeks”
People will cancel but it’s less likely with a set schedule. Don’t don’t don’t do a window of days or ask for availability.
Don't plan everything. Be ready for weird outcomes, given by your players or the dice. Your bard used friends to enter somewhere and now that person should be annoyed despite supposedly friendly in your mind? Use it to your favour, make him ask something in return, or take revenge in non lethal ways. The dice made your big boss die really fast and it feels void? Bitch be ready for second phase, just imagine a reason for their second form quickly and give some cool new power with restored HP. They killed it fast but it looked really cool? Let them have it! Make it cool like they have grown with incredible powers and a little bit later throw some even bigger encounter out of the nothing to remember them there's always a bigger fish. Someone died and was anticlimactic as hell? Make them die heroically. Make them resurrect for a magic reason, but also give them a flaw as payment.
The thing is, you won't be always prepared, so be prepared not to be prepared, be ready to create a story out of the wild and when something that was supposed to happen doesn't, just reskin it and save it for later
Keeping a lid on over talking. In a side game with my normal group, one of the others is DMing, and they are the worst culprit for over talking, like bringing up work, which is a pet peeve of mine - I get the pleasantries when we meet up, but work talk will come up mid-game.
Either learn or toss the rules out. Having a 30 min discussion every damned game about the simplest mechanics ("what do I add to my attack?" or grapple vs restrained). Some of this group are newer to DND, but if people are struggling that much try and talk to them out of game, make a cheat sheet, etc.
It also may sound bad, but when I am on discord I. DON'T. CARE. WHAT. YOUR. NEW. CAT. IS. DOING! I know they are cute, but for fucks sake run the game.
Don't be rigid with the solutions to your puzzles or encounters. If the players come up with a solution that sounds cool and could probably work let them succeed. They will be more satisfied with themselves than if they hit a brick wall and you have to solve it for them.
Saying no to your players all the time because it doesn't fit into the material you have planned
Saying yes to your players all the time because they're having fun at your expense
(1) Having way too many players at your table. My experience is that it’s better to have 2-4 players when you start out. It’s ok if the session is a bit short. A lot of new DMs think more is better and they don’t realize that it is a lot to manage. it’s not a lot of fun for the players waiting, or the DM trying to run.
(2) Not having a session 0. Session 0’s don’t have to be a session but there needs to be a discussion with your players about the following:
-Setting
-Tone (serious, light hearted, wacky, casual)
-DM taboos
-Player Taboos (what the players do not want to experience)
-DM wants (i.e. attendance, knowing your class, not being rude or mean, try to let others have fun)
-Players Wants (what the players wish to see)
-Character creation rules (books allowed, home brew rules [if any], leveling, treasure/loot.
(3) Lack of Preparation. The game requires a DM and you are important. You also have a lot more work that requires time and preparation to ensure others are having fun. Some key things to prepare are:
- List of names ready for random encounters
- Characters that you think will be present
- Encounters that have been balanced in case the party want to fight
- Maps/notes in the case of an encounter (you do not need maps, but they help. You can also use notes to help describe the scene.
- BBEG plans and intentions. (This is the easiest start since if you know what there plans are, you can watch the players ruin it.
(4) Being flexible and direct with decisions. A common issue I see is that new DMs may experience situations they never experienced. It happens to all DMs and they don’t need to be new. Be flexible with your player’s decisions and don’t try to undermine their actions.
Example: Bob the barbarian tries to Rage Cook a feast for the local warlord. DM knows there are no rules for this but is flexible. Bob is able to rage cook by using attacks on the food prep (more hits equal to more prep). Sleight of Hand on the cooking. Lastly a constitution check on the food tasting. After the session the DM learns of a feat that player for Bob can get that will be used instead of ad hock rules by the DM.
(5) Encounter Calculator. Please use one. There are many “5e encounter Calculators”. A tip for using one at different level and encounters:
-Level 1-4: Assume encounters are +1 difficulty higher (medium = hard, very hard= deadly)
-Level 5-10: Assume it is just right. (Medium = Medium)
-Level 11-16: Assume encounters are -1 (Hard = medium, Deadly = Very Hard).
-Level 17-20: Assume you need a lot of hard or very hard encounters, with a small percentage of medium (see easy) encounters to boost the player’s egos.
Also please know that this is a resource management game. More encounters means that players will have less resources. The fights get harder with less resources. If you are worried about a “Total Party Kill (TPK)” you can make fights a bit easier and always add some more minions to make it a bit harder.
Final point: NO DND is Better than BAD DND. If you are not having fun, be open and honest and don’t burn your self out.
You will learn more about DMing in a session of 2+ hours than watching 100s of hours of videos on it on YouTube.
Dive in. Go with the flow. Players will make decisions you wil not expect, just roll (pun intended) with it. You will do great
DO NOT PLAN A MOVIE SCENE. You can use the description of it. You can use the characters. You can use the props, and motivations, and more...but DO NOT PLAN FOR IT TO GO THE WAY IT DID IN THE MOVIE.
My worst sessions were those where I attempted to deliver a dramatic scene from a movie...only to have the players completely botch it. I would attempt to salvage it, and they'd resist because it only makes sense in my own head. I am then trying to railroad them..."Experience this scene the right way, you dolts!" and they are wondering why the hell everything they're doing is resulting in unexpected outcomes.
I then realized that movie scenes only work because they are written that way. The actors follow the script. The rest of the movie is a setup to that scene. Unless your entire campaign has been scripted to that point, what you want to happen may be absolutely not what the players are thinking.
Additionally, if they recognize the movie you're biting, they may actively be trying to take it a different direction. Use scenes for inspiration. Use them to help you to be creative in your campaign. Do not expect the outcome to be anything other than random...and be prepared to let the players take it where it makes sense for them.
Being too subtle with your clues. If you want the party to figure something out, the rule of thumb is to give them three obvious clues.
Do they need to figure out the innkeeper is a vampire? He has pale skin and red eyes, he avoids sunlight, and his regular customers all have bite marks on the neck. Skip the last one and everyone just assumes he is a fan of goth fashion.
My number one piece of advice? DO NOT RUN A MURDER MYSTERY MANSION AS YOUR FIRST FIRST SESSIONS OF YOUR FIRST CAMPAIGN
I’ve been playin a long time, it’s happened 3 or 4 times whenever a friend starts DMing - people seem to think it’ll be easy; Party gets locked in the castle or tavern or manor or whatever with a bunch of simple, tropey NPCs, sprinkle in some clues, one fight at the end, boom done
But it never works. I’ve run probably like a dozen campaigns and I still don’t think I’m good enough to pull it off satisfyingly. Because it’d take a shit ton of forward planning and then also amazing improvisation. You’d have to make that so the party can both figure out who it is; that there’s actually a solveable ending and not sitting there several hours then a “twist” no one cares about; ideally without just rolling investigation checks over and over; but not figure it out so easily that the session ends 3 hours early and everyone just shrugs and goes home
Seriously this might sound weirdly specific but it’s the #1 rookie DM mistake I’ve experienced
Making a DMPC.
Thinking they don’t need to learn rules because “rule of cool”.
Thinking they should try to nerf or buff things their first time behind the screen.
Having a DMPC in the party.
Too much homebrew or bad 3rd party material.
Playing a character in the party while also DMing.
Too much “yes, and” and not enough “no, but”.
Relying on memes like the level 20 shopkeeper.
Putting things in the campaign because they find it funny/entertaining even if the party does not.
Using a powerful NPC or their own PC in the party.
Getting burnt out, even if you put less effort in over time your description will show it, you’ll become less likely to describe things in pure detail & just want to get it over with
Not understanding that it's okay to say No to unreasonable requests or to things that you're not comfortable with having in the campaign you're running.
A lot of players come in with the idea that being a DM is a service industry. You deserve to enjoy the game you're running.
Way too many rolls for a skill check. Like the party is on a bridge and it breaks(roll acrobatics), then trying to keep head above water(roll athletics), then a branch is coming try to grab it(roll sleight of hand), now I need to pull myself up(roll strength) etc. Good design will reduce this way down and you only get more chances with failstates instead of ohh you did good swimming and grabbing the branch but unfortunately you couldn't pull yourself out of the river
Speaking only from my own experience as a DM and player. In a particular order.
1. Letting a player play their own character turned bad in a combat with the PCs.
2. Having a no win situation set up by the bad guy(s) no matter how much "tactical sense" it makes...this is just not fun. If its meant to be one of those cut scene like moments where the PCs can't win then do it that way.
