The internet is both a great tool for inspiring you to do new things, and also the biggest obstacle to actually achieving them. It’s fantastic to see D&D reaching new audiences through various mediums- whether that’s podcasts, Youtubers trying it out for the first time, or simply through word of mouth. Online tools like Roll20 are helping people in remote areas play games that they might not have had the opportunity to otherwise.

This can give anybody who’s wanting to step up to be a GM- or has to assume the role out of necessity- a bit of a daunting task. You can read about all these awesome situations, improvised solutions, and crazy events and wonder: how on earth am I going to achieve that? Where do you even start?

I posted on my personal Facebook about how my current campaign had led me to do over 10,000 words worth of notes- that’s for games, backstory, dungeons, campaign log… all of it. This led to many people I had as friends, acquaintances and otherwise, popping out of the woodwork saying that they really wanted to join my game or to have me run one for them. This is totally flattering, obviously, but it showcases just how difficult the task of a GM is, and the perception that some people who haven’t given it a go have of it.

At least you’ll be able to list “People Management” on your list of CV skills.

Well, it’s not a Sisyphean task. It is possible without making some pact with an extra-planar being. We all need a little help to get started. If you’re one of those people who’s got friends who want to play but nobody wants to step up, this could help you on that road to being their awesome GM! They’re not in any particular order, and I won’t be going over a chronological step-by-step, but they’re some things to bear in mind.

Don’t be afraid to mess up.

This sounds like kind of a pessimistic tip, but it’s a good one- and it comes from personal experience. Being a GM is tough, and you’re juggling a lot of different priorities. This doesn’t change from Day 1 of you giving it a go: you’re going to have a weak point for something. For me, it’s rules: I like to house rule to keep the flow of the game going, and I’m not an encyclopedia, but it also means I can get things wrong.

Nobody expects you to be perfect as a GM, as with a degree of empathy anyone can understand why you’d get things wrong. Maybe you forget a detail in a room, or an NPC’s name, or you forget how much falling damage somebody takes from certain heights (sorry, Gislec). As long as you’re open to your mistake, and learn from it, you’ll get better and better.

“Come on, GM, how could you not remember the rules for encumbrance off by heart?!”

As long as you maintain your enthusiasm, keep the ideas flowing and have a love of the game, nobody will give a care to the errors you make. If you’re struggling in a session, ask for a five minute timeout, or you can always just say you’re going to grab a drink.

You and your players are working as a storytelling team.

D&D is a game of imagination, and not just yours: you’ve got your players right there with you along for the ride. Always remember that D&D is a cooperative storytelling experience, and that you shouldn’t be the sole person on the reins of the narrative. Before you run the game, ideally you’ll want a session where you create the characters with your players. This is one of the most important parts of your campaign: getting a ‘feel’ for what your friends want to play. Encourage their creativity!

One thing that I always enjoy doing during this phase is to ask questions about their character, especially if they’re struggling with a backstory. The best thing that can happen is that everybody walks into the game knowing who they are, where they come from, why they’re doing what they’re doing and where they want to go with their life. If you get a good thing going, this’ll be the character they’re stuck with for a while (that is, if they don’t die horribly), so it should be a character they enjoy playing and you enjoy running with. The Ideal/Bond/Flaw system in 5th Edition is good at teasing a character out of somebody who may be reluctant to give it a shot, but you can always do one better: don’t be afraid to ask questions and help them out! The 10 Minute Background is an excellent way to get the ideas flowing.

Don’t steer your players to where you want to go: rather, challenge them to do even better with their own ideas.

Don’t lock off your players from being a creative influence on your world, either. Kingdoms, dungeons, NPCs, shops, towns… whatever it is, make a note of it and see how you can incorporate it. You’re all working together to create an awesome story: it shouldn’t just be you in the world-building process if you can help it!

“Yes, and…”

Improvisation is a massive part of D&D. There’s no way you can plan for everything, and neither should you. A linear experience- known in the D&D community as ‘railroading’- can be fun for a new group getting used to things, but after a while the game will begin to feel like a theme park.

You should try and restrain yourself from saying “No, there isn’t” or “No, you can’t.” The most tempting thing to say when a player says “Is there a temple in this town? My character is religious, so I want to check it out” and you’ve not thought to include one is to simply say “No, there isn’t.” I mean, you didn’t put it in your notes, so you should stick to your guns, right?

I don’t know what these people are doing, but being a GM doesn’t mean you have to do this.

By saying “No”, you’ve cut off that player entirely. They had something they wanted to do or see in the world, and now they can’t do it. Next time they feel like asking a question or making an observation, they might not bother, and that’s the worst thing that could happen.

