Our principles are by no means an exhaustive list of all the great tips and advice you can rely on to run better games, and we only could touch on each so briefly! We'd love to hear YOUR principles for how YOU run great games, too! We have a LOT more to say about improvisation, game prep, managing social issues at the table, and using the rules well. If you'd like to hear us talk more in detail about one of these principles and the tips and tricks that go along with it, please leave a comment to let us know!
I’ve never thought about outlining guiding principles for myself as a DM, at least that I know of. Very good list! I’ll be using most of them for my next campaign
I literally have a suggestions chat that my players can suggest what they would like to see or do in the world. So far I've gotten fights with vampires and just a chill day where they get really drunk throughout the whole session. That's how I get to know my players at least lol.
There's a psychologist i think Ohio University? Who suggests DND to be a tool to rehabilitate prisoners. Implement proper de-escalation, anger management, social practices. Honestly... I think most humans would benefit from improving conflict resolution skills
DM: "You come to a bridge with a man standing on it." New Player (joking to the other players): "What are the chances it's actually like, a demon or something?" DM: "As you approach, the man holds out his hand and says, 'One gold and you may pass. Refuse and I'll turn into a Balrog." New Player: "Uh-huh, right." Other Players: "Dude...he's got a Balrog figure." This has since become a common encounter. We always pay him.
Recently I've been playing a derivative of the game with an old-school DM that he calls 50/50. Basically in any scene there's a chance that something will happen. Dice get rolling and it could be bad or good. After you begin to follow the concept as a player, you start suggesting, "What's the chance that...(something beneficial)" But that can go horribly wrong if the dice say that your saviours are the bad guys.
You guys touched on the video several times but I think it deserves to be its own principle: never lock content behind a single die roll, or make problems that only have a single solution. I've seen games grind to a halt because of stuff like this and it's frustrating for everyone. One more I might add: never take away a player's agency. I don't like to describe how player characters feel, or narrate them doing something that they didn't explicitly say they did.
Colville mentioned in one of his Running the Game videos that he always builds three completely different ways of figuring something out. That way if players fail a dice role or don't notice your planned clue there's still a way forward.
Exactly. The only exceptions to this that I can think of right now is when a character is under the Frightened condition or if they are making a roll for information. Other than that, what a character feels, thinks, or does, is up to the player (in my opinion).
The comment about agency is very important. The second the player doesn't feel any control over their character is the second they start wondering why they are even playing the game. Very little will grind a game to a halt faster than that.
I'll just support some of the commenters, when a character is magically influenced, let them play it. If they are not following through, step in and tell them that what they are doing is in violation of their condition/status.
love the empty boot. i had a tea pot in a witches house. they expected it to be magical so i let it magically brew the most refreshing tasting tea. didn't have any mechanical benefit but they kept trying to find out what it did
This reminds me of something it says in the DM Guidebook. It mentions how the DM's goal isn't to beat the players, or help the players. Their goal is to create a memorable experience. They "Win" when the players have fun, and when the players are smiling.
Netto Games I agree!! I’ve been running a campaign for over a year now for 5-8 players. I started w a Session Zero (although I didn’t know it was that) to see what we’d all like to play together. We ran our game for 6-7 months, & wrapped up my initial ending where they fought a Predator & Artificer tag team and won. I asked players if someone else wanted to DM a new game and they said they really liked my world, keep going. That really amped me up! So next session, they’re magic macguffin went wild & pointed deeper into the caves. They followed, and fought the next level BBEG I had created, who called on a lava elemental, which ignited the volcano under the island. Terrain challenges, powerful minions, secondary but loved NPC captured by BBEG who escapes. And they’re still chasing him down today!
When your players do something random and get an awesome story out of it and think you are a master of improv, but it was actually planned all along and they have been on the rails the whole time. ILLUSION 100
1:00 0. Have fun 3:37 1. Know your players 6:48 2. Be consistent and fair 8:28 3. Foster a positive environment 10:51 4. Use the rules as a tool 12:30 5. Know when to roll the dice 15:53 6. Keep track of time 18:00 7. Be prepared...to improvise 21:31 8. Be forthcoming with information 25:00 9. Embrace player creativity 29:50 10. When in doubt...add an explosion
Hi guys! I’m an experienced player and a new DM who just started a mix of my own adventure with "Out of the Abyss". So, I wanted to thank you for all the DM tips on this channel, which are REALLY smart and helpful. I also find your style rather clever and funny, thanks for not falling into the Demonweb Pits of idiocy nor vulgarity. So, keep up the good work, and if you ever visit Russia, the beer's on me! ;-)
I love when (as a DM) the players choices ruin my gameplan. When the players decide to go against what I am trying to do (pre-planned story line) and forces my mind to go into automatic-improv! After all, improv is what the players are doing.. I’ve had a few groups where I could go in blind, and come out with a thrilling game and the urge from everyone to come back ASAP to continue the story (giving me time to polish up a good ending). Success from everyone contributing. Even once, when I thief stole a weapon and just half-heartily joked “I bet this thing is cursed” (poor cursed weapon), made everyone more intent on figuring out how to remove the curse (none had the spell). Just that change, from one player cracking a stale joke - created an entire campaign of sorts. To this day, there are still inside jokes told of some of those player-created campaigns/multiple sessions.
How is this channel not bigger? Started watching some videos that popped up on my feed yesterday and I already love the content and attitudes! Also I am a first time DM (on a formal setting anyhow) and love all the tips and ideas you guys share!
I think there is "character building" in the traditional sense when you wait for fame, fortune and glory. A misnamed enterprise can be more rewarding then the best, well-marketed concept.
Agreed. And I actually like the name. Only so much word play you can do with 'dungeons' and 'dragons'. Much like their videos, its to the point and before watching my first video of them, I knew their vibe and exactly what theyre channel was about. Pretty effective if you ask me.
I'm a new DM whose going to be running the very first campaign in a couple of weeks. I, of course, have been doing all of this planning and what not to get ready. Part of that is trying to strike the balance between railroading and sandbox play. I'm terrified of the idea of them trying to go somewhere or do something that I haven't planned for or getting bored with me, the world or themselves. The explosion thing is a great idea. I also like thought of generating bad whether or some kind of town event to distract or prevent them from leaving a place to go somewhere that they shouldn't either cuz it will kill them or can't because I have no idea what or who is in the place they want to go yet! I'm also trying to find interesting ways to have NPCs that they have met come along to remind them of things they should or could be doing besides maybe shopping for curtains for their house that I have every intention of burning to the ground. 😃
Guys, seriously, I've been playing tabletop rpg for some years from now on, and for a couple months I've started reading the d&d core books so I can become the DM. You guys are amazing, always explaining everything in the best way possible and also presenting to us so many different things to improve our social experience as well as our RPG skills. Thank you so much for this channel. And see you next video!
Great tips! Thank you for sharing. The point on preparing problems and not solutions spoke to me especially. I remember one game where a player wanted to light some rubble on fire to smoke some baddies out and my response was ‘no, that spell doesn’t work that way’ - partly because the spell didn’t mention lighting things on fire and partly because my gut reaction was that it was ‘too easy of a solution’. After contemplating the situation after the game I realized how bad of a call that was, that basically stifled my players creativity. The next time I met my players I told them what I had realized and ’fessed up to having made a bad call.
Integrity as a GM! You may never personally realize just how rare and special a commodity you have at your table for fostering that atmosphere of positivity... simply for "fessing up to a bad call". While there are SO FEW GM's ever willing to admit a misstep without some painfully obvious "evidence" like a Rules list in Canon, or similar, those few who can step up and say "my bad, guys... I FFFF'ed up." gain trust (so long as it's not a growing habit of FFFF'ing up) by admitting to shortcomings in the steady growth of a group of storytellers. ;o)
How would you solve your situation in a way embracing the player's imagination? "You try to light the rubble on fire with your magic missile. The missile fizzles with a loud rumble as it sends the rubble flying to all sides. No fire is lit, but you hear activity from inside the cave. The commotion has attracted some attention. Roll for initiative." Something like that?
Yeah I did the whole "What if there is a" one of my players said not too long ago. He stumpled upon some random pretty weird traveling merchants. Now I hadnt really planned anything special with these people they were just there to make an otherwise slightly uneventful travel less boring. My player however though they were weird and started asking questions about special good or interesting items they might have stumpled upon in their travels. Minutes later he had one of the most important items I have created for this game in his hands after having tradet A LOT of his other items for it. Best part is. He has given so much for this item and find it super interesting so no way he will just throw it away.
Also on improvising don't be afraid to say you didn't prepare that, esp as a new DM. I am running my first campaign and week one my players wanted to keep going past what I prepared. I told them "You see completely darkness down the stairs almost as if god had not yet created the next room" which got a laugh. Then we have a choice. 20 min intermission or leave off here. It had been over 3 hours so everyone agreed it was a good stopping point.
@@dford4014 legit this was so long ago I don't even recall what happened. but my players are the kind of people that will blast throuhg a mini boss in 3 rounds and then spend 2 hours taming a wild animal. They're hard to prep for and I love them.
@@goblincleric4130 my old group wasted a session where he had a friend come by as a DMPC for shopping, only for us to delay the fight with the helmed horror to a day where my level 2 ranger was the solo healer. Nobody died! But everyone hates the taste of goodberries at this point.
This channel has been really really helpful. After 35+ years since DMing D&D 2e, I was really daunted getting traction to get started. Back in the day there just was few examples to draw from. I feel ready and excited to get a party going and knowing that there are resources I can leverage from. Thanks to the Dungeon Dudes!
Something that really grinds my gears is when fellow players just say "I roll for (for example) Arcana" instead of describing the actions they are taking and letting the DM decide when a roll is called for and which one. A typical example is also "Oh yeah one time I did this thing with this guy-" "INSIGHT CHECK!" instead of just "This seems a bit suspect. Do I believe them?"
I think the best response to someone announcing what they are rolling for is the DM responding to the roll and not relating it to the situation at hand. For example: Player: "I roll arcana" ... Rolls dice ... "I rolled a 22" DM: "that's a pretty good arcana roll, you have a sudden vivid recollection of this passage you read in a book which discussed the possible negative side effects of mixing various potions, all of which has nothing to do with the situation at hand. Now what would you like to *do*?"
I would say, it's not only fun, why we play games - it's more broad that that: Experiencing intense emotions. Surprise and even "negative emotions" can be what we strive for in our play-sessions. Because in the end, even a sad story can be an memorable experience enriching your life.
Somewhat related to #9 and something I learned in the first game I ever DM'd: If your players have some kind of plan, be sure to ask them to elaborate or explain their end-goal. It'll help the player understand what they really want from that plan/action and will allow you to help them achieve that goal. That way, there'll be little to no miscommunication.
I especially loved the last rule. I too always abide by the idea of focusing on truly what matters - the emotion of the scene, and keeping it exciting. Everything else follows.
Matt Colville has a principle, "Orcs attack": add extra random encounters to break up deadlocked debates. Your principle 10 is much more general: add unexpected action to change a situation that is bad for any reason, either losing or easily winning or confused or boring.
