Відео

And just so we are clear that is NOT a goblins hoard of dice. Those are rookie numbers LOL

Thank you for the video. I've played enough on my own to know most of what you said, but I've never played with a group. I've had to do it entirely self-taught, and you are the first person I've seen online that put an actual value with what missions should be paying out in the beginning. I recently purchased the Adventure Class Ships book which are all sub-1000 ton ships, and in the intro it talks about what size of a ship players should be expected to be in and encounter often. That made things much easier as well, and is a book I highly recommend. I would love to see more Traveller videos and am subscribing to see what comes along!

very interesting and helpful video. 👍

Your point about "acceptable prep" deserves highlighting I think - I've run so many sessions where I ran out of time to do full prep and end up using just a bulleted list of plot points plus a lot of improv (bulleted lists of stuff you think would be cool/plays to a player's interests are a great tool btw). A surprising amount of the time, these are not only good sessions, but end up being the sessions my players remember best. You can get away with a lot as a GM with a sketch of an idea and a willingness to commit. Unrelated, some tools I frequently use for prep that might help somebody out there: - Bulleted lists, as noted above. I write these like I'm outlining a chapter or two of a short story. Helps keep things on-track and gives a lot of leeway for improv - it's fine if the players go totally off the path, because I didn't make a path, I just wrote "they should fight space pirates somewhere in here." - Rumors, both about the world and about the PCs. Most useful for sandbox games. I give my players a list of ~5-10 1-sentence rumors about the place they're in, and let them figure out what they want to do from there. For PCs, I have them give me rumors about their characters and then pass them out at random to other party members. Even if it doesn't come up, it gets everyone thinking about who their characters are and what people think of them. - During session 0, I ask everyone to give me a few things they really want to see/do, and some things they aren't interested in at all. This is different to safety tools like Lines and Veils, the point here is to give me some ideas I can work into the game which will make players feel involved. Every player loves getting to a plot point and realizing it's there for them specifically, and it means I have a nice list of stuff to fall back on whenever I need an idea.

D.m. here 2 year long strong. 40 PCs currently have the same story and different arcs. You speak good sense here. Some of the tools I found I needed was installing black light strips on my table, and bottles for potion dice ,as well as small totes to divide the different teams and npcs that they deal with on the regular. The dice helped with being ready for each group so they had a ready go to for healing. The black light allowed me to write secret messages on paper maps and even allowed my PCs to write secret letter to each other when the other groups visited areas they were at. Nice video!

I would watch a video of you reviewing / expanding on Flee, Mortals! Great vid!

Good stuff! Your videos continue to be entertaining and enlightening as a fellow GM (and goodness knows that I, as a player in your games, love hearing how your brain operates when you are writing these games).

@10:50 "Flee, Mortals!" -page 18. Site your sources! I didn't find a copy of this chart in "Where Evil Lives!"

Excellent video! Love the advice and I'm totally gonna be using these tools going forward :)

Great video mate. Nice simple minimalist tactics

i like how this video slows down my brainrotted brain

I hate your presentation.

Link in the doobly doo? Now where have I heard that before? 🤔

Historically, I think first level had a natural scope. Something like, "Oh no, three goblins trying to kill me!" and "Yay! Some gold coins! I can replace all my arrows and maybe get better armor!" Second level got a little bigger. Etc. And this absolutely doesn't mean you can't have interesting stories. But they're stories about a town and a blacksmith and the old guy who is the lord of the local manor.

Oh, i see new name for railroad dropped. INEVITABILITY. Cool. But now seriously. Don't write that way, don't run that way.

Saying scope is the problem and not scheduling is a weird way of thinking about it... It would be more accurate to say that large scope games are more vulnerable to scheduling problems.

I try to prep just one session at a time. Doing pretty well so far.

My Elder sent me here.

