Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM.

Today we talk about how to bounce back after a bad session. Today is also a very special episode as it is our first published Dungeon Master Coaching episode.

If you want to sign up for some dungeon master coaching, go to https://session0studios.com/coaching/

If you let us record the first session, the first session is free.

Mentioned in this episode:

Start Leveling Up As a DM

Wouldn’t it be nice to gamify your dungeon master abilities? In D&D, characters can reach level 20, so why can’t dungeon masters? We’re happy to tell you that now, you can. We created the Dungeon Master Level-Up Guide. It’s a simple tool to gamify your progression to higher and higher levels of dungeon mastering. It includes Dungeon Master Levels 1 to 20 with associated XP requirements as well as a long list of Dungeon Master activities that will give you XP. Each activity has a Challenge Rating and an XP amount. In order to level up, all you need to do is find out how much XP you have, find out how much you need and pick activities to try. You can get the Dungeon Master Level-Up guide for free by going to session0studios.com/newsletter/, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you the Level-Up Guide. Finally, leveling up as a DM can be as fun as leveling up a character.

Level Up Guide

Save time with Roll and Play Press

Save yourself some precious time with Roll and Play Press. Go to https://session0studios.com/rollandplay and use code BETTERDM10 at checkout.

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM.

Today, we talk with Ethan Myers from Lyres for Hire. you can check him out at https://www.instagram.com/lyresforhire/?hl=en

We talk about some linguistic tactics to use to make characters sound more real.

The 3 recommended in today's show are:

1. Phonotactics: keeping the general rules for sounds and sound pairs consistent within a region
2. Idioms: Creating sayings or turns-of-phrase to communicate complicated ideas
3. Jargon: Specific vocabulary related to niche areas

Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Start Leveling Up As a DM

Wouldn’t it be nice to gamify your dungeon master abilities? In D&D, characters can reach level 20, so why can’t dungeon masters? We’re happy to tell you that now, you can. We created the Dungeon Master Level-Up Guide. It’s a simple tool to gamify your progression to higher and higher levels of dungeon mastering. It includes Dungeon Master Levels 1 to 20 with associated XP requirements as well as a long list of Dungeon Master activities that will give you XP. Each activity has a Challenge Rating and an XP amount. In order to level up, all you need to do is find out how much XP you have, find out how much you need and pick activities to try. You can get the Dungeon Master Level-Up guide for free by going to session0studios.com/newsletter/, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you the Level-Up Guide. Finally, leveling up as a DM can be as fun as leveling up a character.

Level Up Guide

Save time with Roll and Play Press

Save yourself some precious time with Roll and Play Press. Go to https://session0studios.com/rollandplay and use code BETTERDM10 at checkout.

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM.

Today is a special bonus episode. We were fortunate enough to have been invited onto RPG Academy. Listen to our conversation but absolutely check them out at https://therpgacademy.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Do You Want to Earn some Money?

🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!

Try Worldsmith Today!

Give yourself access to infinite possibilities with Worldsmith! It's the ultimate tool for Dungeon Masters to spark creativity or just save your bacon when you're in a bind. You can generate infinite stories, traps or treasures. Sign up at https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcast

Worldsmith

Hi everyone,

Today is a short episode since it is Thanksgiving here in the U.S., but we just wanted to take a moment and express our appreciation for all of you who support and listen to us. You have made our experience with this podcast just amazing, and we will never forget that. Thank you.

As I mention in the episode, please take some time and express your thanks and appreciation to your players, whether that is today or the next time you meet. It can mean a lot to them, and it can make a significant improvement in the atmosphere at your gaming table. Until next time, enjoy your week!

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Signup for Our Email Newsletter

Do you love the show but can't always listen to it? Do you prefer written content? Go to session0studios.com/newsletter/ and sign up to get weekly tips and tricks sent to your inbox so you can become the greatest DM the world has ever seen.

Level Up Guide

I Made a CR 100 Monster

I made a Monster with a Challenge Rating of 100 Why? Because I could—and it only took me 5 minutes using Worldsmith. And the best part? You can do this and much more. Get a free 7-day trial at session0studios.com/worldsmith and unlock their full suite of TTRPG generators from monsters to mythic magic items and everything in between. Yep, that’s a full 7-day trial—completely free. That’s a whole week of monsters, magic items, and more—whatever you need, zero burnout. Try it now at session0studios.com/worldsmith. Save time and make unlimited creations with Worldsmith.

Hello, and Welcome to How To Be A Better DM. My name is Tanner Weyland, and together we will learn about how to prepare the best adventures and environments for our players to enjoy. Today, we are going to jump right into the announcements!

First, Rob from Dungeons, Dragons and Psychology will be running a one-shot for some of our listeners this Saturday the 19th at 7 PM. We will be streaming the one-shot live to YouTube, so check us out there at the link in the show notes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDjN4ICKUuW7HSNI_Nsv6Wg 

If you would like to sign up for future one-shot podcasts, sign up at this link: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/one-shot. We always love playing with you!

Other than that, we have a favor to ask you: We are always trying to be better dms, for sure, but we also want to become better podcast hosts so we can be more helpful and interesting to you. As part of that, we need your feedback. We set up a super quick survey at https://betterdungeonmaster.com/feedback. If you could take a few minutes out of your day to help us, we would be so appreciative!

Today’s topic is House Rules: What makes a good house rule, and what are some good and bad examples?

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Get The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree For Free

Take a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

Monument Studios

Welcome back to today's show. We try something new on today's show. We look at Justin's September One-Shot and we critique it.

Thanks for listening.

Mentioned in this episode:

Get The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree For Free

Take a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Why Listen to Ads?

Ugh, another ad break. Let’s be real—ads are the worst. If you’re anything like my wife, you’d rather quit a show entirely than sit through another ad. So why suffer? Just skip them. Join our Patreon at patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and enjoy ad-free episodes with exclusive patron-only content—all for just $5 a month. Look at you, all fancy with your uninterrupted listening experience. So stop wasting time on ads (like this one). Go to patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and upgrade your listening today!

Patreon

“Hipam, can’t you do anything? Herlia asks with an exasperated tone.

“Well, Miss Herlia, I’m not exactly suited for..”

“What about you you dumb bear?” Herlia yells at the large brown bear at the back of the cave. You’d all found this cave a few weeks ago while looking for shelter. 

“Herlia. I’m not exactly sure something can be done. He’s just lost his uncle. That’s not exactly something you get over in a matter of minutes. Have a little heart.”

Herlia walks up to Hipam who’s sat propped up against the large brown bear. She crouches down in front of him.

“Let me tell you something little halfling. I’ve had my fair share of losses. After all of it, I found my way into the city guard where I could at least do some good. I was able to stop beatings and prevent murder. Now, I’ve been pulled away from that to do what? This?” Herlia gestures to the front of the cave where Ulv sits motionless as snow covers his face. Herlia gets up and walks over to Ulv and spins him around and cries, “Your uncle died but Cojari is still alive and he needs our help. The entire kingdom needs our help. You haven’t said a word in weeks. What are you waiting for?”

No response from Ulv. 

So Herlia punches him in the mouth.

Suddenly, Ulv finds himself on a warm rug. Surprised by the change of scenery, he sits up. He’s in a large teepee made of animal skins. 

What would you like to do?

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat! And we’re getting ready for it with this list of Dungeon Master Gift Ideas. Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis and I’m here to help you craft better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of D&D.

The first announcement today is who won the giveaway! 

The winner is …… twisted.toga !!!!! I’ll reach out to you today to get you your download key!

We’ll also have some more announcements at the end of today’s show so stick around for that.

With the holiday season fast approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to create a sort of Christmas wishlist for gifts to give to the aspiring Dungeon Master. This list can serve as ideas for you to give a gift to someone else, or you can hand this list over to your significant other to help them with their shopping for you. 

I’ll be honest, this list is pretty long, but that is because there are many things that you can buy for a Dungeon Master. Let me also just say that almost all of these things are “luxury” items. That means you don’t actually need them to play D&D, they’re just really nice to have. I also need to mention that I have no stake in mentioning any of these products. I have not been paid or compensated in any way. I just like them. That said, let’s get into the list and see what I have in my Santa Sleigh of holding….

Number one on the list is really the only thing that you should get for your DM if they don’t already have it. It has the rules of how to play the game as well as the rules on how to create characters. To be honest, though, Wizards of the Coast is releasing Unearthed arcana in parts for free, meaning if you wait long enough, you’ll probably have enough to use to play the game for free anyways. If you want to know about unearthed arcana go back and listen to Episode 68 and Episode 66. But there are two options for buying the player’s handbook. You can get the digital copy (which is being sold on DNDBeyond for $29.99 as of me writing this episode) and the physical copy (which is being sold on Amazon for $22.95 at the time

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM! I’m Your host, Justin Lewis here with my cohort Tanner Weyland and together we’ll learn how to craft better stories for you and your players as you DM sessions of D&D.

We all know that OneD&D is getting ever closer and the newest installment of Unearthed Arcana material has been released by Wizards of the Coast for us to playtest, so today we are going to give you the facts of what was released and then some of our opinions about those facts.

Before we dive in, let me mention to you to stick around because at the end of today’s show we’re going to tell you how to enter the Giveaway that just started today! You won’t want to miss it, so stick around.

What is on the Unearthed Arcana:

1. Some sneak peeks in what’s to come:
2. New tips for creating a home base for your characters
3. Class Groups
4. Experts, Mages, Priests and Warriors
5. Bardic Class
6. Bardic Inspiration has changed a lot.
7. You now can use it to affect a D20 roll as a reaction and you can also use it to heal as a reaction. This is huge because Bards can now literally be the only thing standing between a character and death.
8. Prepared Healing Spells
9. Bards now have levels of healing spells that they always have. It seems that WOC wants Bards to be more supportive and healing.
10. Magical Secrets
11. At various levels, Bards get to expand their list of spells from just Arcane to Divine or Primal.
12. First Subclass: College of Lore
13. Cutting words, you can use your bardic inspiration to impact negatively the roll of adversaries.
14. Ranger Class
15. Rangers no longer have to concentrate on Hunter’s Mark
16. Rangers also can cast cure wounds
17. Rogue Class
18. The Thief Subclass Sounds a little bit more like Indiana Jones (but only a little)

Before we close up today’s episode, we have an awesome announcement. As I said at the beginning of today’s show, we are doing a giveaway and the giveaway starts today! 

We’ve been lucky enough to join with Dungeon Alchemist in this giveaway to give away a free download key to their map making software on Steam. I use it for my campaigns and one-shots and it makes dungeon map making really easy and fun. We have one download key and one winner. The giveaway will go until next Podcast episode where we will announce the winner!

So here are the rules of the giveaway. There are multiple ways to enter.

1. Follow HowtobeabetterDMPodcast on Instagram for one entry (yes if you already follow that counts too)
2. For two entries into the giveaway Subscribe to the podcast and DM us a screenshot showing that you are subscribed.
3. For 5 entries into the giveaway Subscribe to Dungeon Alchemist on Youtube and DM us a screenshot showing that you are subscribed.
4. For one entry tag a friend on any of our Giveaway related Instagram posts this week (You can tag multiple friends and get multiple entries)

Let me repeat all of that.

