Warmup:

Tanner: What would be the simple premise of a one-hour session you would plan for friends who hadn’t played D&D?

Intro:

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Tanner Weyland, here with my counterpart Justin Lewis. Together we are going to learn how to weave better stories for you and your players while you dungeon master sections of D&D 5e. We will walk you through the steps from someone who’s never played D&D to High-Level Dungeon Master. 

Before we get to today’s main topic, we have a couple of housekeeping items to go over.

First of all we want to send a huge thank you out into the digital waves of the internet to Anna Craven. Anna has played in our one-shots a couple of times and she has also sent Justin and myself an amazing gift! She’s hand-crafted notebook covers with the design of a dungeon on the front and back and created a very awesome Dungeon Journal. So far, Justin and I love these notebooks and want to say thank you so very very much! We’ll be posting a picture of them on our Instagram at how to be a better DM so you can see the fine craftsmanship. Thanks again Anna, we really appreciate it!

Next, another reminder that we are moving to a once-a-quarter schedule for our One-shots. The next one-shot will be held in September by myself. If you want to get in on it, sign up now. So far we have 2 slots with a tentative yes that will be confirmed soon. It’s first come first serve so make sure you come first.

Main Topic: Dungeon Master Essentials

Justin

1. Water

Sitting at the DM table can get very tiring especially if you aren’t properly hydrated. You spend the entire session talking so naturally, you’ll need some water. I’ve found that water is the best choice. While other beverages can have better taste, water allows you to keep your head and not get too antsy.

1. The DM Screen 

When I first started playing D&D, I saw the screens of the dungeon master and thought that it was unnecessary. Indeed, when I started DMing, I didn’t use a DM screen. Then I started and I found that it made a huge difference. I saw two primary differences:

1. My players regarded me more as the DM. I had more authority. Whether this was perceived or not, it doesn’t matter. I like to think of the DM Screen as almost a part of the uniform of the Dungeon Master.
2. I didn’t have to worry about hiding my notes from my players. When you sit next to your wife while you play as I do, you have to guard the secrets you put on paper. A DM screen takes the temptation away from her. 
3. Music

Now, I’m generally not a heavy-handed person. Having music is a nice way to both set the mood and also remind your players that it’s Dungeons and Dragons time. It’s really nice to be able to turn the music up when players get distracted or start having side conversations. Rather than cutting the immersion when you ask your players to stop, you simply amplify the music volume and they get the hint. It’s also great for just setting the mood in general. A must-have.

1. Tabletop Minis

I like D&D because it transitions from hyper-regulated combat to very fluid roleplaying. Having minis takes a lot of the guesswork out of combat and can make it a lot more visual. That said, it can be used as a crutch and should be used judiciously. You should also explore options for trying it in other ways.

Tanner

1. A Great Seat/Proper Height Table: 
2. You will be at the table for a while. You will want to enjoy the whole time. Nothing can ruin your experience like a bad seat that does not have a back, or one that does not encourage proper posture. Further, if you like to stand up and walk around the table, you don’t want a table that is so low that you are bending below the waste to reach it (picture coffee table).
3. Dice, and Extra Dice
4. You are supposed to be the fastest of all the people there. While dice rolling software is nice, you need one that is either user-friendly (read: tablet) or you need a lot of actual dice that are organized and close at hand.

Bonus:

Close:

Thanks again for being with us on this awesome journey. Justin and I have learned so much and we are continually learning. We’re going to put out ever better content and help you tell the greatest stories the world has ever known. We’ll be back next week to help you do just that, but until then, let’s go ahead and roll the initiative.

Mentioned in this episode:

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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.

welcome back to how to be a better d m let's jump in with our

warm up today and tanner is actually going to give me a warm up so

let's let's go ahead and jump in

let's do it okay mine is it's pretty simple pretty open decided to go with

a broader warm up here so let's say that you only had an our prepare

a session for some friends who hadn't played d and d let's say they're over

at your house and you're talking about d and d you're talking about this podcast

and they're like we've never played and you know

yeah

that you don't have all that much time if you were in that position what

would the simple premise of that one hour session be

that is a really good question so i've actually kind of been thinking about i've

started making something kind of along these lines of like the perfect intro ucxtury uh

one shot for new dams new players this isn't my answer my answer would just

be like a tavern brawl simple

yeah

effective but this more interesting answer i would call it a dungeon and a dragon

and the premises you and your group walk into a town and you're looking for

work and you're told to meet a mysterious stranger in these woods next to this

large landmark and you get there and you hear a loud voice and you turn

around and behind the landmark pops out a large copper dragon and obviously you and

