Experience is of no use if I don’t share it. I’ve had a number of folks ask me how to get started as a DM, running their own game, so I decided to write up a few articles about it to help folks get off the ground. The more DM’s we have, the greater the chance that I’ll eventually get to play, so here we go. I’m going to be as generic and objective as possible because DMing and gaming are very subjective and personal. There is no “best” way to play or run, but there are some basic mechanics that are consistent enough to be useful. If you disagree with something I’ve said, or have better feedback, please don’t hesitate to reply and I’ll update the relevant step if I agree.
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Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
If you’ve never played the game, you really should. Online, offline, just a few sessions to get a feel for how the game flows. Check your local hobby shops, they often run Adventure League games or see if someone is running some 1-shots. To run effectively, you need to at least understand things from the player’s perspective.
Buy a Player’s Handbook, a Dungeon Master’s Guide, and some dice (be careful buying dice, it can be addictive and before you know it you have 1000s of them). The books can be hard copy or .pdf on DNDBeyond. Honestly, unless you’re seriously into hardback books, I recommend just getting on them on DNDBeyond because it allows you to search, build characters and campaigns, etc., all online from your phone or tablet, so it’s super convenient. You can buy more books if you wish, I recommend Xanathars, Monster Manual and Mordenkainens as the next ones to own. Read through them, get a feel for the rules and how a game flows. Additional things you might want are figurines (this gets expensive quickly and they’re not necessarily needed, you can use dice, coins, tokens, paper cutouts, anything you want to represent your players and monsters), a battlemat (or big graph paper, or just use a tabletop and a tape measurer), terrain markers and such. I use a big white board (4’x6’) with a 1” graph imprinted on it, and dry erase markers, but anything will do. Start small and build up.
Run some mock combats between random monsters, by yourself. Set up encounters between orcs and goblins, roll initiative, to hit, damage, play it out. Add some casters, then some bigger monsters. Spend an afternoon running these little scenarios to get an idea of how hectic the flow can be from above the action.
Your first few games will be awkward, that’s a given, so doing the above will help you reduce that awkwardness and help you focus on the important parts…the game and the players.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
My recommendation for new players is find a starting module like “Lost Mines of Phandelver” and run that. Eventually you’ll work up into designing massive campaign settings and interlocking dungeons and scenarios, but for your first run I advise grabbing something simple and pre-assembled so you can focus on continuing to learn how to run and manage a game vs having to manage all of the elements of a campaign right out of the chute.
Once you’ve decided which “canned” adventure you wish to use, go to google and search for “running lost mines of phandelver” (insert your adventure name) and look for tips and advice for running it because the internet will be filled with people who have suggestions. Some won’t make since, some you won’t agree with, but some you’ll like and use. Read the module and the tips, make notes on what you want to change, add, or remove and you’re ready to assemble a group.
You also need to decide on what “Ruleset” you want to use. Essentially this means do you want RAW (Rules as Written) or do you want to include Optional Rules, Unearthed Arcana Playtest stuff, and Homebrew content. Honestly, for a new DM, my recommendation is RAW, just to keep it simple. After a few sessions, when you’re comfortable with it, explore some of the other options or make some of your own, but if you’re a new DM, you play with experienced players, and you allow Homebrew content, they will very likely run roughshod all over you because there’s some seriously imbalanced Homebrew stuff out there and in the beginning you may not have the experience to spot it until it’s well entrenched into your campaign.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
This is by far the hardest and most chaotic part. Depending upon where you live, players may be scarce, but there are always people who’ve watched Critical Role or some of the other podcasts and are excited at the prospect of getting to play like the folks they see on the ‘net. That’s where you come in, you just need to find them.
Before you go looking, take a moment and think about the type of game you’d like to run, so you can set expectations for your players. In the end, it’s your game, and if you don’t get to enjoy running it then what is the point? So the key is to decide what type of game you think you want to run up front. So, what are the types of games you can run?