I’d highly encourage all of you to check out Dungeon Alchemist because they are really awesome so go to betterdungeonmaster.com/dungeon-alchemist and see what they’re all about.

We’re super happy to be able to do this giveaway and it never would have happened without your support. So we just want to say thanks for joining the podcast, our one-shots and everything else. You are the magic of How to Be a Better DM.

We’ll be back next week with another awesome show and the winner of the giveaway, but until then, let’s go ahead and roll Initiative.

Mentioned in this episode:

I Made a CR 100 Monster

I made a Monster with a Challenge Rating of 100 Why? Because I could—and it only took me 5 minutes using Worldsmith. And the best

Hello, and Welcome to How To Be A Better DM. My name is Tanner Weyland, and together we will learn about how to prepare the best adventures and environments for our players to enjoy. Today will be a bit of a shorter episode, so buckle in! We will be talking about soundboards!

A couple quick announcements: First, we are doing a giveaway on our Instagram starting soon! Follow us @howtobeabetterdmpodcast on Instagram for more info. Here’s a hint: it has to do with map creation.

Also, we have a couple one-shots coming up in the final quarter of this year: Robbie, or Bone Daddy, as he is affectionately known on the podcast “This Dungeon is Occupied,” will be running a horror-themed adventure in October for some of our listeners. If you’d like to hang out with us once a month, you can. We are filling up rapidly for that one-shot, but all you gotta do is sign up. It’s first come first serve so sign up quick. I will be running the one-shot the following month. The sign up link is: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/one-shot

Next, make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You’ll get even more content, behind-the-scenes looks, homebrew creations made by us and more. It’s free and it comes out once a month so it won’t be a bother to you. Sign up at: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe

Mentioned in this episode:

Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

Monument Studios

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Join Our Discord

So a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today.

Discord

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Tanner Weyland, here with my cohort Justin Lewis. We’re here to help you tell better stories as you DM sessions of D&D. 

As you might have heard, Wizards of the Coast has announced that they will be releasing the next non-edition edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Rather than being a specific edition, this will instead be a constantly changing iteration of D&D called One D&D. We’ve talked about this on Episode 61 of the show if you want more in depth-information and opinion on the release. As part of OneD&D, Wizards of the Coast has decided that they will release bits and pieces of the new system from time to time, allowing us all to playtest and give feedback on the material. Well, a month or so ago they released the first grouping of this new content and today, we’re going to talk about it.

So today we’re going to talk about the first installment of OneD&D Playtest materials. You can get this by going to DNDBeyond. You’ll have to login and enable OneD&D playtest material but that’s free so no worries there. We’re going to mention certain points and then give our opinions about them after each point. 

• Choose Class First
• Choose Your Origin
• Origin is broken down into your race, background.
• Racial Traits:
• Size
• Speed
• Creature Type
• Life Span Special Traits
• Background Traits:
• Ability Score Bonus
• Skill Proficiencies
• Tool Proficiencies
• Language
• Feat
• Equipment
• Considered Starting Races
• Human
• Ardling
• Dragonborn
• Dwarf
• Elf
• Gnome
• Halfling
• Orc
• Tiefling
• New Racial Legacy Trait
• Applies currently to Tieflings and Ardlings
• Rules for Creating a Background
• “Background Features Ability Scores. When you determine your character’s ability scores, choose two of them, and increase one by 2 and the other one by 1. Alternatively, choose three ability scores, and increase each of them by 1.
• Skill Proficiencies. Choose two Skills. Your character gains Proficiency in them. 
• Tool Proficiency. Choose one tool. Your character gains Tool Proficiency* with it.
•  Language. Choose one language from the Standard Languages and Rare Languages tables (these appear later in the document). Your character knows that language. 
• Feat. Choose one 1st-level Feat. Your character gains that Feat. 
• Equipment. Your character gains 50 GP to spend on starting equipment. The character keeps any unspent GP as spare coin.
• Current Sample Backgrounds:
• Acolyte
• Artisan
• Charlatan
• Criminal
• Cultist
• Entertainer
• Farmer*
• Gladiator
• Guard*
• Guide*
• Hermit
• Laborer*
• Noble
• Pilgrim*
• Sage
• Sailor
• Soldier
• Urchin
• Feats 
• Feats have levels, prerequisites and repeatable tags on their descriptions
• 
  

To finish today’s show off, we just want to share a few housekeeping items.

First is that if you want to watch the upcoming October One-shot being hosted by none other than Bone Daddy Rob from...

Welcome back to How to Be a Better Dungeon Master. I’m your host, Justin Lewis and together you and I are going to learn how to craft better stories for yourselves and your players as you DM sessions of D&D 5e and soon-to-be One DND.

No matter how you slice it, you have to prepare for your D&D sessions and campaigns and that means writing in some way shape or form. Well, to become a better dungeon master then, that means you’ll have to become a better writer. But how exactly does one do that? Don’t worry, today I’ll give you 5 simple tips to do just that.

But before we do that, I have some housekeeping items to go over.

First let me give an enormous thank you to Rob, Tony, Jeff, Chaz, and Mark who joined me last Saturday for a very fun one-shot. They were excellent players, and if you’re listening to this, I want to let you know you actually discovered the secret ending to the one-shot so congratulations on that!

Remember, if you want to watch the upcoming one-shot with Bone Daddy Rob completely for free, just go to betterdungeonmaster.com/watch at the appointed time. I’ll let you know when that is via the podcast and our Instagram.

Now, let’s get to today’s topic!

Before I go on, I need to say that I am not a professional writer. I do not have an English degree. Instead, I’m like you, a dungeon master who loves the hobby and wants to improve any way I can. These are some things that have helped me over the years. There are probably a few tips out there that I’m missing. Maybe you can help fill out this list. I also want to note that I’m purposefully keeping this episode short. I have a list of tips and I’m only doing a portion of them in an effort to make the episode more digestible. I’ll come out with an extension to this list in a future episode.

Write a Lot

The first thing you need to do to become a better writer is to write, a lot. Just like any other thing in life, the only way to improve is by practicing. Having these weekly episodes to write has

Your D&D Group of 5 is suddenly and permanently moving to a D&D group of 4. Your players love having 5 characters. You get to now create a character that is actually your character.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis, here with my cohort, Tanner Weyland. Together, we’re here to help you learn how to craft better stories for your players as you play D&D. Today, we’re going to talk about a big challenge today: how to engage players in D&D who don’t seem to be engaged.

Before we get to today’s topic let’s go through some housekeeping items.

Reality check.

At some point (whether before or after trying any of these tips), you will have to come to grips with the fact that maybe your player doesn’t actually want to play D&D. They might be playing just to make you happy or they are giving it a try and they don’t really grasp it yet (or it isn’t their thing). So when you get to a point when you don’t know how to engage an unengaged player, ask them if they really want to play. Chances are, D&D isn’t for them.

1. Flank your players

Your unengaged player is not just an unengaged person. No matter what you think, there is something in life that does engage them. So with this step, examine your player. Think about what they like to do in their free time. Think about what you might find them doing when they don’t have any responsibility and can do whatever they want. If you can’t think of anything, then ask them. Learn about your players. Something in what they choose to spend their free time on will trigger an idea. Let’s think of a few possibilities.

T.V.: Most people, when asked what they do in their spare time, will say they watch a handful of shows. This is golden material for you. Ask them what shows they like to watch and then go research those shows. Try and dissect what those shows bring to the table. 

Video Games: A lot of people will also say video games. This is also golden material because not all games are the same. You get different things from playing Halo Infinite than you do Elden Ring. So ask them what games they play mostly. Then try and incorporate some of that game into the campaign.

Social Media: Many people might say they spend a lot of time scrolling the feeds of social media. Excellent. Ask them about that or even follow them and do some research.

You might be noticing a pattern. You see, everyone has things that they like. Your job is to figure out what your players like and then add that to the game.

Bonus: After you get good at that, you can then start to anticipate what they *probably* will like. That is when the game gets even more exciting.

1. Shorter Sessions

1. Side Arc: If your players are having a hard time connecting, do a side arc! Kind of like a bottle episode, but longer. Using what you learned about their favorite shows/games//genres, create a side arc that puts their character into an interesting situation. Just remember that you want them to have high control of the new arc—otherwise, they will be disconnected from the experience. The real joy of a side arc is that the players can have a real effect on the world. When it is the main campaign, DMs have to be careful with how much creative control. With side arcs, you can be more free with player control. Examples:
2. Have them create a store, restaurant, or other business, and have them participate in a business rivalry.
3. Have them wake up in a Squid Game style death game run by some noble.
4. Make a boat journey where they run the boat.

Now that player came back. You have to get rid of your character that love. How do you do it?

Warmup: From Tanner to Gaming Brew

Intro

Welcome back to How to be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis here with my cohort Tanner Weyland to bring you the best resources for you to become the world’s best DM. We want to help you craft better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of D&D. Today we have an awesome guest with us today but before we get into that let’s talk about a few announcements.

The first announcement is that we had to move the September one-shot to October first at 4:00 PM Mountain time. If you want to watch that, head over to betterdungeonmaster.com/watch. Due to a number of unforeseen circumstances, we had to move it.

Next, we will be doing a giveaway soon on our Instagram so head over to at how to be a better dm on Instagram and make sure to follow us. If you’ve ever heard of the software Dungeon Alchemist, they’ve given us a download key to giveaway and all that will happen over on our Instagram :).

We also still have one slot open as of this recording for the October one-shot so if you want it to come and claim it. After that fills up, we’ll start prepping for November’s one-shot so come and bask in the glory!

I think that is enough announcements for today. So let’s get into today’s main topic: homebrewing. Today I have a veteran of homebrewing here with us and he can introduce himself as he so chooses but let’s dive in with the first question.

Main Topic: Homebrew Content

How did you first think up the “Erenel Fiction Universe,” and what is its premise?

How do you make a homebrew class

How do you make a Homebrew Race

How do you make a homebrew monster

How much time does it take to make a Homebrew project.

Do you make homebrew items for campaigns specifically or do you make things and then find campaigns to fit them in?

What are the biggest mistakes you’ve made when making your homebrew projects?

What tools have you used in making Erenel?

What type of non-D&D research (politics, military tactics, economics) have you done for Erenel?

Would you describe your playtest methods?

How much have you revised in Erenel and changed?

What is your favorite homebrew creation and why?

What was the hardest homebrew creation for you?

How do you determine time periods (does your World contain different eras with different technological advances)?

Intermission

Main Topic Continued

Do you think DMs are daunted by the idea of homebrew? Why or why not?

Is home brewing hard, in your opinion?

How should beginners approach their first project?

How to Reach out to GamingBrew:

Twitch: Gaming Brew

Gamingbrew.com

Conclusion

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🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!

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Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument...

“You creep slowly through the cobwebbed dark of the crypt, your breath coming out in puffs of steam that you’re trying your hardest to cover. You reach the corner and peer around down the hall. You see the source of the thumping sound. It’s a creature the size of an ogre, with the same proportions. The only difference is that where an ogre would have 1 head, this creature has 6, along with 3 extra arms and a 3rd leg that it drags behind it. Oh… and the entire body seems sewn together in the most grotesque way….

