Do not be afraid to be silly, use voices, or act something out.
Your players are also your audience. The more energy and pizzazz you put into a performance, the more the players will react to you. As the DM, you set the bar for what players feel comfortable with. The more energy and commitment you put into a scene, the more the players will rise to match your level. Give your players a great story by acting things out, using props, or silly voices. The players will match your energy and you'll create a great game together!
Do not assume you need character sheets, books, minis, or even dice!
Don't pay for fancy stuff you might only end up using once. Don't buy stuff you really can't afford. One of my best sessions was played without any paper or minis. We gave our DM ideas of what kind of quest and mission we wanted to do and the DM ran with it. Our whole group was able to improvise a great story without a single die roll or pencil used.
Do not be afraid to make mistakes.
This is the only way you can learn. If you are too scared to try something new then you'll never know how much fun you are missing out on. It's OK to add weird or fun things to the game, if something doesn't work, just move on and do something different. Let players or other DM's help you if you get stuck or run out of ideas.
Do not make a party of players over 5 people.
Unless you want to overwhelm yourself and make the game take longer. There isn't a point of pride running a game with 12 people. That sounds terrible. If you are lucky enough to have that many players break them up into smaller parties of four players.
Small groups are a lot easier to work with and manage. You can actually pay attention to what everyone is doing and actually have a good role play experience. The battles take a long time normally, adding more people just slows it down. Create a size limit and stick to it.
Find a group size that works for you. A size where things can be manageable and the game can be ran smoothly. There is no need to overwhelm yourself. If you have more people who want to join in, make a separate group for just them.
Do not rush the players, unless it's part of the action in the story.
Let players plan a strategy or do some reconnaissance before they enter the bad guys hideout. Let the players see what they are up against before they start getting attacked. Of course if the players mess up their scouting trip, the bad guys will see them. But give the players a chance first.
Let them plan where the rogue is going to go, or where the best place is to cast an illusion spell. The entire point of the game is problem solving and getting past obstacles, give players time to think of something.
If it is the action in a story, you can give them time limits. Give them 60-80 seconds to take their turn. give them 4 or 5 rounds to interrupt the big bads ritual. Give them wave after wave of enemies to slow them down.
But don't put unneeded pressure on players if it's not necessary to the story.
Do not try to subvert story expectations.
In fact, steal ideas or guesses that the players make about what is going to happen. Stealing ideas is a lot cooler than trying to think up ridiculous twists just to keep players guessing. There is no need for pointless subversion.
A players idea could be better than the story you prepared. Players will feel a lot more accomplished when they know how the dragon lady will act at the end of the story. This is a good thing because it means the players were actually paying attention.
Give your players that narrative payoff. Don't be the mandarin in Iron Man 3 or Rose in the Last Jedi. Plot twists and surprises only work when the characters actions make sense. Subverting expectations is basically a payoff without a setup. It doesn't work from a narrative perspective. If you want to prove how clever a writer you are, how about actually tying things together. Weave the plot threads together in a way that actually makes sense. That's clever writing. And it's harder than you think. Have endings that actually make sense to the genre of the story. Have an ending that makes sense to the characters. It's OK if someone guesses what is going on.
Do not wrap your ego around your creations.
I know it's fun to build worlds and characters and story ideas. Enjoy it. Be passionate about it. Tell your story. But remember, it's your players world too. Let the players have cool backgrounds and ideas and interesting goals that will expand the story. It makes a far better experience when the players feel like they can affect the world around them and are actually a part of the creation. The DM is there to provide a setting and a story for the players to interact with. No one wants a DM to parade them around their world without being able to make choices. Players have specific characters that they want to play and the DM has to let them do that. A game doesn't exist without a dungeon master and players working together. It is a group game, It isn't your world, it's the groups world.
Do not try to make every session a huge ridiculous gimmick.
You don't need an epic boss battle in a sinking tower every night you play. You don't need a huge puzzle dungeon that the players need to solve every session. You don't need a trivia game in your world to try to "spice things up". Having variety means having smaller stories too. Let the players hunt down the level 1 goblin bandits. Let your players take time to rest in the village and role play a little bit. You can do the big things too of course, but it should not be world ending or gimmicky situations every single game night. Do not overwhelm yourself trying to have a game-breaking experience every session.
Do not assume the dungeon master is supposed to be working against the players.
Do not assume the DM is supposed to be trying to kill the players. Everyone should be working together because it is a group game. Unless everyone agrees, in session zero, that it will be a hard game and the players want that challenge. Do not treat the players like they are trying to beat you. Do not try to kill the players during every battle. No one will have fun doing that. Make a few important boss battles harder, of course, but not every single time. Have some variety. Your job as dungeon master is to set up challenges and obstacles as part of a narrative story. Let the players knock down the things you set up without getting mad about it.
You do not need specific answers to all your puzzles or encounters.
The idea of having very specific answers creates railroading and frustrated players. Keep your answers open ended. This allows a lot more creative thinking for you and the players. Let the players be creative problem solvers. The more creative they get, the more interesting the action and the experience will be. Once the players do something cool that you like, let it work for them. Continue letting them believe that they need a specific answer.
Only use specific answers if it is part of the story or a main quest. You'll still need to find the 3 magic keys to get the door open. Or the specific spell that can drain away a vampires powers. If it's a simple trap or puzzle room, that doesn't have any impact on the story, do not waste 3 hours of the game making the players find one specific puzzle just piece to get to the next room.
Let the players ideas be a good problem solvers instead of forcing them to find once obscure specific answer. It creates a frustrating environment for the players. Let them figure out how to get past the fireball traps in the hallway. Let them roll play their way out of the bandit camp instead of just killing everything. The more open you are, the more fun experiences can arise. Listen to your players try to work things out and give clues if necessary. Listen to how they solve things and be open to ideas you could never expect.
Do not overwhelm yourself by over-planning. You will not be able to prepare for every situation.
Do not prepare for more than two or three sessions at a time. If you try to go beyond that, you'll drive yourself crazy building worlds and dungeons the players might not even get to. Let the flow of the story go beyond the current session based on the players choices and where they want to go. If you know where the players are going, you only need to prepare that area for the next session. You don't need the 9 areas around that specific location. You don't need to prepare the surrounding countries and regions that have no impact on the story. Good world building happens one session at a time.
Don't plan every single line a NPC says, just in case a player says one specific line. That's called writing a novel, which we aren't doing here. Instead you want general ideas for groups of NPC's or bad guys. What things do the city guards react to? What does the bandit gang do if they don't get what they are after? What does a monster do if it's about to die? Don't not try to predict every action of every one of your players. Plan for what you know the players are planning on doing. This gives you something specific to work on instead of trying to create an entire world.
Do not assume that you need to know all the rules.
You don't need to memorize the core rule-book and the thousands of expansion rules. Impossible. And almost pointless. Be specific on your players classes, and only the monsters and abilities you are planning on using in the near future. If you do need something specific, find it. There is no point in reading something, and then going back to the same thing months later when you actually need it. Read rules once, when they become relevant.
If you need a specific rule during a game, have a player look it up for you so you can focus on keeping the game going. All you need to know are the rules that apply to your session that you are about to play in.
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