I have played Dungeons and Dragons, as well as several other tabletop RPGs, for a very long time. In my early 30s, there came a dry spot. I was working more, had kids to take care of, all of those things that force us to grow up. But then, ONE FATEFUL DAY, I managed to talk my wife and stepson into trying the game out.

It was great. I cracked open my players guide, we went through races, classes, all that. They made characters. A wood Elf Ranger and a Halfling fighter. And then it hit me, if they want to play, they need a DM, and I am the one person who knows this game. Queue: panic.

You see, I had DMed before. Like once, for the Star Wars role-playing game. I didn’t prepare, had nothing going in, and it went…OK. That was the extent of my experience. I sort of, kind of, maybe had an idea of how to do this. And this was after YEARS of playing.

I sucked it up, I learned, and I became a forever DM. Four years later, we’ve added four more regular players, we have a regular game, in the middle of a two year (so far) campaign and things are going great. These people actually think I know what I’m doing! That and I really love the adventures and characters we’ve created together along the way.

In that time, I’ve cobbled together at little wisdom on the subject, and if you’re brand new to this like I was, I’d love to help you along the way.

1. Have a Session Zero

Get to know your audience. Sure, you can get the hang of them after a few sessions. Or, you know, do something simple, like asking them.

You might find that you have a full group that wants to role play political intrigue, or they may be a wild pack of murder hobos, intent on slaying everything they run into. Then, there is setting. I know it’s a common tendency to assume classical fantasy with Dungeons and Dragons, but there are several settings pre-made for you, such as steampunk/post-apocalyptic, or gothic horror. Heck, there’s even DnD in space.

You can also help the players create their characters, and pick up on little details about what they’ve come up with. Maybe one of them has decided that their PC has an arch nemesis, or someone that has significantly wronged them in the past. They just gave you an in game villain for free. I really can’t push the idea of cooperative storytelling any harder.

Another major point here, find out what their hard limits are, and don’t cross them. This could be something like character death, sexual content, violence against innocent people or children. Everyone has different things that they aren’t comfortable with. Don’t be an a-hole and respect their limits.

2. Prepare to be Unprepared

No matter how long you’re played, you aren’t really prepared for Dungeon Mastering. If you know how class abilities, spells, status effects, and everything else works, that’s great. That will come in handy. But this isn’t a video game, and you aren’t just a game engine or a set of rules.

The essence of what really makes a ttrpg fun is that the rails are off. You aren’t following a predetermined path. The players are going to make decisions and do things that you don’t expect, and the better you get at rolling with the punches and going with it, the more fun everyone (including YOU) is going to have.

Now, don’t take this to mean that you should go in empty handed. You do need to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics, and have some sort of story or situation in your head, as well as stats and information for what they will likely run into. If you’re starting soon and are very short on time, you should check out my article on the Five Room Dungeon here.

3. Start Small

So, once you’re finished with the session zero, you need to actually come up with something. This is where a lot of us mess up. Don’t start out by mapping out an entire kingdom or continent, filled with city after city, 15,000 taverns and a barkeep for each. That will come in time.

Just start with one area, and one or two small plot hooks, and go from there. The story really will write itself, and you can fill in the blank spots as you go. The big picture will reveal itself in time.

4. DON’T PANIC! Rules Aren’t Everything

So what do you do when those pesky players eventually go off script? Make stuff up, of course!

The truth is, in the current edition of D&D, there is not a rule for everything. And, even if there is a rule, it’s very likely you’ll run into a situation where A) you don’t remember, or B) you’ve never read it in the first place. This, really really, is fine. Don’t waste your time and break the mood by pulling up google for every little thing. Just make something up that sounds reasonable and go with it.

5. You Aren’t Writing a Novel

This is sort of a reiteration of the last two points, but it bears repeating. You don’t need or want to plan too far ahead. Just have a vague idea of where things could be headed, and go with it.

It’s better for everyone involved if your players have real agency. They’re playing real people, not characters in your book. They might go left when every clue you’ve laid out says to go right. Someone is going to cast fireball in a really horrible place to be doing that, or completely ignore your NPC that is supposed to give them the dingus that unlocks that door. That’s OK. That’s what makes this so great. You all, together as a team, will write a better story than you alone. Let things unfold as they will. Yeah, you may stumble here and there, but you’ll be amazed at how good you’ll get at making up new scenarios and new plot points on the spot.

