Dungeon Master: Know Your Players

I've mentioned what I'm about to say here and looking back on it, I regret not dedicating a post to it earlier. This is mainly because of how important it is to home games and how often I say it. Do what's fun and know your players (that way you know what's fun). The goal is to have fun and knowing your players is invaluable to attack that goal. By knowing what your players like, don't like, what they would see coming, what they wouldn't, what they could solve, and what they couldn't, you are better able to prepare a game. 

What If You Don't Know?

There are cases when you might not know some or all of your players. Maybe you are running a game for a new group for the first time. Maybe you are running a game at a public event. In these cases, my advice is hard to implement. Over the course of playing, however, you get to know your players.

You can also ask your players ahead of time if you are doing a home game. I typically have many different campaign ideas or old modules I would like to run. By asking players some questions about some of the big pictures things they want, I can narrow down my choices and also make sure as many players as possible find something they like.

What If You Can't Find Out Ahead of Time?

There is a limit to how much you can ask your players before they start running the game themselves. In public play you can't ask ahead of time either. In these cases you need to just run the game and do your best to let your players do what they want as they go through. In public play, there is also a far stricter time constraint so it is more directed as well.

The Dungeon Master should also be having fun running the game. That doesn't mean that the Dungeon Master having fun is enough for a game to be successful and fun, but I find it is far more likely than a Dungeon Master who doesn't want to be there. If the Dungeon Master has no clue about what the players like, doing something they like and having the players go along, live through and modify the story typically works well. The important thing to remember is the story belongs to everyone.

Summary

• It's important to know your players
• Go with the flow and follow what players want to do (the story belongs to everyone)
• As a Dungeon Master, you should also be having fun