Train Your Brain To Run D&D (video)

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Train Your Brain To Run D&D

Make Dungeon Master Prep Theater of the Mind | The No-Prep Game Master

Let’s face it, we don’t have time to spend hours preparing for a D&D session and then spend hours playing D&D another night during the week. We have to put food on the table. We have spouses and families. We have to care for aging parents, plus a boatload of other responsibilities. I’ve also seen numbers on the internet that say up to 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. If that is the case, we certainly do not have time to prepare for D&D sessions.

If dungeon master prep is recreation for you, that’s great, and I wish you the best. However, many DMs find themselves struggling to plan out sessions and balance their lives. Not to even mention all the pressure that is heaped upon DMs by YouTubers and social media. Let me just say it is okay not to prepare for sessions in the traditional sense, and it’s okay to run bad sessions. We all have to start somewhere, and we all need to learn.

I’ve been DMing and GMing since I was nine years old, and I’ve learned a lot in that time. I’ve been the bad DM, the good DM, the pushover DM, the angry DM, the tired DM, the sad DM, and so on. I’ve written a little book about No-Prep GMing. However, no-prep GMing is a bit of a misnomer. I’m the no-prep game master because I’m always prepping. What we are actually doing is moving prep into the theater of the mind. We’re not filling notebooks with mad scribbles. We’re not spending 20 hours sitting at a desk preparing for a session that may be canceled. We are going to train our minds to think of prep differently. So, here are three ways you can slash your DM prep time.

Tip Number One: Consume Stories

The greatest storytellers have experienced tremendous amounts of stories whether by reading, watching, or hearing them. Great writers have always been great readers. The author of Scaramouche and Captain Blood, Rafael Sabatini, read widely in six languages. The novelist and essayist C.S. Lewis read every extant English work from the 16th century. Yes, seriously, he did. In the screenwriting world, Terry Rossio of Aladdin, Shrek, and Pirates of the Caribbean fame mentions reading all of Robert Heinlein’s, Theodore Sturgeon’s, and Alan Moore’s published works just for starters. Film directors Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese will screen every film from a director or time period they are studying.

As dungeon masters, we must fill ourselves with stories. The stories we consume will give us a catalog of situations and elements we can draw from when running D&D. And it doesn’t put anything else on our already full plates because we are probably already reading books and watching TV shows and movies. The key is to reflect and consider what we are listening to or reading or watching. Don’t just consume the media passively. Start asking yourself questions like, “Why did that scene follow the other one?” and “Why did the character do that?” and “What do that character’s actions say about who they are?” Train your mind to begin to think about how stories are made.

Remember, the deeper the well, the sweeter the water. Read, watch, listen to a depth and breadth of stories and then consider them only by thinking about them. Your games will improve, and prep time drops.

Tip Number Two: Random Tables

There’s a lot of hate on YouTube for random tables in D&D. Most of those videos address basic encounter tables. When I say random tables, I’m not talking about 1d6 dire wolves or 1d8 goblins. I’m talking about room items, non-combat encounters, rumors, and odd jobs.

Nothing burns prep time like filling a dungeon or castle room with items, especially since there’s no way to know if your players will actually reach those rooms and then search them. Use random tables of items during the session; if your players search a room, have them roll on the table. This increases player engagement in the session. Also, I’m not talking about giving out magic items like candy. Random tables with items like a dead rat, rotten wood, a silver brooch, or 1d4 copper pieces enthrall players.

Dungeon masters can also be prone to recycling stories and situations. Random tables of non-combat encounters can introduce new elements into your games and help the DM to think quickly. The sessions can take on new life because there is power and magic in randomness. Also, as a forever game master for many years, I got tired of knowing the ending. I was bored running sessions where I knew what would happen. Randomness saved the hobby for me. Random tables combined with the first tip lead to more enjoyable games.

Years ago, I noticed D&D and other RPG systems didn’t have enough random tables, so I started creating books of random tables. I have a wide range of books filled with random tables to help you cut down GM prep. Link in the description.

Tip Number Three: Practice

Read and reflect, gather random tables, and then run lots of sessions. Practice is key. Aristotle had wise words about practice. Practice is sorely underrated and often not mentioned at all when people give dungeon master advice. Run lots of sessions and campaigns. Don’t overthink them. Just jump in. Use your mental catalog of story elements from your reading and watching. Have random tables at hand. Then unleash your players. React to them using your imagination and the random tables. Here’s another key: every time a session is over, think about what went right and what went wrong. Then, in the next session, do more of what worked and less of what didn’t. Practice. Purposeful practice. Even if you do nothing else, practice will cut down your prep time and improve your session in the long term.

I remember once having several people who wanted to play a role-playing game, but I told them I wasn’t prepared. You know what they said? They said they didn’t care. I was free. I had fun running that game, and frankly, I’ve never looked back. Please don’t cancel D&D sessions because you feel you are unprepared. You’re robbing yourself of experience and practice.

There are three tips to move D&D prep into our minds and off our plates.

Learn More About DMing

If you want to learn more about my ideas for cutting down session prep, you can pick up my book The No-Prep Gamemaster, sign up for my newsletter, or grab some of my random table books. Links to all and more are in the description below. Thank you and keep gaming.


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