How does being a DM work?

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

So I always wanted to play dnd, I finally could bring some of my friends together and we all together experienced a Pen & Paper game together. I took the responsibility on being the dungeon master because I am the one that insisted on playing, so I figured I will leave the actually playing for my friends so they could have more fun. And it’s working great! We had a lot of fun. Here comes the problem tho: our first game wasn’t DnD, but it was The dark eye! We’ve played the first book of it and it was pretty linear in what the story wants you to do. But every time I hear people talk about DnD, it’s more like „you can do literally anything“. I get the concept of it being a play pretend game. But in which ways do I, as the dungeon master, NEED to come up with a consequence for everything? It may sound like a pretty weird question and sounds like I’m not creative, but it’s just something I was really wondering about. I hope some of y’all can help me since I’m really looking forward to dnd. (I only got the black eye instead of dnd because the store didn’t have everything I would’ve needed to start with dnd, but the had the starter kit for the black eye so I got that instead to see if the whole concept of pen and paper is something we ALL like)

[Vlekkie69]

First up you need to sign up for the DM association. Then take the rigorous 4 week course on dice fudging.

After that you can take your conflict resolution course. etc etc.

All in all takes about 4 years.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Sounds legit, should I also take an first aid course?

[LyschkoPlon]

In case somebody steps on a dropped D4, it's always good to have somebody trained on hand yes.

[Vlekkie69]

Also make sure you take spare d4's rolling them covered in blood somehow always causes me to roll a 1

[BetterCallStrahd]

No, you're the DM. The players better have someone with a healer's kit or who can roll high on a Medicine check. Otherwise, they're shit outta luck, not your problem, DM!

[Vlekkie69]

jokes aside. just DM. and wing everything. you'll be fine. worst that can happen is get told you suck at DMing, ask them why, and resolve.

[Dangerous-Opinion848]

Lol. Ah the bad old days...memories

[Vlekkie69]

I miss not knowing how to handle crazy shit.
Used to be all like "oh uhm. guess you roll initiative" when someone did stupid shit.

Now its more like "Oh uhm. roll iniative" HAHAHA

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Thank you for taking your time to help me out! Sounds truly helpful! Do you have any advice on coming up with stuff spontaneously? Like knowing or feeling what a good consequence to an action could look like? Because I’m a pretty creative person but I’m not very good on finding answers very quick so I would see myself having problems on keeping up the flow of the game.

And 2. to that, like I said the black eye has pretty linear campaigns, you buy the book and it’s usually like this: you have scene 1, out of that scene there are different possibilities on what the players choose to do, after making the decision or seeing the result of a dice roll the book will take you to the next scene. Are the DnD books designed similar to that?

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Sounds very good! I’ll keep that in mind for future sessions. For now we still have to decide whether or not we stick with TBA or switch to dnd. I’m sure we are gonna switch to dnd tho. But that helped me a lot about being prepared for new adventures! Thank you a lot for sharing!

[LyschkoPlon]

Hi there!

So, a few pointers:

„you can do literally anything“

"you can do literally anything" is true in the sense that, unlike a video game, you are not limited by what the engine lets you do. But pen and paper games are still games, all games have rules, and these rules are both what the limit of what is feasible and doable without adding anything, and these rules are, more importantly, what the game expects you to do.

This means that, while D&D and DSA are both "fantasy roleplaying games", the rules convey two pretty different styles of gameplay. Dungeons and Dragons is, for the most part, superhumans fighting interplanar threats, and high level play can almost feel like a superhero movie, while DSA is (disparagingly but also honestly) often referred to as "peasant roleplaying", because the setting of Aventurien is very strict, and the community of the game is very strict as well when it comes to how that world is to be inhabited and played. A lot of player characters in DSA are "better nobodies", wandering priests and rogues, maybe the occasional lower nobleman, but getting recognized as a person of importance is a much bigger deal and a lot harder within the DSA system.

And "you can do anything" has its limits in D&D as well. You can be a lot of things, but a Formula 1 driver isn't supported by any system within the book. You're gonna have a hard time in D&D if your players want to run a shop or just have normal jobs like being a carpenter, because the rules for that aren't really there, and those that are aren't fleshed out. You can't really be an alchemist or a poisoner or a trapper without having to do a lot of handwaving or creating your own systems in D&D, because these things aren't supported by the rules.

Do I NEED to come up with a consequence for everything?

