Tossing plans aside to repurpose them later is definitely great advice. I mentioned this same tactic in my Crossroads encounters video. Give the players multiple options, plan for each, and which ever way they don't go you can save those notes for another adventure.
I like to do that a lot as well - flesh out just enough of each path that I can roll with whatever they choose, and then build out the one they choose. Still, even when you think know all their options they’ll find a new one sometimes!
"Don't railroad. Repurpose." is a motto I live by in my prep. If the players pass by plot points or miss important information, there's alwyas a way to bring it back, likely in a new way. My recent example is when my plays got an obviously sentient sword off a big boss, but refused to interact with it. There was so much plot wrapped up in the soul within this sword that I was concerned when they handed it to a celestial being to be destroyed. So what do I do? Well, a new player entered the campaign as a Warlock, and guess who is now his Patron!
Great list of hard lessons learned. the hardest for me is "no gaming is better than bad gaming" depending on what the "bad" is. A toxic group will completely kill your desire to even try to find a new group and color your expectations for years, so it is far better to just ditch early and not participate than try and suffer through it and hope for improvement
That's so true, I've been very lucky to play with friends who all respect each other, but at the end of the day, this is a game. And if you aren't having fun, it's not worth playing with those people! Thanks for bringing that up!
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite comment on the Citadel! Thank you so much, you absolutely should! I have a bunch of videos with tips, so definitely check those out if you’re looking for more guidance. But honestly, nothing beats jumping in and giving it a go!
DO NOT place a skill test in the way of a big reveal! A player knight in my King Arthur Pendragon campaign still doesn’t know he has two sons, because he crit failed his Recognize roll when he looked into the nursery, where his Faerie lover had just deposited her baby in exchange for his lady’s baby. 😅
I came for the N7 shirt, I stayed for the great advice, thanks! Videos like this definitely help ease a bit of the anxiety that builds up when getting ready to DM/GM.
100% great takes. I'll toss in one that kinda mixes several of yours. When I DM, I have a couple players that always buy in enthusiastically. Since it's a large table with a revolving cast, this greatly aids my ability to keep everything moving smoothly.
That’s awesome, it really is true that you don’t need EVERY player to be taking detailed notes or keeping up with every plot line. But having a few that can help keep things on track is so nice!
Excellent timing with this one as I'm starting my first campaign as a DM on Thursday. Is it wise to run a heavily homebrewed real world post-apocalyptic campaign as your first. No! Am I hoping my knowledge of how the game works and ability to convince people I know what I'm doing will carry me through it. Yes! Will I accept any and all advice. Absolutely!
As someone who also jumped right into DMing with their own homebrew setting - good luck! Confidence is half the battle! No matter what, getting behind the screen is the biggest hurdle to overcome: From there it's all about learning as you go along, continuing to seek ways to improve, and having fun! You got this, I'm glad my video could help!
Just remember that the way to make homebrew rules work is player buy in. If the the players think a rule should be modified, modify it. If they think a rule should be tossed, toss it. Note that you should do this even if you know it's a good rule. If you can't convince the players that it's good, it's bad. However, be aware of "The Game Bully". The one person trying to change a rule just to get one over on you. Hope this helps, and happy gaming!
@@MemoristCed So we had a last minute drop out so we went from 3 players to 2 but we got a couple folks to come in with steel chairs to create some characters last minute which was not ideal. However, we all had fun because I'd planned a pretty intense opening but I need to figure out how to RP downtime. I'm happy how it went all in all
I made it very clear to my players that it is not my job as a DM to balance encounters. They learned it the hard way by dying. Now, they mostly think twice before going into battle. 😊
I think there’s a definitely a balance between throwing fair fights at the party and letting them stumble into battles that are much stronger than they expect! Glad your players are at least a little more cautious!
Very good points, definitely have to keep notes of side quests, NPCs ect, if they don’t discover them where you think they will find a way to reskin them for the future. Will admit my downfall at the start was not weaving in enough combats, I’m a more roleplay player and so I kind of focused in on that when I started DMing. Only after a bit did I realise not all players are like me and combats make them feel like a badass and use their abilities.
