Let it be known that despite saying like twenty times in the official printed publications of D&D that rules and such are up to interpretation and you can tailor the game, setting, and even rules to your exact specifications……. if anyone actually DOES that, some trog will crawl their way up out of the floorboards to make fun of it, compare it to something, or just generally shit on it lol
I talk a lot on this blog about constructing better stories, but I frequently forget to talk about what I call “Tableskills”, those parts of the DM’s craft that are less about formulating plots and laying out narratives than they are relating those narratives to the people around the table. The thing is, teaching tableskills is a lot harder than just suggesting ideas about stories that could be told, as every DM or prospective DM has their own particular type of storytelling that they’ll grow into as they master the art. As such, there’s no hard and fast rubric I can pass down, only the things that have improved my own performances over time.
The basics: The DM Narrator Loop
I’ve been playing d&d for well over two decades now, and I’ve never heard the DM’s art summed up any better than this video by VOX: Describe, Decide, Roll.
You as the DM Describe what situation the party is in and ask them what do they do next ( in a very leading tone, pulling them forward or offering them direct choices)
The players Decide among themselves what they’re going to do, with clarifying input as needed.
If anything needs to be decided by dice, youRolland figure out the outcome, then you snap right back to the descritption phase.
Keep doing this and your party will be guided along your storiy at a steady clip while having a lot of fun. Keep rolling to when it’s really important, and you’ll be doing just fine.
All Killer No Filler
The most basic trick I’ve learned for tabletop storytelling is asking yourself “ what’s the most interesting thing that could happen this session “ and then telling a story abouthow the party gets from where they are to where that interesting thing happens. Sometimes that interesting thing kicks down their door and forces them to react, other times it doesn’t quite happen on time, and you need to elude to the fact that it’s about to happen next time they play. Sometimes your players will take the initiative upon themselves to make interesting things happen, ranging from deep roleplay moments to taking an unexpected narrative turn and throwing all your plotting out the window. Learn to love when this happens, but don’t rely on it. Players should be given the spotlight when they stand up and take it, but that doesn’t mean you should shove them on stage before they’re ready.
Because you’re running a live session and thus have limited “screen time” in which your interesting thing might happen, you should focus on scenes that push the party forward, building narrative momentum while offering the party a chance to break off and do their own thing. “Does anyone want to do anything before we X” and variations of it is your best ally here, as including a pending time limit spurs the party to act before circumstances change while also giving them a direction to fall back on when they don’t want to make a decision. This is where radically open world/hands off DMs fail, because the players showed up expecting to be part if a story rather than entirety making their own fun while a friend if theirs silently chides them for not pretending to be an elf good enough. TLDR:Always be moving towards something interesting happening inside the session, but never be afraid to detour when it looks like your party is going to do your job for you.
Economy of Information
I often have a problem with expressing my ideas to other people because I either trip over myself trying to get out all the data required at once, or I leave people hanging because I presume they can infer what comes next. Naturally this is a trait I’ve had to train out of myself when I’m being a dungeonmaster and I did that by studying a bit of cinematography. Movies are not subtle about how they want you to feel at any given moment: If the audience is supposed to be on edge, the surroundings are eerie and the music is discordant, if you’re supposed to like a character they’ll either be reminiscent of a wholesome archetype or the camera will deliberately show them doing something nice. Don’t sweat the details when you’re describing a scene or doing background world building, paint in wide strokes and then fill in the details as necessary. Likewise, don’t let your scenes dawdle, bake in a reason why the scene is going to end before too long and use that as a ticking clock to spur your party into action.
When in doubt, be a Cartoon
As gritty as some people like their tabletop roleplaying, at the end of the day it’s just a big game of pretend, and in my experience the best way to tap into my player’s emotional base is to engage the sense of play they’ve been fostering since they were kids. Unsure how to describe something? Picture how it’d look in a disney movie and your word-picture will come across clearer in your player’s minds. Not yet confident enough to RP a nuanced NPC? Overact like a caricature of who you’re pretending to be, and you’ll suddenly have a lot more wiggle room to play with. However gritty some people profess to like their tabletop gaming it’s all a big game of pretend in the end, and the way you engage your party’s emotional core is by appealing to that sense of play they’ve been holding on to since they were a kid.
Follow the Fun
It took me a while to realize that “fun” was like oil in the engine of any d&d game, and that the primary job of the storyteller was ensuring that it was properly circulating throughout the session. Not enough fun? whole thing grinds to a halt and playing feels like pulling teeth. Too many sessions like that and a campaign falls apart. It takes a bit of practice as a DM, but try to be attentive for when fun “bleeds out” of your campaign. Players beating their head against a puzzle? Skip it, try a different sort of puzzle next time. Someone doesn't’ enjoy shopping trips? give em something to do while the rest of the party is perusing. Combat bogging everyone down? Experiment with techniques to make it snappier. Keep up this mindset and your games will be pumping along like a precision engineered machine.
