I am so happy my videos are helping you even in the slightest way! Top tips: 1. Remember to breath 2. Have water with you! I have had many day long sessions where I completely forgot to drink any water! 3. You and your players are there to create a story so if you are unsure of any ruling then ask for time and work if out together. Creating an understanding of the rules together makes your job easier in the future. MOST OF ALL HAVE FUN! You are going to be great 😊
I'm running this campaign as a brand new DM and brand new D&D player and this gave me confidence that I'm headed in the right direction as far as the story prep goes!
Hey really happy that the video helped you! I hope the rest give you ideas or clarify any parts of the story. Good luck and feel free to ask for any advice in the future.
Underrated channel. Quality content. This is the first video I’ve watched and I’ve already subscribed. Thank you for the walk though. While I’m not a new DM, I still have lots to learn for sure, and any little bit helps. I’m gonna be running this campaign for some of my players in about a week, hopefully it goes well. Once again, thanks. 🙏🏻
Thanks for the kind words! Your players are going to love it, Waterdeep just has so much to offer even outside the written story. Good luck with the game!
Get ready for good one! I am the DM and have not been the DM ever before. Also, I have never played DND. Yes, totes newbie!! However, I have worked at many festivals dressed as a faerie professionally and voluntarily and worked at many Ren Faire's as a Corsetiere so the roll play aspect is already there. However, I have books and watch lots of UA-cam videos and am still overwhelmed and feel like I am procrastinating. Some one shove me off of the cliff so I can trust my dragon enough to catch me.
Just got done running the first chapter of Dragon Heist. It's been almost 20 years since I played, playing mostly 2nd AD&D with THAC0 before migrating to the new d20 system that I played for about a year. Jumping back into it, though it had been quite a while was a cinch. Yeah, small rule changes here and there, but when you have a repository of the past, the changes are simple to grasp. What I found to be the most discouraging, even though primarily having been a player all my DnD life and with the large gap in playing, was the plethora of information given to the DM and the lack of information and set-up given to the player. I've been in many games where people run it off the cuff, and it rarely goes well and leaves players confused as to what to do next. So I did what any good player, who was actually trying to make a first time, concerted effort into DMing(not b.s. dming) would do. Make shit make sense. All the players I played with were brand spanking new new. Never having visited any world within the forgotten realms, Faerun seemed as good a place as any. I put together an introduction, spelling out their sub-continental location, the city in which they were located, the time of the year, local authorities, fighting amongst the black network and other criminal organizations, and pinned the player side of the map on the wall, because even though they were familiar with the layout of the town, being locals for the most part, they wouldn't be able to see the street names or the location of anything too important without asking me to check(which cost them a dc check). They were able to acclimate quite well and I was able to give a good, 5 minute introduction to Waterdeep. What killed me as a DM trying to take his job seriously was the fact that hardly any relevant information is given to the players. Not a description of the yawning portal, nothing. They went out of their way to build a story, but not a world, nothing to actually capture the imagination of the players, and left it bare minimum with text dialogues. To work out the first chapter into something that was playable and keep the new players interested on the path laid out took almost as much time as it did for the players to progress through the chapter. The development time for the entire chapter 1 took a total of 6 hours, including printing out NCP's, additional maps, extra code law sheets, ect to make it work. Thankfully, I was able to get about 7 hours of gameplay out of it. Though it was a great experience, I feel someone new to the game in general will not be able to run a game that leaves any impact on the players, or leave them coming back for more.
I agree with you. I'm prepping this module as we speak and it's definitely taking me a long time to get the first chapter 'tabletop ready'. I've made things a little easier for myself by insisting that all players are new to waterdeep and so I don't need to be ready to info-dump all knowledge that the characters should know about the city. I can give myself time researching as we go along. For example, my players are only interested in 3 of the recommended 'link' npcs so I'm prepping for those factions primarily. I definitely think that either prior knowledge of the realms or time to study is needed to run this. I've been looking at a lot of wikis and pdfs from older editions to flesh things out. However, I'm hoping that, like you, I can get several hours of gameplay out of several hours of research time! That seems like a reasonable return
I know! Omg I kept making that mistake throughout my prep and video but during the session I had it on a post-it note in big writing so I didnt make the mistake with my players!
Ive ran dragonhiest before but I want to run it again because I feel I did not fully have a grasp of it the first time I ran it. I know this video is a bit old but this seems like a really amazing channel. I hope the rest of your videos are just as great as this.
Sounds cool and weird enough I think you have the voice for this did not watch the video but I did listen to it as I am currently at work good job and keep it up
Good luck! Let me know how it goes! Its a really fun story, Ill be putting out story videos for people to follow along with our story so feel free to listen to how they turned out!
Hey dude, this is awesome. I'm prepping WDH right now and i'm really interested how other DM's do it. I've only DM'ed a single adventure before (Forge of Fury, TftYP). I will watch with eager anticipation.
