Seven Principles for Dungeons and Dragons Players
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- čas přidán 7. 05. 2024
- MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... In this video we cover our personal Seven Principles for D&D Players to keep in mind when playing Dungeons and Dragons 5e.
These are our top tips for any players, new or old. We hope you find them useful and inspiring too!
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There are so many great tips for new players, we couldn't possibly cover them all here. What are your DOs and DON'Ts for new Dungeons and Dragons players? What's a piece of advice you wish someone had told you when you first started playing Dungeons and Dragons?
Dungeon Dudes what is all your books behind you could you do a tour of where you guys record your videos that’d be cool. Big Fan
My tip to new spellcasters: be proactive. If you take a new spell and you plan on doing something awesome with it, ask your GM if she'll let you turn into a T. rex, or if she has house rules on what you can polymorph people into. That kind of thing.
My tip to new players: Make an observer character. I'd recommend a monk or a rogue, though a simple support caster like a cleric can work too, depending what you want to get into.
But the goal here is to have a team oriented character but not a flashy one. You don't wanna overwhelm yourself in combat, but also remain effective. Rogues and monks are real easy to play.
And they both give you built in reasons to be more reserved outside of combat and watch and observe. You'll get to see how the game is played, adjust to learning your own character's abilities, and not feel pressured to be the face of the party.
And a cleric will let you dip your toes into casting without worrying about keeping track of a spell book, or being too weak to fight if enemies get close, or not knowing what to do if you run out of spell slots n such. Most of your spells are buffs/debuffs and heals so it's not going to be super easy to make a dud of a character that isn't effective.
Everyone loves a cleric for buffs and heals. Everyone loves a rogue for finding and disarming traps and lock picking doors. And you don't have to worry about being disarmed as a monk or being caught without armor.
So you have really easy ways to shine, without having to be an expert. These kinds of PCs starting out give you the time you need to feel comfortable with the game. 👍
If the DM doesn't grasp "natural language," then express the skill you want to check against. I had 3 charisma checks on my bard over a 4 month span. Two were in out-of-session Facebook chats and the last was an accidental intimidation when I was trying for persuasion and deception.
Do play with me! :(
I really hope The Dungeon Dudes get to read this because this an awesome story.
First a little background.
I've been playing DnD since 1976. The group I am with now, I have DM:ed for 40 years. For a couple of reasons I felt the need to share this video with the group. I did this a few weeks ago. Everyone agreed it was great and despite the fact we've been playing for so long there were things to learn for everyone.
Now to the story.
One of my friends in the group works as a high level manager in one of Swedens largest and most renowned companies. He is in charge of, amongst other things, Leadership, to develop and educate branch managers. This time he held a lecture for 42 employees who are in a program to be branch managers.
He played the entire "Seven Principles" video, stopped frequently and commented how this would be applicable to the branch managers in their daily work.
It was a total success.
He ended with saying two things.
"Remember the most important thing, The Will Wheaton rule; Don't be a dick!"
"These two guys, The Dungeon Dudes, are amongst the best leadership developers in the world. They just don't know it, yet."
This is incredible. It totally made my day. Send my best to your friend and the branch managers!
@@DungeonDudes Absolutely!
No kidding. I've nervously given speeches about quality and business relationship management a couple of times, nothing fancy. But as I prepare for this years round of speeches, I cant escape the direct correlations between being a phenomenal DM and business principals.
This video was solid gold on it's own as a D&D CZcams video. As insight into how to cooperate in a work environment, also phenominal.
Not to be a hater, I'm not, I love your videos, but having to do a video like this just means that your are trying to protect yourself from people who lack social skills and common sense. None of what you said at all was ground breaking or even outside of the obvious when talking about social interactions. Sure it has a D&D twist so the DM is the authority is a bit different, but the rest of it was just be respectful to your fellow players. If people haven't learned this by say 1st grade, they are in for some tough times in life. And if you encounter these people at your gaming table and they are disruptive...kick them the hell out and tell them why. The fact you had to do this video is a disgrace in my opinion (not to you, but to human beings everywhere)...and the fact that some "major company" thought this was a good thing to show to its leadership really means they hired the wrong people and their interview processes don't work. If you hired dicks, showing them a video telling them to not be dicks isn't going to work and if you didn't hire dicks telling them not to be dicks is moot. Identify the dicks and fire them...publicly, that will work far better then any feel good video.
