It's a good reminder too that you don't need a "kids" rpg, any rpg can be accessible to kids if you want it to be. I learned to play AD&D when I was 6. I didn't have any ultra-lite story games to learn with, and I think kids today are as smart as they were in the 90's. It's nice to see when people don't talk down to kids.
Thank you so much! I'm really happy to hear that these videos resonated with you. I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to comment. Cheers!
@@nicklarocco4178 By and large, I agree with this. I do think a lot of those stripped-down story games look like fun, but I do also think, "Why not just play D&D?" I was a bit older than you (11) when I started, but we didn't have a choice of having a "simpler" system, so we just figured it out.
I had a friend come over recently who has extensive experience in 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5e. He said he wanted to try BECMI and Keep on the Borderlands is what he wanted to start with. He rolled great stats, really high for starting gold. Hired some retainers and made is way to the keep. Ambushed by 8 Kobolds at the front door, harassed them instead of trying to persuade them and got TPKd. 10/10, best module ever.
@@daddyrolleda1 He swapped two letters on his character's sheet, had him be the guys brother, and then tried a different way. Ended up getting killed by wandering monsters, but it was hilarious nonetheless.
The Owlbear got one of us, this was back when if an Owlbear hit you with both paws you where now in a bear hug and took extra damage. The game has nerfed the Owlbear since imo. I think the Ogre got another 1 or 2 of us as well... This was the early 80's as a kid so can't remember the exact details. This module was written for like 8 characters and all their hirelings... Most people don't bring enough characters to the module and get TPK'd.
My boys were 7 and 11 when I ran B2 for them. They were at the tavern recruiting hirelings and asked one candidate how many hit points he had. His response was "Sorry, I don't speak Elvish!"
That small and simple in a way, 28 page adventure is considered by many one of the best Module ever written, If I had only one module EVER, it would be Keep on the Borderlands! (oh and players are extremely lazy, Its hard enough to get them to remember to bring their pencil to game night let alone read something)
Its great to hear from a DM their personal experiences and the techniques that they use. That bulletin board system is such a neat idea to drive player engagement.
That's why I love old school modules or OSR modules that emulate them, like one page dungeons or adventure anthologies ala BFRPG. I can plop them into my owngoing homebrew campaign and hack them as I please.
Both solid choices! I have a Mondo 2x LP version of "Wrath of Khan" on vinyl that was quite difficult to find at the time, and now is worth as much as $126! I saw Lawrence of Arabia in the Cinerama Dome here in Los Angeles (years ago before it was taken over by the Arclight) at a revival showing (I think the 50th anniversary? Although it might have been 40th now that I think of it). Great movie and soundtrack! Thanks for watching that far in the video and sharing your favorites!
I love Blade Runner ! I agree with your choice. I played Castles and Crusades with my sons all through their high school years. You have great memories to look back on.
Nice to meet a fellow Blade Runner fan. Back before you could get all of the different versions on Blu-Ray, my friend and I used to make it a point to go to any screenings we could find. Being in L.A., we were lucky to have screenings pretty frequently. Once back in the 1990s, we went to a screening at the Mann's Chinese Theater with special guest James Edward Olmos who introduced the film, mentioning that they were going to be showing "The Director's Cut." Almost immediately, my friend and I noticed something different about the opening titles, and as we got into it, we realized what we were seeing was either the Dallas or the San Diego Sneak, which included scenes with the GoGo dancers in the Hockey Masks, and also the music being replaced with the Planet of the Apes soundtrack about 2/3 of the way through the film. Turns out the film cannister the theater had been given was mislabeled. We totally geeked out. Around 2012 or so, my friend and I contributed to a fund to help refurbish the Million Dollar Theater, which is seen in the background across the street from J. F. Sebastian's apartment building, when Pris accidentally crashes into the parked truck - you can see the marquee in the background. Their first revival showing at the refurbished theater was Blade Runner, and it included access to the Bradbury Building (which is where J. F. Sebastian's apartment is). These days, the building is open and people rent work space (kind of like We Work) and there's a bar at the top, but back then, it was closed to the public, so getting to go inside was really cool. Cheers, and thank you so much for watching and commenting!
"You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics." Lol, i love Dennis Hopper's character in that movie so much! A great inspiration for an NPC.
Yeah, you get it! It was really fun to model that speech pattern for my NPC, and also it was a fun excuse to re-watch the movie! I hadn't seen it for nearly a decade before watching it again in prep for that session. Thank you for watching and commenting!