This is great, I've been waiting for about half a year to run this campaign (since my players have been very busy and free time is tough to come by) but we're finally starting in just over a weeks time :D We've run through most of Phandelver with a few other attempts at starting campaigns here and there- but I haven't DM'd in a while and frankly I'm a bit nervous, but this video and this style of video really helps. Thanks =) Keep doing what you're doing
I ran my players through The Dragon of Icespire Peak and they found the deed to Trollskull Manor in Cryovain's horde. I skipped past the encounter in the Yawning Portal and went right into Finding Frollo. In this case, Frollo is a lawyer who is holding the keys to the Manor, so the PCs need to talk to him before they can officially claim ownership of Trollskull Manor.
@@TheDMSide We did and we had a blast.! We're using the Dungeon World rules rather than D&D5E. Also, it looks like I just became your 500th subscriber!
@@Zirbip good job. The Dungeon world rules are really interesting. Ive never played using them before but one day maybe. Oh boy if you are THATS AMAZING! THANKS!!!
@@TheDMSide Wrapping my head around the DW rules took a little time but there are some great tutorials here on YT that explain everything really well. The system is less simuationist and less war-gamey than D&D; it really focuses on story, which is how I run my games nowadays. Genesys is another underrated RPG system that I think is great. I'm actually running a Shadowrun game with the Genesys rules right now.
Great Video! Quick question, did you run CoS cover to cover, or did you homebrew some stuff in/take inspiration and add other elements from other peoples' guides, like mandymod, dragnacarta etc? Keep up the great work!
So when I ran CoS it was my second main book to run so I didn’t use anything to guide me (though I wish I had known of them) When I DM’ed I really did let my players push the story and based on what they did in the game decided what I would put in front of them next based on what was in the book. If you want to run ideas and tease out your ideas message me on instagram if you have it :)
Hey man! Loved this video! Hey, could I join your group? I got a email if you want to talk more! I wouldn’t mind righting my own home brew modules for you guys!
Hey man love the enthusiasm! Unfortunately this group I ran the game for has finished up as we have finished the story. In future videos Ill be a player and not the DM. Also this group specifically is a friend group where we meet up in person (Covid restrictions are different in Aus now based on case numbers) If you want to talk homebrew ideas or suggest any modules feel free to message me on the instagram page or honestly throw them up on DMs Guild for everyone to enjoy!
I am currently running this myself and quite enjoying it. Have you heard of the Alexandrian remix, Justin Alexander fixes the plot holes and uses all 4 villains. Check it out. thealexandrian.net/wordpress/41217/roleplaying-games/dragon-heist-remix-part-1-the-villains
Thanks for the link! I unfortunately hadnt have heard of the Alexandrian version until towards the end of the campaign. I definitely think it is good for new DMs to check it out for sure. I am glad I ran the book as written so others who dont come across this fixed version can have some insight through these videos. Love that you are running this story! Its a great story and very entertaining. Happy gaming!
I'm running this in a few days and I'm so nervous bc it's my first time being the DM. This helped so much and I cant wait
I am so happy my videos are helping you even in the slightest way!
Top tips:
1. Remember to breath
2. Have water with you! I have had many day long sessions where I completely forgot to drink any water!
3. You and your players are there to create a story so if you are unsure of any ruling then ask for time and work if out together. Creating an understanding of the rules together makes your job easier in the future.
MOST OF ALL HAVE FUN! You are going to be great 😊
@@TheDMSide that is some sound DM wisdom
Hey, it's been two years? How did you do? 😊
Just started playing 5 months ago, and will run this next. Gonna DM first time so I can give our current DM a break, you've got a new subscriber.
Thats so awesome!
Welcome!!!
Good luck if you have any questions feel free to reach out.
Love talking game stuff anytime haha
I'm running this campaign as a brand new DM and brand new D&D player and this gave me confidence that I'm headed in the right direction as far as the story prep goes!
Just enjoy the story, be open with your players and trust that should any issues arise you will all get through it together 😊
Have a great game!!!
Keep up the good work man this was amazing and helpped a lot PLEASE continue
Thank you! Glad its helped.
I plan on continuing through as many of the official stories as possible!
Hey man, great video, I'll be running this soon and this was a great start for me
Hey really happy that the video helped you! I hope the rest give you ideas or clarify any parts of the story.
Good luck and feel free to ask for any advice in the future.
Underrated channel.
Quality content.
This is the first video I’ve watched and I’ve already subscribed. Thank you for the walk though. While I’m not a new DM, I still have lots to learn for sure, and any little bit helps. I’m gonna be running this campaign for some of my players in about a week, hopefully it goes well. Once again, thanks. 🙏🏻
Thanks for the kind words!
