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Speaker 1: Every table has rules, but the best stories usually begin

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when someone ignores them. A risky move, a broken alliance,

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a perfect role at the worst possible moment, and suddenly

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it's not just a game anymore. It's the victory nobody expected,

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the argument everyone remembers, and the story your friends will

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still be telling years from now. I'm Scott Ralph and

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this is table tales, where board games, card games, and

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role playing adventures become stories worth retelling. So pull up

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a chair. The next tale is already on the table.

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Speaker 2: Yes, you know, what do the different ability checks mean?

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And saving throws? What does that mean? And how can

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you implement them in your games?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? And it might be that you're both new as

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a DM and playing with the entirely new players.

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Speaker 2: In makes case you.

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Speaker 3: Should all give yourself a break. Yeah, and take you know,

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take things really slow almost, don't try and have the

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role play level in there in a sense, maybe just

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have a short session of will work out how a

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fight works.

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Speaker 2: I'll put these tester sessions.

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Speaker 3: I'll put these three wolves in against your four players.

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We won't try and set up anything beyond this tiny

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bit of thing, and we'll just see if that works.

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Because that will fill an hour and a half to

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two hours, particularly if none of you are aware of

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how it resolutely. So allow yourself that time as a

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bit of prep to see if everyone's comfortable, then everyone's

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on the same understanding, and use that time to iron

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out any issues you may have, or any misunderstandings between

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two sets of people.

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Speaker 2: Sure, and I think it's probably worth it to say,

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in a practical sense, the PHB is all you need.

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You don't need the Dungeon Master's Guide. You don't need well,

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maybe the Monster Manual, but even then you don't even

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need that. The PHB has some monsters in it.

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Speaker 3: It does. The Internet is your friend.

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Speaker 2: Internet is also your friend. You can google pretty much

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any stat block and you'll find it. And even if

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you get stuck at any point, as I says, even

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if you're taking your time and you want to set

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up a little star session, don't be afraid to just

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make a ruling. No one's going to know better anyway,

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and it's better to keep the game moving and fun

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than to slow it and grind it to an absolute

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halt in discussion and debate and arguing about a specific rule. Yes,

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just make a comment, run with the rule and correct

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yourself the next time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, either on the next turn if it's something that's

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going to be readily fixable, or in the next game

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when you give yourself a time to go and look

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at what the true ruling is on it. Do ait

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a little bit of research. There are many discussions out there,

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so you can always find an answer. You might find

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the answer that you initially gave, you might find the

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one that your player gave. You'll probably find people arguing

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for both, because that's the nature of the internet.

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Speaker 2: Is a little bit. Yeah, there's a little bit into it,

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and a little bit of nature of some of the

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D and D stuff in lieu of reading the Sage

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Advice companion. But you can always correct yourself, and you

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can always continually learn and improve game to game. You

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don't start knowing everything, but you have to start somewhere,

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So start better as best you can, and don't be

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afraid to just run with what you think and and

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and get better for the next time. Yep, that's me

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on that one.

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Speaker 3: All right, Well, I'm going to move on to another.

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Huh go for it is?

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Speaker 2: Where where?

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Speaker 3: Where?

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Speaker 2: Where?

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Speaker 3: So I touched it again a little bit on this earlier,

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give yourself some setting. So they said, there's plenty of

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source material out there if you want to grab some

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of the ready made stuff. Otherwise, if you want to

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go to the time and effort of preparing your own

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little world, then that is fantastic and there's a lot

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of fun to be had. Certainly for myself, I love

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drawing maps, and a proper little map nerd. Even on

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roll twenty, as tricky as it is to manipulate, I'm

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enjoying making the maps. But otherwise, use a nice, simple

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source material. Familiarize yourself with it so you know the

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week up to your running your first game, you don't

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need to remember everything, but have a you know, pick

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out the major town if that's where you're going to

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be doing it. Pick out a couple of big landscape areas,

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so the classic one in the Sword Mountains, you've got

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the coast itself, You've got never Winter, you've got water Deep,

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you've got Fandolin in the middle. Pick up one or

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two things that give you a solid setting, and then

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use that to relate to your characters.

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Speaker 2: I think, in association with starting small, your map does

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not need to be super detailed. If it's in a town,

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just a few a couple of shops, couple of interesting

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points of note, absolutely, and outside of that maybe a forest.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there's any session one, a bit of terrain

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and a place to be. I've literally run an entire session.

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It was about four hours. It was okay, it had

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two rooms to it essentially, and if you're counting rooms,

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but it was plenty because that was all the setting

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required for what was happening there. All right, I'll.

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Speaker 2: Move on to my next one, yes please, Okay, So

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my next one is have no fear, which seems trite

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when someone is somewhat anxious about doing as something initially

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intimidating as dming, but genuinely, don't be scared of looking silly.

