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protip to new aspiring DMs: forget trying to play with friends that you want to get interested in the game, find new friends that are already want to play

"No plan survives contact with the [players]." This is true. But this is also true: "Plans are useless. Planning is essential." Like Luke points out, the more you plan, the better you'll be at coming up with a new plan at a moment's notice. Improv uses the same "muscles" as planning. And if you have planned for every possibility that you can think of, when your players inevitably come up with something you didn't, you'll be better equipped to come up with the response.

These things are also good reminders for veteran DMs. Especially knowing that your players aren’t judging you as much as you think, and knowing that you’ll have a bad session every once in a while… very important to keep in mind

20 year DM here. This vid is spot on. It took me years to learn some of these lessons. New DMs take this to heart.

"If you see your players laughing and smiling, if they come back week after week, then you're probably doing just fine." This made me genuinely cry in relief. I'm judging myself too harshly! Thank you for making me realize it, Luke!

"The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group cooperative experience." ~ Gary Gygax 👍

So since you asked for the "Nein Flavours of Aspargus", here is my explanation: 1) The Cobalt Aspargus - It somehow tastes blue in a kind, not to confuse with the smurf variant 2) The wild grown Aspargus - It tastes a clay. Clay. That's it. 3) The Aspargus of the Sea - It tastes a lot like fish, yet it is vegan. Delicious. 4) The Colorspray Aspargus - Having his name from a wild sprinkle of color, its taste really reminds me of tealeafs. 5) The Two-Faced Aspargus - The taste of this one really depends, on some days its really beautiful and delicious, on other days is smells and looks like a rotten green cucumber. 6) The electrified Aspargus - This one is a special. Unlike most other Aspargus, this one gets fried via electricity and gets really crispy and tender that way. 7) The Rainbow Aspargus - Probably my favorite one, it tastes like sprinkled with the dust of deliciousness. 8) The Hot Boi Aspargus - Well this one is more for the eye, than for the taste. It has a dark, purple look, and it kinda tastes like regular aspargus, but with a twist. 9) The Reborn Aspargus - It tastes like a mixture of the Sea and Colorspray variant, but in the end, it still creates his own flavour. Delicious. You are welcome!

My previous DM actually quit half way because he wasn't having fun. We were not doing literally anything he planned for... and that was both of our faults. He would make everything seem optional or not important, and besides me, my group was very indecisive, so it turned out badly for all of us. For example, my character's brother was going into a dungeon. So I asked if his life was at risk if I didn't go with him. DM said he'd be fine. So I didn't go with him and got back to the main quest. The DM had the whole dungeon planned out and he was very disappointed. However, so was I because I wanted to go down there too, but i thought I'd be helping my DM more by going back to the main quest since I figured if thr DM wanted me to go with my brother, then he'd have told me he was in danger or about some reward. I say all of this to new DMs from a player perspective... if a player asks you "I'm not sure what to do" don't be afraid to break the 4th wall and just say "well I planned for you guys to go into the dungeon." In my limited experience, if you tell players you have a direction planned, then they will be more than happy to go that way and come up with a realistic character reason to do so. And another note- be careful saying "the room SEEMS empty" when it's actually empty... cause players will spend far too long trying to solve a puzzle that isn't there.

These tips are exactly what I learned over 40+ years playing DND, it’s good to see that they’re being passed on to the younger players.

Common misconception: the primary purpose of corn fields is for pilots-in-training to crash into. Harvesting only happens as a byproduct and corn prices are as low as they are because of a lack of interest in piloting 😁👍

Since I've literally just started putting together my first campaign I really appreciate this. Thank you.