In the last campain I dm'd the palyers were searching for the bbeg (a dragon) while it was recovering it's powers, but they missed a lot of clues because they either skipped or cut short a lot of encounters (they were creative and just smarter than me ig). When they "accidentally" ran into a dragon, they though it would be a different dragon not at all related to their story ,and as they put it "a side quest". The party was split because the last fight had some of them teleported to the city were the dragon was and the group either wanted to get reunited back where the last fight had happened or half the party would takes this side quest while the other half travelled to meet them. It took some after game talk to explain why that was the dragon and why they should find it where it was. Lesson here is that I needed to give them more clues because they did not see what I saw. We had fun anyways, but I took a moral hit that day.
That’s always tough when you and the players aren’t on the same page - but it sounds like you learned from it, and are a better DM because of it! Thanks for sharing!
The part about worldbuilding is definitely very true. I am well past the point of being annoyed that my players don't remember the names of the two biggest cities, and I had to constantly remind them. A lot of the worldbuilding I do for my world hardly affects the actual campaign (at least not directly). But I do it anyway since I like doing it.
Exactly, and I’ve found that a lot of the time they do enjoy having it, they’re just not as engrossed in the world as I am all the time! Glad you’ve found enjoyment for the sake of enjoyment!
Linear adventures are fine. The real key to player agency is brainstorming up solutions to challenges, not choosing what direction to go. Sandbox games can have pretty big drawbacks too. #1 - Even though you can't prepare for everything that can happen, you can always be prepared for the session. Have an encounter lined up that you can use when the players surprise you. That way you always have content and don't have to cut the session short. This will give you a buffer to prepare next session. #5 is huge. Do not expect your players to run (it's a game and not scary). Telegraph danger heavily if they are not supposed to fight, be blunt. Learn to settle disagreements quickly. Don't dive into the books and argue over rules. Make a ruling and move forward. Be open to and accept feedback.
Great input! Linear sessions can for sure be just as fun, there’s a lot more to player agency like you said! And I agree that learning to make rulings, NOT knowing every rule, is more important!
on the same way you shouldn't feel bad if the party steam rolls your encounter, you shouldn't feel bad if the party straight up loses, even dies, on an encounter, even an unexpected one people make a billion arguments for and against player character death, but the truth is that leting go of controling the outcome takes a huge weight off your shoulders
Yep, we’re not professional game designers! Encounter balance is tough, and just because the party wipes, doesn’t mean that has to be the end of the adventure! Thanks for giving your thoughts!
#5 can be mitigated by discussing expectations of combat encounters upfront, a great time to talk about it is in session zero, if you run one. I always inform players at the beginning of new campaign that combat encounters won't always be winnable, and running is an option. As for the "it's hard to run away" problem, as GM, don't make it one. I was rewatching The Last Kingdom and Outlaw King a little while ago, and because of some vids I watched where the idea of running from a fight was being dicussed, something clicked in my brain. In both the movie and the show, at some point there is a big battle. When one side realizes they are losing a commander starts yelling for the troops to retreat. You know what the winning side does? They let them retreat! They don't try to chase them so they can kill them to the last man. As a GM simply inform your players that retreat from combat is possible, and if the players decide to have their PCs flee, let them! All around good tips, I am very glad to have discovered your channel, your videos are both informative and entertaining. Looking foreward to more!
I think another tip that will add to player buy-in is making sure that each element you add to an adventure makes sense where you put it. If there is no reason why a monster is living in a room in a dungeon, it can feel to the players that they are simply playing a version of the board game "Dungeon", where all you do is enter rooms, kill a monster, and take some loot. The game will seem less like a plotted adventure and more like a simple board game if you do this. Instead, create environments that exist based on logical reasons that support the plot you are trying to create. Avoid the situation where players might ask, "why is there a clock golem in this closet", or "why are there 4 hobgoblins wielding lightning bolt wands in the cafeteria"? And my advice about developing logical situations is to tell the players why it is logical for monsters or npcs to occupy a certain room, even if it becomes a little metagameish. That way if it is not obvious, you bring the players in on the plot, which I think adds to the immersion, ultimately.
I definitely agree that making logical choices for where your monsters go is important! I made a video about dungeon design and mentioned having a theme for the dungeon - that way all of the traps and enemies you choose can match the vibe you’re going for. Good advice!