Here are some aspects of games and their options:
Role Play (RP) Heavy vs RP Light – Heavy RP has accents and lots of dialog, the NPCs have personalities, the players have deep backstories, etc. Critical Role is very RP Heavy. RP Light is more like a board game where the players are basically themselves and everyone is just moving pieces on the board and rolling dice, almost like a game of Munchkin. There is no right or wrong, there are just expectations. If you are RP Light but you bring in RP Heavy players then it will create frustration, the players will want to talk to every NPC and will become frustrated when there is nothing to RP off of. If you’re RP Heavy and the players are RP Light, then you’ll want hours of dialog and the players will just shoot everything they see and be bored if too much talking happens, saying things like “I’ve not killed anything in an hour, this sucks!” Decide what you enjoy and make sure you’re clear about it when recruiting players. And it’s not black or white, it’s a spectrum that we’re all on.
Rules Heavy vs Rules Light – Rules Heavy games are always RAW, the books are brought out often and a great deal of discussion happens about them. Rules Light games tend to be more free-flowing and, if someone messed up then it’s no big deal, especially if it advances the story. Again, no “best” or right answer, just a preference. I tend to recommend Rules Light for new DMs, otherwise it creates a lot of stress and tension on the DM to get every ruling absolutely correct. If a mistake is made, learn from it and move on. Don’t retcon (do it all over) unless the impact of the mistake is critical (a character died).
Social vs Hardcore – Social gaming involves lots of cross-talk, drinking, smoking, and snack breaks in the game where people talk about movies, social media, etc., which tends to make the story content move slower. Hardcore gaming tends to focus on the game itself, with minimal interruptions, to keep people focused on the game. As always, no right answer.
After you’ve decided on the game you want, you may find that it changes when you start meeting players. This is not a bad thing, especially if you find really good players. Roll with it and build the group you all want to run and play.
You also need to decide if this is an online or offline game. Offline means face-to-face, in someone’s home, a hobby shop, a community center, anywhere that will let you set up and play for hours. Online means you all meet online, using some of the variety of tools available for such a game, things like Roll20.net, Discord (voice and text), and FantasyGrounds.com. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Online lets you find players easily, from a broader pool and communicate with your players privately and individually during play without the other players knowing. Offline is more “organic” and has its own feel to it but is limited to people who are within acceptable traveling distances and requires a physical location for sessions. Neither is better, but if you can’t find a site locally to play at, online is still very viable.
Once you know the type of game you want to play, you need players. There is a vast array of ways to find players. Here are just a few:
Ask around, friends, classmates, relatives, co-workers, etc. Maybe you know someone who is interested.
Check the local hobby shops, see if they let you post notices. I’m really old fashioned, I started gaming back in ’76, *WAY* before the internet, so this is how I found most of my gamers back then. Many hobby shops still do this, plus they also host games so you may be able to play your game there while looking for more players.
Post online advertisements. Like online dating, this is simply playing a numbers game. Come up with an ad that describes the game you want to run and the types of players you are looking for, then post it to the sites, cast your line out into the sea and wait for nibbles. Sites I use: reddit.com/r/lfg, DNDBeyond’s “Looking for Players and Groups” forum, local Meetup sites, Yahoo groups (I did say I’m old), PenAndPaperGames.com, ENWorld.org, or Roll20.net, just to name a few. My work also has an in-house social media that allows employees who share interests to find each other. When you use a site, make sure to read all of the posting instructions so your post is as effective as possible.
So, you’ve hunted around, made some posts, started getting some emails and now you need to pick your players. My suggestion is to “interview” each person, chat with them in person or online, get a feel for what they are looking for in a game. Explain that you’re a new DM and make sure they’re OK with that. Find out how much experience they have, how they like to play, the types of characters they like to play, etc. Also get a feel for their schedule vs yours because finding the time and place (if it’s offline) can be quite challenging.
It may take you a few days, but eventually you’ll get enough hits to start forming your game. You can run a game with 4 players, 5-6 is “optimal”, 7 or more gets complex. With only 4, you’re limited on the roles the players choose, you may not have a tank, healer or rogue, so as a DM you need to compensate for that. 7 or more players and they can drown each other out with the noise and combats can take hours to resolve if everyone is not disciplined. I’ve run a game with 9 people and had to almost be a drill sergeant to keep the game moving.
You have an idea, a module, some tools and players. Now it’s time to build the actual game!
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
There are almost an infinite number of ways to do this and everyone has their favorite. I’m going to give my recommendations, but understand that there are many ways to do this.
Speak with the players, individually, and get an idea of the roles they’d like to play. At the highest level, there are 4 basic roles:
Tank – Melee, heavy armor or heavy damage mitigation. Designed to control the battlefield and protect the softer targets.
