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

You look around you. You see the circle of stones surrounding you. You see Judir watching you with his arms folded surrounded by your closest friends and companions. You take a deep breath and walk forward.“The winds whisper still,”Runic symbols appear on the stones of the circle.“The voices of the ancients.”You stand above the bowl with it’s red liquid.“And the mountains remember their steps.You bend over and pick up the bowl.“Their hearts beat still with the rhythm of our drums.”You raise the bowl to your lips.“And we dance to the rhythm of theirs.”You drink the liquid.“The storm carries the embrace of our elders as through us their memory lives on.”You open your eyes. You don’t remember closing them. You also don’t remember being so cold. You look around you. You are on the slope of a mountain. It’s snowing. You see the mountain peak. You see the dancing lights of the northern sky surrounding the mountain. You hear a faint drum beat and distant voices singing an ancient song.What would you like to do?Welcome back to the 26th episode of How to Be a Better DM. As always, I’m your host, Justin Lewis and together you and I will learn how to craft ever better stories for yourself and your friends as you DM a session of D&D 5e.Before I get to today’s show, let me make a few announcements.First of all, welcome to a brand spanking new year! I hope 2022 is everything you hope it will be for you and more. This year you will have amazing adventures that you can’t even fathom yet. You’ll have struggles and triumphs and I’m excited for you.Next I’d like to invite you to join us on those adventures. The best way to do that right now is to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You can do so on this link: https://mailchi.mp/05e568274671/subscription-pageWhen you sign up you’ll get access to behind-the-scenes content, special event links (like the one-shot I will be hosting, more on that in a second), and even access to homebrew content I make that you can test out and give me feedback on. As more and more people join the newsletter we’ll put more and more stuff in it. So go to the link here in the show notes and subscribe. As I mentioned, I’m going to DM a one-shot online for a handful of people. If you’re interested make sure to sign up for the newsletter and then look for the link to sign up for the one-shot there. It’ll be a fun experience and you’ll even get to give me feedback and be my critic :)I think that’s all the announcements … for now… so without further ado, let’s talk about barbarians.As I said last week, any person can play any class and still have fun. Your job as a DM though is to help shepherd your players to find the class that offers the experience any given player is looking for. That means you should know what each class is good for and what each class does not offer. Last week we talked about who should not play as a barbarian.This week, let’s look at who would have the most fun playing a barbarian.Someone who wants to be strongIf someone wants to be strong, then a barbarian class is a great fit. You get a natural bonus to strength and while you are raging you get advantage on strength checks. So if your player is looking to be the beefy fella at the gym that everyone stares at, then a barbarian is the way to go.Someone who wants to be up-close-and-personalBarbarians, while being able to throw javelins and use ranged weapons, are not known for being ranges combatants. In fact their rage only gives them a bonus if they are using melee weapons. Most barbarians therefore tend to stay close to their enemies in order to get in there and whack em real good.Someone looking for simple combat turnsMost barbarian turns are comprised of movement, rage, attack. As you level up, that attack action allows you to attack more than once. You may find magical items that allow you to do more on your turn, however talking just about the class itself, a barbarian’s combat turn is relatively simple compared to other classes. This makes it a great option for someone who doesn’t want to have to write their whole turn down just to remember it.Someone who enjoys describing combatObviously any class can do this, but because a barbarian’s combat turn is very simple it allows for more time to craft intricate embellishments of attack options. Even as a DM you can do this for your player if they are somewhat shy or un-descriptive. For example. Your player might say, “I attack the gnoll.” They then roll and roll a 18 which is a hit. You ask them to roll damage. They roll 7 points of damage. You can then narrate it like, “Yolanda pulls back her great club in her right hand and with her left shoves the gnolls shield out of the way so she can get a good crack right under its ribs forcing it to send out a hyena like yip yip yip as Yolanda growls in triumph”. Now let me assure I am not that eloquent in my actual games but you get the idea. Feel free to encourage embellishments like that at the table, especially for players whose turns seem really short compared to other players.Someone who is naturally boldBarbarians are somewhat known for rushing into situations without thinking them out completely. If you have a player who tends to play like this no matter what type of character they are, then maybe lead them toward choosing a barbarian so that their character doesn’t seem so out of character sometimes. Someone who wants to be able to take a hitWith rage, and especially the totem warrior whose chosen one of the bear options and gets resistant to almost all types of damage, you get to reduce the amount of damage you take from most weapons by half. Add to that the fact that barbarians generally have much more health than other classes and you get a pretty tanky character. Other classes might have higher armor class, but a barbarian can take a ridiculous amount of damage and still keep fighting. Someone who isn’t yet aware of the consequences of actionsBecause a barbarian can take a punch and still keep going it’s a great choice for a newer player who hasn’t yet realized you can’t just go in guns-a-blazin everywhere you go. If you have a sorcerer who thinks they can be the first one walking into a dungeon, they will probably die. That exact thing happened in my group when we started and now that sorcerer is in the back and the barbarian goes first. There’s a lot more room for error.Now you know who to help choose a barbarian. As I’ve said probably 3 or 4 times before, any player can play any character. We are just trying to give each player the highest chance of having as much fun as possible.But what do you think?Are there other players that should play a barbarian?Tell your thoughts and experiences DMing by sending me a direct message on Instagram @geronimolevis and let’s get talking.Thank you so much for listening to another episode. Seriously if you have any feedback please let me know what you think or any other topics you’d like to hear. Please leave a rating and review wherever you listen to this, on Spotify, Apple Podcast or Google Podcasts. That would go super far in helping other DM’s find this resource.We’ll be back next week for another awesome episode, but until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.Today’s music:Viking God Wisdom - Ean GrimmViking music (Epic battle music) - EPIC MUSIC NO COPYRIGHT - Medieval music 1 hour mixMentioned 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.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.

