Start DMing and don't die trying

Fears of a very inexperienced DM.

Author

Irene's Grimoire
November 28, 2025

Happy Friday!

It's been a super exciting week for us.

Many of you have been incredibly supportive of the launch of our DM Cheat Sheets for D&D 5.5 2024, and we are very grateful.

Remember that if you purchase them today before 11:59 p.m. and write I KNOW THE SECRETS OF THE GRIMOIRE in the purchase message, you will also receive for free our fillable monster sheets.

A difficult start...

This week we were able to use our new sheet at our Curse of Strahd gaming table, as we resumed the game after a long break. Wich brings me back to how it started.

Did you know that this is the first long campaign I've ever run?

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time...

There was a wizard named Irene who wanted to play D&D but didn't have the confidence to run a campaign. She was overwhelmed by the amount of information and preparation required, and above all, by having to play so many characters.

One day, the bard Saul casted a spell on her to give her the courage she needed to gather a group of friends, most of whom were inexperienced in the secrets of D&D.

The moment Irene feared arrived. The first characters were two children, and Irene only had two words written down on a piece of paper to differentiate them: “fearful” and “bossy.” But something unexpected happened, when the children started talking, Irene used the most cartoonish voice she could muster and made puppy dog eyes, exaggerating those two words. The group connected with them despite how nervous the game master was, and they enjoyed a game that they still remember fondly today.

After that game came another, and another, and another... A year has passed since then, and the other day Saúl introduced them to his new character by singing to us and accompanying his song to the rhythm of wooden spoons. We all shouted and screamed with excitement and shared our plans and new goals for our game.

And they lived happily ever after with Strahd and his castle.

Who do you think are these characters?

And what did I want to tell you with all this?

Well, that sometimes it's more important to let yourself go in games and stop worrying about what people will say.

Few tricks are as useful to me today as writing down two keywords about the characters to always have them in mind. It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders and allows me to have fun with my friends.

That's why in our Game Master Reference Sheets we added a fillable form for NPCs where you can jot down four significant details about their personality and history as bullet points. You don't need more than that, but it's very useful to keep this in mind as it can help you get those characters back on track when you're not sure how they would react in unexpected moments.

Did you also get nervous running your first game? Tell us about it here or reply to this email.

Bontiful quest and better rolls!

🦉Irene the Wizard

🦃Saul the Bard

PS: Psssst, remember that today is the last day to get free monster fillable sheets with the purchase of the Reference Sheets for the DM.