DMing Fundamentals

"I don't think many D&D players and DMs think of D&D as a game as much as they think of it as a performance."

Thank you James.  And clearly before anything can be done to make anyone a better DM, that question has to be settled.  For me, it is.  It's a game.  A role-playing game.  The "game" includes performance, similar to how figure skating includes performance, as an aspect of the skill inherent in game play and presentation.  But we do not talk about RPPs.  Performance is clearly subordinate to game fundamentals and needs to be seen that way.

Anyone not on board with this ought to sign off now.  If you want to be a better performer, I suggest setting forth to find a blog about performance.  Here's a list.  Go get educated.

D&D is a structured form of play, distinct from art, which is an expression of aesthetic and ideological elements.  The key components of D&D, as in all games, are goals, rules, challenge and interaction.  Screw with the goals and your game loses focus.  Screw with the rules and your game spins out of control.  Screw with the challenge and your game becomes boring.  Screw with the interaction and you're going to get yourself called a Nazi.

Here I'm going to follow the principles laid out by Roger Callois.  Play is best when it is without obligation; when play is separate for ordinary, everyday life; when the results are uncertain; when play is governed by rules that suspend ordinary laws and which must be followed by players; and when play involves imagined realities that reflect "real life."

Translated.  You don't have to play D&D, you can get up from the table any time ~ but more importantly, you don't have to play according to the dictates and expectations of the DM or any other player.  That is, you have real agency.  When playing, put the rest of your world on a shelf; don't discuss your troubles, don't chatter on about what the movie was the other evening, don't insert distractions and don't derail the game's play.  Add risk and danger, and recognize you shouldn't control what's going to happen.  Play by rules.  They don't have to be the book's rules, but they must be rules that everyone agrees to play by and where changes from anyone are subject to veto by all the participants.  And make the setting, and the characterizations, believable.

Your role as a DM comes down to these fundamentals.  These are the skills you must acquire.

1. Give the players a reason to play and enable them to play their way, addressing the problems in the game that arise in a fashion after their own agendas.

2. Focus on the game when you play it.  Enforce a policy that others should focus on the game.  Shut down attempts to chat about other things and if a player won't abide by that policy, inform them that they're not welcome.

3. Force yourself to roll the dice in the open, to explain what the dice mean to the players before the role is made and force yourself to accept the results, no matter what short-term effects those results have.

4. Determine for yourself what rules you're willing to play by.  Define those rules for yourself.  Then, if need be, settle those rules with your players, so that everyone can agree on the rules.  Take as much time as necessary in game and out of game to hammer those rules down and make them both understood and agreed upon.

5. Design a believable setting.  Take as much time as you need, but understand that believability supercedes all other considerations.  The players must feel the world is predictable for them, and not for you, and therefore your setting must be based on elements that ARE predictable.

There you have it.  I promise, every shortcoming you have as a DM results from failing to adhere to one or more of these principles.  You're slacking, prevaricating, cheating, undermining your players or letting non-game elements spoil the experience.  Stop doing that.

The first rule regarding DMing is perform the skill.  Do the job you're supposed to be doing.  Change your outlook, change your willingness to work and change your willingness to compromise the above principles for the sake of your comfort or your players' immediate needs.

Every time you make a compromise in the above, you're not performing the skill.  And we can't move ahead in any manner that will make you a better DM.  There is no debate on this point.  Only discussion on how best to achieve performance.

The winner here is the runner who worked hardest and paid the greatest attention to detail, from the age they started to what they wore, to how their feet fit into the blocks, to the way they've bent their bodies to fit the necessity of performing the skill as best as imaginably possible.  All things which, ultimately, were within their control.