People think DMs need to be great at

rules, combat design, and storytelling,

[music] which is a lot and makes the job

seem terrifying. But what if I told you

that most of these are actually kind of

optional? I've been playing for over 20

years, and I realized that the core job

of the DM actually fits in a single

sentence, which determines whether

you'll have fun at the table or burn

[music] out fast. So, today we're going

to find out what it is, and I will even

share with you four tricks you can use

to become a better DM than you ever

thought possible. Okay, so let's start

with the problem. I think most people

think being a DM is way harder than it

actually is because the internet has

built this image of what a Dungeon

Master is supposed to be. Actual plays

changed the way people see D&D. That's

not necessarily a bad thing because

Critical Role and Dimension 20 brought

millions of people into the hobby, and I

love that. But it also did something

sneaky to the way we think about the

DM's role. Because when you watch Matt

Mercer or Brennan Lee Mulligan, you're

watching someone who is a professional.

It's literally their job. They are

trained actors and have spent decades

DMing for their friends before going

pro. This, coupled with the crazy high

production value, is immediately visible

to anyone who watches those shows. And

although I do believe we can learn a few

tricks from these guys, it makes people

miss what DMing is actually about. I

think it's kind of like watching Formula

1 and thinking, "Oh, so that's what

driving is." It's technically the same

activity, but the gap between what a

professional does on camera and what you

need to do at your kitchen table with

your friends is wide. And I think the

internet structurally has collapsed

[music]

that gap. I make DMing videos, so I know

it's not because creators want to hurt

people, but the advice content and

Reddit posts all tend to kind of treat

the Formula 1 version as the baseline,

so to speak. And if you're standing at

the bottom looking up at that, yeah, you

end up feeling terrified and feel like

you'll never be ready. But I think that

actually you probably already are.

Because here's the magic sentence I'd

like you to repeat after me. The DM is

not a performer, but an enabler. Okay,

what do I mean by that? Well, instead of

creating the entire experience for the

players, an enabler creates the

conditions for the experience to happen.

Your players are the ones who make the

game because they make choices, come up

with plans, and do things you never saw

coming. That's where the magic moments

live. And you, as the DM, cannot force

most of that to happen. I think most of

your job is to put interesting

situations in front of those players,

and then to get really good at reacting

to what [music] they do. You don't

really need to know what happens next or

do have a plan for everything they might

do. You need to place a situation, and

to be clear, it can be extremely basic,

like a locked door or some desperate

villager, etc. And then you need to

watch and listen to what your players do

and respond as best [music] you can to

their choices. Everything else is

decoration. And don't get me wrong, I

love decoration. I'm not saying you

shouldn't decorate. I kind of make

videos on decorating, so to speak. But

if it keeps you from starting your own

DMing journey, you might be overthinking

this. The core of it is really that

simple. Interesting situation, player

choice, honest response. Everything else

just flows from there. This is really

important to me because I don't think

people quit DMing because they're bad at

voices, but they do quit or never start

because they believe the job feels too

big when it really isn't. You played

pretend with your friends as kids. You

just convinced yourself you forgot how

to. Now, I can already read some of the

comments, so let's address these. But

what about worldbuilding? Don't I need a

world? Let's pretend published settings

don't exist and you do need a custom

location. The thing is, you do need a

starting location, but it can be just

one town with a few names and a problem.

That's already a world as far as D&D is

concerned. It's small, but that's just

how they start. You don't need a

continent map and a whole pantheon

before session one. You just need enough

to fill the next few hours. You'll have

all the time in the world to add things

as you go and play. Because your players

experience the world at a very small

scale, like what's in this room and

who's talking to me right now. And if

you really don't know where to start,

you can get the Living Town by clicking

the link in the description. It's my

ready-made starting town collection of

NPCs, and it's a great place to start.

Okay, but this is just you telling me to

get good at improv, and I suck at

improv. [music] Well, I think people

tend to miss something very important

about DM improv. It's quite different

from performance improv, in my opinion.

