Starting Strong at Your First Dungeons & Dragons Game as Dungeon Master

Whether you're new to Dungeons & Dragons or a veteran player who's taking the Dungeon Master's seat for the first time, you'll find that the first D&D session you run is often the most important of a campaign. It sets the tone and flow of the game and can convince players to keep coming back for months to come.

In this article, we not only recommend a good starter adventure, but we offer pointers to running your first D&D game as a new DM.

Need an Adventure? Try Intro to Stormwreck Isle

There’s no single right way to run your first D&D game, but we're going to offer a suggestion: Start with Intro to Stormwreck Isle. It is an introductory experience for new D&D players that is freely available to D&D Beyond users. It includes two short encounters, Voyage to Stormwreck Isle and Drowned Sailors, which lead into into the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle adventure.

Intro to Stormwreck Isle offers new Dungeon Masters straightforward scenarios to run, in addition to clear instructions for running players through the game. For new players, your D&D Beyond account includes premade characters, so you can quickly jump into the action. 

Although you likely have your own ideas for running a homebrew campaign, it can be helpful to run a published adventure first. You'll have a clear direction for the action and have a wealth of materials to work with. Plus, it's easier to modify an existing work than build from scratch on your first run-through as a DM.

Running a Homebrew Campaign

If you do choose to run your own homebrew adventure, keep it simple. Focus your attention on the characters rather than building a huge epic storyline they might never be able to experience. As you work on your adventure, ask yourself such questions as:

  • Where will the adventure start? Why?
  • What choices can the characters make and what impact will those choices have?
  • What will the characters see, hear, and interact with?
  • What problems do the characters need to solve?

Put the characters in a spot, but not one so tough that they'll get wiped out. The first session likely isn't the best time to bring out that cool ancient red dragon you read about in the Monster Manual, especially if the party is starting out at a low level. 

Tools and Supplies to Run the Game

With your first adventure selected, it's time to gather the tools you need to run your game. Players need character sheets, pencils, and dice. If everyone is new to D&D, it's best to start with 1st-level characters, so that you can ease into the rules of the game. Use D&D Beyond's free character builder tool to access premade characters or to create your own in minutes. The character sheet has digital dice and calculates dice rolls for you, making the game more accessible.

To run the game, you only need a piece of paper and a pencil to sketch out what is going on. However, you could purchase a battle mat and markers for your kitchen table or use D&D Beyond Maps with your subscription. It is a shared browser space to run your game. Alternatively, you could stick to theater of the mind. When you're first getting started, it's best to start small and work your way up. So, don't feel as though you need to purchase miniatures and other props to run D&D.

Buying Books to Run D&D

D&D Beyond offers the Basic Rules of D&D for free. If you and your players are just testing the waters, you don't need more than that to get started. But if you want to give your players more freedom to customize their characters and you want access to more tools to run the game, check out these books:

  • Player's Handbook: Offers tons of subclass options, feats, spells, equipment, and more for your characters.
  • Dungeon Master's Guide: Contains helpful tools for DMs, as well as a large assortment of magic items for characters.
  • Monster Manual: Great for DMs who want to learn about and run combat encounters using iconic monsters from Dungeons & Dragons lore.

Sweating Over the Right Things

When running your first D&D game, don't feel pressured to do everything. The DM is responsible for a lot, but you can lean on your players for help. For example, you can ask a player to keep notes on the game and another to track combat initiative and turn order. This can help you focus on more important tasks, like keeping the story flowing and managing the monsters' actions in combat.

It's common for new players and DMs to get caught off-guard by all of the rules in D&D, too. But you'll find that veterans will often share a common lesson with newer DMs: You don't need to follow the rules to a tee. Of course, it's important to understand the basics of the game, such as rolling ability checks, attacks, saving throws, and the like. But getting wound up in the minutia can bring the game to a halt. That's why, if you're faced with a rules question you or your players can't quickly answer, it's often best for you to make a ruling and move on. You can later look up the rule and let your players know how the rule will be handled in the future.

Focus on the Characters

When you get caught up in the rules of the game, you risk overlooking the most important part of D&D: the characters and their journey. Spend time before and during the game learning about the characters. You should be able to answer questions such as:

  • Who are they?
  • What do they want?
  • Where did they come from?
  • What does the player like most about them?
  • What are the player's hopes for the character?

The better you understand the characters, the more easily you can hook them into the story. That said, if you're running a published adventure, it helps to read the whole adventure through. The more you understand it, the more fluidly you can run it and find ways to tie the plot to the characters.

Bringing the Team Together

DMs are not the enemy of the players. Everyone is participating in collaborative storytelling. Although you should challenge the characters, you should always be on their side, rooting for them. On the flip side, your players should support you in whatever ways they can. That could include helping you look up rules or just keeping each other accountable at the table.

All that said, don't be hard on yourself or your players when you're just getting started. Focus on telling stories, sharing laughs, and just having a great time.

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Mike Shea (@SlyFlourish) is a writer, technologist, dungeon master, and author for the website Sly Flourish. Mike has freelanced for Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, Pelgrane Press, and Sasquach Games and is the author of the Lazy Dungeon Master, Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Locations, and Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Adventures. Mike lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Michelle and their dire-warg Jebu.

Michael Galvis contributed to the reporting for this article.

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