Melee DPS – Usually lighter armored or less mitigation, but need to be in melee range and do heavy damage.
Ranged DPS – Even more lightly armored/mitigation, damage at range so they avoid melee.
Healer – Like the name says, they heal. There are half healers (Ranger, Paladin) and full healers (Cleric, Druid, Bard). Some class/race combinations have some healing elements added to them as well.
Does every group need every role? No, of course not, but having at least 1 Tank type and 1 Healer type really helps. If no one wants to play a tank or healer, then things can get complicated, so it’s best if someone wants to play them for the good of the party. Otherwise players go down to 0 hp (it will happen, trust me) and then they die because no one can heal them, makes things much harder for the players. And the wizard is the first to die if no one is tanking to keep enemies off of him.
Hopefully everyone chooses something that gives good coverage of the roles, with minimal overlap (everyone is not a Paladin, which can technically cover all 4 roles), and you can move to actually assembling characters. Let the players come up with what they want in regard to backgrounds and races, but work with them on how their choices fit into your campaign’s backstory. Ideally the players are not building their characters in a vacuum, work with them individually and as a group on the background pieces to build up what will eventually become your campaign world. Even if you’re only running a starter dungeon, most of those conveniently plug into game worlds like Faerun and there’s a plethora of material on that game world for you to pull from.
The key to character backgrounds/backstory is keeping them elegant and simple. A 30 page background isn’t a backstory, it’s a novel. It’s great for the player, so they have a lot to work with for playing their character, but for a GM it’s *WAY* too much information, especially for a new DM. Ideally it involves a handful of bullet points. My parents live in this area, I have a brother but he left home early and I don’t know where he is, he was in debt to this group of thugs in our town and ran. There you go, that 1 sentence gives a DM a lot to work with without overloading him with data. Maybe the thugs are affiliated with the villains in your adventure. Maybe their parents get in trouble and need the player’s help. Maybe the brother has been captured and the players will run into him later, or maybe he’s been recruited by the villain. The sky is the limit and simple is almost always better. Work with your players and help them develop backstories that you can in turn use them to develop your world. This creates a game world that the players were part of building and the players will be more engaged when they realize that they’re actually part of the world.
When actually making the characters, stats and such, I recommend using DNDBeyond. You as the DM create your campaign and invite the players, have them make their characters in DNDBeyond and put them in your campaign. This not only lets you see everything, it lets them build using the available rules as well as lets people share the books/content they’ve bought with the rest of the players, so if you’re lucky and you get someone like me that’s bought everything, it suddenly makes all content available to all players, getting more bang for your buck.
For stats, I recommend point buy because it’s the simplest, easiest, and leads to the least amount of argument and potential dice fudging. However, rolling dice can be fun as well. There are 2 problems with rolling dice vs point buy. The biggest is that the RNG (Random Number Generator) is an evil wench and can be a cruel mistress. I roll 4 18s, you can’t roll above a 10, my character is “better” than yours through no fault of your own. The other problem is dice fudging, but that’s easily addressed by having everyone roll their stats in front of everyone else. That also is a great team builder as everyone gets to cheer for each other. It’s up to the DM on the method they wish to use. I personally use 4d6 (drop the lowest) 6 times, put in any order you wish. That reduces the RNG a little but still leaves some random in for fun. Low stats are not “bad”, they build “character”, literally, but not everyone sees things that way, so choose a method that fits for you and your DM style.
I recommend starting at level 1 and using max Hit Points for that level. Level 1 means everyone starts out slow and builds up, letting the DM get his feet beneath him in the campaign before the party starts fireballing everything, and max Hit Points at level 1 lets the DM be a little rougher with the players because they can survive it. Nothing is more frustrating than being that Wizard with 1 Hit Point who falls to the ground because of a stray mug thrown during a bar fight.
For the rest, starting equipment and such, just go with the rules. Background and class give some gear and a few coins, let the players spend the coins. No they can’t have Plate (1500 gp), no they can’t have a Spyglass (1000gp). Starting characters get starting gear, keep it simple. You are now ready to run your first session.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
How the players met is always an interesting mechanic to work through. There’s always the “you met in a bar” trope that is commonly used, or the “you’re all guarding the same caravan” one. For this first session, honestly you can just skip it and say you know each other just to get the story rolling. If you have ideas, jump out there and be creative, but don’t get overly wrapped up in it for your first session if you don’t have anything. Down the road, in subsequent campaigns, go hog-wild with creativity. I’ve done all of the basics, from “you’re all in the same slave pens”, “you’re all after the same loot”, “half of the party is trying to arrest the other half”, “Half of the party is rescuing the other half”, etc. The only limit is your imagination.