your companions are like who we we can't fight a dragon in her and dragon

says hold on i need you to do something for me i need you to

go in to this cave and clear out some monsters go into my dungeon and

clear out some monsters on want you to do it because frankly i'm lazy i

have gotten used to a life of luxury and you can see the dragon is

actually somewhat portly

yeah

and then you go into the dungeon and you simply fight maybe one or two

levels down and then you go out and the dragon gives you some gold and

it's kind of a nice fun almost cheeky way introducing you to dungeons and dragons

with a dungeon and a dragon

i love it i love it yeah it's great too

yeah

because it jumps

yeah

right into the fantasy aspect gives them a quest

oh

right from the beginning you

oh

know because i feel like a lot of people who don't know their way and

d n d don't know about you know tabletop role playing that much they might

not understand the whole the freedom of it and so it's nice to kind

hm

of in a way be like hey don't worry about the freedom right at the

start i'm going to give you the quest with this dragon flying and being like

sup here's what i want you

right

to do you know

you almost need to railroad them into the maze and then once they're in the

maze you let them have free rein because

exactly

they can't get out of the maze without solving it

exactly great love it are you feeling warmed up feeling good

feeling loose feeling good i'm ready

perfect well honestly it's going to be a great episode today and so for you

listeners welcome back to how to be a better dam my name is tanner land

and i'm here with justin lewis my good friend

hi

he's waiving you can't see it

yah

sorry

yeah

so

yeah

anyway together we learn how to weave better stories for your players so that everybody

can have a wonderful time and that starts

oh

with you as the dungeon master we're specifically focusing on d and d fifth edition

and we're excited

m

to take that next step on that

yah

on that road to being a high level dungeon master today so before

h

we get to the main topic we have a couple housekeeping items slash things that

we're psyche

ah

about to talk about

hm

first off a huge thank you to our good friend anna craven she actually was

in a couple of our one shots and then she sent out of the blue

really from the kindness of her heart sent to justin and i an amazing gift

it's these handcrafted notebook covers with the design of a dungeon on the front kind

of like a grid in all these different rooms it looks amazing it's going to

be the perfect dungeon journal honestly we love them we're going to use the crap

out of them

m h

but

m

thank

yeah

you so much anna we're gonna be posting pictures of them instagram in fact but

yeah we really appreciate that otherwise the next reminder is that we're going to be

doing our once a quarter one shots now as you know in the past we

tried to do him every month we felt like our we could produce better one

shot adventures if they were once

ah

a quarter so if you haven't had a chant sign up for them as you

know we send out a news letter and there's actually a link on that to

sign up for the one shot so definitely sign up for that anything else justin

um i would say we haven't scheduled the date for the one shot quite yet

we're going to nail that down and probably let you know on the next podcast

episode but we had someone sign up today for that one shot so seriously if

you you know if you don't get a chance to do it then i can't

help you so it's first come for serve so try and be the first people

there you know

yeah and and the good news is if we can't get you in on this

one we always try and get you in on a on a future one so

get excited but anyway let's

m

move on to the main topic today we're talking about dungeon master essentials and this

this just to kind of set the framework here everything that that we're going to

be talking about is like what is absolutely necessary um specifically we're not talking about

nice to have you know not talking about table tops where the screen is inlaid

and also it's a halo gram or anything like that

oh

right we're going to be talking

ah yeah

specifically about about things that for us we feel like is necessary for dem to

have so that they and their players have specifically them mostly because you got to

think about yourself sometimes so that you feel like

m

you're

ah

going to have a great session let's start with you

exactly

justin

yeah so for me the very most essential thing for a high grade dungeon master

is water sitting at the dungeon master well the d m table can be very

tiring especially if you aren't properly hydrated and for me if you spend you know

you spend the entire session talking and naturally you're goin to need water you're going

to be parched personally i found that water does the best because you know other

beverages let sugar or flavor get in the way and sometimes i can kind of

be distracting obviously you can splurge here and there i found that water is just

the best thing to kind of keep your head straight and not get too anse

just help you stay focused on the game so that's my take on water

agreed one hundred percent water is technically my favorite drink in the world

uh

and i'm not even

oh

lying my wife thinks i thinks i'm crazy that's fine let them laugh but

yeah

anyway i think that

yeah

water is just

oh

if you don't have it you're just going to get parched and you talk so

much as a dam like what are you doing if you don't have enough water

at the table um

h m

you kind of something else that feels very basic but for me it means all

the world like about how session goes especially when it comes to like a good

you know three or four hours session even a two hours session or one you

know uh having a good seat and our tea it's just so important now what

do i mean by that i mean if you're going to be sitting there you

don't want to be hunched you don't want to feel like you can't lean back

so i'm going to say that having a stool might not be the best option

if you're the kind of

yeah

and who gets a lot of tension in your back and

yeah

you don't want to lean you know and if you're having a set on a

stool you don't have the option to kind of relax during times when maybe maybe

the players are talking or you know when gathering your thoughts um and conversely let's