When our group started playing D&D, it was new to all of us including the DM so we learned a lot as we went. One thing I thought would have helped us in the beginning was to know we could interact with the environment. As newbies, we thought we could only go in a linear pattern. We thought we had to role for everything (and I mean everything, lol). We didn't even speak to each other as characters for the first bit. We also all treated the beginning of the campaign like an Xbox game where fighting was the main way to level up. We got into way more fights than we needed to because we thought that's what we were supposed to do.
I always 'rest' my dice with the highest number on that type of die facing up.
Not only does this teach my dice what is the proper side to have facing up (Like they ever learn..), but it's also real simple to see what each die is.
"That'd a d12." Okay, I grab one of the dice that reads '12'. It's simple.
Most people that start playing have 1 or 2 sets of dice, each set being a uniform color or marbling of colors, so they can't have 6 or 7 different color dice very easily.
This is a great idea. Just make sure your dice don't have a symbol for their highest value, like mine do.
Yeah, my dice never listen either. Like feral cat dice. I need to find some nice Golden Retriever dice.
I let my dice rest on one of their lower numbers, so that when I call on them to perform they can do it with full energy. But I think that's been leading to bad habits.
You can always trade dice with the other players, that way you should get a couple of different colours. And then, when you have learned, you can trade back, so you once again own the complete sparkly unicorn die set.
As long as you're not doing it on an oven rack ;p lol
If there is a player sitting on the sidelines waiting for the narrative to introduce them so they can start playing, try to steer everyone in that direction. If the DM keeps hinting that the party should go meet someone at the local church, take the hint and don’t go on a two hour shopping spree. Also if you are the DM make it a priority to steer the narrative to that players introduction as soon as possible. There’s nothing worst then spending your entire afternoon waiting to play..
I have a DM at school that will do absolutely nothing to try to introduce new players. I spent 3 2 hour sessions doing nothing because she was hell bent on my character being introduced at a certain place even though it would make no difference in the plot of the campaign
Had this literally happen to me in a Star Wars saga game
Having a table veto rule has helped my party a lot. It really curbs the occasional murderhobo impulse. If someone declares an action, if another player shouts “veto!”, and everyone at the table raises their hand if they agree. If half of the other players call veto, we have 60 seconds to agree on a new course of action that the player can be happy with.
The second rule of the Table Veto is don’t spam table veto. The third is don’t try to get vetoed.
This is especially helpful when I’ve played in shop games.
The other rule that’s worked well for my DM is you put your hand on your head if you’re talking out of character. It feels pretty silly so we stay in character a lot more. And we always know who’s talking.
I also feel like it’s important to ask people questions in character. Everyone wants to do their own backstory quest. Be that guy that lets someone tell their characters story.
The seven principles:
0. 1:30 - Have fun!
1. Be respectful
2. Be focused
3. Be reliable
4. Be prepared
5. Be cooperative
6. Be constructive
7. Be descriptive
Guys this is great and you know what this video can be applied to the workplace. You could rename it to 7 principles to being a great employee / co-worker.
I love you dudes you always have great content and present it in a straight forward easy to understand format.
This “game of thrones” reference is getting dropped a lot. I sense some personal salt 🧂lol. Love your vids 😊
"Because you want to watch Game of Thrones" ages the video quite a lot, considering how few people want to rewatch it after the final season.
Siobhán Mooney #facts lol
Sending this to my newer players immediately, and my veteran group soon after. Never hurts to remind people of these.
8:11 Having another party member roll a nat 1 and shoot me in the back with a fear crossbow instead of her intended target and me failing my wisdom save, causing me to get frightened, was one of the best memories I have of playing DnD. Everyone at the table found it hilarious when my character was panicking like a madman because the cursed character(story stuff)accidentally shot him. Of course, in character that wasn't funny, but that also highlights the "in world" and "at table" attitudes, even if my character was angry afterwards, I was still just trying not to laugh.
Having fun on the expense of someone else can be FINE, done right.
Having fun on the expense of someone else's fun, however, is not.
‘at the expense of’ 😀 Cheers
@@TraderTimmy how dare you inform the rest of CZcams about proper grammar at the expanse of him.
