I feel like new players, such as myself, who got into DnD in 5e are very fortunate to have UA-cam channels like you guys give us advice on how to play DnD as effectively while at the same time having fun. I talked to my uncle about it, who has been playing since 2e and said that he would’ve loved to have this kind of thing when he first played as he had no idea on what to do
For sure. Im DMing without ever having played cause we are all new. And i think i watched like 80hrs of youtube content the week before we started. And so far ive been able to avoid a lot of the mistakes they talked about. But its 100% cause of the info available.
Hahah yes please. I started with 3E in high school in the 2000s. The closest i had to these videos was the CD -Rom character builder that came with the 3E players handbook lol
My first problem was back tracking it was bad because I had several pages of lore however it contradicted each other my mad however the campaign is now running smoothly
I still have all of my 1st and 2nd edition material and still DM a 1st-2nd-homebrew weekly game. In the early nineties when I started we had only one set of dice that the entire table shared. So if 10d6 needed to be rolled, that one d6 got rolled 10 times. The one d20 got passed around the table for everyone's turn in initiative. There was no internet. I kept up with the latest by reading Dragon Magazine. We had no idea what other groups were doing or if we were even playing the game right. But everyone at the table loved it and when we played during lunch hour in the high school library, there was a crowd of people around the table three deep watching and listening. Now with the popularity of D&D on UA-cam and such, it is very easy to research and to learn. I feel like before the internet we had to be individually more creative and some of that has been lost. But I also like the modern ease of access to lore and information and help with new ideas. I'm an old DM, and I still learn new tricks from different content creators like the Dungeon Dudes. Now everyone at the table has multiple sets of dice and any information you want is as close as your computer.
My son recommended your channel. I can see that he has watched this video because he is deliberately doing the things that you suggest in this game. He has already got one successful campaign under his belt and he is really learning. Thank you for these videos, this is really good advice.
That is so cool that you play D&D with your son. My dad was the one who introduced me to the game and I am going to be DMing for the first time for some of my friends in a few months.
‘The best campaigns are always in the future.’ Me: Got it. At the table: Okay, players, this session begins with a time portal sucking you into the year 3000.
Little known fact, that DnD player was Justin Roiland and the 21 page backstory original title was: Alien Invasion Tomato-Monster Mexican Armada, Brothers, Who Are Just Regular Brothers, Running In A Van, From An Asteroid And All Sorts Of Things: The Movie - The Backstory
One of my biggest mistakes when starting DMing was that I misunderstood massive damage and it resulted in a PC's death. Our bard took a critical hit, so much that it put him below zero with half his total hp in the negative. The player was certain that his character had died, I wasn't sure since I thought you had to go your full HP below 0 to die from massive damage. I tried to look it up, but I was stressed and almost panicked so I couldn't find it. Plus the player seemed so sure of the rules, and one of the DM tips I had heard was "if you don't know a particular rule, make a ruling and look it up afterwards". So I ruled that, yeah, the bard died on the spot due to massive damage. I felt like a total idiot when looking it up afterwards and realizing my hunch had been right... the PC hadn't taken massive damage so he would at least get to roll death saves. My lesson from that was: when you're stressed and it is important you get a rule right or your players do something unexpected and you don't know how to react, ask for a break. Tell your players "let's take 5 minutes, I need to think about this/look this up." Sometime's it's easier to make the right decision when you're not put on the spot. A new DM who's on the verge of panicking and feel like they have to make a decision right away in front of a group of 5 players don't always make the right call, weirdly enough.
I've been the only character to die in two campaigns that my friends that are new DMs are running. I think that overestimating damage or certain abilities that monsters have is very common. In one, the monsters were simply two powerful/too many. DM had the leader tell all of them to rush into the area I was in at the same time, and they basically run me over. In the other, there were three ghosts type monsters with the ability to possess us. We each had to make a charisma roll and roll a certain number to succeed. No problem, right? Wrong. Everyones charisma was absolutely terrible, and we we rolling 10s and under the whole day. Long story short: I got possessed and the ghost attacked the party members with my spells that could do 40-50 damage each, so they had to kill me. Ugh and double ugh.
@@MysticalApple The first one, yes. I was a Ranger that fought with a two handed bow and a quarterstaff. The second, no. I took the character because noone else wanted to heal. Lol.
Something I do is make a ruling on the fly and have the players look it up while I move forward with the game. If it's not too disruptive, I retcon what happened. Otherwise, I let the ruling stand and we play by the RAW going forward. In your situation, whether the character is dead or unconscious, he's little more than a fleshy paperweight for a while. Ruling initially that he's probably dead, but then having one of the players look it up and realize he's actually just unconscious isn't going to change the overall narrative all that dramatically. The only thing that might happen is that the cleric might not heal him this round, but rather next round.
The biggest mistake I made when running my first campaign was painstakingly detailing EVERY. SINGLE. THING. about every city and every area in the world. While worldbuilding on such a precise scale can be fun on your own time, it will absolutely kill your motivation if you're doing it with 4 or 5 players waiting for you to finally be done with the world to start session 1. You don't need to have every settlement and shop inventories of every city planned out. Just have a very broad idea of the world, and its points of interest (capitals, regions, areas where you KNOW you want a certain enemy type to be, etc), and spend your time detailing what your party is facing right now. As for everything else, just wait until your players get near it, and if the party is getting dangerously close to a key area you haven't planned out yet, nothing is stopping you from just pulling a time killer out of your ass and having your players spend the rest of the session there to give you time to plan the next location in between sessions.
About 5 years ago, my group of friends really wants to play but at the last moment our DM bailed out....so....instead of NOT playing at all, i studied the DM Manual of Pathfinder and prepared all the things needed for the campaign....a lot of mistakes were made by both me and my players...but one thing i stll clearly remeber... the Sorcerer in Path is similar (Not the same) as a Warlock of 5e...so by bloodline he gets perks and spells....so....at some point in the Bloodline description says something like 'The Sorcerer can choose the following Feats as Bonus Feats'....i gave ALL those Feats to a Level 1 Sorcerer....he basically was a killing machine (cringing and facepalming until now)
I ran a Pathfinder campaign years ago as my first game. Didn't fully understand spells known/spells prepared/spell slots and all that, so I gave our Druid free reign to cast any spell, with the only limitation being the slots themselves. Had the capability of being broken but she didn't really know what to do either :P
Like it, to up! Have a nice day~ Timecodes: 1. 1:53 Planning epic campaings right away 2. 7:48 Large party 3. 12:26 No zero session 4. 15:39 Ignoring Players backstory & goal 5. 21:25 Expecting Perfection
I mean, that happened to me too, I ran a one shot to try out DMing with a group full of DMs and they had to instruct me how to railroad them when they saw me panicking over my notes thinking "i didn't know that would happen!"
My players want me to actively drive them to plot. I just want them to sorta explore the town I made and uncover tidbits and breadcrumbs I’ve left that lead to plot. But I mean as long as they have fun.
Thats really cute~ 😂 I wish my players (sisters), would care more about where I’m taking them. Edit: they’re my sisters they aren’t just a group of sisters.
"No, but" is just as important, if not moreso, than "Yes, and." - I've had a hard time saying no to my players, but sometimes you just gotta, especially if you got a munchkin.
yeah and in kinda the same vein is not just saying yes to predictions your players make just because they are exited about them. I got into a lot of trouble with plot holes because I was laying out hints and clues already for a reveal, and a player made a guess that they were really exited about, so I just went with it, but then I realized that their idea really didn't make sense with what they knew, so I was stuck filling things in to try and make it work.