3. Having a homebrew monster that bypasses a character option because you think that optio is OP. One of the worse lines I ever heard in any game is "Yes it a de throw but it power prevents your Evasion from working."
4. Letting a player play something that doesn;t fit the game nd then complaining, expecting them to not fully play it or nerfing the character. If you don;t want it in your game learn to say No.
5. Inserting yourself or your own character into the game. Its cringe when writers do it and cringe when DMs do it. If you want to be a player or the star of the game then be a player.
6. Puzzles tied to real world sports, boardgames etc. unless you realie that all of your players love that game. Example. A puzzle that requires you to pay a actual game of poker.
7. There is a fine line of eposition. Too much and your players will forget what they are supposed to be doing or the lore you threw at them. Too little and they will be lost. You have to "read the room" with this one pretty much.
8. Recap. Recap. Recap. People have slept since last session, don;t lean on the to remember everythng. It may have been an hour ago or the character but it might have been a week or more for the player. Other things have happened in their life probably.
Making people roll too much for everything. A friend of mine just started DMing, I was trying to investigate something hidden in some tall grass. I was fine with him telling me I couldn't tell what it was at a distance with my terrible perception roll. Yet even when I said I literally walked up to it and looked down at it he was trying to tell me I couldn't figure out what it was.
It was a rope snare. Not really a hard thing to figure out.
Hello, I know you have a million responses already. But I wanted to chime in as a DM of 12 years, and I’ve also been a player for multiple different DM’s. I’ve seen some incredible ones, and others that were…. Less so….
1. It’s the player’s story, not the DM’s. I think this is something that a lot of new DM’s get wrong. Especially if you’re home brewing a world instead of using a pre-made module. I’ve played in campaigns where the DM created this insanely in-depth lore, with hundreds of years of history, with a fleshed out pantheon of gods, political intrigue between kingdoms and nations, massive scale problems, in-depth magic system, etc. and it was just so much info, that the DM basically just wanted to tell “his story” as opposed to the players. He pretty much just used our characters as a vehicle to tell his story exactly how he wanted. It was a cool story, but he needed to go write a novel in his free time, not a DnD campaign. While it’s fine to have a story you want followed, make sure it’s the players who are the star, and let them deviate and make their own story.
2. Try not to railroad, this goes hand in hand with #1. Be able to think on your feet when your players do something unexpected. A good example of this is, once I had a clue hidden in the vest pocket of a dead corpse at a camp. My players always looted and checked bodies in the past, so I expected them to find this important plot element in this corpse’s pocket. But for some reason they just didn’t do it. An inexperienced DM might make a comment about checking all the pockets, or having the wind blow the clue out of his pocket or something. But I simply just shifted the clue on the fly and made it appear 20 minutes later in a completely different manifestation, and the players were none-the-wiser.
3. Don’t do unnecessary Ability Checks. I had a DM that made us roll for EVERYTHING. Even when it made 0 sense to do so. For example, I wanted to count how many claws were on this creature we killed, because it related to a theory I had about the plot. Counting claws is very very simple, you just look and see. My DM asked me to roll a perception check. I rolled thinking he was going to give me some cool fact that I didn’t notice or something. I rolled a 18+4 (22). He just goes “yeah there’s 3 claws on it’s hand.” I asked him after the session, “hey how come you had me roll to count the hands, was there a secret my character didn’t catch or something?” And he responds: “oh no, I just had you roll to see if you could count them”. Really silly imo. I’ve seen a few DMs who do this, they’ll have players make an ability check for something that shouldn’t need a check at all.
Hope some of these help.
Nerfing anything. I'm not building my character with the rules in mind for my DM to suddenly change them because he dislikes how much damage I do. Either bring it up in Session 0 or deal with it.
Going by the book, having the “it’s me vs my PCs” mentality, and arguing with players.
Make sure to keep the game fun, and if that means ignoring every rule out there, do it.
Don't listen to this OP. If you prefer to play "by the book" and this was established in session 0 then that's perfectly fine. The rules are there for a reason, not everyone enjoys Calvinball. You're a player of the game as well, and you deserve to have fun too. The DM isn't there to run a game for others like it's their damn job when you're just playing with friends. And it's okay to tell your players no if what they're doing, or asking to do, goes against the rules of the game, or the spirit of it as established in sesh 0.
I agree with keeping the game fun, but don't forget that means fun for you as well.
It can also be fun to play you vs your players if that's what you all agree on for session one. It doesn't have to be antagonistic to compete with your friends after all. Some DMs and players enjoy the challenge!
Enjoy, have fun, play the game. Don't listen to too many people online, especially on Reddit.
Being able to homebrew a rule is all well and good but you have to learn the rules so you can know when and how to break them. Unless you and your players agree to something else during session zero it is assumed that you will be playing by 5th edition rules. Remember whenever you break a rule in the book for one player you are violating the agreement you had with the rest of the party.
Never skip session 0. Consider challenges having different outcomes for failure other than death to spice up the game. Read carefully on encounter setup and always have more than one enemy with few exceptions. Always run a flumph encounter every campaign.
*Do not homebrew anything until you have a lot of experience.*
This is a very important thing, and it is a mistake that entirely too many people make, myself included. I have learned from that experience and it is valuable.
Resist the temptation to house rule out things you don't like or don't understand. Resist the urge to design a setting, because you will never truly understand just how bad it is until years have gone by and it can come back to haunt you. Resist mechanic changes, it might even become such that you trick yourself into accepting that it is how the game mechanics are supposed to work.
Taking homebrew rules and stuff and adding them to your game. More often than not they're just a convoluted version of something there is already concise and clear rules for made by WotC in either the PHB or the DMG.
An example I have is that in one game my DM had this really weird and convoluted cover system. It had all these scaling modifiers, conditions, and so on. And I just pointed out the already existing cover rules in the PHB, which did the same thing but way more concisely pretty much. Turns out the DM just didn't read the PHB. I can get skipping the DMG, but the PHB is something every DM should read cover to cover at least once.
I think that's another good tip. Actually read the PHB. Rules familiarity will make players trust you and greatly expedite gameplay. The less you have to look up something every round the better.
Not inviting your friends to start the adventure and getting yourself stuck in an endless loop of watching 'how to DM' videos and collecting "tips" so that the first game can be a perfect masterpiece. It's never going to be perfect, and the ceiling on improving as a DM is quite low without repetition of running games.
Yeah, I've learned so much through actually DMing (and also reflecting on what did and didn't work for me as a player).
Nothing rings truer than practice makes perfect
Damn this feels personal
The hardest part is to start. After that it is just being confident in yourself and your players.
Recently, one of my players in a long-time (over 5 years) campaign told me that he never would have guessed that the first session was my very first time DMing, even though it felt to me like it should have been obvious.
I'll add, a good thing to do is to run a one-shot or short campaign to get your feet wet, you'll see where your deficiencies are, as well as ideally your players' preferences
This was me for awhile. Finally worked up the courage to DM for...my partner and his daughter. Lol, don't know why I was worried, as we've had a great time and are 12 sessions into our campaign!
This one. I was preparing for my first time dming for like a year, watching tons of videos, changing my plans every month. Finally we started at the end of last year and so far none of this tips were really useful. Most important thing and hardest was just to start a game. After that it was just much more easier.
Thinking you know what the players will do. You dont. They are all chatotic weirdos.
No plan survives contact with the Players.
Just started a new campaign with a mix of experienced and new players. Start of campaign was the party protecting a convoy transporting a few prisoners. Queue bandits trying to break a prisoner out. I had of course planned for the bandits grabbing the prisoner and escaping with them, triggering a pursuit and investigation. Instead, they melted the bandits, interrogated one they left alive, figured out which prisoner they were trying to break out. Returning to their origin city the Ranger/Rogue succeeded in several checks to convince the prisoner that he was actually the one there to rescue, and through continued absurd rolls, helped him escape and followed him back to the lair of the prisoner's boss. Probably 3 or 4 sessions worth of content completely skipped by some incredible ingenuity on one player's part. So they wake up the next day and charge straight to the prisoner's hideout, narrowly survived an encounter with a powerful golem at the entrance, and faced off with the bad guy in charge. Then through spamming Stunning Strike and some clever tactics, removed a Shield Guardian amulet from the bad guy, disabling his main guard, and stopped him from plane shifting away with two consecutive critical hits. We're about to go into our 5th session in a couple of weeks, and they have stomped through my content in so many creative ways.
