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"It's All Part of the Plan...."


The honor is yours. The privilege is yours. The responsibility is yours. You've been chosen to be the Dungeon Master for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. What do you do?

Being a Dungeon Master in D&D is fun, challenging and rewarding, but it can be exhausting. Keeping track of NPCs, tavern names, town names, titles of nobility, player interactions, initiative orders in combat....it's a lot. So, here are a few tips that might help you out when you're learning how to DM.

  • Start small! Don't try to build an entire world right off the bat. Start with a city, a town, or even just a building. What function does it serve? If it's a city, is it a modern city (relatively speaking)? Is it a more rural village? If it's a farming community, usually there will be fewer places for the adventurers to remember; if you're starting with new people, this is probably for the best. If you throw too much information at your players too quickly, they might become overwhelmed.​

  • Have multiple plot insertion points planned. If you have a Goblin in a cave that is hoarding a specific magic item that your players need or want very badly, and you really want them to find it, odds are that they will never go to that cave unless you literally push them into it. Players sometimes have difficulty picking up hints that seem obvious to Dungeon Masters; this is partly because we put those hints there. If something is that important to your game, make sure there are multiple avenues for the players to find it. If a single NPC has the piece of information to move the plot forward, your players are either going to kill them or anger them, and they'll never get that information. Make it accessible through other means. Being the DM means that you can insert information into the world at any point; while it may seem like handholding to you, if you do it right, the players will think you planned it that way all along!

  • Plan ahead, but be flexible. Players will destroy your plans. That's what they do. Plain and simple, if you have a scenario drawn up in your head, and plan for a particular outcome, nine times out of ten, your players will never achieve that outcome. They'll kill the wrong person, go a completely different direction, or simply ignore your hints and miss entire plots and storylines. Here's a simple example: You plan for the party to discover a cave in the hills. In this cave are ancient carvings depicting the rituals of an evil cult, and hinting that the cult might still be operating in the world. Sounds awesome, but your players decide to go shopping instead of exploring the hills. Now, instead of the players missing that plot point entirely, simply shift how they obtain the information. Now, there's a shop owner who seems a bit shady. If the party investigates the shop or the owner's house, they might find a hidden basement entrance leading to a cavern full of ancient carvings depicting the rituals of an evil cult. And you can continue this ad nauseum, until the party gets the information they need to continue the story.

  • Make a list of NPC and Location names and keep it handy. Two things halt gameplay and ruin immersion faster than anything else: looking up rules and trying to think of NPC/location names. Trying to come up with a believable name that isn't one you've already used can be a challenge when you're on the spot. It's helpful to make a list of NPC names to refer to, and if you have a one-line description of their appearance, so much the better. Don't try to make every NPC super memorable, either. The best NPCs are the ones that are believable as part of the world the players are in. Accents and voices are fun, but they are not necessary for good NPC creation. It is also good to have a list of Location names on hand. Taverns, Inns, Roads, and Villages are my recommendations. With any list you make, if you use a name from it, write a brief description of the location, job/vocation (if an NPC), and any pertinent information you create. If an NPC has a weird quirk, like an eye twitch or a rattling cough, be sure to note that next to the name so that you can recreate it if the NPC ever shows up again. This is a classic example of how a one-off NPC became a recurring character in a campaign. It's also hysterical.

  • Don’t stress about knowing all the rules right away...or ever. Many people have this notion that the Dungeon Master is an infallible rules guru, that we know the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide inside and out. While there are certainly DMs who do know the rules by heart, many of us either have to look up some rules, or we just wing it and look it up later. Even Jeremy Crawford, the Lead Rules Designer at Wizards of the Coast-the guy who literally wrote the book- has admitted to needing to look up rules now and then in his games. If he needs to do it, you definitely will, too. Don’t sweat it. If you need to make a snap decision to keep the game moving, rule whichever way makes the most sense, then hash it out later. It’s easier to undo a botched call than to restart a game’s momentum after you pause it to look up exactly how Wild Shape works.

  • You are playing with your party, not against them. There seems to be a common misconception among people new to D&D that the Dungeon Master is there to act as an adversary, that they are trying to kill the party or keep them from reaching their goals. It is my belief that if you are actively working against your players, you are a bad DM. You may know the rules by heart, but are your players having fun? If the answer is “no”, you are not doing your job. The responsibility of the Dungeon Master is to help the players have fun-the DM should have fun when the players have fun. Antagonistic DMing is a stereotype we should try to reverse. Help your players feel powerful. Be firm, but fair. Rule according to the rules and the circumstances as objectively as possible, and reward players who try something radically imaginative, even if it fails. At the end of the day, D&D is a game of friends; help make sure it stays that way.

I hope this was helpful in some way to somebody. As always, feel free to send me an email, post a comment below, or message me on Twitter.

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