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

Welcome back to another episode of How to Be a Better DM.Today Tanner and Justin talk about their favorite enemies!Today's music was provided by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roABNwbjZf4Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.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!PatreonStart Leveling Up As a DMWouldn’t it be nice to gamify your dungeon master abilities? In D&D, characters can reach level 20, so why can’t dungeon masters? We’re happy to tell you that now, you can. We created the Dungeon Master Level-Up Guide. It’s a simple tool to gamify your progression to higher and higher levels of dungeon mastering. It includes Dungeon Master Levels 1 to 20 with associated XP requirements as well as a long list of Dungeon Master activities that will give you XP. Each activity has a Challenge Rating and an XP amount. In order to level up, all you need to do is find out how much XP you have, find out how much you need and pick activities to try. You can get the Dungeon Master Level-Up guide for free by going to session0studios.com/newsletter/, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you the Level-Up Guide. Finally, leveling up as a DM can be as fun as leveling up a character. Level Up GuideGive Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m one of your hosts, Tanner Weyland, and together you and I will learn how to tell better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.Today I share my thoughts on how to communicate with "that one player." Difficult interpersonal issues are often solved with open and constructive communication.If you like the podcast today, or if you have suggestions for future podcasts, connect with us on our new instagram @howtobeabetterdm 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/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!PatreonGive Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.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.

It's another duo-show with Justin and Tanner.Listen afterward for a note from our sponsor.Mentioned in this episode:Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.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.

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: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.Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.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 Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.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.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.

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. 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:Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.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.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

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: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.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. DiscordBrought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

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: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. DiscordBrought 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.Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

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: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.Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.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

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.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.Give Us a Rating and ReviewYou obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.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? 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