Q&A for How to Be a Dungeon Master

Yes, some dungeon masters will have a character. It's recommended that only advanced players in small groups do this, and primarily in a support manner (i.e., healing and inspiring the party).

You don't necessarily have to be intelligent, just very well-prepared.

The board looks like anything you can imagine, or at least what you can describe to your players, or put on paper or cardboard for reference.

Yes, there can be vehicles in the game.

You can either create your own traps and monsters, or use some online and book sources. Try to make your traps clever or hidden to add a bit of surprise and quick thinking on the player's part. Monsters should be challenging, but don't give the players something that'll kill them easily. For example, a dragon is a bad enemy for level one PCs.

The Dungeon Master's Handbook. You can always play without the board, but you need the handbook to reference the rules.

Any version of the rule books will do, as look as you're consistent between the ones you use. The newest version (5e) is a good choice for beginners.

I play as multiple characters sometimes, and I use the environment to introduce them. If the characters are in a sticky situation, perhaps the DM's character is their method of escape. If they're in dire need of seeing the Queen, maybe the DM's character is their royal escort. It can be totally random!

There are always online shops such as eBay and Amazon.

Look on google for a 3D dice template and cut it out and fold accordingly.

They do not have to, but it is highly recommended. The campaign acts as a sort of script for the Dungeon Master, and often holds stats and descriptions for characters and enemies that are not easily remembered. If the DM is confident that they can remember everything, then they don't need the campaign.

Yes. Multiple new items can freshen up game play and add mystery.

There's no alternative to facing your fears except avoiding your fears. It's best to try to run small adventures to get over your fears, and then create bigger adventures and run them with players you like and trust.

Yes! While this may lead to a very chaotic campaign where there are multiple DMs for the same story (in which case you would need a small level of coordination between everyone dungeon master-ing), it can also just mean that you have a few campaigns going on at the same time. It is advisable to work with everyone you are playing with to figure out what works best for you, though.

When you have dysfunctional player characters in your game, it's best to talk to the player one-on-one to explain what's going wrong and how it isn't fitting in your game or might be hurting the fun for others. Try to offer a compromise or resolution. If the problem persists, you may have to replace the player.

Yes. It would help you a lot, as you could always refer to the books if you were uncertain about something, or if you needed inspiration. Most of the rules can be found online, but it would definitely be a good investment if you plan on being the DM more often.

Yes. It is possible for you to do that, but for that, you need to come up with good ideas.

It is highly recommended: by playing the game you will learn all the basic rules of D&D that apply to your character without having to know all of them. However, it's not required; if you've studied the rules and are comfortable with them and have a campaign you'd like to run, go for it! The best weapon in a DM's arsenal is the ability to confidently improvise.

You don't need to read the whole thing cover to cover right away, but at least know the basic rules and give the whole thing a solid skim read.

You can. I do not recommend it for newbie DMs because it will feel very different from a usual D&D game and you have to balance combat carefully to account for the fact that there is only one player and they could be easily overwhelmed by multiple foes.

No, you don't need one! They can be convenient to have, but many DMs don't have one or even don't like to use them. If you don't have a DM screen and find that you want one, you can also grab a binder or folder you have lieing around and prop it upright by opening it.

You can play D&D with as few as two people (one DM and one player) but it can be tricky to play with a smaller group. Two or three players is a good standard.

No, as the DM, that isn't really your goal. If that is what you wanted to do it would be very easy by just pulling out the strongest monsters in the book on your low-level players, but even if that's fun for you (and many DMs would find it more boring than fun) your players will not enjoy it and probably won't play with you again.

If you are playing virtually and not in person, no. But if you are playing in person, then yes. This is because you probably don't want your players to see anything behind your DM screen, that includes the adventure module, or general information about something that the player shouldn't know. But yes, you probably should have one, and you can use anything for a DM screen that shields your players from viewing your workstation.

The DM can roll for the damage NPCs do on PCs. DMs can roll for advantages, disadvantages, etc. as well. These statistics are usually determined with a D20 die.

Starting in a Tavern might be a trope, but it's still a very good place to start because of the opportunities it provides. But think about the campaign you want to run and start from there. I did a campaign revolving around dragons, so the first things my characters did was prevent a Dragon Attack.

For very long trips, you can skip most of the walking because walking through the forest from one town to the next... isn't fun. if you want, you can come up with some more interesting encounters, like place a bag of money on the road. if the party takes it, you can have people come looking for the money later or you could make some elven ruins in the wild with a helmet on a pedestal. If they take the helmet, a suit of armor comes together and attacks them. As for confidence. you won't be sure until you do it. I still stress about my sessions all the time, but you'll get better at it.

Of course, D&D is a RPG that can take place in any time in any place, it's just that the classic modules are usually with medieval weapons and warriors.

I would suggest start with a smaller one, and build from there, as you play and go through sessions you might be continually inspired for future ideas and sessions. Another idea is start with a simple module maybe level 1-5, a good one is Lost Mine of Phandelver.

Yes, for a lot of common monsters. You can find them at your local roleplaying shop or just online.