As a DM, you control everything and everyone that is not a Player Character (PC for short). That means everyone or anything the players may come across or interact with is controlled by you. However, the goal of any RPG should be a fun time for ‘’’everyone’’’ involved. “Everyone” cannot be stressed enough. Your responses to the players, the situations you present, the challenges you create, the stories you build together, all of it should be balanced so as to provide an enjoyable experience for you and your players. What you are not is against the PCs. If your goal is to destroy the player characters any chance you get, then you are doing it wrong. Rather, you should strive to be fair and create an enjoyable experience. This means that if the characters are having a hard time, nerf the monsters but don’t change how they would behave.

In D&D, the Core Books are the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master Guide and the Monster Manual. The rest should not be considered necessary for running a game. You describe the surroundings, manage the plot, and administer all of the elements of the game, including determining the outcome of battles between players and dungeon dwellers. If your players encounter a creature, choose a plan of battle, it may be up to you to roll the dice to decide the outcome, and although the rules apply specific guidelines, you may use your own judgment to work that outcome in the best way to maintain the flow and continuity of the game. It’s a daunting task, but it will become easier with time, patience, and practice.

Notebook: keeping a notebook nearby is incredibly handy because you can use it to scratch notes like if a player has a cool moment and you want to award them something special, or if something else happens that you want to jot down and keep in your memory. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/a/a2/Be-a-Dungeon-Master-Step-3. jpg/v4-460px-Be-a-Dungeon-Master-Step-3. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/a/a2/Be-a-Dungeon-Master-Step-3. jpg/aid134586-v4-728px-Be-a-Dungeon-Master-Step-3. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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If you have no time in between games, consider running modules. They will be presented for characters between a certain levels, with challenges scaled to fit. This is the easiest and fastest way to run a game, as most of everything is done for you. The only thing you have to do is read the adventure. It is suggested that you re-read a few pages ahead of where you stopped at every session right before the next session, to refresh your memory for the game at hand. If you have a few hours to devote between games, running modules is still a strong option. However, you may want to re-write parts of the module to fit the game or particular story line(s) you’re running with the PCs. Changing descriptions of locations or replacing treasure found in the module with items better suited for your players are good and easy places to start. As you progress in skill, you may start lifting whole encounters from one module and writing it into another. Not only does this allow you to essentially pick out the best parts of an otherwise so-so module, but players who may have read or run through the module before will be in for a surprise! Writing your own adventures is a possibility, though for new DMs it is still recommended that you run a module first, so you’re only focusing on one concept at a time (learning the rules). In time you will be more inclined to change things and write new scenarios yourself. Pulling encounters from published works and tying them together would be a good start. They can then slowly be replaced with your own works. What you ultimately want to achieve is that your campaign is like a movie you would be interested in watching which invokes a sense of mystery. Many dungeon masters spend a long time reading the rulebooks over and over again. This is actually a form of procrastination. If you don’t have anyone to play with – don’t spend time planning scenarios. Keep your ideas in the back of your mind and instead learn to generally become a good storyteller. The only way to become a valuable game master is to gain practical experience and learn from each mistake as it brings you closer to perfection.

If the problem is a rule disagreement, don’t let that derail your game. Spend no more than two minutes looking up anything, unless the character in question may die from the result. Calmly explain your ruling on how it will work, resolve to look it up after the game or between sessions and move on. Nothing kills a game faster than bickering for 15 minutes between two people while the rest of the group is bored. Keeping the game going is better than killing the game while trying to get every detail right every time. If the problem is that the players did something that you didn’t plan for, anticipate, or want them to do. . . be willing to say “Yes”. . . or at the very least don’t say “No”. Some DMs can make things up on the fly - do so if you can. If you’re not comfortable with that, ask for a short break (people can go to the bathroom, eat, whatever) while you write up some ideas and make a short outline plan for this new and exciting direction they are going. Don’t excuse yourself if the players catch you with having broken Dungeons & Dragons-rules. If they point out that your wizard wears chain mail, agree, be mysterious about it. There is no tragedy in retconning if you forgot an important aspect.

The players can be their own worst enemies. Their dreadful imagination can give you inspiration about your scenario and how it unfolds. If the players roll a lucky dice and kill off what you intended to be the main villain, let him go. Being fair also means denying yourself. If you really don’t want the players to go in a certain direction there are ways of changing it. You can make certain areas contagious which also yields an opportunity for roleplaying. A realm can be controlled by a dark lord. Or areas you don’t want them to visit can be excluded from the maps you create. You can also have some of the players’ gear stolen. This will very likely make them follow where you want them to go.

You will want to become such a good game master that the players are not munchkins but actually want to roleplay. The more you prepare, the easier it will be to give the players this confidence. Remember that until you say it exists, no one knows what is on that piece of paper behind your screen. Whether you read it directly or change details as you go along, unless you tell the players that they will think it was meant to be that way all along. Use this to your advantage. Consider who you are playing with. If you are given the opportunity to play with others you should seize it. Also, despite your most careful preparations things will rarely go as planned. Since you are dealing with people, expect there to be conversation outside of the Role-Playing world, and accommodate accordingly. If the game is not going to the preconceived plan you have created, try to incorporate your original ideas in new ways to the current player predicament. Proper|y involve the players. Never fulfill their wishes directly. Their characters should be designed according to the rule book. They should be given goals which you can intertwine with the story you designed. Keep in mind who the player characters are. For examples, have your non-friendly NPCs address the player with the highest charisma. The point of going on an adventure is to see and experience new things. Be creative with your descriptions and scenarios to give every location and interaction its own flavor. Don’t just drone on about the surroundings; change your voice to show you actually care. Taking on accents of various NPCs also adds a bit of flavor to your dungeon. Include a world map. You may want to have figures and grid maps to make the combat easy to follow. You may even have pre-designed dungeon halls. If you are terrible at drawing there are ways to improve your fine motor skills. Don’t let your creativity run amok, however. You would like to create a consistency within your game world. While you may be pretending to be in a fantasy world where magic is common, its pervasiveness should be consistent. Keeping your work within this guideline can mean the difference between an engaging fantasy story and a parody where everything seems hokey and dumb. There are expansion books designed for creating scenarios taking place in another franchise such as The Lord of The Rings. If your scenario takes place in such a well-known franchise, don’t include the main characters from there. Instead make up your own. If someone lectures you about the universe, point out that it’s your interpretation of it that matters.