To prepare for a roleplaying game (DM) session, it is essential to be familiar with the spells your monsters cast. Older D and D editions had round-by-round tactics, but it is crucial to note basic tactics for encounters by reviewing the spell list for your group. Some spells, especially those with the creator’s name attached, may be restricted by the DM in a situation. The best spell for preventing players from losing is Glyph of Warding, also known as home field advantage.
Preparation is key to a great session, and there is a vast amount of material available for DMs. The right DM tools make it easier for DMs to manage their campaign and make it easier for characters to understand what’s going on. A DM should start with 6 spells and learn 2 every time they level up, meaning at level 20 you have 44 spells. However, there are more spells available when finding a wizard spell.
A new DM should ensure they know their characters’ abilities, spells, and are ready to act on their turn when needed. As they DM, they will get to know how the spells work, so it will improve over time. They should not worry too much about knowing what their characters can do, and they should not worry too much about knowing what they can do.
A first-level cleric knows all 17 first-level cleric spells (depending on the number of expansions the DM uses). They can use their reaction to identify a spell as it’s being cast or an action on their turn to identify a spell. Adventuring can be tricky when solving puzzles or murders, but there are five ways to investigate anything.
📹 The 7 Types of DM in D&D
It’s a HUGE 5e expansion bursting with amazing new races, subclasses, a whole new class inspired by Avatar: The Last …
Do wizards have to prepare spells?
A wizard spell may be cast as a ritual if it bears the appropriate tag and is present within the spellbook. An arcane focus may be employed as a spellcasting focus. Upon attaining a given level in the wizard class, the player is permitted to add two wizard spells of their choosing at no additional cost. However, each of these spells must be of a level that allows it to be cast using available spell slots. It is possible that additional spells may be discovered during the course of adventuring.
What does DM spell?
“DM” is a term meaning “direct message” and can be used as a noun or verb. The internet has evolved significantly with new abbreviations, slang, and acronyms appearing daily. USA TODAY has been breaking down text slang, such as “ICYMI” and “WYLL”, to help users understand and use the term effectively. Understanding the meaning and usage of DM can help users navigate the internet and communicate effectively, reducing stress over messages or memes on platforms like TikTok.
What is the difference between known spells and prepared spells?
Baldur’s Gate 3 offers a versatile spellcasting system with two types: known spells and prepared spells. Prepared spells allow casters to select a few from a broader list for combat scenarios. Baldur’s Gate 3 allows prepared casters to modify their list of prepared spells on-the-go, easing traditional tabletop constraints. All spellcasting classes have a Class Spell List, which is the exhaustive list of spells a spellcaster can learn without racial features or feats, and are commonly associated with the class’s theme.
Do rangers prepare spells?
The 5e Ranger Table, as presented in the PHB, indicates that a Ranger has Known Spells, signifying that they are privy to a predefined number of spells from their spell list. This differs from the approach observed in Clerics, who prepare spells from the entire list.
Which class knows the most spells?
A Wizard possesses an extensive repertoire of spells, a comprehensive spell list, and a remarkable degree of versatility. They are capable of casting the greatest number of spells in a single day, of learning additional spells at any time, and of learning spells at any level. Nevertheless, JavaScript is either disabled or blocked by extensions, and your browser does not support cookies.
Why is the DM smiling?
Don’t tempt fate by consistently being rude to DMs, as their smile can signify catharsis and ass-kicking. DMs are known for their love of the game and spend hours crafting quests and dungeons for their adventurers. If you consistently be rude without reason, you can’t blame anyone but yourself when the DM takes out their frustration on the party. It only takes one little comment to change from “run from this encounter” to “roll up some new characters”.
Does Harry Potter know any spells?
The first successful spell of the fictional character Harry Potter is “Rictusempra,” although he is more notable for two other significant charms: the Disarming Charm “Expelliarmus” and the Patronus Charm “Expecto Patronum.” In the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the character Harry Potter is initially taught the Expelliarmus spell. However, this spell is never used again in the film series due to its uncast effects.
Can wizards copy any spell?
As outlined in the Player’s Handbook, a wizard is able to replicate spells of 1st or higher level, provided they possess the requisite spell slots of that level, such as a 6th-level wizard.
Do wizards know all spells?
A wizard, as an arcane spellcaster, possesses the distinctive capacity to master the full range of spells available in the game. This contrasts with the abilities of other spellcasters, who typically only learn a subset of their class’s spell list, with the exception of artists.
How do prepared spells work?
In D and D, spell learning is straightforward, with new spells added to the player’s spell list. However, characters capable of preparing spells have additional flexibility with their magic. They can cast any spell on their class’s spell list as long as they have available slots of the given level. They must prepare which spells they can cast on a given day. When a character prepares spells, they prepare a list of spells they can cast that day from their class’s spell list.
This flexibility allows players to prepare the most helpful spells for their party, allowing them to adapt to various scenarios. Additionally, spell preparation is completed as part of a long rest and requires at least one minute per spell level for each spell on the list.
What are the 7 types of spells?
Casting spells is a crucial skill for all witches and wizards, as it allows them to perform various magic tasks. In the Harry Potter universe, there are seven types of spells: charms, curses, transfigurations, healing spells, jinxes, hexes, and counter-spells. Each type has its own properties and purposes, all able to be cast with a single wand.
A charm, or enchantment, gives an object or organism new properties, such as levitate or affect appearance or emotions. When cast with the intent of lasting within a person or object, the receiver becomes bewitched. Dark charms, or curses, can cause immense pain or even death. Despite their potential, charms can be harmless and even helpful for wizards, making them essential for mastery of magic.