I kinda hate that on one hand I do realize that I should plan for either shorter games or more episodic ones to make them more "resilient" to scheduling etc. But on the other, I don't like short or episodic games with changing cast, west marches games are among my absolute worst RPG experiences, most one-off adventures were completely forgettable and 10-12 session campaigns I ran were... at most ok. They worked, but felt more like a chore that I knew how to do, but couldn't afford to lean into things I actually cared for, like long term politics and downtime So frankly I have no clue what to run even

Skill Check skins stick to my fingers and get all over the counter and the floor.

the cutting back and forth to the shot of the yam over and over again killed me LMAO

this came up in my recommended, instant click, love the presentation so far great work :]]

Thanks for this very important coverage! Love your content!

good timing, just looking into starting first Traveller campaign soon! quality channel clark

Nice one, thank you!

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Very well put! I like to structure things out myself, and breaking it down into simpler steps makes it easier to present the information to the players in an orderly fashion. I"m also glad you differentiated between plot based adventures and sandbox style play. I've played with very orderly game masters and ones who improvise most of the session and they are both good in different ways. The good plot based sessions I've played or listened to often follow a similar formula to the one you presented.

Very nice to see videos on this topic instead of the usual “this is why your players hate you”. Will be reflecting on this approach! Some advice, as I think you got great potential! - You cover a complicated concept that would benefit from showing more notes or something visual to support your points, rather than showing yourself. - You don’t look directly at the viewer, but at your notes. This is understandable but also a bit off putting. - More cat 😍 - Your video appeals mostly to viewers that are good listeners. I would add more text on the screen listing what you are talking about in simple text lines. It would broaden your audience, as people have different preferences for learning (listening, seeing, quizzing, hands on etc). Subscribed!

This was great! I like the vocabulary of "inevitabilities".

I think this is a problem that many people deal with that should be managed. I also think that this is part of the constant "Be a good DM and everything will work" mentality seen online. Sometimes it's the players. Sometimes it's their level of commitment.

A very well done video. I am looking forward to seeing what else you produce.

Great advice setting up inevitabilities. That is great framework of thinking. Where I am a bit challenged is as the players dive into their story the harder it gets to pull off these inevitabilities without robbing the players of their agency. I would love to see you tackle this Way of scenario writing in relation to player action.

You have exactly 666 views. I feel I'm spoiling it for you but I have to watch too 😭

I'm a dev of a small indie game studio, some days ago i was thinkng about how music structure can inspire structure of other media; the moment you start playing the piano i had goosebumps. Then you focus on classic 3 act structure, and man i was a little bit disappointed, but overall it was a very good exposition. I think you are a very smart guy, and maybe next time you can make something more related to music structure, if what i said click somwhow on your personal thought on the matter, ty for the content! Great quality too!

I think this was THE KEY concept to make things click in my mind as to why my sessions seems a bit lacklustre and hard to follow. Thank you so much! Its always hard for me to warp my mind around things without some kind of structure and now I have one!

It's a video game, not a TTRPG, but SaGa: Scarlet Grace has a nice structure to the game that makes it very reactive and non-linnear while being coherent: There are three main BBEG- the Great Earth Serpent, the Phoenix, and Sigrfei, a seemingly human warlord. There is also a non-BBEG-based plotline where you hunt shards containing the power of the Firebringer, an allegedly dead god who's residual power nevertheless poeses a great harm to the world. The game has a three-act structure where you solve each of these issues and then enter a final mega-dungeon leading to the final boss. One act is one overarching plotline, though the order you do them in has a bit of variation. The world map is divided int 20 or so "regions", each of whom has their own plotline going on. One has a giant volcano that might erupt soon, one has a magical effect that causes rumors to become true if enough people belive in them, a few tie back into one of the "main" bosses. They are interconnected, but self contained enough that they can be done in any order. Heres where it start's getting clever: The BBEG plotlines can be done in multiple combinaions or orders, and still make coherent sense. Furthermore, the local plotlines, which make up the meat of the game, are *changed* in certain ways depending on which act you are in, and which overarching plotline you are currently doing. For example, one region is wracked by earthquakes in act one, has a giant eruption in act two, and is an ashen wastelantd in act three. This is caused by the stirring of the Great Earth serpent, but depending on when you visit and why you visit, dialogue will frame this as foreshadowing for his later arrival, a consequence of his active rampage as you chase him, or a consequence of his death, dynamically. Another province has a piracy and smuggling ring. Normally the plot ends with you just killing all the pirates, but if you're doing Sigfrie's plotline when you enter, DUN DUN DUN! Sigfrei's behind the pirates, collecting money for his other schemes, and you have to fight him and his demons at the same time as the pirates. The *entire game* is like this. On the first playthrough, is basically seamless. The way they designed it so that all the components were seamlessly interlocking pieces that could be altered and made sense of no matter what you wee doing, needs to be studied. In partiuclar, the game remembers the choices you make in certain checkpoints, both on the main quest and side quest, and certain people will hold grudges against you or certain choices will draw magical consequence. Depending on the choices you make, the final mega dungeon could be, effectively an entire *fourth act* where you fight re-matches against a bunch of of other enemies you've fought on the way there.

