I'm not only new as a DM but to Dnd as a whole. I decided to DM so my friends and I could get into it. Im running a homebrew campaign. The sessions are going great but I feel like I could do better if I got some pointers from an experienced DM. Im looking for someone who would be willing to give me some pointers on how they run their sessions.
This question is far too broad to be able to give you meaningful feedback. I could go on and on with advice, but maybe everything I write about is stuff you’re already happy with. Do you have specific questions? Or places where things don’t flow as well as you’d like?
Yes please provide additional information. We all love to put our 2 cents in and sometimes it gives other DM's a good base to homebrew rules, make judgement calls and create unique situations for their players. We are all here for the fun of the game
Being a DM is like being a writer or a painter. There's no one right or best way to do it, it's very individual and specific to the person, and improvement comes from consistent practice. For any of us to give you meaningful suggestions we'd have to sit in on one of your sessions. Obviously there are some practical obstacles to that, but good news! You already have resources at your disposal. Talk to your players to get feedback. Maybe talk to the group after a session. Maybe talk to them one at a time. You might want to look at something like a Google Form to let them provide feedback anonymously if they're not comfortable sharing constructive criticism directly.
Other than that, I'd suggest getting into other games as a player with someone else DMing. Not to copy another DM's style, but to learn what works for them and why which can help you figure out things that could work for you.
I'd recommend trying watching some of the Alpine DM's videos and reading his articles. I myself have only done a handfull of one shots and am on my first real campaign and have found his videos very helpful! Something that I also found to be helpful is listening to other people play dnd on like Youtube. I'd avoid watching the pro's like critical role as for me, they made me set unrealistic expectations at what I should be doing.
I'd recommend trying watching some of the Alpine DM's videos and reading his articles. I myself have only done a handfull of one shots and am on my first real campaign and have found his videos very helpful! Something that I also found to be helpful is listening to other people play dnd on like Youtube. I'd avoid watching the pro's like critical role as for me, they made me set unrealistic expectations at what I should be doing.
Broadly speaking I'd disagree with this sentiment. Every table is going to be different no matter how much we might wish it to be different. Contrary to advising you to watch, read, or listen to other players (of any level); I'd actually advise grabbing a starter set and running only that.
Why do I suggest this?
Well, you're in the position where you're learning both the rules of the game and how to run the game. That's a lot for anyone, and to be honest you're exactly the person a starter set was designed for. In our early stages, every DM I know has wanted to rush to creating their own fancy world and their very own setting for their table to explore. Usually though, that's the most difficult path. Don't underestimate running a starter set and it's adventure. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is currently £18 on Amazon, Heroes of the Borderlands is £43, and in a local bookstore in the UK both the Lost Mine of Phandelver Starter Set and the Essentials Kit Dragon of Icespire Peak are £19.99 each. They're investments worth making even trying just the one, and though the older sets might seem out of date they'll get you 90% of the way there running either 5e (2014) or 5.5e (2024) rules.
Even just reading through one of them and working out how you'd run them will really help. The older sets come with copies of the Basic Rules too which come in handy to bring to game night...no need to lug around the PHB, instead there's a smaller book to quickly reference.
Beyond that, @LoFiSuperFly as others have said you haven't given us any solid idea of what aspects of DMing you think you'd do better with should you gain advice. Do you need help improvising? Having trouble with the rules? Having trouble making up quests? Some kind of direction like this will really help people to help you.
I agree with the previous posters. Your question is far too broad and does not provide enough context.
For example, someone might say 'DM's need to provide descriptions of things to bring the world to life' but we have no clue wither you are already providing vivid descriptions, or wither you are providing descriptions that are too long, or not providing any descriptions so it is not in any way actually helpful advice.
To get helpful advice you need to give specifics on what you feel is not working/going wrong, or what specific part of game mastering you could stand to improve on, and then specifics on what you are currently doing and how you currently handle things, as well as how that is working out for your specific group. Then people can provide good suggestions for things to try. So if you said 'combat seems dry and mechanical and I think my players would appreciate better narrative descriptions of what is happening' then people could provide specific advice how to accomplish that. Which obviously is going to be very different than the advice we would give if your problem where, 'I don't know how to organize NPCs when I plan a session, what are some options for that'.