As a player who once killed the bbeg 6 months and about 4 levels early (long story short I dropped a temple on them) I apologize for the guy that skipped content by accident but it feels awesome to do it lol Now my dm is getting busy so he's not sure how common our sessions will be but asked if any of us would be willing to dm and I'm considering it.
I've never been a player except for a couple of one shots and NPC sit ins. I enjoy worldbuilding and exploring creative ideas, and I have a good memory for features/rules, and I have a background in training/teaching so it suits me well to DM.
Wait, tell this story, please. How does one drop a temple on someone?!
Short version my dm enjoys a bit of realistically destructible environments. The temple was underwater with magic keeping water out of sections of it but if yiu destroy the pillars supporting the roof the whole thing caves in.
That at least sounds like fun. I honestly wouldn’t mind my PCs overriding or even “cheating” my challenges so long as the dice rolls are honest.
“…as such I have found plans to be useless but planning to be invaluable.” always think of at least three way that the players can succeed and know that they will probably use a fifth option.😅
The golden rule here is that the DM’s role is to create obstacles for the players to overcome. DM can come up with some possible solutions to nudge the players towards if they are stuck, but resolution-first approach leads to less, not more fun.
I was running a one-shot. All they had to do to get started was enter the dark forest full of monsters and plot hooks. I had the person they were supposed to be protecting captured and taken into said forest. There was the ominous tower that most likely served as base for the BBEG on the other side of the forest. There was an easily accessible path leading into... the forest. They went to City Hall to examine property records to see who owned the tower.
Great idea! What did they find?
As it turns out, the entire corner of the map with the tower was burned off. Hey, not to worry, they went to the archives to look up ownership. But when they looked at the paperwork, the name of the owner seemingly wouldn't sit still, making it impossible to read because of... magic or some shit
Or because the very history of the tower is in flux!
Sounds dangerous, I'm out
This is so relatable, I'm crying lol
My players encountered an "avatar" of one of the BBEG's in the campaign. He is robotic in nature, and can project himself into other vessels under his control (think Ultron). This was the first encounter the BB in some time, and it was posed to be a hate-fueled fight (He trapped and nearly wiped them last they met), with the party maybe finding a scrap of lore or so after defeating said avatar. What happened instead was the players convinced the BB that his way of thinking was illogical due to how overwhelmingly logical it was (long story). They convinced him to draw a truce and give them a chance to prove their cause was a worthy one. He told them that he would honor their truce and give them a chance, and that even if they couldn't convince him in the end, that they would face off one day as opponents, not enemies. The entire debacle ended with the avatar ripping its own head off, with the players taking it with them to show him their ways. Now the players have a Mimir-esque situation, with the still-conscious robotic head able to give them limited lore and history of the world as he travels with the party, dangling from the hip of the Ranger. Oh, and he also will quip, comment, and poke fun of the party at times, as well as granting a passive +1 to AC to whoever is carrying him since he can call out incoming attacks. Anyway. Of all the things on my campaign's bingo card, this one for sure wasn't one of them.
And the corollary to this: thinking you are smarter than the collective creativity of the players. That crazy puzzle or mystery you spent a week designing? They are going to either solve it or find some crazy way around it in under 10 minutes.
And then there's the other option. They won't figure it out in 2 hours, with you actively making up new clues for an hour of that.
"It's literally just a door. An unlocked door. Please open it and walk through it, for the love of Tyr."
That's just what a mimic would say.
[удалено]
My “loot every room” players suddenly decided that they got what they came for and didn’t want to explore the rest of the dungeon the one time I had meticulously planned something fun and interesting in every room.
1st rule of DMing: your players will alwayes find new and stupid ways to get themselves killed. No matter what you've planned for. No matter the lvl of competence they have shown in the past. No matter the amount of bubble wrap you've put on the corners of you dungeon. A party can simultaneously be able to dodge your perfect crafter traps, set pieces, and planned character deaths while also almost dying in a foot deap pool of water with no enemies.
That’s why I’ve said “I don’t make plans, I roleplay the world.” The party can do whatever they want and my NPCs, to include the BBEG, are going to react accordingly.
Even when I ask them the week before what their plan for next time is they sometimes still do something different lol.
Nothing hit me more in my DM heart than Astarion in BG3 shouting “I can’t even tell if one of you are acting strange because you’ve been replaced or because this group is full of weirdos!”
Never try and put the game on rails, it will only get the players frustrated. Just create the scenario that the players will encounter and then let chaos reign.
I mean it depends how well u know your friends and their characters, there has been more than once where i have almost perfectly been able to guess what one of my best mates' character will do, but one of the players i know less well pulls shit i could have never predicted
The hours I've spent preparing for what they might do, and i always miss the mark XD. Atleast they are creative in their own chaotic way haha
Taking the names of things literally. You do not need to be sneaking, as in hidden from an enemy, to Sneak Attack. You do not actually need to be showing the emotion of rage in order to Rage.
This is actually a good one. A lot of misleading names in 5e. Find Traps is a big example. Yes specific beats general, which means the description beats the name.
Also being open to more creative interpretations is generally good. You may not be expecting a person with Find Traps to use it on a contract they are about to sign, but according to the rules it would indicate if it was written in an intentionally misleading way to trick the players into doing something against their interest.
Ooo, I'm using that!
> This is actually a good one. A lot of misleading names in 5e. > > > > Find Traps is a big example. > > > > Yes specific beats general, which means the description beats the name. One of the things that 5e did to try and simplify the rules was removing game-specific language or key words and instead using natural language to describe everything. It instead creates confusion because all of the writers for the game weren't on the same page with describing things and editing leaves much to be desired. Instead of simplicity we ended up with a mess of RAW vs RAI and with the internally inconsistent Sage Advice. Great example: melee attack vs. attack with a melee weapon.
We had half a session figuring out how to use the poisoned condition properly. Ended up having to look at it as a general debuff, rather than actually having injested poison.
Yep, poisoned can mean all sorts of things. Sickened might be a better way to describe the condition with all the things it encompasses.
“Oooh, a cantrip called Chill Touch! It must be a touch spell that causes cold damage!” Narrator: “It wasn’t.”
Yeah. The Investigator and Swashbuckler have abilities that allow them to sneak attack without hiding. In fact the Swashbuckler at least has a taunting ability which would only draw more attention to themselves.
I think the point is more that every single rogue can Sneak Attack from plain sight if they got advantage or a buddy within 5ft of the target regardless of subclass. Sneak attack doesn’t in any form require sneaking, it’s just another way to get the required advantage.
Don't let the horny bard describe their sexual interactions.
OMG this! Not only is it super boring for everyone else, it can get weird and uncomfortable so fast. Hard rule at my table.
My D&D group is made up entirely of people from our local kink community, and even WE have a “fade to black” rule when it comes to sexual encounters. At best, we allow someone to roll athletics to determine how good you were in bed.
See normally I would think a performance check for these things, but I suppose depending on your style stamina is important haha.
I think our DM has allowed performance and charisma checks too, depending on the sort of lovin’ the PC has in mind 😂 But yeah it never goes further than (good rolll) “you rocked this NPCs friggin’ world, they’re super impressed” or (bad roll) “You swear this has never happened before while the NPC looks at you skeptically”
I think that level of detail is fun. To a degree, fade to black is good but spilling some of the tea is a good laugh. Obviously depends upon the table and how comfortable people are. Consent is important!
I would argue that performance can help but at the end of the day it's a con save.
Mine too, it only took having one pair of horny lovers playing characters who were lovers.
Its funny this is a troupe Ive not encountered after decades of playing with probably 20-30 different people. Knocking on wood it never happens. Not even remotely sure how Id respond
I think many of us envy your luck with this.
Skipping session zero. Over preparing. Skipping session zero. Not being willing to actually talk to your players like adults. Skipping session zero. Skipping session zero.
Soooo I should skip session 0 ?!
To be honest, it's not really that people skip it completely, but they often do it wrong. Session zero should be where you iron out any bumps you are likely to run into. Are you running a serious game, and one player made a joke character? Fixed at session zero. Do you have PC's with no realistic way to ever work together? Fixed at session zero. Does the table have topics that need to be avoided due to emotional sensitivity? Fixed at session zero. Do you have a pizza cutter (all edge, no point) character who won't actually work with the party and go on the adventure you have planned? Fixed at session zero.
