D&D General Top 3-5 articles you would recommend for a new DM

[J-H]

I'm tired of always being the DM. I learned via reading a lot over many years, including reading plenty of articles by the very thoughtful but non-concise Angry DM.

What are the top 3-5 articles you would recommend as "How to DM decently well?"
I'd prefer stuff that's fairly concise and free of tons of verbal clutter, thus no Angry DM...

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Not an article, but a youtube series. Matt Colville's Running the Game Series is the best DM advice I've seen in any form, and is what got me into DMing. If you haven't watched them, I highly recommend it.

Here's a link:

 

[overgeeked]

I would recommend Matt Colville, Sly Flourish, Web DM, and Dungeon Craft on YouTube.

As there’s already a link to Colville, here’s links to Sly Flourish, Web DM, and Dungeon Craft.

 

[Greggy C]

I would just read the PHB (but not every class or spell), DMG (but not every magic item), and one module. D&D is mostly about knowing the rules, running combat and either spending a long time writing your own adventure, or hacking up someone elses. I do like the running the game series.

 

[Malmuria]

Don’t Prep Plots

If you're GMing a roleplaying game, you should never prep a plot.Everyone's tastes are different. These matters are subjective. What works for one person won't necessarily work for another. Yada

thealexandrian.net

Principia Apocrypha: Principles of Old School RPGs, or, A New OSR Primer

Principia Apocrypha is a new, free Primer for OSR and other Old School Style RPG Gaming in the form of a collection of Apocalypse World-s...

lithyscaphe.blogspot.com

Sly Flourish: Helping game masters run great roleplaying games.

Weekly articles with tips, tricks, tools, and advice for game masters written by the author of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master.

slyflourish.com

GM advice from other games has given me a lot to think about as well, specifically Blades in the Dark and Dungeon World.

 

[overgeeked]

GM advice from other games has given me a lot to think about as well, specifically Blades in the Dark and Dungeon World.

Monster of the Week is another great one to draw from.

 

[J.Quondam]

No need to study. Just use the Force!

Hmmm....
Upon reflection, maybe that's not the best advice for running a game.

.

 

[aco175]

The old Dragon Magazine articles from Ray Winninger on Dungeoncraft, not sure if that is the same as the video posted above. I found this site that has them all collected.

The 5 room Dungeon articles from over the years, not sure who was the first. I found this one from roleplayingtips.com. This one is from nerdsonearth.com

 

[Guest 7034872]

Matt Colville's "Running the Game" Running the Game
DungeonCraft (simply wonderful) Dungeon Craft
Cody Lewis' Taking20 Taking20
WebDM Web DM

These are the YT channels I've studied like crazy over the course of the past year and change now, and I swear by all four (never at them). If I had to give a beginning DM just one place to turn for help & guidance, I suppose it'd be Colville; he's consistently careful to avoid oracular pronouncements on What Thou Must Do.

 

[Smackpixi]

If the new DM is gonna run a published adventure, sly flourish has pretty optimistic takes on most all of them Giving supportive guidance. And also if running published big books, Sean McGovern has affordable guides for them at about 5 bucks each on DMsGuild that will give a noob confidence they’re not forking it up.

That blue haired girl on You Tube that has pretty basic, but popular, videos has a number of supportive encouraging vids for new dms. She’s better than you’d suspect.