It’s some night in the future. That’s the sound of you pulling off the perfect one-shot. You’ve gathered a full party of friends and now you’re playing a once in a lifetime game.

But how do you create the once-in-a-lifetime One-Shot?

One-shots are fun, but getting them right is a skill that needs to be developed. Luckily for you, I’m going to share some tips that will help improve every single one-shot you ever play. The more often you play, the more likely it is that you create the Once-In-a-Lifetime One-shot.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. This is the show that helps you, the Dungeon Master, craft better stories in less time and with less stress. We’ve been helping dungeon masters new and old for over 150 episodes now. I’m Justin Lewis and I’ll be your guide for today.

I love one-shots!

You probably know that if you’ve listened to the show for any amount of time.

If you want to go back and listen to the other episodes I’ve done about one-shots you can listen to:

Episode 1

Episode 12

Episode 24

Episode 38

Episode 82

And Episode 101.

The Most important would be Episode 82 which is 10 Reasons to Do One-Shots as a Dungeon Master.

So I’m not going to talk about why you should do one-shots, but just know that you absolutely should.  

Instead, today I want to talk about some more tips to help you push the limits of your abilities. I want you to make your next one-shot the best the world has ever seen.

Going all out for a campaign could be daunting and possibly exhausting depending on a lot of factors and circumstances. 

Going all out for a one-shot is much easier in comparison. So with this next one-shot you do, give it everything you got.

It’s a simple fact of dungeon master, and most things in life actually, but what you put into something is what you’ll get out of it.

With your next one-shot, go all out!

Obviously I say that hoping you’ll exercise some degree of temperance. I don’t expect you to rent out a suit of armor and act out every single part. Use your judgment.

But if you are thinking critically, then you’ve probably thought of at least some sort of 1% type action that you could do that you don’t normally do. Maybe you don’t do music and you could add it to your game. Maybe getting some real candles could spice up the atmosphere. Try to push yourself just that little bit and go the extra mile. Your players will appreciate the effort.

Hello, and Welcome to How To Be A Better DM. My name is Tanner Weyland, and together we will learn about how to prepare the best adventures and environments for our players to enjoy.

This week, we were supposed to have a one-shot run by me, but my wife’s Grandma died this past week. The funeral was overlapping, so Justin offered to take over this month–stay tuned, as we are still rescheduling that.

Otherwise, if you’d like to sign up for future one-shots, we have a couple coming up in the final quarter of this year: Robbie, or Bone Daddy, as he is affectionately known on the podcast “This Dungeon is Occupied,” will be running a horror-themed adventure in October for some of our listeners. If you’d like to hang out with us once a month, you can. We are filling up rapidly for that one-shot, but all you gotta do is sign up. It’s first come first serve so sign up quick. I will be running the one-shot the following month.

With no further ado, let’s dive into today’s topic: D&D Etiquette.

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🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!

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Dungeons and Dragons is evolving. Wizards of the Coast has come out with some major announcements in the last few weeks and today, we’re going to talk about them.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Tanner Weyland, here with my cohort Justin Lewis. Together, we are going to learn how to craft better stories for you and your players as you DM sessions of D&D 5e and soon-to-be OneD&D (more on that later). Before we get to the meat of our conversation, let’s go through some housekeeping items.

First of all, our next one-shot is coming up on September 17th at 2:00 Mountain Time. All the spots are taken up, but you can still watch by going to betterdungeonmaster.com/watch to enjoy a good game of D&D.

Our next one-shot will be on October 22nd, and we are still nailing down the exact time for the one-shot, and we’ll let you know when we know. The important bit of information is that there is, at the time of this recording, only one open slot left in that one-shot. After that, we’ll be opening up our November singup. If you want to explore “The Web of Waking Dreams”, an original horror one-shot created by friend of the show and guest host Bone Daddy Rob from This Dungeon Is Occupied, go to betterdungeonmaster.com/one-shot and sign up today.

Last thing I want to mention is that we need your help, desperately. Justin and I are committed to giving you amazing content, but sometimes we’re a little too close to the work. We need outside eyes and ears to tell us what is actually helping you become the very best dungeon masters possible. So to do that, go to betterdungeonmaster.com/feedback and fill as much or as little of that survey as you want. All of it is useful to us to make better content that tears down your barriers to ultimate DMhood. 

1. Wizards will be releasing OneD&D in 2024.
2. OneD&D will be created on the foundation of 5e but with input from the players
3. OneD&D will have a virtual engine created from the Unreal Engine to help facilitate online play
4. OneD&D Playtest material will be available periodically on DnDBeyond. 
5. Now and beyond will be releasing digital/physical bundles
6. Races changed to “backgrounds,” and the feats differentiate them.
7. New race added, kind of the opposite of teaflings.
8. Spelljammer is now released which are sourcebook for D&D in space.
9. New resources for DragonLance will be released including a new companion board game that can be used to play through war scenarios.
10. Initial Rule changes:
11. Nat 20 automatically succeeds.
12. No Monster/DM crit attacks.
13. Magic attacks don’t crit, but physical attacks do.

Justin:

Tanner:

Questions for discussion

• Is the Virtual TableTop a good thing?
• Price concerns
• Constraint on creativity
• Push the envelope
• What is the purpose of Crits?
• 
  

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🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and

“This is it?” Ulv asked in a hushed whisper.

“You wanted rebels. These are the only ones I know of. They’ve come here to talk to you, now say something.” Herlia responds tersely.

You sigh and step forward. You look around the basement of the tavern. Only a few candles hang around giving the room a gloomy cast. You meet the eyes of each of the 5 people sitting on barrels in this dank cellar.

“Thank you for meeting me. My companion here told me that you’ve had certain misgivings about the current regime?” Ulv pauses to let the listeners absorb his words.

“Ay, and we’ve come here to see that justice is done upon his cursed head. Are you gonna’ lead us to march against the king? Are we goin ta fight?” says one burly woman loudly. The others nod their heads and crack their knuckles.

“Your courage is to be admired, but we’re here just to observe and strategize. We don’t want to take any undue risks. Now, who is your leader?” Ulv asks.

“Oh, you mean Burto? He’s a tactical genius he is.”

“Great, where is this Burto?” Ulv asks.

“Oh, he’s in prison.”

What would you like to do?

[caption id="attachment_2380" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

Photo by Stephen Hardy on Pexels.com[/caption]

Every dungeons and dragons game starts with character creation and if you don’t help your characters flesh our a good backstory, your players will have a stale character they won’t much like. Today, let’s fix that.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m Justin Lewis and I’ll be your host and DM today as you and I learn how to craft better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons.

Today we will be talking about writing backstories, but first some housekeeping items.

As I said before, we have our one-shot in September coming up on September 17th. All the slots for that are already filled but if you want to watch that show you can go to https://betterdungeonmaster.com/watch to watch the whole One-Shot at the time of the game. Otherwise sign up for October’s one-shot with guest host Bone Daddy from This Dungeon is Occupied.

Now, let’s talk about writing backstories.

As we’ve said before, having your players flesh out their character at the beginning can help set them up for an incredible time playing D&D with you as their Dungeon Master. One big part of fleshing out their character is writing their back story. If there’s one thing that any Dungeon Master is aware of it’s that their players rarely write their backstories and if they do, they don’t do it to the level we need. Well, no longer. You see, you, as their DM, will be able to ask them these questions and help them generate the back story they need. If you want, you can even write what they say down. Just make sure to form it in these terms.

One last thing that I’d like to add before we get started. Help your players write backstories that are equal to their level. A level 1 character has only ever done level 1 things and lower. That doesn’t mean that they can’t have an interesting backstory. Instead, what it does mean is that the impact of what they’ve done is generally very small and localized, affecting mostly themselves and their family. They’ve never saved the world. In most cases, they may never have slain anything. For many level 1 characters, causing death is something they learn to do after they start adventuring. If a character is the exception then that should be a huge part of their backstory. What they’ve done is small but the...

Prompt: Think of the last group you DM’d for. Now describe  the character that you would like to have played in that group if you could add a new character for yourself.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m Justin Lewis, and together with my cohost Tanner Weyland, we help you craft better stories for yourselves and your players as you DM sessions of D&D 5d regardless of how much time or money you have.

Today we are joined by some awesome guests, the voices behind the This Dungeon is Occupied Podcast. We have Illideen, Thorn and Bone Daddy. I’ll let them share their real names with you if they want in a second, but first, let’s go through a couple of housekeeping items. 

First of all, remember that we have the next one-shot coming up in September. Tanner is that game's Dungeon Master, and we have all the spots filled. If you’re interested in watching that one-shot as a spectator you can go to https://betterdungeonmaster.com/audience at the time of the one-shot and enjoy an excellent show for a few hours.

If you’re interested in signing up for the next one shot, it will be in October and will actually be hosted by one of our guests here, Bone Daddy. He is a big fan of the horror genre so we thought it was appropriate to have him host a horror-themed Halloween one-shot. You can go to betterdungeonmaster.com/one-shot to sign up for that.

Lastly, we just want to thank you for all your support. We really appreciate everything you do for us. With every episode we strive to give you even better content, so please tell us if we do something wrong or right.

Now, let’s get into today’s show.

So let’s get into our discussion topics. Feel free and introduce yourselves amidst our questions, but don’t feel that you have to.

• What’s your main process for session prep?
• What tools do you use for session prep?
• How do you balance the main plot line and Individual Backstory plot lines?

Prompt: Now describe the moment when the character you described at the beginning of today’s show betrays the other characters in the party.

• How do you know you’ve prepared enough?
• Do you go back and revise any preparation (like editing a paper?)

• How much do you write out word for word versus simple prompts?

linktr.ee/thisdungeonisoccupiedpod

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Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

This is How To Be A Better DM. Check out our website for contact info:

https://session0studios.com/better-dm-show/

Thanks for listening to today’s show! My name is Tanner Weyland, and I am excited to talk about how we can all prepare to be the best DMs we possible. We really appreciate all the support you guys give us. If you’d like to hang out with us once a month, you can. All you gotta do is sign up for our monthly one-shot D&D sessions which are DM’d by one of us. It’s first come first serve so sign up quick. In September, I am running the session, and I am very excited for it!

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If you could make a character for an uninterested player, what would it be?

Welcome back, adventurer! We’re excited for another episode of How to Be a Better DM!

Together, you and I will learn how to craft better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e, no matter your level of experience. Today I’m your host Tanner Weyland, with my compatriot, Justin Lewis. 

With the references to D&D in popular shows like Stranger Things and even a Dungeons and Dragons movie coming out, the hobby has seen a large growth in new players and will likely see even more newbies join the game. This means that there will be both new DM’s and new players who need help and need to be shepherded into the world of D&D. It’s our job to make sure that happens in a way that encourages them to stay and today we’re going to talk about just that!

Before we get into today’s main topic though, let’s go through some housekeeping items! 

We’ve finally finalized the date of the next one-shot. It will be held online on Saturday, September 17th around 2 PM Mountain Time. So far we have all 5 players signed up. For those four players, we’ll be sending out a calendar invite to make sure they have the date settled. Next, just another shoutout to our show listener Robric Vanhelm. If you want to get his professionally made encounter in The League of Libraries: The Lorecroft Collection then go to betterdungeonmaster.com/robric and purchase it. All proceeds go to Robric who’s made some amazing stuff.