I played DnD back from the beginning to late-90's and loved it. Just recently I watched my grandkids play with their high school, early college friends. Lets just say it was a bit of culture shock!
My favorite module was "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" - where the party is sent to discover where some strange monsters have been coming from and discover....a buried ancient spaceship. Yes, Dungeons and Dragons with laser guns and robots.
Love keep on the borderlands, currently building 3D maps for the players of blown up versions of the module maps the players really like them. Not for everyone ofc, I got the skills to do it, but I think it helps them visualize the world better and as Im crafting im making a little stories and some world building of why some mistake I did is the way it is.
I, too, love movie scores/soundtracks! I have quite a few (Blade Runner being one of my favorites). I need to check out Hanna! Thanks for the recommendation!
I love this adventure and have run it at least a dozen times. I've added side adventures and details. The players were making raids against the evil Temple and returning to the Keep to rest . They were shocked when the Temple sent assassins to the Inn they were staying. Slaying one of their friends in his sleep, lighting the Inn on fire and kidnapping another of their friends, a good fighter They attacked the Temple in revenge and faced a hard defense, with a dark clad warrior leading. To their horror, the dark warrior removed his helmet to reveal their now undead former friend. Jaws dropped. When his pale face and dead eyes hissed " Welcome!". A memorable campaign.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I'm really glad you enjoyed the video, and I always enjoy hearing that others are running this module as well! Did you use the Goodman Games 5E version, or just make the conversions yourself?
I enjoy getting to peak behind others' DM Screens and see how games are run at other tables. Musically, I like anything by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner. The Krull soundtrack has been on repeat while I craft dungeon ideas for my players. It has such a heroic, swashbuckling theme mixed with romantic interludes and otherworldly horror.
One way I've done 'info dumps' within game sessions is to turn it into text _dialogue_ and assign temporary NPC roles to players. Assuming they're comfortable with reading aloud, and some players even enjoy the theatrics, it can save the GM's breath and ensure players pay attention. :) The cork board is amazing!
Back then I only ever played Keep, Isle of Dread and Castle Amber before it went more DM made. I have most of B and X modules and Professor DC has truly inspired a revisit to these modules! And never make a throw away goofy NPC! That will always be the favorite with you to immortals!
@@daddyrolleda1 In my campaign, I run RQG, I impost a number of basic D&D modules and try to watch videos on them to get other interpretations/recommendations - this popped up on my YT feed. Glad I caught it.
Rolling two dice and taking the better creeps up here and there in old school games too. The gambling rules in TSR’s Boot Hill for example let you “cheat”. If you cheat, you roll two dice and take the better result. But obviously you’re now risking everyone figuring out you’re a cheat. It’s not called “advantage” but the mechanic is there. 🙂
Thank you very much! I appreciate you letting me know, and also really appreciate your use of "shoe leather." I will try to get better about tightening up my rambling a bit.
I ran Monte Cook's Banewarren's, which is an adventure path, and it's fantastic, but I had to excise about half of it for not fitting into my campaign setting, and change quite a bit of what I left. But it was still a blast!
An exiled Bone Devil called Ix is running the show in the Caves of Chaos and is planning to attack the Keep to use as a base to establish his evil realm across the world. Ix was also a bit of a short-sighted idiot who was like a really shite Bond villain.
Enjoying the video very much! I'm intrigued now about the slavic bardish thing you mentioned. Could you say how you spell that word in the Latin alphabet? I used to study Russian but what I can recall is very slim. I might be repeating myself but I really like your approach of showing practically how you do things with a bit context and reasoning. To me that's much more helpful and inspiring than GM tip videos which basically just tell you to do something in a certain specific way. That sort of authoritative manner doesn't work too well for me. I'm still learning not to do everything by the book so I enjoy being inspired rather than told what to do I guess 😄 Oh and brilliant what you did with the animal trainer NPC. Shows as well, how players take to NPCs. How you can't preplan who becomes meaningful to a specific group of players. At the same time you show how it pays off to consider your players life with misogynistic guy.
Thank you so much for this comment! I really appreciate this kind of feedback and it helps me to know what to focus on with these campaign prep videos. I really appreciate you taking the time to write them. The animal trainer guy is a "Skomorokh": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skomorokh. Thanks again!
