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. :)

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

“Some players just want to watch the world burn”, truer words never spoken.

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.

"And dat magic stone Masta Wain, was da size of a tangerine."

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.

I've created my own campaign based in the continent of Marquet in Exandria. This gave me a nice middle ground between totally creating my own world from scratch and using a prewritten module. I've been using inspiration from lots of places... Egyptian mythology, fantasy books, Mercer and you! I actually stole one of your ideas from lightfall and twisted it. I have an oasis city that is frozen in time, linked to events from the Calamity. I'm still a new DM, but I'm enjoying it and have good players :)

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.)

I'm fairly new to DMing myself and only in the last year or so have I realized that my group respond better to evil campaigns and they seem to prefer more combat focused games whereas I prefer a little more role play in my games, but I've definitely grown as a DM and learnt how to balance these and will definatly use these helpful tips Thx mark for being awesome 👌

About to start our first ever campaign with my friend group pretty soon! These guides are coming out at the perfect time 👍🏽 We've always just talked about it but finally got motivated after binge watching over 60 episodes of Aerois in the past month. So huge thanks to you!

This is one of the best advice videos on being a DM I've watched. You really pulled away some misconceptions about being a DM that I've had for a while. Keep doing what you're doing Mark, you and the rest of High Rollers are amazing!!

When you spoke about the setting and watching movies and reading books, i have a little tip. I sometimes "watch" shows while tidying my house. I am all caught up on HR and CR and a few other campaigns so I circled back to Disney+. I have taken to listening to the AD soundtrack. It is really good. They describe the scenes in detail but still fit it all in without interrupting flow and dialogue. I have watched a lot of the Star Wars and Marvel shows this way. Listening to the things the AD script describes and how they do so helps me visualise the scene and so I think will help with DMing!

Been DMing a long time. Seen quite a few tip videos and I don't tend to watch them anymore. For fun I randomly watched this video while prepping for a session. I agree with everything you said. And how you said it. Love it, in fact! Going to check out more of your videos because even after all these years, I still find I am learning. And yes, the absolute best way to learn is to play the game, run the sessions...100%. But tip videos can definitely remind me of things I may have forgotten or had stopped focusing on or maybe hadn't heard before in that context. I enjoyed this video quite a bit and will definitely watch more. Best wishes.

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!

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.

Good to see you back 😀

I'm really liking these new videos!

Thanks for this one. I'm transitioning from running a game for one group of friends to a different group and these were some healthy reminders. I especially love the encouragement to play other kinds of games. For example, the new game is in Eberron and the group has basically decided to play Breaking Bad, and all I can think of is how pieces of Blades in the Dark will really help with that. Great Alfred speech btw.

This is the second video of yours that I've watched and all of your advice so far is spot on and broad enough to reach lots of different types of people. I dig it. Subscribed ;)

That's some solid advice. I am glad to see you making videos like this and hope to see more.

The Masta Wain voice will haunt my nightmares

Subbed right after the Alfred impression. Great.

lovely advice as always mr hulmes

Okay, there may not be a Mercer Machine or a Perkins potion... But how about a Mark Mint?

Another excellent video Mark! Keep up the great work! Super fun to watch at the same time as being very informative!

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

Really helpful. Thank you!

i really love the new channel and the content - especially the skits. a+

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

Great advice and great vid.

I love DM tips :) Good luck with the channel!

Awesome advice! Another great video, thanks Mark!

As always, so so so good.

Since everyone is out here putting their own hints, here is mine, which are largely based on a little over a year - Expanding on Mark's "Ask your Players" point, specifically ask the players IN PRIVATE to point out specific issues and strong points A lot of times in my comparatively limited experience when I asked my players after a session just a simple "How was the session for you?", I would not get much apart from single word responses or general replies about the whole session, which is not a generally helpful response. What solved it was me being an annoying shit and personally DMing the players every ~4-5 sessions with "What was bad for you in the past sessions?". This ended up being very beneficial to the group, since they, from my *expert psychoanalysis*, are far more comfortable with saying negative things. -Build a strong reputation in your group As DM/GM/Storyteller/Whatever, you are likely the most powerful person at the table, since you are the statless concept of fate itself that is above even the overgod of your world. Act like it, and establish yourself as someone concrete and consistent for your games, which good players will respect. You are the authority on the table, which gives you two things - power and the responsibility to use it well. Do not be afraid to straight up veto or introduce tangible drawbacks with "yes, BUT" for actions you would consider impossibly hard, or silently put up with a player that is disruptive to the game. However, ultimate power like this does not come from the chair, the screen, the notes, whatever. It comes from the players, and you have no power at all if the players just decide to not play due to the way you use that power. - Take mechanics from other types of games, not just TTRPGs There is not a system that has numbers in it from which you can't blatantly steal from. Video games are a very big source for inspiration (which for me lately has been DOOM 2016 (soon Eternal) and Hades), but they do need to be balanced out according to the numbers and content conventions of whatever your system. Video games have an approach to mechanics that tends to be highly unorthodox in TTRPGs due to the different medium, but it is surprisingly usable with minimal changes, mostly to fit the keywords used by the system. Tabletops that are not RPGs (like Mafia or Pandemic) are a very good source of more of the non-combat overworld mechanics or scenarios. This does tend to be harder to adapt to TTRPGs, since the rules are less numerecial than video games, but it can make for great entire story arc, like a plague arc inspired by rules from Pandemic Here is my text wall sized 5 cents to the discussion! Hope this is helpful to some.