Performance improv feels hard cuz you're

trying to be funny and because it's in

real time. But when you DM, the audience

is the players, and you can always pause

by asking them to give you a second,

please, or even go with, "I don't know,

let's do this this way for now and we'll

check the rules later." The point is,

because it's a game and not a show, most

players will find it normal, and you

don't have to be as quick as people

trying to entertain a paying audience on

stage. But what about the rules? There

are so many rules. There are rules

because it's a game, yes. But if we're

talking about 5e, I think you mostly

need to know how to run a skill check

and how combat works at a basic level.

If you can learn poker or Monopoly or

whatever, you got this. It's just a few

pages of the Player's Handbook. Most of

the rest you can look up later, and it

does not come up that often. Your

players will forgive you if you have to

check a rule from time to time, or one

of them might even know the rule and

tell you. But they might have a harder

time forgiving you for making the game

feel like homework because you were so

stressed about getting everything right

that you forgot to make it fun, though.

I'm not saying rules are useless here,

but you'll get them down eventually.

What I'm saying is, if it stops you from

starting, you're giving it too much

importance. And I think that's the thing

we see coming back here. Every single

one of those "But what about?" questions

has the same very basic answer. You're

allowed to learn most of the stuff while

doing the job. By the way, if you find

this video helpful at all and it

motivates you to start on your own DMing

journey, please hit the like button with

your best ability so it can reach other

people who might need it as well. All

right, but so if the job is smaller than

you think and the skills are things you

grow into and not really needed to

start, what do you actually do before a

session? How do you get your head in the

right place? And I think this is where a

lot of the advice out there starts

feeling useless for people who are

afraid of starting their DMing journey

because it focuses on prep, like on

[music] what to write, how many

encounters to plan, how detailed the

notes should be, etc., etc. And that's

all important, of course, but some

people freeze way before that point. So,

here are four things that I think

actually help with that. The first one

is stop preparing answers and start

preparing situations. I think most DM

prep is kind of secretly answer prep.

People just sit there and try to figure

out what's going to happen, like what if

the players go left or if they want to

fight that NPC. But that's the players'

job, so spend more time on the situation

[music] instead of its outcome. An

example situation would be there's a

bridge and someone's guarding it, and

that someone has a reason not to let you

pass. And you find out what the players

do about it with the players at the

table. The second one is your players

have never seen the good version. What I

mean is there's no comparison point to

what's not in there. If you forgot to

introduce an NPC to the players, well,

they don't know. Just like they don't

know about the plot twist you missed or

that the encounter was supposed to be a

lot harder. They're living in the only

version of this session that exists, and

therefore the pressure you're feeling is

mostly just pressure against an

imaginary standard. The players aren't

comparing you to the version of you that

prepped more, but simply playing the

game. The third one now, something. When

you're lost and the players do something

you didn't expect, just start to

describe what they see, hear, smell,

touch, etc. This buys you time, and more

importantly, it gives the initiative

back to the [music] players by giving

them something to react to

or ask questions about. This makes it

way easier to then get back on your

feet. And fourth, before your next

session, ask yourself just [music] one

question. What is the most interesting

thing that could happen tonight? It's

different from what will or should

happen tonight because you're not trying

to guess the future. But I like this

question because it can act as your

compass, so to speak. If you know the

most interesting possibility, you'll be

more enthusiastic [music] in your

descriptions and in a more positive

mindset, which will make everything else

way easier, too. So, yeah, I think the

DM's job is smaller than you think. You

just need to put something interesting

in front of your players and to respond

honestly to what they [music] do. You'll

just get good at the rest eventually.

You don't have to be good at this before

you start. Just start, and I promise you

will have fun, and so will your players.

Most of them just want to play so bad.

So, just become that enabler and let

them. And once you've started [music]

and want to take things to the next

level, I think the first all other thing

you should try to get good at is

worldbuilding because it's mostly an out

of the table thing, so no extra

pressure, and it's a lot of fun. And to

learn a step-by-step technique that

produces actual usable results at the

table, click on this video next.