How Do You Run Your First Session as a DM?

A Practical Guide to Starting Strong Without Overcomplicating Your First Game

by Jackson Dean Chase

Founder and Lead Designer, MageGate Games

Why trust this guide?

MageGate Games founder and lead designer Jackson Dean Chase is a USA Today bestselling author, veteran Game Master with more than 40 years of gaming experience, and the author of dozens of 5e-compatible sourcebooks and GM resources.

MageGate Games was founded to create practical tools that help Game Masters prepare faster, make stronger decisions at the table, and build more memorable campaigns.

Our approach to a first session is simple:

Start with something immediate, give the players meaningful choices, and let the game grow from what they do.

If you’re new to running games, these guides cover the core skills:

• First-Time DM Tips: What Actually Matters?
• How Much Should a DM Prep for Each Session?
• How Do You Improvise as a DM?
• How Do You Avoid Railroading as a DM?

You Have One Goal

Your first session as a DM does not need to be perfect.

It does not need elaborate lore.

It does not need dozens of NPCs.

It does not need a complicated plot.

What it needs is a clear situation, a reason for the players to care, enough preparation to keep the game moving, and room for the players to make decisions.

The goal of your first session is not to prove that you are a great DM.

The goal is to get everyone playing.

1. Start With a Clear Situation

Do not begin your first session with ten minutes of history unless the players absolutely need it.

Give them something they can understand quickly.

For example:

• someone has disappeared
• a caravan has been attacked
• a village is being threatened
• a prisoner has escaped
• a monster has been seen nearby
• an important item has been stolen
• a local faction wants help
• the party is trapped somewhere dangerous

The players should understand:

• What is happening?
• Why does it matter?
• What can we do about it?

You can explain the rest as it becomes relevant.

2. Give the Party a Reason to Act

A problem is more useful when the players have a reason to care about it.

That reason might be:

• money
• danger
• duty
• revenge
• curiosity
• loyalty
• survival
• reputation
• personal connection

You do not need complicated character hooks.

Even something simple works:

“The missing merchant is the person paying you.”

or:

“The creature attacking the road is preventing anyone from leaving town.”

The important part is that the players have a reason to engage rather than asking:

“Why would our characters care?”

3. Give Them Something to Do Early

Try to get the players making decisions quickly.

That could mean:

• questioning a witness
• choosing which road to take
• searching a location
• negotiating with someone
• deciding whether to intervene
• following tracks
• entering a dangerous area
• dealing with an immediate threat

Avoid spending the first half hour explaining the campaign before the players can affect anything.

The game becomes real when they start making choices.

4. Introduce the Characters Naturally

You do not need every player to deliver a five-minute biography.

Let the characters reveal themselves through play.

Ask simple questions when useful:

• “What does everyone notice about your character?”
• “Why did you take this job?”
• “Who here do you already trust?”
• “How does your character react to this?”
• “What do you want from this situation?”

That gives the table useful information without stopping the game.

5. Keep the First Objective Simple

Your first session is not the place for six competing plot lines unless you already know the group can handle them.

Give the players one main problem.

They can still approach it in different ways.

For example:

Find the missing scout.

That might involve:

• investigation
• travel
• social interaction
• exploration
• combat
• negotiation

One objective can generate plenty of play.

6. Prepare a Few Useful NPCs

You do not need an entire town.

Prepare a small number of NPCs who matter to the immediate situation.

For each one, know:

• name
• role
• what they want
• what they know
• how they feel about the problem

That is usually enough.

For example:

Mara, the innkeeper

• Wants the road reopened.
• Knows the missing scout left before dawn.
• Distrusts the local militia.

That gives you more to work with than a page of biography.

7. Prepare One or Two Strong Locations

Your first session is easier if the players have somewhere concrete to explore.

A strong location might be:

• abandoned farmhouse
• ruined shrine
• forest clearing
• roadside inn
• watchtower
• cave
• crypt
• warehouse
• burned village

Give each location something useful:

• a clue
• a danger
• an NPC
• a decision
• a secret
• a reward

You do not need dozens of rooms.

A few meaningful areas are enough.

8. Use an Early "Low Stakes" Encounter to Teach the Game

A first-session encounter can help everyone understand how the game works.

That encounter does not have to be combat.

It could be:

• negotiating with guards
• crossing dangerous terrain
• escaping a collapsing structure
• tracking someone
• investigating a crime scene
• dealing with frightened villagers
• avoiding a patrol

If you do use combat, keep it understandable and preferably non-lethal (such as a tavern brawl).

The goal is not to prove that you can design a complicated tactical encounter.

The goal is to let the players make decisions and learn how the table works.

