Guidelines: How To Dungeon Master

Dungeon Masters (DM) are the bread of any quest and responsible for the creation of enjoyable and engaging quests,
that the players as well as the Dungeon Masters themselves may enjoy.

We will split this document in several different questions, so you - as the reader - may absorb the implications better and properly.

Beginner DM: What am I for a Dungeon Master?
Every Dungeon Master is different in his execution of a quest, some DMs prefer to have every situation planned out to the deepest of its description,
while others have a completely intuitive hosting style that creates the story on the fly.
These both types are the most extreme versions of dungeon mastering,
and every other style can be neatly placed in-between the lines of these two extremities.

It does not matter if there is a preference of Roleplay, Combat, Puzzle and other kinds of directions, you as the DM will take.
At the end of the day, you will have to decide yourself, how the tavern maiden will react to the bard trying to seduce her, how the enemies will ambush the player in the middle of their long rest, how the cubicle of life may be reactivated and so on - they will always require a certain amount of planning and intuitive acting
You will find out yourself, what your playstyle is overtime, this will take a great amount of time and experimentation on your side,
but is highly recommended to find out as soon as possible.

Beginner DM: Can you give me an example, on how to structure a quest?
Certainly, you can use this list to create a rough outline, on how your quest might look like:
1. Introduction/Meeting of the Player Characters
2. Introduction of the Quest/Quest Giver
3. (Optional) Players use their time before they adventure to prepare (Background Feat, Adventure Equipment)
4. Players are heading to the Quest Location (Optional) Random Encounter/Special Encounter
5. Having arrived at the Quest Location, they try to complete it.
6. (Optional) They complete additional bonus quests.
7. They return back to the quest giver and complete the quest.

Beginner DM: How do I set up my own quests?
Creating engaging quests with no loopholes can be quite taxing, especially if you have players that are abusing the system constantly.
Here are steps that you should follow, to have a rough skeleton of a framework that you can work on.
1. Decide what your quest will be focusing on such as combat, rp, puzzle, exploring, heist etc.
2. Decide what the end goal of the quest will be - is it to save the hamlet from the goblins? To acquire a certain item?
3. Create a rough sketch, on how your quest progresses. For example: Players meet each other, go to quest giver, they gather information, they go to the new location,
they meet the target, they negotiate with the target, negotation fails and combat happens etc.
4. Plan for player contingencies and their resolutions - BBEG got unexpectedly captured? Next quest, he will be back because of noble connections.
5. Plan for possibilities, to save your players from their certain doom. Did they survive a certain amount of rounds for possible reinforcements? A favor from a strong faction/NPC?