📹 Let Players Create Magic Spells | D&D | 5e | DM Advice
I take a look at how players can create their very own spells in D&D fifth edition! Buy Me a Coffee on Ko-Fi: …
%20Chakra&w=400&h=300)
My Dad used to be a DM. Later on when he had me, as many parents do he would tell me bedtime stories. But these weren’t out of a book – these were ‘Possumcat stories’, set in a world where me, my little sister, and a creature named Sam the Possumcat were the main characters improvising our way through a series of oneshots that wove a greater canon over the years. Each ‘Possumcat story’, Dad would set up an adventure premise, tell part of the story, then prompt me at points to choose what the characters do next. Whatever I chose would influence the direction of the story, whether it be tempting fate and opening the crypt or playing it safe, whether or not we try to steal some dragon gold, whether we investigate the gurgling bunyip sounds, etc. He totally ran my very own D&D-lite experience my whole early childhood! Best Dad ever. ❤
My dm literally made a new floor for the campaign on the spot because the dwarf barbarian thought breaking all the stone circles on the floor would solve a puzzle of some kind(we failed the perception checks). He ended up making a 30 ft hole which we fell down and we had to fight out of it. Earlier in the campaign I also seduced 13 armor pieces into being lighter so I could hold them.
I always tried to be a conductor (because I foolishly thought that was what all DMs were supposed to be) until I finally realized that I’m in fact a minimalist (or maybe more cool cousin) but once I stopped forcing myself to be what I thought a DM was and just followed my gut, I found my true type and honestly it makes all the difference!
A tip for minimalist GMs; a decent way to do a percentage ‘roll’ is to just use a clock with a stopwatch feature; have the player start and stop the clock while not looking at it, and use the tenths and hundredths of a second as the tens and ones digits. You have a d% in your hands probably right now.
I have another archetype for you: Apocalypse Prepper As a DM I like to prepare all the rollable tables, all the items the world has, easy ways to access less-used rules on the fly, creating important NPCs, creating maps, etc, so basically everything I’m going to need over the course of a campaign, before the campaign starts, except for the story itself (other than a premise and starting point). I like to call this my campaign skeleton. The rest is left up to the players and their interactions with the world, and I improvise a story depending on how they interact with the premise. So, much like an apocalypse prepper, I prepare for (nearly) every mechanical eventuality, but improvise to survive when chaos hit the fan.
I love a good minimalist. My friends and I would play like that when I first started playing D&D. We would just sit around and one of us would DM and the rest of us would talk about what we were doing. No dice. No books. No character sheets. We just had a good group that could create a narrative out of the blue. I wish I could find another group like that.
I’m definitely a Nick Fury, Architect, and World Building DM. I just love running huge open world games where my players fight armies and literal gods. Using existing rules and homebrew together to make powerful players and enemies that clash against each other like world ending tsunamis is just so rewarding. Balancing the narrative and mechanics together is always so fun for me to give to my players to interact and play with.
I’ve never felt more seen by a DnD article, lol. Definitely a bit of a “Nick Fury”-DM. I think it was Matt Colvile who said something along the lines of “If you give your players a ton of magic items, you’re going to break the game. On the other hand, if you have books full of monsters and loot, you might as well use all of it”. Can a party of four level 10 characters take on a flying Godzilla with regeneration? If you deck them up with holy avangers, staffs of power and +3 adamntium armor, they might!
World-builder over here! I really enjoy creating locations and NPCs, creating a scene of place and experience. But I’m also something of the Cool Cousin, because the players are part of the world-building. What they tell me about their character’s backstory informs the world building. I love it when my players are invested in their characters and act creatively. Minimal prep Maximum player agency Improvise!
I ve started running a DnD campaign with my siblings right before I go off to college and I was so happy when they told me that I was letting them have a good time. I love being a part of the cool cousin archetype. Like having them fight an evil swordsman in a mountain is cool and I want their cool plans to work like sheathing his sword as an attack ( I fudged that roll so they could succeed ) It just is really fun to make a villian of the week for them to battle that I have to make interesting. Have a great day and great article as per usual.
I go for a minimalist/cool cousin style in the game I run. I made it extremely clear when we started the game that this was going to be a mostly improvised game because we’re all busy adults with very little spare time and we’d rather spend it together rolling dice and slaying monsters than prepping for weeks just for plans to blow up immediately after starting the session. I also told my players that they can do basically anything if the situation warrants it and in return for making them feel like heroes I pull out bigger enemies. Picking good encounter tables are the name of the game if you try this.
I’m definitely the Boxer type. I run things as written and am thrown when the players want to diverge from the scenario entirely. Was thinking that we were missing a couple of types of DMs, but when you mentioned “toxic” ones at the end being their own article some day, I was okay with them not being in this article. I can think of five toxic types of DMs just off the top of my head. I’ve had all five.
I myself, am a Props DM. Whether I’m running a one shot, homebrew, or module, I try and have a prop for just about anything the party might come across, but for things like actual gear and such. For instance I’ll have printed magic scrolls, small bags of coins, potion bottles of all types, a few backdrops of a medieval tavern to help set the mood, color changing lights. I once ran a one shot for a friends birthday, with one of the players bringing her 5 year old kid, as she couldn’t get a sitter, and since he would be playing his switch in the other room all evening, I went and asked if he wanted to play a ghost. I told him I’d let him know when it was almost time, then when he heard the bell, to put a long black wig on his head, backwards, and to stand in the doorway. I told him after everyone turns to look at him, to just leave. (the players were inspecting a clients family home as he had not heard from them in years after he had left to do his own thing away from his parents) I ring the bell as I tell them that they see the what looks like a little girl walking from one room to another at the end of the hall. he comes into the doorway with the wig on over his face, one person notices, then everyone else looks and freaks out, everyone turns back to me to try and figure out wth is going on, he then leaves as they are looking at me, they all look back (not seeing him anymore) they look back to me, and I just simple ask them “What?”. It was amazing. I also had changed all of the lights in the room to blue and green, including in the bathroom.
I’m a mix of World builder, Conductor, and Architect. My games are heavily story driven with me usually leading my players through the story while also allowing them to have creative freedom, almost all my games are homebrew as well so my story can fit in with the rules of the world and there can be more epic moments without rules hindering it.
Worldbuilders are also the most likely to use gritty realism resting rules. It stops players from just throwing fireballs at any problem and actually lets time pass in the world. My DM is definitely one. He is quite “restrictive”, but any spell, class or race he bans is usually tweaked and then added back. We can go many sessions without combat and just filled with dialogue and lore. And we are all super into that!