The players have met, the party is moving, and you’re running your first adventure. Congratulations, you are now a DM! Here are some tips on surviving the experience:
Relax. Seriously, it’s a game, have fun. Don’t sweat the small stuff, you’ll work into your own flow with the rules and your players eventually. You’ll make mistakes, the players will make mistakes, move through them quickly and get back to the game.
Things are going to go awry. Count on it, plan on it, and don’t freak out when it happens. Players never do what you want or expect them to. Don’t railroad (force them to stay on a path or go to a specific destination) them, compensate for it and adapt the story. The players encounter a goblin, but instead of fighting it they talk to it, roll Persuade and befriend it. OK, how does that change things? Roll with the punches and let the story adapt to the players that are walking through it. However, don't let the players take control of your game. You're the DM, it's your game, make sure you stay in front of it or it will become very frustrating for you down the road. If you need a break to pencil-in some changes, take one. The best DM’s think on their feet.
You’re the DM, it’s your world and your reality, so feel free to shift things around as you see fit to keep the flow going. Are the players getting destroyed? Then maybe that goblin that you rolled to hit actually missed that shot on the wizard that only had 2 hit points remaining. Are the players destroying your encounters? Then maybe there are 8 goblins in that next encounter instead of the 6 that the module calls for, or maybe one is a shaman. Early on, the goal is to keep the players engaged and feeling like there is a real risk without punishing them at the whims of the RNG. Don’t just randomly change reality for fun, but don’t feel bad about fudging or shifting encounters one way or the other to keep things interesting for the party.
Monsters aren’t idiots. There’s a great resource out there for DMs that I highly recommend, called themonstersknow.com. It really helps both players and DMs make encounters significantly more engaging and challenging. If the goblins are losing, maybe they don’t stand to the last man, maybe they flee in all directions, making tons of noise, attracting other goblins. Maybe they get away and the next encounter is an ambush. Dungeons and Dragons isn’t “walk up, kill the mobs, walk to the next group, kill them, loot, profit”, it’s much deeper than that. Monsters think, plan, have agendas, etc, don’t be afraid to pull them on players now and again.
Use the players’ fears to improve your game. Listen to what they plan for and, if it sounds good, shift it in. When a player says “You know there’s a trap behind this door!” realize that it’s not a bad idea, though maybe not this door but the next one. “That goblin is totally going to betray us!” Maybe, maybe not, it hadn’t crossed your mind before but it’s a good idea. Players are ingenious in creating their own peril, listen to them and cherry pick the ones you like. It lets the players be right now and again, which is good for morale.
How well did you do? If your players return for your second session, you’re a good DM. If your players fill the Discord channel you made for the campaign with chatter about the game, talking about things, planning the next session, conjecturing about plot points, etc. like they can’t get it off their minds, then you’re a great DM. Regardless, you’re a DM now, so welcome to the club!
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
You’ve had a few sessions, the players are almost done with that “canned” module you’ve been running them through, now it’s time to introduce them to the larger world. I use Faerun (have since 2 edition) so it is what I will use here as an example, but there are so many other good worlds (Greyhawk, Eberron, Dragonlance, Middle Earth, etc) that you can pull from, or you can create your own. Creating your own world is a *LOT* of work, so don’t dive into it lightly. I’ve not done in in 30 years, too exhausting, but don’t let my being an old man stop you, dive in if that is what you wish.
Campaign worlds are all about the “hooks” for the players. Hooks come in all forms, but people in their backstory to NPCs (non-player characters) they’ve interacted with during their adventures. Maybe a character in the module is part of an organization in the game world, like the Lord’s Alliance, and maybe that organization needs help with other things.
