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the problem I have with those posts is that those people who don't like something or find it boring (which is fine) seem to expect everyone else to not like it or find it boring

My go to phrase for enemy deaths is, “Describe to me how you kill this person.” I go with this especially during very important fights or boss fights, as for less significant ones I just describe a quick take down to keep the combat going. But I like giving my players narrative control for the big stuff. I’ll do it the first time they use a new attack or spell as well, or if they have a particularly good roll on a skill check or while attempting something difficult/off the wall

Masterpiece video. Best one you've made, and obviously put a lot of work into it. I also like the long form videos to watch on my lunch break

The video is great. Almost through it and I really enjoy the information. It’s not your fault but man, CZcams is playing adds every 4 minutes. I’m 20 minutes in and I’ve had 5 ads play.

Nice books. Wrong version though.

This is probably the best video of yours that I have seen so far. So many good points, some of which I already follow without really knowing that I do - much respect for your ability to put stuff into words! Thank you for that piece, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Man, I’m honestly so grateful for the friends I’ve made through playing a table top RPG. Prior to meeting these amazing friends, I was really struggling with my mental health. Without going into the details of what happened, when I was 17/18 I went through a very traumatic experience that lasted around 1 year and resulted in me developing PTSD. As a result, I began to isolate myself from others the following 2 years. I’ve always struggled to interact with people, but it got to a point where it felt nearly impossible. Then randomly one day when I was late to class because I got the classroom number wrong, I ended up meeting one of these friends. I still kind of feel bad for being really closed off at first (I was still working through PTSD related stuff at the time, but they didn’t know that) I hardly spoke to them in person in class even though I truly wanted to (this was due to selective mutism). We did exchange contacts however, and they would message me every week, so luckily we were able to get to know each other better that way (which I’m also grateful for). Eventually they asked me if I would be interested in joining their campaign, and that’s how I was eventually introduced to their friends. It was difficult for me to communicate with them all in person at first, but they were all very patient, encouraging and welcoming to me regardless, which once again I just gotta express how grateful I am for that because these people literally helped me restore faith in humanity. I went from being at rock bottom to feeling like I actually matter as a person. None of them knew what I was going through, they were just being genuine good people who helped lift each other up rather than drag each other down, and I will forever be grateful for the friendship we have. Playing as my character has also helped me feel more comfortable expressing myself in a safe environment. The more we played, the easier it became for me to open up to them as well as other people. It’s also given me something I look forward to every week!

The quality of your work is consistently so high! Glad to see a long-form release from you.

Put me off when they said hed destroy the gods. So the other gods are cool with that then? Hes a god, he doesnt get to brake the rules scott free now.

Love your content. Love it in longer form because it's very informative. But, please, pull back on the amount of ads. It feels relentless and really takes away from the enjoyment of watching your vids.

Love long form videos 1hr to 4hrs. Love it!

Oh, throw your red/yellow cards out the feckin window, and just talk and behave like adults.

"...complicated skill tree..." (Immediately shows a glimpse of the skill tree in Path of Exile) Well you're not wrong 😂

Good stuff! This is my advice for new DMs. 1) Have a session 0. Find out what kind of game you and your players want to play. Then make it happen. 2) Don't expect the players to care about your Lore. If they ask questions, then elaborate on it, but don't monolog. 3) Plan 1 session at a time, let the players dictate the story. You can have an over arcing story laid out, but be prepared to change your plans. Nothing will stop your players from coming back faster than taking away their agency and limiting their choices. 4) Keep encounters fresh. Use different monsters, add environmental effects, throw in a timer or a puzzle. Some players don't care about a story, they want to play a Game. Making good encounters will keep them coming back. 5) This isn't critical role. What I mean by this is don't expect too much from your players and temper their expectations of you. DnD is a board game to play with your friends. Laugh, make jokes, eat snacks, your not on a TV show, this is real Life. You don't need to do voices, you don't have to have actor level performances or production quality mintures and battle maps. Do what's fun for you and your friends. The second it starts feeling like work or too much pressure, take a break. No DnD is better than bad DnD.

The Adventure Zone (first campaign) is GOAT. Only 69 episodes (nice) and the players are sort of learning as they play as well, so great for beginners.