I began as a conductor, then learned how to world build from a Faerun campaign setting box. Now I act as an architect with my own feywild realm and world builder. I feel like I’ve crossed all of these, haha. Actually, my group appears to be wanting to come back for more and more. We’re near the end of the first campaign in the new world creation approach and they’re asking what the second round is, even if our player group is definitely nonstandard. We have a dragon, kobold sorcerer, had a ponykind druid (They have a new work schedule now, alas.) and a sphinx-type character. Fortunately, it’s the seat I love playing the game from!
I think I’m a cross between a Conductor and Cool Cousin DM. I dont really care what the party does as long as their having fun and I make loose notes and maps so I dont worry too much on detail and wing it. Although I always try and have a strong cohesive natrative tying it all together and make sure that all the beats get hit whether the party know it or not
I have an archetype for you. The Sadist. A DM where everything is a trap and every encounter leads to party surprise. They don’t describe anything or clue the party in on what’s going on in the world prior to throwing a dart trap at you for (their) fun, or ambushing you on the road. They even laugh when your team is hit with an unexpected trap or an enemy deals a critical hit, taking glee in the torment of others.
I feel like I’m half of these. I’ve done minimal prep, I’ve planned campaigns years into the future. I’ve played adventures straight out of the box. A nice example is my current Shadowrun game. I’m mostly running adventures from their organised play system (SRM season 4), alternated with a few detailed adventures from their own books, and loosely defined adventure seeds from books that contain a bunch of such adventure seeds. At first, I stuck pretty close to the material because we were just learning about the world (not to mention the rules), but as the players get more invested and develop their own ideas about what’s going on and what’s important, they set more of their own goals and go more off the beaten path. I also started out around Seattle and focused on some local events to flesh out the city a bit more and make the place feel real, but as the game progresses, we occasionally leave the city and visit some other places, including an extended visit to Tir Tairngire (until they were banned from the country). I want the world to feel like a real place where stuff happens regardless of whether they do anything or not, so that’s definitely World Builder. But I’m using a lot of published adventures to do that, so that’s a Boxer. And there’s definitely a place we’re going with this, so I might also be a bit of a Conductor. And I’m definitely rooting for the players, but probably not enough to make me a Nick fury or Cool Cousin. Anyway, there’s value and risk in all of these types of GM.
Based on your description I would be a combination of The World Builder and The Conductor. You nailed it with the conductor. My players can do whatever the heck they want, but in the end they will wind up participating in core events in the world. I never ham fist these convergence points. I run long campaigns and I am patient. I also like to start with solo sessions for each player before a first group session so they can interact with the world on their own while initially shaping their character’s personality. I do also have a bit of The Minimalist in me, but I prefer to run games designed for that when I do it. The is an old (and I think defunct) game called Nine Prices in Amber that is AMAZING for very open ended storytelling and roleplaying as there is system but almost no rules. In fact, I think it is one of the most interesting games ever created if you can find it.
If anyone is looking to get started on DMing, I’ve compiled a list of things that I feel contribute to a good experience, and leans more towards Cool Cousin/Nick Fury type DM: First of all, don’t be afraid to modify the rules of the TTRPG you’re using. For example if you’re using DND 5th edition, some of the subclasses are on the weaker side. If one of your players comes up with a character that they really wanna play and they have a weaker subclass don’t be afraid to give them a bit of a nudge to make them more on par. Example is in my current campaign I play a monk. At low levels monks can do 1d4 dmg with unarmed strikes. Monks are meant to use a simple weapon like a staff or shortsword to give them more damage. But if your player is like me and wants to only use fists for thematics they’re gonna feel weaker. So my DM bumped my damage up a bit to match the other characters which use firearms. My DM also lets us take both feats (powerful unique passive traits) and stat increases at level ups instead of forcing you to pick one or the other as per the actual rules. Hold a session 0 with your friends that are gonna play. Help them set up their character sheets and gear and familiarize them with the table top system you’re using if its online (I use Roll20, so teach ’em how it works). Set everything straight, work with everyone to make sure there’s no issues or problems so by the time the real first session starts you’re all good to go. Plus its a good way to get every one excited to actually play next time you all gather.
the architect reminds me of a dm i once had. it was his first time dming, so he didn’t know much. so where he started was by not using any of the traditional dnd monsters, making literally everything we fought not originally from the game. this in turn made the party get stuck with a pack of wolves that could spew fog out their moth for ambushing, in which one of our players ate an exploding fish to blow them all up, and a giant blind bat, that could only see through its wings, and even trees that evolved into lengthy raptors, that were almost as smart as humans with the way they hunted. and (basically gods) things called wardens, that needed us to bring them their warden masks, back to a shrine, and with every shrine we fought some boss corresponding to some lesson. like how one boss, was a sandstorm, making each player separate and not know whats happening with the others, while the thing they hate most starts attacking them from the storm, and if they just sit there and stay calm the storm will die down, but if they relentlessly fought the characters would become more real and actually kill them. and a boss that looked like a giant creature, with a babadook mask, who couldn’t actually hurt the players, but scared them to where they fought each other. its funny cause the babadook one, ended up making on dragon born take off all his clothes, and a knight/fighter fly into the things mouth, showing it to be fake. sad thing is two of the players only ever wanted to commit children genocide, causing our dm not even being able to get past half the story through a whole year, since they werent willing to progress and instead murder a village that was trying to help them.
My DM is hybrid between worlbuilder and an architect. He created whole continent (+ one destroyed by magic war) with extensive background lore, where our group is constantly on the run in attempt to outrun certain events – sometimes we know the timeline, sometimes we don’t… So I’m playing dwarven prince, but got my off hand crippled in near-expiration event, so my main ability is now command (which in our homebrew variant of Burning Wheel system means, that I roll on someone else’s abilities – so they get something like “extra action”) and Gold magic, that follow rather simple template for “non-human magic” and uses adapted spells from D&D…
As a D&D and DM expert I’d love to hear you run down the list of dragons. Just a comprehensive quick guide on the actual dragons of the game. The types, ages, what the do and how they each work within the game. Dragons are part of the titles of the game and yet they both appear rarely in the games and often times seem mishandled when they appear. Now there is a very substantial list it’d be cool to hear your opinions on each and how you handle dragons as characters and enemies in your games.
