So, Here goes nothing.
One set of tips that are good to remember, one set of mistakes that are good to watch out for. . . and an article that I found to touch on a common issue with Players and DM's.
Eight Rules That Will Make You A Better DM
by Wimwick (Neil Ellis) on January 21, 2010
Admit it. As a DM there have been times when you’ve been stumped, regretted decisions, made a mistake or just wanted to quit. We’ve all been there and we’ve all looked for a way out of the situation. The following eight guidelines follow the KISS formula. Keep It Simple, Stupid. While they don’t cover every situation, they should provide a reliable fallback for DMs.
1.Learn How To Say Yes
The first rule is a fundamental one. Nothing grinds a game to a halt faster than a no ruling. Nothing frustrates a player more than being told their brilliant idea is no good. Nothing creates animosity towards the DM greater than a closed door policy on new ideas or rule interpretations. A no ruling at my normal game usually results in at least one player pulling out the PHB looking for clarification on the rule. It slows things down, it’s a distraction, it’s no fun. Please note this rule is learn how to say yes. There are instances when no is the correct call, but I urge to always consider the possibilities of yes before shutting an idea down. Unless the idea is clearly absurd, learn how to say yes. It will change your gaming life.
2.Learn How To Say Yes
Saying no is lazy. Learn to say yes, challenge yourself and your players to be more creative. You’ll become a better DM, your adventures will appear more compelling and your players will come back each week craving more.
3.Learn When To Call An Encounter
Nothing is more boring that an war of attrition. In higher levels of 4e D&D, monsters can have a ridiculous amount of hit points. Once the tactical aspect of combat is over, the PCs have expended their daily and encounter powers, and there is only one NPC left to kill, call the fight. The exception to this rule is if there is a realistic threat and a strong possibility of a PC dying during what remains of the fight. If this threat is not present save yourself and your players the time and move on. Be warned, you are a DM and therefore a storyteller. Don’t just end the encounter. Describe in detail how the PCs are able to defeat the last monster standing. Use the opportunity to build a sense of drama and accomplishment.
4.Use The Resources You Have Available
There are a lot of tools available for DMs. From mapping to encounter building, official to 3rd party. Feel free to use whatever works best for you. If a resource isn’t readily available during play, then forget it. Don’t decide mid-session that a graphical map displayed on the monitor stored in your garage would be a good idea, because it isn’t one. Don’t look for your player kill d20 that you lost this week because the PCs are cutting through your encounter like a hot knife through butter. Don’t ask to borrow another players Monster Manual 2 because there is a more appropriate monster in that book than what you’ve selected.
5.Be Prepared
I learned this in Boy Scouts and it ties to the rule above. Use what you have on hand, what you’ve prepared and what you’ve committed to before your player’s showed up. Wearing the DM hat is a lot of responsibility, the enjoyment of 4 or 5 other people rests in your hands. So be prepared. Don’t fly from the seat of your pants, be prepared. Don’t create maps on the spot, be prepared.
6.When In Doubt, See Rule # 1
If you don’t know, say yes. If you don’t care, say yes. If it makes sense, say yes. Nothing is worse than a DM who can’t make a decision on a ruling. If you find yourself in this position say yes. Your player’s will love you for it.
7.Let The Dice Fall Where They May
Dice are the random element of D&D. They can make exciting moments heroic and create disasters out of innocent transactions. As a DM you may feel the need to adjust the results of some dice. Some might call this creative cheating on the part of the DM. The final call is up to you, but I’m an advocate of letting the dice fall where they may.
8.If You Aren’t Enjoying Things Stop
I’ve ended more than one campaign early because it just didn’t work out the way I intended or feedback from players indicated that there was a lack of interest in the story I’d developed for the campaign. That’s ok. Best to stop early and abruptly than torture everyone for months. If you find the role of the DM to be too much work, admit it to yourself and get out. If you aren’t having fun doing it, stop.
And here are a few common mistakes. . . that one don't see before it is pointed out to you. (yes, me too. . . all too many of them really.)
Common Dungeon Master Mistakes
by Mike Shea on 26 November 2012
It's often better to be positive than negative when writing advice for dungeon masters. Sometimes, however, it is worth looking at the bad so we can better understand the good. Today we're going to look at a handfull of common dungeon master mistakes. These are mistakes we might often see, might often even do, and might spend some time learning to avoid so we can run the best D&D game we can. Let's put our egos aside and dig right in.
