What you say about players being temporarily DM and comparing to yourself, I felt that. But I give them this example to help them relax: I have a friend who is a chef, she works in a gourmet restaurant. So her family and friends are often nervous and uncomfortable about cooking for her or making her a meal, but she doesn't care, she loves when others make even a simple sandwich for her, because she is almost always doing the cooking, so rarely she gets to enjoy being the one served. So don't be afraid of being the DM, your DM friend will appreciate it, some times we also want to be on the other side of the screen, regardless your skill level, good DM friends will help you during your run.
I have an identical twin brother, sometimes we switch groups without telling the players and they have never noticed... just saying sometimes 2 dms are alike
Polyhedrius sounds like a Prismatic Dragon that frequently uses Shape Change to play cards/dice/dragon chess with Humans and other mortals, in which he pretends to be incompetent to test the mettle of his opponents.
These were very very VERY helpful. Certainly something not every guide tells you, but comes up all the time. I really appreciate the advice. Thank you for doing all these videos, especially during this time.
You mentioned to let you know if we had ideas for future top 10 videos, so here are a few: Top 10 homebrew/UA feats, Top 10 Homebrew/UA subclasses, and Top 10 Tricks for building an interesting encounter. Keep it up!
Number 2 was great. I needed to hear that. Don't roll, unless you have to. I was finding myself asking my players for rolls on mundane things, and I wasn't prepared for them failing. I felt stupid, and Ted just explained to me why. Thanks for that.
Fabulous tips that I constantly need to remind myself of. I allowed my campaign's inquisitive rogue to roll an investigation check to look for something in a small shack that I had already fully described. Obviously, they rolled something like a 24 and I had to tell the character that there was nothing other than what I described. Must've been such a disappointment to the poor rogue. I would've added something to make the roll worth it but I couldn't think of anything on the fly that would be interesting to put in a shack used as a cell.
There's nothing inherently wrong with just saying/confirming something like, "You are 100% confident you've searched this place down, high and low, and have seen everything it has to offer. You are certain there isn't anything else here." Confirmation of knowledge is an acceptable outcome in that case, you don't need to make up loot or add things that you didn't intend to be there unless it adds something overall.
You find a small wooden doll that has clearly been hidden for a while, judging by the dust. He is wearing round spectacles, a red and white striped jumper and woolen cap, blue trousers, and has a hooked black cane.
When this happens to me I have a habit of making up a clue on the spot and dropping it in. Occasionally I have to pause to think about it for a minute, but my players usually sit there on the edge of their seat for what I’ll come up with. I’m more of a writer than an improviser, and I’ve been surprised at how well pulling something out of your ass on the spot works.
Best thing i did for long distance travel where the travel wasn't part of the story, they just needed to get to point b to carry on the plot, was i just made the travel a montage. I just made a clip show of bits of them fighting random encounters, and having a couple of little character interactions over the course of the week that they were travelling for. I do random encounters for short distance travel, but long distance i just montage
Something I do for random encounters is dangerless quick fights ie. "On day 1 you fought some bandits they stood no chance but *roll* Frank got hit with an arrow" Frank: can i hop in the cart n tend my wounds with a heal kit? "Sure your healed anything else you guys did on day 1?" And move through the days like that
Oh my gosh, rolling for stupid stuff is such a careful balance. I mean, I've definitely lost my lip balm to the depths of my purse before, but a book? Nah.
I also for some reason feel like a backpack is also different from a purse. I'm usually good finding things in a backpack, but it usually takes me 3 tries to find anything in my wife's purse. Also as an adventurer, it seems your backpack is usually filled with bulkier stuff that's easier to move around (torches, bottles, etc)
I mean one of my DMs has us roll for stupid stuff all the time and they just have fun with it, not only have we had a grung begin to go insane with believing inanimate objects are screaming at it buy I also fully believe the ceo of a drug operation to have the full name Iam The Murderer. That's what a couple solid low rolls gets you to.
I only ask for a roll when there is a consequence for failure that affects the story. As for random encounters while travelling, when I was running the jungle exploration section of Tomb of Annihilation, I would either roll in advance or choose an encounter I thought would be fun. Never roll for random encounters at the table. I did the same thing when my players' characters found a Bag of Beans. I rolled for the randomness of the beans in advance of the session and wrote down the results.
I would include: Remember that rulesets are only tools. If the players are abusing edge-cases, adjust the tools. Have more failure and partial success states, so that the players can fail and it not mean TPK. The boardgame Pandemic has three different peril-escalation or lose-the-game mechanics: You can run out of resources to contain the disease, you can run out of time, and the media can cause a civilization-ending panic. Come up with peril-escalation mechanics for the environment the PCs are operating in. The 'exploration turn' of ten minutes of TSR-era D&D is a good pacing mechanic for checking whether a peril mechanic needs to activate or advance. A variety of mechanics will permit you to pick the ones that best suit the local hazards and help keep the players on their toes.
Spoilers for CR C2: I literally stole The Happy Fun Ball from CR and turned it into a maximum security prison with different chambers and to get them you have to go through multiple floating Scherian Stairways (roll a d100 to get what door you go to)
that perception check story reminded me of one DM I had that if you wanted to search the room, you had to roll for each 5 ft square. and if you didn't succeed in the right square, you didn't find the item/secret door/etc.