say you're the kind of person who doesn't sit a whole ot you know there's

a lot of dams who like the kind of vacillate between sitting and walking around

the table

yeah

kind of like using their hands a whole lot right so with them

yeah

with the people standing i don't think that a coffee table would be a great

option for you to be frank right and i've played around a coffee table it's

you know you sit on the

yeah

floor sat on the couch

yeah

you know sit up when you need to move your your many but but i

think that for d m s that's like okay if you're bending below the waist

to move things around that puts a lost strain on your back you're not comfortable

um i think that as far as essential s it's one that gets overlooked

i agree and just to hammer in the point of this is really based on

your damning style i've played with people that absolutely refuse to use mines and things

like that in those cases clip boards and couch was perfect because you know they

had a coffee table where we could stand and grab the ice and throw but

we were all really comfortable and things like that but for me you know i

need a chair that i can stand up and sit down in it's comfortable both

ways so i couldn't agree more this one is not so basic it's kind of

i guess like a step above basic is music for me and and generally i'm

not a heavy handed person but one way that i like to use music is

both to set the mood but also to remind the players that it's dungeons and

dragons time

yep

and what i mean by that is you know it's really nice to be able

to slowly turn the music up to annoying levels when certain players get distracted and

start having conversations on the side once they can't really talk to each other because

the music is so loud you can turn that back down and they're focused on

you rather than cutting through the immersion and saying hey we're playing dandy can you

guys stop you know it's nice to just turn up the music slowly until you

get to the point where they do stop but again it's it's also really im

and to set the mood but i like it that other way as well

yeah and even just to show that it works outside of d and d as

well i've bent a few different you know training seminars just you know motivations of

like various different kinds of things and they'll do that often right if they do

a break they'll turn on music

hm

or if

oh

they're trying to like you know some of the cheesier ones sorry maybe it's not

cheesy maybe i'm just

oh

bitter uh

yeah

like some of them will do it like this rising soaring music in the bay

ground when they're really making their point right uh

yeah

but oftentimes like they will do intermissions with music so that people know like hey

it's good and then when the music stops then that's like hey something is going

on for you know you can do it in reverse too if you want like

let's say that you're trying to get ready for a thing your players are just

kind lucy goose and you're like him going to be introducing a major villain or

a major plot point you know or n p c there hasn't been music and

then suddenly you just turn the music up slowly and then that's like okay of

course they're going to be listening you know

yeah i especially like it when like the music accidentally like creates this awesome epic

moment where you're like and that's when they come and then there's this crash and

everyone's like whoa

yep

it's just kind of super serendipitous but it happens all the time it's great

yeah exactly okay so mine and this is again something that i feel like is

very basic but you got to think about is dice

yeah

you know i've mentioned

oh

it before and i'll keep saying if you're not ready with enough dice uh yeah

you can try and blame the players but you're the d m i mean you're

you're supposed to be the one who's bringing the most of the table you signed

up for it and i think having extra dice

yeah

the few friends that i've

m

had to have

okay

you know been courageous enough to d m they all have extra dice and and

it's for a good reason it's because players

oh

need it and it's also because to be frank i don't know if justin you

probably used a few online dice rolling software programs

hm

right

yep

some of them can be kind of lucky you know

oh

like

h

it takes forever to do it and especially when you i mean is the d

m you're supposed to be the fastest one at the table you know as

hm

much as we want players to be snappy with their decisions

oh

d m has no excuse

oh

so it's it's one of those things where it's like hey

yeah

if you can't find software like on abet or some kind of way where you

can quickly roll dies like that just have so many dikes and have them organized

so that you can just you know whip out rolls very quickly without honestly having

to stall the game

for sure in fact in my last one shot i had to stop using the

digital dice roller because it was giving me a lot of advantages not not like

advantage in the game but i was just rolling really really high and it was

uncharacteristic so i had

yeah

to i had to switch

you had to get your own diet tape a penny

yeah

to one side just to make sure it was

exactly

uneven on purpose

exactly exactly but the next one i have and actually have two more is the

d m screen now when i first started playing d and d as a player

yeah

i saw the screens that the dungeon star or dungeon masters were using and i

thought you know that's kind of unnecessary ended up playing with another group where he

didn't use a screen and i think it might have been just because the table

was too small or something but then when i started damming i thought the same

thing i thought it was not useful so i didn't and actually didn't have one

that was probably why didn't think it was useful but then i got one and

i started using it and i found two major differences improvements in how i played