There can be no value gained at the expanse of others. (Lol)
I love this sort of discussion. It's just good to see D&D reinforce healthy communication between friends and allow people to express themselves. I think D&D has great potential to strengthen relationships and help players grow as people. It kind of teaches you not to be a dick, if played correctly.
One thing that helps is to simply play to a pause point, then break for a bit. Not only does this give the players a chance to socialize, eat, use the restroom, etc., but it also give the DM a chance to mentally prepare for the next run. In addition, it also gives the players a chance to fully absorb the information that's been presented.
Even though I know these principles, I reflect and catch myself committing party fouls in recent games. Even seasoned players should review what it means to be a top-notch player. I recently set a goal that I wanted to show excitement for the game, so I photoshopped a portrait of all our characters (pretty goofy, btw). I also made name tags for PC's with their pictures. Went over well. I did these things because I saw a video like this one and I set some goals.
L
On the "be on time" thing you mentioned, I take this to heart very seriously. If there's a conflict that comes up that I can't avoid, such as one of my choir concerts, a wedding or funeral, a family vacation, etc, I tell my group as soon as I find out about it, and then if it's a ways away I'll remind them a couple days before. The only reason I would ever bail out on the group is if me or one of my close family members had to take an emergency trip to the E.R. And if I'm not incapacitated during that time, I will shoot them a quick text telling them what's going on. If I am the one that's incapacitated, I'll ask one of my family members to do that for me. That way they don't have to be sitting there waiting for me to come. I try to plan ahead for traffic if I'm traveling outside my home neighborhood, and if an unusually long traffic jam happens that will give me a little buffer time, and if it's really bad then I'll tell them "hey, I am coming, I'll just be a bit late because of a traffic jam." That way they'll know that I'm not just blowing it off or forgetting until the last minute. Heck, even if the car won't start, if I have financial means to take public transportation or get a ride from someone else, I'll do that instead of just not coming.
DND Beyond play by post is good for that. I am going to be occupied tomorrow helping a friend of mine. Toward that end I created a post tonight with a spoiler that the DM will read but will make it harder for the other PC's to metagame since they should make their choices and moves without knowing what I will do as I am last in the initiative rotation on this go round. I used to run a large game and even with that number of people, I never had a complication with that. They were genuinely excited to be part of the game and would be johnny on the spot for it every week. We started off at low level and played all the way up until even the lowest character was above 20th level. It was a real true blast and it kept them out of trouble.
When playing a selfish character I would say reserve selfishness for the appropriate opportunities - ie pick-pocketing a valuable amulet when no-one is looking.
Some have the instinct to act selfishly in every opportunity, which is not fun nor realistic.
One of the most important things i learned while playing D&D is, that you as a player need to learn to give away control over the situation. Obviously for multiple reasons:
1. You're not the f***'n protagonist with "plot-armor"
2. You're not alone at the table and every player, including the DM, has a word to say/an action to take etc.
3. It will teach you to find fun in bad luck and chaotic situations
For reference: We had a session where an attempted distraction ended with my Character making out with a female orc unvoluntarily, all of it happened due to bad dice rolls and it was probably one of the funniest moments we had up to that point in our campaign. Also we ended up not getting killed which was kinda strange considering the bad rolls that maneuvered us into that specific situation (overall the whole evening seemed to be jinxed, let's just say we had a lot of natural ones that day and natural twenties when they were rolled against us) needless to say my character was in quite a pinch and needed saving + emotional support afterwards. Furthermore he was NOT the Bard, i repeat NOT! the Bard.
Sorry for bad english.
I like the point on how you can argue and have a rough relationship with characters as long as it doesn't affect real life because me and my best friend have the two characters in our current game who disagree the most, while simultaneously probably being the closest IRL, it makes it more fun that way
I don't normally comment on videos, but in this case I feel that you guys have hit the nail on the proverbial head. These views rarely and really need to be brought out of the shadows and discussed more often than not. You both covered this topic very eloquently, especially for new characters, and at the same time seasoned players who tend to quote "bully" the game or players without even realizing their doing it. This needs to be addressed more in out hobby and I thank you for covering this issue. Major Kudos guys!!
On the flip side of the table, if my players try to do stuff without describing stuff, I ask them what that looks like;
Them; I with use my sneak skill
Me; What does that look like?
"Nothing, hopefully."
Passionate, intelligent, and engaging content always, chaps, but this was a stand out episode. Great stuff.