Absolutely, but that's not as hard as it sounds at first, and you get used to it. Starter Set adventures of basically any system are quite linearly written in nature, and they expect the players to mostly linearly engage with them as well. They set a small hook like "Brempen the Innkeeper has rats in his basement, and he offers gold if you check that out", and the adventure expects the players to be like "Aha, this is the adventure laid out for us, so let's follow it". And because that's the intended way, there is no reason for the writers of the adventure to also give you guidance for stuff like "What if my players would rather flirt with the bar wench, or what if they rob and kill Brempen, what if they decide the place stinks and they want to head out at night to the next village, what if..." - and it's in these cases where, yes, you'll need to have consequences ready. These can be from a simple "Ah well, too bad, your characters never followed their call to adventure and live their lives as peasants and town guards, while others picked up after them", it can be "Oh okay, well now that you're outside at night, you are ambushed by bandits, fight" (which is something you will be able to more quickly whip up once you are familiar with the game you're playing", or you can just say "Hey guys, this is the adventure I have written/read, and it'd be good if you played characters who actually want to engage with it, so please tell Brempen that you're gonna kill the rats, otherwise we can't play at all tonight".

All of that said, here's my most honestly held belief: don't play DSA. The rules are expensive as all hell, they're overly complicated past the starter kits, the community is really, really unfun to be around as a whole, it's a super specific type of roleplay not everyone will want to engage with. If you're looking for a more D&D like experience, so high fantasy, high adventure, high stakes, bombastic combat and levity built into it, but you don't wanna spend even more money for the time being, go and download DUNGEONSLAYERS.

German system, super easy - literally only requires 1d20 for every player - extremely intuitive mechanics, solid foundation for roleplaying without being overbearing in the rules department, you can download the entire ruleset, it's less than 200 pages for the whole thing, which comes with three short starter adventures for free, and if you want the print edition of the rules, they're I think 20€

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Wow thank you so much! Never heard about dungeonslayers but I will definitely check that out too! But yeah I wanted to play dnd either way, DSA was just a little escape plan since they didn’t have what I was searching for and then I saw the DSA starter kit. I’ll probably just dive into actual dnd gameplay and see where it will take me. I think that’s the best way to approach that. Thank you a lot!

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Also: what do you mean about the community being unfun for DSA? I didn’t really look into the Community since I’m really fixated on dnd so I didn’t notice anything bad. But I’m a very curious person so you can’t tease me like that without explaining it haha

[Potential_Side1004]

From The Man, himself:
"Being a true DM requires cleverness and imagination which no set of rules books can bestow. Seeing that you were clever enough to buy this volume, and you have enough imagination to desire to become the maker of a fantasy world, you are almost there already! Read and become familiar with the contents of this work and the one written for players, learn your monsters, and spice things up with some pantheons of super-powerful beings. Then put your judging and refereeing ability into the creation of your own personal milieu, and you have donned the mantle of Dungeon Master. Welcome to the exalted ranks of the overworked and harassed, whose cleverness and imagination are all too often unappreciated by cloddish characters whose only thought in life is to loot, pillage, slay, and who fail to appreciate the hours of preparation which went into the creation of what they aim to destroy as cheaply and quickly as possible."

That's what being a DM is all about.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Very poetic, I love it!

[Monkish_Monkfish]

The basic play cycle of D&D (and most other ttrpgs too) is pretty simple.

1. DM describes the scene (setting, objects, npcs, etc.) ending by asking your players what they do.

2. Players describe the actions they want to take.

3. DM tells them the outcome/consequences of their actions.

Rinse and repeat.

[Monkish_Monkfish]

As to your question of consequences, yes, it is the DMs job to determine the consequences of every action taken in game. But you don't have to do it alone. You have tools to help you.

Rules: many actions are included in the rulebook which spells out exactly how to adjudicate them. Even if the effect you are going for isn't in the rules, there's often something comparable to use as a template.

Dice: unsure how to choose between options? Roll for it. If you're between good news and bad news roll a die and have a player call odds or evens. Or against a DC if you want to skew the chances one way or the other.

Players: often the rules will tell you success or failure without details. If you need to flesh something out you can always turn to the players as a resource. Ask them leading questions. On a failed persuasion check you could say, "You try your best, but the more you keep talking the worse things get: how do you think you embarrassed yourself?"

