For various reasons, here are five things that every Dungeon Master should try, at least once. Otherwise, you might always wonder.
Dungeon Masters have a tricky job in D&D. They have to do the most work, because they have to put a game together that appeals to their players and also is fun, and any number of other qualifiers you put on yourself. But that doesn’t mean a DM can’t try things.
In fact, just like there are some things that stick out as ‘rites of passage’ for players, so too are there things every DM should try. At least once. That way you know how it feels.
Start in A Tavern
This one’s a meme for a reason. There is something just kind of really nice about starting a campaign in a tavern. Sure, it’s a little hackneyed, but that’s only if you don’t do anything with it. At the end of the day, it’s always going to be new and unique because your group is the ones doing it.
So give yourself permission to dabble with the classics of the genre. Let yourself play with the cliches to see why they’re so enduring. Even if you decide to never run a campaign that way again, you’ve learned something!
Run A Session With No Prep
I think one of the strongest skills a DM can have is being willing to throw away what they have prepared in order to follow the story as it emerges from what happens at the table. I’m not saying prep is useless, far from it; in fact, it can often help because sometimes you’ll have exactly what you need.
What I am saying is that it can be worth it to give DMing by the seat of your pants a try. Don’t come unprepared to play at all, but try and see what happens if you have like a loose set of guideposts or really go all in and see what the players keep saying after you ask, “so what do you do?” See where you feel like you’re falling, and where you feel like you’re soaring.
Do A Cutscene
This isn’t as new a technique for DMs anymore. But it might be one you haven’t tried yet; a cutscene is basically a little snippet of narration or dialogue that the players get to see (or even participate in, if you know your group is game for it) where you pull the in-game focus away from the player characters and let slip what the bad guys (or whoever) are up to.
This can be a great way to show the consequences of a choice the PCs did or didn’t make it. Or to use dramatic irony to set up some future plotline or quest that the players might be prepping for. This kind of scene is especially fun if you have NPCs you can give the characters, let them be minor villains or henchmen in a meeting and see what happens!
Run An ‘Evil Campaign’
You’ve thought about it. We all have. A campaign where the party is a bunch of thieving goblins and kobolds, or some other horrible little monster that just wants to bite and stab and loot. Or where the party is a bunch of assassins or marauders or even just evil wizards pursuing power for its own sake.
Everyone’s fascinated by their darker side. And this is the DM equivalent. Obviously, you gotta talk to your group about it, but it can be worth the conversation. Just know that these tend to flame out spectacularly, but if you make that the goal? It can be an absolute wild ride.
Play A Different RPG
You’d be surprised at what you can learn from playing a game that isn’t D&D. Kind of like how Ballet and Football have some surprising crossovers, playing a game other than D&D can often teach you something surprising. From better worldbuilding to being a better GM, or even just getting a taste of new ways to think about making an adventure or things for the party to do, you can learn a lot from games outside of D&D’s particular idiom.
How many of these have YOU tried?
Don’t Miss:
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