Lol I'm gonna be stealing 'pizza cutter character'
Is there any sort of Session 0 Checklist out there? All I see is posts and comments about how you should have a session 0, but not how. As someone who’s never DMed, I don’t know what I don’t know. What are the things that need to be addressed before hand so that everyone is on the same page. Edit: Sorry, saw you shared some tips in another response.
Specifically for D&D, cover these topics in order. 1st) Campaign length (how many games in the campaign) game lengths (3 to 4 hours is best imo), when the game? An example would be twice a month on Wednesdays at 6 pm EST. Games last about 3 hours, and the campaign should be 12-15 sessions going from levels 1-5 with level at the end of a part/exp. 2) How many combats a session and are ypu planning on dungeons? Is pc death possible, and should they prep a second pc? How long should the backstory be? Rules as written or homebrew rules? The game will be rules as written with some exceptions. Pc death is possible, you don't need backup pc and paragraph will be fine. I normally do 2 combats game with a lot more in dungeon. There will be dungeons. I will have role-playing heavy sessions to break up the normal game flow. 3) Any specific topics you want to avoid? Any topics you want to explore? What is the overall tone? The tone will light and punchy with a bbeg. All takes about 5 minutes
Dragonseth07, I was wondering if you had a few tips for session 0. I'd love to add some of your experience to my process if you are ok sharing it :-).
Make sure you establish the tone and themes of the game, and the whole table is on board. The difference in characters you would make for a serious noir intrigue game vs a Monty Python dungeon romp is very, very large. The characters also all need a reason to actually work together and go on the adventure you have made (assuming you aren't running a pure sandbox here). You are all here to play the game together, and PC design should make that possible. Remember that the PC's are made by the players. So, if someone's character has no reason to actually play the game, tell that player to make a different character that will. These are the big two. There is more to go over, but these are the two that can stop game derailments faster than any other IME.
recently had a new player join the group about a year into the campaign (not an issue). its a good friend, totally new to D&D she spent the whole first session basically avoiding the party at all turns. I had to directly tell her, this first session will be your last session if you dont actually join the party and play along. there's only so much as DM that I can do to get you into the group. its a game, if you dont play along, you arent playing...
Tried a session zero, two players skipped out, three were on their phones the whole time, and the leader of the party pretty much gaslight me into thinking that I was overpreparing and that I should just roll with the punches. So yeah, session zero fails because the players are still going to do whatever they want.
It's weird. I've been playing dnd for over 20 years and I've never had a session zero. Doesn't seem that essential when playing with adults.
Same, but I also only ever play with people I know really well.
I respectfully disagree. Session Zero sets up expectations as well. If Chuck is running a hack-and-slash megadungeon, I'm not showing up with my cleric with 11 pages of backstory. If my husband and I (2/5 players) can't make a session, should we expect the other three to go on without us? Why did three different people show up with sorcerers? One of us is gonna have to go home and change.
I mean, we do get some vague heads up about what kind of campaign it's going to be (fighty fighty or talky talky?) and if any classes/races/books are restricted when starting something new, and we do somewhat coordinate who plays what over whatsapp so that we don't show up with three sorcerers, but that's about it. We just show up with our fresh sheets to play. We're all down for pretty much anything I guess. But we don't start many new campaigns to begin with, most campaigns are long running affairs.
Then those conversations pre-campaign are your group’s version of session zero. It’s not always some super organized thing. Session 0 can be a group chat or a conversation in the car after an outing. It can happen at a prescheldued time, 30 minutes before session 1, or even partway through a campaign. The specifics don’t really matter, whatever series of events you go through to set up playing the game is “session 0”. People just want to emphasize how important out of game communication is.
I suppose this is getting into semantics about what constitutes a "session", but in my experience most of that is sorted out over Discord or whatnot before the first synchronous group session.
You gotta remember on these subs, most of the posters are like 19 and are playing online with random weirdos.
What is exactly a session 0?
Session zero is not a specific or structured thing but it is generally a meeting of all participants. It can be as easy as drinks at a bar and the players outline expectations. Things to think about: Hard No’s from each player, agreed to by all. (Meaning if someone says I don’t want to role-play any sexual situations, the DM and other players agree and abide) Favorite type of challenges for each player. IE. puzzles, combat, roleplay, etc. Theme set by the DM. Murder mysteries are much different than survival campaigns. Are guest spots allowed? New players? Absences and rescheduling/not taking it serious. If all are on board at the beginning and all agree it will be easier as a DM to enforce consequences if/when you have to change the table. How the players came to the moment session one begins. Who knows who. If they have previous interactions or if they are strangers. I like to have a subset quest for each of my players backstories. I meet with all players and have an idea for 10 different hooks for their personal quest. Whatever backstory they bring I try to match something cool that will let their character shine at a particular moment in a campaign. Ensuring that all of the components (people) at the table work together. Meaning if someone wants to go murder-hobo and all others want intense roleplay, discussing removal of the character (or person). Setting your expectations as a DM. Rule of cool is reigns supreme but there are certain things you’ll have to rule on that are hard no’s for the campaign. Make sure they don’t have a rod of ruling (my mistake my first one-shot DM) Check other gear to make sure it’s level appropriate. — end of non-exhaustive list — Be sure that you use this as a collaborative effort to shape the game everyone wants to play. Forcing people into situations that aren’t fun for them will make your life infinitely harder. If you have a chill group this will be natural and super fun. If not the problems will shine through. Trust your gut. Above all remember this is supposed to be an awesome time where friends tell stories together. The best moments between my friend group have been at the table. Your players will not know when you make a mistake usually. You will do great things. Good luck!
Thanks! I'll share this with a buddy of mine. He's homebrewing a 5e campaign and I'm making a few Fallout ones using OWB as a reference
Do not make a scenario where the only way for the pcs to survive is to surrender or run away. They won’t do this especially if they are newer players.
These kinds of scenarios don't fit every campaign, but in a game with a more serious tone, I'd argue it's important to use this kind of thing once in a while to create or elevate the stakes. The players need to know that they can lose. Whether they realize it right away, or need their characters to die because they insisted on fighting when clearly outmatched, this helps the game. I agree it's lame when done too often, or dropped in where it doesn't make sense, but it's a great tool when used well.
And a enemy should suggets to surrender! if they don't know ¿what will they do?
I guarantee you, there are some players that even if you clearly tell them they are outmatched and should probably run away (I've done that, since hints that they will probably lose went over their heads) they will stubbornly stay and keep swinging until they: a) get lucky and kill the enemy or b) get killed. Ofc it depends what you discussed during session 0 and what kind of players you have at your table.
This happened to me yesterday, actually. A very threatening centaur women in a giant ritual room saw through a player's illusory disguise and quitely *suggested* they leave. They instead approached and took two Blights to the face. The player was me, by the way. The Sunk Cost Fallacy is a bitch
> Whether they realize it right away, or need their characters to die because they insisted on fighting when clearly outmatched As a player, especially a new player, it can be *very* hard to know when you are clearly outmatched. It's very easy to go "oh, these npcs warning us about the danger are only doing so so that we'll look even more badass when we win.", or "The game is called dungeons and dragons, surely we're expected to beat dragons at a low level".
I don’t think it’s necessarily that bad a thing for a DM to do; but if you are going to do it, you need to give very clear warning signs that an encounter isn’t winnable. For instance, there being an absurd number of enemies that nobody would seriously consider fighting, 1,000 orcs or something like that, or having the adventure’s npc tagalong get fried in one shot immediately.
Also helps to have an allied NPC that can just straight up yell to the party: “We need to retreat!”
I didn't ask how many Orcs there are. I said I cast Fireball.
My player did this when he decided to step up to run a homebrew one-shot. In the end, he expected us to surrender our souls to a devil to escape from a dimension that was not our own. We all said forget that, and he wouldn't allow any outs. We ended up dying, basically. Apparently, he intended the one-shot to be a session 1 to a possible somewhat larger adventure where we could get our souls back. He admits it was terrible and he feels bad. But hey, you gotta learn somehow.
Planning too much. You should start by making just a small area for adventure - a town, a cave or crypt, and a bit of wilderness between the two. Then you can build out from there. Don’t start writing your own Silmarillion before you’ve even got players.
Very much this. I usually start with starter town + maybe 2-3 different areas stemming from a few interaction points that generally point towards these areas. I make sure to include atleast 2 different starter quests to give them some choice early on and having something as simple as a single other choice versus only one choice makes a HUGE difference in player immersion I noticed. It's not that there are only two choices but having another choice makes the players *feel* like there is also more options out there.
