How Pro DMs Solved D&D's Encounter Problem
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- How the DM's of #criticalrole and #dimension20 run their games.
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00:00 - Intro Building And Running DnD Encounters
00:17 - Matthew Mercer Reminds His Players To Do This
01:27 - The Dungeon Dudes Quick Tip
03:21 - dScryb
03:51 - Battle Maps Aren't Just For Combat
04:47 - How Matt Mercer Builds His Encounters
06:24 - Theatre Of The Mind vs Minis and Battlemaps
07:20 - Brennan Lee Mulligans Take On Battlemaps vs Theatre Of The Mind
08:27 - Terrain and Encounter Hacks
08:51 - How Aabria Iyengar Runs Puzzle Encounters
10:16 - UNAT
11:43 - Aabria's view on mechanics.
12:47 - Brennan Lee Mulligan And Challenge Ratings
14:00 - Brennans Challenge Hack - Jak na to + styl
It messes with the order a little bit, but what about TUNA?
I think this might be a winner!
Something you didn't mention, but helps drive home the point, is that when Aabria says "we're not letting mechanics get in the way," Matt gives a knowing and emphatic "mmhmm". That's one of the coolest things about seeing these three play at each other's tables, as they're such cheerleaders for each other as DMs. They all have different styles, and there's no sense of judgement or "I wouldn't do it that way". They appreciate the different approaches and how they each bring life to a game session.
It's a great reminder that if you don't want to be a Forever DM, make sure that you're THIS kind of player when you're at someone else's table.
As the primary DM for my group, I tend to follow this line of thinking: If one of my players decides to take up DM'ing and invite me to the table, I'm going to do everything in my power to make it a good time for them. The worst thing I could do is discourage them from DM'ing again.
It seems like common courtesy, but I've seen lots of players (including DMs) not be empathetic towards new DMs with their playstyle/attitude/etc.
@@kylehahn4410 Absolutely!
I know sometimes for an experienced DM it might be difficult to not pitch in when you see inexperienced ones lawyer things in a way you think or know to work poorly or to undermine a player character unfairly or something. And of course at times it is called for to point these things out, but if you're constantly correcting them it becomes discouraging and disrespectful for the newer DM.
In the past I've also had a DM who actually asked if I can assist him with the rules during the game since I was the more experienced one with 5E. He had experience with other systems though, so running games was already familiar to him, just not D&D 5E.
In the end I had very little to comment, so I mostly focused on indulging his ideas and offered to help set up things plot wise and help other players with their characters so he can focus on running the DM side of things.. He would ask periodically what I think if he was unsure about the RAW, but I wouldn't butt in unless there was something I considered a serious oversight.
One of the issues with having battle maps for social encounters like taverns, I have found, is that players have a sort of expectation of combat when they see battle maps. This can lead them to playing in a way to try and "get to the combat" which might not necessarily be there, or you might not have planned for. So be careful where you show the players battle maps, would be my advice, because sometimes it can lead to unexpected aggression.
I think this is something that you as a DM can discuss with your players in a session 0 or above-table conversation if you want to do things this way.
You must be the one to break the habit, free the battle map from its chains, thus liberating it into its true form....a map!
My party has no expectation of this because I've told them not to, it's really not hard to address through communication
@@ReZoTitan
This^
Today, my players ran into a mysterious large, hostile monster. They charmed it then talked to it and found out it was trying to free the magical rocks in their inventory (which turned out to be sentient).
It does come down to a lot of trust between the players and the dungeon master.
*edit: was on “battle” map for context lol
I usually use maps for important locations that my players often visit and therefor theres no expectation of combat, rather they wonder if theres something important there and explore my locations a lot more even if there is combat later in that location.
In addition to just making a few easy encounters, adding something to an encounter that is particularly vulnerable to something unique that one character can do (called a "Lightning Rod" by Mike Shea) can make the character feel special and important to the group.