Your players are going to love it, Waterdeep just has so much to offer even outside the written story.
Good luck with the game!
This a great twist on a channel because i was finding the same things as in why a channel was made and what they provide for D&D fans
Super helpful - first time DM and this the thingy I chose to run so I'm glad I found you!
Get ready for good one! I am the DM and have not been the DM ever before. Also, I have never played DND. Yes, totes newbie!! However, I have worked at many festivals dressed as a faerie professionally and voluntarily and worked at many Ren Faire's as a Corsetiere so the roll play aspect is already there. However, I have books and watch lots of UA-cam videos and am still overwhelmed and feel like I am procrastinating. Some one shove me off of the cliff so I can trust my dragon enough to catch me.
Just got done running the first chapter of Dragon Heist. It's been almost 20 years since I played, playing mostly 2nd AD&D with THAC0 before migrating to the new d20 system that I played for about a year. Jumping back into it, though it had been quite a while was a cinch. Yeah, small rule changes here and there, but when you have a repository of the past, the changes are simple to grasp. What I found to be the most discouraging, even though primarily having been a player all my DnD life and with the large gap in playing, was the plethora of information given to the DM and the lack of information and set-up given to the player. I've been in many games where people run it off the cuff, and it rarely goes well and leaves players confused as to what to do next. So I did what any good player, who was actually trying to make a first time, concerted effort into DMing(not b.s. dming) would do. Make shit make sense. All the players I played with were brand spanking new new. Never having visited any world within the forgotten realms, Faerun seemed as good a place as any. I put together an introduction, spelling out their sub-continental location, the city in which they were located, the time of the year, local authorities, fighting amongst the black network and other criminal organizations, and pinned the player side of the map on the wall, because even though they were familiar with the layout of the town, being locals for the most part, they wouldn't be able to see the street names or the location of anything too important without asking me to check(which cost them a dc check). They were able to acclimate quite well and I was able to give a good, 5 minute introduction to Waterdeep. What killed me as a DM trying to take his job seriously was the fact that hardly any relevant information is given to the players. Not a description of the yawning portal, nothing. They went out of their way to build a story, but not a world, nothing to actually capture the imagination of the players, and left it bare minimum with text dialogues. To work out the first chapter into something that was playable and keep the new players interested on the path laid out took almost as much time as it did for the players to progress through the chapter. The development time for the entire chapter 1 took a total of 6 hours, including printing out NCP's, additional maps, extra code law sheets, ect to make it work. Thankfully, I was able to get about 7 hours of gameplay out of it. Though it was a great experience, I feel someone new to the game in general will not be able to run a game that leaves any impact on the players, or leave them coming back for more.
I agree with you. I'm prepping this module as we speak and it's definitely taking me a long time to get the first chapter 'tabletop ready'.
I've made things a little easier for myself by insisting that all players are new to waterdeep and so I don't need to be ready to info-dump all knowledge that the characters should know about the city. I can give myself time researching as we go along. For example, my players are only interested in 3 of the recommended 'link' npcs so I'm prepping for those factions primarily.
I definitely think that either prior knowledge of the realms or time to study is needed to run this. I've been looking at a lot of wikis and pdfs from older editions to flesh things out.
However, I'm hoping that, like you, I can get several hours of gameplay out of several hours of research time! That seems like a reasonable return
I’m subbing, this guy is great.
Legend!
Damn right
Hey! great idea. Excited to follow along.
One small point of information, Yagra is Zhentarim and Krentz & his thugs are Xanathar :)
I know! Omg I kept making that mistake throughout my prep and video but during the session I had it on a post-it note in big writing so I didnt make the mistake with my players!
Hello! looking forward to this series :)
Hello! Hopping it provides value and help :)
i dont know who you are but ten seconds in i like you already
Well this is just wholesome content right here! Thanks so much for your kind words.
Ive ran dragonhiest before but I want to run it again because I feel I did not fully have a grasp of it the first time I ran it. I know this video is a bit old but this seems like a really amazing channel. I hope the rest of your videos are just as great as this.
I hope you enjoy re-running it!
I also hope the videos come across as better as you watch them!
Loved the video! Please keep doing this
Thanks so much! I have lots of future video ideas so there will be more to come!
Sounds cool and weird enough I think you have the voice for this did not watch the video but I did listen to it as I am currently at work good job and keep it up
Thanks! Looking forward to where this can go. Worst case everyone can hear a fun story I hope :)
Really interested to follow along man! I'm about to DM my first session of Dungeon Heist tomorrow
Good luck! Let me know how it goes! Its a really fun story, Ill be putting out story videos for people to follow along with our story so feel free to listen to how they turned out!
Just found your channel dude, looks like you have great content. Keep at it ☺️
Thanks so much!
I have really enjoyed making these videos!