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Don't be afraid to throw yourself wholeheartedly into that role

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of the NPC or the monster. I love coming up

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with new character concepts and getting into that. I mean

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everyone's different, of course.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I almost pointedly left out the do voices kind

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of thing. Yeah, for sure, It's not a mandatory requirement

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by any means. I'm on the same same kind of

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track as you. I love coming up with how well

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I can create a voice and.

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Speaker 2: A character habit.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not that I'm just speaking with a funny accent.

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It's that that person at the moment is in the

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back of my head and they're the one speaking. But

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that's not one hundred percent essential I think for yeah,

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I first started the end, but not in terms of

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the voice, but the I think a driving concept.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think even less. Don't worry about accents or

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voices or anything like that. For me, this is more

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about the letting loose a little bit, don't be afraid

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to look a little bit silly, D and D. I mean,

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come on, everyone's everyone's going to be having fun anyway,

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and everyone, trust me, has got your back.

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Speaker 3: If you've got anyone sat around you, I mean, it

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will depend on where you are. We both play at

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the comic shop quite regularly, and that gives you a

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whole range of different people coming in on any given day.

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But if you're playing with people you know specifically or particularly,

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they're not going to give you shit because you're the

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one who's got to the effort of arranging and running

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this game. Absolutely, if you are playing with someone who

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is looking at you funny and laughing for putting in

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some effort and giving.

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Speaker 2: It a go, then you have to ask yourself, do

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they belong at your table? Absolutely so for me, I'm

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all for the bomb bast And it's especially if you're

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somewhat anxious about maybe public speaking. But this is still

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something that you've always wanted to do again, like everything else,

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start small and build into it and eventually, after a while,

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you'll also learn to love inhabiting.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you will. It's completely true. I've been playing for

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a year and a half, not even a year and

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a half. I've never done anything with silly voices. I

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say silly voices. I can't help but say silly voices

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because they are silly voices. But they helped for me

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at least at this point. And this is slightly getting

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it off track, but they helped me become the character.

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So when I start talking like this, and you know,

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you become that northern dwarf and bustard. Yeah, and he's

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not going to take your ship, and he's going to cast.

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He's going to cast like an Imbolt level four and

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it will mess you up. And you should have bloody

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well listened to me. It's not that I'm just talking

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with an accent. He's actually got an attitude behind him

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for sure. But a year and a half ago, I

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wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have been sat here

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recording a podcast with you. We'll put my voice on

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the internet.

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Speaker 2: Have you heard?

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Speaker 3: Have you heard what I sound like? But now?

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, absolutely, that always Aroma Smith's are always Scottish.

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I mean, come on, does it have to be that way? Yes,

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yes it does, Yes, it does so, and they don't

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have to be good. They don't even have to be accents.

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But putting yourself into a role will help you with

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the dming.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. And side note on accents, if you do choose

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to go that route, you aren't doing a Scottish accent.

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You are doing the accent of said character. They might

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sound a bit like Scottish from the real world, but

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you're not in the real world. So if someone says

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that's a rubbis Scottish accent, say no, it's a very

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good Dwarfish accent, thank you very much.

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Speaker 2: This is exactly what they sound like in my world.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely so.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So have you got another once to have a

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chat through? I've got one more, one more, and I've

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got one more.

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Speaker 3: Good. This is a hot hot probably in some ways

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covered this already, but give yourself and the players a

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goal or goals, both immediate and long term. So today's

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session will be find the thing and but the campaign,

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if you're running a campaign, is find a thing and

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kill it because you need to recover the thing that

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it has inside it that will lead to the thing

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in four sessions time. If you want to have that

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style of play, so give yourself both a long and

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short term goal. It will depend on the kind of

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game you're running. You might be doing a one shot

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and it is just the town's being under attack by

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a bunch of knolls. They're in the woods north of here.

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We very much need you to go and clear them

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out before they utterly wreak havoc for the last time.

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And that's all the What you need is a basic

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premise of a driving goal for the group. If you're

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running a longer campaign, then it might be well, sure

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we've done that in one session. What's next, Well, what

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brought the knolls there? You know? What's why were they

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constantly attacking the town and leaving again? And you don't

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need to have all of that prepared again, it's keep

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things small to start with. But if you're thinking about

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a longer running session, then give you try and place

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those watts around your world once you've built it.

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Speaker 2: Having objectives will give the players motivation.

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Speaker 3: I think so yeah, it always works better if the

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players essentially get told what it is that they want

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to do. It might sound weird you're telling them what

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they want to do, but they will want to do

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the thing that they want to do. It's the thing

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you put in front of them. Because, as we said,

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any decent player will acknowledge the fact that you're suggesting

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a thing, or you have what appears to be two

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or three different things that are essentially all the same thing,

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or you slightly plan out each of those little things.

