It's highly specific, but Brennan Lee Mulligan got alot of mileage out of the phrase "I need you, right now, Emily Axford, to verbally describe a sexy rat for me."
@@lukec9589 MINOR SPOILERS FOR DIMENSION 20’s CAMPAIN FANTASY HIGH Fantasy high campain on dimension 20, if I recall correctly they are looking for the rat familiar of an npc who was mysteriously murdered and one player (Emily) had the insane idea to create a sexy rat illusion to lure the rat familiar into them. I think an eagle came flying down and ate the sexy rat in like two seconds. There’s even an animated version of the situation somewhere in youtube!
Ik came here looking for some appreciation for Brennans "incredible" and "hell yeah" afformations ❤. I really enjoy it when my dm/gm gets a kick out of whatever it is where doing at the table.
I generally don't run paths or modules, but custom campaigns set in living worlds. You burn a forest down? Soon the cost of wood goods goes up. Clear a mine of some beasts? Metal goods costs go down. Etc. I make the world and some dark goings on, set the players at the start of the track, then let the players into the playground. SO MANY times do I get them going off wild rather than what I expected, and it's glorious. I had a plan and expectations, but if they think the ominous necromancer tower isn't interesting and they want to guard the towns duck farm they've fallen in love with, well lucky for them there is now a band of kobolds and gnolls that live nearby and have been poaching the farm! Or a water trapdoor at the top of a spiral staircased tower that would spring and cause lots of bludgeoning damage on the way down is bypassed by the towershield wielding full plate paladin when he asks "can I jump on the shield and ride it down like a surf board?" And gets a nat 20. You sure can!
The main phrase every new DM should know but not every game remembers to teach you: "What will you do?" It gives a signal that description has stopped and now is turn of the players to chose
This is a great one that I can't believe I didn't add to this video. It's literally the signal that the scene setting has finished and for the collaboration to take place! Thanks!
DMs have to be careful with this one. Without any precursor information, "What will you do?" can be an almost TOO open ended question. In situations where there are multiple avanues that could be taken and players seemed stumped on what to do, playing out a few options gives them the agency to choose but still keep the game on track where needed.
@@frousteleous1285 You can always run through some options if the party seems stumped, but it's a great idea to let them take in the description and throw out their own ideas first. That way their brain can come up with something you didn't even think of, but what would fit their character's actions perfectly.
Actually a straight from the book recommendation in the Dungeon World trpg. I started using this phrase about 7 years ago when I first tried to DM dungeon world and it I have used it since then in 5e as well. It is imo the best phrase to use even among the ones in this video.
"What are you doing?" is much better for this purpose, because "What will you do?" automatically leans towards something being done, it almost eliminates doing nothing as an option in the essence of it, where-as "What are you doing?" fully conveys the choice is fully their own.
yes absolutely and I believe that to be the real jem of the statement: it denotes a very real(and potentially very interesting) failure while also instilling this strangely exhilarating thrill of "but what if it certainly succeeds" possibly despite all odds or maybe entirely possible but phrased the way it was in a sense of purposeful intention. Even if that intention started as an unintentional phrase and was inspired by the players freedom, the improvisation protentional inspires a great expansion of expense and possibility. Even if the DM themselves are maybe nor as flexible, the range is sill presented and easily grasped.
So, my husband has been a forever-DM for about 7 or 8 years. I don't really recall ever hearing him use the phrase "how do you want to do this?" in all those years. However, just a couple months ago, we started a new campaign for some people who had never played D&D before. And lo and behold, for the first time, when our monk got her first kill, my husband asked her: "how do you want to do this?" And I swear to god it was one of those lightbulb moments. I'd always played it as like, 'ok, cool, killed it, move on to the next one.' never really adding too much creativity to it. But this monk had never been desensitized by years of combat. it wasn't old to her. So she verbally illustrated one of the most brutal mortal kombat style finishers she could describe, and it added so much visceral detail to what her character was capable of. I realized in that moment that the new person who had never experienced combat before was getting more out of D&D than I was, and it rekindled my own passion.
What I do as resident Forever DM is save the "How do you want to do this" for important kills, like the last one in a fight, when they take down a particularly important enemy, or when someone does something batshit insane/gets a huge crit It makes the important kills feel more important, and lets players do some fun RP in the process. Plus I get to use it on cool ass moves that aren't kills but still feel important to keep the flow going
@@emilygordbort7300 - Yup, that's pretty much how I use it and how Matt uses it too. Otherwise, if you use it on everything, it cheapens it. Like a seasoning that's really good, if you use it on everything it loses its punch, and after a while it gets old, stale, and boring. But if you use it to punctuate in the right places, man is it a great splash of taste/flavor/color.
"By all means, do your worst" is my usual go to if I want my players to really go all out on whatever they're pursuing in that moment, and every time it has been incredibly exciting.
"It doesn't appear to be trapped." or "They don't appear to be lying" are two of my favourites...But then I gaslight my players like an abusive parent.
Always speak uncertainly because players pick up on the difference between 'there don't appear to be any traps' and 'there are no traps' and might start considering the former to mean 'there are DEFINITELY traps' if you're not careful
i use a variant on the second one when my players roll low on an insight check to discern someone’s intentions. “you don’t have any reason to feel like [npc] is being dishonest.” it might be true, it might not, who knows, that’s the fun.
@@tellmeaboutyourgame314 I prefer "You don't see any traps," because I've had people get upset when I tell them there are no traps and then there is one. I try to avoid outright lying to my players if I can help it; 'you don't see a...' is completely truthful.
I feel like the most effective times Aabriya uses "What you don't see" is when she's describing something they missed but is instantly going to become relevant, giving context the party would otherwise not understand. Like an enemy starting to cast a spell, but nobody picked up on it.
Something else I also thought of is instead of describing what they don't see, describe what they *do* see that implies what they don't see and heavily emphasize that description. That way, the players know *something* is happening, just not what
@@thechikage1091 Exactly. I've spoken to a lot of DMs over the years who feel like they struggle with getting the party to care about details. I think this is a brilliant trick in our toolkit to help with just that. I think effective thriller and mystery authors do a good job at that. Working in the "negative" space. Doyle's Sherlock stories do that a lot, since his plot is driven by deductive reasoning. So he spends a lot of time pondering about what he's missing.
Uh. Does she? I only remember it in EXU, where she just does it to be like "What you don't see... Is someone in the crowd... Watching you..." And it definitely wasn't immediately relevant. Which, idk. Fine for dramatic tension, I guess, but seems bad for a home game. Players around your table aren't actors, don't heap 'em with knowledge they're not allowed to act on.
@Scott-ql2kx She has done it in A Court of Fey and Flowers and Misfits and Magic and it's actually relevant most of the times, without revealing anything they can actually act on. And if you are playing with any decent players, they know not to act on meta knowledge.
Can someone act like I'm an idiot and explain this to me step by step? If the party didn't see something, why would I tell the players about it? "You see a friendly stranger offering information about your Big Bad. What you don't see is the knife behind his back and his tattoo of the Big Bad's name." Maybe I'm missing something but why should I ever tell my party something their characters specifically don't know?
This is a great summary. One very minor but awesome word I keep hearing from Brennan is simply "amazing". His players do something? Brennan: "Amazing!". They say something: "Amazing!". They do something that is not that amazing: "Amazing!". Might look minor, but it's such a subtle but impactful way to give the players some assurance and encourage them to keep roleplaying
He also uses "incredible!" Which I use on my players. I may switch up to "amazing!" every so often too. I have 3 eleven(ish) boys and 2 of the moms in my group. The boys don't rp much (one barely speaks out of shyness), but the moms are super helpful in getting them to participate. I would love to be able to get the boys to rp a bit more.
@@karbebs Brennan uses "incredible" to the point of overuse. 🤣 He is absolutely my spirit-DM, but you would probably die of alcohol poisoning in 20 minutes if you took a shot every time he says "incredible".
I used "what you don't see" for the first time in my last session to GREAT success. Just as you said, it was so fun for the players to get to see a consequence of their actions that the characters might not ever know- and, as a writer, it is kind of selfishly fun to monologue about something behind the scenes for a minute or two haha
I love Aabria's "What you don't see is" because for years I've started sessions with "vignette's" of what characters are doing off screen, be they villains or just important NPCs. It's gotten to the point when I don't have one everyone is very upset at me, lol
@@alonosh7184 It doesn't take much more prep because I'm showing the players actions that the villains were already doing in my head for example, say I want to introduce a bounty hunter that's hunting the party, I start the session with a vignette of a cool cowboy guy smoking a cigarette, talking to somebody the party wronged getting handed a sack of gold, he gets on his horse and rides off to a familiar looking town... the town your party is in (oooo spooky) you don't have to be elaborate and it's great for cheap foreshadowing
When a player hesitantly asks whether something is possible I like to say "Let's find out!", for me it reinforces that the DM and Player are collaborating and discovering together. Over time my players have learnt that a question that prompts "Let's find out!" will often be followed by some very wild and/or silly scenes (which is our groups vibe), so it has also resulted in players looking for opportunities to try creative things more. I think this is an important addition to your video, these phrases are great, but to get the most out of them (and generate that excitement) the consequences need to be consistent. i.e "HWYLTDT?" should also be hype, "What you don't see..." must always prompt an "oh damn!!!" from the player etc.