For random encounters, I just do the randomized rolls in advance. This also works for speeding up combat if you have a huge group, pre-rolling the random elements.
This vid was recommended to me and it helps me think of new ideas for my campaign, currently running a campaign and kind a stuck, and also still trying to improve my DM skill, this vid came in the right moment for me
I based a campaign on a book series that I knew none of my players had read. They loved it. I also have always used different voices for NPCs in my games so it was awesome for me the first time I watched CR and saw someone who did the same thing.
Your video reminded me of all the reasons I do a great job as a DM.. and all the reasons I love not having to be the DM. I often bring one of my characters along as an npc in my own games but he is there mostly to help out with healing or rear security and only occasionally to help move along a party that gets mired down. That way when I get someone else to dm I fit right in with a familiar character.
I agree about preparation time. I also agree with players trying to derail your plans as a dm. I keep a few lists of random scenarios and encounters handy. If they get too far off the reservation I may have an assassin poison or infect a player and force them to quest for the cure components. Occasionally I simply have to kill the ringleader of bad behavior. But in most cases I can simply use the same map and encounters no matter what the players want to do. They may ask why the castle they wanted to attack looks like a dungeon... but I make it work. I've been playing since 1980.. i got this
My dumbest moment was my first time dming I asked for a history check to remember which room they had rented. I ended up making that one shot into a whole campaign and they used different characters, as a nod to my dumbest moment I made them roll again, but this time perception, they ended up succeeding and realised that the room they thought was theirs was actually a mimic nest and had taken over that room. It then gave them the chance to stop the spread to the whole town becoming a mimic town
Hey. I just wanted to say I really enjoy your video's. You give DM tips from the heart and try to do things differently and more personal. I have watched a number of DM tips videos from other creators but I was pleasantly surprised by your perspective. Finding your own style, don't be afraid to take breaks and preparing guidelines before a new game where things that stuck with me. I started following your channel when I came across your dnd news uploads and stayed because of your approachable style and the thoughts and ideas you put out there. Keep up the good work!
Starting a campaign in my homebrew world tomorrow, and these tips are super helpful. Especially the thing about developing my own style. I'm pretty nervous because I'm planning on running things pretty free-form and letting my players run with what they want to do, but I want to craft my story around them. I think cooperative storytelling is the best part of D&D, and my players are very creative storytellers too. I have an overall plot of where the story is going to go and I have tons of background lore and worldbuilding things already, but as for the story of the campaign itself, I want my players to be able to tell some of it, too.
I appreciate all the tips, even some of the simple ones we forget about. I have been running a new wildemount campaign, daily for the past 5ish days(due to everyone being quarantined) and trying to keep people's mind off things around the current world situation, but with only about 2 one-shot's worth of experience. Its been ROUGH, and I was starting to hate it and finally talked to the players about needing some time so I stepped away and was able to actually take some time off and write 2 beefy encounters for areas. Anyhow, thank you and keep up the good work man!
@@TheLemuroid Unfortunately they weren't, heh. They would've liked to continue daily/every other day but I've had to pull it to weekly now that I'm headed back to work. But again, appreciate all the advice from this video and the comment section :)
A fun pace aiding house rule is wizards can only learn spells from scrolls. In this play style use a D20 with successful castings to determine if you learn the spell. I suggest that you do not decrease the price of scrolls but make them more commonly found.
Been enjoying your videos on these. A suggestion I'd make is to use that blank space in the upper left (The dark area) to put the title cards of your list, so people can more easily remember the context of your points.
Nice, working on my first campaign set in the new wildmount setting from CR. Already having a blast getting some cool ideas for overall plot and helping players make their characters and backstories.
24:46 escalating evasion for rangers + 4 daily on your perception checks. Check one spot unaware encounter opernitunity. Check two spot your stocker before you are where they want you to be.
Thank you for this video. I spent months building my own homebrew world and i was afraid to bring players in thinking that i am not ready and that there are still things i need to figure out. After seeing this video i think i am ready to start DMing and if something comes up i'll just figure it out on the spot.
Nerd Immersion yeah this top 10 has definitely given me more direction how to handle the game better and where I want to take it from a storyline perspective. I have finally worked out how I’m going to start it and how I’m going to introduce the new plot to my players
Wow... you hit on my number 1 pet peeve.. relying on the dice for everything. I have seen dms make players roll to find someone that sells basic non magic supplies, or to find a tavern. I dont make an experienced character roll to hit non moving non creature objects and if I do it's only to see if they roll a natural 1 or 20. I had a low level character that filled jars and jugs with marbles and Greek fire to lob in the general direction in front of groups of charging creatures in a dungeon. He wasn't trying to hit them, just slow their advance and ignite the Greek fire if possible. On a 1 the jar might break among the party on a 20 it might be a wild throw that broke on the wall next to a torch and ignited. Regardless, let players be creative. If an artificer wants to fire a jar of green slime with a miniature catapult, why not. If it's not game breaking dont bog down a game by making them roll for everything. The object of dnd is fun.
