Been a while, I've had this one brewing for 4+ years! In any case, here's the text with minimal editing. I do encourage you all to look into all sorts of ttrpgs when you decide you want to give it a wing, but D&D 5e remains a safe starting point if you've no experience!
Dungeon Master?
If you've ever heard of D&D (Dungeons and Dragons), you probably heard of Dungeon Masters as well. Most tabletop role playing games have a similar role to be fulfilled by one designated player, who gets to act as the storyteller for the game. They dictate what situations and characters the other players meet along their journeys, write encounters/villains/quests/anything else that needs writing, and have a keen knowledge of how the game works (or at least have read a ton of books). They enforce rules, compromise on gray areas, and provide examples to the players when they're unsure of what they can do. The Dungeon Master is pivotal to a game of D&D, and without one, there's no game to play.
This text is aimed at those who already have some experience with tabletop rpgs, and are looking into becoming a Game Master themselves (lesson one: a Game Master [GM] is the umbrella term, a Dungeon Master [DM] pertains to just D&D). That being said, there's no harm in reading along if this topic is new to you, as I also try to give general information on good and bad storytelling, pacing, and reading your audience/players.
My GM experience is mostly limited to D&D, so I'll use terms from that game in this text. Most of the things that apply to D&D also apply to other games, and the current edition is very beginner-friendly to players and DMs alike. So, if you've never run a tabletop game before, D&D is the perfect toe dip.
Educated Guesswork
The very first thing to set you along is, you guessed it, reading. Like all D&D players, the Player's Handbook - or PHB, is the first thing you need to read. As the Dungeon Master, you have to have basic knowledge ironclad in your brain if you don't want to interrupt the game every few minutes to check on some rule or ability from the books. Races, classes, backgrounds, equipment, and spells are the backbone of the game, and you should definitely read everything in at least those segments a couple of times through.
This doesn't necessarily mean you have to be able to recall every wording of every ability and spell perfectly. Instead, what I like to do is refresh my memory when the game calls for it (sometimes even pre-emptively). This simply means that if you're running a game where there's a Gnome Warlock with the Pact of the Tome, a Half-Elf Life Domain Cleric, a Tiefling Assassin Rogue, and a Human Great Weapon Fighter, you look up all their abilities, choices, and spells beforehand, and are then ready for when the players eventually ask something about their characters' capabilities.
Knowing what your party can do is also a great tool to keep your players in check, sometimes people wish for something to be true so badly they misread entries and can end up unintentionally cheating. Retconning mistakes like these halfway through a campaign is a pain, so by having the knowledge you mitigate the misplays.
The next two books for new DMs are the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master's Guide. The former contains all the basic monsters and other creatures you want to throw at your party. The latter has tools for all sorts of things, like random encounter tables, traveling and downtime activities, creating new monsters, adding in optional rules like insanity and permanent injuries, and world-building. While you don't need the DMG to run the game, I still recommend at least looking at the table of contents at a game store or at a friend's place and reading up on anything that catches your eye. I use all three core books extensively, and they've all helped me run better games.
Trial By Fireball
The next step I recommend you take on your way to becoming a Dungeon Master is designing an adventure. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, or anything that drags on for multiple sessions - just a quick, easy to pick up block of content that you could play through in one go. My next adventure has new players coming in, so I did exactly this to showcase them what D&D is like. Here's an excerpt:
All of you have been aboard The Flamboyant - a transport ship - for the past two weeks or so. Last night was stormy, and waking up you find that the sails have been shredded to ribbons. Your captain, a boisterous and rotund man, is cursing the sea profoundly in three different languages.
The horizon looks empty except for one volcanic, overgrown island. Looking closely, you can just about see that it has a small dock and a few houses on its shoreline. From behind you, the captain hands a spyglass to one of you, and points to the largest building. It has a large, black flag with North Elf insignia on the roof.
"Aye, it be a haven for all Northerner bootlickers, or ones acting as such. Let's just hope they still get supplies."
Your captain turns back to yell directions at the crew. From the aft, you hear the bosun repeat them slightly drunkenly. At the very least you'll get a brief break from all the vomit-breathed belching and bellowing.
Notice how I have everything the players need to know about the situation in a simple, piecemeal introduction. They have a problem they need to solve - getting the sails fixed. They have a place next to them where to start looking for answers and solutions. And most importantly, they're in this together. Tying your party to a task or activity that benefits everyone is a good way to start a campaign, as you don't need to run different storylines and keep track of where everyone is relative to each other.
A common goal also forces interaction between your players from the get go, and can act as a catalyst to some amazing roleplay.
~Vel
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