Give the players what they want. Find out what sorts of things excite them and make sure that happens in the game. When the players come up with crazier theories than you did, steal them or part of them at least. They both help deepen the plot and reward them by making them think they figured it all out. use the player's natural metagaming and paranoya at your favor I never railroad my players. Adventure & Campaign fronts Expect players to know the rules (spells, feats, etc.) pertaining to their characters Characters first, DM plot second First I find out what type of game the players want to play. Then I prep up a starting adventure that fits (often I don't have complete PC info at this stage) . Once the action has begun then I write further adventures based upon the characters the players have brought. Occam's razor, making sure that players are implicitly aware of all their options in a given encounter. Improvise alongside your players and make sure they always have a reason to advance I build a world and everything in it, then I let my players explore the world. It exists and progresses on its own but also reacts to their decisions and actions. have fun yo My criticl failure random magical event table. Commiserate with other DMs from time to time to avoid burnout. It's not just your game where players miss sessions, bypass your epic encounters, and one shot your big bad. If you don't know any other DMs, listen to Behind the DMs Screen podcast, even their 4th edition stuff, and hear how even these veteran DMs struggle with the same things. my mind Kown your players. Make every last-moment decision sound like it was the plan from the beginning. Good music, good friends, some weed and booze. Knowing your players When the players are hypothesising what's going to happen next I often like to use their ideas to make them feel smart and take advantage of the blank areas I didn't get done Take lots of notes and reference them often The ol' improv "Yes and" method. I improv a lot of NPC interaction, and end up creating quests or plotslines from what the players contribute. I am a new DM, I don't have tricks yet! Be flexible. A good and open relationship with the players Make the game memorable; have characters have a spotlight during the session and give a cliffhanger as and ending for such session Adapting the game to meet the players where they are playing. I like to develop interesting mechanics for large-scale encounters or skill challenges (e.g. a modified d20 roll for troops on each side where highest roll wins, so combat can be resolved quickly for each side - -first side to accumulate two successful rolls wins the combat. This allowed me to cut away to PCs and come back to a massive battle and create suspense. I could also have multiple units 'gang up' on a force, by giving advantage to one of the rolls.) Silly accents and running with whatever my players try to do Let the player choose the direction of the session Dank flavor text. Work on great voices for npcs Plot Twist Don't be afraid to split the party, and use "yes, and" prompts to keep the action moving I am not that great at getting into character and doing voices so I invite an extra "player" who solely plays NPCs whose back story and info we discuss beforehand Be flexible. I also spend most of my prep time making a bullet point list of possible rumors or hooks that the players might want to use but ultimately, what happens in the game is up to them and how they choose to proceed. I try to improvise as much as possible. Beer and chips. no trick i just focus on making my players a major part of the story Going with the flow, but knowing when to say no Have a nice balance of combat, problem solving, NPC interactions, and rewards to fit the group. Build on what my players give me. Having fun and working with my players. Very simple: no two NPC names start with the same letter of the alphabet. Much easier for the players to keep track. Stolen from the author Chris Wooding :) Keep notes on everything Always assume your players are going to blow up your plans, be as vague as possible and let the players fill in the details themselves as they go. Let the players do what they want, just make sure it's not overpowered Bend the rules to let your players do cool shit, but also keep them in line by not letting them get away with any ridiculous stunt. Try to keep tabs on each player, make sure everyone feels included. If one player steals the spotlight, ask the other players "So what do you do while does thing?" Listen to the players Give the players world building freedom on a regular basis Making combat challenging enough that the group has to work together, but not so tough that any misstep will cause the party to wipe. Nothing is true unless it is Relax. Your players don't know you suck, because you probably don't. You just think you do. Preparation and random tables I run a game for my 10 and 12 year old sons so my prep is different then for normal dms but I let them guide the story and that makes for a more interesting story than I could come up with Great props to really set the mood of the game Keep descriptions only as specific as needed, sometimes your players can come up with a better suggestion for what is in a room than you yourself can. Give them the freedom to have input on what the world looks like. Always play to the players wants, you're all here to have fun. So let their plans go right sometimes, even if they should go wrong. I've only run one so far! I think knowing when to let the players and PCs talk amongst each other is important. have a general outline and a few descriptions - let players craft the story Work with players individually a little bit off-table a few minutes each between sessions. Take their backstory and make it matter in the world. Have someone they know pop up. Have consequences for choices that echo into later sessions. A player that's rooted in the world is almost always more dynamic and interesting, and spreads out the burden of lore management. Trying to think about what I implied would happen in the previous session and then deliver on it. Listen and compromise Make sure that everyone gets to do what they want within limits. Dont let the players try and figure everything out Wilful misdirection! It's not what you thought it was. Making a fool out of myself as a NPC Pacing and round robin style character interaction to make sure characters all get a chance to shine. Every session usually has social, combat, exploration, and planning. Let your players write the story through their actions... your role is merely to build the framework for their adventure. Space Cow. If my players act out of character, a cow plumits to a fiery death from the depths of space right where they are standing . Say "Yes" to everything, then cause drama when giving the party what they want doesn't turn out how the expected Paying attention to what players get invested in. Create place, create npc, create a pun... combine to make a quest. Listen to the players and include them in the story telling. ALmost never say "no" Make it awesome - just make everything seem more "awesome" (original definition) than it probably should be. Let the party do the most damage to themselves. A shiny red button that says "do not press" may be left alone, but it's always considered. The biggest slow down are people not ready to make their combat actions, so I'll use a timer if people get too slow. I'll use this outside of combat as well. Gotta keep the pace moving. Build to a cliffhanger each session Just. Start. Writing. And then don't stop. Allow the players freedom to choose what to do and be OK if they go slightly off track or do something you weren't expecting. This leads to great experiences and stories. There is a limit though, keep them involved in the story of the adventure. Adding details on the fly and improvising. Remember that the players are writing the story too. Letting everyone have fun regardless of your plan. 1) Using the battlemat such that each square is 10'x10' and 2) using millimeter cubes for monsters so they fit correctly into that scale. One side of the battlemat can host an entire dungeon with dozens of rooms that way, requiring less time to erase, redraw, etc. And if you have an image to accompany your millimeter cubes, they can represent any creature out there, saving time and money in laying hands on the exact monster mini you want. OCD Bonus: Each player gets a color coded millimeter cube matching the color of the dice they use. Tell a story Items that interact with the world beyond simple stat bonus, combined with cool problems insures fun scenarios Giving the players what they really want, not what they think/say they want Be prepared to improvise. A lot. Don't have a rigid plan that the players must follow I had trouble remembering to hand out inspiration, especially when running public AL games with 7 players and time constraints. I've delegated inspiration to the players by giving them all a d20/token at the start of the session. They can't use it, but they can award it to other players. Build the game around your players: each have their likes, dislikes, and strenghts, give each some options for spotlight time, and most of all: DELEGATE ATTENTION (some players are more shy then others and wont get over the others: YOU give them time. so the other shut up ocasionally. Keep relevant temporary status effects on sticky notes that players stick to their sheet. These are helpful for determining advantage and disadvantage (ex: "Adored by the barflies", "On thin ice", or "Drunk as a skunk") and are easily disposed of when resolved. Knowing my players and putting in small things that really hook their imaginations. Remember everything your players say and let them help mold to world even without their knowledge. Having players describe results of die rolls. PLAY with friends I am not much of a rules lawyer so if the player wants to try something crazy and it won't break the game and the dice rolls in their favor I say have at it. Present the players with a puzzle without having a solution in mind. Let their minds wander Making a great map in advance Give the PCs a goal, but not obvious way to solve is and see what happens - improvise as necessary. As long as I know my world, improvisation is easy. I build interesting environments such as tree top villages or rickety shanty boat towns, then add enemies who could rapidly inflict the most change, such as giants or hydras. Keeps players having fun and gives me a challenge. Ambient music Make the NPCs and setting memorable by giving NPCs interesting quirks and giving places something unique that would draw the characters back there. At the end of a session. ask the players what they want to do next session. Then write it up at home and run it the next week. Keep the energy going and have everyone give input into what they want in the game. Keep things moving and go with the flow. Letting the players drive the story Player input Sending direct messages or notes so players can describe insight, perception, knowledge checks without breaking immersion Always go for the humorous option, making PCs laugh leads to more fun! Improv makes the game better I'm trying to force myself to plan less and do more on the fly. Ask the players to narrate, give input, create the story. Make them work. Anything can work. I try to make sure everybody gets something out of the game. It's sometimes hard, but I plant seeds all over the place for people to pick up on. Cool stuff for the guy that likes the cool stuff, combat for the one that likes combat, and diplomatic avenues for the one who doesn't always want to fight but maybe wants to befriend the awakened wolf that's terrorizing the town and convince him and his pack to work for the town as highway patrol and keeping the baits away in exchange for food and being left alone to do wolf things. Think like a movie, end on a cliff hanger/point of tension - always gets them coming back.. Don't say no to a player's decision if it conflicts with your personal motives and direction for the story. Let the players forge the story as much as you do, and just have fun with it! My trick is simply to always try and give the players surprises, like monsters they never heard of, situations abnormal, weird npcs and stuff like that Trying to incorporate Witcher-style quest design, with moral dilemmas and no clear right answer. (This has met with varying success TBH.) Preparing Throw out a ton of story threads, eventually weave some of them together so that it seemed like they were all pre-planned and building to something great. Also, give the players what they want, while making them feel like they earned it (i.e. Be a Fan of the Players). alcohol set it up so that the players think everything is happening because of them, changing whatever needs to be changed on the fly My favorite trick is to make every combat deadly so they are faced with a challenge. Co-describing a scene. "You're ship has been raided, but you still have your equipment. How have you kept your gear? Was it hidden or did you somehow get it back?" Players can try to do anything, whether they succeed is up to the dice Preparation before you even run your first game. I build my world out so I know what is where and why over a couple of weeks beforehand, at least. Embracing the players through roleplay, it gets them entirely into it and they love it Background music. Having YouTube or Spotify playing in the background for dramatis. Iron DM Just run the adventure in my head to find out what would be cool for the players Fun voices and mannerisms for NPCs You must have a contagious enthusiasm for your material, the players will pick up on it. Keep the action moving. No long conversation Just play the game. Preparation: having banks of NPCs, encounters, and descriptions handy Improvising Don't punish your players for doing whatever they want Horror Reskinning existing monsters asking them on what they want to see more of in game The barkeep is a Dragon The 3 stones. Every person gets 3 tokens to expend as they do things. When they reach 0, they must wait until the tokens are returned before doing things. It keeps certain players from taking over the game while allowing people who are more shy to have the chance to participate. Casually dropping seeds of later plot points in mundane NPC encounters The best way to unite a party isn't just to give them a single enemy but to show them that they aren't so different. Give each player a moment to shine and you'd be surprised that on average most of the party will agree with what the POI (Person of interest) does. That strengths the unity of the party which makes it more fun for everyone. Opportunities for characters to interact/RP with each other and not just with NPCS Playing fast and loose with what's written in the adventure If the players start barking up a significantly wrong tree, and they might know that in character, you can totally say "Make a [whatever] roll", where the good result is you telling them the relevant information. Make the bad guys smart. Copy what Matthew Mercer does as much as possible. Improv, accents and "yes and" Depth. The deeper your world feels and the deeper you delve when fleshing out portions of it, the more believable it is, and the more prepared you are when the players go in the complete opposite direction of what you expected. Do what your players like. Trying to roll with a player interest Options, but with direction and motivation Improv, I find the more I plan out a story the worse it goes because I forget things to add. When I improv it always seems to be more fun for the Players I like to run an open game with sub plots that encourage players to investigate things that dont necessarily but help the character grow and reward the player for finding something easily missed. Make characters, not stories. The players can interact with these people as they choose. Keep an eye out and avoid clichÌ©/ the expected Don't stress too much about admitting things like "shit, I didn't prepare for that". You're only human, and if you set the tone to remind your players as such, there'll be less tension. As you learn to DM you'll get get better at preparing or improvising anyway, and the problem will disappear. So while you're learning, do yourself a favor and accept those tiny defeats. Improv and letting the players develop the story Making the players feel awesome by letting their characters do cool things. Eh, just roll with it. Have a suprising/dramatic moment in the story that is set to a music that fits the narration. Keep it loosey goosey Try to come up with something memorable and concise each session, and something flexible enough to change if the PCs interact with it. I love sketching out a dungeon map on chart-sized graph paper, gluing it to a sheet of Bristol board, then cutting it into sections which reflect how much they could see each time they round a corner or open a door, and laying it down piece by piece as they watch the map grow in front of them. Great dramatic effect. Freedom, player driven. Rolling with whatever the players throw at you! Be it back story they come up with on the spot or crazy actions you thought they'd never try, your there to have fun, and those are the moments you'll remember for years! Hidden doors painted to look like their surroundings. I didn't mean for this to be a thing, but it happened, and my players are still going crazy trying to learn who the painter is. Preperation Counting the number of times a player acts in the scene. Also, always agree with the player action and add a twist. Being flexible, able to think on your feet and bend the story to player choices rather than forcing players to do as I wish. I haven't figured that out yet individually ask each player what they like most and then tailor parts of the game to their style. If the whole party loves 1 thing, I will try to incorporate it as much as possible. my players start every session with inspiration and they're only allowed to use it if they make an epic description of the action/save etc that they're taking. This rewards players for being creative and detailed about how things look, and how their characters act. Let the players decide where the story goes, just move the world around them My favorite trick is to build NPCs and NPC Groups with motivates and decision tree flow charts so that I know how, when, and where these group will act based on the action or nonaction of the PCs. Background music/ambience I've found good music plays a big part in atmosphere and tone. Making stuff up on the fly World plasticity - players have a great impact on the story progression and world/lore Know the PCs and the world. It is easy to improvise any situation if you have that knowledge. I use voices for the different NPC's Adapting the published adventure to my group and their characters. Making sure they will hopefully care about what's going on. If it makes for a good cinematic moment, bend the rules. have fun and respect the rule of cool Go over the top. It'll either come out funny, or awesome. Let the players navigate, just put the obstacle in their path as they decide their own route. Known your audience. I know my friends enough to know what I'll appeal to them and what won't. Be open to anything, but as long as it would make sense for the world. I use NPC's and storylines from obscure books I have read. Preparation of everything for any possible outcome Improv & giving players agency Rule of cool Stay loose and don't be afraid to take five. Having the world set up in advance makes it easier to adapt to player actions in the fly Let your table do the work for you. Don't engineer moments for your players to walk into, let them follow your plot and create great moments Play off of your players Plots involving player's background. Dunno My favorite trick is getting the players to fill in the gaps that I never considered with their role play and ideas. From there, I simply react to what they do rather than steer. Query the players to find out what kind of game they want to be involved in and use that information to craft a story that will capture their attention. Keeping players motivated to go forward rather than wandering off into the weeds is pretty much (I think) one of the hardest things to manage. Pick players who are good listeners, communicators, and have a solid rapport together if possible. Then give them meaningful, interesting, and consequential choices. Enjoyable sessions will naturally grow if you're even a half-decent DM. Improv! I run with whatever the players give me (to a reasonable extent). I usually make time for them to have unique unscripted encounters and roleplay that lead to hilarious circumstances or developments. Cater certain magic items to better suit pcs Getting the players invested into the world through well thought out storytelling/roleplaying. Keep notes on EVERYTHING so I always have an answer Emotional investment. Find out what the players care about, spend time building this and making them feel like they have something in your world that they have invested emotional weight in. Enthusiasm. In general, I play cool over rule and try to make the session engaging and fun for the players. Try and give the NPCs a bit of character and flavor. Helps a lot I find. Plan ahead, don't railroad, don't be scared to use new and interesting mechanics, be careful not to have players doing nothing for longer than certain periods of time. Improvise almost everything. i'm good at describe the environment, that allow my playes to act better. For session one I like to give each PC a printed mini bio that they can work into their backstory. The bio has hooks for me to bring them into the story over the next few weeks until they begin to tell me what they want to do on their own. Keep things basic when planning and let the players flesh the ideas out while playing be aware of your players and make it fun for them A strong narrative that keeps the characters thinking and guessing with lots of subtle clues and twists. let the players write the story Err for the player, not against. Have an idea of what the general actions of the NPCs will be and how they generally react, then wing the rest in reaction to the Players actions. I run the one-offs. I skip the crap, as much as possible, and get straight to the challenge. I make choices clear. I encourage impulsivity, but hold characters to their choices. Rolls of 1 are critical fails and ALWAYS funny. ...I guess that's always been key for me: it's a game. Don't take it so seriously you can't have fun. Don't sweat the small stuff. As long as the overarching story is intact and the players are having fun it's all good Make a pcs back story come into play somehow 1. Ask how the character achieved noteworthy results that they rolled for. "What did it look like when you killed that giant with a hand axe?" "How did you avoid taking any damage from the dragon's fire?" Instrumental music can set the tone of a session with very little effort. I always prepare one big plot or story hook, and mostly improve the rest Don't tell your players when you're making stuff up as you go. Preparation, preparation, preparation make your game hard enough that players go down but not enough to kill them, plenty of healing opertunitys All actions have consequences. Some are good, some are bad, but never let them go without happening. Watching others run same adventure online Focus on having fun, play how you'd want to play. It's really all about the preparation: story, atmosphere, NPC's, etc. Going with the flow. Be ready to improv your pants off disregarding what should happen and just let what can happen fly. Experience Involving my player's in their character's stories. Make the player feel invested and empowered, let them fly off the rails rather than lead by the nose (but always be ready to improv as needed). :) Just to have fun and make sure the players have every opportunity to do anything Juggling. Allowing time for the players to explore the world and mess around (even if that means nothing gets done in terms of story) The Die of Doom is a D6 that stands for "you did something that could potentially go very badly but instead of me saying so I will just give you a look and roll this Skull-themed 6-sider and if it rolls a one you know what you did and you deserve this". Good way to add suspense/mystery because they don't have to know why you rolled it. Can even be a way to hint they're on the right track. Using tools for efficient time. Utilise the hobbies you are passionate about to improve your dnd games, i.e me and my artistic abilities -> drawing maps and characters Let the players make the trouble for themselves, it makes them more invested in actually getting out of a situation No real "tricks" but I believe in a balanced campaign. I tried to keep an even mix of role playing with NPCs, combat (of course), mystery (fulfilling the mission), and puzzles. I always try to reward a non-lethal solution to avoid the party becoming another band of "murderous hobos." Not everything needs to end with a fight. Generally I try and let my players do what they want and let the dice deside whether it works or not. I know a lot of DMs do this but I have to deal with it more. It gives them freedom but also a bit of reality of how the game goes because they are fairly new to the game and think that its pretty much modded skyrim or creative mode on minecraft. I also generally try and explain things in semi graphic detail so they can get an idea of how things look without pulling out a crappy picture off the internet. Im a big believer in imagination. I only pull out maps/miniatures in combat (mostly because i have no money and have like 6 miniatures). create the problem, not the solution Let the players go crazy. Once you learn to improvise well, there's nothing the heroes can't do, and thats what makes the game so good. On top of that, learning different accents and impressions completes the game by giving NPCs a living, realistic, and memorable feel Setting up a hard encounter with a cannon fail-safe built in to propel the players to the next part of the quest without getting too railroady. Design the world, not the path. Design characters, not plot points. Expect anything. Let the players try to do whatever they want (whether or not they succeed is a different story) Use player ideas and motivations to build adventures. I am always angry. Roll with it! consistency and alcohol Open ended setting with mutable plot "out of the butt!" aka winging it/improvising! Often players will go/do something not expected and have to, but I enjoy doing that! Generate random stuff and develop it into a plot. Listen to the players. Alcohol Preparation, preparation, preparation! Preparation followed by improvisation Immersion. I'll sacrifice almost any plot point, encounter, item, whatever for an opportunity to deepen immersion into the game. Anything that increases (or stops decreases in) in game immersion naturally makes the game flow better, be better roleplayed, less meta, etc. Respect the dm Be a fan of the player characters. Treat them like your favorite characters in a TV show, and see how you can make their journey as cool and dramatic as possible. I like to read scenarios and background settings for many games and use them to inspire me/incorporate them into the next game and I am not afraid to tone down the rules for different settings, so for example I run D&D 5th in mid-3rd Age southern Middle-earth using very little magic, chances at shadow corruption, and desert-based adventures from rolemaster, d&D and others. In contrast, my Greyhawk campaign set in Sunndi uses most of the rules as written and has faerie scenarios in the western woods, mining stories in the eastern mountains and many swamp-based events in the Vast Swamp.... all drawn from 40 years of gaming, reading, collecting rpgs and tramping through the Amazon, mines, etc. IE. use all resources available, not just what the publisher sells. Opening prequel flashback scene that ties one of the players to the adventure somehow such as the NYC saving pcs life and them owing a debt now Make a random encounter table that is tied specifically to events that uncover personal background plots to each PC characters history. Vivid descriptions of scenes or characters, some times with the use of visual art to make my characters better picture and engage with the game. NPC voices Keeping an open mind to the player's decisions and working with them. I just have 2 players so i have to run 2 character. It is hard because when i prepare i always think about how i want to do the scenario or the battle. Before each game i have to take a step back from helping them and think about how much my 2 characters know and what they would do. It makes the game fun but also difficult. Improvisar sobre una base bien construida Try to include something relevant to each PC. Easy bake four hour session: Start with an impossible puzzle. If progress gets slow, throw monsters at them. When they get stuck, make them find a McGuffin. Apply combat before and after the McGuffin. If role-players are bored, throw in some NPCs with knowledge of the puzzle. At the end, throw magic items at them. Ask the players what they want, then add to that what you want. Really encouraging players to get and spend inspiration. Give it for progressing the story, doing something creative, whatever. It gets them trying to think story before mechanics while granting them a mechanical boost. When improvising, try to drop clues that tie into your (future) story arc. Plan several potential encounters/scenes and let your players find them organically -- you can still tell your story without the team feeling railroaded. Acquire cats Music Let it flow in the players control I develop three potential plots and let the players choose which holds to follow. That way, they feel like they have agency and I maintain a degree of preparation. No preparation and let the PCs do roll play, can go wrong though. Information control. Revealing specific information to characters that they would only receive from their characters perspective. Immersion. Common knowledge isn't so common. Let the players do the heavy lifting, then improvise. Make all of the players invested in the game. Improv, reading the audience (e.g., the players), saying yes Illusion of randomness. Whether they rolled a 5 perception or a 20, they'll still notice the detail. They rolled a 100 on the hidden random effect table? Would have been the same if they rolled a 2. Start in combat and work toward to role playing really truly listen to what your players are saying, not what you expect them to be saying. Be engaging and make your players happy.. you want them to enjoy themselves. Listen to the players. Not just what they say, but how they say it and the emotions behind it. Use that to get a feel for what they want from the story and ideally even be able to know wants before they consciously realize the want/need so all the ground work for it is already laid. I let the world be as large as the unanswered questions in it. Press on. Listen to your players and begin to make them feel time pressure as soon as conversation stalls - unless the conversation is in character! "I had all of that planned" Player Control Improvise and keep it entertaining. If it looks to be slowing down, attack the town with something. Or drop a meteor. Deception. And allowing the players to actually shape the world, let them take liberties with world events and plots. do funny voices having a list of names available for NPCs Draw the players into your game by interacting with them as your NPCs. If you can do accents or funny dialects, it helps, but just be the character and they'll be their characters. With how random and off track sessions can sometimes become, I find it most productive to briefly outline where I want the story to go and come up with level appropriate monsters. This way, when the players do something unprecedented and go off course, I didn't waste my time detailing an encounter that may never happen. Tell the story in such a way that players cannot tell where the official story ends and your begins Be willing to ignore your plans and improvise. Try to always say yes to players Double agents Build the world and give NPC's their own life goals, morals and motives. Then let the story come from your players. Let them decide what they want to accomplish. Don't over-prepare KISS Modifying monsters, encounters, and story on the fly based on the party's actions and abilities. Background and battle music or sounds really help me keep into it and my players love it! Improve everything, and just roll with whatever the players do 'How do you want to do this', get the player to describe how they dealt the killing blow to a boss Intelligent enemies who are not just bags of HP, who actually act according to their INT score. Oh, and a mimic once in a while. I think of 1-3 encounters and weave them into my player's actions. I tend to let my players wander and do as they please. The stories emerge on their own. Going with players' choices wholeheartedly Listen to your players. Be attentive and in the moment. My players are all 12 - 14 years old. I've been playing this game for upwards of 20 years, and i've never had so much fun. So I guess my trick is: play with kids. They have a ton more enthusiasm and creativity. Let the players do all the work. Visceral challenges and spotlight sharing Do not hesitate to destroy the status quo. Make the players actions have effects! Imagination Get player to roll for every idea and let it follow. Initiative cards that go on my DM screen, and show me AC, PP, and initiative bonus Say "Yes" to the players. Creativity of mind and excellent improvisation Brief bullet points not paragraphs Make the players' backstories part of the plot. Understand your players and their characters and then... Tempt them. Imagine being in your players shoes, and then think your session through. Say yes to player agency. Focus on story elements (the villain, his plan, his minions, their plans, the cities, the ship...). The details will come naturally when needed, and the players are more free to do as they please without braking your planned session. Learn what play styles your players respond best to, and cater to them. If your players are looking for a few hours of self-indulgence by smashing things, run a combat session with lots of simple mechanics. If they want a high-level strategy game, throw in environmental effects and interesting terrain. If they want to portray an interesting character, give them equally-interesting NPCs and engaging plotlines to interact with. If they're interested in learning about your world, add narrative details and color commentary. Also, the more important an NPC is, the more distinctive and/or memorable their mannerisms and speech should be. Caveat: don't commit to a certain portrayal of an NPC ifor you can't keep it consistent. You know who the NPC is, but the players don't. Alcohol. Player immersion. Every player has a "thing" that they want to do. Some like to be a combat badass, some want to uncover mysteries, others like to see plans come to fruition, and so on. Find out what each of your players want, and find out how to let them do it. Let the players entretain themselves and just react to their actions. Improvisation (say yes) having a great group makes for great games I appeal to my group's sense of humor. Most of my players don't take D&D super seriously no matter how hard I work to make it serious, so it's more fun for everyone (and less misdirected effort for me) to make comedy a central theme, even if it's just wildly exaggerating the effects of a critical miss. Adapt to what your players do, say and come up with! There's nothing worse than a brilliant idea that doesn't work because your DM didn't think of it, or hasn't planned it to happen that way. Change your adventure to fit what the players do as they go and everyone will enjoy themselves. Keeping the players guessing and paranoid about what is coming to get them. TBD Using the characters back story Go with the flow. "Yes, and..." Simple campaign notes Prepare memorable hooks and NPCs let the PCs come up with the rest. I usually have a giant pool of combat encounters, and a loose idea of where the overarching story goes so that if the players do something weird I can just reflavor the combat encounters and not worry about railroading them with the story In short, I follow the advice of "Don't Prep Plots" given on the blog "The Alexandrian": http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots It's great for my style of DM'ing: off the cuff and improvisational. It also allows me to quickly move situations around. My players are very unpredictable. Strong understanding of the local game world Working backstories into the game. Dynamic lighting in Roll20 Making sure everyone has focus by ticking off cool moments for each player on my note sheet. Allow each player a unique opportunity each game to use something iconic or their specialty so that they have that moment of personal greatness. It can be a story twist, an encounter, a situational skill roll and so on. Bait the hook: make opportunities for the players to become personally invested in what's going on. Give the illusion the PCs chose the path I feed them, have a spare location in case they turn back. Keeping them on their toes Trying to get the group together, letting them pick a cool name. Not making NPCs memorable, but rather the PCs. "You can try" it makes for a highly entertaining check p Allow the players to try anything Initiative cards are huge! I also will severly hurt players or let players take out monsters regardless of actual hit points if I or the players describe something particularly cinematic. I hate long protracted battles with no storytelling consequence. Talk with your players, let them work with items that fit their characters, let them earn what they get, but try to keep it fun. Also try to keep it random, mix up what they'd expect. It keeps it fun for you, and for them. Have a good mix of exploration, intrigue, and interesting combat Make players choose what you want without them knowing it. I'm new at this do I don't have many. Just try to do my best and borrow from Reddit! If whatever we're doing is getting boring or the players, be it combat or the role-play scene I worked for days on, I try to end it and move on. Fun is goal one and boring ain't fun. Let the players tell the story. Build a lot of what if scenarios and side quests that can be tied back into the story later when it's relevant I love to pull images from Pinterest of settings and monsters. Easily helps everyone to visualize the surroundings. Improvising off the players conversations and actions. One word: Doppelgangers. My players have yet to see through one and they are paranoid as fuck controlling the ambience of the room Preparation is half the battle; adaptability is the other. Both are a necessity. Involving something or someone personal from the PC's history in the storyline to suprise and engage the players Say yes to things the players want Give the players motivation to complete the task at hand and have them respond to the NPCs in 5he world as if it was real by making the NPCs rich and deep. Not really a trick, but just making sure all npc's have cool voices. Depth of NPCs and locations 3D printed probs Make sure the story progresses and we don't get too caught up on minor issues. And make sure they can always find out information in a session. Being prepared Good pacing Don't get caught up on the rules as long as nothing is getting ruined It's about them, not about you. Always maintain an air of mystery - they should never know what is going to happen next. And dance like no one is watching. Pretending the player's idea was the idea I knew they'd take the whole time and was totally 100% prepared for. keeping up the illusion of a detailed living, real (and dangerous) world Breaking the group up organically into smaller teams of 2-4 players and allowing them to wander. I cut between the groups like a TV show or movie would until finally the players reconvene, each with new components to progress or change the story. It creates the ability for players to shine and for others to plan their actions or enjoy the show the other players are putting on. I have a group with 8 people as a DM of only a few months, this is a trick I stumbled upon through my first homebrew session and continue to use. Plan and organize intelligently for almost everything, and then be ready to improvise because ... yeah ... improvise. Say yes, no matter how stupid Rule of cool all the way. Negotiate statistically fair rolls for the way outside the box ideas my party comes up with. Let the players do most of the work - That is, if they say "there's probably a trap here" I add a trap. I use this sparingly, but I do use it to flesh a lot of the minor details of an area out. create an npc that can guide your players and make them feel like they have a direction, then make that npc wrong, so very wrong and cause a colossal failure of some kinda Adapt to what the players want Using inspiration frequently to encourage fun, risky roleplaying. Experience, experience, experience. Set up a conflict you know your players will be invested in. Improvisation, and acting are key to a great game for me and my players. If I make a player roll dice, they should know why they are rolling dice with a short descriptive sentence. Example, the stone starts starts to wobble when you put your foot on it. Make a Dexterity saving throw. Or, the book seems to respond to your thoughts and begins to fill your mind with madness, make a Charisma Saving Throw DC 15. Prepare an outline, have NPC notecards ready. Making a general outline for what I believe my players will do along with branches of different possible things they could do to attempt to prepare myself. Don't be afraid to let your players go off script some. It's their adventure, I'm just guiding them through it. Keep rules loose. They are there to serve the game not limit it "Yes, but", not "No, and" Riddles from other media (videogames, books, films) used in sphynx-type encounters Have encounters planned beforehand and prepare alternate options if players go random direction from story. Avoid making NPCs more grand than the player's characters. put your characters backstory into the game. Let the players do their thing and watch it turn into something you can work with. recognizing running inside jokes and incorporating them into the game Let the players tell the story Let your players' paranoia fuel your ideas as you go Stealing ideas from film Improv and saying yes Don't ever say the name of the creature. I don't. I'm pretty shit at it. Learn your players so you can get them properly invested in the setting and story. Utilizing background music/ambience (mostly nature ambience (forests, caves) and video game music via Soundcloud) Be prepared for anything Combat depth and explanation. No matter how much I am currently railroading my players, which does happen from time to time, they never realize it. If they want to explore left instead of right, I mentally swap the locations of the traps and treasure to allow them the illusion of choice, but keep them on the path I want. And while that was an obvious dungeon analogy, it works for just about every aspect of the game. If an important NPC is cut off mid speech and killed, the plans I had laid continue unhindered - they were (are now) just a face for some other mastermind. Or, if the party was unaware of their importance, the entire character is reincarnated somewhere nearby. The party does get to choose where to go, what to do, and how to do it; but in the end they always end up exactly where I wanted them to be, doing what I want them to do. We all have fun, and most of them have no idea I do this - the ones that do prefer it/enjoy it. If they are explaining a theory, run with it so they feel accomplished. Even if it is totally against what you had in mind. Handing cards to players for specific things like prophetic dreams, secret treasures, telepathy, anything that they know or see that the other players shouldn't know until they reveal it themselves. 1-in-6 chance of wandering monsters every dungeon turn. The Power of Cool. If it would be awesome to succeed give a hidden deduction in DC. That the players don't know about. Create the world, let the players go where they want. Plan for improv at the table. Define the current state of your world, not what will happen. If you don't know what was supposed to happen during the session you won't be disappointed when something else comes up and you won't be inclined to guide your players 'back on track.' Know where your NPCs are and plan the vectors (desires?) your NPCs are on. Expect your players to push them off course. Build/collect tools to help you improv. Remember random generators offer suggestions that require at least a little polish. Keep it simple to leave room for improv at the table. I usually have multiple plots points with twists that leave the players wanting to find out what is happening. About 25% are red herrings. I also try to sneak in geeky pop culture references. My players think its fun. Spend a lot of time preparing the world. NPCs, locations, map, flavour, tech level, magic level. Make it coherent. The world will start acting on its own. Run the game as a real RPG, not like a videogame. Take care of the story of each character. Let the players have their special moments, once in a while. Make the characters be part of your world. Not some kind of super special hero (at least, not until higher levels!). Guide and empower the fantasies of your players. Never suffocate them, or leaving without control. I like to buy minis, maps, and stuffs that can help visual immersion in the game. If everyone is enjoying, you are doing right. If you follow all the rules, but none is happy rules are wrong. The only golden rule is to play and dream with your friends. Have a session 0 where ground rules are laid down (PVP, alignment, metagaming, etc.) and you can talk to each of the players about their characters and motives. Using quick handwritten notes for players who know or see things other players don't. Occasionally throwing in a blank note to mess with them a bit. Use a pre written adventure and then personalize it or use it at as a framework I have index cards d my screen with random roll tables. Or saleable item tables if I know they be in a large town. Learn the art of prepping and planning in the moment and develop that improve style Allowing the players to take control of the game and steer it where they want to go. Just go with the flow. Reddit is your friend Good music that sets the atmosphere Read a lot of books, watch a lot of movies and TV Shows and steal like crazy I like using turn cards when not in combat, so no one gets left out, and everyone gets a chance to talk. It even forces quiet players to talk. Giving the players space to allow their characters to enjoy the world and make it come to life for each other and themselves. (Preparing the world for them to enjoy.) Preparation + Spontaneity Going out of the box. Right now they're fighting corrupted plants from ancient and angry evil at the roots of a great tree. Because the plants are underused, they feel like something really personal to their adventure is happening. handing surveys to your players to find out what kinds of things interest them. Be willing to let your players come up with a "solution" for a situation you've come up with. Even if it is different than the solution you've thought of. When you hear your players say "Oh my god! What if the answer is actually this thing (and that thing is actually even smarter than what you've come up with)..." let that be the answer. Makes them feel really smart for having come up with the solution, and you look really good for having "come up with such a smart answer". Crsting a problem with no obvious solution and letting the players figure it out. In the process, that continues to write the story. Using whatever talents I have to enhance the game--namely, writing programs to represent books and such that change when read or sort spells, etc. Be there earlier then your players to set up as needed. Be invested and have fun with your campaign. If you aren't having fun, it rubs off on the players. Adhesive furniture feet pads (range from 1" to 3" diameter), with punched-out art assets to create creature/npc tokens. Lightweight, easier to transport 30 goblins than 3-D miniatures. Mixing up combat scenarios Ensure that the players care about their character by guiding them, in-depth, through creation process. Before we play, I have a Session 0 where all we do is create characters. Including the small details on their character sheets like trinkets, flaws and background in the adventure. Giving the PC's every single opportunity to succeed. Bad fortune should only happen due to bad rolls not because the DM makes it happen. Go broad and connect people, improvised shit about 10 people will always be better than shit you spend hours making up about one person Say "yes but. " Use different voices to distinguish npcs and find out what the players think is cool about their characters and try to work that in at minimum once every other session. Prepare the world and the characters, not the story. Good players Using information or fears from a PC's backstory. Paying close attention to the characters demands and desires Note Cards Be Prepared to Adapt and Improvise Just bein' me always have a backup plan Faster combat, so we can story and build characters. Role playing, surprise, sense of wonder Making it something that they haven't played before like a bounce house wizards tower Find something as many player characters as possible care about, and tweak it slightly so it's not what they thought. Let the ensuing fireworks dictate the path of the game Make the world reactive to the players but push them in the direction I want. Alyways seem om control, the players know nothing, so never tell them you've made a mistake Individual quest lines foreach character. Using hooks from PCs background so everyone has a reason to be there gets the players hooked up. (And a really good, not obvious, plot twist) DM for players you know, expect their actions, have planned consequences for their actions. Making up stuff on the spot can lead to mediocrity. A sense of timing is invaluable. It helps to keep the tension at the table where you want it, and to make the players eager for more. I like to structure events so that there's a minor cliffhanger at our mid-session break, and a chapter break or a major cliffhanger at the end of a session. Atmosphere, setting the mood does wonders for everyones immersion. We play at a 400 year old building, in a room in a tower with dim lights and it makes it amazing. Listen to your players. Give them control wherever feasible; "yes and" them in interesting ways. Reincorporate things they say or that unexpectedly happen. I like a mixture of puzzles, story based role play and minimal combat. Mainly as my players are all new and we get really bogged down in combat, so I run initiative off my phone and try to keep it moving in theatre of the mind or simple battle maps. Sometimes we totally butcher the rules but it works for us. One or two combats are enough for an afternoon session. I also poach puzzles from "locked room" type experiences and once had the players get captured in a schrodinger's box type pocket dimension where the players have to solve multiple riddles and puzzles to escape the wizards trap. A lot of debate about killing a quantum cat ensued. Another good one was a dark souls take on tomb of horrors where the players souls had been stolen by accerak and kept in his throne room in their own phylacteries. The players awoke as zombies in a crypt and had to go and take them back to escape. They died multiple times but came back to life due to the curse which allowed a lot of fun for me without the feeling of unfair character death in a campaign. There were checkpoints and no delay in respawning to prevent