Hello fellow DMs, I wanted to start this thread as a collection of Wisdom by Experienced DMs to new DMs. Go ahead and post your Words of Wisdom, but try to keep it 5 sentences or less for each one. I'll begin:
Have Opportunities For Your Players to Use their Tool Proficiencies.
They're the most unique non-backstory component of the characters and will make the players feel good about what would otherwise seem like meaningless choices. Gaming Set Wisdom Checks to discover a bluff, Vehicle Dexterity Checks to avoid a monster, Musical Instrument Charisma Checks to impress a crowd, and Artisan Tool Intelligence Checks to understand an object that would be made by that Tool. These are a couple examples.
Make sure that all of your players get a chance to show off, do something cool, utilize their character, be the focus of attention, at least for a little bit, in each session. Some players, without trying to be jerks, end up monopolizing the game. Or sometimes a character is slightly overpowered, or more outgoing, or draws more attention. Make sure the attention gets to be on everyone at some point--you don't want any of your PCs feeling like NPCs.
No matter how much time you spend preparing, the party will go in directions you did not expect and find solutions you had not considered. Some of these will have long term ramifications for the story/world but it is still better to generally go with a reasonable idea they put forward, unless you have a very good reason not to. Similarly, if you go into a session with a single detailed plan of what will happen then you will be forced into either railroading the party, or making everything up on the fly if they insist on going elsewhere, your players will probably notice either of these and not be happy. Better to have a few vague and general ideas in mind, this gives you something to build on whatever the party do.
Some of the most common game issues surround player engagement. If a player feels disengaged, it can lead to all sorts of issues. So engage their backstory to help them get more invested in their characters. They are the heroes of this story, so make it feel that way. It creates anticipation, excitement and helps with role play. If a player goes to the effort of writing a detailed backstory, reward that effort.
To often, we DMs class ourselves as storytellers. While that is not completely untrue, we tell stories not by creating plots, but by crafting story potentials within rich, interesting, dynamic worlds. If we come to a place where we feel the Players are ruining our stories, or taking it in directions we had not planned, and this frustrates us ( and it frustrates all of us from time to time ), we need to remember that the story is not ours to control or shape. We are co-discovering the story that the Players create, within our world. It is within the collision of Player creativity and Player choice with the situations and conflicts that we craft as beginnings, where the story is truly created - and its direction and narrative is owned equally by us all.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Don't be too crazy with it but add in little things that players can grab and run with. If someone is investigating a room with nothing you planned in it, make it the subject of something new that could come up later. A shady woman orders a drink from the bar and gets a key and someone notices. A name that keeps popping up. See what the party engage with and run with that. This way you can add 'filler' into your campaign whilst keeping your party on the main quest and if they don't engage, no harm done, and if they do, it sets up something to give you more time, and more suspense, to your future reveals.
When you have an encounter, expect the unexpected. A player might take the side of evil without realizing, or a monster that does a crapload of damage might crit and kill your player. In that case, have a plan. Say that before it attacks, it falls to your friends arrows, or something. Always expect that the players Do what they want, not what you want.
Don't put critical clues/items behind skill rolls! ( at least not without a backup )
To often we reach for the phrase "Give me a _________ roll". Ever felt immediate regret and disappointment when the Player failed the roll? Ever wondered "great, now how will they find out about .... "? Maybe that clue shouldn't have been behind a skill roll. For critical clues and bits of information, make multiple paths to them. Roll-less paths should still come at some cost ( the character owes an NPC a favor, they need to bribe a clerk, etc. ), and skill checks can still be used to bypass the costly means of obtaining those clues - but there should always be some means for the party to obtain the clue/information/critical item.
Learning to invent new but plausible paths to items/clues on the fly is also a handy skill ;)
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Narrate the results of actions every time, except when dice are necessary. The purpose of a roll is to find out if there was a failure or a success when attempting an action, however, many times there is a misunderstanding with that thought. There must be a clear consequence for failure or possibility for success. If there is no clear consequence for failure, such as guards showing up, poison gas killing you, or time running out, then just narrate how the action is resolved. If there is no chance of success, no matter how many times, or ways, the party may try, then don't roll, just explain that they find the task impossible.
If Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules designer of the game, says he is always looking things up in the books and doesn't remember everything...then you shouldn't feel any pressure to know it all. Feel comfortable taking a moment to look up details if you have a question, or ask your player to read the spell/ability information they're using. Or if you would rather keep the narrative moving feel confident in making a ruling for what makes sense to you and saying "I think right now lets do THIS, and I'll look up the details later when we're not in the middle of things."