There are many WOTC campaign arcs available (Princes of the Apocalypse, Stom King’s Thunder, Out of the Abyss) that you can buy at DNDBeyond if you want to run a full-on canned campaign, but as with Part 2 above, if you are going to run one of these, google “running Princes of the Apocalypse” and read through the tips and suggestions from other DMs, they’re invaluable in trying to run these. I’m not saying these campaigns aren’t well written, but they frequently have gaps or difficult transitions that other DM’s have already encountered and come up with alternative ways to handle them and that’s wisdom that is tremendously helpful to those that come after them. Don’t be afraid to modify these “canned” campaigns. Add NPCs, remove things, move things around, both based upon the wisdom of prior DMs and your own personal preferences. It’s your game, adjust the prefabricated content to suit your needs.
I said “be flexible” above in Part 5, but it bears repeating and expounding upon. Players rarely if ever go precisely where you want or do precisely what you’d like them to do. So how do you deal with the players turning left at Albuquerque when your module didn’t plan for it? What I do is plan out the region’s activities, factions, and major players all around the party, to varying levels of detail. The farther away from the party they are, the less detail I have on them, but I have something on them. Things are moving, factions are manipulating, people are traveling, stories are moving around, things are happening in the world. The world is living around the party, even when the party is nowhere near there. I have fleshed out every major encounter within a couple of days of the party’s location to some degree such that, should the party not go where I want them to go, I have something for them to do wherever they are going, even if it’s 100% spur of the moment off the cuff. Quickly grab things from DNDBeyond for the region. I like to use this tool (https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/calc/enc_size.html) for a rough encounter size calculator. Honestly, Donjon has a lot of other tools that are very useful, so add it to your toolbox.
Be mindful of what you say to your players. Players are like managers, you have to control what you say to them. If you say too much, you may distract them and send them off on a tangent. An NPC’s idle comment like “Yeah, I heard about a caravan to the north being hit by Giants” could very easily turn into the entire party going “Let’s go Giant Hunting!” when you had nothing set up for that. If you don’t want them running after it, don’t say it to them. Seriously.
Conversely, pepper NPC conversations with gems of information that you *DO* want them following after, on the off chance that they nibble at one of them. Sprinkle dungeons and such around your campaign world, decide what the hooks look like in your world, then sort of spritz the party with hints of hooks now and again. Great sources of random dungeon/campaign content that I like to use are dmsguild.com, koboldpress.com, and froggodgames.com, just to name a few. Lots of random fun inspiration out there. Even if you don’t use it verbatim, use the dungeon layout but change all of the monsters, it still helps provide content for your campaign.
I’ll expound further upon this later, I wanted to get this typed and posted today. I hope this is of some help. If you see anything you think I’m missing or have suggestions, throw them my way and I’ll add to it.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
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Experience is of no use if I don’t share it. I’ve had a number of folks ask me how to get started as a DM, running their own game, so I decided to write up a few articles about it to help folks get off the ground. The more DM’s we have, the greater the chance that I’ll eventually get to play, so here we go. I’m going to be as generic and objective as possible because DMing and gaming are very subjective and personal. There is no “best” way to play or run, but there are some basic mechanics that are consistent enough to be useful. If you disagree with something I’ve said, or have better feedback, please don’t hesitate to reply and I’ll update the relevant step if I agree.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
Part 1 – Learn the Game.
If you’ve never played the game, you really should. Online, offline, just a few sessions to get a feel for how the game flows. Check your local hobby shops, they often run Adventure League games or see if someone is running some 1-shots. To run effectively, you need to at least understand things from the player’s perspective.
Buy a Player’s Handbook, a Dungeon Master’s Guide, and some dice (be careful buying dice, it can be addictive and before you know it you have 1000s of them). The books can be hard copy or .pdf on DNDBeyond. Honestly, unless you’re seriously into hardback books, I recommend just getting on them on DNDBeyond because it allows you to search, build characters and campaigns, etc., all online from your phone or tablet, so it’s super convenient. You can buy more books if you wish, I recommend Xanathars, Monster Manual and Mordenkainens as the next ones to own. Read through them, get a feel for the rules and how a game flows. Additional things you might want are figurines (this gets expensive quickly and they’re not necessarily needed, you can use dice, coins, tokens, paper cutouts, anything you want to represent your players and monsters), a battlemat (or big graph paper, or just use a tabletop and a tape measurer), terrain markers and such. I use a big white board (4’x6’) with a 1” graph imprinted on it, and dry erase markers, but anything will do. Start small and build up.
