Dungeon Master the Art of Running a Great D&D Game

I thought what I would do for this guide is share with you the lessons I’ve learned when it comes to being a D&D Dungeon Master. I’ll get to work on some other blogs like this very soon. One of which will be on the Prisoner Dilemma. I’m still in the midst of making a video on my YouTube channel for getting started with roleplaying, which should hopefully be out soon. Anyway, on to the show!

Dungeon Mastering a great game

The biggest question I’ve received personally concerning this topic is simply, “My group is really comfortable with the roleplaying side of things. But who’s going to run it, and how can I do a game that’s like the Critical Role campaign that Matt Mercer streams?”

However, there always comes a point when you move beyond the published modules, and the campaign begins to take on a more organic life of its own, to where it moves past a script in a book and becomes something far more than what it was initially, to where the players are really dictating what’s happening in the story.

Believe it or not, I used to really turn my nose up at published modules. I don’t anymore, and there is a reason for that. That’s because when you’re starting a new group oftentimes you’re starting them with strangers. You don’t know their style, you don’t know what kind of characters they’re playing and most importantly you as the Dungeon Master don’t know the group dynamic. You don’t know how they’re gonna fit together and act.

In that regard, I actually really like published adventures for the first adventure for a group. These do provide some great setups and if you can find a good adventure it can really get them started. And through this, you can lay the groundwork for an ongoing campaign. But, what do I mean by groundwork? There has to be a connection between adventures. It’s not much of a game in my opinion when the players just go from published module to published module. They’re in one city one day and when they finish that adventure, they just leap on over to the next adventure in some other city, some other backwater country they aren’t familiar with. It’s disconcerting; there is no continuity. And in many ways, that’s really the key — continuity, where the players feel like they’re deciding what they’re going to do next. Instead of just whatever book the DM breaks out next.

It can a little bit disconcerting for a player to know the DM is reading out of a book because all of a sudden that means they’re constrained. Like the DM will smite them down if they try to depart from the established module, and to an extent that is pretty true. That’s why I used to turn my nose up at published modules, is because I felt there was a lack of leeway. For example, if it says we’re going to the Temple of Elemental Evil and they don’t want to go to the Temple of Elemental Evil well, you might as well go home. And part of the key here is making the players want to do something you want them to do, without them necessarily feeling like they’ve been railroaded. Sometimes it’s okay to railroad your players, and there are a lot of ways to do that.

I think the main thing I start with is that you gotta force the players to roleplay, and that’s mainly what alignment is for in fifth edition D&D It’s a tool to give players a reason to act in a certain way. In AD&D it was put there to spur roleplaying and just snowballed. So, if your character is lawful good when a situation presents itself he is prone to act in a good way, or he’s prone to act in a selfish way if he’s not good. Again the primary intention of alignment is to spur roleplaying. And that’s all it is in fifth edition D&D.

Encourage players to come up with a long-term goal

This is probably the best bit of advice I can give, aside from encouraging your players to come up with a nickname for their characters, or, having some silly voices. This goal could be anything. And your DM will love you for this, cause we’re always looking for a hook. Part of the problem with this is you are going to have to write a backstory, and you’re gonna have to roleplay. And most DMs like roleplaying, because  it gives you so many stories.

For example, let’s say Billy is playing Grom’Gar the half-orc fighter, and his goal is he wants to take over his ancestral homelands to rule as a king by his own hand. That’s really good goal. What about Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride? He wants to find and kill the six-fingered man to avenge the death of his father. This one is actually really good because it’s something oddly specific, yet hard to find. Every time the party goes to a new town, Billy as Inigo Montoya can say, “I go to the tavern, to the innkeeper, for rumors about the six-fingered man.” You can even have a monster they come across drop a clue about this guy. And then Billy as Inigo can say, “You guys! We have to find this six-fingered man.” Billy can then choose to let the party know about his backstory, or continue to keep it secret.