this was really helpful and I got a lot of tips, thanks mark

Hi Mark, I just wanted to say that me and my friends love your content! Your work on High Rollers and other things inspired me and my friends to start making Skits that we love doing! Just wanted to say thank you ❤

Incredibly honest, informative, and entertaining video! You've already lessened my anxiety moving forward with my new campaign; thank you 😄

This video was so useful thanks a lot! I also found that it helps when you have a good friendship group where you can switch around who is the DM from time to time. This means that everyone has an understanding of what it is like to be both a player and a DM and then know better how to make it fun for each other

Love this advice! Looking forward to seeing more videos 😃

Thanks for everything!

Great advice!

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.

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

I saw Patrick rothfuss on the book shelf so I subscribed. I saw Brandon Sanderson so I now play d and d. In all honesty I wasn’t sure what to do but you have a real honest approach and I now play and love d and d. Thank you

Ever excellent. Thank you.

Two weeks ago I ran an one shot D&D horror adventure in the style of the Evil Dead films for my party and DM. I could not do that without the example of Mr. Hulmes. 👍

Well, as a person who only started playing DnD and is now getting into DMing almost exclusively because of you, (okay its maybe split between HR and CR), I shall be watching this with keen eyes and a notepad. Cheers!

Great and helpful advice thank you

Thank you! The advice was indeed helpful.

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

I learnt the most by watching others DM and deciding what I liked or didn't like about their DM style. I would then work out how I can implement the good stuff and remove the bad stuff from my own style and games. Another great video Mark :).

All fantastic advice. I've been a dm/gm for seven years now and agree wholeheartedly that experience is the only way to truly get better at it. I would also add occasionally trying to be a player yourself can be quite helpful. Seeing other GM styles and experiencing the game from the other side of the table can be an eye opening experience and help broaden your own horizons. I have the bittersweet reality of being an experienced and pretty good DM (according to my players) so I am the one most often taking up that mantle to run campaigns or games, but I view this as a positive in that my style and experience is desirable to the players and I must be doing something right if as soon as we finish a campaign they're already asking when we can start the next one. Haha. I still take every opportunity I can to be a player myself though, because its a very different experience and you can learn a lot that way as well.

Good advice! I’ve been DMing for about a year and recently dealt with some burnout. It’s helpful to be reminded that there are ways to keep it fun for myself and not just the players. Getting ready to pick things back up, and going to consider this.

Great video. I'd love to see a video on your favourite and least favourite elements and aspects of different rpg games and systems.

Love this video

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.

Man, what a nuanced and helpful take on GMing, I've been a DM for a long old time and the only thing I would add is don't be afraid to try new things and don't be afraid to fail. You're not gonna be Matt Mercer straight away, I've run some tremendous sessions over the last 6 years but I've also run some rubbish ones, tried things that didn't work and every single failure has made me a better DM in the long run. Embrace it and learn from your mistakes, it's what they're there for.

Yayy more videos! The tip on just running more us spot on. 👌 I've run probably at least 50 sessions since March when I started my online oneshot group. So many games sucked but the experience really does help you grow. Biggest tip after running a 'meh' game: book another game! Don't give up! You will get better! Your ideas are good! 😃

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.

