The Biggest Mistake New Dungeon Masters Make

Comments · 397

• AN

  @andyenglish4303 · 2 years ago

  &quot;If Mercer can do it, so can I!&quot;<br><br>Famous last words.

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• SL

  @sleidman · 2 years ago

  My first DnD group was a whopping 12 people and honestly, I don&apos;t know how I still fell in love with the game because of it.

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• DR

  @DruidEnjoyer324 · 2 years ago

  My first ever campaign I ran was lost mines. The first session we had 4 players. It went very well. After a while people started asking to join and by session 5 we had 8 people. We finished the campaign but it made me consider never dming again. Im glad I tried again later with a smaller group but 8 player sessions exhausted me.

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• OS

  @oskar6661 · 2 years ago

  Also worth noting...many of the &quot;huge&quot; D&amp;D groups tend to be a headstrong DM who&apos;s trying to impress people...while the players are only loosely engaged, and just &quot;going along&quot; with the game, rather than being active in it.

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• PG

  @pgb8000 · 2 years ago

  I totally agree with Kelly and Monty on this. &nbsp;I&apos;m a moderately experienced DM, and I currently run 3 campaigns, two have 4 players, and one has 6. &nbsp;I find the session with 6 players SO much harder, and SO much more exhausting. &nbsp;There are a couple of quiet players, and I seem to spend half the evening trying to draw them into play, quietening the extroverts so the introverts can say something. &nbsp;Maybe it&apos;s just the people in the group - well, no. &nbsp;Because both quiet players and one of the extroverts are also present in one or other of the 4-person games I DM. &nbsp;In those campaigns, with less people in the room, they seem much more able to contribute easily, and I can concentrate completely on DMing the campaign, rather than having half my mind taken up with managing the social aspects of a 7 person table.

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• TH

  @TheAdventureMilk · 2 years ago

  I’ve been DMing a group of 7 for several years now. It was a learning curve at first for us all, but we’re all best friends and family and we’ve learnt how to overcome the problems mentioned in this video. <br><br>We have an amazing time playing and hanging out and the table never gets stale or boring with the 7 of them. It can be done! ❤

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• RN

  @RNM-09-bro · 2 years ago

  I like to run tables of five. &nbsp;Here is why, if one player ends up not making it, I can still run my session. &nbsp;Where if I have a table of four and one player does not make it, then most of the time the session ends up getting cancelled. &nbsp;This is mostly because I run a very tight challenge with most of my combat&apos;s and it is much easier for me to adjust down to four than to three. &nbsp;For some reason adjusting to three seems to be more difficult. &nbsp;But this is just what I have encountered.

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• YJ

  @yjpxngy · 2 years ago

  I’ve played 5e for several years now, and my DM has always managed to comfortably run tables of 5-8 players. The worst was when he had to DM a table of 13(!!!) players at a LGS because the other paid DMs did no-shows. Now I’m running my own campaign for the first time with 5 players, and I’m loving it! I plan to also run a oneshot in the near future with 4 players to see how it feels.

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• XE

  @XenBass · 2 years ago

  Having run a campaign for 3-4 players... when 1 or 2 routinely &quot;can&apos;t make it&quot;, it basically means session&apos;s canceled. A larger group, with all of its scheduling conflicts and other issues, <b>can</b> potentially allow you to run your session since there are more people attending.

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• CA

  @captainthorrek262 · 2 years ago

  Here&apos;s a trick from 2nd Edition: session zero. When everyone comes in, have one copy of the Players guide, and everyone makes their character then and there with the intent of everyonemaking a character by session&apos;s end.<br><br>The social dynamic will start to show itself rather quickly. It&apos;s a team-oriented exercise which also shows how well people can share the spotlight (represented by the book). If you have to scrape up another PHB, then chances are the group is too big, someone might need extra attention, &nbsp;or is busy hogging &quot;the spotlight&quot;.

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• EY

  @Eygam1 · 2 years ago

  &quot;If Mercer can do it, so can I&quot; is an okay-ish assumption, &quot;if an on-line entertainment show can do it, so can my regular campaign&quot; very much not.

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• DA

  @danielinthewolvesden · 1 year ago

  The real biggest mistake new DMs make is- creating your own world. Dont. Pick a tried and true starter adventure, run it- then start your own world, Learn how to DM, then invent a world.

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