You and your companions finally crest the hill. Judir said it wouldn’t be far and it wasn’t.He leads you all through a small copse of trees to an overlook with large stones in a circle.“Ulv, you stand in the center of the ring. The rest of you, sit down and witness.” Judir says with a tone of finality.You give each of your party members a meaningful glance and then move to the center of the ring as your friends sit down on the ground outside the ring of stone.Judir walks up to you and pulls your pack off of your back. He then beckons for you to remove your shirt. He take is all out of the ring. He comes back and now has a small bowl in his hand. He dips his finger in the bowl and then begins moving the finger along your face, neck and arms. He’s painting something.“You will be completely alone. Your friends won’t be able to help you and neither will I. Once you start the ritual, you have to finish it… or it will kill you. Now is your last chance to change your mind. After this there is no going back.” Judir turns his back on you without letting you answer. He moves a few feet away and places a bowl on the ground, uncorks a cask and pours a liquid into the bowl and then sprinkles some powder into it. He then walks to outside of the circle and says, “Drink the liquid and say the words to begin.”What would you like to do?Welcome back to the 25th episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and I’m here to help you craft more compelling stories for yourself and your friends as you DM a session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.I hope you all had an amazing Christmas with you and your family. See, that’s what it’s all about, family. I hope you and your family had an amazing Christmas and maybe even had some fun playing games like D&D.Next, I’d like to remind you to sign up for my monthly newsletter starting in January. You’ll get access to behind the scenes content, access to homebrew items, game hooks and one-shots and even the ability to sign up to play a one shot with me and some other cool cats! If you want to sign up for this awesome newsletter, sign up here: https://mailchi.mp/05e568274671/subscription-pageNow, a few weeks ago we talked about who should and shouldn’t play a rogue. Well, we’re continuing our discussion today with who shouldn’t play a barbarian!Aside from the wizard and the fighter, a barbarian might be the quintessential D&D class. When people think D&D, they think wizard, fighter and barbarian. But not everyone is cut out to enjoy a barbarian.Like I’ve said before, anyone can play any class. Period. But each class offers different experiences and if you’re looking for the following experiences, you won’t want to play a barbarian.You want to avoid getting hitBarbarians have the ability to halve a lot of damage types when they are raging. This means they are ideal to be up front and center in most fights. Being a barbarian generally means you are the spearhead in most fights. So if you are shy around getting hit by weapons, you might not want to play a barbarian. You enjoy complicated combat turnsIn D&D the only true limitation is your imagination! That said, unlike monks who can punch like 15 times a turn or sorcerer’s who can cast like 15 spells, as a barbarian, you generally whack. When you get higher levels, you can whack whack, and later even whack whack whack. Oh and don’t forget to RAGE!! Yeah that’s generally how your turns will go: Rage, move, attack. Sometimes you’ll do a strength check or stuff like that but compared to the other classes, a barbarian has a relatively simple action economy.You Want to Be a Ranged CombatantAs a barbarian, you will naturally get a bonus to your strength. As well you get a bonus because of rage to your melee attacks. Put these two together and choosing to fight with mostly ranged weapons is seriously foregoing a large part of the class. Being the Absolute SmartestUnlike the other more academic classes (your wizard or your bard), the barbarian is not known for their powers of intellect. I’m not saying you can’t have a tremendously intelligent barbarian, but I am saying in character creation we each make choices. There are tradeoffs. As a barbarian, you will likely prioritize strength and other physical characteristics. So get used to showing off your muscles and not your brains… usually. Don’t like to be High EnergyIf you want to play a character that is generally calm and smooth and relaxed, then a barbarian might not be for you. One of the central pillars of being a barbarian is the rage. So naturally, your character will often be enraged. This means that your character will probably have lots of energy and get angry, at least part of the time. So there you have it. If you want these experiences, don’t be a barbarian. Now one thing to remember is that these are the general principles of being a barbarian. It may be a really cool character to buck the trope and instead do something opposite. For example, you have a mild mannered person who gets incredibly angry. Or maybe you have a very high energy character who when they rage get very calm, serious and deliberate. All of these could be fun ways to twist the trope. But it has to make sense. Thank you guys for listening to today’s show. I really appreciate all the support you shown me. Don’t forget, if you want to play a one-shot with me as you DM sign up for the newsletter and then sign up for the one shot in January’s Newsletter. If you have any suggestions or comments about the show, send me a direct message on Instagram @geronimolevis I look forward to starting up the conversation with you.We’ll be back next week for another great episode. Until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.Also, if you liked the music at the beginning of today's show, then head on over to Instagram and send a thank you to @caydmusic and tell him you loved his music!Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Add the Magic of Sound to Your GameplayWhen you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout. Monument StudiosGive 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.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.

