100 Episodes of Dungeon Master Advice: The 22 Most Important DM Lessons From 2 Years of Gaming and Recording 3 Wise DMs

3 Wise DMs

What are the most important things every dungeon master (or game master) needs to know? In the 100th episode of 3 Wise DMs, Thorin, Tony and Dave run down the biggest things they’ve learned about running RPGs from Dungeons and Dragons to Marvel to Call of Cthulhu over two years of intensive gaming and discussion on this podcast.

This has been like a 2-year DMing workshop for all of us, and we hope you’ve learned as much from it as we have. How do you make sure your game gets off on the right foot? Is your plot too complex? How do you keep combat from killing the game and your players? Hear the answers to these questions and more in this centennial episode of 3 Wise DMs.

2:00 The most intense 2 years of DMing in our lives

4:00 Lesson 1: It’s a partnership with your players

5:00 Lesson 2: Session 0 can be the difference between a great campaign and utter failure

11:00 Lesson 3: Game recaps before the session let you influence what the players remember and refresh your own memory

15:00 Lesson 4: Don’t make the story too complex

21:00 Lesson 5: Don’t count on the whole party listening during other player’s solo moments

22:00 Lesson 6: Too many hard fights in a row will make your players feel like you’re trying to kill them

23:00 Lesson 7: Combats need to be meaningful and not just slogs

24:00 Lesson 8: If the tension is always high, it never is

25:00 Lesson 9: Balance upbeats and downbeats

26:00 Lesson 10: It’s very easy for 5E combat to take a long time

28:00 Lesson 11: For some players, combat is their least favorite part of D&D

29:00 Lesson 12: DM Tony’s formula for RPG session clock management

30:00 Lesson 13: Spend your prep time on the important things: Your plot and story

31:00 Lesson 14: Some DMs need prep to be able to improvise effectively and enjoyably at the table

35:00 Lesson 15: NPCs – “serve fewer dishes, but better dishes”

37:00 Lesson 16: The best way to get better at DMing is to DM a lot – it’s more important to run a game than to run a great game

40:00 Lesson 17: Protect the continuity of your game – even if you have to kill the whole party to do it

45:00 Lesson 18: Listen to your players to understand what they really want for their characters

50:00 Lesson 19: Let the role players eat, but know how to bring other players to the table, too

52:00 Lesson 20: Always be experimenting with new techniques, mechanics, prep, etc.

54:00 Lesson 21: The ideal length for descriptions is about 3 lines

56:00 Lesson 22: Follow your inspiration

57:00 Final thoughts on what we’ve learned from 100 episodes of 3 Wise DMs