9. Do Not Frontload Every Rule

You do not need to explain the entire system before play begins.

Explain rules when they become relevant.

If a player says:

“I want to jump across the gap.”

That is a good time to explain whatever rule or check applies to the situation.

If combat starts, explain initiative then.

If someone casts a complicated spell, pause and resolve it.

Players usually learn faster when the rule is attached to something they are actually trying to do.

10. Ask Players What They Are Trying to Accomplish

New players may describe actions awkwardly.

Ask:

“What are you trying to do?”

That helps you understand intent.

A player might say:

“I want to throw a chair, kick the table over, and run behind the bar.”

Their actual goal may be:

“I want cover from the archers.”

Once you know the goal, the ruling becomes easier.

This is also one of the best habits you can develop as a new DM.

11. Let Good Ideas Work

Do not assume the players must solve the problem the way you imagined.

If they come up with a smart solution, let it matter.

They might:

• avoid a fight
• recruit an enemy
• discover something early
• bypass an obstacle
• negotiate instead of attacking
• use equipment creatively

You can still require rolls or impose reasonable consequences.

But do not punish them simply because their solution bypasses something you prepared.

12. Keep Failure Moving Forward

A failed roll should not always stop the game.

Instead, failure can create:

• delay
• danger
• noise
• suspicion
• lost resources
• partial information
• a worse position

If the players fail to find a clue, perhaps they find it later but attract attention.

If they fail to persuade someone, perhaps the NPC demands something in return.

If they fail to sneak inside, perhaps they enter—but the guards are alerted.

Failure is often more interesting when it changes the situation rather than ending it.

13. Do Not Panic When Players Surprise You

They will.

Maybe immediately.

That is normal.

When players do something unexpected:

1. Ask what they are trying to accomplish.
2. Think about what makes sense in the world.
3. Decide what the NPCs want.
4. Make a reasonable ruling.
5. Let the result create the next situation.

You do not need the perfect answer.

You need an answer that keeps the game moving.

For more on this, see How Do You Improvise as a DM?

14. Keep the Pace Moving

New DMs often slow down because they are trying to get everything exactly right.

Do not spend ten minutes researching a minor rule.

If necessary, make a temporary ruling and continue.

Do not roleplay every conversation longer than it needs to last.

Do not describe every hallway in detail. Only describe in detail areas that are important (usually due to containing clues, secret doors, traps, etc.).

Do not force the players to inspect every possible clue. It's okay if they miss or misinterpret some (see below for how to fix that).

Most importantly:

When a scene has done its job, move on.

But how do you move on?

There are three main ways.

The Jump Cut

You can simply jump ahead in time and location, assuming there's nothing to prevent that.

You can jump ahead whenever nothing meaningful stands between the players and the next important scene.

If the players don't specify what they are doing, ask them--then jump.

The Sudden Pivot

In a 1950 essay also titled The Simple Art of Murder, hard-boiled detective author Raymond Chandler described a classic pulp-fiction solution for keeping the action moving:

“When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.”

The fantasy equivalent is a warrior with a sword, a wizard with a spell, an assassin at the window, a monster burrowing up through the floor or flying by overhead, or any other creature you can think of. It can make immediate sense who it is or who must have sent them, or it might take some work to figure out. Perhaps the creature leaves a clue behind when they leave, or if they are defeated, the clue is found when they are searched after the fight.

Instead of an actual creature disrupting the scene, it could be a weather or terrain impact, like a blizzard or earthquake. Maybe a volcanic eruption or wildfire. Or the building the party is in collapses or catches fire.

The "man with the gun" approach doesn't automatically mean combat or a natural disaster, however. It could mean an NPC with important information arrives. That information might be a threat, it might be a clue, it might be a negotiation. It could be anything, but all it needs to do is disrupt the "stuck" scene and make things fresh and exciting again.

This is often the perfect way to give the players critical information they overlooked or misinterpreted before. But it should not be obvious that this is what you are doing. You don't want them to feel dumb or to make the bad guys look dumb either. The players may still ignore or misunderstand the information no matter how obvious you make it. That's okay. Sooner or later, this happens to every DM. Just roll with it.

The Cut Scene

You can switch to a cut scene (like in a video game) where you broadly show what the villains are up to at that moment in another location. Then you switch back to the players, perhaps combined with the Jump Cut or Sudden Pivot.

The Cut Scene can be very cinematic and fun, but could also create spoilers, and it's a lot more work. For a newer DM, these scenes are usually easier to write or outline ahead of time rather than ad-lib, so this is more of an advanced storytelling technique. Still, it's worth mentioning to increase your options.

