Dungeons and Dragons

24 Years a Dungeon Master

Some plain-and-simple advice, one DM to another.

Deadwood Dick Library, 1899 (Public Domain)

A friend recently asked me how to strike the right balance as a Dungeon Master — talking enough to keep momentum, but not so much that players feel railroaded or stuck in awkward silences.

Here’s the advice I shared from my 24 years of DM experience.

It’s always cooperative

Start by opening the feedback loop to everyone and giving it structure. I favor the Stars & Wishes format because it prompts positive highlights (the stars) and forward-looking tweaks (the wishes). Encourage players to share those at the end of each session, then post your own stars and wishes in chat to kick off discussion.

Yes… and here’s what happens next” beats a hard “no” almost every time

Behind the screen, think actor first, author second. You might be head-over-heels in love with your setting, but lore drops delivered before players ask can feel like sinks for the plot pace. Sprinkle in knowledge checks to ensure that information emerges when someone actively seeks it.

Follow improv’s golden rule: “Yes… and here’s what happens next” beats a hard “no” almost every time.

Think in beats

I take the view that a session unfolds in three beats: role-play, movement, action. Hitting all three keeps energy high. A role-play moment can spotlight one character if it’s swift and vivid; action that involves only one person should be even swifter.

One fix for games that feel a little off-tempo is micro-adventures: single-session (maybe two-session) side quests that build out the world, spark role-play, and deliver clear action. Each small mission nudges the larger story forward and raises the stakes.

Imagine a flood threatening a settlement where an elemental is the cause-the PCs must deal with the elemental source, secure a solution… and then deal with whatever crisis was caused by the flood. It’s not railroading to present non-optional problems; railroading only happens when you dictate the solutions.

Pay attention to player personalities

Around the table, I often see three types of play styles that affect things, too.

High-energy jokesters who light up when given boundaries and clever puzzles to poke.
Storytellers, who excel once they have a clear emotional hook or personal goal.
Tactical minds who relish leading the group through crunchy challenges but appreciate a nudge toward deeper character moments.

Obviously, there can be overlap.

Shape scenes/micro adventures to make sure each style gets at least one spotlight moment — humor for the first crowd, open-ended emotional situations for the second, crisp decision points for the third — and watch as your group buys into the fun.

Maintain your pace

Pacing pitfalls to watch for?

In one game, my group spent a chunk of a session animating a mundane object and coaxing a shy creature into doing something essential for the plot.

This was charming, but slow.

If an outcome is mandatory for the plot, sometimes it’s best to let your plot point happen quickly rather than waiting for players to guess the perfect solution.

Non-player character tips

Keep NPCs lean and memorable! Maintain a short list of available NPCs you can throw into any situation. This can be as simple as one sentence each, i.e.:

Old Smith Ballywag, the one-legged grouchy blacksmith you’ve known all your lives.

You can flesh the NPC out more if the moment demands or a player asks, but it is SO much easier to start from something than go totally off-the-cuff.

Also, don’t forget to build pauses into NPC conversations, so the party can jump in and ask those questions if they want (or, if you’ve got a less experienced group, offer them some prompts to gather information as an optional task).

Virtual TTRPG games

Virtual tables need extra polish.

Trim anything that drags. This includes your beloved virtual DM tools that you paid so much money for. Tool-swapping can pull players out of character. It’s better to engage all your players, have them all looking at their Zoom windows or their physical dice on the table, than to have them zoning out while software tries to calculate outcomes.

Also, pay attention to ways to increase the sense of immersion. Online games need this! Simple immersion tricks like having everyone change their display names in Zoom windows to their character names is a great way to go.

If you really want to add music, make sure to test it beforehand! It’s way too easy for there to be audio glitches, and you never want to have a session pulled into tech-solving, not even for a minute. The second your tech stops working, ditch it and improvise.

Anyway, thinking this through fired me up about DM craft. I hope these ideas help you keep the story barreling down the road without meandering detours, and helps everyone have a good time.

If you liked this, read my Stars & Wishes post, here! Let me know in the comments if you’d like more TTRPG-related writing!