I think i’m more of a conductor/architect type DM, but that also means that my prep time for campaigns and one shots are extremely long too because i’m constantly trying to anticipate the most chaotic possible options and interactions my players will explore and then slowly plot each route to a common destination or alternate destinations where necessary. It usually has me stuck at multiple dead when preparing but I always love giving my players all sorts of new attacks or passive abilities learnt from special NPCs.
I think I would call myself a ‘Navigator’ DM. I do a lot of the World Building stuff, but I also have the storyline and setpeices from the Conductor. How the players get from setpeice to setpeice however, I leave that mostly up to improve, fun, and what makes sense for where they are. And if the players throw me some curveballs when the setpeices come along, I love seeing the crazy results.
I’m a combination of Nick Fury and the Architect. I love when my players get to have high-powered builds, but I just can’t get past how D&D and Pathfinder can be somewhat restrictive in how strong player characters can get. I tend to give a bonus feat at 1st level (both for mechanical reasons and to help players add some additional personality to their character), and I like to fill in gaps in subclasses. One of my favorite things to do is allow players to change the damage type of their spells as they learn them, and nothing is really off the table there. That said, I always try to balance these things as much as possible (with varying levels of success), and I haven’t really had any complaints outside of campaigns dying due to other players having family, work, or health issues they need to deal with.
I’m probably the Cool Cousin, Architect, Minimalist or at least a mix of them. I always like whenever my players are having fun and do like feedback on what was a rough spot or what was really fun. I really don’t prep too much but I do have a general idea of where the game is going. Like the types of players I don’t think a GM/DM is just one type but usually a mix of different type. I honestly do want a article on the negative types of GM/DMs. This is mostly as a guide to help people identify problematic traits some GM/DMs have so they can either address and correct the problems or you can leave for less negative one. I’ve had only one bad GM but it was for so long I didn’t realize how bad they truly were, it was also the first one I had so I didn’t have other references.
As a comment regarding the mention of Multiclassing between different subclasses with the Architect DM, my player group has pretty much established that when you gain a Feat, you can choose a Subclass feature from a class you have the required level in. So let’s say you want the Evocation Wizard’s “Sculpt Spell” to avoid too much friendly fire, you can get that as a feat as long as you have at least 2 wizard levels, as it is unlocked at level 2.
Great article. I think every DM/GM is a little different and may often be a combination of the above archetypes. I also feel that as you get more experienced and confident with running games your own preferences develop. Personally, I am a very PC-focused gm who is a combination of conductor-worldbuilder-architect in that order. I tend to run my campaigns in Acts that usually go to level 20 (pazio style) with a clear campaign to follow set in an otherwise sandbox world (with lots of NPC, places to go and side quests to do) that is affected by the outcome of each act. I make my pics the centre of the conflict and not side characters and make an effort to weave the backgrounds (specifically the npc they know) into the plot. In session zero and every time I have a new player, I work to develop PC into a plot and more specifically their friends, family, mentors, rivals and enemies in an effort to give them personal dilemmas and make their choices more meaningful. This is easier to do than it may seem as you simply give your PC a series of questions to complete and before they know they will create enough background info to work with. Also, I always give my PCs a home early on (usually in a large hub full of NPC and stuff to do) and have good law enforcement to avoid them being homeless or murderers.
I mostly like to mix the first three you spoke of for my DMing style. I want the PCs to be able to face the more interesting monsters and challenges I come up with, but I also have the world do what it does independently of the PCs (and it’s highly effected by the PCs actions). I also remove elements that are more confusing (like that Bonus Action spells rule) or slow the game down (like keeping track of exact coinage, ammo, or encumbrance) and tend to lean into the players’ creativity when they come up with fun ideas. But I never plan more than a few sessions in advance because player actions could change everything. I’ll occasionally dip into a little bit of the Architect as well, but usually only if I think of something fun that doesn’t have a way to do it within the ruleset… Like adapting the Laraken from 3.5e to 5e, or needing a system to keep track of how close to death a nymph outside her terel is while the party escorts her home, racing against the clock of her eventual demise. This has backfired once before… When I had a sort of “Tower Defense” styled game session that one time…
100% boxer with flexable conductor, and a hint of nick fury. I do truly love the minimal planing as the books do the heavy lifting but they seem to create heros and i like to make my players feel that but the box can only give so much and the players have their own story as well. So i weave the book and character stories together which allows me to flex my creativity and give them what they want.
Idea for a player class: Boat anchor. Every catastrophe movie has a character that essentially offers nothing except an extra burden to consume resources and be protected from harm. The character would rely on the good graces of their teammates for survival, and will they need to level up charisma to charm teammates and NPCs. They could be a newborn baby found in the arms of a dead parent or a soldier who’s had both legs amputated after a battle. It would be a fascinating challenge, and an interesting dynamic to add to a party, I believe.
Definitely a Worldbuilder, Architect, and a Conductor when I absolutely must be. My Homebrew world, Cacophony, is designed to allow for any kind of character without having to rework the system. My personal rule is anything goes as flavor so long as it works within the mechanics. And if it doesn’t, we can work something out. Had a player reskin an Aarakocra as a griffin, and it worked out just fine. Was so willing to work with me on it a good chunk of worldbuilding holes got filled in with his help. Also, why does everyone hate fly? It was super easy to compensate for. Bolos and bolo-arrows plus gravity. He was okay with this because I didn’t surprise him with it. His character would know to look out for it. Also, he gave me a more than legit reason to have griffons be enemy combatants. Darn I wish I could dm that game more.
I’m between a cool cousin and a conductor. It makes it super relaxed. Before the campaign, I create an overarching vague story, a set of little fleshed-out sub-stories, the locations those sub-stories need and some random encounters. Then I ask the payers what they want to play and what their backstory is and work them into the sub-stories and then I’m ready to go. All the things they encounter are either sub-stories, random encounters or fudge. They can do anything, but if they stumble onto a sub-story those will start and annoy them until they finish them. If a player has a good idea while playing and it sort of fits the world, I put it in as a random encounter or sub-story and the player gets an inspiration. If there has to be made a decision i decide about what seems to be the most fun for the group. I have moved mountain ranges, deserts, oceans and cities in the past without anyone noticing.