Sometimes the players have better ideas than you do. The BBEG of my first campaign was honestly pretty weak, story-wise. But I decided to spice up a scene description with a hint that a character from a player's backstory had been there recently. Said player /completely/ misinterpreted the hint, deduced that an eldritch dark wizard had been lying in wait for them, and led the party on a hunt for a villain who 5 seconds prior hadn't existed. And the game was better for it lol
the first hard thing I had to learn was that players sometimes forget the DM is supposed to have fun too. I accidentally made my player characters too overpowered in my first campaign and it was getting hard to design anything fun so I tried to find compromise with my players to balance them without straight up nerfing them, didn't work as planned and we had to just end the campaign.
That’s a big one! A lot of people forget that the DM is a player, too! Glad you got out of a game where people aren’t respecting your wishes as well, I hope you find (found) an even better group for your homebrew system!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT it's been way better with the current campaign! I still have a lot to learn but I think everyone is having a lot of fun, only one bad session and the rest are all 9/10-10/10 honestly
Point 3: That is some serious note-taking, and now I do not feel quite so weird for doing (almost) that much myself. Also, Leftover Night is an underrated approach to both meals and DMing. I'm still trotting out stuff I didn't get to use seven years ago (and someday I hope to actually get around to that story about the mushroom farm that gets overrun by vegepygmies). Point 4: As you said before, nothing exists or unexists until the DM says it does! The players do not need to know that they deleted the BBEG five times over in the first round due to the DM underestimating just what sort of minmaxers they're dealing with. I will neither confirm nor deny that this just happened a couple weeks ago, either. Point 7: 100% this. Without players, there is no game. (Also, bending a serious horror setting to accommodate characters who cannot be serious? That's how you get Ghostbusters.)
Thank you! I mostly seed items for my players based on class/interests/requests throughout the adventure, or I offer shops where they can pick from a selection (or random ones I come up with on the spot). I sometimes use loot tables for big hordes, but I usually tie them to ability checks (I’m actually releasing a short video about looting in a few weeks). If you’re interested, a few months ago I put out a video all about magic items, that has a bunch of my thoughts on handing them out!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT be extra chaotic. Roll on the random loot tables from the DMG, right after they kill the monster. I am not responsible if you roll up the deck of many things or an artifact.
1. Neigh. Insert horse laugh. 2. Yes. My stuff has fallen so flat, I could stack my books on my head and they would be level. 3. I occasionally use my notes from 1E. 4. I approve of removing Silvery Bards from the universe. Players will cheer when they nat 20 the monster. They will whine when you roll two nat 20s. 5. I have totally gamers. I grew up with 1E. 1E did not have encounter balance. Your monster list was Icky, Nasty, Icky Nasty, and Run it just ate Fred. See page 44 of the Quests of the Infinite Staircase. Players if one of suggest run. Run. I have nearly wiped parties while some people are suggesting run. But their pc does run. 6. True that. 7. DEATH TO FLITHY CASUALS WHO DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO THE DM. 8. Don’t rotate DMs every three weeks. 9. Don’t have 7 Players and 6 DMs and no waiting on games. 10. Don’t have a ten. Ten is for losers.
Honestly, 1E sounds both crazy and terrifying to play! I guess I should amend that one to be, “your players probably won’t run… Unless they were scarred by the horrors of first edition.”
Concerning Number 5: IMO the party that knows for certain that the DM will never give them a task that they cannot overcome in that moment, is kinda boring. Maybe of the exception of very new players. But in an expierienced group i expect the party to know when they cannot handle a fight and then retreat. Any good story has at least one moment when the heroes fail, to give them something to want/need to defeat in the future instead of just defeating it outright. Thatis whats giving them agency. A good party will realize when shit goes down and retreat to fight another day. A chad party will charge screaming into certain defeat and when TPKed swear vengance to the monsters and start with the character creation of the tool for said vengance, while complementing the DM in how he got em this time. A pampered and entitled group of (metaphorical) virgins instead whil cry the DM a river in how unfair the fight was and that their beloved character is now dead and how unskilled the DM must have been to not foresee that outcome and bla bla. Leave those groups asap. Your talents are needed where people can appreciate them. Once more: New groups are exempt of this, they are expectet to play it like a video game in story mode, or a thesbian competition without any understandimg of the dice aspects. Or anything in between those.