I have a couple of guidelines: A) Roll first, calculate second. B) Death must be earned. A) ideally, you already know (and have made a note of) the threshold values for likely die rolls - at a minimum, precalculate the combined modifier for a given monster's standard attacks rather than having a list of modifiers for base attack modifier, weapon modifier, modifiers from buffs they usually use, terrain modifiers for its home field, etc, that you then have to spend ten seconds adding up every time they attack. On the other hand, players will always do something unexpected eventually. At that point, rather than spending thirty seconds working out modifiers and figuring out what the system says they need to roll, get them to roll the d20. If they roll 15-20, it's probably a success; if they roll 1-10, it's probably a failure; if they roll 10-15, then you might want to actually calculate it. It's worth calculating things from time to time anyway just to check that your intuition is on target, but, in general, for well over half of rolls, you know, and the players know, whether it's a success or a failure the moment the die lands, without needing any calculations. If the threshold is too extreme (can only fail on a 1 or only succeed on a 20) then you probably shouldn't be bothering to roll anyway. B) Character deaths should count. A PC shouldn't die because a group of goblins couldn't miss while the PCs couldn't roll a hit to save their lives (literally). If players do something stupid, like charge into battle with an elder wyrm at first level, then, sure, let them die unless they can come up with a convincing alternative - and a deliberate heroic sacrifice is always awesome - but the PCs, the heroes of the story, shouldn't die by choking on their food, or in a random encounter designed to soften them up a little for the upcoming boss. If the PCs are going to die senselessly, then start cheating in their favour.
Hey guys, another great video and some great tips! I took your advice on the feats for my Bard class, he really was a force to be reckoned with!... Until we walked into an ambush and I got suckered with a shovel to the face... I tore it off the guys corpse and it's already a running joke after session 1. Thanks for the pointers guys, keep up the amazing work you do.
Adding too much description to an area, or adding too much personality to a random NPC interaction, can cause the adventure to derail. Players often ascribe too much importance to anything that catches their attention.
Indeed. It's a tight rope to walk. Players need enough to work with, but not so much that it overwhelms, confuses, or distracts them. Finding the right mix your a given group of players is a huge challenge every DM has to overcome, and it really differs from group to group. I run games for some players that just eat up every little of description I throw at them, but I've also run for others who want only the bare essentials.
I mostly agree with this, but at the same time, using description to cause players to become fascinated by something which is actually mundane can be a useful tool.
To be fair, this isn't always a bad thing. I once had a green dragon wyrmling try to ambush a sleeping party, with the intention of just being a random encounter. To my complete surprise, they managed to befriend it and it's even managed to convince them to slay a bunch of monsters in its territory and I've been able to use that little dragon to start dozens of adventure hooks.
I agree as a DM. IF I give detail to an area my players go "OOOOOH DETAIL! HE MUST BE PLANNING SOMETHING" where most of the time I am just making it neat and descriptive.
@@davecam4863 This actually goes with voices too. My coworker's brother was DMing for him and his group and had this NPC running up to tell them something important, but the voice the brother was using sounded crazy shady and conniving. Thus tons of time spent trying to check for deception and use intimidation all to later learn from the DM that the guy was honest; he just made a bad use of that voice, lol.
Thank you guys this is a big help! Just started DMing Lost mine of Phandelver and my 3 brand new players to table top anything ( wife son and co-worker) as well as my somewhat veteran best friend said they loved it my son wanted to play the next day after a 12 hour session haha I feel like next session is going to be great after I listen to this a few times!!!!
As a new player of DnD watching your videos is very helpful. Especially since several of the people in the game I am in want to do a second game so that the DM can have extra time to prepare. I was asked to come up with at least a one shot to DM for the group and had hit a brick wall when writing down ideas and how I wanted things to go. Watching a few of your videos has helped me tremendously and inspired me to build a world that I believe my friends will enjoy for a very long time. So thank you for the inspiration and advice that your videos have provided for me.
Great video (as usual), guys. There are a lot of good points and good advice given here. I think that points 7 & 9 together can make for fantastic games/scenes. I was the same way when I started DMing (a book of notes, all the scenes planned out, etc.). I have tried kicking that habit over time and even though I always make sure to prepare a good adventure, I usually leave things open by just offering bullet points or possibilities instead of concrete outcomes. One of my favourite instances of this was when my players were searching out a white dragon. People in town claimed not to have seen it. One man said that only "Crazy Old Bill" truly claimed to see it (this was my way of following rule 6 and saving time. "Only a crazy guy saw it; just go up the mountain so you guys can do something fun today.") They engaged this though. Oh, no... No preparation here. Time to improvise! They get to Bill's house and find four scarecrows outside. Going in, they find a ragged robed man asking how they got past his " guards." He speaks what seems to be nonsense, mentioning an invisible beast riding the dragon (which was "hard to see"), the voices of people who don't know they are dead, and an evil jester. The players climb the mountain to find a nearly invisible (in the snow) yeti, sense what could have been banshees, and encounter their evil clown nemesis with the dragon. The four dead adventurers in the cave also happen to wield weapons identical to the ones the scarecrows had. The players had said, " I wonder if he's a divination wizard who fought the dragon and went crazy." Well, now he was. We made it canon that his party died there and all of his premonitions involving the party came true. All improvised because they suggested it. It ended up being a memorable scene and character and it was all because the players had agency to just try something. And as for borrowing from other media, our main story is basically my three favourite games as a kid, all mashed in to one, making a unique story. The players are taking their own direction with it too, so it is becoming a new story in its own right. I have really enjoyed this just because seeing characters from those games end up in new and exciting stories has meant that I get to evolve them beyond the scope of their original source. Sorry for the rant; it's my thing I do when something excites me and this video really got me thinking. = ]
The best dungeon I have ever designed was built upon player creativity. I built a dungeon of traps and rooms with strange puzzles in order to proceed. But I had not created a single solution for these rooms or traps. I knew what they did and how they worked, but I didn't know how to get past them. I decided that if my players attempted a solution, and it was believable and creative enough, I'd guide them to making it work. One of the paths dead-ended to a giant fish-bowl room with a massive goldfish swimming in it. After nearly thirty minutes of discussion one of the players spontaneously decided to jump in with the fish, so I said that it swallowed him. I told him separately that he felt a rush as he landed on the floor of another area in the dungeon, but the other players simply saw their companion eaten by a giant fish. Eventually they figured it out and everyone got through, but the panic and problem solving that occurred in the entire dungeon was amazing to watch.
I’m starting to dm to get better at my story telling. I took the idea of Greek mythology and the fall of Olympus. I didn’t know where to really start until I set key points of my story- Eros and psyche, ares and thecoliseum, the 5 rivers, a merging of hades (place) and the heavens, etc etc. all these place came into be and I realized how I surprisingly created a story that has a web of connections. So long story short, I just took what I knew and started with places and then people and started developing my story based on my disgustingly high d20 roll on a history check. Thanks for these awesome tips!
I’ve been into D&D for a year now. I’ve only ever played as the DM. I’m still learning the rules and every once in a while I’ll run into a rule I don’t have much experience with so I make up a ruling on the fly. When I have time to really look at the rules to see if I was right it’s often been incorrect. With that, I struggle with consistency a lot. A ruling from a previous game won’t always be the same ruling the next time. It understandably frustrates people. I’m getting better the more time goes on though so i hope it’s a temporary problem.
It is! Kelly here. I was a player for 5 years before becoming a DM and I had the same issue with consistency. The more you play, the more it sticks. Some games are better than others but generally each game I DM is a push in the right direction and I can feel me getting better and better.
I love there kind of video because I’m horrible at being descriptive of stuff and talking as a NPC. This has helped be become a little better at being a DM.
Thank you so much for doing these videos! Had never played before or even rolled anything besides a d6 in my life but got the starter set for my friends and I. Was instantly overwhelmed when I found out what it meant to be a DM. We're about half way through LMoP having a blast and I wouldn't be running things half as well without these videos.
One thing I´d recommend a GM should do is to ask warmup questions just as the session is about to begin. Asking your players questions like "What is your characters deepest fear?", "What is your characters greatest regret in life?" or "Which of the other PCs does your character trust the most and which one does your character trust the least?" makes your players really think about things they may not have thought about before, which in turn helps everybody get into the game a little bit easier.
Thank you very much for talking about players that really like to stick to the rules. I am one of them. Inconsistent rulings by a DM make the game really hard for me to get into.
I think that even if you aren't having an amazing amount of fun a campaign can still be fantastic. You should strive to make sure that your game is compelling as well as fun.
Compelling, engaging, intellectually stimulating, exciting, gripping - these are all “fun” in our books. It’s that “thing” what makes the game satisfying and rewarding experience. Whatever fun means to you, it’s the reason to play the game!
I thought something totally different when you first mention rule #4 rules are tools. Great point btw nothing slows a session down like endless rules debates. My version of rules are tools refers to using, especially the more tedious rules, only when they add to the adventure, story or the setting. I tend not to use the travel rules random encounters, rations, exhaustion, distance traveled per day if the players are just going from place to place in the same localized safe area. However, if they are exploring unexplored territory where figuring out how to survive is part of the adventure sure. Similarly I don't track spell components unless they are expensive but if the players are shipwrecked maybe I throw that challenge at the spell casters to figure out what spells they can scrounge the materials for. The rules are there to give you tools to work with to make the world challenging and fell real but if they aren't adding any value feel free to ignore them.
YES! We completely agree. Use the rules that are USEFUL to you, that do the things you need them to do to build your game and creature structures for better storytelling. Rules are supports for a DM, not a straightjacket :)
One thing that helps a lot with Improv as both a player and a DM is understanding the core concept of "yes, and..." When you're doing cooperative improvising, that's the entire name of the game. No matter how utterly ridiculous it might seem to you, you accept it at face value and build on it by adding to it. I find that when players and the DM keep this in mind, there's less instances of arguing about things and more storytelling and fun to be had. A lot of times in my experience, the biggest thing that can either slow games down or grind them to a halt entirely are when people take the OPPOSITE of this philosophy, which would be "no, but..." This often times to leads to bickering about semantics or small unimportant details, when really all that's needed is to just roll with it, and go "yes, and then x and y and z!" to keep the story flowing smoothly.
Surprise is so important, and as the DM surprise is always when and how you want it. Never forget that you can spice things up at any time for any reason
As always, excellent content, gentlemen. As a DM one of my core principles is being both infallible and fallible in the same go. I don't like referencing books, but there are times when I don't recall precise wording of a spell, or a minor blurb of dialogue about a character i had to improvise a month ago. Other players might. I think a core principle is being willing to admit if something you said isn't 100% right but, as you said so eloquently, that you're also the final deciding authority on what happens in the game. Ultimately you are the structure around the which the system is built.
That was a big thing I struggled with for my first couple of sessions. I made my players roll dice way too often. Specifically for stealth in an area of a dungeon where they weren't near anything. I fixed it for future encounters like this by letting my players ask if they could and granting it to them if I thought it made sense.
I used to write massive "novels" to make GM notes. Just to have a plan how to act when players did X, Z or Y. I did it because i knew I was not good at improv. Those noted took work, but they did help me to create sessions that made sense and were enjoyable to everyone. Now a days I still do quite alot of notes (Maybe 2 - 6 pages for 4h - 6h session, mostly depending on the situation) but it's less than they used to be, and do include most of the monster stats for quick reference.
