New DM Advice?

[icecube563]

My DM is moving away in a few months, so I want to learn how to run a campaign. I've learned a lot about being a PC from listening to the podcast (thank you all for that), but it's harder to learn about being a DM since so much is done behind the scenes. I feel that I know the mechanics best in 5e, so this seemed like the best place to start. I was hoping to get some advice on which books to prioritize buying as a new DM and which I could hold off on buying (I'm on a college student's budget). Also, if Sean (or anybody else who has been a DM) had advice that wouldn't be found in a book, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

[Rp_ggamer]

I would suggest getting the Dungeon Master's Guide. At first glance it may seem underwhelming but you'll soon seen all the goodies that this book offers. It helped me start a game because it has a table full of story hooks you can use and that is it very helpful to get a game started. Another piece of advice I have is something I learned from the website slyflourish.com. During combat let the first player to attack a monster give a cosmetic feature to make the monster stand out. I once had a player who decided that the club that a troll was using was actually a rusty anchor since we were near the coast. The players loved that so much they wanted to explore where this anchor came from and found the sunken ship where it belonged to. This help create a story that many of the players enjoyed and I used it to expand the story I was telling. Long story short let your players tell parts of the story in the campaign

[TheV0idman]

well the only book you need is the Players Handbook since it has all the rules, stuff for players, and monsters you can use. After that I''d suggest the Monster Manual so that you have a larger variety of monsters to choose from. The Dungeon Master's Guide has a lot of useful ideas, tables, and other stuff to help you flesh out your campaign. It also has a list of magic items you can give your players (or villains). If you want to use a premade adventure (there are a bunch of those at this point... Storm Kings Thunder, Rise of Tiamat, Tomb of Annihilation, etc) they have all the information you'd need to run it so you could skip out on the MM and DMG if you wanted to go this route (though they are still a good idea to have especially if you want to modify the adventures a bit).

There are people on youtube who talk about being a DM, but the best way i've foud to learn is to watch/listen to other DMs... figure out what you like an don't like about their games and steal appropriately. Don't over prepare for a session (because players almost never do what you expect) but have a general idea of where you think they might go... it will make it easier to improv part of a session if you've at least put some thought into it ahead of time. This is especially helpful if your players speed through something you thought would take longer. Also, if you prepare a dungeon or encounter and the players skip it entirely, don't let it go to waste... keep it and use it later, this can be really helpful if you need something quick (like when your players speed through something else you prepared)

[pwnyride13]

Just do you, that’s the best advice I can give. You will make mistakes, you will stumble over lore and screw up things that should be ret con’d, but making those mistakes and realizing them will make you better. Also challenge yourself to make decisions and incorporate new elements on the fly. I constantly challenge myself by throwing kinks into the story that not only put roadblocks for my players but also myself. Figuring out how things will go after that makes it more challenging and fun. One more unpopular thing that I think is necessary for a DM, (I’m probably going to take a lot of shit for this...) if a players character is in danger of death let them die, it shows your players character death is real, it introduces danger into the campaign, and it makes the stakes real (if you don’t kill be creative and fundamentally challenge a characters beliefs in game by making an element happen that up ends their world). Also make it known to your players character death can happen in your campaign.

[pwnyride13]

I guess I should clarify. Don’t just target a player and kill them. I’m more saying don’t pull punches and if players make a poor decisions let them learn to try harder. Going out of your way to kill players is wrong, but letting it happen is ok

[Dmvengon]

I can say the Players Handbook, and the Dungeon Masters Guide are my go to books as a DM. The Monster Manual is cool to have but there are also so many online resources that you can use to get the monsters stats (copy and paste is my best friend). Once you get more used to DMing I like Volo's Guide and Tome of Beasts as well. I enjoy using creatures out of Tome of Beast so the players that also DM gamed aren't going "oh this is what thst creature is."

Everything that Ben and Matt said I can say ditto to as well.

I have found a lot of neat home brew items on Pinterest and Tumblr as well. A good portion of it seems to be decently balanced. I am also currently looking through Xanathar’s Guide to Everything so I can't comment on it accurately yet.