As a first time player, this is really great info. Pacing is the thing that bothers me the most in our game, so it's cool too see that on the list, I thought I might be the only one bugged by it. And the rant on too many Dice rolls is amazing. 😁
Regarding "just let it happen" instead of making your players roll for it, I have an addendum for that because I've had players that HATE when you just say "it happens/you succeed" without making a roll. While it's tedious and bogs down the game, some players want to roll that dice. When your rogue says he's checking for traps at every door, in every room, or even every 5 ft. square because "I was built for this! Let me roll!", a general roll is fine. Let the players roll at least once. Especially if their passive Perception isn't that great. Some players just need that, as annoying as it can be. I also want to add when talking to players, especially about GM styles they might now versus your own, DON'T PUT DOWN OTHER DMs. I can't stress that enough. Lots of people hate Matt and Matt's style of storytelling. And that's fine. But keep that to yourself. Just say yours is different. Don't put down others so you can attempt to make yourself feel better. It tends to make you look bad in front of players, and they might not want to play with you because of that, not because you're not Matt Mercer. Very, very important, and lots of people tend to forget/ignore that.
"Nothing is worse than, one session down the line, the players going 'what was his name again?'" I disagree. It's even worse when the players go "We go to find Jarric." And the DM is like " ...... who?"
I can, however you can actually watch that happen real time! While I formulate that video, here's the session where it actually happened: ua-cam.com/video/Cqf6X2GKCVQ/v-deo.html
Rule #2, OMG fucking yes! I can not tell you how many times DM's waste time making pointless god damn rolls for their players. It's bogs the game down so much, for no real reason. Their is also a 2nd version of this, when the DM 1 by 1 asks each player for a check, just because the 1st player failed. It's not a group check, it's just everybody gets to roll until somebody succeeds, so the group can move on. I mean what the fuck is the point of that. If you wanted the party to succeed, instead of having everyone roll and waste the next few minutes, you could have just pointed to the player/character that was most likely to succeed and just have them succeed automatically and get on with it.
I use checks for things that the characters can easily do to see how long it takes. They succeed with any roll on the die but it decides if they open the door with the flick of a finger or if they have to sit down and have to spend 5 minutes to open the lock. (my players love rolling dice and it can lead to roleplay)
how about if the DC is 10, just ask the player "are you proficient?" if yes then they do it and they feel validated in their choice. if someone ELSE wants to do it they have to roll, mathematically if they are adding proficiency and have a decent stat they can only fail on a 3. example you used with the squirrel, if the ranger wants to do it then fine, if the monk wants to and isn't trained then they can "certainly try".
Yeah i have had that happen before they headed in a direction I didn't have built i was honest though and told them I needed 5 min to at least put some earth in front of ya so you don't fall of the edge of the map they giggled and got a bathroom break
I was actually watching a video earlier about playing online for free/minimal cost. Want to test out and see what I could do to alleviate stress on family members.
I wanna make a complex world with an interesting plot and have a bunch of important characters and items, my campaign accidentally is almost exactly like something from critical role according to my friend and I haven't watched it but that just gives me confidence that it's a good idea. At any rate I really just want to build up the locations and the people in them rather than the line of events. That's how I think my style of DMing should go - this is my first campaign though. But if you have enough characters to make a city feel lived in and you let those characters form the story, as long as you gentle nudge the players on the right path they should eventually reach the goal. For example I want them to start at 1st level because we have 2 veteran players and 2 brand new players and I want them to get a feel for the game before they pick a subclass. I'm gonna start them off on the road to a small quest from this one client who's testing them to see if they're good enough for a bigger job. That's gonna be a lot of session 1. Then they return, go to level 2, have some time to think, session 2, go on a slightly more difficult quest but at the end there's some kind of horrible monster guarding the object they need, give them a few creative ways to get it and escape because they will not survive if they try and fight it, get back and then have the twist hit so they know what they're really getting into, and THEN get them to 3rd level. I think that's a pretty good structure at least, any thoughts on that?
For context on the campaign- this might be spoilers for one of the CR Campaigns but I don't know which one or when or what's different, and I don't really want to know because eventually I'll watch it. So it's set in a world ruled by a corrupt theocracy. The kingdom of Lorenthal has conquered the other surrounding nations in the name of - Well his name was going to be either Sodeusma or Mosensad, the god of hope. But the last one doesn't work anymore and I really liked it. Read into those names a bit. S O D E U S M A A S M O D E U S Yeah Mosensad is a lot harder to guess that it's an anagram but it also doesn't work. Guess it's back to the drawing board on names. Sodeusma is a bit too odd to not put together for the veteran players, I think. Anyways, the idea here is that the clergy - which now are the only ones allowed the title of clerics, I'm really hoping none of our players want a cleric because that will mess some things up and I haven't planned where to go from there if thst happens- is secretly worshipping Asmodeus, and has basically brought the entire known world under his influence because a monotheistic D&D society is an interesting concept since it's objectively polytheistic. At any rate, the client would be a guy wanting you to escort him to Mirenell, a place filled to the brim with dangerous monsters that not even the clergy dares enter. Well, that makes it the perfect place for the headquarters of a rebel group, doesn't it? But it's never exactly obvious that it would happen. Anyways, the so-called clerics are actually warlocks with patronage from Asmodeus and some of the devils he occasionally has make pacts - kinda confused the wiki says he can't grant spells but also says he's a patron so that's also still in progress. There's also the idea of having an elite group among the already elite clergy, 5 of them, each a Duke of one of the regions - and at this point my friend told me don't make them dukes you will literally be called out for plagiarism. There's a bunch of other stuff but I've crystallized the idea a lot more since I first pitched it. The only thing INTENTIONALLY based on CR is that I want the party to be able to get their own vestiges of divergence, homebrewed of course but with some shred of their characters in mind. One that I definitely want is an obsidian blade that when awakened can literally cut through DNA and on a crit, which the weapon gets on 19 or 20, it inflicts some kind of special condition to reflect that. And then for some reason when exalted it would add lava damage there was a reason but I forget why exactly. That's the only part I meant to rip Matt off for and I'm still doing the work on it myself. But hey, I don't know how similar this is and I focused way more on the Asmodeus part than I did on the world part this time so who knows, like I said I don't know where my campaign differs from his but I'm apparently really close.