Another great way to keep the dice rolling down, you can use passive checks as a baseline. Trying to lift up a 100lbs gate thats not locked for a character that has an 18 strength wouldn't be that difficult, so don't roll the dice.
My main principle for new DMs is fun is the priority. Fun is above the dice rolls, the rules, and whatever story you, the DM, are trying to tell. DMs win when the party has fun and comes back for more.
Cracking video yet again. Absolutely love the fundamental points and very well explained! Also - so much respect for rolling out in the open. I do the same. Only reason I use a screen is to hide the minis until they come in to play (for effect) and for the useful tables on the DM side. Still producing unique and epic content guys keep it up!
I have watched a bunch of Dudes videos, and I think this was the most helpful for me. I am building a mini campaign that will be closer to epic thanks to these guidelines. Keep it up, Monty and Kelly!
Fantastic video guys. I couldn't agreed more with it. There are an unruly number of "tips" for DMs and some great places to look for it including right here.
"The Last of Us" gave me a beautiful, stark, and scary environment for my players to make it through last session. The God of Plants was making a ruckus, and had infected the beasts of the Land with cordyceps spores, making them into her numerous spies.
Such amazing advice, thank you! One of the things I learned as an improviser on stage was to never say "no." That shuts down a scene and all of the potential that goes with it. Besides, PCs almost always zig when you think they are going to zag anyway, so I'm always prepared for them to go all "open world" on me. I love character-driven narrative, so let the players engage in their stories as much as I can. But there are always consequences. As for ripping off other material--DO! many of Shakespeare's plays were written from existing folk stories. The campaign I'm running right now is a weird fusion of an SCA Kingdom and the Hundred Years War. There's some good storytelling in that and lots of high drama!
I think I’ve watched all your content as of now. Always golden-Always watch through to the end. Thank you guys for being such a bastion of knowledge for the D&D community! ❤️ Have you guys considered offering DM/player classes for patrons or some form of monetary compensation? I would pay good money to DM a game for you guys as the players and then have you critique/teach me where my skills need improvement.
In one of my most memorable games, we were fighting a Lich, and everyone else fell. Nobody died. It literally came down to my character and the Lich. I beat it with single digit hp left. I agree fully in avoiding battles of attrition, but sometimes there are enemies that will refuse to surrender. I'm considering having a courage rating, so the players can do insight checks to see if they can scare some enemies away. Sorry, for the long-windedness, I was taken right back to the energy inn the session. So good.
Good list. Agree that improv is the most important skill. You cannot account for every scenario. I do what was you guys stated, plan what will happen without the characters.
Just fantastic advice I like all 9 plus X rules. I did get a little nervous with the introductory comments around "fun". Needless to say the whole point of the hobby is to have fun but some sessions and some of the most memorable and rewarding sessions are not fun. Players character deaths is not fun; it may be fair and it may make perfect sense from a story perspective but for the player losing a character it's not fun at all. Players can sometimes spend large amounts of time debating what to do and sometimes it gets heated. This is not fun and as a DM you can try to give them options and information so they can reach agreement but letting them settle it is important to their teamwork and agency. Sometimes it's that long tough fight that takes forever because ten different things go wrong that everyone remembers years later. Also "fun" is now used as a justification for just ignoring every rule and pressuring the DM to fudge every roll so the players never die and always succeed. I'm guessing both of you know this but it might be important to talk about fun being the long term goal
Exactly! Fun is a great "catch all term" . -- but what we are really going for is an exciting and engaging game experience. The thing is that "people have fun in different ways.* One person's fun is another person's tedious snoozefest. This is why we put principle #1 as "know your players".
"Add an explosion" Man I love my group. I don't need to do that, they do that themselves. They went into an old Theatre that is filled with undead. They almost lost their Paladin as she left the Tiny Hut and two of my Undead Creations attacked her (I like to make my own Monsters). They went into the Theater Room on the 2nd level, and realized there are four more of these below them at the ceiling, about two dozen Zombies and a strong presence behind the Curtain. They jumped down with Feather fall and used Turn Undead. A Slow Mo Divine Light explosion as the "Ceiling Crawlers" started dashing towards them and the Curtain exploded open and a Puppet Master Ghost flew towards them and all the Zombies started reaching their arms out as the whole Theater Room was set ablaze with divine light. That's where I ended the session as Cliffhanger. I need to roll some dice. The Bard even created Tiny Servants out of the Arcane Archers Arrows, giving him Sneak Attack on his 2nd Attack as the target is technically engaged by a creature that was an arrow. :D
Grater Good So one of the PCs created the Divine Light on the ceiling? And that forced all the Ceiling Crawlers to leap down & at the chars at once? Not sure what you mean by the “slo mo” part - did you as DM slow down the effect of the divine light like in an action movie so each actionable moment could be seen/realized? Love the arcane archer’s invisible servant idea! I may steal that!
4:15 THANK YOU for stating the kind of player I am! I was in a game for a while with some friends which was never really that much fun, and although there were a couple of the DM's and other players habits which kind of bothered me I could never put my finger down on one singular thing which made that game not fun! Now I think I get it.
Sword: Engraved "I am against Ethyl" ... Bearer can not get drunk. (does not cure someone who is already drunk) Useless effect in combat, but very nice for drinking contests.
Here's a couple important principles I like to use, especially when developing a home brew campaign... #1 - As a DM, create the world but DO NOT create the story. #2 - Try to end each session with choices. #3 - Allow the players to be awesome.
Great principles for your method of play! Not accurate for other types of games however. Moderation is key to most things. An example: 1. As a DM, create some of the world and some of the story. (Creating some of the world allows you to have, at least the starting area, built and ready for play. This also allows your players to supplement your world with areas and places relating to their backstory. Having a partial story allows the world to move forward while the players play in it, and weaving threads into their journey allows them to organically pick up on the main quest you wrote or even re-write it themselves through roleplay. Having no story whatsoever leaves your players sitting in the middle of a mostly empty world. My players are perceptive and observant, they will pick up on plot holes and the make-it-up-as-you-go story telling. It comes across as half-assed and I wouldn't offer that experience to my players.) 2. Try to end each session with choices. (Agreed.) 3. Allow the players to be awesome when they earn it, and allow them to fail and learn from their mistakes. (The worlds I build are more grounded, and success and failure are both attainable through the players actions. They feel awesome when they work for it and earn it and they feel regret when they make a mistake and fail. These experiences enrich the game and has them talking about the games and their decisions throughout the week on Discord or through Mass Texts, up until the next game. It allows their characters to progress, to change, and to learn. You learn more from your defeats than your victories after all.)
I agree with you on your #1. My play group actually prefers to have a story structure, with options embedded in the actual play-through that they can choose to follow, or leave as a loose-end. If there's no sense of direction or a plot that the players are engaging with, they feel listless. Providing a narrative with options also gives the players a sense of choice - if they decide not to engage with an encounter, will they miss out on information or possible items? Also, some groups are just not that creative, they want to take part IN and adventure, not necessarily CREATE the adventure on the fly. Having a story structure/narrative to keep the action moving is really important here - goes back to knowing your groups. Also, if you run the modules for 5e, there's a huge interconnected story that runs through them, with smatterings of other campaigns throughout, with suggestions in the books on how to integrate those story paths. A secondary part of the story aspect once again ties back into knowing your players. If you have someone that is constantly creating their own world for their character to be in, regardless of the other players, and really going overboard, it can be difficult to reign them in so that the group is on the same page. Being able to use the story or narrative as a way to explain how that idea might not fit in, at the current moment, with the current situation, makes a lot more sense than just telling the player "No" and shutting them down. It's respecting their creativity, but not at the expense of the group - it also allows you to hear their idea and adjust the narrative in later adventures in order to feature their creativity in a more organic way. Story/Narrative (since I've used both terms here) is vastly important for a DM to prep and utilize, but I will agree that the players should not be constrained or railroaded at every turn. If that was the case, they might as well watching a movie in real-time, but they should have a "box" within which to engage as much, or as little, as they choose.
I admit that improvising 90% of the NPCs in a city was fun. This was a short 6 weeks one shot that may continue during the next player absence. It gave our regular GM a break and kept idle brains busy.
I used to spend far to long preparing epic moments and planning out resolutions to traps/problems. But you learn quick players mess every plan up with creativity. So now i prepare only problems, i have no idea what the solution is myself, its whatever the players decide to do, then i improvise from there. Trust yourself to roll with it
Just found your channel today. You dudes are awesome, subscribed for sure! You explain things thoroughly as you speak from experience and give examples for the things you are explaining and why they are important for us as new DM's. It's simple but so rare to see done right. I love your videos, I am real excited to run my first campaign soon! Cheers Dudes and all new DMs alike! :D
The best example of "be forthcoming with information" was when the party was in a house and the DM neglected to describe a front door without realizing it. The party ended up cutting a hole through the wall to get out when in the DM's mind the party had gone crazy-ignoring the door that she had just never described :)
> "As a dungeonmaster everything you say, every word that comes out of your mouth, is imbued with significance." Can we get this PSA out to all the players out there? Especially that one Warforged Paladin talking to a literal god-machine in a factory in heaven, choosing not to interact at all? Or the players not taking the third hint that something about a situation might be fishy? In general I think this point very much only really applies if you can be sure your players are actually paying attention. I've had multiple occasions where I described a scene to my players and they ended up ignoring things I thought were rather obvious clues at to where I'd like them to go next. For an example, I've had the typical "disappearing villagers" set-up in my campaign, and the party arrived at the shoreline to an almost vacated village. After a short bit of investigation, they find someone willing to tell them the people actually set sail to the other shore off to the west, trying their luck there. Arriving at the other shore, the party discovers a second, mostly vacated village where the elder just tells them that his people have set out to the island off to the east, making multiple offers to actually take them to said island. I personally found it rather obvious that something was fishy in that scenario, and I know that I as a player would have definitely chosen to investigate further. Apparently I caught the wrong table for use of Chekhov's gun though, since they declined every offer of safe passage (at the price of 4gp might I add) and decided the mystery was solved already. Now, to be clear, I'm not complaining that my characters derailed the idea I had for my plotline, and I don't really think there's anything wrong with players deciding to not go after a mystery. What bugs me though, is that I constantly run into similar issues (especially in combat) where I describe something, and people just entirely disregard what I described - especially relevant when they got locked in a forcecage once. I've already sat down and actually told my players that I'm not just describing details for my own enjoyment, but I've yet to actually see the players take the hint. If it's not a hidden lever/button or a child hiding under a desk, it feels like the players barely pay attention to even major details sometimes. Guess that's where it ties back to principle 1 then.
The whole "the people are gone go over there" then "nope not here, they went over there" thing -- sounds frustrating even when you listed it out in the span of two seconds in this post. I'd happily just waltz off the map of confusing nonsense you setup and find a dungeon to explore instead. Half because if my DM did that I'd be pissed off, and half because it just sounds like way too much roleplaying and not enough combat or excitement. Don't forget that a lot of players have a hack&slash mentality, if you don't feed them the kind of encounters they like, they're going become disinterested, and at worst may even become resentful. Like: "Oh god, yet another boring series of roleplaying encounters that leads nowhere." Point is, know your players, and learn what to feed them. As DMs we're there to entertain them.
