Behind the Screen: Our DM Set Up for Dungeons and Dragons 5e!
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2020
- 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/... We go behind the screen and show how Monty and Kelly set up their DM stations for game night! We dig in to the accessories we love and the essential tools we need at our tables when running our games.
Legendary Rod of Initiative Kickstarter: bit.ly/dd-brothers-forged-ks
This video was sponsored by BROTHERS FORGED Legendary Rod of Initiative Kickstarter, check out their innovative magnetic initiative tracker for tabletop roleplaying games!
TIME STAMPS
2:34 - Monty's DM Battle Station
9:30 - Kelly's DM Battle Station
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"unlike monty who has a dedicated games room *grinds teeth*"
This is where I would put my game room *IF I HAD ONE!*
Are you talking about my grandson
Dinkleburgggg
This has no bearing on the actual content, but y'all's houses are really nice-looking and clean. I just thought that was something that showed some effort and deserved notice.
cleaning your house nice and clean is so special to you that it needs a compliment? :O
@@GiblixStudio It's something nice they did for us; just wanted to call out a "thank you".
It is always more pleasing to view a pic or video when the backdrop is clean and organized!
Kelly... where did you get that specific dice tray? Cause I kind of need one the split of it and it’s aesthetically nice too. Also Monty I love the template you were using does it come preset with most of those items?
My only gripe is that pile of miniatures' boxes under the table, they look like they'd be in the way of everyone's feet.
Color coded dice types. When I DM all my dice, of each type, have their own color. D4s are all blue, D6s are all red, etc. I have found this makes finding different dice for all the different characters I am running way easier. Your brain can process color a lot quicker than it can process shape, so when you have to find 3D12s one attack then 4D6 on your next, etc. you’re looking for color rather than shape.
Is that why sometimes dice in a set come in different colors
That's... A really good idea! I've never thought about that but I'm totally going to start doing this! Thanks Mat :D
I Cast Fireball Welcome! It’s definitely made dice rolling on my side of things (DM) move a lot faster. :)
Great idea!
Doesn't work when your DM is colorblind and you have to sort his dice for him
I want to make so many jokes about a Rod of Initiative...
Teenagers Rod's makes calls for initative rolls at the most inappropriate moments.
@Brothers Forged that looks awesome! Want one. What about adding something to mark conditions on the rod?
No one:
Not a soul:
Not even the click clack of someone's dice:
That one bard: Want to see my rod of initiative
@Brothers Forged nice 👍
@notlaughingmybacksideoff
Yes! Having a random list of descriptive words is IMMENSELY helpful, especially when getting your players immersed in your towns and the randomly generated NPCs the party encounters.
Player: "I want to talk to a nearby person and see what they think."
DM: "Yeah you find a guy looking around."
Bleh. Not very immersive.
Player: "I want to talk to a nearby person and see what they think."
DM: "Sure. You find an older heavyset human with a dirty tunic that seems to be poking around."
Instantly plants a picture in the player's head so they can come up with their own conclusions of the person, and lets the DM easily come with a voice and persona for the character.
Great video as always!
There's also the flipside : just cause you're using many descriptive words, doesn't mean you're telling a better story, you have to gauge what's needed to describe vs being a windbag DM.
@@mikebytheway says the guy who described the DM as a “windbag...”🧐😁
..
Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven
There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
Holy Spirit Can give you peace guidance and purpose and the Lord will
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
I love how he doesn't mention the epic wooden cupholders!
All the terrains and minis and equipment are nice but here I am thinking " I need one of those so I can keep my drink from knocking over under my DM paperwork" 😊
was thinking the exact same thing. I'd like to see a video that shows what they bring when they are playing in a campaign and not being a DM.
was thinking the exact same thing for the entire video
I know this was made 2 years ago, but where did you get those awesome cupholders & your gaming table, please?
Monty: ‘Here are all my miniatures’
Me: *laughs in broke college student*
Something I've been doing for 20+ years is buying 1 or 2 minis every now and then. You'll amass a pretty good selection in no time. Maybe even save a dollar here and there and after a few months buy a larger, more expensive mini. After a few years of this, you'll have a hoard of minis.
Pathfinder Pawns!
Use Lego minifigers
I have just used coins or pieces of paper before. A friend of mine prints his minis on card stock and has little wooden dowels he has cut up and cut lines into that at as minis
@@Taven03 the dowel idea is actually pretty sweet. You could use dowels of different width for small, medium, large creatures and so on.