@@ShuraEssays I don't know how the dukes are plagiarism but considering it's a medieval title that is pretty generic I'd say go for it anyway if that's what you are really feeling
So item 2, I some times ask for a skill check on a roll that the PC cannot fail. I do this in order to figure out how well they did. In the past, I have not told the player they can't fail but based on your item 2, I might in the future.
Hey folks! Did you guys check out the new Baldur's Gate 3 trailer? Well, i loved it so much that I'm planning to start a new campaign with a mindflayer ship portalling through over the city! Wish me luck!
That is a legitimate approach, however it entails a lot of work on the part of the DM, and the average campaign doesn't anywhere near long enough to take advantage of it. Further, it may not reflect the desires of the players, and thus require a lot of rework. I'm currently prepping a world, after doing a lot of research on the players I want to run for, but there is a lot of risk to go with that reward. Just a thought.
@@aaronghunter That could be the case. Not to mention that areas of the campaign world would need to made just in case players want to explore certain areas of said world. Yet I say most of this preparation could take place while the DM is a player in another game.
I've had a PC that was Asian descent. During the intro session, we've had one DM that asked the said player to roll to see, and I kid you not, "if she's sure she's Asian". The player just talked out. That DM was the worst and asked us to roll for everything and anything.
I know I like to feel like I earned something, so I'll give a player Adv when they do something I feel they should be able to do. If they don't make it, they don't make it. Maybe they need to use teamwork!
So you are the reason for Little Bladesinger boy with an in The Rod of Seven parts. In my game Ted is almighty Deity who dislike Min maxer. Ted can we have a DnD game since I wanna meet Sweeps the Dwarfen bar maid? My Wizard would panic and refuse to move until she found the Spellbook not due to the spell stored their but due to her Familiar (a Succubus who have been with her for 100 years) contract is stored their and it's the only thing keeping the Succubus out of hell (she doesn't wanna go back their). Ted you would look in horror if you saw Dhul backstory since one thing he was good ad was seduce ladies with his music (like fey of folklore good)
BAD TIME TO GET INTO D&D. had a session and a the start of a camping ready to go after I we did a ses 0, but the virus situation happened and I'm blue balls now Z_Z
love your channel, all good things. i will say though, i really wish the volume was equalized or lower on your numbering voice-over bumpers, it's quite jarring, especially with headphones. [NUMBER SIX]- ahh! keep up the good work though, thanks for the channel!
What you say about players being temporarily DM and comparing to yourself, I felt that.
But I give them this example to help them relax: I have a friend who is a chef, she works in a gourmet restaurant. So her family and friends are often nervous and uncomfortable about cooking for her or making her a meal, but she doesn't care, she loves when others make even a simple sandwich for her, because she is almost always doing the cooking, so rarely she gets to enjoy being the one served.
So don't be afraid of being the DM, your DM friend will appreciate it, some times we also want to be on the other side of the screen, regardless your skill level, good DM friends will help you during your run.
Well said!
I have an identical twin brother, sometimes we switch groups without telling the players and they have never noticed... just saying sometimes 2 dms are alike
Haha I knew someone was gonna say something about twin DMs!
EPIC!!
Polyhedrius sounds like a Prismatic Dragon that frequently uses Shape Change to play cards/dice/dragon chess with Humans and other mortals, in which he pretends to be incompetent to test the mettle of his opponents.
I miss prismatic dragons. I'm keeping that idea though.
These were very very VERY helpful. Certainly something not every guide tells you, but comes up all the time. I really appreciate the advice.
Thank you for doing all these videos, especially during this time.
You mentioned to let you know if we had ideas for future top 10 videos, so here are a few: Top 10 homebrew/UA feats, Top 10 Homebrew/UA subclasses, and Top 10 Tricks for building an interesting encounter. Keep it up!
Number 2 was great. I needed to hear that. Don't roll, unless you have to. I was finding myself asking my players for rolls on mundane things, and I wasn't prepared for them failing. I felt stupid, and Ted just explained to me why. Thanks for that.