@@adamguthrey6160 'how would you like to do this?', a bit of a catchphrase on Critical Role. Used to prompt a more cinematic description any time a player finishes off a notable enemy.
A phrase I like to use when players ask things like "can I make a check?" is "what are you hoping to do/learn" or "what do you expect to happen?" It usually leads to a lot more clarity to their intensions, and gives me an opportunity to craft a story that leans into their desires in a way that I would otherwise miss just playing to my own favorite outcomes/tropes.
This is super solid, especially because it helps to immerse the players into their characters and the scene more, rather than just treating it like a "roll dice to win/lose" situation
yeah you gotta stop players whenever they ask to make a skill check specifically. you have to ask them what their character wants them to do, and then tell them what they should roll
This here is so important and an even better saying than most of the pros here. Sometimes the system becomes too much of the language. You tell me what you want to do, i tell you(and if, sometimes i just look at their bonus) what to roll.
Just as important: it's easier for the GM to actually give the success they wanted, if they pass a check. I would like to make and insight *success* GM: yeah he is not lying Player: no no I figured as much my self, but is it like does it seem like he is parroting a superior or wants this himself. I wish I could come up with a better example, but I have seen many times that the PC succeeds and let them do some awesome stuff (I think) and they are "that's kinda cool, but not what I wanted at all"
I have a rule at my table which is the first time you use a new ability or spell, I will always ask the player to describe how it looks and sounds when they do it. It's a great way to build more colour into the scene but also it's a great way of letting my players flaunt their new toys. Of course, I might ask them for a description another time as well, if it's a significant moment. But I always ask for the first time.
"how do you want to do this?" is definitely a favorite. At my table, my group came up with a truly brilliant plan to basically one shot a boss. After a series of near perfect rolls they all just kinda looked at me, I checked behind my screen, eye'd them all and hit them with that phrase, and they all just erupted. Wasn't the encounter I imagined it would be, but man was it perfect either way
Thank you for not being antagonistic to your players for being awesome. I love when I'm allowed to lean into my strengths, whereas some DMs only view them as obstacles to be overcome. I don't want EVERY encounter to be tailor made, but we love the opportunity to do something clever
For that last one, I loved in EXU prime when Aabria got to throw it back at Matt. He saw the players light up and get celebratory over their accompaniment, but when he got to FEEL it himself, he realized “oh shit, this IS amazing to hear.”
This is a super specific phrase, but I think the idea behind it is good to use as well. At one of my tables, one we’ve played for about eight months now, our dm is always asking for medicine checks after battles. We go to patch up after a fight, our healer rushes over to help our front line out. “Give me a medicine check.” Then, two sessions ago, our front line went down. We have hidden death saves, so we were uncertain about what was happening, but we couldn’t stabilize him right away. When we finally got a chance to sprint over, to try and patch him up… our dm hit us with the payoff for all the classical conditioning we’d been put through. It went something like this: Healer: I pull out the bandages and start patching him up. DM: Okay. Go right ahead. Healer: Do you want a medicine check? DM: You don’t need a medicine check to know no one could survive that. This was the best way to handle a character going down for our table, we’ve been playing together for so ling that we all know that. It may not be the best death sequence for another party. But. The moral is having a routine thing that you can twist and subvert down the line. Nothing mundane, like perception checks during watch. Something unique and notable to your DM style or setting. The payoff is so powerful. (Also, the death in this case was a scripted event, and explained a part of the frontliner’s class progression. It wasn’t planned for him to go down this time, but upon first death, he got a major plot point. He was returned, presumably not as an undead, soon after by the god of death from the setting bearing a new mission for the party.)
There's a horror homebrew I'm gradually developing that's going to require medicine checks, even if magic heals most damage after combat. The setting is a particularly cursed wizard's tower, and is VERY loosely based off of the Dark Tower by Stephen King (since this campaign idea was based off of a nightmare I had, which did involve an ominous tower). Since the whole tower is cursed with a deep-seated corruption, healers are...going to be crucial, to say the least, and not just for PHYSICAL damage. If certain wounds are left to fester...things could easily develop like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, down the line (the former also had some slight influence on the nightmare). Top it off, I want to incorporate Call of Cthulhu's sanity system; it's a homebrew horror, but it's not just going to be the horrors of what happened to the tower's "residents"...players are going to be encouraged to give me as much story as they can for their characters, and those stories WILL be relevant...!
One that I find brings some amazing RP elements to the game is whenever a player wants to roll for something that might not make sense at that moment, "Describe how you " typically "Describe how you assist in this roll" "I want to assist with their interrogation" *rolls* "Describe how you're assisting" "I stand close behind X, hand on my bow looming over them as X talks" Another that's more energy than a direct phrase is "Convince me" "I want to convince this person that I'm actually on their side" "Tell me how you do it?" I use things like name dropping people or places that would be important to the NPC to raise or lower the DC of a roll, give advantage on what's happening, and so on. Finally, if I can tell that the party is stuck, I'll have the PCs make an intelligence check and give them hints based on the score for things that their character should know but the player missed. In my current game this played off wonderfully- the players, after taking the whole situation into perspective about a heist were completely convinced that the task was impossible with the given time frame, the party started to slowly shut down and I asked them to make int checks, someone got an 18 I believe and I told them "The quest giver didn't give you a timelimit, the -boat captain- did. The captain won't come back, but you could take as much time as you need to pull this off". The characters would know that the boat captain is optional in a pinch, but none of the players thought of this. Their engagement shot through the roof knowing that their time window was MUCH longer than expected.
Int checks for things players missed are a *great* idea! I struggle with that difference sometimes between my character's capabilities/training and my own, and I feel like I miss a lot of what my DM is trying to lay down. Thank you!
One way to use the "Describe how you do this" idea that I've had a lot of success with is chases. The DMG rules make them very slow and clunky, usually ending very quickly if the PCs have more movement than their quarry. Instead I use a Skill contest system. Each round the pursuers and pursued groups roll a skill check of their choice to gain the upper hand, the first group to get 3 successes wins. The players choose what skill to use, but they have to describe what they are going to do with this skill to gain the advantage (e.g. using Stealth to attempt to move out of sight or using Persuasion to get bystanders involved to block the enemy's path). With each skill being able to be used only once, this makes chases a fun, fast-paced experience and forces immersion in a way that is mostly absent from regular combat.
Brennan used that to great effect in Calamity, because many of the characters were so experienced in their domains/had such high intelligence that it made sense for him to essentially guide them through their own realization of how fucked they were
This video is densely packed with great suggestions & examples. And the little "why this works so well" discussions are great reminders of the things we're (as DMs) trying to roll into a single coherent ball of fun game for everyone. Well done, and thank you!
I also want to point out something about Brennan’s phrase. Usually when he asks a player how their character feels, he then immediately builds on it. Like there is a moment in crown of candy where he asks each of the members of the party how they’re feeling in that moment and from that description given by the player elaborates on a memory or thought or scenario running through their mind in that moment that aligns with what they just told him. He uses this as a way to gain an insight into where his players think their characters are at this moment and builds the way he describes things or moves the story forward so that it honors that characters perspective as the players see it. Which I think works really well in immersing players in the story, making them feel more agency and power over their characters, and gives him a prompt almost of the best way to proceed that’ll be ‘fun’ for his players
The very first time I heard Matt Mercer say "you can certainly try" I actually clapped like i was watching a live performance in person. lol. best statement ever for a dm.
When a player asks if they can do something, I have often responded with, "I don't know- can you?" When I encountered "You can certainly try," it was immediately incorporated. It really is a perfect phrase.
The one thing about Aabria's phrase used here is, in one of the dropout vids with Brennan, she said it's something she mostly uses *in actual plays* both because a lot of her DMing/playing is *in* actual plays at this point, but it's also there more for the *audience* rather then the players themselves.
My favorite GM saying is by Austin Walker from the Friends At The Table podcast: “Okay, two things happen at once”. He uses it in a lot of ways, but a great one is to set up immediate personal consequences and larger scale narrative consequences. A missed roll might involve a character taking damage, but also reveal something about a NPC (which in FatT is probably that they’re a robot ghost or something)
My personal favourite is "How do you fail this?". I firmly believe players should get as much of a saying when their characters fails as when they succeed, so, when a player fails something like a Stealth check, an attack roll, etc, they get to describe it in a way that makes sense for their characters.
My favorite moment of "a nat 20 isn't necessarily a success" is from Dimension 20, specifically from The Unsleeping City Chapter 2. Basically, the character Pete casts banishment on an ancient and powerful god, and Brennan just goes "If you didn't roll a nat 20 there, you'd be dead right now."
I didn't fully appreciate what Aabria was doing at first. Her style is different than what I'm used to. But it didn't really take long before I was so caught up in it that I got it, and I totally approve. The amount of player engagement she gets out of it is exactly what you want at your table. As you said, of course, YMMV. Another one is more of a tactic than a phrase. Use ambiguity to maintain suspense and tension. When a character makes a check, you say something nebulous, like "as far as you can tell..." or "you don't see/hear/notice anything" as opposed to being definitive: "there's nothing there" or "it's empty" or the like. Let them wonder.