Well, I think that is enough jibber jabber so let’s get to the meat of today’s conversation. D&D tips for beginners.

1. Talk with your players/DM

This tip goes both ways for new DM’s and new players. For the new DM: You need to ask your players lots of questions about what they would add to your game or what hasn’t really worked for them as well as tell them that they can freely talk to you and ask you questions. If you need info about a player’s backstory, ask them without delay. If you want your players offering you info about their backstory, tell them nothing would make you happier. Ironically, for such a “nerdy” game this game teaches a lot about relationships. In order to have a successful campaign, you absolutely need constant and consistent communication from all parties involved. If nothing else, you need that just to keep the game consistently scheduled.

1. Encourage players to unlimit themselves

Sometimes new players might look to the DM and think, “What is it they want me to do here?” If that is how you play as a DM, I suggest you rethink your style. I know my wife has said that to me in the recent past during our game and I took that as a personal failure. You want your players to think outside the box and treat the scenarios as real world scenarios where there are infinite options. The mechanics of the game are there to be just that, mechanics, processes that explain how consequences come about. If they want to try something, they can. It’s my job as the DM to think about how logically difficult (or perhaps impossible) that thing is and then let them try anyway. 

So tell your players to let themselves imagine grand things and then try them out.

1. You get out what you put in

1. Take ownership of the lore and content.

As a new player, it may be easy to just arrive at the sessions and “tag along.” Instead, take ownership. Get some materials, whether you download or buy them. Also, know your own character’s backstory in a deep way. Study a little bit of your class’ mechanics every week. You might even want to study some of the deeper lore–that...

You crest a hill and finally see it. Moedinar, your 2nd childhood home. A flood of mixed memories enters your mind. You stop and your companions follow suit. You look over the large city. You see tall but sturdy stone buildings. You see precise streets and roads laid out in a grid pattern. You see a very large wall all the way around the city. What catches your attention most of all though is the lack of livery. You don’t see the traditional flag featuring a golden deer with enormous antlers, each one tipped with a candle, all on a field of deep green. You don’t see any of that. Instead, you see white flags blowing silently on a chill breeze. Instead of a golden deer with candles, you see the head of a deer with antlers of fire and in the fire the symbol of the elemental cult of fire. Yes, it looks like the cults has been here the whole time. Light snow begins to fall. You look at your companions and ask, “Anyone got any ideas on how to get past the wall guard?”

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m Justin Lewis and I’m your DM today and together you and I will learn how to craft better stories for you and your friends as you dungeon master sessions of D&D 5e. We’ll help the noob DM, the Master DM, and everyone in between.

As a DM, your highest goal will naturally be to achieve full immersion into the world you create. You want your players to feel like they are in the scenes you describe. There are many tools out there to help you do this, but to really achieve full immersion you need to engage all of the senses, including hearing. Therefore, many DM’s have turned towards music and ambiance to help achieve this. Today I’ll be sharing some D&D soundboard tools that you can use to help enhance your experience. 

Before I get to the tools, however, let me go through a few housekeeping items. 

First, a big thank you to everyone who has supported the show thus far. We really can’t keep going on without your help and support. It’s you that make this show possible.

Second, I want to give a shoutout to show supporter Robric Vanhelm (Though that is his DM Name). He has given me and Tanner access to an encounter he authored on http://www.dmsguild.com/. It’s an awesome encounter called The League of Libraries: The Lorecroft Collection. He has generously offered up the Promo Version of this encounter to any of our listeners. We’ll make that available through our newsletter so if you want the promo version of the encounter go to betterdungeonmaster.com/newsletter. But after you get a taste for this encounter make sure to go to https://betterdungeonmaster.com/robric. All proceeds go straight to Robtic the DM who is a fantastic supporter of our show so you should be a fantastic supporter of him.

Lastly, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve updated our website domain, so now going to betterdungeonmaster.com will be the home of the podcast. This means that moving forward the one-shot is at betterdungeonmaster.com/one-shot in case you want to sign up and you should! Spots are filling for our September one-shot. We have 3 so far and the target is 5 do get in before they fill up.

I think that is way too many announcements so before I say anything else, let’s actually get to the meat of the show.

Before I get to my list, let me first give a few caveats.

Caveat #1: I have only compiled tools that are free to use in some capacity. I want you to be able to be a better DM without breaking the bank. I know and understand what it’s like to have a limited amount of time and resources to put toward this hobby. These are free so you can spend money on other things (like rent in some cases).

Caveat #2: Your ambience/music situation will largely depend on your available equipment. If you have a cinematic surround sound...

I want you to pick the bond, flaw, personality trait, and ideal for a Tiefling artificer named Troaxiaus.

In explaining the character creation we aren’t just reiterating the process as defined in the player’s handbook, though we are doing that to some degree. In doing this, we are attempting to help you think of simple ways to explain the process to novice players. You see this episode is about you dear listener-adventurer. Oh no… it’s about your players. We will work through this process to help you work through it with the noobiest of noobs to D&D. So let’s begin. We will first describe the different processes simply and then maybe give some tips or tools for helping players. As you’ll notice, the order we describe these is the same order described in DNDBeyond though we might recommend different ways of doing things.

Let me stress something as well. Making the character creation easy and fun is important because if your players never get past this part they will never play.

• Race can be a complicated or simple factor in your campaign, and you should plan out your stance (and your NPCs stances) before you recommend anything to your players. 
• Will you have racist NPCs, or will stereotypes be accepted from the get go (Tolkien-esque /typical fantasy)?
• If you are making your own world and campaign, are you reframing the races, and should that affect your player’s decision? Like, if orcs in your world are typically nerds, should you discourage your player who wants to be a warrior from playing them?
• In terms of stats, let them do whatever they find interesting. But, then encourage their racial choice to actually affect aspects of their role playing
• But, once again, people are not just walking stereotypes—don’t make your player be a copy and paste version. Also, encourage them during character creation to branch out (if they aren’t), or to consider their race’s environment.

Aside from choosing your race, your class may have the most impact on your character. It will help you define how your character interacts in combat and in non-combat situations as well as how others will interact with you. That said, choosing a class can be very confusing. As a DM, I like to ask my players questions like:

• How do you like to fight enemies?
• What do you want your character to be good at in and out of combat?
• Do you want to use magic?
• If so, how complex do you want your magic to be?
• Are you ok with only getting one opportunity to attack during a combat round?
• What video games do you like to play if any?
• How does your character regard deity?

I have found that certain questions actually are a waste of time. These questions make it harder such as:

• What do you want your character to be able to do?
• What contributions do you see your character making?
• What weapon do you want to use?

In general, the more specific the question, the better. I would even go so far as to ask binary questions to force one answer or another.

Obviously, this is somewhat superfluous for a player who’s had the opportunity to play D&D for a second.

The abilities portion is determining your natural abilities as well as how your race and class choices affect those. This is part of assessing your genetics and upbringing and how they affect your character. Simply put, if everything you do were split into 6 categories how good would your character be in those 6 categories. Consequently, that’s exactly how it works in D&D. 

So there are 6 categories: Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution. You’re going...

This is "How To Be A Better DM." Thanks for listening to today’s show! This is Tanner, and I am excited to talk about how we can all prepare to be the best DMs we possible. Today, I am discussing how to plan D&D campaigns.

We really appreciate all the support you guys give us. If you’d like to hang out with us once a month, you can. All you gotta do is sign up for our quarterly one-shot D&D sessions which are DM’d by one of us. Our next one-shot session. It’s first come first serve so sign up quick. The sign up link is: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/one-shot

Next, make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You’ll get even more content, behind-the-scenes looks, homebrew creations made by us and more. It’s free and it comes out once a month so it won’t be a bother to you. Sign up at: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe

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Take a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

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Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Tanner: What would be the simple premise of a one-hour session you would plan for friends who hadn’t played D&D?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Tanner Weyland, here with my counterpart Justin Lewis. Together we are going to learn how to weave better stories for you and your players while you dungeon master sections of D&D 5e. We will walk you through the steps from someone who’s never played D&D to High-Level Dungeon Master. 

Before we get to today’s main topic, we have a couple of housekeeping items to go over.

First of all we want to send a huge thank you out into the digital waves of the internet to Anna Craven. Anna has played in our one-shots a couple of times and she has also sent Justin and myself an amazing gift! She’s hand-crafted notebook covers with the design of a dungeon on the front and back and created a very awesome Dungeon Journal. So far, Justin and I love these notebooks and want to say thank you so very very much! We’ll be posting a picture of them on our Instagram at how to be a better DM so you can see the fine craftsmanship. Thanks again Anna, we really appreciate it!

Next, another reminder that we are moving to a once-a-quarter schedule for our One-shots. The next one-shot will be held in September by myself. If you want to get in on it, sign up now. So far we have 2 slots with a tentative yes that will be confirmed soon. It’s first come first serve so make sure you come first.

1. Water

Sitting at the DM table can get very tiring especially if you aren’t properly hydrated. You spend the entire session talking so naturally, you’ll need some water. I’ve found that water is the best choice. While other beverages can have better taste, water allows you to keep your head and not get too antsy.

1. The DM Screen 

When I first started playing D&D, I saw the screens of the dungeon master and thought that it was unnecessary. Indeed, when I started DMing, I didn’t use a DM screen. Then I started and I found that it made a huge difference. I saw two primary differences:

1. My players regarded me more as the DM. I had more authority. Whether this was perceived or not, it doesn’t matter. I like to think of the DM Screen as almost a part of the uniform of the Dungeon Master.
2. I didn’t have to worry about hiding my notes from my players. When you sit next to your wife while you play as I do, you have to guard the secrets you put on paper. A DM screen takes the temptation away from her. 
3. Music

Now, I’m generally not a heavy-handed person. Having music is a nice way to both set the mood and also remind your players that it’s Dungeons and Dragons time. It’s really nice to be able to turn the music up when players get distracted or start having side conversations. Rather than cutting the immersion when you ask your players to stop, you simply amplify the music volume and they get the hint. It’s also great for just setting the mood in general. A must-have.

1. Tabletop Minis

I like D&D because it transitions from hyper-regulated combat to very fluid roleplaying. Having minis takes a lot of the guesswork out of combat and can make it a lot more visual. That said, it can be used as a crutch and should be used judiciously. You should also explore options for trying it in other ways.

1. A Great Seat/Proper Height Table: 
2. You will be at the table for a while. You will want to enjoy the whole time. Nothing can ruin your experience like a bad seat that does not have a back, or one that does not encourage proper posture. Further, if you like to stand up and walk around the table, you don’t want a table that is so low that you are bending below the waste to reach it (picture coffee...

How do you improvise things that make the game better? How do you add comedy to the game without making it corny?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. Today I talked with TJ Salmon from Comedy Sports, located in Provo Utah. For more information check out https://www.comedysportzutah.com/

The biggest lesson of today's show is that improv, and comedy, both of them, it's not about you. The best Dungeon Masters do everything they can for their players. They build the story on what their characters add. The best way to be a DM is to DM for your players.

Thanks for listening today.