Fabulous tips that I constantly need to remind myself of. I allowed my campaign's inquisitive rogue to roll an investigation check to look for something in a small shack that I had already fully described. Obviously, they rolled something like a 24 and I had to tell the character that there was nothing other than what I described. Must've been such a disappointment to the poor rogue. I would've added something to make the roll worth it but I couldn't think of anything on the fly that would be interesting to put in a shack used as a cell.
I would've added some loose coins covered in dust in a forgotten corner, at least if they got a high enough roll to make their eyes glimmer.
There's nothing inherently wrong with just saying/confirming something like, "You are 100% confident you've searched this place down, high and low, and have seen everything it has to offer. You are certain there isn't anything else here."
Confirmation of knowledge is an acceptable outcome in that case, you don't need to make up loot or add things that you didn't intend to be there unless it adds something overall.
You find a small wooden doll that has clearly been hidden for a while, judging by the dust.
He is wearing round spectacles, a red and white striped jumper and woolen cap, blue trousers, and has a hooked black cane.
When this happens to me I have a habit of making up a clue on the spot and dropping it in. Occasionally I have to pause to think about it for a minute, but my players usually sit there on the edge of their seat for what I’ll come up with.
I’m more of a writer than an improviser, and I’ve been surprised at how well pulling something out of your ass on the spot works.
Best thing i did for long distance travel where the travel wasn't part of the story, they just needed to get to point b to carry on the plot, was i just made the travel a montage. I just made a clip show of bits of them fighting random encounters, and having a couple of little character interactions over the course of the week that they were travelling for. I do random encounters for short distance travel, but long distance i just montage
Something I do for random encounters is dangerless quick fights ie. "On day 1 you fought some bandits they stood no chance but *roll* Frank got hit with an arrow" Frank: can i hop in the cart n tend my wounds with a heal kit? "Sure your healed anything else you guys did on day 1?" And move through the days like that
I must say those are amazing and essential tips for every dm.
Oh my gosh, rolling for stupid stuff is such a careful balance. I mean, I've definitely lost my lip balm to the depths of my purse before, but a book? Nah.
I also for some reason feel like a backpack is also different from a purse. I'm usually good finding things in a backpack, but it usually takes me 3 tries to find anything in my wife's purse.
Also as an adventurer, it seems your backpack is usually filled with bulkier stuff that's easier to move around (torches, bottles, etc)
Yeah, no one is losing a book in a backpack.
I mean one of my DMs has us roll for stupid stuff all the time and they just have fun with it, not only have we had a grung begin to go insane with believing inanimate objects are screaming at it buy I also fully believe the ceo of a drug operation to have the full name Iam The Murderer. That's what a couple solid low rolls gets you to.
I only ask for a roll when there is a consequence for failure that affects the story.
As for random encounters while travelling, when I was running the jungle exploration section of Tomb of Annihilation, I would either roll in advance or choose an encounter I thought would be fun. Never roll for random encounters at the table. I did the same thing when my players' characters found a Bag of Beans. I rolled for the randomness of the beans in advance of the session and wrote down the results.
I would include: Remember that rulesets are only tools. If the players are abusing edge-cases, adjust the tools.
Have more failure and partial success states, so that the players can fail and it not mean TPK.
The boardgame Pandemic has three different peril-escalation or lose-the-game mechanics: You can run out of resources to contain the disease, you can run out of time, and the media can cause a civilization-ending panic. Come up with peril-escalation mechanics for the environment the PCs are operating in. The 'exploration turn' of ten minutes of TSR-era D&D is a good pacing mechanic for checking whether a peril mechanic needs to activate or advance. A variety of mechanics will permit you to pick the ones that best suit the local hazards and help keep the players on their toes.
Spoilers for CR C2: I literally stole The Happy Fun Ball from CR and turned it into a maximum security prison with different chambers and to get them you have to go through multiple floating Scherian Stairways (roll a d100 to get what door you go to)
that perception check story reminded me of one DM I had that if you wanted to search the room, you had to roll for each 5 ft square. and if you didn't succeed in the right square, you didn't find the item/secret door/etc.
For random encounters, I just do the randomized rolls in advance. This also works for speeding up combat if you have a huge group, pre-rolling the random elements.
This vid was recommended to me and it helps me think of new ideas for my campaign, currently running a campaign and kind a stuck, and also still trying to improve my DM skill, this vid came in the right moment for me
I based a campaign on a book series that I knew none of my players had read. They loved it. I also have always used different voices for NPCs in my games so it was awesome for me the first time I watched CR and saw someone who did the same thing.
Thanks, gearing up to run a game with a few of my DMs and friends from other games. Already knew many of these, but great perspectives and insights.
Your video reminded me of all the reasons I do a great job as a DM.. and all the reasons I love not having to be the DM. I often bring one of my characters along as an npc in my own games but he is there mostly to help out with healing or rear security and only occasionally to help move along a party that gets mired down. That way when I get someone else to dm I fit right in with a familiar character.
You think Schwepes the barkeep is bad? I had Billy the Mindflayer.