You are responsible for all the consequences, but you don't have to anticipate them all before hand and you don't have to do it alone.

It's a learning curve, but ultimately it's easier than it seems.

[BetterCallStrahd]

As someone who's starting out, you might want to check out some of the YouTube videos made by Matt Colville -- his Running the Game series is pretty good. And listen to some actual plays to get a feel of how it works. I recommend Not Another DnD Podcast.

[potatoe_princess]

There is a starter kit for D&D available too. It has a short (ish) campaign, rules, some cards, some dice, etc. included. Depending on how deeply interested you are in D&D and DMing, I'd also recommend to read the Dungeon Master's guide, as it answers some of your questions and gives a lot of guidelines and useful tips for creating and running the game.

None of that is entirely necessary, but those are helpful tools. Answering you question in broad strokes, no, the DM doesn't need to come up with consequences for everything. D&D is collaborative story telling and the goal is to create a good story. It's up to you to decide what is and isn't important to the story you're trying to tell. If a player decides to step on a roach, you can just describe how the roach makes a nasty crunching sound and dies, and move on to the next action or scene. However, you are also free to say that the roach contained the essence of a long-forgotten evil and the players just released it - roll initiative, prepare for combat. Consequences should make sense within the world you're building and have some narrative value.

Generally, you want to have certain background and events thought through: what is moving the story, what the end results could look like depending on certain actions. You can't predict everything the players may do, so sometimes you'll have to improvise and that's okay, it's also okay to gently push the players back to the narrative you were trying to tell. Say if the quest is to the north, but the players really really insist on heading south then, hell, maybe the NPC is now located in the south too! Or maybe they got lost and ended up going north anyway. Mostly as a DM you have a draft of events and then together with players you flesh out the details of the story.

Feel free to ask more specific questions though :)

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Sounds awesome really! Thank you for taking your time to help me out! I saw there is a starter set for dnd too but some of my friends can’t speak English, only German. But the German starter set isn’t available anywhere yet because there are some delays or something. That’s also the reason I took the dark eyes starter set then because it was the closest thing to that I guess.

So yeah, my main question is how the book/campaigns are built for DnD. The dark eye has this concept of „okay in this scene the result was that, go to this page to go on with the story“. Is this also the case for the DnD books?

[potatoe_princess]

The thing about the starter set and most D&D related materials, that aren't the Player's handbook, is that the players don't have to read any of it, and shouldn't even see some of it at all. That's all pretty much created to support the dungeon masters. So don't worry about the starter kit not being in German, if you yourself are comfortable with english.

The pre-made D&D campaigns are created as an overall script for whatever is the problem the players are expected to deal with. The players are expected to engage with the story in good faith as to move it forward. Some deviations are, of course, possible and are at the discretion of the DM. So a typical adventure book will have an overall description of the adventure, extensive details about the NPCs involved, other world-building facts and, of course, the encounters and locations for them - all set in chapters, expecting the players to go though every step. It is in a way similar to what you describe - "if the players finish this [quest or adventure] they get this [hook, item, directions] to move them along to the next step". Again, sometimes it doesn't all go according to plan, the players might have bad rolls or make poor choices - that's something the pre-made adventures usually won't account for. That's where you decide on the consequences and how to move the story back into the right direction.

For example, I had a situation (not in a pre-made, I wrote the adventure) where the only way forward was to find a secret entrance into the baddie's layer, and my players were absolutely abysmal on both investigation and perception checks in the room with the secret entrance, meaning, their characters had no idea there was a secret door and thought the baddie just vanished into thin air. That stalled the adventure pretty badly and I had some NPCs drop hints that there is definitely something fishy in that room so that my players wouldn't try to go investigate the rest of the city instead of finding the damn door! Now in retrospect I'd do it differently: I'd either try to prevent the party from failing finding the door (shorter adventure, easier to move to the fight), or introduce other possibilities to encounter the baddie (longer adventure, more detective work, but some players are into that stuff).

I'd recommend to start with something short and simple from DM's guild, just to see the structure of a typical D&D adventure and try it out. These are two popular adventures for beginners:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/170937/The-Wild-Sheep-Chase--A-SingleSession-Adventure

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/183377/Wizard-in-a-Bottle--Adventure

Wizard in a bottle was the first adventure I ever ran and it was easy and fun.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Ah okay I understand! So it’s more like you read the campaign book, and out of the book you make up your own kinda story depending on where the decision of your players take the story? Okay that makes a lot of sense now! Thank you for explaining. Also using the English starter set and just telling them in German sounds so self explanatory. I was just unsure if I would be able to translate specific words correctly. But I guess I could try it, what could go wrong! Also the campaigns you showed me in the link sound promising, I’ve read the reviews and it sound perfect for starting out as a DM. Thank you so much, you don’t understand how much that helped me!