@@daddyrolleda1 Thank you! Always happy if it's helpful! I also understand that as the channel grows it will become impossible to really notice all comments. I hope you can keep running the channel at a balance point where it's meaningful and fun for you, avoiding overwhelm. Cheers!
While I see the place for story paths as concept, I can't personally cotton to them myself in practice. The one convention game each I played for Pathfinder and 5E used that type of system and both times it felt more like a _Choose Your Own Adventure_ or _Fighting Fantasy_ book played out with D&D rules than like a TTRPG session to me.
LOL at Daddy Rolled a One's reaction to his daughter asking if she can have a dog... I mean, wolf. First reaction was to say, "NO!" but being a good dad you wound up saying, "Well, okay, but you've gotta feed it." Perfect dad response. I'm guessing you wound up having to feed it yourself by inserting rats into the game on a regular basis? EDIT: I wrote the comment before you explained how things turned out. It's even more dad-ish that you made them use their own money to hire a petsitter while they were away, but provided them with the means to afford such an expense. That's the kind of real life aspects I try to incorporate into a fantasy game. It's funny to me because of the stereotype of what happens when our kids want a pet and we know we'll be the ones taking care of the pet.
Another great video. You are inspiring. Some of my favorite movie soundtracks/scores are Glory, Conan the Barbarian, and Midnight Express! Keep up the great work!
"I love the smell of flaming oil in the morning",... " it smells like",..... "levelling up"! What about the river journey...... 49 minute video = 49 ideas for so many aspects of so many games....
Yes, so good! I have quite an extensive movie score collection on CD and I'm little by little trying to replace them on vinyl. One of my prized possessions is my original 1977 copy of the Star Wars score on double LP that my mom gave me after we saw the movie in the theater. Oddly, it's worth less than a more recent reissue on 180g gold vinyl, but I still love having it in my collection.
That’s awesome. I got into vinyl around 2002, so you could literally go to any garage sale or thrift store and buy all of the greats. Zep and Sabbath, the doors, Floyd all for $1 at most. I remember I got Star Wars, jaws, gremlins, et, good bad & ugly and a stack of other OSTs for 25 cents each at a yard sale. Eventually, I got older, and got rid of most of my collection, and the next thing I knew I was seeing vinyl for sale in department stores. I was a punk and metal guy so I knew that new bands still put out records or 45s, but it was super niche. I’ll never forget the day I first saw a Taylor Swift record 😂
Another great video full of great stories and tips. The 1982 Conan The Barbarian soundtrack is one of my favourites. But there's a bunch of them that I like: Star Wars, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson ones), Indiana Jones (didn't dislike the new movie either), and many more.
About the amount and types of prep. The more I watch this series the more it's obvious that even though you clearly do smart focused prep, it's really far from "lazy". So I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the your process, especially the part inspiration and enthusiasm for certain aspects plays. Also whether you have to wrestle with perfectionism. And how you maintain your interest in the campaign on the long run. I realize things like these apply very differently to each DM. I'm more curious about how you go about this. Of course I don't expect you to get more personal than you want to. For me personally, I have done a lot of work to get my perfectionism out of the way enough so I actually make it to the the table. Meanwhile I'm learning to surf on my ADHD wave of jumping around after whatever piques my fancy at each moment as well as figuring out over the years those aspects of rpg's I'm more consistently excited about such as rather rooted European (British even) medieval fantasy settings. I also have to accept it that a big portion of my rpg projects never make it to the table. In any case, your channel is really interesting for me because despite certain differences I see we share a lot of preferences in how we're approaching the hobby.
Totally offended! The Irish word for Whiskey translates to "water of life," I can't believe you'd call Vodka the water of life. Unforgivable! Honestly though, this is a fantasic tool for new and experienced DM's all around.
Yes! This is it exactly - most cultures have a spirit that translated to "water of life" aka "acqua vitae." I know uisge beatha (aka "whisky") translates as that, but my understand was that vodka *also* had the same translation. Full disclosure, though, I don't drink vodka. But I do drink Gin, Whisky/Whiskey (Rye, Bourbon, Scotch, Japanese, Canadian, Indian, Single Malt, Single Grain, Blended...), Rum, Pisco, Brandy, Mezcal, Tequila, as well as a variety of liqueurs, amari, vermouths, sherries... Just not vodka.
