Playing a Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons can be one of the most rewarding experiences offered in the game. Assuming the role requires an advanced knowledge of the game, masterful storytelling, and the ability to build entire worlds and planes of existence. Taking the role is one of the most difficult aspects of the game, but those who enjoy it find a unique experience which is unlike simply adventuring through someone else’s world.
While this role allows one to improve the enjoyment of themselves and their friends, there are some considerations which must be taken. A DM will never want to give players all of the information, no matter how excited they are about what they’ve done or what could have been. Read on for 10 hints DMs should never give their players in order to be the best DM D&D has ever seen.
10 Enemy Challenge Ratings
Starting the list off simply, players never need to know how hard you are sculpting their encounters to be. A smart DM will use a variety of challenges, from easy encounters to hard encounters on a typical play session. There will usually be several easy encounters, a bulk made up of easier to moderate difficulty encounters, and one or two challenging encounters planned for one sitting.
Telling your players what to expect ahead of time hinders their creativity in reacting to these situations and allows them to prepare more fully for what you will be doing. It isn’t an immersive situation, and your first job as a DM is to create an immersive story.
9 NPC Alignments or Motives
As a DM, one of your main tools for controlling the game world are your NPCs. NPCs are everywhere. You might have them travel with the player party, you might have an innkeeper who knows a secret, or you might even have a merchant who knows a legend of a powerful item and its alleged whereabouts.
However you use NPCs, their motives and alignments should always be secret. You shouldn’t outright negate the effects of Detect Alignment spells or Sense Motive checks, but you should guard your NPCs. Perhaps the traveling companion you embed with the party is a spy. Perhaps they’re a former captive. Players shouldn’t know more of the background than they can dig up, and you shouldn’t volunteer more than they need.
8 Enemy Equipment
Have you ever been DMing a campaign and put your players in an encounter which they aren’t ready for? Maybe they can’t reach the AC threshold, or maybe the battle has progressed to the point that they could very well all end up dying from this encounter and you aren’t ready for the campaign to end.
This is where the DM must make judgment calls. We’ve all allowed players to connect with attacks which don’t meet the threshold. We’ve all went back later and adjusted an enemy’s equipment to allow the players to succeed. You remove your own ability to make these changes when you give your players too much information, and it should be avoided at all costs.
7 DM Checks and Difficulty Class
DM screens aren’t required, but they are recommended for a reason. Players shouldn’t know what they’re up against. They don’t need to know how close they came to success or how far they were. You can convey this information through creative storytelling.
Keeping this information secret allows you to enforce house rules. Perhaps you’ve increased the DC of a certain action, or you actually missed a fortitude save with an NPC that you really needed to succeed with. Every DM who has ever ran a campaign has changed these numbers and kept players in the dark for the sake of their story. There’s nothing wrong with keeping your secrets. It’s your job.
6 Enemy Hit Points and Damage Rolls
To be clear, you do have to give players the information of how much damage they are taking, but you don’t have to do so without storytelling. You can always base the image of the attack on the amount of damage being dealt before revealing the amount a player must subtract from their hit points.
What’s more important is protecting the hit points of enemies. Allow a player to be surprised when they kill an enemy. Let them revel in the description as they slice their weapon through a vampire spawn, cleaving its head from its body, or as it staggers back a step to recoup, holding its wrist in visible pain. Don’t simply tell them that it has died or that it has two hit points remaining.
5 What Was Going to Happen
Have you ever been really excited about a story you’ve drawn up? Ever wanted the player party to head north but the entire party decides to cross a river to the east and move south, requiring that you start over from square one? How about when a campaign dissolves before you get to the titular point you spent days preparing?
Keep these reveals to yourself. If the campaign continues, you may still get to use the content you had prepared. Having that area and scenario on reserve will allow you to keep your world alive if the players ever end up in the location as planned. If the campaign ends, you never know when those players might be with you again, allowing you to use that content. Never reveal your plans unless you know you won’t need them.
4 The Next Place to Go
When assuming the role of Dungeon Master, one should always approach the role as they would like to see it approached if they were a player. It is literally allowing you to shape the world you will be playing in. Very few players want this to feel like a hallway.
Rather than telling them where to go, give them indications. Let your players test their wits. Hide information in the world and allow them to follow clues in determining where they need to go next. However you run your game, never outright reveal the next thing to players.
3 How to Build Their Character
As a DM, there is information you have to provide your players when they develop their backstory. Beyond that point, the character is theirs alone. You shouldn’t tell them how to progress, especially in terms of what becomes beneficial later in the campaign.
Imagine that you are primarily using humanoid characters and a particularly wily player is building a beguiler. At your suggestion, they reserve all spells in order to charm enemies and avoid encounters, negating any challenge you’ve placed in their way. Not only can this cause one player to outshine their companions, it can defeat your entire campaign before it has a chance to develop.
2 Other Player Backstories
Some of the most memorable moments in Dungeons and Dragons are those created between the characters themselves. If you are able to manage the situation, even having conflicting alignments in one party can be a beneficial tool for allowing your players to progress.
While players should be able to distinguish between what they know and what their characters know, not everyone holds themselves as accountable to this as they should. The best thing you can do as a DM is often to stay silent when certain conflicts begin to develop. Allow your players to share their information as the campaign dictates.
1 What Lies at the Destination
Part of the joy for a player in D&D is not knowing what is coming next. Sending your players into a kobold cave, only for them to find a resting dragon in the heart of that cavern can be an exciting and difficult situation which requires them to think outside the box about their resolution.
You will never experience the most satisfying elements of being a DM until you allow players to experience surprises. Give them information, but don’t spoil the full situation. Let them get themselves into danger. Test their resolve. Throw unexpected hurdles. You will find more enjoyment seeing how players react than you ever will if you give them all of the answers
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