Fail Faster
I’ve listened to this video so many times I could probably repeat it as liturgy. Just like any performance art, the main metric for advancement is realizing where you’re doing poorly and then figuring out ways to improve upon them. Sooner you figure out what you’re doing on and why, the sooner you can try out ways to fix them, and the sooner you can find things that works. Take on an experimental attitude towards your own works, if something is hard: find a way around it that works for you.
YO I think we as a DnD community need to address the fact that when PCs flirt with NPCs they put the DM in the position of having to play that NPC and not all DMs are comfortable with that all the time and it shouldn’t be an expectation that the DM is comfortable playing NPCs that are being flirted with
I think that is something that you should talk about as a group before playing. In our group we allow npcs and PCs to have romantic interactions but we have respect for each other.
If someone is not comfortable we don’t push it. We don’t get graphic or cross lines with players or DMs that are not ok with it. If you are in a group that doesn’t respect your boundaries talk to them about it. If they don’t listen it is time to find another group.
I am a female Dm with a group of all males(one is my boyfriend of 10 years) all but 1 player has a romantic interest NPC. None of them have ever crossed my boundaries or made me (or my boyfriend) uncomfortable. Other DMs have no npcs that have romantic interest in the players. If you are clear about what you want from the game and what is allowed I find there is rarely a problem with a good group.
Does anyone else have to deal with your DM punishing you strictly because you beat their combat scene too easily or used a magic item too effectively?
In a game I’m playing we found a magic item that basically let me do blood bending, it was made by a necromancer and we took it as well as a few other fucked up magic items, like a hammer that shatters bones into dust on a nat 20, after we kicked his ass. The DM designed these items knowing we would find and use them and typically my gaming group rewards players for finding creative ways to use magic and solve problems.
Later we came up against this guy who was just the worst type of character, murderer, slaver, kept women as his “personal servants”, and was just in general not a person we wanted alive. We fight the guy and we aren’t doing great so I use the item and I asked to just straight up rip the blood out of his body and it does a lot of damage, this basically changes the direction of the fight.
After we kill the guy, our DM is clearly annoyed because I got two good hits on him with the item. He tells me that me using the item in this way was an evil act because it was so merciless and I had to make a roll for my alignment. I called bullshit because we were there to kill him and none of us were going to spare him regardless. He tried to argue some shit that him being a bad person doesn’t mean I get to do bad things to him.
Ultimately I asked why the fuck he gave us the blood bending item if he didn’t want us to use it in the most effective way possible. He tried to spin some philosophical bullshit about self restraint but he was clearly just mad that we bested his boss fight when he wanted us to flee or for the boss to get away.
He wouldn’t let the alignment thing go, so no my lawful neutral monk is lawful evil for no reason and I’m plotting how to further fuck over his campaign. I’m gonna start with the den of thieves he’s put in our city and see how far he pushes me after that. I will also be using the magic item much more often because obviously I’m evil now so it shouldn’t bother my character to do this now all the time.
Suggest to your DM to write a book instead of DMing. That way no one can ruin his story and all the characters will do what he wants. As a DM you need to prepare for players who will do the unexpected. Personally I love it when my players think outside the box and they are rewarded for being clever/creative.
Maybe it is time to talk to the DM or look for a new group. A DM has to make sure their players are having a good time. If they are not that isn’t a someone who should DM. Maybe consider becoming a DM yourself if you can’t find a new group. I’m sure the others in your party are also frusterated by this.
Put other adventuring parties in your game for your players to interact with. Either as friends, allies, or even enemies.
Oh yeah totally! I’m a big fan of making players aware of the fact that the world moves without them and telling them their rivals did the quest they’ve been meaning to do for the past four months is a pretty great way to accomplish that.
Important Party Types and Their Uses
The Rival (derogatory): party that is, whether seemingly or legitimately, significantly more accomplished than the players. Best used to stir up petty drama and/or inspire subtle action.
The Rival (affectionate): the party that happens to show up to claim the same or parallel jobs, is as skilled as the players, and is fair about competition. Best used as a non-lethal testing method, or as a resource to be tapped in large, multitask quests.
The Kennys: just as skilled as the players, only job is to show the players they are in deep shit, usually by rushing in and dying or worse.
The New Kids: significantly weaker than the players, but eager to prove themselves. Use to either inspire mentoring or to trick the players into calling themselves dumb by calling out repeats of the same dumb shit they pulled.
The Experts: hired agents by the government, use to show how you interpret law, procedure, and the relative power of elite officials in your setting. These parties should be both generic and static; if an elite dragon hunting team is level 5, they stay level 5 forever.
The Sweepers: as or more skilled than the players, they exist to take on time sensitive quests in exactly the ways they don’t want. They are the bad ending group, and exist to add, not relieve, time sensitive pressure.
The Kevins: a party that exists only to be found injured and going away from the quest location. Use to drop clues about encounters and to instill fear.
The Five Daves: a joke party that the players will of course get attached to and of course seek out for jolly cooperation and thus you find yourself having to voice these clowns in increasingly unlikely and unclownlike situations until they become as or more fleshed out than the players characters.