Thank you for watching and commenting! It's been a bit of trial and error, but my group has gotten into a rhythm where I can reasonably predict how long it's going to take them to do things. That's the ideal I plan for. The reality is that they usually take *much* longer doing things I didn't expect, such as shopping for supplies, so often we don't even get to a combat encounter. The way I approach things is at the end of each session, I ask them what they plan to do next time. I try to get them to be as specific as possible: "The elves are going to talk to the Witch about the creepy dolls we found. While they are doing that, the Cleric, Fighter, and Thief are going to the Tavern to check the message board and ask around about the Executioners. If we don't learn anything new or have any new clues to follow-up on, we're going to go back to the Caves and go to the next unexplored cave on the lower level." That gives me enough material so I can plan out the conversation with the Witch, who might assign the elves another mission and/or give them info/lore and/or give them some items like a new spell scroll. I also know that I'll need to update the message board for the characters who are going to the Tavern, and I can include new rumors and potential clues for them to investigate. Since the Thief player mentioned she was going to the Tavern, I can have an encounter ready for a member of the Thieves' Guild, or perhaps a non-guild criminal. A visiting priest may also be in the Tavern, giving the Cleric player an opportunity for a discussion of religion and faith. And I'd also know I need to plan the encounters at the next unexplored cave. All that might sound like a lot, but once you've done it a few times, it comes quite quickly, and since I'm using an older-school rule set, planning a combat encounter doesn't take much time at all. All I need are Hit Points, AC, attack bonus, and Morale. If they need to make a saving throw during an encounter, I either have the chart handy in my DM Notebook, or I can make a reasonable estimation of what the save should be. Then I can concentrate on tactics and the environment to make the encounter more fun and memorable (goblins throwing flasks of green slime or yellow mold or whatever, a rickety bone bridge that might break during combat, a barrel of black powder that might explode if exposed to flames, etc.). Hope that helps!
Sorry - I don't know why that would be happening. I'm watching it on my laptop and it's playing fine but for some reason the HD Processing hasn't finished yet. Hopefully that part will be fixed soon.
@@daddyrolleda1 just started working like the other guy said it took about an hour or so for it to start working another awesome video man keep up the great work👍
Put all players into a interrogation room. None of the players meet the DM in person. All communication is done by phone, text, email. The players choose a class and spend all the minimum gold determined by the dice. All gold not spent is lost. When players arrive into the room. A printer creates the character sheets with all the stats randomly rolled for them. They have 10 minutes to discuss what to spend remaining gold on for the adventure. A large monitor embedded within a table. This is the visual communication that the DM has with players. The DM watches players through a 2 way mirror. Players press a button to unmute themselves to speak with the DM. The DM rolls all the dice for everything, and everyone. If its a campaign, then a print out at the end of the session is given. Along with the next scheduled appointment date.
@@HighPriestFuneral An impartial DM running a business providing players a service. If your the DM, then your reward is a revenue model that generates cash flow. If your the player, then you should be looking for a DM that keeps good records and does good arbitration.
I really like hearing the perspective of a DM running a game for kids. It reminds me of the old days when D&D and PnP gaming was still new to us all.
It's a good reminder too that you don't need a "kids" rpg, any rpg can be accessible to kids if you want it to be. I learned to play AD&D when I was 6. I didn't have any ultra-lite story games to learn with, and I think kids today are as smart as they were in the 90's. It's nice to see when people don't talk down to kids.
Thank you so much! I'm really happy to hear that these videos resonated with you. I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to comment. Cheers!
@@nicklarocco4178 By and large, I agree with this. I do think a lot of those stripped-down story games look like fun, but I do also think, "Why not just play D&D?" I was a bit older than you (11) when I started, but we didn't have a choice of having a "simpler" system, so we just figured it out.
I had a friend come over recently who has extensive experience in 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5e. He said he wanted to try BECMI and Keep on the Borderlands is what he wanted to start with.
He rolled great stats, really high for starting gold. Hired some retainers and made is way to the keep.
Ambushed by 8 Kobolds at the front door, harassed them instead of trying to persuade them and got TPKd.
10/10, best module ever.
I am chuckling over here! He could've tried to bribe them with all that starting gold!
Did he roll up another character?
@@daddyrolleda1 He swapped two letters on his character's sheet, had him be the guys brother, and then tried a different way. Ended up getting killed by wandering monsters, but it was hilarious nonetheless.
The Owlbear got one of us, this was back when if an Owlbear hit you with both paws you where now in a bear hug and took extra damage. The game has nerfed the Owlbear since imo.
I think the Ogre got another 1 or 2 of us as well... This was the early 80's as a kid so can't remember the exact details.
