I made an advice handout for my young players, who are all interested in becoming DMs. Many players get their start with the most recent edition of D&D, and I think much great playing advice is aimed at adults familiar with systems other than D&D, so this is an attempt to bridge that gap in my second and last entry to the Player Advice Blogwagon.
If you want a pretty two-page version to hand out to new DMs or GMs, see my itch page ($1). If you do not have a credit card or can't afford it, shoot me a message there, happy to share.
Guide for new DMs
Here I am going to share some DM advice and tips to help you start out. These are loose “Rules” on how to run the game at table.
Rule #1: Be kind.
The point of playing a game like D&D is to have fun with friends. If you are accidentally mean or harsh to a friend, apologize. If you see them get upset by the game, pause and try to help them. If your friend(s) strongly disagree with how the game is going, kindly ask them what they want to happen, within the rules of the game you are playing.
Rule #2: Be fair.
Use your infinite DM power wisely. Have fun together: don’t kill your friends characters for fun. A meteor could fall and kill everyone in one blow, but that’s not fun. Instead, scare them, chase them, battle them—but give them fair warning and ways to escape if death is near.
Rule #3: The world is real, the rules are Guidelines.
What happens in a game of imagination is not set in stone or bound by rules. You must act as if the game world is a real place, but only past table stories are Truth. You can make exceptions to the rules, shift the story’s direction, or change the world. Death can become defeat, or resurrection. A heavy blow can break a shield instead. A dungeon can light up and become a fairyland.
Rule #4: Tell a story together.
That means sharing the spotlight. To that end:
- Ask your players questions: what they want to do, know, accomplish. Encourage them to ask each other questions. Outside exciting moments like combat, give them time to plan.
- Don’t talk too long as DM. Answer questions well, then stop. When in doubt, ask a question of someone who hasn’t talked in a while.
- Be all of their senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing. Use short descriptions to highlight interesting stuff to interact with around them—3-5 per room/place, to start. If your players are confused, clarify patiently, as many times as is needed.
- Experiment with new challenges: combats, traps, tricks, riddles, terrain, roleplay, puzzles, exploration, mazes, thefts, neat NPCs, scary situations, shopping. Try to involve everyone’s fun abilities and favorite activities, and take note on what they found fun.
- Keep play rolling: don’t stop to look up rules for more than 20 seconds. Make a fair ruling, and look it up later. When in doubt, let the dice decide. Roll the dice where all can see.
Rule #5: Create problems, not plots.
The problems should have multiple possible solutions. Players need frequent interesting choices, or it’s not a game you are playing together (DMing is more than storytelling to an audience). Let the story unfold at the table. Being surprised by your players is a fun part of DMing: reward clever solutions if you can.
Rule #6: Be your players biggest fan.
Let their choices change the world, kill your bad guys, and otherwise mess up your plans. Congratulate your heroes, reward them, and plan more trouble! All actions have consequences.
Rule #7: Move the story forward.
Start strong, with events that grab players. End when something interesting is happening. In between, put characters through happy times, easy wins, and hard challenges. If fights drag, have enemies run away or surrender or die. Make your world interactive—always something to fiddle with, always someone to talk to (including monsters). Make your heroes bright and your villains dark and exciting. Don’t be afraid to improvise. When players ask, just say, “Yes, and…” or “No, but…”
What you should bring to table
| Item | Need/want | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Notebook and pen | Need | Ideas, notes, HP tracking, simple maps. Your plans! |
| Game book | Need | Have the rules handy, with bookmarks or tabs on useful pages. |
| Dice or cards | Need | A randomizer (all you actually need, really). |
| Dry-erase map and markers | Want | Really useful for drawing maps, even if you are not playing on a strict grid. |
| Handouts | Want | Print out (or display on a screen) great maps, cool pictures, and details of the magic and wonder they find. 3x5 notecards work great for handouts, as do sheets of paper. |
| Miniatures / tokens | Want | In a pinch, use your imagination (or more dice for tokens), but it’s fun to move your token around and fight mini-monsters. |
| Memory aids | Want | If you find the rules hard to remember? There are summaries you can print. Coming up with names is hard? There are generators that print dozens. Bring what helps you to table. |
| Everything else | ? | Using your creativity to make cool props or terrain or art or soundtracks is wonderful. But no pressure—it is bonus. Spending $$$$ to play also isn’t needed, unless you enjoy it. |
How to prepare for a game
What does a DM do, before they play? How do you prepare (or ‘prep’) to run an adventure? There is a lot of great DM advice out there (Colesville’s Running the Game, Sly Flourish, Mystic Arts, Ginny Di, Patchwork Paladin). There are also as many ways to prep as there are DMs (and “GMs”, for other roleplaying games, the cousins of D&D). But they boil down into three groups:
1) Run a pre-written adventure
Pre-written adventures can save a DM a lot of time, but the hard part is picking a good one. There are the official D&D modules (of mixed quality), third-party unofficial D&D ones, and great, easily adapted non-D&D adventures. You can buy printed copies (Exalted Funeral, Amazon, Lulu), online-only books (D&DBeyond), or buy ebooks (PDFs) and print what you need at home ( DMsGuild, DriveThruRPG, RPGtrader, Itch). Lots of adventure reviewers (Seth, Quinn, Bob) can help you decide.