I don’t think you’re wrong - good stories need the heroes to struggle, and sometimes there will be moments where the heroes might have to retreat! I think what I’m cautioning against is more the idea of planning a narrative where the party HAS to lose or retreat for it to work, and the DM only considering that option. I think it trips up DMs, especially new ones, when the players instead decide to fight (and sometimes win!) against odds the Dungeon Master thought they’d obviously retreat from. But I agree that sometimes it can be good for a story when the players are outmatched!
Tossing plans aside to repurpose them later is definitely great advice. I mentioned this same tactic in my Crossroads encounters video. Give the players multiple options, plan for each, and which ever way they don't go you can save those notes for another adventure.
I like to do that a lot as well - flesh out just enough of each path that I can roll with whatever they choose, and then build out the one they choose. Still, even when you think know all their options they’ll find a new one sometimes!
"Don't railroad. Repurpose." is a motto I live by in my prep. If the players pass by plot points or miss important information, there's alwyas a way to bring it back, likely in a new way.
My recent example is when my plays got an obviously sentient sword off a big boss, but refused to interact with it. There was so much plot wrapped up in the soul within this sword that I was concerned when they handed it to a celestial being to be destroyed. So what do I do? Well, a new player entered the campaign as a Warlock, and guess who is now his Patron!
That’s awesome! Great way to tie it in, “repurpose, don’t railroad” is a great motto!
Great list of hard lessons learned.
the hardest for me is "no gaming is better than bad gaming" depending on what the "bad" is. A toxic group will completely kill your desire to even try to find a new group and color your expectations for years, so it is far better to just ditch early and not participate than try and suffer through it and hope for improvement
That's so true, I've been very lucky to play with friends who all respect each other, but at the end of the day, this is a game. And if you aren't having fun, it's not worth playing with those people! Thanks for bringing that up!
10:28 A new campaign just dropped, literally.
Another excellent video, I'm glad I found your channel a few weeks ago!
I gotta admit, that’s a good one! Glad you’ve been enjoying the videos!
Based N7 Shirt is Based. Loved the Vid! I've wanted to try DM'ing and this makes me wanna go for it even more!
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite comment on the Citadel! Thank you so much, you absolutely should! I have a bunch of videos with tips, so definitely check those out if you’re looking for more guidance. But honestly, nothing beats jumping in and giving it a go!
This is a really good video, great for new DMs and a refresher for old ones!
Thank you so much, I always appreciate the kindness!
DO NOT place a skill test in the way of a big reveal! A player knight in my King Arthur Pendragon campaign still doesn’t know he has two sons, because he crit failed his Recognize roll when he looked into the nursery, where his Faerie lover had just deposited her baby in exchange for his lady’s baby. 😅
This is a good one! Or at least give them alternative ways to discover the info. I hope your player figures it out eventually!
I came for the N7 shirt, I stayed for the great advice, thanks! Videos like this definitely help ease a bit of the anxiety that builds up when getting ready to DM/GM.
Happy to have you aboard the Normandy! And glad my videos can help ease some of that anxiety!
100% great takes.
I'll toss in one that kinda mixes several of yours.
When I DM, I have a couple players that always buy in enthusiastically. Since it's a large table with a revolving cast, this greatly aids my ability to keep everything moving smoothly.
That’s awesome, it really is true that you don’t need EVERY player to be taking detailed notes or keeping up with every plot line. But having a few that can help keep things on track is so nice!
Always be ready for your plans to be changed. One must be like water and change your path as needed to get to the end
Be like water - great advice for both DnD and martial arts!
Excellent timing with this one as I'm starting my first campaign as a DM on Thursday. Is it wise to run a heavily homebrewed real world post-apocalyptic campaign as your first. No! Am I hoping my knowledge of how the game works and ability to convince people I know what I'm doing will carry me through it. Yes! Will I accept any and all advice. Absolutely!
As someone who also jumped right into DMing with their own homebrew setting - good luck! Confidence is half the battle! No matter what, getting behind the screen is the biggest hurdle to overcome: From there it's all about learning as you go along, continuing to seek ways to improve, and having fun! You got this, I'm glad my video could help!