I’m a new DM. I’m a mix between Boxer and World builder. Running Lmop and I’ve already done some changes to it. Minor ones, but you know burning down the Stonehill Inn cuz the party left half of the RB hideout alive so they enacted some payback when the party resumed their exploration of the now more trapped and ambush prepared place 😅
I haven’t DMed yet, but I immidiatelly recognised myself in the nick fury and the architect DMs. I haven’t started the campaign yet, but I’ve already created a lot of overpowered items, subclasses, races and even some rules to make battles more epic, all of this to make my players able to stand up to literal gods from mythologies around the world that I’ve been studying to create the custom monsters, items, classes and races.
“Multiclass between two subclasses of the same class” – I feel seen! I let one of my players do that. Borrowed some ideas from how Pathfinder handles archetypes and let her pick and choose which abilities she wanted from each one and then adjusted the progression to keep it balanced. That same game, I homebrewed up a curse with a silver lining (character’s arm was turned into living stone, lots of penalties but also a defensive reaction and the opportunity to reduce the penalties over time) and some customized spells to fit the setting.
If those are my options i’d say i’m a bizarre combination of nick fury and the cool cousin. I give out magic items and levels like candy because i love for all my quests and encounters to be epic, but at the same time I prefer more laid-back storytelling and usually throw in random silliness just for a laugh and encourage the use of the rule of cool.
I think for the most part world-builder/architect/minimalist describes my DMing style. I love the idea of making the players feel like a tiny part of a vast world, where things happen even while they’re gone. As part of this, I usually modify the rule system to reflect this, trying to make the feel of a regular everyday person they meet to be around level 1-3, and modifying magic and rules to reflect the world. But I feel like the rules are just meant to be suggestions for how to implement consistency in the game, not the actual game itself, and if modifying rules and introducing new ones is more fun, then we can come up with new rules. I still love improvisation and I don’t usually DM with more than my trusty set of dice, and sometimes my laptop or some paper for notes.
til i was a cool cousin dm. I was really bad at balancing the bad guys to the players level, so i improvised and played it out like i felt it should. adding HP, subtracting HP, pretending to miss and hit. all so the fights didn’t feel OP or borning. no one complained lol. the plot points were also set but variable, so the quest would work around the direction the players wanted to go. I had certain obvious things planned and an over arching goal, but nothing was ever set in stone.
I’m a world builder, with some cool cousin and conductor. Sounds like they counteract eachother but yes it works. I have a detailed story and world, I integrate the setting into the story, but I also have a planned story. However, the players can try and do basically anything they want to solve a puzzle or a direction they want to story, I have a few story plot lines in mind, because knowing my players ignoring the story is possible.
I’m definitely a Nick Fury in combat, but I love creating rich homebrewed worlds and I’m actually a conductor most of the time, just very sneaky about disguising it, lol. When it comes to monsters and magic items though I’m totally an architect. For example, in my latest setting, the party took down an evil fey queen dryad. The ranger created a new bow out of her enchanted tree and now has access to the arcane archer class features appropriate to his level once per day.
All of these highlight great traits for a dm and I think we’re all some mixture. It’s good to think about these different approaches, I know I personally am least of all the minimalist. Which is good to identify, because I think there are some situations where it’s best to abandon your plans and let your players take control. I would like to be better at handling the unexpected situations and dialogues
I’m a Boxer, but I have to say that following a D&D adventure as written can result in some rather large boxes. In currently DM’ing Icewind Dale and at any time the characters can interact with hundreds of characters and go to any of 10 towns plus s bunch of encampments and there are 40 quests out so. So like… just because I’m boxed to a book does not mean the characters are boxed to follow a certain path. Is difficult imo, but I think it’s great.
I’m a minimalist for two reasons. One, I have a wild imagination and own so many TTRPG systems and fantasy books I have a lot to draw from. Two, more importantly, I have extreme executive disfunction. For example, sometimes starve even though I have food in the fridge, less than ten steps from where I’m sitting. I’ll make some loose plans in my head, maybe take a few notes and then just wing it like there’s no tomorrow on the few occasions I have been GM.
I’m The Minimalist so hard, every single point you made hit home. I legit finished almost 2 year campaign played weekly with two maps, three pictures and one NPC planned. My players had a lot of fun and still make jokes about so many moments. I’m planning another adventure with 3 plot points and 3 NPCs. I believe it will take around 7 years but I’m notorious for not predicting time correctly, since that previous campaign was supposed to last 6 months
I’m definitely a combo conductor/cool cousin GM. There is a story with these plot points that will be told, but I have nothing to do with how the players get there. My prep time is folding all the player action which has no limits into the world which will bend and stretch like a rubber band but still remain a rubber band. I’m finding it more of a challenge as a Call of Cthulhu GM because of the ‘real world’ grounding. And I’m running Masks of Nyarlathotep, which is pretty open, but I’ve had several times to run with weeks-long custom side-quests needing to be created on the fly before I can gently nudge the overarching plot back into the game 🙂
I guess I’m a box DM. My group started 3 years ago after I bought the D&D starter kit with the lost mines of Phandelver adventure and since then I bought numerous campaign books and found some pre-written adventures online. I like having everything planned out. My eldest nephew though is the architect DM. While I do have fun playing in his worlds, there was more than enough times we abandoned adventures in favor for a new one because he got burned out creating homebrew content ever week.
I think having a little balance is a good way to do things. One part worldbuiler so people can immerse themselves, where the early campaign is “conducting” the players twords an event that afterwards opens up to be more flexible.. so if you break it down into chapters. The prologue has all the world building. Ch1 is done by a conductor that slowly transforms into a grounded cool cousin/minimalist while having a general sense of the events that will happen. Your telling a story while also giving players more and more agency. Springle in occasions of some nick fury and some boosts to get people a leg up when you might throw in a OP baddie they should probably run from. Also i kind of like to act as the players inner monologue or conscience.. they can choose to ignore it, there might be consequences.. the dice might decide how bad 😂
world builder here. My last campaign was home brew. One of the players wanted to introduce his Gf to DnD so she played a barbarian dragonborn called Ruby. She had a similar curse to Gail in Baldur’s Gate. If she didn’t consume magical items she’d turn into a red dragon. She soon stopped playing and they left her in an Elven city and forgot about her. I did not. I wrote her into the story as a boss they would encounter later on into the adventure. Anyway ffw a bit and the party needed to go to the dwarven capitol. They needed to take an airship across the scorching desert. Halfway through the airship journey a huge red dragon attacked their airship. After an epic fight eventually the dying dragon clinged to the airship and reformed into her Dragon Born form. It was Ruby. She resorted to stealing items in the Elven city to quench her hunger. Eventually the Elves kicked her out and she succumbed to her curse and blamed the party for abandoning her.