number one is my players kind of regarded me a little bit more as the

d m i had i seem to have more authority you know whether the was

perceived or not doesn't matter in fact i like to think of the dungeon master

screen is almost kind of like a part of the dungeon master uniform that helps

you get into to roll and the second thing that improved is obviously i didn't

have to worry about hiding my notes from my players i sit next to my

wife

and i love her naturally but she's also very curious and her eyes wander and

having a d m screen takes that temptation away from her and it doesn't doesn't

allow me to get mad at for seeing things that i wrote down that were

supposed to be secret so if you if you haven't thought about getting a dungeon

master screen i would highly recommend you know just trying it out

yeah absolutely i think i think some people know if you're the type that has

like two lap tops in front of you you know maybe that actually is

m

your dungeon master screen either way you need some

hm

you need some space whether that's

ah

you know being

oh

further away like everybody

ah

scrunched to the other side of the table or whatever but the dungeon master screen

is probably one of the most space efficient ways to do it and it's functional

because it's got like rules

oh

and different tables and stuff it so get it

sure for sure uh then my next one is tabletop minnies and i know this

is kind of an incendiary topic like i said there are people out there who

only prefer theater of the mind you people are much more cerebrally gifted than i

am i am not smart enough to know how to describe things in such a

way that my players understand spacially exactly where they stand d but i actually like

d and d because it transitions between you know hyper regulated combat to very fluid

role playing of theater of the mind you know and having mines for me takes

a lot of the guess work out of combat and makes it a little bit

more visual and because combat is so um touch and go it matters who goes

when and how far away you are and those things can make big differences in

combat i find it is important to have mines or visual representations at scale so

that way they can see and they can understand the stakes and you can make

things a little bit more um i guess closer the encounters don't have to be

so obviously won or lost but that said i do recognize that having mines can

be a crutch and should be used judiciously you should also explore options for trying

you know other opt other ways of doing combat you know theater of their mind

or using less isticated visual representations but for me having that there is a must

yeah yeah absolutely and it kind of speaks to a bigger a bigger need which

is to make your games more visual right let's say you are someone that

h

doesn't

m

use mines i would still recommend that you find some like pictures you know like

maybe you've got your lap or or whatever connect to screen then it's like t

v screen and you could like put up a picture of this of the the

m p c that they're running into or like you

hm

know there's so many beautiful fantasy backgrounds or just kind of like uh scene scapes

and it's a great way to paint a picture so so minnies are kind of

heart and soul

yeah

of that ere it's like hey make it as visual as you can and your

players will be more into it

for sure and actually one bonus that just came to my mind is light control

being able to control the amount of light that enters your game space as well

as if possible the color and brightness where we play there's too many windows and

not enough curtains so if we're playing in the middle of the day it's it

feels like it's middle of the day but if you could try and play in

a basement with very few windows or close them up and then be able to

dim lights and things like that that goes back to setting the mood i think

that is essential to creating the perfect gaming situation so just a little bonus went

there

agreed agreed i love it yeah so those are some i'm sure you can think

yah

of other essentials but as far as it goes i think that those are great

h

for

oh

buddy who's you know

ye

and here's one thing worth noting the things we just mentioned aren't crazy hard to

get you know uh and yet they can change the game in fundamental ways and

so if you're trying to get more serious you know buying some extra dice that

d m screen uh finding like you know grabbing your little i don't know alexa

or some other kind of thing

yeah

and learning how to

yeah

play some music are all things that probably only take not too long you know

half an hour online at most to get all of those or look up how

to do it right and it can change everything

m

uh so

m

let's go last thoughts from you justin go

my last thoughts are a dungeon master is simple it's not easy but it's simple

in reality there were story tellers eons ago who were passing along story just with

their mind and their voice that's essentially what being a dungeon master is except we've

added rules to it and made kind of a two part system in essence to

have a good dungeon master session or a session of d and you only need

friends something to write down or record what's happening and rules that everyone agrees to

you those are the like bare minimum not even a skeleton just like the idea

of a game that's all you need but everything else just adds layers of greatness

on to your game and these these are excellent tools and in my opinion essential

to having not just a great game but a superb game at least in my

opinion

yeah yeah and that even

oh

you were mentioning how back in the day you know storytellers would do that and

the great thing about d and d that makes it such an awesome you know

adventure and journey for players and dim is the fact that it's i mean i'm

kind of blinking on other examples but it might be one of the first collaborative

story telling experiences you know in the modern age and possibly for older ones

yeah

like i frankly don't know but

uh

it's it's amazing and

m

we really just

oh

want to thank all your listeners for being on this journey with us to be

better dmsuh so justin and i have learned so much and we're continually learning and

we look forward to putting out even better content to help you and ourselves to

even better stories we'll be here next week so until then let's go ahead and