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Do You Want to Earn some Money?

🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!

I Made a CR 100 Monster

I made a Monster with a Challenge Rating of 100 Why? Because I could—and it only took me 5 minutes using Worldsmith. And the best part? You can do this and much more. Get a free 7-day trial at session0studios.com/worldsmith and unlock their full suite of TTRPG generators from monsters to mythic magic items and everything in between. Yep, that’s a full 7-day trial—completely free. That’s a whole week of monsters, magic items, and more—whatever you need, zero burnout. Try it now at session0studios.com/worldsmith. Save time and make unlimited creations with Worldsmith.

You slash down the last of orcs that had ambushed you. This group had appeared out of nowhere apparently. You look around the shadowy thicket where you’d been attacked. Suddenly, Amris, falls down, a silvery dagger embedded in her chest. You’d only just met her in the town but she’d been more than helpful to you and your companions. You all rush over to help her. Blood slowly leaks from her mouth. Already dead. You inspect the dagger. Not orcish at all. It was sleek and silvery, definitely not orcish. You get up and look around but see no other figure aside from you and your companions. 

So who killed Amris ?

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your dungeon master today and together you and I will learn how to weave better stories for you and your players as you play D&D 5e.

First thing I gotta say today is a big thank you to those who played the one-shot with me last week. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. Having your support as players and listeners of the show even makes doing this so much more worthwhile. I can’t begin to say thank you.

If you want to sign up for the next one shot, that will be happening in September. So get ready :)

Next, make sure you follow the show wherever good podcasts are heard. We’re going to come up with some goals so that if we hit a certain number of followers, we’ll do a giveaway so follow us and make that happen!

Now, everyone has been in a D&D session that seemed to just be boring. As a DM, this is heartbreaking because all you want is for your players to have fun! We’ll, here are 8 ideas to make you D&D game more fun! 

1. More Flavors

Why do we like going to ice cream parlors? It’s because we have a seemingly infinite array of flavors. It’s the same reason buffets are so popular. You get to taste a large variety of savors or sweets and even allow yourself to try something new. If your D&D game has become boring, it’s possible that you have allowed yourself to become complacent in the flavors you are presenting to your players. Now, the flavor is a metaphor for game themes, genres, and so forth. So if your game is a hack and slash adventure, then maybe look for a way to do something different. Maybe a puzzling conundrum instead. Perhaps you should add a flavor of romance? The trick won’t be with adding in the flavors. The trick is presenting tastes of the flavors, gauging your players’ interest, and then incorporating flavors that they liked.

1. More Realistic Characters

I have become severely jaded with movies these days. Movies and shows in fact. I hate the fact that movies and shows employ flashy effects and cheap nostalgia to pull in viewers without crafting interesting and realistic characters. That’s a travesty because interesting stories are moved by interesting characters, not interesting effects. Therefore, if you want to make your D&D game more fun and interesting, you should work on the characters in your story. I’ve been working on this more and more in my campaign. I have an NPC who is a halfling cleric who the group makes fun of more or less, but slowly they are starting to see that he’s not just a loveable little halfling and instead he has conflicting desires and flaws and weaknesses. If you ask my opinion, those are a few things you can do to really flesh out characters. Look at their weaknesses and strengths and investigate their inner conflicts.

1. More preparation

Dungeons and Dragons are just a game. You aren’t preparing a Master’s Level Thesis or a PHD defense. However, this is a pick-up game of basketball either. Tabletop roleplaying games might be one of the few hobbies where you actually have to do a little bit of homework for it to function. I’ve found that if I want to have more fun playing D&D then I need to prepare more as a...

Common annoying d&d players and how to deal with them

• Upcoming One-shot on the 25th

• The Player DM:
• This is me when I play.
• Deal with this player by sitting them down and saying that they are a really great DM. Stress that you are the DM and that you’d like to challenge them to be an even better player which means good give and take with the other players.
• The Distracted Distraction
• I hate these. These are the players that enjoy the game but they also seem to get distracted a lot and either end up sharing videos with other players during the game and or have side conversations. So annoying. I think the best thing to do with these players is to help everyone understand the rules of the table.
• The Waffler
• These are the players that say, “I walk through the door,” and then you say, “Right as you do,” they interrupt and say I don’t walk through the door. They might be afraid of the consequences and might not feel ready. With this player, I think you have to be firm and say that you said you walked through the door so you do. If they argue then you might need to have another conversation with them outside of normal playing hours.

*** All of these can be prevented by establishing the rules of the relationship before you start playing. After playing, I believe that having a conversation with the individual in question can help improve. If it doesn’t, steps might have to be taken to make sure the group is having fun.

• The Protagonist
• They think their character is a two-dimensional hero who should always make the main decisions. They are the serious character, while everyone else is a joke who should follow along.
• To deal with them, try to encourage team play. Encourage them to be the hero who helps them. Also, make a campaign or one-shot with a distinctly silly setting and premise. They need to be taught that it is okay to be silly from time to time.
• The Tryhard
• They aren’t here to fail rolls, or to lose at all. They are rules lawyers when it benefits them, and rule slobs when it doesn’t. They mostly care about succeeding and being awesome and getting their way through any means necessary.
• Hold them accountable for rules. Also, when they do fail a roll, have the outcome being humorous, or not distinctly negative. Teach them that losing is not a bad thing.

Mentioned in this episode:

Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

Monument Studios

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Join Our Discord

So a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today.

Discord

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. We have a great episode with Robert from Dungeons, Dragons & Psychology. Get Robert's Book Session 0!

Here are some of the questions we asked Robert:

• Is it necessary to make your NPC’s lifelike
• What makes a good NPC?
• What makes a good villain?
• What makes a good ally?
• How do you keep track of your NPC’s?

Mentioned in this episode:

Why Listen to Ads?

Ugh, another ad break. Let’s be real—ads are the worst. If you’re anything like my wife, you’d rather quit a show entirely than sit through another ad. So why suffer? Just skip them. Join our Patreon at patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and enjoy ad-free episodes with exclusive patron-only content—all for just $5 a month. Look at you, all fancy with your uninterrupted listening experience. So stop wasting time on ads (like this one). Go to patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and upgrade your listening today!

Patreon

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Join Our Discord

So a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today.

Discord

Here are today's sponsors:

Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcast

Roll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplay

Studio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasms

Our Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreon

This is "How To Be A Better DM." Thanks for listening to today’s show! This is Tanner, and I am excited to talk about how we can all prepare to be the best DMs we possible. Today, I am discussing homemade props and how to use them, as well as which props are worth making.

Next, make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You’ll get even more content, behind-the-scenes looks, homebrew creations made by us and more. It’s free and it comes out once a month so it won’t be a bother to you. Sign up at: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe

Special thanks to:

Benj Weyland for Graphic Design (https://www.instagram.com/benjweydesign/)

TJ Max, Juka, and TechSenpai for being amazing moderators

Kyle Wilson, Nick Ammann and Professor Nobody for being our patrons.

Mentioned in this episode:

Do You Want to Earn some Money?

🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

Monument Studios

Here are today's sponsors:

Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcast

Roll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplay

Studio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasms

Our Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreon

Describe the coolest water fight you can think of.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM

• Apparently endless magic items
• Daerns Instant Fortress is a cool item I’ve read about recently.
• I also like the Bag of Tricks
• Creating settlements, castles, cities, etc.
• Learning about the different planes
• Different Governments for example Plutocracy - Governed by the wealthy who buy ruling seats
• Bonus: The Hand and Eye of Vecna

• Boring Rules… Jk, super important:
• Don’t check during a session, if you can help it. Prep, and then come back after the session to check up on rules you may have gotten wrong.
• Chapters 8 and 9 (have all sorts of weird rules to check)

Background noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCSJwAHKV4Q

Special thanks to:

Benj Weyland for Graphic Design (https://www.instagram.com/benjweydesign/)

TJ Max, Juka, and TechSenpai for being amazing moderators

Kyle Wilson, Nick Ammann and Professor Nobody for being our patrons.

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

Monument Studios

Do You Want to Earn some Money?

🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and

Here are today's sponsors:

Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcast

Roll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplay

Studio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasms

Our Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreon

You sit down at the fire. You’ve traveled a long distance to reach these particular nomads. You’ve heard tell that these nomads have mystical powers and can guide you on finding unknowable secrets. You look around. Their long arms show a fierce exterior, but they’ve let you sit in their circle. They’ve shared their meat with you. Their hair hides their faces though you can see pinpricks of light reflect off of their eyes and hidden behind their hair. They seem to look at you expectantly.

“Um… what am I…”

It’s at that moment that one of their numbers starts beating a drum produced from somewhere within the folds of their outer garments. More drums are produced and the rhythm continues and amplifies. Soon the sound of beating drums is all you hear. It echoes the beating of a heart. Not your heart but the communal heart of this tribe.

You let yourself fall into the rhythm. After a moment, you notice an elder stand up and walk towards the central fire. He chants some things and then throws some dust into the fire. There’s a puff of green smoke and you smell a distinct earthy smell. Soon, your senses become slurred and you seem to drift from reality.

Your eyes open and instead of at a ritual fire, you’re standing waist-deep in the ocean. You look over and see another tribal member standing with you. You both wield spears and look for fish. You throw your spear. 

Flash.

Instead of being near a ritual fire, you’re crouching low in a snowy copse of trees. You peer out from behind some bushes and see an auroch munching on greenery. The rest of your hunting party has snuck around to flank the beast. You hear the double hoot of an owl. That’s the signal. You jump up and charge to attack the beast.

Flash.

Instead of at a ritual fire, you’re in a grotto. You see a large stone monolith. Inscribed on the giant stone are ancient runes. They glow softly blue in the dim light. At the base of the monolith is a pool of water that seems pure and as you approach it starts to glow light blue. This is what you’ve come for.

So what would you like to do?

Welcome back to another episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and together you and I will learn how to tell better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e. 

First of all, I’ve got to say thank you so much. Since we started the show, we’ve seen amazing growth that I never could have predicted. It’s all because of you guys. You guys have allowed us to create cool content and spread it to some awesome people.

Next don’t forget to listen to the end of today’s episode to hear how you can support the show.

Today, let’s talk about immersion. 

Now, I’m not going to be talking about Virtual Reality, though we can all expect that within our lifetimes we’ll see all sorts of leaps in bounds in that area.

No, I’m talking about learning to help your players feel like they are in your world. You have to help your players slip the bonds of our time and space and instead drift through the planes to the material plane on which you play D&D.

No amount of cool voice-changing software or LED lights will...

Here are today's sponsors:

Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcast

Roll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplay

Studio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasms

Our Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreon

Welcome back to the Tavern Adventurer.

Today, we talk about how to make a story and campaign dynamic with Garrett from two25games.com.

If you want Garrett back on the show, you'll have to let us know.

Special thanks to:

Benj Weyland for Graphic Design (https://www.instagram.com/benjweydesign/)

TJ Max, Juka, and TechSenpai for being amazing moderators

Kyle Wilson, Nick Ammann and Professor Nobody for being our patrons.

Mentioned in this episode:

Why Listen to Ads?