I love failed checks sometimes, where you don't say anything and just move on. It unnerves players so bad. "Make a perception check to see what you can spot in the spooky cave" "... 3" "So player 2, what are you doing?" Which tells the players "There is totally something there, but the fact that you don't see it at all is a warning in of itself". The most recent time was a vampire hiding in the shadows that the party is now fighting
The best DM I've ever played with had a very similar phrase/technique to Aabria's "What you don't see" that I was always a fan of, as it tended to bookend sessions or moments with that same dramatic irony and it was "Our camera pans away". Mostly accomplishes the same thing, I just always liked it as an alternate phrase.
As the current DM for two ongoing sessions I've found my two player groups get a lot of satisfaction from "cutaway" revelations like that. Either to reveal the more far reaching implications of things they've done, or to setup the next big thing they are likely to go do. Though that sort of dming only works when your group isn't the type that is told a goblin camp is west and they immediately go ok east it is then lol. I've also found that dream sequences work very well for revelatory dialogue from higher beings, especially if camping down is going to be the closing action for that day.
My friends and I have been using “How do you want to do this?” for years, and while it doesn’t always have the big shouts from the table as I’ve seen on CR, I can say when it comes from a big moment, the hype is absolutely real.
It all depends on how you use it and when you use it. Don't use it for everything. Boss kills, last enemy standing, big crits when tension his high. It's like cussing. If you do it all the time it loses it's impact, but it can be *perfect* when used sparingly but at the right moment.
Ya I use it when they kill a powerful enemy or if they crit kill an enemy, also I have a chart for them on the table they can roll on and see where their blow hit to give them some inspiration to describe the hit better and different than the same thing every time. And gives players that don't speak up much help with that :D
I think I’m going to definitely start using “what you don’t see”. Since my group tends to lean towards horror style one shots and I’m already doing things like deadpanning monsters into location descriptions and adding and deleting monster photos to the reference channel without saying for people paying attention to the discord.
I started using all of these in the session I ran tonight, and it made such a hide difference. Letting them describe what happens or tell me what their own spell casting looks like … that alone made things incredibly fun.
I've become a big fan of "two things happen at once." My first GM made judicious use of it, and it works extremely well in action scenes that aren't combat. It helps reinforce that there is no real "turn order" and things are just happening. Another one that I really like is "You're doing ___, right?" or "Where did you place ___ again?" Both of those can remind a character that something they did in the recent past is coming back to bite them. For example: "You're going to convince the mob boss you're a bootlegger, right?" or "Where did you leave that backpack again?" Finally, having just gotten to a hiatus in a campaign where all my players spent, on average, about half of each session split up and doing their own things, a new favorite of mine is "What does ___ see?" when a player character walks in on another. That puts that player on the spot as they have to figure out exactly how much of what they were doing the other person should be allowed to see.
I've been using the "How does your character feel in this situation" a lot in my Pathfinder 2E game. "Where is your character at mentally right now?" or just any way you can invite a player to delve deeper into their character is such a great way to create immersion and get them invested in the world
A somewhat lighter version that we've seen success with in our games is having the players describe how the characters start their mornings after a downtime gap between sessions. We once started a campaign with that as well, and having players describe their characters as waking up early to study before catching the bus or sleeping through multiple alarms before showing up late to school was a great way to introduce the individual character's vibes into the school setting the campaign took place in.
"you see" is just the GM equivalent of um/uh/like. It's a filler phrase in disguise. It gives you a couple extra seconds to think of what to say next while giving the impression that you already knew what to say.
my DM had been using the "how do you do this?" for years now, its so cool, and the player describing his barberian losing the grip on his weapon, because he rolled a nat 1, was super funny XD
I like to give my players choices after they roll. Typically it’s right after a roll that’s just low enough where they just missed the dc but it can happen in other circumstances as well. For example: “The dc was fifteen but you rolled a thirteen. So as you catch the portcullis when it came crashing down to split the group, you just barely catch it with your hands a little too late and your in a very awkward position to hold this thing up. Now normally this would be no problem for you, you’re a raging Barbarian, but the fact that it kind of came out of left field and caught you off guard was the killer here. In this uncomfortable position you feel your grip slipping and soon you feel like it’ll just overwhelm your body and pin you to the ground which will hurt you like a mofo. You got a round before that happens though, so at any time you can just drop it and pick a side to be on but that’s at the cost of if you let it down before everyone else gets through then you got a split party scenario. You don’t have a lot of time before that happens and I’ll tell you that the bandits are smart enough to realize that you can very well ruin their little trap they set for you. They are going to prioritize targeting you for the time being. That’s what you have to work with right now.” It can prevent bad luck from ruining someone’s night and I even do that on successes every now and again to build some tension and give players that feeling like they can actually effect the story with their choices.
I was thinking that Aabria's saying can be tweaked for different tables and still build up suspense. Perhaps there's a shadowy creature following the players, but they never notice so they never feel the dread of being followed, so instead of telling them exactly what they don't see you could drop just a clue: "What you don't see is what created that sudden breeze that caresed your neck" (maybe it was something dangerous, maybe it was a clingy fan, or maybe something happened behind the players, but no one was following them). Or weave a clue that seems innofensive into a narration: "As you head home for the night, you cross the now empty square illuminated by the moonlight. The night is still and a leaf falls from the tree that adorns it". (They failed to see the creature perching at the tree before it moved away, but that leaf fell because of its movement.)
I always love when the phrase "How do you want to do this?" gets used. As for "What does it look like when you do this?"... that's one that resonates most for me when I'm a player. Not that my group does it so much anymore, but a few years back, I'd often get heavily talked over by the table. Not in a malicious way or anything, but I found myself trying to say something but with others talking over me and I'd just shy away and wait, only for things to move on before I could say my piece. I LOVE playing spellcasters, and I LOVE describing how my spells work and what's happening with my character, if needed. It's just something that sets my brain working... so being suppressed by such table-talk didn't feel so great. I would've loved to have more moments where I was asked how it looked when certain actions happened... and nowadays it does, as things have gotten better in the group as players (less unnecessary table-talk, etc), which I'm very thankful for, as some of my best and favourite moments during games have happened during such times. Things like describing my naive and child-like wizard Mylo opening a magically locked door with seeming ease when the rest of the party couldn't make it budge... Like how my cyborg character Roberto, frustrated at not being able to hit ANYTHING while fighting a ship of pirates, instead decides to smash and short circuit the ship's controls and cause it to sink... A group of us collectively and coincidentally all failing our rolls to identify a mimic, and instead all agreeing that it's actually a dog, adopting it as the party's new pet! It's all been wonderful times over the years!
a personal favorite of mine, if a tad darker, is "you asked for this." Just to remind the player that all the "character development" they're going through was wrought by their own hand. The party being locked in jail for mouthing off to a guard after they were caught trespassing and being stripped of all possessions and their reputation being besmirched? The love of the rogues life betraying him when they're staring down 10 pissed off bandits? The dragon you've raised since birth giving in to it's hunger and eating all of the local farmers livestock? You asked for this.
I have used "how do you want to do this?" during player character deaths as well. It gives a moment of agency and the opportunity for a great character send off when a player fees at their lowest.
I love the whole "you can certainly try" thing. I used that in the first campaign I ever ran and the amount of uncertainty that would go across my players faces when I'd say that made me chuckle. But when the thing they wanted to do worked it was an absolute blast for them and they would talk about it for days.
Thank you for being exactly what I was looking for in a D&D channel It was slightly hard to deal with the audio interference hum throughout the video though
"Do you feel that your character is weakest in their elbow or their shoulder?" Proceeds to describe a character having their hand bonded to the tree of names while their body is blasted away from it due to concussive force as the tree is rent asunder, as their elbow first dislocates then is torn away as their body is forced back. Brennan really does like for players to feel deeply involved in their character deaths, though he rarely gets the opportunity to dole out full party wipes, because the rolls don't usually go his way and the players have gotten progressively craftier in the ways they screw with him to avoid his setups. That scene comes from one of the very rare instances where the plot demands what amounts to a full party wipe followed by the resurrection of a single character for them to be converted to the "villain's" side. It's really a fascinating way for that plot to develop and ensure that the story told through it will hit the players especially hard, but it's also not something you can do for just any game. Full party wipes are tragic and tend to make players resent the GM, so if you don't have to kill player characters then it's generally best to give them an out. Particularly when the entire party is at risk. Obviously, if the entire party decides to jump up and down on the precipice of death despite your warnings then just let the encounter play out and see what happens. Maybe they'll surprise you and you need to make another big bad because they took down one of them prematurely.
Something that I noticed after mainlining lots of Dimension20 and Worlds Beyond Number was Brennan Lee Mulligans use of rhythm and speed in his narration. Its so interesting to see how slowing down, quieting the voice and adding pauses in significant moments dialogue or even narration can really supercharge the immersion!
I'm like 5 seconds in so far, going to definitely watch this all, but the first and only 4-word DM phrase that leaped into my mind the second I saw this in my recommended videos was just "What do you do?" A way to hand the story telling over to the player(s), letting you take a break to think of how to respond, and leaving a more open-ended opportunity for the players to create their own fun. Importantly, it's a very powerful and common tool that you can use multiple times a session to get players more involved. It's super useful for helping new/shy players get involved.