I agree about preparation time. I also agree with players trying to derail your plans as a dm. I keep a few lists of random scenarios and encounters handy. If they get too far off the reservation I may have an assassin poison or infect a player and force them to quest for the cure components. Occasionally I simply have to kill the ringleader of bad behavior. But in most cases I can simply use the same map and encounters no matter what the players want to do. They may ask why the castle they wanted to attack looks like a dungeon... but I make it work. I've been playing since 1980.. i got this
My dumbest moment was my first time dming I asked for a history check to remember which room they had rented.
I ended up making that one shot into a whole campaign and they used different characters, as a nod to my dumbest moment I made them roll again, but this time perception, they ended up succeeding and realised that the room they thought was theirs was actually a mimic nest and had taken over that room. It then gave them the chance to stop the spread to the whole town becoming a mimic town
Hey. I just wanted to say I really enjoy your video's. You give DM tips from the heart and try to do things differently and more personal. I have watched a number of DM tips videos from other creators but I was pleasantly surprised by your perspective. Finding your own style, don't be afraid to take breaks and preparing guidelines before a new game where things that stuck with me. I started following your channel when I came across your dnd news uploads and stayed because of your approachable style and the thoughts and ideas you put out there. Keep up the good work!
Starting a campaign in my homebrew world tomorrow, and these tips are super helpful. Especially the thing about developing my own style. I'm pretty nervous because I'm planning on running things pretty free-form and letting my players run with what they want to do, but I want to craft my story around them. I think cooperative storytelling is the best part of D&D, and my players are very creative storytellers too. I have an overall plot of where the story is going to go and I have tons of background lore and worldbuilding things already, but as for the story of the campaign itself, I want my players to be able to tell some of it, too.
I think pacing is one we all screw up at some time and it took me a lot of practice to feel comfortable on how to handle it properly and when.
Agrees. More often than not it's that I want to do a cool encounter or give someone a cool item, so I want to rush to get to that point
I appreciate all the tips, even some of the simple ones we forget about. I have been running a new wildemount campaign, daily for the past 5ish days(due to everyone being quarantined) and trying to keep people's mind off things around the current world situation, but with only about 2 one-shot's worth of experience. Its been ROUGH, and I was starting to hate it and finally talked to the players about needing some time so I stepped away and was able to actually take some time off and write 2 beefy encounters for areas.
Anyhow, thank you and keep up the good work man!
Wow running a daily game sounds absurd. I wouldn't be surprised if the players burned out too.
@@TheLemuroid Unfortunately they weren't, heh. They would've liked to continue daily/every other day but I've had to pull it to weekly now that I'm headed back to work. But again, appreciate all the advice from this video and the comment section :)
A fun pace aiding house rule is wizards can only learn spells from scrolls. In this play style use a D20 with successful castings to determine if you learn the spell. I suggest that you do not decrease the price of scrolls but make them more commonly found.
Been enjoying your videos on these. A suggestion I'd make is to use that blank space in the upper left (The dark area) to put the title cards of your list, so people can more easily remember the context of your points.
Literally running my first game tonight lol. Thank you so much for the upload!
Hope it helps!
Nice, working on my first campaign set in the new wildmount setting from CR. Already having a blast getting some cool ideas for overall plot and helping players make their characters and backstories.
24:46 escalating evasion for rangers + 4 daily on your perception checks. Check one spot unaware encounter opernitunity. Check two spot your stocker before you are where they want you to be.
I really appreciate your work boss. DMimg my first campaign right now.
Thank you for this video. I spent months building my own homebrew world and i was afraid to bring players in thinking that i am not ready and that there are still things i need to figure out. After seeing this video i think i am ready to start DMing and if something comes up i'll just figure it out on the spot.
Glad it helped!
Nice tips for an older DM/Player getting back into the game. Thanks for the tools.
27:27 had a dm that would roll for things like the size of a window. Oh, you rolled a 1, the window is too small to fit through.
I really needed this video right now thank you so much Ted!
You were definitely part of the inspiration for it!
Nerd Immersion yeah this top 10 has definitely given me more direction how to handle the game better and where I want to take it from a storyline perspective. I have finally worked out how I’m going to start it and how I’m going to introduce the new plot to my players
Wow... you hit on my number 1 pet peeve.. relying on the dice for everything. I have seen dms make players roll to find someone that sells basic non magic supplies, or to find a tavern. I dont make an experienced character roll to hit non moving non creature objects and if I do it's only to see if they roll a natural 1 or 20. I had a low level character that filled jars and jugs with marbles and Greek fire to lob in the general direction in front of groups of charging creatures in a dungeon. He wasn't trying to hit them, just slow their advance and ignite the Greek fire if possible. On a 1 the jar might break among the party on a 20 it might be a wild throw that broke on the wall next to a torch and ignited. Regardless, let players be creative. If an artificer wants to fire a jar of green slime with a miniature catapult, why not. If it's not game breaking dont bog down a game by making them roll for everything. The object of dnd is fun.
Definitely notice the output and I am VERY thankful, Love the work you're doing and thank you for all you're doing!
As a first time player, this is really great info. Pacing is the thing that bothers me the most in our game, so it's cool too see that on the list, I thought I might be the only one bugged by it. And the rant on too many Dice rolls is amazing. 😁
Wednesday in Australia... you were too late!
