Tips for DMs

Being a DM usually means you have more responsibility than the rest of the players. Most likely, you'll be organizing and hosting play sessions and doing all the preparation. Some people are actually really into this, but it can take a lot of you time; don't let it take too much.

Have Fun

• If you get something wrong, your players won't know and won't care. They're having fun.

Minimalist Preparation

• Don't over-prepare. D&D can have varying degrees of structure, but it is still organic and spontaneous. Get comfortable with improvisation, then get proficient.
• Your players will miss characters and parts of the story or adventure accidentally and on purpose. Hense, don't over prepare.
• If you think about it, you can force anything on your players if you really want to, but be subtle about it.
• Keep your resources handy, such as the the adventure book, players handbook, and Monster Manual. Don't make dozens of notes you don't need.

Using the Modules

• Adventure and campaign modules can be dry and dense. Think of them as a manual for a tour guide. DMs are kind of like tour guides. Read it once for the gist of the plot, setting, and characters, then make notes on the parts you expect to reach before that play session.
• You don't have to follow the modules exactly. You can change, add, or not use anything you want.

 

Making Maps

• If you recreate maps, don't worry about getting it exact. What matters is if the map you make functionally represents the map provided by the module. Number of rooms, relative dimensions, locations of objects, doors, trap, etc., done. 
• As a practice to keep your prep time reasonable, you should freehand your maps at the game table.
• For realism, you can draw the rooms or areas as your players progress and discover them so they don't know what's ahead. Get tape and extra paper if you end up going off the grid.

Something About Creativity

• You're not telling the story, the whole group is. DMs provide a scenario and the group tells you what they do. 
• It's normal for one or more players to provide the scenarios and you tell them what the NPCs do. "I attack the king" is the scenario a player provided. What happens?
• Don't tell the players "no" if you can help it. If they want to do something really stupid, say "yes, and..."

Free D&D Mini Campaign: The Hard Bolt

THE HARD BOLT

INTRODUCTION
    As a DM, have you ever wanted to throw certain monsters, traps, puzzles, or other challenges at your players, but had no way to justify it because it was too exotic or dangerous? Well, now you do. This is a companion campaign you can insert into any other campaign with out derailing it or over-complicating it. By itself, it is literally a fetch quest with potential for many interesting scenes.
   

SYNOPSIS
The players, one way or another, enter a cave home to Harvyn Gad, an old, blind, human wizard. Maybe they just wanted out of the rain. The cave is completely dark. Harvyn seems like a very nice old man. He serves the players food and/or drinks that have a special poison he created and called Hard Bolt. Every time the players take an 8 hour rest, they will have a nightmare. In each nightmare, they will have a challenge, monster, obstacle, or sometimes a short dungeon to overcome. They are not in any real danger in these dreams, nor are they rewarded with treasure or experience points. However, if they die in the dream, they wake up without feeling completely refreshed and possibly incur a level of exhaustion. The difficulty levels of the challenges can actually much lower and more nerfed than one would expect so that a dungeon master can make a low level party fight all sorts of normally powerful monsters, such as dragons.
    The old man tasks the party with finding his crystal eye, an item he uses to see, which was stolen from him by his apprentice, Jimlan Ko, a hafling wizard. If they can return the eye to Harvyn, he will give them the antidote. The party will eventually track down the apprentice, who traded the eye away to a merchant for a spellbook with some powerful wizard category spells. The party can take the spell book by force if they want, and any players who can use magic from the wizard spell list can copy spells from it.
    When the party catches up with the merchant Ebban Floe, it is in the middle of a big city with lots of people and guards, and he is unwilling to part with the eye for nothing. The party could steal it, offer to buy it for 6,500 gp, or negotiate for it. If the party attempts to steal it, they may be caught and reported to the city guard. If the party wants to negotiate for it, they will have to present the merchant with an equally valuable magic item or make a promise to serve the merchant for a while. They basically agree to serve him for an extended period of time, as body guards, escorts, messengers, or do dangerous quests. The merchant will ultimately ask them to undergo a particular challenge to fetch a magical artifact from a dungeon. This is a particularly valuable artifact and a particularly dangerous dungeon/ruin. The merchant may give the party something to do to built up some trust at any time, such as deliver goods or services for him.

NIGHTMARES
    Every time your players make a long rest, you can describe to them their horrible nightmares or, make them do something you choose or by rolling from a table.