@@oofguild7788 munchkins are like a slightly less frustrating version of power gamers or min-maxxers :P People who optimize the crap out of their characters and action economy.
"My campaign was a disaster. My players had a wonderful time." That seems like a contradiction. Yes, you made mistakes that meant it wasn't a sustainable campaign, but if the players were having fun, it wasn't a "disaster."
I'd take it as a "my" versus "our". "The campaign I made was broken, but the campaign they played was enjoyable." That's part of the lesson I think, not trying to be the sole author of what's supposed to be a group story.
Things can also go bad, but everyone still have tons of fun. I have been in a game where the DM was completely caught off guard and it was probably a nightmare for him personally, but he handled it well enough and people had fun. That is one of the reasons my group switches up DM duties, sometimes the DM is carrying the world on his shoulders literally and needs a break.
Arguably you could say the PLAYERS had a wonderful time but in a way, the GM is still a player themselves. If THEY aren't also having fun then I could see why you would still consider the campaign a disaster.
I ran phandelver as my first adventure as a DM after years of not being able to run my own campaign. This module as well as your videos and others have given me a decade of dungeon mastering experience in two short years.
I'm running it right now. We've got a sympathetic bugbear named Klarg (an NPC) who's realized there's more to himself than outwardly boorish behavior. He "arrived" while the adventurers were exploring the Cragmaw Hideout and has become an important element to the campaign. This module has a terrific frame to bounce ideas off of, with room for sandboxing there in Phandalin.
Thank you for 4. I have never got to play in a campaign where my character's backstory ever got to matter. I might as well have played a talking table lamp. Basically, I've had two types of DM; the type who ignore backstories altogether and the type who use them for the sole purpose of screwing players over. Now, I'm a forever DM, so...
I finally got into D&D in my mid-twenties and absolutely fell in love. A few months into my first long-term campaign (DM’ed by my brother), I had this crazy idea to DM a campaign set in the world of a story I had been writing since middle school. Though I’ve never gotten close to publishing it, the story is so dear to me and holds a special place in my heart; if I was going to run a campaign in this world, I wanted to do it right. I picked up Tales from the Yawning Portal and just started reading through the modules, and then ran them with different groups. I subscribed to almost every TTRPG UA-cam channel for advice (admittedly, you guys were the first 😊). I perused through every source book I had. I didn’t know when I’d be able to actually DM a campaign in my homebrew world, but I wanted it to go perfectly... This comment is already longer than I meant it to be, it’s just basically a response to the first point lol I’m glad I ran pre-written modules before diving into my homebrew world. I’m now happily running the first campaign in my homebrew world ☺️ also happy to report that my bro, my first DM, is playing in it and said it’s his favorite campaign ever 😭
“2 Brothers!....taking in the boss’s world....with....friends they meet along the way....then...having a hard time...and getting one over on all the goblin ferrymen...it’s just...Two Brothers!!”
In my experience, it's crazy how different it feels to DM for four players versus five players. With four players you feel like a god in control over the entire universe but with five players it feels like everything is chaos and the entire campaign could break down at any moment (which can be fun in its own right). I cant even imagine DMing for 8 or more people.
It can be lots of fun, and also a chore. I'm a high school teacher, and before COVID I ran my school's D&D club for all new players. The goal was to DM for a bit, then have them break up into smaller groups on their own with their own DMs. But to start, I had to divide the club into 2 groups of 8, me DMing both on different days, for teens aged 15-18. One group is 7 girls, 1 guy and is very creative, follows the story, and are team players with great attitude. The other group is 5 girls, 3 guys, and are shoot first, ask questions never, chaotic and funny.
Why? How is 4 worse than 5? It's clearly the people you had and not the amount that is the issue, if not, explain how 5 is worse than four considerably?
I actually have the opposite experience. I think when you create a world you know it well so it's easier to manage. However, the pre-made modules are sometimes overly complicated with random NPCs and faction conflict, thus making the DM memorize all this content that they might not find exciting. This makes DMing a chore. It really comes down to: try things out and see what you do best. You won't know till you try it.
It depends how you look at it. I've always cherry picked what i like out of modules. I view it as someone else has done all the background work for me but I pick and adapt what actually makes it to the table out of the options/information supplied.
@@1caoboi1 I agree, I think selecting parts you like from a module is a great way to run a game of D&D. People can also have a homebrewed framework and just fill it with pre-made stuff.
Did this! My first campaign was a jumbled wandering murder hobo katamari. It was broken, glorious, nonsensical, but a lot of fun. I was just lucky my first mistake was enjoyable =]
When I first started playing, it was me and two friends, playing 4th Edition with nothing but a PHB and a pirated copy of the character builder. I ended up being the DM and we had sessions that were DAYS long. I played my own character to balance out the party, and had to make up content on the fly. It was a campaign held together with duct tape and dreams. It was very fun but ultimately I was running the game wrong. BUT, ever since those primeval months of 4E, I've DM'd for over 9 years now, and the best advice I can say for new DMs is just... do it. Is your first session or three going to have awkward moments? Yes. Will you forget the rules or make mistakes? Yes. But if your players are having fun, THAT is the most important thing. A level 1 DM isn't going to be Matt Mercer immediately.
Rule 4 was something I learnt the hard way: I almost worked myself to a brun-out in my first campaign because I wanted it to be perfect. I was constantly feeling like I wasn't good enough. But then... after the campaign I asked my players how it was. And they said "we had a great time". I opened up to them about how I felt and they told me "yeah, but mistakes are okay". So in my next campaign I went in with the expectation "yeah, I will make mistakes but as long as me and my friends enjoy the game, it's okay".
My two lessons I learned from making mistakes as a DM are: 1. Don't mess with your player character stats. They made the character and unless they specifically come to you for help tweaking their PC, never mess with their character, even if you think they aren't optimal. 2. Plot-wise, avoid making the player characters "chosen ones" or "destined" to do such and such. It's far better to let their characters be heroes in their own rights and evolve into the story instead of be some kind of plot-selected special beings that happen to exist. They are special because of their choices and abilities, not because of forces far beyond their control.
Give examples, you can't mention points but then not tell us a reason. And I thought that expecting your characters to follow a set path not being a good idea was a no brainer tbh.
I just want to say I really appreciate this video. I'm getting ready to try DMing for the first time and it's a bit nerve-wracking. So many videos out there are "It's so easy to homebrew games... just do XYZ" I love that you are saying its ok to just learn and practice with the Essentials or Starter Kits. Its what I planned on doing, but a lot of those well meaning videos kinda made me feel a bit "less than" because I didn't want to create my own world. So thank you for reinforcing my feeling that it was ok to use the Essentials as training wheels! Maybe someday I'll DM enough that I can take them off 😁😁😁
It’s a little late for me, but this is informative. Admittedly, I started with a homebrew, but I did limit it to a single continent, and myself and all 5 of my players in their mid-late 20s, so we didn’t have quite the same issue with dynamics/respect.
In a 4 hour session, with 9 people, assuming everyone plays for the same amount of time, each player is speaking for a total of only 25.6 minutes. Yikes.
My first DM session was a DnD club in middle school where only 3-4 people actually were Dming and since it was extracurricular it would be only 1 hour so I had 8 players running Mine of Phandelver for 1 hour every friday. We managed to complete the module by the end of the year but herding 8 player is something I will absolutely not do again.