A really decent phase i personally use is "I'm not stopping you." - which is the you can try. But its more of a "if you really want..." its really interesting to watch players go..."uh... wait"
MontyGlu (DM for The Unexpectables and other things) has a GREAT way of intonating “You don’t know.” It’s said in such a way that it almost feels like she’s offended you would ask because it’s such a bizarre question. I’ve adopted it myself because it gives no hints one way or another as to whether or not the question has merit. “After the enemy runs away, is she going back to her hideout?” “You don’t know [and why on Earth would you expect me to tell you that??]”
I really like your videos and your vibe, finding them super helpful and just easy to watch and listen too, very straight to the point and informative, keep it up man!
Years ago, my DM said "You can certainly try" so often that I started saying it at work. I said it so often that my one of my soldiers started saying it not knowing the reference.
I know I am several months behind, but I am really enjoying these relatively setting / system agnostic videos that just explain and give tips for running the games!
You can also do "what do you want to do?" Giving the players an open-ended question leaves room for more than was just described to the player. It can also help giving players a push if they're stuck on something.
Something I'd highly recommend is reading the MC section of the Apocalypse World book. It goes over all of these and gives you a great framework for DMing in a way that's likely to give people around the table maximum fun and agency. For instance, Aabria's "what you don't see is" would be "announce off-screen badness" or "announce future badness" in the MC's moves. Other principles from AW that I'd highly recommend internalizing is "be a fan of the characters". That doesn't mean make things easy for them; it'd be boring watching characters you're a fan of having everything handed to them. But every time they try to do something potentially cool, try to yes, and them; and then think through the consequences. It changed the way I DM/MC in all kinds of games
I really enjoyed this video - this is my first I have seen from you. I fully agree with the chocies of phrases here and I use all of them - in my own way - in my campaigns. Also, just a thing about your channel - I REALLY love the timer in the top left for segments
You missed one important phrase that gives the players a chance to describe anything themselves. E.g. pick something you want a player to expand on and frame your question through one of the five senses: Why does this building look out of place? You smell something that reminds you of home. What is it? Based on the rumors you have heard, what surprises you about the way this person looks? What about the way these people are dressed sets you on edge?
Bonus action, thanks for making such awesome videos. I really appreciate you distilling these lessons down into precious nuggets of wisdom so I don’t have to break out my bag of holding. Keep up the great work, you are awesome!!
My go to is "let's find out together", it works really well when a player asks if they can do something. It gives the feeling that I'm not telling them if they succeed or fail, they are just succeeding or failing, and we are both together seeing if they can do this.
I've not watched any of Aabria's DMing, and I've seen a good amount of Critical Role's first campaign, but not finished with it... and I've seen Brennan's DMing of Calamity. And I must say... without fail, Brennan managed to draw me in completely to what was going on. The whole time he's speaking, I'm captivated by what's going on and not being distracted by anything. I think that's impressive by itself.
On the “what you don’t see is”. I’ve noticed that I’m a little more into only using the knowledge my character has in determining the actions she does. There have been a couple occasions in one of my games where my DM hasn’t necessarily balanced the opponent properly; he’s not really a veteran DM. And to avoid a TPK, he or the other players try to get my character to do something out of character. I generally really try not to do this, because I like playing my character as a character not just a player in a fighting game. But sometimes to avoid a TPK, the other players and the DM talk me into it. So I feel like they are the type to meta game a bit more. Occasionally if we are having trouble with a puzzle or something our DM will try to help us along my saying, “Why don’t you try…” and my response is often, “But _____ doesn’t know that.”
I remember first hearing "what you dont see is..." and being shocked/realising that you can do that! It doesnt all need to be first person view, you can sneak in a wee cheeky cut scene to enrich the world around them and maybe raise tension. Its brilliant.
I use these phrases a lot. But it is good to have them in one place. For example, I am 35 male. Yet most of the players and DMS I manage are teens. (I volunteer for a Youth house organisation, which is organisation, which helps with free time activities for kids. If you want to study martial arts, contact the house near you, and they will set you up. You want to play DnD. Anything you need, they will help to some extent - I might be one part of it - like if you want to try DnD. have no dm, or have a friend who eventually wants to do it but has never done that before, that is the time I am summoned.) To the point, from now on, i have another educational video for kids to watch 😀
Great video! Refreshingly helpful perspective. Checking out more for sure. One thing, the music was a bit loud and wild, it distracted from your well-said commentary.
I really need to incorporate these in my own DM'ing. Recently, we had an awesome moment in our Decent into Avernus campaign, where the players were trying to cross the bridge to the west side of the city, except the bridges over were blocked. Our Bard scouts the enemies out with Invisibility, and immediately returns to our Tortle to borrow a bean from his Bag of Beans... Lo and behold, an enormous pyramid, wider than the bridge, appears and boops the guards off the edge... The best moments are always the ones where the players take the initiative, and the DM goes along with their crazyness (although I had to use an NPC in the party who would know about evil stuff to convince them not to enter that pyramid, cuz I was NOT ready for them to wipe on a random Mummy Lord)
How does your character feel is a good one. Sometimes with my kids they will miss a connection. A reminder how do you feel that your cousin is missing. Reminds them oh yeah I forgot this NPC is my cousin. It’s helped them pay attention the the story and their backstory (this example being from the starter set. Their first time playing)
Matt’s “You can certainly try” was somewhat adopted by the rest of the cast in the form of “wouldn’t it be funny if…”. As Taleisin said on a Four Sided Dive, “wouldn’t it be funny is our way of asking do I have a second on this… I do? Great, let’s do it…”
I'm new to DMing and in my first ever session when a player asked if they can do something, I asked "do you want to?" (in an encouraging way). Works wonderfully on the two players I have rn, they get so creative with things they want to try out.
I think my favorite moment in DnD was a bard trying to do the steryotypical seducing the dragon. A Nat 20 was rolled, but the GM's response will always stick with me. The dragon basically laughed, not out of malice but because he was caught off guard and he found it hilarious. Then he literally paid us for 'entertaining him' when the whole encounter started with us breaking in basically. He paid us really good actually..and he wound up becoming a kinda important NPC that we'd go to, to work for because he'd pay good money for us to spelunk for him. Plus he wound up saving our asses when the BBEG was kicking our ass, because he had been divining on us for a while like you would a reality TV show. When he saw the encounter not going our way, he literally teleported close enough to be able to fly to us in 3 rounds. Saved our ass, technically with a Deus Ex Machina but it was actually plausible and kinda funny.
Im in my first campaign ever and whenever we are in a fight our DM ask us "how do you do it" on every attack. It may take up a little more time but it gives each battle so much memories because we can show development of our characters skill. Im loving it so far and its only getting better better
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It's highly specific, but Brennan Lee Mulligan got alot of mileage out of the phrase "I need you, right now, Emily Axford, to verbally describe a sexy rat for me."
wait what
A really wet nose...?
@@lukec9589rat seduction
@@lukec9589
MINOR SPOILERS FOR DIMENSION 20’s CAMPAIN FANTASY HIGH
Fantasy high campain on dimension 20, if I recall correctly they are looking for the rat familiar of an npc who was mysteriously murdered and one player (Emily) had the insane idea to create a sexy rat illusion to lure the rat familiar into them. I think an eagle came flying down and ate the sexy rat in like two seconds. There’s even an animated version of the situation somewhere in youtube!
@@capitano3483 I could have sworn this was in Unsleeping City, which makes sense with the NY setting and all that
I feel like Brennan's "innncredible" whenever his players derail his plans also helps to reassure them that he's still having fun.
Hell yeah.
Ik came here looking for some appreciation for Brennans "incredible" and "hell yeah" afformations ❤. I really enjoy it when my dm/gm gets a kick out of whatever it is where doing at the table.
I generally don't run paths or modules, but custom campaigns set in living worlds. You burn a forest down? Soon the cost of wood goods goes up. Clear a mine of some beasts? Metal goods costs go down. Etc.
I make the world and some dark goings on, set the players at the start of the track, then let the players into the playground.
SO MANY times do I get them going off wild rather than what I expected, and it's glorious. I had a plan and expectations, but if they think the ominous necromancer tower isn't interesting and they want to guard the towns duck farm they've fallen in love with, well lucky for them there is now a band of kobolds and gnolls that live nearby and have been poaching the farm!
Or a water trapdoor at the top of a spiral staircased tower that would spring and cause lots of bludgeoning damage on the way down is bypassed by the towershield wielding full plate paladin when he asks "can I jump on the shield and ride it down like a surf board?" And gets a nat 20. You sure can!
@@james-michaelrobson287 - I had my cleric do that once down a wet grassy hill to get away from some werewolves.
The main phrase every new DM should know but not every game remembers to teach you: "What will you do?" It gives a signal that description has stopped and now is turn of the players to chose
This is a great one that I can't believe I didn't add to this video. It's literally the signal that the scene setting has finished and for the collaboration to take place! Thanks!
DMs have to be careful with this one. Without any precursor information, "What will you do?" can be an almost TOO open ended question. In situations where there are multiple avanues that could be taken and players seemed stumped on what to do, playing out a few options gives them the agency to choose but still keep the game on track where needed.
@@frousteleous1285 You can always run through some options if the party seems stumped, but it's a great idea to let them take in the description and throw out their own ideas first. That way their brain can come up with something you didn't even think of, but what would fit their character's actions perfectly.