Overlord IV what are the odds that if they went to the island there would be yet another mostly abandoned village... Perhaps instead have the elder deny any knowledge of what's going on or throw up a lame excuse, then send a gang of goons to take out the prying adventurers to conceal his schemes.
My tip, Fun yet very dark can be done. Certainly don't be scared of dark subjects. The players in the session I ran had a terrible sacrifice on a completely innocent NPC that was close to the players party and in turn gain a powerful ally. They sacrifice .. and people didnt see eye to eye on it but they were all hooked to see what happened next. By far an awesome twist. Loved the improv bit of this video... learned that my scripts are often adapted to suit the new situation.
You guys are awesome... so earnest and considerate of your viewers. I am SO going to follow you guys from here on out. Tell me, are you excited at all about Pathfinder's upcoming 2nd edition?
I’ve personally only done a little bit of research in to it and it sounds really cool, my heart belongs to 5th edition due to the ease, in my opinion, of being able to DM off the cuff. As a player I enjoyed both. I’m interested to see what it will be like - Kelly
New DM here. I had it planned so that the party would have a brief encounter with a dragon (it would fly off after so much damage and I was going to baby it's attacks to not kill them)... They came up with the plan to strike a deal with the dragon instead to make food offerings in return for peace in that area. Did not anticipate that, but rolled with it.
I think the most important thing for DMs to remember is that in D&D the rules are really more of suggestions. Granted, they're very good suggestions and should be followed in most instances, but keep in mind that the rules don't always work. For example, the True Strike spell is all but useless. So, I do one of two things. First, I make it so it can target any ally within 30 ft and grant +2 to attack rolls, going up by an additional +1 each time cantrips 'level' so to speak, or I make it a 1st level spell and have it grant +20 to attack rolls. On a related note, another thing DMs should do is embrace homebrews, especially with abilities and spells. One of the coolest things is when every player has their own signature move, like a storm sorcerer that has a spell that launches them forward to attack with a blade made of pure lightning, slicing through every enemy in their way or barbarian that channels all their rage into a single strike, ending the rage early but delivering a massive blow.. Another thing players should think about is to include something in your character specifically for the DM to use if they choose. An example, a player in my campaign is a tiefling sorcerer that had a compass that didn't point north, only spun endlessly. It served no purpose, wasn't enchanted (that they knew) and was just a trinket. So, I used it as a means to lead them to her uncle, a pit fiend in service to Ormagoden, the god of reformed evil creatures where they learned she technically not a tiefling (though mechanically, she still is), but a quarter devil.
By the description of the True Strike spell and your changes, it appears you don't know much about spell and ability balance. Homebrewing is fine, but it is more effective if you don't marry yourself to an idea of a homebrew and let people playtest and criticize your changes and custom spells/races/classes/archetypes. Balance is important, unless you're playing some anime-esque game where a spell lunges you forward and lightning blades multiple enemies as a ranged caster. It can be seen as an ability that undermines the idea of melee combatants but also supplements a caster who wishes to fight in melee combat. Just make sure it fits in your world and the kind of game your players are looking for. There are many settings and tones out there for D&D worlds. I personally prefer more grounded old-school fantasy worlds, where sorcerers take time to cast spells and weave symbols, not throw their arm back creating a lightning blade and casting chidori.
@@joselazo9799 I'm just giving examples for improving a nearly useless cantrip. My recommendations are to basically sacrifice your turn to take a ranged Aide action or make it a near certain hit at the expenses of a spell slot. What's not balanced? As it is, True Strike replaces two attack rolls and two possible damage rolls for two attack rolls and one possible damage roll and only for the caster. The only way it's useful is if you cast it just before combat begins, but that requires you to know exactly when it will ahead of time. Even a melee caster would have no use for this.
It negates disadvantage that has been placed on yourself, and combines well with bonus action attacks from combat/caster builds. Tweaking the wording to "Until the next round", "Bonus Action", or even allowing it to use your initial changes sound like a good idea. A cantrip that provides a +2 to hit to an ally within 30ft. Sounds good leave it as is. Having it scale by a +1 seems wholly unnecessary. Scaling damage, as the base game does, doesn't ruin the balance of health to damage in D&D. Adding to hit makes a far bigger difference as it can add 15-20% higher chances of landing hits (based on AC and chances to hit). Going beyond the initial +2 will see increased percentiles, though at diminished returns and I will explain why this is bad in the next section. a +20 to hit for a spell slot is ridiculous. +20 isn't a near hit, it is a certain hit. Only the strongest of monsters have 20+ Armor Class, and casting a low level spell to have a 90%+ to hit this powerful creature is ridiculous. Allow me to give you an example. Armor Class has its own to-hit% chance, this is calculated into the monsters health and longevity in battle. Adding more points of AC to buff it can make the monster last 2-3 more rounds longer than it should. This burns through additional resources and allows the monster to punish players. If this is a consistent change to monsters, than the issue stacks. Adding health can do something similar though in a smaller scale. Now if your players have a way of landing a certain strike 100% of the time you must take into account the party's resources. Do they have Dragon Slaying weapons? how about undead killing weapons? maybe a hammer that smites constructs or a ranger who specializes against humanoids. A paladin who can pour his smites and damage into one hit or a ranger who Sharpshooters, + his favored enemy damage. Or a rogue whose sneak attack is 4d6 additional damage? The fact that the hit is no longer dependent on a % chance to hit means this overly empowered ability doesn't have a chance of failing, that the players pour their power into a gamble or attempt to succeed quickly is no longer a chance, but a sure hit. A scary CR 9 dragon can have 150 hp~. Dragon Slaying Greatsword 3d6 + 2d6, +5 from the Paladin's Str, + 4d8 from Divine Smite, + 3d6 from Thunderous Smite, +10 from Great Weapon Feat, and gods forbid he has additional damage buffs from his allies such as a Valor Bard's Inspiration or a casters Haste. He has a chance of missing this huge hit, especially with a -5 to hit... so not taking into account a Natural 1, he has his +4 from Proficiency, + 5 from Strength, and +15 from the spell granted onto him. +24 to hit. This CR 9 Blue Dragon has 18 AC. The paladin has to roll a Natural 1 to miss. 8d6 + 4d8 +10 (Average: 28 + 18 + 10 = 56 damage / Highest: 48 + 32 + 10 = 90 damage). Now let's keep in mind your description is "have it grant +20 to attack rolls." So further extra attacks would also have +20. If this was a fighter with 3 or more attacks, or a monk with 4 or more strikes? Imagine if it's a caster who casts lvl 5 Scorching ray (12d6, Average = 42 [84 crit] / Max = 72 [144 crit]) or a level 5 Storm Sphere. This is not taking into account a Sorcerer's Quickened Spell or an Evocation Wizard's Minimum damage increase, or even the feats that ignore resistances. If the paladin Nat 20's? smites multiply as the wording on their abilities are "extra damage" 112 damage on average 180 damage on max. In 1 turn this "challenging dragon" would be dead or damn near it. One could argue situations, alterations, stat additions, etc., But we aren't arguing hypothetical but raw logical numbers... in other words balance. A +20 breaks the game, hands down.
I see what you mean about the cantrip version. I can agree with that. However, as for the level 1 spell version, it would only apply to a single attack. I apologize for not being more clear. Perhaps it would include another attack for each spell slot after the first, but that would be it. And really, this would only be effective against a monster with a very high AC and that is resistant or immune to most, if not all, the caster's spells. This would be very niche, but effective enough that it would see use. As for the +20, honestly, I'm basing it on the 3.5 version and haven't really had a chance to playtest it, yet, but I can see your point, as well. +10 would be fair, I think, or a +5 to all attack rolls until the end of their turn as a 2nd level spell. Maybe a +2 for 3 turns, even. I'd have to do some test runs to see what would work best. Still, my point is that some of the spells and rules, as they're printed, are not very good and that DMs should be open to tweaking them to fit their campaign and their players' playstyle. True Strike is one is those spells that have far too little use to be a good pick.
I agree completely, tweaking spells should be available. Why not turn fireball into an iceball etc. To fit the flair of a player character. I personally wouldn't but why not. Even though I agree with a spell like True Strike, tweaks should be made because it itself isn't very good. Some spells that may not appear good on the surface have very different rules governing their balance. It is important to look at all aspects before freely tweaking a spell.
Principal X reminds me of something similar from the muppets. Jim Henson said that if he couldn't think of an end to a sketch he'd have one monster eat another. :D
Here is something that I think incorporates many of the principles: the DM's most important role is to control the pace of the game. If things are moving too slow, too fast, if players are interrupting each other or acting out of turn order; if one player is hogging the spotlight, monologing too long, or lawyering rules too much - that's on you, boss. If any rule has to be strictly enforced, it's this one. Everything else falls apart if the DM can't keep the other players from ruining their own fun.
Our principles are by no means an exhaustive list of all the great tips and advice you can rely on to run better games, and we only could touch on each so briefly! We'd love to hear YOUR principles for how YOU run great games, too!
We have a LOT more to say about improvisation, game prep, managing social issues at the table, and using the rules well. If you'd like to hear us talk more in detail about one of these principles and the tips and tricks that go along with it, please leave a comment to let us know!
I’ve never thought about outlining guiding principles for myself as a DM, at least that I know of. Very good list! I’ll be using most of them for my next campaign
Thanks guys, ran my first session last week, will be taking these tips to make the next sessions better and better for my players!
Embracing player creativity is great, just gotta turn into that wave because at first I resisted my best laid plans not panning out as anticipated.
Are you two a couple?
I literally have a suggestions chat that my players can suggest what they would like to see or do in the world. So far I've gotten fights with vampires and just a chill day where they get really drunk throughout the whole session. That's how I get to know my players at least lol.
Most of these principles are the same ones I was taught to become a teacher. They work for a lot of circumstance, not just D&D.
D&d is life. Dm you have to relationship counsel, healthy managing, cooperative effort, morality coaching....
I did have an explosion in high school chemistry ...
Me too as a teacher and dm
There's a psychologist i think Ohio University? Who suggests DND to be a tool to rehabilitate prisoners.
Implement proper de-escalation, anger management, social practices.
Honestly... I think most humans would benefit from improving conflict resolution skills
Especially the "just add an explosion"
DM: "You come to a bridge with a man standing on it."
New Player (joking to the other players): "What are the chances it's actually like, a demon or something?"
DM: "As you approach, the man holds out his hand and says, 'One gold and you may pass. Refuse and I'll turn into a Balrog."
New Player: "Uh-huh, right."
Other Players: "Dude...he's got a Balrog figure."
This has since become a common encounter. We always pay him.
Recently I've been playing a derivative of the game with an old-school DM that he calls 50/50.
Basically in any scene there's a chance that something will happen. Dice get rolling and it could be bad or good.
After you begin to follow the concept as a player, you start suggesting, "What's the chance that...(something beneficial)"
But that can go horribly wrong if the dice say that your saviours are the bad guys.
BALOR.. Balor.. lets not start this lawsuit again 🤣🤣🤣🤣
You guys touched on the video several times but I think it deserves to be its own principle: never lock content behind a single die roll, or make problems that only have a single solution. I've seen games grind to a halt because of stuff like this and it's frustrating for everyone.
One more I might add: never take away a player's agency. I don't like to describe how player characters feel, or narrate them doing something that they didn't explicitly say they did.