boredom for dead players. Always reward creativity, and try to challenge your players to try new stuff. Make it seem like the players had unlimited choices. Don't be afraid to look stupid The occasional vignette that takes the players out of their normal characters and lets them play out an important piece of back story. Morale & reaction checks React, don't dictate. Funny voices and making the players choices central to gameplay, I make an open sandbox and let them have fun inside it. I'm new, so I don't have a trick yet. I feel like I'm still flying by the seat of my pants every time we sit down. Although, I have fallen in love with Syrinscape. Using the sounds to set the scene has really made the adventure immersive! Make sure there's room for exploration and going a bit off the rails Improving way too much! Steal ideas from other games, movies, and books! Strong personalities for NPCs but work with the carecters to build them into what the player wants. Keep it loose. Everyone is there to have fun. Constantly assessing the mood at the table, in case a change of pace is needed. I dont know. Im new Sometimes more is less when it comes to description. Learning what your group wants! No one likes a self-centered DM. Co-op Fun is most important. Prepping, prepping, and even more prepping I don't know I run a great game every time. But let my friends have fun and explore. Have things for them to find and let them try anything. Get players to physically act out some things they do I let the players control the pace as long as everyone is having fun. And making sure everyone is involved. Follow the flow of the players, different things are fun on different days. Don't think twice. Go with your gut and improvise what would be cool, not what's balanced or what makes sense. Remember it's about the fun.... the rest is just details fast and free flowing Get the players to strategize without having to say anything Smart monsters don't just stand there and take hits. Magic items that fuck with the party Let everyone have their turn in the spotlight/story. Alcohol, snacks and laughs Mix in plenty of opportunities for skill checks such as balancing, climbing, history checks, into the regular adventure. As for combat, I find that a well detailed battle-map full of all sorts of tactical opportunities besides just standing there and fighting the enemy head on, makes for a much more interesting session. Also, through in at least one thing that will completely surprise the players, such as an homage to the old Players Handbook Demon statue, and obscure reference to Demogorgon, or even the shadow of a lurking Beholder. Be ready to improv. "You can certainly try." Improvise the numbers. Skill DCs are just estimated; reinforcements can show up if the encounter is too easy; fudge the number of hit points an enemy has left if it would not be dramatic for them to die right now. However, always err on the side of entertaining the players. Having a sharp mind via caffeine, proper hydration, and nutrition so I can remember my prep work, include all players, and think fast. Weed slows me down, (some) alcohol speeds me up. Always keep the story and setting and mind during play to keep players feeling immersed. Borrowing elements from great fantasy-type media, such as switching between two 'sides' of the same world. Prepare speeches beforehand If the players look bored, start a fight or kill an NPC and justify it next session if I have to. Maintaining that poker face, digital or not. Never let them know they've jumped the track and you're flying by the seat of your pants! Make sure the Players are having fun and expressing themselves I prepare loosely and allow the players more freedom, giving one or two solid hints as to where to go next. Less is more in terms of specific prep, but having a knowledge of NPC goals, fears and personalities is vital. BE FLEXIBLE. This cannot be emphasized enough! Finding old DnD materials from decades ago and making it my own. Fake it till you make it, the players don't know you're making it up on the spot. Great friends play on a player/characters sense of choice Let the player generate the story as we play. Enthusiastic players to DM for. Also finding a balance between serious play and comedy. Friends Let the players do the work for you - no need to hasten the adventure along as long as the players are interested in some element of your world. Just make sure there's a payoff in some form for whatever they're interested in. Discover as much as you can about things on the fly, and when you plan, try to plan cool experiences above all else Being able to include encounters that everyone can participate in. Give the players things to think about. Supply one character with information and another with contradictory information and see how it plays out. Just try to have fun. It's invisible, imaginary fun. Know your audience and what motivates and/or frightens them. Then use that to your advantage. Improvisation + taking it easy = recipe for fun Creating a strong and energetic narrative that gets the players caught up in it Utilizing the collective storytelling capabilities of my group. They create more of the adventure than i do Getting drunk first Expanding the story beyond what the players will play through to develop a complete history/personality for the NPCs and the world. Making it petsonal. Improvisation, humor, and no railroading. Give the player's what they want, which in my group's case is basically fun/challenging combat encounters. steal ideas from other sources... yeah I'm not super original but there's plenty of good source material out there. Don't plan too rigidly, 'cause the players are just gonna thunderwave it out the window in the first five minutes anyway. Getting NPCs to imitate and learn from the PCs is a great way to form attachment. Gotta set the pins up before you knock them down. Knowing your players and what makes them enjoy D&D. I like to highlight PC connections to the campaign world; sometimes specific to the current story arc. I think this allows the player to feel that their character is significant to the overall story. As a DM, make a decision on rules at the time and look it up later. It's a game. The best thing you can do as DM is to keep it moving. Try to allow and encourage players to help world build Get the players trust: Otherwise they may blame a oddity on the world on bad GMing rather than realise it's a part of the puzzle for example. Trust allows a more in depth world that players will get active in Talk a lot and describe Improvisation Have fun! When on doubt bullshit it. They will never know that it was planned ahead Using funny voices I like to run with player decisions more than what I had planned, and so players have incredible amounts of freedom to shape the story. Not really a trick, but I just set a timeframe of when plot will happen, and my players affect how it plays out. I never set up a scene. I don't flush out too many details Add mysterious items or locations that are not directly related to the plot at hand. I roll saves and some skill check for my players. Also, simply answering "sure" when players ask if they can do something . Having lists for names, personalities, quirks and encounters Get everyone involved, happy and laughing at the start. They will always have a great time all night. The single greatest trick I could offer is be flexible. Do not have so much of the game planned out that any deviation by the players would leave the game in shambles. Remember that nothing is set in stone, and the players can't read your notes as the DM. As the DM the world is yours to control, and players don't know whats behind each door. The game is only as hard or as easy as the DM lets it be. Descriptive detail to get and keep players involved. Combat with unique gimmick mechanics Fun magic items - not just +1 swords or items with a single attribute, but instead cool items with neat effects (music box casts a high DC sleep spell with limited charges, teeth that when thrown summoned a skeleton to fight for the party for 30 mins, or items that have stories and unlockable abilities). Say yes as much as possible background music really helps set the tone. and when it starts its a signal to the player that its game time Setting a countdown and fake outs Actually prepping Background music and ambient sound. Done right it enhances everything. Having a scenario with no set resolution so the party creates their own escapes a good adventure consists of a token slaying of bad dudes, followed by a lengthy procession of peasants presenting the PCs with gifts and heirs. Get the players to help. (Draw encounter maps, track initiative etc.) Finding a emotion, npc's, or object the players created on their own, and using it. Know your players and let everybody have fun. Say yes or roll dice, play to see what happens, respect others and their position in the fiction and storytelling. Humor, making pop culture references to the situation at hand. Maybe the frost giant looks like Vanilla Ice, Or you fearsome dragon talks like Urkele. Story is the key, and creating a situation where the players must make a tough decision at least every few gaming sessions. I try to offer a new big piece of campaign info or world building info to my players if they're asking the right questions or going to the right place (somewhat open world campaign) If I don't know what I want an NPC to be like, or I don't know what else my city should have to offer, or if in any way I get stumped on my improv, I crowd source brain power from my players and their characters. They're as much a part of the story and creative process as I am, and showing them that I don't have everything perfectly mapped out helps them loosen up to improvise and be silly and fun too. Not really a trick, but within reason going with what the group wants to do, or adjusting to their mood (focused, silly, etc.) Whatever is fun for them. I'm prepped for what should happen, but ready for whatever. no, but Make stuff up. Learn to do it on the fly. Have random tables and charts and lists of names to help you make stuff up. Practice all the lines ahead of time Trick? I let the players play. No tricks involved If players know creatures too well, I reskin the creatures Get the players talking. Rolling dice is not playing, anyone can roll the dice - your hands aren't magic. You're only playing when you talk, make 'em talk. so, what's everybody doing? Break the stereotypes, makes your players paranoid Your plans are going to fail or your players will go completely off script, prepare for that and roll with it. Let the players run the adventure, I just populate the people and encounters. Let the players run the game. Write down the corky things they say for fun or out of fear and use it in other sessions. If the players show interest in something inconsequential in your adventure, let them follow their own lead and improvise. Nothing should ever be boring! I generally let the players dictate how the story goes. Have a story, have a world, and set them free. Like theme park rides scattered in a sandbox. Try to run by the rules, but in the end the game is about friends having fun. Listen to the players for clues on future things to do. Don't let the players know how much I make up on the spot Following your whims as a GM. The memorable stuff is usually the oddest, and you only get that by letting yourself go for it. I usually try to make my players think that they know whats what. Let the players decisions matter Ending on a cliffhanger, with a "to be continued" screen complete with epic music. It frustrates the players in a good way, as they are excited for the next session. Know what your players want. I try to give my players as much freedom as possible so they can ruin my hard work Be a "Yes And" DM as much as you can; but always prepare. I think it is important for DMs to remember that DnD is a performance. You are the host, the microphone controller, and the players are your stars. There is no one trick. Know when to let the party argue and when to call for a decision or introduce a break in the discussion (i.e. random encounter) Let the players do it. It's your job to say yes and then present consequences and implications. But say yes. Don't say No. Don't let you story hurt the story your players want. "How do you want to do this?" Time for everyone to shine. Making sure each character has a time to shine going with the flow It's all about group dynamics - getting people to engage emotionally in their character and in the story - being engaged draws others in. Rewarding creative thinking and fun roleplaying with inspiration or advantage Run the adventure as published but don't be afraid to go off the rails if it's where the PC want to go. Also, improvisation is king. Beer I guess Just roll with it. If the players are having fun, let them do whatever they want. They do have to deal with the consequences of their actions, though. Being reactive to the players, in the sense that it's their actions which drive the world and it's my job to provide them a backdrop and props so they can forge their story. Look at your players. See what they enjoy the most. Making their evening unforgetable will make it unforgetable for you as well. big bad villain/boss that says silly things then gets murderous Make sure everyone is on the same page as to what kind of game they want. Say yes and. Just wing it Never say no Notes, Notes, Notes... for all ideas that run through my head I have to keep notes. "How do you wanna do this?" Players can avoid enconters, but it demands action scenes and challenges Re skin monsters to serve as combat NPCs, other monsters or beasts Get they players involved. talk to them, and ask them how you can help them tell the story of their character. Theft of other ideas and then smashing them together. 1) If you want a premade: Pick a good premade your players don't know, then replace all the boring parts with stuff you like. 2) If you want to make a new adventure: Combine a bunch of elements from other premades/movies/video games/books you like. Also, please print a semi-scifi adventure (like barrier peaks) or planescape or spelljammer or something with alternate material planes. Keep the pace up. Plan a bunch of vague story "nodes" and improv with the players as they stumble through their own path to the end Stealing ideas from other campaigns, modules, books, movies, tv shows. Stay on top of pacing and watch players interest level. If interest is flagging, move on to Something else. Roll with player suggestions, they engage more when their ideas are paid attention to. Play fast and loose with the rules. Rules are there to help you DM and keep order in the game, but it can also cause frustration. If you have to tweak something so it allows a character to role play better, do it. (Example: Nothing says fun like managing your wizard spell components then having to find and buy them. Finding a faster way to manage this speeds the game up and is easier on new players) When unsure how to continue, ask the PCs what they would like to do or try to understand what they expect. Make decisions that don't have necessarily right answers available to the players. I draw a lot of roleplaying inspiration from the Dragon Age games. Be good at improv? Be flexible. Listen to The Adventure Zone. try to create sense of mystery and sense of wonder Deadly combat Keep the players on their toes. Plot twists and the like. Or when they think you'll throw a curveball and you play it straight. Keep 'em thinking. Don't be attached to it being your game. Let the players play, and if they want to lead the story, just help set up the stats and mystery since that's what you do best. You're there to facilitate fun, and if that isn't fun for you, DM probably isn't your roll. Instantly engage your players with role play. If you do it. Do it. Rp it out! I'll tell you what to roll after. Timer to build tension, improv Making the Players do random Rolls to get them paranoid Prepare well, improvise better Maintain internal consistency Using players background and experience to create inner party turmoil while presenting aggressive external action to help players come to terms with each other. Rich campaign world Look up for blogs of DM that already ran the published aventure Really involve the players. Great players can save a terrible campaign. Interaction with the villain throughout the campaign. I always have backuo plans in case the players decide to not go with what i lay out for them. And if they do i just make it seem like they chose the path when i really guide them. listening to players Know where the story goes. Read The Angry GM. Adopted the Critical Role "how do you want to do this" method for killing a boss monster--gives players agency to write that part of the story Role-playing NPC's in a way that excites the party, and making sure all party members have an opportunity to contribute Even if you run published adventures, don't be afraid to change things to suit your vision. And don't get hung up too much on the minutiae of the rules - make something up rather than spend too much time looking up a rule - or the dice roles - fudge them if it will enhance the narrative. :) Fun and comical consequences Developing the world well before the initial adventure so that no matter what the players do, I can have an idea of the likely result Audio effects Overhead projector for battlemaps on the table. I set it in a mythic-Earth setting that draws from our own world history (circa 1444 because I play a lot of Europa Universalis IV) as well as anything handy from Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron, Warhammer, Azeroth, etc. That way I have a rich and living world without having to think too much about it. having NPCs that lie or don't know the real truth Being just buzzed enough to wing anything. fudge dice rolls for awesome story results I want to kill heathens By having a general sense of the campaign, I can tailor each moment to the player's actions, and keep the story cohesive. Oh, and keeping the map abstract keeps the flow going better than maps and minis ;) Focus on the story above all else. The combat can be gritty and fun, but if there's no reason behind it then it ends up being meaningless. Act. No matter when or why. Acting is key. Try and encourage your players to support other player's characters through interactions with each other. Have them think of questions they can ask each other during quiet moments, or think of things that they can say that would instigate conversation or thought. Mostly, get them to engage each other. Building in a couple of strange, but memorable moments to each session. Example: during 4-9, the Tempter, when the party places the correct crest in the tomb, the only narration is that they, "hear a satisfying click" ‰ÛÓ nothing else happens. The door opens when they remove the crest. Listening to the players and building the story from them. Guide your phone players to do the narrative heavy lifting. Play off of your players. Bring their character backgrounds into play and play to their ambitions and they'll love that they're a part of the world instead of just passengers on a ride. Plan to give each player a chance to shine. Maybe not every player every session, but make sure there's at least one opportunity for a player each session to do something cool. The best way to do this is usually by incorporating the character's backstory. let them feel the fear of death (i dont want them to die, but they should be afraid of death by stupid decisions, i will not hesitate to punish "stupid" behaviour [dice rolls are not included as "behaviour", thats just unlucky]) entice the players but always give them free will no matter what Let players create something in the world and link the story with those things. Make clear that certain social interactions are in 'real time' Let your players develope their own story with you and don't railroad them in what you may want them to do. React to the players Keep the pace up Read angry GM's blog Steal the players ideas of where the story is going I use premade adventures almost entirely. For homebrew I've pre-set a variety of locations and NPCs and possible conflicts/quests and let them wander and make decisions and wing it. Answers above relate to premadadventires since I do those most. Don't be afraid to wing it I focus on story elements when getting ready for each session, because building a powerful character is cool and all but the group I run and myself all agree that the roleplay and story is the most important part. We want to feel apart of the world we build and develop so story is everything and combat encounters come based on the story. Let fun things happen, even when they probably wouldn't Never act surprised, even when totally lost. Preparation with a focus on reaction to player agency. plan around your characters Critical success and failure tables Casting a very wide net in terms of preparation. Have as many small jumping off points ready in your setting as you possibly can, from NPCs to locations to magical items to things posted on town noticeboards. Once you figure out what your PCs are going to focus on for a bit, you then have room to flesh out their chosen path without feeling as if they're been railroaded into anything. If I have to fudge a dice roll, only so it to make a scenario more realistic or to benefit the players... I never seek to party wipe, but I always remind the players that actions have consequences. Community Story telling. It's the PC's world they have to adventure in I just set the stage. Good improvisation Make interesting dynamic combat with the enemies using appropriate tactics. Store my minis in a small workman's toolkit, with sizable sections and a locking lid. Let's me keep them hidden at the table, and quickly pull out monster types, etc, without players having an idea what's they might face. Kepping players in the edge of their seat with engaging encounters. Be open minded and have a backup plan/encounter/dungeon ready Adjusting loot, outcomes, or events based on localized fears or desires of the party. Go with the flow. Describe but not too much let the players figure it out or not. Don't over plan and go with the group. Figure out which enemies would appear in each section and roll with it. I find that a well thought out world is more useful than a well thought out fight. I have recently given each character a secret objective or mission. They shouldn't interfere with each other or anything, but it makes their decisions more interesting. I spend time personalizing the adventure to the players backstory. I try to make one player a hero for the session Chekov's firing squad storytelling: anything the PCs interact with or notice and ignore will come back later. Preparation, Improvisational skills Don't design villains. Design people with strong ambitions. Humanizing enemies. If players feel sympathy for game characters, they are significantly more invested in the game and less likely to go murder hobo. Reflavouring monsters gives the impression that you made something completely new for the party. I'm new! Still learning tricks. Give NPCs personalities, not lines Manipulation. Not in a bad way; I learn what drives the characters but more importantly for my groups, the players. I learn what they like and I slide it in. This allows me to build encounters and story off of what each player enjoys and keep everyone engaged. memorable cahracters "Refer to notes" even if I have none, to give players illusion they're making wisest choices, coupled with moving the goals around so wherever they go is the "correct" place to move the story forward. I try to make published content my own by giving it my own flourish and putting it in a different world. Moral consequences Have a blackboard for combat drawings Incorporating the players' background into the adventure Preparing to improvise Asking the players for feedback afterwards and always giving pcs a chance for amazing feats I don't really have one and way the players pick will lead them to where I want them to go spotify playlists ready for each encounter and area example the song Lavander town from pokemon to represent the village of Barovia from curse of strahd Always say yes and set a difficulty Descriptive language. keeping mystery behind what creatures/npcs they encounter Get my players to describe their own kills when they drop an enemy. Be flexible, have backup side quests ready to go if players don't choose to follow the expected thread Let the players decide what they want to do Start a longer game with a split party and an unstructured session that introduces the players to each other and the starting location. Just put them all in the starting place with a bunch of NPCs to talk to and let them wander around, explore, and bump into each other. End it on a cliffhanger, just after introducing combat, or some other compelling threat. Dopplegangers. Use them. Keep 'em guessing. Being spontaneous Improvise as muct as possible Be ready to wing it while keeping a serious face on, as if you had everything planned. Listen to the players and steal their ideas. Combat tracker on FG Run the game your players want to play. Ban cellphones/electronics! Your players can't possibly know what will happen if you aren't sure yourself.(make it up on the spot) Giving players the illusion of choice "Keep your distance, though, Chewie, but don't *look* like you're trying to keeping your distance." Now replace 'keep your distance' with 'bs your way through' Run it on the fly. The worst thing you can do is force players to follow a strict storyline. From my experience, players will always try to find alternate routes from the one you've designed for them. You can control their general direction, but not their exact path. The three p's: Preparation, Presentation, and Pulling it out of your ass Character acting Present the players with tough choices as often as possible Pre-generated NPCs, names, and villains makes for a smooth session Surprise twists, and inside jokes. Let the players' imagined obstacles make a way into the campaign I use improvisation for 90% of what happens in a game I run. Mostly I have little islands of activity, like I like duergar so a duergar with a certain agenda pops up. I leave everything else up in the air and let the players build the world and story. Low preparation and responding to player descisions Work out what the players enjoy most and focus on that. Reskinning dungeons. Anything I make gets used somewhere. I use the party's own ideas against them...constantly, but they have know idea that I'm doing this. Sometimes they think they're figured something out, and their idea makes more sense than the actual authors idea, I let the players idea become the story...or I'll setup a scenario to have them come up with how to best defend a keep or town from invaders, then I'll just reuse this for the anventure I was creating to determine how the bandits are defending their fort. Being open and ready for what the players are wanting to do. Make sure that the players feel awesome and what they do matters in the world and setting around them. Adjusting situations and plans to match the mood ignoring the party combat should serve at least one of 2 purposes. 1- progress the overall story, or 2- develop a player's story. If a combat does not serve one of these two things; don't waste time making it. Narrate to player expectation (let the story play the way they would assume) then twist it at moments of excitement. Asking the players to describe the deaths of npcs they kill. "Describe its death and make it glorious" is the phrase I use. Use the Rule of Cool to let players have fun and not get bogged down by particular rules. Giving good descriptions and stay in character. Storytelling Embrace improvising, players always derail planned sessions. I plan out parts of the adventure and let the players fill in the rest. Prep lots of prep, and voices Use tabletop audio to help with immersion, ban phones too! getting the players invested in their characters. The rolls aren't real Ask loads of questions of the players and incorporate the answers. Having fun and interesting NPC encounters Create alternative encounters that aren't hit point battles. Threaten other things like VIP, Insta-TPK, Magic Items. It creates tension, uses abilities, and removes the amount of classical combat encounters are required. Play up your strengths. For me, that's silly voices and comedy I like to make combat a mixed narrative of funny and "badass" work in backstories. always say "YES" if any way possible. My DM philosophy is to employ the "rule of cool". Letting the players destroy all of my well thought out plans... oh, and having them spend an hour and a half at a vendor. I may have just a nugget of an idea for the overall story. I thought it out there, and let the PC imagination/paranoia fill in the gaps. Responding to the RP of game and combat fluidly by allowing pcs to get away with odd behaviors and responding with a vivid world that has fears, superstitions, dislikes and prejudices. Fake it til you make it. Saying "yes, but..." to player requests Embrace the stupidity of my players Really give my all when playing NPCs. Also, give players meaningful choices with far-reaching outcomes. Make everyone important Roll initiative and use turns even for non-combat scenes to keep things moving. Winging it. Improvisation is key. The players aren't going to role play if you don't When characters go on a quest that involves a specific character's backstory, I always make sure to hit one of the other characters with a revelation of their own. This keeps all the characters invested. I like to get my players emotionally involved. Randomness, i generate npcs randomly (monsters, allies and enemies), flaws & virtues, maybe the orc is blind, maybe he also can fart fire. Unique stories are made. So?! - What's everyone doing? Don't plan every last detail out. have a general idea of what will happen and play it by ear from then on. Engage with players pre-game and tie their character back stories into every session Moral quandaries, letting the players decide how they are starting by letting them narrate their own intro activities(unless in combat). Be aware of you PCs needs and wants. They effectively run the story, so be open to their suggestions I like to use cards for initiative that everyone be can see Make problems, not solutions. Let the players go with their own plans. Never say no, instead say 'Yes, but...' Random tables, lots of them Go with the flow! When in doubt let the dice decide! Improvise Allow the players to mess around a little. Proper expectations from those involved. And music that fits that expectation. Fake confidence in what you are doing, whether or not you actually planned/know what's about to happen Avoid answering PC questions with a 'no'. Their imagination is key Read the table, if the players aren't engaged it's the DM's job to engage them. When making the characters with my PCs I include small unique things in their bios wich then I use to create personal adventures inside the world, when they start divocering things related to their bios they tend to focus on those and they let themselves be carried over by the main story because they're engorged in dicovering the rest of themselves that the now know I hid in the world. Knowing the adventure so well that when they take a left turn I am ready for it. Mix politics to various degrees in a campain Knowing your players well enough to anticipate their decisions to various choices, so as to use mind games to allow them to direct the plot but in such a way that it follows what I have prepared for. Ensuring everyone has a stake in the session and contributes to the fun makes sure everyone is enjoying the game. If someone isn't having fun, the game can't be "great". Work most elements of each player's character traits and skills into each session, and the story arc. NPC Corruption and betrayal! I had a demilich corrupt the mind of a local nobleman, who proceeded to try and sacrifice one of my players to create a phylactery. Ridiculous accents, and a good mix of seriousness with humour Need to be invested in the work you're putting in. I think this is where the game will die out after a time, it's when the dm stops caring about their world as much. Play off the ideas the players have, talk with them regularly outside the game and see what makes them tick, throw in things that fit, but that will also engage specific players in the roleplay group Let the players do what they want and attempt to adjust accordingly. Make it possible but not super easy No xp I use milestones instead, give out lots of inspiration. I use the monster stat blocks as templates and reflavor to make original monsters Every adventure needs a hook that excites me, a monster, NPC or idea that I can sink my teeth into. The rest remains flexible around the centerpiece so the players control the flow. Random trivia at the beginning of the game for a chance at inspirations. Improve Just roll with it and speak with conviction. Wish I had one. Mostly I just try to be prepared enough to keep the adventure moving and fake it when they go another direction. Theatre of mind and whiteboards A grand finale with bespoke terrain, fully painted miniatures and well-made props. Though themed food is a close second! Listen to player/character conversations - mine what the say for ideas. Just trying to create a sandbox and let players do whatever they want. Mixed Interactions Cater to each of the players "needs" If the world is good, each session will require less work Fewer but unique encounters witch a catch Always be ready to improvise. Let players answer questions about the setting Letting PCs describe as much as possible The answer is almost always yes to players, with appropriate consequences. Bare minimum planning, embrace improvisation, evolve the story around the players, alcohol I briefly write out the climax I'd like for the game and circle it. Then I think about things that can lead to that and write them down. They get circled. Repeat. Arrows indicate possible progression, but it's easy to skip around. Let your players lead Planning open-endedly is important because players are a bunch of animals. Rarely saying "no" to a player; rolling with their idea but making sure there are stakes and consequences to their actions. Also if there's a new player who isn't engaging, have them keep track of initiative. People are depending on them to pay attention and they get a sense of ownership and a taste of DM power :) Integration of player back stories I love having music set up ahead of time, though the technology fights back a lot. Switch up environments and enemy types, too much of the same can get tedious. sneaking a shard of the BBEG'' soul into a magic item the players pick up very early on in the campaign, the reveal session is always worth the wait Letting the players make their own decisions, good or not let the players decide where to go in universe but keep the rules of the universe steady. if a PC voices concern about something happening 50% chance of it changing to that. Make the Kobolds use advanced tactics When possible I try to think about my players and their characters to sculpt the story. Make a barebones script of Dialogue and Encounters, make up the rest as we go along. Make the dungeon live and believable Ask open ended questions that give players a chance to contribute to roleplay or World building, "The Sphinx demands your deepest secret to open the portal. What is it?" Or "A hideous creature pours from the smoking cauldron, and the witch proclaims it is her favorite creation yet. What is it?" I like to ask players what they want to do next session at the end of every session. When running a session, I usually give people time to freeplay first and then we go do the thing they said they wanted to do last time. I throw in consequences from the previous freeplay sessions if appropriate. Don't be bad Listen to guesses the players make as to what's going on and work in something close to that, or an NPC in the background with a goal of getting them to think that. Listening is super key. You can basically steal a plot from a long good book unless your players have read it. give the player options Having a timer per turn during combat to keep things going smoothly and keeps the players invested in the encounter. Providing a break during the game to shake out distractions then returning to the fun. try to create moments for every character. my notes are divided into sections for each person, each having a story, a combat, and a puzzle component. Always go with what the players want to do. They think you know what you're doing the whole time, but really you're just bouncing ideas off them during the game and everything works out. Let players be heroes, let them be and feel powerful. Less is more. Creating scene playlists can really set the mood. Roleplay NPC's that catch the party off guard improvise on what comes back from your players Curve balls in battle, when in doubt toss in a couple of cultists to spice things up Always try to say yes, but to the players plans. Let them have their good plans succeed, but not exactly as they intended them to. Describe where the character are, give them a hook that gets them started doing something, and from there let the players lead the game - with the DM only reacting to where the players take things and what they express desire for in and out of character by putting appropriate (to the group's tastes) obstacles in the way of the characters Learn what your players care about and make the game about that. Combat? OK! Politics? OK! Pre-write your adventure and have good flow charts either prepared or thought out. Kill npc's the players love. Never become so attached to plans or plots, always be ready to abandon it all to go in whatever direction the players want. Create memorable and lovable NPCs. Then kill them. Work out how to say yes Let the players discuss things among themselves Communication with the players of what they/you want out of the game. Keeping myself ready to respond with "yes, and..." rather than saying no. Or actually making my players roll what they jokingly say, occasionally. "I'd like to flirt with the male guard " (the 6' 8" half orc barb says) "Okay, roll a charisma check" "....wait....I wasn't serious!?" "Go for it ;) you said it!" Bringing in my players to play secondary or background characters for a scene focusing on a single character Make it tough, but rewarding. Go with themes the party enjoys. Download maps and make stuff up on the fly depending on what the players do, but guided towards specific story goals. SAY "YES" Never taking myself or my campaign setting too seriously. Difficult Challenge Rooms Theme, Timer, Threat, Treasure Re purpose ideas to align with what the party does to allow them the sense of choice while not wasting prep time on unused items Music really sets the mood in a campaign, and simple sound effects like rain or wind can illicit primal responses in people. Using player generated lore to give the pcs more agency and every so often a temporary power boost based on their story. Getting the players to routinely summarize for me their understanding of what is going on in the narrative, and to ask me questions about anything they are unclear on Get to know both your players and your characters. Starting an online game with strangers, you don't know much, but over time you can get to know what they enjoy the most in the game. Your first few games, even with your best friends, wont be amazing, it just takes time. Once you see what makes them have the most fun, whether it is awesome narrative arcs, or just cool combat, that is when it becomes a great D&D game. Sometimes I ask my kids to c ok me up with monsters or traps. Improvise everything. Plans always fail but thinking on your feet can lead to great memories. I add the encounters into RPG Buddy ahead of time even if they are non-combat Having something for all of my players to enjoy. Research the different types of gamers and the eight types of fun. Listening to the questions my players ask about the environment and playing off of that. Running a megadungeon (Stonehell) requires their buyin, so I take cues from them as to what they're interested in the most. write out items, important NPCs, etc. on notecards so that you can dispense them to players immediately. Going with the flow and having Google handy to make changes on the fly GM/Player intrusions for inspiration. Great tool pulled from Numenera used in 5E. Knowing the NPCs and enemies well enough to be able to roll with anything the players choose to do. Being able to adjust on the fly. Giving the players space to react to each other rather than my providing the sole impetus of the game. Adding dramatic imagery to battles, etc. Taking a moment to describe the scene like its a photograph or an establishing shot in a movie, along with the written material. Be enthusiastic and ask what the players want from the experience. let the players run the game as much as possible. DMing is facilitation, not a dictatorship. Provide props to create tactile connection to game Decrease enemies health but up their damage. It decreases the length of combat but intensifies encounters Ask the players to describe a small aspect of the world. Create hooks and encounters based on specific characters Keep a good pace, know when a scene is done and move on. What they don't know won't them except sometimes it will. Having fun It's okay if the players win sometimes. careful planning Everyone should have fun, and lots and LOTS of humor ! Communication with players, before, during and after. Feedback both ways enhances the game. To be responsive to what the group wants to do, and leave them as much space to work their character as there possibly is I like to roll all saving throws from character abilities in front of the screen. Use locations you know in the real world for purposes of geography and natural resources or thing of note, and remap names. Same with office buildings, churches, homes, so you can immediately and consistently describe any setting's geometry or feel. Review the monsters ahead of time as it's easy to miss the synergies between monsters and the environment and as a result, run an encounter much less challenging than intended. Say "umm" a lot. Go with your players flow Just go with it. Things will work out. When my players make assumptions, I make about three out of four of them correct. If I let my players intuitively collaborate on the world without knowing, it'll feel real to them because it's how they think the world, logically, ought to work. The one out of four is just for fun and spice. Many plot hooks, fun npcs Fudging roles sometimes for better or worse During exploration where the party is split, keep people moving in turns so everyone gets a chance to play and keep tension up. Practicing voices Providing a submersive environment that gets the players into to state of mind. Listen to the players be flexible At the start of each game I give my players a chance to earn inspiration if they can answer a riddle. It gets them in the mood to start. 90% improv The story has to capture the imagination - best to stew on ideas for a long time. Improv makes the world that the PCs are in feel more natural Leaving everything open to be explored Assign (either as DM or by group vote) away from table tasks, eg: schedule coordination, map drawing, food prep, going over a newbie's build, writing backstories or in-character responses to recent sessions, to most or all of the players. If people are more invested in the game than 3 hours every Tuesday they are motivated to make the game a priority and it helps to cut down on last minute cancellations or "no I can't game that day I'm going to the bar" The players write the story just as much as the DM - they just don't know it. Listen to their ideas, and where possible, find ways to make them possible while keeping to the confines of the kind of world you want to build. The players will feel like they're having a meaningful impact, and your world will have more depth. Using a lot of detail to describe scenes. Make it as deadly as possible I put at least two types of the three componments into each encounter: combat, puzzle, or lore. Be against the players when designing encounters, throwing hard things at them; be with the players when they're playing, looking for ways to make them feel heroic. Make sure every character has a meaningful connection to the world. I make sure to consider and/or include personal aspects relating to both my players and their characters in interactions with the world and their place in the campaign. I also make sure that if a certain player seems to be fading into the background i specifically focus on including aspects that highlight their skills and make them feel more confident in their position! Skill challenges are an absolute blast and break up the standard flow of a session Start the session somewhere unexpected. Have some great comedy NPCs with funny accents. Be adaptable. Remember your players are the main characters and can kick ass Having notes and stat blocks at hand... And music organized and ready. Keeping a poker face when things go off the rails, having to ad-lib half a dozen NPCs, a mini-dungeon, and three encounters, then pretending everything worked out how you expected it to. Red Herrings Descriptions of what they see and do in a way they can relate to. Know your group and run something they will all get a kick out of. Make combat exciting and dangerous whole have the comic note from npc'. Furthermore; critical hits and misses. Less is more for descriptions. Just a list of random names, helps maintain a seamless world Improvising my ass off, Improve classes help a shit ton. Letting characters manage initiative I have my players supply me with 5 sets of initiative rolls pre-start. That way I can roll right into combat without pausing the action, it also prevents the players from knowing the turn order the first round of combat. Make the next one better. Wing it - a lot. If it's too easy, turn the dial up. If it's too hard, turn the dial up even more and make it really scary. Be a good DM. Pacing and alcohol I run a sandbox campaign, so what makes for a great session is when the players go in a direction I haven't planned for. Some of our best games have been when they've do something and I think "Wow, I did not see that coming" Improvise more than you plan. Bullshitting around every corner food Give the players constant choices Balance (between serious gameplay and humor, between combat and other encounters, between active play and passive play, etc) Improvise. Just let things happen. Include story elements from the characters background. currently working on a large random encounter table where I can add NPC's, special events, etc- so encounter list and brainstorming session. Focus on player input and build the world off of how they interact with it. If the presentation of the game is engaging, players will get immersed in a deeper way. Try to do more of "showing" your players something instead of "telling" them. For example, if you were to run CoS, and Strahd were to charm a player and attempt to attack another PC, don't tell them "you are charmed and strays wants you to attack player 2". Have their characters see that player become a monster or something. Make so that they experience the effect of being charmed. Have them discover what's happened to them. "Show" them, It's more fun that way. Combat initiative changes each round as characters can wager their initiative to gain an extra turn to go at the top of the round. On a successful wager DC initiative check they get an extra attack, on a failed wager the enemy gets advantage against them that round. For me, D&D is all about mood. With music, lighting, and food an average day can become extraordinary. Leave it open and drop hints that way you never know what will happen Make sure your players have legit reasons to work together before the campaign even begins. not using any published bullshit and bouncing off random tables. Lots and lots of improvisation Steal shamelessly Keep your players paranoid, it makes them overthink every situation, wich in turn gives you some pretty good ideas going forward. when in doubt wing it Finish on a cliffhanger The rules are there to tell the story. Sometimes I stick to them as written, sometimes I throw them out, depending on what the story needs. Decisions always have consequences. The game world changes as a result of the actions of the PCs. NPCs react to the PCs as a result of their choices, both positive and negative. Messes never clean themselves, which means at some point the PCs build a critical mass of messes that need to be cleaned up. And those messes may go out of their way to create an opportunity for accountability. Plot twists and great story. Let the most fun outcome be the one that happens, even if you didn't plan for it. Having good friends. Engage the players by putting them as closely "in the shoes" of their PCs as possible Your "secrets" concept has really simplified the organization of the world tidbits I love to let players discover. Easy to understand plot line, plot twists when they think they've figured it out, 2-3 encounters per session, spises in "epicness" once every three sessions. run dungeon world instead. but no seriously, steal a bunch of rules from dungeon world. like gm should make moves on failed checks, fronts are the best way to run a campaign, partial successes just make sense, etc Create a robust frame for a story. - Know your setting well, so that you can answer questions and move pieces of it into the story as necessary. - Create conflict by giving Villains goals that oppose those of the PCs. Use their personality, abilities, and goals to decide on their actions from session to session. Never write a master plan at the beginning. - Don't fudge the dice rolls. It's often tempting, because wild luck can sometimes throw a story sideways. Resist. The game needs risk to be fun, including the risk of death. Fudging rolls makes it difficult to deal with character death. Players feel bad when their characters die, but they can live with it if it is the result of dice rolls. They feel a lot worse if they know that you regularly change numbers behind the screen. That makes the DM, not the dice, responsible for the death of their character. This can create animosity in a player group. Create a World full of polÌ_tic intrigues involving a lot of magic, religion and old places Plenty of notes Getting players immersed into the scenes. Focus on the player's stories Throwing in a last minute curve or twist Imagine at least one path the players could take through the session. It's easy enough to change things on the fly if they deviate but it's helpful to have a baseline. Have a laugh The devil is in the details, and the great details and depth don't appear at the table, but by refining ideas and returning to sketched material. I'm trying to be more economic in my prep, but idea development in any creative setting is iterative. So it is not a trick. It is thinking ahead and refining ideas, instead of cramming things in the night before the next session. Taking a player's idea/answer to a problem and incorporating it into the answer Notes... A lot of them 30 second limit on turns -- only applies to choosing an action, not DM interaction / dice rolling / etc Consequences of player's actions coming back to bite them. If some big thing can happen to one character, it can happen to everyone, and there is a percent chance for every player. Learning from mistakes always end a session on a cliffhanger Give jobs to players (e.g., initiative tracker, time keeper, party accountant) Explain nothing I try to use invocative descriptions and npc voices. Go down the rabbit hole. Explore if a PC wants to explore. Have a large scale world already setup Not being too serious, not being too stuck up Know what the players want. If they want combat, give them a dungeon crawl. If they want roleplaying, give them diplomacy. Etc. Since