The REAL Truth About Being a Dungeon Master (this took 35 years) – VIDEO

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The Internet heaps tons of pressure on dungeon masters. The chatter is all about balancing encounters, creating massive worlds, crafting villains, planning epic plots, and developing stories that rival the greatest literature in the world. Let’s be clear: if the dungeon master is supposed to be Shakespeare, then the players had better be Patrick Stewart, Michael Caine, Denzel Washington, and Michelle Yeoh. However, no one ever tells players to up their game. Hmmm…

That was a side quest. Back to the main point. The truth is that people have been putting pressure on DMs for decades. They just haven’t been on YouTube until recently. Though they do have something in common: the vast majority of what they say isn’t needed to run D&D. There is no reason to spend hours planning for a session unless you enjoy it.

If life punched you in the face this week and you are thinking about canceling your D&D session because you are not prepared, stop. Take a deep breath and know you are playing a game with friends. You don’t need huge stories and tons of planned-out encounters. You need your mind, your players’ imaginations, and the willingness to go with the flow.

It took me more than 35 years of running games to learn the real truth about what dungeon masters need to do. Here are three things that will help you run games.

Number One: Never plot

I know that “never” is a long word, even for Treebeard. There may be occasions where DMs need some sort of a defined outcome. Those situations would usually be a convention game or another type of one-shot. Or perhaps if you are a paid DM. Maybe I’ll address some of those in a later video.

Plot, by definition, is what happens when the protagonist of a story acts. In D&D or any tabletop role-playing game, it is impossible for the game master to create a plot because we have no idea how our characters (the protagonists) will act. Lawrence Kasdan was able to write the famous truck chase scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark because he knew what Indiana Jones was going to do. DMs never know what players are going to do, especially when there are four to six of them.

For example: A DM comes up with a scenario. The party hears rumors that a kindly old innkeeper is struggling with out-of-control patrons who are damaging the inn. The characters go to the inn, get into fistfights with the rowdy patrons, and clean up the inn. The innkeeper wants to thank them but has no money to pay them. The innkeeper gives the party a map to an ancient ruin that her great-grandfather found. Supposedly, there was treasure in the dungeon beneath the ruin, but no one in the family was ever able to explore it. The party accepts the map from the innkeeper, explores the dungeon, and finds treasure, magic items, and a hook to the next leg of the campaign.

Ok, a fun adventure hook. Great. Did you see the problems, though? The DM can introduce the idea that the inn is having trouble with rowdy patrons. But how do they know the players will act on it and go there? Even if the players go there, how do you know they will scare the patrons off instead of joining them and then burning down the inn?

If you spent hours prepping that session with that plot, you wasted your time. You could have spent time with family, watched your favorite show, or watched my videos on D&D tips from Star Trek episodes.

You see, it is impossible for a DM to create a plot. You can have ideas. You can introduce situations. But not plot. Plot can only emerge during play because of the actions players have their characters take. Don’t waste your time with plot. I can’t tell you how many times I got frustrated that my players didn’t follow my plot. If you have an awesome plot in mind, write a novel like I did. The ideas and situations you need for D&D sessions can simply be drawn from movies, TV shows, books, and podcasts—held only in your mind until needed. The example I gave is from Roadhouse.

Number Two: Use Character Backstories

Have you ever planned out a huge epic campaign, got all your players together, and they ignored your “save the world plot” to rob a merchant caravan? No? I have. I’d tell you how many times that happened, but it’s too painful. Or have you tried to run a published adventure module, but your players ignored the story to rob a merchant caravan?

You get the idea, but why does that happen? DM and player expectations of the game are not on the same page. The dungeon master comes to the table with their plan, and the players come to the table with their plans. The DM thinks this is their chance to act out their epic Lord of the Rings-like tale, and the players think this is their chance to be bounty hunters or whatever. This can be solved by DM fiat, like requiring players to make characters that will want to save the world or defeat Strahd. However, there is an easier way, and it doesn’t require any planning.

When the players create their characters, we need them to have a backstory. I’m not talking about the 19-page backstory or the level one character’s backstory that begins, “Legends are told…” Three to five interesting bits are good enough. Searching for their long-lost brother. Looking for the con man who stole their family heirloom. Found in a river as a baby. Village burned by orcs. Sailed around the world. Or whatever.

Once we have these, we can start thinking of situations that tie into those backstories. When we do that, player engagement increases by leaps and bounds.

For example: The long-lost brother is now a thrall of a lich king. The con man just left the town the party entered. A story says a queen placed her baby in a river to save them, and the date seems to match the character’s age. A troop of vile orcs is burning nearby villages. The ship the character sailed around the world on just docked at port.

Mention those things to players, and they will have their characters spring into action. You don’t need to plan; you just need to react to your players.

Number Three: Complication Machine

If you don’t create a plot and use bits from character backstories, then your job is to create complications. Game masters are complication machines. Once your players start acting and making choices, you are going to place stumbling blocks and obstacles all along the way. Not to be mean or to antagonize the players but to have fun. You don’t have a story without complications.

If Indiana Jones could fly to Egypt, pick up the Ark, and fly home, there’s not a story. If James Bond could just call in a SWAT team to invade a supervillain’s lair, there’s no story. We need to complicate the characters’ journey to make the rewards at the end feel hard-fought.

Again, we are not planning these out ahead of time. If you think of a few possible complications, keep them in your back pocket. Use them only if they feel right at the right time. Let’s go back to the inn example.

Let’s say the characters head to the inn to rid it of rowdy patrons. One fistfight is probably not enough to make the situation feel engaging. If the party runs off a small group of rowdy patrons, a larger force could return later, spoiling for an all-out brawl. The choice to give the rowdy patrons spells or weapons is a powerful complication. But so is the choice to have them be peasants with no powers or weapons. Your party will have to make serious decisions about how to deal with them. Also, the rowdy patrons could have been hired by an evil noble who wants to steal the land the inn is located on.

All of those complications enrich the situation and make it feel like real effort was needed to overcome them. Always be on the lookout for places to add complications. They can be small, like slippery rocks, or huge, like an orc army, but whatever it is, complications need to be there. Once your players start making decisions and taking actions, test their resourcefulness with complications. Remember, in literature and mythic tales, the greater the obstacle, the greater the hero. Challenge your players, and they may surprise you with cunning and creativity.

Dungeon Master Tips

Those three things took me 35 years to learn. I hope I saved you time and the heartache of broken games. If you need DM and GM resources, I create them. You can find the links in the description below. Please like and subscribe. Thank you and keep gaming.


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