6. Plan Combat Ahead of Time

This is where I go back on everything I said, and tell you that you really need to prep this ahead of time. You don’t need to know where or how these fights start, but you need to have some idea of how it’s going to go. You can make an NPC on the spot, but a monster has a bit more going on.

Trust me, when it comes to role-playing, people are easy to please. At least my group is. I’ve had a scenario where my party spent a minimum of thirty minutes questioning villagers that I made up as we were going, convinced that there was some foul plot afoot. And really, none existed. Had I been quicker on my feet, I could have thought of something, but we live and we learn.

On the other hand, they get bored with bad combat, and aggravated when they’re clearly outmatched. Give them a plain wooded door, they’ll spend a session disarming a trap that doesn’t exist. Give them a boring combat, they’ll be fiddling on their phones in seconds.

7. It Isn’t You vs. the Players

This train of thought is one I’ve honestly never really understood. The mentality that you are battling the players during combat, and actually trying to win. I mean, you’re the DM. If you want to win so bad, throw an Ancient Red Dragon against a level one party. There, you did it. You win. Good job, I guess.

There are, however, varying ways that you can approach combat as a DM, but you have to bear in mind that they are all player-centric. You never ever want to go to easy, that’s boring. But the level of difficulty can be played with. You may be a combat focused group, specifically seeing how far these players can go. In that case, ratchet it up a bit. Just don’t intentionally outmatch them, or every other session will be rolling new characters.

8. Monsters are Malleable

…and so can your rolls. I feel like every time I go on Reddit, I see a post about a DM having an accidental TPK (total party kill). This is something I also really do not understand. This is like “accidentally” cheating on your spouse to me.

For one, plan your combats ahead of time. Read up on creature CR. Don’t put them in a situation they can’t get out of in the first place.

There’s also the possibility that one or two characters get split from the rest of the party and end up running into an encounter intended for everyone. MOVE THE ENCOUNTER! Or cut a few monsters from it. Maybe, instead of four goblins, there are two now. If it’s a single monster, cut it’s health in half. No one needlessly dies, and you still get your fun combat. Win.

Another option here: but you should use this sparingly. You have a DM screen. Use it. If a monster crits and is about to auto kill a low level player that has no chance of resurrecting (and your party isn’t the type that wants to have player deaths), then you didn’t roll the crit. No one else sees it.

No, don’t decide every roll ahead of time. That’s lame, and again, taking away player agency is a big no-no. This is a once in a blue moon type thing. But seriously, this isn’t hard. Don’t let one bad roll ruin everyone’s night.

9. Steal From Everything with No Remorse

Back to the story writing, steal steal STEAL! The thing is, sure, we all want to be great fantasy writers. Most of us, myself included, are not. We can’t all be Andrzej Sapkowski.

Don’t just rip off the plot of something and hope no one will notice, that’s not what I mean here. But don’t waste all your energy trying to be original. People like the Hobbit, and with good reason. Traveling through a dangerous forest that twists and turns and messes with your mind, all while being hunted by giant spiders – that’s a killer session or two of a game. No one is going to care that you ripped off Tolkein.

10. Keep Talking to Your Players

This is in the same spirit of the session zero. Ask your what they’ve liked so far, and what they haven’t. And don’t get defensive! This, like everything else in life, is a learning experience. Players are great sources of inspiration, and you should take you time to hear them out.

Bonus – The Part with the Marketing

When all else fails, when you are completely out of ideas, grab a module. These are pre-written adventures sold by Wizards of the Coast and some other companies as well. Below, I have placed some links to some of my favorites, as well as links to some useful items that I think are a good purchase for any beginner DM.

_{Please note: fordytoo.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This means that if you purchase an item from a link to Amazon on this page, fordytoo.com will get a portion of the profit. This does NOT increase the price of the product. Don’t feel obligated to buy anything we link to, but know that we do appreciate it if you do (we also appreciate the fact that you’re here and reading this post in the first place). Every purchase helps keep this site running, and gets us closer to doing this full-time.}