How to Dungeon Master - for Absolute Beginners (D&D5e)

This "How to Dungeon Master" series is intended to help new DM Get started. In this first episode I will run everyone through a free prewritten adventure that mimics the format of official adventures.

After running this adventure, you should be able to run most prewritten Dungeons and Dragons 5e adventures.

Learn How to Play D&D 5E series:

Link to the D&D 5E Class Guide playlist:

How to Dungeon Master playlist:

The mini adventure used in the video can be downloaded from either of these links here:

If you haven't got a player's handbook, you can get the basic rules from the official site here:

You can find blank and pregenerated character sheets here

[wizar]

I started DMing on a four hour bus ride. All I had back then was a notebook, a pencil, some mates, and a GOOD TIME

[Xtra_Medium]

A rule my DM recently taught me:

Hit points are optional, don't be afraid to run combat on a logical narrative.

[fiatmcnuggets]

PCs: *Mess with me or taunts me while I'm DMing.*


Me: *Opens monster manual to page 286* "Soon my child, soon..."

[joshlegacy]

*Start with a pre-written campaign.*
Advice I wish I had months ago.

[aidia]

All my friends in D&D said that I would never be able to be a DM and that it was to complicated for me, I’m going to make it my goal to master the role of a DM so I can prove to them that I’m good enough and I can do it myself

[theViperNL]

First time we were playing, my little brother was DM as he had played it before. He introduced a bear to us, probably to show us bears can be dangerous. One of my friends was a bard, but he completely did not understand how he did damage or how he did support so he was kinda useless. When we noticed the bear and how high his animal handling was, we figured 1+1 is 2 and he could tame the bear to be more usefull. We started catching fish, birds and collected berry's to have him offer it to the bear. Our DM kept saying to please don't do it. Just when the DM had enough and wanted to let the bear attack us, wouldn't you have it, we rolled a natural 20. He decided to use that to let us escape, while we were crying because we already named the bear and put like an hour in trying to tame him. R.I.P. Peddington who fell in a hunters trap right as he started to attack us.

[hole-sawbear]

I've never played D&D, but I going to jump right into DMing. What could possibly go wrong, right? Lol

Edit: wow, ty all for the encouragement. I'm now halfway through the Horde of the Dragon Queen with the same party, they're lvl 7, and i have come to realize why that module is so hated. Though with a whole lot of homebrew side quests and character backstory I've managed to make the caravan journey bareable, and my party even seems to get excited for the journey. We're currently homebrewing our own world as a group, and on the side, I am preparing to start a Star Wars 5e campaign based on the galactic conquest campaign in the OG battlefront 2 game. If anybody is considering giving DMing a chance, just go for it. Its a whole lot of fun.

[aftyalldredge]

I ran this game just last week. We all had a blast even when our teifling successfully convinced the cultists he was Moloch their god and the cultists let the party free without a fight.

[lt.spookycarrot]

Advice: say your party is slightly more reckless than you imagined and your premade story is coming off the tracks. Don’t be scared to use your Vito powers to put them back in line. Not every action must be rolled for.

[secpendragon]

Me and my friends are playing right now, and there's not a book between any of us. We literally are using whatever knowledge we get from the net and making due. And props to our DM, who is doing it from sheer mental power without any campaign books.

[tharrock]

I love the "savage mom". So here is a little story from me: We had a DND night at my parents place because my apartment isnt big enough and most of my D&D friends live closer to my hometown anywas so there we are playing. Dad is not getting this DND thing at all and he hates that game because he feels like because of the DM screen I am "hiding" from my players and even though we are all in one room nothing about it is actually social like with them good old board games. He is talking himself into a good old fashioned dad rant after wich I just ask... sooo You wanna play? I tell you nothing you just said is true but it is easier to show you than to tell. Dad will have none of it and is about to get up from the diner table but mom starts laughing and is like "nono you dont get up now, you just spent all diner mouthing off about the game, now you play and we'll see who is right". Dad grumbles a bit and then declares he wont play unless she plays too, so there I am the next evening running a game for my parents. Mom creates an elven ranger (pretty much just inserted herself into the game like most people do with their first charakter) and she is done in like 20 minutes creating her first charakter the Elven Ranger "Alera". Dad takes loneger. Much longer In fact he creates 2 and a half charakters. He says he want's to be gandalf after I told him to think of the followship and just imagine one of these guys. So I introduce him to the wizard. After we are done creating his charakter he realizes there is a whole bunch of depth to the class and asks me to make a real simple charakter for him so I bring out a barbarian. He takes a look and asks "so how do I use magic here" I realize I made a mistake and we create a sorcerer for him. (he is pretty tilted at this point because we took like an hour longer than my mom took and he already thinks he is bad at the game before we even started playing. I tell him it is ok to take some time with charakter creation and there really isnt such a thing as a bad player, just reckless charakters (a lie but hey you do what you can right?) As soon as we start playing though the both of them soon get really well into their charakters. They have some amazing banter between the city boy sharlatan and the ferral wood elf and in the end find a crazy solution to the goblin problem. Mom uses animal language to get a Large eagle to fly high up in the clouds, dad fires a firebolt at a wierd angle to make it seem as if it is coming from the skies. then he uses minor illusion to produce a dragon noise. He rolls a 19 or something on his intimmidation check and the first scouting party of goblins takes off immediately. The rest of them poses no real threat, now that they are unaware of the two and stripped of 3 of their best fighters. So all in all D&D gave us an amazing family evening wich I never would have seen coming.

[theyaxicat]

So I tried to get my dm badge today and it was sort of fun, despite my lack of knowledge for the most part, we had a dwarf barbarian, Gnome Fighter and two rogues, one a tiefling and the other a dragon born... ALL CHAOTIC NEUTRAL. You can kinda guess what happened...

...Poor Ollie.

[oddluck]

DM'ed my first session ever (and played my first game in ~20 years) last night for my nieces and nephews, all of whom are brand-new to playing D&D. We used your Death Pit of Moloch adventure and had a blast! They're definitely hooked (which is great for this geeky uncle). Thanks so much for your guide and the adventure!

[gogogomes]

I love how he double crits his R pronunciation every time

[poisonmist]

A relative bought me the Rick and Morty D&D pack, so I’m going to attempt to DM a game with no experience and players that probably won’t help.

But I must admit I find the wording on the Rick and Morty manual pretty helpful. It recommends that if your players are trying to do something you don’t want them to do just pick their worst skill and ask for a skill check.
“So Morty’s trying to swim somewhere dumb. Ask for an intelligence check. You can’t swim if you don’t remember how. If they persist ask for a dexterity check, because you can’t swim if you don’t have enough blood flow to your joints.”

[ItoOttelli]

Hey man, I ran your one-shot with my group and they loved it! We aren't new players but I was new to DMing and the one-shot was still engaging for them. It might have been their banter and the fact that the fighter's player went through about four different sets of dice after getting natural 1s on each of them while we all laughed, but they had a good time and so did I.

[sesimie]

I love that you literally show your party adventuring in this and your other guides. My Nieces and Nephews started D&D because i used your vids to get them to understand classes how to play. Thanks so much for this helpful guide!!

[garrettelliott]

Something I personally think you might want to do near the beginning is give the players some type of fight that they have to talk to defeat. Like a really strong enemy that they will have to talk to and calm down and if you fight it gets stronger. It can teach them you don’t always have to fight when something stops you.

[emilecoetzee]

This is definately going to be useful! still trying to get into DnD.
I'll likely end up the DM.

[botfly]

I'm only watching this cause my friends invited me to play but forgot to tell me that I was dm