I have been playing RPG's since 2012 and i have you to thank for introducing me to dnd. I have been dming since 2016 and could not imagine my life without it. My next tattoo is probably High rollers inspired. (the other one is CR) Im currently studying to become a teacher and i really want to bring dnd to more people who could really benefit from it like i did. And i have you to thank for that Mark. Thank you. I really hope to meet you one day. //David

Great video, been running games for 3 years now and it's always good to be reminded of this stuff. After each game I run, whether it be a one shot or a campaign, I look back on the entire thing and see what I did right and what I did wrong. I've run campaigns and one shots that went great and everyone had a great times, and one that ended in catashrope. Sometimes you fuck up. Bad. Honestly, I'm thankful that I did. It was a bad experience for everyone involved, and luckily I'm still on good terms with all of them (and still dm'ing for some, playing with others). My mistakes have stuck with me so much and have taught me a lot about running games. The point of games is, obviously, to have fun. Regardless of which role you play. My current dm'ing philosophy is that every time I sit down and plan a session, I come back a few hours later and look over them again. If I think something in there wouldn't be fun to run or fun to play, I take it out. This does require knowing your players, and it sounds like such an easy thing. It can be easy to get lost in the idea of what you THINK you and the players want, and drift so far that it turns into something no one wanted. My game that ended terribly happened because I was in a really bad place, and I thought that my players wanted an epic fantasy super complex story. They didn't, they just wanted to keep having fun, but things got worse and worse as I got overwhelmed. Talk to your players, and have fun.

I am so glad you encourage people to play orher TTRPGs. I just started a CoC group and i had way more fun DMing for CoC than for DnD

That Batman cutaway was EPIC!!!!

This seems like really solid advice that I’d love to use in the future! I do have to remind myself that I am currently DMing my first game and do not need to try to put all of these in my style all at once though 😅

I absolutely loved the Dark Knight reference

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!!!

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

Lol loved the Alfred/Bruce scenario.

Really loved the stuff presented. While I knew most of what you said, you were succinct and entertaining. I love that the dude I first saw filling out a R6Siege squad with Hat Films is just crushing life these days. Keep it up.

I'm a new DM, only ran my first session 4 weeks ago and the second one with the same group today. It is challenging for me to take charge of a story like that and guide the others, but they assure me I'm doing a good job and they enjoy the sessions. I'm running a prewritten module called 'Into the Feywild' by Birch + Bat studios, which is a very freeform adventure with a basic storyline and quests. I believe I'm able to tie some of the storylines together and have some fun rp because of my larp background, but it's still scary. Subconsciously I've applied some of your tips already before starting, listening to audiobooks to get some different prose in my system, reading descriptions of people and folklore. And, just starting. Which is the scariest thing to do, because I wanted to do it 'right'. And, boy am I glad I'm not starting with a full on campaign, that is way too much of a responsibility at the moment. For now, my 3-4 session adventure is enough. Let the players have some fun, bring in some trickster fey, put some folklore into it. It's great. Thank you so much Mark

That master wain moment was amazing

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?

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.

I great info for people. I agree with. I game game mastered games like D&D, AD$D/basic/expert, Boot Hill, Star Frontiers, 007 James Bond and Top Secret.

How to hyper level: GM true dungeon for 50 players per hour, ~400 players per day

Love your remake on that scene! That is next lv content m8 ^^

Grand Video my sir! I'll admit I do have the problem of comparing myself to more experienced people and will be trying my best to stop that habit. 13:00 Loved this clip that you made, it helped to spice up the video and bring a bit of comedy to the video. We currently have a player like that, where she ignores plots entirely if she isn't feeling overpowered while he goes through them. Again I loved the video broken up into sections. I loved that when you wanted to reassure people they weren't bad DMs that you took the other camera angle to make it feel more personal and help connect with the viewer. Definitely a good thing to do for more.. gentle moments. Ahh... The tool man.. there's a reference *bark bark*

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!)

These are definitely some of the better GM tips, and many of them are the first ones I'd give to someone. I cannot stress enough how much playing other RPGs has helped me. It's good for adding to your toolkit, but it's also good for perspective. I have made the mistake in the past of trying to run some other RPGs in the same way as D&D, and it's like pulling teeth. I highly recommend Blades in the Dark and Ironsworn if anyone wants to try something non-D&D. Also, Ironsworn is free!

How dare you Mark! D&D isn't flawed. D&D is life! Lol. In all seriousness though this is all good advice. Reading and running other systems is a big help which a lot of people overlook. D&D encourages a certain way of thinking and a certain way of doing things and it can become mechanical if you aren't careful. Bringing in influences from other systems can help to even things out. I found that discovering Monster of the Week was totally transformative to my understanding of the role of a GM and how a game is written for example.

planning my first game as a dm ever and we're doing a one-shot next week and I needed this video so bad >.

