$45
per sessionHow to Be a Dungeon Master! Private 1-1 Lessons for Dungeons and Dragons DMs
Completed by 7 learners
Ages 8-18
Live 1-on-1 Lessons
Live video meetings
Meets on demand
30 min
What's included
Meets on Demand
schedule meetings as needed30 mins
per sessionTeacher support
Class Experience
After a long and dangerous journey, three heroes stand at the edge of a mountain of fire. Their final task, to destroy a mysterious amulet with the power to summon the vengeful Dragon God Tiamat, is at last about to be accomplished! But suddenly, the mountain starts to rumble! From the lava below an enormous Fire Titan emerges and swings a molten arm at the adventurers! Will their quest end here? Or will our heroes triumph once more save the world for certain destruction!? Well that's for your players to decide! As a Dungeon Master we craft the framework of a story that we then get to share with our friends, the people who are playing Dungeons and Dragons with us! But how do we go from a quiet little farm town all the way to a fiery mountain with an epic final battle? Over the last several years I have DM'ed countless sessions for my family and friends, as well as about two years worth of games right here on Outschool! I've learned some great tools, tips, and tactics for encouraging players to jump into their characters and chart a course through the many trials and adventures we DMs can throw at them. While it might sound intimidating to be a Dungeon Master at first, there are several ways to make your job a little easier and to expand your creativity! In our sessions we will build adventures together, design friendly NPCs, villainous Big Bad Evil Guys (BBEGs), draw out maps both large and small, and most importantly, and craft the framework of a story that you can use on your very next adventure with your own D&D group! Our sessions will focus on a series of topics to help students create their own adventure. I will demonstrate some free to access digital tools that learners can use (though not required) and have students create their own version during our class period. They can of course continue working on it throughout the week between our sessions. Class topic ideas include: - Planning an Adventure Outline - NPC and Player Character Creation - Monsters and Encounter Building - Map Making - Puzzles and Problem Solving - Player Conflicts - How to interpret the Rules of the Game Loose examples of how sessions may go are listed below, but each will be adapted to every learner's current ability, where they are in the story building process, and what their gols may be! Session Types: Adventure Outline - Brainstorm a Small Adventure or Quest - Choose the Setting - Decide the Motivation - Problem and Clues - NPCs, friends and foes - "Victory Conditions" - Loot, Treasure, and Secrets! Character Creation - Choose an NPC to design - Background and Skills - Looks, Design, Color - Plot Hooks Encounter Builder - What kind of encounter? Skill, Social, or Combat - NPC Objectives - Player Objectives - Challenges and Obstacles - Picking the right NPCs or Monsters - "Victory Conditions" - Loot, Treasure, and Secrets! Map Making - What kind of map? World, Regional, Local, Combat - Design Themes - Tone and Clarity - Text, Key, and Labels - When to use Maps I look forward to seeing you soon! If you have any questions about the class please ask away!
Learning Goals
Story crafting. Learn tools to make you a better story teller, writer, and how to plan and outline these adventures. Develop foreshadowing skills, learn Promises & Payoffs, and what makes a good twist.
Creative endeavors! How to integrate (or develop) your other talents to compliment your DMing. Adding art, music, maps and more to your game to enhance your story.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
Dungeons and Dragons, by its nature, often involves battling, well Dragons! And other creatures that might be considered frightening or scary like trolls, wicked witches, and spiders! In my Outschool D&D sessions and demonstrations I seek to keep everything very PG ( think Brave, Raya and the Last Dragon, classic Star Wars, Harry Potter Books 1-3). That said there is fantasy violence and magic to some degree and some of the monsters can and should be fearsome. I try and guide learners towards the idea that fighting isn't always the solution, but it is a game about tactical combat as well.
For older, more mature students we may push into "PG-13" territory (think Marvel Movies, Indian Jones, Harry Potter 4-7p2).
Pre-Requisites
If you want to run a D&D game having access to these Free Online Tools can be helpful!
General Use: DnD Beyond (dndbeyond.com)
For Character Building: Hero Forge (heroforge.com)
For Map Making: Inkarnate (inkarnate.com)
Supply List
Journal, art book, notepad, paper, pencil, d20 dice, something to write or type with so they can plan their adventure! Every DM needs a Journal of some kind. It can be physical or digital, but if you are not writing down you ideas they will not stay with you when you need them most in the middle of your game!
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Sources
I demonstrate a few free online tools to help students learn: Hero Forge (heroforge.com) and Inkarnate (inkarnate.com), both of which you can make a free account with access to a wide variety of content and tools for free. Neither of these is required! A learner may use a journal, map paper, art book, or some other digital tools that they prefer as well.
Meet the teacher
Teacher expertise and credentials
I've been a Dungeon Master, formally, for the past six years and a player of D&D for much longer. In addition to that I've been running D&D session on Outschool almost 2 years and have 3/4 current groups playing! (ask me if you're interested in joining as a player!). I've designed hundreds of characters and NPCs, several dozen maps, and outlined multiyear campaigns for the games I've run.
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