You finish pouring the elf’s blood in a circle in the prescribed way. “Hey Bolgir, are you sure we’re supposed to do it this way? Doesn’t this seem uh…. Somewhat uh… hellish to you?”Your dwarven wizard pauses and looks at you and says, “Well, honestly yes, but this is what that cooky wizard, Kamere, said when we were at that council meeting. It’s even here on his shopping list he gave us.”You smile. That parchment did indeed look like a shopping list.Bolgir steps to the center of the bloody circle and looks toward the arch of uncut stones. He mutters a few words and smacks his hands together. The space under the arch splits as if reality itself were torn. The rift widens and soon you see a large figure step through. They had dark blood red garb trimmed with stark white fur. You hear a tremendous laugh, deep and imposing. You feel a gravity that accompanies those of great power. It’s then that you notice the scenery through the right behind the figure. You expected to see the bright colors of the Feywilds. Instead you see the dark hues of Shadowfell. You then notice the figures eyes glowing blood read.“Bolgir, I think we’ve made a mistak….”Instantly you are blasted with a wave of power as the red-clad figure blasts you and your companions and then bounds off towards the village. You and your companions raise yourselves to your feet.What would you like to do now?Welcome back to the 24th episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and I’m here to help you craft better stories for yourself and your friends as you DM a session of D&D 5e. First of all, Merry Christmas! I sincerely hope that this holiday season sees you surrounded by loved ones and filled with joy.Second, I’d like to invite you sign up for a monthly newsletter I am going be publishing starting in January. The newsletter will include updates from the H2BBDM team as well as bonus content, behind the scenes looks and access to Homebrew content created by me! A little teaser of what you might get this January is access to a new item I created called the Gym Bag. If you want to know what it does, sign up for the newsletter at :https://mailchi.mp/05e568274671/subscription-pageThirdly, would you like to join a session of D&D with me? I’ll be your DM for a one-shot online. I’ll be looking for five people to sign up for a fun one-shot on a first-come-first-serve basis. How do you sign up you ask? Well sign up for the newsletter and then in January you’ll get the sign up link right to your inbox. I’ll tell you right now, I got a few interested people already so be quick or you lose your chance :)Now, in honor of this festive season, here are 2 Christmas themed one-shot or side quest ideas for you to celebrate the season. The Search for the Prophesied ChildThis one shot starts with your adventurers arriving in a foreign port after having been charged by a benevolent mage-king to find and bring special gifts to, a prophesied child of great power. The whole side-quest will take place in a kingdom that is at war with the Kingdom to which the benevolent mage-king belongs, therefore he needs adventurers to go incognito to find the child.At the foreign port, along with any other tasks the adventurers want to handle, they must first find a guide to take them through the desert to the region that is prophesied as the site of the child’s birth. I would give them a couple options, each with consequences, for example. One group might find a desert guide name Yosran who is a large Dragonborne, but is secretly a spy for the malevolent kingdom. If the group travels with Yosran, there is a large chance that they will be stopped by enemy legionnaires. The next challenge is for the group to travel through the desert. This will encompass survival checks, random encounters if you want, and possibly even some planned encounters such as fighting a cloud giant. Finally the group will find the child, and in a true Christmas-3-kings-vibe, will present the gifts to the child and their parents.The last challenge will be to help the child escape when it is found out that a large army of soldiers has been sent to kill the child. If it’s a one-shot, it might be cool to have the heroes give their lives fighting the army 300-Style so the babe and it’s parents can escape. I would plan another method for escape though because your players may not like that option. Having a diversion and a secret escape where the group only needs to content with a handful of soldiers is a great option too. The end of the one-shot may feature the heroes returning to the mage-king brining the prophesied child and it’s parents to explore a bright new future, or something like that.Full of Christmas FearThis Christmas one-shot is all about spreading Christmas cheer, until things go really wrong. The group will start out being summoned by the council of one of the big cities. They appear and the council makes the case that things have been very dreary lately. The council has decided that they need to brighten the city’s spirit. To do this, they have decided to hire the adventuring group to summon a great fey spirit of immense power to bring cheer and joy to the city. A wizard then gets up and explains how to summon the spirit. The wizard is incredibly old and misremembers many things. He eventually gives the group a list of things and says this is what you need. You also need to travel to a specific place (probably Christmas related) and perform a special ceremony. He then gives the group everything they need except for 2 things on the list. Each item can be harvested by enemies (for example, Hags hair from a hag, Ice Giant’s white hair, etc.). These become the encounters. The group then makes their way to the ritual location where the enact the ritual. A red rift opens up letting in flurries of whimsical snow. Out steps a large red-clad individual who laughs a deep laugh. The group thinks it’s Santa Claus, that is until they peer past the individual into the realm behind him and see not the Feywild but Shadowfel. The Creature then sends blast of power at the party and then runs. The group then can reexamine the note and realize that they misread the handwriting for one of the items. They’ve summoned a Shadow Claus instead of  Santa Claus.Now they just find him and destroy him before he possesses the children of a neighboring village.Well there you have it, 2 Christmas themed one-shots of side-quests.I hope they help make your season bright and life your spirits.I want to say thank you for your support this year. Next year I look forward to helping you create ever better stories for you and your D&D sessions. Don’t forget, if you want to play a one-shot with me, sign up for the newsletter and then use the link in the January Newsletter to sign up to play a one-shot with me. I look forward to next week but 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.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.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.Add the Magic of Sound to Your GameplayWhen you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout. Monument Studios

Can You Play D&D with 2 PlayersWelcome back to the 23rd episode How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and I’m here to help you craft more immersive stories for yourself and your players as you DM a session of D&D 5e.Thanks for coming back week in and week out to listen to this show. I am extremely grateful to you for your support. I’d like to invite you to sign up for a monthly newsletter I’ll send out with updates and behind the scenes content as well as free home brew content that you can try in your campaigns. If you would like to sign up for that, click this link: https://mailchi.mp/05e568274671/subscription-pageSo, you are wondering, can you play D&D with 2 players?Simple answer: Yes.But how do you make it incredibly fun?Here’s how.Make sure you create a character as the DMPlaying with just one player is a great opportunity to make your own character as the DM. You’ll have fun being a player and it will give you a great chance to focus on your role-playing skills as well. You just need to make sure that your player is the star and has just as much fun as you do.Make the sessions much looser.Having one player makes it much easier to follow every single side quest of your player. This means that you can follow every rabbit hole and improvise without worrying about making sure each player gets fair time.Dive deep into the back storyWith one player you can work deeply on their backstory. You can spend much more time