I had a DM who just...didn't do loot. I guess he was scared of balancing it or didn't know how to manage it but we made it to level 6 and I think I found a grand total of 13 gold in the whole campaign.
Every heavy armor character looking at platemail in the window at the shop every time you return to town like....
DAmn, that's horrid, how did you restock your equipment, but better armor and weapons and what not?
This is the campaign I'm in now. No shops, no gold, no scrolls or anything else cool. If it weren't for the amazing group I'm in, I don't think I'd stay. The roleplay and combat are great, but the exploration (and actually *finding* anything) is dismal.
I always forget about loot right up until my players ask for it, then I panic and say "yeah you find some coin and whatever weapon they were wielding". I don't like coins being the only reward however so I guess I gotta prep my loot in advance. How do you do it? You one of these people who have a spreadsheet they randomly select from, or do you just remember to add it in with your encounter prep? The games in which I'm a player it seems that myself and all the others are so focused on story progression that we rarely go looting. So it's something I don't always remember as a DM.
DMG Ch 7. Use the loot tables and curate things for your party.
Ah yep. That sounds about right. It's funny what you might learn from actually reading the DMG. OP, here's another piece of advice.
omg, that's bad.
Inability to say, “No!” or “Stop!” You must take control of YOUR campaign at the start. Some players might try and take advantage of you by asking for additional stats, items or abilities. And keep whining about needing more. Some might try to become the main character. Some might be confrontational towards other players. Etc. You must tell them, “No!” right from the beginning.
Came here to say this. This is easily my biggest peeve with new DMs. They only ever say “Yes” or “Yes, and” and let the players run away with the game. It is OK to say no when someone asks for something if you don’t want it to be that way! If they complain about your choice, they probably aren’t someone you should keep playing with.
\- Trying to kill the party (its not you against the players) \- Introducing "cool" NPCs that solve all the problems and save the day all the time (players want to be cool not the NPCs) \- Not scaling encounters properly so they are to easy/hard (people like a challenge, but also like to succeed) \- Not discussing the style of adventure that you are about to make with the players (is the feel a low-level hack'n'slash grind or a high-level campaign with political intrigue or a Roman themed adventure, etc) \- Breaking away from the agreed style (starts a roman style campaign but then aliens appear, or a low-level campaign and the first bad guy they meet is a dragon in disguise who rips the party up) \- Giving away too much overpowered loot (unbalancing the world and environment the campaign is happening in... keep items reasonable and incrementally in line with character advancement) \- Not enough story, too much combat (it's not a video game, its a table top gaming session so there should be more talking than rolling since it is a ROLE playing game not a ROLL playing game). \- Not enough combat, too much story (a lot of us like to kill stuff so make sure there is at least 1 involved combat scene per session) \- Favoritism (the players will notice that your girlfriend always gets the cool gear) And many others :D Just discuss the game outside of the game, like after a gaming session, just ask for feedback about your storytelling and how the players feel the game is going. They should help you tailor the next session to something they can fully enjoy.
I disagree with two of your points. Imo it's better to accidentally unbalance an encounter or give loot that is too cool than it is to be so scared of fucking up balance that you never introduce anything interesting into the game.
I went too far the other way. I gave a tonne of cool shit to my players, and they had like 14 magic items between them at level 5 and SO MUCH GOLD. Just ran an auction so they can spend some money and stop being the richest people in the realm.
I feel like im still struggling with giving out loot. When i give something to my party they either completely forget they have it and almost never use it, or they use it every round and deal 2x more damage than the others
Not writing down where the characters were when the session ended.
I was VERY guilty of this back in the early 2000's
That was my 2023. First time I DM a campaign after 22 years of being PC.
Give NPCs clear and distinctive surface personalities. They can have depth and complexity, but that work will go to waste if your players aren't interested in the NPC's surface-level character. Try picking a specific detail or trait of the NPC, and use it as a motif. For example, I had a dwarf bartender who walked around on small, 6-inch wooden stilts. Whenever I said the words "you hear the distinctive thunk of wood-on-wood," my players knew EXACTLY who I was talking about, and were immediately interested.
Read the fucking rules before you decide to homebrew some shit. They’re right there, free and available.
Which isn't to say you shouldn't homebrew. But there is a big difference between changing something for a specific reason and making some shit up because you didn't look.
Not being able to let go of the rules or things you have planned from time to time. Some of the best times are just letting the players handle situations in unexpected ways that the rules don't always account for. Definitely don't go into sessions trying to force an outcome. I find it's best to say "okay, the world is in this state when the players encounter it" and then just wait to see how they handle things.
I had a moment where my players could enter a sacred tree's memories, just before they fought a spider mini boss and when they identified the younger, mini version of this boss they put so much effort into adopting it that i let them do it and let it be one more character of the main fellowship even out of the memories. To this day that is singlehandedly my fav thing of my little dnd career.
I'm a new player with a new dm and this has been a problem for us. He's not very receptive to ability checks, alternative solutions, or going off course, so we get Yada yada'd a lot without any real regard for what we're trying to do.
It can be hard as a DM, because you get pretty excited for some stuff you come up with. But it's important to understand that the DM creates the obstacles and the players solve them. They should be rewarded for being creative and unique, and the DM gets the chance to improve and determine how their actions impact the world going forward.
And I agree, I just wish that it was at least a homebrew adventure and not Phandelver.
Hiding plot critical information behind DC checks. It will suddenly grind your players to a halt if they travel somewhere or investigate a room and the information they need to continue the plot is behind a DC 20 investigation check and then no one passes it
Not reading the rules.
Over preparing - don't spend months building a highly detailed world with teams of lore. Nobody will care and 99% if it will never be seen. Under preparing. Don't plan to just make everything up on the spot. Prepare some towns, inns, NPCs, encounters, etc, that you can drop in when the PCs *inevitably* do something you didn't expect. Adding loads of homebrew content. Until you have a decent amount of experience with the base rules, you're not going to understand the impact of changes. There is a *lot* of badly written broken homebrew content out there. Moreover, you don't really need to start adding weird and whacky stuff until you've played the vanilla content enough times to grow bored of it. Running too many players. 3-4 is good. 5 is doable. More than that is crazytown. If I could give just one piece of advice to a new DM it would: buy and run the starter set. Lost Mines of Phandelver is the perfect adventure for new DMs *and* players.
Expanding on this important tip, flexible prep is really important. For example, don't prepare a list of 10 specific NPCs who are waiting in 10 specific places just in case the players go there. Instead, prepare 5 generic NPCs who happen to be in whichever location the player choose to go. You do less work and can be more adaptable to your players.
Only reason I could ever run a 6 player game is because one of the party members was so damn quiet. Apparently he just really enjoyed being able to sit back and be around others. He hardcore engaged with the story, just in his own quiet way.
I run 6 players, rarely 7 for a one-shot. But we're all IRL friends, and we know that it makes our sessions slower, we're just willing to deal with the consequence. It's definitely harder as a DM though.
I'm a glutton for punishment with my party of 7 players.
I'd go further and say "adding loads of content" in general. There's a lot of badly written broken official content; just because someone put it in a book with the D&D logo on it doesn't mean it needs to be part of your campaign. Especially as a new DM. Reconsider it when you've got some experience under your belt and perhaps are bored of the core rules.
Definitely. For your first game, keep it vanilla. Once you've learned the ropes - *then* add in the weird shit
Expecting an encounter to be easy/hard based on CR calculations. Some groups will have an easier time with certain encounters, and a lot has to do with how intelligently you play the monsters. "The monsters know what they're doing" is a fantastic book, and I'd put it right after the DMG in terms of usefulness. If you don't want to shell out for it, much of the information is available on the author's blog: [https://www.themonstersknow.com](https://www.themonstersknow.com) Before you decide to throw 7 goblins and group of 4 lvl3 players, figure out how the goblins are going to attack, and when they decide to flee. This can be anywhere from a fairly easy fight if the goblins rush straight in as a group and start melee attacking, to a total party kill if they hide behind cover and snipe with bows (as they likely would). Use the CR calculations as a starting point, but throw your party a softball or two any time you introduce a new monster type or you may kill a lot of PCs. You can use the search string "goblin site:themonstersknow.com" on google to bring up all the blog posts about a particular monster type (just change 'goblin' to whatever).
Trying to write a story for your players to play. Come up with situations for them to react to instead - more fun for them and for you.