When players catch you in a lie you have 2 options

Part of what you want to do here is to not get defensive. If you get defensive the players are gonna start poking holes in your campaign, and then you’re freaking out and it’s not a good time. Your first option is to simply agree with them. For example, let’s say the party is trailing a monster. and for whatever reason, it’s just leaving them in the dust. They know they have a higher top speed than this monster. When they ask about it just say this, “Yeah, I know right. That’s weird.” And then just smile mysteriously. You’d be surprised how much you can undermine the confidence of your players this way. They’re thinking ‘uh-oh, this might not be what we thought it was. The DM is pulling a fast one on us.’ Secretly, you’re just scrambling to cover yourself. The other option which is by far safer is to just admit you done goofed. It’s a retcon, it might be blatant. But it’ll get a few laughs and people will understand.

Try creating your own setting

Many people playing fifth edition D&D don’t know about the Dragonlance setting, so you’re safe there. But Faerun on the other hand… Oh boy, there are many continuity experts out there, who know more about this setting than the DM and might correct the DM on details. This can be frustrating and is one reason I dislike the Faerun setting. I personally prefer low-magic worlds like Greyhawk and Krynn. A continuity expert could become frustrated as long as you are using that particular setting and the campaign doesn’t follow canon.

However, there is nothing inherently wrong with using published worlds for your games. I personally am very fond of the Greyhawk and Dragonlance settings. But you might not like those settings for one reason or another. Maybe you’re the type of DM who prefers a high magic world, to where you can explain away problems as simply “a wizard did it!” (This is a very infuriating reason, in my opinion.) Or maybe you aren’t familiar with either of those settings. Maybe creating your own living, breathing world is up your alley. Who knows, your players might like your world a lot more than that of the existing worlds. Worldbuilding is one of the many reasons being a DM is fun.

Be descriptive, not clinical

This is a big one for the worldbuilding aspect. Let’s say the party is going through a cold dungeon. Let’s take it a step further, and say that it’s the long-abandoned ruins of an ancient order of palidans, the Order of Keys. You can spice this up with vivid description.

DM: Your party passes through a poorly lit corridor. The air is stagnant and heavy. It’s almost as if you can still hear the long-silenced screams of the damned! The chill of death takes hold of the passage into the holy sanctum. You are faced with the massive iron doors barring entry to the Cathedral of Keys. This place seems oddly serene, but something strikes you as oddly unsettling. The doors of the cathedral suddenly burst open! You are faced with eight slavering, stench-ridden creatures, their skin crawling with maggots, and their teeth yellowed and sharpened to horrible jagged points.

Don’t call them ghasts! You can call them ghasts later, after a character succeeds on an Intelligence (Religion) check to identify them as such. No need to go overboard with this every time they fight ghasts. In other words, you’re telling a story, flair it up a bit! In combat, going with the ghast example, describe feeling overcome by a pungent order that threatens to nauseate you, and feeling as if you have to vomit in this disease-ridden creatures presence! That dramatic flair is insanely poignant, and will encourage your players to roleplay in combat! For example, they might not want to use their good weapons against these things.

Organization and communication for players and DMs

This is perhaps the most useful tip by far. And it mostly comes down to the group’s organization and communication — basically following the social contract. For a DM this comes down to keeping track of NPCs (names and the like) but also keeping track of all of the things that make a game work. Don’t cut corners. Being well organized is a key skill for everyone at the table, especially if you give handouts to the players, like homebrew critical hit/fumble tables, a house rules list, you name it. Make sure you keep track of the characters’ backstories too — your players will love you for this.

The communication part of it, however, is just letting people know (most importantly the DM) in advance if you happen to be unable to make it to the next game. Mainly because your DM needs to know that, so they can plan something for Billy not being able to make the session this week. If you communicate, not just schedules, but possible issues with rulings, the direction of the game, etc., sure it will be awkward for a few minutes at the gaming table, but at least you don’t get burnt out of the game, or worse, start being disruptive at the table. No one likes that sort of player. Good communication is a way around all that mess, potentially at least.

One last thing for DMs, if you have players showing up to sessions week after week (or however often your group gets together) take that in stride. Whether you realize it or not, have done something right! And you have players champing at the bit for more of the campaign.

As always this has been Kenneth Woody your humble Dungeon Master signing off!

Stay nerdy!

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