LOL loved the Alfred skit

Thanks for the advice Mark I haven't been dming for a while due to work but I've been reading other rpg's for help to make my homebrew world better, I'll have to let you know how it goes. But currently I'm playing as a wizard tank that's waiting to take damage hope you have a good day too.

Love the advises you give :D But one thing is alway in my head when I watching your videos and that is... what is in your shelf behind you :D I would love to have a video about you showing off all of that good stuff, rulebooks, miniatures, artowrks etc. you have and which are presented behind you :) Maybe you also have one or two good stories about a specific Item you have back there. Keep up the great work !

Starting my first campaign as a DM soon so thank you for this video.

Thanks Mark some real good advices. Helpful as well: If you don´t know a Rule do not look it up for too long if you can´t find it, just do it your way and do investigat it after the session or befor the start of the next one. That will Improve the "Flow" of your sessions. An other importent point to have in minde I´think is that as an DM you and your Players will tell an Story togehter. When you Improved you DM Skills and get more steadfeast try and think out of the Box from time to time. So wehen Players come up with unusal Way or Idea to solve an problem wich maybe is not covert in the Ruleset think about it and if it is an reasonable Idea try to say YES and come up with a way in wich you think it can work. I know you Mark are doing it as well and for that id do really do appriciate your DM style.

Excellent advice, especially encouraging folks to explore genres outside Science Fiction and Fantasy. I firmly believe one of the best authors for new DM's to read is Agatha Christie.

I died at Masta Wain.... Thanks for that

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.

This is good Advice easily some of the best But some of it felt like it would be good for the bedroom as well love you mark

One of the things I do when I’m not feeling inspired is make sure I’m watching/listening/appreciating different kinds of stories and media. My creativity and my boredom with the shows I watch tend to coincide.

Ive been a DM for about a year and honestly my mind gets stuck sometimes when it comes to planning the next leg of the adventure sometimes. If I ever hit a type of writers block like this or can't think of anything, sometimes I like when writing a description for a location, I've been playing around with figuring out what the players might encounter in the area first and go from there. If its a run of the mil cave they might find wild animals or if there's a newly opened cavern in the cave that unknown creatures can come out of, these creatures will impact 'their world' differently and may change the description of the area more than you think. Just by looking up those creatures and studying what they do in their environments can drastically change that run of the mil cave into the beginning of an interesting story ark. Also Mark thank you for releasing these videos, they are amazing and I can't wait for more.

Damn that Michael Caine impression was pretty good.

"Being a DM or GM is no different to being a writer, an artist, or an actor..." oops ive been validated

Form your campaign or session about what you learn that your players *usually* do. There's no railroading or herding of cats if your adventure is catered to what they usually are interested in doing. Knowing their approach also limits how much planning you need. For example; My players in my weekly D&D game have no sneaky type, and none of them are careful people, so they usually just charge in or stomp around if things don't seem to be brittle in some way. They are confident in their fighting prowess and don't mind the action. I've kept designing ways for them to approach things carefully, but these things tend to be wasted, so I try to make it a habit to remember what tends to happen XD But it also opens things up for me: How do I *make* them be more careful? Not top adjust their behaviour permanently, but to shake things up a bit. Just communicating and getting to know your players and characters with time is just the ultimate tool to help you carve your campaign :D

That Michael Caine though. Spot on

I was literally thinking something like this the other day. As much as I want to be as good at gming as you, or Matt Mercer, the fact is that I started playing dnd only six years ago, and only dmed two games, one of which stopped after a few sessions, and the other has just started being consistent, and i only started dming that game in June! I always ask for player feedback because I want them to be having fun! That's the most important thing to me, that everyone is having fun with the game. Unfortunately two of my players haven't seemed to have gotten the message that dnd isn't a video game and keep trying to interact with it as if it's a video game, which I have some ideas on how to solve. Also, that sketch you did was very good!

Really impressed you got both sir Michael Caine and Christian Bale in to help. Nice work Marku

Thanks for the excellent video! I particularly love the dark knight scene!! Anyway, I am two sessions away from finishing the first ever campaign that I have ran as the DM, and this video inspired me to reach out to my players and ask for specific feedback on the different aspects of running a game so that I know my own strength and weaknesses and know what areas to really work on for my next campaign. :-)

No Mercer Machine or Perkins Potions for me I just reach into the "Hulmes' Haversack of Helpful Hints" Works like a regular Haversack but refills with scraps of paper at dawn telling you about all the rules you didn't know.