@@thezerowulf507 I chose speaking time because, in an ideal scenario, two people will never be speaking over one another. My point is to illustrate that, as a group gets larger, the time each player spends as an active participant in the game- as opposed to a passive observer- gets longer. It's easier for someone to lose focus as an observer as a participant, so with a large group, the large amounts of time spent listening rather than speaking can make it very difficult for a person to stay tuned-in.
Yea, I was thinking the DM will get 1/3 to 1/2 the face time, so the other eight players would get between 15 - 20 minutes in a 4 hour session. And when you delete the combat time, it goes down from there.
I would just like to say thank you for having this kind of channel. Sadly as of right now I think I'm going through the trial run of mistakes. I made my own homebrew campaign. I have 7 people in my group. Including me it would be 8. I do have a great story but I think what saved me is that I did look at something on how to start a campaign without going to far off the rails. I looked up stuff and done alot of research. I just want to thank you again for having answers and maybe pointing out some of the mistakes I have already made and fixing them as I go. Also having friends that have DMed before you doesn't hurt. They have helped with alot of my questions and have given me advice.
Eberron is my favourite setting. I wanted to introduce my players to the entire world, so instead of having a focused game, I tried to make it a globe-hopping thing where they were in a different country every other session. Instead of showcasing a rich world, it was basically "check out this quirky place, now check out this quirky place". I tried to show them everything and never really showed them anything.
The bit about backstories me and my friends learned: We first give a GM a very brief summary of our backstory idea, like, class, race and a bullet list of general tropes/traits you hit, then GM responds with some input, and we get some hooks, details etc. set with the info GM trickles down at that point. Then we send a more complete and elaborate version, with the GM's feedback included. Last step is a back and forth, that is setting all the details to fit everything nicely. It is a fair bit more involved from the GM side for sure, but with internet, whole character creation can be done over a discord/skype, without the need to be on at the same time. You can get a rich backstory, while still fitting in to GM's idea for the campaign, you do not have to try to schedule a session zero, and GM can devote more attention to less experienced players needing more attention. Works pretty well for busy schedules :P
My friends and I wrapped up our "Two Brothers" adventure last year. The new campaign I'm now running for the group has some great moments...but the show stealer is really "Pool of Acid."
Largest group I ever played with had 27 members. Within a month, the GM divided us into 2 groups of 13 and 14 players, playing alternate weekends. It was a ton of fun, as everyone took their turns and eagerly planned their next move between turns. The GM handled it well, keeping each player to no more than 5 minutes per turn... And we all quietly waited for our next move.
@@PedroKing19 Entire clans of orcs, private armies of lesser nobles, that sort of thing. This was during 3rd edition. At least once we fought a minor demon horde.
I have yet to touch a game of dnd (work schedule pretty much prevents any attempts), but thanks to channels like this and watching so many rpg horror story videos, I feel like I could step into a game as a brand new player and have a much easier time getting into the rules than someone with didn't consume all these videos. Thanks, you guys! Also helps that I'm a sucker for character races and subclasses, and therefore have collected all of the physical source/rule books.
This does work. I've gone from the videos to my first game right into dming for my son's and friends. Still learning and very not comfortable but the boys are loving it and it's literally thanks to @dungeon dudes and others. Thank you guys.
As a player and, hopefully, an aspiring DM, I think one of the biggest mistakes that a DM makes is not being as invested and interested in your PC's as you want them to be in your Campaign. The easiest way to get a player to be emotionally invested in your campaign is to let them know what you, as the DM, are excited to see shape out in their characters. That doesn't mean railroading their character development by imposing your own vision of their future. What that means is pointing out that a character has an interesting personality or character flaw that you look forward to seeing playout in the later levels and adventures. That's something that takes comparably less effort than even the easiest facet of developing a campaign... or even using a pre-existing one. That's just my two copper on it, at least. :P
Great advice dudes, I started in the early 90s and yes we made all these mistakes. I did find a neat way to get 8 players with no backstory started. “You wake up sore, dreary. The sound of dripping water and breathing nearby.” You are currently chained to a wall in a room with 7 other strangers also chained, oh and naked. Begin!
Over giving is one of my biggest issues. I really just like rewarding players with loot whenever a situation calls for it, but I usually give magic items as that's what they want. Players should definitely not have as many magic items at level 4 as my parties usually end up with. I basically create more work for myself by having to make more challenging situations to account for all the niceties I give them.
I have made that mistake too and then realized I can create game situations where the players might lose items too- maybe throw a creature at them they couldn’t beat and have it negotiate a trade of an item or two in exchange for sparing their lives. It teaches them a few good lessons
@@keithfricke6096 I have tried creating situations like that (taking the toys away or so to speak), but it almost always just makes people upset with the exception of my wife and like 1 long time player. I play with a typical group of 6 people...or used to prior to Covid. I will prolly break them into 2 groups (i have a few others that occasionally play) so I should be able to do 2 groups of 4 or so players. That will at least help with the time each player gets in the spotlight.
Your enthusiasm and love for all things D&D is infectious!!! Currently running Dragon of Icespire Peak as my first DM attempt. Your videos are my go to source! Thanks for being awesome.
Age 14. I wanted to write stories. The npc's were the main characters. The PC's watched my heroes hog the story. They were still happy to have a DM, but god it was rough. Nearly 30 years later I am joyous of both the memories and the adventure.
In the name of the Emperor the Inquisition has issued an Exterminatus order for your campaign Just joking, glad you stuck with the hobby and learned as you went!
I highly recommend the Duets (one-on-one) First Blush, Second Glance, and Third Time's the Charm. Currently running my fiancé through them and we're having a blast. They get progressively more complex, with each one adding more mechanics and roleplay and decision-making. Just finished Second Glance with her driving three characters (her Cleric, plus the Rogue and Paladin which can be DMPCs), and she was asking if she could drive a fourth! I've had to coach her that "Hey, these guys are PEOPLE, not a wrench and a hammer, so you need to give them personalities separate from your PC," but she's doing great. In addition to gradually introducing the Player to the game, they're good learning experience for the DM. First Blush has EVERYTHING you need in it, while Second Glance has most of it, but also sends you to the Monster Manual and Player's Handbook for things.
I highly recommend that any GM trying out their first non-module adventure do something similar to my first real campaign: The PCs are shipwrecked on a cursed island and when they get off, they win. Easy premise to understand, functions well at low levels, almost any PC premise works with no hassle, room for multiple encounter types, fairly simple worldbuilding without 500 NPCs, a clear, obtainable end point and an inherently finite limit on how much the party can take things off the rails, since they are physically stuck in one place. (For the record, I had the ship be sunk by a sea monster to discourage any "Let's just build a raft and sail away" schemes - only by exploring the island and finding the ruined magic lab on the other side could they find a way to incapacitate the serpent.) A rookie GM is not going to be able to effectively run a massive 1-20 sandbox. Setting simple geographic limits on what the PCs can do is not railroading - it is focusing their attention on what is important.
3-5 players is the ideal number of D&D players. I have run and been a part of several 6-player groups, and that seems to be the tipping point where things can get out of hand in terms of giving enough attention to each player and keeping everyone focused on the game.
Monty's 8-player campaign experience was my exact same experience with my first campaign. We ran a heist, with the players being forced to decide whether they wanted to do stealth or go in guns-a-blazing. Cue a 40 real-life minute argument that causes a player to leave, and all that gets done is that they for some reason wait to rob a bank until it closes for the night. Like you said, everyone talking over each other, needing me to yell to get them to shut up or even be heard in the first place. After the heist campaign, we as a group agreed to have a player cap per campaign (or at least every session), usually set at 6 or 7 depending on the DM and the campaign.