Colville mentioned in one of his Running the Game videos that he always builds three completely different ways of figuring something out. That way if players fail a dice role or don't notice your planned clue there's still a way forward.
Exactly.
The only exceptions to this that I can think of right now is when a character is under the Frightened condition or if they are making a roll for information. Other than that, what a character feels, thinks, or does, is up to the player (in my opinion).
Agree with you so much ..wish I could give you more than one like on this. So true.
The comment about agency is very important. The second the player doesn't feel any control over their character is the second they start wondering why they are even playing the game. Very little will grind a game to a halt faster than that.
I'll just support some of the commenters, when a character is magically influenced, let them play it. If they are not following through, step in and tell them that what they are doing is in violation of their condition/status.
love the empty boot. i had a tea pot in a witches house. they expected it to be magical so i let it magically brew the most refreshing tasting tea. didn't have any mechanical benefit but they kept trying to find out what it did
This reminds me of something it says in the DM Guidebook. It mentions how the DM's goal isn't to beat the players, or help the players. Their goal is to create a memorable experience. They "Win" when the players have fun, and when the players are smiling.
Netto Games I agree!! I’ve been running a campaign for over a year now for 5-8 players. I started w a Session Zero (although I didn’t know it was that) to see what we’d all like to play together. We ran our game for 6-7 months, & wrapped up my initial ending where they fought a Predator & Artificer tag team and won. I asked players if someone else wanted to DM a new game and they said they really liked my world, keep going.
That really amped me up!
So next session, they’re magic macguffin went wild & pointed deeper into the caves. They followed, and fought the next level BBEG I had created, who called on a lava elemental, which ignited the volcano under the island. Terrain challenges, powerful minions, secondary but loved NPC captured by BBEG who escapes. And they’re still chasing him down today!
When your players do something random and get an awesome story out of it and think you are a master of improv, but it was actually planned all along and they have been on the rails the whole time. ILLUSION 100
1:00 0. Have fun
3:37 1. Know your players
6:48 2. Be consistent and fair
8:28 3. Foster a positive environment
10:51 4. Use the rules as a tool
12:30 5. Know when to roll the dice
15:53 6. Keep track of time
18:00 7. Be prepared...to improvise
21:31 8. Be forthcoming with information
25:00 9. Embrace player creativity
29:50 10. When in doubt...add an explosion
I think you need to add 10:48 Don't be a dick
thanks for the timestamps @Wes Baker
2 is at 6:48 and 1 is at 3:37.
Hi guys! I’m an experienced player and a new DM who just started a mix of my own adventure with "Out of the Abyss". So, I wanted to thank you for all the DM tips on this channel, which are REALLY smart and helpful. I also find your style rather clever and funny, thanks for not falling into the Demonweb Pits of idiocy nor vulgarity.
So, keep up the good work, and if you ever visit Russia, the beer's on me! ;-)
I love when (as a DM) the players choices ruin my gameplan. When the players decide to go against what I am trying to do (pre-planned story line) and forces my mind to go into automatic-improv! After all, improv is what the players are doing..
I’ve had a few groups where I could go in blind, and come out with a thrilling game and the urge from everyone to come back ASAP to continue the story (giving me time to polish up a good ending). Success from everyone contributing.
Even once, when I thief stole a weapon and just half-heartily joked “I bet this thing is cursed” (poor cursed weapon), made everyone more intent on figuring out how to remove the curse (none had the spell). Just that change, from one player cracking a stale joke - created an entire campaign of sorts. To this day, there are still inside jokes told of some of those player-created campaigns/multiple sessions.
How is this channel not bigger? Started watching some videos that popped up on my feed yesterday and I already love the content and attitudes!
Also I am a first time DM (on a formal setting anyhow) and love all the tips and ideas you guys share!
probably the lame name; no offense
I think there is "character building" in the traditional sense when you wait for fame, fortune and glory. A misnamed enterprise can be more rewarding then the best, well-marketed concept.
Agreed. And I actually like the name. Only so much word play you can do with 'dungeons' and 'dragons'. Much like their videos, its to the point and before watching my first video of them, I knew their vibe and exactly what theyre channel was about. Pretty effective if you ask me.
I agree with everything the original comment says. Nothing wrong with the name either.
Videos too long, hosts are verbally inefficient, no cuts to reduce speaking pauses
Wish I'd had this video back in the 80's >.
And me back in the late 90s. Every generation of DMs have find out how RPG works for them and players.😊
I love the explosion as a principle.
Raymond Chandler - “When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.” 😁
@@queenannsrevenge100 “Orcs Attack!” -Matt Colville
I'm a new DM whose going to be running the very first campaign in a couple of weeks. I, of course, have been doing all of this planning and what not to get ready. Part of that is trying to strike the balance between railroading and sandbox play. I'm terrified of the idea of them trying to go somewhere or do something that I haven't planned for or getting bored with me, the world or themselves.
The explosion thing is a great idea. I also like thought of generating bad whether or some kind of town event to distract or prevent them from leaving a place to go somewhere that they shouldn't either cuz it will kill them or can't because I have no idea what or who is in the place they want to go yet! I'm also trying to find interesting ways to have NPCs that they have met come along to remind them of things they should or could be doing besides maybe shopping for curtains for their house that I have every intention of burning to the ground. 😃
Guys, seriously, I've been playing tabletop rpg for some years from now on, and for a couple months I've started reading the d&d core books so I can become the DM. You guys are amazing, always explaining everything in the best way possible and also presenting to us so many different things to improve our social experience as well as our RPG skills. Thank you so much for this channel. And see you next video!
Great tips! Thank you for sharing. The point on preparing problems and not solutions spoke to me especially. I remember one game where a player wanted to light some rubble on fire to smoke some baddies out and my response was ‘no, that spell doesn’t work that way’ - partly because the spell didn’t mention lighting things on fire and partly because my gut reaction was that it was ‘too easy of a solution’. After contemplating the situation after the game I realized how bad of a call that was, that basically stifled my players creativity. The next time I met my players I told them what I had realized and ’fessed up to having made a bad call.
Integrity as a GM!
You may never personally realize just how rare and special a commodity you have at your table for fostering that atmosphere of positivity... simply for "fessing up to a bad call". While there are SO FEW GM's ever willing to admit a misstep without some painfully obvious "evidence" like a Rules list in Canon, or similar, those few who can step up and say "my bad, guys... I FFFF'ed up." gain trust (so long as it's not a growing habit of FFFF'ing up) by admitting to shortcomings in the steady growth of a group of storytellers. ;o)
Good principles most I've already been adhering to which was nice to see.
How would you solve your situation in a way embracing the player's imagination? "You try to light the rubble on fire with your magic missile. The missile fizzles with a loud rumble as it sends the rubble flying to all sides. No fire is lit, but you hear activity from inside the cave. The commotion has attracted some attention. Roll for initiative." Something like that?
Yeah I did the whole "What if there is a" one of my players said not too long ago.
He stumpled upon some random pretty weird traveling merchants.
Now I hadnt really planned anything special with these people they were just there to make an otherwise slightly uneventful travel less boring.
My player however though they were weird and started asking questions about special good or interesting items they might have stumpled upon in their travels.
Minutes later he had one of the most important items I have created for this game in his hands after having tradet A LOT of his other items for it.
Best part is. He has given so much for this item and find it super interesting so no way he will just throw it away.
Okay.... now tell us what this precious item is or does :)
I just found this video while preparing as a new DM. It's super helpful! You got yourself a new subscriber.
Thank you!
Also on improvising don't be afraid to say you didn't prepare that, esp as a new DM. I am running my first campaign and week one my players wanted to keep going past what I prepared. I told them "You see completely darkness down the stairs almost as if god had not yet created the next room" which got a laugh. Then we have a choice. 20 min intermission or leave off here. It had been over 3 hours so everyone agreed it was a good stopping point.
Did you prep a little extra next time? Sounds like you got some grinders playing, best to prep double!
@@dford4014 legit this was so long ago I don't even recall what happened. but my players are the kind of people that will blast throuhg a mini boss in 3 rounds and then spend 2 hours taming a wild animal. They're hard to prep for and I love them.
Wild animals for 2 hours, Alex! Awesome!
@@goblincleric4130 my old group wasted a session where he had a friend come by as a DMPC for shopping, only for us to delay the fight with the helmed horror to a day where my level 2 ranger was the solo healer.
Nobody died! But everyone hates the taste of goodberries at this point.
My players take it as a badge of honor if they throw me off by a weird decision they made. It doesn’t happen often so they are proud when they do it.
This channel has been really really helpful. After 35+ years since DMing D&D 2e, I was really daunted getting traction to get started. Back in the day there just was few examples to draw from. I feel ready and excited to get a party going and knowing that there are resources I can leverage from. Thanks to the Dungeon Dudes!
Thank you! Welcome back to this fantastic game!
Something that really grinds my gears is when fellow players just say "I roll for (for example) Arcana" instead of describing the actions they are taking and letting the DM decide when a roll is called for and which one. A typical example is also "Oh yeah one time I did this thing with this guy-" "INSIGHT CHECK!" instead of just "This seems a bit suspect. Do I believe them?"
I think the best response to someone announcing what they are rolling for is the DM responding to the roll and not relating it to the situation at hand. For example:
Player: "I roll arcana" ... Rolls dice ... "I rolled a 22"
DM: "that's a pretty good arcana roll, you have a sudden vivid recollection of this passage you read in a book which discussed the possible negative side effects of mixing various potions, all of which has nothing to do with the situation at hand. Now what would you like to *do*?"
I would say, it's not only fun, why we play games - it's more broad that that: Experiencing intense emotions.
Surprise and even "negative emotions" can be what we strive for in our play-sessions.
Because in the end, even a sad story can be an memorable experience enriching your life.
Somewhat related to #9 and something I learned in the first game I ever DM'd: If your players have some kind of plan, be sure to ask them to elaborate or explain their end-goal. It'll help the player understand what they really want from that plan/action and will allow you to help them achieve that goal. That way, there'll be little to no miscommunication.
ive been rewatching this so often right before sessions, its an amazing ressource!
I'm running my first game Monday, great timing and helpful!
Good luck on the game! Just remember to have fun! (Yes the DM can have fun too 😄)
I picked a group of four people that I have known for years and we always have a blast in D&D. Should be good times.
How did it go?
It went really well. Going to segue our first stand alone adventure into an open world sandbox D&D game. All the player's and myself had fun.
I especially loved the last rule. I too always abide by the idea of focusing on truly what matters - the emotion of the scene, and keeping it exciting. Everything else follows.
I feel you guys have pretty much precisely described and analyzed the pillars of perfect play. well done
A few Dungeon Masters I know should watch this. It would make their sessions extremely fun and have better quality
Matt Colville has a principle, "Orcs attack": add extra random encounters to break up deadlocked debates. Your principle 10 is much more general: add unexpected action to change a situation that is bad for any reason, either losing or easily winning or confused or boring.
I have a couple of guidelines:
A) Roll first, calculate second.
B) Death must be earned.