Actually a straight from the book recommendation in the Dungeon World trpg. I started using this phrase about 7 years ago when I first tried to DM dungeon world and it I have used it since then in 5e as well. It is imo the best phrase to use even among the ones in this video.
"What are you doing?" is much better for this purpose, because "What will you do?" automatically leans towards something being done, it almost eliminates doing nothing as an option in the essence of it, where-as "What are you doing?" fully conveys the choice is fully their own.
“You can certainly try” also serves to remind the player that failure is a possibility in the situation.
That was either implied or directly stated in all 3 of his reasons....
@@SlurmDudeYah, but "you can certainly try" also implies the possibility of failure
Maybe its just me but i always hear that as, "I will almost certainly fail"
yes absolutely and I believe that to be the real jem of the statement: it denotes a very real(and potentially very interesting) failure while also instilling this strangely exhilarating thrill of "but what if it certainly succeeds" possibly despite all odds or maybe entirely possible but phrased the way it was in a sense of purposeful intention. Even if that intention started as an unintentional phrase and was inspired by the players freedom, the improvisation protentional inspires a great expansion of expense and possibility. Even if the DM themselves are maybe nor as flexible, the range is sill presented and easily grasped.
@@wyatthuard1216gem*
So, my husband has been a forever-DM for about 7 or 8 years. I don't really recall ever hearing him use the phrase "how do you want to do this?" in all those years. However, just a couple months ago, we started a new campaign for some people who had never played D&D before. And lo and behold, for the first time, when our monk got her first kill, my husband asked her: "how do you want to do this?"
And I swear to god it was one of those lightbulb moments. I'd always played it as like, 'ok, cool, killed it, move on to the next one.' never really adding too much creativity to it. But this monk had never been desensitized by years of combat. it wasn't old to her. So she verbally illustrated one of the most brutal mortal kombat style finishers she could describe, and it added so much visceral detail to what her character was capable of.
I realized in that moment that the new person who had never experienced combat before was getting more out of D&D than I was, and it rekindled my own passion.
Absolutely LOVE this! ❤
What I do as resident Forever DM is save the "How do you want to do this" for important kills, like the last one in a fight, when they take down a particularly important enemy, or when someone does something batshit insane/gets a huge crit
It makes the important kills feel more important, and lets players do some fun RP in the process. Plus I get to use it on cool ass moves that aren't kills but still feel important to keep the flow going
@@emilygordbort7300 - Yup, that's pretty much how I use it and how Matt uses it too. Otherwise, if you use it on everything, it cheapens it. Like a seasoning that's really good, if you use it on everything it loses its punch, and after a while it gets old, stale, and boring. But if you use it to punctuate in the right places, man is it a great splash of taste/flavor/color.
That was an incredibly well written way to describe that. Thank you!
"By all means, do your worst" is my usual go to if I want my players to really go all out on whatever they're pursuing in that moment, and every time it has been incredibly exciting.
*jotting note*
"It doesn't appear to be trapped." or "They don't appear to be lying" are two of my favourites...But then I gaslight my players like an abusive parent.
Always speak uncertainly because players pick up on the difference between 'there don't appear to be any traps' and 'there are no traps' and might start considering the former to mean 'there are DEFINITELY traps' if you're not careful
i use a variant on the second one when my players roll low on an insight check to discern someone’s intentions. “you don’t have any reason to feel like [npc] is being dishonest.” it might be true, it might not, who knows, that’s the fun.
@@tellmeaboutyourgame314 I prefer "You don't see any traps," because I've had people get upset when I tell them there are no traps and then there is one.
I try to avoid outright lying to my players if I can help it; 'you don't see a...' is completely truthful.
"You don't find Loose Duke"
@@Tasarran exactly!
I feel like the most effective times Aabriya uses "What you don't see" is when she's describing something they missed but is instantly going to become relevant, giving context the party would otherwise not understand. Like an enemy starting to cast a spell, but nobody picked up on it.
Something else I also thought of is instead of describing what they don't see, describe what they *do* see that implies what they don't see and heavily emphasize that description. That way, the players know *something* is happening, just not what
@@thechikage1091 Exactly. I've spoken to a lot of DMs over the years who feel like they struggle with getting the party to care about details. I think this is a brilliant trick in our toolkit to help with just that. I think effective thriller and mystery authors do a good job at that. Working in the "negative" space. Doyle's Sherlock stories do that a lot, since his plot is driven by deductive reasoning. So he spends a lot of time pondering about what he's missing.
Uh. Does she? I only remember it in EXU, where she just does it to be like "What you don't see... Is someone in the crowd... Watching you..." And it definitely wasn't immediately relevant.
Which, idk. Fine for dramatic tension, I guess, but seems bad for a home game. Players around your table aren't actors, don't heap 'em with knowledge they're not allowed to act on.
@Scott-ql2kx She has done it in A Court of Fey and Flowers and Misfits and Magic and it's actually relevant most of the times, without revealing anything they can actually act on. And if you are playing with any decent players, they know not to act on meta knowledge.
Can someone act like I'm an idiot and explain this to me step by step?
If the party didn't see something, why would I tell the players about it? "You see a friendly stranger offering information about your Big Bad. What you don't see is the knife behind his back and his tattoo of the Big Bad's name."
Maybe I'm missing something but why should I ever tell my party something their characters specifically don't know?
This is a great summary. One very minor but awesome word I keep hearing from Brennan is simply "amazing". His players do something? Brennan: "Amazing!". They say something: "Amazing!". They do something that is not that amazing: "Amazing!". Might look minor, but it's such a subtle but impactful way to give the players some assurance and encourage them to keep roleplaying
He also uses "incredible!" Which I use on my players. I may switch up to "amazing!" every so often too. I have 3 eleven(ish) boys and 2 of the moms in my group. The boys don't rp much (one barely speaks out of shyness), but the moms are super helpful in getting them to participate. I would love to be able to get the boys to rp a bit more.
Don't mind me, I'm just here to throw "Awesome!" and "Hell yeah!" on the pile...
@@karbebs I read "I have 3 elven(ish) boys" XD
@@karbebs Brennan uses "incredible" to the point of overuse. 🤣 He is absolutely my spirit-DM, but you would probably die of alcohol poisoning in 20 minutes if you took a shot every time he says "incredible".
@@BoojumFedlove me a hell yeah!
I used "what you don't see" for the first time in my last session to GREAT success. Just as you said, it was so fun for the players to get to see a consequence of their actions that the characters might not ever know- and, as a writer, it is kind of selfishly fun to monologue about something behind the scenes for a minute or two haha
Aabria also has the phrase "Paint me a word picture..." which I love, and have stolen.
Yeah I love this one and Have stolen it too
As have I
Same here 💜
I first heard that one From Austin Yorski of Dice Funk.
Same!
I love Aabria's "What you don't see is" because for years I've started sessions with "vignette's" of what characters are doing off screen, be they villains or just important NPCs. It's gotten to the point when I don't have one everyone is very upset at me, lol
immediately stealing this! x)
Dang. That's... That's a brilliant idea. How much more prep does that require of you though? Like, how elaborate does that get for you?
@@alonosh7184 It doesn't take much more prep because I'm showing the players actions that the villains were already doing in my head
for example, say I want to introduce a bounty hunter that's hunting the party, I start the session with a vignette of a cool cowboy guy smoking a cigarette, talking to somebody the party wronged getting handed a sack of gold, he gets on his horse and rides off to a familiar looking town... the town your party is in (oooo spooky)
you don't have to be elaborate and it's great for cheap foreshadowing
The "how do you want to do this?" equivalent I was first introduced to from my DMs was "Tell me how it dies"
When a player hesitantly asks whether something is possible I like to say "Let's find out!", for me it reinforces that the DM and Player are collaborating and discovering together. Over time my players have learnt that a question that prompts "Let's find out!" will often be followed by some very wild and/or silly scenes (which is our groups vibe), so it has also resulted in players looking for opportunities to try creative things more. I think this is an important addition to your video, these phrases are great, but to get the most out of them (and generate that excitement) the consequences need to be consistent. i.e "HWYLTDT?" should also be hype, "What you don't see..." must always prompt an "oh damn!!!" from the player etc.
I love "let's find out", that's exactly the kind of cooperative feeling I want to have as a player.
what does HWYLTDT mean?
@@adamguthrey6160 'how would you like to do this?', a bit of a catchphrase on Critical Role. Used to prompt a more cinematic description any time a player finishes off a notable enemy.
@@r3cy but the phrase is "how do you want to do this?" Not "how would you like to do this?"
@@fraidei2094 you're right. not sure why i converted it in my head ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A phrase I like to use when players ask things like "can I make a check?" is "what are you hoping to do/learn" or "what do you expect to happen?"
It usually leads to a lot more clarity to their intensions, and gives me an opportunity to craft a story that leans into their desires in a way that I would otherwise miss just playing to my own favorite outcomes/tropes.
This is super solid, especially because it helps to immerse the players into their characters and the scene more, rather than just treating it like a "roll dice to win/lose" situation
yeah you gotta stop players whenever they ask to make a skill check specifically. you have to ask them what their character wants them to do, and then tell them what they should roll
This here is so important and an even better saying than most of the pros here. Sometimes the system becomes too much of the language.