Ugh, another ad break. Let’s be real—ads are the worst. If you’re anything like my wife, you’d rather quit a show entirely than sit through another ad. So why suffer? Just skip them. Join our Patreon at patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and enjoy ad-free episodes with exclusive patron-only content—all for just $5 a month. Look at you, all fancy with your uninterrupted listening experience. So stop wasting time on ads (like this one). Go to patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and upgrade your listening today!

Patreon

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Do You Want to Earn some Money?

🎲 Want to Earn Some Extra Gold? We’re offering a referral incentive for our professional Dungeon Mastering services! Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Refer someone to session0studios.com/prodm 2️⃣ They sign up for a free consultation. 3️⃣ They mention they were referred by a podcast listener. 4️⃣ We DM an unforgettable session for them. 5️⃣ They get 10% off their booking. 6️⃣ You get 10% of what they paid—straight into your coin purse. 7️⃣ We celebrate with a virtual high-five. 🙌 We run games for private groups and corporate teams—whether it’s a one-shot or a long-term campaign. 💰 Want to earn some gold and help someone level up their game night? Send them to session0studios.com/prodm and start earning today!

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Here are today's sponsors:

Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcast

Roll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplay

Studio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasms

Our Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreon

This is How To Be A Better DM. Today we will discussing the Why and What of campaign first sessions.

Thanks for listening to today’s show! My name is Tanner Weyland, and I am excited to talk about how we can all prepare to be the best DMs we possible. We really appreciate all the support you guys give us. If you’d like to hang out with us once a month, you can. All you gotta do is sign up for our monthly one-shot D&D sessions which are DM’d by one of us. It’s first come first serve so sign up quick. This month I am running the session, and I am very excited for it! The sign up link is: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/one-shot

Next, make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You’ll get even more content, behind-the-scenes looks, homebrew creations made by us and more. It’s free and it comes out once a month so it won’t be a bother to you. Sign up at: https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe

Special thanks to:

Benj Weyland for Graphic Design (https://www.instagram.com/benjweydesign/)

TJ Max, Juka, and TechSenpai for being amazing moderators

Kyle Wilson, Nick Ammann and Professor Nobody for being our patrons.

Mentioned in this episode:

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Start Leveling Up As a DM

Wouldn’t it be nice to gamify your dungeon master abilities? In D&D, characters can reach level 20, so why can’t dungeon masters? We’re happy to tell you that now, you can. We created the Dungeon Master Level-Up Guide. It’s a simple tool to gamify your progression to higher and higher levels of dungeon mastering. It includes Dungeon Master Levels 1 to 20 with associated XP requirements as well as a long list of Dungeon Master activities that will give you XP. Each activity has a Challenge Rating and an XP amount. In order to level up, all you need to do is find out how much XP you have, find out how much you need and pick activities to try. You can get the Dungeon Master Level-Up guide for free by going to session0studios.com/newsletter/, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you the Level-Up Guide. Finally, leveling up as a DM can be as fun as leveling up a character.

Level Up Guide

Why Listen to Ads?

Ugh, another ad break. Let’s be real—ads are the worst. If you’re anything like my wife, you’d rather quit a show entirely than sit through another ad. So why suffer?...

Here are today's sponsors:

Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcast

Roll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplay

Studio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasms

Our Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreon

• Welcome
• Thanks for the One-Shot with Dan, Jordan and Anna. We really appreciate your support. 
• We will be having our next one-shot at the end of this month.
• Make sure to sign up for the newsletter as well.
• As well if you’re interested in us livestreaming this particular segment of our show, then let us know, reach out to us on our Instagram or email. We can even do an ask me anything. If that’s something you’re interested in, let us know.

Before I do my session, I find it’s incredibly helpful just to quickly run through the session or at least what I’ve written about it and my timeline. More than anything this just help refresh in my mind the basic timeline of things. I feel it makes a difference to my players when I know that C happens after B and D happens after C and A is how it all starts.

• GM Setup
• Player Character Sheets
• Minis
• Snacks

• Beginning of the Game
• Very Specific Parts of the game that will give maximum impact

• Helpful loot tables
• Random encounter tables

• You want to make sure you know at least a brief idea of some things that happen next.

• Be Simple: plan something straightforward and simple. Exploring, simple dungeon or house exploration can be a wonderful way to start an adventure since it is low on mechanics, has the excitement of discovery, and does not require intense role playing by you.
• Have a Dry Run (for online): if it is your first time running D&D, have one of your players come early to run through technical difficulties (if they are friends, this should not be too hard).
• Plan One NPC as a warm-up: role-playing well on your first session is very nerve-wracking, and it can make you shy away from doing serious role-playing, like voices and the whole shebang. So, I would suggest planning a throwaway NPC to help you transition into it. And make them exaggerated: super old, or super gruff, or super British-orphan, or whatever! Just something you can be silly with, but also something you have to put yourself out there for.

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You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a

You walk into the tavern. Your sword and shield clinking together as you walk makes everyone in the tavern turn and look at you. Being somewhat new to this you try and act tough and scowl at everyone. It doesn’t come off well and you look sort of foolish. You walk over to the bar and wait patiently for the bartender to come talk to you and ask you what you want to drink. He doesn’t. Instead he serves all the other patrons who keep shouting at him. 

“It seems the squeaky wheel does get the grease,” you mutter under your breath. You raise your hand and shout at the bartender and finally he comes over. He’s a large half-orc fellow who looks like he’s no stranger to a brawl.

“Heyo, what’ll it be?” He asks with a quizzical eye at your armor and clothing.

You brush it off and say, “A simple ale please, and I was wondering if you could give me some direction?” The bartender stops and gives you more of his full attention. 

“Yeah? What did you need?”

“Well, I’m looking for sort of a group of companions. Do you know any mercenary groups that are open to a new member?”

The half-orc smiles and says, “you must be new to this whole adventuring thing. Well these groups don’t just accept complete strangers in. You’ll have to prove yourself and they don’t really go about looking for new compatriots.  Now, with that in mind,” and he turns you to look at the rest of the tavern, “over in that corner, yeah those dark elves, they are the Right Harvesters. They’re a group of crow come up from the Underdark seeking the quell those who follow any demon or devil. Bunch of rightoues pricks you ask me. Over there with the ogre, they’re the Blade Speakers. Mostly just ruffians and vagabonda really. Lastly, the group to your left here are the Whisper Wraiths. They’re tied up with the Zhentarim pretty tight. So adventurer, here’s your drink and I’m mighty curious what you’re going to do.”

So what would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis and I’m here to help you create better stories as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

Today, let’s talk about one of the first things that you’ll do as a DM- finding your D&D group.

This is going to be my hypothetical list for what I’d do if I wanted to find players for my D&D campaign. You might try different things, but this is what I would do first.

The first thing I do when starting a D&D campaign is ask my friends and family. For me personally, I try to start with my family just to build that relationship better but that’s just me. I also don’t just ask friends who I know would be interested. I ask any friend because D&D is a great way to build friendships. I’ve also been highly surprised at the people who’ve said yes and have even been extremely excited to try D&D. You just gotta ask.

I think this is the best place to start because D&D can turn an acquaintance into a friend and a good relationship into a great one. Often D&D sessions turn into much more. 

Every single one of your friends has friends who are not your friends. What better way to meet someone who might like the same types of things you like than by asking someone who likes the same types of things that you like?

“But I don’t really want to meet new people…”

I get it. We’re all introverts and we’re all extroverts and we all like staying home and binging Netflix and we all like going out and partying. Sometimes you don’t want to meet new people, but sometimes you don’t want to be lonely. The fact of the matter is that you do have to put yourself out there, especially as a DM. You have to give so many invitations and most of them will naturally be no’s. That’s ok. Just ask your friends and family who say no who they might know who would say...

In today's episode, we talk to Jake Packham, who is the dungeon master behind our live-play show "The Pact & Boon." Listen as we ask Jake how he goes about applying his inspiration to create compelling campaigns, and grow his home-brew world of Calignos.

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Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

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Welcome back to another episode of How to Be a Better DM.

Today Tanner and Justin talk about their favorite enemies!

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Wouldn’t it be nice to gamify your dungeon master abilities? In D&D, characters can reach level 20, so why can’t dungeon masters? We’re happy to tell you that now, you can. We created the Dungeon Master Level-Up Guide. It’s a simple tool to gamify your progression to higher and higher levels of dungeon mastering. It includes Dungeon Master Levels 1 to 20 with associated XP requirements as well as a long list of Dungeon Master activities that will give you XP. Each activity has a Challenge Rating and an XP amount. In order to level up, all you need to do is find out how much XP you have, find out how much you need and pick activities to try. You can get the Dungeon Master Level-Up guide for free by going to session0studios.com/newsletter/, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you the Level-Up Guide. Finally, leveling up as a DM can be as fun as leveling up a character.

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Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m one of your hosts, Tanner Weyland, and together you and I will learn how to tell better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

Today I share my thoughts on how to communicate with "that one player." Difficult interpersonal issues are often solved with open and constructive communication.

If you like the podcast today, or if you have suggestions for future podcasts, connect with us on our new instagram @howtobeabetterdm and let us know!

Would you like to play D&D with us? If so, then sign up for the newsletter and get access to monthly sign ups for a session with me or one of the other hosts. Sign up at https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe

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Ugh, another ad break. Let’s be real—ads are the worst. If you’re anything like my wife, you’d rather quit a show entirely than sit through another ad. So why suffer? Just skip them. Join our Patreon at patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and enjoy ad-free episodes with exclusive patron-only content—all for just $5 a month. Look at you, all fancy with your uninterrupted listening experience. So stop wasting time on ads (like this one). Go to patreon.com/betterdungeonmaster and upgrade your listening today!

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Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

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Take a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

It's another duo-show with Justin and Tanner.

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You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

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Get The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree For Free

Take a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

You fall to one knee. The large orc in front of you grips his battle ax firmly in his hands and lets out a mocking grunt. Blood drips down the blade and onto the ground. Your blood.

You look around at your companions. They are all lying on the ground bloody and unconscious. Julian might be dead. Things could not look worse. 

“Puny wizard. Drinking your blood will be a great pleasure.” The orc says through his tusked maw.

You slowly raise yourself to your feet and point at the orc with a shaking finger. “Blood for blood. This death was brought to pass by your actions feral one.” The orc begins to laugh. Then he charges you. You reach inside your tunic and pull out a simple wand of cherry wood. You point it at the orc and whisper, “Infiern”. Immediately a brilliant ball of fire is launched from the wands’ tip expanding to engulfing the entire orc. Unfortunately, you are also a bit to close to the fire and find yourself flung off your feet as the ball of flames explodes on impact with the goblinoid.

You open your eyes to see everything on fire, even you, but you can’t seem to move.

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and together, you and I will learn how to craft better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

As always, I’m very grateful that you’ve allowed me to dig into the hobby for 8 months now and we don’t plan on stopping. You guys have been stellar in showing us what you like and what you don’t like and we will do everything we can to gratify your desires.

If there’s one thing that a lot of people struggle with, it’s describing combat. Honestly, it can be hard for any DM to make round after round after round of combat interesting. There’s a spectrum. It goes from very boring combat to perhaps too graphic and violent. So how do you describe D&D combat in the best way? This is how.

