Відео

I'm playing for the first time and made a goblin warlock who followed the flying spaghetti monster as her patron, ended up getting too attached to a gnome npc and my spaghetti patron turned him into spaghetti. long story short, she's now a vengeance paladin lol

Booojaaagh.

I am playing DnD for over 40 years and I rarely hear something really new, but this video helped a lot to understanding how to start a campaign. Many thanks.

have you done this? sounds so good but in my experience players are not on board…at all

Wild magic archfey sorlock is literally the idea I’ve been thinking over for awhile for a goblin

just randomly got an idea for a githyanki aasimar who worships vlaakith. damn. damn. maybe she becomes a fallen aasimar. triple damn. right now, i'm thinking about an aasimar blood hunter too. specifically a blood hunter who took the order of the lycan. perhaps this aasimar was already a divine soul sorcerer before, or maybe they were a warlock aasimar who's patron was this deity he's related to in some way. but then something went wrong, he failed at the task he was given by his god and lost his spellcasting abilities. perhaps he becomes a fallen aasimar, or remains a scourge aasimar? either way he's got maaajor people pleasing issues now, and spends the campaign trying desperately to right his wrongs and regain this god's favor. to show just how dedicated he was to redeeming himself, he became a blood hunter and did everything he could to make his god/parent proud. also i decided on the order of the lycan for him because. come on. holy shit. what is essentially a werewolf aasimar goes HARD.

Stephanie... if that is your real name... At the risk of sounding like a weirdo. You are both my bestie and nemesie in one celestial being! Haha. Loved all of your concepts, they remained upbeat and quite fun. Despite my edgyness and always trying to topple the oligarchy (whatever that means) I would definitely give them a try. Our group is soon to be doing a campaign where I will be playing an aasimar as a book nerd who may be getting mislead and was looking for other inspirations and I think you along with pointyhat have both inspired something awesome. I kid, it's going to be lame but that is only because I am not good at this, but you guys are awesome. Thanks for all of the work you do!

Great topic! This seems similar to the "scene > sequel" structure that some authors use (Deborah Chester, Jim Butcher, etc.). It inspired me to go with an "encounter > response" format. I really like this take though. Thanks for sharing!

Did this for decades when I was doing TTRPGs, but don't be fooled to think you don't need solid world design and prep. The trick is to throw down a bag of hooks and let the players choose what interests them. They will create their own chaos, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't know where cities, towns, governments, mountains and rivers are. Players love maps and they love details they can manipulate. A Blank slate is a boring one.

If you start with the end scene - your big battle - then you are railroading. This might be how writers approach their work, but cannot be right for RPGs. Start with a situation and a detailed backdrop and let the players go.

One thing that slows down 5E is that combat lacks morale checks. Older versions of D&D had a morale mechanic that often led the foes, if they were being defeated, to flee or surrender. _Worlds Without Number_ and other OSR-adjacent systems use it, and it really helps speed things up. This is coupled with an initiative system that grants initiative to one side or the other, and not to each individual combatant. Finally, everyone has fewer hit points. All three factors lead to quicker combat. With that said, 5e is not the slowest combat system I've ever used. Any edition of GURPS wins that award. Roll to hit, then see if the target's Dodge or Block succeeds. If the hit connects, then roll to see which part is hit. Also, don't forget Damage Resistance. Or if it was a penetrating wound instead of a crushing wound.

I noticed you provided a fairly large HP range for the NPCs you designed in the example encounter build and lowered their AC to be an "appropriate" amount, but, do you ever find that there's method in the madness of increasing AC much higher and lowering the HP? Fewer hits per se, but the impact of each hit carries more weight?

I almost shut this video off half way through, I'm glad I didn't. The second half was great and nuanced content. The "therefore" and "but" advice is great... The "emergent storytelling" stuff at the start sets a flase paradigm that is later explained much better.

I don't know how the algo knew I needed to see this, but this was a great video. Liked. Subscribed. Looking forward to more content from you :) Happy New Year of Emergent Storytelling!

I remember watching the behind the scenes on Disc 2 :) of the Dark Crystal. Jim Henson said, "To create the feeling of a journey, one must visit many different places." I love it!

But if you think about it, if your "but" or "therefore" doesn't obviate an artifact, then you're still within "and then" artifact #2, "and then" artifact #3. To your point, using "therefore" as "how the town changed the way they did things" and using "but" as "how an antagonist persisted toward their end" keeps the heroes central to the story.

Emergent story telling is how D&D was originally intended to be played. If you, as a DM, are planning out long story arcs, you are doing your players (and frankly yourself) a disservice. One thing this video misses is that dice rolls are critical. Let dice rolls decide critical things about the action...random encounters, randomized monster/NPC reactions, randomized NPCs, magic items, etc. You are discovering and experiencing the game world right along with your players. Let your players set their goals (or encourage them to do so). For instance, why are you deciding that the PCs are going to try to destroy Strahd in the campaign climax? Maybe they want to ally with Strahd. Maybe they want to replace Strahd. Maybe they want to use Strahd to destroy another enemy.

I might do a reaction to this in the new year.

You want pro-active players and be a reactive GM. And you should cut down on your prep time. Doing so will turn you from an entertainer making his players audience members, to be the GM as a player and the other players as co-creator. Let go of the control; we're there to play a game, not to create a magnum opus. The story is the after-effect of the game.

This is a wonderful video and I love both your content and the approach to presenting said-content. Top Notch 🎩😎🙌

Really awesome video. You're Professor DM famous now, too. (I'm a little jealous.) Keep up the good work!