There are tons of different ways to run D&D and styles of GMing and Playing. Without much more info nobody can provide you with much in the way of helpful tips.
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I'm not only new as a DM but to Dnd as a whole. I decided to DM so my friends and I could get into it. Im running a homebrew campaign. The sessions are going great but I feel like I could do better if I got some pointers from an experienced DM. Im looking for someone who would be willing to give me some pointers on how they run their sessions.
This question is far too broad to be able to give you meaningful feedback. I could go on and on with advice, but maybe everything I write about is stuff you’re already happy with. Do you have specific questions? Or places where things don’t flow as well as you’d like?
Yes please provide additional information. We all love to put our 2 cents in and sometimes it gives other DM's a good base to homebrew rules, make judgement calls and create unique situations for their players. We are all here for the fun of the game
Being a DM is like being a writer or a painter. There's no one right or best way to do it, it's very individual and specific to the person, and improvement comes from consistent practice. For any of us to give you meaningful suggestions we'd have to sit in on one of your sessions. Obviously there are some practical obstacles to that, but good news! You already have resources at your disposal. Talk to your players to get feedback. Maybe talk to the group after a session. Maybe talk to them one at a time. You might want to look at something like a Google Form to let them provide feedback anonymously if they're not comfortable sharing constructive criticism directly.
Other than that, I'd suggest getting into other games as a player with someone else DMing. Not to copy another DM's style, but to learn what works for them and why which can help you figure out things that could work for you.
I'd recommend trying watching some of the Alpine DM's videos and reading his articles. I myself have only done a handfull of one shots and am on my first real campaign and have found his videos very helpful! Something that I also found to be helpful is listening to other people play dnd on like Youtube. I'd avoid watching the pro's like critical role as for me, they made me set unrealistic expectations at what I should be doing.
https://thealpinedm.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@thealpinedm
Broadly speaking I'd disagree with this sentiment. Every table is going to be different no matter how much we might wish it to be different. Contrary to advising you to watch, read, or listen to other players (of any level); I'd actually advise grabbing a starter set and running only that.
Why do I suggest this?
Well, you're in the position where you're learning both the rules of the game and how to run the game. That's a lot for anyone, and to be honest you're exactly the person a starter set was designed for. In our early stages, every DM I know has wanted to rush to creating their own fancy world and their very own setting for their table to explore. Usually though, that's the most difficult path. Don't underestimate running a starter set and it's adventure. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is currently £18 on Amazon, Heroes of the Borderlands is £43, and in a local bookstore in the UK both the Lost Mine of Phandelver Starter Set and the Essentials Kit Dragon of Icespire Peak are £19.99 each. They're investments worth making even trying just the one, and though the older sets might seem out of date they'll get you 90% of the way there running either 5e (2014) or 5.5e (2024) rules.
Even just reading through one of them and working out how you'd run them will really help. The older sets come with copies of the Basic Rules too which come in handy to bring to game night...no need to lug around the PHB, instead there's a smaller book to quickly reference.
Beyond that, @LoFiSuperFly as others have said you haven't given us any solid idea of what aspects of DMing you think you'd do better with should you gain advice. Do you need help improvising? Having trouble with the rules? Having trouble making up quests? Some kind of direction like this will really help people to help you.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I agree with the previous posters. Your question is far too broad and does not provide enough context.
For example, someone might say 'DM's need to provide descriptions of things to bring the world to life' but we have no clue wither you are already providing vivid descriptions, or wither you are providing descriptions that are too long, or not providing any descriptions so it is not in any way actually helpful advice.
To get helpful advice you need to give specifics on what you feel is not working/going wrong, or what specific part of game mastering you could stand to improve on, and then specifics on what you are currently doing and how you currently handle things, as well as how that is working out for your specific group. Then people can provide good suggestions for things to try. So if you said 'combat seems dry and mechanical and I think my players would appreciate better narrative descriptions of what is happening' then people could provide specific advice how to accomplish that. Which obviously is going to be very different than the advice we would give if your problem where, 'I don't know how to organize NPCs when I plan a session, what are some options for that'.
There are tons of different ways to run D&D and styles of GMing and Playing. Without much more info nobody can provide you with much in the way of helpful tips.