It's Five Minutes to Game Time

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Matt A., a Sly Flourish patron, asks:

"What motivational advice would you give a DM five minutes before their game starts? What's your pep talk?"

Ok, here it goes.

It's five minutes to game time. You've done your prep. You've got your materials. Or maybe you don't, but eff it, you're doing it live.

You're about to engage in an amazing experience no other creature in the known universe can do. You're about to sit with your friends (online or in real life) and build a universe together. It may be a small universe, or a piece of a universe you and your friends already started creating, but it doesn't exist now and in a few hours it will.

You can do anything in this universe. You can explore crashed planar vessels or explore ancient cities buried under miles of ice. You get to save entire nations from the tyranny of the dragon queen. There are no limits to what might happen.

And you get to do this with your friends. You get to be kids again! You get to fight monsters and explore cobwebbed dungeons and save the world from hideous mutated giant rats. You get to do that together and share the stories for the rest of your life.

Don't lose yourself peering into the vastness of these yet-to-be universes. Start small. Start strong. Hook them into adventure. Think about the characters. Give them interesting people to meet, places to explore, secrets to discover, monsters to fight, and treasure to acquire.

Lean on your friends around the table. They love you. They want to have a good time. They're not there to judge you or criticize you. They want to get lost for a while. They want to see their characters do awesome stuff. Be fans of their characters. Listen to the players. Smile. Laugh.

You're going to do great.

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Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.