Here are some of my tips:
- Bring a grab bag of random dice. You can get these for cheap. That way you have extra dice for yourself and the party that you don't have to be too concerned with losing and can freely share. It's a blast to be able to invite someone's guest to the game on the fly and have everything they need already.
-Have a default action to fall back on during combat. Whether it's simply attacking the nearest or most troublesome foe, or using a healing/buff spell or item, have something you can immediately do if your epic plan for your turn suddenly changes due to the turn before yours. This keeps combat flowing.
-If you end up the leader/face of your party, always involve the other members. Spread that spotlight around. Even if the other players are shy or new, you can focus on the abilities or spells they offer in your plans to accomplish goals and make them feel valuable even without a lot of RP dialogue back and forth.
Love the video, guys! Subbed.
Thank you! Right back at you!
love the guys video bussed
A helpful tip for wizards:
Get a small notebook (whatever your taste and budget) and write your stats and spells in it. Not only does it help with reference, but it also helps with immersion, as you are literally referencing your spellbook.
21:12 i've been blessed with a group of friends who have never once tried to de-rail a plot and are always invested in what is happening. This must be insanely frustrating for DMs who put so much time into creating the world/story for the players and one of the players just goes "nah that sounds dumb".
It happened to me last night. It was extremely frustrating, especially since the ambivalence came from alcohol.
Love seeing videos from you guys pop up on my feed. Another quality vid!
This video is amazing and so well put together. I love the content Dungeon Dudes produces. I’ve learned so much and I’m constantly taking things I learned here and applying them to my own journey.
Just got back into Dungeons and Dragons about a month ago. Haven't played since the late 80's early 90's. Shortly after I discovered this channel. Just wanted to say you guys are great and thanks for all the time and energy you put into making these videos. You guys have really helped me rediscover what I loved about Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. I'm going to show this video to all my players this week. I'm hoping it will help with a couple teenagers we have in the group who can be quite disruptive at times. They're my girlfriends nephews and wanted to give them a fair chance before I bring the hammer down. As a whole I know the group including myself can benefit from all the principles. Thanks again guys.
That dice colour is a great idea. I have one set but have them laid out in front of me in size order, left to right. Less obvious but helpful for me as a new player
Dungeon Dudes, you do a great job! Well presented, entertaining, and informative, with well thought out points. Thanks!
Love the earlu summary of the 7 principles, really guides the video
Big Win, fellas. Especially the part where you explain to the audience if one IS being offensive, just stop it. Ruining the game is an eyelash from roleplaying a jagoff PC.
Another fantastic video, Dudes! Great advice as always!
Fantastic video. Thank you guys so much. I intend on sharing this with all my D&D groups.
Hey guys, binged like 70% of your videos in a week. Really appreciate your stuff. Doing Canada proud!
This is really one of the best videos I've seen on this topic, and has more to do with how much fun we have in the game than the vast majority of other topics. I wish there were more videos like this.
"I shall observe this room with intense scrutiny, leaving no hidden thing unseen."☺
wildside316 Only in the School of Divination
Some seriously fantastic advice here.
Great job Dudes!
In my last session my Barbarian was surrounded by dopplerats that we were fighting in a cellar, so he used his attack to hit a barrel of ale and used the flood to wash some of the rats away from him so he could help the warlock.
Thank you very much! I played my first session last week, and despite the nerves, had a great time. The bit about going over your spells, even saying them out loud, is something I’ll definitely be doing! Ditto for laying out my character sheet in a way that makes sense for me. Kudos, gentlemen.
This was really helpful thank you so much for this great points!!
Thank you for another awesome video. This one is great! I am sharing with my entire group!
Really great video guys. I'm sharing this with my group!
As others have said before, great video. You guys clearly put emphasis on the most important aspect of playing d&d; having fun and respect for each other and creating friendships to last a lifetime. Keep on going with the good stuff.
Another awesome one Dungeon Dudes--super job!
1. This was a really helpful video.
2. You have the same energy as the Ghost Chasers from Supernatural.
Brilliant! My favourite video so far!
Great breakdown of principles that can applied not only to D&D, but any time and place. 😊
'7 Principles'! Fantastic!
Great video dudes. I appreciate your time and dedication. I’m gonna try to implement these principle the next time I play. I can see you all taking these principles to heart in Dungeons of Drakkenheim and it makes the game very enjoyable to listen to.