Just another request for Monty's Scrivener documents!
yes plz
Is this a thing I can get as well?
yes yes ys?
Ples can we have this lol
i need it!!
The DM screen; to me, is essential. It shows the separation between player and DM. It gives off a more authoritative vibe.
However, I still use my laptop, iPad and phone behind the screen instead of the books due to convenience. There’s nothing faster than being able to search a keyword or page number and get there instantaneously versus having to flip through pages.
For anyone wondering how much the magnetic initiative tower is, it's roughly $180.
Thanks, I was wondering 😀
Jesus Christ I think I’ll stay away
Mmm to track initiative, not too bad compared to a notebook I can use for free 😃
Lmao seriously?
bruh i can make it for 50 max
Monty, is there any way that you could provide all the info you keep in your Scrivener?
I don't know if it is shareable, but it looks like a great resource to have!
I would love those description aids.
I came here to ask the same thing.
Second that
This! Would be great if you could export it in some fashion we could pull in and then edit/tweak to meet our needs. Would absolutely help as I prefer digital myself and am soon to embark on my first attempt at DMing.
+1 - Be the hero we need not the hero we deserve!
This is perfect. As a new(ish) DM, I love to see how others play their role.
Monty's level of organization in his laptop is amazing and something I want to aspire to 🤩
I remember in the 80's all we had was dice and graph paper. Maybe a TSR DM's screen.
Ok, thats it! Dungeons and Dragons has officially become my main hobby. Dice and mini hoarding- here i come!
@Miles Duffus if you play D&D the probability of that is 10,000 to 1
@@wisconsinwintergreen6296 me and a friend started to play as dms for our kids that came out of our wives xD
@@wisconsinwintergreen6296 me and my girlfriend play DnD with 2 of our couples friends. They do exist. Don't settle! If you wanna play DnD and she dont. She ain't the one for you
Love both Monty and Kelly's setup. The love for the game just shines through. Monty high five for team roll without a screen. Kelly's coins to hand of treasure brilliant idea.
The coins are also a wonderful way of keeping track of each player’s gold amount.
I am so happy for those amazing setups and have a "healthy envy" of everything they've done, if that makes sense.
Preparing your adventure and having it work is so satisfying. When I used to play games in my first Call of Cthulhu campaign at a "jumpscare" I hit the floor with my foot for a sound effect and everyone JUMPED. It was amazing
I really enjoyed this video! I laughed out loud when Kelly was gesturing to the various bits of info behind the DM's screen and then his dice rolls. It was very cute. It was really fun seeing behind the screen with two very different setups! - Jill
Monty, I love using Scrivener too and just right now I am trying to streamline what sort of resources I need onscreen all the time and what sort of resources I can switch back and forth. My setup is really close to yours: Scrivener + DDB for rules/stat blocks. During quarantine now as we are just playing online, I found really useful to use Zoom + an iPad to share visual queues as necessary with my players. I’d really love to see / share notes with you regarding what content you have available on Scrivener.
I have been preparing mostly using Sly Flourish’s Lazy DM prep, thus I will prepare my Locations, Scenes, Encounters and Opening for the session, but what I really am trying to work on now are description resources such as the ones you showed : how to describe combat, locations, people, etc.
Thanks for sharing this! The timing was just great for me and I’d really love if you could make an episode or more just on your dynamic storytelling resources.
I have been using One Note for my DM'ing, but seeing the references for describing etc has given me some inspiration. For initiative I have a monster database where I copy over the monster stats and move them around that way, the players cannot see it though, but I queue them up so they are prepared for their turn.
I'd like to expand it more and create something like Monty has, with ways to describe as thats a really good idea. I've created tables etc for druid summon animals etc, but not for random encounters and the like. Need to up my game.
Scrivener is the program used by Monty as well? I couldn't get what he was saying, thought it was scriber or something like that.
Raging Teapot Yes, it is Scrivener. It is a wonderful tool for writing. I haven’t used One Note for DMing but I have read that a lot of people use it and the main benefits are quite like Scrivener : you can keep all your notes organized in a single project and access all of them as needed.
Right now I am working on specific setups for different moments: prepping, running the game (exploration/social/combat), and postgame.
It has been MUCH MORE effective as I used to jumble through notes and couldn’t find them.
It is a work in progress, and probably will be for years to come as you could see Monty’s references to his notes amassed throughout the years. It seems, however, that it is a good path to try to follow.