My mistake was trying to dm the game without any idea how dnd was played. I had a Player's Handbook and that was it. If only UA-cam was around back then, so I could see a game being played.
My biggest moments were 1: Always have a backup for the cool thing to get flubbed, the obvious thing to be not-obvious, or for your advice / descriptions to be ignored. (I had a group of players chase a goblin into a crack in a wall which lead to a long lost hallway and stairs going down. The goblin was working for someone powerful, and had a ring of teleport of the return trip. Soon I describe to the players as they decend down them, that while the stairs keep decending, there is no trace of anyone being down them in a long time, thick layer of dust, cobwebs across the wgole passage etc. They ignore my descriptions "there is no way that thing just disapeared!" and keep going down. I panic and let them. Eventually I said it reaches an entrance to an underground cavern where a drugar warns them that everything down here WILL kill them if they keep going.)
I feel so related... When I first decided to became a DM I also wanted to make a pirate themed campaign, with a lot of things happening in my head. After a few months thinking about the world and even having my players made their characters, I decided that it wouldn't take place, at least for now. I decided to run Tomb of Annihilation instead, and oh my, that was the best decision I've ever had. We played the campaign for a few months untill work and studies made us stop, but that was some of the best moments I had playing D&D. They were for like 3 sessions (7-8h) in Port Nyanzaru, talking with NPCs, learning everything they could about the city, going to places that didn't exist in the city and that I had to came up with fast... What I learnt about running this campaign was that having a nice plot to guide me so I could think about every other aspect of the game felt great. So yeah, listen to this guys XD
Thanks for sharing these great tips. I started playing DND in 1981 at the age of 15. A couple of good lessons I’ve learned: (1) The pressure to avoid railroading a home brew campaign can cause you to get overwhelmed by creating a sandbox adventure. You can build some structure that feels like a sandbox but really isn’t. For example, I created one campaign where early on the quest was to collect 5 body parts from 5 different creatures that represented 1 of the 5 senses (the eye from a cyclops (sight), the head of a catoblepas (smell), etc. I built each of the 5 mini adventures and let the players decide the order in which they tackled collecting the items. This gave the adventure a sandbox feel. These items were needed in order to cast a mysterious spell from a book they found. Casting the spell opened a portal to meet with the god of one of the players (I integrated their back story) to set the stage for the second story arc (2) I have that just as important as a Session 0 is a 5-15 minute debrief after each session to find out what things resonated with the group and what didn’t about the session. Use that feedback to either confirm what you are doing is working or get feedback to help shape future sessions. You’ll find in either case the feedback will inspire your creativity
Just recently DMed my first campaign. Would like to thank you and every other dm I've learned so much from. I was properly prepared with a more stoic mindset from people who've been doing it for years to share their knowledge. I had a lot with your second problem (to many players). I had 10 players total. I had done a 2 month of recruiting, allowing everyone to read the players book, had set watch player d&d tutorials online. Really getting people amped up to get into it. But also trying to not rush everyone to understand what exactly their getting themselves into. Then we all met up for our session 0. 8 hours, of ages between 26-32, a couple of nectars, we all got on the same page together. 11 in total, thats including me. 7 guys and 4 ladies. I told them. We would cut into 2 groups and I'd run the modified starter set campaign for practice to feel everyone out and they can feel the game out before we even go full force into it. Afterwards no one quit and they all fell inlove with d&d... I honestly think I just got lucky with how everyone has been friends for years. Or they were all married and loved eachother. As such a large group. They all respected their time and the amount of time I put into it. I went from only knowing 1 guy to knowing a whole damn clan of people. Soooo. After the 2 group short 7 and 8 session campaign each. We all met up and decided to all pick a campaign everyone could get behind. You wouldn't believe it.... everyone picked curse of strahd..... every flipping player around was convinced curse of strahd was the way to go... hahaha... sooooo we did a party of 6 and a party of 4. The party of four came from the west side of barovia and the party of six came from the east. Out of around 50 sessions each, I had them meet up for around 30 of them in order for larger combat scenarios, roleplaying, and even switching out party members to achieve balanced party to tackle quests with more ease. Seeing the growth of their innovation was astonishing. Hahaha it was honestly something I couldn't quite explain. But it all worked out. Never seemed bogged down, everyone enjoyed themselves, no one ever missed a session. Habaha just unbelievable. Sorry just wanted to share my story. Thanks for your knowledge again. Best of wishes to everyone out there
I just ran my very first session as a DM with 4 players at the table, and after watching this video I definitely will be implementing these tips into the next session. I drew a map on a regular sheet of printer paper with the basic towns/cities that each character said they were from in their backstories, as well as the main city where the campaign would be starting out. I also drew and cut out some 'fog' and taped it to the eastern side of the map so that as the characters continue I can work new things into that side of the map. Definitely the biggest thing I've learned is to let the players help you tell your story!
Great advice guys! I’m on the cusp of running my own campaign, and I think I’m going to start small with a pre written campaign now having watched this video. Keep up the great work!
A few months ago I had a session that ended in one PC's death, and another PC fleeing the fight and the player retiring the character. The one remaining PC spent the last few minutes of the session burying his fallen comrade, putting a personal item of his in the grave so he could find it again with locate object, and doing knowledge rolls to find out if he knew where to find a cleric that could revive the player. The next session he got back to town and told everyone he decided not to revive his ally. Never forget, YOUR PLAYERS PLANS CAN AND WILL CHANGE, ESPECIALLY BETWEEN SESSIONS.