Before you run the adventure, read the whole thing and figure out how the pieces connect. Feel free to change details, once you understand it. For the parts your players will play in the first session (usually 3-5 rooms/scenes per two hours), think through what will happen in each scene. It’s okay not to have the whole adventure memorized in your head—print or write down or bookmark information you might have to hunt for.
2) Create your own adventure in a pre-written world.
D&D and its cousins have many worlds to choose from (Greyhawk, Toril, Krynn, Eberron, Golarian, Dolmenwood, and so on), and there are literally thousands of maps, art handouts, and game supplements online to support you designing an adventure in those worlds. Start simple (example, another): pick a pre-made town and make a nearby small dungeon—5-7 connected rooms (or scenes, it can be aboveground). Have the characters meet, someone needs their help with a thing, then start the action leading to that thing (whenever it gets slow, have a villain run into the room).
3) Make up your own homebrew world.
Don’t start big. If you go this path, I recommend creating only a small valley (a town, nearby wild land, a simple dungeon) with 1-3 big problems (examples: the goblins are coming back, crops are dying, a mysterious fog taking cows). You don’t need to solve why those problems exist; focus on creating the first dungeon, and place a few clues in that adventure that point to bigger problems. Do not create a story for your players to act out: create a story/world that responds to what your players do. Make places of wonder, danger, and treasure, have them react to your PCs, and adventure will come. Feel free to steal anything from pre-written materials for use in your world.
If you have a friend handy, walk them through the session (skip combat) before you play, and learn from their questions. Describe each scene, then ask them, “Now what do you want to do?” If they ask many questions, or seem confused, note why—maybe they need clearer descriptions, or rumors (”hooks”) to excite them with clear choices about what to do next. And if they go a direction you are not prepared to run, that’s normal. You can either make up what happens next, come up with a reason their path leads them back to your adventure, or tell them plainly that the adventure is not down that path (and learn why they went off-path).
And then, when you play with your friends, ask them what they liked after the session. Next session, ask what they remember. Lean into that feedback, and remember to have fun as a DM!
Pointer #1: Know the job
A DM is a fun storyteller who knows the rules. But the other half of the job is giving your players interesting decisions and the space to think. An interesting decision is one with at least two distinct options: not just right and left passages to choose from, but a stinky right passage and a humming left passage. Use detailed descriptions to set up real decisions, then wait for your players to declare what they want to do. Don't nudge them into a decision unless they ask for help.
Pointer 2: Don't sweat the rules
Can't remember the rules in the moment? Just make a quick fair ruling to keep play moving, and double-check the rules later. If you can't think of what rule applies to a PC or monster action, roll a luck die (a 1d6 (1-3 bad, 4-6 good) or 1d20 (X-in-20 chance of success) to decide if the action will turn out well or badly. You can play an entire game flipping a coin.
Pointer 3: Improvise, and practice
If you need a monster in a pinch, just use bears and give them a special power or two--the PCs will never know. If you need an NPC name, pick a plant or animal or baby sound. If you need an NPC personality and voice, pick a movie/tv actor and imitate them. If the PCs surprise mid-game and you freeze, don't sweat it, just take a moment and go with your best effort. Improvising is a skill like any other, and you will get better over time.
Pointer #4: Do it your way
There is loads of DM (and GM) advice online, and celebrity DMs playing D&D with actors. Don't expect their methods to work for your game. It's okay to have bad sessions: DMing is a constant learning process. Figuring out what works for everyone to have fun takes time. If you get tired of D&D, there are lots of other fun RPGs out there (Keeper's Call, Dolmenwood, Stonetop, Honey Heist, Starfinder, Land of Eem). If you get tired of DMing, take a break: invite a friend to DM a session, or play video/board/card games together instead. The fun with friends? That's the important part.
By Velocitree, Copyright Dream Shrike Press 2026, and available as a formatted 2 page PDF here.