This module was written for like 8 characters and all their hirelings... Most people don't bring enough characters to the module and get TPK'd.
@@spartaninvirginia As, of course, is tradition.
My boys were 7 and 11 when I ran B2 for them. They were at the tavern recruiting hirelings and asked one candidate how many hit points he had. His response was "Sorry, I don't speak Elvish!"
That small and simple in a way, 28 page adventure is considered by many one of the best Module ever written, If I had only one module EVER, it would be Keep on the Borderlands! (oh and players are extremely lazy, Its hard enough to get them to remember to bring their pencil to game night let alone read something)
Its great to hear from a DM their personal experiences and the techniques that they use. That bulletin board system is such a neat idea to drive player engagement.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for watching and sharing this comment. I really appreciate it!
I ran my son and his friends through some of the 5e reprint of Into the Borderlands. They did a great job of fleshing it out.
Excellent summation of why more detailed published material can limit the DM's responsiveness to players!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you watching and commenting. Cheers!
That's why I love old school modules or OSR modules that emulate them, like one page dungeons or adventure anthologies ala BFRPG. I can plop them into my owngoing homebrew campaign and hack them as I please.
Perfect choice to adapt too. I still run this myself, with my kids.
Two of my my favorite movies, and their scores:
The Wrath of Khan
Lawrence of Arabia
Both solid choices! I have a Mondo 2x LP version of "Wrath of Khan" on vinyl that was quite difficult to find at the time, and now is worth as much as $126!
I saw Lawrence of Arabia in the Cinerama Dome here in Los Angeles (years ago before it was taken over by the Arclight) at a revival showing (I think the 50th anniversary? Although it might have been 40th now that I think of it). Great movie and soundtrack!
Thanks for watching that far in the video and sharing your favorites!
I love Blade Runner ! I agree with your choice. I played Castles and Crusades with my sons all through their high school years. You have great memories to look back on.
Nice to meet a fellow Blade Runner fan. Back before you could get all of the different versions on Blu-Ray, my friend and I used to make it a point to go to any screenings we could find. Being in L.A., we were lucky to have screenings pretty frequently. Once back in the 1990s, we went to a screening at the Mann's Chinese Theater with special guest James Edward Olmos who introduced the film, mentioning that they were going to be showing "The Director's Cut." Almost immediately, my friend and I noticed something different about the opening titles, and as we got into it, we realized what we were seeing was either the Dallas or the San Diego Sneak, which included scenes with the GoGo dancers in the Hockey Masks, and also the music being replaced with the Planet of the Apes soundtrack about 2/3 of the way through the film. Turns out the film cannister the theater had been given was mislabeled. We totally geeked out.
Around 2012 or so, my friend and I contributed to a fund to help refurbish the Million Dollar Theater, which is seen in the background across the street from J. F. Sebastian's apartment building, when Pris accidentally crashes into the parked truck - you can see the marquee in the background. Their first revival showing at the refurbished theater was Blade Runner, and it included access to the Bradbury Building (which is where J. F. Sebastian's apartment is). These days, the building is open and people rent work space (kind of like We Work) and there's a bar at the top, but back then, it was closed to the public, so getting to go inside was really cool.
Cheers, and thank you so much for watching and commenting!
"You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics." Lol, i love Dennis Hopper's character in that movie so much! A great inspiration for an NPC.
Yeah, you get it! It was really fun to model that speech pattern for my NPC, and also it was a fun excuse to re-watch the movie! I hadn't seen it for nearly a decade before watching it again in prep for that session.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Great to see someone running B2. In light of this, I hope you get back to my story sometime. I think you'll enjoy it, in more ways than one : )
I played DnD back from the beginning to late-90's and loved it. Just recently I watched my grandkids play with their high school, early college friends.
Lets just say it was a bit of culture shock!
My favorite module was "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" - where the party is sent to discover where some strange monsters have been coming from and discover....a buried ancient spaceship. Yes, Dungeons and Dragons with laser guns and robots.
Love keep on the borderlands, currently building 3D maps for the players of blown up versions of the module maps the players really like them. Not for everyone ofc, I got the skills to do it, but I think it helps them visualize the world better and as Im crafting im making a little stories and some world building of why some mistake I did is the way it is.
I love a lot of movie sound tracks (Two Towers, City of Lost Children, Tron, etc.) but Hanna is my favorite movie and soundtrack.
