1

“I will kill you all” isn’t a very interesting interaction with a villain. “I killed your uncle you know” will grab way more attention.

2

Action is the name of the game. Give the characters something to do instead of reading pages of background narrative.

3

Add a new element to the adventure that is entirely yours. Add a villain a quest an NPC or a piece of background material that you personally love.

4

Add festivals fairs and special events to towns recently entered by the characters. Show them as living breathing places.

5

Add in a shady dealer with a random limited assortment of expensive magical items to rid characters of their excess gold.

6

Add seasons and holidays into your game to keep the feeling of life strong in the world.

7

Allow for unexpected outcomes in combat. Don’t force “all victory” or “all defeat” as the only options. What is the likely goal of the scene? When is that goal achieved?

8

Are your players spending too much time on their smartphones? Ask them questions or have them roll skill checks to reveal clues that draw their character back into the game.

9

Arm your major villains with interesting magical items.

10

Ask players to “describe their killing blow” to tap into their creative brains instead of just focusing on the numbers.

11

Ask players to describe the previous session to refresh themselves and show you what they focused on.

12

Ask your players to fill in details of a location or an NPC. Offload some of the cognitive creative burden to your players.

13

Ask your players what they enjoyed most about the game. Really listen to their answers without judgment.

14

Before you begin adding or modifying your own rules try running the rules as written to get a strong feel for them. Ask yourself if a particular house rule would really make the game more fun.

15

Build combat encounters vertically. There’s nothing like a fight on the edge of a cliff or under a roaring waterfall.

16

Build custom magic items by adding a once-per-day casting of an interesting spell relevant to the item’s origin.

17

Build fantastic locations with scale. Describe mile-high waterfalls hundred-story ziggurats enormous statues of dead gods and cyclopean fifty-foot-high doors.

18

Build interesting environments and complicated situations. Enjoy watching the characters navigate them in unexpected ways.

19

Celebrate the players’ powerful attacks and critical hits. You’re all on the same side!

20

Characters are the stars of the game. Don’t let NPCs overshadow their accomplishments or trivialize their challenges.

21

Choose a fair and experienced player to be the table’s official rules lawyer to take on the burden of looking up rules and arbitrating edge cases.

22

Create NPCs meaningful to the characters—uncles brothers sisters daughters war buddies etc.

23

D&D is a game with asymmetric power curves. Don’t expect every battle to go smoothly one way or the other. Enjoy the unexpected

24

Dead or abandoned characters can make great hooks for future game sessions. Who got left behind?

25

Describe and enjoy the thrashing of paralyzed or incapacitated monsters instead of stewing about how easily they were defeated.

26

Describe histories and storylines in small slices discovered by the characters as they explore the world around them.

27

Describe profound hits misses and close calls with in-game descriptions but keep it fast and brief.

28

Describe three notable features of every room the characters enter.

29

Design exploration interaction and combat encounters in a way that showcases the characters or their skills. Cut encounters that showcase no one.

30

Does a player have a question about part of the game world? Ask them the same question and incorporate their idea back into the world.

31

Don’t force a scene to be one of interaction exploration or combat. Any scene might go in any direction.

32

Don’t shy away from letting the characters split up. Give each separate group their own little scene.

33

Each monster even a single wolf within a pack will have its own interesting and distinguishing features. When the characters attack this monster ask the player to describe a unique characteristic of that foe.

34

Embrace the creative approaches your players find to get around obstacles and challenges. Make deals add skill checks and use advantage and disadvantage to tweak difficulties.

35

End your game just before a fight to keep the tension high and keep them really interested in coming back.

36

Even dead NPCs might have interesting histories the characters discover over the course of an adventure.

37

Even for combat-heavy game sessions insert interesting pieces of history rumors or secrets that the characters can learn.

38

Even something as simple as a quick sketch can help players understand the nuances of a combat encounter.

39

Even the biggest baddest villain will likely have a couple of tough bodyguards. No smart villain stands alone. Embrace the power of the henchmen they may have compelling stories of their own.

40

Every magic item has a unique and interesting history. Where did that +1 battleaxe come from?

41

Every villain thinks they’re a hero. What drives your villains to do what they do?

42

Find and show off interesting artwork you found on the internet when describing fantastic locations.

43

Find opportunities to bring back previously encountered NPCs and villains. Reward players who kept track of and remember these old foes.

44

First and foremost be fans of the characters (thanks Dungeon World!).

45

Foreshadow an interesting enemy through fearful descriptions from defeated monsters strange cryptic notes prophetic dreams or shadows just over the horizon.

46

Give magic items memorable names.

47

Give monsters an interesting array of weaponry. They don’t all fight with the same short sword.

48

Give players an idea of the background themes and style of your game so they can build their characters around it. Is it combat focused? Is it a mystery? Is it focused on court intrigue? Let them know what you’re thinking.

49

If a scene begins to drag move the story forward. Skip transitions and jump right to the next most interesting part.

50

If players change direction when following a series of quests let them. Don’t force them down one straight path.

