5 Dungeon Master Tips
- hold on loosely to your notes. focus on the PCs and give them chances to be creative and shine.
- it’s ok not to go all out with bells and whistles. sometimes dnd is a dry erase map with candy for monsters.
- prepare for improv by separating what the PCs can find from whom or where they find it.
- don’t lock progress in the adventure or session behind a specific action, npc, or skill check.
- include fantastical elements that will make the players want to explore and reward their exploration with treasure, secrets, and clues.
5 Free Dungeon Master Resources
- 8 Steps of Session Prep by Sly Flourish. Hand down the best thing to happen to my session prep. Having a framework for my notes every session has been super helpful for me.
https://slyflourish.com/lazy_gm_resource_document.html - 300 Warm Up Questions. Every session I run I start with an in character warm up question. Not only does this get them thinking as their character but it also can do some world building or just give me info to use against them later.
https://ko-fi.com/s/e7769cb606 - Safety Tools. Going over lines and veils during a session zero is a must for every campaign I run. Super easy to use. Just click on the cards and it shares them anonymously. There’s even a card for anything goes and you can make your own if you don’t see it here.
https://digital.deckofplayersafety.com/ - DonJon Treasure Generator. It’s easy to make a d20 loot table so make one for every session. Then I’ll have the player roll a d20 and improvise a bit with what s on the list. IME it has made for some great role-play and world building.
https://donjon.bin.sh/5e5/random/#type=treasure - Dungeon Master Reference Sheet. I ditched my DM screen a long time ago but recently I made a printable dungeon master reference sheet. now that its in a sheet protector its easy to reference the 2024 (or 2014) dnd rules whether I’m running a game in person or online.
https://ko-fi.com/s/8f458ca661
5 Blog Posts Every DM Should Read Twice
- No AI Guide. a great guide to free and cheap character art without using AI. yeah there are the usuals like picrew and heroforge but you’ll also find some videos games that have good character creators.
https://char543.com/no-ai - Use a Caller for Faster Combat. helpful in large parties a caller tells the Dungeon Master what the group is doing. they don’t tell others what to do, they report what is going on.
https://www.roleplayingtips.com/running-games/the-red-box-trick-for-faster-sessions/ - The Many Forms of the 5 Room Dungeon. a quick article on dungeon design that I refer to whenever I’m designing a small dungeon or point crawl. my favorite is to stack or link multiple shapes to make larger locations.
https://gnomestew.com/the-twenty-one-forms-of-the-five-room-dungeon/ - Dungeon Checklist by Goblin Punch. another great resource for dungeon and adventure design. it’s suggested you read it multiple times and I agree.
https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/01/dungeon-checklist.html - How to Manage Combat. hands down my favorite article on how to run combat. not monsters but how to describe things, how to track creatures, and how to create urgency.
https://theangrygm.com/manage-combat-like-a-dolphin/
5 Places to Find Me
- join us in the Dungeon of Inspiration Discord Server where we talk about all things d&d and TTRPGs
https://discord.gg/K32aX3Kkw9 - free dungeon master resources in my Ko-fi shop
https://ko-fi.com/craigofinspiration/shop - monthly Patreon members get free homebrew monster or magic item
https://patreon.com/CraigofInspiration - find me on Youtube for daily dnd videos
https://www.youtube.com/@CraigofInspirationDnD - live on Twitch every Saturday talking about DnD and TTRPGs
https://www.twitch.tv/craigofinspiration
Points of Inspiration 