It’s been a few months now since I started, together with a group of friends, our journey through the imaginative adventures of tabletop role-playing games. We had wanted to do something like this for a long time, but we always ended up postponing it.
The early setbacks
When we first proposed it, many of the participants—probably with a vague or inaccurate idea of what it actually involved, or the time it required—joined enthusiastically. This led to the first problem: too many people means longer turns, especially when everyone is new.
What can you learn?
So, what have I learned from all of this? Now, with a bit more experience, I can see that being a Dungeon Master is not easy, not only in terms of organization and time management. Since it was the first time for both me and my group, we decided to create a homebrew world. In other words, instead of sticking to a predefined world with its own rules and lore, we chose to build our own world, including factions, conflicts, and events. This allowed us to gradually adjust the rules so the learning curve would be smoother for everyone.
At first glance, this seems like a good approach—until you realize how difficult it is to create a cohesive world that also feels somewhat realistic. This led me to my first lessons, which can easily be applied to other areas:
- It’s better to start building something and then add layers over time, rather than trying to make everything perfect from the beginning. Create a rough outline of what will happen and gradually add detail and improvements on top of that base.
- Don’t cling to your ideas just because they are yours. This was something I struggled with at first, but when I hit a creative block, I asked one of my players for input. They suggested scrapping a large part of what I had built and expanding it in a different direction. Although I was initially reluctant to throw away my work, I agreed—and now it forms the foundation of the world where my players are.
Over time, we managed to create a solid foundation to play on: flexible and expandable, yet still coherent and supportive of the story that the players develop through their characters.
Another important skill I developed is flexibility. At the beginning, during the first campaign, I tried to restrict too much what my players could do. I wanted them to follow the story I had created in a nearly linear way, but this only made the experience dull and less enjoyable (to the point where I lost a couple of players who decided not to continue).
As time went on, I applied the same approach I used when building the world: I now prepare only a loose script of what might happen, add details where I know I have control to give depth, and then let the players shape the story themselves. Sometimes they follow what I expect; other times they take completely different paths, which led me to develop another key skill:
Improvisation. I never thought this would become the skill I would develop the most, and at the same time one of the most useful outside the game. Being able to react to the unexpected and make solid decisions on the spot is truly challenging, but once you get the hang of it, it even becomes fun. In the context of the game, it can lead to stories that I would have never been able to create on my own—and that’s what I enjoy the most.
Other smaller skills you can develop include managing frustration and understanding that the final outcome often matters more than the effort spent perfecting something. From a more administrative perspective, you also learn when to reward or punish someone in a way that positively impacts their performance or development.
On that note, I have a small anecdote: my players are extremely greedy—sometimes to the point where it becomes annoying to negotiate every piece of loot or watch them haggle over copper coins with every merchant I introduce. Because of this, I decided that if they wanted their rewards that badly, they would have to face the consequences. I started punishing their greed with particularly difficult enemies or merchants who heavily inflate their prices.
Reflection
In summary, beyond being fun, being a Dungeon Master teaches you a wide range of skills, from creativity and organization to responsibility and leadership, among many others.