Are You Ready to Try Being a DM

The party walks out into a clearing. Traveling through the jungle had taken longer than expected. You’d followed the young girl’s tracks but that didn’t make traveling through the brush any easier, especially for Medic. 

In the clearing you see a clean cut wood house on stilts high above the jungle floor. It was as if a home had been built on a watch tower. Smoke rises lazily from the chimney. That’s when you realize how quiet it is. As you traveled through the jungle, you’d heard every sort of creature imaginable. Now you hear nothing. 

Suddenly the door opens up and a man steps out onto the deck of the house. He has a brown vest on with a black beard, no mustache and flowing black hair. He holds his hands on his hips with a crooked smile on his face.

“I suppose you’ve come for my girl.” The man says in a rough deep voice. His tone is somewhat mocking.

Brennor steps forward and say, “There’s more of us than of you so it would be wise to hand her over lad.”

“I can count master dwarf.” The man says wryly. “I don’t think the odds stack up in your favor though.” And with that the man begins chanting something and waving his hands as his eyes light up with a strange white light.

You look to Malfius who has already begun a Counterspell. Malfius finishes but nothing happens. Malfius tries again, but nothing. 

The man on the deck smiles and says, “Oh that won’t work with me. I’m a different breed altogether.” and then thrusts his hand forward and opens it and you and your companions are assaulted with shards of thick ice.

After the barrage, you all stand up and look at each other.

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis and together you and I will learn how to tell better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons & Dragons 5e. 

As I’m been making this show and putting out this content, I’ve realized that it’s very possible that you the listener, not you, no the other one, yes you! The one who is pointing their finger at themselves and mouthing, “me?” Yes. I’m talking to you. You might not be a DM yet, but you’re interested in becoming one. You have one questions on your mind, “Am I ready to try being a DM.?’

Well Mister! I’m here to tell you yes!

Well, mostly yes.

I guess the answer is it depends. 

1. You have a desire to try.

The first and most important thing you need in order to be ready to try being a dungeon master is simply the desire, nay the interest. Everything else can be developed and acquired. If you don’t want to be a DM, then doing it for more than a one shot will be very difficult, nay impossible. If you’re listening to this episode and your friend is pressuring you to try being a DM but you have no real curiosity or interest in doing it, then don’t do it. I mean it’s alright to try it, but you don’t need to prepare to become a DM. Becoming a DM requires a lot of commitment and a shifu.

1. You can explain the basic rules to someone who’s never played.

Go find someone who’s never played D&D but is open to the idea. If they aren’t open, they’ll likely not care about you explaining the rules, therefore they won’t pay attention. So find this neophyte to the D&D ways and sit them down and explain how you play. Don’t go too in depth, but just enough to whet their whistle. If the very idea of that scares the living daylight out of you, then you gotta do some reading my friend.

1. You Have an Idea

Every great campaign needs twists and surprises. Even if you use a premade campaign, you’ll still want to add your own flavor to the game. That means you’ll want to be able to create story lines that are interesting. Now, obviously doing that well takes practice. To start off make sure you have some sort of idea. What I mean is most DM’s at one point of another have been doing dishes, or laundry or showering and then randomly will have a bizarre, strange interesting idea of some sort of campaign to do or a one-shot or something to make a story more interesting. Have one of those. The best part is you can make yourself come up with something. So if you’re struggling, then do this. 1. Grab piece of paper. 2. Grab a writing utensil. 3. Write down your favorite fantasy setting (for example, Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, etc.) 4. Write down your favorite thing about that setting (is it the giant war balloons, or the code of honor of one of the order of nights, or is it the snarky attitude of most of the characters). 5. Add that idea to an encounter you might come up with.

I chose the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson and what I liked most (aside from the variety of characters) was the magic system. So maybe I could have my players face someone whose magic system is completely different. One of my players might cast dispel magic, but it doesn’t work because in a way, it’s not magic. See. Simple idea that makes a side quest interesting.

1. You’re comfortable performing

This one is a gut check. As a DM, you are a storyteller, a writer, and a performer, an actor. You’ll act out the various characters that your players will come in contact with. That said, if you are uncomfortable describing things or being somewhat whacky in front of other people, you may not have as much fun at being a DM.

HUGE CAVEAT! One of the reasons I love Dungeons and Dragons is that it does push some of us out of our comfort zones. I myself am a somewhat more reserved person, but D&D has helped me be more expressive in front of my friends and be ok performing and putting on a show. I also think being a DM is great if you have trouble public speaking. It’s a wonderful way to push yourself past your limits and have fun with friends at the same time. So if you aren’t perfectly comfortable performing in front of others, that’s ok, just practice until you get that way.

The most important thing to remember is that yes, you are ready to try being a DM. No DM is perfect at the get go. I distinctly remember one week where I was frustrated with myself because the session didn’t go as well as I had hoped and I felt like I sucked and then the next week I felt much better because the session was way more fun. There’s a learning curve. Hopefully, this show helps  you get over it faster, but it’s still there.

Thanks for listening to today’s show. If you have any feedback I’d love to hear. Just send me a direct message on Instagram @geronimolevis and I’ll be sure to respond. Or if you just love the show, give us a rating or review wherever you are listening to this.

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We’ll be back next week for another fun show.

Until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.

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