they're all AL Adventures: Don't be a slave to the text! Carefully select players. Role play makes the game. Be adaptive, be ready for the players' creativity or playstyles, and react accordingly Focus on the aspects of the game your players enjoy. Let them direct some of what's going on so they can help drive the story. Getting them involved through major character discovery. I run a LAN style party in my house with everyone on Roll20 this works great as it allows me to see and speak to everyone, helping get them in the zone, while using the precision map making and combat tools of roll20 where they work best. Leave everything open ended- Puzzles, riddles, RP- and modify the situation to what your PCs do. Make them think their way was the correct way all along Prepare rough lines. Players will never do what you expect, so paint broad strokes that can easily accommodate player agency. It's not really a 'trick' per se. I know my strengths and I lean into them. I can improvise, I'm quick on my feet. And so my games are really dependant on that strength. I can offer a really strong sandbox style game because I can pull it out of thin air. The only trick is that, play to your strengths Getting your players involved in the world. Ambience is a must. Get some scented candles and light music going. Knowing my players and going with the flow I try to let my players go where they will and do and say what they want - sometimes it derails my plans, sometimes they end up emotionally damaging npcs they should be keeping happy, but our table always seems to be laughing and having fun! Add little things to the game such as finding a wooden totem in a goblins satchel, things that although small help ground the players in the story rather than the usual robotic "you find 43 copper and 4 silver". A little while ago I stumbled across a blog post discussing a "four act structure" used in most modern films and TV shows. That, coupled with treating each 3-hour session as roughly equivalent to an episode in an hour-long drama, really helped structure sessions. Change story elements, if the players have better ideas than I, but without telling them My players love music added to the game, also memorable NPC's Not really a trick, but I try to make my players' character choices matter. Make sure the ranger gets to fight her favored enemy. Let the fire sorcerer shine by using an enemy vulnerable to fire every once in a while. Open a side quest so the monk can find some legendary hand-wraps since they're never going to appear randomly in any dungeon. Let your players feel cool and feel good about their characters, and don't be afraid to deviate a bit from your carefully laid plans to make that happen. Go with the flow. The world has a preset way by which it would evolve with no party interference. Based on the party's actions, I constantly as myself "how would each NPC react to this new situation given their knowledge and motivation?". In this way the PC's can feel their impact on the world and I never feel like I have to force them along a certain story line. Always keep things moving and minimize player downtime A great game, for me, involves working with what the players enjoy to make a convincing and exciting story. The setting and situation is just that; CR and all these new things that make everything safe don't exist in my game. Be excited Making sure you have good music selection for combat / exploration / npc interaction I like to prepare a simple, medieval-themed meal for my guests to get them in the mindset. I like to describe in great detail the ways that my players end up attacking enemy creatures. They haven't gotten into doing it themselves yet. Layout what the goals for each NPC in your campaign, this will help you when your players perform actions or make decisions you didn't expect them to. Counting out damage dice after you give the players a difficult decision. Raises the tension significantly. The plot twist: changing of a good guy to a bad guy, or vice versa to wow the players Keep things moving, don't let fights bog down over rules details Listen Spend time developing an interesting setting / set up, then relax and improvise / "go with the flow" My favorite thing to do to my players is to plant the seed of doubt. If they finally get to the fabled artifact that they're supposed to retrieve, but they aren't sure they're about to hand it over to the good guys, or destroying it could be a very bad idea.. That always keeps things interesting Sound effects Tying the story theme to their characters. Having a good understanding of the theory behind the game, narrative structure, and what you and your players want. Play monster challenges with tactical planning Make custom balanced personalized items for players and tables for items/npcs/encounters/ect I just drop the characters into a 'sandbox' and let them go. I always know what's going on in the world surrounding them, of course. Then I provide the characters with rumors about those happenings & see what they bite at. Know your players in order to control meta-gaming. prepare the world and people firstly then you can improvise how they get to the end of the story Always be on the lookout for a good cliffhanger. Let the player's do the heavy lifting. Have a few encounter archetypes ready in case they go in a different direction. Not focusing on the path as laid out in the adventure (purchased or home-made) as much as the general features of the zone. Breadcrumbs everywhere, but not force players to take them. Go off book. It is inevitable that players will get their hands on the source material. In such cases I pick scenes or encounters that are not critical to the story and make them critical and twist them beyond recognition. Have laminated character and monster sheets for easy changes Manipulating the players into creating an adventure. Moral ambuguity Don't bother trying to craft a full story, path, or plan - your players will not follow it. Instead, focus on creating a fleshed out world with rules and NPC's/monsters whose motives you understand, and then creating a base scenario for your players to encounter. Adapt and improvise to your player's choices from there. Never assume you know what your players are going to do, or where they are going to go, even if you give them clear rewards for going somewhere you want them to go. You will almost always be wrong. Steal everything, from everywhere. See a great scene in a movie? Then steal it, and see what your players do in that situation. Making my PCs realize enemies aren't always black and white. I base my story on the choices my players made in their character sheets. Using player backgrounds to build storylines and encounters Pacing: never let protected combat or rules lookups detract from a feverishly exciting pace. Adaption. Just because it sounds cool in your head and its something you want to see. Your painting a world for others. They may see it very differently. Sourcing the table for ideas Grab the characters by the story, make them care about the tale being told. Once they buy into the legend then the story will tell itself. Whispering information granted from a particularly good skill check only to the player who made the check. Distinct voices for NPCs go a long way towards establishing their character before the party really even knows who they are. Mixture of comedy and drama Use Gamemaster as a companion app with all the essential information for the game so as to keep Roll20 as uncluttered as possible. It makes for cleaner, more efficient play. Have several encounters ready to go, but don't place or skin them in a location until it is time for the encounter to take place. Let the players decide everything. Pizza, so the players will come Reward creativity even if the exact rules don't line up with a stellar result. Example: Your player throws an enemy into a fire and then you move the enemy into a tactical flanking position - essentially making it a wasted action. The rules don't say the enemy will panic from the fire and maybe you rolled low damage, but you should still reward the player with a believable reaction do it feels right. Text information that only one person gets, not to build conflict, but so they each feel like individuals. For example if a certain NPC only trusts one person, they tell him a personal secret. My player's love holding some sort of secret. Not every Encounter has to be combat and serious. Sometimes it's a trap, or a Strange NPC, or my players favorite TREASURE & LOOT! Games last longer when the pacing changes every once and a while. Have everyone involved in the first 5 minutes. Atleast with introductions. Great improv background music Lets the players have an active part in the world around , not just with the story. Be ready to improvise! Have a list of names and a list of accents, just in case. It's one of these two: either assessing everyone's style and what they enjoy, or talking with the players away from the table about where the characters/campaign are/is going. Setting prep. Know the sandbox so you can make things up on the fly. Having good friends Letting the players direct the flow of the game. Be flexible? don't prepare too much like specific DC skill checks. it'll save time and make the game more fluid. I've got a great group of people I've mostly known for 20 years. Have your BBEG steal something from your PCs. Even if it's not an extremely valuable item the PCs will instinctively want it back. I usually use AL scenarios or the books, so spending prep time is important. Get your music sorted, have tracks ready to roll for specific moments and scenes. Roll with my player's ideas. They're often stupid but it makes them happy I prefer to run dealer campaigns, it makes the consequences of bad choices more punishing. Always be vague with your notes except when it's important. Make sure you have levels of success. Making detailed NPC characters with elaborated personalities and backgrounds. Hourglass. I have a large, fancy 5 minute timer, that it's so much fun to set a scene and slam down the hourglass...and watch chaos ensue. Skill challenges are so much fun. No tricks just have fun with friends. Method acting I ask the players to write summaries of the previous session. I use these to see what bits had most impact on my players so I could scale the game to their tastes. It is also good to get a sense of what their thoughts are on mysteries etc. don't plan to hard be adamant on nothing and improvise Have fun Magic! Letting the players choose where they go and me adapting to what they want to do. be prepared to improvise Improv. imagination Take improv classes I get a firm handle on my NPCs' motivations and run the entire game off the cuff, rolling with whatever my players want to do. If they interact with the plot, cool. If they avoid it, the plot still happens and often creates trouble that the players cannot therefore ignore any more. Bait and switch Making sure all players are engaged at all times, or at least as much as I can. I love blending different angles into the main plot. "That random merchant you just helped ended up having valuable information for the artifact you are seeking." Deadly and interesting encounters I like cool set-piece encounters but I also like player agency and their freedom to make meaningful choices. That is why I usually prep a couple challenging encounters with an open beginning and end so that I can use them regardless of where the players decide to go with the story. This way you can add a "prepped" feel to an otherwise non-railroady adventure. For instance you can throw in a well thought through orc ambush into pretty any game at any given time. Cater to your players while making sure that you're not spoon feeding them. And roll with it. Adding some fun or exciting twist Being really good at improv flexibility and improvisation Humor in improve is key. It happens every session, and it keeps people engaged. Making weak enemies kite the party Open communication with the players, find out what they want out of the game and what is fun for them. Letting the players develop their own story through interaction Being able to ad lib and improvise "Yes, but" Have a general idea of where the campaign is going and the movers and shakers, but let your players assumptions direct how you fill in the details Make my players come up with decently lengthy backstories to weave their past through our current campaign. Play with a group of people you "click with" so "work" feels evenly distributed arround the table The phrase "yes, and..." should be heard almost as often as "no, but..." Be flexible, allow the players to create the story, give them the tools and see what they come up with. Be flexible Encourage the players to clearly outline when their characters are speaking I listen to my players and what they want. I never restrict their actions, I always let them do what they want within reason. A hidden hook, can be a hint dropped by an NPC or some clue found that doesn't make sense till the Players really think about it when they are stuck in a situation. Listening to the players and using their ideas to drive the narrative. The story is what happens at the table, so it's about the players not me. Don't get bogged down by looking up specific rules during a session, just make it up as you go along Players first mentality. Stay adaptable. Say "yes" make your ideas able to be plug-in at points the players pace, have your scenarios able to be applied when the game's pace allows, then get specific, don't expect to use all your ideas if they depend on specific results. Make sure great people are at the table. Finding the perfect music and sound effects Give each PC cool, non-combat things to do each session Go with the flow, let your players drive the story and the game. Balanced inebriation let It go Asking players questions about their characters and make it part of the world (small visual things, quirks or story details). "What does it look like when you cast cure wounds?" "You've been to this town before and you have a friend here, who is he?" Let the players run the game. Shape the story around their actions 1) I don't keep up with player HPs/money/encumbrance - I have 6 players right now and don't want to do all that accounting. I will allow the player to manage all that by themselves. So if they find a chest of 1000 silver pieces (the pay chest for a small army), they have to tell me how they are going to move all that weight/bulk. If they can come up with a logical way to do it, then OK. Game moves on... If not, oh well... they leave it behind... 2) If a player wants to do something that's not 'in the books,' I will ALWAYS allow the possibility. If it's a skill check that's in the player's core abilities, we will talk it through and I'll allow them to role play a scenario where that idea could come to fruition, and if it's a spur of the moment thing ("I'll climb the wall and attempt to jump on the back of the monster and stab it in the eye"), we'll come up with a couple of ability/percentage roles on possible outcomes (I don't want to rewrite the rule book in the middle of the game), and let them try. If it's a long term thing ("I want to attract people to this area, and start homesteading it"), we'll work it offline between games over the phone or at lunch during the week. Eventually, we'll come up with a game mechanic (could just be role play) that will allow the player to attempt to achieve their goal. Win/win for player and GM! :) Ad lib and player's characters as unwilling actors XD Music for everything Having the story ironed out, but also having many possible avenues that are off the beaten path of the story arc. Be ready to improv by thinking of those solutions ahead of time without writing it all out. Make sure the primary problem can't be optimally solved with a just sword. Keep a list of Npc names nearby, so you can invent people on the fly Creating puzzles that rely on creativity and using your character's abilities; not every challenge needs to come in combat form. Video game boss fights are great inspiration for designing interesting boss fights in DnD/ I use index cards with the characters name, AC, passive perception, and spell save DC written on one side (after folding it into a tent), the character name is on the other. I arrange those on my DM screen according to initiative, which makes combat run a lot faster. Over-the-top NPCs bearing ulterior motives. Creating transparencies to actively change the battlefield turn by turn. Playing Apocalypse World Know what the overall story is going to be and the main NPCs but be very prepared to improvise! Cooperative storytelling Preparation, Room for improvisation Pre writing rough ideas and then letting it all go from there. Think quick and don't hold your own ideas as scripture, sometimes one off ideas or comments from the players can completely change your narrative. Always have one surprise twist the players never saw coming. Learn your player's real-world fears and EXPLOIT THEM TO THE FULLEST. Know what your group wants out of the game and cater to them. players love when you bring snacks Keep things moving quickly so people stay focused My favorite trick is to create as much of an actively moving world as possible if the players weren't even involved. I've created so many stories off the top of my head where my players went in the exact opposite direction of the adventure I had set up for them. I'm open to guiding players but I don't like to put their adventure on rails, as I feel that pulls away from the theater of the mind. However I also have groups that are prone to getting caught up on small meaningless parts of the world (The first small stream that could get their feet wet was certainly the lair of an abyssal creature) so I set up events that happen to draw player's attention to avoid anything getting stale. Dunno, I guess it's a combination of many things, compelling open universe where the PC matter, filled with unique npcs and incredible treasure guarded by legendary monsters. I run mostly one shots so I'm learning to rely more on player creativity than my own plans to keep the encounters or settings interesting. I've only run LMoP and a few one shots. Unclear question. Mostly soundboard apps and hidden speakers for ambient sound I'm not the greatest at designing cool combat scenarios. So i focus on story. I develop Major NPCs by treating them how i treat PCs i play... by focusing on who they are as people their hopes, dreams, goals and personality. By defining these traits I can better Improvise responses when interacting with players. Combat is my last priority when designing a NPC or a Character i want to play in a game. For me D&D is like structured improv, and as a Writer/Artist who did lots of acting in high school its character development that means most to me. I like to use published adventures because somebody already think about balance for me. Then I change the story to fit my campain. When I run a combat against a boss or miniboss, I useally cheat the hp to create more tension. I have do take down at least a character before consider the combat ended. When (not if) players going down the rabbit hole of metagaming, I give it a minute before rolling dice a few times behind the screen as a warning. If it doesn't stop I'll hold up my hand and "count to 5" on it, and a random encounter will suddenly appear. It terrifies them when an owlbear bursts out of an unseen door, or a couple of gricks fall from the ceiling, especially if the metagaming was down to how to safely seal a room to heal after a serious fight. It works in homebrew or published campaigns. Let the players talk amongst themselves and throw ideas around to solve problems Get them engaged, and play! Call the players by their character name. rptools for map with notes right on the map for every room/npc Listening to the players, their fears write most of the games. When in doubt... Give the NPC a funny voice.. Players will love it. Improv, lots of it Crunch first, then maps for sites(10' graph paper), then Narrative, then fluff - avoid worldbuilding sand trap!!!! Think I learned this from gnome stew or Lazy DM book. Be in the story Listen to your players. Sometimes the things they want to do end up being the most fun moments of improvisation you will ever have. Learn your improv game, have a framework ready. Listen to what players talk about when they're not playing. Often times they'll mention something that could make the campaign that much better, and they'll never expect you to actually use it creativity Lie and cheat - my job is to give them a good time. If that orc rolling a "20" adds spice to the night, that orc is rolling a 20. Be ready to tweak monsters on the fly if you party is breezing through a fight that was meant to be climactic I mainly improvise. It's the players that decide where they go, and what they do. I just act as a middle person to fluff encounters, award experience, and keep things interesting. Fun comes first. I like to mix campaign exposition and a session climax to keep the pace of the campaign escalating. Borrow *heavily* from settings you enjoy from other types of media I like making non strait forward fights, where the party has to think outside the box to win the fight instead of just hitting it repeatedly. Ofcourse hitting it repeatedly will eventually win the fight but creative employment of your powers makes the fight easier. Doing pros and cons after a session to learn what the players want. Freedom of player choice, elaborate "sandbox" framework for the campaign where the story changes with the main party's choices. Get the players invested by taking more time to develop background hooks that tie in with the adventure to make the players feel more invested and central to the story Never reveal that you don't know what's gonna happen next Don't be afraid to let the players decide: populate the world, come up with hooks and setting and opportunities, but whether they take those or not and how they do it is up to them. The better detailed your plot/world is, the easier it will be to create a natural, organic story by complete bullshitting. Do everything in character Top-down world-building with lots of gaps left open for the players to fill Let the players guide where the story goes, but have an end point in mind. Be flexible in response to player actions. Don't be a rules lawyer. If someone wants to do something that's not exactly legal, let them as long as the group is having fun and they can explain their reasoning behind doing it. keep things moving. Good NPC acting No matter your plan, if the players think something is really cool then do more of it. Play on expectations. Don't hold to a specific story, focus on creating interesting & beleivable content to explore/interact with The "yes, and..." improv trick it can be rocky at first but once players get into it they can throw out some great ideas or curve balls that really keep things interesting. Also along those same lines if they mention anything even jokingly I will often note it and either have it appear or bring it in later with a twist. "I thought that giant mystical three headed axe beak you mentioned was a tavern tale from a drunken dwarf!" "Shaddup and run!" "SKREEEEE-ONNNNKK!" Make the story real, make sure the narrative and characters continue to develop. My group is more interested in action than role playing, so I try to keep the story elements moving quickly and add more randome encounter checks to increase the amount of time my players are in combat Keep the action moving. Have a mentor NPC that is extremely skilled that acts as the group's "training wheels", then once the characters are ready, scare the characters by introducing an encounter that scares this NPC. Record the game and learn what to improve for the next one Create an immersive atmosphere. Can be done by music, acting voices, pushing moral conflict, forcing players to use character names storytelling etc. Once people start thinking in character and not player terms the game improves dramatically. Plot general dialogue ahead of time Having the illusion of something being a threat. For example character asks to roll for stealth, search for traps etc. Roll high and talk up the scenario to have them open a chest or door with minimal results. Just flavor, not too often, and only spur-of-the-moment Your players are smarter than you and will find answers you didn't think of, adapt your answers to let them feel successful (within reason of course) Sound immersion For encounters only plan as far as: "why is the encounter there (i.e. motivation)" and "how does the encounter react when the players show up (e.g. hostile, unfriendly, indifferent or friendly)". After that, let the players take the lead. I can't tell you how many cue cards I have thrown over my shoulder when I stupidly planned the narrative of an encounter that the players immediately took down some other, unexpected, path. Make the Players believe i am prepared for every eventuality turn over the possibilities in my head all week between each session, but write down very little. that way i have lots of ideas to riff off of, but everything still feels like it hasnt been created until the players encounter it, making it truly a joint story creation. Adding up damage (via Roman numerals) to reach an enemy's total HP instead of subtracting. Giving more creative control of the environment to the players (if they ask if there is a tree nearby that they can climb, I ask them where they see the tree). Never let the players know you forgot something or messed up, just find a way to fix it (That NPC was supposed to give them certain info, but I will just make up a new NPC that will share that tidbit.) Go with the flow and to listen active to What My players want to do. Don't let rules bog down your imagination. Use the environment more than monsters. Make sure that the NPCs tie into back stories or motivations of PCs donjon; Abulafia Random Generators; XOCOMP Room Generator Dungeon World style fronts Unsure, I have been lacking confidence in my games for a while. "Yes, but" and "No, but" Build the world and know in a general sense how it connects. Then have a pool of npc's, enemies, and one or two good scenes in your pocket and let rip. If you've mastered how the town, kingdom, forest operates then you can take whatever the Player's do and react seamlessly. Loose plan and story arch with lots of improvisation. Be interested in your own game as much as you hope your players would be interested in yours Don't prep plots, prep situations Humorous descriptions of critical successes and failures. Let the players do what they want, aka always say yes you can I design a couple elements with each player in mind, with s path to get there, so they can enjoy what they discovered. Make sure everyone is engaged, and give inspiration for things that you think players should do more often. Prepare a loose outline, open timeline with just a few important events along the way... Allow the players to drive the story forward Having a riddle, puzzle or mystery be intentionally vague then let the players solve it once they have a reasonable solution or argument. Be well prepared and don't take things personal Music Snacks Phone basket Invest heavily in Npcs, they can make or break a great game. Springing traps at random if they forget to check. Also mimics. So many mimics. Create the environment, have a loose plot hook with a few ideas for development, but for the most part let the pcs guide what's going on in the story. Improv is an incredibly useful skill in dming, and one I constantly rely on The system I kind of came up with on the spot to stream line group/small army combat. If you start to lose one party member during a particular scene, make sure to offer up a scene later that highlights them Intrigue Notes Consistency, stick to it and don't get discouraged. Having fun, and listening to my players story requests Say "Yes but..." or "Yes and..." to whatever the players say. Improvising off the the characters actions and incorporating it into future story. Letting them pick the NPCs they like, and making those important going forward. Giving NPCs enough character to have personal motivations, but not enough to derail the story. Makes interactions feel like they are between people instead of between a player and a program. Make sure players are aware that their actions have concrete consequences. Have everyone bring their own miniature, or let them pick and keep one for the duration of the character. It's a small touch that really adds a sense of connection to your character. Working with planned material and letting the rails go loose. In all seriousness: Always order the same kind of pizza. You can save so much time rather than debating who wants what. Over pretend I'm tracking monster hp when Hero's about to die, the next hit kills the boss. Hourglass for combat Take a published adventure and modify it until it's awesome. End the session at a natural closing point rather than the end of your available time. It makes your life easier to schedule and leaves your players excited for the next game. I kinda wing a lot of it; makes it more fun for me. Meaningful player choices, challenging and interesting combat Read the Lazy DM guide Let the players do what they want. Music in the background to set the mood. Props, A simple handkerchief can turn into a hat, a cloak, a tie so many diffrent things to bring characters to life. Improv, i run dnd for 20 hours over an entire weekend, shit takes some seious prep and serious improv! Don't hide the adventure. Give everyone a bit of spotlight and play up the NPCs. I spend a lot of time working on memorable fights--moving platforms, dangerous terrain, homebrew layer abilities etc Be prepared to throw your prep out the window and enjoy the wonderful creativeness of your player's choices. Respond to players in game and out to further what they want to do within game info ive given them. Suspense and secrets None, want to learn. If everyone's having fun nothing else matters. Being prepared to wing it Illusion of choice Character voices Improv The main goal of the game is for the players to have fun. So don't be afraid to literally ask (when reasonable) something like, "Here's a couple directions I was thinking of taking this, which one sounds most fun to you guys (and why)?" Quickly skip past boring scenes and bring the cool scenes and characters in early. Ad Lib more than you think you should Roll perception - (they roll something really low) - you don't notice anything. Doing voices for all the NPCs always makes my pcs laugh and enjoy the experience more, even if I am not great at them. Have a general understanding of motivations of the world (countries, NPC, dieties, etc) to better interact with the players. Say yes whenever possible. Let the players be silly and amazing, so long as it doesn't bring the game to a screeching halt. The best puzzles are ones you don't know the solution to. Let the players try, and let them pass when someone has come up with a solution you think to be clever. A crap ton of improv Don't save awesome ideas for later. Make that awesome thing you thought of fit the current session's situation the best you can and DO IT! because that later session may never come. Start each session off by making each player roll a d20, lowest two have to summarize the last session in character. Coffee Knowing my players. Having the goal for both the session and the greater story in mind, while only hinting at where to go or what to do via NPC encounters. Mostly, I allow free roam and what happens happens. A higher member of an order, faction or of their own accord needs the players or their assistance and they must choose where they are to help and how they go about it or not at all someone always needs their help and someone is always after them. Plus it also helps that they stumble upon things. Have players describe the final blows to monsters. Try to say yes. Try to make player decisions meaningful with repercussions and callbacks. Know your world Steal ideas from niche stories and rework story hooks from unrelated fiction. Great hook from a sci-fi movie? Rework it to work in DND. It all works out. Great Miniatures! Make sure everyone has a chance to do something cool Improvise improvise improvise Make every scene memorable somehow. Get the players to talk amongst themselves as if they were the characters. Moral issues are always fun. I make crazy decor and i get evry minies a need and i make sure te players have alot of freedom and options. Let the players lead the story wherever they want it to go. Improvising off of the players, if they think something will happen I can just steal that idea Play with the players, not against them. Fun Story Telling Running with player ideas Plenty of food and plenty of booze Take the "slip-of-the-tongue" of players to develop ideas for plot-developments. I create the world and the NPC plots. The players must find their own way (no handholding). if players want to try something different or creative i always go with what they want unless it's not thought out. Overpreperation. I literally write scripts. Figure out major events and NPC motivations on a high level but make players set their own goals and alliances for the most part. Finding good players NPC voices Good soundtrack of atmospheric ambient sounds and exciting music. Plot twists. Funny goblin voices Being willing to go off script. It seems like an obvious thing but it's something I've embraced more lately and the sessions are much improved. Make the players describe combat, such as where they attack the enemy and what happens if they hit Appropriate music Improvisation. You never know what the players will do, so don't spend too much time preparing things you're not sure they'll encounter. I include a puzzle or riddle for the party to solve. plot twists here and there to create drama and interest Leave room in your story for the players to mess it up. Make things happen in the world where your players aren't. Not running combat with maps and miniature allows me to be more evocative with what's happening. I also err on the side of generosity when it comes to movement. Making it look like I've got it all planned out and expected everything the players were going to do. Just As Planned. Sitting back and letting your players take the proverbial RP reins Make magic magical i have everyone know what they are doing in advance. i they don't think ahead i tell them they are assisting. that way, next time they are up they will know to be prepared Listening to my players reactions to situations allows me to better tailor the story to their preferences and keep them engaged I enjoy using the Phantom Ogre trick, where you give 2 options but it's really only one. It helps to save time, but shouldn't be used more than once every few sessions. Giving the players choices that really matter and change the situations/world. Giving PCs boobs Patience and an open mind to adjust quickly on the fly to players changing their plans. Improv, all the way Elaborate on the actions that players take. I.E how a monster dies, how the door breaks down. The small things like that add to the emersiveness of the campaign Quantity over depth, have lots and lot of notes on every different thing that could happen and offer lots of ways to solve a problem, never railroad a specific solution. For large groups turns are not done in order. All players state their action they we roll dice, and resolve. Speaking slowly and annunciating clearly Listening to the idle chit chat of players and using that to fuel encounters down the road. humour Destructosaurus, aka the "Bigger Fish." Present players with an opponent, task, or situation that suddenly gets sidelined with something worse, though not unexpected. Mutilate, don't kill. Describing something that seems to be planned beforehand, but is actually made in the spot. Make it up as you go, and don't be too serious. Interaction, Roleplayign enhancement Great improv skills are the key to success. Just have fun, It isn't mine, but deftly turning an off-the-rails moment into an established story point is the best. Listen to my players, and find creative ways to implement what they want out of the game into my story. Voices Run the type of game the players prefer (combat, intrigue, exploration, etc.). Ask them to lay out their preferences during a session zero, and continue to monitor throughout the campaign. Making the game harder for the players, but allowing them to try and potentially succeed on anything they can come up with. Listen to your players conjectures about the encounter and be prepared to take the adventure in the direction they're imagining. They have much more fun when they think they're uncovering plot points that match with their own imagination. Let the players have their story with engaging combat Perfectly knowing my players Keep PCs on there toes, and don't always act optimally in combat. Instead of always attacking the nearest PC, think about how the creature would act based on their stats. Understand your players and how they play their characters. Don't be afraid to change the story to fit their wants and needs. Remember they are the main characters not the NPCs Loose random tables and gm bullshit Improv it out. Just try to say yes to as many things as you can, while maintaining a sense of realism. put a salt shaker in the middle of the table. any time a player gets salty, he has to pour salt in his hand and eat it. Improv practice goes a long way! Improvising Make monster stat cards, spell cards for easy reference in the game. improvisation combined with planning Remember that each player needs to feel as though their character is the protagonist of the adventure. Make sure that they each get some time to shine. When in doubt, design NPCs or DM-controlled party members who have some connection to a PC's backstory, such as a sibling or lover, and allow them to encourage the player to role-play. Make sure that the vast majority of time at the table is spent in-character and actively role-playing, as it leads to interesting and multidimensional stories! For a large group I let the players go in any order they want. So everyone who beat the monster gets to then the monsters get to go. Then everyone gets to go. This means that fast thinkers go first and slower players have time to think. No one is ever really waiting for their turn. select a *theme* or genre for each session. Knowing what the NPCs want and how they want to get it. Knowing what the success/ fail outcomes are for the first encounter. Knowing what the encounter options are that follow from the first encounter. Always have a fight, roleplay and skill challenge encounter per game (note: players may ruin all 3, such as RP out of the fight -- embrace it) Try to not prepare to much. Be entertaining if you get stuck on a rule make one up and err on the side of the PCs so they don't feel cheated. Know your world, know your story, know where you want your party to END at the end of the campaign. Don't worry about making everything come full circle just yet, it will happen organically as you play. Letting the PCs bumble through it at their own pace Let the players dictate the pace of the game. Don't force them into things or railroad them. If they go off on a tangent, gently steer them back on course. If that isn't possible, then just go with whatever they want to do. Predraw encounter maps Weaving in things the players eventually can use in a weird way, usually unforseen by DM open line of communication with players about what they want I just watch a lot of content with really good DM's such as Matthew Mercer, Matt Colville, Chris Perkins, and others. Ensure each PCs personal goals and background are somehow woven into the overall game story. Cutting between players at dramatic points in dialog/exploration, like in action type tv or movies is great. In general dumping or adding stuff to alter the pacing helps keep it from spotlighting one character or getting stuck in an encounter. Like if it takes 40 minutes to deal with one of three puzzles, maybe drop the other two for example. Ask players what their characters are doing (or how they are reacting) instead of waiting for them to speak up. Rollable random loot or effects Give everyone a chance for their character to shine or be a focal point Ne extremely good with improvising, don't let a PC take more than 1 second to decide what to do during combat, allow others' minds to fill in the details instead of trying to describe every single little thing. Getting the players involved by giving open ended questions causing them to lead the story YOLO. I try to prepare the bare minimum and just roll with it. The only problem is that my players are very visual so I have to make props and handouts. They also don't know the rules very well so rule handouts are a must. Get a loose outline for an adventure, then use random generators to fill in the gaps. For me it has been memorable NPCs. My group is quite shy, but if you have a good NPC to ease them in, then they'll be RP pros. I use a voice recorder and record each session while taking notes with time stamps. I listen to the recordings while doing prepwork and I replay the recording right before session. Don't plan too much, let the player's guide their story. PREPARATION Ensuring the players get rotating spotlight time and moments of awesomeness in a world bigger than them. Waiting for the players and not saying anything until they directly interact with me or an NPC - makes them engage with the world more. Leave it blank and use one of the player's guesses. Put them in a scenario or situation and plan literally no way around or out of it. They'll try a few things and you can have them roll if necessary. When someone comes up with a really cool idea or rolls very high, boom, that was the solution all along. Your players gets to feel clever or badass, you don't have to come up with an intricate encounter and try to predict how they'll react. It's tonnes of fun! Knowing ahead of time what your players want. Encourage role play and open discussion for decisions. keep things flowing and interact with all players If your players want to do something, go with it. I live by improvising rules, so rule of cool and "yes, and" always apply. I'd rather we have fun than a tedious rules-fest. BE ENTERTAINING Don't worry so much about what you want to happen and instead consider the players and what the story needs. Always remember that it isn't DM vs players. Present two options for everything. Players need to feel they have agency. Example: Do I side with Themberchaud or Keepers? Different rewards promised accordingly. Let them do something ridiculous in a less important moment, but put an end to it when it's time to be serious. I think a dm can kill himself trying to make a great game. But what I have found is as long as the dm does a pretty good job the games success rests mostly with the players. Good players that care and are involved always make a fun game. Add Flavor /set the stage for the players. Don't railroad, but adapt scenarios of all types to be workable in any situation the players take to ensure decisions have meaning in session-to-session play. I wrap the story around the PCs, even in published adventures. Fudging rolls to make a scene or fight thematically intersting. Create a sitation the pcs can react to rather than a series of set peices. Leverage player creativity when I'm not feeling creative Prepare, prepare and prepare. Then, when the party goes off course, wing it. Asking myself "What is most fun and awesome thing that could happen right now based on the situation", then making that happen. I'm new, but learning why the players think it's fun and letting them play that aspect as much as possible. Pretend you know what you're doing Let every player know what awaits them when they play at your table and ask them what kind of game they find the most fun. Find a compromise after that. Standing as I DM. Steal from obscure sources Always have a backup plan in case players go too far off the beaten path Make them feel cool Listening to players predictions and utilizing them. The players will make great suggestions while trying to play, they will often be better ideas that what you had planned. Modify those ideas and enjoy the stories! I reward players for creatively solving in-game problems (some of which require out-of-character knowledge). My favorite trick is incorporating as much as the players characters background into the plot of the campaign. accepting any outcome, and make it look good NPCs Setting up the ambience and trying to mentally place my players in the setting. keeping the players engaged and excited Advancement of player personal stories hooked into the adventure. Don't just flat out say no the players, enable their ideas but don't overdo it. Don't worry too much about the official rules and minutiae. Even better, set that expectation with your players from the beginning. At the end of the day, it's about having fun. Make sure everyone knows what they are in for. Have an uncredibly strange NPC as an aside for the plot (the sage is the skull of an undead bard, the demon is the "parrot" of an efreet captain, etc). Strange discussions and actions will keep the sense of descovery that tends to dissapear with time during a campaign. Making sure the villain is either really campy or emotionally relatable, especially if he was one for the last session. Simple answer for seemingly complicated problem Be overly descriptive and making voices help make NPC and monsters more alive and fun to interact with. I wouldn't call it a trick but using a map with no grid lines and keeping things simple, not worrying about if someone is 30 feet or 35 feet away, saying that a monster or npc is a move action away instead. I like to keep things moving and I hate worrying about simple things that could take momentum from an encounter, I like to move at a good pace. Work with your players, not against them. Music, notes, illusion-of-choice Random Encounter tables with meaningful options, such as roaming plot hooks. Listen to your players, and integrate their character into the game world/story. Ler the players GP wherrcer they want I try to include an element from each character's backstory in dungeon design: something that references a key fact about the character, to stress the point that the heroes are an important part of the game universe, and to point out the many connections between the characters, the game universe, and the current plot arc. Work off of an assumption a player has made, be it true or false. Planning far enough ahead to ensure a quality game, but never too far ahead should the players choose to take the story in a different direction. I like to give all my PCs long term missions/goals and story lines that each individual campaign pushes them closer to completing Timers on 'tense' parts of the game. Drives players insane. Ask the players what they want to do next, no matter the situation. XP is never for killing things, award XP for milestones, completed quests, new allies/contacts, etc c Set The mood Music and lighting Be quick on your feet!! Expect the unexpected. Put together a small supporting cast of compelling, nuanced NPC's to better immerse the players in a living, breathing world. The tried and true "Yes, and" method. I just try to make sure they are having fun.... and I give them ethical dilemas Getting feedback from the players, so I can keep improving session after session. Randomly rolling a d20 and smiling Give each encounter a little twist. Allow players significant freedom to develop the setting Careful timing and delivery for those witty and/or comic relief NPCs; if I hit the my mark, the players automatically try to RP in character Know your audience. If they're spoiled WOW players, let them level and gain loot faster, If they're old school, be merciless. Know your audience. remembering the small details from the last session Hitting my players with unexpected things/effects. Making them actually RP when looking for things they need or want. Random encounter tables. Your player will break your story/game, build short then expand Modular encounters. Say you design an encounter where your party meets a grand wizard in his tower dungeon, but your party completely avoids the tower and goes off in a different direction. Because the two designed elements are modular (meeting the wizard, and the tower dungeon itself), you can instead have them meet the wizard on the road and then save the tower dungeon for another time, reskinning the creatures within to fit whatever theme you need it to. Do not over plan. Let the party build create their story in the world you created. Have general guildlines and understanding of how you'll motivate them to participate with the overall story. Most of the time, a DM should only be reacting to the players. Improvise dialog unless quest specific information needs to be given. Instead of building adventure by adventure. Build the world, the environment, and atmosphere. The rest will unfold. Over preparing may cause the game to seem to much on rails. Expect anything. handouts to the players that the characters receive (maps, notes, etc) Keep your players semi in the dark at all times. It can make tense parts or dramatic parts more so Ask the players open-ended questions, adding their answers to the world lore and back story Make sure the players have fun. Knowing what your players want and giving it to them. But not in the way they wanted it ;) Hide answers. Give hints Improvisation and asking leading questions so the players world build for me. The game becomes a conversation instead of me talking at them. Say "No" as little as possible. Getting the players to role play let the players do what they want to do, i just find the rules that let them try to do it Be flexible: look to ask "how can I make this work?" rather than quickly saying "no" when a PC wants to do something that isn't covered by the published rules. The DM makes the fun. And this should be fun, first and foremost. Taking a standard monster and tweaking it A multi layered world for players to explore and chose their own path Loud/interesting battle cries from the bad guys. try and let the players fill in the blanks with their characters Really inhabit your characters, don't half-ass it Let your players go a little crazy with ideas. Sometimes over seriousness can ruin games where off the walls ideas can bring new ideas to the table. Unconfortable situations that need roleplaying Listening to the players and improvising when everything goes wrong. If your players become more sympathetic to an NPC or monster than you intended (especially if they started out nameless), you're doing something right. during fights have the combatants talk to eachother Trying to balance roleplay and combat I guess Style of world, mystery, immersove story telling Ask the players a lot of questions about what they want and preparing based on that Try to involve each player/character even if they aren't as outgoing as others. Also try to weave personal storylines into the main plot. I don't have any tricks but I don't railroad the party. Just go with it. Push roll20 onto a screen and give the players a wireless mouse. Keep them on the pre-made storyline with intrigue, but ensure a 20 or 1 every time leads to story changing happenings, even on ability checks. Say yes more than no, more exciting and fulfilling game play come from it this way. I don't let rules or rules-laywering bog down the game, so I can focus on a fun and light-hearted game. A great music playlist sets the mood for the scene. Developing interesting and unique situations that often use one or more character's motivations to drive role-playing and combat. Using music and other tools to enhance immersion. Create interesting npcs, world, and a clear direction to head in develop npc personalities so it's easy to roll with unexpected party tricks Plot twists Flexibility! Always remember, it's not DM vs the players. Never punish the PCs for doing well. Know what's coming next. Always. If you don't know what that person says or what that