One of my pet peeves with DMs is (and I’ve found this happens with a lot of DMs) when they consistently/always punish a nat 1 roll but don’t always look for ways to reward the rare nat 20s that aren’t in combat. For example if you roll a nat one on a perception check for standing watch at night, the DM will say you fell asleep and a raccoon comes into camp and steals some of your party’s stuff, but if you nat 20 on a perception check for standing watch, they say you go through the night and nothing happens but you can really hear the individual crickets chirping well…that’s nonsense and you will lose players trust when you do that. Even if you didn’t have anything planned, maybe make something up like throw in an unplanned small encounter that the nat 20 just saved the party from a surprise attack or even that you saw it coming early enough that your party now has an opportunity for a surprise round on the bandits, or maybe say that the player notices a little bit of glittering in the nearby stream and find a little bit of gold or even that a player notices that a deer has unwittingly bedded down right next to the party and they can shoot it with their bow so the party has some fresh meat and a hide to sell in the next town….something…anything…the player feels like they got a win and you get a win by looking like you had something prepared and it encourages your players to be more engaged even in the mundane stuff
I've been enamored by your guy's content these past few months. I mustered the courage at the suggestion of an old friend to DM a session for a group of 4. I asked them all what they wanted to see, and got some ideas from everyone. The party dynamic includes a Warforged gladiator, deactivated years ago upon defeat in a great arena, relearning his abilities as time goes on so he can assume the mantle of the ultimate war machine once again. A shadow monk prodigy who's grown up in a monastery his whole life, and has finally decided to heed the call to the adventuring life. A life cleric, sworn to Athena(Greek pantheon is a big theme in this setting. Think Primeval times), whose village is burned and destroyed in the very first session. Shortly after the first sessions, another player joins the mix, a Tiefling Bard who is joyous and gaudy, with a fixation on glamor and flair. The setting is that of a continent established by settlers. In my writing, "The people of Karak(continent name) take solace in the construction of their progenies dreams". So, think 7000ish BC in our times I suppose, with a world still in construction, where the average common citizen is a simple serf almost. Adventurers are seen as bold, wild, perhaps even a bit insane, and monstrosities and wickedness wanders the land, the creatures of myth as we see them today being that of unrefined chaos, ravaging any walks of life they oppose. Session 1 starts off with a Hellhound fight flavored as that of a wild Cerberus, not that of Hades, but a wild creature really. Shortly after meeting the Bard and clearing a nearby burning village of a Doppelganger and Grimlock forces, the party heads to their hub town, going to the southern end, approaching docks and ports, in hopes to explore some uncharted local islands. They barter themselves into obtaining a ship and crew, and venture off. Last session was the party arriving on this island, fending off some Dinosaurs and clearing the first room of an unknown cave, and should they succeed in wiping the dangers off this island, can establish it as a settlement for the hub town, gaining influence in the lands. This may sound great, and I think it is, but this party is exceptionally strong, everyone having rolled unreal stats and me allowing some magic items from early on in the progression. This group wipes the floor with everything I throw at them, fighting off both a Cyclops and Grick Alpha in Odysseus Cave(Total CR13) at level 3, with ease mind you. This setting is building up to a grand scene, that of the world's first Colliseum, that of Collis' Emporium. When the party arrives there, we will be opening up some room to have what looks like 7 players compete, as opposed to the current 4 that I'm familiar with running. So far, I've had to do a lot of work as DM to produce challenging story moments and combat encounters for my group, only to be thwarted with ease. This group has already reached level 5, based off of XP ALONE, they're that strong, and we're only about 5 sessions in. Anyways, I'm hoping to avoid some major mistakes highlighted in this video to keep things balanced, so nobody is left behind. Sorry to ramble, but I'm just extremely excited/nervous because I'm taking on some ambitious ideas for my first session in years, and any advice from this awesome community is most welcome
I played dnd back in middle school during 3.5 and had a couple of sessions that I DMed that were supposed to be hooks into larger campaigns that fell apart in large part because of both my own impatience and being a bit of an adversarial DM. Back at the beginning of the year I finally got back into DND and in August I started DMing a campaign that we’ve been running for four months now and it’s been a really awesome experience, even with most of it being home brewed. I think there’s basically three reasons why it has worked. 1) I have a good group of players who have agreed to play the game seriously, it’s not that we don’t have fun or joke, but ultimately the campaign is not “whacky” it’s pretty grim and serious and the players are down with that. 2) I don’t over explain things. I’ve found it much easier to tell my party “You’re in a town, it’s pretty large, what are you looking for here?” Rather than map out a whole market district or city. 3) most importantly instead of looking at my role as being opposed to the party, I’m supposed to help the party craft an interesting story that they enjoy. I’ve had to change a lot of plans and be okay with the fact that some ideas I love don’t get used. But it’s worth it because it’s really gratifying to be told after a session how much fun it was for them. I just thought I’d charge a little positive experience, hope it helps someone.
One mistake I made was not carefully reading the full description of a magic item before putting it in the campaign. It was the Deck of Many Things. My players had somehow convinced me that the way it worked was it disappears after the person who owns it pulls the number of cards they choose to pull (This is true). However, they allowed others to pull cards and then, rather than pulling cards themselves allowed another member of the group to claim ownership of the deck and that person allowed everyone to pull from the deck before passing it on to the next member of the group without pull the cards. (It doesn't work like this). They only stopped doing this when one person's soul was trapped on another plane and another person had some other bad thing happen to them that I can't remember. But by the time everything was said and done, they had several keeps between them, several wishes, and a couple other great effects. I will never, ever introduce a Deck of Many Things into my campaigns again. Also, had a minotaur stop a Tarrasque with a warp marble. He got trapped in the warp marble with the creature, but still. He stopped it with a warp marble. Yea!
1) Follow the rules in the PHB and DMG to the letter, thinking that TSR must have known what they were doing. 2) Running published adventures literally and with the heavy railroading that requires. 3) Including and combining everything published that we could get our hands on. We mostly learned that both TSR and WotC often don't seem to have a clue what they are doing.
Yeah, one of my big mistakes starting out was not having a grand scheme for my players to do. They had a "main quest" kinda thing, but I had no idea where to go with it. I planned out a lot of things-too many, in fact-but I didn't have a concrete plan of "the McGuffin is in place X, and the players might stumble on it if they keep looking".
First played when we were about 10 years old in the late 70s. My local pastor gave me the old Basic Box Set, (Blue rule book cover with the Dragon facing a wizard and plate mail archer! Didn't even have the B1 Module in it!!!) as a gift because of our shared love of Tolkien. He'd been on a pastoral trip to the US a few years earlier, and picked it up out of curiosity but never did anything with it. He eventually he became an occasional member of our group, even running games at our Church Youth Club... So, I told my friends at school that I was getting this game, and they came round at the weekend. We got this box... and no one gave a damn about the rules... it was all we could do not to explode with excitement at the notion of a TWENTY SIDED die... (and of course you had to use a crayon to fill in the numbers!!!!!!) I was "elected" as DM and cobbled together a Dungeon in about 2 hours, filled it with all manner of madness, and my three friends rolled up characters exactly as per the old 3d6 per stat system, and off we went. We were playing a home spun dungeon within about 3 hours of first opening the box. We had no concept of the notion of a wider world than that individual dungeon, so when a character died, rather than creating a new one, I just had the player "Respawn" at the entrance to the Dungeon. For about a week we just ran that same dungeon over and over until they out levelled the rule book! I've learned a LOT since then.
TLDR; (basically a list without timestamps that should've been in the description) 1. Start with small adventures 2. Start with small groups of players 3. Have a "Session Zero" where you set up expectations etc 4. Don't ignore what palyers put in their characters backstories and what they want to achieve. 5. You will mess up rules and you will have to adapt things on the fly. Learn to live with it.
I set myself to DM in the trialling times of 2020. I wanted to start small, so I made a One Shot that turned out to be a Too-Far Shot, and we took 4 sessions to finish the adventure. But the last session was a bummer, because I didn't have enough more material to cover a 3-hour-long session. So I stalled, and it turned out to be boring for everyone and disencouraging for me, because I wanted the big epic ending of the adventure to be memorable. What I learned from this is that I need to set time constraints on each story arc. Great video and thanks for all the invaluable tips. Have a great 2021 guys!
Currently running my first campaign (homebrew world with 7 players) and, even though it's going surprisingly well so far, your discussion of the first and second mistakes hit me so hard personally. Oh god.. I'm not stressing, but I am! lol Thank you so much for the advice, your videos have been massively helpful!