Run some mock combats between random monsters, by yourself. Set up encounters between orcs and goblins, roll initiative, to hit, damage, play it out. Add some casters, then some bigger monsters. Spend an afternoon running these little scenarios to get an idea of how hectic the flow can be from above the action.
Your first few games will be awkward, that’s a given, so doing the above will help you reduce that awkwardness and help you focus on the important parts…the game and the players.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
Part 2 – Setting Up the Game
My recommendation for new players is find a starting module like “Lost Mines of Phandelver” and run that. Eventually you’ll work up into designing massive campaign settings and interlocking dungeons and scenarios, but for your first run I advise grabbing something simple and pre-assembled so you can focus on continuing to learn how to run and manage a game vs having to manage all of the elements of a campaign right out of the chute.
Once you’ve decided which “canned” adventure you wish to use, go to google and search for “running lost mines of phandelver” (insert your adventure name) and look for tips and advice for running it because the internet will be filled with people who have suggestions. Some won’t make since, some you won’t agree with, but some you’ll like and use. Read the module and the tips, make notes on what you want to change, add, or remove and you’re ready to assemble a group.
You also need to decide on what “Ruleset” you want to use. Essentially this means do you want RAW (Rules as Written) or do you want to include Optional Rules, Unearthed Arcana Playtest stuff, and Homebrew content. Honestly, for a new DM, my recommendation is RAW, just to keep it simple. After a few sessions, when you’re comfortable with it, explore some of the other options or make some of your own, but if you’re a new DM, you play with experienced players, and you allow Homebrew content, they will very likely run roughshod all over you because there’s some seriously imbalanced Homebrew stuff out there and in the beginning you may not have the experience to spot it until it’s well entrenched into your campaign.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
Part 3 – Assembling a Group/Finding Players
This is by far the hardest and most chaotic part. Depending upon where you live, players may be scarce, but there are always people who’ve watched Critical Role or some of the other podcasts and are excited at the prospect of getting to play like the folks they see on the ‘net. That’s where you come in, you just need to find them.
Before you go looking, take a moment and think about the type of game you’d like to run, so you can set expectations for your players. In the end, it’s your game, and if you don’t get to enjoy running it then what is the point? So the key is to decide what type of game you think you want to run up front. So, what are the types of games you can run?
Here are some aspects of games and their options:
After you’ve decided on the game you want, you may find that it changes when you start meeting players. This is not a bad thing, especially if you find really good players. Roll with it and build the group you all want to run and play.
You also need to decide if this is an online or offline game. Offline means face-to-face, in someone’s home, a hobby shop, a community center, anywhere that will let you set up and play for hours. Online means you all meet online, using some of the variety of tools available for such a game, things like Roll20.net, Discord (voice and text), and FantasyGrounds.com. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Online lets you find players easily, from a broader pool and communicate with your players privately and individually during play without the other players knowing. Offline is more “organic” and has its own feel to it but is limited to people who are within acceptable traveling distances and requires a physical location for sessions. Neither is better, but if you can’t find a site locally to play at, online is still very viable.
Once you know the type of game you want to play, you need players. There is a vast array of ways to find players. Here are just a few:
So, you’ve hunted around, made some posts, started getting some emails and now you need to pick your players. My suggestion is to “interview” each person, chat with them in person or online, get a feel for what they are looking for in a game. Explain that you’re a new DM and make sure they’re OK with that. Find out how much experience they have, how they like to play, the types of characters they like to play, etc. Also get a feel for their schedule vs yours because finding the time and place (if it’s offline) can be quite challenging.
It may take you a few days, but eventually you’ll get enough hits to start forming your game. You can run a game with 4 players, 5-6 is “optimal”, 7 or more gets complex. With only 4, you’re limited on the roles the players choose, you may not have a tank, healer or rogue, so as a DM you need to compensate for that. 7 or more players and they can drown each other out with the noise and combats can take hours to resolve if everyone is not disciplined. I’ve run a game with 9 people and had to almost be a drill sergeant to keep the game moving.
You have an idea, a module, some tools and players. Now it’s time to build the actual game!
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
Part 4 – Creating the Characters
There are almost an infinite number of ways to do this and everyone has their favorite. I’m going to give my recommendations, but understand that there are many ways to do this.