Just remember that the way to make homebrew rules work is player buy in. If the the players think a rule should be modified, modify it. If they think a rule should be tossed, toss it. Note that you should do this even if you know it's a good rule. If you can't convince the players that it's good, it's bad.
However, be aware of "The Game Bully". The one person trying to change a rule just to get one over on you.
Hope this helps, and happy gaming!
Being open to player feedback is never a bad thing! But I’ll echo that it’s ok to defend your rules too - just know when to let it go!
You started today, how did it go??? (Hint: It went better than you think it did. It always does.)
@@MemoristCed So we had a last minute drop out so we went from 3 players to 2 but we got a couple folks to come in with steel chairs to create some characters last minute which was not ideal. However, we all had fun because I'd planned a pretty intense opening but I need to figure out how to RP downtime. I'm happy how it went all in all
Some great lessons to keep in mind. Thanks for the refresher!
No problem, glad you found them useful!
The Mass Effect shirt with 7 on there might be a coincidence with the 7 lessons, but nicely done if it was intentional
It was definitely a coincidence, but I’ll take it!
most excellent (and I loved the blooper at the end!)
Thank you! Next time I’ll have to strap them down
I made it very clear to my players that it is not my job as a DM to balance encounters. They learned it the hard way by dying. Now, they mostly think twice before going into battle. 😊
I think there’s a definitely a balance between throwing fair fights at the party and letting them stumble into battles that are much stronger than they expect! Glad your players are at least a little more cautious!
Great advice! I really like how you deliver your content, keep up the good work!
Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoyed it! There’s more to come!
“Banning Silvery Barbs at your table” 😂 I feel you
Such a tough one to deal with!
Very good points, definitely have to keep notes of side quests, NPCs ect, if they don’t discover them where you think they will find a way to reskin them for the future. Will admit my downfall at the start was not weaving in enough combats, I’m a more roleplay player and so I kind of focused in on that when I started DMing. Only after a bit did I realise not all players are like me and combats make them feel like a badass and use their abilities.
That’s great advice: You need balance! Good to hear you sorted it out though!
Awesome video. Thanks as usual for the effort!
Of course, I’m happy you liked it! Kind words like these always make it worth it!
In the last campain I dm'd the palyers were searching for the bbeg (a dragon) while it was recovering it's powers, but they missed a lot of clues because they either skipped or cut short a lot of encounters (they were creative and just smarter than me ig). When they "accidentally" ran into a dragon, they though it would be a different dragon not at all related to their story ,and as they put it "a side quest". The party was split because the last fight had some of them teleported to the city were the dragon was and the group either wanted to get reunited back where the last fight had happened or half the party would takes this side quest while the other half travelled to meet them. It took some after game talk to explain why that was the dragon and why they should find it where it was. Lesson here is that I needed to give them more clues because they did not see what I saw. We had fun anyways, but I took a moral hit that day.
That’s always tough when you and the players aren’t on the same page - but it sounds like you learned from it, and are a better DM because of it! Thanks for sharing!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT Learned a lot, and that's what matters in this scenario
Exactly!
Great tips! Also, love the Mass Effect merch, I see you are a fellow person of class
My all-time favorite video game series! Happy to see a fellow N7 out there, and glad you enjoyed the video!
The part about worldbuilding is definitely very true. I am well past the point of being annoyed that my players don't remember the names of the two biggest cities, and I had to constantly remind them. A lot of the worldbuilding I do for my world hardly affects the actual campaign (at least not directly). But I do it anyway since I like doing it.
Exactly, and I’ve found that a lot of the time they do enjoy having it, they’re just not as engrossed in the world as I am all the time! Glad you’ve found enjoyment for the sake of enjoyment!
Man youre popping off keep it up man
Thank you so much! I’m glad you’ve been enjoying the videos!
Loving your videos!
Thank you so much! It's words of kindness like these that always keep me motivated!
Linear adventures are fine. The real key to player agency is brainstorming up solutions to challenges, not choosing what direction to go. Sandbox games can have pretty big drawbacks too.
#1 - Even though you can't prepare for everything that can happen, you can always be prepared for the session. Have an encounter lined up that you can use when the players surprise you. That way you always have content and don't have to cut the session short. This will give you a buffer to prepare next session.