Last game I played in had a DM who was a minimalist-boxer-worldbuilder. It worked about as well as a pizza-ice cream-salad combo would. He made an open sandbox world that was just 6 (I think) old modules strung together with a very loose narrative structure. Including Tomb of Horrors, if that gives you any insight into his regard for our fun-level. It didn’t really work. We had no way of figuring out which direction to go first, which meant our first encounters had us nearly TPKd, and later ones were cake walks. The only module we actually finished was ToH. It was a meandering, unfocused mess of a game., and it crossed too many genres. The one thing he did that I liked was, on occasion, he’d just let us as players decide what was happening next. Someone would make a perception roll, and he’d say “You tell me. What DO you see.” That was interesting, and led to some weird places.
Conductor DM here. I really don’t want to railroad my players, but I also am not good at improv. In addition to that, I always make my own worlds so I worry about players stumbling into something I haven’t thought out. To cover both sides of the problems, I ask my players what they would like to do before starting a campaign/one-shot, then I plan around that
So I GM for many, many systems (and even written my own from absolute scratch which is TOUGH!) and I’ve found I bit of all of these depending on group demeanour/ experience, setting, rule set. for example: GMing call of cthuhlu you have to be a conductor with the layers of intrigue and mystery throughout even the simplest oneshot (BTW I can run paperchase as a minimalist I’ve run it so often lol) while in my own system (high fantasy soft magic) it lends itself to much more sandbox so I have done this as both cool cousin and nick fury. When learning a new game I’m a boxer such as getting the Wrath and glory starter box as a birthday gift, I ran the starter box scenario as a one shot which has now turned into a campaign (praise the throne for free scenarios on drive thru) All this in light I’d like to submit an 8th type of GM, The Chameleon. A GM that can shift their style to fit the given game and group
In the campaign I’m DMing I tend to combine elements of almost all of them (namely Nick Fury, World Builder, Cool Cousin, Conductor, and Architect). I created a very specific world and story (World Builder), but this world has a bunch of new technology and magic which requires new game mechanics (Architect). And this world, with these new rules and mechanics, means most normal classes would be extremely poorly prepared, so I had to work with the players to create their classes (Nick Fury). The core world, story, and important NPCs can only be fully explored with a specific story with important key scenes and developments (Conductor). But since all of this is hard enough to follow as is, and with a bunch of new (largely untested) game mechanics I always play as the Cool Cousin where enemies are defeated when something cool happens, not when their HP hits 0.
i’m probably the minimalist with a bit of rule of cool dm, but still have my world with running stuff in the background… -> so, it depends a bit on the group i am dming… with some of my friends, we never use battlemaps, with my online group, i use them often (blank grid map, where i draw stuff) i’m also always writing homebrew and homebrewing items on the fly -> players dind something cool and where able to solve a puzzle -> get them some nice new magic item…
I somehow ended up being a hybrid of Nick Fury, World Builder, and Cool Cousin. At the time of writing this, it is 3am and I’ve been getting up around the same time for the past three days just to work on worldbuilding and plot ideas. Of course half of it will go out the window when my cleric decides to start eating drywall again instead of dealing with ghosts, but I’m having the time of my life.
I’m somewhere between the builder and the conductor. I get so excited when players want to get to know a character I’ve put a lot of work into and I try to give them a fairly big world. But I have certain story beats I do tend to guide them towards. I think games like Mass Effect are quite a big indirect influence for me as a dm. Because I love to create stuff but if there’s too many moving pieces I get very overwhelmed.
Im definitely a world builer and conducter DM. I build game of thrones type worlds, work with my player before hand to get them a backstory thats fully integrated into the world. That way regardless of what decisions they make its easy enough to DM off the cuff bc i know how that choice will affect the world
I am personally I would say kind of a mix of several of these. I’m a newer dm and am trying to figure out my own style but for now I’d say I’m mostly a conductor dm. I plan out each session appropriately based on the story I have in mind and what happened in the previous session. I do leave room for improv and flexibility in a session and am very keen on home brewing high level monsters. Do need to work on my world building skills though.
I think I’m a weird mix of Cool cousin, World Builder and minimalist. I love history, and will always do my best to have basically every events between nations and groups already written, but as soon as one of my players has a cool idea, my reaction is “hell yeah, go for it!”. Plus, my preferred way to play a game is with few, or even no stats.
I find it interesting how these types of DM heavily focus on the prepwork and not so much on the actual style of DMing a session. I do and have done all of these things for preparation interestingly enough. Henceforth I’d consider myself none of those but instead a simulationist. I want to have a prepared world/story/whatever with clearcut non changing rules, in which I can be a neutral arbiter and simply observe what will happen. This makes me enjoy out of the box adventures, which I have no problem altering or improvising, though.
I’m such a cool cousin minimalist. Lol. I have a macro idea of the story beats on a single index card as bullet points that I expect to happen that session. I’ll try and make anything my players wanna do doable if it’s reasonable. I’m running Curse of Strahd, and a player wanted to cast catapult on the barbarian’s maul since he was at zero hp and wasn’t using it. I had him make an arcana check to push the spell past its limits, and when he failed, I told him there’s an unlit lantern on the wall if he wants to try that instead. He asked if it had flammable oil in, and I rolled a D100 with a 25% chance to be filled. It wasn’t, but I was down for it. Lol. I use D100 % chances for random stuff I don’t have a prepped answer for often. I have my players roll their % too.