No plan survives contact with the Players. Keep this in mind at all times. The players will go left when you expected them to go right. They will kill the NPC they were supposed to befriend or befriend the one they were supposed to kill. they will fail to find the vital clue, or fail to put the clues together properly, or they will somehow leap to the correct solution to the mystery after finding the first clue. It will happen. Have some alternate plans.
If you find yourself truly stuck with no idea how to continue the adventure and nothing prepared for the path the players insist on going down call a break so you can think of something. it doesn't happen often, but sometimes you really will have no idea what they are heading into and your ability to improvise will vanish. Don't panic. Just call the session early if need be.
When creating an encounter, think about more than just enemies and XP totals. Consider the drives, goals, and tactics of enemies. Combine terrain and ambience to create a more immersive, dynamic battlefield. Allow your players to approach combat in unique ways or to avoid it altogether through sheer cleverness. Random encounters can happen suddenly, but their details don't need to be random; prep some scenarios beforehand to avoid dull battles. Combat can and should be a way you can introduce plot details and flesh out your world while also creating a memorable experience for your players.
Descriptions of places, people, and events, don't have to be a half page of prose. In fact, it's better when they are not. Descriptions need only be 1-3 phrases: describe what the thing is ( bustling trade market, shifty looking bartender ), describe 1-3 call out sensory features ( smell of spices & loudly calling hawkers, skinny & balding with pencil mustache ), and 0-2 call out behaviors ( glancing nervously at the door periodically ). This is quick, economical, and - most importantly - allows the Players to fill in the gaps from their own imaginations - making the world more personal to them, and far more detailed than you can probably describe in your prose.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
What looks like a story-breaking hint to you may seem really subtle to your players, and your players will usually respond better to a too big discovery that to being spun around in circles. Remember that they can see possibilities that you didn't. Also, if one of their theories is better than your plan, feel free to go with it.
Kind of want to get some more stuff available for newbies, going to post a second tip and put this in my signature.
If Your NPCs are Outshining Your Players...
Your putting too much focus on your NPCs. The Players' Characters are the most important part of your world, not your NPCs. Tone down the uniqueness and importance of the characters not played by your Players.
Your putting too much focus on your NPCs. The Players' Characters are the most important part of your world, not your NPCs. Tone down the uniqueness and importance of the characters not played by your Players.
I'd actually argue the opposite (given no context). NPCs should be unique, interesting, and important. If you present a boring world to players, they're going to end up playing boring characters. You're the one that has semi-perfect knowledge about how the world functions, not (usually) the players. The NPCs should serve as an anchor that allows the players to become comfortable in how your world functions, and that gives players the confidence to start defining their characters in the unique context of the campaign.
If you present a boring world to players, they're going to end up playing boring characters.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I think a balance between the two is what is most effective. For newb players with very low-level characters, it's beneficial to have an NPC or two that can bail their hinies out if needed unless you and the table are alright with an early, low-level TPK. Plus, I also use NPCs to help share knowledge about the world around them, history & lore, etc, etc.
Design your plot arcs more as a series of events that need to happen to get from point A to point B. In doing so you allow yourself, and your players, to just play the game without forcing the players down a particular course. If the players are hired to go to the Krylon Outpost but decide to head to the Gated Citadel instead, you can take the plot point that was at the Krylon Outpost and move it without losing any momentum on the BBEG's time table. It may take a little reworking to what your original plan was, but it still gives your players their agency and you the ability to move the plot arc along.
Don't ask for a roll, if you are not going to stick to it.
At first glance, this is going to seem to mean, because you may have expected them to succeed because the DC was only 10. But remember, in a game of chance anything can happen. So many times I have seen games that the rolls seemed to not matter because the DM would ask for it and the highest would be a 5. He would then just explain everything anyhow because everyone failed.
An Example is: The party walks into a room covered in blood, I'll explain where the blood is, if it looks new or old basic stuff you might be able to tell where things are at. However, if the only way for them to continue the story is to see a smeared handprint in the blood, I don't ask them to roll. The problem is if I were to ask them to roll they could fail with no way to continue. Now however if the smeared handprint was just for bonus loot, I would ask them to roll. The print is no longer tied to advancing the story but to something extra.
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Hello fellow DMs, I wanted to start this thread as a collection of Wisdom by Experienced DMs to new DMs. Go ahead and post your Words of Wisdom, but try to keep it 5 sentences or less for each one. I'll begin:
Have Opportunities For Your Players to Use their Tool Proficiencies.
