You fall to one knee. The large orc in front of you grips his battle ax firmly in his hands and lets out a mocking grunt. Blood drips down the blade and onto the ground. Your blood.You look around at your companions. They are all lying on the ground bloody and unconscious. Julian might be dead. Things could not look worse. “Puny wizard. Drinking your blood will be a great pleasure.” The orc says through his tusked maw.You slowly raise yourself to your feet and point at the orc with a shaking finger. “Blood for blood. This death was brought to pass by your actions feral one.” The orc begins to laugh. Then he charges you. You reach inside your tunic and pull out a simple wand of cherry wood. You point it at the orc and whisper, “Infiern”. Immediately a brilliant ball of fire is launched from the wands’ tip expanding to engulfing the entire orc. Unfortunately, you are also a bit to close to the fire and find yourself flung off your feet as the ball of flames explodes on impact with the goblinoid.You open your eyes to see everything on fire, even you, but you can’t seem to move.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 craft better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.As always, I’m very grateful that you’ve allowed me to dig into the hobby for 8 months now and we don’t plan on stopping. You guys have been stellar in showing us what you like and what you don’t like and we will do everything we can to gratify your desires.If there’s one thing that a lot of people struggle with, it’s describing combat. Honestly, it can be hard for any DM to make round after round after round of combat interesting. There’s a spectrum. It goes from very boring combat to perhaps too graphic and violent. So how do you describe D&D combat in the best way? This is how.HighlightsD&D is not a movie. As much as we treat it like a movie, even going to the point of using Screen Wipes as happens in tabletop games like Star Wars, it’s not a movie. In movies, you can show every single moment of action, because in reality it only takes a couple seconds. When you use words to describe every single action in combat it takes much longer. That’s because two things can happen simultaneously in real life but you can only say one word at a time. So with your combat, describe the highlights. Briefly describe the effect of an attack that does damage. Don’t go deep into, “You swing and miss and they swing and miss and back and forth and finally someone scores a hit.” That’s too much. You can even just give the damage and save the juicy descriptions for large amounts of damage or the end.Realistic combatIf you’re fighting someone who is proficient with a weapon and you don’t kill them in the first hit, then that means that most of your hits do not sever limbs or slash deep gouges. Sometimes you need to be realistic in the way that you describe things. Just because you do damage mechanically doesn’t mean that you have to necessarily do damage in your narrative. Say a barbarian does 12 points of slashing damage with their battle ax. You could describe that as the ax cutting deep into the enemy’s armor, slowly deteriorating its integrity, allowing for an opening that becomes pivotal when a crucial opportunity presents itself. You don’t have to be lopping off people’s arms with every swing.Describe the Bigger BaddiesOften in D&D, your villains will have minions. If in the same combat encounter you have a multitude of minions, then don’t waste too much extra breath on the mini baddies when you can describe the big baddies in much better detail. You don’t have to explain that the skeleton chopped when you can spend much more time describing what the Lich did. No one cares about the skeletons (for the most part). Follow the Flow of CombatCombat is a story just like any other part of D&D. It has crescendos and decrescendos. The more combat seems to be difficult, the more you should indulge in describing the combat to enhance the tension. If a player is sustaining many serious wounds, then you should describe that. If the characters are decimating foes left and right, you don’t need to go into too much detail.Narrate evenly for everyoneThough it might be more fun to describe how the wizard pulls out his wand of fireball and unleashes hell than it is to say that the rogue takes a shot on their crossbow, you should look for ways to spice it up evenly between both players.  Give everyone a chance to feel awesome.Learn specific verbs, adverbs and adjectivesVerbs are what someone does, adverbs is how they do it and adjectives describe the effect on the subject of their verb. Here’s a small table with some words every DM should be able to useVerbAdverbAdjectiveslashnoiselesslybloodysmashquicklybruisedsliceloudlycoldparrypainfullytiredstabwearilyexhaustedcutstronglyshakingbludgeonconfidentlysweatycharweaklytousledblackendeathlydisheveledimpalehopefullygrimIt’s not a full list of words to use but it should get your brain thinking.The Simple FormulaIt’s ok to use a one sentence formula as well. Try thisYou [adverb] [verb] your [enemy] with your [adjective] [weapon].This could look like:You weakly char your orcish foe with your fiery Wand of Fireballs.Simple.Now that’s not an exhaustive course on describing D&D combat. I don’t have an english degree by the way, but that should get you far enough to be able to help you players feel more immersed and really make a big difference in your narration.Make sure to stick around after to hear some announcements and the show’s sponsors, but until next time, let’s roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Always Have Your Sessions Prepared!You work 8 hours a day. You spend time with your family when you come home. You do work around the house and it seems you never have as much time as you would like to prepare your D&D sessions. Does this sound like you? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have endless material prepared for your D&D sessions anyways? That’s where Roll and Play Press comes in. Roll and Play Press provides D&D 5e Compatible materials for any type of session. Running a one-shot? Check out their One Shot Wonders book with over 100 one-shot ideas. Getting started with your new sci-fi campaign? Get their Game Master’s Sci-Fi Toolkit to have your games much more prepared. Why reinvent the wheel? Check out Roll and Play Press at rollandplaypress.com and get 10% off when you buy something by using the code BETTERDM10. Roll and Play PressFollow us on InstagramThanks again for listening to our show. If you like our content and would like to engage with more of our content, head over to our Instagram account, @howtobeabetterdm, and give us a follow. Make sure to watch some of our helpful Dungeon Master Rules videos to give yourself some structure and procedure as a Dungeon Master. Don’t forget to reach out with a DM and we can talk shop. https://www.instagram.com/howtobeabetterdmpodcast/Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.

We had some technical difficulties today so if you'd like to help us have less technical difficulties become a patron.Patreon One Shot Sign up Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Follow us on InstagramThanks again for listening to our show. If you like our content and would like to engage with more of our content, head over to our Instagram account, @howtobeabetterdm, and give us a follow. Make sure to watch some of our helpful Dungeon Master Rules videos to give yourself some structure and procedure as a Dungeon Master. Don’t forget to reach out with a DM and we can talk shop. https://www.instagram.com/howtobeabetterdmpodcast/Always Have Your Sessions Prepared!You work 8 hours a day. You spend time with your family when you come home. You do work around the house and it seems you never have as much time as you would like to prepare your D&D sessions. Does this sound like you? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have endless material prepared for your D&D sessions anyways? That’s where Roll and Play Press comes in. Roll and Play Press provides D&D 5e Compatible materials for any type of session. Running a one-shot? Check out their One Shot Wonders book with over 100 one-shot ideas. Getting started with your new sci-fi campaign? Get their Game Master’s Sci-Fi Toolkit to have your games much more prepared. Why reinvent the wheel? Check out Roll and Play Press at rollandplaypress.com and get 10% off when you buy something by using the code BETTERDM10. Roll and Play Press

What is a Session 0Suddenly, you hear a muffled grunt. You risk a glance away from your dark elf opponent and see Geriman go down. Enraged you yell, “Nooooooo!” and you rush the dark elf in front of you, he feints left but you don’t fall for it, choosing to rush him and lift him up, smashing him to the ground. You take advantage of the brief moment he lies stunned on the ground by sending a quick 1-2 punch to his head with your spiked gauntlets. After a moment he lies still. You get up to run towards Geriman. You have a healing potion so you should be able to save him. As you turn to look at your fallen companion so stop in your tracks, the battle raging around you. Standing above Geriman’s unconscious form is the drow elf who downed him. He looks at you and smiles, and then rams a sword into Geriman’s chest. Geriman’s eyes open briefly and a sharp grunt escapes his lips, followed by a slow sigh that slowly fades into nothing. You don’t remember what happened next. Instead you come back to consciousness with a dead drow at your feet, torn into two parts. Next to the elf is the body of your slain friend, a slight trickle of blood escape his unmoving mouth and his eyes staring up into nothing.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 great stories as we DM sessions of D&D 5e.When getting a campaign started, you might have heard the benefits of starting with a session 0. But what is a session 0?Well, I’ll tell what you it is not.A session 0 is definitely not the session where you and all your friends get together to create your characters. Some people define session 0 as the character creation session, but it specifically is not because you haven’t played your characters yet. If you haven’t played your characters yet then you haven’t played D&D yet, you’ve just had fun making characters. That’s totally fine, but it’s not a session. It might be just semantics but I stand with my definition.A Session 0 is essentially play-testing those characters that you made. You can choose to include the entire party or just a few people here and there. Generally the story isn’t heavy or at least it’s introductory to the heavy. Some people combine the session 0 with their character creation. They’ll take an hour or so getting their characters set up and then dive right into a scenario with their characters to see if they life what they chose. Often, session 0 can be playing out a part of the backstory of one or more of the characters. A session 0 is also a nice way for the DM to playtest their players. Maybe one of the players isn’t gonna mesh well with the table. Session 0 is a nice way to identify that and then nip it in the bud early on.A session 0 can really be seen as a warm-up for the entire campaign. It’s a wonderful option for people who aren’t sure about what they want for their character. I suppose you could even play the level 15 or 20 version of your character so that each player knows what they’re getting into rather than just picking a class they think would be fun and hoping for the best. After I would then dumb each character down to the level that you’re starting the campaign at and then go from there.A couple things you’ll want to keep in mind for you session 0:You don’t want to overcomplicate things. Your players are just getting used to their characters and really seeing if this is the character they want to be with for the next 6 months to 22 years (overexaggeration). They don’t want to have to worry about extremely difficult plots right at first.Be patientAs I already said, your players are just learning their new characters. Some players will have an easier time than others. Your job is to help all of them.Help the characters meet each other or get into their relationship rolesOne of the hardest parts of starting a new campaign is having your characters know or already trust each other or helping them build that trust. Every adventuring party has to trust each other. If they don’t then there’s no reason for their characters to travel together. So I suggest having the characters know at least one other character in the group. That way there is inherent trust between a few of the characters and the rest can be worked on later.Emphasize the funThe session 0 is also your players’ way of testing you. They want to see what kind of DM you will be. Go all out. A session 0 may be your most important session because if it’s not fun enough to make your players come back, they won’t.I hope these few suggestions helped you start to understand how to set up your session 0 and also what it is.If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions about the show send us a message at @howtobeabetterdm on Instagram and we’d love to have a conversation with you.Lastly, if you want to play D&D with me or one of the other podcast hosts as your DM then sign up for our monthly one-shot at this link. One Shot Sign up Spots are limited and it’s first come first serve. For this month, I’m your DM. Here’s a Sneak peak into what you’ll be playing:The grand city of Tornlock boasts a population of 100,000 citizens. From the port district to the affluent Crown district, many call this city their home. In a city like this though, many find themselves in less than fortunate circumstances.You and your companions find yourselves in an Inn, sleeping when a loud knocking on your doors awakens you. It’s a member of the guard. He informs you that Lawmaster Sotan requires your immediate presence. After you and your companions prepare yourselves for the day, you follow the guard out the inn and into a slightly overcast day. The guard leads you down main streets, side roads, and eventually leads you to an alleyway in a darker part of town. He leads you toward a small huddle of guardsmen in the center of the alley way. As you approach, a head raises from the group and signals to you all a basic, if not taciturn greeting. It’s Lawmaster Sotan. You and your companions had worked with the Aasimar on a few occasions and your dealings had always been cordial and productive.“Good morning adventurers. I apologize for the inconvenience at having to wake you at such an early hour, but it could not be helped. Please inspect the grisly scene before us and tell me what insights you can glean. We will talk more after you’ve had a chance to examine the corpse,” Sotan says as he beckons you and your companions forward.The group of guards part and you encounter one of the most grisly scenes of your life. A pastel purple tiefling lies on the ground, eyes wide open starting silently into the gray sky. The body lies with arms and legs akimbo, tied to four posts stuck in the ground. A look of deep fear and consternation adorns the face, frozen in time forever. You also notice the tieflings chest andbelly are flayed open revealing the internal organs of the once living tiefling. Blood has splattered all over the alley way and footprints of blood leave down the opposite side of the alley.You turn to talk to Lawmaster Sotan, but not before he says, “This is the third victim exactly like this in 15 days. We need your help.”If you want to sign up, hurry before spots run out.Thanks for listening to today’s show. Until next time, let’s roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Follow us on InstagramThanks again for listening to our show. If you like our content and would like to engage with more of our content, head over to our Instagram account, @howtobeabetterdm, and give us a follow. Make sure to watch some of our helpful Dungeon Master Rules videos to give yourself some structure and procedure as a Dungeon Master. Don’t forget to reach out with a DM and we can talk shop. https://www.instagram.com/howtobeabetterdmpodcast/Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Add the Magic of Sound to Your GameplayWhen you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout. Monument Studios

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. One of the hosts, Tanner Weyland, shares how D&D can help prospective authors improve their storytelling.You may have noticed that the intro changed to a "what if" scenario. If you would like to weigh in on how you would respond to that situation, connect with us on our new instagram and let us know!Would you like to play D&D with us? If so, then sign up for the newsletter and get access to monthly sign ups for a session with me or one of the other hosts. Sign up at https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribeRoll initiative!Mentioned in this episode:Listen to Our New PodcastAs a listener of this show, you obviously love story. Now that you’ve learned how to craft your own story on this show, wouldn’t it be nice to have some inspiration? Or maybe just a moment of immersion and escape? Then come join us in our new Actual Play D&D 5e show, Pact and Boon. Enter the World of Calignos where our characters, Jolly, Wolfgang and Alon will meet each other in Hell. Enjoy our troublemaking and near-death experiences wherever great podcasts are heard. Just go to session0studios.com/pactnboon and start listening today. Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Follow us on InstagramThanks again for listening to our show. If you like our content and would like to engage with more of our content, head over to our Instagram account, @howtobeabetterdm, and give us a follow. Make sure to watch some of our helpful Dungeon Master Rules videos to give yourself some structure and procedure as a Dungeon Master. Don’t forget to reach out with a DM and we can talk shop. https://www.instagram.com/howtobeabetterdmpodcast/

Being a dungeon master: The Best and Worst Things“Where are they?” You ask as you shepherded into this enormous cavern.“Wait. Soon, you will see.” Gavrat responds. You’ve never liked dealing with the ratlike shifter. Even though most of his features are human, the ratlike features on his face are unsettling. Particularly the teeth that stick out under his rat-like nose. He guides you through the rocky outcroppings until you all see tremendous mushrooms start to fill the back end of the cavern.“We don’t have time for this Gavrat. Where is the patron and what kind of job is this?” You ask impatiently.“Don’t worry. Just ahead.You continue walking with Gavrat and walk deep into this grove of giant mushrooms. Suddenly, Gavrat stops. “We are here.” he says with a smile.You only hear silence.“Gavrat, if you’ve led us here on a wild goose chase, I will skin you alive.”“Do not trouble the rat man. I am here.” a strange voice says. “I am the one you seek.” You look around but you see no speaker. Suddenly you see the large mushroom in front of you start to turn and move towards you. You notice arms, a mouth and eyes. The myconid emanates a cloud of spores that hits you and suddenly you hear, “I am Hymotobor. I have a job for you.”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 and Dragons 5e.As you may have noticed, lots of things are changing on the podcast. I hope you like the changes but if not please let me know. Go to our new Instagram @howtobeabetterdm and let us know!Now being a DM isn’t all fun and games… we’ll technically it is, cuz this is just a game.Sometimes being a DM can be downright difficult, fortunately, othertimes, being a DM is the greatest thing in the world! So let’s get down to real talk. What are the best and worst things about being a DM?The best thing about being a DMNot having to rely on someone else to initiate D&DIn my experience, finding a DM that can keep up the campaign every single week can be difficult. Sometimes people just lose steam. The sucky part is that you still want to play D&D. Being a DM means that you can always at least control having something prepared to play. The hard part is finding people to play with you.Seeing the wonder in your player’s eyesThere’s something magical about creating a story and shepherding people through it. I can remember a few moments specifically. When my players in my current campaign were going through a haunted mansion and some undead guards were about to fight my group. One of my players recognized the sigil of the guards and the nation where they came from. He started reciting the national oath of that country. Because it was such a cool moment, I had the undead guards join in, and instead of fighting the group, the guards passed by them. My players all looked like those anime characters with their big shiny eyes when something amazing happens. It was awesome. Being able to help create that is something special.Walking through my ideasAs a DM, when you come up with a cool idea, you can actually play through it. I remember as a Player I would think of all sorts of cool things that I would love to see. As a DM, I can actually put that stuff in. More often than not, that means my stories are too chock full of stuff and perhaps a little too bloated, but that’s something I’m working on. At least, I don’t have to have a little black book of all my cool ideas that I will never ever use.Knowing the StoryOne of the best (and worst) parts of being a DM is knowing how the story ends. I get to know what’s coming up and what my characters will face. Sometimes, I have a terrible poker face and this is just really hard, but other times, I get to hide behind an impassive face as something really cool, or really terrible is about to happen. One of my characters was just bitten by a werewolf and I got to watch as my players slowly came to understand that the curse of lycanthropy was transferred to this player. Lots of TalkingAs a player, I often worry that I might be talking to much or hogging all of the playing spotlights. Surprising, I know right. As a DM, I don’t have to worry about this. The game doesn’t function unless I say stuff. It also doesn’t function unless the players say stuff. So it helps to create a natural balance of talking a lot and then shutting up and letting the players talk.Worst things about being a DM.Not everything is milk and cookie though. Sometimes, being a DM is downright hard.Knowing everythingI think the absolute worst thing about being a DM is that you do have to know everything. Or at least you have to know where to find it in the fastest way possible. If you don’t, it’s not a big deal, but you have to think on your feet and give an answer that satisfies the group. If you don’t then the group probably won’t play with you for very long.Dealing with that one playerI also hate having to deal with that one player. That one player can take many forms. Sometimes, it’s a couple players who are just too talkative and not serious. Sometimes it’s dealing with that beligerent player who wants everything their way. Sometimes it’s dealing with your wife who wants you to let her apply sneak attack even though she didn’t hide on her previous turn… Not naming names Mikayla, but if you’re listening to this, I’m talking about you. I’m just kidding, I love my wife. But seriously, you have to know how to deal with an uncooperative group. That is hardBeing the energizer bunnyOften times, we play D&D at night. As the DM you are the metronome for the group. If you are low energy, then the group will likely be low energy. That gets tiring and at the end of a long day can be really hard. If your group isn’t helping with the energy then it can feel like an uphill battle. Doing the HomeworkThough it can be fun, you do have to do the homework and prepare the story. That can get difficult when you’ve got an otherwise full schedule. Despite the worst things, being a DM is still worth it. I challenge you to try and see what you think.Thank you so much for listening to today’s show. Stay tuned after to hear some announcements but we’ll be back next week for another episode.Until then, let’s roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Hire Us as Your Dungeon MasterDid you know that you can have one of our hosts here at How to Be a Better DM be your dungeon master? That’s right. All of our podcast hosts are professional dungeon masters that you can hire for your private or corporate dungeons and dragons game. We can do one-shots or long-term campaigns. If you want to schedule your first session with us, go to https://session0studios.com/dungeon-master-for-hire/ and get started. Dungeon Master for HireBrought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Join Our DiscordSo a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today. Discord

You all reach the bottom of the ladder after climbing down it for an hour and a half. Halfway down, your wizard cast light to give you all the ability to see. You find yourselves in a roughcut chamber with a ladder that ascendes up towards where you came from. You also see a solitary door. After a few minutes, Herath is able to unlock the door and open it creakily. Beyond your group sees a sloping tunnel that dives deeper into the earth at a gentle decline. You group presses on and walks the path for another half hour. You and your group are used to the constant noises of the upper world. Down here you hear silence and the constant vibrations of the moving earth. Silently your group reaches the point where the tunnel branches. It diverges into 3 separate tunnels. Each tunnel looks natural. Your sight penetrates 30 feet into the darkness but you see no signs to indicate which tunnel to take. What would you like to do?Welcome back to the 35th episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis and together we will learn how to tell better stories as dungeon master a session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.We’ve all been a DM, we’ve all had good sessions and bad sessions. But how do you know what makes a good D&D session? It’s not always easy making a good D&D session, but it is always fulfilling. So here are some telltale signs of a good D&D session.Players have funThe most important thing for a D&D session is that your players have fun. That includes you since you are a player as well. So do whatever you need to make the game fun. If halfway through, you aren’t having fun, then you gotta change things up. Some ways try and make it more fun: Simplify: make things easier to comprehendEnergize: just add more energy to what you are doingTake a breakDo something funnyAdd in a twistSkip over boring stuff.Players are interestedObviously this is an aspect of the the players having fun, but the story needs to be interesting. That’s why we play D&D rather than other table top or video games. It’s the stories. So are there moments where your players are interested in what happens next. Two of the best ways to do this are first, adding a cliffhanger, but more importantly, conflict. The best part of any story is its conflicts. If a story has no conflicts, it is not a story. So add conflicts. Conflicts between the characters and NPC’s and between the characters and time and all sort of conflict. That’s how you draw in your players. Something memorable happenedA session is great when you can look back with your friends and say, “You remember when…. That was so cool or crazy or weird.” A good example is in one of my one-shots, one of my players killed an enemy that ended up blowing up cause two of the other players’ characters to die. It was funny and unexpected. It’s something we’ll all remember for a long time. Good D&D session.The session fits the mood of the playersSometimes the players don’t want a rootin tootin shootem up session. Sometimes the players just want a shopping session. So dangle different flavors in front of your players and the ones that your players interact with the most is the one you should give them more of. Be aware that what they want during the session will likely change from hour to hour and being a good DM  means that you understand what your players want. The perfect D&D session is an illusive thing. A ghost, a phantom, a shadow, yet made of pure crystal, platinum and gold, it’s worth more than all the loot in the universe. Creating the perfect D&D session is impossible, yet the goal of every DM. I wish you luck on your quest to create the most amazing D&D session. But until you become the ultimate master of the universe, at least these tips can help you create good sessions that your players love.Thanks for listening to today’s show. What do you think? Am I wrong? Did I miss anything? If so, then send me a message on Instagram. You can also share the show with someone else and talk about it with them. Would you like to play D&D with me? If so, then sign up for the newsletter and get access to monthly sign ups for a session with me or one of the other hosts. Sign up at https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribeThanks again for listening to today’s show. We’ll be back next week for another episode but until then, let’s roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Join Our DiscordSo a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today. DiscordAlways Have Your Sessions Prepared!You work 8 hours a day. You spend time with your family when you come home. You do work around the house and it seems you never have as much time as you would like to prepare your D&D sessions. Does this sound like you? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have endless material prepared for your D&D sessions anyways? That’s where Roll and Play Press comes in. Roll and Play Press provides D&D 5e Compatible materials for any type of session. Running a one-shot? Check out their One Shot Wonders book with over 100 one-shot ideas. Getting started with your new sci-fi campaign? Get their Game Master’s Sci-Fi Toolkit to have your games much more prepared. Why reinvent the wheel? Check out Roll and Play Press at rollandplaypress.com and get 10% off when you buy something by using the code BETTERDM10. Roll and Play Press

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. 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.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.You Have an IdeaEvery 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.You’re comfortable performingThis 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.If you’re interested in getting even more content like this and maybe even an opportunity to play D&D with me or one of the other hosts, sign up for our newsletter. It’ simple and free and best of all you get extra stuff. Who doesn’t like that. Just go to :https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe and subscribe.We’ll be back next week for another fun show.Until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Join Our DiscordSo a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today. DiscordAdd the Magic of Sound to Your GameplayWhen you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout. Monument Studios

You and your companions get off the boat and onto the dock of New Tuyen. You look around letting the sights and sounds greet you. You walk towards the city and allow yourself to acclimate to this new city. You first notice all the green. The buildings and roads are all made with a green material. After talking to a local citizen, you learn that the material is actually a moss that is particularly dense and sturdy. You also take in the smells of local street vendors who season their meats with intoxicating spices. Your stomach rumbles and mouth salivates as you pass one particular stall. The thing that strikes you the most are the people. You’ve heard about genassi but you weren’t prepared for this. Every person you has the form and shape of humanoids but instead of skin you simply see and element. One man made of fire walks past you without burning you and immediately after a woman made of shifting sand walks by without leaving any sand behind. Each person wears clothing like normal and their bodies are shaped like yours, but they seem so foreign. Especially alien to you are the space genassi. Their bodies looks like fields of stars and hair look like nebula. You’ve never seen anything so beautiful yet strange. Welcome to New Tuyen.What would you like to do?Welcome back to the 33rd episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis. Together, you and I will explore how to tell better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.We all know that planning D&D sessions is tough. Most of us do it only so we can play the session. There are those few of us who are masichists at heart and enjoy the torture, but I’m not talking to those freaks today.Instead, I’m talking to the other freaks who don’t necessarily love preparing for D&D sessions, but still love playing the game and being a DM anyways.You’re probably asking the question, “How much should I plan for my D&D session?”You’ve got lots of things to worry about in your life. You probably have a job, kids, a spouse, other hobbies, your physical fitness, dog, parents, friends, and everything else that’s going on in your life. You can’t plan every move your players would ever make. Well, I’m gonna give you a simple answer and a more complex answer. The simple answer is you should plan more than you think you should but less than your players think you have.Simple right. Well, let’s unravel that just a little bit.Plan to finish what you’ve started.I’ve covered this before, but you need to plan to finish what has been started in the last campaign. This is the minimum requirement. Right now in the campaign I’m leading with my players, I have two characters who just started two separate combat encounters while the rest of the party is back at camp trying to long rest. So naturally, I have to prepare these two separate encounters. For me that looks like reading into the capabilities of the adversaries that will be fighting my players and making sure I know what they can do and what they will most likely do. This also means thinking of the motives behind my players and their enemies to try and guess the most likely way things will go. But, knowing my players, it’s likely that I can’t predict what they will do and that’s ok.2 -3 Paths.After finishing these two encounters, I’ll likely have an opportunity to ask, “What do you want to do now?” That means the players will have to think about all the many options they have to do stuff and pick something. Again, there’s no possible way I can predict everything they are going to do. So I pick three possible paths that the players can choose. I’m not really at liberty to discuss the paths I’m preparing for my group now because one of the players is now a host on the this show (aka Cayden Ottley). Random Encounter FodderIt also helps to have some tables for random encounters in your back pocket. If you are playing a premade campaign, they’ll likely have some made for you. I think it’s also fun to add in IF - Then situations. For example. One of my players has a certain homebrew item that I gave to her many sessions ago. Since she attuned to it, I’ve had her keep track of how many monsters she’s killed with it. She finally reached 10 kills. Because of that, it’s triggered something new that will happen in the next session when she falls asleep. You can create all sorts of If - Then situations to help you plan what happens. If Player So and So does This and That then the Unexpected happens. Finish the next path stepping Stone.I say a good rule of thumb is to plan past at least one next major stepping stone. There’s a chance you won’t finish it, but on the off chance you do, at least you’re ready. This means that at a minimum you have a general idea of everything that happens in the dungeon for example. You know where the rooms are and you know how it’s all gonna go down (more or less, usually a lot less).Remember it’s a skill.Planning D&D sessions is above all else a skill and therefore requires practice. There will be sessions where halfway through you realize you have nothing else prepared. That’s ok. There will also be sessions where you finish the night and realize you didn’t get to half of what you had prepared. That’s an awesome feeling. As you go through playing D&D you’ll learn instinctually how much to plan for each session.It all has to relate to the playersIn listening to Writing Excuses this week (that’s a podcast about writing books), the hosts talked about world building. They said that everything you build for the world is only interesting in as much as it relates to the characters who are infinitely more interesting. I say prepare as much as you want to, but always make sure it relates back to the characters and the players. Get the essentials down (what’s going to happen next session) and then prepare some fun stuff for your players. Some people say if it stops being fun then stop prepping, but at the same time, prepping has to get done, so I say, use your best judgement and just try your hardest with it.I hoped you liked today’s episode. If you would like more of today’s content, then sign up for our newsletter. https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe You can even sign up to play D&D with me!Thanks again for listening to today’s episode. Come back next week for another amazing show.Until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Listen to Our New PodcastAs a listener of this show, you obviously love story. Now that you’ve learned how to craft your own story on this show, wouldn’t it be nice to have some inspiration? Or maybe just a moment of immersion and escape? Then come join us in our new Actual Play D&D 5e show, Pact and Boon. Enter the World of Calignos where our characters, Jolly, Wolfgang and Alon will meet each other in Hell. Enjoy our troublemaking and near-death experiences wherever great podcasts are heard. Just go to session0studios.com/pactnboon and start listening today. Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Join Our DiscordSo a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today. Discord

You all enter the doorway at the back of the chamber. This dungeon had given you and your companions many challenges. You’d almost lost McGregor in the first room and as you descended lower, each level became harder.In this last chamber, you’d expended all your magical energy just trying to put this pit fiend down. You look back at the demon, already its body is starting to turn to sludgy black ichor. You turn and follow your friends.You all walk down a long stone hallway and enter a very small room. In the room there is a single stone dais on which rests a very strange object. There’s what looks like a box with a round pane of glass on one side on a stand inches above a slab of something grey with square pellets on it. As you get closer, you see the pellets all have a single character on them. They’re arranged in some sort of grid pattern. You reach out and touch one. You hear a click. Instantly, the glass pane on the box lights up and you see moving particles of black and white and you hear a faint buzzing. You reach your hands toward the glass pain and you feel energy dancing on the surface. You touch the screen and flash!You open your eyes and find yourself surrounded by numbers and lines of light. You are in a very strange place that seems all angles and lines. There is nothing organic here. Instead of dirt, you stand on what feels like a mix between glass and metal and off in the distance you see the large gathered lights of a city at night. 