I’m a bit of an Architect, Nick Fury, World Building (when time allows), and Conductor. I’m definitely not a Boxer or Minimalist. I have Cool Cousin maybe sprinkled in, but I really think I’m more just about rewarding player creativity or granting players a healthy dose of narrative influence to shape how they approach a problem.
Oh this article smacked me hard. I’m very much a minimalist, with an amount of architect overshadowing it. I got my kids into d&d with only a d20. I also market myself on startplaying as a dm who improvises everything. That being said i build items races, mechanics, monsters, and more in just about all of my spare time. ….. I actually have a magical jet pack
I see a bit of myself in Nick Fury, The Conductor, and the Cool Cousin, though I’m fascinated by the World Builder. I like using magic items and handing things out, often getting bored with the drudgery of grindy play at lower levels (in one case hampering my own attempts at making a survival campaign).
Huh. I took over at the end of a boxed campaign and wrote my own World Building arc to accommodate the fact that my PC in that world had to disappear. So I’m running as a strange mix of Conductor and Cool Cousin, wishing my players were more invested in the world, but we meet too seldom (all older, kids, we live in different states and there are EIGHT of us) for them to get invested. I probably should find a local group to really world build for and start running one-shots with older friends.
I tend to be a World-Builder primary, Architect secondary, with a bit of Minimalist thrown in. I’ve got a world set up, players are making whatever they want to play, and the rules are just a base framework you start with to make what you need. Sure, it is guaranteed to go off the rails, but that’s half of the fun. He just did what to who? Hmm, definitely didn’t expect that one. OK, this would logically happen, let’s roll with it. 🙂
I’m both a total improv and a conductor at the same time, then I guess. I have a plot prepared with events that need to happen, but I don’t plan on how the players will get there. I NEVER, EVER say no to a choice or action the players try to do as long as it doesn’t break the game rules. I learned over the years to improvise the things around the event I need to happen, in a way that no matter what the players do, said event WILL happen. Some times it happens in another place, some times it happens without the presence of the players and then they overhear somewhere about it, some times their actions impede the event from happening as I planned so I start planning some modifications to said event, like once the party killed an npc that was important in a future event so I placed another npc in their place. I prefer doing things this way, it’s not a lot of prep, since I get the important parts of my plot noted down on a notepad, and I just have to think of ways to get the players where I need them to be via improv. It really gives me more time to have my fun making maps and designing encounters.
I’m the Cool Cousin, mixed with the World Builder. I start with a Beginning, Middle and End. How they get there is up to the players but I Improvise and sometimes persuade them to go one way to get back on track. However each session I do they usually have a limited time to Complete the mission and I make sure they know that going in.
World Builder Nick Fury with a bit of conductor. There is a whole world with interesting lore to make players who get buffed to insane levels want to save it (or maybe want to watch parts of it burn) from the constant world ending threats some of which the players will be wrapped up in the middle of no matter what path they take.
I am a mix of world builder and cool cousin. I make a giant, detailed world, that moves on its own. However i let players do whatever. For example, i worked with a guy to make a class and race so he could be a werefox samurai. (Wanted to not be fighter and have samurai style abilities.) Had a barbarian throw a skeleton into another one, and had both take damage as they tried to untangle themselves. Anything they do that i think sounds fun or cool, im gonna go for it.
I would be the Worldbuilder that doesn’t give the players overpowered items but throws Avenger level disasters at them while enjoying perusal them suffer but still making sure the story somehow interferes to make sure they don’t die. Hopefully. Maybe one or two will die but I’ll make sure the story keeps going.
I might have some Nick fury tendencies. I like a good close call, so they don’t think I’m just spoon feeding them everything. But I’ve played in a lot of campaigns where I just couldn’t get the one item I was after for the whole thing. So as a DM I tend to give out all the stuff that “Man if I was playing their build I would love one of those”.
I’m a minimalist Uncle DM I have that little bit of Uncle DM to where it’s a little bit cooler but I have the minimalist because yeah it’s easier plus I can get pretty creative whenever my players want things if I’m the DM which I am which happens rarely put the medium in my groups is to controlling they put you on a set path that you can never change even if you say your character does something they can make it to where you don’t or just threatened to summon in 20 dragons off the bat just because you didn’t do what they said by then most of the time you’re just reading a book and the only good part is most of the time is whenever you a make an item for your party or be are in combat because those are the only two spots where you have a decision
i’m a world builder-cool cousin-conductor-architect dm lmao, i write all the big plot points of what’s happening in the world but allow my players to explore the world at their own pace. the undead army will still be marching toward the capital city as they explore the magical unicorn forest, but they can deal with that situation whenever they feel like it–IF they feel like it! they don’t have to be heroes if they don’t want to be. hell, it’d be awesome if they teamed up with the bad guys in a ploy to take over the world! i just make the world, decide what major events are happening in it at any one time, and give my players free reign within it 🙂
I had a DM who had “created” the world language and wrote a letter in that Language he passed it around the table for all the players to read everyone had looked at it and could read it and i was last to look at it. I looked at the page and realized it was in English but only parts of the letters were written down and I read the whole letter. It seemed so simple to me but no one else at the table got it so in the campaign I was the only literate one.
Huh… I guess I’m a Architect, World builder, and a dash of Minimalist (I still really love maps and tactical combat, but who need to prep for hours before every session? not me, lol). Roll with the punches baby. And those punches can and will be customized to make a cool new thing that’s likely OP.
I’d say this should be just as applies as D&D classes, some DM’s are multiclass, or some of these are base classes and others are prestige classes 😛 Things like Nick Fury and The Architect could be considered advanced classes that you need experience to become. Myself, I’m primarily a World Builder type, but am ready to be a minimalist if things turn sideways. While I have the general build for most things. I usually follow an outline of what could happen and where things might end up and I personally love to stall with lore if I’m not ready so even when I’m being minimalist, I’m still a world builder at heart 😛
I’m not quite a stereotype, but i’m a mix of the nick fury, because sometimes there’s a ridicoulous event at low level like a dragon attacking while just dining in some tavern and making one of my players always get knocked in the boss fight to bring up the tension. And i’m also kind of the cool cousin, since I allow my players to come up with new ideas and so do I. But sometimes the custom abilities they have end up being ridicoulously overpowered. And i’m also kind of a minimalist, because I sometimes improvised a campaign with no planning at all, the problem is that sometimes with all this improvising is that at some point I get stuck and the sessions get more and more boring. A tip for minimalists is not to fully rely on pure improvisation, because if you do, expect a lot of plot holes and progressively more boring sessions. It happened to me multiple times.