I find it helps to think of your story beats as problems for the players to solve, rather than a story you're writing for them to take in. Give them some possible options but don't worry too much about how it will go, because players (and dice) are unpredictable, but riff off the results for the next time.

In what feels like a previous life, I designed digital training for the Department of Defense. And there were 2 big things I did to build my world and make it feel "lived-in". First was to give a few basic personality traits to a few prominent NPCs (like, there's not just a journalist there- she's a Norwegian who only rides a bike or takes public transportation, but if you talk to her, she knows the mysterious arms dealer). And the second was- and I hate to say it- to make the public really stupid and reactionary. When you understand the personalities of the folks your party will interact with, then every result of those meetings will change future interactions in a way that feels natural. And just once, have your party face the ire of the mob for something that never happened. "Aye, you claim you never chanted 'Kill The Good', but Roark's cousin says you DID. And unlike you, he has no reason to LIE!" Build your world, and the stories tell themselves.

Fantastic explanation. So good that I just linked this video and some choice quotes into the top of my campaign building doc, where I'm doing that exact working backward thing you described. Thanks for sharing this!

Great video. Glad to see more DMs encouraging emergent narrative

You are almost there. Letting things unfold organically does give player choices more meaning. In fact, I'd argue that this is the best way to play, as player agency is the key to character immersion, and character immersion is the ideal experience and unique feature of roleplaying games. A preplanned story is antithetical to player agency. Some people do enjoy railroady storygames. Some people like choose your own adventure games. Some people play RPGs as analog MMOs with dice. Some people drink beer and eat pretzels while making monty python references. But if you arent playing rpgs for immersion, you are really missing out. You might as well be playing wargames or board games.

That image at the end is my number one reason for wanting to play Dragonbane.

Brandon Sanderson, as a UA-cam channel for his college courses. They teach you everything about story structure, and character development.

Okay well even after only knowing about this concept for a couple minutes I already have some thoughts/observations to add to it! I've been working on an emergent storytelling RPG on and off for some time and one of the things my game already incorporates is not just "and" results but also "but" results. This idea relies heavily on that "but" concept as well. And then it occurred to me: it's the "buts" that really make it work. Because _each_ one of those has the potential to spawn off more "therefores" and "buts". And that means that using this system creates many branching paths and ideas. _Which is literally the polar opposite of a linear railroad storyline._ Brilliant!

This is some great stuff. I've been working on an RPG on and off for years and "emergent storytelling" is literally half the name of it's title! 20 years ago I came up with a system that took my game to the next level by simply adding a "yes, and" result. But it was only 10 years later that I discovered that that was actually already a thing - and had been used in improvisational theater for somewhere between 200 and 2,000 years! This "therefore/but" concept is new to me and fits right in! Going to have to spend some time to thinking about it. Even if it's something that only serves as a GM guidance aid. Which BTW is a huge part of what I like about my system. As you mentioned it means less prep, less work for the GM, and that wonderful feeling of being surprised by how things actually unfold. Because in many RPGs that's a sensation only the players ever get to experience.

The Writing Excuses podcast (specifically season 10) helped me become a much better GM. Great video!

Great video!

Aw heck yeah xD let’s go! This was like the 3rd result when I searched “dungeons and dragons” :D very fun concept for a video game>:3

I achieve emergent storytelling by roleplaying the world between sessions. If the players do something unexpected in a session, I spend the next week thinking about how the world will react to that, so my campaigns become a kind of dialogue between the players and the world. Did they thwart the villain's plans ahead of schedule? Well, now he has new plans -- and a grudge. Did they rescue that unnamed NPC unexpectedly? Well now they're celebrated when they get to the next town.

Therefore butts. South Park always adding them butts.

Lol. This topic was literally my next videoI I just finished the script yesterday. Great video.

Heh, you said "but"! "Therefore" I liked the video. :-D This simple quick tip is always a good one to remind and refresh GMs and other creatives about; thanks!

I am another of those "some people" I continuously write for my ongoing campaign. Some are just tidbits, some are full=blown encounters. That doesn't mean I don't let things flow. The party wanted a ship (the Halfling has a sailor background, so I gave them a magical, legendary pirate ship but then I needed things for them to do with a ship so I came up with a group of islands. I'm writing the campaign like I do with my detective fiction, in that I know how it starts and where it ends and everything in-between just foes willy-nilly. I still try and plan everything. Looking forward to the livestreeam. Oh and what's with your sweatshirt?

Great discussion 😊

I love love love emergent story in games. Situations instead of plot, sandboxes (although I prefer points. I'm not hardcore enough for a true hexcrawl). Micro settings. The Blades in the Dark city map and Factions section is one of my favorite things I've seen in a game. What blew my mind was when a group _wanted_ a railroad, or linear adventure to put it another way. I actually had to change my game so they could have fun. The million hours of RPG podcast/UA-cam was wrong. Who could this be?? 😂

Great advice!

There's something you said which I cannot work out. The sub-titles say "rap pranking". Is that right? I have no idea what you meant.

1:13 I feel that "CAN also cut down on prep time" so hard...

This is great narrative advice! Thanks for making this!

Never even thought about doing it this way. Cheers!

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This what I have always done. Nice to know what to call it. 😊

It's niche but I love finding ways to incorporate a lot of Acting 101 style character exploration exercises into gameplay. It's only an eye-roller if there's theatre kids at your table!

I was just considering yesterday evening buying their stick of truth game cause of the dnd feel it has and today I see this video

Trying to do this more... 😅