I think this is great advice for new DMs, especially when they also don't have that much experience as a player. I do have a few caveats, though. I'd take new RPG players' desires lightly and view them as flexible. A lot of players' perceptions of RPGs have been sculpted by WoW and Skyrim. My whole party told me in session 0 that they wanted to 'kill shit and get cool loot.' They proceeded to spend the next 4 or 5 sessions socialing their way out of almost every encounter, RPing amongst themselves, and interacting with every NPC as quickly as I could create them. I had a very direct chat with them at the beginning of the next session and said. 'Hey, you all told me you wanted ____, but have been engaging with the world very differently. I've adjusted on the fly, but I'd like to know where to spend my prep time. What do you all think about how things have been going?' Everyone was on board and I was THRILLED! I'd been designing everything they were asking for and they'd been dodging it, but now I knew what they actually wanted and could make a world they'd really enjoy. Just getting buy-in on session zero is not enough. I typically DM for 6-7, and it's hard for me to DM for less than 5 unless it's a solo or duo side excursion. My players play so much off each other that it puts a lot of pressure on each individual in the smaller group to find things for their character to interact with. With a larger group, some players are spectators while others are engaging, but even the spectators are having fun. They get ideas and then build off each other. No one feels pressured to interact if it's not really what their character would do. With a smaller group, it feels like my players all force themselves to interact even if it's not in their character because someone HAS to. It feels less genuine and they go through content almost exponentially faster. It's like a speedrun. Trying to hit the triggers as quick as possible to keep things moving. What might be 3 sessions of content for 7, a group of 4 might go through in one evening. If that's what you're looking for it might be great... but not great for my game. I jumped right into homebrew. I had, however, been through horde of the dragon queen as a player, and then hopped into a homebrew campaign with very experienced players for a year or two before deciding to DM. Homebrew felt right and much more what I was looking for. I actually did not and do not have ideas for the ultimate BBEG or how I want things to end. The world I want to create is one where it truly forms around the players. What they imagine really becomes reality, within reason, but everything is formed around their characters and what they engage with and seek out. I started this second campaign at level 5 and I see it as sections from 5-10, 11-15, and 16-20. We're rounding out the first chapter and it's them gaining notoriety in the world. 11-15 they will be playing as a known force. 16+ they will renowned heroes interacting with the world at the highest levels. What will they choose to do with their fame and fortune? I look forward to seeing it. I'm showing them the powerful players and they can choose who is a friend and who is a foe.
I remember getting stressed with 5 people, while advertising I would run groups up to 6. I started DMing by running duets (DM + 1 PC), and after I’d done that for a few months, I figured I was ready to start DMing groups. It was a major shift, and I had to restructure both my understanding of what I could handle at my table, and blundered my way into accepting that my time and focus have limits, even for something I love doing. Sometimes I forget my stress/prep limits, like right now: I’m running 7 games over a two week rotation. Definitely at capacity, but the groups are more manageable: 3 duets, one group of 3, one group of 4, and one monthly group of 5. Having most of them biweekly is essential for me.
Oh man I was railroader. I had an idea of how things wanted to go to form the story in my mind. Terrible games I shudder thinking back at them. Thanks for the video
The session zero is so, so vital. When I started out DMing, I had a player who was playing basically a JRPG edgelord lone wolf tiefling hexblade. That character's backstory seemed like the strongest candidate for a campaign hook - the other characters' backstories were more open to things like evil forces or revenge, which I tried tying into the story, but the crux of the hook was, "the Raven Queen wants you to go do X." So, I basically fed the main quest to that warlock character because he had the connection to the Raven Queen, but the player decided that the emo warlock would never want to endanger the other party members with his "personal baggage" so just utterly ignored the entire main story hook. I tried in multiple other ways to have that character engage with the story and every time the player chose to keep information secret. As a result, the players kept only seeing the actions of the evil factions that wanted the MacGuffin, but they didn't even know what the MacGuffin was because one player chose over and over again not to tell the party about it. At future session zeros (we didn't have one for this campaign), I will make it abundantly clear to new players that those sorts of lone wolf characters have no place in a group game like D&D. Reluctant anti-heroes with complex morality are great, but if your character will actively prevent the story from moving forward...nah, make a different character.
This is how I started DMing I got excited about all the ideas swirling around in my brain and I tried to come up with a storyline that brought every single one together. I never ran that. My first time actually running something was around a year ago during snow days, about 2 years after I started playing. It was a level 8 one shot that i had balanced with Kobold fight club (which I highly recommend, especially for new DMs) My players all loved the one shot, and i ran another a few weeks later. Since then, i have run a few more one shots, all at higher levels. Now i am running Icewind Dale, and will soon be running Out if the Abyss for a different group after we finish one of the other DMs campaigns.
My first campaign as a DM went really well. I ran a made up game while on a camping trip with 4 friends that was in "3rd" edition. We didn't have rulebooks or dice. We had notebook paper sheets and used a deck of cards red A-10 low and black A-10 high for the d20. Picked the game up for real when we got home. Great success. Now my second campaign.... I think I made the middle 3 that you mentioned. No session 0, no backstories, 12 players in a college dorm.
I have DM’d, exclusively DM’d, for over twelve years now. I feel like I have learned more in the last two years than I had in the previous ten, due to channels such as this one. Thanks. Happy New Years Dudes.
One of the biggest traps I fell into as a beginning GM was wanting to make up my own magical items..... I currently have a monk player whose can punch with the range of a long bow.
Outstanding discussion and advice! I think even experienced DMs can benefit from taking a step back and running a preset adventure like Dragon of Icespire Peak. I enjoyed running that so much more than I thought I would and it helped teach new players the game too. You two are awesome! Happy new year, dudes!
My first time as a DM, I had invited a group of probably 7 or 8 people to play Dungeons and Dragons. I did use a pre-written campaign, but with so many people, I often got sessions with no-shows, and the combat encounters were a nightmare to run. The next campaign I ran had a different problem. I tried to run my own homebrew campaign for my two siblings. That also didn't end well, mainly because I became overwhelmed with trying to make the world make sense and coming up with unique combat encounters to keep things interesting while still weaving in those plot hooks to draw the characters into the story I was trying to tell. It became too much for me to handle, and the campaign quickly got derailed and fell apart. Also I tended to underestimate my players and their characters, so many of my combat encounters were too easy.
Not D&D, but I'm in a Masks campaign right now that started with 6 people and a GM who were all first time players for that game. The GM was clearly overwhelmed until the 6th player dropped by the third session. We even played a couple 4-player sessions while people were sick or unable to play, and it's amazing how much more smoothly the session runs when going from 5 to 4, and it was basically impossible with 6.
My very first game as a DM taught me something; if they go off path, don't be afraid to have them discover something new. My group left the little port town and went deep into the forest where they found an empty monastery and it turned into a crime thriller when they discovered the body of a mono nailed to the ceiling. None of them could read infernal, so they ended up copying the words written in blood that circled the poor victim and left the place to find a library back in town. They tracked down a translation book two weeks later in the nation's capitol where they learned that the ruler of the nation had banned all books on demonology.
TL:DR- definitely run a published module (or at least read one) before DMing yourself, and my advice is pick up “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” by Keith Ammann for more-meaningful encounters. I love you guys! Another great video, and I’m currently enacting your first suggestion. In 2019 I played DnD my first time in the Lost Mines of Phandelver module as a young Tiefling Warlock. I was immediately inspired and decided I wanted to tell my own story about a Chronomancer. After a lot of writing and research, I started my campaign, not to total failure but without having read a published module, I was really lacking a grasp on the fundamentals of being a DM. Ultimately, due to COVID, we stopped playing and I shelved it. Fast forward and I’m now living in a different state away from my group of friends. My wife and her friends, who we moved to be closer to, have expressed interest in playing, having never played before. Remembering how much fun I had playing Lost Mines, I enthusiastically picked up the Starter Set and am preparing to run my first published module. Along the way, I hope to drop breadcrumbs of my Chronomancer campaign so that by the time the party is Level 5 at the end of Lost Mines, they can say “Hey, remember that Clock Tower we never investigated? Maybe we should go back and have a look see.” The only advice I have is more of a resource. I remember when I was first cracked open the Monster Manual to begin writing encounters, though chocked full of useful information, I felt a lot of the monsters lacked depth. What is their motive? What does it really mean to have an intelligence of 3? Are they savage animals? I needed (craved) more information so I could make informed decisions so my party could have meaningful encounters and not just “a bugbear pops out from around the corridor.” Which is why, if you’re like me, am recommending the book “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” by Keith Ammann. It’s chocked full of tactics and resources about motives and how to roleplay a monster. If you really want to take your combat encounters a little bit further, I’d recommend checking this out. It’s a wonderful resource and reference book- super easy to pick up right before a session and read specifically about the monsters you know your party will encounter next.