I, too, love movie scores/soundtracks! I have quite a few (Blade Runner being one of my favorites). I need to check out Hanna! Thanks for the recommendation!
I truly love your efforts. ❤. And, how can anyone not love Keep on the Borderlands. It’s one of the greatest GOTO modules.
I love this adventure and have run it at least a dozen times. I've added side adventures and details.
The players were making raids against the evil Temple and returning to the Keep to rest .
They were shocked when the Temple sent assassins to the Inn they were staying. Slaying one of their friends in his sleep, lighting the Inn on fire and kidnapping another of their friends, a good fighter
They attacked the Temple in revenge and faced a hard defense, with a dark clad warrior leading.
To their horror, the dark warrior removed his helmet to reveal their now undead former friend. Jaws dropped. When his pale face and dead eyes hissed " Welcome!".
A memorable campaign.
Great video here! I ran B2 for my 5E players as well, doing a lot of similar adjustments, it really is a great framework of a module to this day.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I'm really glad you enjoyed the video, and I always enjoy hearing that others are running this module as well! Did you use the Goodman Games 5E version, or just make the conversions yourself?
I enjoy getting to peak behind others' DM Screens and see how games are run at other tables.
Musically, I like anything by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner. The Krull soundtrack has been on repeat while I craft dungeon ideas for my players. It has such a heroic, swashbuckling theme mixed with romantic interludes and otherworldly horror.
One way I've done 'info dumps' within game sessions is to turn it into text _dialogue_ and assign temporary NPC roles to players. Assuming they're comfortable with reading aloud, and some players even enjoy the theatrics, it can save the GM's breath and ensure players pay attention. :)
The cork board is amazing!
Back then I only ever played Keep, Isle of Dread and Castle Amber before it went more DM made. I have most of B and X modules and Professor DC has truly inspired a revisit to these modules! And never make a throw away goofy NPC! That will always be the favorite with you to immortals!
I have seen and like the idea about feeding players info from NPC interactions.
Glad you like it, too, and thank you so much for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 In my campaign, I run RQG, I impost a number of basic D&D modules and try to watch videos on them to get other interpretations/recommendations - this popped up on my YT feed. Glad I caught it.
We use advantage and disadvantage in our old-school game too. It's definitely one of the best things from the modern game to steal. ;-)
Rolling two dice and taking the better creeps up here and there in old school games too.
The gambling rules in TSR’s Boot Hill for example let you “cheat”. If you cheat, you roll two dice and take the better result. But obviously you’re now risking everyone figuring out you’re a cheat.
It’s not called “advantage” but the mechanic is there. 🙂
I absolutely love the toho Godzilla soundtracks. Also not movie, but I love the original System shock OST. An industrial midi bop.
I use modules in a similar fashion: taking what I need/like and inserting it into the campaign.
I wish I'd had the confidence to do that as a kid instead of thinking I needed to run it "as is." Would've saved a lot of headaches!
I like these videos the way they are. You can cut some of the shoe leather from the video but even the weird tangant parts are still pretty cool.
Thank you very much! I appreciate you letting me know, and also really appreciate your use of "shoe leather." I will try to get better about tightening up my rambling a bit.
@@daddyrolleda1 you just have to refine your own thing. There is nothing really wrong it. I find the shows informative
I really appreciate that!
Very cool. Thanks for the share!!
And thank you for your support! Cheers!
Great vid. I always change the adventure paths fairly radically. Most modules I've read have so many areas that just don't make sense to me.
I ran Monte Cook's Banewarren's, which is an adventure path, and it's fantastic, but I had to excise about half of it for not fitting into my campaign setting, and change quite a bit of what I left. But it was still a blast!
Can't fault you on loving Blade Runner.
Such a great movie and soundtrack!
An exiled Bone Devil called Ix is running the show in the Caves of Chaos and is planning to attack the Keep to use as a base to establish his evil realm across the world. Ix was also a bit of a short-sighted idiot who was like a really shite Bond villain.
That still sounds like a fun campaign to me!
Enjoying the video very much! I'm intrigued now about the slavic bardish thing you mentioned. Could you say how you spell that word in the Latin alphabet? I used to study Russian but what I can recall is very slim.
