4E Dmg How To Be A

The current edition of the Dungeon Masters Guide is a great tool, but as far as learning how to be a good Dungeon Master, you cant beat the 4th edition DMG.

But why should you hunt down a book for an edition of DD you dont even play Simple: the lions share of this book doesnt care what edition of DD youre playing, and just wants to make you a better Dungeon Master.

DD historian Shannon Appelcline said it best in his description of the 4e DMG on the DMs Guild.

Veteran DMs may find its advice a bit trite, but I find myself returning to its pages every year or so to remind myself of skills I had forgotten I had learned, or to try out some new DMing techniques.

There are some 4th edition-specific rules in this book, like its section on Skill Challenges, but I would challenge you to read those, too.

Im a big fan of Skill Challenges, and I use a version of them in my fifth edition DD games all the time.

They all knew the rules better than I did, and I didnt want to get caught in a stupid mistake.

When Im not sure of a rule, I ask my players what they think.

If I make a mistake, my players point it out respectfully, and I reconsider my decision.

From my perspective, the DM is the person who prepares adventures, plans a campaign, and runs the monsters and NPCs.

I dont want to be a referee or judge, and my players dont expect me to.

Despite his trepidation, Wyatt was in the ideal situation here; he had players that all knew the rules and could help support him when he drew a blank.

But even if youre a first-time DM running a game for first-time players, knowing the rules isnt essential.

If youre playing fifth edition DD, then the only absolutely vital rules you should know are: how to use ability checks, how to read a monster stat block, and how advantage and disadvantage works.

If you have those three skills locked down, then youre good to go.

If you accidentally interpreted a rule incorrectly, but had fun with your mistaken ruling, then it wasnt really incorrect.

As Wyatt alluded to in the quote above, its usually better to make a snap ruling on the fly than to drag the entire game to a halt by cracking open the rulebook and looking for the rules.

This isnt always true, especially in high-stakes scenarios when the proper application of the rules may mean the difference between life and death, but most of the time its okay to make an ad hoc ruling.

If you do this, make a note of the situation you made a ruling about, then you can go back to your rulebook after the game and remember the correct rule next time.

I want you to pay close attention to it, because understanding this piece of advice has saved more games than I can count from total disaster.

If everyone seems to be having fun, relax and just keep going.

If the fun is waning, ask the players what they want or need to bring it back, and take their opinions seriously.

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