HOW TO BE A BETTER DUNGEON MASTER - DM Tips & Advice

Some general tips and advice on how to improve as a Dungeon Master / Games Master!
Practice. Practice. Practice!

(Yes I put DM in the title, I know that's specific to D&D and this advice is general, but we have to play the SEO game. :P )

---

00:00 Intro
00:47 Run Games. Run ALL the games!
03:21 Play RPGS that aren't D&D
06:21 Read. Watch. Listen. To all types of media.
10:45 Talk to your Players. Get Feedback.
13:00 Masta Wain
14:07 Be invested in your own game.
16:43 Fin

[SherlockHulmesDM]

Pinning this comment just to say this is not an exhaustive list of the ways to become a better DM/GM. As I say near the end of the video, there's specific topics focused on areas like combat/npcs etc. Rather these are just *some* general tips on how to improve your overall skill level. :)

[PezzaTheFlezza]

The batman scene holy shit Mark your Michael Caine is on point!

[summerswrl]

My best advice? Make your players feel good. Make them feel smart, make them feel important, maybe even loved. Who knows - your game could be the only place your players get that kind of validation. There can obviously still be challenges and the danger of death, but I've found that they care much more about your game if you care about them.

[AnEnemySpy]

Don't fall in love with the story you've created. No matter how much preparation you do, most of the game will be spent improvising to react to something unexpected your players did.

[nickward]

Mark, I came for the knowledge and wisdom, but I'm staying for the Home Improvement and Batman bits. (A++ for the Batman, btw. You killed that.)

[Green_Ghost_Leif]

I've watched a lot of DM advice videos, but I haven't yet found one that touches on information organization. Once you have a binder full of ideas, how do you organize that into a comprehensive world guide and how do you compile the information you need for an upcoming session? What are some good tips for having a session organized and how to find information needed to improvise without spending seven minutes flipping through monster manuals and player handbooks?

[bosunbones.]

I'm going to be playing my first D&D game in 25 years in 3 days time.

You can apply a lot of these to being a better player too from a PC perspective.

2nd ed was the last version I played and I'm stoked!

[theoriginalset]

Mark, this is amazing work! I’ve been following and enjoying your content for years now, but this is truly above and beyond! You’ve hit the perfect balance of wisdom, engaging creative moments and your own personality and these vids are a joy to watch.

[MrBroncosfan]

This was good advice. I’m really enjoying seeing your videos again. Keep up the great work!

[lorddreemurr]

Been DMing for only little over 5 months now. I absolutely love doing it. After watching this video, I noticed I do do some of the things you've mentioned, and I'm going to start exploring some of the things I don't. These videos Mark are fantastic, and it gives me the boost of confidence knowing I'm on the right track, and that there is more I can do.

[wyvernrock]

Brilliant information mark, as newish DM; I always forget how the details can be important.
It might just be easy to say "you're in a blizzard" as I nearly said one time, but stating the howl of the wind, the chill of the air and the blanket of fluffy white snow definitely sets a better scene.
...
And ruining it by adding a "roll a constitution savings throw to see how you're managing the cold."

They survived. Fyi

[caityreads]

If you're looking for ideas for other tabletop games to try out, Dicebreaker has a good video called 10 great RPGs that aren't Dungeons and Dragons

[jackofalltrades]

Very useful advice, much appreciated and I hope you're enjoying making these videos Mark. Thanks for it all

[Instadenton]

I would love it if you did a video on Session 0! As someone who wants to start being a GM, it would be great to know how that can look.

[anoncanon]

Absolutely loved the Michael Cain interlude lmao.
Great video all in all Mark. I've played plenty and have modest experience as a GM/DM and have looked through plenty of advice vids in this vein, and I agree 100% with all these tips. Thought the presentation was good also if at times quite mannered and scripted in how you were speaking (not a bad thing as such, think it might just be novel to me - but I wouldn't say this harmed the video at all anyway!)
This might have been covered and I'm just being dopy but if I had a tip that I felt wasn't included/could be expanded or reinforced on I'd recommend anyone getting into DMing have as much of a zen-like attitude as possible to prep and things they're excited for and have even put loads of work into just fizzling out, going wrong, being derailed, not even coming up at all etc. - the inherently chaotic nature of what you've prepared meeting your players who come at it from a totally different angle can result in that sort of thing all the time. Try to enjoy simply making those things in the first place without needing the payoff of them being included just as you envision in the campaign. And of course be prepared for things that seemed inconsequential to you to suddenly become much more important to players and the campaign out of nowhere (an NPC meant for one encounter, possibly a minor eccentric antagonist, turned into maybe one of the favourite NPCs of all our games quite unexpectedly to me, but I'm very glad it happened!)

[RIVERSRPGChannel]

I like your idea of playing different RPGs to get to be a better DM.

[tasselhoffburfoot]

I have to study but I saw this drop. Can't wait to come back and watch it as soon I might be taking over for our DM as his workload builds up.

[tomwheeler]

All of this is solid advice. My own group discovered each part ourselves over the past few years we've been playing. First time we finally picked up a different TTRPG totally changed the way we play all of our games and created such a fresh dynamic, plus all different games have some tools that are transferable between other TTRPGs. My group uses the clocks from Blades in the Dark and the destiny tokens (to a degree) from Star Wars to help us on homebrew for D&D to make up for where D&D is weaker.

Nice to finally see advice like this laid out though, so many DM advice is aimed at the more complicated stuff. Have to learn how to walk before you can run.

[julianb]

I'd love to watch more vids from you like this and the ones on your other channel.

[thezin]

Insightful video, very honest. I agree 100% with running other systems. I found myself more comfortable running Call of Cthulhu than D&D, but it also helped me add horror to my campaigns.