I might be repeating myself but I really like your approach of showing practically how you do things with a bit context and reasoning. To me that's much more helpful and inspiring than GM tip videos which basically just tell you to do something in a certain specific way. That sort of authoritative manner doesn't work too well for me. I'm still learning not to do everything by the book so I enjoy being inspired rather than told what to do I guess 😄
Oh and brilliant what you did with the animal trainer NPC. Shows as well, how players take to NPCs. How you can't preplan who becomes meaningful to a specific group of players. At the same time you show how it pays off to consider your players life with misogynistic guy.
Thank you so much for this comment! I really appreciate this kind of feedback and it helps me to know what to focus on with these campaign prep videos. I really appreciate you taking the time to write them.
The animal trainer guy is a "Skomorokh": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skomorokh.
Thanks again!
@@daddyrolleda1 Thank you! Always happy if it's helpful! I also understand that as the channel grows it will become impossible to really notice all comments. I hope you can keep running the channel at a balance point where it's meaningful and fun for you, avoiding overwhelm. Cheers!
While I see the place for story paths as concept, I can't personally cotton to them myself in practice. The one convention game each I played for Pathfinder and 5E used that type of system and both times it felt more like a _Choose Your Own Adventure_ or _Fighting Fantasy_ book played out with D&D rules than like a TTRPG session to me.
LOL at Daddy Rolled a One's reaction to his daughter asking if she can have a dog... I mean, wolf. First reaction was to say, "NO!" but being a good dad you wound up saying, "Well, okay, but you've gotta feed it." Perfect dad response. I'm guessing you wound up having to feed it yourself by inserting rats into the game on a regular basis?
EDIT: I wrote the comment before you explained how things turned out. It's even more dad-ish that you made them use their own money to hire a petsitter while they were away, but provided them with the means to afford such an expense. That's the kind of real life aspects I try to incorporate into a fantasy game. It's funny to me because of the stereotype of what happens when our kids want a pet and we know we'll be the ones taking care of the pet.
Another great video. You are inspiring.
Some of my favorite movie soundtracks/scores are Glory, Conan the Barbarian, and Midnight Express!
Keep up the great work!
"I love the smell of flaming oil in the morning",...
" it smells like",.....
"levelling up"!
What about the river journey......
49 minute video = 49 ideas for so many aspects of so many games....
What an awesome soundtrack.
Jurassic Park is one I listen too on repeat. John Williams is just too good
Yes, so good! I have quite an extensive movie score collection on CD and I'm little by little trying to replace them on vinyl. One of my prized possessions is my original 1977 copy of the Star Wars score on double LP that my mom gave me after we saw the movie in the theater. Oddly, it's worth less than a more recent reissue on 180g gold vinyl, but I still love having it in my collection.
That’s awesome. I got into vinyl around 2002, so you could literally go to any garage sale or thrift store and buy all of the greats. Zep and Sabbath, the doors, Floyd all for $1 at most. I remember I got Star Wars, jaws, gremlins, et, good bad & ugly and a stack of other OSTs for 25 cents each at a yard sale.
Eventually, I got older, and got rid of most of my collection, and the next thing I knew I was seeing vinyl for sale in department stores. I was a punk and metal guy so I knew that new bands still put out records or 45s, but it was super niche. I’ll never forget the day I first saw a Taylor Swift record 😂
Blade Runner's also one of my all-time favourite movies, although the books a bit more off-the-wall ...
Another great video full of great stories and tips.
The 1982 Conan The Barbarian soundtrack is one of my favourites. But there's a bunch of them that I like: Star Wars, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson ones), Indiana Jones (didn't dislike the new movie either), and many more.
Awesome as always. It's a good source for inspiration and ideas
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you watching and commenting!
If not GDQ, DL 1-14 could be called the ur-Adventure Path.
Yes, that's very true! Thanks!
About the amount and types of prep. The more I watch this series the more it's obvious that even though you clearly do smart focused prep, it's really far from "lazy". So I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the your process, especially the part inspiration and enthusiasm for certain aspects plays. Also whether you have to wrestle with perfectionism. And how you maintain your interest in the campaign on the long run.
I realize things like these apply very differently to each DM. I'm more curious about how you go about this. Of course I don't expect you to get more personal than you want to.
For me personally, I have done a lot of work to get my perfectionism out of the way enough so I actually make it to the the table. Meanwhile I'm learning to surf on my ADHD wave of jumping around after whatever piques my fancy at each moment as well as figuring out over the years those aspects of rpg's I'm more consistently excited about such as rather rooted European (British even) medieval fantasy settings. I also have to accept it that a big portion of my rpg projects never make it to the table.