A) ideally, you already know (and have made a note of) the threshold values for likely die rolls - at a minimum, precalculate the combined modifier for a given monster's standard attacks rather than having a list of modifiers for base attack modifier, weapon modifier, modifiers from buffs they usually use, terrain modifiers for its home field, etc, that you then have to spend ten seconds adding up every time they attack. On the other hand, players will always do something unexpected eventually. At that point, rather than spending thirty seconds working out modifiers and figuring out what the system says they need to roll, get them to roll the d20. If they roll 15-20, it's probably a success; if they roll 1-10, it's probably a failure; if they roll 10-15, then you might want to actually calculate it.
It's worth calculating things from time to time anyway just to check that your intuition is on target, but, in general, for well over half of rolls, you know, and the players know, whether it's a success or a failure the moment the die lands, without needing any calculations. If the threshold is too extreme (can only fail on a 1 or only succeed on a 20) then you probably shouldn't be bothering to roll anyway.
B) Character deaths should count. A PC shouldn't die because a group of goblins couldn't miss while the PCs couldn't roll a hit to save their lives (literally). If players do something stupid, like charge into battle with an elder wyrm at first level, then, sure, let them die unless they can come up with a convincing alternative - and a deliberate heroic sacrifice is always awesome - but the PCs, the heroes of the story, shouldn't die by choking on their food, or in a random encounter designed to soften them up a little for the upcoming boss.
If the PCs are going to die senselessly, then start cheating in their favour.
I agree 👍👍
If you can only fail on a 1 or succeed on a 20 you may as well be flipping a coin instead to move things along
Thank you so much for mentioning the perception check, could not agree more!
Hey guys, another great video and some great tips!
I took your advice on the feats for my Bard class, he really was a force to be reckoned with!... Until we walked into an ambush and I got suckered with a shovel to the face... I tore it off the guys corpse and it's already a running joke after session 1. Thanks for the pointers guys, keep up the amazing work you do.
Adding too much description to an area, or adding too much personality to a random NPC interaction, can cause the adventure to derail. Players often ascribe too much importance to anything that catches their attention.
Indeed. It's a tight rope to walk. Players need enough to work with, but not so much that it overwhelms, confuses, or distracts them. Finding the right mix your a given group of players is a huge challenge every DM has to overcome, and it really differs from group to group. I run games for some players that just eat up every little of description I throw at them, but I've also run for others who want only the bare essentials.
I mostly agree with this, but at the same time, using description to cause players to become fascinated by something which is actually mundane can be a useful tool.
To be fair, this isn't always a bad thing.
I once had a green dragon wyrmling try to ambush a sleeping party, with the intention of just being a random encounter. To my complete surprise, they managed to befriend it and it's even managed to convince them to slay a bunch of monsters in its territory and I've been able to use that little dragon to start dozens of adventure hooks.
I agree as a DM. IF I give detail to an area my players go "OOOOOH DETAIL! HE MUST BE PLANNING SOMETHING" where most of the time I am just making it neat and descriptive.
@@davecam4863 This actually goes with voices too. My coworker's brother was DMing for him and his group and had this NPC running up to tell them something important, but the voice the brother was using sounded crazy shady and conniving. Thus tons of time spent trying to check for deception and use intimidation all to later learn from the DM that the guy was honest; he just made a bad use of that voice, lol.
Thank you guys this is a big help! Just started DMing Lost mine of Phandelver and my 3 brand new players to table top anything ( wife son and co-worker) as well as my somewhat veteran best friend said they loved it my son wanted to play the next day after a 12 hour session haha I feel like next session is going to be great after I listen to this a few times!!!!
As a new player of DnD watching your videos is very helpful. Especially since several of the people in the game I am in want to do a second game so that the DM can have extra time to prepare. I was asked to come up with at least a one shot to DM for the group and had hit a brick wall when writing down ideas and how I wanted things to go. Watching a few of your videos has helped me tremendously and inspired me to build a world that I believe my friends will enjoy for a very long time. So thank you for the inspiration and advice that your videos have provided for me.
Great video (as usual), guys. There are a lot of good points and good advice given here. I think that points 7 & 9 together can make for fantastic games/scenes. I was the same way when I started DMing (a book of notes, all the scenes planned out, etc.). I have tried kicking that habit over time and even though I always make sure to prepare a good adventure, I usually leave things open by just offering bullet points or possibilities instead of concrete outcomes.
One of my favourite instances of this was when my players were searching out a white dragon. People in town claimed not to have seen it. One man said that only "Crazy Old Bill" truly claimed to see it (this was my way of following rule 6 and saving time. "Only a crazy guy saw it; just go up the mountain so you guys can do something fun today.") They engaged this though. Oh, no... No preparation here. Time to improvise!
They get to Bill's house and find four scarecrows outside. Going in, they find a ragged robed man asking how they got past his " guards." He speaks what seems to be nonsense, mentioning an invisible beast riding the dragon (which was "hard to see"), the voices of people who don't know they are dead, and an evil jester. The players climb the mountain to find a nearly invisible (in the snow) yeti, sense what could have been banshees, and encounter their evil clown nemesis with the dragon. The four dead adventurers in the cave also happen to wield weapons identical to the ones the scarecrows had. The players had said, " I wonder if he's a divination wizard who fought the dragon and went crazy." Well, now he was. We made it canon that his party died there and all of his premonitions involving the party came true. All improvised because they suggested it. It ended up being a memorable scene and character and it was all because the players had agency to just try something.
And as for borrowing from other media, our main story is basically my three favourite games as a kid, all mashed in to one, making a unique story. The players are taking their own direction with it too, so it is becoming a new story in its own right. I have really enjoyed this just because seeing characters from those games end up in new and exciting stories has meant that I get to evolve them beyond the scope of their original source.
Sorry for the rant; it's my thing I do when something excites me and this video really got me thinking. = ]
The best dungeon I have ever designed was built upon player creativity. I built a dungeon of traps and rooms with strange puzzles in order to proceed. But I had not created a single solution for these rooms or traps. I knew what they did and how they worked, but I didn't know how to get past them. I decided that if my players attempted a solution, and it was believable and creative enough, I'd guide them to making it work. One of the paths dead-ended to a giant fish-bowl room with a massive goldfish swimming in it. After nearly thirty minutes of discussion one of the players spontaneously decided to jump in with the fish, so I said that it swallowed him. I told him separately that he felt a rush as he landed on the floor of another area in the dungeon, but the other players simply saw their companion eaten by a giant fish. Eventually they figured it out and everyone got through, but the panic and problem solving that occurred in the entire dungeon was amazing to watch.
Eagles King that sounds super fun.
I’m starting to dm to get better at my story telling. I took the idea of Greek mythology and the fall of Olympus. I didn’t know where to really start until I set key points of my story- Eros and psyche, ares and thecoliseum, the 5 rivers, a merging of hades (place) and the heavens, etc etc. all these place came into be and I realized how I surprisingly created a story that has a web of connections. So long story short, I just took what I knew and started with places and then people and started developing my story based on my disgustingly high d20 roll on a history check. Thanks for these awesome tips!
I’ve been into D&D for a year now. I’ve only ever played as the DM. I’m still learning the rules and every once in a while I’ll run into a rule I don’t have much experience with so I make up a ruling on the fly. When I have time to really look at the rules to see if I was right it’s often been incorrect. With that, I struggle with consistency a lot. A ruling from a previous game won’t always be the same ruling the next time. It understandably frustrates people. I’m getting better the more time goes on though so i hope it’s a temporary problem.
It is! Kelly here. I was a player for 5 years before becoming a DM and I had the same issue with consistency. The more you play, the more it sticks. Some games are better than others but generally each game I DM is a push in the right direction and I can feel me getting better and better.
I love there kind of video because I’m horrible at being descriptive of stuff and talking as a NPC. This has helped be become a little better at being a DM.
Thank you so much for doing these videos! Had never played before or even rolled anything besides a d6 in my life but got the starter set for my friends and I. Was instantly overwhelmed when I found out what it meant to be a DM. We're about half way through LMoP having a blast and I wouldn't be running things half as well without these videos.
I tried the empty charred boot tonight. My players were losing it lmao
One thing I´d recommend a GM should do is to ask warmup questions just as the session is about to begin. Asking your players questions like "What is your characters deepest fear?", "What is your characters greatest regret in life?" or "Which of the other PCs does your character trust the most and which one does your character trust the least?" makes your players really think about things they may not have thought about before, which in turn helps everybody get into the game a little bit easier.
Thank you very much for talking about players that really like to stick to the rules. I am one of them. Inconsistent rulings by a DM make the game really hard for me to get into.
I think that even if you aren't having an amazing amount of fun a campaign can still be fantastic. You should strive to make sure that your game is compelling as well as fun.
Compelling, engaging, intellectually stimulating, exciting, gripping - these are all “fun” in our books. It’s that “thing” what makes the game satisfying and rewarding experience. Whatever fun means to you, it’s the reason to play the game!
I thought something totally different when you first mention rule #4 rules are tools. Great point btw nothing slows a session down like endless rules debates.
My version of rules are tools refers to using, especially the more tedious rules, only when they add to the adventure, story or the setting. I tend not to use the travel rules random encounters, rations, exhaustion, distance traveled per day if the players are just going from place to place in the same localized safe area. However, if they are exploring unexplored territory where figuring out how to survive is part of the adventure sure. Similarly I don't track spell components unless they are expensive but if the players are shipwrecked maybe I throw that challenge at the spell casters to figure out what spells they can scrounge the materials for. The rules are there to give you tools to work with to make the world challenging and fell real but if they aren't adding any value feel free to ignore them.
YES! We completely agree. Use the rules that are USEFUL to you, that do the things you need them to do to build your game and creature structures for better storytelling. Rules are supports for a DM, not a straightjacket :)
One thing that helps a lot with Improv as both a player and a DM is understanding the core concept of "yes, and..."
When you're doing cooperative improvising, that's the entire name of the game. No matter how utterly ridiculous it might seem to you, you accept it at face value and build on it by adding to it. I find that when players and the DM keep this in mind, there's less instances of arguing about things and more storytelling and fun to be had. A lot of times in my experience, the biggest thing that can either slow games down or grind them to a halt entirely are when people take the OPPOSITE of this philosophy, which would be "no, but..."
This often times to leads to bickering about semantics or small unimportant details, when really all that's needed is to just roll with it, and go "yes, and then x and y and z!" to keep the story flowing smoothly.
Dudes, these videos are extremely helpful, thanks for sharing with us. I also love the room you video in. Anyway we could see the entire room?
Great list of tips! There's a lot to dig into here and pull out for your games! Tip 7 especially, on improvising is essential!
Surprise is so important, and as the DM surprise is always when and how you want it. Never forget that you can spice things up at any time for any reason
Impressive Guide for me as a new DM. I instanly found the mistakes i did in my first game.
Keep going guys. Love your work.
Greetings from Germany
As always, excellent content, gentlemen. As a DM one of my core principles is being both infallible and fallible in the same go. I don't like referencing books, but there are times when I don't recall precise wording of a spell, or a minor blurb of dialogue about a character i had to improvise a month ago. Other players might. I think a core principle is being willing to admit if something you said isn't 100% right but, as you said so eloquently, that you're also the final deciding authority on what happens in the game. Ultimately you are the structure around the which the system is built.
That was a big thing I struggled with for my first couple of sessions. I made my players roll dice way too often. Specifically for stealth in an area of a dungeon where they weren't near anything. I fixed it for future encounters like this by letting my players ask if they could and granting it to them if I thought it made sense.