My strategy is listen to a DnD podcast/vids and Steal. Ooooh Cleric lady wants to become a god and does so by consuming their hearts. Well meet Kiana the God eater who goes around collecting hearts for more power. Oh a court case determining your not fit to take care of your son resulting in a time/space warp where your kid has a new dad? Well I got an idea for your favorite pet that you constantly need to resurrect cause it dies all the time cause you use them as a meat shield. A experimental monkey that got his hand replaced that gives him magic but also makes him unstable. Well lookie lookie. A sweet lady who keeps talking about how pure you are before kidnapping and preforming a similar BUT LEGALLY DISTICT operation. The Third one is very appropriate now because in 2024 rules Sorcerers don't get Subclass till level 3 and I currently have a player who based their character on Mr. Clean, can't get much purer than that.

ik this isn't related to the content of the video, but you have such cool eyes, i don't think Ive ever seen eyes that are that light of a brown

I was watching this and didn't even realize this wasn't a big youtuber. I like the quality you put in your videos.

Give some thought to playing Classic Traveller. Don't get me wrong, the new version is nice, but there is something about playing Classic Traveller that just feels right.

One of my first TTRPG experiences was taking part in a year long West Marches campaign. I have mixed feelings about how it was executed. But my biggest problem was that my character didn't feel important enough. I attended the final battle with the BBEG(s) simply out of curiosity, whether my character was there or not didn't matter at all. Overall it was a pool of 15-20 players but only about 6 of them would be allowed into the session at a time. First come, first serve. With some exceptions for players who hadn't played yet during that month, they could reserve a spot beforehand. This lead to some player characters feeling a lot more important (and powerful) than others. And because of that the GM was more willing to listen to the wishes of those players.

Professor Dungeon Master, ( www.youtube.com/@DUNGEONCRAFT1 ) who has run one campaign for 30 years, may have the best advice: Plan only ONE session ahead and expect it could be the last session with that group. They can't get that group together on a set schedule, because as you say, life just gets in the way for a party that started as teens and now has spouses and kids. I think one of the sub textual features of this philosophy, is that every session has an ending you are supposed to get to. If you have a satisfying conclusion, your players will want to come back to that fun, exciting world that gave them good feels. If you intend your story to end twenty sessions from now, you are unlikely to make the inside chapters very compelling.

Excellent analysis involving crucial insights from your DMing experiences. Thank you for this video, I’m totally saving & sharing this with all DM’s I know.

is this a filter thing or does this guy have the smoothest face in the world?

This was a much needed reality check for me. I have yet to complete a single campaign (one shots excluded) in 10 years of being a player and a DM, and looking back, scope creep and CR style adventures burned almost all of them out. Obviously some life bullshit is unavoidable, but scaling back has made the prospect of a longer campaign coming to fruition feel more possible for both me and the players i DM for.

Sounds like you run Spreadsheets in Saaaaaaaccccccce. Unless you have an accountant in the group, I've found it is best to handwave all that stuff. This job will pay ship expenses + Cr1000/per crew. or you've gone 4 weeks without getting paid, your mortgage is due, find a job right now and we'll do a sidequest for this session.

I love it that you mentioned episodic play are used to run a risk game episodically based on the 1960s TV show combat made it work great nobody ever got past first level but it didn’t matter if you showed up to every session or not the scope of the game was focused completely on one session at a time

Great tips, thanks 🙂

Sorry, I tried, this is unwatchable. The answer is 2-fold 1) Incompatibility. (conflicting play styles, DM and players) 2) Inflexibility. (unwilling to mutually compromise) How do I know?- 47 years of experience.