In any case, your channel is really interesting for me because despite certain differences I see we share a lot of preferences in how we're approaching the hobby.
I am loving this retrospective series. Please tell me you will be looking at the Grenadier figure line at some point!!
Totally offended!
The Irish word for Whiskey translates to "water of life," I can't believe you'd call Vodka the water of life. Unforgivable!
Honestly though, this is a fantasic tool for new and experienced DM's all around.
Vodka is Russian for "water" so the "of life" is probably implicit.
Yes! This is it exactly - most cultures have a spirit that translated to "water of life" aka "acqua vitae." I know uisge beatha (aka "whisky") translates as that, but my understand was that vodka *also* had the same translation.
Full disclosure, though, I don't drink vodka. But I do drink Gin, Whisky/Whiskey (Rye, Bourbon, Scotch, Japanese, Canadian, Indian, Single Malt, Single Grain, Blended...), Rum, Pisco, Brandy, Mezcal, Tequila, as well as a variety of liqueurs, amari, vermouths, sherries... Just not vodka.
How do you plan out the encounters so they fill your play time but do not make it to large (make more work for yourself than what is needed)
Thank you for watching and commenting!
It's been a bit of trial and error, but my group has gotten into a rhythm where I can reasonably predict how long it's going to take them to do things. That's the ideal I plan for. The reality is that they usually take *much* longer doing things I didn't expect, such as shopping for supplies, so often we don't even get to a combat encounter.
The way I approach things is at the end of each session, I ask them what they plan to do next time. I try to get them to be as specific as possible: "The elves are going to talk to the Witch about the creepy dolls we found. While they are doing that, the Cleric, Fighter, and Thief are going to the Tavern to check the message board and ask around about the Executioners. If we don't learn anything new or have any new clues to follow-up on, we're going to go back to the Caves and go to the next unexplored cave on the lower level."
That gives me enough material so I can plan out the conversation with the Witch, who might assign the elves another mission and/or give them info/lore and/or give them some items like a new spell scroll. I also know that I'll need to update the message board for the characters who are going to the Tavern, and I can include new rumors and potential clues for them to investigate. Since the Thief player mentioned she was going to the Tavern, I can have an encounter ready for a member of the Thieves' Guild, or perhaps a non-guild criminal. A visiting priest may also be in the Tavern, giving the Cleric player an opportunity for a discussion of religion and faith. And I'd also know I need to plan the encounters at the next unexplored cave.
All that might sound like a lot, but once you've done it a few times, it comes quite quickly, and since I'm using an older-school rule set, planning a combat encounter doesn't take much time at all. All I need are Hit Points, AC, attack bonus, and Morale. If they need to make a saving throw during an encounter, I either have the chart handy in my DM Notebook, or I can make a reasonable estimation of what the save should be. Then I can concentrate on tactics and the environment to make the encounter more fun and memorable (goblins throwing flasks of green slime or yellow mold or whatever, a rickety bone bridge that might break during combat, a barrel of black powder that might explode if exposed to flames, etc.).
Hope that helps!
Kind of wanted to watch this but it keeps buffering😅
Sorry - I don't know why that would be happening. I'm watching it on my laptop and it's playing fine but for some reason the HD Processing hasn't finished yet. Hopefully that part will be fixed soon.
Noticed that this happens sometimes. The video will only be available in potato quality for the first hour or so.
@@daddyrolleda1 just started working like the other guy said it took about an hour or so for it to start working another awesome video man keep up the great work👍
Put all players into a interrogation room. None of the players meet the DM in person. All communication is done by phone, text, email.
The players choose a class and spend all the minimum gold determined by the dice. All gold not spent is lost. When players arrive into the room. A printer creates the character sheets with all the stats randomly rolled for them. They have 10 minutes to discuss what to spend remaining gold on for the adventure.
A large monitor embedded within a table. This is the visual communication that the DM has with players. The DM watches players through a 2 way mirror. Players press a button to unmute themselves to speak with the DM.
The DM rolls all the dice for everything, and everyone. If its a campaign, then a print out at the end of the session is given. Along with the next scheduled appointment date.
That sounds more like a terrible job than a fun game session.
@@HighPriestFuneral An impartial DM running a business providing players a service. If your the DM, then your reward is a revenue model that generates cash flow. If your the player, then you should be looking for a DM that keeps good records and does good arbitration.
@@josephpurdy8390 Yikes... that does not sound like fun for anyone involved. Why choose to monetize every single thing in the world?