I only use physical maps when the environment is complicated. If it’s hard to picture then I’ll make a map. Otherwise I’m 100% theater of the mind
The drip feeding questions i feel like doesn't come from a place of player vs DM as much as it is not wanting their cool moment to feel contrived; As a player i want to use the environment around me, but i also don't want to just invent things that weren't in the room to get there
I do agree that the second way is much faster and better, ofc, but drip feeding questions feel more natural? So as to not dispel the illusion that the room didn't exist before you walked into it xD
I think the problem is calling them "Encounters". Just call it exploration and social interactions. Labeling them encounters frames it in an artificial gamey way.
As far as minitures and maps goes. I only use battle maps and minitures for combat. Exploration i use a world Map and theater of the mind. Social interactions is theater of the mind.
Combat is tactical, positing and the immediate environment is important.
A world map is a excellent way to encourage Exploration and layout what difficulties they may come across as they travel.
There is no better way to run a Social interaction than theater of the mind. This encourages players to look up from their character sheet and think about what they want to say and do rather than what their character sheet says they can do.
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Understood. Will deploy the TUNA method next session. Thanks 🐟
Chandeliers, the progenitor of That Pat Rothfuss Bullshit.
This is a reference I do not get.
@@BonusAction A running joke in Acquisitions Incorporated is Patrick Rothfuss's swashbuckler-type character Viari trying to get away with as many hijinks as possible, anything to get an edge in combat, often involving dropping or swinging from chandeliers.
14:01 Shoot the monk! The Worf Effect already ruined one of the biggest badasses of Trek lore. Don't let it ruin the badasses at your table too!
I'm playing my first dnd campaing of all time, my friend is the dm, we are playing Strahd, I'm a rogue, we have also a barbarian, warlock, cleric and a paladin.
There was a moment in our campaing that we had to fight Izek, but he was to strong, so an npc suggested that we poisoned him, by switching one of the bottles of wine of his lunch by a bottle of poisoned wine. While everyone was trying to create a plan about how the hell we would switch the bottle without anyone noticing, I had the idea of switching it before his lunch was delivered to him, since the chef of his house delivered his meal at noon every day. Since I'm an arcane trickster, i've casted minor ilusion (to produce the sound of a diamond falling) with silent image to fake a diamond falling in an alley, when the chef crouched to pick it up, I switched one of the bottles and ran as fast as possible. Can't wait to see what chaos awaits us.
Conclusion: The plan was a success and the role table was mindblow by my strategy (maybe because I'm new and it was really a good plan, or maybe because I'm an idiot that almost always put us in unecessary danger), it was a lot of fun.
PS: I got knocked out in this fight by being punched in the face so hard, that my char was thrown away 30ft and landed unconcious.
Speaking of terrain! I work for a terrain company that makes modular terrain for table top games and we'd love to send you some samples for your games and maybe even your channel. I'm not sure how to best get in touch with you on a professional basis but I work for Death Ray Designs.
Hey, you can find my email under my "channel details" section o my channels page!
TUNA!
No Milk
We‘re grown out of needing milk
Plant Milk yes, but animal milk is (literally) for babies and I no baby
I dislike battlemaps a bit. Just because it takes so much time and resources and money for just a few minutes or hour.
Also if we see the distances and everything, we are bound to the rules. In TOTM you're totally free and can change things up.
I just have not the tools to create everything in a map. Usually i show a picture i build in different softwares for them to get a picture of the scene.
Meanwhile I'm the exact opposite, I fucking *hate* TotM play. I've tried it and everything is so wishy-washy and you end up having to ask a TON of question, "how far away are they?" "If I use this 15ft cone, am I going to hit my team mates" "Ok so there are how many of them again?". Whereas with a Battlemap I can SEE what I can do when it comes to those questions, I don't have to pester the DM about them but I can still ask questions like "so there's this pillar on the map, how tall is it, can I push it over...and does my character think if it's a load bearing pillar or not?"
Is that lackadaisy?
Pro DMs ......mmmmmmm that is subjective.
Pro stands for "Professional"
These peoples' Profession is DMing
They are Professional DMs