Super thankful for this video. My first GM experience was running a oneshot twice, but with two different groups with very different approaches to the game and the story. This has led me to run a campaign (including session zero) for one of the groups next month. It's very encouraging to hear that it's OK to have a unique style of GMing and that I don't have to do all the things I'm either not a big fan of or not good at (yet). And that my players must have liked it if they keep coming back for more. Thank you.

Im finishing a 5 year campaign this Friday. My best advice for long-term campaign is to tell your players the ending from the get. Because what's actually fun is how we all get there.

Damn and I thought I knew how to DM 😂

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Can't speak for everyone but i like the long firm videos.

Спасибо, чел! Это было полезно.

Yes! Thanks for this. I def have imposter syndrome but my players keep coming back and your point about that was spot on!

Holy shit, i lead my first one shot tomorrow and bought Curse of Strahd, this is so life-safing!

Great Video! Thank you so much for this <3

The structure of this video is impeccable, you did great 👍

This is awesome. I'm running my first campaign next week!! Awesome timing

thx very helpful

heh im the firs to comment

It's funny that he described the secrets mechanic as very doctor who because i was thinking while listening that you could string together the core of candlekeep mysteries and ths module as a doctor who campaign, using "the joys of extradimentional spaces" as your Tardis introduction

this is exactly why I actually want to use the real world as a gaming world for DnD, to learn those things, with little to no resistance to transfer the skills/knowledge into utility for the real world. also, when I initially began my research for materials for a game world, I realized that our real world is as cool if not cooler than a fantasy world. did you know there is 1 waterfall castle in Poland? there's the rainbow mountains in china, and then there's tons of ancient ruins, there's also the ruins of an old underground city in the middle east somewhere too. there's also the old damascus steel that Alexander the Great wanted 200 lbs of that "precious steel" since it was basically a "secret technolgy" at the time, it was the only steel that could cut a silk scarf floating down in the air when thrown up in the air, which is interesting since silk has been used for quite some time to stop arrows, which basically meant that it was bullet proof armor back then.

my guess, is that like games that kids play when young, its a helpful fractal representation of life or aspect of life, that trains the players to get used to life.

The whole thing I feel with secrets is a way to tie Vecna with the game and make him feel more present, rather just a guy you see right at the end of the game... Like I already have an idea how I'ma run it... Whenever they get a secret, the players all hear an ear piercing screech, followed by white noise as they see an ethereal version of Vecna commit some sort of evil deed or progressing in the ritual... To give a sense of urgency he's moving along with the ritual - with every secret they get... Because when they first get the Vecna link they see a vision of him - so it would make sense they get a vision of him every time they get the ability to use the Vecna link ability

Good review! I actually really like the Secrets mechanic. Even if a DM doesn't want to include it, Vecna is the Lord of Secrets, so it's perfect for this game. And it's good for them to be experimenting with fun, new mechanics, especially for experienced players.

Vecna: eye of ruin… It has a big mcguffin in it…. Gee, *EYE* wonder what that McGuffin could be

this is funny to me because this is the same thing for me

5e doesn't make you smarter, actually if ANYTHING is the opposite. Turning all interactions into a video game

All schools should just have a D&D club.

6:00 I’d like to say, Aabriya herself doesn’t entirely know the rules either and actively adjusts how things work just to fit her interests. I will never forget when Robbie cast a single-target spell and Aabriya went “hmm no it does AOE dmg now spontaneously because I said so” and used it against the party. Minutes later she asked Matt to clarify the rules on something for her because she straight up didnt know how they worked. And she STILL changed them without telling anybody what was being changed. Theres a fine line between holding people accountable and being vindictive

I love the rule of cool - getting the players do amazing things and have those memorable role play moments makes the game so wonderful. However I do dislike meta gamers and power gamers, so I do insist that a cool action does not create precedence for future actions. This encourages creative thinking to problems because you can’t rely on what you did last time.

Thanks for the warning...passing on this product as well.

Or you could have secrets be scalable. Instead of granting advantage, maybe they have a dice pool of secrets that the players can pull from and add to their rolls. A small secret is a d4, a slightly bigger secret is a d6, etc.

Simplest way is a blank character sheet, then roll the attribute or better, the bonus. Keep track of unlucky rolls, so that the last attribute tested is the best (to compensate).

So it's our generation's "Die Vecna Die"

Why isn't the dude from Mystery Quest here :D ?

5:50 rolled a one, actual. 1-3 = -2. can't find the button, uninstalled windows instead.