Just getting into DND and these videos have been hugely helpful and inspirational for my play. I played some unknown version of the rules decades ago and it was very numbers-heavy and tactical, so I'm super happy with my group that leans more into the RP and flashy combat and Milestone leveling. Very cool hobby, very cool videos.
I find it ironic that the "my character would do this" excuse happened tonight and made a mess of my session, i get on youtube an hour later and i see this
"but that is what my character would do." Then stop making your characters insufferable, selfish, back-stabbing, arrogant, irrational, pricks. A character that is unpleasant to play with is a poorly made character. I am all for making in character decisions, but to all things there are of course limits.
@@Talarue WELL SAID but here's the thing, the character was pre made by the DM
Ok that is abnormal. Granted without hearing context I can't know whether the person is a dedicated role player or a dork-nozzle. I hope your next session goes smoother.
I have a rule. If someone makes an socially awkward, annoying, idiotic, random, thieving, disrespectful or even down right evil character..that is completly fine! as long as they go with the "I will not make enemies of my partners in crime!"
That means they are allowed to be every single one of these things to NPC's that I create but not allowed to suddenly stab the guy that another PC was talking with because he was getting bored...that is not okay..instead go something like "My character gets bored and starts wondering off to see what kinds of books this Library have anyway!" In that case they are free to walk away and they can go on their phone for a little bit or space out while I get through the roleplaying with the other NPC. They don't have to listen to it since they aren't there anyway and then I can jump to them and tell them what they find and let them have their "turn".
One of the best examples I have seen was when I was a player at a table.
The Warlock had basically enslaved a goblin that we had kepts alive and we used him to track down some supposed gold storage in a nearby mountain pass since he apparently knew where there was one (Truth be told he was probably lying! but he was a great help in a few caves thanks to his darkvision!)
Now the paladin fucking hated this! He found that creatur awful and didn't trust him one bit but choose to allow him around since the Warlock wanted him there..I personally loved him since he was funny as all hell but didn't really care much about him nor about gold.
So later on in the campaign the Warlocks fall down the mountain and ends up dying..As we are sad about his passing the Palading suddenly grabs the Goblin and kills right then and there!
I was dying from laughter. The player was a tiny bit upset for a second before he laughed as well because as the Paladin had promised to not attack it as long as he was keeping a watch on it and now he was dead so..well..
It fit his character really well and since the PC was dead it wasn't like it would make sense for his new character to suddenly get him as a pet/slave.
@@Talarue Well it shouldn't happen again anyway for numerous reason
Great tips! I really enjoyed this Dungeon Dudes! Thank you!
You are amazing!
Thank you so much for your effort!
I've really been inspired by you, soooo many times.
Thank you!!!!
MrJogaga I have the same feelings 110%
TYVM!!! This has been very helpful!!! I have really been enjoying your videos. You have inspired me to delve back into D&D after many years of not being active at all. I am currently getting a few players to take part. YOU ROCK!!!
This is the video that made me subscribe to the channel. The way you address the "what my character would do" excuse is an excellent articulation of responsible play.
Listening in my car cause I can't wait to watch this !
Great video, i can see some tips im gonna bring up to the people im playing with and some that i myself can work on, to be a better player and be sure that we all have a more fun time around the table!
you guys are amazing. this should be in the first chapter of the book
Getting back into d&d. I haven't played since 3.5, and these videos really help.
It's so nice to see Liev Schreiber and Jonathan Frakes talking D&D.
We just started a game all newbies. I have experience as a DM but it’s been years. Was hoping that they would pick basic starting characters that I could easily understand. Well let’s just say someone went and picked a Warlock. I would love if you could do a video of the Warlock to help us both know how to run this character the way it deserves to be played.
Our Warlock Guide is coming out next week I believe!
Dungeon Dudes thank you guys keep up the great work I’ve learned a lot about 5th ed from you. You make it fun and entertaining to learn with just enough information to get going in the right direction
How'd the campaign go?
My thoughts on the (very well made) points in this video:
Knowing your character sheet: I've written out my character sheets on paper to mirror the layout of the official ones. This way when a DM asks for my character sheet they can understand it easily and find what they want rather quickly.
For knowing your dice: I line mine up in order on the table (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) so I can grab them really easily. Also knowing your spells and abilities helps, most of my characters only use 2 dice as well as the d20, so it's not always about managing all of them.