thing does, your players are going to talk to that person or push that button. Not sure Know Your Players Stopping the music with little warning or explanation. People generally figure out that something's going wrong well before they figure out that the music has stopped. My favorite trick as a DM is being very animated with my characters. I enjoy when my players develop relationships with NPCs. tell a great story Music, and scents. Incenses, and other scents, to help put players int he situation they're in. Hard to describe. Watch some videos with Matt Mercer in them, he does a better job explaining it. Going with the flow. If I mispronounce something, or if a player asks if a gold nugget tastes like chicken, or any of a million other odd things happen just go with it. Everyone is there to have fun, if the world becomes a little less consistent that's okay. Just be fair. Player "spotlight" moments After describing a scene, throw to a specific character for what they do next, this helps balance attention, if you can include one situation each session which highlights a character's unique proficiencies. Listen to your players, ask for feedback on each session. Find what they like, and don't like. Ditch stuff they don't like, add in more stuff they do like. I've been constantly immersed in fantasy for most of my life. Start with a small roleplaying question, what does your character wear? What are your morning rituals, what do you sound like? To get them into their characters minds. Coming up with interesting NPCs. Improvisation helps. Also, stealing ideas from Dungeon Mag, lol. Be a forgiving DM sometimes, but be harsh when you want, and remember, it's your game! Letting the players tell the story Keep them interested?? "The Psyche-out." Giving reasonably moral NPCs gruff, gritty voices or anomalous personalities that would otherwise make them a target of PC suspicion. On the obverse side, giving maleficent NPCs genial personalities and friendly demeanors. Or continuously providing the atmosphere of something the PCs expect to happen, but the expectation never really transpires. (Ex. Claiming all of the recent additions to a town's decorations, mainly the abundance of scarecrows, is due to the coming Harvest Festival. Most veteran PCs will poke or prod every single scarecrow they pass to make sure it isn't a creature from the M.M simply playing coy. They are all just decorative, though...too bad, so sad.) I don't have one Spotlight scenes/vignettes, one per character, to highlight a cool backstory moment or an aside to the rest of the groups action. Make the world do things even if it won't immediately or directly effect the PCs Spend drive time thinking about motivations of NPCs, then let them and PCs react to each other. This drives the RP, and the growth of the story. When creating random npcs, I tend to start voicing the character, and build their personality, and background off of the random-ass voice that I just ended up doing. Open with a straightforward objective, then muddy the moral waters when more information is found by the characters. Keeping it all moving. Overdeveloping aspects to suck players into the game. When I can send them a few pages as backstory for a town they often feel the need to increase their investment in the game! That said, the rolls do count, so I make about 4 different handouts for each info dump based on possible roll ranges. I do a ton of prep that is non specific to a session, so I don't count it as part of those 3 hours Make sure to pay attention to everyone. Have fun with them. Be a fan of their characters. And most importantly: genuinely try to kill them. No tricks Combat organization with flash cards. Greatly sped up combat with minimal errors. Give the players freedom of choice Humour. Depends a lot on the group, but the games I run often have a hearty dose of jokes, ribbing and laughter both in and out of character. Flexibility. Follow the players don't lead them/let them think they have choice. Having the unexpected It's all about making sure your players are having fun. Adapt to them, they shouldn't need to adapt to you. Find things that give your players openings to engage with the story, usually npcs they can argue or laugh with Having great npcs that the players can interact with. Use music and sound effects Wing it. Say yes to the PC Adopting mannerisms of NPCs. Keep it simple Story, combat, puzzle Going with the flow and allowing PCs to think that theay are in charge while tederly guiding their way. D&D works best when you keep the pacing smooth. Everything is a dungeon. Be flexible, have fun, don't be afraid to let your player's change the story. Know your world intricately so it can react to the players appropriately. Talk with the group after each arc and see what they liked/disliked and change as needed. Before even starting a game, I get to know what all my players want out of the game, then they create their characters and write each of their backgrounds on notecards and hand them to me. I use these these notecards to plant plot devices throughout the world. Also, being able to predict what my players do next becomes really easy so that I can have encounters ready, or reactions by NPC readied. Charging forward...make a fun game. Always remember that it's the players' story. A GM should provide the setting and the framework, but ultimately it is the PCs, and the choices they make, who write the story. Using humor and personal knowledge of my players' interests and lives. Let the players speculate, secretly note down best (wrong) speculation and use it later/as a ruse. Wing it Improv. Theres no real trick with it. I spend time planning combat encounters and overarching stories, but the day to day options are down to my players. So any roleplaying they want to do, I just go with. Sometimes that means my planning goes unused or gets pushed off, but my goal is to make sure they are having a good time, and that usually leads to me having good time as well. Only require rolls for dramatic moments, most things can either easily or never be done out of combat. Whether in combat, interactions, or otherwise: always be in the mind of the NPC. Present them a difficult ethical choice based on their past from time to time Plot advancing revelations hidden in "mundane" tasks. Ask your players before the game how they know at least two other players at the table. No more awkward player characters meeting at a bar or other trope. Players come up with some pretty decent backstories and you have instant party cohesion. Pay attention to the players - throw a bunch of plot hooks at them and see what they have fun with. Smoking cannabis in ludicrous amounts. Don't "overplot." Have a framework with important things filled in. Having NPC goals and personalities allow them to react to what the PCs do. don't make the game something it wasn't designed to do. Don't overplan, use your player's best ideas. Having a well thought and developed setting and getting the characters invested in their places there. Getting rid of initiative. I run with a lot of people, and initiative just takes too long. We use initiative cards. After a few games with the characters, we usually make magic card versions of the characters and use those for the initiative cards. It looks cool at the table and helps people think about the game and get excited between sessions. Break their souls, not their bodies (Curse of Strahd) Make sure each player character has at least one moment to shine in the game. Plan for a special aspect of the encounters so that the individual skills of that character are required to resolve the situation - that way every player feels like their character is important. Particularly valuable to do this when you have classes with obscure-ish skills that are not combat related and hence often get neglected (eg druids, rangers, rogues, bards). Structure games like a good story with a beginning, middle, and end. I often think of it like a 3 act play. Let the players conduct and participate in the narrative of the world. Having the spreadsheets do all my work for me while using Roll20 macros to keep things running quickly. Get the players invested in the NPC's and plot. Rapid improv. A little ambient sound goes a long, long way (I use Tabletop Audio). Backup material for on your feet improvisation Don't have all the answers to solutions planned out, the PCs will find the way to solve the puzzle you just have to create one. just roll with everything! my players REGULARLY read way farther into things than i planned for, and all it does is give me ideas åø\_(‹Äã)_/åø Play to the audience. Ask then through the week what they liked about the last game and what they think will happen this week, then tailor to their likes. Having one my players own a pizza restaurant so we can get free pizza every session helps :) In game adjustments to keep the fun factor high Ensure every player is engaged, has their time in the spot light and is having fun. I work with every single one of my players to make sure that they have what they need to be playing the character they want to play, almost always designing custom content for each player. Being able to keep players on edge by subverting their story expectations. Also, having character background play into encounters Don't over prepare Props are key. They automatically signal "this is important" in a way that causes players to focus on a particular thing without feeling railroaded, and they often create memorable interactions/events. Improvisation, which helps me keep it fun for everyone, sometimes to the detriment of the story, but oh well. :D Engaging the Player Characters to help flesh out story and scenes. The monster spawner. Easy way to give an encounter some urgency and scale on the go. Throwing in an NPC or event that gets the players emotionally invested even more. Allowing player agency, I have several notes before going into EACH session of how the party's actions can affect their path. Most of the time, I don't come up with anything that affects the major storyline, but I also allow that the players probably will. I always allow their wishes to affect the overall story. Have an end goal and only your next session prepped. Let the players fill in the blanks. Having a big stack of prewritten NPCs and adventure hooks on index cards Focus on NPC and monster objectives. What is it they want, how badly, and how far are they willing to go in order to get it? Then, just play out their responses to situations with that as your guiding light. I prefer to have a really well-developed world and then give abstract hooks for adventures, then see where the players take it. Letting the players do whatever they want (within reason) Make them become the characters! And don't be scared to kill em off! Let the players be free to affect the story. Let them develop their characters in such a way that their growth becomes a part of the world, and let their characters affect the world in meaningful ways according to how they interact with it. Have a rough idea of the skills the enemy will have. Create your own spells that the players can't metagame. I scribe notes, thoughts, and comments in the adventure book as I read it, so that I know what things I liked and didn't like during the read-through (and re-read-through, and re-re-read-through...). This helps me when I need to skim the book on the fly at the table; I can already see that I crossed through "Governor Nighthill offers the PCs 300 GP each" and wrote in that the town is broke but he can offer them a little bit of money and something from the keep's vault - an Immovable Rod. Also, improv. Along those lines to help - a big prewritten list of NPC names to use on the fly, after which I cross it off the list and write a quick blurb in my spiral notebook about who or what that name became. Try to accommodate as much as you can for the PC's Play off your players. If they're excited about something, then make it exciting. Let them do most of the talking, that way they'll have the most fun and you'll have extra time to think. Having a table of random things to happen at any given moment to keep suspense and interest. Have a general story outline and be ready for the unexpected. Also have multiple paths for players to take afterwards so they don't feel railroaded. I try to use descriptive language and dynamic movie like scenes. PC battle a mob of NPCS while on a sinking pirate ship that's is on fire. Make the players narrate and describe things. Open communication with players Being able to react quickly to the unforeseen actions of the players and keep the game running. Music selected for each environment or battle Designing dungeons or encounters that play to individual characters' specific strengths and challenge the players with more options than just combat. I have small character sheets that hang on the DM screen with stats for each character. Creatures in encounters also have their own, and the order of them shows the players the Initiative order. Making combat and other encounters unusually difficult to beat, usually involving many losses before a win, unless they find a hidden magic item or loophole that makes it easy; it forces them to be creative with encounters. Also, LOTS of home-brew. Have great players and go with their ideas Communicate with your players, know what they want. Listen to your players. I don't really have any tricks. I spend tens of hours on the pre-adventure work detailing the region of my game-world the adventure will occur in (if I haven't already). If the region is already well know I go right to developing the local town, villages, organizations, and major NPC personalities involved and map the adventure locales. Once the adventure begins all the pre-game work is mostly updating a calendar/log on a spreadsheet, which I note when events will occur as a result of the player's actions. But the cards fall where they may. Do things the players want but enforce consequences Make the players feel awesome. They will love seeing their characters do awesome stuff. Make the game difficult so that when cool stuff happens, the players feel empowered. I've noticed a lot of players love the game much more after they've done something awesome. Making sure the pcs have fun. Great players Have a very vague plot and let the players spawn the ides when they are trying to figure it out. Consequences for big choices, and no chaotic neutral characters. Get my players input in developing the world they play in. Give them a country or city to build the politics and social standings before I refine it to fit the campaign. When in doubt, all roads lead to grandma's house Fun first. No tricks yet. Still a newb :P Build a session around the characters to encourage them to get involved. It means a lot more when an NPC has a request that directly ties in to the goal of one or more player characters. Don't make NPCs any more complicated than they need to be. Chances are the PCs will never see more than the surface layer of any given NPC, and the ones they do engage will be more interesting if you flesh them out organically on the spot. They get a name, a race, a profession, a major life goal, and a quirk for variety. thematic music Have monsters ready for random encounters when things get slow, try to make it feel like the encounter is supposed to happen When they do a perception check, never say 'there is nothing' say 'you don't see anything' Aim for a specific emotion. Focus theme, description, and characterization to generate that emotion. just go with it Saying yes, but knowing when it could set a bad precedent Spotlight time for everyone who wants it! Be loose, let the players make the story Listen for Players to say things like, "I hope that X" or "I'm afraid of Y" during gameplay and then alter my plans to tailor the game tension/catharsis to those hopes & fears. Let the player's good idea work, even if I haven't planned for it! A good blend of comedy and tragedy. Soundtracks I spend 1 hour at least per hour of gametime to prepare. I spend the hour before I run it clearing my mind and relaxing. Keeping the players in focus and their actions to bear consequences Saying "yes, and..." As much as possible, let the players drive the story. adaptability Responsive improvisation. Have fun and be flexible. Your PC's will through curves at you and you can take them and hit home runs if you are flexible. Never saying no. Letting my players dictate the story. Prepare for everything, especially the unexpected. Make interesting NPC's Prepare as much as possible, know the macro story, and let your players dictate the micro stories. Let the players succeed, but with complications. Go in prepared for all of your hard work and prep to be thrown out the window, but be perfectly happy when everything goes smoothly anyways I like using dungeon world style fronts. The rule of cool >>>>>> all other rules. I like to think my ability to create believable npc's is my strongest point to making D&D fun for my players. ask players questions about the world and people and use their answers. Letting people be creative with their actions, as long as it's not blatantly breaking the rules. If I don't have a descriptionready for something and can't come up with one quickly I ask one of my players to describe what they see or tell me a past experience they had with it when applicable. Know your players and design the game in a way they find interacting with it fun. It's most fun when they drive the story and you have to improvise Relax and try not to restrict the players. It's their game too. Satire Making players do things like take campaign notes, be a treasurer, track initiative. Focus on interesting questions Restructure encounter maps to match the physical maps or tiles I have on hand and throw in a couple of 3D terrain pieces for detail and interest. I have created skill based interadventure challenges to add focus and detail to campaign world as well as help build character's stories. Inspired by quest cards in such games as Lords of Waterdeep. Keep prep short and to the point. When you do prepare, prep the world not the plot. You can prep some plot, but it should be beginning and end. The players fill in the middle. The less time you spend prepping the better. Doing my best to give equal time to each player around the table. Also having them describe their own kills helps. Every once in a while let the players facilitate themselves I don't know Having a clear understanding of what's happening in the campaign, and work with what the players give you. Don't memorize the details, immerse yourself in the story you're telling, and the details will be dynamic and even better. Don't allow too much dead space, in dead space where characters aren't interacting with each other or the environment I begin describing the room/area they are in. Visuals are key, soundtracks are great, flavor text, flavor text, flavor text! Helping develop PCs with the players in advance, learning backstory, and incorporating their history into the game directly. Be flexible Never shoot down a player because their actions would conflict with your plans for the session. I've had campaigns that change focus completely because of a radical decision, and it makes for really great moments. Know your players. Make it fun. Make sure to do something cool specifically for each player once in a while. Offer multiple choice during exploration and role playing, to help groups with agreeing on a thing. Be the moderator. Offloading most of the NPC onto players Organization is everything Go with the flow and Occasionally play to character strengths. Fundamentals. Develop the location and the ecology of the area, and everything flows naturally. The NPCs would act in a certain way, the monsters fit the ecology of the area (so encounters are already more or less set), weather patterns are already there, hooks are all but asking to be used. Everything flows from the worldbuilding. Randomly rolling dice and going "hmmmm". Keep things moving fast, combat fast, push the players a little when they spend too much time chatting or stuck in one area overthinking things. Listening Roll with the players using environment against the players to make them try to become more aware of their surroundings Always make it player-centric! Listen to your players ideas that they mention haphazardly. They will forget them, and you can surprise them easily with them! Uh, trick? Not sure there are any tricks. Try not to kill the characters but keep them thinking they are constantly on the verge of death. Better something mediocre that players can interact with than something fantastic they can't. Saying, "Yes" to what the players want to do and working their shenanigans into the story. Throwing an audible based on what the players think might be true if it is clever say yes to player choices as many times as (reasonably) possible I wish I had one Have a "session zero" where players can develop backstory and connections between characters. Then use that backstory in the plot, it provides a great hook, especially for newer players. Any D&D game (for me at least) has to have a highlight on a player, a plot-twist, some type of emotional attachment (anger/care) towards an NPC and most importantly: cliffhanger because you want your players to be hooked and come back for more. Having great characters! Encoding a secret and allowing the players to work it out at their own place... Also portfolios Immersion getting your players into the setting and having well set music to build different key points and sometimes using smells and other senses to create a great game session that the players can really get into. Attention to detail, DM verbal flavor of scenarios - (similar to Matt Mercer) Humour. I definitely try to have some laughs with the NPCs, mostly I use bad impersonations of famous people for voices. I list NPCs and decide who I will try to emulate with the voices. Letting the players Direct the story Idk Listen to the players and let them discover the story, but keep them vested in main goal. ...? Let the players control the game, don't overprepare and you won't be disapointed when your players go off course. Abstract zone based combat is a game changer IMO Preparation. Giving the players something (item, scene, event, encounter) that you've designed even if they took a different path than anticipated. The players don't know they didn't follow the expected path and as long as you don't force it, it feels great for the whole party. Using clichÌ© accents for any npc, preferably with a "knack" (winking, speaking in riddles, looking at a watch) and a specific stance. Have an overview Plan of Major Shit. Then roll w/ the punches as to where said shit fits in. Be ready to do stuff that you completely didn't have planned. Minor tricks; random NPCs, random hooks, random encounters, etc. Have fun and don't sweat the small stuff. Play with a great group of friends Having a strong railroad for the plot in mind, but always let the players dictate what happens. Narrating combat like a dolphin (see AngryGM) Play with your best friends and don't be afraid to take risks or let the game take you where you wouldn't expect. Demand players describe actions and be specific during combat, while I do the same, as well as describe wounds. Say yes most of the time Yondolla Be flexible. Making up a bullshit reason for the distracted guy to take insane amounts of damage from no where to pull everyones attention back before ignoring what I just said and continuing with the story I enjoy either tailoring magic items or abilities for each character to make them unique and memorable. My biggest gripe about the magic items in 5e or the pre-made modules is that they are bland and lack any imagination. I don't want world shattering items, but something unique interesting items would be nice. Best Item thus from was out of the starter set (Staff of Defense) Minimal prep. Have a baby c idea and run with it "you can try". It works for every situation they attempt. Get to know the game really well, get a good mat for mapping if that's your thing, and if it is, buy your minis in the candy aisle. Cheaper, and probably more delicious. _ÙÎöimagination_ÙÎö Well, a can't say too much, I'd say the imagination of my players. Take published materials and improv/riff on them. If the material was sheet music, the game should be less orchestra and more like jazz. MUST be 100% familiar with the land, its npcs, and settings. Makes the narrative so much richer and more enjoyable. I enjoy bringing in other people who aren't in the campaign to play crucial NPCs. Letting the player run the story and try to encounter my own story with them leading. Weaving the PC's wild guesses back into the framework of the story. Nothing is my empowering at the table Let them do what they want Ask, what are you doing? Over and over Multiple side quests and intrigue and background lore Including a hazard that is detrimental to players and monsters, so the players use abilities they wouldn't normally use to be more optimal in combat. Build a strong cast of recurring NPCs. Making characters' backstory a part of the plot. keep it simple, let the players decide the direction and flow Making shit up as you go. Use the rule of cool Immerse yourself in the world you are portraying Make the players fears become reality Let the players try anything "Yes and..." Let the players' guesses become real later. Prep scenes and personalities then react to the players. Keep things moving Involving players through immersive acting and atmospheric story. Roll initiatives before the session, then pull from the list if needed. Saves a lot of time, and avoids the "battle swoosh" that is initiative of switching into combat mode. Don't bother preparing to much ahead as players will always do something unexpected Improvisation, Listening to your players reactions Be flexible in order to make the story great I have a crap ton of laminated products that sit on the table, but the best are laminated stat and character tent sheets that sit over my DM screen, to show turn order. Making sure everyone has fun I do my best to make sure everyone stays involved in the story. Even if it's only a small thing, having a hook for their character that game can help them stay motivated and focused. Let the players feel like heroes Describing epic critical Successes (20) and failures (1) on attacks, skill checks, saving throws etc. To make my players cheer or laugh or cry as much as possible. The stronger the feeling and the reaction the better. Give them something great then take it away. Expressive and immersive start, always watch the pace of the game and make appropriate adjustments (players are bored with combat - finish it, players don't know what to do - introduce a hook into existing quests). Set the scene enough to make the players have to ask questions in order to progress. Flexibility. My players tend to wander off. I let then and react accordingly. Go with it. Don't stop to look anything up. Let story dictate over rules. Just know your Players and have fun! ;) Having random stuff (lists of NPC names, small encounters, side quests) ready for when the party goes off storyline. I play with family and friends, allowing each to do almost anything they want as long as rules allow, I tell a story, they act their parts as they see fit. Make a combat where killing everything is not the goal, but something else. Don't be afraid to say yes even when the rules don't support an player's choice of action if it makes sense; don't be afraid to say no when the rules support an action but it doesn't make sense. Not having a "campaign" - more an area filled with side quests that are all inter-linked - or atleast can be interlinked in the future while preparing for future sessions. Names of characters on cards placed across the top of the DM screen to show initiative order Well organised document on your pc, neat and clear Word/text document Know what your players want, and try and include a bit of each frequently Make it about the players Ignore the adventure author‰Ûªs plot, let the players create their own consequences Design and integrate character specific goals with the overarching campaign. Just make it fun. Whenever you design a new NPC, or plot point, or location, always design a few secrets. Make set pieces and put them in the players' path instead of designing the players' path Make lots of notes Pushing players to decide their own meeting and getting them to explore the world Giving the players absolute freedom Pregenerated list of names for npc's and locations to assign so I don't have to think of them on the spot. Reoccurring villains, political missions I got nothin Always tailoring the game to the particular players who will be present Learn how to improvise Keep the game fluid. Have a bullet style set of goal or points for the session. Try not to stick to a rigid script or "rail" form of game play. Let the PC's play out the sequence and react to their characters. Remember your the DM and in control, its your voice that shapes and gives life to the stage for the characters to play on. Epic bosses Give players agency and let them guide the story come up with NPC appearance, goals and personalities, improvise all other interactions Wing it! I like to create a loose outline of possibilities and allow the players to nartually progress as they would like to instead of trying to force them down a certain path. Give the players a reason to come back, whether it be not finishing up a mystery or making them wonder what is next. Just make the story something they want to continue Say 'yes' to your players. Allow them to help shape the narrative and the world. Trick? Give the players a lot of choices and see what they come up with. They will surprise you. Five minute prep Rule of Awesome Printed list of alternative actions in combat - eg shoving, disarming - so players always remember they have more options than just regular attacks & that skills aren't just for exploration or social interaction The art of surprise: being able to keep new and veteran players alike engrossed for hours at a time is no easy feat. Player input. What do you want to do, what's this character's name, describe an NPC, etc. Go with the flow, players are the drivers of the game and the story, I just hang on and try to keep the consequences of the players actions in mind. Everything else, from when to have rolplaying moments to when to have fighting moments is driven by how the players want to approach things. Traps are ways for me to "force" my players to expend resources when they talk their way around too many combat encounters. And puzzles slow down the party when they are kicking down to many doors, I only throw them in when I need to rather than at planned intersections. I prepare a bit, but ultimately the players decide what happens. If I would prepare to much I would subconsciously railroad them to my plot. So sometimes I do not know myself what happens. Basically the first hour of my campaign is prepared depending on the end of the last session and the rest is improv. If I think they want to fight a certain person or meet an npc I will prepare something, but I could improv it if they surprise me. when ever a player takes out their phone throw in a few monsters Steal everything, from setting to personalities. d20 rolls don't just determine success: they're a random event generator. Being really well prepared and being willing to make a fool out of myself with voices Improv. Being able to think quickly, and change things on the fly, are the most important aspects to my DM style. My players tend to be very chaotic, and can ruin any plans I might make, break any encounters I might think of, or skip dungeons I've built. Being able to roll with the punches and changing my plans easily and quickly, have proven to be the best tool for the game. With improv as well, I can describe actions and interactions with a great amount of theatrics, which draws in players and creates wonderful stories. Give the players agency; they are the stars in the story as well as the storytellers Knowing the players well enough to know what would drive them to take the bait of plothooks. Creative combat encounters (multi-stage fights and enemies seems to be a hit.) Also creating puzzles/problems with no specific solutions, and letting the players come up with something really creative (I'll often block simple/boring solutions.) And adding quirky NPCs is always fun as well... though my players seem to enjoy content that I've made up on the spot more than anything I plan. Incorporate the PCs backgrounds and in game decisions into the narrative. This builds the story beyond the published adventure and gives them more things to do that they actually care about. Running for an awesome group If you need to buy yourself some time to prepare content, even on the fly, random combat / social interactions will generally work wonders Voice acting. Narrative style. Ambient music. Prepare as far ahead as posible. Need to improve? Use something planned Make it seem like a struggle when they fight, because fights are taxing Make the party have to come up with a plan or make a decision. They get really into it then. Play with friends and don't take anything too seriously, and you're guaranteed to have a great time no matter what happens Pre-Campaign Player Survey Having one NPC that the party does not trust, be a real pain in the ass-goodie-two-shoes, valiantly sacrific him or herself in the face of danger to help save the group. Playing on perspective and allowing the previous assumptions to be turned on their ear makes the players engage with NPCs more honestly through out the campaign and not always see NPCs as a tool for DM betrayal. Steal something from the players, make a wild goose-chase Improv Music can make or break a game night so I always take the time to create a good playlist. Interstate published encounters Items that improve and change over time and surprise the players. I think it really helps to try and relax and enjoy the moment. D&D is meant to be a fun experience for everyone. If you're not having fun, then change it up. I talk to my players. Making sure I have an element that calls to every individuals strength. Provide a way for the rogue to shine via stealth or the barbarian via strength. Everyone wants the spotlight. Always say yes and let the players dictate the direction of the story make it hard but fair Ability to describe using all the senses, keep things moving with good time management, always leverage player POV when possible Because I run published campaigns, I think it's really important to not be afraid to change what's written in the book, even majorly in order to prouduce a more personalized and fun story for the PC:'s. Don't get caught up trying to match the book exactly, let the feel of the players guide your hand more. Setpiece battles involving skill rolls and roleplaying actions with the environment, rather than depleting HP. Prep don't plan. I'm a highly improv DM. I don't plan for what the players will do or fight. I focus on developing the world and react to them Let everyone know exactly what they're getting into before character creation. None the environment can have a constraint that changes how the rules are used wing it. don't ever say no player driven story and encounters. Subtle hints Adaptability - having set encounters mechanically, but re flavouring around the mechanics when the party goes in a different direction Voices - spending a lot of time talking to myself in weird voices so I can pop them out on a random on an NPC to really add a layer of immersion/enjoy-ability Exploiting the screen - Changing monster HP up or down mid encounter to fit the party (I play part of a conglomerate, lots of different players and characters in the group each week which means party comp/capability can change wildly. fudging damage to not overkill a level one with massive damage. Let characters explore, interact, and grow organically. Use the party's adventures to flesh out the world in real-time. Let the players lead Always (within reason) say yes, whilst remembering, what applies to Pc'a applies to npcs's and vice versa Free will let the players do their thing and have good npc's to help the players. Have an idea how you think the session will unfold, a conflict, npc motivations, and which book or film you are stealing from. Winging it. Building off the players' ideas and making them think I planned it all along Spontaneity and embracing the moment. make foes and npc's belivable, and make the PC's try to read your mind Ask the players to describe/create places, NPCs or other aspects of the world. Adapting a Dungeon World -esque method of performing actions- less pass/fail more fail forward, players contribute to fiction, and modifying mecahnics so players roll all the dice (I only roll monster damage) Character voices make a huge difference. Yes, but Fexibility encourage and use players sugestions The story belongs to the players DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF, IGNORE RULES LAWYERS Add terrain features or hazards to combat encounters for extra depth. Voices and characterisation of NPCs Never say no. Using a timer for combat rounds Let the players tell their own story and be there to make sure it's compelling I make sure I describe everything vividly enough my players can picture it, but vague enough that they can imagine it as well The rule books are more guidelines than the absolute law Improv always leads to hilarity; Enable the "Rule-of-cool"; Remember the whole game is just meant to be fun for everyobe Always have fun Immersive music that matches the enemies. When fighting psychic enemies, I use lots of cacophanous music with guitar riffs to stimulate the brain noise. End every recap and description with one or two suggestions for what the players might want to do next. Allow other courses of action, of course, but never list a whole bunch of options, and never leave it completely open ended. Find out what your player's want to achieve before you start playing a campaign. This let's you figure out the style of play that best suits your group. Let the players come alive in the world. Don't try too hard to force them. The world is theirs to explore and yours to love. Be positive, say yes a lot and create an environment where the players feel creative and daring. Make sure each player has a heroic act per session. Engaging players and involving their interests and goals on a personal level I'm new, I ain't got no tricks. I am not sure if i had a great D&D game yet :/ Don't prepare too much Let the players go where they want communicate with players. Give your players as much autonomy as they can manage. Be fair, be fun, give each player equal attention Na Smoke and Mirrors, what is important is that the game is fun, so some rules or rolls will have to be bend without the players knowledge. Play interesting NPCs for the players to interact with. React to players, don't make them react to you. Building off the PCs and their relationship with NPCs and the world. Say 'Sure, give it a go' to any suggestions, then if it's a terrible idea, make them pay. After a while, they think a bit more before they speak. Just prepare the scene, let the players do most of the work when it comes to decision making, then have consequences happen appropriately. Not every evil act goes punished, but also not every good act goes rewarded. Improv and monster variety Track monster hp using excel formulas Plan for the PCs to wander off the map Give attention to the scenes, with deskriptions of the sensens (what do you see, smell fell etc.), be ready to take meta talks during the game, if something doesent work, or if someone makes "that guy" moves. Give the players opportunity to describe their moves (matt Mercer style!). Encourage creative play and well though solutions. Take a player's offhanded comment about something happening and make it happen to remind them that they're creating the world/telling the story with you. Use 3 key details to describe important objects, everything else only needs one. letting the Adventurers lead the story Make sure each player gets some spotlight. Be prepared to improvise. set pieces and voices Fully develop and understand the world your campaign inhabits I create a rough story line and try to populate it with deep NPCs that my players want to find out more about Everything I plan is based on what the group have done and have told me they plan to do. I'm also always prepared to throw out all of my planning and run with whatever the group decide to do. Subvert the players expectations; give them better ones Have a loosely detailed plan and be ready to throw it out the window in the blink of an eye Decent audio Make the world responsive to the events of previous sessions and previous games. Recycle everything. Reskin like a maniac. Setting out the rules and preferred playstyle ahead of time, so everyone is on the same page. My favorite trick‰ÛÓparticularly with new parties‰ÛÓ(when there's a cleric/paladin type character or spiritual character like a druid or shaman-like person in the party) is to use visions and dream-like premonitions of possible futures to give the party little nudges in several directions at once when they feel stuck. This way, they still have ultimate say in their actions, but with a better idea of consequences. Doing voices for my NPCs. have fun Creativity, being able to think up things on the fly, whether it's characters or sudden plot twists. Adapt to your players as they make their decisions, allow things to change with the flow of the story. Understand your players' wants and needs, and use them to craft a satisfying story. The best games are the ones where the players and DM both enjoy where the story takes them. Letting the players help build the world focus on everyone having fun & providing great food DM Notebook to track what is happening and has happened. Keep it simple but make it grand Modifying the campaign and story around the players. Food, beers and trying to always allow players to do what they want in someway. Music. Hands down. Sets the tone for the adventure. When your players come up with something you didn't prep for, roll with it and take notes. Consistency and permanence of their choices/actions make players very invested. The most detailed, creative, pre-made plot item can easily be over-shadowed by a random player decision. Embrace it. Improvisation short sessions but no time pressure Throwing curveballs. I started this campaign with all of my players in prison during a violent political coup. They were expecting a typical tavern-meet. I like to create the world, make it interesting and then just let the players do whatever inside. The story is purely the players creation. Blind luck Delving into PC backstory and mining them for story hooks steal ideas from the players! Make failure as interesting as success. A good imagination and improv. Also years of playing videogame rpg's to steal ideas from. Keep my mouth shut and let the players interact I flow chart each session so I can pre-plan what will happen even if the players do the opposite of what I first expect them to do. The players write the story, however I write them as well and offer hooks wherever I see fit. Sometimes it's just great fun to go with whatever is happening! Try to make sure no one makes the same roll repeatedly. Doing nothing but swinging your sword for several rounds in a row is not interesting. Turn a bad skill check result into a good story element: "As you keep a lookout while your friends infiltrate the warehouse (Perception 8 vs DC 12), you are immediately distracted when you see the merchant from the day before, the same merchant that sold you shoddy gear." Just FYI, in reference to campaign worlds I run a Homebrew and Greyhawk. Combine your npcs with people/actors you know for behavior and accent Voices, miniatures, terrain, story, handouts Never fudge dice rolls. Prep locations and let the Characters choose what to do in them, without too many preconceived notions about what they should be doing once they get there. For every situation you set up as a gm, try to imagine what would happen if the PC's were never there Construct a framework around which to improvise Fun > Roleplay > Rules Lean Forward Moments: Craft moments that cause all players to lean forward and believe the world. I have designed a world that my players have free will to do and act as they like and as their characters would in this world. I brought their characters together and let them take whatever quest they find their way into, and allow them to try and solve it many ways. Build the world, not the session. 