#5 is huge. Do not expect your players to run (it's a game and not scary). Telegraph danger heavily if they are not supposed to fight, be blunt.
Learn to settle disagreements quickly. Don't dive into the books and argue over rules. Make a ruling and move forward.
Be open to and accept feedback.
Great input! Linear sessions can for sure be just as fun, there’s a lot more to player agency like you said! And I agree that learning to make rulings, NOT knowing every rule, is more important!
on the same way you shouldn't feel bad if the party steam rolls your encounter, you shouldn't feel bad if the party straight up loses, even dies, on an encounter, even an unexpected one
people make a billion arguments for and against player character death, but the truth is that leting go of controling the outcome takes a huge weight off your shoulders
Yep, we’re not professional game designers! Encounter balance is tough, and just because the party wipes, doesn’t mean that has to be the end of the adventure! Thanks for giving your thoughts!
#5 can be mitigated by discussing expectations of combat encounters upfront, a great time to talk about it is in session zero, if you run one. I always inform players at the beginning of new campaign that combat encounters won't always be winnable, and running is an option. As for the "it's hard to run away" problem, as GM, don't make it one. I was rewatching The Last Kingdom and Outlaw King a little while ago, and because of some vids I watched where the idea of running from a fight was being dicussed, something clicked in my brain. In both the movie and the show, at some point there is a big battle. When one side realizes they are losing a commander starts yelling for the troops to retreat. You know what the winning side does? They let them retreat! They don't try to chase them so they can kill them to the last man. As a GM simply inform your players that retreat from combat is possible, and if the players decide to have their PCs flee, let them!
All around good tips, I am very glad to have discovered your channel, your videos are both informative and entertaining. Looking foreward to more!
That's very true, you don't always have to go for blood! Thanks for pointing that out, and I'm glad you're enjoying the channel!
I think another tip that will add to player buy-in is making sure that each element you add to an adventure makes sense where you put it. If there is no reason why a monster is living in a room in a dungeon, it can feel to the players that they are simply playing a version of the board game "Dungeon", where all you do is enter rooms, kill a monster, and take some loot. The game will seem less like a plotted adventure and more like a simple board game if you do this. Instead, create environments that exist based on logical reasons that support the plot you are trying to create. Avoid the situation where players might ask, "why is there a clock golem in this closet", or "why are there 4 hobgoblins wielding lightning bolt wands in the cafeteria"? And my advice about developing logical situations is to tell the players why it is logical for monsters or npcs to occupy a certain room, even if it becomes a little metagameish. That way if it is not obvious, you bring the players in on the plot, which I think adds to the immersion, ultimately.
I definitely agree that making logical choices for where your monsters go is important! I made a video about dungeon design and mentioned having a theme for the dungeon - that way all of the traps and enemies you choose can match the vibe you’re going for. Good advice!
Good tips
Remember to have fun too
Honestly, the most important lesson!
Sometimes the players have better ideas than you do. The BBEG of my first campaign was honestly pretty weak, story-wise. But I decided to spice up a scene description with a hint that a character from a player's backstory had been there recently. Said player /completely/ misinterpreted the hint, deduced that an eldritch dark wizard had been lying in wait for them, and led the party on a hunt for a villain who 5 seconds prior hadn't existed. And the game was better for it lol
That’s awesome! It’s always great when your players come up with cool ideas for you! Thanks for sharing!
the first hard thing I had to learn was that players sometimes forget the DM is supposed to have fun too. I accidentally made my player characters too overpowered in my first campaign and it was getting hard to design anything fun so I tried to find compromise with my players to balance them without straight up nerfing them, didn't work as planned and we had to just end the campaign.
That’s a big one! A lot of people forget that the DM is a player, too! Glad you got out of a game where people aren’t respecting your wishes as well, I hope you find (found) an even better group for your homebrew system!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT it's been way better with the current campaign! I still have a lot to learn but I think everyone is having a lot of fun, only one bad session and the rest are all 9/10-10/10 honestly
That’s fantastic, I’m glad it’s going so well! Nothing beats great DnD, that’s great you’ve found a group you gel with!