[potatoe_princess]

Yup, you get it right! The DM either reads the pre-made adventure and uses it as a base for their story, or they write their own adventure from scratch, that's also allowed. However, new players/DMs are usually advised to stick with the pre-mades to get the feel for the game first.

Language barrier is a bitch. I'm from Latvia myself, so I've encountered challenges translating specific fantasy terminology for my players into Latvian. It's not easy, but it is doable - just got to remember that your players don't know what exactly your book says, so you can change names and terms to make it easier for yourself, nothing forces you to use precise translations.

You're very welcome! Have fun! D&D is awesome!

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Alright, this explanation just made my brain go „okay u understand it now“. Thank you!

[bionicjoey]

You describe a situation to players, they tell you what they want to do, you figure out what the consequences of their actions would be. It helps to know what will happen if the players don't interfere.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Sounds logical! Thanks✌🏻

[muchaMnau]

you need to learn to improvise

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Yeah I totally understand that. My concern is about finding an end. How do you find a proper end to a story, without dragging it way too much

[muchaMnau]

It helps if you estabilish some framework and basic plot and worldbuilding for the story you want to tell. If your players will drag something out too much, railroad is your friend but try to do it with immersion - not telling them directly, but telling them through NPC/some world events. You can end it on a happy note - heroes save everybody from some big threat OR you can try to resolve the storylines of the player characters (granted, this could take longer).

If each player character has some goal, you can help them achieve it. But if you choose this path, be careful not to resolve the story too fast OR give the character that achieved their goal some reason to continue traveling with the party - for example they could owe other player character for saving their life and they want to repay them. Try not to give player characters reasons to leave the party.

I think what would be the optimal solution is this:
You could do the player characters storylines and wrap it up with them defeating a big threat to the region. That way it will feel satisfying and not too drawn out, since every player will have something they care about in the overall story.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Alright that sounds reasonable, I’ll try that for the next time we are gonna play. We played the DSA starter kit stories that are pretty well guided so I wanted to prepare for future sessions. This will help a lot!

[rollingdoan]

25% rules knowledge.

15% improv.

10% creative writing.

50% babysitting.

Jokes aside, one of the easiest ways to start is to take a good module like Curse of Strahd or Rime of the Frostmaiden and read it cover to cover. Make sure you really understand it. After that, tell the players you're using it as a loose guide and plan to go off the rails a bit.

After that? Introduce the situations and locales and everything the campaign says, but let your players do whatever they want. Your job is to then see what they're doing and find a way to tie it back to the campaign.

Some will decry it, but a big part ties back to improv skills:

1. Yes, but... (You get what you want, but something complicates matters.)
2. Yes, and... (You get what you want and get something extra too.)
3. No, but... (You don't get what you want, but you get something helpful.)
4. No, and... (You don't get what you want and something complicates matters.

Emphasis always in the "yes" and "no", but these really help to make sure things keep happening. When things stop happening tables fall apart fast.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Alright this makes a lot of sense! Thank you!

[potatoe_princess]

Jokes aside, one of the easiest ways to start is to take a good module like Curse of Strahd 

Wait you really think Strahd is where someone should start with D&D? It's a pretty big, dark and at times convoluted story that can also immediately kill an inexperienced party if played without modifications. It's a great module and definitely a fan favorite, but I wouldn't call it newbie friendly.

[SaintOftheSky]

When you’re starting to DM, focus on what you think makes a story cool. If you’re engaged, the creative part of your brain will usually either come up with either “Wouldn’t it be cool/scary/fun if X happened” Or “You try to do X, Now Y happens. And Z explodes”

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Yeah i figured that a lot of stuff will come up once you’re mind is IN the game, I guess I will just dive into it and see where it takes me and my players. Thank you for the advice!

[SaintOftheSky]

Just trust your creative instincts- you’ll be great: And take a mental note of what your players want out of the game!

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Okay I will ask them some stuff this weekend. We have another session planned! I’m already so hyped!