15-30 mins for goof of before session start Base it off your players Preparing a bunch of different branches so that, hopefully, regardless of what my players do, I have a rich adventure prepared. Listen to your players, it's a group game. You have to be able to manage people and the rest will flow. Make sure everybody is compatable before the game even starts too, that's a biggie. I make sure every player is engaged. At the beginning of each game, I ask them a question, to be answered in character then, tell them to write each answer down. Then, when I'm Working on the campaign, I can incorporate an answer or two. Letting the players help out with describing NPCs, ad-libbing worldbuilding, etc. Don't overprepare. Create the environments, characters, and situations and let it flow naturally. Plan for all my plans to go out the window Listen the players and improvise using the scheme basis In all situations, I apply certain circumstances to the character's classes and roles. If investigating a table but not knowing exactly what you're looking for, the rogue with a background in burglary will be more likely to find the secret switch under the rim of the tabletop. The Fighter with a background as a city guard might be searching for a hollow trap door underneath the table. Make the players think you're going to kill them Confidence The best trick is being flexible and rolling with whatever the players decide to do. Feeling the players, the DM can't lead a story that the players don't like or don't agreed with, the adventures must be shared, not induced fiercely by the DM, and the fun must be the first rule of the sessions, if something will take out the fun in the process the RPG loses its meaning. Vivid description, decent preparation, and not worrying too much about the story I had planned. Making sure everyone had fun Believing in my work. let the players talk to each other without interrupting Kill a player character on occasion Have a canned dungeon ready, and if I ever need time to react to what the players are doing I find a way to get them to the dungeon asap. That gives them something fun but easy to run that lasts to the end of the session, and I can plan my reaction better as I prep for next session. I can't do this very often, but when I do it has worked well. Play it fast and loose! Description of what occurs Be as descritive as I possible can never tell your player they can't do something everything that happensa has consequences adding countdowns when I know that something is going to happen but the players don't know what it is Incorporating player backstory into the main plot and providing custom magic items. Using the characters past actions and interactions as motivators of future events. Linking a past minor interaction to a current plot point can be very rewarding for players, it shows their actions matter Funny twist in combat when something unlikely happen with the dice Listen to the players for input. Their wishes or guesses, in and out of character Try to keep "looking stuff up" to a minimum. Getting used to throwing out notes the and improvising. Give my players the deck of many things and make a story out of that. If they draw a crap card, which they always do, I rework it on the spot and make it a plot hook with varying difficulty. Keep things moving Have notes for npcs and enemies to make combat flow much more nicely Give the player characters 75% of what they want. cool memorable mosters Letting the players decide everything hence lots of prep per game Get everyone involved, describe the emotions of a scene. Each session I work in some aspect of a previous session to create an ethical or moral choice for the characters. If the take an unethical path, at some point their subconscious mind will bring it up. All of my characters are currently good characters Allow room for the players to improvise. Doing all life and death rolls behind DM screen so they don't know if I'm fudging or not. Adaptability and don't over-plan. Make a plan for how you expect the players to take the session, try to plan for other possibilities, but if needed, adapt to the new circumstances. Many of the things my players remember most, I don't really remember myself because they were spur-of-the-moment adaptations that I hadn't spent an hour planning like everything else. During a short or long rest the campfire-talk has a certain topic related to something that happened in that session or the previous one. Each player tells an anecdote, opinion, fact about his/her character relating to the topic. Let the players have a decent amount of narrative control, it takes a lot of time and stress out of the game by eliminating a fair amount of prepwork. a grid, miniatures Try not to suck As all good DMs do, I let my players define the hook to adventures through their questions and assumptions. If my players try to power game, I let them, but I add in a consequence (I have a player who joined who happened to have a custom magic amulet... on level 1, so I made it a cursed item that motivates him to do no good). But my favourite trick is the 4e skill challenge. I use it for chase scenes and for time-sensitive elements to an adventure. Be really good at role playing/improv and take most of the cues from players and make it their game more than your own. Improvisational skills Playing with kids! Reskinning fictional characters from movies, TV, shows, video games, etc... and making them NPCs. Improv is a great tool if you can tie it in with a few existing tratis or events. Don't use it for absolutely everything though. Improvisation based on feedback from my player's choices. Study video-game design I always invest lots of effort in dank and evocative flavor text Let the players decide what they want to do and where they want to go. Say yes. Just go with it Being Prepared and having a stock of "Generic Enemies" for when players deviate. Not good enough at this yet, but probably plot twist & difficult encounters make for the most fun experience IMO for the players. Sometimes my groups want to roleplay stuff (but that's the easy part.) Giving them something that they have to actually solve tends to be the most rewarding (for them and for me.) Basing characters and situations from classics; Timing events and challenges. Making any interaction with an NPC count, and leaving it open ended enough they could appear again. Having some snack and just having a good time COmbat prep Communication with the players, and improvisation invite good players I spend a lot of time building worlds and themes, but not a lot of time on the details. The main characters and bad guy I spend time on, but a lot of NPCs, situations, and events get generated literally on the spot; in this way they can be more topical and timely with what the characters are doing. With a light touch, it can sort of look like the characters are exploring an avenue you have already planned for them. Listening and improvising has always given me better results than a huge plan. But I will say that having a well-defined shop is always good. People love lists with gold pieces. As long as the NPCs are memorable, my players tend to enjoy the session. I keep a list of names and random personality quirks in my notebook for creating interesting NPCs on the fly. The notes might just be a name and a few words scribbled nearby, just enough to get me started. Winging it Letting the Players do what they want and rolling with it to some degree Alcohol. Lots of alcohol. No tricks....I try to read the adventure multiple times, write or photocopy moster/npc stats and have them taped to the page they are encountered, and have notes on any spells/effects th could be used in an encounter also handy so things move quiclky without having to "look things up" and waste llay time :) Make the players feel important. Like their words carry weight, like they matter to the story as a whole. In the campaign I'm currently running, the players are Corporals of what is essentially a Special Operations Capable unit. It makes sense that they're generally at least within the top 3 best warriors, healers or skulkers in the room. Listen to the players, as they can fill in the colour of your adventure The best thing to remember is to be flexible and willing to veer from what was planned. I like to use dodgy accents and humour to bring my NPCs to life. Build engaging and exciting encounters, and everything else around them Making eccentric characters Improve, Players never go where you want them to so you have to be ready to fly by the seat of your pants from time to time. Get the players to engage with each other as well as the world Always say "Yes, if...", awarding creative play. Show the players less, rather than more. Make the world seem fallible and make npcs imperfect. Ridiculous voices. Pretending to want to kill pcs especially the bard Using the players story to engage them into the main story. find interesting problems and just go with an answer a player comes up with if it sounds possible Give players a chance to hog the spotlight every now and then, by designing encounters that relate to their specific abilities or personality. Build the world and let them react to it. Adapt adventures to what your players find interesting. Scale encounters up or down on the fly depending on how players are doing, an important battle is always a close call with death. Properly prepared lists of background music for various situations help set the mood on a sub-verbal level. Lol. I haven't found it yet. Utilize suspense in tandem with eerie low-volume soundtracks to set up an anything can happen atmosphere. Also, perceptions checks that never seem to yield any findings (intended). I have a digital D6. When you slap it against the ground it slowly cycles through numbers before slowing down and ending on one. It's great for moves that recharge like a dragons breath weapon N/a A few well fleshed out npcs in each town go a long way Being descriptive and music I'd say my best trick is to make less combat encounters, but make them more deadly and always have a twist to it, like an ambush, or a narrow bridge, or maybe they are caught while crossing a river and smaller characters have water by their neck. I don't like combats that are just hack n' slash, also I don't like combats where my players already know they are going to win. Prep only 10% of the game, and let my players develop the rest through choices, interactions, and paranoid conjecture. I have an article about it over at http://EdTheBard.blogspot.com My favorite trick for running a great game is to set up a scene and really paint an environment so my player's faces go _Ù÷Ä Yes and... Being flexible and able to adapt to what's going on. Voices Address individual players/characters to get them involved. Description. Allowing my players to be fully immersed in the world. The more they invest personally, the better Let the players get what they want, just not the way they wanted it. Story hooks for player's backstories that tie in to the main campaign. I just think about it on an off throughout the week during spare time. Keeping really brief notes of a non story area to improv based on Using wild magic tables or other such abilities to increase the spontaneous nature of the game. Keep a list of all the party's proficiencies. You can make sure they come up often enough that they all feel useful. have fun! Player agency Repeating NPCs, mystery, intrigue and making sure it is fun Always do what the players don't expect, be constantly surprising them. Angry DM's initiative ideas. People spend way too much effort on turn order and this is a 15 second thing that eliminates the stress. Rewarding the players for their immersion in the world/story/roleplay wing it! Fun > everything else I tend to run my games a little on the silly, playful side, but without being ridiculous, however, dropping a thoroughly described scene, image, or object almost immediately shunts my players into serious mode. Works especially well with corpses and smells. Reward creativity with advantage and/or loot Let them try. Making critical fails funny instead of just dealing damage- if a player rolls a 1 on a sword attack, instead of hitting themself or an ally, they might cut their belt and lose their trousers. It's more fun that way I tend to "borrow" bits and pieces from other fiction, and meld them together to make stories I'm interested in exploring. I often spend little time thinking about what the players will do, but think about the characters and personalities of the NPCS, and seeing how they react when even I am unprepared for what my players do, allowing the story to play out in new and exciting ways. For specific scenarios/questions created by your PCs, keep a few generic ideas on hand that can be modified for the situation. Give each player at least one scene that hits the core of why they play D&D Twists DMDJ and YouTube for music and I use a vinyl 1inch grid map with hand drawn replicas of maps included in the adventures Creating diverging storylines based off possible player actions each with a special encounter Just letting people have fun Linked stories. Sub-stories and NPCs that interconnect over time leading to the grand conclusion to a campaign. Traps Index cards for initiative order with a card for end of turn and lair 20 actions Understanding the NPC's and how to portray them, understanding the PCs, balancing combat with free rolling. Just try to stay ahead of the players by one session. Play with people who want to help tell a story. Be more than murder hobos. Adapting old or unused plans when PCs ignore my railroads. Soundtrack using Syrinscape and proper lighting and handouts. Have a session without the "problem/know-it-all player" Let them get away with things your npcs couldn't . To a degree Always in character Preparedness and describing minor details. Drawing attention to "Red Herrings" within locations in order to throw off my players Overthinking and over preparing always seems to backfire. I find that the best sessions come from being just slightly more ready than "seat of the pants." But not much. Allowing the players to try what ever they want Good improv Pre-rolled initiative cards; Adventure outline & session timeline; NPC dialogue/roleplay cue cards. I listen to what the players want to do with their characters and the story. Describe pointless flavor with just as much detail as important things Give your villains strong motivations and lots of resources. The story will write itself. Suspense die Be creative all the time. Having back-up plans, traps, or story twists that I can drop into any situation depending on the players choices. Encourage your platers to think like their character. Make sure everyone playing is on the same page about the type of game being run. Incorporating player's backstory into the campaign. Having pictures/portraits available for main NPCs as a visual cue for the necessary theatre relevant to that character. Having NPCs sometimes give vague or incomplete or even incorrect information about the bad guys! Makes the story believable and the NPCs lovable since they are often sincerely remorseful that they put good friends in such danger. Also a fluid, changing story that links and meshes with character interactions that allow them to often "steer" the game. I love when my players catch that I'm hinting something, but run the wrong way with it. Being willing to improv/not being afraid of going off the rails Improvising out of my ass, letting my players derail the story (to a reasonable extent), and being prepared for them to take option E out of A, B, C, or D Prepare for improv! not a trick but just be flexible Preparation and having fun Try to weave in personal narratives for each character and come up with tons of costume side adventures and even editing the main campaign based on the players desires and the characters actions. Keep the player involved in whats happening. Punish and reward idle things they do. Every aspect of what they do in game should have a response from you the DM, even if it's not extravagant. Keep the players immersed - describe with all five senses, keep out-of-game chatter and phone/computer to a minimum, encourage "I..." instead of "My character...", make their choices have clear impact both immediately and down the road. Use characters background history Giving as much freedom to the players as possible The mind flayer says that there is no trick. Taking something from the party to get them to go anywhere Surprising PC's with strong personal quests that got them emotionally involved Make up seemingly pointless rules, for example, there has always been a Merlin, he is no longer around, everyone knows of him to various degrees. I also like to make up random effects for spells that are extremely minor, but neat. For example, a killing blow with a holy/divine good magic effect may cause the affected creature or area to emit enough light to see slightly better in the area, no light to low light, low light to lit, and on and on. make my players go crazy Making sure each player gets something to do. Make fights interesting and reasonably challenging, but not deadly unless they need to be. thorough and compelling npcs Let the players play, Flesh out a story along with them as a Group. Whilst you, yourself having a lot of fun too. Lots of print outs, lots of prep time, labor of love Pacing the inebriants. Run with the player's decisions no matter what. Writing at least one story relevant hook each session that relates to at least one of my characters to keep them involved. Description and memorable NPCs Voices & characterization visual aids and something the PC's don't expects aka surprises If its a cool idea and you can make it work, do it, its canon now. Responding to what the PC's do and having something seemingly random semi-planned to slot into which way they go. Treat each session like an episode of a tv show, complete with competing narratives, editing, and story structure. Allow the players to describe everything in a scene whilst mearly adding detail, It keeps the players heartily invested whilst marginalising my work. Stealthily integrating a fandom reference either in the plot or at least the character names. Listening to the players' crazy thoughts and turning them on the PCs. Involve each of the players equally and single them out if they haven't been very active, Have an overall idea each session but follow their lead and create the story Let everyone roll the die. Be super flexible Never say no - "roll it" and allowing players to always try Allowing each player to have a great heroic moment in the campaign. Guide the flow of the game, don't control it. Let the players be players A binder with charts, maps, notebook, and my party tracker . Get players who are interested in getting into character. Don't be afraid to spend a lot of time out of combat. I have no tricks. I plan meticulously, watch it all go to shit, then wing the fuck out of everything. Story of my life. Be spontaneous. Going off book can make for some of the best moments in your game. Run tactical combats with lots of different types of enemies who behave intelligently. Involving the players, always telling them that they can try, never saying no. "Yes, and..." Unique voices for roleplaying Trying to engage players personally in the story. Not saying no to a player outright, but making them realise if they made a bad/good decision. Trying to be more sandbox-y than railroad-y. If a player does something unexpected, try to roll with it and decide how the world would react to it. To achieve an adventuring day worth of resource drain to stress the players, without them taking long rests between every fight, I find I end up frequently adding a source of exigency. By changing up the specifics, it doesn't ever feel contrived. "Should we rest?" "No, our favorite NPC is captured and isn't responding to my message spell - I'm worried and don't want him to die, let's keep going." "Should we rest?" "Maybe, but that rival party might get to the center and steal the artifact before us if we don't hurry." "Should we rest?" "We don't have time, we have to do do finish the heist before the authorities arrive." Welcome to dark souls Rolling with the punches of the players and thinking on my feet to use the resources I have to act accordingly. This seems to create a nice 'living world' feeling rather than 'scripted events'. Have a memorable NPC, and involve EVERYONE at the table at least once. Building actual terrain for significant battles For "council" scenes, treat it like one NPC at a time, addressing one PC at a time. Making sure all players and the dm are on the same page about how the game should go Being patient with the players and utilizing costumes and props to help tell the story. In addition, the use of background music to further support the atmosphere of certain events. Use the busy time in between sessions to keep building the world. As adults, it's hard to maintain a game more than once a month, so you have a lot of time to expand as you go. Don't over prepare because players will just screw it all up anyway. Have a bucket list that the players use to add suggestions or things they want to see in the adventure and go the extra mile to give them that whenever possible in game I aim for each session to have equal parts Combat, Exploration, and Roleplay. I try to make sure every player has at least one moment to shine, or to have the spotlight. And I like to end on a cliff-hanger, whether it has to do with the immediate circumstances, or in the broader scope of the world we're building. Building huge set pieces with dungeon tiles/model terrain. Generally say 'yes'. Play the game the players want, not the story you want to tell. A good session has little combat and a lot of role-playing. Players I want to talk and expresses there stories. Nothing makes them happier. Also, playing music for everything. Most work I put into important NPCs is their themes. Have a general plan but then make most of it up on the fly Talking out of my arse Let players do what they want, and encourage role-play. Players respond to imagery. Concentrate on describing things efficiently and evocatively, and then ask them what they do. And always ask your players questions about their characters and the world. have fun and dont let your plans get in the way of a great adventure or clever players Listen to the players. Using bonds to define campaign fronts and character arcs. Ask players how their character feels Good improvement skills Think of multiple ways the problems can be solved, and be open to accepting ways you hadn't thought of Be prepared to throw all your plans out of the window and give your players an epic moment. Having the villains be friendly no matter how viciously they are attacking. Only when their HP goes to a third left do they become angry, then I give them some king of boost for the rest of the fight I'll let you know when i find one :) never turning a player idea down Relate module story to setting NPCs or interesting locations. I make sure to have one memorable NPC appear in each session, if applicable, or an interesting location, be it an inn or cave or something, that the PCs will remember. Sometimes it's giving a fun personality or accent to the NPC, or giving the location an interesting history. I find that this can add a lot of depth to my world, without a ton of planning and effort. Plus, the PCs tend to remember the details of the session better if there is some meaningful interaction they've had. Let the players develop the story. Consequences and terrible evils. Adding Madness and powerful yet evil magical items that slowly corrupt the party are a personal favorite. Having good improv skills. Have fun and stay flexible Make your NPCs diverse, deep, and incredibly engaging. Even if they aren't integral to the main story at all, the best developed NPCs make your world more immersive. An amazing shopkeeper can be the place where your players not only get their weapons and supplies, but the place where they let their guard down and begin to role-play more fully. Have the characters develop the world Be very good at improve and being able to tell the story your players want to play Using the players flaws against them. There flaws for a reason Taking a great deal of time to create a web of cause and effect with multiple endings prepared based on choices along the way. Making sure the players are engaged and willing to roleplay. Each character submits three beliefs/goals to help propel the story and give me an idea of what they want to do. Hang folded note cards on DM screen in initiative order. On the front, have character/creature names, on the back (My side); AC, passive perception, DC, and any special notes for that player/creature that I might want to remember. Utilizing Roll20 and various audio effects at the table Roll with it. The players' entertainment is far more important than your story. Don't be afraid to invent the encounter the players want to play on the fly Dry humor best humor lotsa random tables Ask questions to pull story info from the players, it's their story too. Make it up as you go Have Pre made NPC names, items and a general outline of the session in One Note Always say yes to player actions Timed events describe the effects/consequences of each action in combat as imaginatively as possible, keeps it visualized and less like a board game. Improv classes Stay light on your feet when it comes to character interaction; it's not what the NPCs say but what the PCs get from the conversation. Compelling narratives, tricky moral quandaries. I try to have every player get a focus on them at least every other session. Keeps everyone interested, and it keeps me focused on what they want, not what I want them to want! Build a sandbox, let them play. I focus on the story and Role playing, I make sure that comat's are challenging to the players through the use of effective tactics and the environment that the players are having the battle in. Don't panic! improvisation and letting players have agency TL;DR lots of rolling with the punches, improv and being creative on the spot. Being intimately knowledgeable with creatures and loot, and everything so I can pull new things and progress the story regardless of what my players throw at me. It's not a single 'trick' but it's my most valuable skill. Improv. Only saying no if what my players want is completely game breaking, or ruins something that's completely crucial. I try not to come up with too much of a plan, rather providing them with situations and occurrences. I make the vast majority of my NPCs, rewards, and other similar details up on the spot. The trick is to keep track of what you've made and how it's affected the party. I do plan out encounters and some areas and treasures, but they're far more important to my world than the players. Example, last night we played our halloween horror session, and I went through each of their backstories this week continually, and came up with ideas for tailored horror dream sequences to each of the players (not written, just things I think would really hurt them inside). However i quickly realized the method I came up with for the reason they were seeing terrifying things wasn't going to work, and i needed something to fix it. So i came up with a cause and source that they later found and tried to heal (it was a small boy possessed by hundreds of tortured souls), but ended up killing. We ended on one player forming a pact with those souls, something I didn't dream of. It's fast and loose, and isn't always perfect, but shooting from the hip like this means I'm able to easily move with my players and prevent railroading them while still moving the story forward through the plot. I have outlines, but they never describe how something happens, just WHAT needs to happen. Make sure to vary the challenges and give multiple possible solutions Don't over think things. The players will zig when you want them to zag. Just roll with it. I never over plan. I map out key plot points using an outline. Each point of the outline branches the simplest result of each social or combat encounter allowing me to know how the plot will progress based on the outcome. The people in the party make or break a great game. Best parts are when they spontaneously interact with each other in character, can't plan that, can't "trick" that. Improvise My favorite way is to try to let the characters have as much freedom as possible. Sit back and let the players talk to one another. Don't interrupt. Er. Involvement of all players Create motivations the characters will chase, and npcs that make the chase interesting. Expect the unexpected Let the players speculate (in character), then steal their best ideas! Random Encounters can be awesome IF USED as an event and not just a random fight! Mind you, don't over do it! Too many events and it can get tedious as well! Steal everything good someone else has made and make it your own with a twist. Also make really big dragons, like 18 km long dragons. Your players will think its great and it gives cool NPCs Have a moment where each of the characters can shine Pretending everything occurred exactly as I intended, pretending the characters random adventures have a singular story arc and letting them do most of the work by building off what they say and do. Always let the players dictate what to do next and don't try to force them into something. I approach the game like I approach my filmmaking: every character is a person and every encounter (social or combat) advances the story in some way. Improvise. Create a memorable NPC or encounter when the group does something unexpected, maybe from a previously prepared template or just out of your head. Know your players Try to not say no Letting players take control sometimes - they come up with the best stuff for the game Focus on the tone and pacing instead of masterfully crafting each NPCs and inches of your world. Let the players inspire you on the moment. The DM deserves to be surprised too. multiple choises Find ways to subtly mislead your PCs on occasion, keeps them on their toes! Out-game choices (e.g. when leveling) are narrated & presented as personal plot Pretending Before running premade games, I used to run my own campaigns. The most fun my players had was when I listened to them and took what they said among themselves and came up with ideas to incorporate elements of their conversations to the story. Of course I didn't take their ideas as they were told, I twisted and modified these ideas in a manner in which they couldn't tell that they were the source of inspiration. Having a lot of the random improv and made up details that players or I come up with be integral new details to the world. Always be asking yourself what is the the outcome that will be the most fun for everyone. Prep the world and let the players drive the story. As a dm, making player "choice" feel meaningfull. And getting to know the characters intimately through encounters. Is what makes a great D&D game. Map props that look great and 'put you there' Making sure everyone feels great Being able to roll with the punches, whatever you expect the players to do, they will do the opposite. Don't force them into what you expected, adapt. be happy I like to make personal enemies that antagonize and harass my players, sending minions to attack my players. It makes "random encounters" personal and relevant to the story Just make them care. Prewriting dialogue that will be used in one way or another, like the BBEG explaining their motives. It really helps keep to the character. Props (3D, mini's, latex map, projector) Modifying the truths of the world based on what the players do -- like if the players misinterpret the optimal line of action as I see it but their way makes sense and is clever, i'll generally let it work. Also, having alot of different things to explore in any given place and not being hard-set on a certain direction for the players. Steal relentlessly from your favorite media sources. Offer a wuestion or situation that you don't know the answer to and encourage your players to find it out. This could be a piece of terrain like a big hole that you need to get past, or an npc - how are you going to kill the evil king? Prepare enough to improve well. Get up and walk around to involve the players directly Make everyone feel involved, never forget about someone, reward everybody even for the little things Lots of RP and character development Really great with beer and a beef casserole Let the players think that you had that cool idea that they just said all along . Add a few tidbits of images and script to lure the players Setting players off against each other One I've learned is to not let one player dominate the thinking and action - asking others directly what their character is thinking or doing so the default is never "Joe Bloggs (and friends) have an adventure" for me there is no real trick to anything most of it is dedication to learning "how to DM" and how to improve myself in many aspects in and outside the game so that everyone has at least a little bit of fun :) Letting RP happen organically. You can have a few phrases for NPCs to throw in, but let your PCs guide how conversations go and how they engage with each other. This is the one chance for you as the DM to be the observer to the story, so don't take it for granted. Don't be afraid to improvisation, it happens alot Pacing: I keep track of whether scenes in the game are fast or slow,, and vary the pacing to keep my players engaged. Asking players for contacts that their characters would know and finding fun ways to put those characters into the game as NPC's for them to deal with. Keeping a healthy balance between RP and combat encounters. Whiteboards! Enhancing monsters with abilities that make them unique and extra challenging . No tricks. Just lots of energy and a knack for adjusting for difficulty on the fly. Keep it moving and engaging during role play and combat. I like to let my players dictate the course of the game. Provided that they stay within the map that I created they can explore, go on side quests (that I usually make up on the spot) or just focus on the main plot. Focus on the micro, not the macro. You need to make every session count. Remember, the adventure is something you create WITH the players, not FOR the players. Get to know what your players want out of a game, and ensure that it is included. Make a world, Make people, Don't make an mmo Leave a lot of room around the "main plot" to let players do anything they want to think of, always be ready to improv completely new rules/challenges/towns. It's their game, you're there to enable it, and the most fun in D&D comes from having full freedom in a completely different world. If that means breaking or ignoring the "main plot", for a little while or completely, hey, as long as they're having fun you're doing a good job. i don't have any Use simple tropes to design a story Know the rules of the game Only prepare a skeleton ahead of time, and improve the meat while you play Give myself a general overview of NPC motivations and characterisation, and a general overview of story to allow for easier improvisation when the party goes off tangents. Basing almost all the plot off of the characters' backstories. Usually I have each player write down one secret that only they know, and then I weave that into whatever the rough idea of the plot is. I also plan campaigns to have a definite beginning and ending, but leave the path to them open ended. Rorys Story Dice for randomness Know the world and what's happening in it (large scale). Know the NPC's motivation. Make the Player's decisions matter. Don't overbuild your encounters, especially roleplay ones. Always be ready to improvise and to just step back. modern humor in a fantasy realm juxtaposition I'm a fiction writer by trade, so I have way more story and character and behind the scenes stuff that my players will only get hints at. I definitely overprepare. My favorite trick is to make even basic enemies interesting. Name them, have NPCs know of some of them, have PCs remember something about them, then have them survive. Recurring enemies are great. Players will get angry at the mage who gets hit once and then casts sleep and flees. They will target her immediately when they see her. They will actively ask NPCs about her, how to make her angry, how to lure her out. And this is just for one of my goblins. They've fought her twice now, and she got away both times. The players are adamant the they won't let Dakdak escape again. Prepare things for many scenarios Use a players goals as a inspiration to engage them. I like to give my players their own chance to shine during combat encounters. When an enemy has very low health I typically give a character the chance to finish them off in their own way My barbarian likes to rip apart the enemy. My Paladin likes to completly dominate the enemy in a badass fashion. My rogue likes to try choose the most stupid way of doing it. My ranger likes to do the weirdest trickshot he can. My Bard likes to try the most show off way possible I don't worry about the rules during the game. If I don't know the answer off the top of my head, I make a ruling and continue with the game, and look up the ruling later Constant twists that my players attempt to guess Be flexible and make reasonable things on the fly. Always design a deeper secret and sometimes allude to it Constant reflection and improvement; research dm methods; player feedback Plant possible complications in every area players like you would populate a town with NPCs and plot hooks. Do this for every scene that is expected to take any significant game time. Use them throughout the session when you need to direct the players to the next hook or raise the stakes as the players explore the dungeon, or use them as a base to improvise to adapt to the players' behaviour. Complications might include possible hazards (including traps and other potentially hidden hazards), enemy placement or reinforcements, modifying terrain or environment, or adding opportunities (including treasure). Do this especially to areas the players are expected to visit multiple times. Each time, use a complication from the list to draw the player's attention toward the next room or plot point. Achieving a balance of role play and action to encourage all the interests of the party, but tying both of these things into the ongoing story and characters stories I like to mess with my players to keep them guessing so that nothing ever becomes routine. I will do things like make an entire encounter around a pun, design a plot twist, create enemies that are prepared for and can outsmart the players, use illusions or other magic to change the terrain on them, etc. Just have the players make the game for you in the end always say you always knew that was going to happen Figure out anything your players are willing to invest emotionally into and threaten that thing. Mix and match ideas from published adventures into your own world, but don't force the players into following a rigid storyline. Creating a mysterious "bad" figure that turns out to be an ally or vice-versa (mysterious "good" figure into antagonist) I put empty Dice boxes with a single D20 in each behind the DM screen one for each player so I can pick them up and roll all of their hidden rolls at once if need be improvise - listen to what the players say and use their ideas so that things happen the way they expect them to, and sometimes the way they don't expect them to. Have a list of Random encounters that are 25% setting building, 50% character development, 25% Odd features that have no explanation. Then if things get slow or you get stuck, roll a random event and get the story flow going again. Always let the players try anything they want. There is no guarantee they'll succeed or that the outcome will be exactly what they expect, but I always try to let them attempt anything. Rule of the Cool Don't make solutions, make problems lose enough for the characters to solve any number of ways and roll with it. If they're getting to be creative on the fly, it means you are too and that's just more fun PCs always have a choice but there are always consequences to every decision. Also tough moral decisions or ones that require thinking creatively. Always say yes Natural 20s and 1s being crits and fails in everything (skill checks, combat, saves) - makes for hilarious and unexpected results. Give players agency. If they're able to impact actual changes in the game world, they'll become more invested. Don't over think it and have options but don't be constrained to those options. Silence, letting the players stew. http://autorolltables.github.io/# using this site to quick roll characters and use what they want as the basis of the story Still new but I find winging something and rewarding players for rp and creativity is great Allow the players to bring themselves into the game. Don't sweat the small stuff and keep the game moving. Use the PCs background in the story. Improve and silly voices Unreliable npc's. Yes and... Yes but... No but... No and... Freedom of choice to do as the players want. Keep it rules light and let your players be clever in their solutions to problems rather than throwing endless combats at them Stick to your guns. Know your strengths as a DM and stick to them. Also, try to kill your players, because they will inevitably avoid death at every turn. Don't give people time to consider options when the characters wouldn't have it. Bring a notepad with you everywhere for ideas 3x5 cards with all monster stats on them for quick access. All encounters are pre setup with monster stat cards, loot cards, and outcome "flow chart" card for me. Music really helps set the mood more than any map or description. Use it! Keep combat fast and intense. Throw in lots of humour with the descriptions. Let player agency dictate the story Never say no. Let the players make it up, have problems with no planned solutions End goals specific for overall campaign and individual player characters Never do more than outline anything. My game is non-linear but I have the world pretty much sketched out but nothing is written in ink. By always outlining you have a framework to improvise off of if the players go in an unexpected direction. Which is somewhere between most of the time and always. This lets me be flexible. I can quickly add details to whatever NPCs, locations, plot lines I've outlined. The only thing I 'write in ink' are set pieces that I KNOW the players returning to often, like their stronghold. Even then I leave room for modification because Pimp Your Stronghold should totally be a show. Asking questions to players and make them think and join in. I have explayers playing faction leaders. Generates story for free xD The reveal! Start with action to get players engaged quickly. Using details that are personal to the characters and the players Pretending like I always have everything under control. Use dynamic environments for battles, and dynamic settings and NPCs for the roleplay. Dynamic meaning "subject to change". Improv. An interesting NPC is more memorable than a stat-sound one. There's always a way to work plots from the best pulp movies (fistful of dollars, from dusk til dawn, etc) into games. Why not a bar that's secretly full of vampires? Memorable characters and fun experiences will distract from my garbadge plot Panicking a bunch and improvising all the things I forgot to prep. I try to create a compelling story with the PC backgrounds so that the players have story buy in. I just want them to have a great time. Make sure you always tie the characters into the story, make sure there is a moment for each character to shine When the players jump the invisible rails that are your preparations, be ready to improv the whole session without batting an eye. Reuse the preparations later. Exposition and emotion are very important. Not so much a trick, but really try and personify the emotions you want to put forth Building believable characters ahead of time and letting the players try just about anything. I normally build the following sessions around improvisations and NPC interactions with the players. Unique voices for characters the provide hooks. Getting everyone involved Listen to / watch for what players want. Improvising as I go. Take the ideas the players come up with and run with them in directions they don't expect. To try your best not to say no. Have something to do for each PC. Have exploration, social interraction and combat in each scenario. Prepare a world to play in, not a story to play along Let Players try Out their ridiculous plans. Keep the narration to a minimum. Not being obvious. Roleplaying the results of die rolls & encouraging player contributions to the narrative. When in doubt: rule of fun. My favorite "trick" is to compile a "random encounter" list that has all sorts of different things on it, only a few of which are specifically intended as combat encounters. These take place during travel, and exist for the sake of worldbuilding. However, players are fickle beasts, and will frequently latch on to certain things even if those things were intended to be largely inconsequential. Improvising from there has led to some of the greatest moments and best additions to the plot of many DnD games. Improv and making sure everyone is having fun. NPC and location image printouts and combat maps pre-drawn or printed. funny NPC voices. Most importantly, build a group that enjoys the same stuff. Two bad players in a 6 person group can dampen he fun immensely. I write an outline to keep me on point, summarizing my goals, PC goals, NPC goals, locations, scenes, random encounters, and random treasures. It's about 1 page of info stored on Google Drive. Run with what the players do, let them shape as much as possible and go with the flow. Letting the players do some work story wise. Taking one of their ideas and working it in to the story. A musical cue during a pivotal dialogue line Saying yes, but - giving players things they like... at a cost. Forcing players to roll for no reason, when they give you the number just nod and say ok, jot down a fake note and keep going. Keeps the tension high. No plan works as planned. Have fun and only say no if you have to Build the rule of the world and general arch of the story then improvise I dunno. Being able to use random generation for a completely unexpected turn of events. Asking questions to the players and bouncing ideas. Ever evolving environment. I always try to get every player into the role play aspect as much as possible for their own character. I promote reward people who stay in character Stack dice rolls such as hit/dmg, consolidate rolls like minion saves. Flexibility Always have an unexpected twist and know how to end a session in a cliffhanger Ask yourself three questions: what do the characters care about, what are their enemies' plans, and what would be an unexpected but awesome event? And build from there. I've been running games with practically the same group for a decade, knowing how to balance what each one of my players like in a game, and to deliver it properly to them, is the best trick for a great D&D game Misdirection in story telling Cheer on the players when they make awesome choices so they'll keep doing interesting and unexpected things. describing the npcs well I make certain that I have detailed encounter sheets with all monster/NPC stat blocks and spells (if applicable) ready to go beforehand so I don't need to flip back and forth in the Monster Manual, Player's Handbook, and the adventure book. While I would prefer to use ttheater-of-the-mind combat, I find it difficult to run, so I use maps and pawns to help make sure combat runs efficiently. (That said, I occasionally just use a small map and let people know where they and the NPCs/monsters are.) Mix in comedic relief time to time Let the PCs do anything the rules allow Flexibility and player agency above all. No matter how much time you spend preparing, make sure you've got two or three backup plans! I like to run my game cinematically. I skip the boaring stuff if the pc's let me. I sometimes ask the players for a npc's name and how they know them. Focusing on the story and keeping it alive Build in player backstories, background features, and uses for their proficiencies NPC's that are not who they say they are. Unexpected horror elements Be willing to move away from the path you've set, and work with players to develop backstories that are tied in with the backstory of the world. Flexibility; I always plan the skeleton of a session, but the players are ultimately the ones who craft the rest of the story through their decisions. Be fair I like to focus on providing a general world for my players, and allowing them to describe the detailed parts. For example, you walk into a dimly lit tavern with a few patrons, describe who you see and their appearance/demeanor. Helps to minimize prep, give players agency, and I can always throw in hooks based on the world itself. Not to worry too much about whether what you planned will happen. If the group goes off the rails, fine, just rename what you have and use it in a different way at a different time. Forcing them to sit back and watch you're story is the quickest way to make them, and by extension you, frustrated. Subtle plot hooks If a character is getting ready to die after failing a death saving throw or praying to a deity, they must make a pull from a tumbling tower to determine if they succeed or not. I look at threads on Reddit, RPG geek etc to see how other DMs handled specific encounters Steal everything. Steal Warcraft, Steal The Witcher, Steal The Discworld, Steal Dark Souls. There are so many great fantasy worlds out there that you like, and they have the enormous advantage of allready existing in your head - therefore you only have half the work to do when building the world and NPCs. Awesome food options and great players Tailor to your group. don't be the DM, be the story, the world, the characters, etc. Remove the 4th wall! Steal maps from other sources. Improvising on the fly: Know your world inside and out, and only have the skeleton of an adventure planned. That way, the players can do whatever they want inside the adventure and still end up where they need to be without either breaking immersion or being railroaded. Don't be attached to what you expect your players to do. Keep their options open. Maintain Sandersons 0th law. "Always err on the side of awesome." 2.5 d maps, taking notes Improv skill with consistency if I've messed up a detail or npc behavior. About a day before each session, I ask the players what they're interested in doing next, sometimes reminding them of several options. I then focus what little prep I do on that. The players have agency, I don't have to worry about where they'll go next - everybody's happy. If I may share a few bonus tricks, I also make a list of things that will happen in the world without the PCs there to stop them, and then say to myself that one or two of them the PCs didn't pursue took place or got closer to taking place. I make sure each offscreen event is only a single declarative statement, and don't focus on what they mean or where they take place or why they happen - I'm good at improvising those details, and the players invest them with meaning regardless. Gives the illusion of a living world without me having to do much work. Another thing I do is grab lots of maps and images off the internet and slap them into Roll20 without much thought. I'll always end up using them, even if I don't get to them that session, and I look prepared even when I'm not (which is most of the time). I never assume anything I prep will get used during the session I prep it for, especially if it's something "plotty." I tie plot points to specific locations and lines of PC inquiry, and always try to make sure they're either evergreen (e.g. "The tapestry reveals the goblin tribe to have been peaceful until they were betrayed by the humans!") or only grow in potency as more sessions pass without the truth being discovered. The reveal that an allied NPC has been spying on the party for the villain all along is shocking in Session 5, but it's DEVASTATING in Session 25. That said, I also try very hard not to commit to any revelation before it comes up in the game. I view everything in my prep as in flux until it gets used, and I always slot a better idea in if I have one. Finally, I keep my campaign setting skeletal until the players indicate they want me to flesh it out. The rules already imply a certain kind of setting, so I just assume things work the way they do in the rules until I have an idea or a player says something worth adding to the milieu. Go along with player shenanigans and just have fun with it. Let the players explore the world. Know your NPCs goals and motivations We tell the story, I give it direction, you give it life. Keep it light hearted and funny reincorporate things that the players loved later in the time lines Prep some extra materials, (npc's, maps, rewards, etc) for when the party inevitably goes off the rails. These throw away details are so often what the party talks about years later. Focus on the story having fun Find players who are not intoxicated. Ask questions, keep the flow going of combat and interactions make things feel like they are running in as close to real time as we can. I like to think about every threat or adventure hook unfolding as if the player's weren't there, particularly as to its effects or stages. I then think about the opposition and difficulties that will obstruct the players when they arrive. This way, play is more organic when the players do enter the picture. Fun is more important than the DM's story. Give players ten seconds to decide an action in combat. Keeps things from getting bogged down. Timed combat. Have a kind of clock for the encounter really helps build the tension and make memorable events. Like a house burning down or a room closing in. It's an old saw, but...the best DM's know how to say "Yes, and" and make it work. Go with what the players will enjoy rather than what the notes say. Be prepared to improvise. Wish I had one Flexibility, and willingness to roll with the PCs choices Work with players, not against them. Rule of Cool - if they do something awesome and only a bit outside normal rules, I might allow it so we have memorable moments in the night. Let the players control the rolling as much as possible Ask players what their characters think Cliff hanger endings Always keep up the pace, don't let players get too bogged down in details NEVER BE AFRAID TO DEVIATE FROM A WRITTEN ADVENTURE. Let the players go off the rails; they're going to have more fun pursuing their own goals than whatever else you had prepared. Have a single big moment. It provides an anchor for remembering the rest of the game. Practice, creativity, and effort. Theres no one quick rule that makes a game good, its all the small tools and tricks that add up to a good game Let them talk it our and steal ther ideas I stand the entire session, work the table, split focus to each pc at a tense moment, accents, acting Following the consequences of the actions of the characters (past and present). Lots of music and a great mood Involve everybody. Always have something for each player. Mimics for low search, spot, and random looking around Lots of snacks available. Hungry isn't happy. I try to imagine how the players will react to a few setpiece moments in a session, and then tailor the rest of my planning to facilitate those moments. Go with the flow. Dont be afraid to change things on the fly if you feel like it will benefit the immersion and involvement. It might require an extra while afterwards to connect the dots but the players will be grateful for it. Dungeon World / Apocalypse World GM Rules Use only the players Handbook mechanics. Need a big Bag Ogre, its just a level 3 Barbarian. Sneak Wolf? Is like a rogue... Just have the stats of generic npcs and describe as you will. Focus on story line. Know your players. Communicate to them and be open about what kind of game this will be. If the players have a notion of what to expect and feel they have agency to i fluence thibgs within those frames, you will have engaged player. I load my Monster Box with index cards, one per potential enemy (they can be colour coded ahead of time for easy party strength adjustment). Each card has the creature type, individual name if applicable (thanks, SKT), and AC at the top; hit points in the middle; and XP at the bottom. I use index card deviders to sort them into rooms or areas. When combat occurs, the cards from that area come out. The ones that aren't appropriate for party strength can be set aside while the others can be used to track down the creature's HP and note conditions like "prone" or spell effects like "hex." When an adversary is defeated or the obstacle they present is overcome, the card is put into the back of the box vertically. Undefeated/overcome foes go back in horizontally. At the end of the session, add up the XP from the vertical cards. Less book keeping time = more play time! Playing on the fly Not sure, I just try to make it fun. Write down sensory words for every location and person. What is described a cave in a module becomes cold dripping water, dark corners and hidden shadows, Water dripping down pale grey walls. Green lichen and veins of silver. etc. Visuals: Every major NPC and most monsters and locations have some sort of visual aid, such as a picture from the internet I can display on my tablet or computer. Saying yes, with a twist. Or maybe saying no, but giving them something comparable. Like maybe the don't know a mage in the local mage school, but they do know the school caretaker, and maybe someone owes him a favor, if they do something for him. I let my players write most of the campaign with their wild conjecture. I work in things for each player and character to shine. just try not to be awful Shocking reveal Improv, describe small, simple situations, and see where the players take it. Let their actions guide the adventure. Incorporating my players false conceptions into the story. And missing parts of descriptions and totally rolling with it and making it better/ my own. Unexpected surprises from the main antagonist during key battles in the adventure. The right background music can really help set the scene for players, but it can be difficult to get right. Fleshed-out, memorable NPCs and complex, hard-to-win battles. Humor i don't think i've run a great game yet know what your players want High quality descriptions that aren't too lengthy. Writing a solid recap beforehand and reading it at the start of the session to grab the players' attention. A solid start leads to a solid session as long as you all keep up the good work. Listen to your players. Seek inspiration from elsewhere with my own spin on it to fit with my players' characters and backstories. Make sessions about what the players want (for instance, my players recovered an enormous amount of gold for low level, and have spent much time working to build a harbor in the small frontier town they started in) Reactionary humor Have lore sprinkled through the session to keep the player focus and curious. having a general idea and the players trying to figure out what goning to happen that give me last second ideas that make for an interesting event. The rule of fun. Don't really have one. Improvisation. Be ready to make your plans work no matter what the players throw at you. Making sure the players