D&D is not a movie. As much as we treat it like a movie, even going to the point of using Screen Wipes as happens in tabletop games like Star Wars, it’s not a movie. In movies, you can show every single moment of action, because in reality it only takes a couple seconds. When you use words to describe every single action in combat it takes much longer. That’s because two things can happen simultaneously in real life but you can only say one word at a time.

So with your combat, describe the highlights. Briefly describe the effect of an attack that does damage. Don’t go deep into, “You swing and miss and they swing and miss and back and forth and finally someone scores a hit.” That’s too much. You can even just give the damage and save the juicy descriptions for large amounts of damage or the end.

If you’re fighting someone who is proficient with a weapon and you don’t kill them in the first hit, then that means that most of your hits do not sever limbs or slash deep gouges. Sometimes you need to be realistic in the way that you describe things. Just because you do damage mechanically doesn’t mean that you have to necessarily do damage in your narrative. Say a barbarian does 12 points of slashing damage with their battle ax. You could describe that as the ax cutting deep into the enemy’s armor, slowly deteriorating its integrity, allowing for an opening that becomes pivotal when a crucial opportunity presents itself. You don’t have to be lopping off people’s arms with every swing.

Often in D&D, your villains will have minions. If in the same combat encounter you have a multitude of minions, then don’t waste too much extra breath on the mini baddies when you can describe the big baddies in much better detail. You don’t have to explain that the skeleton chopped when you can spend much more time describing what the Lich did. No one cares about the skeletons (for the most...

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You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

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Get The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree For Free

Take a trip down to the bayou in The Swampberry Moonshine Jamboree. We teamed up with Studio Fantasms to bring you a raucous one-shot adventure full of gatorfolk, catfishing, and a whole lotta moonshine. We wrote the adventure, they designed the minis—it’s a sweet little bundle, and it’s totally free for the month of May. Just head to https://session0studios.com/fantasms and sign up to grab it. Don’t wait—May’s free, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

What is a Session 0

Suddenly, you hear a muffled grunt. You risk a glance away from your dark elf opponent and see Geriman go down. Enraged you yell, “Nooooooo!” and you rush the dark elf in front of you, he feints left but you don’t fall for it, choosing to rush him and lift him up, smashing him to the ground. You take advantage of the brief moment he lies stunned on the ground by sending a quick 1-2 punch to his head with your spiked gauntlets. After a moment he lies still. You get up to run towards Geriman. You have a healing potion so you should be able to save him. As you turn to look at your fallen companion so stop in your tracks, the battle raging around you. Standing above Geriman’s unconscious form is the drow elf who downed him. He looks at you and smiles, and then rams a sword into Geriman’s chest. Geriman’s eyes open briefly and a sharp grunt escapes his lips, followed by a slow sigh that slowly fades into nothing. 

You don’t remember what happened next. Instead you come back to consciousness with a dead drow at your feet, torn into two parts. Next to the elf is the body of your slain friend, a slight trickle of blood escape his unmoving mouth and his eyes staring up into nothing.

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and together you and I will learn how to tell great stories as we DM sessions of D&D 5e.

When getting a campaign started, you might have heard the benefits of starting with a session 0. 

But what is a session 0?

Well, I’ll tell what you it is not.

A session 0 is definitely not the session where you and all your friends get together to create your characters. Some people define session 0 as the character creation session, but it specifically is not because you haven’t played your characters yet. If you haven’t played your characters yet then you haven’t played D&D yet, you’ve just had fun making characters. That’s totally fine, but it’s not a session. It might be just semantics but I stand with my definition.

A Session 0 is essentially play-testing those characters that you made. You can choose to include the entire party or just a few people here and there. Generally the story isn’t heavy or at least it’s introductory to the heavy. Some people combine the session 0 with their character creation. They’ll take an hour or so getting their characters set up and then dive right into a scenario with their characters to see if they life what they chose. Often, session 0 can be playing out a part of the backstory of one or more of the characters. A session 0 is also a nice way for the DM to playtest their players. Maybe one of the players isn’t gonna mesh well with the table. Session 0 is a nice way to identify that and then nip it in the bud early on.

A session 0 can really be seen as a warm-up for the entire campaign. It’s a wonderful option for people who aren’t sure about what they want for their character. I suppose you could even play the level 15 or 20 version of your character so that each player knows what they’re getting into rather than just picking a class they think would be fun and hoping for the best. After I would then dumb each character down to the level that you’re starting the campaign at and then go from there.

A couple things you’ll want to keep in mind for you session 0:

1. You don’t want to overcomplicate things. 

Your players are just getting used to their characters and really seeing if this is the character they want to be with for the next 6 months to 22 years (overexaggeration). They don’t want to have to worry about extremely difficult plots right at first.

1. Be patient

As I already said, your players are just learning their new characters. Some players will have an easier time than others. Your job is to help all of them.

1. Help the...

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. One of the hosts, Tanner Weyland, shares how D&D can help prospective authors improve their storytelling.

You may have noticed that the intro changed to a "what if" scenario. If you would like to weigh in on how you would respond to that situation, connect with us on our new instagram and let us know!

Would you like to play D&D with us? If so, then sign up for the newsletter and get access to monthly sign ups for a session with me or one of the other hosts. Sign up at https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe

Roll initiative!

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So a little bit of a spoiler alert. We’re building an army. That’s right, we’re building an army of amazing dungeon masters who want to make the world of D&D a better place. If you want to join our army and fight by our side against the evil forces of boredom and bad dming, join our Discord and lend your voice to the cause. Go to Session0studios.com/discord and join for free today.

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You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Being a dungeon master: The Best and Worst Things

“Where are they?” You ask as you shepherded into this enormous cavern.

“Wait. Soon, you will see.” Gavrat responds. You’ve never liked dealing with the ratlike shifter. Even though most of his features are human, the ratlike features on his face are unsettling. Particularly the teeth that stick out under his rat-like nose. He guides you through the rocky outcroppings until you all see tremendous mushrooms start to fill the back end of the cavern.

“We don’t have time for this Gavrat. Where is the patron and what kind of job is this?” You ask impatiently.

“Don’t worry. Just ahead.

You continue walking with Gavrat and walk deep into this grove of giant mushrooms. 

Suddenly, Gavrat stops. “We are here.” he says with a smile.

You only hear silence.

“Gavrat, if you’ve led us here on a wild goose chase, I will skin you alive.”

“Do not trouble the rat man. I am here.” a strange voice says. “I am the one you seek.” You look around but you see no speaker. Suddenly you see the large mushroom in front of you start to turn and move towards you. You notice arms, a mouth and eyes. 

The myconid emanates a cloud of spores that hits you and suddenly you hear, “I am Hymotobor. I have a job for you.”

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis, and together you and I will learn how to tell better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

As you may have noticed, lots of things are changing on the podcast. I hope you like the changes but if not please let me know. Go to our new Instagram @howtobeabetterdm and let us know!

Now being a DM isn’t all fun and games… we’ll technically it is, cuz this is just a game.

Sometimes being a DM can be downright difficult, fortunately, othertimes, being a DM is the greatest thing in the world! So let’s get down to real talk. What are the best and worst things about being a DM?

1. Not having to rely on someone else to initiate D&D

In my experience, finding a DM that can keep up the campaign every single week can be difficult. Sometimes people just lose steam. The sucky part is that you still want to play D&D. Being a DM means that you can always at least control having something prepared to play. The hard part is finding people to play with you.

1. Seeing the wonder in your player’s eyes

There’s something magical about creating a story and shepherding people through it. I can remember a few moments specifically. When my players in my current campaign were going through a haunted mansion and some undead guards were about to fight my group. One of my players recognized the sigil of the guards and the nation where they came from. He started reciting the national oath of that country. Because it was such a cool moment, I had the undead guards join in, and instead of fighting the group, the guards passed by them. My players all looked like those anime characters with their big shiny eyes when something amazing happens. It was awesome. Being able to help create that is something special.

1. Walking through my ideas

As a DM, when you come up with a cool idea, you can actually play through it. I remember as a Player I would think of all sorts of cool things that I would love to see. As a DM, I can actually put that stuff in. More often than not, that means my stories are too chock full of stuff and perhaps a little too bloated, but that’s something I’m working on. At least, I don’t have to have a little black book of all my cool ideas that I will never ever use.

1. Knowing the Story

One of the best (and worst) parts of being a DM is knowing how the story ends. I get to know...

You all reach the bottom of the ladder after climbing down it for an hour and a half. Halfway down, your wizard cast light to give you all the ability to see. You find yourselves in a roughcut chamber with a ladder that ascendes up towards where you came from. You also see a solitary door. After a few minutes, Herath is able to unlock the door and open it creakily. Beyond your group sees a sloping tunnel that dives deeper into the earth at a gentle decline. You group presses on and walks the path for another half hour. 

You and your group are used to the constant noises of the upper world. Down here you hear silence and the constant vibrations of the moving earth. 

Silently your group reaches the point where the tunnel branches. It diverges into 3 separate tunnels. Each tunnel looks natural. Your sight penetrates 30 feet into the darkness but you see no signs to indicate which tunnel to take. 

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to the 35th episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis and together we will learn how to tell better stories as dungeon master a session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

We’ve all been a DM, we’ve all had good sessions and bad sessions. But how do you know what makes a good D&D session? 

It’s not always easy making a good D&D session, but it is always fulfilling. 

So here are some telltale signs of a good D&D session.

1. Players have fun

The most important thing for a D&D session is that your players have fun. That includes you since you are a player as well. So do whatever you need to make the game fun. If halfway through, you aren’t having fun, then you gotta change things up. Some ways try and make it more fun: 

• Simplify: make things easier to comprehend
• Energize: just add more energy to what you are doing
• Take a break
• Do something funny
• Add in a twist
• Skip over boring stuff.

1. Players are interested

Obviously this is an aspect of the the players having fun, but the story needs to be interesting. That’s why we play D&D rather than other table top or video games. It’s the stories. So are there moments where your players are interested in what happens next. Two of the best ways to do this are first, adding a cliffhanger, but more importantly, conflict. The best part of any story is its conflicts. If a story has no conflicts, it is not a story. So add conflicts. Conflicts between the characters and NPC’s and between the characters and time and all sort of conflict. That’s how you draw in your players. 

1. Something memorable happened

A session is great when you can look back with your friends and say, “You remember when…. That was so cool or crazy or weird.” A good example is in one of my one-shots, one of my players killed an enemy that ended up blowing up cause two of the other players’ characters to die. It was funny and unexpected. It’s something we’ll all remember for a long time. Good D&D session.

1. The session fits the mood of the players

Sometimes the players don’t want a rootin tootin shootem up session. Sometimes the players just want a shopping session. So dangle different flavors in front of your players and the ones that your players interact with the most is the one you should give them more of. Be aware that what they want during the session will likely change from hour to hour and being a good DM  means that you understand what your players want. 

The perfect D&D session is an illusive thing. A ghost, a phantom, a shadow, yet made of pure crystal, platinum and gold, it’s worth more than all the loot in the universe. Creating the perfect D&D session is impossible, yet the goal of...

The party walks out into a clearing. Traveling through the jungle had taken longer than expected. You’d followed the young girl’s tracks but that didn’t make traveling through the brush any easier, especially for Medic. 