A potential indicator your game isn't resonating with your players
Above: Keep an eye out for potential indicators that your game is not resonating with your players
Forcing your story
We love our stories. It's what got us to play D&D in the first place. Our drive to tell stories often gives us the desire to run games. It's a hard thing to remember that you don't create the story, the group does. D&D stories aren't written — they're created during the game.
We all know this. It's an easy thing to say. It is equally easy to forget it and let our overactive imaginations run wild, building seven volume epic stories that push players from point A to point B.
This is a big problem and you're going to hear a lot more about this on the site over the next couple of months.
Saying "No"
We DMs can often have a path already laid out in our mind. We have an expectation for how an campaign, adventure, session, or battle will go and when it doesn't go that way, we start to bring down the iron doors. Players start to figure out interesting ways to move things in a new direction, like the players in Chris Perkins's game who nuked an entire adventure area instead of playing it out like they were supposed to.
Saying "no" shuts down interesting pathways players create. Yet it's these very pathways that make our world live and breathe. Instead of shutting things down, take the D&D improvisation tip of Steve Townshend and learn how to say "yes, and".
Losing our shit
This is a big personal failing of mine. Sometimes in our D&D games, things just don't go like we want it to go. Players find a broken rule or an exploit in their character design or the dice just don't go our way and we blow our stack. We lose our patience.
We're all here to have fun and enjoy the game. The tighter we squeeze, the more pissed off we can get when things slip through our fingers.
Take it easy. Relax. Be patient. Don't rush through things. Try to do less in each game so you're not in a rush.
Ignoring the desires of our players
Everyone comes to the table with an expectation for the type of game we want to play. As a DM, you owe it to yourself and your players to take the time to figure out what sort of game they want to play. Engage in some character building sessions before you get too far into the game so you have an idea what people want. If everyone wants to roll some dice and stab some monsters, they're going to be disappointed with your intricate nuanced take on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. If they're looking for some interesting political and economic storytelling, don't throw them seven levels down into the pits of dispair. Give your players the right balance of combat, exploration, and roleplaying.
Between sessions, ask them what they want. Ask them how things have gone and listen to them without getting defensive if they offer up suggestions for how things go forward. You'll all have a better time in the long run.
The above mistakes come down to a single problem: taking too much control over the game. Don't forget that the group drives the story, not the dungeon master. These mistakes aren't the only mistakes, however. In my quick Twitter survey, folks mentioned being underprepared as another common mistake. We're going to take a bit more time to discuss that one in the future. In the mean time, take things easy, focus on the seeds of adventure, and let the game get a little out of control. We'll all be happier for it.
And this article because I really think it sums up what we all want.
Steve Townshend on Dungeons and Dragons Improvisation
by Mike Shea on 21 May 2012
Recently on D&D Insider, Chris Perkins wrote an excellent article called Triple Threat discussing the importance of improvisation in D&D. When I read the article, the first person to come to mind was Steve Townshend. Steve is the co-author of Madness at Gardmore Abbey, Heroes of the Feywild, the Monster Vault 2: Threats to the Nentir Vale, and was a professional theater actor. I recently recorded a one-hour podcast with Steve on the topic of adventure design.
I reached out to Steve and asked him the following question:
"What can dungeon masters do to improve their improvisation techniques during their D&D games?"
Here is his reply posted with permission. I made some slight edits and added subheaders and emphasis to certain sections.
Steve's Reply
Yes, I can comment on this topic.
Chris talks about building confidence through experience, and that experience informing / feeding your intuition. This is all very true.
Here are a couple other things, some personal, some general.
Personal anecdote
I spent my 20's as a professional theatre actor and an improvisor (which is very rarely professional, since most improv is unpaid). In that time, I performed for audiences across the U.S. and Canada. I played for audiences up to 2,500 people. Playing for huge crowds was a regular thing I did. AND YET...
And yet, every time I got up in front of the 5 or 6 players (my friends) at the game table with an adventure of my own creation, I was nervous. Anxious. Stressed. So if you have that feeling, it's totally normal. You're human. You just humble yourself to the process and get it done. One thing that helped with that — and I think Chris may have mentioned this as well — was realizing that everyone is there to have fun. Their fun doesn't live or die based on how good my adventure is. It usually comes from the players trying interesting things and me saying, "Okay, that happens. And then here's what happens in response." In other words, and to be entirely cliche, "yes, and."
