Play some music -
Music and soundscapes set the mood for your adventure, but it’s distracting to constantly DJ your game. Try these atmospheric playlists by Brian Davis. Includes soundtracks for swamps, saloons and stealthy missions.
Pre-generated Characters -
Jump into a quick game by printing out these ready-made character sheets. Encourage your players to make up a name and customize character details.
Develop character voices - Bring your NPCs to life with unique voices and accents.
Snag voices from movies, games and celebrities
Bardic.io lets you practice accents from around the world
This video helped me develop unique voices beyond their fun accents
Not into accents? Check out this fun guide to vocal tics
Your characters live in a fantasy world! Don’t make them into racial stereotypes.
Write with ‘Nodes’ - Writing a Dnd campaign is difficult. If you force players to follow a specific path, they’ll get bored. How can you prepare a story for characters with free will?
Node-based storytelling is about writing scenarios that lead to each other. I recommend reading the fourth post for a nice example of Node-Based Storytelling.
Steal story ideas - Dungeon Snacks are small puzzles that can be tossed into a game. For help writing the bigger plot of your adventure, check out:
Eureka 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters
These 501 story ideas are wildly creative and can easily fit into your world. Here is a free 19 page preview which gives the idea.
Suffer Grimtooth’s Traps - This epic collection of 500+ traps from the 1980s is violent, sadistic and a lot of fun. Your players will be smooshed by giant billiards balls, eaten by bloodthirsty lobsters and fall into deep carpets.
I recommend watering them down before putting them in your game.
You can find the books online, including:
'Grimtooth’s Traps’ ‘Grimtooth’s Traps Too’ ‘Grimtooth’s Traps Fore’ and ‘Grimtooth’s Traps Ate’
Easier game prep - Preparing a Dnd game gets easier the more you play. Instead of spending hours writing scripts and complex notes, this two page method saves time and encourages improvisation.
For more stuff like this, check out dnd reddit communities:
Behind the Screen - Resources for DMs
DM Academy - Where DMs chat about games and methods
Dnd Homebrew - Silly ideas for your home made world