Introduction
The Maestro is an introverted, sensing, thinking, and perceiving personality. You are one of solidarity and isolation and do not require external validation to feel secure in yourself. You are more focused on exploring worlds and creative elements with a broad inquisition than developing skills but will change your methods with any given task. In addition, there is a passion for seeing what the world has to offer, believing that diving in firsthand and experiencing your potential is the only way to live.
You are a builder who has the rare ability to create something extraordinary
You are a builder who has the rare ability to create something extraordinary. Your creative spirit moves you from one project to another, and you enjoy learning along the way. In addition, a powerful drive pushes you to take things apart, examine their components, and put them back together in a much better state than before.
Game Mastering Styles
Finding the perfect game is not a challenge, but finding one that remains perfect long enough to secure your interest is the complication. A certain level of complexity draws you in, a group of unique mechanics or defining elements that bring you to break it open and understand.
You may adjust a new game to fit the dozens of concepts you’ve broken and reforged over time. You are likelier to partake in one-shots or short campaigns to feel satisfied. Anything longer could prove to be a commitment that turns into a chore. However, if people are willing to follow you in your subsequent interest, they are bound to discover the wonderful nature of spontaneous development.
commitment can turn into a chore
You relish the ability to travel through a classic fantasy before diving into a cyberpunk adventure and returning to a modern noir just before ending up in space. As a result, you have amassed a collection of systems, settings, and rulesets. The only thing binding them is fleeting interests. There are a dozen ways to pull something apart, but you seek the best way to put it all together, and eventually, you will have built a world that encompasses every experience.
Storytelling Style
Your storytelling is complex, with opposing elements apparent in unorthodox ways. Moments of calm provide a reprieve before the plot intensifies and throws the audience into a battle that shakes the world. Political intrigue builds tension, interjecting supernatural influences that ultimately detract from the original focus. People retell your story and consider it all over the place, but those who share your table hear how intricately you weave together even the most obscure details of your tale.
It's a unique power to be ready for change at a moment's notice
What would otherwise be a problematic narrative becomes a simple story that carries the simple phrase, “you just had to be there” every time. It is a matter of time before you suddenly get inspired by a new idea, maybe even in the middle of a session, and feel the desire to push the narrative in a different direction.
You emulate the idea that “Anything can change everything.” It is your story’s message, too: Though the narrative once seemed to be headed in a specific direction, if the party decides to avoid that, you are prepared to switch things around to accommodate the new initiative. Of course, it’s a unique power to be ready for change at a moment’s notice, but for you, it is almost exclusively how you operate.
Table Management
Rules are just suggestions. That is the best way to describe how you view most games. You have a plan, of course, but players are more than welcome to bring forth their ideas and add to the story. As a result, you remain relaxed, open-minded, and flexible. You emphasize a space of freedom in which they can do as they please in the name of exploration and experience.
you remain relaxed, open-minded, and flexible
Your table may be chaotic, but you somehow make it work. Rather than objecting to different approaches that bend the rules, you use them for yourself, being a double-edged sword against them. Sometimes, you’re excited about an idea and want to explore its limits. Players are naturally curious about the boundaries of the rules, which leads them to test those limits to see what happens.
If you let them do what they want, they may pick up on the lines of the current situation. However, a supportive table will have no problem with your approach, and look forward to seeing what you do.
Session Resources
You thrive under a sense of unpredictability. But unfortunately, table resources may hinder your creative storytelling. For example, using maps is hard when you’re likely to change course based on a tiny observation. Therefore, visual elements are less likely to be used in battle unless they’re empty grids.
Using maps is hard when you're likely to change course based on a tiny observation
As a GM, you may hesitate to ask your players what they hope to gain from their game sessions. For example, if players give you session input that requires a story change, you might be reluctant to include it because the shift forces a story structure you don’t want to have to accommodate.
However, an excellent way to start the adventure is by conversing with everyone or reviewing each character’s contributions during Session Zero. This session allows you time to learn each character’s lines, veils, and boundaries. Once you know the limits, you can go as far as your interests take you, but with due respect.
The Game Master's Toolbox:
- World Anvil: A worldbuilding program that helps you create, organize and store your setting with detailed wiki-like organization and interactive maps to store your notes.
- DnD Beyond: An excellent place for digital character creation and creating a campaign group for easy roll shares and sheet management.
- Notion (TTRPG University Notion Templates)
- Evernote
- DnD Beyond’s Encounter Builder: I’ve heard it’s helpful. You can build an encounter and determine its difficulty level based on math.
Role Generator: You can randomly generate everything from cities, to magic items, to herbs, to NPCs. https://www.rolegenerator.com/
- Inkarnate: For fantasy world and city maps. Yearly subscription.
- Wonderdraft: For fantasy world and city maps. One-time purchase.
- Dungeon Scrawl: For creating flat and isometric dungeon maps. Completely free.
- Dungeondraft: Building and Dungeon crawl maps, full color.
- Azgaar Github Fantasy Map Generator
- Dungeon Fog: Free map-making tool
- Dungeon Map Doodler
- Spotify: There are so many D&D playlists to choose from, or, pick your favorite video game tracks to play.
- Syrinscape: With Syrinscape, you can control the master playlist and players can decide their preferred volume from their end.
- YouTube Premium: Put on a 3-hour ambiance video without commercial interruptions.
- Google Forms
- TTRPG University Google Forms to Copy
- DMs Guild: A place to find supplemental guides and campaigns to enhance your official D&D content.
- Drive Thru RPG: The all-TTRPG sister of DMs Guild.
- The Monsters Know: A book series about monster tactics and strategies to help enhance gameplay.
- Point Buy Calculator: Doing a character sheet from scratch? This will help so much with the number crunching. https://chicken-dinner.com/5e/5e-point-buy.html
- DnD Beyond: The best place to build a digital character sheet. Fully connected to all the official D&D content. Makes leveling up take about 30 seconds.
- Wild Shape Tracker: Super helpful for druids. https://arcaneeye.com/apps/wildshape-tracker/
- Character Backstory Template: https://arcaneeye.com/dm-tools-5e/dnd-character-backstory-template/
- Xanathar’s Guide to Everything: I use this particular book ALL the time to help build my character backstories. There are roll tables in the “This is Your Life” chapter.
- Google Dice Roller: Super simple. Go to Google, type “dice roller,” and you have a dice roller.
- Roll Dice With Friends: You can give your temporary room a custom name, share the link with your friends, and all roll together!
- Owlbear Rodeo (straightforward and intuitive)
- Canva (DIY, simplified VTT)
- Roll20 (complicated learning curve)
- Foundry VTT
- Norse Foundry
- Shard
- Tablespire
- Tabletop Simulator
- Fantasy Grounds
lifetime access
The Organized Game Master
End the overwhelm that comes with running multiple games.