Large groups were/are a common thing in this old school/OSR games. One thing that helps a lot is to have a “caller” (just like a “mapper” and a “treasurer”) among the players. The caller gets info from all the other players at the table and tell the DM in a centralized way what the group is going to do in the specific turn of dungeon/wilderness exploration
Hi Monty, Hi Kelly watching your videos taught me a lot, thanks for helping new DM like me with clever tips and advices. I tryed as a new dm to play with too much player, and most of them not really interested in fantasy ... They are my best friends but after a few sessions i realise, i can't make things perfect and infotunately they were not Pen&Paper players. So the dream of playing D&D fade away for some time then i founded 2 bro who were into D&D + my own brother. Now i have 3 amazing players and my campaign is focusing more and more on their background, we have a lot of fun. Thank you Guys, and Happy New Year !
I've been DMing for just a couple months (we're currently headed for session #5). Most of what I know about DnD I learned by watching Critical Role and other streamed games. I never bought a single piece of official material, when I was learning rules, I only relied on the internet, most of all D&D Beyond and The Alpine DM. I gathered 5 of my pals and basically begged them to try building this amazing adventure with me. None of _them_ ever played the game, and I feel like I really solidified my knowledge of the rules by explaining them to my players. I constructed my own world from scratch, with its own lore and everything. But the key thing, and a valuable tip I also learned from other DMs on the internet, is that I only constructed a very rough frame of the world, and I didn't immediately plan out everything. The way I lead our campaign, I try to make it really open world, which means everything's fairly flexible and I don't want to come up with great epic plots when I don't even know what's going to happen next time. We're all still learning how to play the game, and I don't want to end up overwhelming my players neither myself. The starting plot of our story is basically: heroes trapped in a village surrounded by flood, a bunch of bullywugs kidnap some local kids, heroes go to track them down, turns out a bunch of lycanthropes with whom our paladin already has a beef charge the bullywugs to bring them human children so that they can turn them into werewolves and further expand their numbers. Other than a few player-specific subplots, that's pretty much everything I've planned so far. I think of it as a turorial plot before we can move on to something bigger.
My worst mistake as a DM, at least that I really regret, is that I had a player in 3.5 that made a cavalier character, and he desperately wanted to find a giant spider mount. I desperately didn't want that, because it would make tons of challenges trivial (it was a different version from the insane kinds of free movement 4 and especially 5 offer). But he was insistent, and he captured a giant spider, nursed it back to health, and I gave him rules on what kind of animal handling it was going to take to bend it to his will (I think it was 4x hard animal handling skill tests, 1 per day). A big battle with 50 goblins started, and he decided to skip rest of the process, and just jumped on the spider. He rolled a natural 20 for animal handling. I should have just given it to him. Instead I gave him the ability to ride, but not control it. The spider booked it away from the combat, him on its back. He finally jumped off to go help his friends, and the spider kept running. He was so disappointed. I did have it come back from time to time to leave him a kill, which made him happier. But to this day, I still regret not just giving him the damn spider mount on the nat 20, and letting him wreck a few encounters. It wasn't like there weren't three other incredibly powerful character builds in the party. Its just a game, and people are there to have fun. I mean, it became a legendary story in its own right among the group, but for all the wrong reasons.
My brother got 12 takers when he said he wanted to run D&D every week. He responded, "Ok, cool. There'll be 3 groups, and each of you will meet every 3 weeks." In the end two or three people's schedules were less flexible than they'd hoped when they volunteered, and we settled on two biweekly groups with four or five PCs each.
I have been waiting for this. made a lot, like a lot, of mistakes as a new DM. some of them were left over from whe initial one shot a friend of mine DMed. the group ended up way to bif for the oneshot, but more importantly was that i told my players after we split up after the one shot they could use their same characters. i had not yet learned of the concept of a session zero at that time, and so having to DM for these not very thought out characters became very difficult for me. then there was also the problem that some players never showed up, so i delayed the story instead of just kiking them out immedeatly (which i eventually did). at least i managed to "end" the campaign off after the players met a friendly dragon and convinced the town to cooperate with it. another mistake i made was the noob mistake of not properly scheduling my games and instead say that we play when everyone has time
I just played my first game of DnD last week. It was also the first game I DM'd (doing both at the same time was not ideal, but necessary). I felt the mistakes I made deeply, though, thankfully my players (my family) didn't really notice. I only have 4 players, and even that felt a bit intimidating. My gut feeling of creating my own worlds is very akin to yours, but I am thankful and lucky that I chose to run the Essentials Kit adventure instead. Now, my one-shot has turned into a campaign and I'm having fun planning for episode 2. I'm also planning on running Lost Mines of Phandelver as a continuation, using some of the sourcebooks for tips for up-leveling encounters. My bigger homebrew plans can wait a bit.
Getting a bit worried because I'm writing my first campaign in my own world etc. I've got a good grasp on the worldbuilding, characters, general plot, and have confined it to one continent so I'm very confident in my world. However, hearing you speak about your experiences, I'm going to be going back over and rebuffing everything that I possibly can to make sure that I have that middle part figured out :)
The main lesson I'm taking from my first game as DM is simply: make sure to screen the players and develop an understanding of their characters early on. Like for example, check to see if the wizard is in fact a Necromancer. While that could be an interesting dynamic in an otherwise lawful good party, the DM should not be as caught off guard by that as the other players. Or if charging into a battle in the middle of a town square in broad daylight without consulting the rest of the otherwise lawful good party, immediately resulting in a double homicide, property damage, mass unintentional manslaughter, grand theft horse cart, and the fact that it is no longer safe for the party to return to a city full of important plot points is something your character might do, the DM ought to be able to prepare for that. (These two examples are from two separate characters from the same player. He's no longer playing with us lol.)
Just found this video tonight. We're about to finish The Lost Mine of Phandelver & plan to go into Icespire Peak. Y'all just just blessed me with a HUGE sigh of relief that mistakes are okay & that my group is on the right path. Thank YOU!
I feel like new players, such as myself, who got into DnD in 5e are very fortunate to have UA-cam channels like you guys give us advice on how to play DnD as effectively while at the same time having fun. I talked to my uncle about it, who has been playing since 2e and said that he would’ve loved to have this kind of thing when he first played as he had no idea on what to do
For sure. Im DMing without ever having played cause we are all new. And i think i watched like 80hrs of youtube content the week before we started. And so far ive been able to avoid a lot of the mistakes they talked about. But its 100% cause of the info available.