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The one thing that.

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Speaker 2: Extrapolate on that as a little DM trick, you have

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one quest and the quest results in your players getting treasure,

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but there are three ways to trigger that quest. As

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far as the players are concerned, that's three different quests,

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so it doesn't matter you've only got one planned. Whoever

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they go to to trigger that quest gives them that

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one quest, and then for the next session you can

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plan the other two. So again it's keeping things flexible,

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keeping it light. Having some objectives those what's dotted around

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will give your players drive and they'll they'll want to

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go get them, especially if there's a promise of something

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shiny or a new interesting reveal about their character.

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Speaker 3: Yeap, people undoubtedly like treasurer and experience points correct myself included.

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Speaker 2: For sure my last one. I think for any DM

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of I'm almost hesitant to say any level, but I

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do think this is genuinely sound advice, but especially for

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new dms. Have a session zero with your players before

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you do anything. Oh yeah, before a dice is rolled,

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before pen gets put to paper, before character can before

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any of that. And what is a session zero? How

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do you describe a session zero? Signon?

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Speaker 3: Essentially is to meet an agree in expectation between what

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the DM wants to run and what the players want

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to play.

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Speaker 2: I think that's a really nice succinct definition of that. Yeah,

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for sure, it's management of expectations. It allows you to

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get your player's thoughts on the sorts of game that

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they enjoy. Do they like a battle heavy, combat centric experience.

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Do they want to role play more? Do they prefer

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a world or environment that is interesting to explore with

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hidden secrets and nooks and crannies and secret doors everywhere.

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Do they want their backgrounds fully integrated into the environment,

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or do they want their player characters to be fairly

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you know, just blank slates and they just want to be.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, some people just want to generic superhero. It's almost

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irrelevant where they're from or who they are, It's just

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they are. I'm here, I've got a big shiny blade,

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let me at it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I am Davis McMillan, the Paladin from the Northern Mountains.

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I'm here to smite evil. Yep, that's all I need

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for a backstory, show me evil. I want to smite it.

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Speaker 3: Yep.

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Speaker 2: That's it. So getting those expectations, aligning them between you

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and your players will make things so much smoother in

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well the short, medium, and long term. It helps you

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iron out any potential issues with regards to rule interpretations.

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If you have any homebrew this is maybe later on,

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or some or some your own homebrew rulings on certain things,

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then now is the time to introduce them before you

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roll the dice. Make sure everyone knows what those differences

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from the PHB are going to be.

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Speaker 3: Or equally denote the fact you don't have any homebrewer

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correct there are people out there here you have only

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ever played with homebrew rules. What do you mean you

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don't run flanking Yeah, Corre, well, that is optional and

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it's not in my game. Stop hangling for it. Yeah, so,

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rather than having that conversation, have it in session zero.

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I don't run flanking rules. It's I don't think it

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offers much to the game, and it takes away from

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other players options that do have specific things that give

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them advantage on a text.

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Speaker 2: Yeah so I think that's. Yeah, that's absolutely a good point.

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And it also allows you to set expectations from sort

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of player behavior. It outlines the sort of game you

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want to run. You can use that time to outline

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a table etiquette, which I guess it sounds a bit

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more serious than it is, but I find it very

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useful and I've always I always outlined it at the

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beginning when I'm doing Adventures League. I don't have to

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do it now with my ongoing campaigns, as everyone knows

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sort of my expectations. But if you have a table etiquette,

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do it early and try to enforce it. Some things

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that you might want to implement in that is making

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sure not more than two people are sort of talking

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at the same time, because it can quickly devolve into chaos.

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And if you're a new DM and you're trying to

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keep track of things and make notes and prepare, well,

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it's hard to do that if you've got a cocophony.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't need that distraction. You want to be

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able to have your interaction with the players, the players

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interaction with each other that have them succinct and distinct

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from each other and not all having at.

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Speaker 2: Once correct and having that in place helps people respect

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each other's time and allows them all to be involved

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in the scenes at the table that are being played

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out before them. And also there's some other small things

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I've written here, but I think they're less important than those.

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And one that I think is probably gonna be quite

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good for you is to unless it's being used for

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the game, no phones or tablets at the table. Yeah,

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it goes hand in hand with making sure people respect

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each other time and all that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never really understood people's in distraction with phones

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whilst playing D and D. I'm one hundred percent D

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and D obsessive and we'll spend as much time within

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it as I can, and I'm happy to have that

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distraction from my phone, if you will, Whereas for other

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people they liked having the phone as a distraction. Thankfully,

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not too much at any of our table.

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Speaker 2: Zone think No, I think we're quite lucky in that respect.

