DMing a game of Dungeons & Dragons is much like creating any other type of art. Practising it is only one way to get better. The vast majority of artists and creatives in the world spend as much or more time consuming other people’s creations as they do creating things for others.

Stephen King names reading more as one of the best ways to improve in On Writing. Cinema is chock-full of shout-outs and homages to the directors and writers who inspired the current generation.

This applies to DMing in D&D 5e as much as it does anything else. You can get better at storytelling, narrating, worldbuilding, and more by consuming almost any media around you.

However, some media is unusually beneficial for a DM to take in. Even if it’s not directly to do with DMing or even D&D, you can learn lessons from it that will improve your game. This can crop up in any genre or medium, as long as you know what to pay attention to.

Helldivers 2 is an Evolving Live-Service Game with a GM

Much like almost everyone else on the internet, I have taken an interest in Helldivers 2. I’m not its biggest fan in my D&D group, but I’ve poured more than a few hours into its thrilling minute-to-minute gameplay, mostly holding the line against Automatons with a DMR.

However, Helldivers 2 is most interesting because it’s one of the few games to exploit the true potential of a live-service game. Rather than following a pre-set plan, it uses a mixture of player actions, GM authority, and clever legerdemain to tell an evolving story.

The actions of Joel, Helldivers 2‘s infamous Game Master, are one of the reasons the game has proven so successful. Obviously, your D&D 5e campaign isn’t making millions of dollars and doesn’t have a team of engineers to implement your will. However, that isn’t to say you can’t learn from Joel’s example.

The overall reactivity of the Helldivers 2 galaxy is a great example. Players decide which planets live or die through their collective actions, much like how any D&D 5e campaign should go.

A better lesson is how Joel interacts with the community themselves. Planets like Malevelon Creek become major symbols and lynchpins of the campaign because the players care about them, not because somebody at Arrowhead Game Studios decided they should be.

When Helldivers 2 players launched an ambitious plan to outflank the Automaton frontlines and isolate one of their planets, Joel and the crew tweaked the game’s mechanics to let it work – if the players put in the effort.

Helldivers 2‘s GMing and story aren’t perfect, but they’re an invaluable example to follow. Listen to your group – it’s a social activity. If they care about something, forefront if. If they have an idea, work with them.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Creates Something New From Well-Worn Inspirations

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (from this point on referred to as ‘Star Wars‘ like it was originally), is one of the most revolutionary films of all time. However, it’s far from wholly original.

George Lucas created Star Wars by digging into almost everything he liked in cinema and fiction. It’s a sci-fi movie, sure. But it’s also a Western, a samurai film, a war movie, and a piece of fantasy that perfectly follows the hero’s journey.

Han Solo flies a spaceship and fires a blaster pistol. This doesn’t mean he isn’t a morally ambiguous outlaw with a quick wit and a heart of gold like you’d find in a Sergio Leone movie. The Rebellion is partly inspired by Vietnam. Hell, Darth Vader’s helmet is pretty much a sci-fi version of a samurai helm.

On Artificial Twenty, I am a huge advocate for DMs (and players) borrowing liberally from any and all media they enjoy. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and everyone has enjoyed plenty of fiction they want to flatter.

What sets Star Wars apart is how much of an original, distinctive, coherent world it created from these disparate elements.

For DMs, I would thoroughly recommend following George Lucas’s example. Look at everything you love. Consider how elements from each could fit together to create something that feels new in a D&D fantasy world.

D&D Actual Plays Are the Easiest Source of Guidance

Now, this answer is so obvious that it might be cheating. However, watching one (or more) of the many D&D 5e actual play series and podcasts out there on the internet is the closest you can get to someone telling you how to play D&D better.

You don’t even have to stick to the beloved and immensely successful classics like Critical Role or Dimension 20. Anything, from an industry juggernaut to a mid-sized indie show to a few people with a small following rolling dice, can be a valuable way to learn.

Apart from anything else, most people DMing a good D&D 5e actual play have good ideas. They might have storytelling techniques, houserules, ways of running things, or ideas about the game your own D&D 5e campaign could benefit from. Again, imitation is flattery.

