So, I’ve spent a number of articles, a couple of different times talking about what the Dungeon Master has to do to run a game. But running a game and creating a story for D&D (or any role playing game) is a two way street. There are things that the players can do to help a game run more smoothly as well.

1. If you have objections to an adventure idea, say so in session 0!

If you don’t want to play a spy game, you want to be able to kill everything, say that you don’t think that type of game sounds fun. Now, you might and won’t get everything that you want, but your DM will be able to adjust the adventure to help keep everyone at the table having fun.

2. Play along with the DM’s adventure.

This is as important as the first one and seems to be counter to it. If you don’t like something aren’t you supposed to let the DM know? Yes, you are. But at the same time, the DM has other people at the table to keep happy along with you. Sometimes the game is going to focus more on what those players like to do. And if they want an intrigue and mystery game while you want a high adventure game, you have a choice, you can either play along because you want to play D&D with your friends, or you can drop out of the game. The DM will/should try and throw in some sessions and things that you are going to enjoy more, but it isn’t all going to be for you, so find a way to enjoy the other stuff as well, don’t hijack the game and turn it into the game that you want to play in. If you want to do that, become the DM and read through all the DM advice.

3. Have some backstory.

The DM has spent a lot of time creating a backstory for the world that you are playing in, you can help them by putting something into your backstory. It doesn’t have to be an epic, but throw in some things that your character wonders about. Eventually in Dungeons and Flagons we are going to dig more into Tate’s backstory, I just know that the player doesn’t care as much so I’ve focused more on Nim’s backstory. Finja has a great backstory, but I don’t have any hooks in her story to jump on yet. I’m still trying to come up with a hook that would make sense, but her backstory is more closed off. Now if a player doesn’t care that they might not get those extra story elements, having a closed off backstory is fine and it can just inform their playing and they can create the emotional hooks to their backstory in what their character does, but create some backstory, ideally with open ended questions for the DM.

4. Pay Attention at the table.

Seems pretty obvious and was covered in session 0 article, but it matters for the DM and the other players. If you are going to be on your phone, you are going to be distracting someone else. As a DM, I don’t need you looking at me all the time while I talk, but I want to be able to look at you for a few seconds and get feedback because you do actually look at me sometime. So if you have trouble paying attention, put away your phone, or turn it off. Make it so that you can’t get to it for the time you are playing. And if you really need your phone sometime, because of work or anything else, work it out where you can take a break to check your phone regularly. But if you are putting the effort into it, the DM will appreciate it.

5. Know your character.

Now, you don’t need to buy the player’s handbook so you know everything about your character and the game. Try and know what your character does though. Know their special abilities. Know the spells that they can cast (or know where to find it quickly). If you don’t write it down immediately because you leveled up in the middle of two sessions in one night, I don’t expect you to know everything. But by the next session you should have your spell down. If you don’t, as a DM, I’m going to eventually assume that you don’t care about your character/playing in the game, which means I’m going to put less effort into it. And eventually I’m going to just tell you that if you don’t know how the spell works, you can’t use it, even though you picked it, because my job isn’t to look up everything for you. Now, there is a learning curve, and as a DM, I won’t do that right away, but eventually I might.

So there we have it, what rule do you think is the more important? And do you have other rules that you follow as a player? I could have come up with more, but these are the ones that I feel like are my most important ones.