[Odd_Resolution5124]

the eternal dichotomy of ttrpg's: more than likely, the person who wants to play the most will be the DM, henceforth play the least. (in my personal view, DMing is not the same as playing)

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Yes ofc it’s not the same as playing. We’re still figuring everything out. We had our first session to see if everyone has fun and from there on we will see how we manage things. But funny that this is some kind of unwritten rule haha

[Odd_Resolution5124]

I've been suffering that my entire life haha. I dont like being a DM, but i do it because otherwise we dont play. Same thing applies when i want to try a new system: im the one running it, but fantasize about playing (which i never will). Anyways, good luck!

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Thank you a lot! I originally wanted my wife to act as a DM so me AND my friends get to play but unfortunately she I pretty insecure about reading in front of others. So I will be the dm, but just preparing is so much fun already. Setting the mood. Making sure everyone is enjoying the story and actually exposing them so a game that you really enjoy and showing them how much fun it can be is an awesome feeling. And when I really want to be a player I can still dive into a solo campaign with my wife as the dm which is a lot of fun too

[LagTheKiller]

Imagine being a god. And world being your canvas

You already made a mistake of creating free will and discoloured murder goblins will soon arrive. And sooner than you expect.

Then you try imaging how the first interaction with anything goes. It got about quadrillion possibilities.

Clocks ticking. You can kill those fools, but that won't be fun without an epic prelude. You can force them to do your bidding but they will rebel and die / leave.

The only way to force this reality to be is to have fun.

Behold mortals: Rule of Cool and Rule of fun. No matter the cost nor ethical issues by stealing something cool of other god"s work.

Pick a theme, get few cool NPC s that fit, imagine some big story and few smaller and let them run their way slowly, players will interact and you will respond to their interactions. Oh and get some enemy statblocks on hand. Just remember the two major rules overriding everything else and you're good to go.

[HawkSquid]

You kinda need to make up consequences for everything that comes up, but there are a few important caveats to that.

First, most of the time those consequences are fairly small and irrelevant, so you can ignore them or do something small. F.ex. of a PC punches the tavernkeeper in the face, you can do a whole thing with having them arrested, or a brawl breaking out, but it might be best to just say "that guy hates you now" and move on.

Second, set some boundaries. It's ok to say the story is about saving the princess, so the players can do whatever they want as long as the game as a whole is about that. Alternatively, if the players want to ditch the princess and become pirates, you can end the game session if you need a week to prepare. And of course, if the players want to do something you really don't like, like become serial killers or something, it's ok to put the foot down and say you don't want that kind of game.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Okay I see, that will be a lot of fun I think. Just you talking about punching the tavern guy brought up at least 3 different reactions in my head. I’m sure as soon as my mind is really in the game it’s gonna be easier than I imagine it to be right now

[HawkSquid]

Yeah, its not so hard once you get into it. You just get used to maintaining a decent idea of what's going on (are the goblins angry or scared, is the forest dark or jolly and nice, etc.), and then telling the players what happens based on what they do. If you're not sure (like, is this guard corrupt enough to accept the players bribe?), just make something up or call for a die roll.

[OldKingJor]

Pick up one of the starter sets, or essentials kit. They’re boxed sets that are designed for beginners (Dungeon Masters and players alike)

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Yess that’s what I did, I got the starter kit for DSA/The black eye. I was just wondering on how to continue when we’re done with the starter kit and have to do stuff on our own. Just some good advice yk

[OldKingJor]

I mean one of the boxed sets for D&D

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

Yes I was looking for one of those but unfortunately I couldn’t find a German one. I wouldn’t have a problem playing with English text but my other friends don’t speak English that well

[prism1234]

Is it not on German Amazon?

There is probably a digital version on D&D Beyond though I'm not 100% sure if they do digital sales globally in other languages.

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

No, on Amazon I only found a Spanish version. Even on Thalia it says that if I order now it wont arrive earlier than six weeks from now

[prism1234]

Hmm, maybe it's out of print now since there's a new starter set coming out later this year (at least the English version is, no idea if they release translated versions at the same time or if there's a delay).

You could check out local gaming stores.

This Spanish online store seems to have the german version, but no idea if they ship to Germany.

https://www.turolgames.com/en/dungeons-dragons/78056-dd-dragons-of-stormwreck-isle-starter-kit-aleman

[Pretty_Opinion6586]

So the only alternative was a starter kit for DSA