Descriptions: There was one time where we found a dead dwarf and this was a setting where a previous NPC has hidden things in his shoes. The DM figured it would be hard to find things on this dwarf so the DC was 18 or 19. I figured it would be something fun to try so I said "I search his beard" and I just found the items. Descriptions of actions are really good, but I still feel the need to limit myself to my best skills.
These are really good tips. Thank you for making this video! Really need more cool dudes like you guys normalizing things as simple-but-important as "be respectful." I've started playing a campaign at work with workmates, and they're great but sometimes I can sense frustrations around the table, and it can be hard to cut through the tension to speak up and say "well hold on, that's good roleplay sure but if you do that then [coworker] won't get to play or do the thing he wanted to try." In a group with a wild mix of DnD experience, it definitely gets tricky making sure everyone is, ultimately, on the same page that 'hey we're doing this for FUN above all else.'
Going to have my first game next Monday. This video really helps! I'm feeling excited 😁
Don't forget to check out our principles for DMs and the session zero guide!
@@DungeonDudes I'll check the zero session for now. Guides for GM will wait 😁 but thanks for the advice
New DM. Bout to run my first session. Didn’t need anything more than these videos.
I don't get too salty when I roll horrible or get my butt kicked. I think of it as... character development. No one is perfect.
lol, it builds character
Remember, its good for your party you're getting hit as then another PC isn't being hit. The old gunslinger saying "always bring some buddies to a gunfight even if they can't hit the broad side of a barn... at least then you're not the only one the vad guys will be shooting at."
Honestly, I often find myself tempted to rules lawer.
For example, my D.M. recently told us that barbarians were net alowed to were armor. I was really tempted to point out that
1) Barbarians have proficecy in light and medium armor.
2) Lots of fanticy barbarians were those horned helmets
3) Real life barbarians, actually did use arnor, if they could afford it, witch we certainly could.
4) Don't tell the players how to play their own characters.
In the end though, It was a relitive's barbarian not mine, and she was fine with this ruling, even though she was constantly geting knoked unconscious.
You guys are the best channel, honestly!
Honestly it's surprising how much I needed to hear "if ur feeling upset about stuff going on in game, it's ok to tell the table that ur feeling bad about it." I've had a handful of instances playing this game where I did everything right that I could've done right, yet because my dice refuse to roll above a 5 I'm sitting on the sidelines wondering if all the investment and love I put into this character is gonna be for nothing.
I usually pride myself when it comes to communication, I wanna make sure I'm always on the same page with my DM and fellow players so we can all contribute to this shared fun we have together. I've even gotten pretty good at voicing when things in game are making me feel upset for personal reasons, but I guess it's just hard to voice when I just... don't want my character's story to end yet when the almighty dice have decided otherwise and I'm feeling upset by that. It's good to remember, talk to your group! Thanks dudes.
Don't be afraid to re-flavor the fluff text to some aspects of your character, such as a chosen background. It's rare that a DM won't approve that as long as the features remain the same.
Let's say you like all the features of the Folk Hero background, so you want to take it, but the text surrounding it doesn't fit your PC.
Change it! Instead of saving a village in your past, you are a long standing pillar of the community. You come from a long line who have been there since the place was founded. You're well respected, almost as a birth right.
Rename Folk Hero to Prodigal Son, and Bam! Now it fits your PC, the features stay the same, and you and the DM have new hooks. Nothing is out of balance or OP.
Feel free to recolor different spells too. Make your fireballs bright purple if you want, as long as they're consistent. Feel free to give your leather armor green dye. Or put a family crest on the middle of your plate mail.
As long as the mechanics stay the same, you can customize the look and feel of just about anything on your PC. Role playing doesn't just happen at the table.
As a DM, I've had a ton of new players and my rule of thumb for dice that I tell them is "When in doubt, roll the d20, majority of the time you'll be correct."
5:11 OBJECTION
if you’re playing close friends that you’ve been playing with a long time or are good friends with. Then go for it and give your friend some grief. It’s funny and everyone has a good time. But only if you’re good fiends. Don’t do that to a new player or someone you’re not best friends with.
For instance me, my sister, and one of our other friends are always doing this to each other. It’s all in good fun and we all know that. That’s why i say only do that with Best Friends who know that you mean good and you’re just messing with them a little.