Group storytelling
The Dungeon Master's Guide 2 has a chapter on group storytelling that's absolutely wonderful. I believe Robin Laws (who watches a fair amount of improv in Toronto) wrote that chapter. The group storytelling chapter encourages the DM to throw the ball back in the player's court when you don't know the answer to a question or it's not all that important to you or maybe the player already seems to have a clearer idea. This is really just the way an improv team works. If you're in an improv group, you all make up the show together on the fly. Each member of the group starts scenes, furthers the story, etc. Now think of a game like Fiasco, that's essentially a long form improv loosely disguised as an RPG. There's no DM in Fiasco — you're all responsible for creating the story. Now think of your D&D group as your improv team.
Your group is your team, not your audience
I'll say that again: think of your D&D group as your improv team.
Your TEAM.
Everyone is there to contribute to the story. It is not all on you, as DM, or all about you. I'm repeating this over and over again because it's an important concept to grasp. As DM, you start the story, usually. You set the scene. But when players want to try something, they're initiating a new scene or introducing a new idea that it's your responsibility to react to and incorporate.
The more I've been thinking of my group as my TEAM, the more I've been delegating to them. If someone asks me what something looks like and I don't have the foggiest idea, I say, "You tell me. What are you picturing?" And then we craft that image together. But that person already has an idea. One example I used a while ago was a pillar in an ancient elven tomb. I asked the player what he thought it looked like. He works as one of the education directors at the Museum of Science and Industry, and he'd been looking at a narwhal horn that day. He described the pillar having a curling pattern that showed the transition of the elven race through time. He thought of that because he'd been looking at the narwhal horn earlier that day. I, however, had not been looking at narwhal horns. I had merely placed a dungeon tile on the board that had pillars on it and pillars make tombs look cool. The player put life into that description and made it real for all of us.
I want to put down a list of tips for improv, but you know it really comes down to listening to other people and honoring their ideas. Del Close was one of my teachers; he used to say improv was "the last movement of the counter-culture. It was about people loving and taking care of each other onstage." He said we were to be "poets and geniuses and acrobats of the heart."
Acrobats of the heart
What's that? That's when you're role-playing and you make a choice based on how you feel emotionally. Not what your stats say. Not necessarily the optimal move. You say or do something in a game because that's the way you (and by extension your character) feels emotionally. Another thing Del used to say was that a character is not a mask to cover or hide you. You don't "act like a doctor." How does a doctor "act?" A doctor's a person with the same emotions, loves, and fears as you have. A character isn't a mask, but a straw hat that you tilt one way or another to show different sides of yourself. Every character is you in some way, and uses your emotions. There is a serial killer inside you, and there is a saint. Being an acrobat of the heart is about investing in that character, what he or she will do in any given situation, and reacting to it. I once asked a different teacher, Bob Dassie, what to do when I didn't know what to do in a scene. He said, "Whenever I'm lost in a scene, I say how I feel."
This is good advice for DMs playing NPCs. When you're stuck, say how your feel, or... as my Meisner-based acting teacher, Kathy Scambiatterra of the Artistic Home, would say, "speak your truth." It's a great thing to do when you're lost in improv or your nervous. Speaking your truth just cuts through all the intellectual bullshit you've got going on and cuts right to the heart of a scene.
So let me reiterate:
1.Think of your group as a team
2.Everyone on your team is making the game
3.Someone wants to try something, go there. Try it.
4.Speak your truth
5.Don't be an (hero)
I haven't talked about #5 yet. I usually don't think I have to, but in the gaming crowd it can't go unsaid.
The other players are your team. Presumably your friends. If someone ever seems upset about your brilliant role-playing move, whether you're a player or the DM, start with, "I'm sorry. I totally didn't mean anything by it personally." After that, you can discuss your choice and move on.
If you have to defend yourself with, "but that's what the character would do / I'm only playing the character," you are probably an (hero) and you lose.
In any kind of improvisation you're on a team, and it's not about you. It's about the group, and your relationships with those people are what make your game awesome.
- There. There are probably many more tips and tricks out there, but these are enough to get thoughts in motion. They certainly were for me. All in all, if this is of interest, there are tons and tons of tips on how to be a better DM out there. Always worth to take a look at.
Have fun, and good luck.
Sources:
http://slyflourish.com/dm_mistakes.html
http://slyflourish.com/dnd_improv.html
: This post is meant to be constructive, and in no way criticsm of the DM team. Nothing here should be an attack on the DM Team or any single DM in any way. They work hard, tries their best to make things fun for us players, and probably get enough grief as it is, so this here post should not add to that. Let this be helpful. And if it isn't, then there is no point, and this thread should be deleted.:
