How to Be a Better DM: Dungeon Master Tips for the DM Newbie, the Hobbyist and the Forever DM

Hello, and Welcome to How To Be A Better DM. My name is Tanner Weyland, and together we will learn about how to prepare the best adventures and environments for our players to enjoy.This week, we were supposed to have a one-shot run by me, but my wife’s Grandma died this past week. The funeral was overlapping, so Justin offered to take over this month–stay tuned, as we are still rescheduling that. Otherwise, if you’d like to sign up for future one-shots, we have a couple coming up in the final quarter of this year: Robbie, or Bone Daddy, as he is affectionately known on the podcast “This Dungeon is Occupied,” will be running a horror-themed adventure in October for some of our listeners. If you’d like to hang out with us once a month, you can. We are filling up rapidly for that one-shot, but all you gotta do is sign up. It’s first come first serve so sign up quick. I will be running the one-shot the following month. With no further ado, let’s dive into today’s topic: D&D Etiquette.Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Do You Want to Earn some Money?🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!Why Listen to Ads?Ugh, another ad break. Let’s be real—ads are the worst. If you’re anything like my wife, you’d rather quit a show entirely than sit through another ad. So why suffer? Just skip them. Join our Patreon at patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and enjoy ad-free episodes with exclusive patron-only content—all for just $5 a month. Look at you, all fancy with your uninterrupted listening experience. So stop wasting time on ads (like this one). Go to patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and upgrade your listening today!Patreon

 Warmup: Tanner to JustinIntroDungeons and Dragons is evolving. Wizards of the Coast has come out with some major announcements in the last few weeks and today, we’re going to talk about them.Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Tanner Weyland, here with my cohort Justin Lewis. Together, we are going to learn how to craft better stories for you and your players as you DM sessions of D&D 5e and soon-to-be OneD&D (more on that later). Before we get to the meat of our conversation, let’s go through some housekeeping items.First of all, our next one-shot is coming up on September 17th at 2:00 Mountain Time. All the spots are taken up, but you can still watch by going to betterdungeonmaster.com/watch to enjoy a good game of D&D.Our next one-shot will be on October 22nd, and we are still nailing down the exact time for the one-shot, and we’ll let you know when we know. The important bit of information is that there is, at the time of this recording, only one open slot left in that one-shot. After that, we’ll be opening up our November singup. If you want to explore “The Web of Waking Dreams”, an original horror one-shot created by friend of the show and guest host Bone Daddy Rob from This Dungeon Is Occupied, go to betterdungeonmaster.com/one-shot and sign up today.Last thing I want to mention is that we need your help, desperately. Justin and I are committed to giving you amazing content, but sometimes we’re a little too close to the work. We need outside eyes and ears to tell us what is actually helping you become the very best dungeon masters possible. So to do that, go to betterdungeonmaster.com/feedback and fill as much or as little of that survey as you want. All of it is useful to us to make better content that tears down your barriers to ultimate DMhood. Main Content: Wizards of the Coast Presents - The FactsWizards will be releasing OneD&D in 2024.OneD&D will be created on the foundation of 5e but with input from the playersOneD&D will have a virtual engine created from the Unreal Engine to help facilitate online playOneD&D Playtest material will be available periodically on DnDBeyond. Now and beyond will be releasing digital/physical bundlesRaces changed to “backgrounds,” and the feats differentiate them.New race added, kind of the opposite of teaflings.Spelljammer is now released which are sourcebook for D&D in space.New resources for DragonLance will be released including a new companion board game that can be used to play through war scenarios.Initial Rule changes:Nat 20 automatically succeeds.No Monster/DM crit attacks.Magic attacks don’t crit, but physical attacks do.Intermission: Warmup Cont.Main Content Cont: Wizards of the Coast Presents - The OpinionsJustin:Tanner:Questions for discussionIs the Virtual TableTop a good thing?Price concernsConstraint on creativityPush the envelopeWhat is the purpose of Crits?ConclusionMentioned in this episode:Do You Want to Earn some Money?🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Save time with Roll and Play PressSave yourself some precious time with Roll and Play Press. Go to https://session0studios.com/rollandplay and use code BETTERDM10 at checkout.

“This is it?” Ulv asked in a hushed whisper.“You wanted rebels. These are the only ones I know of. They’ve come here to talk to you, now say something.” Herlia responds tersely.You sigh and step forward. You look around the basement of the tavern. Only a few candles hang around giving the room a gloomy cast. You meet the eyes of each of the 5 people sitting on barrels in this dank cellar.“Thank you for meeting me. My companion here told me that you’ve had certain misgivings about the current regime?” Ulv pauses to let the listeners absorb his words.“Ay, and we’ve come here to see that justice is done upon his cursed head. Are you gonna’ lead us to march against the king? Are we goin ta fight?” says one burly woman loudly. The others nod their heads and crack their knuckles.“Your courage is to be admired, but we’re here just to observe and strategize. We don’t want to take any undue risks. Now, who is your leader?” Ulv asks.“Oh, you mean Burto? He’s a tactical genius he is.”“Great, where is this Burto?” Ulv asks.“Oh, he’s in prison.”What would you like to do?[caption id="attachment_2380" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Photo by Stephen Hardy on Pexels.com[/caption]Every dungeons and dragons game starts with character creation and if you don’t help your characters flesh our a good backstory, your players will have a stale character they won’t much like. Today, let’s fix that.Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m Justin Lewis and I’ll be your host and DM today as you and I learn how to craft better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons.Today we will be talking about writing backstories, but first some housekeeping items.As I said before, we have our one-shot in September coming up on September 17th. All the slots for that are already filled but if you want to watch that show you can go to https://betterdungeonmaster.com/watch to watch the whole One-Shot at the time of the game. Otherwise sign up for October’s one-shot with guest host Bone Daddy from This Dungeon is Occupied.Now, let’s talk about writing backstories.As we’ve said before, having your players flesh out their character at the beginning can help set them up for an incredible time playing D&D with you as their Dungeon Master. One big part of fleshing out their character is writing their back story. If there’s one thing that any Dungeon Master is aware of it’s that their players rarely write their backstories and if they do, they don’t do it to the level we need. Well, no longer. You see, you, as their DM, will be able to ask them these questions and help them generate the back story they need. If you want, you can even write what they say down. Just make sure to form it in these terms. One last thing that I’d like to add before we get started. Help your players write backstories that are equal to their level. A level 1 character has only ever done level 1 things and lower. That doesn’t mean that they can’t have an interesting backstory. Instead, what it does mean is that the impact of what they’ve done is generally very small and localized, affecting mostly themselves and their family. They’ve never saved the world. In most cases, they may never have slain anything. For many level 1 characters, causing death is something they learn to do after they start adventuring. If a character is the exception then that should be a huge part of their backstory. What they’ve done is small but the emotional impact is huge.  ParentsOne of the best ways to start your backstory is by asking “What were my character’s parents like before the character was born?” See, this question will inform your character's story and help flesh out some of the later questions I’ll have you ask. Many of our lives as people are determined by who our parents were before we were born. Where they decided to settle down if they did.Were your parent's warriors? Were they scoundrels? Were they simple farmers?Why did they have a child? How do they regard you? When they found out they were having a child, what changes did they make? Did they shift their life away from what they were previously doing? Are they still doing what they were doing? If not, why did they stop?Let’s do an example:My character's parents used to run a library in a very small town. They were seen as the knowledge center of the town because the population was so small. They also did some secret jobs for various adventurers that came into town such as acquiring special spell components or herbs. One a few occasions they put their lives at risk for these components but mostly it was mundane items. When they found out they became pregnant, they reasoned a small town could not pay them enough money to allow a family of three to subsist. They then decided to move their library and book store to a much bigger city. This caused a tremendous culture shock for the parents and eventually pushed them to seeking out powerful friends who could help offer protection, for a price.You see how this simple question has led to a pretty awesome backstory and we don’t even know who my character is yet? ChildhoodNow you need to delve into your character’s childhood. There has long been a debate in the world of psychology of whether it is your nature (innate genes from your parents) or your nurture (what affected you after you were born) that determines how you develop. They are now attributing your development on both. We’ve already discussed your nature  (some of your parents’ heritage) so talking about your childhood is moving into your nurture aspect.You need to ask questions like: What was their childhood demeanor? Did they have siblings? Who were their best friends? How did they treat authority figures and why? What did they think about their parents? What did they think about their environment? When (if at all) was their innocence taken from them? When did they learn about death? Did they have a favorite pet?These questions will actually set the stage for the rest of your backstory. The backstory is really just a compendium of all the coolest stories of your character’s life. In reality, we all have interesting back stories in real life. We just need to dig deeper and think about those interesting stories that might not be really long but would instead be useful for instructing the player on how to actually play the character they create.Let’s continue with my previous character. For simplicity, let’s call this character John.John’s parents always provided for him and his younger brother, though there were times when John’s parents would hide things from their children. John would be inside and his parents would tell him to take his brother out to play outside and not come back until sundown. John remembers a specific time when he came home because his little brother got a scrape and he walked into his house and saw a group of people with Strange white masks. John’s parents immediately got very angry and yelled at him to leave. From that time on, John did everything he could to discover what his parents were up to. He was convinced that it was because his parents were struggling financially, so he also started looking for ways to make some extra money. Because of that, he took jobs very early on and seemed to lose a lot of his innocence and childhood. Meanwhile, John’s little brother became somewhat neglected because John focused more on discovering secrets and making money. As they grew, the two brothers developed a challenging relationship. John loved his little brother but his little brother seemed to fall in with the wrong crowd. Not knowing what else to do, John started inventing in hopes of creating an invention that he could sell that would allow him to spend more time at home with his brother and parents. All the while it seemed his family life fell apart somewhat. Why’d They Leave HomeLet’s think back to Joseph Campbell's hero’s journey. In every mythic hero’s journey tale, the hero is forced to leave their place of comfort. They are invited, or forced out into a world beyond their comprehension and shown things they do not understand. They also start to explore and adventure more and see the world for what it is. This is when their innocence truly leaves them because they have to leave their old self behind and really forge themselves anew.Here you’ll be answering questions like: How’d they gain their abilities (We’ll actually answer that next) Did they have a mentor, and if so who? What forced them out into the wide world? Why haven’t they returned home yet? What discomforts were the most difficult for them to come to terms with? What are they afraid of now? Who or what did they leave behind and how if at all do they keep that relationship strong? What are they running from or running to? How do they feel about their home? What questions do they have that need answering?You see with all these questions, you’re really starting to fill out your character and help yourself understand their decisions and how in the world they’ve landed where they are currently (session 0 or session 1). To be honest, a good DM will help you write these and also give an opportunity to actually play through them a little.The biggest point of this section of questions is to start to explain why the adventurer’s life started changing from “normal” to a life of adventuring.Let’s go back to my example with John.During his adolescent years, John spent lots of time creating inventions. Then he started noticing that some of his inventions began disappearing. One day, he came home from a short walk to find his parents and the people in the strange white masks taking his inventions. He tried to stop them and amidst the struggle, one of his inventions exploded. The blast nearly killed John but set the rest of the house ablaze. John searched the wreckage for his parents and found his mother, dead among the rubble. He also found three of the strange people with the white masks dead as well. Feeling intense grief and shame for the death of his mother, John decided he could not face his brother or father. He decided to flee.John disappeared into the city and did what he could to survive. He begged for food and even petitioned local machinists for some work. He finally found a Gnome Ironworker from the Kula Uwea Confederacy who took John in because he saw the prowess of the young inventor. John learned various skills there and even got a glimpse of his mentor’s process for smithing Deep Iron. But unfortunately, his past caught up to him. One night, the workshop where John stayed was assaulted by people in mysterious white masks. John’s Gnome mentor was killed, but not before giving John time to escape. Now John runs from the mysterious society with the white masks. Though John has spent years trying to understand who they are, he has found little evidence.Unbeknownst to John, his brother has joined the White Masked society and now seeks revenge upon John for the death of their mother.  Intermission:“I never thought I’d miss Rue,” Ulv whispers to Hipam.“Yeah, I supposed she was good for something…” Hipam whispers back in a very unconvincing tone.“It’s lucky Judir has such a high tolerance for alcohol,” Ulv mutters.“I think he actually cast protection from poison before starting this drinking game,” Herlia whispers.The group sits at a table in one of the seediest taverns in the city. Across the room sits Judir, bellowing loudly and drinking with another man. That man is one of the captains of the city’s prison. He is one of the captains with a key to the city’s prison. Judir’s job is to get the man blind drunk and then to have one of the group steal his key. None of the group were particularly suited to thieving, not like Rue was. You’ll just have to make do.“Either way, just keep an eye out for anything suspicious. We don’t need to…” Ulv whispers and then cut off as he notices the captain of the city Prison throw a right hook right into Judir’s jaw. Immediately that table erupts into a brawl.“Guess we’ll have to do this the not sneaky way,” Cojari sighs as he gets up from the table and joins the fight.   Gaining AbilitiesOne of the more important singular questions in writing a backstory is “How did they start to gain their abilities or discover their abilities?”Each adventurer in Dungeons and Dragons is on the path to becoming something special. Even level 1 heroes have started something amazing. The question to answer is how did they begin? Let’s look into this for each class.Barbarians: You need to explain where and how your character started learning to fight. You also need to explain the source from which they draw their rage.

Reach out to This Dungeon is Occupied at https://linktr.ee/thisdungeonisoccupiedpodWarmup: Justin to This Dungeon is OccupiedPrompt: Think of the last group you DM’d for. Now describe  the character that you would like to have played in that group if you could add a new character for yourself.Intro:Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m Justin Lewis, and together with my cohost Tanner Weyland, we help you craft better stories for yourselves and your players as you DM sessions of D&D 5d regardless of how much time or money you have.Today we are joined by some awesome guests, the voices behind the This Dungeon is Occupied Podcast. We have Illideen, Thorn and Bone Daddy. I’ll let them share their real names with you if they want in a second, but first, let’s go through a couple of housekeeping items. First of all, remember that we have the next one-shot coming up in September. Tanner is that game's Dungeon Master, and we have all the spots filled. If you’re interested in watching that one-shot as a spectator you can go to https://betterdungeonmaster.com/audience at the time of the one-shot and enjoy an excellent show for a few hours.If you’re interested in signing up for the next one shot, it will be in October and will actually be hosted by one of our guests here, Bone Daddy. He is a big fan of the horror genre so we thought it was appropriate to have him host a horror-themed Halloween one-shot. You can go to betterdungeonmaster.com/one-shot to sign up for that.Lastly, we just want to thank you for all your support. We really appreciate everything you do for us. With every episode we strive to give you even better content, so please tell us if we do something wrong or right.Now, let’s get into today’s show.So let’s get into our discussion topics. Feel free and introduce yourselves amidst our questions, but don’t feel that you have to.Main Topic: Preparing for SessionsWhat’s your main process for session prep?What tools do you use for session prep?How do you balance the main plot line and Individual Backstory plot lines?Break: Continuation of Warmup PromptPrompt: Now describe the moment when the character you described at the beginning of today’s show betrays the other characters in the party.Main Topic Continued: Preparing for Sessions Cont.How do you know you’ve prepared enough?Do you go back and revise any preparation (like editing a paper?)How much do you write out word for word versus simple prompts?Close:linktr.ee/thisdungeonisoccupiedpodMentioned in this episode:Signup for Our Email NewsletterDo you love the show but can't always listen to it? Do you prefer written content? Go to session0studios.com/newsletter/ and sign up to get weekly tips and tricks sent to your inbox so you can become the greatest DM the world has ever seen.Level Up GuideAdd 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 StudiosBrought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.

The podcast discusses the importance and creativity of handouts in D&D, including how they enhance storytelling and immerse players. They also explore different materials and techniques for creating authentic handouts.

Warmup from Tanner to Justin:If you could make a character for an uninterested player, what would it be?Intro:Welcome back, adventurer! We’re excited for another episode of How to Be a Better DM!Together, you and I will learn how to craft better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e, no matter your level of experience. Today I’m your host Tanner Weyland, with my compatriot, Justin Lewis.  With the references to D&D in popular shows like Stranger Things and even a Dungeons and Dragons movie coming out, the hobby has seen a large growth in new players and will likely see even more newbies join the game. This means that there will be both new DM’s and new players who need help and need to be shepherded into the world of D&D. It’s our job to make sure that happens in a way that encourages them to stay and today we’re going to talk about just that!Before we get into today’s main topic though, let’s go through some housekeeping items!  We’ve finally finalized the date of the next one-shot. It will be held online on Saturday, September 17th around 2 PM Mountain Time. So far we have all 5 players signed up. For those four players, we’ll be sending out a calendar invite to make sure they have the date settled. Next, just another shoutout to our show listener Robric Vanhelm. If you want to get his professionally made encounter in The League of Libraries: The Lorecroft Collection then go to betterdungeonmaster.com/robric and purchase it. All proceeds go to Robric who’s made some amazing stuff.Well, I think that is enough jibber jabber so let’s get to the meat of today’s conversation. D&D tips for beginners.Main Topic: D&D Tips for BeginnersJustinTalk with your players/DMThis tip goes both ways for new DM’s and new players. For the new DM: You need to ask your players lots of questions about what they would add to your game or what hasn’t really worked for them as well as tell them that they can freely talk to you and ask you questions. If you need info about a player’s backstory, ask them without delay. If you want your players offering you info about their backstory, tell them nothing would make you happier. Ironically, for such a “nerdy” game this game teaches a lot about relationships. In order to have a successful campaign, you absolutely need constant and consistent communication from all parties involved. If nothing else, you need that just to keep the game consistently scheduled.Encourage players to unlimit themselvesSometimes new players might look to the DM and think, “What is it they want me to do here?” If that is how you play as a DM, I suggest you rethink your style. I know my wife has said that to me in the recent past during our game and I took that as a personal failure. You want your players to think outside the box and treat the scenarios as real world scenarios where there are infinite options. The mechanics of the game are there to be just that, mechanics, processes that explain how consequences come about. If they want to try something, they can. It’s my job as the DM to think about how logically difficult (or perhaps impossible) that thing is and then let them try anyway.  So tell your players to let themselves imagine grand things and then try them out.You get out what you put inTannerTake ownership of the lore and content.As a new player, it may be easy to just arrive at the sessions and “tag along.” Instead, take ownership. Get some materials, whether you download or buy them. Also, know your own character’s backstory in a deep way. Study a little bit of your class’ mechanics every week. You might even want to study some of the deeper lore–that is when you can feel like a contributor, not a sidekick.Embrace Collaboration with both the players and DMThis is in a similar vein to my other tip, but it is a practical tip for creativity: your best ideas will come when you try to create them in collaboration with the DM or other players.Break (From Tanner to Justin)Main Topic Continued:TannerTry DMing.JustinIt’s ok to stopThis is a tip to relay to your new players. You need to let them know that this is a new thing they are trying. If they don’t like it they don’t have to keep playing just to make you happy. In fact, you should go one step further and tell them how exactly you want them to pull you aside when no one else is around and simply explain that you had some fun but D&D just isn’t their vibe, or their kids need more attention, or they have different priorities or anything else. What’s not ok is for players to constantly lead everyone on or force everyone to change their schedule because they don’t have the spine to say, “No thanks.” D&D is not for everyone. We welcome everyone and invite everyone, however who stays is entirely up to them. I’ll tell you this though, we will make some amazing memories with whoever stays.Describe Your Own CombatMentioned in this episode:Save time with Roll and Play PressSave yourself some precious time with Roll and Play Press. Go to https://session0studios.com/rollandplay and use code BETTERDM10 at checkout.Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Signup for Our Email NewsletterDo you love the show but can't always listen to it? Do you prefer written content? Go to session0studios.com/newsletter/ and sign up to get weekly tips and tricks sent to your inbox so you can become the greatest DM the world has ever seen.Level Up Guide

You crest a hill and finally see it. Moedinar, your 2nd childhood home. A flood of mixed memories enters your mind. You stop and your companions follow suit. You look over the large city. You see tall but sturdy stone buildings. You see precise streets and roads laid out in a grid pattern. You see a very large wall all the way around the city. What catches your attention most of all though is the lack of livery. You don’t see the traditional flag featuring a golden deer with enormous antlers, each one tipped with a candle, all on a field of deep green. You don’t see any of that. Instead, you see white flags blowing silently on a chill breeze. Instead of a golden deer with candles, you see the head of a deer with antlers of fire and in the fire the symbol of the elemental cult of fire. Yes, it looks like the cults has been here the whole time. Light snow begins to fall. You look at your companions and ask, “Anyone got any ideas on how to get past the wall guard?”What would you like to do?Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m Justin Lewis and I’m your DM today and together you and I will learn how to craft better stories for you and your friends as you dungeon master sessions of D&D 5e. We’ll help the noob DM, the Master DM, and everyone in between.As a DM, your highest goal will naturally be to achieve full immersion into the world you create. You want your players to feel like they are in the scenes you describe. There are many tools out there to help you do this, but to really achieve full immersion you need to engage all of the senses, including hearing. Therefore, many DM’s have turned towards music and ambiance to help achieve this. Today I’ll be sharing some D&D soundboard tools that you can use to help enhance your experience. Before I get to the tools, however, let me go through a few housekeeping items. First, a big thank you to everyone who has supported the show thus far. We really can’t keep going on without your help and support. It’s you that make this show possible.Second, I want to give a shoutout to show supporter Robric Vanhelm (Though that is his DM Name). He has given me and Tanner access to an encounter he authored on http://www.dmsguild.com/. It’s an awesome encounter called The League of Libraries: The Lorecroft Collection. He has generously offered up the Promo Version of this encounter to any of our listeners. We’ll make that available through our newsletter so if you want the promo version of the encounter go to betterdungeonmaster.com/newsletter. But after you get a taste for this encounter make sure to go to https://betterdungeonmaster.com/robric. All proceeds go straight to Robtic the DM who is a fantastic supporter of our show so you should be a fantastic supporter of him.Lastly, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve updated our website domain, so now going to betterdungeonmaster.com will be the home of the podcast. This means that moving forward the one-shot is at betterdungeonmaster.com/one-shot in case you want to sign up and you should! Spots are filling for our September one-shot. We have 3 so far and the target is 5 do get in before they fill up.I think that is way too many announcements so before I say anything else, let’s actually get to the meat of the show.IntroBefore I get to my list, let me first give a few caveats.Caveat #1: I have only compiled tools that are free to use in some capacity. I want you to be able to be a better DM without breaking the bank. I know and understand what it’s like to have a limited amount of time and resources to put toward this hobby. These are free so you can spend money on other things (like rent in some cases).Caveat #2: Your ambience/music situation will largely depend on your available equipment. If you have a cinematic surround sound system, great. If you have only a phone, great. It all works. How you use it is what matters. For the purposes of this episode, my system has access to:An Alexa speakerMy ComputerMy PhoneBluetooth handheld speaker.In the case of the two speakers, it’s an either or scenario where I can’t hook them both up. Maybe in the future, I will set up a better sound system, but that will probably be down the line when I have a dedicated gaming room rather than my dining room.YoutubeNow, I don’t even know if I have to mention this one. Youtube is an obvious choice because it is so widely used, no only for music but for videos. There are so many choices out there that it is inexcusable if you want to add music to your game but have been to lazy or haven’t found the right method. Start with Youtube and work to everything else. This is assuming of course that you have some method for playing the music.One note: When I’ve used Youtube, I’ve found that it’s easy to forget about the music and then suddenly an add comes up or it moves from one song to another that it totally wrong for the mood. Just be aware of this and know that it can have the opposite effect. Rather than immersing your players it can be somewhat Jarring.SpotifyOk, so I kinda lied a little bit. Spotify is free, however you get ads just about every other song. Luckily for me, my wife makes me pay for Spotify so we have it without ads. Regardless, Spotify is a great option for making those playlists for excellent D&D playing. It has a lot of options and you can even use soundtracks from your favorite video games or movies. A caveat here. If you are in some way monetizing your D&D sessions or your DMing you have to be very careful with which music you use and how. Copyright is a thing and you can get in trouble if you don’t abide by it. That said, if you’re playing with your friends then you can basically use anything. When I tried Spotify, I found it very difficult to create a playlist that fit general moods that I wanted. That’s because I don’t create general music playlists to listen for myself anyways. If you are good at making playlists then Spotify is a great choice for you.RPG Fantasy AppThis is the one that I’m currently using right now. It is like a basic soundboard that allows you to play both ambiance noise and music at the same time. I can even throw in sound effects though I never do because that seems a bit corny or overproduced. This app has a free version and a paid one. The free version doesn’t allow you to close your phone and have the music play so if you use this for free then you’ll need a charging cord nearby. I haven’t figured out a way to upload music to it as well which is kind of a drawback. It would be much nicer to be able to add music to it that I pull from other places.Roll20We obviously can’t talk about DMing in almost any context without mentioning Roll20. There are other platforms out there, but I’ve used Roll20 the most. It also has a feature that allows you to upload and play music so your players can listen to it. I’m not a huge fan of the UI but what are you gonna do. Roll20 also comes with some preloaded songs so if you plan on using Roll20 during a session and you specifically want to use the roleplaying soundboard capabilities make sure to spend some time testing out exactly which songs you want to use so you know what to use before the game starts.Syrinscape Fantasy PlayerSyrinscape on a mobile device is a bit heavy and takes a lot of memory. It has a lot of situation specific options though which does make for a great playing experience. It has other paid options that you can get if you create an account with Syrinscape. I think I would maybe use this tool in conjunction with other tools as it’s not my go-to. One thing in particular that I don’t like is that you have to download the packs for each scenario you want to try. Syrinscape is a little more sound effect heavy though it does have background music that works great for any D&D scene.You and your companions walk through the gates. You’d had to leave Judir’s bear outside. You don’t know how he’ll find the bear again but Judir doesn’t seem concerned. After making it past the wall and the guards you all immediately look for a side alleyway where you won’t draw attention. You find it and immediately start pulling off your disguises.“It worked, but I won’t ever do that again. Dressing up as women? How in the world did you come up with that idea Cojari?” You ask.Cojari shrugs as he undoes a corset and starts to wipe makeup off of his face. “Infiltration makes you think up all sorts of crazy ideas. Believe me, this ain’t the worst way of getting in somewhere, not by a long shot.”Hipam snickers and points at a grumpy Judir. “Yeah, but at least this way we got to see Judir look like a lady hehe. That’s a memory I’ll be keeping for a long time.” Judir throws a bonnet at Hipam. Those two were becoming fast friends. You’re in the city now. Next step is to look for dissidents.What would you like to do?TabletopyOne of the things I like most about Tabletopy is the simplicity. You can use it in Browser form and it’s not complicated. There are icons demonstrating what the sounds/music is and you can click more than one and use multiple at the same time. There are icons with infinity symbols that mean they play on a loop and others with a number 1 meaning that they play a single sound and you have to click again to play it again. There is also a software version of the soundboard that I haven’t yet downloaded. The browser version is simple and useful enough that anyone can open it up and start using it right away.Tabletop AudioWhile Tabletopy is beautiful in its simplicity, Tabletop Audio is rugged in its complexity. There are a lot of options on Tabletop Audio for both paid and free users. The Paid users support the creators via their Patreon but there are enough free resources to whet your whistle. I particularly like the Sound Pad feature where you can click on a Motif such as “dark forest” or dungeon and then there are a handful of resources from sounds effect to background music and ambiance. There is even a broadcast feature within the sound pad that you can send to your players if you aren’t playing in the same locale. That allows them to digitally hear what music you are playing and stay tuned in that way. Ambient MixerAmbient Mixer, as its name suggests, is a tool primarily for creating ambience. You can find the right mix of natural and unnatural sounds that would be occurring within the scene you are creating in D&D. As a D&D soundboard, it’s useful only as much as you want to create those scenes. It doesn’t help with music as far as I can tell, though more often than not, ambiance does the trick just fine. With this tool, you do need to look for the moods you want beforehand. Searching the whole site can get fairly difficult and complicated if you are attempting to do it during the game. Overall though, it’s a great free option for the Dungeon Master looking to help their players hear the game as well as play it.“Ulv, you’re alive? I thought you were dead!”You stand silently facing Herlia. She was a friend of yours when you were younger. You and she had both gone to the academy together. Because you weren’t slated for the throne, you’d entertained thoughts of courting her. But that was before. Things were so different now. Now, you have responsibilities and bigger problems.“Herlia, I know it’s been a while, but we’re here for a reason. Hobart, my brother, he’s destroying the kingdom. We’re here to stop that. I saw you and knew you’d help us. Do you know of any dissidence in the city or anyone unhappy with the king’s rule?”Thank you so much for listening to today’s show. We here at How to Be a Better DM are constantly surprised and appreciative of the messages of support we get and the fact that people even listen. We truly want to be the very best support for Dungeon Masters who want to take their craft and make it something special, and you are helping us do it. We couldn’t do it without you, so I’m gonna end this episode with a massive thank you. We’ll be back next week, but until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.Bonus Resource: Monument StudiosThere is also a bonus resource for you call Monument Studios, and they are actually a supporter of the podcast. Go to www.fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off your first month and then the rest of the months are only $4.99 with the code BETTERDM at check out.Mentioned in this episode:Signup for Our Email NewsletterDo you love the show but can't always listen to it? Do you prefer written content? Go to session0studios.com/newsletter/ and sign up to get weekly tips and tricks sent to your inbox so you can become the greatest DM the world has ever seen.Level Up GuideBrought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.I Made a CR 100 MonsterI made a Monster with a Challenge Rating of 100 Why? Because I could—and it only took me 5 minutes using Worldsmith. And the best part? You can do this and much more. Get a free 7-day trial at session0studios.com/worldsmith and unlock their full suite of TTRPG generators from monsters to mythic magic items and everything in between. Yep, that’s a full 7-day trial—completely free. That’s a whole week of monsters, magic items, and more—whatever you need, zero burnout. Try it now at session0studios.com/worldsmith. Save time and make unlimited creations with Worldsmith.

Warmup: JustinI want you to pick the bond, flaw, personality trait, and ideal for a Tiefling artificer named Troaxiaus.Intro:Main Topic: Character Creation Explained Simply + Useful ToolsIn explaining the character creation we aren’t just reiterating the process as defined in the player’s handbook, though we are doing that to some degree. In doing this, we are attempting to help you think of simple ways to explain the process to novice players. You see this episode is about you dear listener-adventurer. Oh no… it’s about your players. We will work through this process to help you work through it with the noobiest of noobs to D&D. So let’s begin. We will first describe the different processes simply and then maybe give some tips or tools for helping players. As you’ll notice, the order we describe these is the same order described in DNDBeyond though we might recommend different ways of doing things.Let me stress something as well. Making the character creation easy and fun is important because if your players never get past this part they will never play.Race - TannerRace can be a complicated or simple factor in your campaign, and you should plan out your stance (and your NPCs stances) before you recommend anything to your players. Will you have racist NPCs, or will stereotypes be accepted from the get go (Tolkien-esque /typical fantasy)?If you are making your own world and campaign, are you reframing the races, and should that affect your player’s decision? Like, if orcs in your world are typically nerds, should you discourage your player who wants to be a warrior from playing them?In terms of stats, let them do whatever they find interesting. But, then encourage their racial choice to actually affect aspects of their role playingBut, once again, people are not just walking stereotypes—don’t make your player be a copy and paste version. Also, encourage them during character creation to branch out (if they aren’t), or to consider their race’s environment.Class - JustinAside from choosing your race, your class may have the most impact on your character. It will help you define how your character interacts in combat and in non-combat situations as well as how others will interact with you. That said, choosing a class can be very confusing. As a DM, I like to ask my players questions like:How do you like to fight enemies?What do you want your character to be good at in and out of combat?Do you want to use magic?If so, how complex do you want your magic to be?Are you ok with only getting one opportunity to attack during a combat round?What video games do you like to play if any?How does your character regard deity?I have found that certain questions actually are a waste of time. These questions make it harder such as:What do you want your character to be able to do?What contributions do you see your character making?What weapon do you want to use?In general, the more specific the question, the better. I would even go so far as to ask binary questions to force one answer or another.Obviously, this is somewhat superfluous for a player who’s had the opportunity to play D&D for a second.Abilities - JustinThe abilities portion is determining your natural abilities as well as how your race and class choices affect those. This is part of assessing your genetics and upbringing and how they affect your character. Simply put, if everything you do were split into 6 categories how good would your character be in those 6 categories. Consequently, that’s exactly how it works in D&D. So there are 6 categories: Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution. You’re going to help your players determine the scores for those categories. There are 3 methods: point-buy system, manual roll, or standard array. Each has its pros and cons depending on the type of game you want to play. Most people end up picking the roll method so that’s what I’ll detail here.You get 4d6 and then roll them. Take the highest 3 numbers and add them together, write that down. Then repeat that 6 times. Lastly, you can assign those scores to the individual categories. Then you’ll adjust those scores based on advantages given to the character from their background, class, or race. You then take your score and calculate your modifier which is just a number that actually gets added to your rolls. Now personally, I prefer to do this before choosing a class or race. I like it because I want to be able to strategize my choices with my race and my class. It really only matters if your race allows you to choose specific bonuses to abilities. Otherwise, do it the normal way.I find that having a lot of paper nearby is really handy for this portion. You will be writing a lot if you aren’t using DNDBeyond.BreakI want you to describe a situation in which the ideal of the character created in the very beginning is challenged by their flaw, bond, or personality trait.Description - JustinMore than any other step in the character creation process of D&D, choosing your description informs your narrative storytelling more than anything else. I would highly encourage your players to really flesh out this section as much as possible.Here again, the need for specific questions arises. Don’t just ask what your face looks like.Ask questions like:What color are your eyes?How much do you smile?How big is your nose?How thick are your eyebrows?Do you have wrinkles in your face or smooth skin?Do you have any piercings of scars?Any facial hair?How severe are your cheekbones?Describe the shape of your jaw.You could honestly go on and on. It can get fairly tedious, so pick the most prominent features. Imagine you are describing your character to a suspect sketch artist from the police. You need to be able to identify them from a crowd.Apart from the simple physical description, you want to describe their nature and their history.You’re going to help your player describe their character's ideals, bonds, flaws, and personality traits. This is how I would describe each to a player:Personality Trait: If you were to hang out with your character for a week, what one thing would you say would stick out to you while just hanging out and chilling in your house with them?Flaw: If you were your character’s roommate, what would annoy you the very most about them?Ideal: If you had to summarize this character, what basic life guiding principle would you ascribe to them?Bond: If this character were wanting to settle down anywhere, what force would pull them or stop them from doing that?Those questions aren’t perfect but they help you narrow down to get in the right ballpark. Having those are incredibly important. More than anything, I would say the bond and ideal are the most important to have down in a concrete way. Why? Because I am definitely going to have their bond come knocking on the door and their ideal will definitely be challenged in a very specific way. Honestly, their bond might be the thing challenging their ideal, or it might be their flaw or their personality trait.Here you can also help your player pick any allies they want to have. I don’t usually do that because I want that part to be in the story we write together but to each their own.Equipment - Tannerdon’t let them be overpowered. Nuff said. They will want to, but then everything afterward will come off lame.Now, if it is a one-shot, then you can give them more freedom.You will probably need to help your players choose their equipment based on their specialties.Question:Conclusion:Mentioned in this episode:Get The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree For FreeTake a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.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 StudiosBrought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.

This is "How To Be A Better DM." Thanks for listening to today’s show! This is Tanner, and I am excited to talk about how we can all prepare to be the best DMs we possible. Today, I am discussing how to plan D&D campaigns.We really appreciate all the support you guys give us. If you’d like to hang out with us once a month, you can. All you gotta do is sign up for our quarterly one-shot D&D sessions which are DM’d by one of us. Our next one-shot session. It’s first come first serve so sign up quick. The sign up link is: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/one-shotNext, make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You’ll get even more content, behind-the-scenes looks, homebrew creations made by us and more. It’s free and it comes out once a month so it won’t be a bother to you. Sign up at: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribeMentioned in this episode:Why Listen to Ads?Ugh, another ad break. Let’s be real—ads are the worst. If you’re anything like my wife, you’d rather quit a show entirely than sit through another ad. So why suffer? Just skip them. Join our Patreon at patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and enjoy ad-free episodes with exclusive patron-only content—all for just $5 a month. Look at you, all fancy with your uninterrupted listening experience. So stop wasting time on ads (like this one). Go to patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and upgrade your listening today!PatreonGet The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree For FreeTake a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.

Warmup:Tanner: What would be the simple premise of a one-hour session you would plan for friends who hadn’t played D&D?Intro:Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Tanner Weyland, here with my counterpart Justin Lewis. Together we are going to learn how to weave better stories for you and your players while you dungeon master sections of D&D 5e. We will walk you through the steps from someone who’s never played D&D to High-Level Dungeon Master. Before we get to today’s main topic, we have a couple of housekeeping items to go over.First of all we want to send a huge thank you out into the digital waves of the internet to Anna Craven. Anna has played in our one-shots a couple of times and she has also sent Justin and myself an amazing gift! She’s hand-crafted notebook covers with the design of a dungeon on the front and back and created a very awesome Dungeon Journal. So far, Justin and I love these notebooks and want to say thank you so very very much! We’ll be posting a picture of them on our Instagram at how to be a better DM so you can see the fine craftsmanship. Thanks again Anna, we really appreciate it!Next, another reminder that we are moving to a once-a-quarter schedule for our One-shots. The next one-shot will be held in September by myself. If you want to get in on it, sign up now. So far we have 2 slots with a tentative yes that will be confirmed soon. It’s first come first serve so make sure you come first.Main Topic: Dungeon Master EssentialsJustinWaterSitting at the DM table can get very tiring especially if you aren’t properly hydrated. You spend the entire session talking so naturally, you’ll need some water. I’ve found that water is the best choice. While other beverages can have better taste, water allows you to keep your head and not get too antsy.The DM Screen When I first started playing D&D, I saw the screens of the dungeon master and thought that it was unnecessary. Indeed, when I started DMing, I didn’t use a DM screen. Then I started and I found that it made a huge difference. I saw two primary differences:My players regarded me more as the DM. I had more authority. Whether this was perceived or not, it doesn’t matter. I like to think of the DM Screen as almost a part of the uniform of the Dungeon Master.I didn’t have to worry about hiding my notes from my players. When you sit next to your wife while you play as I do, you have to guard the secrets you put on paper. A DM screen takes the temptation away from her. MusicNow, I’m generally not a heavy-handed person. Having music is a nice way to both set the mood and also remind your players that it’s Dungeons and Dragons time. It’s really nice to be able to turn the music up when players get distracted or start having side conversations. Rather than cutting the immersion when you ask your players to stop, you simply amplify the music volume and they get the hint. It’s also great for just setting the mood in general. A must-have.Tabletop MinisI like D&D because it transitions from hyper-regulated combat to very fluid roleplaying. Having minis takes a lot of the guesswork out of combat and can make it a lot more visual. That said, it can be used as a crutch and should be used judiciously. You should also explore options for trying it in other ways.TannerA Great Seat/Proper Height Table: You will be at the table for a while. You will want to enjoy the whole time. Nothing can ruin your experience like a bad seat that does not have a back, or one that does not encourage proper posture. Further, if you like to stand up and walk around the table, you don’t want a table that is so low that you are bending below the waste to reach it (picture coffee table).Dice, and Extra DiceYou are supposed to be the fastest of all the people there. While dice rolling software is nice, you need one that is either user-friendly (read: tablet) or you need a lot of actual dice that are organized and close at hand.Bonus:Close:Thanks again for being with us on this awesome journey. Justin and I have learned so much and we are continually learning. We’re going to put out ever better content and help you tell the greatest stories the world has ever known. We’ll be back next week to help you do just that, but until then, let’s go ahead and roll the initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Get The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree For FreeTake a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.Save time with Roll and Play PressSave yourself some precious time with Roll and Play Press. Go to https://session0studios.com/rollandplay and use code BETTERDM10 at checkout.Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.