Furthermore, it often gives you something to look up to. Don’t fall prey to the Mercer Effect, don’t unfavourably compare yourself to a TTRPG industry great. However, it still gives you something to shoot for.

On the opposite tack, it can even provide a morale boost. You might not have Mercer’s top-tier love of everything fantasy, or Brennan Lee Mulligan’s degree in Philosophy and years of writing experience, but they’re not perfect.

Looking at the shortfalls of top-tier D&D 5e DMs, areas where you might do better, can be a great way to learn where you excel as a Dungeon Master. Lean into those areas more.

Magic: The Gathering’s Story is Ideal Non-Stop Heroics

Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering have closer ties than ever, not least due to Wizards of the Coast cross-proliferating their franchises year after year. I encourage D&D 5e DMs to learn further into this, and use the Magic: The Gathering storyline as a learning tool.

Now, I am not claiming that the Magic story is one of the universe’s great works of literature. It ranges from surprisingly good to occasionally bad. However, that’s part of my point. It doesn’t have to be.

Magic: The Gathering‘s story has thousands of fans from all across the world, often with a self-aware tinge. This is because it is an uncomplicated tale of non-stop heroics through a series of fantastical locations, with a colourful cast of characters. You know, sort of like most D&D 5e campaigns.

Given it exists to sell a tabletop game, Magic: The Gathering‘s story is a reasonable one-to-one for how many DMs run their campaigns. It doesn’t need to be a work of revolutionary fiction or a heartrending experience, it needs to provide fairly constant entertainment people use for easy recreation.

If you have higher hopes for your D&D 5e campaign (and don’t we all?), I encourage you to pursue them.

If you want to run a dependable, engaging, action-heavy content for your D&D 5e campaign, I thoroughly recommend checking out how Magic: The Gathering does the same without feeling repetitive, tiresome, or too highbrow.

In addition, the many, many missteps in Magic: The Gathering storytelling, including the fierce internet backlash to them, also provides a guide on what to avoid in this sort of narrative. That said, there are some moments of genuine brilliance too.

Divinity: Original Sin II Shows the Benefits of Planning Ahead

One of the strengths that tabletop RPGs have over video game ones is how much more reactive a human can be than even the cleverest machine. A human DM simply lacks the limitations of a video game’s story and design.

In a video game RPG, you do what the game lets you. In a TTRPG like D&D 5e, you do what the DM doesn’t forbid you. The distinction is subtle, but immensely impactful on the feeling.

One of the few games that comes close to matching a TTRPG’s flexibility – and thoroughly earns its reputation as one of the best games ever made – is Divinity: Original Sin II.

This is partly because Original Sin II is designed flexibly, to function whether players engage with the intended route, find novel answers to every problem, or slaughter everyone they come across.

However, it’s also because of how much time and effort goes into designing every aspect of Divinity: Original Sin II‘s game world. There are no pointless side corridors, no areas lacking content, and very few corridors with only one way to proceed.

Wherever you go in Divinity: Original Sin II, you will find a questline worth following, an entertaining NPC to speak to, or valuable loot to reward your ingenuity. In many ways, this feels genuinely more flexible and responsive than a DM scrambling to come up with responses on the spot.

I am a big improv DMer in D&D 5e, planning loosely and adapting on the fly to what my party do. It’s a valid approach. However, Divinity: Original Sin II shows how rewarding it can be to prepare ahead of time and let your party find (or miss) things that already exist.

That said, Divinity: Original Sin II had a AAA video game budget, and most D&D 5e DMs don’t. You neither need to nor can be expected to put in that much prep. But the philosophy is still worth considering.

These have been five pieces of media, ranging from the D&D-based to the entirely unrelated, that I think can genuinely help a DM improve their game. There are countless others, encompassing almost all fiction ever published. However, I think these stand out.

If you’ve enjoyed this content, please do leave a like, share it with your fellow DMs, and check out other articles like the ones suggested below. It all helps, I really appreciate it.

If you’re particularly strapped for D&D 5e DMing inspiration, try ‘Five Ways to Make D&D 5e Quests When Low on Ideas‘.

If you’re looking for more overarching DMing help, then ‘Four D&D 5e Villain Motivations That Aren’t Conquering the World ‘Just Because’ can help create a (relatively) original campaign.