working with your player on hashing out their character’s quirks and really generating a backstory with twists and turns that your player will enjoy.Don’t focus on long sessionsWith just one other player you won’t want to expect extremely long sessions. If you do your job and make the sessions really fun then you’ll have no problem doing long sessions but with two people it might get stale. Be prepared to be flexible with how long you and your player play.Make sure you and your player get alongBecause there will be just one other person at the table, you have to make sure that you and that person can get along for hours and hours and hours. Because theoretically, that’s how long you and your player will be playing. So take some time and get to know your player. If it’s an acquaintance, don’t give the expectation of a long campaign. You should also hang out with that individual for some period of time, just to make sure you get along.Spend extra time learning loreAs a DM of only one player, you have the opportunity to delve deeper into the lore of your campaign. This allows you to offer more immersive experiences whenever your player asks you interesting questions about the lore. When you give your player a deeper answer to a question about the lore it will help immerse the player and give them an experience they won’t forget.Make every NPC A Real CharacterBecause there are only a few real people sitting at the table, every NPC will have to feel like a real person. You’ll have to spend extra effort and energy in making each NPC a true character with quirks, traits, and funny characteristics that are memorable. Spend time giving the NPC’s layers. Doing so will help you and your player feel like you are surrounded by more people.There you have it. You can play with just two players and here’s how you do it.Thanks for listening to today’s show. I really appreciate your support and would like to invite you to reach out to me with any ideas you have for the show or just to tell me how your DMing is going. Reach out to me @geronimolevis on Instagram and let’s get the conversation started.We’ll be back next week for another great episode. Until then, let’s go ahead and 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.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.Add the Magic of Sound to Your GameplayWhen you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout. Monument Studios

“Well what do you think?” Geva asks you. You steeple your fingers and think for a moment. “They’re all a very interesting lot aren’t they?” you ask.“Yes but who would you want be stuck on a ship with for months at a time?” responds the ever wise Geva.“Well, there is Imora. I think having a tabaxi on the ship would be useful, though we’ll have to do something about her antipathy towards tieflings if we’re going to have her work with Heresiel. I was also impressed with Rudruguk. His strength will come in handy should we come in contact with pirates. He might be a discipline problem though. I’ve asked around and that half-orc loves his strong drink. Lastly, there’s Wupreha. Having a priest on board would be very useful, even though he is a primal priest of Ossus.”“What about System?”“The war forged? I don’t know how well he’ll fare on a voyage in the open sea. From what I heard, he’s somewhat unstable, even though he is a genius when it comes to woodworking, metalworking and engineering.”Geva smiles and says, “Looks like you’ve got a choice to make captain.”So what would you like to do?Welcome back to the 22nd episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and I am happy to be back with you guys this week. As always you and I are going on a journey to craft more engaging stories for yourself and your players while you DM a session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.First thing I want to say is that there are cool things in the works! I know that’s super vague, but I don’t want to spill the beans before it’s a sure thing. Let me just say, I’m working on getting great people on my team and that’s all I’m gonna say :)Now second thing, I’d like to invite you to sign up for a monthly newsletter I’ll send out with updates and behind the scenes content as well as free home brew content that you can try in your campaigns. If you would like to sign up for that, click this link: https://mailchi.mp/05e568274671/subscription-pageNow that I have done all my selfish self-serving announcing (wink wink) let’s talk about making NPC’s. Every game is filled with hundreds of NPC’s. From the poor shopkeeper to the ruthless arch villain ruining the universe, you will have to create NPC’s to move your story along and to give your players what their characters need.So how exactly do you create a good NPC?We’ll here are some questions to ask yourself to help you do just that?What is the purpose of this NPC?I found myself falling into the trap recently with my own campaign of thinking, “I need to put in an NPC at this castle that they’ll meet and Journey with for sometime.” I never asked myself the question of this NPC’s purpose. So after I did, I realized their purpose was threefold: 1. To give vital information about the plot and help solidify the players’ desire to defeat the bad guys 2. To be a light hearted little-brother type character and give the group some comedy relief 3. Eventually die and make the group all sad that he died (oops, spoiler alert!). Answering this question has already helped me identify a lot about how the character will act. When you answer this question you won’t have those useless NPC’s that seem random. Instead, everything will feel necessary.How impactful is this NPC supposed to be on the story?The answer to this question will help you determine how in depth the answers to the rest of the questions need to be. In the case of a small shopkeeper the party meets when they are level one, the answer will likely be that they are of little impact. That means you mostly need to just make the one encounter the party has with them fun and sensical. On the other hand if the answer is the NPC will be very impactful, then you need to understand that NPC! A little word of warning though, your players also get a vote on who is impactful and who isn’t. Just be prepared to make things up on the fly if your players start asking about the back story of the one hobo in the village.What emotion should this NPC cause?This question goes hand in hand with the first question. I believe every NPC should make the players feel some emotion. Sometimes that emotion is comedy, and other times it’s a deep loathing that lasts long after the session is over. Heck, the emotion could even be boredom if you’re wanted to players to move on with the story (though I wouldn’t recommend that most of the time). Whenever we meet people in real life they act and we react, often with emotions. Our NPC’s should mirror that experience.Who will be interacting with this NPC?NPC’s don’t stand alone in the story. They exist specifically to interact, whether directly or indirectly, with your players’ characters. Therefore, who the NPC’s interact with is important. It’s important because it will determine how they act, what the NPC must know and do and what the NPC wants. If one of your player’s characters is a rogue who has an assassin mentor that no one else in the group will ever meet, that NPC can act very differently toward the rogue than if they were to interact with the whole group.What does this NPC care about?If you are making things up on the fly about NPC’s, then this is the first question you need to answer. Just as with murder, no one does anything without a motive. So why does the shopkeeper want the highest price for their health potions? Are they greedy? Do they have a family to feed? Do they enjoy the back and forth of negotiations? Are they concerned about making rent? Do they love the thrill of enterprise? All of these questions paint the NPC in a different color and tell you how to play them. It also makes them much more interesting.There you have it. 5 questions to ask when you are making an NPC. There are only 5 questions here so if you think of any more reach out to me on Instagram @geronimolevis and tell me your thoughts!Again, I thank you all for your support and ratings and reviews and I wish you happy holidays. I’ll talk to you next week but until then, let’s go ahead and 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.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 StudiosJoin 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.