You tell me what you want to do, i tell you(and if, sometimes i just look at their bonus) what to roll.
Just as important: it's easier for the GM to actually give the success they wanted, if they pass a check.
I would like to make and insight *success*
GM: yeah he is not lying
Player: no no I figured as much my self, but is it like does it seem like he is parroting a superior or wants this himself.
I wish I could come up with a better example, but I have seen many times that the PC succeeds and let them do some awesome stuff (I think) and they are "that's kinda cool, but not what I wanted at all"
@@TroelsRohdetrue, but sometimes what they wanted is unrealistic
As someone who watches more dnd than I actually play, "Roll for initiative" always sends a sort of tingle down my spine.
Roll perception
(Sweats nervously)
😊
As a player it always gives me that jump start to the heart :D
I have a rule at my table which is the first time you use a new ability or spell, I will always ask the player to describe how it looks and sounds when they do it. It's a great way to build more colour into the scene but also it's a great way of letting my players flaunt their new toys.
Of course, I might ask them for a description another time as well, if it's a significant moment. But I always ask for the first time.
"how do you want to do this?" is definitely a favorite. At my table, my group came up with a truly brilliant plan to basically one shot a boss. After a series of near perfect rolls they all just kinda looked at me, I checked behind my screen, eye'd them all and hit them with that phrase, and they all just erupted. Wasn't the encounter I imagined it would be, but man was it perfect either way
Thank you for not being antagonistic to your players for being awesome. I love when I'm allowed to lean into my strengths, whereas some DMs only view them as obstacles to be overcome. I don't want EVERY encounter to be tailor made, but we love the opportunity to do something clever
For that last one, I loved in EXU prime when Aabria got to throw it back at Matt. He saw the players light up and get celebratory over their accompaniment, but when he got to FEEL it himself, he realized “oh shit, this IS amazing to hear.”
Mine is "Seems fine" after checks with mid rolls. It gives the players a Schrodinger's box to play with.
...That's genius!
This is a super specific phrase, but I think the idea behind it is good to use as well.
At one of my tables, one we’ve played for about eight months now, our dm is always asking for medicine checks after battles. We go to patch up after a fight, our healer rushes over to help our front line out. “Give me a medicine check.”
Then, two sessions ago, our front line went down. We have hidden death saves, so we were uncertain about what was happening, but we couldn’t stabilize him right away. When we finally got a chance to sprint over, to try and patch him up… our dm hit us with the payoff for all the classical conditioning we’d been put through. It went something like this:
Healer: I pull out the bandages and start patching him up.
DM: Okay. Go right ahead.
Healer: Do you want a medicine check?
DM: You don’t need a medicine check to know no one could survive that.
This was the best way to handle a character going down for our table, we’ve been playing together for so ling that we all know that. It may not be the best death sequence for another party. But. The moral is having a routine thing that you can twist and subvert down the line. Nothing mundane, like perception checks during watch. Something unique and notable to your DM style or setting. The payoff is so powerful.
(Also, the death in this case was a scripted event, and explained a part of the frontliner’s class progression. It wasn’t planned for him to go down this time, but upon first death, he got a major plot point. He was returned, presumably not as an undead, soon after by the god of death from the setting bearing a new mission for the party.)
There's a horror homebrew I'm gradually developing that's going to require medicine checks, even if magic heals most damage after combat. The setting is a particularly cursed wizard's tower, and is VERY loosely based off of the Dark Tower by Stephen King (since this campaign idea was based off of a nightmare I had, which did involve an ominous tower). Since the whole tower is cursed with a deep-seated corruption, healers are...going to be crucial, to say the least, and not just for PHYSICAL damage. If certain wounds are left to fester...things could easily develop like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, down the line (the former also had some slight influence on the nightmare). Top it off, I want to incorporate Call of Cthulhu's sanity system; it's a homebrew horror, but it's not just going to be the horrors of what happened to the tower's "residents"...players are going to be encouraged to give me as much story as they can for their characters, and those stories WILL be relevant...!
Adding two or three examples / clips of the most satisfying moments for each phrase would have been a great addition to your video.
One that I find brings some amazing RP elements to the game is whenever a player wants to roll for something that might not make sense at that moment, "Describe how you " typically "Describe how you assist in this roll"
"I want to assist with their interrogation" *rolls*
"Describe how you're assisting"
"I stand close behind X, hand on my bow looming over them as X talks"
Another that's more energy than a direct phrase is "Convince me"
"I want to convince this person that I'm actually on their side"
"Tell me how you do it?" I use things like name dropping people or places that would be important to the NPC to raise or lower the DC of a roll, give advantage on what's happening, and so on.
Finally, if I can tell that the party is stuck, I'll have the PCs make an intelligence check and give them hints based on the score for things that their character should know but the player missed. In my current game this played off wonderfully- the players, after taking the whole situation into perspective about a heist were completely convinced that the task was impossible with the given time frame, the party started to slowly shut down and I asked them to make int checks, someone got an 18 I believe and I told them "The quest giver didn't give you a timelimit, the -boat captain- did. The captain won't come back, but you could take as much time as you need to pull this off". The characters would know that the boat captain is optional in a pinch, but none of the players thought of this. Their engagement shot through the roof knowing that their time window was MUCH longer than expected.
Int checks for things players missed are a *great* idea! I struggle with that difference sometimes between my character's capabilities/training and my own, and I feel like I miss a lot of what my DM is trying to lay down. Thank you!
One way to use the "Describe how you do this" idea that I've had a lot of success with is chases. The DMG rules make them very slow and clunky, usually ending very quickly if the PCs have more movement than their quarry.
Instead I use a Skill contest system. Each round the pursuers and pursued groups roll a skill check of their choice to gain the upper hand, the first group to get 3 successes wins. The players choose what skill to use, but they have to describe what they are going to do with this skill to gain the advantage (e.g. using Stealth to attempt to move out of sight or using Persuasion to get bystanders involved to block the enemy's path). With each skill being able to be used only once, this makes chases a fun, fast-paced experience and forces immersion in a way that is mostly absent from regular combat.
Brennan used that to great effect in Calamity, because many of the characters were so experienced in their domains/had such high intelligence that it made sense for him to essentially guide them through their own realization of how fucked they were
This video is densely packed with great suggestions & examples. And the little "why this works so well" discussions are great reminders of the things we're (as DMs) trying to roll into a single coherent ball of fun game for everyone. Well done, and thank you!
No no... Thank you!
I also want to point out something about Brennan’s phrase. Usually when he asks a player how their character feels, he then immediately builds on it. Like there is a moment in crown of candy where he asks each of the members of the party how they’re feeling in that moment and from that description given by the player elaborates on a memory or thought or scenario running through their mind in that moment that aligns with what they just told him. He uses this as a way to gain an insight into where his players think their characters are at this moment and builds the way he describes things or moves the story forward so that it honors that characters perspective as the players see it. Which I think works really well in immersing players in the story, making them feel more agency and power over their characters, and gives him a prompt almost of the best way to proceed that’ll be ‘fun’ for his players
I had the pleasure of introducing a few new players to "How do you wanna do this" and its so fucking fun to see how much their eyes light up xD
The way you organize your videos with time stamps and countdowns is amazing.
Yeah my autistic and ADHD brain loves it
The very first time I heard Matt Mercer say "you can certainly try" I actually clapped like i was watching a live performance in person. lol. best statement ever for a dm.
the tone in which it is said really makes a difference, too
When a player asks if they can do something, I have often responded with, "I don't know- can you?" When I encountered "You can certainly try," it was immediately incorporated. It really is a perfect phrase.
"Let's find out!" or "I have no idea. Maybe! Dice check?" are my two most commonly incarnations.
Depending on how sinister I feel I sometimes like to go "Do you WANT to try that?"
@@Schilani - "Are you *sure* you want to do that?" or "Is that your final answer?"
The one thing about Aabria's phrase used here is, in one of the dropout vids with Brennan, she said it's something she mostly uses *in actual plays* both because a lot of her DMing/playing is *in* actual plays at this point, but it's also there more for the *audience* rather then the players themselves.
My favorite GM saying is by Austin Walker from the Friends At The Table podcast: “Okay, two things happen at once”. He uses it in a lot of ways, but a great one is to set up immediate personal consequences and larger scale narrative consequences. A missed roll might involve a character taking damage, but also reveal something about a NPC (which in FatT is probably that they’re a robot ghost or something)
Austin Walker is an amazing DM it's unreal.
My personal favourite is "How do you fail this?". I firmly believe players should get as much of a saying when their characters fails as when they succeed, so, when a player fails something like a Stealth check, an attack roll, etc, they get to describe it in a way that makes sense for their characters.
Interesting interesting. Thank you, will try this
My favorite moment of "a nat 20 isn't necessarily a success" is from Dimension 20, specifically from The Unsleeping City Chapter 2.
Basically, the character Pete casts banishment on an ancient and powerful god, and Brennan just goes "If you didn't roll a nat 20 there, you'd be dead right now."
I didn't fully appreciate what Aabria was doing at first. Her style is different than what I'm used to. But it didn't really take long before I was so caught up in it that I got it, and I totally approve. The amount of player engagement she gets out of it is exactly what you want at your table. As you said, of course, YMMV.
