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Over on the official D&D forums, I’ve discovered a thread dedicated to lessons learned while DMing with a significant other. Without even going to the many other links in the original post, there’s some good tips for DMs of all degrees of expertise.

One item that I think is great is doing a survey of sorts before starting a DM. As most DMs should know, D&D is all about the players. So what better way to set up a campaign than to actually ask them?

So, here are the questions I ask (and you might think of others):
All of the questions are ranged on a scale
1) Role Playing — Mix — Roll Playing
2) High — Mid — Low Fantasy
3) High — Mid — Low Magic
4) High — Mid — Low Power
5) Dark — Average — Light : Tone and Mood
6) G — PG — R : Rated descriptions and content

Now of course, this is fitting for a fantasy-based campaign. If you’re running something that’s more modern or sci-fi, you might tweak the questions a bit, such as High-Mid-Low Technology, rather than magic.

There may also be some other questions that you may want to ask that are also based on a scale. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• High — Mid — Low Loot Amount
• High — Mid — Low XP Rewards

Different players may have differing opinions on how much loot and/or XP is distributed to the party as a whole. While there are definitely those who like getting rich and powerful quickly, there are still those who like to take a more modest approach to role-playing.

So next time you’re about to start a new campaign, give each of your players a survey containing the above questions, as well as any others you can think of. It can definitely help you become a better DM!

(Source: Lessons from DMing with my GF on the official D&D Forums)