DM style
The following are the general rules and attitudes I’m going to have going forward as a DM. I tried to keep this short for ease-of-reading purposes, but we can have more discussions about my style as needed.
Open communication
I think communication is important to keeping an RPG fun and engaging. I will try to be as open with you as possible with, for example, thoughts on potential arcs for your characters or general tone of the story.
I’m also incredibly happy to receive any feedback you have at any point. Is there a part of the game you don’t like? Would you prefer we focus on different aspects of the world/adventure? Are we leveling up too slow or too fast? Would you prefer a more relaxed or more frequent schedule of sessions? Do you want to leave the campaign? Basically I won’t know your thoughts unless you tell me, and I want you to feel comfortable talking with me about these things so we can keep the game more fun 😊.
Low expectations of time commitment
We’re all friends and I want to keep the game as chill and low-commitment as possible. I won’t expect you to put in any more work than coming to sessions and leveling up your character. I would ideally like to chat with you between sessions about what you’d like to see your character’s arc to be going forward, but if that’s too much for you I’m happy to not have these conversations or to keep them to a few messages every few weeks only.
Collaborative storytelling
I personally approach RPGs as an exercise in collaborative storytelling rather than as a standard board game. This means focusing on the overarching story, giving opportunities for your characters to shine, developing character arcs, engaging players in the creation of the world and the NPCs in it, and generally trying to have a cohesive world that everyone playing feels they have a stake in. D&D 5e lends itself well to this kind of play.
This is my own personal preference and style, and different people often have different preferences. I still very much love combat for the sake of combat, but will try to have it serve a story purpose when possible. If you have different preferences or discover different preferences through play, feel free to let me know and I can make sure I’m tailoring the world and encounters to fit your needs. See Open communication 😊.
A general comfortable, friendly atmosphere
We’re all friends and I want to make sure the game is friendly and there’s limited resentment, discomfort, or other hard feelings. I will do my best to never make big decisions for your characters without talking to you about them first, and if I do end up doing that feel free to call me out and we can retcon. I also will try to avoid themes that you feel uncomfortable with (see upcoming survey), and generally will try not to foster an adversarial relationship between DM and players that some groups can have.
Also I want us all to be generally chill about making mistakes, forgetting rules, zoning out, etc. There’s a lot to keep track of in D&D but it’s still a fun game so I don’t want anyone to become angry at someone else’s skill at playing or annoyed they’re not at 100% every session, etc.
If I’m failing to follow my own rules here, as always refer to Open communication.
Thanks!
Thanks for letting me be your DM! I’m still fairly new and have never DMed D&D before so I hope you’ll excuse some mistakes in early sessions while I get my sea legs 😊.