“What is happening to you Gardo Yic Hama?” you ask in your steady voice.The old svirfneblin looks up at you and a single tear slides down his face.“I’m dying.” He pauses to cough a little. You hold a handkerchief to his mouth and dab a little blood that had escaped. “Soon I will be gone.”You look at his chest where a blade had impaled the deep gnome. You look at the two Drow warriors who had ambushed you both. You were able to dispatch them but Gardo Yic Haima was mortally wounded.“But I have so much to learn from you Gardo Yic Haima.”The gnome smiles and says, “As I told you, call me father.”“Father Gardo Yic Haima, I do not know what to do without you.”The Svirfneblin points up and says, “Follow your prime directive [cough cough]. Relieve suffering. Go to the surface. There you will find more people who need relief. Learn what you can and find out how to relieve as much suffering as possible. I am so proud of you. Though you are not flesh and blood… I still consider you my family. Good luck… Prophet….” And with that the eyes of the old gnomish face unfocus and a last breath escapes from his lips. You sit there cradling the head of the gnome in silence.Moments pass and then you stand and look at your hands. They are purplish metal. “I am to relieve suffering.” you say. What would you like to do?Welcome back to the 21st episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and I’m here to help you craft more memorable stories as you dungeon master a nice session of Dungeons & Dragons 5e.First thing I want to do is give a quick shoutout to Reid Cardwell who reached out to me on Instagram just to say hi! Reid, if you’re listening, thanks for reaching out and I wish you luck on your next campaign.If you, like Reid want to reach out and say, “What’s up?” then send me a message on instagram @geronimolevis . I look forward to hearing from you.Next, I want to remind that I am coming out with a Patreon pretty soon. We’ll give you the opportunity to get shoutouts on the show, get access to bonus content and early access to these episodes, and even access to beta test homebrew content that I create! If you have any other ideas of stuff you want from the Patreon, send me your ideas on Instagram @geronimolevis . Alright, that’s enough announcements for one day right.Let’s talk about making your stories better. Because that’s what they are. Stories. D&D is just the continuation of one of the longest forms of entertainment in history, so luckily there are many resources  that help us craft better stories that aren’t D&D related. If we could only use D&D stuff, I think the game would get pretty stale pretty fast. Instead, you can find inspiration from all sorts of place and so here are my top Non-D&D DM ResourcesPodcastsFor the busy man or woman on the go, almost nothing is easier than consuming a podcast or audiobook through your earbuds or car stereo system. Even while washing the dishes you can listen to great podcasts about how to craft amazing stories. I even like to listen to a lot of my favorite tabletop play-through campaigns in podcast format because I’m not always in front of Youtube. Writing ExcusesSpecifically I would encourage you to listen to a show called Writing Excuses. It features a handful of authors all talking about how to write better stories. If you want to be a great DM, then learn to write great stories. I like Writing Excuses in part because it features one of my favorite authors of all time, Brandon Sanderson. I also like Writing Excuses because it demystifies the writing process. We read stories like Mistborn or Harry Potter and feel the magic of the story and mistakenly believe that the story just happened. Not so. Instead it’s the great result of a long process. The same goes for your Dungeons and Dragons stories. You’ll need to grow skills and workshop many things before you are a legendary DM.Audible / LibraryAs I’ve already said, listening to books or podcasts is a very powerful tool. You already know this because you are listening to me right now.  But I specifically like apps like Overdrive and Audible because it gives you access to so many types of books. Audible is great because you and own the books you buy. Overdrive, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it might be even better because you can listen to so many books despite your budget. Overdrive is an app that connects with your local library system to allow you access to audiobooks most times at no cost to you. You just need a library card. So get these apps and start consuming many different types of stories. At first you’ll be able to emulate what you listen to in your D&D stories. Then after a while you’ll create new and imaginative stories.Instagram I love Instagram a lot because there is so much free inspiring content on there. I find a lot of profiles that put out homebrew items, supplemental races and classes and even Game Hook Inspiration. One profile that I like is @criticaldice because they put out awesome Game Hooks which can inspire amazing one-shots. If you ever need an idea for your next session just check them out and you’re bound to find something crazy and entertaining.YoutubeWe all know that Youtube is basically the University of Learning Whatever. In fact, they should make that their tagline and sell T-Shirts with that on it because it’s so true. That means you can find other great creators putting out great content about how to be a great DM (just like my show) on Youtube.Black Magic CraftI specifically would like to make mention of Black Magic Craft here because for me personally, he gave me a lot of inspiration in building the terrain that I use (and no my terrain is not perfect) and really helped me get excited about my sessions during times when I wasn’t. Go check him out if you’re into the DIY Tabletop terrain space. Now there are so many resources out there that I obviously can’t cover them in one podcast episode. So maybe we’ll do another one in the future. At any rate, make sure you reach out to me with any ideas you have for that future episode. Send your ideas to @geronimolevis and let’s have a great time chatting.Next, I’d like to ask for a very special favor. Please leave a rating and review on the show wherever you are listening. I would appreciate it so much and want to be able to put out even more content and a review would help that happen.That’s it from me my friends. As always, we’ll talk next week.Until then, let’s go ahead and 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. DiscordAdd the Magic of Sound to Your GameplayWhen you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout. Monument StudiosBrought 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.

