# How to Run Your First Adventure: 10 Tips for New Game Masters
*By Martin Schroer | d20sounds*
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Every Game Master remembers their first time behind the screen.
The mix of excitement and uncertainty. The feeling that you might forget something important, say something wrong, lose control of the story. The players looking at you, waiting.
It’s a lot. And it doesn’t have to be.
Running a published adventure is one of the best ways to start. The story is already written. The encounters are already designed. Your job is not to invent a world from scratch — it’s to bring one to life. Here are ten things that will help you do that.
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## Before the Session
**1. Talk to your group first.**
Before you open the adventure, have a conversation. What kind of game does everyone want to play? Dark and serious? Light and fun? Heavy on roleplay, or more focused on combat? These questions matter more than most new GMs realise — and answering them early saves a lot of confusion later.
This is sometimes called a Session Zero. There are plenty of videos online about how to run one. It doesn’t have to be formal. It just has to happen.
**2. Choose the right adventure.**
Not all published adventures are equally good starting points. Ask in forums, watch actual play videos, read reviews. A well-structured adventure with a clear opening and manageable scope will serve you far better than something sprawling and complex. Lost Mine of Phandelver is a classic recommendation for D&D. But the right choice depends on what your group wants to play.
**3. Read the whole thing — but not too carefully.**
Read the adventure cover to cover before your first session. Not to memorise every detail, but to understand the shape of it. What’s the main conflict? Who are the key characters? Where does the story want to go?
You don’t need to know everything. You need to know enough to not be surprised.
**4. Prepare only the beginning.**
Once you have the overview, focus your detailed preparation on the opening section. Think about two things: why would each character want to get involved in this adventure? And how do they all end up in the same place?
The second question is usually less important than it seems — players who have agreed to play an adventure together generally want to play it, and will find a reason. Don’t overthink it.
**5. Have your combat stats ready.**
If your adventure involves combat — and most do — write down the key stats for your enemies somewhere accessible. Hit points, attack bonus, damage, any special abilities. You don’t want to be flipping through a book mid-fight.
A simple list on a notepad is fine. It doesn’t need to be beautiful.
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## During the Session
**6. Slow down.**
New GMs often rush. They’re nervous, they want to keep things moving, they’re afraid of silence. The result is a breathless, slightly chaotic session where players never quite feel settled.
The antidote is simple: breathe. Speak more slowly than you think you need to. Give pauses room. If things feel chaotic, deliberately slow down rather than speeding up.
**7. Let your players play.**
Your job is not to push players through the adventure. It’s to respond to what they do.
Make offers — describe the world, introduce characters, hint at what might be interesting to explore. But don’t force. If your players want to spend an hour roleplaying in the tavern before they set out, let them. The adventure will still be there. The best moments often happen when you stop trying to control where things go.
**8. You don’t have to fill every silence.**
When players are talking to each other, figuring out a plan, debating what to do — let them. That *is* the game. You don’t need to interrupt with more information or push them toward a decision.
If things genuinely stall and nobody seems to know what to do, a small nudge is fine. An NPC arrives with news. A noise comes from somewhere nearby. But use this sparingly. Trust your players to find their own way.
**9. Ask for feedback after every session.**
This is the habit that improves everything else. At the end of each session, ask two questions: what worked? What didn’t?
You’ll learn more from ten minutes of honest conversation with your players than from any amount of preparation. And it works both ways — tell them what you enjoyed too. Everyone at this table is new. Everyone is figuring it out together.
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## The Most Important Tip
I saved this one for last. It sounds obvious. It isn’t.
**10. Remember that this is a game.**
Everyone at the table — you included — is allowed to have fun.
Being the GM is more work than being a player. You prepare more, you carry more, you make more decisions. But that work should not come at the cost of your enjoyment. If you’re not having fun, something needs to change. Maybe the preparation is too heavy. Maybe the group dynamic needs a conversation. Maybe you need to let go of something you’ve been holding too tightly.
A session where everyone laughs, argues, gets tense, gets surprised, and goes home wanting more — that’s a successful session. Not a perfect session. Not a session without mistakes.
Just a session where everyone was glad they showed up.
That’s the goal. Everything else is in service of that.
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*Martin Schroer is the composer behind d20sounds — original fantasy music for tabletop RPG sessions. All music is free to use at your table. [d20sounds.com](https://d20sounds.com)*