Hey dude, this is awesome. I'm prepping WDH right now and i'm really interested how other DM's do it. I've only DM'ed a single adventure before (Forge of Fury, TftYP). I will watch with eager anticipation.
Good luck with your games! Id love to know how your game progresses as you play :)
This sounds interesting! Its a fun story so enjoy it!
Hope you enjoy it!
This is great, I've been waiting for about half a year to run this campaign (since my players have been very busy and free time is tough to come by) but we're finally starting in just over a weeks time :D
We've run through most of Phandelver with a few other attempts at starting campaigns here and there- but I haven't DM'd in a while and frankly I'm a bit nervous, but this video and this style of video really helps. Thanks =)
Keep doing what you're doing
Good luck with your campaign! Waterdeep is really good to run after Phandelver. You are going to have a blast.
@@TheDMSide Thanks, I'm really excited yeah. All the best 👍
Small note of a year later! Yagra is with the Zhentarim not the Xanthar guild. The guy dudes ganging up on her are Xanthar.
Yeah 100% I was so nervous with my first video I didnt even notice the slip up. Always good to have the clarification though for future viewers.
@@TheDMSide And it was such a good video! Using it to prep for my own waterdeep game!
@@simplyminipainting Really glad to know it helped.
I ran my players through The Dragon of Icespire Peak and they found the deed to Trollskull Manor in Cryovain's horde. I skipped past the encounter in the Yawning Portal and went right into Finding Frollo.
In this case, Frollo is a lawyer who is holding the keys to the Manor, so the PCs need to talk to him before they can officially claim ownership of Trollskull Manor.
That is amazing.well done! I love that idea. Did you run through all of Waterdeep after that?
@@TheDMSide We did and we had a blast.! We're using the Dungeon World rules rather than D&D5E.
Also, it looks like I just became your 500th subscriber!
@@Zirbip good job. The Dungeon world rules are really interesting. Ive never played using them before but one day maybe.
Oh boy if you are THATS AMAZING! THANKS!!!
@@TheDMSide Wrapping my head around the DW rules took a little time but there are some great tutorials here on YT that explain everything really well. The system is less simuationist and less war-gamey than D&D; it really focuses on story, which is how I run my games nowadays.
Genesys is another underrated RPG system that I think is great. I'm actually running a Shadowrun game with the Genesys rules right now.
You managed to get the name!!
I was very lucky :)
I tried running it and was confused how plots were connected like how some bullied robot thing was important to the plot and stuff like that.
Did you end up finishing the story or did the game fizzle out? If you finished did your players have fun?
Yet another criminally under subscribed UA-cam channel.
Really appreciate the kind words 😁
Great Video! Quick question, did you run CoS cover to cover, or did you homebrew some stuff in/take inspiration and add other elements from other peoples' guides, like mandymod, dragnacarta etc? Keep up the great work!
So when I ran CoS it was my second main book to run so I didn’t use anything to guide me (though I wish I had known of them) When I DM’ed I really did let my players push the story and based on what they did in the game decided what I would put in front of them next based on what was in the book. If you want to run ideas and tease out your ideas message me on instagram if you have it :)
@@TheDMSide awesome! thank you. Will do, soon, im sure haha
@@JoeyisRippinHD Hey sorry I didnt see this reply! Legit just message me I love Strahd so much Im happy to spit ball ideas whenever.
Hello!
Hi 👋
Hey man! Loved this video! Hey, could I join your group? I got a email if you want to talk more! I wouldn’t mind righting my own home brew modules for you guys!
Hey man love the enthusiasm! Unfortunately this group I ran the game for has finished up as we have finished the story.
In future videos Ill be a player and not the DM.
Also this group specifically is a friend group where we meet up in person (Covid restrictions are different in Aus now based on case numbers)
If you want to talk homebrew ideas or suggest any modules feel free to message me on the instagram page or honestly throw them up on DMs Guild for everyone to enjoy!
why has no one done this!!!
Hopefully the next campaign I run will be better laid out so the videos are have better quality.
Still thanks! I hope this helps
i was going to like but ur at 420 likes sooooo sorry lol
You are the real MVP 😂
Hi
Hello.
I am currently running this myself and quite enjoying it. Have you heard of the Alexandrian remix, Justin Alexander fixes the plot holes and uses all 4 villains. Check it out. thealexandrian.net/wordpress/41217/roleplaying-games/dragon-heist-remix-part-1-the-villains
Thanks for the link! I unfortunately hadnt have heard of the Alexandrian version until towards the end of the campaign.
I definitely think it is good for new DMs to check it out for sure. I am glad I ran the book as written so others who dont come across this fixed version can have some insight through these videos.
Love that you are running this story! Its a great story and very entertaining. Happy gaming!
A long six min intro..... He talks about dragon heist after around min 6 heads 👆
Awkward first ever videos 🤣
Boy it was a bad start haha