By Josiah Eberly
While I have only been running Dungeon & Dragon games for several months now, I have learned a lot about how to be a good Dungeon Master from friends and other resources that are available to anyone. For those who wish to jump into becoming a Dungeon Master like I did, I have some tips, tricks, and advice that will help you on your way to running creative and fun games for your friends and family.
First, one of the most important things a Dungeon Master needs are some sourcebooks. Wizards of the Coast, the company that founded D&D, have different books available for purchase that help DMs with most of everything they need, from monsters, to magic, to artifacts, and everything in between. The first most important source-book by the Wizards RPG team that every DM should have a copy of is the “Player’s Handbook” for character creation, classes, feats, background, equipment, spells, and basic rules. Second, the “Monster Manual,” which can be useful for creatures and NPCs to fight.
The “Dungeon Master’s Guide” is a great tool to use for the basics of running a game, and how to either use a world that has already been built, or create your own world for your players to discover. There are other sourcebooks that provide other monsters, artifacts, spells, scenarios, and NPCs, but the three listed are helpful for starting a D&D game. When I started my D&D game, I opted to create my own world. While that seems like a daunt-ing task, it is much easier than it seems with the right tools. I have found that having a map is important, not only for you to keep track of where everything in the world is, but it makes the whole game experience for the players more immersive when they have a map to pour over and to decide where they wish to go. If you are an artist, then it should not prove too hard to draw up your own map and to go from there. As for myself, I was told by an-other DM of a software called Wonderdraft.
This software allows for digital maps to be made, and include assets for rivers, mountains, forests, and cities. With a little computer knowledge, people can add their own assets to Wonderdraft to personalize their maps and create de-tailed layouts of cities and towns as well. I have also found that world-building is easier when you draw inspiration from movies or books, blending it all into something unique and special. For the world I made, I drew inspiration from “The Wheel of Time” book series, some “Forgotten Realms” books (which most of D&D is already based on), and the movie “Willow.” At first, I did not want to draw inspiration from other sources, but then quickly realized that no matter what you do, you will be drawing inspiration from some-thing, so you might as well draw inspiration from things that you love and know well.
An important tip to keep in mind is that who you play D&D with is just as important as having a world to play in. A poorly assembled group of people can destroy the game that you set up, and has on multiple occasions ruined friendships. It is important to find people who are not selfish players, and willing to follow the rules that you have put into place for the game.
Speaking of rules, it is very important to explicitly state your ground rules for games and to establish your authority over them, otherwise things can quickly get out of hand. For the actual game play, it is imperative to find out the playstyles of the participants, otherwise your players may tire quickly of your game.
The simplest way to break down D&D into its playable parts are combat and roleplaying. It is much more complicated than that, but it serves well enough for a starting DM. Find out if your players just want to fight hordes of monsters, or if they want a world where they can interact with everything constantly. There will always be a blend of the two, but figure out how much of each aspect the players want.
One last piece of advice is to make sure player actions have consequences. Some players will only want to run around murdering NPCs. If they do that, have their character thrown in jail. If a player disrespects a lord or king, have them send their soldiers to teach them a painful les-son in respect. If the players break a promise, make sure NPCs are most likely to distrust anything they say until they can earn that trust back.
When players realize that they cannot get away with anything, then not only will they be less likely to be a disruptive player, but they will also most likely con-tribute to the game in meaningful ways.