I find the Encounter builder on DnD Beyond to be a very great tool, that way I have the stat blocks for all the monsters that could show up in an encounter, and a great way to track their HP. (It's still being developed so I expect more good things from it in the future)
(A Week after I began DMing Corona hit, so up until now I have run all my games online, so I really like the digital map makint. I might have to dig up an old flat screen TV soon and convert it into a digital gaming table)
Any chance of getting Monty's resources he has amassed on Scrivener?
Seconded!
Thirded
Yes please. That looks so immensely helpful!
Trying to find out that myself.
I would like more info on the npc things he has. those rock and I need lots of help in that direction.
Monty, would be possible for you to make a video about your scrivener setup?
cheers
That is what I need the most. I love Scrivener for keeping track of everything but my organizing is less than optimal. I would love to see how to set it up like Monty's.
That would be a fantastic video!
i like this idea.
3 months later, still no scrivener video !
Please dear god yes. I've been trying to reconstruct your Scrivener template based on screen captures, but it is crazy time consuming.
The amount of information Monty has gathered on his Scrivener throughout the years, I'm jealous.
Good job adapting your video content to accommodate the social distancing. I'm proud of you two for sticking to your hobbies. It's that type of tenacity that breeds a professional mindset and I applaud the both of you on your discipline and attitude.
The magnetic initiate tracker is pretty neat! I make little paper "tents" with the character and player name on them, and when I need to track initiative, I sit them on top of my DM screen.
I like the tables Monty has with DC difficulty, weather, encounter distances, etc. I was talking to my friend who also DMs and he is very much an improv DM, but frontloading the effort like this is more my thing and it's nice to see how others do it.
I wish I could afford the dwarven forge stuff and so many miniatures.
ah, and that is why they made cardboard and foam, so peasants like us could recreate such terrain on a dollar store budget.
Buy a piece or two a time trust me a few months you'll have a shit ton by a year or two you'll look back and go wow my friend just got into dnd 5 months ago and already has like 60 he buys like 3 or 4 at a time a paycheck
@@jonathancasais6491 lol. I've been playing since 1e. I buy things from time to time. Miniatures are the hardest to come by because I've taken to building my own dungeon sets
I got all of my minis from the D&D Adventure System Board Games series. Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizzt, Temple of Elemental Evil, Tomb of Ahnnihalation, and Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
True, they're unpainted, but my group and i just wanted minis to use. Plus they come with map tiles that helped set up terrain for the most part.
A 3d printer means tons of cheap minis
Fantastic video! This has to be our favorite video you guys have done. You're consistency in creating high-quality D&D content even during these tough times inspires us. Thank you.
When my friends and I started playing D&D some years ago, we didn't have a grid, minis, dicetrays... hell, we didn't even have chairs (seriously); all we had was a set of dice and a table. What Kelly said about being ready to play the game despite not having tons of props cannot be stressed enough. You can start playing **today** just by downloading the SRD 5.1 and buying the cheapest set of dice you can find.
Nowadays we have tons of cool stuff (although most of it homemade!) because we delved a bit deeper into the hobby, but you always have to start somewhere.
I use Scrivener for writing my novels, but I never thought about using it to organize a game/campaign. That is awesome
Hands down the best DM setup video I've seen so far. Not just a podcast but a display of what y'all have. I'm taking notes to improve my DM organization. Thanks for the video.
its so nice to see how the DMs set up with what they need, it helps validate how I've set up for my group, everyone is different for what groups so i feel good with the amount of preparations that ive been doing
You guys are awesome! Thanks for showing a peak behind the curtain.
- a long time player and newbie DM
I DM'ed my first session last night after watching dozens of your videos. Thank you guys! I went great and I am PSYCHED to DM again. Your videos helped me feel confident and calm throughout. Watching this one again now so I can know what I need to do differently next time.
I'm also running oota! All my players (all brand new to dnd but one) love watching your videos. Love seeing how each of you set up and how different it is.
Love the behind the scenes!!! Thanks for sharing your spaces.
Thanks so much for this video. Your timing is really great, my wife and I are buying a house this month, and I will be redoing my entire DnD setup. I'm so grateful for all the ideas you both presented and I will definitely be adopting quite a few of Kelly's. setup
I've been hanging for this vid, great to finally see your setups. So jealous, but definitely inspired.
Thank you for this video! I’m currently very close to finishing my construction of my own gaming table 🙂! I also just backed that initiative Kickstarter! And I am so inspired by that npc description notes Monty had! I’m totally gonna look into something similar for my set up!
