With my seventh D&D session as a DM happening this coming weekend, it’s pretty obvious I’m still a noob DM and finding out what type of DM I am.

So I think my insights are limited at times by my lack of experience. Which is why I find following the likes of Matt Colville, Jim Murphy, Dael Kingsmill and Sly Flourish on the various social media platforms handy.

I’m like a magpie. I spot their shiny nuggets of useful information and take them. Some of it may find it’s way into the current campaign and how I do things. Whilst other stuff gets hidden away for later.

Other times I’ll see something that gets me thinking, like the following tweet by Sly Flourish on Monday.

From my limited experience of running sessions Slys observation at the con he attended would have been what I expected to see as the norm.

I’m a long way off from being able to run a session at a con. Let alone one at my FLGS (although that would be the first step towards running a session at a con).

The reason I say I’d expect his observation to be the norm is because when you run a session that uses miniatures and dungeon tiles that is a lot of stuff to carry around. It’s a lot more prep making sure you can make the map out of what you have. Add on the set up time during play. Which eats into the limited game time you have at a con.

There is a reason you see videos from the likes of Arcane Library, Jim Murphy etc with their minimalist DM kits that they take to cons (I did a post about this with links to some videos here). The less you have to carry the better. If getting to the con involves air travel that’s a major point to consider with baggage limits. But even if driving do you really want to be lugging around huge amounts of stuff? It’s a hassle when it’s local for my sessions. A con just amplifies that hassle by a magnitude.

I’ve not run theatre of the mind combat yet. Not sure I’m ready to try it. I need to be a bit further along my journey as a DM.

I think I’d be one of the ones drawing a rough diagram. Using tokens to represent monsters and players (at the moment, I did back a kickstarter that gets me some of those flat standees to use last year).

Although I have cut back a lot. I’m still reviewing what I took to a session afterwards. Pruning out the deadwood. This takes me back to when I could afford and had the time to go backpacking. After a trip I’d review my kit. What did I use? What didn’t get used? If it didn’t get used, why? Obviously a first aid kit can’t be cut. But sometimes a bit of kit can be. Which means next trip the amount you are carrying is less. Less weight makes for a more enjoyable experience.

I’m looking forward to that time I’m running a session at a con. But that is far down the road.