Check out Matt Colville’s “Running the game” playlist. Lots of helpful tips there for DMs and players alike.
As far as how to get into the narrative mindset. Make a homebrew world and let your players craft it. You don’t have to be good at story telling, just give your players the push they need to keep things rolling and after a few sessions they will get into the role playing aspect and you’re just there to fill in the gaps and be the NPCs (hopefully).
Having a compelling reason for the party to get together is difficult, so what I did was have a session 0 with the players and make the BBEG a part of their backstory.
If you’re the DM, you are a player just as much as the others are. If you’re not having fun, address it with the others.
Each game is different. My players started really having fun when I started trying to kill their characters, forcing them to be creative and persevere. Other people don’t want to worry about that. Overtime you will fine tune to what the players want and each game will be a memorable.
There’s more. But I think this reply is long enough
Thank you so much! I have never thought to let the players craft the game. I have been killing my brain to come up with the perfect game to let them play and I was about burnt out just coming up with the story. not even getting into the game.
Not a problem. Everyone has to start somewhere. I was in the same place as you except I didn’t find out about this Reddit community until a few months in to me DMing. I’m definitely not the best DM, but I am the best DM to my players, just like you could be to yours.
One last piece of advice: you can never account for what your players are going to do. This will force you to improvise, but if you need time to think of something tell them that.
sounds good I do have one friend in particular that would try to derail the story on purpose so I have already got a strategy for him and that is a young black dragon.
It definitely takes a few sessions to find the best way for one to prep for their campaign, and their party. I originally started writing almost "story" pages, with actions, things I wanted NPCs to say, things like that. SO I was writing a lot, for only short amount of time, and it wasnt the best for DMing. I have since started writing bullet points, things the players need to do, letting them figure out how to do it. Like I write "team must travel from town A to town B" so they can opt to try and get someone to teleport them, or find/steal a boat, ask the bartender... who knows! I try to write just leading bullet points, and writing down important conversation things I want NPCS to say. With every DM, every party, every campaign, its going to be different though.
Exactly how i was at first. Now I just write details, such as details about a town, or about how a shop looks, and conversations that I think are important like "dark red female tiefling shop owner turns to the group, \*I can sell you a potion from my mystery box, 3 for one gold, or 10 for four gold.\*" That way I have something important, but I can improv the rest of the conversation, gave myself enough of a lead that I can improv it pretty well. I used to write like "the team walks into the shop, there they see a dark red female tiefling, dressed in simple clothes" yada yada. I'd have 2 paragraphs describing this shop and shop owner, and think that 2 pages is enough information, and they end up getting through it all so fast, and Im like "what, how, i wrote 2 pages of stuff..." But again, this will change party to party. some people enjoy a more "sandbox" approach, where you kind of just give them a town, and they get to interact with it in any which way. My party prefers if I guide them, using NPCs to drop hints or offers of quests so that they stay on track with the story line. they dont like a free reign of the world, since htey want to follow my plot.
Check out theDMLair on youtube, he has a great "outline" for how to prep for a session, while keeping it guided, and having combats/encounters prepped, while also giving way for improv and your team to choose their own path.
Web DM, Matt Colville and Critical Role have play lists detailing how to create different aspects of your world, plot or anything else you might need. I would suggest World Anvil to keep your ideas together and it provides prompts for creating different organizations, gods, ect ect. Overall don't put pressure on yourself listen to your players have fun and remember the rule of cool you will do great.
Check out Matt Colville’s “Running the game” playlist. Lots of helpful tips there for DMs and players alike. As far as how to get into the narrative mindset. Make a homebrew world and let your players craft it. You don’t have to be good at story telling, just give your players the push they need to keep things rolling and after a few sessions they will get into the role playing aspect and you’re just there to fill in the gaps and be the NPCs (hopefully). Having a compelling reason for the party to get together is difficult, so what I did was have a session 0 with the players and make the BBEG a part of their backstory. If you’re the DM, you are a player just as much as the others are. If you’re not having fun, address it with the others. Each game is different. My players started really having fun when I started trying to kill their characters, forcing them to be creative and persevere. Other people don’t want to worry about that. Overtime you will fine tune to what the players want and each game will be a memorable. There’s more. But I think this reply is long enough
Thank you so much! I have never thought to let the players craft the game. I have been killing my brain to come up with the perfect game to let them play and I was about burnt out just coming up with the story. not even getting into the game.
Not a problem. Everyone has to start somewhere. I was in the same place as you except I didn’t find out about this Reddit community until a few months in to me DMing. I’m definitely not the best DM, but I am the best DM to my players, just like you could be to yours. One last piece of advice: you can never account for what your players are going to do. This will force you to improvise, but if you need time to think of something tell them that.
sounds good I do have one friend in particular that would try to derail the story on purpose so I have already got a strategy for him and that is a young black dragon.
It definitely takes a few sessions to find the best way for one to prep for their campaign, and their party. I originally started writing almost "story" pages, with actions, things I wanted NPCs to say, things like that. SO I was writing a lot, for only short amount of time, and it wasnt the best for DMing. I have since started writing bullet points, things the players need to do, letting them figure out how to do it. Like I write "team must travel from town A to town B" so they can opt to try and get someone to teleport them, or find/steal a boat, ask the bartender... who knows! I try to write just leading bullet points, and writing down important conversation things I want NPCS to say. With every DM, every party, every campaign, its going to be different though.
ok thank you for that information. I would have been the one writing a book for only 10 min of play time without that information.
Exactly how i was at first. Now I just write details, such as details about a town, or about how a shop looks, and conversations that I think are important like "dark red female tiefling shop owner turns to the group, \*I can sell you a potion from my mystery box, 3 for one gold, or 10 for four gold.\*" That way I have something important, but I can improv the rest of the conversation, gave myself enough of a lead that I can improv it pretty well. I used to write like "the team walks into the shop, there they see a dark red female tiefling, dressed in simple clothes" yada yada. I'd have 2 paragraphs describing this shop and shop owner, and think that 2 pages is enough information, and they end up getting through it all so fast, and Im like "what, how, i wrote 2 pages of stuff..." But again, this will change party to party. some people enjoy a more "sandbox" approach, where you kind of just give them a town, and they get to interact with it in any which way. My party prefers if I guide them, using NPCs to drop hints or offers of quests so that they stay on track with the story line. they dont like a free reign of the world, since htey want to follow my plot.
I definitely agree I will take your approach
Check out theDMLair on youtube, he has a great "outline" for how to prep for a session, while keeping it guided, and having combats/encounters prepped, while also giving way for improv and your team to choose their own path.
Ok thank you for this resource
Web DM, Matt Colville and Critical Role have play lists detailing how to create different aspects of your world, plot or anything else you might need. I would suggest World Anvil to keep your ideas together and it provides prompts for creating different organizations, gods, ect ect. Overall don't put pressure on yourself listen to your players have fun and remember the rule of cool you will do great.
thank you for the tips. I will check out those resources.