I used to write massive "novels" to make GM notes. Just to have a plan how to act when players did X, Z or Y. I did it because i knew I was not good at improv. Those noted took work, but they did help me to create sessions that made sense and were enjoyable to everyone. Now a days I still do quite alot of notes (Maybe 2 - 6 pages for 4h - 6h session, mostly depending on the situation) but it's less than they used to be, and do include most of the monster stats for quick reference.
Best video I’ve seen on DM tips so far. Thanks so much!!
It is truly awe inspiring to see this code of conduct being expected at a tabletop game than a workplace.
Another great way to keep the dice rolling down, you can use passive checks as a baseline. Trying to lift up a 100lbs gate thats not locked for a character that has an 18 strength wouldn't be that difficult, so don't roll the dice.
My main principle for new DMs is fun is the priority. Fun is above the dice rolls, the rules, and whatever story you, the DM, are trying to tell. DMs win when the party has fun and comes back for more.
Cracking video yet again. Absolutely love the fundamental points and very well explained!
Also - so much respect for rolling out in the open. I do the same. Only reason I use a screen is to hide the minis until they come in to play (for effect) and for the useful tables on the DM side.
Still producing unique and epic content guys keep it up!
Thanks for this guys! Took several years off from being the DM and needed to reboot of fundamentals. Fun is always the goal!
I have watched a bunch of Dudes videos, and I think this was the most helpful for me. I am building a mini campaign that will be closer to epic thanks to these guidelines. Keep it up, Monty and Kelly!
This is one of the best New DM videos ever. I know I watched it years ago, but just re-watching, makes me go, Yep, I'd tell a new dm that too.
This is absolutely awesome! I'm DM'ing Descent into Avernus. Took notes on these tips and I'm more excited than ever! Thanks guys :)
10K and growing fast, keep it up you unarmed monks
You guys are great! Love watching you talk about DnD. I've been running RPGs for about 20 years now, but there is always something to learn!
Thanks!
Fantastic video guys. I couldn't agreed more with it. There are an unruly number of "tips" for DMs and some great places to look for it including right here.
+1 immediate like for the early Sun Tsu reference. :D
"The Last of Us" gave me a beautiful, stark, and scary environment for my players to make it through last session. The God of Plants was making a ruckus, and had infected the beasts of the Land with cordyceps spores, making them into her numerous spies.
thank you so much for all your videos! I'm running my first D&D session in Tuesday and your channel has been key in helping prep for it!
Such amazing advice, thank you!
One of the things I learned as an improviser on stage was to never say "no." That shuts down a scene and all of the potential that goes with it. Besides, PCs almost always zig when you think they are going to zag anyway, so I'm always prepared for them to go all "open world" on me. I love character-driven narrative, so let the players engage in their stories as much as I can. But there are always consequences.
As for ripping off other material--DO! many of Shakespeare's plays were written from existing folk stories. The campaign I'm running right now is a weird fusion of an SCA Kingdom and the Hundred Years War. There's some good storytelling in that and lots of high drama!
Thank you for making these guides, Dudes, they are fun, informative and well made :D
I think I’ve watched all your content as of now. Always golden-Always watch through to the end. Thank you guys for being such a bastion of knowledge for the D&D community! ❤️
Have you guys considered offering DM/player classes for patrons or some form of monetary compensation? I would pay good money to DM a game for you guys as the players and then have you critique/teach me where my skills need improvement.
Leave 'em hanging! Cliff hangers are awesome! Makes the players talk between sessions, planning and scheming!
10:47 i love you two:) Thanks as always for a well thought out and insightful video!!
In one of my most memorable games, we were fighting a Lich, and everyone else fell. Nobody died. It literally came down to my character and the Lich. I beat it with single digit hp left. I agree fully in avoiding battles of attrition, but sometimes there are enemies that will refuse to surrender. I'm considering having a courage rating, so the players can do insight checks to see if they can scare some enemies away. Sorry, for the long-windedness, I was taken right back to the energy inn the session. So good.
Good list. Agree that improv is the most important skill. You cannot account for every scenario. I do what was you guys stated, plan what will happen without the characters.
You guys need to drop all these episodes in to a podcast!
Just fantastic advice I like all 9 plus X rules. I did get a little nervous with the introductory comments around "fun". Needless to say the whole point of the hobby is to have fun but some sessions and some of the most memorable and rewarding sessions are not fun. Players character deaths is not fun; it may be fair and it may make perfect sense from a story perspective but for the player losing a character it's not fun at all. Players can sometimes spend large amounts of time debating what to do and sometimes it gets heated. This is not fun and as a DM you can try to give them options and information so they can reach agreement but letting them settle it is important to their teamwork and agency. Sometimes it's that long tough fight that takes forever because ten different things go wrong that everyone remembers years later.
Also "fun" is now used as a justification for just ignoring every rule and pressuring the DM to fudge every roll so the players never die and always succeed. I'm guessing both of you know this but it might be important to talk about fun being the long term goal
Exactly! Fun is a great "catch all term" . -- but what we are really going for is an exciting and engaging game experience. The thing is that "people have fun in different ways.* One person's fun is another person's tedious snoozefest. This is why we put principle #1 as "know your players".
"Add an explosion"
Man I love my group. I don't need to do that, they do that themselves. They went into an old Theatre that is filled with undead. They almost lost their Paladin as she left the Tiny Hut and two of my Undead Creations attacked her (I like to make my own Monsters). They went into the Theater Room on the 2nd level, and realized there are four more of these below them at the ceiling, about two dozen Zombies and a strong presence behind the Curtain. They jumped down with Feather fall and used Turn Undead. A Slow Mo Divine Light explosion as the "Ceiling Crawlers" started dashing towards them and the Curtain exploded open and a Puppet Master Ghost flew towards them and all the Zombies started reaching their arms out as the whole Theater Room was set ablaze with divine light. That's where I ended the session as Cliffhanger. I need to roll some dice. The Bard even created Tiny Servants out of the Arcane Archers Arrows, giving him Sneak Attack on his 2nd Attack as the target is technically engaged by a creature that was an arrow. :D
Grater Good So one of the PCs created the Divine Light on the ceiling? And that forced all the Ceiling Crawlers to leap down & at the chars at once?
Not sure what you mean by the “slo mo” part - did you as DM slow down the effect of the divine light like in an action movie so each actionable moment could be seen/realized?
Love the arcane archer’s invisible servant idea! I may steal that!
4:15
THANK YOU for stating the kind of player I am! I was in a game for a while with some friends which was never really that much fun, and although there were a couple of the DM's and other players habits which kind of bothered me I could never put my finger down on one singular thing which made that game not fun! Now I think I get it.
Great channel guys, just played/DMed for the first time and it went great. Thanks for all the awesome tips!
I would love to see a video about your favourite non combat magic items and useful tools to give to the players
Sword: Engraved "I am against Ethyl" ... Bearer can not get drunk. (does not cure someone who is already drunk)
Useless effect in combat, but very nice for drinking contests.
Here's a couple important principles I like to use, especially when developing a home brew campaign...
#1 - As a DM, create the world but DO NOT create the story.
#2 - Try to end each session with choices.
#3 - Allow the players to be awesome.
Completely agreed, especially #3!
Great principles for your method of play! Not accurate for other types of games however. Moderation is key to most things. An example:
1. As a DM, create some of the world and some of the story.
(Creating some of the world allows you to have, at least the starting area, built and ready for play. This also allows your players to supplement your world with areas and places relating to their backstory. Having a partial story allows the world to move forward while the players play in it, and weaving threads into their journey allows them to organically pick up on the main quest you wrote or even re-write it themselves through roleplay. Having no story whatsoever leaves your players sitting in the middle of a mostly empty world. My players are perceptive and observant, they will pick up on plot holes and the make-it-up-as-you-go story telling. It comes across as half-assed and I wouldn't offer that experience to my players.)
2. Try to end each session with choices.
(Agreed.)
3. Allow the players to be awesome when they earn it, and allow them to fail and learn from their mistakes.
(The worlds I build are more grounded, and success and failure are both attainable through the players actions. They feel awesome when they work for it and earn it and they feel regret when they make a mistake and fail. These experiences enrich the game and has them talking about the games and their decisions throughout the week on Discord or through Mass Texts, up until the next game. It allows their characters to progress, to change, and to learn. You learn more from your defeats than your victories after all.)
I agree with you on your #1. My play group actually prefers to have a story structure, with options embedded in the actual play-through that they can choose to follow, or leave as a loose-end. If there's no sense of direction or a plot that the players are engaging with, they feel listless. Providing a narrative with options also gives the players a sense of choice - if they decide not to engage with an encounter, will they miss out on information or possible items? Also, some groups are just not that creative, they want to take part IN and adventure, not necessarily CREATE the adventure on the fly. Having a story structure/narrative to keep the action moving is really important here - goes back to knowing your groups. Also, if you run the modules for 5e, there's a huge interconnected story that runs through them, with smatterings of other campaigns throughout, with suggestions in the books on how to integrate those story paths.
A secondary part of the story aspect once again ties back into knowing your players. If you have someone that is constantly creating their own world for their character to be in, regardless of the other players, and really going overboard, it can be difficult to reign them in so that the group is on the same page. Being able to use the story or narrative as a way to explain how that idea might not fit in, at the current moment, with the current situation, makes a lot more sense than just telling the player "No" and shutting them down. It's respecting their creativity, but not at the expense of the group - it also allows you to hear their idea and adjust the narrative in later adventures in order to feature their creativity in a more organic way.
Story/Narrative (since I've used both terms here) is vastly important for a DM to prep and utilize, but I will agree that the players should not be constrained or railroaded at every turn. If that was the case, they might as well watching a movie in real-time, but they should have a "box" within which to engage as much, or as little, as they choose.
I admit that improvising 90% of the NPCs in a city was fun. This was a short 6 weeks one shot that may continue during the next player absence. It gave our regular GM a break and kept idle brains busy.
I used to spend far to long preparing epic moments and planning out resolutions to traps/problems. But you learn quick players mess every plan up with creativity. So now i prepare only problems, i have no idea what the solution is myself, its whatever the players decide to do, then i improvise from there. Trust yourself to roll with it
Just found your channel today. You dudes are awesome, subscribed for sure! You explain things thoroughly as you speak from experience and give examples for the things you are explaining and why they are important for us as new DM's. It's simple but so rare to see done right. I love your videos, I am real excited to run my first campaign soon! Cheers Dudes and all new DMs alike! :D
10:49 that needs to be a poster.
#DontBeADick
The best example of "be forthcoming with information" was when the party was in a house and the DM neglected to describe a front door without realizing it. The party ended up cutting a hole through the wall to get out when in the DM's mind the party had gone crazy-ignoring the door that she had just never described :)
> "As a dungeonmaster everything you say, every word that comes out of your mouth, is imbued with significance."
Can we get this PSA out to all the players out there? Especially that one Warforged Paladin talking to a literal god-machine in a factory in heaven, choosing not to interact at all? Or the players not taking the third hint that something about a situation might be fishy?
In general I think this point very much only really applies if you can be sure your players are actually paying attention. I've had multiple occasions where I described a scene to my players and they ended up ignoring things I thought were rather obvious clues at to where I'd like them to go next.
