How to Successfully DM Adventures

Hello,

I have been wanting to become a good and clean GM/DM for premade (e.g. 5e) and homebrew adventures for quite some time. I would like to have my homebrew adventures to have a bit of everything that an adventure/campaign has to offer. I have tried to GM once or twice before, but was not very successful at it. Can I get some ideas on what I can do to have a successful campaign?

Thanks in advance

Look up "Running the Game" on YouTube. It's a series of videos by Matt Coville as he talks about just that. 

Having a bit of everything is probably not the way to go. Instead, figure out what your players want to do. Have a session -1 one, if you will. Ask them what they want to get out the game, and insert some suggestions of your own. Take what they give, and write up a starting point. Let them make their characters, and brew in some of the plot hooks they give you. That way, they see some of he things they've come up with in your game, and it will help them be more invested in the story. Trying to set up an entire plot in advance will feel hollow. Let the story emerge organically, through their actions, and not by how you think things should go. There is no trick to successful DMing, only listening to what others want and trying to make it happen. It's a collaborative game, not a one-man show.

First, let yourself off the hook. D&D is an awesome way to have fun with friends and other gamers. If you're trying to DM, you're already succeeding. And everyone at the table contributes to the game! It's not on any one player if people aren't having fun, very much including the DM. (Obviously except for if someone decides to be an a**hat.)

Otherwise, talk to the group and keep talking to the group as you play. Definitely ask what people like up front, so you can work with it, but people aren't always going to be great at telling you what they want. They'll usually be better at telling you what they enjoyed most about the last session. For example, in my current group, it took a while for me to figure out that they really prefer narrative and creativity over rules and tactics. So, when they were about to face a banshee, I gave them a chance to save an NPC, who could then tell them the ghost they would face has a deathly wail, then gave them a haunted library where they could figure out to make ear plugs out of candlewax. Some groups would much rather roll the dice and use battlefield tactics to manage the aftermath of a banshee's wail. This group would rather solve that problem through storytelling, so that's what we do.

But that's what I mean about this being a collaborative game. It's just as much on them to talk to you. Do your best, tell a story you love, and let your players let you know what parts work best for them. The rest will sort itself out. You'll do great!

Quote from A5P13_Z3R0 >>

Hello,

I have been wanting to become a good and clean GM/DM for premade (e.g. 5e) and homebrew adventures for quite some time. I would like to have my homebrew adventures to have a bit of everything that an adventure/campaign has to offer. I have tried to GM once or twice before, but was not very successful at it. Can I get some ideas on what I can do to have a successful campaign?

Thanks in advance

The campaign doesnt matter. What matters is whether the players get to affect it or not.

You could run a dungeon crawl or a heroic adventure or a gritty dark campaign, and if the players dont have any effect on the world, they will become disengaged.

Always be looking for ways to tie a player into the plot. Players backstory says their parents were murdered? Have one of the bad guys in your campaign be the murderer. Maybe the player wants vengeance. Maybe they want the bad guy locked away for life. Give them the opportunity to achieve whatever it is they want around that.

Player wants to build something? Have their research during downtime discover that a rare material component is located in a location that also leads to the next encounter in the campaign.

Present the world to your players, the npcs and those npc goals, and allow players to align ir oppose those npcs. Create the world. Let the players write the story.