Don’t Be a Lazy Dungeon Master – Another D&D Rant, I Guess

Hey Mr. Dungeon Master, sir, do you know what your problem is? I – I don’t know. I’ll tell you what your problem is. YOU’RE LAZY! I hate to agree with this braindead idiot, but he’s right! All of the evidence would seem to indicate that we do indeed have a lazy dungeon master.

What – well Yeah, don’t you know that lazy dungeon masters suck? Yeah, lazy dungeon masters – Hey! Stop stealing my lines! Welcome to the DM Lair. I’m Luke Hart, and I’ve been a dungeon master since high school. On this channel I give practical dungeon master advice that you can implement at your table.

Today in the Lair we’re going to be talking about lazy Dungeon Masters, and I’m not going to lie, things might get a little ranty around here. And there’s a really good chance I’m going to trigger some folks. And I suppose that’s just a risk I’ll have to run, because you see I have a pet peeve.

Why is it that online in places like Reddit and Facebook that it’s almost a badge of honor for a Dungeon Master to claim, I hardly even prep for my games. Like, you know, maybe I prep 15 minutes before a game session, and my players all love it. I run awesome games.

The way I see it, there’s one of a few things going on here. First, you are a Dungeon Mastering genius, and we all need to sit at your feet while you teach us the path of enlightenment. Second, you have years or decades of experience to draw upon, and practically have entire modules kicking around in your head, so you don’t need to do much prep.

And I get that. Third, you are deceiving yourself, and your games aren’t nearly as good as you think they are. Or fourth, you’re lying your happy little butt off. Your games aren’t that great, and you know it. But in order to stroke your ego and make yourself feel better, you truck around Reddit and other forums saying you don’t prep and yet run awesome games.

Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t DMs out there who can run great games with little preparation. Because there are; I know there are. And, yes, it is possible you’re one of them. I’m just saying that I don’t think there are nearly as many of them as online posts would lead us to believe.

And I also suspect that if they would spend more time preparing, their games would be even better. There is a saying that I am a strong believer in: One doesn’t rise to the occasion; one falls to their highest level of preparation. And here’s the other thing, when there are lots of new dungeon masters out there, just learning the ropes, and asking honest questions like “How much should I prepare for my game?” or “What parts of the game should I prepare, and which parts should I improvise?” – It is not helpful for them to hear people who are either veteran DMs – or just plain lying – claim to not prepare at all and yet still run awesome games.

Like can we stop belittling new dungeon masters and making them feel crappy because they are still learning? This leads me to a sort of related rant. I more and more suspect that there are far more people online who WANT to play D&D, but don’t, and just spend their time talking about it in forums, than there actually people playing D&D.

Or, at the very least, people who play D&D are too busy, you know, playing D&D to spend their time posting. Because it’s like, I read some of these posts, and I’m like, “Do you even play D&D?” Anyway, if you are a dungeon master who doesn’t need to prep, and your games actually are pretty dang good, then please, don’t take offense here.

I’m not complaining about you, and I’m not trying to put you down. I’m ranting about the liars and frauds who MISLEAD new dungeon masters into thinking they shouldn’t prepare for their D&D games. Because new dungeon masters, YOU SHOULD. Now a common objection I hear is this: Dungeon Master: But Luke, I run a sandbox game that leaves the world open to the imaginations and desires of the players.

I wouldn’t want to RAILROAD them. Look, throwing “railroad” around like it’s a four-letter word doesn’t excuse you from the core responsibility of a dungeon master: showing up to the game session ready to run a fun game of D&D for your players. I would also challenge your definition of what a sandbox game even is.

You see, not preparing anything for your players to do and just making things up on the spot is NOT a sandbox game. That’s just pantzing it. A true sandbox game, in my opinion, actually requires a crap load of preparation because the dungeon master needs to have various adventures and scenarios ready to run depending on what their players decide to do.

There is a reason I don’t run sandbox games. I don’t have that kind of time to prepare. And the truth is, many dungeon masters probably don’t. Which leads us to another common objection: Dungeon Master: But Luke, I’m a busy college student or working professional with a family.

I don’t have time to prepare for my games. First, a college student not having time? >Laugh< That’s funny. I was in college once, you see, and I have never had that much free time in my life. Like, I spent hours a day playing Diablo II. Now, working fulltime with a family – yeah, I got you.

That can get rough. But how about this, how much time would you say you spend watching The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones? All you need to do is carve out a couple hours prior to a game session for preparation. Are your players’ worth that? Let me put things in perspective.

I work a full-time job. I have a wife and daughter. I also run a YouTube channel that takes up, on average, at least 20 hours a week of my time. I get up at 5 in the morning and often don’t go to bed until 10 or 11 at night, including weekends, because I’m working on growing my channel and my business.

And I still make time to run not 1 or 2 or 3, but 4 D&D games. And guess what, I prepare for all of them. Okay, with the exception of my Wonder Panda campaign at work. I mean, I do prepare for it, but not nearly as much as I do for my other D&D games.

And my players all know that and understand that I just don’t have time to put too much effort into that particular game. Anyway, my point is this: to the dungeon master who says they don’t have time to prepare for a game, I have a hard time believing you.

Now, please, don’t get me wrong. If you’re a dungeon master who doesn’t prepare much for their games, I’m not saying you’re a horrible person or even a bad dungeon master. I’m not judging you. And I’m not saying that I’m better than you are. What I’m really trying to do with this rant here is encourage dungeon masters to NOT be lazy.

Show up to your games ready to run D&D for your players. They are giving up three or four hours of their time to play a game of D&D with you. So do your best to roll into that game session prepared and ready to go. So, the big question, then, is how much preparation does a dungeon master really need to do? That’s actually going to be the topic of next week’s video, but I will leave you with this guideline: prepare everything that you don’t want to have to improvise at the game table.

You know what you’re good at and what you aren’t. Prepare the things you struggle with; improvise the things that come easy to you. Hello there! Are you a lazy dungeon master who doesn’t have time to make your own adventures? If so, check out the inexpensive D&D adventures I publish over on DriveThruRPG.