Another one is more of a tactic than a phrase. Use ambiguity to maintain suspense and tension. When a character makes a check, you say something nebulous, like "as far as you can tell..." or "you don't see/hear/notice anything" as opposed to being definitive: "there's nothing there" or "it's empty" or the like. Let them wonder.
I love failed checks sometimes, where you don't say anything and just move on. It unnerves players so bad.
"Make a perception check to see what you can spot in the spooky cave"
"... 3"
"So player 2, what are you doing?"
Which tells the players "There is totally something there, but the fact that you don't see it at all is a warning in of itself". The most recent time was a vampire hiding in the shadows that the party is now fighting
The best DM I've ever played with had a very similar phrase/technique to Aabria's "What you don't see" that I was always a fan of, as it tended to bookend sessions or moments with that same dramatic irony and it was "Our camera pans away". Mostly accomplishes the same thing, I just always liked it as an alternate phrase.
As the current DM for two ongoing sessions I've found my two player groups get a lot of satisfaction from "cutaway" revelations like that. Either to reveal the more far reaching implications of things they've done, or to setup the next big thing they are likely to go do. Though that sort of dming only works when your group isn't the type that is told a goblin camp is west and they immediately go ok east it is then lol. I've also found that dream sequences work very well for revelatory dialogue from higher beings, especially if camping down is going to be the closing action for that day.
My friends and I have been using “How do you want to do this?” for years, and while it doesn’t always have the big shouts from the table as I’ve seen on CR, I can say when it comes from a big moment, the hype is absolutely real.
It all depends on how you use it and when you use it. Don't use it for everything. Boss kills, last enemy standing, big crits when tension his high. It's like cussing. If you do it all the time it loses it's impact, but it can be *perfect* when used sparingly but at the right moment.
@@tearstoneactual9773 oh we use it for final boss hits usually
Ya I use it when they kill a powerful enemy or if they crit kill an enemy, also I have a chart for them on the table they can roll on and see where their blow hit to give them some inspiration to describe the hit better and different than the same thing every time. And gives players that don't speak up much help with that :D
I think I’m going to definitely start using “what you don’t see”. Since my group tends to lean towards horror style one shots and I’m already doing things like deadpanning monsters into location descriptions and adding and deleting monster photos to the reference channel without saying for people paying attention to the discord.
I started using all of these in the session I ran tonight, and it made such a hide difference. Letting them describe what happens or tell me what their own spell casting looks like … that alone made things incredibly fun.
I've become a big fan of "two things happen at once." My first GM made judicious use of it, and it works extremely well in action scenes that aren't combat. It helps reinforce that there is no real "turn order" and things are just happening.
Another one that I really like is "You're doing ___, right?" or "Where did you place ___ again?" Both of those can remind a character that something they did in the recent past is coming back to bite them. For example: "You're going to convince the mob boss you're a bootlegger, right?" or "Where did you leave that backpack again?"
Finally, having just gotten to a hiatus in a campaign where all my players spent, on average, about half of each session split up and doing their own things, a new favorite of mine is "What does ___ see?" when a player character walks in on another. That puts that player on the spot as they have to figure out exactly how much of what they were doing the other person should be allowed to see.
I've been using the "How does your character feel in this situation" a lot in my Pathfinder 2E game. "Where is your character at mentally right now?" or just any way you can invite a player to delve deeper into their character is such a great way to create immersion and get them invested in the world
A somewhat lighter version that we've seen success with in our games is having the players describe how the characters start their mornings after a downtime gap between sessions. We once started a campaign with that as well, and having players describe their characters as waking up early to study before catching the bus or sleeping through multiple alarms before showing up late to school was a great way to introduce the individual character's vibes into the school setting the campaign took place in.
I stole a saying from the trainer at my new job and it's equivalent to the "you can certainly try". My go to is "You just, do what ever feels right."
The one I find funniest is Brennan always says "and you see" Even if that follows up with someone saying something lol.
"you see" is just the GM equivalent of um/uh/like. It's a filler phrase in disguise. It gives you a couple extra seconds to think of what to say next while giving the impression that you already knew what to say.
Brennan has "you see that" (especially "you see that he says" xD) and Matt has "what appears to be".
my DM had been using the "how do you do this?" for years now, its so cool, and the player describing his barberian losing the grip on his weapon, because he rolled a nat 1, was super funny XD
I like to give my players choices after they roll. Typically it’s right after a roll that’s just low enough where they just missed the dc but it can happen in other circumstances as well. For example:
“The dc was fifteen but you rolled a thirteen. So as you catch the portcullis when it came crashing down to split the group, you just barely catch it with your hands a little too late and your in a very awkward position to hold this thing up. Now normally this would be no problem for you, you’re a raging Barbarian, but the fact that it kind of came out of left field and caught you off guard was the killer here. In this uncomfortable position you feel your grip slipping and soon you feel like it’ll just overwhelm your body and pin you to the ground which will hurt you like a mofo. You got a round before that happens though, so at any time you can just drop it and pick a side to be on but that’s at the cost of if you let it down before everyone else gets through then you got a split party scenario. You don’t have a lot of time before that happens and I’ll tell you that the bandits are smart enough to realize that you can very well ruin their little trap they set for you. They are going to prioritize targeting you for the time being. That’s what you have to work with right now.”
It can prevent bad luck from ruining someone’s night and I even do that on successes every now and again to build some tension and give players that feeling like they can actually effect the story with their choices.
I was thinking that Aabria's saying can be tweaked for different tables and still build up suspense. Perhaps there's a shadowy creature following the players, but they never notice so they never feel the dread of being followed, so instead of telling them exactly what they don't see you could drop just a clue: "What you don't see is what created that sudden breeze that caresed your neck" (maybe it was something dangerous, maybe it was a clingy fan, or maybe something happened behind the players, but no one was following them). Or weave a clue that seems innofensive into a narration: "As you head home for the night, you cross the now empty square illuminated by the moonlight. The night is still and a leaf falls from the tree that adorns it". (They failed to see the creature perching at the tree before it moved away, but that leaf fell because of its movement.)
I always love when the phrase "How do you want to do this?" gets used.
As for "What does it look like when you do this?"... that's one that resonates most for me when I'm a player. Not that my group does it so much anymore, but a few years back, I'd often get heavily talked over by the table. Not in a malicious way or anything, but I found myself trying to say something but with others talking over me and I'd just shy away and wait, only for things to move on before I could say my piece.
I LOVE playing spellcasters, and I LOVE describing how my spells work and what's happening with my character, if needed. It's just something that sets my brain working... so being suppressed by such table-talk didn't feel so great. I would've loved to have more moments where I was asked how it looked when certain actions happened... and nowadays it does, as things have gotten better in the group as players (less unnecessary table-talk, etc), which I'm very thankful for, as some of my best and favourite moments during games have happened during such times.
Things like describing my naive and child-like wizard Mylo opening a magically locked door with seeming ease when the rest of the party couldn't make it budge... Like how my cyborg character Roberto, frustrated at not being able to hit ANYTHING while fighting a ship of pirates, instead decides to smash and short circuit the ship's controls and cause it to sink... A group of us collectively and coincidentally all failing our rolls to identify a mimic, and instead all agreeing that it's actually a dog, adopting it as the party's new pet!
It's all been wonderful times over the years!
one good phrase I say when the players kill a boss or a powerful enemy is "Describe their demise"
My most common one is “Focus up guys, wtf are y’all gonna do?”
a personal favorite of mine, if a tad darker, is "you asked for this." Just to remind the player that all the "character development" they're going through was wrought by their own hand. The party being locked in jail for mouthing off to a guard after they were caught trespassing and being stripped of all possessions and their reputation being besmirched? The love of the rogues life betraying him when they're staring down 10 pissed off bandits? The dragon you've raised since birth giving in to it's hunger and eating all of the local farmers livestock? You asked for this.
Love the timer in the top! For some reason it feels warm & inviting, not ticking at all. I appreciate it personally 📿
Any new tool that I can acquire is good news for me as a DM.
Thank you!
I have used "how do you want to do this?" during player character deaths as well. It gives a moment of agency and the opportunity for a great character send off when a player fees at their lowest.
I love the whole "you can certainly try" thing. I used that in the first campaign I ever ran and the amount of uncertainty that would go across my players faces when I'd say that made me chuckle. But when the thing they wanted to do worked it was an absolute blast for them and they would talk about it for days.
Thank you for being exactly what I was looking for in a D&D channel
It was slightly hard to deal with the audio interference hum throughout the video though
Great video! Thanks for the chapters and the timer in the upper left as well!
"Do you feel that your character is weakest in their elbow or their shoulder?" Proceeds to describe a character having their hand bonded to the tree of names while their body is blasted away from it due to concussive force as the tree is rent asunder, as their elbow first dislocates then is torn away as their body is forced back.
Brennan really does like for players to feel deeply involved in their character deaths, though he rarely gets the opportunity to dole out full party wipes, because the rolls don't usually go his way and the players have gotten progressively craftier in the ways they screw with him to avoid his setups. That scene comes from one of the very rare instances where the plot demands what amounts to a full party wipe followed by the resurrection of a single character for them to be converted to the "villain's" side. It's really a fascinating way for that plot to develop and ensure that the story told through it will hit the players especially hard, but it's also not something you can do for just any game. Full party wipes are tragic and tend to make players resent the GM, so if you don't have to kill player characters then it's generally best to give them an out. Particularly when the entire party is at risk. Obviously, if the entire party decides to jump up and down on the precipice of death despite your warnings then just let the encounter play out and see what happens. Maybe they'll surprise you and you need to make another big bad because they took down one of them prematurely.