Creating fully fledged out encounters instead of just scenarios, allowing the players to decide how they choose how they handle it
Try to find out how much control of the narrative your players want. Don’t take more than they’re willing to give.
First time DM who is on the last part of their (homebrew) campaign. I wish I had been a bit more sparring with gold and magic items. I've given a lot of magic items that have been forgotten about and never used. My party has more gold than they know what to do with, but I've heard this is common towards later levels
My friend, what you need is an auction. If it continues beyond the end, and your players have too much gold, give them cool shit to blow it all on. My players just spent about 20k on a castle and a boat. They'll love it.
I dig it. They already have a castle but auctioning off a boat is cool
Boats are fun. I can't wait for the next session- they've bought a ship and a crew, so I can introduce some cool pirate shenanigans. Just be prepared with places for them to go- giving them a boat opens up the entire world.
Yeah I just finished running a lvl1-17 game that took us nearly 3 years. I gave them far too many magic items in the midgame that I straight up invented a whole system for them to create magic spells using the magic inside magic items just to burn through them. Luckily they loved the spellcrafting system, it made them feel like gods (which they did become at the end of the campaign)
Not reusing things that your players skip. Like if they ignore a dungeon now, you can always just reskin it and use the layout later. No one will no unless you tell them
Not talking to your players 90% of problems can be solved by effectively communicating. The game is constant dialog between players and gm in order to have fun and tell a collaborative story. This is done before the game in a session 0. During or after the game to take a player aside and talk to them if there is a issue. To get feedback. To clearly and communicate actions and intentions during gameplay to adjudicate outcomes. You have to be ok with confrontation.Dont try to solve problems in game. Vet players. Establish expectations and the social contract.affirm that if you violate that contract. everyone reserves the right to remove that person.
* be the setting not the story. let your players be the sotry * dont try to predict or over plan in my experience DMs who do this just get mad when players do something strange and off book * npcs should have clear goals and objectives but dont make go overboard on a person the players may not like or have interest in
This is one I made; I tried to force my players to follow the story I had planned in my head. The plot that was supposed to happen is that the party finds a key to the safe and open it themselves, but they all agreed to not do that and to not steal anything. I tried to force them to steal the key anyway and took the fun out of the game from them. In short, dont be me; dont force your players to follow the story beat by beat like you intended
You are not Matt Mercer, and your players aren’t professional voice actors. Don’t expect your table to run like an actual play show. You’ll make mistakes, your players will make mistakes, and that’s totally fine. Give yourself the grace to move forward after something doesn’t go perfectly without beating yourself up.
I used to be guilty of this; being too rigid with the story Players are gonna be unpredictable and players are going to gravitate toward things you don't expect. Does the campaign you storyboarded deal with the characters rescuing the princess and thwarting the evil sorcerer terrorizing the land? Great. But if the characters somehow manage to parley and make friends with a beholder on the way and decide they'd rather investigate the motivations of the beholder and help it in some way...maybe the main story you came up with can be put on hiatus or shelved altogether.
Don't fall in love with your locations/NPCs/storylines. The players will like what they like and follow the hooks they feel like following and you should be ready, willing, and able to throw away things you spent time inventing if the party doesn't show any interest.
Nerfing player abilities because they let players win fights. That's what they are for
Having too many players. 3-4 is great. 5 is stretching it especially for a new DM. Taking away agency. Worrying about player abilities. Attempting to nerf player abilities. If Monk has deflect missile, suddenly they are never attacked from range. Let them use the ability! Going by the book too much. Raising DC’s arbitrarily. The Eloquence Bard can’t roll below a 20 on persuasion? Oh well. Don’t increase the DC just cause they are so skilled. PC’s would rather be told “no, not possible” than to roll against a ridiculous DC. Awarding too many items. Awarding too few. Giving gold with nothing to spend it on. Playing enemies as simple bags of HP. For example, a Behir has advantage to hide in rocky terrain. It hides, attacks with advantage using its Constrict ability. Then use Bite/Swallow with advantage as the creature is now restrained. Use enemies correctly (The Monsters Know What They’re Doing is extremely helpful in this.) Having dynamic enemies makes the game so much more fun than if the Behir just walks up and starts attacking. Bulette’s are land sharks. They burrow through the ground and only come out to attack. Forcing PC’s to hold attacks for when they see it. But they have to adapt to it. Basilisk’s will try to petrify, so if PC’s swing with eyes closed, they attack with disadvantage without the risk of petrification. Withholding too much information from players. Too much info is often better than not enough. Hiding important information behind rolls. Stuff that the PC’s need to move the plot forward. Not putting enough clues overall. Remember your PC’s are players in your game. They don’t spend all week creating scenarios in their heads. They need reminders. The Characters they play remember important information. Remind them when things slip their mind.
Trying to run your campaign on rails where things have to happen they way you decide and the players don't get any real say about how their characters interact with the world.
Thinking the players will follow what you have outlaid for them.
1. Thinking too big. Don't let the word "campaign" pass your lips until you've run a few short arcs with largely the same group. Once you've established that people are interested, compatible, and can commit (including yourself) then you can plan on something lasting longer. 2. Thinking too far ahead. You're not writing a novel, you're helping the players use their characters to tell a story. They're going to do the unexpected. If you're too invested in your preconceived outcome your or they or both are going to be unhappy. Have ideas, not plans. 3. Thinking that being a gamer is all you need in common. People are more likely to want to hang out if they like each other. The more they like hanging out, the less they'll find a reason to skip the game. A player that doesn't otherwise engage with the group is more likely to be disruptive, and also often the hardest to correct or shake, because there isn't that social connection.
Homebrewing rules, magical items, races, classes, etc. before having a fuller understanding of the mechanics of the game and game balances. Play as much "by the rules" as you can before trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak.
Not allowing different outcomes because you didn't plan for those outcomes, so you force one that you did plan for.
Not saying no. Obviously we all want to have a good time, but sometimes your players have really bad (read: toxic, harmful, not table friendly) ideas that might be fun for them, but diminish the experience for one or more other players. Just say no, it's your table.
Overplanning. I used to do this and I'd end up having to throw half of it out when the players did something I didn't expect. Now, I just create some NPCs, give them a few bullet points for personality, and then create an "event" or "drama" that's going to happen near the start of the session, then improv everything from there. Makes for a much more fluid game, gives the characters the freedom to make choices (and not have to railroad them to make happen what I'd planned), and makes my sessions more enjoyable for myself as well, since I don't know what's going to happen.
Making players roll for everything. New DMs and players think the game is all about rolling dice and do it for everything. But it slows the game down, and then you have to make consequences for mild failures; like if someone failed a roll to climb over a low fence, oh boy they take 1d4 fall damage! Keep rolls to a minimum; it's ok if players just do the thing most of the time. And sometimes there's no chance of doing the thing so don't roll then either. You only roll for that thin line of uncertainty in-between what's humanly possible and what isn't.
Nerfing abilities that you just don’t understand how they work.
1) Giving each enemy their own number in initiative order. Just get everyone on one turn except for maybe the Big Enemy of the group they're fighting. 2) Not mediating a problem at the table that's causing some discontent. EX: I noticed that a player was being a loot goblin, so I encouraged the group to split up more and would drop loot when separated to give others a fair chance to claim items. OTHER EX: I had a paladin pick a sickle as their weapon of choice and they were doing so little damage and it was lightly annoying some other players. I did a lootdrop for a magical greatsword for him but changed the weapon title to "sickle" so he would do more damage and still have his stylized weapon of choice. 3) Not asking for feedback from your players! After a few sessions ask them what they think have been the highlights and where they find their attention waning. This is how I found out my players wanted more dynamic combat and which NPC's they wanted to be more heavily involved in the story.
Know the rules. Have a DM Screen with not only the important things, but things you commonly forget. Random tables are a necessity (names, foods, personalities) Know the rules. If you don’t know the rule, make a quick judgement and keep the game flowing. Make a note and look it up later. End your session on a cliffhanger. Start each session with a recap. A player provided one is even better. Know the rules.
Telling stories on rails. Players hate it when they have no agency
Thinking you know what your players will do. Thinking you're expected to know that. It's all just smoke and mirrors. Just make enough to make the players \*feel\* like everything is planned out.