Speak with the players, individually, and get an idea of the roles they’d like to play. At the highest level, there are 4 basic roles:
Does every group need every role? No, of course not, but having at least 1 Tank type and 1 Healer type really helps. If no one wants to play a tank or healer, then things can get complicated, so it’s best if someone wants to play them for the good of the party. Otherwise players go down to 0 hp (it will happen, trust me) and then they die because no one can heal them, makes things much harder for the players. And the wizard is the first to die if no one is tanking to keep enemies off of him.
Hopefully everyone chooses something that gives good coverage of the roles, with minimal overlap (everyone is not a Paladin, which can technically cover all 4 roles), and you can move to actually assembling characters. Let the players come up with what they want in regard to backgrounds and races, but work with them on how their choices fit into your campaign’s backstory. Ideally the players are not building their characters in a vacuum, work with them individually and as a group on the background pieces to build up what will eventually become your campaign world. Even if you’re only running a starter dungeon, most of those conveniently plug into game worlds like Faerun and there’s a plethora of material on that game world for you to pull from.
The key to character backgrounds/backstory is keeping them elegant and simple. A 30 page background isn’t a backstory, it’s a novel. It’s great for the player, so they have a lot to work with for playing their character, but for a GM it’s *WAY* too much information, especially for a new DM. Ideally it involves a handful of bullet points. My parents live in this area, I have a brother but he left home early and I don’t know where he is, he was in debt to this group of thugs in our town and ran. There you go, that 1 sentence gives a DM a lot to work with without overloading him with data. Maybe the thugs are affiliated with the villains in your adventure. Maybe their parents get in trouble and need the player’s help. Maybe the brother has been captured and the players will run into him later, or maybe he’s been recruited by the villain. The sky is the limit and simple is almost always better. Work with your players and help them develop backstories that you can in turn use them to develop your world. This creates a game world that the players were part of building and the players will be more engaged when they realize that they’re actually part of the world.
When actually making the characters, stats and such, I recommend using DNDBeyond. You as the DM create your campaign and invite the players, have them make their characters in DNDBeyond and put them in your campaign. This not only lets you see everything, it lets them build using the available rules as well as lets people share the books/content they’ve bought with the rest of the players, so if you’re lucky and you get someone like me that’s bought everything, it suddenly makes all content available to all players, getting more bang for your buck.
For stats, I recommend point buy because it’s the simplest, easiest, and leads to the least amount of argument and potential dice fudging. However, rolling dice can be fun as well. There are 2 problems with rolling dice vs point buy. The biggest is that the RNG (Random Number Generator) is an evil wench and can be a cruel mistress. I roll 4 18s, you can’t roll above a 10, my character is “better” than yours through no fault of your own. The other problem is dice fudging, but that’s easily addressed by having everyone roll their stats in front of everyone else. That also is a great team builder as everyone gets to cheer for each other. It’s up to the DM on the method they wish to use. I personally use 4d6 (drop the lowest) 6 times, put in any order you wish. That reduces the RNG a little but still leaves some random in for fun. Low stats are not “bad”, they build “character”, literally, but not everyone sees things that way, so choose a method that fits for you and your DM style.
I recommend starting at level 1 and using max Hit Points for that level. Level 1 means everyone starts out slow and builds up, letting the DM get his feet beneath him in the campaign before the party starts fireballing everything, and max Hit Points at level 1 lets the DM be a little rougher with the players because they can survive it. Nothing is more frustrating than being that Wizard with 1 Hit Point who falls to the ground because of a stray mug thrown during a bar fight.
For the rest, starting equipment and such, just go with the rules. Background and class give some gear and a few coins, let the players spend the coins. No they can’t have Plate (1500 gp), no they can’t have a Spyglass (1000gp). Starting characters get starting gear, keep it simple. You are now ready to run your first session.
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
Part 5 – The First Session
How the players met is always an interesting mechanic to work through. There’s always the “you met in a bar” trope that is commonly used, or the “you’re all guarding the same caravan” one. For this first session, honestly you can just skip it and say you know each other just to get the story rolling. If you have ideas, jump out there and be creative, but don’t get overly wrapped up in it for your first session if you don’t have anything. Down the road, in subsequent campaigns, go hog-wild with creativity. I’ve done all of the basics, from “you’re all in the same slave pens”, “you’re all after the same loot”, “half of the party is trying to arrest the other half”, “Half of the party is rescuing the other half”, etc. The only limit is your imagination.