I'm the guy who read my spells and makes scenarios in my head for how to use em before I get em. Also I have nice spell cards so I can go full Yu-Gi-Oh style c:
Embrace the rule of cool.
As a player, readily accept a DM's ruling that favors the player or the situation over the RAW. If they're doing it for other players, they'll be doing it for you too. The DM is the one worrying about balance, not you.
As a DM, embrace your players' actions when they want to get creative, do things rules don't specifically cover, or bend rules if they have good reasons to. Because as much as a player could rule lawyer you, you can end up doing the same to them if you're too by-the-book.
Be flexible. Think of the RAW more as a GAS (Guidelines as Suggested). Most of the time you'll follow them, but every rule comes with exceptions.
Any questions or major corrections about rulings should be done during breaks or outside of the sessions. Leave the game time to gaming.
Being a player in one campaign and a DM in another campaign is a huge help to me in both scenarios. It helps me put myself in the other person's shoes. When I think about what I'm going to do as a player or what I'm going to do as a dungeon master, I think about how I would feel if I was on the other end of the spectrum. That really helps with all aspects of the game.
Another thing that I do is try to respect what people are comfortable with. I may be comfortable with a lot of gore and bloody details, but if I know that another person at the table is not comfortable with that, or I can see the visual clues that they feel uncomfortable with what's going on, I'll dial my descriptions down a bit to accommodate to their comfort level while still maintaining an immersive environment. If I don't know what people are comfortable with, I always lean on the side of caution. Then if they tell me "hey, I don't feel comfortable with this," then I'll say, "ok, thanks for telling me. I won't do it anymore." This is the same thing that I expect of my friends at the table. I know some of my friends are fine with swearing a lot, but I make it clear to them that I'm not comfortable with it. If they're truly my friends, they will try their best to adapt the language they use and topics they discuss to what I'm comfortable with. And if they don't seem to be making that effort, that's when I consider saying, "if you're not going to respect me and the rest of the group, then please don't come again."
I feel like the Session 0 is a great idea to get together and set some expectations. We can decide if we want to have food or not, what play style to do, how much gore we want in it, and any other rules of the table we want to put out. We can also use the time to create characters so we don't have to have a "you meet up as strangers in a bar" cliche, and instead weave characters' backstories with each other. It's also a great way to introduce new players to the game without feeling like we're wasting everyone's time. Of course, the creation of characters during this time is really only feasible when there's enough Player's Handbooks to go around. That way no one is waiting around for someone else to be done with the handbook so they can get started on their character. If I know that there's at least two players that don't have handbooks due to either them being new to the game or simply the "DnD is freaking expensive" factor, then I'll usually have the experienced players with supplies make their characters on their own time, while I take different one-on-one times with the new players or those without a handbook to allow them to create their character with my supplies, helping them when needed. Then we'll have a Session 0 with everything done except our backstories, and then weave the backstories together to form an already cohesive group, introduce the premise for the campaign, and set the expectations. I'll try to provide that regardless of whether I'm the DM or a player. If I know that the DM does not have the supplies necessary to keep things running smoothly, I'll often volunteer my time and supplies to help ease that burden a bit, because I know how it feels to be constantly having to switch from one new player to the other new player as both need help at the same time. If someone wants to DM for a large group but lives in a tiny apartment, I'll offer to host it at my house so people don't feel cramped.
Overall, my top priorities are: set my expectations early, respect others' comfort levels, be prepared, and be helpful.
Great video; being prepared is such an important thing. Sometimes I wonder how much our DM can be frustrated by my party members forgetting how Roll20 works or waiting until the game to level up their characters.
Great video, well done guys.
My awesome wife saw me looking at what was labeled as a small leather bound journal...that I saw as a 'spellbook'. She bought it for me as a birthday present. I haven't had the chance yet to use it as I am running another character at the moment, but I have it ready to go when the occasion arises.
We game with one simple rule. Make a story that's fun for everyone!
I'm sharing this vid so much!
Thanks for the video. I'm a new player to dnd and my party is already a few sessions in and I just noticed that I'm ALWAYS asking for skill check or just "use a skill" without describing what exactly I'm doing, and how boring that actually is.
"My character would do this" is no excuse. In real life people make decisions and do things against their better judgement.