If you do decide to write cut scenes, keep them short and always end on a cliffhanger.

How long should a cut scene be?

A cut scene should be no more than a few paragraphs to a page or two at most. It's usually better to err on the shorter side than run long and risk boring your players. If you enjoy writing them and the players react positively, you can use cut scenes in future sessions. If you find you don't enjoy (or don't have time) to write them, or if the players don't enjoy them, no problem. End the cut scene experiment and rely on the Jump Cut or Sudden Pivot instead.

15. Give Every Player a Chance to Matter

Pay attention to who has been making decisions.

If one player is dominating the session, ask another:

“What is your character doing?”

or:

“How do you respond?”

Players do not need equal screen time every minute.

But everyone should have opportunities to contribute.

That might mean:

• talking to an NPC
• solving a problem
• making a tactical decision
• noticing a clue
• helping another character
• deciding where the party goes next

16. End With Something That Points Forward

A good first session should leave the players with a reason to come back.

That might be:

• a new threat
• a revealed villain
• a mysterious clue
• an unexpected ally
• a dangerous destination
• a difficult decision
• a promise of reward
• a consequence of what they just did

You do not need a dramatic cliffhanger.

You just want the players to know:

Something happens next.

What If the Session Goes Too Fast?

That happens.

If the players burn through your material, you can:

• expand an NPC interaction
• introduce a consequence
• bring in a complication
• move a flexible encounter forward
• reveal a new clue
• end a little early

You do not have to fill every scheduled minute.

A strong two-and-a-half-hour session is better than stretching weak material to four hours.

What If the Session Goes Too Slow?

That happens too.

Cut what does not matter.

You can:

• shorten travel
• summarize routine actions
• skip unnecessary rolls
• compress minor conversations
• move clues into more accessible places
• postpone a secondary encounter

Do not treat your prep like a checklist that must all be completed.

What If Everyone Is Nervous?

That is common during a first session.

Give players something concrete to react to.

People usually become more comfortable once they are:

• making decisions
• rolling dice
• talking to NPCs
• solving a problem
• joking about what just happened

You do not need to force everyone to perform.

Let confidence build through play.

What New DMs Often Get Wrong About the First Session

New DMs often assume they need:

• a fully developed world
• detailed character backstories
• complicated villains
• perfect voices
• every rule memorized
• a large dungeon
• a dramatic opening monologue
• a complete campaign plan

You do not.

You need:

a clear problem + useful preparation + meaningful decisions + enough flexibility to respond

That is enough to run a good first session.

How MageGate Games Approaches a First Session

MageGate Games treats the first session as a decision engine, not a presentation.

The DM prepares:

• a problem
• a few people
• a few places
• a threat
• some useful information
• possible consequences

Then the players begin making choices.

Those choices reveal:

• what they care about
• what kind of play they enjoy
• which NPCs interest them
• which threats matter
• what the campaign should emphasize next

The first session does not need to define the entire campaign.

It needs to give the campaign somewhere to begin.

First-Session DM Checklist

Before the game, make sure you have:

• a clear starting situation
• one main objective
• a reason for the party to care
• 3–5 useful NPCs
• 1–2 locations
• at least one meaningful encounter or challenge
• a few clues or pieces of information
• names you can use if needed
• one or two possible complications
• a rough idea of what happens if the players do nothing
• something that can point toward the next session

That is enough.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I prepare for my first session as a DM?

Prepare enough to understand the starting situation, important NPCs, likely locations, and immediate threats. You do not need to prepare every possible player decision.

How long should a first session be?

There is no required length. Many groups play for a few hours, but a shorter session can work perfectly well if everyone has time to make meaningful decisions and learn how the game works.

Should the first session include combat?

It can, but it does not have to. A social encounter, investigation, exploration challenge, chase, or environmental problem can also teach players how the game works.

What if I forget a rule?

Make a reasonable temporary ruling, keep playing, and check the exact rule later.

What if players do something I did not prepare?

Ask what they are trying to accomplish, follow the logic of the situation, and make a reasonable ruling. You can reuse prepared material if it still fits naturally.

Should I explain the whole campaign before the first session?

Usually no. Give players the information they need to understand the immediate situation and explain the rest when it becomes relevant.

What if my first session is not very good?

Finish it, note what worked and what did not, and adjust the next session. DMing improves quickly once you have actual table experience to learn from.

More New DM Advice from MageGate Games

If you’re new to running games, these guides cover the core skills:

• First-Time DM Tips: What Actually Matters?
• How Much Should a Prep for Each Session?
• How Do You Improvise as a DM?
• How Do You Avoid Railroading as a DM?

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