Your job as the GM: set up a string of situations, hold a coherent, fantastical world, force the players to act. How to be a player: ask yourself what you would do as your character because he is defined by his actions, aslways state intent and approach. The GM decides when the players roll the dice: when there's a chance of success, a chance of failure, and a consequence for that failure, the dice are rolled to determine the rest of the story. Be fair, telegraph most everything, and tell your players why they are rolling the dice. Your GM lexicon: conflict, opportunity, danger, call to action, fellowship, motivation, arbitration, and tags. Your best tools: Maze Rats random tables, Godbound random tables, and ICRPG. GM reading list: Trap Theory video by Runehammer, the AngryGM's book or his articles about GMing, Basically, SlyFlourish's Lazy Dungeon Master book, and The Monsters Know What They're Doing by Keith Ammann. DM Lair as well, obviously! ;P *And know this: you're NEVER going to be perfect, we simply can't and we keep learning forever, so stop worrying and get into the fray because you'll have a hell of a lot of fun. And Luke (Lucas? I don't hear it well.) is right, your players aren't judging you as much as you think they would, they'rej ust busy having a good time. Oh, and steal. Steal, steal, steal good and interesting ideas, you're now part of the coolest club ever: all that advice above? I stole it from the sources I've shared, it's a pleasure for us GMs to have our ideas, adventures, traps, and even advice stolen for somebody else's table. GLHF!* :D

I have a safe phrase for my players when they're about to do something silly. When they hear, "Are you sure you want to do that?" they know the choice they're contemplating has a high chance of very unpleasant consequences. Sometimes, however, they do it anyway. =)

Not sure about flavors but the 12 types of asparagus are Green, White, Purple, Wild, Apollo, Atlas, Jersey series, Mary Washington, Precoce D’Argenteuil, Purple Passion, UC 157 and Viking KB3.

I was always overprepared and found so much of my planning went to waste (though I've since recycled some things that were not used initially). Now, I only really plan for the current trajectory of the party and have a loose-but-adaptable plotline for the overarching story.

I really appreciate this video, I've been "planning" my first DMing session and secretly been avoiding it because I was so worried about how I'd do

I'm currently writing a new campaign, and one of my players (a DM of a couple of our other games) decided to send me this video. I'm feeling called out but it was extremely helpful in putting a couple things into perspective. Cheers!

I've been a GM for a few years and always good to hear tips, and your first tip is already fantastic!

The Dice touching thing is on page 235 of the DMG. "Don't touch others' dice if they're sensitive about it." That is, if we are thinking of the same quote.

You just had to say it... Here ya go: The 9 flavors of asparagus (yes, these are just ways of cooking it): 1) Grilled 2) Sauteed 3) Roasted 4) Creamed 5) Puree 6) As part of a gross "nutrient shake" 7) Steamed 8) Raw 9) Broiled

This helped a lot, it's actually my second time but you cleared up ALOT of my errors and anxieties! Thanks :)

This is a fantastic video man. I needed something like this to send my players who want to start their own games but are getting over that initial first hump of anxiety/fear to get started.

For planning. We always plan 3 sessions ahead, we aim to do a session every month. We have found out that planning 3 months ahead is the sweat spot for us to make sure we can have a monthly session in a group of 6 players and a DM.

13:47 I don’t care if people touch my dice unless it was Wil Wheaton

Awesome tips. Don’t be afraid to DM, the DM’s standards for the experience they generate are always higher than the players’.

I'm a beginner Brazilian master and day after day I fall more in love with your content Thank you very much for these pearls of learning Forgive me for my bad English :D

"Your players aren't judging as hard as you think they are"... Straight to the heart. Thanks.

As a new/very inexperienced DM, you have given me a lot of things to consider. My last group fell apart due to holidays and schedule changes. Hopefully we'll get to start back up soon.

1: Roasted Red Pepper 2: Himalayan Salt & Cracked Pepper 3: Korean BBQ 4: Sweet Mango Habanero 5: Bacon 6: Lemon Pepper 7: Garlic Parmesan 8: Jalapeno & Cheddar 9: Wasabi Bonus: Dill Pickle

I genuinely LOVE all of your videos, they are so helpful, and they have actually gotten me a group that always comes back eagerly. Thank you soooooooo much!

Every one of these points is a gold nugget of timeless advice. You shared many of these points with me a couple years ago and I've been running a game and having fun ever since.

Long time player finally running my first game with a coworker and his young sons. We rolled character sheets as a separate event and plan to play our first Golden Vault game next week. I’m really excited to get to help them build the world they want to live in, and this video really helped me seat my confidence in my readiness and ability to make this game fun for them.