feel that their choices have a serious impact on the game (don't railroad) Always remember rule #1: Everybody should have fun. That means not only you, special snowflake! It's a team game. Players worldbuild Knowing what your players want Being prepared Only prepare the absolute necessities, improv is the most fun and is usually the most enjoyable for my players I like to have it very charecter driven. I love letting them have freedom because of the scenarios that happen from it. To not over prepare. Players can shatter hours of prep time by going off on their own agenda or just saying nope to a question start. Try to keep some things at the ready but leave a lot of what happens up to them. If your plot point for the story involves a king being killed, don't just tell them it happens, let them attempt to do something about it if they recognize what's happening. This gives them an interactive element and a greater sense of impact in the world they exist in. Knowing why your players play to make sure their needs are met and making sure everyone has a chance to shine. Never tell players no. Say maybe and do some rolls. Don't be too serious. And have fun. Rules are just guidelines. set up interesting conflicts or places or mysteries, see what happens improvise and dont be afraid to go off book Prep rough encounters and ideas, then react to player choices Currently, I am letting go of control and allowing the players to steer most of the session (using generators to spur ideas when i cant come up with somrthing on the spot). This way, they dont feel railroaded and im not deeply committed to any content. Involving personal stakes for the player's characters, even in minor side quests. The more engaged my players are with the story, the more fun they have. The Trait system is beautiful for quick NPC's. Player recap at the start of each session: it lets me know what they took away from the last session and what they think is most important in my world (and therefore what I need to make most important going forward). Remember that you're a narrator, helping to give life to the world around your player's characters. It's their story, and you're the world they live in. You're not the enemy, nor the ally. You're the Narrator. Also, people play to have fun. Remember that. If what you're doing is Lessening the amount of fun being had, find a different way of doing it, or stop doing it - Rule of Cool. Ask the players what they enjoy in the game, then give it to them. Before a campaign starts have a strong session-0 and then using information, start world-building based on that. I enjoy and like doing a large amount of prep-work before the campaign starts so that I can focus more on story and encounter building before each session. Typically before the campaign starts, I have already built a cache of NPCs I can throw in at any time, a large selection of magical items I can reward at any time, a handful of cities and places to visit, way too many side-quest ideas, and then a number of various factions with different goals, drives and motivations interacting in the world. For me, Faction building is the most important because a good 8 to 10 factions running around in a sandbox-ish settling will just automatically generate story-content that will easily last 20 levels. improvisation, stream of conciousness I like to come up woth preset lists of magic items that are relevant to each character class or personality in my story and customize treasures they find in the campaign to he character who found it. This makes for better and more controlled magic items and rare treasures being incorporated into the game. The illusion that I had everything planned. Let your players tell more of the story than you, allow interactions that you didn't expect take place and just be ready to flesh out the world as they interact with it. Familiarity with the content & improvisation. Improv! Giving my players the spotlight to shine. Develop a deep and rich world full of good guys, bad guys, factions and politics... Then let your players explore it, wreck it, build it up, and otherwise enjoy the heck out of it. Add as you go, but spend a great deal of time fleshing out the major locations, factions, etc beforehand. Improvisation, Yes, And... Personalizing encounters and NPCS to fit in with player character backgrounds atmospheric audio and music and always detailed and sensory-driven setting description Try to prepare about 5 NPC's per town to use randomly There's really no trick to it. Just allow your players the freedom to be the heroes they wrote down on their character sheet. Always keep players' fun and enjoyment at the forefront of your mind. Say yes to as much as possible but keep the consequences realistic. Knowing what your players like to do. Let the players play the player determine the direction I'm not very experienced yet so I only use Fantasy Grounds but our group is having a good time :) Improvizing roleplay encounters; we record audio of our sessions so I can always go back and note what I made up on the fly in order to build upon it or ensure consistency in future encounters. Role playing, and challenging the players through moral or problem solving ways The power of yes. This has two effects. One a game that the players have a great impact on. Yes I run the world, they are in Norway at the moment but if they want to head to Egypt I would totally be up for that. I would give them some challenges on the way and then the next session have done some research on Egypt and away we go. I have found that it actually requires less prep time for me. There is some general "stuff" that I work up and have ready to go, and then I message it around what the players want to do. Making sure everyone is having fun, preparation or world rules be damned. Go with the flow and use rule of cool excessively. nacho chips and nutella Give the players what they want, but make them work for it. 1. (mostly) Always say "Yes, and..." 2. When in doubt for what happens next, I question myself: "What's the most awesome thing that could possibly happen next?" 3. The philosophy of preparing situations, not stories Let the players write it, they'll come up with crazier stuff than you can. When they try to pull some off the wall crap just roll with it. Haven't really figured that out yet Taking on the place of the players in my mind, and finding ways to let everyone enjoy, not just the DM or a few players When the players are discussing their plans or thoughts, modify whatever adventure you had to better fit their narrative. Doesn't have to be exactly what they said, but they feel great for "figuring it out" and you wont have to do much prep work as they are writing the adventure as they go. I feel that a great game is when each player has felt like they have played a useful part in each adventure. As a DM I try to facilitate that Bullshitting my ass off. Have things prepared but always be willing and able to go with the flow that the players throw at you. if everybody else has fun, I have fun Letting played dictate where and what they want to do. I run a lot of games with kids (mine, their friends). The key is to keep it moving and not overhash the rulebook. "Let's tell a story together," is a line I ripped off a friend. Be Flexible. Say "yes" as often as you can! I have my players come up with several secrets about their characters. And then place ques in game that give the players lots more knowledge on the scenario and makes them feel important. Add unimportant magical items to boring rooms. Have yet to develop any tricks, sadly. Know your audience, keep it smooth Let players have control of where they are going You must each each of the PCs their own personal motivation to complete the main quest Communication with the players is key. Discussing any questions, comments and concerns they have really helps everyone stay on the same page and helps adjust the campaign to suit them and their goals. Plan broadly and let players explore audio enhancements Get the players to answer questions about the world where possible Talk fast and say "yes" to almost anything the players think up. Don't look up any rules during the game, no decision, unless it could obviously derail he entire campaign, should take more than a coupleasure seconds. improvise and think vaguely of what should overarchingly happen while taking showers/listening to music. Distinguish characters by using voices, describe new locations in vivid detail the ticking clock on a summoned enemy with a small horde, as the time passes unless the ritual is stopped the summoned enemy changes and grows in CR. Having a developed world and narrative. make sure to have an established meeting time. always Yes and. Having players recap previous sessions to remember no everyone of the continuity. Have fun. Let the players drive the story, but don't let them do anything unreasonable. Nat 20's are only special for attack rolls. Don't over-prepare (I always do) Have newbie players and encourage them to interact with each other Troll the players Improvising and going along with the players actions. Surprise the players with how human the npcs are. They fall in love, want vengeance, get sad. Make the world real Design the game around your PCs strengths but design most encounters by their weaknesses. Let them think the story is complete when I start and let them unknowingly write half the adventure. Let your players tell the story, just facilitate. NPCs with silly accents Pretend like you know what you're doing Be a good improviser. Roleplay every character, whether it's a wolf or a vampire or a gelatinous cube. Knowing the ultimate goal and the key points of information the PC's will need to achieve that goal. I can then balance pacing to meet the time frame of the session while still hitting the important bits of the story. Improvisation + movies/books fixes most problems Just go with the flow Lists of names so every NPC has a name, even the ones made up mid-game as random innkeepers, etc. I feel there's a benefit in having certain things purposefully unprepared so as to improv them during the session, such as roleplaying specific conversations, so that they feel more "alive". Minimum one interesting thing, one exciting thing, and one world-building thing per session Tie the characters to lots of different parts of the setting, so they always feel like they are part of the world not just tourists in it. get to where to players want to take control of their world let them have fun. Keeping a good flow My favorite trick for running great D&D is leaving things vague enough to let the players make some of the story up as you go. But ridged enough to a solid foundation. Using the "yes, and...." tactic whenever possible to engross my players in their actions and make them feel like they truly have a way in making the gameworld move and work Humor is underrated Ask each player tons of questions and get a lot of one on one time with them if possible. That said, I only play with close friends, so this is much less reasonable for other DMs. Knowing how to improvise Try to prepare for your players to mess everything up I like to let the players lead the story and where it goes. I use a bunch of voices for NPC's. Let the players describe their own combat, flesh out NPCs. I try to let the players run with the story. Minimize the amount of time I spend saying "no". Always say "Yes" when a player want to do something. (Of course, make sure the player understand the context if it doesn't make sense, but never say "No". ) Initiative tents I take pieces from published adventures and other sources of inspiration, and insert them into my setting. The result can be a little Frankenstein's monster-like, but I can usually integrate the pieces pretty smoothly Plan an adventure, allow it to fail More role play, less roll play. Sandbox and player driven rather than railroad. Let the player drive the story critical fails and successes have extraordinary effects that sometimes change the story Confident improv skills. Be selective with your invitations. The players make the game. Stay on character as much as possible. It keeps the players in the game and prevents them from getting off topic. Multiple story lines Plan out some central plot points and locations run the rest super loosey goosey. Overall spend a lot of mental tourist time in your world to help flesh stuff out between sessions. "Yes, and" from improv When I'm stuck on what to do for a session, I give my players a mystery and just enough clues to create their own solution. When they do, I reward them as if that's how I planned it all along. It builds their sense of accomplishment, and provides me valuable information on what they enjoy. I always like to pick one PC to pick on during a game. (Racist NPCs, Bad Rolls, Punishment, NPCs trying to seem tough, etc. Know what the PCs want, and what the NPCs want. That's what tells you how things should go down. Also, be excited, or nothing can save you. Put the work in! I expect to spend twice as long writing and tweaking a session as I do running it. Sketching maps, writing fun NPCs, devising unique treasures to give out, it all takes time to do your best, and your players deserve your best! Running a sandbox campaign, where I develop the world and then let my players loose on it Never saying no (yes, but...) let the players enjoy themselves Ask players to think and act more in character, and to keep phones away or off. Go with it, have fun, don't get bogged down in rules. Efficiency. Little things like initiative order cards or a piece of paper with players defences and stats written on for quick reference. Improv and irregular rewards (current party has a pet goat that they conned off of a gnome, whose son they saved from drowning) Schroedinger's Gun Let the players get drunk enough to think its great but not so drunk they can't play anymore. Making sure everyone is having fun. Improvisation, Improvisation, Improvisation Make them care Being adaptable. Looking through old 2e adventures for devious location designs. Seriously, those folks in the 80's were evil. Just roll with it. Let players do what they want to do, but not without repurcussions. Make the world adjust around their actions. Having all the books as PDF files, makes it so much easier to look op rules and more. One simply need to fill a search bar and not spend ages looking trough the yourself. The more you can prepare before playing, the better Taking a player's idea, adding my own idea, and presenting it back at them. Listen to what the players want Adapt to the party! It's as much of their story, as it is yours. Focus on the NPCs. Describe the world through its effects on NPCs. Give the PCs allies, rivals, and other connections to create real community-driven stakes to motivate their actions. Everything else will follow. Know what your players want and give them everything they didnt know they wanted. Being comfortable with improvising. The best way to do that is to be familiar with NPC motivations, at least for me. Have fun. Seriously. Relax and have fun. To that end, I improvise one thing per session, zero prep, just make it up. Always a hit, and the players usually never have any idea, especially if I base my improv on their actions or ideas. Build the world full of color and factions, epic combat encounters and history guidelines that floats around player characters Back stories Episodic, drop-in friendly structure. Understanding your players new to this but - i enjoy having the players figure something out by themselves and then ending up not figuring it out even though it's pretty simple. a little bit of schadenfreude that in the end they also enjoy :D I put the action in the player's hands. Develop situations where different players want different things, creating dynamic action. Using mystery to create suspense Know the setting and improvise I still have to figure it out. Working subtle backstories that have future implications. Developing accents and mannerisms for NPCs. Dramatic pauses. Try to engage everyone directly or give them a moment to shine. Also,initiative tents on the DM screen Creating twists that pit the characters against difficult encounters, but has plenty of ways to avoid it entirely. Lie to the players. Make them think you planned everything, that your iseas are original. Steal their ideas for stuff so they feel clever for guessing the truth. Lie constantly and never give up the truth Always improvise Players build the world. I tie it together Bullshitting is a useful skill, being able to improve a result to an unexpected player action is really key. preparation Memorable moments If possible, being flexible to players who want to engage with the world; that's free content right there! leave some of the world building to players to help invest them I always try to blend in current pop culture references into my session. Whether that is a deep Dwarf who wants to build a great wall or running into spooky scary skeletons. I don't have any special moments about grand betrayal or treason but with how my players interact with the situations I provide. The players are the main charaters of a play, i'm just a stage hand that sets the seen for them to explore Letting my players build the world never say no, let them at least try Small party conflict keeps players invested. Player driven improv Let your player's drive the story forward. Do not allow distractions, stick to the game and let the outside world stay on the outside. Fun characters, especially NPCs. The world should be engaging. Picking an eccentric behavior for informational NPCs. Makes the mundane memorable. Reuse the same NPCs. Reskin the monsters. Old School Style Exploration (with lots of questions and almost without dice rolling). Villains should be prevalent to the party on a personal level consistantly. They should also believe they are right or justified in some manner. When world building or deciding an npc's action, do so as if the pc's did not exist. Unless or until they are relevant to the decision. It will help make your world more believable. Learn and integrate PC back stories Let the players drive the story and roll with it, make stuff up on the fly. Sending pictures of monsters/NPCs/secrets/clues to players via Facebook messenger I let, indirectly, players run the game. If they wish for an ironic sketch, i put more emphasis on silly scenes; when they're willing for big fight, i rise difficult of combat;if they are talkative, i set more NPC interaction and riddles...each session changes when i follow players' wishes Voice acting When a player says his PC is gonna see a friend or go to a place they know ask the player the name and location. It gets them thinking about the game world. Don't feel like you have to create everything. Get input from the players when they take an action you are not prepared for. "I go to an inn." Ok what is the inn called? Put that location into your game. Use it repeatedly. Gets the players invested. Low to mid level EPIC encounters, forget Tolkien (he is holding you back), and put players in win/lose situations. Yeah the players may gain favor of the Queen, but the civilians of the land will hate them. Listening to Player ideas about where the story or adventure is heading, then offer a twist upon this speculation in the spirit of the intended path. Listen and be flexible so you can adjust I love using 3.5 cards to track initiative and monster/player stats, also saying "yes-but" to players. Bullshitting, making things up on the fly. Read my general notes about history-npc's and improv the rest Set-pieces are great for establishing a clear visual setting and it allows for players to more easily imagine themselves performing actions in that environment. I don't really know any tricks. Just, the more I prepare ahead of time, the smoother the session is going to go. Create several NPC's related to each other to make the cities feel alive. Making a sandbox setting out of location-based modules Get to the point where the players run the game, it's not only easier but more fun Don't say No unless you have to. Atmospheric music make the enemies out of candy so when someone kills an enemy they get to eat the candy To stay energetic and engaged and to use role playing and descriptions to immerse the players. What a great evil idea you thought I had, turns out you're now correct. The DMs left turn Learn the pace the players want to play at dynamic keyed factions or groups that interact with the players and each other. Let the players run the story, and adjust it to their input. 30 min break in the middle with pizza included It's not a trick. Good old imagination! Steal liberaly Get the players to build their own world. Just give them the changes they need to overcome. the basic epic campain Don't be a slave to the text of the adventure. Use it for the story and adventure framework, but concentrate on making the game fun! If it sounds reasonable and my players want to do it, they do it. I had one player slay an enemy, I asked him how he did it, he swung his sword between his legs and cut the baddy. Not how I would have done it, but he seemed happy. The same guy wanted to do some acrobatics to start a battle, and failed miserably, but I said to go for it. Also, I love the story, so I do my best to tell an interesting story, but I don't spend as much time preparing it as I should because inevitably my players will go somewhere else. So, I let the session happen and then describe how it fits into the story as a prologue into the next session. Tight combat plans very loose roleplaying plans. Letting the characters develop on the spot. Keep calm. Throw out the rules if it's going to slow the pace/isn't absolutely necessary. Suspense, and challenge of mixed variety. Find an obscure piece of background for a character and exploit it Balance in combat and ensuring that there is in fact a chance to die. If its too easy, combat is boring and party does things fearing no consequences. Everything I stole from the net. All your tricks and everyone's eles's. initiative cards, helps keep track who's turn it is Adapt existing content to fit what I need I like to make interesting locales, unique NPC's and make sure the world feels dynamic and alive. Be gracious and go with the rule of cool. Let your players succeed more often than not Giving my PC's and NPC's unique environments and encounters that challenge them to think about and interact with the world in ways that aren't covered by the rule book. Let story win over rules when it needs to. Don't plan too much. I found it easier to make lists of encounters and roll off, and bullet point knowledge gained by perception checks. Don't try and railroad the party otherwise it just becomes you droning on and on. Include at least one rp element to each session; either an encounter, or something to foreshadow a future encounter. Keeps characters engaged. Background music with mood-based playlists. Their contribution to atmosphere and ambiance is tremendous and invaluable Have your players drink Setting scenarios that have multiple possible solutions, and letting the players be creative in their solutions. Creating fun NPCs and memorable NPCs to roleplay with, and putting secrets and special twists on the published adventures/AL adventures. Let the players describe someone or something that their character sees and then weave that person or thing into events. Make sure that there's an emotional payoff near the end of each session, building excitement for the coming session. Never say no. Fantasy Grounds allows on-the-fly hot-swapping of locations, encounters, etc. when the party does something unexpectedly. Tricky monsters Maintaining a believable and cohesive 3-dimensional world. Getting the players to work together. I constantly modify DCs and other numbers by just a little to keep the roller coaster going because I feel the players need to feel like they're struggling sometimes so that they can feel accomplished when they succeed, and sometimes a really good idea deserves a bit lower DC. allow the players much freedom in a sandbox style campaign. If there aren't rules for something, make some. Narrative NPCs, and purposely vague descriptions. A great playgroup trick the players, do the unexpected Let the party out think themselves Read the entire module first and be familiar with it. Don't tell the players they can't do something, let the story flow from them, whilst guiding it Say "yes, and" as well as "no, but" Little-to-no combat. I don't have just one but misdirection is a great trick Make your players the heroes, but allow them to make mistakes as well Be patient as hell... ahah and be very permissive! Stealing ideas from the players theories. For example, if my players focus on a throw away NPC, believing them to be a major plot element I will make them one, maybe not right away and usually not quite what he players "suspected". They feel so good for "figureing it out". Talking to the players a day after the session and seeing how they enjoyed it and what they expect to happen next. It gives me a good idea of what they're expecting and where I could improve. I often make it up as I go, having the players encounter whatever I think would be the most fun for them. Only preparing for 1 session at a time, and not limiting the PCs access and direction in the world. Being able to ad lib on the spot. Wing'n it. Filling in the players on what would have happened if they choose another path. Makes the world feel alive and removes any perceived rails. Not being a dick of a DM High energy. Always say yes. Rules light, player character heavy. Equal parts roleplaying, exploration/puzzle solving, and combat Know your story and everything else can be easily derived from it. call the players by their character names say "yes but" instead of "no". NEVER railroad your story it is not a movie. make every road differend, make everything unique and if the players dont use it you can always use it later with some on the fly changes Plant weird things now and again that keep the characters guessing and might blossom into more, even if you haven't figured out their significance yet. Insta-Bonds has worked very well before https://www.evernote.com/l/AAFTRmrvWU5Pp77vame-yFaWoCCJYXNq3j8 Do world building together as a group before the campaign. Never say no. Just make a DC. Let chance determine the rest. Use PowerPoint presentation for monsters and maps Pepper in simple, straight forward quests to keep the world grounded. Every story mission need not be more complex than the one before. Having random npc names on hand My favorite trick is to accept my players rediculous ideas while making sure they result in real game consequences. It makes them think twice before fighting the helplesss drunk. Don't be a rules lawyer. Always leave room to improvise and react. My only trick is to over prepare - but also try to know your players, assign small 'homework' to keep them active and talking to each other between sessions Make sure everyone is having fun. If there's a rule that makes things less fun, I don't use it. Getting players involved. If they mention anything, even if it wasnt directly to me, about something being cool or interesting if it would happen, I make a note and try to incorporate it in further sessions making sure each player gets to do that one thing they've wanted to do. But remember as the DM you have to do stuff you know you will have fun doing as well. Funny voices Assume nothing, prepare to veer wildly off course Get players in character, make them say what THEY do, not what their character does. Compartmentalizing information. If only one character would know a specific piece of information, especially contentious information, I will pass them a card and put the power of sharing that knowledge in their hands. Ever played Chinese Whispers? Yeah, that is in effect with this as well. :D Integrating cypher-style GM intrusion into d&d utilizing inspiration as a reward. 1. Present the situation & then step back & enjoy watching the players work it out 2. Always remember that it's not DM v. Players, & you win if you beat them...rather, the objective is collectively telling an awesome, memorable story I am good at making monsters and running interesting combats, so I spend most of my time doing that. Use callbacks Managin a healthy ratio of improving and planning Knowing what the players want out of the time they spend playing and trying to make sure each player gets a chance to do it. IE, which pillar of play does each person like. Music Lighting Experience Hiding as many mechanics as possible from the players. Incorporating side quests and NPCs for each character. Prepare "general encounters" with stats and background for characters and events rather than specifically combat encounters. It takes more time, but can be reused and helps link people and events, making the world felt real and lived in, and making combat not the only option. I rule with an iron fist inside a marshmallow glove Including in-game talking during fights, to break up the roll-play custom made 3D terrain Make the players think you are against them when secretly you want them to win Ambient Soundscapes Improvisation; let the players mold the story Always throwing in stories that unfold off to the side that the players might miss if they aren't paying attention. Adds extra immersion and flavor. Don't force your players to follow that rigid framework you originally set up. Let the game play out how it will play out. Giving the players a puzzle or skill challenge to complete is really exciting and fun for both the DM and the players. For example, the second chapter of my current campaign ended with a mansion collapsing on the heroes, so they had to escape the falling building or get crushed. They had 3 minutes to retrace their steps out of the Manor and avoid falling rubble as fast as they could (having to roll Dex Saving throws one after the other). This skill challenge not only had their total attention, but it also required them to act quickly. Prep in wide strokes and fill in the details during the game. If you give an NPC a goal, and means to achieve it, then it doesn't matter how your players approach the situation. Always keep a few spare "random encounters" or side quests ready for when the party turns left Improv is everything. I've been entirely improving my latest game and I love it. Have the party's characters be friends. Find out what your players want out of the game and provide it. Adding a surprise element to a characters backstory they didn't think to add. Create a realistic world and put passion and hard work into the game Music and initiative cards that contain information for both me and my players. Don't fret on meticulous details. Let the story progress naturally without railroading players. Stories aren't static I prepare a general framework of story encounters treasure etc but see where the players take the game and adjust on the fly. Build on character ideas. Intricate plots / detailed scene descriptions / Open world Sandbox / Doing Voices and acting out actions. Usually with some combat that is challenging with a quality amount of exploration with a sprinkle of roleplay. Enthusiasm. Presented with excitement, energy and enthusiasm even the most mundane can become exciting for players. Be 100% flexible. Let the campaign roll which ever way the group wants to take it. In an adventure that has the group going from A to B, they will almost always go to Q on the way there... Have an idea for my adventure then let my players go and see what chaos happens. Stack the deck against your players and then let them stack it back against the world. Only been a DM for a short period of time, ~4 months Open a bottle of wine beforehand to get the creative juices flowing. Improvise, let your players decide what you do. If there's a plot or a narrative to be had, try and integrate it into a decision the players made on their own. If they explore a dungeon, have a piece of the plot be present in that dungeon so the progression of the story feels more natural. Rule of three: To have three was of resolving or moving forward the narrative. Give the people at the table what they want in a game. Rolling with the punches and keeping a good amount of backup material; for my group specifically, RPing with them makes it more enjoyable Stay flexible Improvisation and voice acting Do what the players want with a twist, not what you want A thematic focus will carry you where worldbuilding or crunch can't. Prepare to improvise Highly descriptive. Theater of the mind. Making the party feel like the world is a living, breathing thing, and of course, making the party feel small, at all times. Murder hobo's are completely hesitant to want to cause havoc. Collaborative player input in world building Let the players do the talking - their nightmares are the best antagonists. Creativity Asking Players to make perception checks when nothing is there. It freaks them out Giving the party a magic item that is too powerful. Improvisaction and collaboration of story ideas using the old "yes and" improv rule. Let the players guide you. Have fun world building on your own and make some rich NPCs, fantastic locations, and tie it all to the players (reskin a published adventure's villains with the ones your players wrote into their backgrounds), and let go of control. Be more reactive. Make the players feel smart by solving a problem that doesn't have a specified solution. Pay attention to what went well, and what I could do better next time Pitting the players against each other A well thought out cliffhanger will leave them excited for the next session. Let the players talk and roleplay as much as possible; they're the main characters. Talk only when you have to. I like taking their backstories and building big plots that tie into them, making sure each character contributes to their world and they get to engage in each other's personal facets 'wow'ing players with cool stuff like props. "Yes, but/and..." mentality of working through problems Confidence Voices Make the players feel that they are heros Keep the story moving and let the characters drive the direction Music and Images Interesting NPC's I try to understand what my players want out of the game and cater to/balance those needs Whatever NPC the players gravitate or latch onto in a given session, I take that NPC and run with them. They provide the necessary queues and beats (within reason and common sense) to bring the game world to life for that session. Throwing Lovecraftian creatures at the group, and have them make a madness INT check. Don't overly prepare, because the players will just fuck it up Let players run initiative board. Delegate rules research to players. Never give your players a direct no. Listening to and observing the players during game play. Let the players build the world as the game is played. Make sure everyone is on the same page before starting fa game! It will keep everyone engaged more! Let the players figure out things for you Put the players in a rich and vibrant world and let the story emerge from the players' action. Prep a few level-appropriate encounters, recycle them if unused, and reskin as needed. Keeping players interested in what's going to happen Not making solutions for every problem. The players are going to try things I wouldn't think of anyways so if they try something that either makes sense or is very creative I use that. Music! Online resources for random encounters Include the players in the storytelling process Preparation is key. Say yes to the players and reward them for ruining your carefully crafted schemes with improvised nonsense. Adding comedy Sacrifice a small goat and burn an effigy of Chris Perkins. In that order. I try to use a spell or ability in a new or creative way that the players would unlikely think of or expect On the spot decisions on NPC's or character decisions becoming major plot developments. Epic music, difficult rp heavy choices, smart bosses Making the players tell stories about their characters (see savage worlds interlude system) Fun NPCs acted with passion Use DM screen, fudge rolls and hit points to maintain "just hard enough" difficulty for big fights. Try to maintain a steady flow with just enough downtime for R&R. Ditch alignment. It no longer serves a significant mechanical function, and serves to hinder roleplaying more than it enhances it. Players are more likely to judge their actions based on one of very few alignments rather than based on their characters motivations, history, and personality. Everyone checks their egos at the door, we're all there to have fun, you have to be willing to look like an idiot some times Don't give the player much time to respond Completely run everything be the seat of your pants. Minimal prep (aided by Fantasy Grounds' pre-loaded content) and avoid railroading. Most campaigns run for a by-the-book adventure end up 50% homebrew. Also, even if in a setting like FR or similar, it's still "MY" FR, and things can work differently at this table, yo. improvisation. let your players determine where the story goes, just be knowledgable enough to keep up with them on the fly. Never sit down thinking you know what's going to happen. Be willing to change the 'bigger plot' on the fly if it is where the players want to go and if it's what they find interesting. Listen, respond, and try to say yes. It's about the players and their sense of fun. I like to base NPCs on people I know or celebrities and give them an appropriate voice as well. I hand out gummy snack packs to stand for Inspiration, and the players get to eat them when they decide to use their Inspiration. I like to leave things vague enough and flexible enough that the players have a lot of impact. I run improv heavy games. Questioning the detail of the players I imagine an environment or location that evokes wondrous adventure (the sort of scenes that make the cover of classic modules), then I design an objective or encounter or plot point which uses that scene. Patience and understanding. Planning something for each player just depending in their selected class Dynamism and integration Figure out a way to say yes to your players and always flesh out the setting. Create general background of NPC, but improv characters and scenes. Make sure to involve every player in the game, don't have strict boundries and let them do whatever they want with a consequences of course! ;) Rather than prepping a lot, I often insert cryptic things in my games and then wait for my players to speculate about what they think it means, and then I select one of their speculations and run with it. Embracing the improvisational phrase "Yes, and..." Not taking yourself too seriously Having handouts Get to combat asap Always focusing on the fun for the players, letting the adventure adapt as it runs Deception Have fun. Try to have players have fun. Keep them laughing humor is the best tool there is. The plot twist. Reward creativity When in doubt fudge in the players favor. It's a game and my objective is not to "beat" the players. I win when they want to keep coming back to my table. take notes and incorporate people's real world likes into the campaign somehow Any seemingly insignificant NPC can be extremely plot-important at a moments notice. I make a separate bullet-point sheet of NPCs' motivations as they relate to the story. That way, when role-playing, and the PCs are really getting into questions and dialog, I have a base to work from in order to keep the conversations moving and informative without either being unrealistic or giving away too much. Whatever works to get my players to all show up on time (or at all). Saying "Yes, and..." or "Yes, but..." Good role playing skills Expect the players to do the unexpected Plan long and hard, it's worth it Out of combat, ask any of the players who didn't just do or day something what they think about what the other player just did/said . It gets them to role play between each other, gets more players involved and is less work for you. Lying NPC Create factions with goals, players will always ruin extensive prep, know who knows what, wants what, and a bit of why. Concentrate on the story Spend time with the source material so that you can properly improvise anything that comes up, and be familiar with the rules but DO NOT obsess over them. Any more than 30 seconds dedicated to talking about rules during game ruins it. Putting my players in morally ambiguous situations. Pay close attention to the features of your campaign that your players like. Different groups enjoy very different play-styles. Letting my players feel like their choices matter and their ability to make meaningful changes Assigning one of my players to keep track of initiative and statuses for combat encounters Let the group have fun above everything else. yes , but. Asking a player what something is or happens and trying to say yes to that statement with an addendum. The yes, but! Have a cheat sheet with names by race, general purpose side quests, and potion/common item prices handy End each night on a cliff hanger. The illusion of being in control of everything, so that the game feels as if everything has been acounted for. Include the PCs' backgrounds in the world building. Getting your players emotionally invested in the campaign by tying backstorys to the world, story, & npcs at large perfect balance of suspense, horror, humor, and action. with some roleplaying of course Get comfortable improvising, then whatever happens you can make it fun, that is the number 1 rule, we do this to have fun. Give each person an individual goal/development as well as having a group goal Try to involve every player when possible, engage them with questions and try to figure out what it is they want to do Find a way for players to love or hate NPCs, be descriptive in combat, be generous with creative solutions by players (make them feel like they can try things and have a chance to succeed) Improvisation. I love to listen to my players and alter the world and campaign to integrate their thoughts, comments, responses, desires, and actions in to the storyline. Running with the players choices and ideas. Don't plan where the story will go, instead plan where it stands right now, then let the players move the story. Arrange a setting and dont restrict players Have a great party. Adjusting combat encounters on the fly to be more dramatic Put as much of the narrative heavy lifting into the hands of the players as possible (e.g. Use their backgrounds and relationships to develop and drive story) Let the players tell the story, you just oversee it. a twist. Thing A is actually not Thing A but Thing B. An example, the mimic is actually a golem that can be controlled, the chicken is a polymorphed villager, or the building is just an illusion and isn't there in the first place. Mos Eisley cantina song+bar brawls. Works every time. I am still pretty new but open ended encounters and puzzles have been useful in leaving tons of room for player improv and lore generation Listen to the players. Be engaged. Drugs Whenever given the chance try and put the power and control in the PC hands!! Let them do what they want and reward them for it(unless they're murder hobos) Attention to detail. Keep it fun, use humor and make it challenging. If you don't want a chance of death, then read a comic book in your footie pajamas and stay home! Let the players do whatever they want and have your plot line look like a bulletpoint for a story nothing should be pre scripted Always ask players what they want to do next. Steal from them. They will do whatever you wanted them to do. Let the players drive everything. Just set the world up for them to interact with, but let the players drive where the story goes. Improv. I love letting my players run loose in the world and experience the consequences and fantastic places all on their own. They make the game, I just let them think I run it! Award Inspiration liberally (for anything from great role playing, to a joke that cracks up the table, or even volunteering to get dinner for everyone). Just getting people invested into the setting, area, place, characters. Letting the players control the story, but never tell them. They always think of something worse, get the story they want, and I look brilliant. Be flexible about where you want the story to go-- too stiff and the players will feel trapped. I do not have any tricks that I can think of that I use. Letting the players stumble upon details that are made up on the spot. Figuring out how to go with the flow in an acceptable manner. Listening to your players. The game I like to play is collaborative improvisation. I provide the situation and the players provide the resolution. Allowing players to have a fun time. Keep a "dramatis personae" document alphabetically listing all NPCs, what they want, and what they fear. I like to know all my NPCs for better RP opportunities. Player choice and consequences , pre written npc speeches, npc personality traits Reacting to player actions to decide the shape of the adventure Incorporate your characters background into the adventure. Setting an Immersive Scene Keeping the players from getting too comfortable by changing up the expected. For example, the occasional perception check, even if there is nothing to notice is good to create tension. They often feel that something is watching them that they could not detect. My secret that no one know. All my bosses have no HP. When i feel the fight is "done" I let the player "win" the fight. So those fights are fun and player are always at the edge. If you can manage to get your players care about an NPC, that's an amazing source of tension. When player's won't go where you want them to steal something from them. Encourage Player ideas and actions. Knowing what each player loves the most and hates the most. Play to find out what happens, not to tell people what happens. Hooks & twists for plot, deceptive NPCs, promoting creativity in overcoming encounters instead of stabbing a monster until it falls over Find an interesting monster/combat encounter and work out how to fit it into the plot using the dice I don't have a good trick The DM just starts the story, the players make it. Say Yes. Make your players shine. Make sure players are having fun. Always have the wheels turning behind the scenes with factions/npcs all doing things. Try and imagine myself in the world walking down the street/spaceship and imagine the sights, smells, tastes, sounds. Figure out what kind of game your players want to play and try to meet their needs. Make each NPC have a motivation. Secretly allow the players to determine the direction of their stories. Let your players try anything. Reskinning and liberally stealing ideas from others and adventures. Have a lot of stuff happening so the characters don't get bored Involve the characters and their players, make them relevant. Pay attention to player expression and engagement, do whatever they react to a lot. Have fun with it/run a game you'd like to play yourself. Giving players opportunities for buy in and campaign ownership Sound effects - ambient sound mixer Ask the players what things look like for their characters, what their pc is doing, what they think. Give the players what they want (within reason). My players kept mentioning Goblin Eldorado and I said why the hell not at one point. I went from semi railroading my players to having a grand adventure where I put things in their way to get to their target and they don't mind. Encouraging role play and in character discussion Think of yourself as a real-time game engine and developer, get buy-in from the players on what kind of content they'd like to see and how they felt about the tone and content of each event Theatricality and Deception Voices for NPCs Asking players what they want most and writing the game history based on their own character story If the world is filled with interesting locations and NPCs with their own wants and desires (villainous and otherwise), the story will naturally grow from the conflict of these desires and motivations. Marijuana For generating NPCs on the fly, all you need are a motivation and a general demeanor. The rest fleshes out from there if it needs to, but a majority of the time, it doesn't. Describing how each creature attacks and giving each monster a different special feature to mix up the monsters Description of all experiences and senses. Set the mood right, use music, pictures and describe multiple senses No trick. Just a lot of planning. Stay away as much as possible from combat initiative rules, and when you're at a point that you need them focus on getting out of it asap Not all monsters want to fight. Some lie and connive and screw the PCs out of treasure. Having a prepared series of "story encounters" - that is, major character/NPC moments on the backburner which don't have to happen at a particular time or linear point in the campaign but that can be dropped in to enliven the game at the most dramatically appropriate moment based on the players' choices. I generally have these involve major actors in the PCs' lives and backgrounds, or present story beats they're particularly set on following. I also try to have an area-appropriate module (or two) on-hand that can be thrown in as an "encounter" all of its own if the A-plot is stagnating or the players are growing bored with the trend of a particular session. Basically a twist on the classic advice for writer's block: "if nothing's happening, just have a gun go off, and the characters will write their own story from there." Try to run it old school without too much technology detracting from the old world feel of the setting. Just good descriptions and great npc's and opportunities for role playing and adventure. Watching Matt Colville videos I like to do a lot of world building before we play the first session and then tailor the game prep for each group I run. I find that playing in a world of my own creation enables me to quickly adjust to the players' decisions should they wander away from the line I had anticipated for the session. I like to try and include characters back story. If I can't do that, I'll include something that the players enjoy in real life. At the start of every game, I give inspiration to whichever player wants to tell us a little more about his character and this is by no means mandatory. It can range from a detailed encounter he had in his path which deeply affected his or her character's point of view concerning a very specific dilemma the party faces now, to a couple of sentences about a restaurant and a specific dish they really liked at some point in their distant past. I can then use all this character development to add multiple story hooks to our adventure and grasp my character's attention more strongly. Even though I rely on pre-made modules, I modify them heavily to better reflect the interests and motivations of the characters around the table. Mind Pen Paper Have a general outline or idea of how the session will flow, but leave it open enough for room for improvisation due to whatever players may pull. Also, speak with your players during the session for feedback and a more engaging session. Secret doors NPC secrets imagination There's no 'trick'. The more you play, the better you get. Keeping everything loose. As soon as you make it more than a game, it stops being fun. Have the characters choices be meaningful I try to make my players give specific directions in combat- not just "I attack" but "I move alongside and attempt to slice at the shoulder. " they love the more realistic combat scenarios "Fuck it, let's do it live" Giving the party a dragon egg. I find success by starting around dinner time on Saturdays. Every one eats while I go over current states of things and any rule changes I need to instigate/schedule changes I need to make aware to the group. I then have everyone roll a d20. Highest roll tells the group what happened last week. IT gets the group back into what happened and where they were. Ensure there is enough in a campaign to surprise the group at least every couple sessions, keep the pace up even at the expense of hard rules. Improvise