Curses!
Regarding "just let it happen" instead of making your players roll for it, I have an addendum for that because I've had players that HATE when you just say "it happens/you succeed" without making a roll. While it's tedious and bogs down the game, some players want to roll that dice. When your rogue says he's checking for traps at every door, in every room, or even every 5 ft. square because "I was built for this! Let me roll!", a general roll is fine. Let the players roll at least once. Especially if their passive Perception isn't that great. Some players just need that, as annoying as it can be.
I also want to add when talking to players, especially about GM styles they might now versus your own, DON'T PUT DOWN OTHER DMs. I can't stress that enough. Lots of people hate Matt and Matt's style of storytelling. And that's fine. But keep that to yourself. Just say yours is different. Don't put down others so you can attempt to make yourself feel better. It tends to make you look bad in front of players, and they might not want to play with you because of that, not because you're not Matt Mercer. Very, very important, and lots of people tend to forget/ignore that.
Hey Ted great video I really like your take on me DM tips. I found this much more helpful then some of the other videos I've seen
I tried to make it really personal to hopefully make it stand out
Thanks for this video. Doing a rotating dm campaign where we alternate running it
"Nothing is worse than, one session down the line, the players going 'what was his name again?'" I disagree. It's even worse when the players go "We go to find Jarric." And the DM is like " ...... who?"
These are very useful tips, thank you very much!
Thanks for the tips. Great video again.
Holy damn! It is Tuesday?!? And I just discovered this 🤯
Can you make a video on that level 16 TPK? I'd like to know the story behind that!
I can, however you can actually watch that happen real time! While I formulate that video, here's the session where it actually happened: ua-cam.com/video/Cqf6X2GKCVQ/v-deo.html
Great video. Thanks Ted.
May the Walking Knight of Waterdeep guard well and cheers of (not sponsored) with the cup of Mielikki!
And I WILL be Mercer! 😊
Great Video!
Rule #2, OMG fucking yes!
I can not tell you how many times DM's waste time making pointless god damn rolls for their players. It's bogs the game down so much, for no real reason.
Their is also a 2nd version of this, when the DM 1 by 1 asks each player for a check, just because the 1st player failed. It's not a group check, it's just everybody gets to roll until somebody succeeds, so the group can move on. I mean what the fuck is the point of that.
If you wanted the party to succeed, instead of having everyone roll and waste the next few minutes, you could have just pointed to the player/character that was most likely to succeed and just have them succeed automatically and get on with it.
I use checks for things that the characters can easily do to see how long it takes. They succeed with any roll on the die but it decides if they open the door with the flick of a finger or if they have to sit down and have to spend 5 minutes to open the lock. (my players love rolling dice and it can lead to roleplay)
how about if the DC is 10, just ask the player "are you proficient?" if yes then they do it and they feel validated in their choice. if someone ELSE wants to do it they have to roll, mathematically if they are adding proficiency and have a decent stat they can only fail on a 3.
example you used with the squirrel, if the ranger wants to do it then fine, if the monk wants to and isn't trained then they can "certainly try".
Fucking Ted. You gave away my idea to steal Dragon Age: Origins! Which I combined with LOTR Shadows of Mordor by making Darkspawn into Orcs, haha
Yeah i have had that happen before they headed in a direction I didn't have built i was honest though and told them I needed 5 min to at least put some earth in front of ya so you don't fall of the edge of the map they giggled and got a bathroom break
Great place for names, movie/TV cast listings just make a list of first names and a list of last names cross them off as you use them
I also use the names on spam emails
I was actually watching a video earlier about playing online for free/minimal cost.
Want to test out and see what I could do to alleviate stress on family members.
I wanna make a complex world with an interesting plot and have a bunch of important characters and items, my campaign accidentally is almost exactly like something from critical role according to my friend and I haven't watched it but that just gives me confidence that it's a good idea. At any rate I really just want to build up the locations and the people in them rather than the line of events. That's how I think my style of DMing should go - this is my first campaign though. But if you have enough characters to make a city feel lived in and you let those characters form the story, as long as you gentle nudge the players on the right path they should eventually reach the goal. For example I want them to start at 1st level because we have 2 veteran players and 2 brand new players and I want them to get a feel for the game before they pick a subclass. I'm gonna start them off on the road to a small quest from this one client who's testing them to see if they're good enough for a bigger job. That's gonna be a lot of session 1. Then they return, go to level 2, have some time to think, session 2, go on a slightly more difficult quest but at the end there's some kind of horrible monster guarding the object they need, give them a few creative ways to get it and escape because they will not survive if they try and fight it, get back and then have the twist hit so they know what they're really getting into, and THEN get them to 3rd level. I think that's a pretty good structure at least, any thoughts on that?
For context on the campaign- this might be spoilers for one of the CR Campaigns but I don't know which one or when or what's different, and I don't really want to know because eventually I'll watch it.
So it's set in a world ruled by a corrupt theocracy. The kingdom of Lorenthal has conquered the other surrounding nations in the name of - Well his name was going to be either Sodeusma or Mosensad, the god of hope. But the last one doesn't work anymore and I really liked it. Read into those names a bit.