The moon hangs high in the sky, full in its brilliance. A bank of clouds slides lazily across the sky and obscures part of the moon shining down on you as you scale the side of the building. You love how the moon illuminates the world at night. In fact, for most of your life, you’ve considered the moon your closest companion. For a job like this, you would’ve preferred a new moon and utter darkness, but time won’t allow it. That’s fine with you. The moon gives you comfort.“As it should,” whispers a small silky voice into your ear. You smile. It’s not the first time your protector has whispered in your ear on a job. You don’t really know when the voice started, but it’s always helped you out. At first you were distrustful of it, but it never asked for anything so you’ve learned to trust it over the years.Finally you reach the zenith of the Serpent’s Dome. This Museum houses precious artifacts from across Integrity. But you and your companions only need one artifact. You pull out your tools and pry open one of the windows. You set up the pulley system and start to lower yourself down.“Use the dust,” whispers the voice. You stop your descent and smile. You reach into your pack and pull out a handful of dust and toss if below you. A small spark flashes and then you see a field of magic appear and then fade. That dust was definitely worth the cost. You begin your descent again.Finally you reach the glass case and use your tools to extract the artifact. Easier than you thought it would be.You begin to pull yourself back up but halfway to your exit you hear the whisper, “It’s a trap. They know you’re here, drop it and leave.”What would you like to do?Welcome back to the 20th episode of How to Be a Better DM. As always, I’m your host, Justin Lewis, and I’m here to help you create more engaging stories for you and your players as you DM a nice session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e. First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I am incredibly grateful for you all who listen in every week. Thank you to all of you who support the show and thanks for your continued backing.Second, I’m happy to announce that we are working on our Patreon and that should be done pretty soon. Stay tuned for that and get ready for the goodies that come with it.Now, last week I talked about who shouldn’t play as a rogue. This week, let’s talk about who should be steered toward playing a rogue.Sneaky SneakyIf you have a player who wants to sneak places, then the obvious choice is a rogue. Every character will probably be forced to stealth at some point, but generally rogues are the ones who excel the most at stealth. Stealy StealySimilarly, if you are interested in pick pocketing and stealing stuff then the rogue is for you. It’s basically the job description for a rogue. Their natural dexterity  allows them to get in and out quickly.AssassinationsAny character can assassinate enemies. With sneak attack damage making a secret kill becomes much easier. Add the stealth and the dexterity to it and it becomes almost a cinch.The Underworld of CrimeAs a Rogue, you gain the ability to speak Thieve’s Cant which is only really spoken in the seedy underbelly of society. This naturally connects rogues with Crime syndicates, gangs and the like. If you have a player who is interested in that, encourage them to choose a rogue.Stay Away from SpellsEven if your player wants to choose arcane trickster, a rogue is a perfect character for someone who doesn’t want the complexity of spells. Rogues get to do awesome stuff that doesn’t deal with spell components, concentration, or ritual spells.Avoiding DamageRogues get to use their bonus action to disengage, hide, or dash. This allows Rogues to be very mobile and or stealthy even during combat. When you pair this ability with sneak attack, a rogue becomes the perfect role for someone who wants to cause specific damage with minimal damage taken.While not an exhaustive list, this should help you direct newbies to the character class that they will love!Thanks again everyone for listening to today’s show. As always you rock. And have a very happy thanksgiving everyone.We’ll see you next week.Until then, let’s roll initiative…Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Join Our DiscordSo a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today. DiscordAdd the Magic of Sound to Your GameplayWhen you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout. Monument StudiosGive 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 find yourself creeping through a dark hallway. You’ve left your companions outside so you could come in and do the dirty work. Your friends always let you take care of the “unsavory” elements of your work. You’re ok with that. You’ve been ok with that all your life.You creep through the dark hallway. You stop. You slink into the shadow of a large pillar. You see a guard walk-by. He continues on his way. You let him pass and then continue. Finally you find the door. You open it up slowly and slink in. You’ve been creeping around for most of your life. Sneaking into forbidden places always seemed too easy for you. You approach the bed to finish the job. You then notice something wrong. The body on the bed lay lifeless. It’s then that you notice the green spittal leaking out of the man’s mouth. Dead. That’s a problem. Who killed him?That’s when you hear the guards shouting. “Intruder! Intruder! The King’s been murdered!”The king? You came to murder the king’s adviser. The king was also murdered?That’s when you realize, you need to get out of there, fast. So what would you like to do?Welcome back to the 19th episode of How to Be a Better DM. As always, I’m your host, Justin Lewis, and I’m here to help you create better stories as you and your friends play D&D 5e.As a DM, the hardest part of getting a campaign going is finding a group of people that have time and are willing to play on a reasonably periodic schedule. After that, there’s another challenge that isn’t talked about enough: guiding your players to choosing the right character.Not every player will like every class. It’s a simple fact. So your job as a DM is to help them find the right choice for themselves. So let’s talk about who shouldn’t choose to play a rogue.If you want to play Lawful GoodNow I’m not saying that you can’t be a lawful good rogue. What I am saying is that most rogues aren’t. Add to that the fact that most skills that a rogue gets are of the underhanded and secretive nature. Generally, a rogue fits naturally into the chaotic alignment (good, neutral, or evil) and avoids the lawful disposition. I suppose that could make for a very interesting story, but generally for newbies, if they generally try to follow all the rules and laws, then a rogue might not be the best choice.If you Love Armor.Rogues don’t generally get heavy armor. I suppose you could use the feats to allow yourself to be fully armored, but unless you have some sort of magic ability to avoid having disadvantage on stealth rolls. Now I know armor is a somewhat small consideration but in case that’s a dealbreaker for you, you shouldn’t pick a rogue.If You want to be the Star of CombatThe rogue either does a huge amount of damage in combat or a moderate amount or none. Rarely will you bear the brunt of the damage or deal the lion’s share of the damage. Instead, as a rogue you’ll enjoy darting in and out over and over again doing sneak attack damage when you can. Casting SpellsIf you want to cast all the spells, a rogue is not for you. There is a Roguish Archetype that allows you to cast certain spells, but that is limited compared to some of the other spellcasters. If you are excited mostly about the prospect of casting fireball or Wish, choose a different class. If you don’t like sneakingGenerally, the rogue is the person the group turns to first when stealth is a necessity. If someone needs to sneak into somewhere, usually it’s the rogue. I’m not saying that’s how you have to play, but I am saying people will probably expect that of your character. Don’t like stealthing? Maybe choose a paladin or barbarian.Well there are 5 guidelines that might help you steer your player away from a rogue character they won’t like that much and towards another character they’ll enjoy much more. But make sure, you let your players do what they want. They can be any character they like, and that’s one of the best things about D&D. Just be their guide and shepherd them to a fun character choice.Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Next week, we’ll talk about who should play a rogue so come back next time. Don’t forget to follow the show and leave a rating and review. Just a heads up, I’m getting a Patreon ready with goodies and such, so get ready for that.As always, thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.Until then, let’s roll initiative.Mentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Session 0 StudiosVisit session0studios.com for more information.Join Our DiscordSo a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today. DiscordWhy 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.

