From Player to DM: Episode 1 Assistant DM

This week I took the very first step to becoming a Melbourne Dungeons and Dragons Adventurers League dungeon master. It was equal parts fun and terrifying being behind the screen. So what exactly happened?

On Tuesday I took the first step on becoming a DM for the Melbourne Adventurers League group. I joined an established DM as their assistant for the module. First things first, this DM recommended that I choose a module I had played and enjoyed before. I have a pretty bad memory for these sorts of things, and often don’t really remember what happens, and so had a little trouble picking something I knew I had enjoyed. I ended up choosing one of the Border Kingdoms modules, CCC-GHC-BK1-09 Scavengers.

Myself and the DM went over the module a bit in various messages, and he told me what I have learnt (especially from that night) is a truly important piece of advice:

As long as you know the main story and goal, you can always steer back to that no matter where the players go. As long as the story makes sense on the player side of the screen, it doesn’t matter how messy or jumbled things become behind the screen.

Therefore, preparation is key! You need to know what the main narrative points are, what sort of encounters you need to be prepared to throw at the players, and particularly to have a plan B if they go “off script” as it were. Clearly being completely new to DM-ing, I had no idea what sort of adventure would be a good choice before I chose Scavengers. It is quite a fun adventure, but it has a lot of different ways you can use the many options in the module.

I think I managed to well and truly throw myself in the deep end. The parts I had agreed to play and/or run were the main NPC named Harlowe, and one of the first smaller encounters where I would just be in charge of 3 spiders. For the most part I did ok. I rolled like crap for the spiders (it happens) and Harlowe was pretty fun to play. The main problem for me is that there were 7 players (one of which was an 11yr old accompanied by a parent) and it was just a bit too much chaos for my first time.

I do think that the players being such agents of chaos has shown me just how different the adventure can be from the plan on paper. I theoretically knew that such things happen from a players point of view, but I never truly understood just how much of the game is the DM flying by the seat of their pants. It was a truly eye opening experience in that regard.

I would really like to become a DM in the future, but I think I will be working on my confidence for a little while before I feel comfortable making that step.

Note: Regarding children at your table - if you feel confident in being able to manage the interest and exuberance of a child at your table go for it. Personally i learnt that I don’t have the confidence to do so. Its scary enough learning when your audience is a group of understanding adults. Children are less able to understand the nerves of a new DM, and thus could be overwhelming. Maybe I’ll be able to do it further down the line when I have gained more confidence.

Map from the Border Kingdoms page of the Forgotten Realms Wiki