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Speaker 3: But definitely something to bear in mind. And of course,

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if people need a bit more detail on what to

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possibly advise the players for good etiquette, listen to episode

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one of our podcast for tips on how to be

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a good role player.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how they're the top five things that make excellent

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role players so awesome. Role players will will respect that time,

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and they will respect you as a DM, and they'll

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pretty much help you all along the way for implementing

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this stuff and making that leap to becoming a dungeon

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master or games master. And I can guarantee when you

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start it, if you start it right, you'll fall in

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love with it and you'll thoroughly enjoy it. Despite how

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trepidacious and anxious you might feel at the beginning.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you might still lose sleep, but instead of from worry,

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it's because you need to keep designing that dungeon or

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writing down that backstory of the next character. I've genuinely

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had dreams and woken up and had to write staff down.

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Speaker 2: So it happens. It happens, So let's wrap up. Yes,

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and then we'll call it.

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Speaker 3: We've rambled on so to recap, and I think the

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fact that we both had this one start is good

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and a strong point. Start small in every way, So

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your table size, your expectation of what you'll be able

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to achieve in any one given session, your world size,

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your activity. The things that just will generally happen within

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the game will all be a lot less than you

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think you might achieve in your first session. I've then

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got who, what and where, so have a list of

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names and descriptors of characters that will be met, both

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named specific NPCs to be able to help with plot

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development and direction, and then just a random list of

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extra names. So when they run into or ask about

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is there a tavern? Is there an inn? Is there

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a blacksmith in town? Oh? Yes, that's Old Dabney over

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in the Horseshoe Falls. Well all right? The where give

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yourself an environment to work in. And again it doesn't

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need to be an entire map. It doesn't even need

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to be an entire city. You can spend three hours

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exploring a quarter, or you know, a particularly long avenue

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or a park. They just need to then populate it

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with enough stuff for things to be happening. And that

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can be your who's. It might be that it's a

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particularly busy street, so fill it with lots of people.

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And what is it that they're looking to do is

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it might be a specific item they're looking for. You

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might be an objective they're trying to achieve. And be

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flexible with all of those things, so if you need

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to adapt and move things around, don't be afraid to

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do that.

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Speaker 2: Very nice, very nice. So as we signed, my very

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first one was to start small if the big plans

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can come later, and they will. The big trick is

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making your players believe it was planned all along, when

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really you only need to plan what's in front of you.

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React to your players. You can't predict what they're going

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to do, and you certainly can't account for it. So

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just react to what they're doing, react to what they're

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interested in, and prepare the things that they are going

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to latch onto. That they are latching onto. Don't be

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scared to ask them what they're interested in. Don't be

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scared to ask them, what do you want to do

383
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next time. Make sure you're taking notes, and they will

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tell you in a roundabout way what they want to

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do next. I think it's good to have a good

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base knowledge of the PHB, to know your stuff, and

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don't be afraid if you're not sure about a rule,

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to just make a ruling and run with it. It's

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better to keep the game moving than to grind it

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to a halt, and you can always correct yourself in

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the next game. Dming and learning. This game is a

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state of continual improvement. You will always learn a little

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bit more, and you'll always improve next time. It's a

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never ending journey and it's a great avenue for self expression.

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My next one is to say to have no fear.

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Don't be scared of it, don't be scared of potentially

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looking a little bit silly. Feel free to throw yourself

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into the roles of NPCs or enemies. You don't have

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to put on an accent, you don't have to do

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any voices, but that little bit of characterization and losing

401
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yourself a little bit will one hundred percent communicate with

402
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the players a center urgency and impetus and involvement in

403
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the world that really they want and finally have a

404
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session zero. Before all of this, make sure that you

405
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and your players are aligned with what you want to

406
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run and what they want to play. Outline any table etiquette,

407
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any particular nuances to the rules that you might want

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to implement. Don't be afraid to call it out if

409
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some if people at the table aren't behaving as you expect.

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You have fun with it and with all of this

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stuff that is probably the key thing. It's a game

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that the DM should be having fun with as well.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I never fail to enjoy myself as

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a DM, possibly even more enjoyable than as a player.

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That's not say it doesn't come without some stress of managing.

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But I am laughing my ass off watching my players

417
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ruin the plans I've made and then nearly destroy themselves

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just because that's what they do.

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Speaker 2: That's what players do.

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Speaker 3: And then there's a lot of lot of fun to

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be had sitting that other side of the d M

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screen and going.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, are you sure you're doing what? Okay, fine,

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so yeah, have fun with it and yeah it's infinitely

425
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infinitely rewarding and yeah, absolutely hilarious. So I guess with that,

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if you've got any ideas or tips hints for beginner

427
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d MS, then don't be afraid to share them. Stick

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them in the comments below.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we'd love to see and read them if if

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we've missed something, which we inevitably have, we're still learning

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absolutely yeah, always constantly learning.