details Make sure that every PC has a purpose that only they can fullfill, without being really obvious about it. It inspires more teamwork, and helps newer players get and stay involved. I have a questionnaire I send my players about their characters that allows me to develop story hooks and twists with personal reverberations. I like to use descriptive and flavorful combat scenes. Reward short term, meaningful goals quickly, but always leave a thread to something bigger. Being flexible enough to have a plot that can withstand wild ass choices of my players. No pass fail encounters, Multiple sources of clues. Enemies have plans that are able to change if the PCs disrupt them, or if the PCs ignore them. allow characters to narrate the story and make up their own stuff on the fly. For example, we get a random encounter with bandits on a bridge. I explain what they see and as they approach, the main bandit speaks up and says that he knows one of the party members. I then let them explain how they knew the bandit. Random interesting sidequests/NPCs Set a captivating scene that the PC's have agency and challenge whithin. Stay fluid, don't expect things to go exaclty as you envisioned and be able to adjust encounters on the fly. Use my narrative skills Improve mixed with deep preparation. I have certain things like npc names, taverns, random lot already generated behind the screen. Anything that's going to slow the game down is done. Including stealth rolls for npcs if they're concealed. I also roll stealth for players to increase suspense and risk v reward. Listening to players and catering the session to all of their goals in some capacity and trying to not get married to every idea or plan I have in my mind. Slow down, Listen to your players Don't be a dick. This is everybody's game, not yours. I try to give my players as many options as possible, and engage them in conversations as the npcs. I make a lot of it up as we go! Turning something innocuous the players think is sinister into something sinister. The trick, for me, is to listen to the players and use the ideas they throw out there. I don't fully prepare everything that could happen or every detail. So, as an example, maybe the party found a strange magic item. You, as the DM, actually haven't fully fleshed it out yet. I guarantee you, at some point, one of the players will say "I wonder if it does [x]." If it's good, use it! Or twist it a little. It'll add a bit to the satisfaction and cool factor of the item and game. Improvise to make the characters choices matter. I am not a great combat-creator yet, so I like to spend all of my time putting together resources to draw from so I can be completely immersed in the story at the moment. FEEDBACK! what was your favourite moment in this session, what was something you enjoyed someone else did, what didn't you like, what would you like to see more of? Misdirection, subverting expectations Create a consistent and logical world that responds predictably Solid plot, solid inprov Try to make everything that happens important to plot or character development. Treat the game as if it is a collaborative story you are writing with your players. Start with a challenge rating that's higher than you think the party can handle, then fudge it's stats if necessary. Story trumps rules. Improvising based on player decisions. Be prepared with everything that you plan on happening but be flexible and ready to improvise with the players. Rollplaying Random Loot Creation Whatever happens, roll forward with it. One page dungeons Good food and good friends. A comfortable, relaxing space and a good warm-up routine to get people into character. DMs need to stay attuned to their players, adapting fluidly to their player's responses, actions, and needs. Make your players design the world as well. Always remember the story is about the players first. Also give enemies more hp. I try to create a specific scene for almost every player Giving your players freedom and being flexible If everyone wants the same type of game, everything goes a lot smoother. If the team splits up split the spotlight between them. Change scene on a cliffhanger <3 Keep the flow going The 3 act story structure is key to a good session. But linking it to a long term story is what keeps them coming back. Having the world pre built, reducing individual session plan time. Surprise them! Role play! Exciting combats! Having 3 session worth of encounters prepared Improvisation, give an open ended hook and let the players run the show. I would divulge that secret, but I think the CR is too high even for you. Keeping notes on the PCs. What their tendencies are, goals, strengths/weakness's. Write a recap to bullet point events from previous session and prepare a recap to tell to players at the start of each session what got them to where they are. I like to foreshadow things by bringing up specific events that may have happened even several weeks ago. I think of it like the "previously on..." part that happens at the beginning of any long running show like GOT, WD, etc. Say yes to the player Make sure your players are having fun. If you need to bend a rule to make something awesome happen that is not game breaking, do it. It is a game, after all, and games are meant to be played for fun. Using my head. Keep things interesting? I dunno. Learn what type of players your PCs are and be flexible Let the players guide the game Using terrain to the point of bringing realisim into the game.For example using a large underdark set,dim the lights.Give the players the feeling of what it is like to be in a truly dark realm.Sometimes with an open space so big that those with darkvision cannot see beyond their limits.Even to the point of using light sources that will give them away in such a dark lightless realm.Sometimes when the enemy is so close,that they do not even know it.That,to me is fear. Don't expect the players to do anything that I expect them to do Give the players freedom The Lazy Dungeon Master - preparing materials that are non-committal that I can use to improvise well thought out content on the fly. Have fun, let your players do cool stuff. Making sure the players become immersed enough so that it all feels real. Listen to your players A tablet helps for having start blocks. When players focus in on an idea, NPC, etc., make it more important. It's all about managing expectations and making sure they are immersed and feel good Lots of random tables Focus on the players and how they want to connect with the world. Don't craft some amazing story, craft little bits and see what they do with it. Make sure each session has one challenge for each party member, that way they can feel like they are involved. Not all enemies fight to the death. Some will try to run, and even prepare an escape plan in advance, particularly the important villains. Be open to anything the players want Listen to your players and what they want for there character. Making sure to allow them to role play as much as possible. To let go and improvise. Listen and react. Review the events of last time. Prepare places, not situations. Resolve the combat if it gets bogged down Large setpiece story and combat moments Once your players have had a few sessions to get 'into' a character, give them a short list of questions, outside of the game, asking for some wants and desires for the character, as well as some simple backstory/family type questions. These give you a *ton* of future hooks, rewards, and general story tie-ins. Gives the game depth and weight for the players as your campaign becomes much more personal for the characters. looking for a win win between what the players want and a good thrilling story Keep it lose and improv friendly Finishing the session early on a high or tense point. Real jeapoardy (character deaths) Scarcity of resources (equipment/aid) Build atmosphere/ tension Descriptive combat (visceral) Music to set the mood, and doing voices and getting into character for NPCs. Improvising in modules Build the world and story in a way that the players can do what they want and the story can still freely adapt based on any (reasonable) actions by the payers Make use of improv storytelling to give the players the most freedom. Using inside jokes as substitutes for content is a great way to give you time to think while entertaining the party, so try to make sure there's a lot of these running throughout the campaign. one shot of rum Never assume the party picks the straightforward option Read the players while you are playing and adjust accordingly Moral dilemmas Creative characters (voice acting) with intriguing stories guide game, but ultimate decision is on the players. Also, I make sure every decision matters now, or some time later... Always have an interesting alternate work around for your players to find for most encounters Patience, lots of patience Take the elements given by the adventure, and build them into your own version of the world Make sure every player has a moment to shine... or at least fail brilliantly I treat PC attacks against enemies as strikes. Every enemy has a certain number of strikes I mark as "X"'s on my tracking notes (roughly 1 for every 10 hp). When a PC hits, I erase a strike for every 10 damage. Big hits erase more (rounding). Keeps combat from being slowed by math, or when a PC declares they forgot to add/reduce damage. I can either add or remove a strike. Also visually reminds me how to treat an enemy's battle behavior, depending on how healthy they are, akin to a health bar. I usually make them more erratic when they're "in the red". "Never say no, always try to accomodate players ideas, and work with them towards balancing out anything they want to play." "Never plan more than a couple hours in the session ahead." Willingness to improv, to incorporate player ideas. Don't plan too much, you'll get off track anyways and it helps to avoid railroading Dm board so i cansave the fuckers when they fucked Learn your players habits, it makes it easier to predict what they are likely to do when presented with options or free will. Making memorable NPCs I try very hard to make sure everyone at the table gets spotlight time. Also I roll out in the open and and let the dice fall where they may. Consider pacing when constructing the adventure. just have fun with it and let your players alter the story. being descriptive of what the players see and do. combat is an especially good place to do this Keep the pace moving quickly, don't dawdle Good storytelling with invested players Don' be afraid to try improving some things. Prepare the barebones basics, and try fleshing it out as you go along. Engage your players, either through their own characters, a special NPC, or just with a very intriguing plot. Be prepared but not open to going on the fly. A balance of preparation and improvisation. I like to create an expansive setting with several plot hooks and then let the Player Characters drive the story. I always like using creatures that are usually a little too tough for the PC's as it makes the world around them feel a lot bigger. I also design maps on Roll20 then transfer them to a 5 ft grid just for the added professionalism. Good hook for the plot, battles which just might kill a PC so they have a feel of accomplishment, and good of scenes. And always letting my players do whatever they want in any situation, if it is in their powers. Letting the imagination go wild is the best part. Want to screw my game and kill the king, go for it, there is always consequences. Listen to your players, and use their cues to develop story and gameplay - they'll inadvertently tell you what they find fun by saying what they want to do. Listening to your players Don't let the rules dictate your game. Giving each character at least one moment to shine, and ideally based on work they've put into their character previously through choices or good rp, etc... Keep it going and loose. I make the party track initiative order in combat, I also allow the villains to monologue as a reaction Difficult Moral Decisions/Encounters Give the party a reason to personally HATE the villain. :) Letting the players feel like they're in control even though it still plays into my story (but also making fun npcs that make them laugh along the way) Letting my players run for a while but having their ooc discussions be said by their characters if they're discussing too long (particularly when they're plotting in front of someone!) Ruling on questions quickly/not forcing too many skill checks to keep things moving (keeps the immersion higher to not have to slow down for rule arguments or checks that should be automatic in context) I print monster stat blocks, items, etc. and paste them on index cards. This helps me have everything in hand for combat and rewards. I also have a small book of index card-sized tables and skill charts, etc. which i use for quick rules reference (I don't use a screen). One side is 4E, the other is 5E, since I run both systems pretty equally. RPing as all the characters Screw with the players. Give them something unexpected and fun Use funny (or at least distinctive) voices for NPCs, and let the players get their goat. improvisation! And subsequent note taking to stay consistent Keep it simple. The rule of cool Never say a player flat out can't do something Scripting intros and important moments, but leaving the rest up to the players and improving from there. The rules and dice are secondary, what matters is a fun session, so sometimes I will bend both rules and dice if nessesary Let your players create their own adventure through their actions Rule of Cool I like letting the absurd happen, and letting my players laugh a bit. Do your best to say yes to your players (within rules and reason). Go with the flow Prep leaving lots of open "hooks" and seeing the crazy theories players come up with Adapt to the players A multitude of funny voices and at least one gee-whiz plot twist per session. I employ a long term strategy to minimize player inconvenience and maximize their attendance. I make sure that my players only need to show up. I have extra dice, I keep all the sheets secure and all the notes and maps organized, I'm usually the host, and there's almost guaranteed to be food and other substances available. When there is so little demanded of players, they are more likely to come back, and that's sort of the foundation of anything interesting in D&D. Developing strongholds, rare+ magic item crafting, unwinding complex narrative threads involving intricate networks, and epic tier combat are all pretty much out of reach if people don't invest the time to get there. And after every session, like clockwork, I ask people verbally, "Did everybody have fun?" Players love to affirm their good times, and if there is a problem, it's an opportunity to address it for next game, as opposed to somebody feeling left out or had a bad break with the rules, eventually until they decide the DM doesn't care about them and their contributions and stops coming. Everybody's game is different, and players are all different, but if a DM is focused on providing good humor and a comfortable environment for entertainment, everything else clicks into place quite easily. Being good about saying "Yes and" to my players and adapting on the fly rather than not allowing something because i hadn't planned for it. Also i try to make one iconic hero moment each session. I utilize detailed worlds that the players can get to know and ultimately change Listening to my players to guide the game in a way that they want, without them realizing. Make NPCs memorable, even if it makes them silly. Allow any attempt, even if it's impossible. Keep combat short. Keep it moving. Always encourage. Don't discourage. Shoot for a fun game and deal with the potential logical inaccuracies of an unintended direction at a later date. Don't be afraid to improvise. I spend most of my prep time getting an idea of what I need to be ready for based on what I think my players want to or are likely to do. All of my NPCs, except major characters like kings and big bosses, are improvised. It feels rougher than a fully fleshed setting, but it lets the world and the setting develop around the players and their actions, which is awesome. Incorporate lore your players want to bring into the game. Unless it's bad, it will make the game all the richer and keep your players more interested than ever. Have confidence and don't ever let the players think you don't know what you're doing. Making the players a part of the world's momentum, making sure that their actions have consequences so that the world is able to move on in whatever way it would because of their influences (or lack of). Know how to motivate each player at the table. If you know how they tick then you can more easily control the flow of the game Get the players emotionally invested. The more they buy into your world and its inhabitants the better the story and the better the game for everybody Rolling 5 initiatives at the start of the game, doesn't hurt flow and speed of the game The NPC the PCs have known for a long time is actually a chaotic evil worshipper of Bhaal and puts everyone against each other. :) The latest trick I've tried is making short rests 15 minutes rather than an hour. It moves the game along really well for my group and allows me to use bigger and more interesting combat encounters. So I guess my trick is bending the published rules a little to make the game work for your own group and let them do more of what they like best! Building a world Use maps of medieval castles and cities for flavour (Carcassonne, Gamla Stan (Stockholm), etc. Focus on player enjoyment and learn how to adapt to player expectations. Use their input at the table to actively shape your world and story. Lots of big dicks Concise but effect scene description Keeping it loose--I let my players tell me what they are interested in doing and I try my best to facilitate that. The stories are about their characters so I try to focus on role play moments that come up organically. Unique voicestyle for npcs Keeping the explore, interact, combat ratio about equal Give every PC a chance to shine. Say "Yes, but..." I like to constantly ask how characters *feel* about a certain situation. I think it really helps immerse them in the scenario. I also think that memorable NPCs are really important to a good session. Let your players roleplay, you don't need to create any special NPC encounters. Your players will create their own quests, and NPC encounters. Read Apocalypse World Never say "no". let the players "TRY" anything they want. Adding great dialogue with npcs to make the world alive. I take normal campaigns and add things to make them more real Extremely "hygienic" play where you set strong rules for the campaign, your prep, and what you do doing the course of play, and stick to them mercilessly. This creates an environment where the players, over the course of the first few months of play, discover what parts of the game are fair and predictable and work according to regular rules, and which are not‰ÛÓwhich allows them to play with confidence, to own their actions, to take responsibility and seize the initiative. Whenever the narrative is flagging, or my players have (once again) managed to find the only path I hadn't planned any content for; I always harken back to Crime Novelist Raymond Chandler, "When in doubt, have a man burst through the door with a gun in his hand." Literally or figuratively as the situation dictates. Try to keep my players off-guard. Using folded pieces of paper ontop of a GM screen to track initiative. Or a one page description of an outline for stuff that might happen in the session Extremely subtle hints about very big/important things further down the road in the campaign. always build your character backstories into the overall story, either via sidequests or even into the main story item, and give the players agency to decide how things will progress. I always use a curveball quest to tempt the party to adapt on the fly hard encounter impact to come up with creative solutions using a projector for maps on 3d vtt app. i can make any situation on the fly. I mine layer back stories for information that can be fit in to random places in the adventure. Sometimes major plot points, sometimes just bits of cool character moments. theme music and accents OneNote Let the gamers lead the pace Get the players engaged by using their pc's as the the story center Go into each session with 10 characters prepared, 5 collections of loot found on dead bodies prepared, 3 characters/events/plot points your want your party to hit during the session prepared, 2 treasure chests worth of loot prepared, and 1 one-page side quest to keep your party busy while you try and get them back on track Creating a setting first, then having the players make their backgrounds together and make an overall goal for their party in the game world. ignore like half the rules. Give the players more freedom, free feats, extra powers. the system is so front loaded for character creation that after level 3 there are no real interesting character sheet choices. In fact, play a different system altogether. 13th age is fun, or dungeon world. or for chaotic clusterfuck of a system try pathfinder. Making players think of the children. Make choices matter. Know your world. I personally do not like to just tell the players an adventure. I work out all the big (and sometimes smaller players) of the world and how it interacts with eachother. then, when we are playing, I respond to the players choices by how the world would respond. in my opinion, thats the best kind of dnd. Give the players multiple options that lead to the same end. Know your audience and make a game they'll enjoy, not one you want to run. Being ready to react to the actions of a player. A willingness for them to lead the adventure in a direction they, or feel their characters would, choose. For a single adventure, at least one cool combat encounter. For a campaign game, get a general outline for the story with multiple outcomes and then let the players out on a long leash. Relax Prep, prep, prep! Voice acting prep Playing by candlelight in Ravenloft don't sweat the details and let tge players impact the story Improvisation. Yes and. Prepare everything. Literally everything. Variety - helps keeps the players engaged and avoid making things stale. The GM rules from Dungeon World changed me forever. They include "play to find out what happens" "Draw maps, leave blanks" and "be a fan of the characters." Never say "no." Keep things moving and if it gets slow, random encounter! "Yes and..." Or "No but..." Watching the room. Know whne combat is dragging on or when you need to throw in a combat or roleplay to spice things up Be creative and don't be afraid to make it your own. Roleplay not rollplay. Using accents for npc's Format your story around their decisions, ie. No matter which path they take it'll lead to the goblin hideout Strong characterization Atmospheric music selection When the players succeed, don't just tell them the result. Ask them how they did it. Random generators for everything, then take the best results and add them in Empower your players! When roleplaying, directly address a player. Pairing themed food and alcohols. Build the set, set activities into motion and, know your NPCs. Let your players handle the rest. WHen I'm under prepared, I'll just be more vague than usual. When my players ask questions I'll "yes and" my way through the session Every time there is a roll, it has a consequence. There are no "nothing happens" rolls, even when at first it may appear than nothing happened. Pay attention to what you're players are planning and prepare for that first Some skill checks are supplements to what the player describes, e.g. a persuasion check is only as good as the argument is persuasive, perception is modified by what they say they're looking at/for. Create a dozen factions (leaders, goals, troops), draw a map, locate the factions HQ-outposts-battlegrounds, and set up the first few dungeons/adventures. Drop the PCs into a first encounter and see which way they go. Building settings and Npcs and letting the players take it from there Innuendos and notes Allowing the conflict of the adventures to be created by the PCs. Make the world my own and add details I know each player finds interesting/fun. Let the players run the game you made I don't have one yet - I'm quite new to DMing Emphasize character achievement in the story and through NPC interaction Don't say no too much Matt Mercer's "how do you want to do this" on a good kill, letting characters describe spells, etc. The more fun descriptions the players provide, the more they visualize things and the more engaged they get. Design to the style of games the players like, and include variety Write a setting, not a story. Be ready to throw all that prep out the window and roll with what the players throw at you Let your players give you ideas! If they believe there must be a secret entrance, give them one, or whatever the case may be. Prepare enough material for more than you will likely get to so that you can start seeding future stories early on Have fun and let the players direct the story to an extent Nope are real world people (characters) that my group identifies with personally (be it good or bad) Letting the players decide their fate, and their conduct without letting your personal feelings influence them. Once you learn to keep a straight face, you'll have such better stories. Inhabit your characters- think about how they would really respond to the PCs. And give them funny voices. Get people that work well together as your players Root for the players, challenge them, let them revel in their victories. Story trump rules. Reward creative ideas and/or roleplay. Involve everyone in the session somehow. Intense difficult boss battles that really challenge the group I have 8-9 players each session so I use a round robin method for initiative. Makes it easier to track. I change combat a lot. Usually , i have something unique happen at the end of almost every round. It's hard for me to brief with this, so I'll just state everything on my mind. 1. Always root for the players; the game is not the DM vs. The Players. It's about creating an enjoyable game for everyone and my fun is proportional to the player's fun. Allow the players everything in the normal ruleset and tweak them or house rule as little as possible. D&D 5e went through extensive playtesting for a reason. Work with the players to give them what they want, but sometimes they have to work for it in game or make a compromise. 2. Use logic to create interesting situations that will be remembered. If the PC casts a Thunderwave in a tight underground tunnel, there should be consequences, but don't do it to only screw over the PCs every time. The NPCs can make mistakes too. And play to the monster's Intelligence. 3. Allow the players to think outside the box and solve situations by not resorting to combat or doing the obvious thing in a situation. Allow adversaries to give up, attempt to flee, beg for mercy, teleport away, etc. 4. You don't need to roll for everything. Go with the flow and try to streamline the game so that it doesn't get dull. Pay attention to your players; engage the sleepy or quiet ones; concentrate attacks on the tanks (that's what the player designed their character to do); attack the hard hitting PCs if you can and make them sweat. Create engaging NPCs with secrets. Player banter. Plan most of what I want to happen in a game then have the players random thoughts, actions, and paranoias add to he story. Long setups for humor Have a cool lamp or other light source which dimly illuminates the table, mine is a wall mounted dragon head with a light hanging from it's mouth, and extinguish all other sources of light. I think the dim light has a dramatic effect, and the dimming of that real world sensory input helps everyone slip into character and be more immersed. You created the world, but your players are the sculptors. Go with the flow and build on players' creativity Moral dilemmas Slower advancement than the regular pace. Let players get attached to their characters, develop the personalities, and immerse in the struggles of early levels. I always say there needs to be "experiences" to justify the "experience gain" Let the story develop itself. Improv skills are key. Rolling with the players instead of against. Let your players try crazy things, they're always more fun than just sticking to the same boring ideas. Think of each session individually, rather than sticking with an overall story. IMPROVISE LIKE NO OTHER ALIVE I always confab secretly with each player to create personal and secret content for each charater. I don't even know why people keep coming to my games, I feel like I'm moments from falling apart at all times but people seem to enjoy it. Having players immersed in the world and their characters, then they make the rest easy Know your players, talk to them and tailor your game to what they find fun. I make combat easier by folding an index card to create a tented name plate that I hang over my DM screen. Facing the players, it has person/character/race/class/distinguishing feature. Facing me, it has ac/spell dc/hp/alignment/languages. These cards get shuffled to show initiative in combat. Rolling dice behind the screen in order to get the players' attention. Sometimes the last person to notice has something happen to them; so they stay on their toes. Custom across the board. Secret language, custom skills, etc. Make the players feel their characters. Make sure everyone is on the same page for what the campaign is going to be. If you're running a "good guys" campaign and one player didn't get the memo, that can affect the enjoyment of other people at the table. Better to make sure that people know what they're getting into, so that people can make an informed decision of whether they want to play in your game and how they should orient their play. Props Be flexible and ready to improvise Be as flexible as a Russian gymnast and as confident as a rock is hard. making things up as we go Engage the players, and try to make sure they are having fun. Consequences for player actions in the game world Make sure everyone is involved. Adjust the campaign to the PCs so they can have cool interactions and subquests Run the NPCs as if you were a player and the outcome is uncertain. the game is an emergent condition, let it happen of it's own accord Don't know Let the players talk and work around what they say. Randomness Avoid referring to the DMG and PHB during play, grouping multiple monsters of the same type for iniative and attack, creating conflict and consequence through good NPCs Preparation, preparation, preparation. Have at least twice as much material prepared before the session as you're going need during the session. Describe stuff Colorful NPCs; Say "Yes"; Give players choices Always tell a great story, even if you have to improvise or change your most elaborate plans. And for 50% of combat encounters: Make them bleed, make them suffer, make them scream for mercy, but don't kill them (or at least don't try to), they'll feel epic when the tide turns and they win. Getting the players involved, making combat horribly difficult so they can roleplay. I honestly have nothing Developing NPCs and then killing them Unique tailored weapons, which have achievable but challenging ways to level up and become cooler. EG, slay seven 'Unjust' with the Blade of Law Keeping everyone on tgeir toes Include character backstory Enough prep time before a session to read through your material and visualize possible outcomes. ??? High energy, gonzo shit Vary combat enounters wildly Music Flow everything off the top of your head. Generate as many questions in your PCs mind as possible. Intrigue drives the story and raises the stakes in combat (take them beyond XP) Keeping things light Some of my best sessions, and certainly my favorite ones to run, are off the cuff and almost completely improvised. Sometimes I find that due to daily responsibilities I don't have much time to prep on certain weeks and my players want to get together and play, so rather than disappointing them and telling them we can't because I haven't prepped I just go in with a loose narrative and goal and hope for the best. I've only done these types of games in a homebrew setting, never with published adventures as I've usually read through the material and I can think of ways to get my players back to the story. With a completely improvised game, I like to see where my players go with things. I feel like these are the funnest games for them to play. Memorable NPCs with a quirk All the characters how they feel Tailor your game to your players, set up situations that draw them in or arcs for one character specifically Let the players do the heavy lifting. Be prepared. Never make your players wait. Plan the nouns (people, places and things). Let the players supply the verbs‰ÛÓ the actions that will connect everything. I like to pre-roll initiative for each enemy, that way the combat doesn't go back and forth. Keeping track of how each player engages with the game, and putting things in front of them that each player, in turn, wants to engage with. Steal good ideas I keep a small book of relevant information, potential side quests, NPCs, ect. With me at all times. Makes a world seem more alive when the party encounters familiar NPCs locations. Role playing npcs Doing a lot of prep prior to first couple sessions, populating world with NPCs, etc., and then just letting the players go. After doing a big prep, I can run for around 8 sessions with almost no prep. Don't over prepare let the game grow organically. Players do cool and sometimes stupid things play off these. Have a skeleton plot and some one shots ready but all in all let it go where it goes. improv Surprising players with terrain effects and weird monster abilities. Provide lots of concrete details to get players into the scenes. Let the pcs do outrageous things and find something funny everytime. Also, dont let the rules ruin the fun - find a way to make things work. With first time players, instead of selecting pregenerated sheets or creating characters, let the players select from a set of fantasy portraits and then make a character to match. This way they can immediately visualize and invest and easily choose their preference. What you see is what you get. Player input in the world makes for more involvement. Let the players write the story, only prepare a fantastic sandbox for them to play in. I like to come up with situations (combat and non-combat) to put the characters in, without any pre-determined outcomes. If I understand what the conflict is about, and what the NPCs' / monsters' motivations are, then I can roleplay with the players and we are all playing to see what happens. Don't prep player actions or choices, prep characters/settings/events that exist regardless. Caring less about encounter balancing, using time to prepare other stuff. Moving the story to fit where the players are going, rather than moving the players to the story Putting individual things/characters (monsters, npcs, magic items, towns) all on their own cards and organizing those cards. Also, when the players meet a new npc, I give them an index card with that character's name on it, and any info they learn immediately. It helps them keep track and prevents me from needing to remind them over and over, and they can add to the card as needed. READ AS MANY BOOKS AS YOU CAN. It's a lot easier to come up with names on the fly when you have a bank of them to work with from memory/books. Using posted notes to hand out to the party when they reach a certain part of the campaign Learn your improv and dont prepare too much. Flexibility Catalogue everything Have a list of NPCs@ i don't know any My favorite trick is to keep an open mind. Player's always figure out "solutions" that I never considered. I like to take their ideas and run with them. Use unusual creatures. Work with my own stats & spells for them. Go with some of the daft ideas players joke about. ie, have players using my idea of voodoo dolls & they're sticking pins in the clothes of folk their following to a hideout. Guys are freaking out. Make it light hearted Talking to the players out of the game. A Relationship Map of the Major NPCs and their goals. Using different voices, not stifling players' creativity, even when I know they can't succeed. Recharging monster abilities are great for boss fights Not every character is interesting. Some NPCs are dirt farmers with nothing overtly interesting to them. Record all written handouts and play them for the other players so they dont get bored. Listening to my players and giving them what they want. Having several ways to resolve most encounters, and keeping things fantastical enough that everything the players encounter seems new, exciting, and demanding of respect. I haven't yet, but bringing back an old helpful NPC as a villain. Also I had an idea to use a dream sequence in Lost Mines to give four lvl 3 PCs an advantage in the Thundertree encounter but I couldn't get the idea fleshed out and it was feeling very railroady. It is easy during the heat of gameplay to lose track of everything I wrote in my pre-game notes, so I periodically tell the party that I'll give them time to discuss as a team what they want to do at this empass. I'll walk away to make it seem that the next decision is really dramatic and important, but really I'm just looking at my notes. High Fantasy anachronisms let the players tell the story mood music Let the players' paranoid speculations about the next encounter drive what I actually throw at them It is the player's story and I'm just helping them tell it The "Yes and" rule Steal ideas from elsewhere and re skin them. Take the standardized monsters in the encounters and changes them by either their appearance, stats, abilities of any mix of them If the players are having a good time, nothing else is needed. Relax, say yes, have fun! Be descriptive about everything and let the players take control of the narrative. Never let it look like you haven't planned for this situation I tend to use the illusion of choice to avoid seeming like I'm railroading when I need to (usually I prefer not to dictate where my players go, but when I design a dungeon and my players go down a different path, i'll sometimes make it so they end up at that dungeon even though they were heading somewhere else. Create the world and the campaign, let the players create the adventure Consistency. Weekly sessions with great players. It is not the players who you get rid of who cause problems, it is the ones you don't get rid of who do. Let the players build it with you ,say maybe instead of no Minimal prep, fly by the seat of your pants Keep monster stats simple and flexible. Use terrain during combat. Callbacks, and cinematic descriptions of events taking place that the players could've never seen. I dont have one yet Don't over prep. Get a baseline, then throw the players in and see what they do. Don't be afraid to completely change your plans if it makes for a better story! Have loose notes and be prepared to improvise. Keep things hush, let the mystery fill in the blanks. Your players have an imagination too Create a world where the player's characters live in, not a world where the characters happen to pass by Keeping everyone involved - directing the scenes and gameplay as a director would a movie. Lots of cut scenes, switching from character to character, describing the changes to environment npc's and pc's during the game Use published materials (1E through 5E) and existing worlds as a foundation, then mix, match, and add in your own campaign story and ideas. This gives you a safety net (publish mats in case you overlook something), the players feel of being part of some bigger universe ("Bigby's Hand? Wait, wasn't Bigby that mage we went to for guidance?"), while still allowing you to tell your own unique story. No trick, just a lot of planning. I'm not very good at improv, so I take lots of notes and try to have a feel for all the npcs so I can adjust on the fly. Know places where I can highlight each PCs' unique storylines. Tailor everything around the players, we usually spend the first hour talking about our characters and Im im the GM I spend this time brainstorming ideas for where this session will lead There is no solution so specific that a PC's "close enough" attempt will not count. Verisimilitude has more to do with evocative feel (sight, smell, sound not just one of the three). Genre is a tool; even subversion of genre need to establish genre first. let the players play Sand timers, by using sand timers I can give a definite limit to how much time a particular action or sequence can take. This might be 1 minute for a turn, or 3 minutes for a player monologue, or 5 to 10 minutes for a break. Players are much more on point when they have a physical indicator of time left, and other players can flip a timer if something is taking too long to signal everyone players are becoming disengaged and to move on to the next bit. Less combat, more puzzles make for a more interesting campaign Let players do what they want don't rail road them and have an npc follow them like a lost puppy. Be prepared. Monsters go on a sheet of paper (heavy stock, reuse ad nauseum), random lists for names, places, events fleshed out. Dice, lots of dice. Mood sounds (I like tabletop audio). Maps, an assortment, all keyed out with descriptions. Don't be afraid to end a session early if players seem to lose interest, if the players take actions you are not prepared for or if there is an appropriate dramatic moment to do so. Quality trumps quantity. Don't have one. :/ Every encounter has four outcomes: romance it, befriend it, capture it or kill it. From there I extrapolate two more likely things triggered by each step. Ask the players what they want. Then make them earn it. Don't overprepare. Have a very general outline for what should happen and when things go off the rails, move encounters, npc's etc. around. Drawing inspiration from watching Critical Role! Example: I took "How do you wanna do this?" When a player gets an epic kill to let them get to explain an awesome moment. Improvising; while my players don't think I am. Dimming the lights and turning your phone off Knowing exactly how the players like to play. Tricking the party to think that they defeat all of the enemies. In reality, those were just the appetizers for the main course X) Make the funny voices and never worry about embarrassment. Develop what the players show interest in. Don't rules lawyer Remembering it is about the players having fun Acting out NPC:s not merely by voice, but also by gestures. Introducing physical elements - letters etc Have a session zero game of Microscope to set up the world. Find a way to get the characters involved in the setting so the players have investment in the game beyond "murder-hobo" style play. Say no as seldom as possible. Sometime's it's okay to scrap all your prep and go with what the players want to do. Linking the story directly to the pc bsckgrounds. notes on npc's... and involve them into the game as much as possible. Turn everything into a bargain with the players: you can hit 4 enemies instead of 2 with burning hands IF you hit your ally in melee; you can automatically succeed at haggling but the merchant will give you a bad reputation; you can fight fewer orcs at once if you give them more room to kill the villagers. I prefer improvising the plan of the day to day campaign while referring to an already mapped out idea of the general campaign I have my players use Google Hangouts, and send them private messages whenever they would notice/detect anything privately. It allows them to decide how they share this info while not really slowing down the game, and forces them to get more into the mindset of the game. Everything is possible, it just needs to be cool or realistic. Improvise! Don't put too much effort into planning. Have a general idea and some hooks for if the players get stuck, but otherwise let them guide the adventure. Roll dice to scare players Keep pacing and narrative tension in mind, which helps me balance combat, exploration, interaction appropriately. I try to provide the pacing of a good serial story similar to a good TV series. Like a good TV show, I balance episodic excitement with season and series long narrative and character arcs. Do the voices, man. Do the voices. Mental flexibility Respect player's autonomy, use their background hooks, create exciting combats, allow them to feel that creativity is rewarded Always try to make the players laugh during conversations with your NPCs. It keeps things fun, and helps to separate out the different emotional 'tones' of each pillar - curiosity for Exploration, tension for Combat, amusement for Interaction. Angry GM's advice for keeping combat moving: recap what just happened near the character whose turn it is then ask them how they respond. No plan ever survives contact with the players. keep the world open and dont force characters. i love to think of stuff on the spot because i know and understand my world. I know what happens when the characters do something to the world in the aftermath and how npc's react to it. the trick is understanding the world, the story will follow naturally. funny voices and elaborate, gruesome descriptions for each kill Practice. You get better the more you DM. Keep it open ended Adaptability know your players and what they want from the game the rest is being lenient to them have fun even if it goes against what you had planned. Give each NPC as little backstory as possible, and allow them to be flexible to fit the situation. Ad Lib their first introduction, then use the downtime between sessions to flesh them out enough to fill their new role. Having a good mixture of detail and action to keep the players immersed. Prepare content, if it doesn't get used, re-skin and re-use the encounter. Running with things as they happen without being too rigid but still massaging branches back into the main narrative without railroading Improvisation- quick and easy, and doesn't railroad. Improvise everything based on player desire. They want a duel with a nemesis? It's happening. They want to explore a temple? Happening. I am an author by trade. The only trick is an overactive imagination and a rock solid memory. run the sort of game you want to play, make player choices matter and give the players freedom. make the world feel alive figure out what your players want and put it behind a wall Asking my players to each create an npc and a detail about the area. Helps the players feel part of the world when that have input in making it I run a game in a way that would be entertaining to me if I was a player. I always try to keep a player's perspective when I DM. Use of music, props, maps, etc Extremely detailed world-building prior to first-ever session, allows easier improvisation later. Communicate with your players! They'll do all the work for you if you can communicate with them enough. Reducing prep as much as possible, placing an emphasis on improvisation rather than extensive planning and background. Most things don't need to exist in detail until they come on stage. Being a fun GM describe how that looks please. Roleplay! "Yes, and...."" Reminding the players it isn't a video game. The world is a sandbox, and everything the characters do and/or don't has repercussions. Sometimes a slight railroad helps though, depending on the general mood of the players. Alcohol in moderation I have learned the art of telling players yes. This creates excitement from the players and allows them to do cool things. What they want may not be exactly what they get, but their input is heard. Bonus trick: Make monster combat tactical. Most monsters are relatively smart, and having them use tactics, beyond run forward and use best attack has made combats much more enjoyable. Say yes most of the time listen to your players: they often make in-world connections that you miss, and that can lead to narrative gold. Some of my best ideas were suggested by players, and they didn't even know it! Allow PC's to help ke build the world through role play Slow advancement, experience based on actual experiences rather than just a kill point system. Centralized location where the players can become known, get to know those who live there and become attached to the campaign on a personal level. Not worrying too much about the rules. Setting a good ambiance (music, background images, describing the situation well) Make sure there's food. In 5e, absolutely remember to hand out Inspiration Never say no. Even if an action is virtually impossible let your players roll and then they always feel like they could succeed. As a high school teacher, I have access to my classroom and the myriad of technology it has to offer. I use my school's fast wifi network to connect my players and their computers around a large table. As the DM, I share maps and encounter info to my players through the Fantasy Grounds software package. One of my player's computer is connected to my SmartBoard. Often my players are on their feet using their finger to move their character's token on the SmartBoard. I guess I run my games much the way I run my AP Calculus classroom. I play mood enhancing music through the overhead speakers in my classroom, dim the lights and the game is on! Pre-plan things your player's *could* encounter, not what they *will* encounter. That way you can alter the adventure on the fly to suite the mood and the party's abilities. "You can try!" take a shot of whiskey and realize that nothing will go as planned Throw different challenges at the players and let them sort out the answer I love using mood lighting, syrinscape for sound effects and music. Follow the flow. If they want to go off the beaten path, let them. Especially if you think they'll fail or that the idea is stupid. Follow them anyway and let them fail. It turns out to be much more fun, and makes the game/world/story feel real and organic. My favorite thing to do is when I can integrate things from my players' backstories and personal quests into the game. All of the best RP moments from my games have come from those times. Have a compelling story that your PCs are directly involved in and your players will keep coming back to your table. Also don't play favorites and don't intentionally screw anyone over. :) I talk with my players before and after the session to give and take continuos feedback. I have my own gdrive folder with form surveys that i hand out links before each campaign and every session that I feel a need for feedback. Not a lot if planning that way the players can decide what they want to do and not be railroaded. I have note cards with the players names on one side and their trinkets and other info facing me. I also use the cards so everyone knows the initiative order. Don't stick so heavily to the rules, it's all about having a good time, that's what you should be focusing on. Especialy Online where you can handpick your players, choose those that suite your game the best. If one player wants to fight and loot all the time and you want to make a campaign thats mainly about roleplaying a character, just part ways. Also, especialy in homebrew campaigns, encourage your playes to write out a lot of background to their charaters and incorperate it into the campaign if you can. Personalize it and make the PC's feel like they matter Design the setting (cities, NPCs, plot hook) and let the players take you on a ride! Plan ahead enough to make the sandbox, but be prepared to cleanup the mess your players make if needed Flowcharts and clif notes Build to your players Making fun combat encounters and being adaptable to player wishes Customizing something fun for each player Slightly less than two drinks. Leave them guessing Keeping everyone interested in the game buy giving out small amounts of DM damage for bad things