S O D E U S M A
A S M O D E U S
Yeah Mosensad is a lot harder to guess that it's an anagram but it also doesn't work. Guess it's back to the drawing board on names. Sodeusma is a bit too odd to not put together for the veteran players, I think. Anyways, the idea here is that the clergy - which now are the only ones allowed the title of clerics, I'm really hoping none of our players want a cleric because that will mess some things up and I haven't planned where to go from there if thst happens- is secretly worshipping Asmodeus, and has basically brought the entire known world under his influence because a monotheistic D&D society is an interesting concept since it's objectively polytheistic. At any rate, the client would be a guy wanting you to escort him to Mirenell, a place filled to the brim with dangerous monsters that not even the clergy dares enter. Well, that makes it the perfect place for the headquarters of a rebel group, doesn't it? But it's never exactly obvious that it would happen. Anyways, the so-called clerics are actually warlocks with patronage from Asmodeus and some of the devils he occasionally has make pacts - kinda confused the wiki says he can't grant spells but also says he's a patron so that's also still in progress. There's also the idea of having an elite group among the already elite clergy, 5 of them, each a Duke of one of the regions - and at this point my friend told me don't make them dukes you will literally be called out for plagiarism. There's a bunch of other stuff but I've crystallized the idea a lot more since I first pitched it. The only thing INTENTIONALLY based on CR is that I want the party to be able to get their own vestiges of divergence, homebrewed of course but with some shred of their characters in mind. One that I definitely want is an obsidian blade that when awakened can literally cut through DNA and on a crit, which the weapon gets on 19 or 20, it inflicts some kind of special condition to reflect that. And then for some reason when exalted it would add lava damage there was a reason but I forget why exactly. That's the only part I meant to rip Matt off for and I'm still doing the work on it myself. But hey, I don't know how similar this is and I focused way more on the Asmodeus part than I did on the world part this time so who knows, like I said I don't know where my campaign differs from his but I'm apparently really close.
@@ShuraEssays I don't know how the dukes are plagiarism but considering it's a medieval title that is pretty generic I'd say go for it anyway if that's what you are really feeling
i am totally naming my next BBEG Polyhedrus
Hey, random video request... can we get a closer look at your gaming bookshelves back there?? Ha
I created a 5e one piece homebrew for my friends once and man was that wild.😂
So item 2, I some times ask for a skill check on a roll that the PC cannot fail. I do this in order to figure out how well they did. In the past, I have not told the player they can't fail but based on your item 2, I might in the future.
I think letting them know they can't fail up front definitely helps
Hey folks! Did you guys check out the new Baldur's Gate 3 trailer? Well, i loved it so much that I'm planning to start a new campaign with a mindflayer ship portalling through over the city!
Wish me luck!
Not a D&D player nor a DM, but if I was DMing a game I would focus on prepping the world first and then have the story take an open world approach.
That is a legitimate approach, however it entails a lot of work on the part of the DM, and the average campaign doesn't anywhere near long enough to take advantage of it. Further, it may not reflect the desires of the players, and thus require a lot of rework.
I'm currently prepping a world, after doing a lot of research on the players I want to run for, but there is a lot of risk to go with that reward. Just a thought.
@@aaronghunter That could be the case. Not to mention that areas of the campaign world would need to made just in case players want to explore certain areas of said world.
Yet I say most of this preparation could take place while the DM is a player in another game.
I've had a PC that was Asian descent.
During the intro session, we've had one DM that asked the said player to roll to see, and I kid you not, "if she's sure she's Asian". The player just talked out.
That DM was the worst and asked us to roll for everything and anything.
yikes, that's awful
I know I like to feel like I earned something, so I'll give a player Adv when they do something I feel they should be able to do. If they don't make it, they don't make it. Maybe they need to use teamwork!
Hoard of the dragon queen would be decent if it wasn't for the 2 chapters worth of caravan
Love you
The hidden spellbook is how you get players writing contracts for everything.
If I could I'd like it twice
3 months later and it’s still tuesday
So you are the reason for Little Bladesinger boy with an in The Rod of Seven parts.
In my game Ted is almighty Deity who dislike Min maxer.
Ted can we have a DnD game since I wanna meet Sweeps the Dwarfen bar maid?
My Wizard would panic and refuse to move until she found the Spellbook not due to the spell stored their but due to her Familiar (a Succubus who have been with her for 100 years) contract is stored their and it's the only thing keeping the Succubus out of hell (she doesn't wanna go back their).
Ted you would look in horror if you saw Dhul backstory since one thing he was good ad was seduce ladies with his music (like fey of folklore good)
BAD TIME TO GET INTO D&D. had a session and a the start of a camping ready to go after I we did a ses 0, but the virus situation happened and I'm blue balls now Z_Z
Just play on discord, D&Discord is better than no D&D
Nope. 2am (uploaded at 130ish)
Nah its Wednesday
love your channel, all good things. i will say though, i really wish the volume was equalized or lower on your numbering voice-over bumpers, it's quite jarring, especially with headphones. [NUMBER SIX]- ahh! keep up the good work though, thanks for the channel!
I shall work on that!
@@NerdImmersion You rock. Thank you again for all the great content!