I watched this and realized I’m Nick Fury. Damn it. Maybe that’s why I love running superhero RPGs so much. I want to know everything about your character, I want your character to be awesome, and I want you to really look forward to your character’s story and feel like you’re going to change the world with your decisions and have some epic freakin’ stuff happen. I get so bored running “get rid of the rats in the basement of the inn”. Naw man, the Tarrasque woke up and ate all the legendary heroes. You’re all that’s left, so let’s GOOO.
I’m mostly a mix of everything, but the minimalist. I prefer high level adventures with my ideal campaign being levels 10-20 like the Nick Fury. I do let my players know there is a main plot and that is what the campaign is about like a conductor, but how they handle and go about it is completely up to them. I like to change some rules and add in some homebrew such as custom vulnerabilities and resistances for monsters like the architect. I developed more as a world builder as I became more experienced as a DM and make the world feel alive where stuff still happens even if the players aren’t there and the world will react to there actions and change over time and I also have some character options banned for not fitting the setting. Realized the last time I DM’d, I did not show “cool cousin” traits, but that is something I wish to correct to promote player creativity. I only really ever use adventures and stat blocks from books like a boxer because I like editing adventures and monsters instead of building them from the ground up. It’s almost like people are complex and don’t often fit into discrete categories.
I was the type to change the rules where I saw fit. Starting players would get 25 hp and 1d10 hp each level up. Spellcasters would not have to reread their spells or have a limit of spells for that day. They would have a mana pool that drains with spell cost. Who even invented wizards that would forget their spells? Too many bonks on the head amnesiac wizards? I would run Monty Python homebrews. “Your party is attacked by a fire breathing camel or an 8 headed pack of hotdogs.” No limit on bags of holding. Decapitate a dragon with a portable portal. 2E was my foundation and every party I ran, they became power gamers. I would draw elaborate maps of lands, dungeons and such. If you overly annoyed the DM or purposely derailed the party however, your character would die in a gruesome way and your character sheet would belong to the DM forever. Last campaign treasure was a dragon egg of your choice. Then friends became nonexistent and nobody to play with anymore. Everything went away. No more books, dice or anything left. Ah the memories.
I’m a Nick Fury with some Cool Cousin and a dash of Minimalist. I give my players a goal and a world to exist in and then proceed to turn them from local farmers into living legends. Rule of Cool is absolutely a staple at my tables, and if a players wants to do something awesome, I’ll come up with all the ways that affects the scenario on the fly, rewarding and challenging them. I fudge rolls for and against players in the name of tone, because as a DM, I’m creating an experience for my players. If straights need to be dire, I, as the DM will make them dire. If the players need to feel like heroes, then I will make them feel like heroes. It’s all about having a good time, and what’s more fun than doing backflips, dramatic setpieces, long combos, and flashy effects?
Currently, I’m definitely the Minimalist, with a bit of conductor, cool cousin, and world builder sprinkled in. I might WANT to be the type that’s primarily World Builder but honestly, I’m just not; my personality isn’t built that way. Curious to see how my DMing style will evolve, if I lean in harder to some of the other types.
I want to run my first game as a dm and i’m going for a world builder boxer, cuz i want the campaign to be in an universe that i’m creating and that will evolve at the same time as my players (same for the bbg he’s going to be weak af at the beginning but he’s going to lay low until he’s strong enough, and i’ll also be making other event so that the party don’t just rush him when he reveal himself), and i’m going to use the rule of d&d cuz if i start going homebrew on the rules and monster i’ll probably breake the game while also probably drowning in all the work i’m going to have to do before i can finally run the campaign
So… I’m Nick Fury, who is cousin and architect) at least I know now) “… And great power in form of +3 dragon bane sword… Pair of swords…. And epic shield…and magic wand with powerful spells…at party level ~3 comes with greate responsibility… In form of dragon, the owner of the lair, you’ve just robbed to get those artifacts… Young….or adult, taking to account, that there was pair of swords? …who is approaching now …. And air is trembling as he swings his wings…. Seeing that his precious treasures were stollen and enrages into berserk mode…. Taking a deep breath and unleashes the wave of all burning fire, trying to eliminate everything…. Roll initiative…”))))
I like the idea of the Nick Fury DM, I do make massively powerful characters so that works well for me, edit, I just watched the players types article, and I was a min maxer/scientist, so yeah, definetely my favourite type. But as someone with a 5712 word backstory I do want to see it used in the campaign and I love fantasy, so the world builder is good too. I don’t like the idea of the cool cousin, I recognise the importance of breaking RAW but I do not like the idea of all my hard work researching and (since I use DnD beyond) homebrew creation to avoid paying money being wasted when less powerful lazier character creators get huge buffs because the DM doesn’t care about some of the rules. Also I like powerful combat and fantasy settings so I want a more complex campaign than is described. I like the minimalist idea, I like being able to improvise in combat and generally do things that may not have been something the DM considered. The architect sounds fun but again, like the cool cousin, I want enough use of RAW to have a good idea of what could happen with enough breaking of the RAW to make it a unique experience.
I definitely lean heavy into the “Cool Cousin” one. I’m all about story and players having fun, and fudge dice to aid players. When I started I was way too Conductory… then I swung way too Minimalist, but that was tough. “You want to go to…a forest? Ok, there’s a house…what do you expect to be there? Oh…you’re not going to tell me?” Quick Google search… Hansel and Gretel…ok… it was tough…. I’ve found a fun middle, of “Prepare, but be ready to throw it all out when player stray from the path….” I also have someone in my group who is the Architect type…and then keeps trying to interject that into this campaign, even though he’s a player. “My character would give this to all the other characters!” Uh….whatever, fine…. They’re virtually gods at this point, at level 15, they took down a Tarrasque…in one round.