I'm only a few months into DMing, so I'm nowhere near this level of preparedness, but you two have set some awesome goals for me! Thanks!
I think one of the most important things to take from this is find what is comfortable for you. The less energy you spend thinking about finding what you need the more energy you bring to the table. Both set ups are great examples to start from to help find your own style.
just had the first night of DMing and feel really overwhelmed by what to keep track of, but had huge fun nonetheless. Thanks for giving me the courage to try it with your videos! It would also help me out a lot if I could have a look through your scripts, I think, but totally get it if you dont want to make it straight public. Could you maybe think about making it available on patreon? Would love to back you for this!
Keep up your amazing work!
Best wishes a freshly hatched DM
Welcome to the tier of the masters. Hope you're having fun!
I’m fairly new at DMing also. I have run only 5 or 6 sessions. It does get easier and I’m having a blast. We have switched to an all digital format since the pandemic. We use Discord for audio and World Anvil to keep things organized and share “handouts “ with the players.
Congratulations! Welcome aboard!
That initiative tracker sculpture looks to me like a solution looking for a problem.
This was such a cool video. I've been very curious to see what kind of things you keep in your gaming space. Truly epic!
Just by showing your DM Set up you helped me improve my dnd sessions by a lot! Thank you so much guys.
Great to hear!
this is the best video you've ever made in my opinion! Thank you!
This is awesome. I would love to see one of your games form the DM's point of view. Thanks for all the fantastic content.
I'm super jealous of both of your sets ups. Especially that gaming table 😍
Great video and so helpful. I've been struggling with my set up going from in person to on line. This video gave me some new ideas to try and they are working out great. Thanks again!
Now that is one organised, epic-looking DM setup, with several very interesting accesories :D Good stuff, Dudes!
I carry all my stuff in a bag since I typically go over to my friends house to game. Noteworthy stuff I have is:
- A portable speaker. Having the right music honestly is the difference for a game being good or great. I sincerely suggest getting something like that if you want your games to feel immersive.
- I'm a pretty budget guy so my "minis" and tokens tend to be random knick knacks and didles I've collected and found over the years. Includes stuff like a fidget spinner axil, a screw, a marble, and even a little pebble I found outside and Washed.
- A few secondary accessories like an egg timer. These can come in handy for tracking time or reminding players to not take forever on their turns.
- A folder and notebook. Keep things organized, for the love of god.
And of course I have my dice bags and such. The essentials.
I like to use individually wrapped candies for monster minis! You kill the troll, you get to eat the snickers. Thems the rules.
Man I would absolutely love to have that collection of notes that Monty uses.
Your set ups are soooooo AWESOME!
As a longtime writer who has loved writing with scrivener, I’m kicking myself that as a new DragonMaster I hadn’t considered using scrivener to organize all this new information I need to have handy during our sessions!
What a great idea for a vid! This was really fun and informative to watch.
Wow, so much inspiration to step up my organization. I've been checking out Scrivener all day and it's gonna be huge for me. Also love pre-rolling initiative for the baddies, just gonna make life SO much easier. Thanks Dudes!
I love the cards. We have all the class spell cards and the monster cards as well as the magic item cards. We also use a glass table and dry erase markers to take quick notes and keep track of hp.
This was honestly such a helpful video, I’ve been kinda struggling with DM’ing during lockdown especially with providing map details as players progress. But a lot of if this stuff is really helpful for transitioning.
What a very cool collection D:! That white dragon is so cool!
Got to say loved what you guys do but Monty loved that Scrivener reference/scrapbook you have made. It made me feel equal bits jealous and old - good job!
Absolutely great video. I’d like a follow up with how each of you keep your notebooks. Either scrivener or paper notebook. Thanks for this look behind the screen. Please let us see in your dm books!!
I love using my Rocketbook as my go to notepad. Everything is scannable right to a digital location and it comes with a variety of pages to work with. Makes it real easy to sketch out an idea and print it out if you need multiple copies.
Both setups are awesome! Hope one day I can afford something like this... At the moment I'm relying on virtual tabletops. Great video, thanks for sharing!
The video that I was looking for! Thanks dudes 🎲
Awesome video as always guys!! Seriously impressed by both setups, more so by Monty's dedicated game room. I'd love a game room, but currently the group I play with just uses our dining room table, and my tablet running for communicating remotely.
Loved to see your set ups, great video
That froghemouth mini is amazing! Any that initiative tracker is too!