d&d campaign ideas for beginners“Sir, you and your companions are the only guests who are here completely by chance. That is why you four must be in charge of the investigation. Even I myself, as a servant of the house, must be placed under suspicion. Since you showed up as the murder was supposedly taking place, it can be assumed that none of you were responsible. Add to that the fact that you all arrived in town not but 2 hours ago, never having journeyed here nor making the acquaintance of Sir Merrimont. I feel therefore reasonably comfortable trusting this investigation to you.”The old gnome butler bows gracefully and excuses himself to see to other duties. It is then that you and your companions return to the dining hall to see the other dinner guests. You’d come here seeking a favor from Sir Merrimont to help in another quest you were engaged in. When you arrived at the manor you were invited in and were waiting for about 30 minutes before screams were heard and the bloody body of Sir Merrimont discovered. The great hall is a resplendent room with beautiful tiled floors and amazing reliefs on the walls. The room is taken up by a beautiful table set for 8 guests. All the chairs are filled but one, that of Sir Merrimont. The guests look at each other nervously. You look at your companions and shrug. What would you like to do? Welcome back to the 18th episode of the How to Be a Better DM Show. I’m your host Justin Lewis and we’re here to help you create better, more immersive stories for yourself and your friends as you DM a session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.As we all know, creating a new campaign is hard. It gets much easier when you have a great idea that is simple enough to start with relatively little worry or complication. So here are a few D&D campaign ideas for beginners.Rescue a damsel in distressThis is a classic trope. A specific damsel has been stolen and a specific group has stolen her. You get to choose who the damsel is (and even the form of the damsel) and the group that stole her (or if she was stolen by one nemesis). You can draw this campaign idea out as long as you want or make it a single session storyline. Makes it real simple for a novice DM.Recover an artifactIt’s the classic Indiana Jones switching a bag of rocks for an artifact story. General idea of the story is this: a powerful magical (or non-magical) artifact is somewhere and needs to be brought somewhere else. Whether the artifact was originally stolen is up to you. Whether the artifact is guarded by enemies is up to you. How far away the artifact is is up to you. You can make this as complicated or simple as you want. You can also connect this storyline with others within your campaign or leave it as a standalone storyline.Carry a messageGet your adventurers to take a message from one place to another. You can add in as many difficulties as you’d like. Maybe the message needs to be taken behind enemy lines during a major war engagement. Perhaps the message needs to get to and convince a leader who is malignant towards the adventurers. You can spice this up easily by connecting the message to one of your adventurers’ backstories.Beast HunterThis one is simple. There is a beast. There are people who want the beast to be no more. There is a reason the adventurers would be ok getting rid of the beast. In most situations there will either need to be a reward or intense moral connection for the adventurers to have a reason to care about whether or not the beast exists. Again, this scenario works for all levels and can be made more complicated as desired.On the Hunt for LoreRather than hunting a beast, this scenario sends the adventurers to hunt for information. You can make the task easier by identifying the place the knowledge must be acquired. Add in adversaries who want the knowledge to remain hidden to make it more difficult. InterceptionA nice simple start to a campaign is sending your players to intercept something that is traveling somewhere for some reason. They could intercept a messenger, hunting party, dragon or whatever else. You can make the intercept location basically anywhere that makes your story more interesting. You could even make the intercept location a place where the plot complicates much more and turns your story on its head.Survive the WavesAnother simple story start is having your players start somewhere that is under threat, and the characters will have to survive waves of enemies. This could be in a war situation, or maybe a village is under attack from a tribe of raiders. Whatever it is, the players will have to use their wits to keep themselves alive. Help may or may not be coming, depending on your story, but survival seems doubtful. The formula.If you haven’t figured it out yet, a simple formula you can use for a lot of story campaign ideas is the player characters need to travel to point B to do some specific action (kill, protect, convince, intercept, find) that affects a third party who is contrary to the desire of the group. Here’s the simple formula. The group must go to Blank to Do Blank so Opposing Group Blank can’t do Blank. You can use that formula to start many many stories and weave incredible tales for yourself and your friends.As always, it’s been a pleasure to hang out with you guys. If you liked today’s show or have suggestions about it or other episodes, reach out to me on Instagram @geronimolevis where we can continue the conversation.Make sure you follow the show and leave a rating and review. That would be very awesome of you. Last, of all, come back next week for another great show.Until then, 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.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