"DnD is not DM vs Players", yeah, tell that to our table lol. We have a running gag that we are always scoring points against the DM and he on us when any makes a question or statement where the other stumbles to or can't answer. DM: "you're standing in your tavern..." Player: "What's the name of the keeper?" DM: "..." Players: "OH YEAH, WE'RE WINNING DND"

My main DM used a dry erase map and dice for enemies. We as players could use minis or whatever. I used a putting green coin or small shiny rock. Didn't bother us to busy having fun.

I've been playing and DM'ing for almost 40 years now and I really like the format of your videos. I've got some friends or family that are thinking about trying their hand "behind the screen" and I think your videos will help me, help them. I don't want to teach them how I run a game, I want them to find their own style. I play a wide variety of pen and paper RPG's and I really enjoy see different styles of story telling. Much appreciate the work you've put into these.

I still struggle with number five. I have thought all of those things after about half of my sessions. But they do keep coming back, they do seem like they're having a good time, so I try not to worry as much. It's been helpful that some players will stay after a bit and we talk about the session, what we thought went right and what went wrong, so that's been good.

Actually good advice that will save you days and days of trial and error to figure this out on your own. Good video!

Luke, thanks so much for this video! Your number 9 tip completely changed how I look at being a DM... I've been wanting to run an adventure myself for ages, but I've always bene so so nervous about doing it. But with these tips in mind, I feel infinitely more at ease with DMing my first game. Happy New Year, man!

I just want to say that I find your videos extremely helpful and insightful. In nearly every one that I watch, you make me think of something that I can incorporate into my own game. Something that I simply have never thought of before or a new way of doing something. And for that simple fact, I thank you.

I agree on almost everything. Except the rules-as-written point. I've played with some house rules since day 1 - for instance ignoring XP and using a milestone system for levelling up instead (which I haven't regretted even once). Of course it does come down to how well you do know the more common rules when you start. I've played a few adventures in my group as a player before I became our de-facto DM (The others enjoyed my style best, I guess, plus I go all out with printing minis, making terrain and props and the like and they love that haha), so I already had a decent understanding of what worked well in our group and what didn't. So I'd say it depends. For someome completely out of their depth initially, it's probably a good idea to stick to the rules exactly, but if you feel comfortable with it, having house rules from the get-go can totally work.

I prefer green asparagus to white, but like both. I'd rather have it steamed, but I'm not opposed to grilled or even boiled, if there's no other option. All it really needs is a little salt and pepper to bring out the flavor of the asparagus. Adding too many spices just overwhelms the natural taste.

My wife is studying to be a first time dm, NO DND EXPERIENCE, she's currently taking notes from the 5e dm guide book. So ready to see how this one shot turns out

Hahaha!!! The plane part. LOL! LOVE IT!

As of now, I feel personally attacked and called out by tips 1, 3, and 5. Lol! I used to write novels **for fun**; granted, I'd never tried to have any of them published, but making sure that what I'm creating is fleshed out with no plot holes, and is something that everyone will enjoy AND be able to critique is one of my biggest "perfectionist" moments. I struggle with enjoying having fun myself in positions of authority because I'm too busy trying so hard to be perfect. Edit: On the dice touching debate; I'd say it depends on the dice. A $10 set of dice you can get at your local game store? Sure no problem. A $100 tempered glass set that my best friend got me on my birthday to also commemorate our year long friendship? No, absolutely not. Hands off. 2nd Edit: "There are no winners or losers in D&D." This is blatantly incorrect. You see, when everyone gets together and has a good time, then everyone is a winner! :3

Definitely good tips to remember 👌 even for experienced DMs

This is huge, thank you so much for the tips. Starting my first campaign in a few weeks and I’m super nervous and a bit overwhelmed. Thankfully I know my players well and we should have a good time regardless

I'm a new DM with my group playing a basic D&D campaign from D&D beyond. These are amazing tips! I've been super nervous but so far it's been really fun and I've been looking into possibly creating my own homebrew campaign.