The toughest skill to build is to be able to construct a new place in seconds, but it’ll get easier the more you do it. When in doubt, stick together some concepts from things you like, or simply make something unusual. Often, these things you improvise will be more memorable than the concepts you spent weeks designing, simply because they’re a lot more organic and spontaneous!

Take in what your players are giving you and react to it if you can. “Is there a temple?” “Yes, there is, and it’s a cathedral of angry gnomes who worship money!” is a lot better than “No, there isn’t.”

Start small and work your way up.

Like many things, the worst thing to do with D&D is to take on too much at once and jump into the deep end. I’ve known several new GMs who tried to make incredibly in-depth worlds, with huge lore, places to see, and adventures spanning continents. This isn’t to say I’ve got a full grasp on it either: I can’t count on my hands and feet how many times I’ve been overly ambitious and failed in D&D, especially in my early days.

Like I said before, there’s nothing wrong with failing, but building up a huge world only for your players to be overwhelmed, confused and uninterested in something that’s taken so much of your time can be incredibly disheartening.

Take it step by step. Maybe just start off with the immediate information that’s going to be important to the players: where are they? What’s special about where they are, if anything? What’re they going to want to see or visit? What kind of monsters are about? What’s the immediate threat? Sure, the king of this country may be being mind controlled by his evil vizier who’s a spy from a neighbouring empire, but does that matter to the players right now?

The more relevant your information is to the players immediately, the more likely that it’s going to sink in. Make the world interesting by all means, but don’t do an ‘info dump’ on your players- it won’t pay off, and you’ll get frustrated. Having an overview of the world is good, but not having a grasp on what’s going to be right in front of the players is bad.

“Okay, so they’re never going to visit it, but this is my favourite place in the campaign.”

Sometimes, the best ideas are the tried and true ones.

A personal gripe of mine has always been originality. I’ll always be looking at a new adventure or session of D&D through the lens of what I’ve experienced before, or what I know, and try and subvert it. I doggedly try to avoid cliché and make everything fantastically original so that nobody says the dreaded phrase: “Oh, like that thing from that game/TV show!”

Here’s the thing: if you’re somebody who also thinks like that creatively, don’t let this be a hang-up for you. Wear your influences on your sleeve. Take a good idea, use it as it was or change it entirely. D&D is a game, not your personal portfolio! If a certain idea is fun and entertaining, even if it’s cliché, it’s still fun. Haunted mines full of goblins, orcs raiding villages, evil viziers, wise old kings, evil necromancers in cemeteries… they’re all eye-rolling ideas, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to play!

“You never would have guessed that Evil McWizard was behind it all along!”

Don’t be two-dimensional, but also don’t be afraid to look to the tried and true ideas for inspiration. For your players, it actually makes things easier to understand. They’re not expecting you to be a fountain of unique fiction, but they are expecting a fun game. So, let “make it fun” be your only restriction when it comes to designing your adventures.

Challenge yourself to leave your comfort zone.

Now, I’m not saying “dress up as an Orc” or anything like that, but as a GM, you’re the heart and soul of the game. Don’t be afraid to stand up, walk around, bang the table for dramatic effect, throw yourself into an evil monologue, and put on silly voices. If you’re sat at the table with no enthusiasm hiding behind your screen, the players will similarly be discouraged to behave like the massive nerds you all are as well.

Although if you want to dress up like Zeus and pour weird liquids into a bowl, by all means go for it.

I’ve screamed, shouted, wailed, said nonsense in Orc, put on a variety of terrible accents, flirted, argued and lisped my way through sessions- sometimes all in the same session. If you want your players to come out of their shell and roleplay, you’ve got to lead from the front. The game is already pretty silly, really, so you’ve not got a lot to lose in terms of credibility, right?

Have fun!

It’s always a cop-out to have your last tip as a helpful reminder as to why you’re doing all this, but it’s something to bear in mind: being a GM is fun. It’s different from playing the game, as you’re the one pulling all the strings, but it scratches an itch that not many other means of entertainment can. It can get stressful, and yes, you’ll have hiccups along the way, but as long as you’ve got everybody’s best interests at heart and you’re all there for the right reasons you’ll have a blast.

Was this helpful? Completely useless? Did I fail my persuasion check? Let me know @TheRealZeppy on Twitter or email me at tebrierley@gmail.com and I’ll be more than happy to give you tips or encouragement, whatever you’re doing.

Also, sorry for the long absence! Hope you all had an excellent Christmas and New Year. — Tom