I really appreciate the timer you put counting down each section :)
Thank you for the timer in the top left. My Audhd was very comforted by it.
me: oh this is a DnD tuber I haven't heard yet
then me: oh so he's got a fun voice we are so in
I like the little timer you put in the corner for each saying
Something that I noticed after mainlining lots of Dimension20 and Worlds Beyond Number was Brennan Lee Mulligans use of rhythm and speed in his narration. Its so interesting to see how slowing down, quieting the voice and adding pauses in significant moments dialogue or even narration can really supercharge the immersion!
I'm like 5 seconds in so far, going to definitely watch this all, but the first and only 4-word DM phrase that leaped into my mind the second I saw this in my recommended videos was just "What do you do?"
A way to hand the story telling over to the player(s), letting you take a break to think of how to respond, and leaving a more open-ended opportunity for the players to create their own fun.
Importantly, it's a very powerful and common tool that you can use multiple times a session to get players more involved. It's super useful for helping new/shy players get involved.
A really decent phase i personally use is "I'm not stopping you." - which is the you can try. But its more of a "if you really want..." its really interesting to watch players go..."uh... wait"
Nice video with some great tips. Im going to put this list on my dm screen.
I was specifically doing this for every GM covered in this video today! Thank you for beating me to it!
Brendan's four favorite words; "I need some almonds."
Really enjoying these "Say More" and "Say Less" videos.
MontyGlu (DM for The Unexpectables and other things) has a GREAT way of intonating “You don’t know.” It’s said in such a way that it almost feels like she’s offended you would ask because it’s such a bizarre question. I’ve adopted it myself because it gives no hints one way or another as to whether or not the question has merit. “After the enemy runs away, is she going back to her hideout?” “You don’t know [and why on Earth would you expect me to tell you that??]”
I really like your videos and your vibe, finding them super helpful and just easy to watch and listen too, very straight to the point and informative, keep it up man!
I really like the timer in the corner for each section!
Years ago, my DM said "You can certainly try" so often that I started saying it at work. I said it so often that my one of my soldiers started saying it not knowing the reference.
I know I am several months behind, but I am really enjoying these relatively setting / system agnostic videos that just explain and give tips for running the games!
You can also do "what do you want to do?"
Giving the players an open-ended question leaves room for more than was just described to the player.
It can also help giving players a push if they're stuck on something.
Something I'd highly recommend is reading the MC section of the Apocalypse World book. It goes over all of these and gives you a great framework for DMing in a way that's likely to give people around the table maximum fun and agency. For instance, Aabria's "what you don't see is" would be "announce off-screen badness" or "announce future badness" in the MC's moves.
Other principles from AW that I'd highly recommend internalizing is "be a fan of the characters". That doesn't mean make things easy for them; it'd be boring watching characters you're a fan of having everything handed to them. But every time they try to do something potentially cool, try to yes, and them; and then think through the consequences. It changed the way I DM/MC in all kinds of games
I really enjoyed this video - this is my first I have seen from you. I fully agree with the chocies of phrases here and I use all of them - in my own way - in my campaigns. Also, just a thing about your channel - I REALLY love the timer in the top left for segments
You missed one important phrase that gives the players a chance to describe anything themselves. E.g. pick something you want a player to expand on and frame your question through one of the five senses: Why does this building look out of place? You smell something that reminds you of home. What is it? Based on the rumors you have heard, what surprises you about the way this person looks? What about the way these people are dressed sets you on edge?
Never really dabbled in D&D before, but your videos are slowly convincing me to! Subscribed!
Bonus action, thanks for making such awesome videos. I really appreciate you distilling these lessons down into precious nuggets of wisdom so I don’t have to break out my bag of holding. Keep up the great work, you are awesome!!
My go to is "let's find out together", it works really well when a player asks if they can do something. It gives the feeling that I'm not telling them if they succeed or fail, they are just succeeding or failing, and we are both together seeing if they can do this.
I've not watched any of Aabria's DMing, and I've seen a good amount of Critical Role's first campaign, but not finished with it... and I've seen Brennan's DMing of Calamity. And I must say... without fail, Brennan managed to draw me in completely to what was going on. The whole time he's speaking, I'm captivated by what's going on and not being distracted by anything. I think that's impressive by itself.
On the “what you don’t see is”. I’ve noticed that I’m a little more into only using the knowledge my character has in determining the actions she does. There have been a couple occasions in one of my games where my DM hasn’t necessarily balanced the opponent properly; he’s not really a veteran DM. And to avoid a TPK, he or the other players try to get my character to do something out of character. I generally really try not to do this, because I like playing my character as a character not just a player in a fighting game. But sometimes to avoid a TPK, the other players and the DM talk me into it.
So I feel like they are the type to meta game a bit more. Occasionally if we are having trouble with a puzzle or something our DM will try to help us along my saying, “Why don’t you try…” and my response is often, “But _____ doesn’t know that.”
You absolutely nailed how compelling and at the same time dangerous is to give players behind the scenes info with "What you don't see is..."
I remember first hearing "what you dont see is..." and being shocked/realising that you can do that! It doesnt all need to be first person view, you can sneak in a wee cheeky cut scene to enrich the world around them and maybe raise tension.
Its brilliant.
I use these phrases a lot.
But it is good to have them in one place. For example, I am 35 male. Yet most of the players and DMS I manage are teens. (I volunteer for a Youth house organisation, which is organisation, which helps with free time activities for kids. If you want to study martial arts, contact the house near you, and they will set you up. You want to play DnD. Anything you need, they will help to some extent - I might be one part of it - like if you want to try DnD. have no dm, or have a friend who eventually wants to do it but has never done that before, that is the time I am summoned.)
To the point, from now on, i have another educational video for kids to watch 😀
Great video! Refreshingly helpful perspective. Checking out more for sure.
One thing, the music was a bit loud and wild, it distracted from your well-said commentary.
I really need to incorporate these in my own DM'ing.
Recently, we had an awesome moment in our Decent into Avernus campaign, where the players were trying to cross the bridge to the west side of the city, except the bridges over were blocked. Our Bard scouts the enemies out with Invisibility, and immediately returns to our Tortle to borrow a bean from his Bag of Beans... Lo and behold, an enormous pyramid, wider than the bridge, appears and boops the guards off the edge...
The best moments are always the ones where the players take the initiative, and the DM goes along with their crazyness
(although I had to use an NPC in the party who would know about evil stuff to convince them not to enter that pyramid, cuz I was NOT ready for them to wipe on a random Mummy Lord)
How does your character feel is a good one. Sometimes with my kids they will miss a connection. A reminder how do you feel that your cousin is missing. Reminds them oh yeah I forgot this NPC is my cousin. It’s helped them pay attention the the story and their backstory (this example being from the starter set. Their first time playing)
Matt’s “You can certainly try” was somewhat adopted by the rest of the cast in the form of “wouldn’t it be funny if…”. As Taleisin said on a Four Sided Dive, “wouldn’t it be funny is our way of asking do I have a second on this… I do? Great, let’s do it…”
Great stuff I'll be using all of these! Thanks man!
Really good video, im certainly going to try these frases on my games
nice content! I sort of use these sentences frequently. It was still good to see all of them collected like this ^^
Jason Carl: "I'll make a note..." (this is going to come back to bite you later in the campaign...)
I'm new to DMing and in my first ever session when a player asked if they can do something, I asked "do you want to?" (in an encouraging way). Works wonderfully on the two players I have rn, they get so creative with things they want to try out.
Love colvilles 'when last we left our heroes' means, ok d&d has begun
Heck yeah, fantastic video!! This gives me a lot to think about as a player who wants to start DMing!
Thankyou! I hope you enjoy your DMing journey!
I think my favorite moment in DnD was a bard trying to do the steryotypical seducing the dragon. A Nat 20 was rolled, but the GM's response will always stick with me. The dragon basically laughed, not out of malice but because he was caught off guard and he found it hilarious. Then he literally paid us for 'entertaining him' when the whole encounter started with us breaking in basically. He paid us really good actually..and he wound up becoming a kinda important NPC that we'd go to, to work for because he'd pay good money for us to spelunk for him. Plus he wound up saving our asses when the BBEG was kicking our ass, because he had been divining on us for a while like you would a reality TV show. When he saw the encounter not going our way, he literally teleported close enough to be able to fly to us in 3 rounds. Saved our ass, technically with a Deus Ex Machina but it was actually plausible and kinda funny.
"How do you want to do this" is the best line. It feels so good to hear after a hard battle, everyone at the table cheers when they hear it
Nah when the bard asks to seduce the dragon, you tell him its a DC 15. Then when he asks why your rolling so many dice, you say "damage".
Im in my first campaign ever and whenever we are in a fight our DM ask us "how do you do it" on every attack. It may take up a little more time but it gives each battle so much memories because we can show development of our characters skill. Im loving it so far and its only getting better better