My tips A book of dry erase battle maps( like 20 maps) is the best thing I've ever bought. Have ideas for a plot line but don't push it forward, prepare locations, npc and there goals. Don't railroad let the players decide what to do and think how the world reacts. Try to prompt close to the end of the session the players plan for next session Create combat shortcuts for yourself you could use average damage, roll all attack rolls at one, don't keep track of all hit points on some make them die after so many hits or just decide when.

Great advice for new DM’s and a great refresher for the more experienced. Sometimes we loose sight of the basics.

Thank you for the encouragement and the help💜

Being a relatively new DM it feels good to hear that if they come back they are enjoying it enough. Thanks for that !!

I have watched a few of your videos and I really appreciate how you point out the difference between a game and a show. I don't expect to have my games run or feel like one. I don't have the resources and time. Thank you for being down to earth for noob DM's.

Thanks Luke! Great tips and reinforcement for those of us fairly new to DMing.

Just started DMing my first adventure. Gotta say, these are all things I know just rationally from being a player. Still, hearing them addressed directly definitely helps with some of the pressure. I really appreciate this video. And the wealth of resources on your channel I have to dig through still.

running my first one-shot today, first time DMing. found this super helpful!!

I really enjoy your videos, they are very informative and fun to listen to while doing chores between dnd sessions!

For those interested, here is my way to long experience of the past 4 months. As a little bit of background, I started playing about 2 years ago and haven't played as much as I would have liked (something about a pandemic, idk?) and decided a couple months ago I wanted to try DM'ing as my previous DM was strapped for time and cut his campaign short. Decided to start with Lost Mines of Phandelver to get a feel for the trade while making my own entire world from scratch (I have a pantheon I'm decently happy with but might scratch and redo the world map, it's a long-term thing hence the module). TLDR: trust your players with a bit of freedom, roll with their decisions, don't pull your punches with monsters that 'seem' too strong out of fear one of the players may go down, let them. Make mistakes, it's the fastest way to learn. I got a 3D printer for mini's, then a second one (first was filament, second is resin for better quality). Only do this if you want an extra hobby, it takes up a lot of time and especially resin printing has a bit of a learning curve, but wow do they look good on the table. Having your own means of producing mini's also allows for a lot of flexibility in what monsters and other things to throw at your players. I gave my players quite a bit of freedom with their characters, one is a dragonborn with wings and a tail, he doesn't use them functionally, though I might allow him to eventually. This was justified in his backstory as being experimented upon by the Cult of the Dragon. I also have a fairy barbarian, by one of my experienced players, this was before fairies were offically released. I gave the wizard a ram with the stats of a Nyx fleece Ram, which is utterly to strong as a familiar, but the ram is the husband of the fairy and the roleplay between me as the ram, the fairy and the wizard is absolutely hillarious. Lastly, I have two nobles, one paladin/warlock and one draconic sorceror. The freedom I gave my players has turned out fantastic as all of them are more interested in playing an interesting character rather than metagaming. Funny things that happened so far in the campaign: both the fairy barbarian and the dragonborn barbarian absolutely fail at opening doors, they have become the bane of my player's exsistance. They convinced the Redbrands to clear out of the cellars of Tressendar Manor, to avoid being utterly obliderated, aided by the scene of the dragonborn kicking in a door (the only one that would be kicked in) holding a Redbrand up by the throat and the warlock slicing their neck as a statement (great rollplaying ensued). They are now potential allies and the party hired one of them, named Cole, to be a guide to Thundertree. Cole has never really done much adventuring, and roling incredibly low several times he now officially has PTSD from all the monsters he's seen these insane people fight against. He's become the guide/cook/nanny to the fairy's 4 baby mimics, found during a session 0.5 to give my players a 'prologue' to their story and why/how they know eachother. Some things I learned: I have been to nice to my players. i had them start at lvl 3 because I personally dislike lvl 1 and 2 and I have been pulling punches when it comes to monsters with multi attack. I have now decided to stop that, underscored by a spontaneous 'gauntlet' we decided to do as we reached a plot point for an absent player and cut the session short. The monsters i threw at them they had already fought before, but now with multi attack and such. They did fine. During one session we had a guest player. One of my players decided they wanted to go back a bit to try open 'The Door' again. I should have cut this off before it started or after his first failed attempt and not gone on for 1.5 hours, it wasn't fun for the guest and we could have done this some other time. One of my players is an 'audience memeber', he made the sorcerer because the other player made a warlock and they would play off each other as the characters are brothers, the idea being they could help each other with certain skill checks. The player unfortunately doesn't know what to do with this character and during a great oppurtunity for some character development and roleplaying he completely shut down. When I or the warlock player brought this up, things didn't go so well, this player also copes with some mental problems which, I admit, I have no idea how to deal with. For the forseable future i will leave him to be an audience member, maybe prod him again in a few months if he's feeling better. Thanks for reading, hope you found it useful or at least entertaining!