Monty I was in awe of your digital DM app!
A nice look with some good ideas. I feel like extra reference options, maps and tables are always useful. I've been DMing remotely for 7 months now so I don't require a lot of physical stuff (pro and con), but having a few sheets/books to reference on the spot never fails.
Throwing out "extra" minis to throw off the party is genius!
Hell yeah, I like seeing the monster of the week books on that shelf. Such a great game!
Very helpful video, thank you!
This is super helpful guys. Thanks alot
Great video guys! I played a little 1st ed way back in the day, but never DM'd. I am now getting back into it with my wife and 13 YO daughter and just getting my feet under me. I like the old low tech DM screen approach, but I found myself angling it to the corner of my table and sitting on the side so I could see and reach the battlefield better. Previously, I found myself standing most of a session since our table is bar height and I could step around to reach easier.
I haven't been DMing for long, and don't expect to stay long before moving, so I tend to not have the 3D maps and the heaps of minis that you guys do, but I do use minis all the time, so what I do have is a grid that I've printed and wrapped in plastic to it could be dry erased. That has been the map for all but the most epic of battles at my table. So I always keep that map, along with markers and an eraser, and I can improv whatever needs battling
Oh hey, Kelly uses the brand of dice tray I use! I actually have the purple dragon one, and gifted a fellow AL DM with the blue cthulhu one for Christmas as a thanks for running a particularly fun module series. I personally like it since the ability to hold dice makes it easily at the ready whenever I am doing a game. :)
This was just what i was looking for!
I have a combination of both of your setups. Great video dudes
Very awesome collections!
I am really happy I watched this video - never heard of Scrivener before. Just got the trial version for MacOs, and it is soooooooo good!!
This reminds me of the great times I had playing with my siblings when all we had was a set of die, a few printed character sheets, i think 1 book and then paper and pencils. played for years with only what came in the starter set.
Using Scriviner as a DM screen is freaking brilliant. i've used it for years for writing but never thought of using it outside of writeing.
"Monty and I have extremely different setups"
*Notices the camera quality difference.*
Yeap. I see that.
This was so helpful! I've always wondered what other people do as a DM. Now I know I'm not that far off 😁
Great vids guys! Helped a lot
Nice Cygnar Stormwall in the glass case👍
I love Kelly’s set up! I too to rock the old school style!
Nice, the Cthuluh 5e book; I started using that myself.
Very beatifull, organized and friendly!
I would like to come to your homes to play.
I also liked that you specified that ,,you don't need all of these".
Very beatifull!
Holy wow! This is the video I needed before jumping in the deep end
This is amazing. I love this game so much but some times I feel my games are lacking from not having the correct items or knowledge. Keep up the great content you guys
Honestly can Monty grace us with a copy of his fashion, hair, and face description, as a DM I have trouble finding words sometimes to describe someone and it would be super helpful idk why I didnt think of it before
That's some well thought out DM setups and spectacular mini and Dwarvenforge collections! My DM setup is similar to Monty's - Dice, notebook, laptop, ipad, and a few coin tokens. But, my game is much less accessory intensive - I've been working on minimizing accessories (no battlemaps only a region map on table and rarely used minis/tokens to illustrate relative positioning if asked).
Discussions on rules are always great, but what a great and immediately useful video for new and experienced players. I'm always interested to know how other DMs "roll".
I love playing with props, my favourite prop are little handmade potion bottles I give out to my players, they love them and it's a handy way for them to keep track of how many healing Potions they have
Love, love your set ups! My group plays almost entirely theater of the mind , but are thinking about getting some minis at least for our party.
That initiative tracker reminds me of my own hand crafted magnetic initiative tracker.
You know when you go to a DM's house and they care enough to invest this kind of money and time into the hobby we love that your going to be in for a great experience. Like they said you don't have to have this stuff to have a great time ( hell one of my favorite campaigns was played with a mixture of Lego, a few Ral Partha minis, the campaign setting book, and some parts from an old hero quest board game), but it really would be awesome to play even just a one off with you guys and your collection !
SUPER HELPFUL! There are a lot of great tips to organize the game, and the different perspectives were eyeopening. There is one aspect that always puzzles when not playing with theater of the mind;
- How do you DM at the head of the table
* I'm always in the middle because I'm drawing the maps and moving the enemy minis
10:35 I see you have that Cthulhu Mythos book for 5e.
You are a true man of class. Highly approved.