For an example, I've had the typical "disappearing villagers" set-up in my campaign, and the party arrived at the shoreline to an almost vacated village. After a short bit of investigation, they find someone willing to tell them the people actually set sail to the other shore off to the west, trying their luck there. Arriving at the other shore, the party discovers a second, mostly vacated village where the elder just tells them that his people have set out to the island off to the east, making multiple offers to actually take them to said island.
I personally found it rather obvious that something was fishy in that scenario, and I know that I as a player would have definitely chosen to investigate further. Apparently I caught the wrong table for use of Chekhov's gun though, since they declined every offer of safe passage (at the price of 4gp might I add) and decided the mystery was solved already.
Now, to be clear, I'm not complaining that my characters derailed the idea I had for my plotline, and I don't really think there's anything wrong with players deciding to not go after a mystery. What bugs me though, is that I constantly run into similar issues (especially in combat) where I describe something, and people just entirely disregard what I described - especially relevant when they got locked in a forcecage once. I've already sat down and actually told my players that I'm not just describing details for my own enjoyment, but I've yet to actually see the players take the hint. If it's not a hidden lever/button or a child hiding under a desk, it feels like the players barely pay attention to even major details sometimes.
Guess that's where it ties back to principle 1 then.
The whole "the people are gone go over there" then "nope not here, they went over there" thing -- sounds frustrating even when you listed it out in the span of two seconds in this post. I'd happily just waltz off the map of confusing nonsense you setup and find a dungeon to explore instead. Half because if my DM did that I'd be pissed off, and half because it just sounds like way too much roleplaying and not enough combat or excitement. Don't forget that a lot of players have a hack&slash mentality, if you don't feed them the kind of encounters they like, they're going become disinterested, and at worst may even become resentful. Like: "Oh god, yet another boring series of roleplaying encounters that leads nowhere." Point is, know your players, and learn what to feed them. As DMs we're there to entertain them.
Overlord IV what are the odds that if they went to the island there would be yet another mostly abandoned village...
Perhaps instead have the elder deny any knowledge of what's going on or throw up a lame excuse, then send a gang of goons to take out the prying adventurers to conceal his schemes.
You guys Rock! I love your Videos. I am a brand new DM and you Dungeon Dudes have all the answers to everything i need to know! Thank you so much guys
My tip, Fun yet very dark can be done. Certainly don't be scared of dark subjects. The players in the session I ran had a terrible sacrifice on a completely innocent NPC that was close to the players party and in turn gain a powerful ally. They sacrifice .. and people didnt see eye to eye on it but they were all hooked to see what happened next. By far an awesome twist. Loved the improv bit of this video... learned that my scripts are often adapted to suit the new situation.
Great ideas to DM by, thank y'all!
i'm a new DM so this is soooo helpful!
You guys are awesome... so earnest and considerate of your viewers. I am SO going to follow you guys from here on out. Tell me, are you excited at all about Pathfinder's upcoming 2nd edition?
I’ve personally only done a little bit of research in to it and it sounds really cool, my heart belongs to 5th edition due to the ease, in my opinion, of being able to DM off the cuff. As a player I enjoyed both. I’m interested to see what it will be like - Kelly
Great vid guys'. Im just getting back into D&D after a 30 year gap. Thanks for the advice.
Hi Lea
Your not the only one getting in afte 3 decades. There are quite a few of us around. Some have never stopped.
Same! Just started dming my first group in 30 odd years. Going well, but I am way over preparing!
New DM here. I had it planned so that the party would have a brief encounter with a dragon (it would fly off after so much damage and I was going to baby it's attacks to not kill them)... They came up with the plan to strike a deal with the dragon instead to make food offerings in return for peace in that area. Did not anticipate that, but rolled with it.
Binge watching these. Hugely useful and accessible
I think the most important thing for DMs to remember is that in D&D the rules are really more of suggestions. Granted, they're very good suggestions and should be followed in most instances, but keep in mind that the rules don't always work.
For example, the True Strike spell is all but useless. So, I do one of two things. First, I make it so it can target any ally within 30 ft and grant +2 to attack rolls, going up by an additional +1 each time cantrips 'level' so to speak, or I make it a 1st level spell and have it grant +20 to attack rolls.
On a related note, another thing DMs should do is embrace homebrews, especially with abilities and spells. One of the coolest things is when every player has their own signature move, like a storm sorcerer that has a spell that launches them forward to attack with a blade made of pure lightning, slicing through every enemy in their way or barbarian that channels all their rage into a single strike, ending the rage early but delivering a massive blow..
Another thing players should think about is to include something in your character specifically for the DM to use if they choose. An example, a player in my campaign is a tiefling sorcerer that had a compass that didn't point north, only spun endlessly. It served no purpose, wasn't enchanted (that they knew) and was just a trinket. So, I used it as a means to lead them to her uncle, a pit fiend in service to Ormagoden, the god of reformed evil creatures where they learned she technically not a tiefling (though mechanically, she still is), but a quarter devil.
By the description of the True Strike spell and your changes, it appears you don't know much about spell and ability balance.
Homebrewing is fine, but it is more effective if you don't marry yourself to an idea of a homebrew and let people playtest and criticize your changes and custom spells/races/classes/archetypes.
Balance is important, unless you're playing some anime-esque game where a spell lunges you forward and lightning blades multiple enemies as a ranged caster. It can be seen as an ability that undermines the idea of melee combatants but also supplements a caster who wishes to fight in melee combat.
Just make sure it fits in your world and the kind of game your players are looking for. There are many settings and tones out there for D&D worlds. I personally prefer more grounded old-school fantasy worlds, where sorcerers take time to cast spells and weave symbols, not throw their arm back creating a lightning blade and casting chidori.
@@joselazo9799 I'm just giving examples for improving a nearly useless cantrip. My recommendations are to basically sacrifice your turn to take a ranged Aide action or make it a near certain hit at the expenses of a spell slot. What's not balanced?
As it is, True Strike replaces two attack rolls and two possible damage rolls for two attack rolls and one possible damage roll and only for the caster. The only way it's useful is if you cast it just before combat begins, but that requires you to know exactly when it will ahead of time. Even a melee caster would have no use for this.
It negates disadvantage that has been placed on yourself, and combines well with bonus action attacks from combat/caster builds. Tweaking the wording to "Until the next round", "Bonus Action", or even allowing it to use your initial changes sound like a good idea.
A cantrip that provides a +2 to hit to an ally within 30ft. Sounds good leave it as is. Having it scale by a +1 seems wholly unnecessary. Scaling damage, as the base game does, doesn't ruin the balance of health to damage in D&D. Adding to hit makes a far bigger difference as it can add 15-20% higher chances of landing hits (based on AC and chances to hit). Going beyond the initial +2 will see increased percentiles, though at diminished returns and I will explain why this is bad in the next section.
a +20 to hit for a spell slot is ridiculous. +20 isn't a near hit, it is a certain hit. Only the strongest of monsters have 20+ Armor Class, and casting a low level spell to have a 90%+ to hit this powerful creature is ridiculous. Allow me to give you an example.
Armor Class has its own to-hit% chance, this is calculated into the monsters health and longevity in battle. Adding more points of AC to buff it can make the monster last 2-3 more rounds longer than it should. This burns through additional resources and allows the monster to punish players. If this is a consistent change to monsters, than the issue stacks. Adding health can do something similar though in a smaller scale. Now if your players have a way of landing a certain strike 100% of the time you must take into account the party's resources.
Do they have Dragon Slaying weapons? how about undead killing weapons? maybe a hammer that smites constructs or a ranger who specializes against humanoids. A paladin who can pour his smites and damage into one hit or a ranger who Sharpshooters, + his favored enemy damage. Or a rogue whose sneak attack is 4d6 additional damage?
The fact that the hit is no longer dependent on a % chance to hit means this overly empowered ability doesn't have a chance of failing, that the players pour their power into a gamble or attempt to succeed quickly is no longer a chance, but a sure hit.
A scary CR 9 dragon can have 150 hp~.
Dragon Slaying Greatsword 3d6 + 2d6, +5 from the Paladin's Str, + 4d8 from Divine Smite, + 3d6 from Thunderous Smite, +10 from Great Weapon Feat, and gods forbid he has additional damage buffs from his allies such as a Valor Bard's Inspiration or a casters Haste. He has a chance of missing this huge hit, especially with a -5 to hit... so not taking into account a Natural 1, he has his +4 from Proficiency, + 5 from Strength, and +15 from the spell granted onto him. +24 to hit. This CR 9 Blue Dragon has 18 AC. The paladin has to roll a Natural 1 to miss.
8d6 + 4d8 +10 (Average: 28 + 18 + 10 = 56 damage / Highest: 48 + 32 + 10 = 90 damage).
Now let's keep in mind your description is "have it grant +20 to attack rolls." So further extra attacks would also have +20. If this was a fighter with 3 or more attacks, or a monk with 4 or more strikes?
Imagine if it's a caster who casts lvl 5 Scorching ray (12d6, Average = 42 [84 crit] / Max = 72 [144 crit]) or a level 5 Storm Sphere. This is not taking into account a Sorcerer's Quickened Spell or an Evocation Wizard's Minimum damage increase, or even the feats that ignore resistances.
If the paladin Nat 20's? smites multiply as the wording on their abilities are "extra damage"
112 damage on average 180 damage on max. In 1 turn this "challenging dragon" would be dead or damn near it. One could argue situations, alterations, stat additions, etc., But we aren't arguing hypothetical but raw logical numbers... in other words balance. A +20 breaks the game, hands down.
I see what you mean about the cantrip version. I can agree with that.
However, as for the level 1 spell version, it would only apply to a single attack. I apologize for not being more clear. Perhaps it would include another attack for each spell slot after the first, but that would be it. And really, this would only be effective against a monster with a very high AC and that is resistant or immune to most, if not all, the caster's spells. This would be very niche, but effective enough that it would see use.
As for the +20, honestly, I'm basing it on the 3.5 version and haven't really had a chance to playtest it, yet, but I can see your point, as well. +10 would be fair, I think, or a +5 to all attack rolls until the end of their turn as a 2nd level spell. Maybe a +2 for 3 turns, even.
I'd have to do some test runs to see what would work best.
Still, my point is that some of the spells and rules, as they're printed, are not very good and that DMs should be open to tweaking them to fit their campaign and their players' playstyle. True Strike is one is those spells that have far too little use to be a good pick.
I agree completely, tweaking spells should be available. Why not turn fireball into an iceball etc. To fit the flair of a player character. I personally wouldn't but why not.
Even though I agree with a spell like True Strike, tweaks should be made because it itself isn't very good. Some spells that may not appear good on the surface have very different rules governing their balance. It is important to look at all aspects before freely tweaking a spell.
You guys are really helpful! First time dm here and you guys have a video on every one of my questions
Principal X reminds me of something similar from the muppets. Jim Henson said that if he couldn't think of an end to a sketch he'd have one monster eat another. :D
Here is something that I think incorporates many of the principles: the DM's most important role is to control the pace of the game.
If things are moving too slow, too fast, if players are interrupting each other or acting out of turn order; if one player is hogging the spotlight, monologing too long, or lawyering rules too much -
that's on you, boss.
If any rule has to be strictly enforced, it's this one. Everything else falls apart if the DM can't keep the other players from ruining their own fun.