“How many of your crops are like this?” the Constable asks.Rosdan, the local farmer who asked for this meeting, looks right into Constable Yerip’s eyes and says, “All of them sir. There’s not a single grain that isn’t tainted.”Yerip steeples his hands and sits back in his chair. He sits for a moment thinking. “What happened to the few people who ate the grain?”Rosdan paused and then said, “they turned into monsters. There’s something evil in that grain and I don’t know what it is. It might have something to do with that star that fell not one month ago. I tell ya sir, twas a bad omen to be sure.”Yelp holds the tainted stalk of grain up to you and your companions. “What do you make of this adventurers?”You hold it up to your nose. The stalk which would normally have the familiar scent of summer and the harvest bears a sickly sweet stench that seems to hide something more bitter. The stalk that was once golden is now turned a purplish color. Very faint blue lights can almost be seen within the veins of the plant. You hand it to Bophregar whose eyes glow for the briefest of seconds.“The tainted stalk of grain leaks faint magical energies. This fact does not bode well for the people of this village. I recommend the rest of the tainted crops be burned immediately and not consumed. Other foods must be procured.”Constable Yerip stands and says, “Well that’s the problem. We have no other food stores. We must find the source of the taint and destroy it. Actually, that is why I called you adventurers here. Can you please rid us of our taint?”So what would you like to do?Welcome back to the 17th episode of How to Be a Better DM.It’s me again, your host Justin Lewis (yes I do have a name). I’m here to help you craft ever better stories for yourself and your players as you dungeon master sessions of D&D 5e.I want to thank you all for coming back week after week. Lately, I’ve gone through some personal struggles and I’m very grateful for those who enjoy the show even when I don’t feel like myself while doing it. You guys are awesome and are the real stars of this show. Now let’s talk about characters, specifically Non-player characters. For those of you who are the newest of the new at this, a non-player character is simply any character in the story that will be played by you. In that, it’s kind of a misnomer because even though you are the DM, you are still playing a game with your friends, a fact that by definition makes you a player, but I digress.These are the characters your players will interact with and will use to help immerse themselves into your world. So they gotta be good right.But making characters that come alive can be really hard. So here are a few tips to help make better Non-Player characters.Think about their purposeAll of your NPC’s need a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is just to make your players laugh and add in some comedic relief. Sometimes the NPC is just there to buy and sell items or to move the plot along. Sometimes the NPC is the plot. Most of the time, your NPC’s will have a mix of multiple purposes. Knowing the NPC’s purpose will help with everything else in the story. Just be prepared when the players decided to take the purpose you’ve designed for your NPC and twist it and generally muck things up. You might have a simple merchant that the players decide they really like so they spend way more time getting to know their back story than should’ve ever happened. Oh well.Give them something memorableWith each NPC that you want your players to remember, give them something memorable. This might mean making the NPC funny, or rude so the players remember the interaction with the NPC. Or maybe you give them a defining feature that you constantly bring up in describing the interaction because the players’ characters keep noticing it. Maybe it comes out in the voice you use for the NPC. The best way to do this is probably to think, “What do I want my players’ characters to feel about this NPC or after they’ve interacted with them.” That generally helps create the mix of memorable traits. For NPC’s that are supposed to be very memorable, make their traits that much more memorable. Know what the NPC WantsWith NPC’s you either need to understand what they want or be able to answer that question quickly while improvising during your session. This will help the players know where they stand as well as whether or not incentives align for the NPC and the party. For most NPC’s you probably won’t need to know the answer to this question (and its accompanying questions) but for those that you do, it often helps to write down this info. Don’t overwrite your NPC’sI think a mistake I myself might fall into is either fleshing out the NPC completely or not enough. I’m usually either not using content I’ve created for my NPC or making stuff up on the spot during the session. Therefore you need to cultivate the skill of understanding how much is enough for your NPC. I think a good rule of thumb is building out your NPC based on how much “screen time” they’ll have. If your NPC is a bit player, don’t worry about fleshing out whether they like beer, mead, wine or whiskey for their drink. If the NPC is set to reappear over and over, you might want to make sure you know what the NPC is doing off screen, and why they do what they do. Make the NPC’s ChangeableSpeaking of what the NPC does off screen, you want to make sure that both the actions of your players and the world wide events around you affect your NPC’s. In fact you want your NPC’s to make their own choices as well. It talks about this in the Dungeon Master’s Guide but as time passes NPC’s shouldn’t be static. Things should happen in their lives and the passing of time should be noted. Maybe they’ve decided to farm a different crop rather than farming the same crop they’ve been doing for years. Maybe their child has grown and left to join the army. Perhaps they’ve decided to close their store. Whatever happens, make sure it doesn’t affect your story plot or if it does, make sure there’s a reason why. You can’t just close an NPC’s store down just because (though you might be tempted to if you’ve given the storekeeper an annoying voice).Copying Cool Characters is an Ok place to startThis is my personal opinion, but adding cool characters to your story that you’ve pulled from other stories is totally fine. Most characters are based on archetypes and tropes anyways so adding in a Yoda-like character is totally ok. You’ll never get it exactly like the original character and your players will probably feel the familiarity of the NPC and enjoy having them in the story. Now after you start with those transplanted characters start experimenting and trying new things. Maybe instead of just adding Yoda to your campaign, you make him a combination of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street and Yoda. When you copy someone else, take the copy and add a twist to make it your own. But remember, don’t plagiarize or steal commercial copyrighted property when doing this for money. For home games, feel free to play a campaign that features Darth Vader, Harry Potter and Gandalf. Well hopefully these 6 tips help you make some awesome characters. I know they’ve helped me. Keep making great characters and telling great stories. I’d love to keep the conversation going so feel free to reach out to me on Instagram. Just send a message to @geronimolevis to let me know what you think about these tips, or to share any tips you have from your campaign. I’d love to get your opinion.Thanks for listening. We’ll be back next week. 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.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.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!