and GP for small amazing things Trello is the answer to all, it's very helpful and I can have everything I need all in one place near enough. Write things out ahead of time. Assuming your session doesn't go off the rails it helps me out a ton. Method acting all the NPCs from the standpoint of knowing their personalities, motivations and goals - so when the PCs step off the beaten track I know how the NPCs will react. Twists in player character plots Build the background of the world and everything else just flows out. Also, threaten lives with terrain and monsters. Let the players drive the story, not the story drive the players. Do everything you can to get players engaged with the story and their characters Every character has to have a personal goal that drives them to risk life and limb adventuring. That way they're not just following along with the story. Also, different accents help distinguish NPC's. Say yes to everything that's within reason. Force everyone to role play in a situation where they are uncomfortable Always keep your players out of the loop. Never tell let them know their out of character guess is correct Giving the players ownership of the world; *if* they make prudent choices needed to get their own way, and overcome the obstacles that stand in their way. Say yes to the shenanigans the players want to do. Wringing plots out of players backstories. Also, bringing drinks. Learn to improv. All the preparation in the world does nothing when the party decides to start a political revolution and ultimately get the sovereign of the realm killed and the kingdom thrown into chaos. You can't plan for everything, so learn to just go with it and make it work. Somehow it all comes together in the end. Try to have one element that relates to each player The answer is always yes,but... Let the players play Bringing pc's close to death I ask the players how they see a scene instead of me describing it to them. I use my phone a lot when running games, so before every session, I clear my task manager and just load the various apps, links and notes that I need for that session. It clears a lot of tabletop clutter, leaving more room for dice, paper and other non-digital effects. Create an expected plot line, but don't expect to follow it. Expect for every character and NPC to have their own agenda and goals. My players are crazy and random, but all like to make a good story, so alot of improv on my part helps =) Mix things up, keep the hints subtle Write sensory tags next to everything, using specifics. Eg smell of burned bone, small wisps of fog that curl around the gravestones, every hair lifting into goosebumps around the altar, etc. Sometimes theatre of the mind trumps grid Know when to sit back and let the players argue! Good players Live your story. Breathe it. Dream it during your commutes and before bed. If you know your characters and your world you can adapt to any craziness your players throw at you. Emotions/voices gauge the players and adjust on the fly I speak as little as possible and listen to everything my players say, even offhand comments. Using intrigue I am new but the best trick I know is to care, and explore things about the sessuon that I want to see and what my players wantto see. As a dm the game would be garbage if we all didn't enjoy it Character voices, taking players to separate Teamspeak rooms Drink Heavily RPing Over prepare the game, under prepare the session Be prepared. Make things personal for the players. Involve their characters, race, background and ideals, and flip them upside down if needed. Improvising und reacting to player choices. Write a story outline and a network of how the nods know each other on a piece of paper o keep everything straight Read the adventure, know the structure, then improvise while keeping a sense of the structure. Give the players ownership, let them decide details that work into the campaign. For example, in a recent game, "Someone approaches the group and is sustaining eye contact with , who immediately recognizes him. OOC: tell me who this is, how he knows you and why he found you." Then that character is developed into an NPC and plot hook. Spontaneity I spend a lot of time with headphones on while planning, coming up with the backing tracks for the game from a variety of soundtracks, scores, and environmental sounds. Helps really set the the tone and feels more immersive/enjoyable to plan that way. NPCs that act like people If I need time I just have the team come to a door. Be flexible. If the players derail the story, it doesn't end anything, it takes it a new direction. Improvisation, and Getting into character with NPC (Voices, Attitude) to surprise the players that this person is real. Don't let the published adventure or even the rules get in the way of players having fun. I always try to keep the action moving forward by keeping downtime to a minimum (looking up information in the phb, setting up battle maps, etc). Incorporating Lore into the store and ensuring the combat is challenging Don't take anything too seriously A few beers, trust myself and the players. Beer Player freedom I like to take an example from a fairy tale, movie, famous book, etc. and twist it into an adventure. It's always fun to watch as the players finally figure out the inspiration. Give the story a personal twist, never take away player agency Roleplay Make your players feel awesome. Tweak stats in the middle of combat by increasing/decreasing health and damage as the fight progresses so that enemies are tough, but the players will usually barely win. Always keep them wondering... Aim for fun, always try to roll with player choices, and allow the players a lot of room to build upon the world through ingame actions. Moral consequences. Setting up scenarios where the players have to make moral and ethical decisions that could have conseqences throughout the game. social intrigue and heroic act Never throw the rule book at anyone creative. The unexpected, the inverse, the interactive, and the Alejandro Jodorowsky influence. Improvising something personal for the players. give the players alot of option and let them play around in the sandbox. lots of side quests, hints or interesting npcs Link character background to campaign plot. I print minis with a 3d printer Vivid descriptions Often too much burden is put on the DM to run a great game, the players are equally important. If everyone is respectful and friendly, you will always all have fun, regardless of story or campaign grandeur. "popcorn" initiative - Roll for highest, winner dictates next person to go, enemies go when I see fit. Prepare as little as possible and improv as much as possible. Run the session like a television episode, where each character gets at least one moment in the spotlight Pay attention to your players. Switch play/narration style with their mood. Yes, anding. You need to build on what the players give you rather than shutting it down like a lot of DMs. Being adaptable and letting my players participate in world building We are all there to have fun. Let the players have free range. Saying yes to all my PC'S requests, within reasons. Complete freedom 5 room dungeons... rinse... repeat. Make everything interesting Homemade tokens have been awesome for our group. Story is king. The narrative must be interesting, complex and have depth. The world around the heroes must move, change and evolve as the campaign runs. Take their personal goals and objectives and combine it with world related problems so you can have both general and personal solutions for your adventures. Iconsistencies are the little demons that can ruin everything, USE THEM, to your advantage, create around them and justify them in a way that your entire party will drop they jaw to the ground as you present their enemy and their best friend npc in the same persona! Listen to ideas and hopes of players to get a brief idea of what they enjoy in the game The story is the key, with unexpected twists and relevance to the players. Memorable encounters -- I try to ensure there is at least one encounter that is REALLY unique. Yes to everything I really like, letting the players turn random small weird things you introduce for no real reason into something important and meaningful. Knowing your players and what they want/need in a game session Know all of the characters' backstories as if you were playing them, and tie them into the story at every opportunity. don't let people get bogged down researching rules. If you can get away with it, make a judgement call and move on Remembering that player enjoyment and involvement is more important than the rules- the job of the DM is to facilitate the world, not punish the player. So if a snarling goblin suddenly needs a convenient moment of panic to prevent a total party kill, then that goblin is going to lose his nerve and cry like a baby, no matter what the dice say. Some of the best games have been run on the fly. 100% improvisation, 0 prep I've been DMing for 32 years. Take some characters, send them into one of the hundreds of adventure stories I've seen over the years, and hang on for the ride. The joy of 5E for is is that it plays as smoothly on the fly as BECMI or 1E. Let the players interact with everything they want to, however they want to, and know the world and NPCs well enough to lead them through the main plot with that. Keep combat moving quickly - and don't forget to narrate! good sense of humor The occasional humorous voice or skit. Rolling for no reason. Keeps them on their toes. roll initiative at the start of the session and after an encounter. Makes the players not do the "final fantasy swoosh" ooh combat, lets smash it. Makes them think about the encounter differently. Let each player have some time in the spotlight. Have a beginning and an end in mind for each session, and allow players to get from one to another in their own way Don't say no to your players. Memorable NPCs Say yes to your players Write a Bio/Background for each PC connecting them to the story somehow. Don't be afraid to go off on tangents. Giving characters a chance to have social encounters whenever possible. Maybe they could talk this lich into a deal, or threaten a weaker mob into spilling a little info. Just really giving them a chance to change and mine out the world instead of being told what it's like. Modifying combat encounters on the fly to better challenge the party. I don't sit down Running with player ideas, Improvise every moment, no one knows what to expect Easter Eggs - I keep track of certain character interactions in-game - and across campaigns - to give the players a treat when they realise who they've been talking to/ bumping into. Make the PCs bond with NPCS before having good the bbeg destroy the NPCs Let the players guide everything. Balance prep with improving. Be prepared for the unexpected "Be a fan of the characters." Always give the players the fealing they are in full control of the campain even if its far from that Pulling the PC backgrounds, flaws, etc. into the game story and using lots of Inspiration; also lots of DM enthusiasm and interest Let the players have fun. Letting the game go where the players want, saying "Yes" often. I go against the grain heavily with this one. I run a story first game and only play if all players are present. Add to this, making the players come up with how they know each other, makes the players really attentive and invested in their characters. Using multiply sagas, rather than a massive campaign Remember that the other people at the table are your friends and play every session like it's your last. Never save your "cool" ideas, always use them as soon as it makes sense. Never say no Adapting to what players say and do, how they react to NPCs in order to know who can be developed into a recurring NPC. Improvise based on the world lore Prepare the world not the story Fully building out NPC character sheets, spells, and abilities, giving NPCs depth, and myself and the players a taste of all character classes. Freedom for exploring a organic world together with a strong and interesting main quest with personal motivator for each character. Group and solo feedbacks section after each section to know what to improve. And snacks. The illusion of choice The words " Yes and" answer the players Questions and ask them back. Kinda a give and take idea they get answers. If they ask if something is possible always answer and then give them a leading question to keep the momentum going. baiting players into tricky encounters, but with "awesome" rewards Subverting expectations "Yes and..." everything! If a player wants to do it, let them roll and role play it out. Initative tent cards Pay attention to players' interests, and follow the path of most fun Focus on fun and not exact rules With eight players its pretty rough but i try to touch a bit every session on each Clique's interests. My Treasure fiends, role playing squad, and monster hunters create the feeling that player characters could die. If the players are invested in their characters, they want them to do well. Trying to find and employ clever tactics to keep the party on its toes. Cliffhanger Keep the pace of the game moving forward... especially the combat...descriptions and fast paced combat. Drama and detailed descriptions I use Roll20 to show maps and reveal progress in dungeons, but combat is done either in the theater of the mind or on the battle mat with miniatures. Always start with action. Yes, and. Its the first rule of improvisation and the best way to let the characters tell the story. Roll with it, the players are going to change your plans but remember actions can have consequences Dynamic conditions / locations for encounters, colorful NPCs, player choice, generous with inspiration / fate points / hero points Good descriptions when you don't know what to do, add more descriptions Keep the players engaged. Make sure they are all interested, and don't be afraid to improvise Let the players develop the story. They are the cause, and I am the effect. Make sure you have a good group of like minded friends. Know the adventure to the point it's conversational for you. Skill Challenges Improv (letting the players guide the story) explain the situation they are in and react according to your preparation or act freely as they progress the story. Re-skinning monsters Have good friends who are willing to stay up until two in the morning playing it with you. Worldbuilding The ability to improvise is paramount. It allows me to run a game with very little prep if need be. Morally ambiguous choices Let the players design it all without realizing. Be open with your players: ask for feedback, talk about their characters and where they think the story would be going, offer hints if they get stuck, work on integrating their character backstory into the adventure. Also the most important way to avoid player boredom is preparing better. Let the players try anything Try not to say no. Changing on the fly as fun ideas pop up. Kill the troublesome player. No, but vastly subverting classic tropes /don't/ plan too much. In my experience, the best things have happened when I've just allowed things to flow and occur organically. I have maps of important locations, such as a hostile keep they may have to sneak through, and I have some notes on what they might encounter in certain areas or what plot hooks they come across. Never do I plan second-by-second, and that has always helped the most. Leave options open, prepare possibilities, not plot. Start sessions with an outline, not a plan. I plan a loose skeleton of what the story is and try to anticipate key choices but try to improvise the story as the players make decisions. It makes for a more personal feeling story for the players cause it's based almost completely around their actions. Keep every player at the table involved in the game as much as possible, keeping everyone entertained, and encouraging each player to invest emotionally in the adventure/setting Keep the stakes real. Make sure the party knows that they are not invulnerable and the risk is real. when the party slows down for long decisions I bring out the hourglass, the look on their faces when they notice it is priceless Prep the combat stuff before the game - write out all the monster info and just have it ready to run. Only having a general layout of what is going to happen. The players have a tendency to jump around and ruin hard core plans. Myself included. Make the player's choices change the campaign world (local or larger). I ask myself "If you were a player, would you find this fun, interesting, or both?" and anything that doesn't get a "both" answer I keep working on. Player input and idea collection, Trips Casual, verbally cinematic. Keep everything flowing smoothly and quickly; don't get bogged down or let the players get too bogged down. Bee flexible and let the players run the game, I just fill in the consequences (good or bad) try to tie in nostalgic D&D material from the original game I always ask for feedback from my players to make sure I don't repeat things they hate and continue doing things that they enjoy. Leaving things loose enough to let players make their own choices. Be prepared to improvise a lot. Keep the story interesting and have parts for everyone to get involved. Know your Players. Allow each member of the party meaningful individual choices from time to time, rather than "group" decisions. Whether that's in choice-of-reward, or choice-of-ally, or choice-of-danger-to-face, etc., giving them unique individual choices helps players build their own characters out, and become more attached. Try to include pc's background Keep adventures loose and leave options open to the players. Trust a DM who doesn't want your character to die, but is willing to let it happen Letting the players tell the story, take their thoughts and moments of hesitation to bring the story to life. Player input is paramount. If they're not having fun, you're not doing your job. Open communication is key. We are not editors, picking over mistakes and errors, but rather story tellers telling a narrative together. If something doesn't work, make sure they tell you. If you can't take constructive criticism that's fine, but the DM role is not for you. Minimize downtime and try to make sure everyone is engaged in the game Involve the players in pretty much everything. Letting the players think i have planned out much more than i really did. Run with ideas that players generate themselves Let the players guide the story, not force them to do what I planned Pregenerated list of loot/npcs/encounters! I like making an immersive and intricate world so I try to engage players through that using memorable NPC's to generate player engagement; messing with a favorite NPC can generate an emotional response in the players, as can making a villain truly evil and/or reprehensible: the more terrible the villain, the more satisfied the players are when he is eventually defeated Give the players a scenario where no matter what they choose they could loose something of value. Or give them a test of wits I have found sometimes the journey is more fun than the destination. Don't be a jerk Improv encounters and let the players lead the game Have the players roll for random encounters Flexibility and adaption. Let the players guide the narrative within your plot. They will be more invested and you can tell a deeper story. Bullet points learn the rules, but don't feel that you must run you game by them Still figuring that out, I've only been at this a month! Take input from my player characters out of game on their opinion. Asking them if they like, or liked something, or what they think their character would want to be the outcome of a situation, ites they could be looking or, etc. The trick is to really "feel" your party. Some people just want to run around and do quests (the Skyrim style), some people want excesive roleplay scenes, some players want something in between. As a DM it is your task to cater to your group in the best way possible. Use details given by players to create hooks, ask players for information about people or places Flowchart dungeons. All dungeons can be abstracted as flowcharts with how rooms connect to each other. They can be mapped out in detail later, or if you're not using a grid and strictly working with theatre of the mind, you can just use the flowchart for the entire map. Yes, and... The rule of cool - if it's going to be cool, let them roll for it. Just having fun. I try not to plan too much ahead of time: my players can be unpredictable. Letting them attempt random moves and roll for 20s. Leads to amazingly good or bad things. Taking loosely defined backstory points and turning them into key parts of a grander story I am inexperienced, but have found success weaving story elements into random ecounter tables give players an exploratory feel, but still have a plot. Making NPCs seem more like real people instead of just generic background. Read the table and balance roleplay and combat depending on tables interest Stealing the PCs ideas. If they're paranoid about NPC 14 being a vampire? Well they weren't before but now... Fleshed out NPCs Strategic Silence. Players will fill in the blanks with more depth than you could ever imagine. I make very obvious cause/effect relationships between their actions and the story. On-the-fly adjustments for combat (party struggling = lower HP/rolls of enemy, too easy = raise HP and/or fudge attack rolls). The coaxing NPC. The character in the story that helps the players put together all of their evidence. I like to have a small mystery to every site and story. Basically, a character who says, "what do you know?", "What do you suspect?", and "what are you going to do about it?" I award player inspiration if they can vividly describe their killing blow. This leads to a lot of graphic descriptions of violence. Enthusiasm! Being enthusiastic and animated gets the players to buy-in. I live to improvise, and have practiced for years. I was finally able to use my skills with character acting and improv at the table. I feed off my party. If they aren't having a good time, I make sure to figure out why, and avoid that in the future. Right now. I love giving the players ultimate choice. With every quest, they choose what to accomplish and how it gets done. I try never to force them into action, but I will throw out moral dilemmas. Decide to kill this bad guy? His slave is about to raise the alarm, so what's more important, civil equality or the mission. Often they choose the mission. Follow the players, then anticipate the players Wing it and let the players be heroes! Improvisation. Just keep the flow going. Knowing when to let players bend the rules for the sake of fun. Give the players what they want but twist it in a way they dot expect. Sitting together and talk wit we all wand in the game. Have look up tables ready and improvise Skittles as sweets for monsters instead of minis. The PCs get to eat what they kill. Give each character a chance to shine. If 4 players are playing each game will focus in some way on one player then alternate randomly. Getting ech player to have there own back story so i can drop in little bits to make ech game more personal to them Let the players do their thing. Never say no, say roll. Not over preparing, the game can stray before too long. tweeked my DM screen with extra charts. Humor Have fun! Get into character. Play to your strenght and trample your players emotions. pluck at those heartstrings :) Requiring only that my players show up, I maintain and prepare all materials and always host. Remember the things the players didn't do and include them later Create areas and NPCs with lives of their own, allow players to run wild without tightly planning events or trying to anticipate their actions. I keep focused on one simple goal: If the players are having fun, it's going well. SHOEING the players how their actions are building and changing the world around then through their choices. (Killed orc threat, trade rooted opened up, town started expanding more things to buy, accsess to new far off cities) Asking players what their character would do/referring to them in character Having idle characters playing NPCs List of random names for NPCs Preparation Keep the players engaged with story hooks addressing each of their motivations Let your players guide where the story goes. Having a narrative framework is really important, but that framework is there for you to build on at the table, not to follow without deviation. Building a world and letting the players run around in it at will. It's their story, I'm just there to play npcs lol. If an attack roll misses by 1 or 2, ask the player to "give some flavor" to the hit. If they are creative enough, the hit goes through. Keep it fun, give the players what they want. Having fun as a DM Not over preparing Subtle music and lighting When preparing, I like to assume the players will take one particular course of action and decide exactly how the NPCs and world will react. Then, when the players do something totally different, I know the character of the NPCs and setting so much better and improvisation is a lot easier. I put a lot of personal flavor into dynamic and flavorful NPCs. Devil's in the details Create ethically challenging scenarios, make characters question their morals Creating gridless terrain to use together with miniatures for combat, as well as using hooks to start new adventures and keep the story flowing Never fudge anything that happens at the table. Take notes on what did happen and craft a uniform world from the random bullcrap you spew from your mouth Humour Make changes on the fly based on player's table-talk speculation. Never say no, unless it's absolutely ridiculous I've been dm'ing for around a year now. My first two quick and short games were terrible. My third however I stuck to a smaller group of people. I developed a city completely knowing every in and out of it, and introduced them into the game by slightly using my first plot hook. To have a great game I feel that you need to relax, and allow your players imaginations run just as wild as yours. Don't be so strict that it makes it no fun, but don't be so allowing that it makes them never struggle for what they want. You're there to have fun. So have fun and stop worrying so much about if your doing everything correct all the time. Prepare and create a strong narrative. Insanity. Wing it Leaving just enough to improv Listening to the players. I am too new to know this winging it hardcore Have the players take the lead Roll20 dynamic lighting Saying yes PC character development is the biggest hook there is Having slight alternate paths if the players choose to take them. Design the plans of the evil doers, design events that will occur. Allow the party to interface and disrupt that plan. Keep the players relevant to the story. I like to add their back stories in little snippets as they go along the main campaign. Keep it lose and open to evolve around the players. Don't be too serious. PROPS Build encounter, ask self "if I were a player in this, is it interesting, is it fun?" If the answer to both isn't yes, rebuild the encounter. let the players have choice in deciding where the campaign is going, have at least one adventure ready for each hook option being focused on player interaction with story, and keeping DM rolls secret so that they can be tweaked to serve that end if needed. Having a stiff drink during the game. It helps relax and go with the flow. ;) Shut up and let the players make their own disasters then foul them dramatically out of the fire Unexpected occurances Understand the "why" and its easier to come up with the "what" on the fly Play with people who are good people! A single bad person WILL ruin your campaign eventually. If you invite anyone to the table who is a jerk (people who "act" like jerks are jerks, no "they are a nice person most of the time, but..." allowed) not only are you going to lose players, but your players are going to lose respect for you. I have a bunch of laminated tools that I use to track and prep adventures. Let the players' actions have meaning, for good or ill. It's THEIR story. Never shoehorn them into YOUR favorite story. Surprises, all the time and patrols running into my group Pretend you have prepared everything but actually improvise 95% of the game. Let the players think you are smarter than you are. Always be prepared for the unexpected Incorporating Celestials into the story and background as much as fiends (my favorite monsters to have the PC's fight) and other monsters and having the PC's face the consequences of their actions both short term and long term. Handouts and plotted maps go a long way for immersion I develop a high level story and run a sandbox where the players make the story as they go. Dont be linear in your session and allow players to use their imagination. Know your world, know your players. intertwining player's background into the campaign keep it moving React to the players interactions with the world Matthew Mercer. When running games online, provide visual aids. Send pictures of monsters; search for art and photos that illustrate terrain, features, etc.. (The search for these may also inspire you as a GM‰ÛÓI've had whole arcs stem from a single image in /r/ImaginaryLandscapes!) NPC Voices Don't over prepare; improvise Make the players have difficult choices that aren't clearly black and white. And make their choices have real consequences. Sophie choice Good social encounters which can develop at least one of the player's characters in such a manner that it does not stall the progression of the story and create new alternate branches which will ultimately return back in the main story branch. small details Beautifully made standup cards that act as constantly shifting screen Steal from other media mercilessly Imagine things, know the world and environment Random roll to decide who is going to recap last session Don't get committed to outcomes. Focus on dealing with what happens, not on what you think should happen. Be prepared to make shit up. Really developing the NPCs and their viewpoints and goals. Be the world. Be the keep, the caves, the kobolds, and the copper they have stored in their coffers. And let the players worry about being their PCs. Aka don't try to control them. Have elements of humour in it Make sure NPCs are as rich and complicated as the PCs Be ready for anything. Reskinning monster stats to be a completely different enemy Tying in the story to characters backstory so they have motivation to do the adventures "Yes, And" or "No, But" or "You can certainly try" - Don't just shut people down. Get them to keep talking and working on ideas with these phrases. Everything is going to go spectacular, but not the way you planned. You will end up flying by the seat of your pants. Outside of details for opponents, don't overdo it with the specifics. You want enough information to keep everything consistent, but not so much that it will bog you down. Roll with what the party does (literally), they can be better storytellers than you more than you'd expect. And keep it fun! Encounter Design = Timer + Threat + Treat, Be a Fan of the Characters, Voices! Taking a published adventure a making it your own. Currently I am running PotA, and very early in i started dropping hints and treasures to my players. By the time they get to the end if the published part, they will have had all their back stories expired and found out the BBG is not the actual BBG. using their ideas Give consequence to actions and make things happen as time progresses. Make the world dynamic. My strength as a DM lies in improvising. So i guess my trick would be to not over-prepare. I don't script anything for NPC's or have many cutscene type events because I want the players to know and feel that they have a significant impact on the story and where it goes. Getting my players to go where I'd like them to is made easier by the fact that I have known them for almost two decades, so I understand what will spark their interest, and they in turn know when I'm trying to drop a plot hook. Player engagement You with the flow of the players Some preperation is key but having a strong idea of what you want in your world and then building on the fly is my favourite part. Players will always do what they want and you won't be ready for it. atmospheric music Never say "no" Flavor Text. Make sure each encounter has flavor to it so players are immersed. Keep it moving, do a reveal or two to give the players more clues about the big they are after. Presenting, as best I can, several decently prepared paths of exploration, instead of just one. Good characters and a good story always get the party invested. I run 3 different one shots that were all very different one was mainly rp one was mainly combat and the third was a mix and asked my players what they liked the most Find what the players are into, double down on that. Let your pc's do what they want, to an extent, and adjust to them. Pokerface and on the fly thinking. nothing goes as planned. but if you can bullshit it, you're all good. Letting the Players do what they want and improv the consequences I let the players take control whenever I can, if they stray too far I try and steer them back but in the end its their story. I also never tell my players "no", I tell them "you can certainly try". I like when my players get too talkative about what they should do instead of just doing things, so i usually have a building catch on fire or someone tries to steal something from them. A little unexpected encounter for the group to get them into motion. I don't have a specific storyline, I'm running three separate groups in the same world, allowing them to shape the world any way they wish. Getting into the fiction without shame Never forget rule #1 - have fun! music I don't prepare specific plot points. I just design towns filled with npcs who want things, hate things, etc... with a loose over arching plot that guides the players. My players seem to have fun the more sandbox like I can make each "quest" Let your players run the story. Building everything around, but not To your players. Make sure everyone is having fun by adding a little humor where applicable and fudging rolls if nescessary. Also alcohol No tricks, just put in the time and really know the NPCs and most likely encounters coming up. Create situations with very open options for resolution, allowing the players get to get creative. Write descriptions and answers to potential questions in advance. Have the pcs answer a bunch of questions before session one. Develop hooks and plot off those answers. Gets a sandbox feel but is more predictable for dm prep Improv. I write my encounters based on Average party level, X creatures per PC, keeps it simple. Build scaleable treasure and I'm done. I do many things on the fly at the table. My notes are loose enough to remain flexible and adapt for improv. If you prepare to improv, you're never under prepared for your players. The players make the story. You make the setting. Like-minded players. Cutting disruptive players that refuse to change undesired behaviors after multiple discussions. Since I been playing some background music, it helped the mood of adventuring. Be flexible. Change your outline for the session as the players go through it. Modify things behind the scenes to make a better experience overall. Dnd is unique because it is real time entertainment that can be modified to best fit your players. For home games, I tend to run less and less 5e and more DIY or indie systems. My strategy there is to pull in lots of resources from different systems and the DIY world. We started a recent short campaign with a funnel, then used Zak S.'s Alice tables from Red and Pleasant Land, pulled maps from 13th Age, etc. Most of my home players don't really care about 5e's rules much - only a couple of them even on the PHB (or any edition of the rules). If it adds weirdness, we use it. For store games, I try to use The Lazy DM and lots of improv. While we frequently have to look up and confirm spell effects (too many freaking spells!), I try to otherwise keep all books off the table and rely on player input, quick questions to the best rules lawyer in the group, and my judgment. Prep, more prep and throwing all prep out the window Letting each character become invested in something of their own choosing, and developing it along with the story. Say yes as much as you can Take player comments and incorporate them; like when they state, "wouldn't it be cool if..." and then I build that into play. Improvisation is the skill I constantly tap to ensure proper flow, excitement, etc. Playing no prep work games on occasion to improve improvisational skills. Establish clear stakes before every conflict and every die roll. Just go with it! Run a game on the rails but let the players chose what happens. Don't start the game until you have your world built, so that you're not spending time before each session except for combat, loot, etc. If you already have an immersive world built (nations and cities, important NPCs, storyline, etc) it's easier for players to get lost in the world and start forming their characters, as they're not so worried about what does and doesn't exist in the world. This doesn't mean to railroad the storyline or anything, just give them a complete as possible open world to explore, save, destroy, or whatever they see fit! stay relaxed and keep attentive of the PCs so I can Improv if anything happens Spending>250 hours studying and reading about DMing and storybuilding theory and practice. Failing a few times and learning from those mistakes until I could repeatedly produce success. Having modular encounters that can be dropped in, "reskinning" the environment or NPCs If it is within the bounds of physics or magic the player can do it. Don't be scared to let the story go off the trail a bit. If the party figures out a plot hook, it becomes true even if it wasn't what I was planning. I love how that will change the story in unexpected ways. Lots of sandbox style world building before the campaign starts, mostly improv afterwards roll all initiatives (pc and monster/baddies) before the adventure begins so that i already have the lists ready when an encounter may begin. Letting the players use their imagination; the "Rule of Cool" Acting Listen to players ideas, even if it's not what you planned, they can be good. Cater to each player's playstyle with their character's story. Using fun voices to make the characters different and memorable. Be good at improve Make sure everyone has the same expectations. Trust in yourself and forget everything else but the question: Am I and my players having a great time? Never let them see you sweat, whether they guessed the plot or they couldn't be further away from actuality. Let them theory craft and hypothesize. knowing who the players are and their playing styles. Do a lot of prep work before you sit down to play, have all your loot tables worked out and already rolled up, so that you don't get bogged down figuring things out and lose valuable play time. Still learning how to do that... Being flexible enough for the players to feel like they can do anything but being prepared enough to not feel like I'm floundering. Also, making the story about the PC's and not just something random they wouldn't necessarily care about. Make it about the players, not about yourself or your story. Go with the flow. Have an idea of the possible places the session can go, but don't lock your players in. If they choose something you didn't anticipate, then announce a washroom break for 5-10 minutes and improv something, adapt something you had prepared. Making everything seem like it's meant to be used important for immersion and authenticity. Heavy character involvement in world events I like to prepare a lot but allow for improvisation. Throwing out your notes is A-OK. Inspire moments or hooks that your players would like. First is to find what kind of players they are. I learn improve is the best tool as none of the players are aware that I barely write a story for them and go with them on an adventure based of their actions. I make it memorable by playing or feeding their wants, fears or desires. Be dynamic: let the players run the game, not you Think in images, not narratives. Give all characters a moment to shine and make sure nobody dominates the game. everything is done with the focus of having fun while challenging the PCs COMMUNICATION, knowing your players expecations, and COMMUNICATION I love randomly rolling a d20 for no reason at all. That way my players don't know for sure if I'm rolling stealth for an enemy or something like that, or if I'm just messing with them. always try to plan outcomes and have an ending in mind. Making sure to individually engage everybody at the table, it's something I had an issue with in the past and I feel that now that I take turns asking what people are doing even outside of combat they tend to be more involved and pay attention better. Set the mood, make sure everyone's phone is off, and encourage freedom of expression! Trying to stay focused on keeping it immersive and staying in character. Still working on it! Letting the PC's have the satisfaction of a last kill scenario once the last enemy is downed. Get each character invested, and choose your players wisely. Never say no. Have an open mind and be creative. Loyalty and tardiness Potempkin Villages. I build several quests, and no matter what the players "choose" they end up going there. They get the illusion of choice, and I can present a well prepared adventure. Keep them guessing by not answering their "what if" questions unless they do something in game to find out Making sure your players have fun. Ask them what they want to play, if you're running a game that they don't want to play, neither you or them are going to have fun. And that's what D&D is all about, having fun. Build the world, let your players determine the adventure. Allow your players to be creative and go off the rails, and when they don't and things get a little slow, plan for ways to make the rails go off of them! Be prepared I make sure I am well versed in the cast and their motivations, both PCs and NPCs Making things up Always say yes. Making sure the players are into the story and having fun while providing a good challenge. Using 4e Skill Challenges altering the narrative with cut-aways, prologues, epilogues, or starting in media res Over prepare the world, under prepare the session. Let the players build their own railroad. Ensuring that every decision has some sort of consequence. It may be minuscule, such as a character being embarrassed about a situation, or major, such as the fall of a kingdom. I like to make these consequences build and intertwine together to create new situations for the players as I think it deepens the immersion. Putting things into the world that have no purpose is also fun because in life, perhaps an old abandoned shack is just that and it may have a story behind it but not necessarily a good one with any treasure, just that it's an old hunting shack. Going with the flow and letting the players run the story! Buy a booster pack of Magic or some other game, make the cards in it inspire an adventure or location either through art, quotes, NPCs, etc. Give them enough rope to hang themselves. I take my player's ideas, even offhanded comments, and make them part of the world. I ask players to describe their killing blows or characteristics of enemies to break them out of the mechanics of the game and into the story. Running with a player's hair brained idea if what might be going on behind the scenes. Remember your job is to maximise the amount of fun had in a room Avoid saying "no" End the session on a cliffhanger. Improvising interesting NPCs I create a table showing how I'm going to use each of my story elements in each session. Remembering that it is about your players not yourself. Improv classes. Having my players contribute to world building Amusing storytelling creating conflict to make the party become stronger together Yes but, or yes and..... I give the players creative freedom like that of any sandbox style game. I let them help make a memorable game. Keeping a list of what the players want to use while preparing Funny voices Getting into character to make the world feel alive. Give the characters a personal reason to care about the plot. Yes, but and yes, and..... Always be ready for the group to travel to random places. Always keeping several adventuring/story paths available to the players Keeping them on task I am not veru experienced DM and this might sound cheesy, but I believe that there is no trick but to always do what brings joy to both you and your group. Good DM needs to have skills in memorizing rules, story-building, some acting and creativity, but it all doesn't matter if you or the group aren't having fun. Work with your players to see what they want from the game and work it in gradually. Know your players, anticipate them, reward creativity. Allowing PC to build and develop their character with strong supporting back grounds and future goals. Surprise and fear none making a living world, and making the characters feel a part of the world Organization using Onenote (previously used google docs), linked files are great in general Presentinf morally grey scenarios No trick. Prepublished adventures + adequate prep time. "Can I try..." YES! giving the players opportunities to use creative solutions Know your players and what they enjoy. I make sure to have NPCs react to player actions in unique ways based off of what NPCs' motivations are, put I avoid roleplaying them to save time. I instead work to actively describe their actions and espressions while generally describing what they saying in conversation. I know that if I tried to speak how I want my NPCs to sound I would take too long floundering through their speach. If doing a mystery, always have multiple clues and multiple ways to find each clue. Don't be afraid of not preparing, sometimes you get the best ideas in the heat of the moment. Failing forward! Have fun, let the players do what thier characters are good at Never say "no," always say "yes, and..." Never present a choice that is as simple as black and white. Always dwell in areas of grey. know your players Be prepared to be unprepared "Yes and" or "no but" style story-telling with players. Be prepared to improvise. One hard fight one easy fight per session Know your players and play to their actual character as much as their player character. Be modular in your approach to adventure design, players always do something unexpected. You can always use an encounter elsewhere if they avoid it the first time! I build everything completely sandbox and the story gets made by the players, I try to work with any idea they come up with and rarely tell them straight out no instead opting to find feasible rolls and outcomes. I like to make sure that everyone is included in the game. I do this by always making sure that everyone in the party speaks (not neccessarily role playing) with every interaction/encounter in order to maintain immersion and cohesiveness in the party. Consistent voices for NPCs, the players enjoy having easy to identify NPCs. They will ALWAYS notice if you mess up the voice for a NPC. ALWAYS. Great story and great players mixed with a bit of interest. just go with the flow Know that players will outthink any grand scheme you've come up with. Adapt or become the railroady DM. Whole lot of improv use the players as a creative resource, take their ideas and alter them slightly so that they feel more involved with the narrative At least let players think they have agency (Note, not an answer, but prep time and percentage devoted to each topic largely depends on what I need for that particular session. So it's hard to give an average.) Let the players think that they are controlling everything EMPHASIS on think selecting a group of players who enjoy each other's company Allowing most of the player ideas usually is great! Let the players run the show and adapt the adventure to what they decide to do. I give them a place and a general goal, how to go about reaching that goal is up to them. Be prepared to improvise and adapt. Letting the players choose everything from which way to go, to how to have fun. Improvise on the fly I steal aspects of people I know and meet and meld those into an NPC. Work a lot on story. If you have a good story, especially one with lots of twists and moral issues, your players will have a much better, more fulfilling, and fun time. Atmospheric Music Keep everyone engaged and be prepared ahead of time Laughter. Make the players laugh, and they will be engaged in the story. I listen to my players and keep in mind how they interact with the world and build future encounters to capitalize on that. If they really enjoy a certain NPC or encounter, I try to make more like that. If they seem disinterested or are just trying to get past a scene, I avoid those types in the future. I do my best to do this on the fly and very low key so it doesn't seem to be happening. Good friends and just enough booze. Let the players do what they want. Just winging it. Improv I try to tie things together in a literary way: the use of motifs, symbolism, etc. Getting the players to actually create the game without them realizing it. Your characters must feel they have agency and purpose. Webcams Let the players do whatever they want (within reason) and improvise off of their choices. Enable the characters goals, without causing imbalance between players Preparation, digestion of the consequences of the party's action in previous session. Keep them guessing. Just make sure everyone has fun and enjoys themselves Let your players dictate the direction of the adventure. Get the bare outline in mind, then let them surprise you. Have good players Practice Try to build in a challenge particularly suited for each PC in the party, so everyone gets a chance to do "their" thing. So the rogue gets to con someone or pick a lock, the paladin can detect a fiend, etc. Maintain group cohesion by running a "Session Zero" or "Group Template" Improv The entire group is telling a story, not me. If there is something they want to happen, I make it happen even if it doesn't fit what I had planed. This means that I need to adjust on the fly and improv a lot instead of prepping ahead of time. knowing general flows on where everything is happening Throwing higher level monsters at the players and on the fly weakening them so my players have a challenge but are not wipedout. I find it hard to increase the difficulty of an encounter but easy to lower the difficulty. Descriptiveness Iisten to your players. Don't be so rigid in what you want to see in a campaign. Don't worry too much about preparation. Always try to have a Hidden Identity NPC present in the story. It raises tension and players will do anything to reveal the identity. Masks are great for this, and they make for easy plot twists. But then again they can get old if done too much... I like to narrate session intros; a lot of times I do that with info the PCs don't have to foreshadow events or give them a glimpse at why they are doing something Spending time with each player on ensuring I understand what their characters are about so I can optimise a session where they all have a part to play and are not felt like they haven't been as productive in any particular session. Also every time a player rolls a one they have to do a forfeit if they roll a 20 they have to have a shot of their choice Know and cater to your audience. Every group of people of are different. Make sure expectations are known from both players and DM. Make an open-ended situation with no solution in mind Talk to the players an npcs Imagine a "create your own" adventure. If your players turn left, have things change versus them going right, and vice versa. Allow choice to run in the background for unforeseen consequences. Have good friends play