DM tips

When I left south africa I decided to leave *the behemoth* my 15 year old computer case (and it's somewhat updated internals) behind.

That means I'm working on a tablet for a few weeks while I try and figure out how to build a computer from scratch in Bulgaria... with no permanent address.
(It's going great)

That means I'm not animating, it also means I have a crazy amount of excess creative energy so here goes:

Zee's DM tips that you never asked for and have probably heard before:

Figure out the story beats you want to hit and move the story in front of the players.  Try not to make encounters super location specific.

Run the same adventures for lots of different people.  Every time you'll get better at it and you'll remember more about the setting and the edge cases and by the third or fourth run the players simply won't believe how prepared you are!  It's like you're pulling this stuff straight out of the ether fully formed... You aren't, you're just remembering the last 2 parties shenanigans through the adventure and you have a better chance at honing in on the timing and relevant themes.

Steal shamelessly.  D&D isn't about original storytelling, it's about playing around with themes that excite both the DM and the players.  That means, if you use a story or characters from a show, a videogame, a book, or even another D&D campaign nobody will care as long as the game flows well and feels good.  There's no reason to obfuscate where you got your ideas from to the point that they are needlessly complex and confusing.

Keep notes of every mistake, or victim left behind the players, give them the freedom to royally fuck up, be nice, but remember and if the plot starts to drag, start chasing them with their old errors.

Every theme you are thinking about spreading across your whole campaign?  Try and fit it into one session.  Don't save stuff, jam as much into every session as possible and don't plan for some huge third act that will never come.  The more you save, the more you deny your players in the current game, the more sparse your current game will be.  The reason players stop showing up week on week is because the campaign for one reason or another stopped delivering, holding back a bunch of stuff is a really easy way to shoot yourself in the foot.

Be nice.
Don't be a dick, it's your responsibility to present the players with challenges and it's ok to enjoy that... but make sure your friends are having fun.  Sometimes when shit goes sidways and a few PC's die, that's totally fine, that happens in my games constantly... but I try not to be a bastard about it.  It's a necessary evil to maintain our style of play which is high risk high reward.

Don't listen to DM advice. Haha saved it for last!
If you and your group are having fun, just keep doing what you are doing.  Every group is different and every yowling voice online screaming "there's only one right way to play D&D" is someone you should probably ignore...
Unless they are at your table and you are both having a good time.