New Dm and running lost mines of phandelver, really having fun and want to praise people like you who have provided superb information and dnd common sense. Thanks!

Just come across this video as me and a small group are looking in to starting a campaign for the first time. I'm going to be giving DM a shot and this video has been incredibly helpful!

Thanks for the video dude! It really helped!

Great vid, Luke! Thank you for this one.

I've bumped into this video and for me as an experienced GM (35 years in RPG) this list is great. Perfectly summarizes all points for new and experienced GMs!

Great video, all great advices! Very, *very* important stuff, every DM should keep these things in mind.

Great video, Luke! These are good reminders for new and experienced DMs and players at any level to remember. This term has caught on like wildfire: “You can certainly try.” And often, the challenge is stated in the inflection. ... And asparagus baked with olive oil and freshly-crushed garlic. 😁

Thank you for content! I am new to D&D and this is helpful!

Great info for new DMs. Glad I found your channel.

I've just started DMing for my first campaign a few months ago, and this really eased a lot of my anxiety around it, still. Thank you LOL

This helped me so much!! Thank you!!

This is amazing, I just started my first campaign as a DM last month and your videos have helped so much! And the offense is the funniest but most truthful parts of your videos, keep it up lmao

Looking forward to the channel showdown! :)

To your third point, about starting small, I definitely agree for the most part, but there is something that does bug me about that technique. Mind you this is more of a pet peeve of mine, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. The issue I have with only developing the starting area is your players' characters. For the most part, they've all probably grown up in this world you're creating, and even if they're the lowest of peasants, they'll probably still have a vague sense of the world's geography. To that end, it might be helpful to come up with a general layout for a world map (online map generators can help with that), place a few dots around the world, pick one to be your capital, and another to be your starting area. You probably wouldn't need more than that to start off. A bit of a bonus to this is that as your map evolves and develops, you can sometimes get some kind of quest idea or world building detail from certain features on it.

This video took a lot of weight off of me as a new DM and I gotta thank you a lot man

I just ran my first one shot and am looking forward to running my first campaign, and i must say it is a really good start. If gives you good practice for dungeon design and how to guide your players to interact with your world but not feeling overly stressed.

11:48 to quote general Eisenhower: “plans are worthless, but planning is everything”.

I'm just so happy I stumbled upon this channel! Gonna run my second game for my friends soon, and I ran some as DM but they were just small one-shots, and I loooove your advices and the way you put all the info :D Also made me to sit back and work through all the notes for second game a bit more :)

I found your channel by chance, I can really tell that you enjoy this stuff and I have found these videos super useful!

Always love your energetic videos. Thank you for the content you create!

I’m doing a heavily home brew campaign and it’s been really fun. My players enjoy the combat and the characters. I’m a first time DM, but my friend who has been DMing us for almost 10 years who is one of the players said I’m doing really well. And honestly I’m mostly winging it. I go in with a plan, they do something funny and dumb, it changes the course, and we have more fun by changing the plan based on their actions. It’s fun for them and myself

Thank you for this video, as a new DM. It helped to hear some of these.

Man as a new DM binging your videos is a life saver. Luckily my players are all super chill and just in it for some fun escapism and know full well I only even played part of one campaign before jumping in to DMing but still. Wanna do well for them and all these tips help.