The players have met, the party is moving, and you’re running your first adventure. Congratulations, you are now a DM! Here are some tips on surviving the experience:
How well did you do? If your players return for your second session, you’re a good DM. If your players fill the Discord channel you made for the campaign with chatter about the game, talking about things, planning the next session, conjecturing about plot points, etc. like they can’t get it off their minds, then you’re a great DM. Regardless, you’re a DM now, so welcome to the club!
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.
Part 6 …And Beyond.
You’ve had a few sessions, the players are almost done with that “canned” module you’ve been running them through, now it’s time to introduce them to the larger world. I use Faerun (have since 2 edition) so it is what I will use here as an example, but there are so many other good worlds (Greyhawk, Eberron, Dragonlance, Middle Earth, etc) that you can pull from, or you can create your own. Creating your own world is a *LOT* of work, so don’t dive into it lightly. I’ve not done in in 30 years, too exhausting, but don’t let my being an old man stop you, dive in if that is what you wish.
Campaign worlds are all about the “hooks” for the players. Hooks come in all forms, but people in their backstory to NPCs (non-player characters) they’ve interacted with during their adventures. Maybe a character in the module is part of an organization in the game world, like the Lord’s Alliance, and maybe that organization needs help with other things.
There are many WOTC campaign arcs available (Princes of the Apocalypse, Stom King’s Thunder, Out of the Abyss) that you can buy at DNDBeyond if you want to run a full-on canned campaign, but as with Part 2 above, if you are going to run one of these, google “running Princes of the Apocalypse” and read through the tips and suggestions from other DMs, they’re invaluable in trying to run these. I’m not saying these campaigns aren’t well written, but they frequently have gaps or difficult transitions that other DM’s have already encountered and come up with alternative ways to handle them and that’s wisdom that is tremendously helpful to those that come after them. Don’t be afraid to modify these “canned” campaigns. Add NPCs, remove things, move things around, both based upon the wisdom of prior DMs and your own personal preferences. It’s your game, adjust the prefabricated content to suit your needs.
I said “be flexible” above in Part 5, but it bears repeating and expounding upon. Players rarely if ever go precisely where you want or do precisely what you’d like them to do. So how do you deal with the players turning left at Albuquerque when your module didn’t plan for it? What I do is plan out the region’s activities, factions, and major players all around the party, to varying levels of detail. The farther away from the party they are, the less detail I have on them, but I have something on them. Things are moving, factions are manipulating, people are traveling, stories are moving around, things are happening in the world. The world is living around the party, even when the party is nowhere near there. I have fleshed out every major encounter within a couple of days of the party’s location to some degree such that, should the party not go where I want them to go, I have something for them to do wherever they are going, even if it’s 100% spur of the moment off the cuff. Quickly grab things from DNDBeyond for the region. I like to use this tool (https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/calc/enc_size.html) for a rough encounter size calculator. Honestly, Donjon has a lot of other tools that are very useful, so add it to your toolbox.
Be mindful of what you say to your players. Players are like managers, you have to control what you say to them. If you say too much, you may distract them and send them off on a tangent. An NPC’s idle comment like “Yeah, I heard about a caravan to the north being hit by Giants” could very easily turn into the entire party going “Let’s go Giant Hunting!” when you had nothing set up for that. If you don’t want them running after it, don’t say it to them. Seriously.
Conversely, pepper NPC conversations with gems of information that you *DO* want them following after, on the off chance that they nibble at one of them. Sprinkle dungeons and such around your campaign world, decide what the hooks look like in your world, then sort of spritz the party with hints of hooks now and again. Great sources of random dungeon/campaign content that I like to use are dmsguild.com, koboldpress.com, and froggodgames.com, just to name a few. Lots of random fun inspiration out there. Even if you don’t use it verbatim, use the dungeon layout but change all of the monsters, it still helps provide content for your campaign.
I’ll expound further upon this later, I wanted to get this typed and posted today. I hope this is of some help. If you see anything you think I’m missing or have suggestions, throw them my way and I’ll add to it.
Thanks, and have fun DMing!
Ancient GM, started in '76, have played almost everything at some point or another.
I run/play Mercer-style games, heavy on the RP and interaction, light on the combat-monster and rule-lawyering. The goal is to tell an epic story with the players and the players are as involved in the world building as the GM is. I run and play a very Brechtian style, am huge into RP theory and love discussing improv and offers.