In the clearing you see a clean cut wood house on stilts high above the jungle floor. It was as if a home had been built on a watch tower. Smoke rises lazily from the chimney. That’s when you realize how quiet it is. As you traveled through the jungle, you’d heard every sort of creature imaginable. Now you hear nothing. 

Suddenly the door opens up and a man steps out onto the deck of the house. He has a brown vest on with a black beard, no mustache and flowing black hair. He holds his hands on his hips with a crooked smile on his face.

“I suppose you’ve come for my girl.” The man says in a rough deep voice. His tone is somewhat mocking.

Brennor steps forward and say, “There’s more of us than of you so it would be wise to hand her over lad.”

“I can count master dwarf.” The man says wryly. “I don’t think the odds stack up in your favor though.” And with that the man begins chanting something and waving his hands as his eyes light up with a strange white light.

You look to Malfius who has already begun a Counterspell. Malfius finishes but nothing happens. Malfius tries again, but nothing. 

The man on the deck smiles and says, “Oh that won’t work with me. I’m a different breed altogether.” and then thrusts his hand forward and opens it and you and your companions are assaulted with shards of thick ice.

After the barrage, you all stand up and look at each other.

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis and together you and I will learn how to tell better stories as we DM sessions of Dungeons & Dragons 5e. 

As I’m been making this show and putting out this content, I’ve realized that it’s very possible that you the listener, not you, no the other one, yes you! The one who is pointing their finger at themselves and mouthing, “me?” Yes. I’m talking to you. You might not be a DM yet, but you’re interested in becoming one. You have one questions on your mind, “Am I ready to try being a DM.?’

Well Mister! I’m here to tell you yes!

Well, mostly yes.

I guess the answer is it depends. 

1. You have a desire to try.

The first and most important thing you need in order to be ready to try being a dungeon master is simply the desire, nay the interest. Everything else can be developed and acquired. If you don’t want to be a DM, then doing it for more than a one shot will be very difficult, nay impossible. If you’re listening to this episode and your friend is pressuring you to try being a DM but you have no real curiosity or interest in doing it, then don’t do it. I mean it’s alright to try it, but you don’t need to prepare to become a DM. Becoming a DM requires a lot of commitment and a shifu.

1. You can explain the basic rules to someone who’s never played.

Go find someone who’s never played D&D but is open to the idea. If they aren’t open, they’ll likely not care about you explaining the rules, therefore they won’t pay attention. So find this neophyte to the D&D ways and sit them down and explain how you play. Don’t go too in depth, but just enough to whet their whistle. If the very idea of that scares the living daylight out of you, then you gotta do some reading my friend.

1. You Have an Idea

Every great campaign needs twists and surprises. Even if you use a premade campaign, you’ll still want to add your own flavor to the game. That means you’ll want to be able to create story lines that are interesting. Now, obviously doing that well takes practice. To start off make sure you have some sort of idea. What I mean is most DM’s at one point of...

Here's a bonus episode for you about how to World Build with Your players and Characters in mind.

Here are some helpful tips:

• When you world build for players, you leave open spaces that players can help fill
• It gives your worldbuilding direction, which makes the story that much better.
• It saves time and effort because you only build about 20% more than what the players will interact with. Think about rendering in Minecraft.
• Your players get to help build the world 
• You can add cool things as you progress through the story

Hope you enjoyed this Instagram Live episode.

Happy DMing

Mentioned in this episode:

Start Leveling Up As a DM

Wouldn’t it be nice to gamify your dungeon master abilities? In D&D, characters can reach level 20, so why can’t dungeon masters? We’re happy to tell you that now, you can. We created the Dungeon Master Level-Up Guide. It’s a simple tool to gamify your progression to higher and higher levels of dungeon mastering. It includes Dungeon Master Levels 1 to 20 with associated XP requirements as well as a long list of Dungeon Master activities that will give you XP. Each activity has a Challenge Rating and an XP amount. In order to level up, all you need to do is find out how much XP you have, find out how much you need and pick activities to try. You can get the Dungeon Master Level-Up guide for free by going to session0studios.com/newsletter/, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you the Level-Up Guide. Finally, leveling up as a DM can be as fun as leveling up a character.

Level Up Guide

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

Add the Magic of Sound to Your Gameplay

When you set the scene you need to tap into the five senses. When it comes to sound one of the best ways to do that is with music, sound effects, and ambience. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Monument Studios. Monument Studios provides an easy-to-use Soundboard perfect for Dungeon Mastering. If you want to see this in action, go to fantasy-plus.com and get 10% off of your first month of their Fantasy+ App by using the code BETTERDM at check out. Again that is fantasy-plus.com and BETTERDM at checkout.

Monument Studios

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

You and your companions get off the boat and onto the dock of New Tuyen. You look around letting the sights and sounds greet you. You walk towards the city and allow yourself to acclimate to this new city. 

You first notice all the green. The buildings and roads are all made with a green material. After talking to a local citizen, you learn that the material is actually a moss that is particularly dense and sturdy. You also take in the smells of local street vendors who season their meats with intoxicating spices. Your stomach rumbles and mouth salivates as you pass one particular stall. 

The thing that strikes you the most are the people. You’ve heard about genassi but you weren’t prepared for this. Every person you has the form and shape of humanoids but instead of skin you simply see and element. One man made of fire walks past you without burning you and immediately after a woman made of shifting sand walks by without leaving any sand behind. Each person wears clothing like normal and their bodies are shaped like yours, but they seem so foreign. Especially alien to you are the space genassi. Their bodies looks like fields of stars and hair look like nebula. You’ve never seen anything so beautiful yet strange. 

Welcome to New Tuyen.

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to the 33rd episode of How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host, Justin Lewis. Together, you and I will explore how to tell better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

We all know that planning D&D sessions is tough. Most of us do it only so we can play the session. There are those few of us who are masichists at heart and enjoy the torture, but I’m not talking to those freaks today.

Instead, I’m talking to the other freaks who don’t necessarily love preparing for D&D sessions, but still love playing the game and being a DM anyways.

You’re probably asking the question, “How much should I plan for my D&D session?”

You’ve got lots of things to worry about in your life. You probably have a job, kids, a spouse, other hobbies, your physical fitness, dog, parents, friends, and everything else that’s going on in your life. 

You can’t plan every move your players would ever make. 

Well, I’m gonna give you a simple answer and a more complex answer. 

The simple answer is you should plan more than you think you should but less than your players think you have.

Simple right. 

Well, let’s unravel that just a little bit.

1. Plan to finish what you’ve started.

I’ve covered this before, but you need to plan to finish what has been started in the last campaign. This is the minimum requirement. Right now in the campaign I’m leading with my players, I have two characters who just started two separate combat encounters while the rest of the party is back at camp trying to long rest. So naturally, I have to prepare these two separate encounters. For me that looks like reading into the capabilities of the adversaries that will be fighting my players and making sure I know what they can do and what they will most likely do. This also means thinking of the motives behind my players and their enemies to try and guess the most likely way things will go. But, knowing my players, it’s likely that I can’t predict what they will do and that’s ok.

1. 2 -3 Paths.

After finishing these two encounters, I’ll likely have an opportunity to ask, “What do you want to do now?” That means the players will have to think about all the many options they have to do stuff and pick something. Again, there’s no possible way I can predict everything they are going to do. So I pick three possible paths that the players can choose. I’m not really at liberty to...

You all enter the doorway at the back of the chamber. This dungeon had given you and your companions many challenges. You’d almost lost McGregor in the first room and as you descended lower, each level became harder.

In this last chamber, you’d expended all your magical energy just trying to put this pit fiend down. You look back at the demon, already its body is starting to turn to sludgy black ichor. You turn and follow your friends.

You all walk down a long stone hallway and enter a very small room. In the room there is a single stone dais on which rests a very strange object. There’s what looks like a box with a round pane of glass on one side on a stand inches above a slab of something grey with square pellets on it. As you get closer, you see the pellets all have a single character on them. They’re arranged in some sort of grid pattern. You reach out and touch one. You hear a click. Instantly, the glass pane on the box lights up and you see moving particles of black and white and you hear a faint buzzing. You reach your hands toward the glass pain and you feel energy dancing on the surface. You touch the screen and flash!

You open your eyes and find yourself surrounded by numbers and lines of light. You are in a very strange place that seems all angles and lines. There is nothing organic here. Instead of dirt, you stand on what feels like a mix between glass and metal and off in the distance you see the large gathered lights of a city at night. 

What would you like to do?

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your host Justin Lewis and together you and I are going to explore how to tell better stories while you DM a session of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

Have you ever wanted to play D&D with people but you were separated by time and space….?

Well as far as the time thing goes, can’t really help you. I’m fresh out of Tardis’ and Delorians.

But the nice thing about living in the technological age is that distance is relative. 

You can now play D&D online with your friends or family, or complete strangers.

But what do you need to play a session online? What a great question. Let’s dig in.

1. Video conferencing tool

Aside from the basic essentials of needing a story and players, you need a medium through which you can all communicate. Obviously you can use free options like Zoom, Skype, or Google Hangout. Honestly, you could play just over the phone (but your minutes will probably go way over your monthly budget). I wouldn’t recommend playing over the phone because having that visual component is so easy, affordable and just really nice! If you are looking for just a video connection tool, I would say Zoom or Google Hangout, but the drawbacks are that you can’t do them for really long sessions. So my next recommendation would be a platform.

1. Platform

After a video conferencing tool, the next thing to have would be a platform that syncs together all the players and everything that’s going on. I prefer Roll20. It allows you to use Video as you play and it also syncs the rolls of all the players and adds a lot of cool features that the DM can use. I am not affiliated with them but I really like what they do.

1. Visuals

The next thing I would say you need is visuals. When I say need here, I more mean “it’s really easy to add and it’s free so you’d be really stupid and lazy not to add it.”  The point is there are so many free options out there that taking the time to make your sessions better takes just that time. For visuals again you can literally google cool maps and stuff and then slap that into a word doc or paint and have your players tell you where to move shapes that represent them. Obviously you can always use theater of the mind, but I personally love to look for tools to help immerse my...

Hey There!

Welcome back to another joint episode of How to Be a Better DM.

As always you can go ahead and sign up for our newsletter :https://how-to-be-a-better-dm.captivate.fm/subscribe

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Session 0 Studios

Visit session0studios.com for more information.

Give Us a Rating and Review

You obviously have really good taste, you’re listening to How to Be a Better DM after all. We thank you for your support. If you’ve ever gotten anything useful from our show, take a minute to give us a rating and a review. It goes a very long way to making it so How to Be a Better DM can help many more dungeon masters just like you. If you love our content, help others become better dungeon masters too.

I Made a CR 100 Monster

I made a Monster with a Challenge Rating of 100 Why? Because I could—and it only took me 5 minutes using Worldsmith. And the best part? You can do this and much more. Get a free 7-day trial at session0studios.com/worldsmith and unlock their full suite of TTRPG generators from monsters to mythic magic items and everything in between. Yep, that’s a full 7-day trial—completely free. That’s a whole week of monsters, magic items, and more—whatever you need, zero burnout. Try it now at session0studios.com/worldsmith. Save time and make unlimited creations with Worldsmith.

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