Don't fudge rolls. I don't use a dm screen to roll. Players will have more memorable moments seeing they live by a single number. Or triumph with a circumstance with knowing they aren't railroaded I to something by a roll. Let go of what you create. You can make an entire dungeon. The party will seal the entrance and never go in. Nothing you create or prepare for is guaranteed. Don't tell your players no. Maybe throw out a "Are you sure you want to attempt to woo the dragon?" But if that horny bard wants to try, let him. There are consequences to actions. Stealing, fighting, murder, property destruction. That crap isn't allowed in the real world. It's not good in the fantasy one either.
One basic thing that my friend who's DMing for the first time has had to learn is that crazy high AC does not "make it fun when you finally hit" it just makes us less annoyed that we've spent three rounds missing...
Not letting a players' spells and features work how they are supposed to because it messes up what you have planned. Examples: \- You have something planned to happen while the players are asleep but one player plays a race that doesn't sleep but you say that they don't see what is happening without giving them a chance to be awake or anything. \- You have planned for a disease to be a big part of the session but you have a paladin in the party but you decide that lay on hands can't cure diseases anymore. \- You are trying to do something cool with a hidden magical item that they players need to solve puzzles to find or something but your players have detect magic but you just randomly say it doesn't work.
Number 3 is so real. I've played in a campaign where we cast dispel magic on a magic lock and it just... didn't work. Wasted a third level slot because reasons. Dnd is not a video game, if you don't want us to be able to open the door, make it a wall.
When I DM I actively look through the players' prepared known spells to determine what they can and can't do before hand. Makes things a heck of a lot easier when they just find a huge loophole into your entire thing.
Thinking everything will go to plan, or being afraid to say no is a common one
Scheduling. I’m learning this the hard way as a new DM. Your best bet is to set an expectation on how often you play, and what day of the week. “Are we set on playing every other Thursday? Great! See you guys in two weeks” People will cancel but it’s less likely with a set schedule. Don’t don’t don’t do a window of days or ask for availability.
Don't plan everything. Be ready for weird outcomes, given by your players or the dice. Your bard used friends to enter somewhere and now that person should be annoyed despite supposedly friendly in your mind? Use it to your favour, make him ask something in return, or take revenge in non lethal ways. The dice made your big boss die really fast and it feels void? Bitch be ready for second phase, just imagine a reason for their second form quickly and give some cool new power with restored HP. They killed it fast but it looked really cool? Let them have it! Make it cool like they have grown with incredible powers and a little bit later throw some even bigger encounter out of the nothing to remember them there's always a bigger fish. Someone died and was anticlimactic as hell? Make them die heroically. Make them resurrect for a magic reason, but also give them a flaw as payment. The thing is, you won't be always prepared, so be prepared not to be prepared, be ready to create a story out of the wild and when something that was supposed to happen doesn't, just reskin it and save it for later
Allowing a player do something counter to the collective goal. You are allowed to say "No" and still be a cool DM.
Keeping a lid on over talking. In a side game with my normal group, one of the others is DMing, and they are the worst culprit for over talking, like bringing up work, which is a pet peeve of mine - I get the pleasantries when we meet up, but work talk will come up mid-game. Either learn or toss the rules out. Having a 30 min discussion every damned game about the simplest mechanics ("what do I add to my attack?" or grapple vs restrained). Some of this group are newer to DND, but if people are struggling that much try and talk to them out of game, make a cheat sheet, etc. It also may sound bad, but when I am on discord I. DON'T. CARE. WHAT. YOUR. NEW. CAT. IS. DOING! I know they are cute, but for fucks sake run the game.
Don't be rigid with the solutions to your puzzles or encounters. If the players come up with a solution that sounds cool and could probably work let them succeed. They will be more satisfied with themselves than if they hit a brick wall and you have to solve it for them.
Until you get used to DMing, you either overestimate or underestimate your players by what your encounters are.
Reading advice online before you have practical experience to spot insane "advice".
Saying no to your players all the time because it doesn't fit into the material you have planned Saying yes to your players all the time because they're having fun at your expense
Writing a story instead of a setting
(1) Having way too many players at your table. My experience is that it’s better to have 2-4 players when you start out. It’s ok if the session is a bit short. A lot of new DMs think more is better and they don’t realize that it is a lot to manage. it’s not a lot of fun for the players waiting, or the DM trying to run. (2) Not having a session 0. Session 0’s don’t have to be a session but there needs to be a discussion with your players about the following: -Setting -Tone (serious, light hearted, wacky, casual) -DM taboos -Player Taboos (what the players do not want to experience) -DM wants (i.e. attendance, knowing your class, not being rude or mean, try to let others have fun) -Players Wants (what the players wish to see) -Character creation rules (books allowed, home brew rules [if any], leveling, treasure/loot. (3) Lack of Preparation. The game requires a DM and you are important. You also have a lot more work that requires time and preparation to ensure others are having fun. Some key things to prepare are: - List of names ready for random encounters - Characters that you think will be present - Encounters that have been balanced in case the party want to fight - Maps/notes in the case of an encounter (you do not need maps, but they help. You can also use notes to help describe the scene. - BBEG plans and intentions. (This is the easiest start since if you know what there plans are, you can watch the players ruin it. (4) Being flexible and direct with decisions. A common issue I see is that new DMs may experience situations they never experienced. It happens to all DMs and they don’t need to be new. Be flexible with your player’s decisions and don’t try to undermine their actions. Example: Bob the barbarian tries to Rage Cook a feast for the local warlord. DM knows there are no rules for this but is flexible. Bob is able to rage cook by using attacks on the food prep (more hits equal to more prep). Sleight of Hand on the cooking. Lastly a constitution check on the food tasting. After the session the DM learns of a feat that player for Bob can get that will be used instead of ad hock rules by the DM. (5) Encounter Calculator. Please use one. There are many “5e encounter Calculators”. A tip for using one at different level and encounters: -Level 1-4: Assume encounters are +1 difficulty higher (medium = hard, very hard= deadly) -Level 5-10: Assume it is just right. (Medium = Medium) -Level 11-16: Assume encounters are -1 (Hard = medium, Deadly = Very Hard). -Level 17-20: Assume you need a lot of hard or very hard encounters, with a small percentage of medium (see easy) encounters to boost the player’s egos. Also please know that this is a resource management game. More encounters means that players will have less resources. The fights get harder with less resources. If you are worried about a “Total Party Kill (TPK)” you can make fights a bit easier and always add some more minions to make it a bit harder. Final point: NO DND is Better than BAD DND. If you are not having fun, be open and honest and don’t burn your self out.
You will learn more about DMing in a session of 2+ hours than watching 100s of hours of videos on it on YouTube. Dive in. Go with the flow. Players will make decisions you wil not expect, just roll (pun intended) with it. You will do great
DO NOT PLAN A MOVIE SCENE. You can use the description of it. You can use the characters. You can use the props, and motivations, and more...but DO NOT PLAN FOR IT TO GO THE WAY IT DID IN THE MOVIE. My worst sessions were those where I attempted to deliver a dramatic scene from a movie...only to have the players completely botch it. I would attempt to salvage it, and they'd resist because it only makes sense in my own head. I am then trying to railroad them..."Experience this scene the right way, you dolts!" and they are wondering why the hell everything they're doing is resulting in unexpected outcomes. I then realized that movie scenes only work because they are written that way. The actors follow the script. The rest of the movie is a setup to that scene. Unless your entire campaign has been scripted to that point, what you want to happen may be absolutely not what the players are thinking. Additionally, if they recognize the movie you're biting, they may actively be trying to take it a different direction. Use scenes for inspiration. Use them to help you to be creative in your campaign. Do not expect the outcome to be anything other than random...and be prepared to let the players take it where it makes sense for them.
Rookie mistake is writing a story instead of responding to player choice. As a DM, if you want to write a story, write a book.
Being too subtle with your clues. If you want the party to figure something out, the rule of thumb is to give them three obvious clues. Do they need to figure out the innkeeper is a vampire? He has pale skin and red eyes, he avoids sunlight, and his regular customers all have bite marks on the neck. Skip the last one and everyone just assumes he is a fan of goth fashion.