I'm only six sessions into my first campaign and these suggestions are already quite useful.

Great advice and great video!

Happy I found this, I am going to begin to DM very soon and needed these 😅

Number 9: I almost cried of joy when I saw this one. So many DMs that imagine a '"cool scend" and want to impose it onto the players as the conclusion to an adventure. Thank you for mentioning it, I feel not enough people do.

A couple of mates and I decided to try DnD recently. None of us had played before, so I stepped up to the DM role. I had a massive beast hidden behind a door that was meant to almost wipe out the players... one of them threw down some ball bearings and pulled a lever to slam the door shut on the monster, cutting it in half. Nearly 100 hitpoints... gone like that. But I knew it was the right thing to do to give them a chance to win that way as they were laughing about it for the next 5 minutes.

This was indeed the first KZfaq result that came up when searching for tips for new DMs! And they were good tips too 😊 Am wondering, since you're mostly interested in the combat side as you said, are there any channels/videos you can recommend for new DMs who are more interested in story-focused campaigns? I'm trying to convince my friends to let me run a game for them, and I know we're all more interested in the story/roleplaying than the dungeon crawling aspects of games in general!

Idk on the "dice-touching" with close friends sure they can use any of my stuff. But I once had a guest player sneak one of my fancier dice and gouge the numbers out of it under the table. With a nail or pocket-knife... something... I have no idea. Also had several other guests and one friend over the years that pencil in the dice numbers which is extremely annoying.

Great advice, and I love your shirt!

Great advice, thanks man!

I've been running games at home for my family and their primary experience is in my game. Now my sister is wanting to DM a game but she's scared we may not like it or so on. This video is absolutely perfect and I need to show her, hell it's even helped me with the way i think. Thank You!

Love you energy. Thanks!

One thing that really helped me as a new DM with players who are new to the game is starting out on an island. I don’t have to do too much prep work for things like that and they don’t have too much decision paralysis when it comes to what direction they need to go to. Also I’d recommend watching yters play first since even watching one campaign can really set you up strong on how to play.

Best D&D DM channel on KZfaq. Can't wait for my books I ordered from his site to arrive! Luke is a stud. Bacon is delicious. Huzzah!

I started a D&D group 6 months ago. Im DMing the Lost Mine Of Phandelver. Its been an awesome experience. I make a lot of mistakes, but i get a tad better every time, and my group is merciful. I just try to prep, and be as consistsnt as i can. The advice in the book that says "when in doubt, make up the rules" has been a major help...If i make a mistake, they are none the wiser and i fix it the next time around.

This is just a fantastic reassuring video. I started DMing again after forty, count them, forty years and it’s been all kinds of challenging. I’m enjoying it but I need advice and uploads like these are making it so much easier.

I've run my fair share of games, and looking back on this, these are all great advice. Thank you for your video, I will share this will my friends who want to DM but are unsure about it.

Even to play with a grid, you don't need minis! You can just make a few round tokens with the PCs names and monsters name out of some kind of hard paper, and use some maps and grids made out of paper. Or even just sketch the map and grid with a pen, and let players mark their positions using pencils and when they move they just erase the previous marker. Coins, and dice can be great to substitute minis. As someone who had problems having access to miniatures for years, but always prefered playing with a grid, I can assure there are plenty of ways to do so without being cumbersome.

This was encouraging; thanks!

Back in mid December, I had what was by far the worst session I'd had in my campaign up to that point. I knew it was a crappy session, a couple of my players made it obvious that they weren't having fun... it was a rough session. But rather than getting worried about how I was going to fix it, I simply apologized and let them know that the session didn't go how I expected and that I'd fix it next session. That was three sessions ago. The past two sessions? Two of the best sessions we've had. Everyone had fun, the players were engaged, I got to introduce an NPC I'd been waiting to introduce (which was a character I played in a previous campaign which two of my players were also in, so they knew who the NPC was and were really excited to see her)... everyone was happy and totally forgot about the clunker of a session from a couple weeks before.