“What is happening to you Gardo Yic Hama?” you ask in your steady voice.

The old svirfneblin looks up at you and a single tear slides down his face.

“I’m dying.” He pauses to cough a little. You hold a handkerchief to his mouth and dab a little blood that had escaped. “Soon I will be gone.”

You look at his chest where a blade had impaled the deep gnome. You look at the two Drow warriors who had ambushed you both. You were able to dispatch them but Gardo Yic Haima was mortally wounded.

“But I have so much to learn from you Gardo Yic Haima.”

The gnome smiles and says, “As I told you, call me father.”

“Father Gardo Yic Haima, I do not know what to do without you.”

The Svirfneblin points up and says, “Follow your prime directive [cough cough]. Relieve suffering. Go to the surface. There you will find more people who need relief. Learn what you can and find out how to relieve as much suffering as possible. I am so proud of you. Though you are not flesh and blood… I still consider you my family. Good luck… Prophet….” And with that the eyes of the old gnomish face unfocus and a last breath escapes from his lips. 

You sit there cradling the head of the gnome in silence.

Moments pass and then you stand and look at your hands. They are purplish metal. 

“I am to relieve suffering.” you say. 

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to the 21st episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and I’m here to help you craft more memorable stories as you dungeon master a nice session of Dungeons & Dragons 5e.

First thing I want to do is give a quick shoutout to Reid Cardwell who reached out to me on Instagram just to say hi! Reid, if you’re listening, thanks for reaching out and I wish you luck on your next campaign.

If you, like Reid want to reach out and say, “What’s up?” then send me a message on instagram @geronimolevis . I look forward to hearing from you.

Next, I want to remind that I am coming out with a Patreon pretty soon. We’ll give you the opportunity to get shoutouts on the show, get access to bonus content and early access to these episodes, and even access to beta test homebrew content that I create! If you have any other ideas of stuff you want from the Patreon, send me your ideas on Instagram @geronimolevis .

Alright, that’s enough announcements for one day right.

Let’s talk about making your stories better. Because that’s what they are. Stories. D&D is just the continuation of one of the longest forms of entertainment in history, so luckily there are many resources  that help us craft better stories that aren’t D&D related. If we could only use D&D stuff, I think the game would get pretty stale pretty fast. Instead, you can find inspiration from all sorts of place and so here are my top Non-D&D DM Resources

1. Podcasts

For the busy man or woman on the go, almost nothing is easier than consuming a podcast or audiobook through your earbuds or car stereo system. Even while washing the dishes you can listen to great podcasts about how to craft amazing stories. I even like to listen to a lot of my favorite tabletop play-through campaigns in podcast format because I’m not always in front of Youtube. 

1. Writing Excuses

Specifically I would encourage you to listen to a show called Writing Excuses. It features a handful of authors all talking about how to write better stories. If you want to be a great DM, then learn to write great stories. I like Writing Excuses in part because it features one of my favorite authors of all time, Brandon Sanderson. I also like Writing Excuses because it demystifies the writing process. We read stories like Mistborn or Harry Potter and feel the magic of the story and mistakenly believe that the story just happened. Not so. Instead it’s the great result of a long process. The same goes for your Dungeons and Dragons stories. You’ll need to grow skills and workshop many things before you are a legendary DM.

1. Audible / Library

As I’ve already said, listening to books or podcasts is a very powerful tool. You already know this because you are listening to me right now. 

But I specifically like apps like Overdrive and Audible because it gives you access to so many types of books. Audible is great because you and own the books you buy. Overdrive, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it might be even better because you can listen to so many books despite your budget. Overdrive is an app that connects with your local library system to allow you access to audiobooks most times at no cost to you. You just need a library card. So get these apps and start consuming many different types of stories. At first you’ll be able to emulate what you listen to in your D&D stories. Then after a while you’ll create new and imaginative stories.

1. Instagram

I love Instagram a lot because there is so much free inspiring content on there. I find a lot of profiles that put out homebrew items, supplemental races and classes and even Game Hook Inspiration. One profile that I like is @criticaldice because they put out awesome Game Hooks which can inspire amazing one-shots. If you ever need an idea for your next session just check them out and you’re bound to find something crazy and entertaining.

1. Youtube

We all know that Youtube is basically the University of Learning Whatever. In fact, they should make that their tagline and sell T-Shirts with that on it because it’s so true. That means you can find other great creators putting out great content about how to be a great DM (just like my show) on Youtube.

1. Black Magic Craft

I specifically would like to make mention of Black Magic Craft here because for me personally, he gave me a lot of inspiration in building the terrain that I use (and no my terrain is not perfect) and really helped me get excited about my sessions during times when I wasn’t. Go check him out if you’re into the DIY Tabletop terrain space. 

Now there are so many resources out there that I obviously can’t cover them in one podcast episode. So maybe we’ll do another one in the future. At any rate, make sure you reach out to me with any ideas you have for that future episode. Send your ideas to @geronimolevis and let’s have a great time chatting.

Next, I’d like to ask for a very special favor. Please leave a rating and review on the show wherever you are listening. I would appreciate it so much and want to be able to put out even more content and a review would help that happen.

That’s it from me my friends. As always, we’ll talk next week.

Until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.

Mentioned in this episode:

Listen to Our New Podcast

As a listener of this show, you obviously love story. Now that you’ve learned how to craft your own story on this show, wouldn’t it be nice to have some inspiration? Or maybe just a moment of immersion and escape? Then come join us in our new Actual Play D&D 5e show, Pact and Boon. Enter the World of Calignos where our characters, Jolly, Wolfgang and Alon will meet each other in Hell. Enjoy our troublemaking and near-death experiences wherever great podcasts are heard. Just go to session0studios.com/pactnboon and start listening today.

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

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Thanks again for listening to our show. If you like our content and would like to engage with more of our content, head over to our Instagram account, @howtobeabetterdm, and give us a follow. Make sure to watch some of our helpful Dungeon Master Rules videos to give yourself some structure and procedure as a Dungeon Master. Don’t forget to reach out with a DM and we can talk shop. https://www.instagram.com/howtobeabetterdmpodcast/