Point 3: That is some serious note-taking, and now I do not feel quite so weird for doing (almost) that much myself. Also, Leftover Night is an underrated approach to both meals and DMing. I'm still trotting out stuff I didn't get to use seven years ago (and someday I hope to actually get around to that story about the mushroom farm that gets overrun by vegepygmies).
Point 4: As you said before, nothing exists or unexists until the DM says it does! The players do not need to know that they deleted the BBEG five times over in the first round due to the DM underestimating just what sort of minmaxers they're dealing with. I will neither confirm nor deny that this just happened a couple weeks ago, either.
Point 7: 100% this. Without players, there is no game. (Also, bending a serious horror setting to accommodate characters who cannot be serious? That's how you get Ghostbusters.)
Excellent insight, I’m glad you agree on those points. Now I need to go add a mushroom farm overrun with fungal creatures to my game!
At the end of each session ask your players what their intentions are for the next session. Prep only for next session.
Especially if they're at a crossroads and you're not sure where the adventure will take them next, asking is never a bad idea!
All great lessons.
What're your thoughts on distributing Magic Items? Do you use random table generators? Shops? Craftable?
Thank you! I mostly seed items for my players based on class/interests/requests throughout the adventure, or I offer shops where they can pick from a selection (or random ones I come up with on the spot). I sometimes use loot tables for big hordes, but I usually tie them to ability checks (I’m actually releasing a short video about looting in a few weeks). If you’re interested, a few months ago I put out a video all about magic items, that has a bunch of my thoughts on handing them out!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT be extra chaotic. Roll on the random loot tables from the DMG, right after they kill the monster.
I am not responsible if you roll up the deck of many things or an artifact.
Now THAT sounds like a fun campaign!
1. Neigh. Insert horse laugh.
2. Yes. My stuff has fallen so flat, I could stack my books on my head and they would be level.
3. I occasionally use my notes from 1E.
4. I approve of removing Silvery Bards from the universe. Players will cheer when they nat 20 the monster. They will whine when you roll two nat 20s.
5. I have totally gamers. I grew up with 1E. 1E did not have encounter balance. Your monster list was Icky, Nasty, Icky Nasty, and Run it just ate Fred. See page 44 of the Quests of the Infinite Staircase.
Players if one of suggest run. Run. I have nearly wiped parties while some people are suggesting run. But their pc does run.
6. True that.
7. DEATH TO FLITHY CASUALS WHO DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO THE DM.
8. Don’t rotate DMs every three weeks.
9. Don’t have 7 Players and 6 DMs and no waiting on games.
10. Don’t have a ten. Ten is for losers.
Honestly, 1E sounds both crazy and terrifying to play! I guess I should amend that one to be, “your players probably won’t run… Unless they were scarred by the horrors of first edition.”
Concerning Number 5: IMO the party that knows for certain that the DM will never give them a task that they cannot overcome in that moment, is kinda boring. Maybe of the exception of very new players. But in an expierienced group i expect the party to know when they cannot handle a fight and then retreat. Any good story has at least one moment when the heroes fail, to give them something to want/need to defeat in the future instead of just defeating it outright. Thatis whats giving them agency.
A good party will realize when shit goes down and retreat to fight another day.
A chad party will charge screaming into certain defeat and when TPKed swear vengance to the monsters and start with the character creation of the tool for said vengance, while complementing the DM in how he got em this time.
A pampered and entitled group of (metaphorical) virgins instead whil cry the DM a river in how unfair the fight was and that their beloved character is now dead and how unskilled the DM must have been to not foresee that outcome and bla bla. Leave those groups asap. Your talents are needed where people can appreciate them.
Once more: New groups are exempt of this, they are expectet to play it like a video game in story mode, or a thesbian competition without any understandimg of the dice aspects. Or anything in between those.
I don’t think you’re wrong - good stories need the heroes to struggle, and sometimes there will be moments where the heroes might have to retreat! I think what I’m cautioning against is more the idea of planning a narrative where the party HAS to lose or retreat for it to work, and the DM only considering that option. I think it trips up DMs, especially new ones, when the players instead decide to fight (and sometimes win!) against odds the Dungeon Master thought they’d obviously retreat from. But I agree that sometimes it can be good for a story when the players are outmatched!