01 Something valuable has been lost or stolen
02 Encounter a crying child over their slain parent
03 Fight a diseased, madman
04 Solve a puzzle
05 Attempt to open a trapped treasure chest
06 Bail water out of your boat before it sinks. Make Strength/Athletics checks to win
07 Climb a cliff
08 Run from a pack of wolves
09 Fight a dragon
10 Your party is poisoned and must make cons saves/heal themselves
11 Run a gauntlet of monsters and traps
12 Cross a dangerous bridge
13 Fight an ogre
14 Slove a riddle or get hurt
15 etc.
16 Insert the party into a western setting with guns, have them duel a NPC
17 The party has futuristic weapons and they fight monsters
18 The party fights a werewolf
19 The party has to steak a vampire
20 The party has to craft an item
21 The party has taken prisoners an NPC instructs them to kill
22 The party has to fight a high level bard
23 the party fights a high level monk
24 the party has to fight a high level fighter
25 the party has to fight a high level wizard
26 the party fights a demon
27 the party fights a devil
28 the party has magic weapons and fights a giant
29 the party has magic weapons and fights a high level monster
30 one party member is a hostage. Two party members have to fight each other
31 the party has to rescue people trapped inside a burning tavern
32 the party has to fight a king and his champion
33 the party has to fight a high level, oath breaker paladin
34 the party has to identify a monster disguised as a peasant in a crowd and kill it
35 the party has to solve a puzzle of two lying door guardians
36 the party has to solve a puzzle of a flooding room
37 the party has to escape quick sand
38 the party has futuristic weapons and has to fight giant
39 the party has futuristic weapons and has to fight a demon
40 the party has encounters a fire elemental
41 the party encounters a water elemental
42 encounter an earth elemental
43 encounters a wind elemental
44 the party has to wade through sewers
45 the party checks into a filthy, cheap inn filled with riffraff
46 the party has to bare-knuckle box a tavern
47 the party has to escape a prison
48 the party sneaks up on a camp of goblins about to cook a person.
49 the party has to fight a mindflayer with a high level cleric NPC ally
50 the party has to fight a beholder with a high level wizard NPC ally
51 the party has to fight a dragon with a high level berserker NPC ally
52 the party has is negotiating a hostage exchange
53 the party is fighting a sea monster. they can breathe underwater
54 an evil ghost attacks the party at their camp
55 3 zombies attack the party at their camp
56 a fairy steals something from the party
57 a familiar steals something from the party
58 the party fights a party of wizards for a bowl of soup
59 the party fights a party of thieves for an onion
60 the party fights has to negotiate a trade with an unreasonable madman
61 the party has to sneak past a bridge troll
62 the party has to get past a guard without fighting
63 the party is cursed and will turn to stone unless they dance
64 the party is compelled to sing by a bard. if they don't stop, they lose a bet to him and must serve him
65 the party has to beat an NPC at a game of cards
66 the party has to beat an NPC at a game of chess
67 the party has to tell a joke to make a golem laugh
68 the party has to win an archery contest
69 the party has to win a fencing tournament
70 the party has to make a sculpture that will please a king
71 the party has to make a painting for a nobleman
72 the party has to find a missing person
73 the party has to solve a murder
74 the party has to solve a theft
75 the party has to cook a meal for a nobleman
76 the party has is given a set of objects to choose from, one more than the number of PCs. One item will save them from a deadly curse. If no one guesses the correct item, they lose
77 the party gets to make a magical wish. any knowledge gained from this experience is now character knowledge.
78 a player is offered a choice between two magic weapons/items. One is cursed, one is not. The party has to try and pick the right one.
79 The party has no equipment and has to fight a group of goblins
80 the party has to pickpocket someone/something
81 the party has to intimidate someone
82 the party has to persuade someone
83 the party has to deceive someone
84 the party has to cut one of three ropes. one will open a door set them free, one does nothing, one will set off a trap.
85 the characters hands are bound slaves and have to fight something
86 some characters are randomly bound and are being attacked
87 the party's camp is attacked by a giant
88 the party's camp is attack by another party
89 the party has accumulated exhausted and must fight something
90 the party has to save against madness and then immediately fight something
91 one of the party members is captured by goblins. the others must rescue
92 the party is tied up and must escape while their captors are asleep
93 the party has to sneak out of a camp of enemies
94 each party member has a broken arm or leg and they must fight something
95 each party member is blinded, sick, or frightened and must fight something
96 each party member must save against being charmed. Those who fail attack those who succeed
97 the party lost in a storm and must find shelter
98 the party's equipment hurts them to wear, and they have to fight a bugbear
99 the party encounters a hostile lion or bear or alligator.
00 a player is injured and must drink a health potion, but ends up transforming into someone or something.

DIFFICULTY CHALLENGE
    The physics of a dream are sometimes different than real life. The difficulty should be suited to your players. Powerful monsters such as dragons should be adjusted to be an even match. Seemingly simple challenges should be even easier or a lot harder than one would expect, while seemingly impossible tasks may become simple. The players are having dreams after all. Make up anything and throw it at your players, keep them amused for a few minutes, and then tell them they wake up. You can give your players levels, items or spells they wouldn't ordinarily have.

META PLOT
You can have an alternate campaign going simultaneously as they dream, foreshadow the next campaign, or use this an an opportunity to give them hints and tips about their current quests, or resolve any plot issues you or the players may have caused by missing or skipping something.