In our last session we had been looking for this person for the entire time to get valuable information. When we finally found them we realized that they worshiped Tiamat and our barbarian immediately tried to run up and kill them before we could talk🙄🙄
Great advice!!!!
It's tough when players hog the spotlight and talk over other people, just because they're so damn excited and almost child-like in their enthusiasm.
I really like the idea of being prepared and focused. For me its a great escape from my day to day life. I do enjoy a chat and a laugh but sometimes my playgroup is a little too chatty. I love them to bits and its never cause they are on their phone. We are all guilty of it, and it’s definitely something we are focusing on atm
That was an awesome video thank you very much
Reading new spells and abilities OUT LOUD is such a great idea!!
Interesting thing here is that sometimes rules come into conflict when people emphasize one thing above another. Like including something in the game that people are uncomfortable with should be a problem with rule "be respectful", but the player bringing it in, might take your offense at that as a failure to "be constructive". it's good to establish some boundaries in session 0 because of that. sometimes it's not clear that someone has a problem with something being included in the game (like rape for example), because when playing D&D, you wouldn't assume that was a necessary part of the game anyway. Communication is key, I really like this video.
Very helpful video. I’ve been playing d&d since the mid 80s and found a lot of good stuff to help me be a better player (and human).
I’m someone that doesn’t always play well with others irl. I have rough edges. I express thoughts that don’t always need to be expressed. Some of us didn’t learn those all important lessons in kindergarten. Or we lost them somewhere along the way.
I can be a jerk when I don’t mean to be.
I appreciate you guys taking the time to point out some pro social guidelines for those of us that don’t want to be jerks to people we play with and need some help with our rough edges, faults, inadequacies and/or curmudgeonly nature.
I took notes and will review them before my next game (tonight). Thank you.
Good video guys! Still can't wait for the warlock guide
I don't have any major problems with any of my players, but a NICE "problem" to have is that my players keep inviting new people to play with us. A group of four players (three players and me as DM) has expanded to 8 plus me! So, I "have to" keep helping roll up new characters and this is actually helping us as a group understand the (to us) "new" 5e rules.
THIS video is timely and helpful. Thanks for posting it.
i love you guys so much. your videos are amazing
Love the part about natural language. Doing a one shot for some new players and this will be key. Describe what you want to do and then let the DM translate into rules. Perfect.
My first critical failure was HILARIOUS! I rolled eight 1's in one session. And it was the debut of my NEW character. Honestly, me roleplaying it almost matched up with his personality and what had happened to him during the beginning of the session with how he was introduced. None of us will ever forget this character and the great time we had together.
Getting mad at rolling bad is never the way to go. (Just pick up a new die and SHAKE THE SHIT OUT OF IT EVERYTIME YOU GO TO ROLL!!!)
D&D is about having fun with the people that you are playing with and entertaining each other so that you can always look back on those moments and smile fondly together.
I don't know how others feel about critical fails but I had one once that was pretty cool. The party was outside a door and down a hallway on the other side were some orcs that were preparing for the party to open the door for the fight to ensue. One of the party members was killing something in the corner before the door opens and ... he rolls a 1 and I decided that not only did he drop his sword, he kicked it while trying to pick it up and it slid under the door and now the orcs had it. This was in 2nd edition I think when critical fails were over the top funny/crazy.
This is gonna be great to show to my players, much appreciated!
Agreed! Such a grand idea!
For understanding respect among rules, this personally has to be my favorite, even with how many there are on youtube.
Thank you!
Excellent presentation of the subject matter. The tone and flow of your delivery in this video was easy to follow and understand. I agree with the list and will likely recommend these videos as "tutorials" for my new groups from this point on. I also think this applies to some of your other videos as well. I'm taking notes (building a video "must have" list) and will be sure to promote your videos and the information as tools for everyone at my table (DM and players alike). Thanks for the solid video. I'll continue to follow and see where this lead. I'm curious to see if you broadcast your "own games" as well. Time to do a bit more research...………………..
Thank you! You can watch us play in our Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign! Episode 1 is here czcams.com/video/MNcpxqT_WsM/video.html
1. Do what's needed to let others at table to have fun/talk more
This video should be watched by every new player! In fact, while I'm not DMing yet, when I do eventually take on that role I will very strongly suggest this video to any new players, and (somewhat less so) even suggest it to veterans as a refresher before they play my campaigns for the first time.