They're the most unique non-backstory component of the characters and will make the players feel good about what would otherwise seem like meaningless choices. Gaming Set Wisdom Checks to discover a bluff, Vehicle Dexterity Checks to avoid a monster, Musical Instrument Charisma Checks to impress a crowd, and Artisan Tool Intelligence Checks to understand an object that would be made by that Tool. These are a couple examples.
Great idea!
Give Everyone Their Chance To Shine.
Make sure that all of your players get a chance to show off, do something cool, utilize their character, be the focus of attention, at least for a little bit, in each session. Some players, without trying to be jerks, end up monopolizing the game. Or sometimes a character is slightly overpowered, or more outgoing, or draws more attention. Make sure the attention gets to be on everyone at some point--you don't want any of your PCs feeling like NPCs.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
The party will out-think you, so adapt.
No matter how much time you spend preparing, the party will go in directions you did not expect and find solutions you had not considered. Some of these will have long term ramifications for the story/world but it is still better to generally go with a reasonable idea they put forward, unless you have a very good reason not to. Similarly, if you go into a session with a single detailed plan of what will happen then you will be forced into either railroading the party, or making everything up on the fly if they insist on going elsewhere, your players will probably notice either of these and not be happy. Better to have a few vague and general ideas in mind, this gives you something to build on whatever the party do.
Engage your PC's backstories.
Some of the most common game issues surround player engagement. If a player feels disengaged, it can lead to all sorts of issues. So engage their backstory to help them get more invested in their characters. They are the heroes of this story, so make it feel that way. It creates anticipation, excitement and helps with role play. If a player goes to the effort of writing a detailed backstory, reward that effort.
It is your world; It is their story.
To often, we DMs class ourselves as storytellers. While that is not completely untrue, we tell stories not by creating plots, but by crafting story potentials within rich, interesting, dynamic worlds. If we come to a place where we feel the Players are ruining our stories, or taking it in directions we had not planned, and this frustrates us ( and it frustrates all of us from time to time ), we need to remember that the story is not ours to control or shape. We are co-discovering the story that the Players create, within our world. It is within the collision of Player creativity and Player choice with the situations and conflicts that we craft as beginnings, where the story is truly created - and its direction and narrative is owned equally by us all.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Throw in random plot hooks
Don't be too crazy with it but add in little things that players can grab and run with. If someone is investigating a room with nothing you planned in it, make it the subject of something new that could come up later. A shady woman orders a drink from the bar and gets a key and someone notices. A name that keeps popping up. See what the party engage with and run with that. This way you can add 'filler' into your campaign whilst keeping your party on the main quest and if they don't engage, no harm done, and if they do, it sets up something to give you more time, and more suspense, to your future reveals.
Expect the unexpected in Encounters
(I’m stuck in bold)
When you have an encounter, expect the unexpected. A player might take the side of evil without realizing, or a monster that does a crapload of damage might crit and kill your player. In that case, have a plan. Say that before it attacks, it falls to your friends arrows, or something. Always expect that the players Do what they want, not what you want.
(hope that helped!)
Extended Signature! Yay! https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/3153-extended-signature-thread?page=2#c21
Haven’t used this account in forever. Still a big fan of crawling claws.
Always look for a way to say “yes” to what the players want to try.
No matter how futile. Remember, there is no nat 20 or 1 significance for skill checks.
Don't put critical clues/items behind skill rolls! ( at least not without a backup )
To often we reach for the phrase "Give me a _________ roll". Ever felt immediate regret and disappointment when the Player failed the roll? Ever wondered "great, now how will they find out about .... "? Maybe that clue shouldn't have been behind a skill roll. For critical clues and bits of information, make multiple paths to them. Roll-less paths should still come at some cost ( the character owes an NPC a favor, they need to bribe a clerk, etc. ), and skill checks can still be used to bypass the costly means of obtaining those clues - but there should always be some means for the party to obtain the clue/information/critical item.
Learning to invent new but plausible paths to items/clues on the fly is also a handy skill ;)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
It may seem like you're adding tension, but...
Narrate the results of actions every time, except when dice are necessary. The purpose of a roll is to find out if there was a failure or a success when attempting an action, however, many times there is a misunderstanding with that thought. There must be a clear consequence for failure or possibility for success. If there is no clear consequence for failure, such as guards showing up, poison gas killing you, or time running out, then just narrate how the action is resolved. If there is no chance of success, no matter how many times, or ways, the party may try, then don't roll, just explain that they find the task impossible.
It's OK to not know the answer.
If Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules designer of the game, says he is always looking things up in the books and doesn't remember everything...then you shouldn't feel any pressure to know it all. Feel comfortable taking a moment to look up details if you have a question, or ask your player to read the spell/ability information they're using. Or if you would rather keep the narrative moving feel confident in making a ruling for what makes sense to you and saying "I think right now lets do THIS, and I'll look up the details later when we're not in the middle of things."
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
No plan survives contact with the Players. Keep this in mind at all times. The players will go left when you expected them to go right. They will kill the NPC they were supposed to befriend or befriend the one they were supposed to kill. they will fail to find the vital clue, or fail to put the clues together properly, or they will somehow leap to the correct solution to the mystery after finding the first clue. It will happen. Have some alternate plans.
If you find yourself truly stuck with no idea how to continue the adventure and nothing prepared for the path the players insist on going down call a break so you can think of something. it doesn't happen often, but sometimes you really will have no idea what they are heading into and your ability to improvise will vanish. Don't panic. Just call the session early if need be.
Combat encounters should tell a story.
When creating an encounter, think about more than just enemies and XP totals. Consider the drives, goals, and tactics of enemies. Combine terrain and ambience to create a more immersive, dynamic battlefield. Allow your players to approach combat in unique ways or to avoid it altogether through sheer cleverness. Random encounters can happen suddenly, but their details don't need to be random; prep some scenarios beforehand to avoid dull battles. Combat can and should be a way you can introduce plot details and flesh out your world while also creating a memorable experience for your players.
Be succinct; leverage the Players imaginations.
Descriptions of places, people, and events, don't have to be a half page of prose. In fact, it's better when they are not. Descriptions need only be 1-3 phrases: describe what the thing is ( bustling trade market, shifty looking bartender ), describe 1-3 call out sensory features ( smell of spices & loudly calling hawkers, skinny & balding with pencil mustache ), and 0-2 call out behaviors ( glancing nervously at the door periodically ). This is quick, economical, and - most importantly - allows the Players to fill in the gaps from their own imaginations - making the world more personal to them, and far more detailed than you can probably describe in your prose.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Make your hints big, if you want them found
What looks like a story-breaking hint to you may seem really subtle to your players, and your players will usually respond better to a too big discovery that to being spun around in circles. Remember that they can see possibilities that you didn't. Also, if one of their theories is better than your plan, feel free to go with it.
Fenchurch, Gnome Wizard, Red Skies in Mourning
Kind of want to get some more stuff available for newbies, going to post a second tip and put this in my signature.
If Your NPCs are Outshining Your Players...
Your putting too much focus on your NPCs. The Players' Characters are the most important part of your world, not your NPCs. Tone down the uniqueness and importance of the characters not played by your Players.
I'd actually argue the opposite (given no context). NPCs should be unique, interesting, and important. If you present a boring world to players, they're going to end up playing boring characters. You're the one that has semi-perfect knowledge about how the world functions, not (usually) the players. The NPCs should serve as an anchor that allows the players to become comfortable in how your world functions, and that gives players the confidence to start defining their characters in the unique context of the campaign.
If you present a boring world to players, they're going to end up playing boring characters.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I think a balance between the two is what is most effective. For newb players with very low-level characters, it's beneficial to have an NPC or two that can bail their hinies out if needed unless you and the table are alright with an early, low-level TPK. Plus, I also use NPCs to help share knowledge about the world around them, history & lore, etc, etc.
Don't make plot arcs, make plot points.
Design your plot arcs more as a series of events that need to happen to get from point A to point B. In doing so you allow yourself, and your players, to just play the game without forcing the players down a particular course. If the players are hired to go to the Krylon Outpost but decide to head to the Gated Citadel instead, you can take the plot point that was at the Krylon Outpost and move it without losing any momentum on the BBEG's time table. It may take a little reworking to what your original plan was, but it still gives your players their agency and you the ability to move the plot arc along.
Don't ask for a roll, if you are not going to stick to it.
At first glance, this is going to seem to mean, because you may have expected them to succeed because the DC was only 10. But remember, in a game of chance anything can happen. So many times I have seen games that the rolls seemed to not matter because the DM would ask for it and the highest would be a 5. He would then just explain everything anyhow because everyone failed.
An Example is: The party walks into a room covered in blood, I'll explain where the blood is, if it looks new or old basic stuff you might be able to tell where things are at. However, if the only way for them to continue the story is to see a smeared handprint in the blood, I don't ask them to roll. The problem is if I were to ask them to roll they could fail with no way to continue. Now however if the smeared handprint was just for bonus loot, I would ask them to roll. The print is no longer tied to advancing the story but to something extra.