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 are going to explore how to tell better stories while you DM a session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.Have you ever wanted to play D&D with people but you were separated by time and space….?Well as far as the time thing goes, can’t really help you. I’m fresh out of Tardis’ and Delorians.But the nice thing about living in the technological age is that distance is relative. You can now play D&D online with your friends or family, or complete strangers.But what do you need to play a session online? What a great question. Let’s dig in.Video conferencing toolAside from the basic essentials of needing a story and players, you need a medium through which you can all communicate. Obviously you can use free options like Zoom, Skype, or Google Hangout. Honestly, you could play just over the phone (but your minutes will probably go way over your monthly budget). I wouldn’t recommend playing over the phone because having that visual component is so easy, affordable and just really nice! If you are looking for just a video connection tool, I would say Zoom or Google Hangout, but the drawbacks are that you can’t do them for really long sessions. So my next recommendation would be a platform.PlatformAfter a video conferencing tool, the next thing to have would be a platform that syncs together all the players and everything that’s going on. I prefer Roll20. It allows you to use Video as you play and it also syncs the rolls of all the players and adds a lot of cool features that the DM can use. I am not affiliated with them but I really like what they do.VisualsThe next thing I would say you need is visuals. When I say need here, I more mean “it’s really easy to add and it’s free so you’d be really stupid and lazy not to add it.”  The point is there are so many free options out there that taking the time to make your sessions better takes just that time. For visuals again you can literally google cool maps and stuff and then slap that into a word doc or paint and have your players tell you where to move shapes that represent them. Obviously you can always use theater of the mind, but I personally love to look for tools to help immerse my players.MusicAfter visuals, the next thing to think about is audio. Because everyone is already in front a screen, adding cool audio effects is nice and honestly a lot easier than doing it at the table because you as the DM are already on the computer. If you get really into it you can look for voice changing softwares to help make each of your NPC’s unique. I really like how Mark Hulmes did this on High Roller’s Aeirois because it really made you get the feeling of the NPC’s.A strong internet connection.The biggest drawback to playing online is that you are at the mercy of your internet speeds. Said another way, you never have to wait for the other players at the table to buffer when you are playing in person. So, to get the best experience while playing D&D online, you gotta look for ways to improve your internet speeds. You also need to help your players when they have troubles. Sometimes your players just can’t make it happen and you have to be ready as a DM for that. Those are all the things I think you absolutely need or are at least free for the most part so there’s really no excuse for not doing them. Obviously you can look into getting a microphone or a webcam if you want to do this more often, but that’s going to cost you some money. I realize that you are spending tons of money as it is on this hobby so hopefully we can give you some great tips that don’t break the bank.If you do want tips and insights into some of the higher tiered Dungeon Master tools, sign up for our newsletter. You can go to https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe and subscribe for monthly updates, new content, homebrew items and even opportunities to play D&D with me and our other hosts. With those games, it’s first come first serve so better sign up quickly.Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or suggestions for the show on Instagram @geronimolevis and we’ll chat there.Come back next week for another amazing show. Until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.We Like YouHey Bud… How’s it going? Just wanted to say… we like you. We’re think you’re pretty cool. We hope you like us too. If you do like us and what we’re doing, you can support us on our Patreon. Just $1 a month is enough. Just go to https://session0studios.com/patreon and show your support. But even if you don’t… we still like you. See ya around bud. PatreonHire Us as Your Dungeon MasterDid you know that you can have one of our hosts here at How to Be a Better DM be your dungeon master? That’s right. All of our podcast hosts are professional dungeon masters that you can hire for your private or corporate dungeons and dragons game. We can do one-shots or long-term campaigns. If you want to schedule your first session with us, go to https://session0studios.com/dungeon-master-for-hire/ and get started. Dungeon Master for Hire

In this podcast, the hosts announce the launch of Monsters.Rent, a subscription service for D&D minis, and a new community for Dungeon Masters. They discuss YouTube rabbit holes and entitled behavior, share their current interests and hobbies, talk about the challenges DMs face, and emphasize the importance of personality traits in character creation. The hosts also introduce the purpose of the podcast and provide DMing tips for enhancing storytelling.