51

If you decide to end a battle early do it behind the screen by reducing monster hit points to 1. Don’t let the players KNOW you’re ending it early. Let them enjoy the quick conclusion.

52

If your adventure had a sensationalist newspaper headline how would it read?

53

Improvise occasional silly moments in your game like an orc walking into a room with a big chef hat and a frilly apron that says “Faerun’s Greatest Cook”. What if that apron’s boast is true?

54

Improvise unique monsters by “reskinning” or wrapping their description around a stat block from a similar monster in the Monster Manual.

55

It’s always better to end a game early than to end a game late. If time is short call the game at an opportune moment and let everyone enjoy the anticipation of the next session.

56

Keep a set of maps from old adventures on hand in case your characters take an unexpected turn into a dungeon beneath an old rotted tree stump.

57

Keep a stack of 3×5 cards on hand. They’re perfect for secret notes initiative cards quick monster stat blocks or temporary status conditions.

58

Keep track of time and pacing of your game with an alarm or stopwatch if needed. Expect each major scene to take up to 45 minutes to an hour.

59

Keep your primary storyline simple but wrap it in all sorts of deep complications.

60

Learn your players’ birthdays and celebrate them with an adventure focused on their character’s goals. Who is the next player with a birthday coming up?

61

Let characters do crazy and awesome things. Tie their successes or failures to skill checks instead of just saying “no”.

62

Let the group arbitrate a ruling when the rules aren’t clear.

63

Make your story relevant to the characters by tying some of the story’s background and mysteries to skill checks the characters can roll and learn from.

64

Mix exploration combat and interaction together into a single wild three-ringed-circus of a scene.

65

Mix two traps together to turn a standard trapped hallway into a complicated deathtrap.

66

Monster hit points as written are only the average. Increase or decrease hit points within the hit die range to vary the challenge

67

Monsters are just as capable at using the environment around them as characters. Let them hurl boulders tip braziers or fire ballistae.

68

Name every villain the characters face.

69

Not all players enjoy the explosive creativity of storytelling. Let each player play the game the way they most enjoy.

70

NPCs like all good characters act true to their character rather than to a defined script. Think of them as a real people not just a collection of stats

71

Pay attention to player body language. What brings them to the edge of their seat? What has them leaning back with arms crossed and eyes narrowed?

72

Pay attention to quiet players and ensure they get their time in the spotlight.

73

Player-described travel montages are a great way to let the whole table build an interesting story as the characters travel from point A to point B. Ask them to describe a challenge they faced and how another character helped them overcome it.

74

Players love loot. Spend time picking out the right loot to reward them in the next session and over your entire campaign

75

Players love to shatter or short-circuit what might have seemed like a tough encounter. Let them enjoy circumventing it but change up the tactics for future encounters.

76

Players often describe interesting approaches or traits of their characters during the game. Write them down and reference them often.

77

Randomly choose a character to be the focus for the night’s adventure. How can you make that character feel like a real hero?

78

Read or re-read a section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide that catches your interest. There’s a ton of great material for your game in this book.

79

Remind players to let you know when they feel like another player deserves inspiration for a cool deed.

80

Roll dice in the open to let the winds of chaos move your story in unpredictable directions.

81

Spend a few minutes studying the backgrounds and motivations of the characters. Incorporate hooks into your game based on these backgrounds and motivations.

82

Spend a few minutes thinking about the strengths of each of the characters and build interesting situations that help them show off those abilities.

83

Spend some time looking over the random tables of the Dungeon Master’s Guide to inspire some wild ideas. Pick one table to use in your next game.

84

Spend some time memorizing the names classes and races of the characters in your game.

85

Spend the time to read over the stat blocks of the monsters you plan to run. Study their spells and abilities and review them again just before you enter combat.

86

Spread out monsters into multiple waves for big dynamic epic and memorable battles.

87

Take notes on the interests backgrounds approaches and motivations of the characters during the game. Use them as adventure seeds in your next game.

88

Target characters by rolling randomly to avoid unconscious biases. That said intelligent monsters won’t shy from a good tactic.

89

The number one rule to good Dungeon Mastering? Relax and have fun.

90

Think about what each style of play your players enjoy. Give them each a scene built on their interests.

91

Two big tough monsters acting in concert are always a powerful threat for your characters. A single powerful monster might be defeated quite quickly.

92

Use “advantage” and “disadvantage” as your motivators for creative improvised ideas from your players.

93

Use characters from your favorite books movies or TV shows as archetypes for the NPCs in your game.

94

Use madness rules from the Dungeon Master’s Guide when the characters come upon something truly horrific.

95

Use side-based “around the table” initiative for smaller battles you want to run quickly.

96

What can a trap teach the characters about their environment history or foes?

97

What interesting magic item will your group find in your next session? What is the history of that magic item?

98

Who are the three main threats in your adventure? What plots are they undertaking right now?

99

Write a strong start to your next game that throws characters right into the action. Start with a battle or a tough decision right off the bat.

100

Write down a list of five interesting scenes you think may occur in your next game.