@ars.carminis: i ran my first campaign last year. it was a mess. here's what i wish someone had told me before session 1. 1. your players don't care about your world's history. they care about the NPC they met last session. every hour of lore is wasted unless it has a face. 2. prep 2 hours max. anything more and you're overdesigning. 3. when you blank, buy time. "let me consult my notes" or "the NPC pauses" or just "roll perception, all of you." players will fill the silence. 4. don't let rules questions stop the game. guess, move on, check after the session. the game dying from rules-lawyering is way worse than a wrong ruling. 5. steal encounters. that tavern brawl from your favorite show? it's an encounter now. nobody will notice. 6. pocket NPCs. 3-5 pre-made NPCs with names and quirks in your notes. drop them in when players go somewhere you didn't prep. 7. repeat NPC names. say it three times in a scene. "aldric says... aldric turns... aldric grins." players DON'T remember names otherwise. 8. "yes, and" your players into their cool ideas. saying no kills table energy faster than anything else. 9. write down 5 things after every session: what happened, who they met, what they learned, what's unresolved, what's next. 5 minutes. do it before you pack up. 10. the first session is not going to be your best session. it's not supposed to be. your 10th session will be better. your 30th will be way better. stick with it. #9 is the habit that made the biggest difference for me. eventually the 5-minute writeup became a 45-minute homework nightmare which is why i built loreify. records the session and handles the 5 things automatically. search "loreify dnd" on google if you're just starting out. will save you a year of painful lessons. #NewDM #DMTips #DungeonsAndDragons #DnDTok

Ars Carminis

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Monday 20 April 2026 18:59:27 GMT