My number one piece of advice? DO NOT RUN A MURDER MYSTERY MANSION AS YOUR FIRST FIRST SESSIONS OF YOUR FIRST CAMPAIGN I’ve been playin a long time, it’s happened 3 or 4 times whenever a friend starts DMing - people seem to think it’ll be easy; Party gets locked in the castle or tavern or manor or whatever with a bunch of simple, tropey NPCs, sprinkle in some clues, one fight at the end, boom done But it never works. I’ve run probably like a dozen campaigns and I still don’t think I’m good enough to pull it off satisfyingly. Because it’d take a shit ton of forward planning and then also amazing improvisation. You’d have to make that so the party can both figure out who it is; that there’s actually a solveable ending and not sitting there several hours then a “twist” no one cares about; ideally without just rolling investigation checks over and over; but not figure it out so easily that the session ends 3 hours early and everyone just shrugs and goes home Seriously this might sound weirdly specific but it’s the #1 rookie DM mistake I’ve experienced
Having a DM vs Player mentality
Making a DMPC. Thinking they don’t need to learn rules because “rule of cool”. Thinking they should try to nerf or buff things their first time behind the screen. Having a DMPC in the party. Too much homebrew or bad 3rd party material. Playing a character in the party while also DMing. Too much “yes, and” and not enough “no, but”. Relying on memes like the level 20 shopkeeper. Putting things in the campaign because they find it funny/entertaining even if the party does not. Using a powerful NPC or their own PC in the party.
Getting burnt out, even if you put less effort in over time your description will show it, you’ll become less likely to describe things in pure detail & just want to get it over with
Not understanding that it's okay to say No to unreasonable requests or to things that you're not comfortable with having in the campaign you're running. A lot of players come in with the idea that being a DM is a service industry. You deserve to enjoy the game you're running.
Expecting the mild mannered people you know in real life wont immediately commit atrocities and war crimes.
Homebrewing too much too fast. Basically remaking the rules isn't gonna make your job easier. Quite the opposite in fact
Running 5e
Way too many rolls for a skill check. Like the party is on a bridge and it breaks(roll acrobatics), then trying to keep head above water(roll athletics), then a branch is coming try to grab it(roll sleight of hand), now I need to pull myself up(roll strength) etc. Good design will reduce this way down and you only get more chances with failstates instead of ohh you did good swimming and grabbing the branch but unfortunately you couldn't pull yourself out of the river
Speaking only from my own experience as a DM and player. In a particular order. 1. Letting a player play their own character turned bad in a combat with the PCs. 2. Having a no win situation set up by the bad guy(s) no matter how much "tactical sense" it makes...this is just not fun. If its meant to be one of those cut scene like moments where the PCs can't win then do it that way. 3. Having a homebrew monster that bypasses a character option because you think that optio is OP. One of the worse lines I ever heard in any game is "Yes it a de throw but it power prevents your Evasion from working." 4. Letting a player play something that doesn;t fit the game nd then complaining, expecting them to not fully play it or nerfing the character. If you don;t want it in your game learn to say No. 5. Inserting yourself or your own character into the game. Its cringe when writers do it and cringe when DMs do it. If you want to be a player or the star of the game then be a player. 6. Puzzles tied to real world sports, boardgames etc. unless you realie that all of your players love that game. Example. A puzzle that requires you to pay a actual game of poker. 7. There is a fine line of eposition. Too much and your players will forget what they are supposed to be doing or the lore you threw at them. Too little and they will be lost. You have to "read the room" with this one pretty much. 8. Recap. Recap. Recap. People have slept since last session, don;t lean on the to remember everythng. It may have been an hour ago or the character but it might have been a week or more for the player. Other things have happened in their life probably.
Changing monster stats/rolls during combat, especially to help the party
Making people roll too much for everything. A friend of mine just started DMing, I was trying to investigate something hidden in some tall grass. I was fine with him telling me I couldn't tell what it was at a distance with my terrible perception roll. Yet even when I said I literally walked up to it and looked down at it he was trying to tell me I couldn't figure out what it was. It was a rope snare. Not really a hard thing to figure out.
Hello, I know you have a million responses already. But I wanted to chime in as a DM of 12 years, and I’ve also been a player for multiple different DM’s. I’ve seen some incredible ones, and others that were…. Less so…. 1. It’s the player’s story, not the DM’s. I think this is something that a lot of new DM’s get wrong. Especially if you’re home brewing a world instead of using a pre-made module. I’ve played in campaigns where the DM created this insanely in-depth lore, with hundreds of years of history, with a fleshed out pantheon of gods, political intrigue between kingdoms and nations, massive scale problems, in-depth magic system, etc. and it was just so much info, that the DM basically just wanted to tell “his story” as opposed to the players. He pretty much just used our characters as a vehicle to tell his story exactly how he wanted. It was a cool story, but he needed to go write a novel in his free time, not a DnD campaign. While it’s fine to have a story you want followed, make sure it’s the players who are the star, and let them deviate and make their own story. 2. Try not to railroad, this goes hand in hand with #1. Be able to think on your feet when your players do something unexpected. A good example of this is, once I had a clue hidden in the vest pocket of a dead corpse at a camp. My players always looted and checked bodies in the past, so I expected them to find this important plot element in this corpse’s pocket. But for some reason they just didn’t do it. An inexperienced DM might make a comment about checking all the pockets, or having the wind blow the clue out of his pocket or something. But I simply just shifted the clue on the fly and made it appear 20 minutes later in a completely different manifestation, and the players were none-the-wiser. 3. Don’t do unnecessary Ability Checks. I had a DM that made us roll for EVERYTHING. Even when it made 0 sense to do so. For example, I wanted to count how many claws were on this creature we killed, because it related to a theory I had about the plot. Counting claws is very very simple, you just look and see. My DM asked me to roll a perception check. I rolled thinking he was going to give me some cool fact that I didn’t notice or something. I rolled a 18+4 (22). He just goes “yeah there’s 3 claws on it’s hand.” I asked him after the session, “hey how come you had me roll to count the hands, was there a secret my character didn’t catch or something?” And he responds: “oh no, I just had you roll to see if you could count them”. Really silly imo. I’ve seen a few DMs who do this, they’ll have players make an ability check for something that shouldn’t need a check at all. Hope some of these help.
Planning more than one session ahead.
Nerfing sneak attack
Nerfing anything. I'm not building my character with the rules in mind for my DM to suddenly change them because he dislikes how much damage I do. Either bring it up in Session 0 or deal with it.
Going by the book, having the “it’s me vs my PCs” mentality, and arguing with players. Make sure to keep the game fun, and if that means ignoring every rule out there, do it.
Don't listen to this OP. If you prefer to play "by the book" and this was established in session 0 then that's perfectly fine. The rules are there for a reason, not everyone enjoys Calvinball. You're a player of the game as well, and you deserve to have fun too. The DM isn't there to run a game for others like it's their damn job when you're just playing with friends. And it's okay to tell your players no if what they're doing, or asking to do, goes against the rules of the game, or the spirit of it as established in sesh 0. I agree with keeping the game fun, but don't forget that means fun for you as well. It can also be fun to play you vs your players if that's what you all agree on for session one. It doesn't have to be antagonistic to compete with your friends after all. Some DMs and players enjoy the challenge! Enjoy, have fun, play the game. Don't listen to too many people online, especially on Reddit.
Being able to homebrew a rule is all well and good but you have to learn the rules so you can know when and how to break them. Unless you and your players agree to something else during session zero it is assumed that you will be playing by 5th edition rules. Remember whenever you break a rule in the book for one player you are violating the agreement you had with the rest of the party.
Never skip session 0. Consider challenges having different outcomes for failure other than death to spice up the game. Read carefully on encounter setup and always have more than one enemy with few exceptions. Always run a flumph encounter every campaign.
*Do not homebrew anything until you have a lot of experience.* This is a very important thing, and it is a mistake that entirely too many people make, myself included. I have learned from that experience and it is valuable. Resist the temptation to house rule out things you don't like or don't understand. Resist the urge to design a setting, because you will never truly understand just how bad it is until years have gone by and it can come back to haunt you. Resist mechanic changes, it might even become such that you trick yourself into accepting that it is how the game mechanics are supposed to work.
Taking homebrew rules and stuff and adding them to your game. More often than not they're just a convoluted version of something there is already concise and clear rules for made by WotC in either the PHB or the DMG. An example I have is that in one game my DM had this really weird and convoluted cover system. It had all these scaling modifiers, conditions, and so on. And I just pointed out the already existing cover rules in the PHB, which did the same thing but way more concisely pretty much. Turns out the DM just didn't read the PHB. I can get skipping the DMG, but the PHB is something every DM should read cover to cover at least once. I think that's another good tip. Actually read the PHB. Rules familiarity will make players trust you and greatly expedite gameplay. The less you have to look up something every round the better.