InDungeons and Dragons, a lot of pressure falls on the Dungeon Master to verify things go smoothly and that everyone is having fun. As a Dungeon Master, it can beeasy to get overwhelmed by the great number of factions, books, rules, enemies, players, and all of their abilities, making coming up with a well-crafted story extremely difficult. This is compounded by the fact that life often makes it difficult to prepare for a session and since most Dungeon Masters are not professional story-writers, a lot of improvisation tends to happen at the gaming table. In order to make this improvisation effective, Dungeon Masters should get out of their own heads and listen closely to the ideas of the players.
For those unaware,Dungeons and Dragonsrelies heavily on the ability of the Dungeon Master to keep things running, but often it is simply impossible to prepare for what players are going to do. By nature of the game, players can literally choose to do anything at any given time, and the Dungeon Master must respond to these actions quickly so as to not slow down the game. The pitfall that many Dungeon Masters fall in is trying to control players, something that usually happens as a result of holding the story in higher regards than the players and their actions.
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Dungeon Masters Should Craft A Story With The Players
If aDungeon Master is running a murder mystery campaign, but all the players want to do it go raid dungeons and get loot, there is going to be a disconnect. Although the Dungeon Master has a lot of power, it is ultimately always up to the players what they decide to do in any given situation, and this sort of a misunderstanding can easily derail and destroy a campaign. This is why it is vital to at least be on the same page as players regarding what kind of story the group wants to build.
Beyond that, it is extremely important that the Dungeon Master listens closely to players during sessions. Oftentimes DMs will find that theirplayers will come up with strategies, concepts, or causes/solutions to problems which they never would have come up with themselves, and listening to these ideas and silently implementing them into the campaign helps to make for a more enjoyable experience for both parties. It’s always nice to let the players actually be right about something for a change, and it removes the burden of wondering if a certain story beat will make sense to the players.
Improvised D&D Campaigns
In fact, with this method, an entire campaign can be run mostly from improvisation, removing the need for large amounts of prep time and stressing over whether the players will even engage with what the DM has prepared. If the Dungeon Master can do some light world-building and come up with a few story hooks to drop for the players, they will inevitably bite one. It is possible to build an intriguing mystery regarding the main villain even ifthe Dungeon Master doesn’t actually have all the pieces of the puzzle. As things play out, the players will unwittingly help to fill in those missing pieces as the DM ties up the loose ends.
Ultimately,Dungeons and Dragonsis about having fun, and the game should be fun for both the players and the Dungeon Master. It does no one any good to overstress about preparation and making sure the game goes exactly how the Dungeon Master envisioned it, so it is sometimes best to take a more loose approach and focus on the enjoyability of the game. That’s not to say that some preparation and attempting to weave stories together is a bad thing by any means, but it is important to not go overboard and to be ready to improvise using not just the Dungeon Master’s ideas, but the ideas of the players as well.
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