You have NO IDEA how much I would've like that when I started
Hahah yes please. I started with 3E in high school in the 2000s. The closest i had to these videos was the CD -Rom character builder that came with the 3E players handbook lol
My first problem was back tracking it was bad because I had several pages of lore however it contradicted each other my mad however the campaign is now running smoothly
I still have all of my 1st and 2nd edition material and still DM a 1st-2nd-homebrew weekly game. In the early nineties when I started we had only one set of dice that the entire table shared. So if 10d6 needed to be rolled, that one d6 got rolled 10 times. The one d20 got passed around the table for everyone's turn in initiative. There was no internet. I kept up with the latest by reading Dragon Magazine. We had no idea what other groups were doing or if we were even playing the game right. But everyone at the table loved it and when we played during lunch hour in the high school library, there was a crowd of people around the table three deep watching and listening. Now with the popularity of D&D on UA-cam and such, it is very easy to research and to learn. I feel like before the internet we had to be individually more creative and some of that has been lost. But I also like the modern ease of access to lore and information and help with new ideas. I'm an old DM, and I still learn new tricks from different content creators like the Dungeon Dudes. Now everyone at the table has multiple sets of dice and any information you want is as close as your computer.
My son recommended your channel. I can see that he has watched this video because he is deliberately doing the things that you suggest in this game. He has already got one successful campaign under his belt and he is really learning. Thank you for these videos, this is really good advice.
That is so cool that you play D&D with your son. My dad was the one who introduced me to the game and I am going to be DMing for the first time for some of my friends in a few months.
@@theunknownanomaly1950 how is that DMing going?
‘The best campaigns are always in the future.’
Me: Got it.
At the table: Okay, players, this session begins with a time portal sucking you into the year 3000.
He’s a bit confused but he’s got the spirit
Sign me up
Nothings changed, but you do all live underwater
So, Chrono Trigger? I'd play it.
A FOOLISH SAMURAI WARRIOR WIELDING A MAGIC SWORD
"It's just called 'Two Brothers'".
This was worth going through 2020.
I had to pause the video so I could stop laughing
You could see it occur to Kelly a few moments before that, and that look of realization was fantastic
Little known fact, that DnD player was Justin Roiland and the 21 page backstory original title was:
Alien Invasion Tomato-Monster Mexican Armada, Brothers, Who Are Just Regular Brothers, Running In A Van, From An Asteroid And All Sorts Of Things: The Movie - The Backstory
I felt like Kelly was fighting to not say it but couldnt wait to just say it. I had a feeling that it was coming hahahaha
You can see a cut in the video after because we were both laughing for 3 mins straight after.
I haven't even started and I already feel offended for being personally called out
I mean, to be fair the whole video is us calling ourselves out lol.
please continue. This seems like a useful topic to discuss :D
LMFAO 😂
One of my biggest mistakes when starting DMing was that I misunderstood massive damage and it resulted in a PC's death. Our bard took a critical hit, so much that it put him below zero with half his total hp in the negative. The player was certain that his character had died, I wasn't sure since I thought you had to go your full HP below 0 to die from massive damage.
I tried to look it up, but I was stressed and almost panicked so I couldn't find it. Plus the player seemed so sure of the rules, and one of the DM tips I had heard was "if you don't know a particular rule, make a ruling and look it up afterwards". So I ruled that, yeah, the bard died on the spot due to massive damage.
I felt like a total idiot when looking it up afterwards and realizing my hunch had been right... the PC hadn't taken massive damage so he would at least get to roll death saves.
My lesson from that was: when you're stressed and it is important you get a rule right or your players do something unexpected and you don't know how to react, ask for a break. Tell your players "let's take 5 minutes, I need to think about this/look this up." Sometime's it's easier to make the right decision when you're not put on the spot. A new DM who's on the verge of panicking and feel like they have to make a decision right away in front of a group of 5 players don't always make the right call, weirdly enough.
I've been the only character to die in two campaigns that my friends that are new DMs are running. I think that overestimating damage or certain abilities that monsters have is very common. In one, the monsters were simply two powerful/too many. DM had the leader tell all of them to rush into the area I was in at the same time, and they basically run me over. In the other, there were three ghosts type monsters with the ability to possess us. We each had to make a charisma roll and roll a certain number to succeed. No problem, right? Wrong. Everyones charisma was absolutely terrible, and we we rolling 10s and under the whole day. Long story short: I got possessed and the ghost attacked the party members with my spells that could do 40-50 damage each, so they had to kill me. Ugh and double ugh.
Sounds like your player had a new character they were excited to play
@@MysticalApple The first one, yes. I was a Ranger that fought with a two handed bow and a quarterstaff. The second, no. I took the character because noone else wanted to heal. Lol.
Something I do is make a ruling on the fly and have the players look it up while I move forward with the game. If it's not too disruptive, I retcon what happened. Otherwise, I let the ruling stand and we play by the RAW going forward.
In your situation, whether the character is dead or unconscious, he's little more than a fleshy paperweight for a while. Ruling initially that he's probably dead, but then having one of the players look it up and realize he's actually just unconscious isn't going to change the overall narrative all that dramatically. The only thing that might happen is that the cleric might not heal him this round, but rather next round.
When I get lost like that, I say:
"Please wait, your DM is loading..."
The biggest mistake I made when running my first campaign was painstakingly detailing EVERY. SINGLE. THING. about every city and every area in the world. While worldbuilding on such a precise scale can be fun on your own time, it will absolutely kill your motivation if you're doing it with 4 or 5 players waiting for you to finally be done with the world to start session 1.
You don't need to have every settlement and shop inventories of every city planned out. Just have a very broad idea of the world, and its points of interest (capitals, regions, areas where you KNOW you want a certain enemy type to be, etc), and spend your time detailing what your party is facing right now. As for everything else, just wait until your players get near it, and if the party is getting dangerously close to a key area you haven't planned out yet, nothing is stopping you from just pulling a time killer out of your ass and having your players spend the rest of the session there to give you time to plan the next location in between sessions.
About 5 years ago, my group of friends really wants to play but at the last moment our DM bailed out....so....instead of NOT playing at all, i studied the DM Manual of Pathfinder and prepared all the things needed for the campaign....a lot of mistakes were made by both me and my players...but one thing i stll clearly remeber... the Sorcerer in Path is similar (Not the same) as a Warlock of 5e...so by bloodline he gets perks and spells....so....at some point in the Bloodline description says something like 'The Sorcerer can choose the following Feats as Bonus Feats'....i gave ALL those Feats to a Level 1 Sorcerer....he basically was a killing machine (cringing and facepalming until now)
I ran a Pathfinder campaign years ago as my first game. Didn't fully understand spells known/spells prepared/spell slots and all that, so I gave our Druid free reign to cast any spell, with the only limitation being the slots themselves. Had the capability of being broken but she didn't really know what to do either :P
@@maj.peppers3332 I can totally relate to that ahaha
I would have loved to watch that monster sorcerer go around wrecking everything lol
Like it, to up! Have a nice day~
Timecodes:
1. 1:53 Planning epic campaings right away
2. 7:48 Large party
3. 12:26 No zero session
4. 15:39 Ignoring Players backstory & goal
5. 21:25 Expecting Perfection
You spelt campaign wrong?
@@dreamleaf6784 or did they??? Dun dun duuuun
My players during my first campaign: “you’re not railroading us hard enough, Erica!”
I mean, that happened to me too, I ran a one shot to try out DMing with a group full of DMs and they had to instruct me how to railroad them when they saw me panicking over my notes thinking "i didn't know that would happen!"
My players want me to actively drive them to plot. I just want them to sorta explore the town I made and uncover tidbits and breadcrumbs I’ve left that lead to plot. But I mean as long as they have fun.
Thats really cute~ 😂 I wish my players (sisters), would care more about where I’m taking them.
Edit: they’re my sisters they aren’t just a group of sisters.
Yeah my players main issue with curse of strahd was that it was too open and free for them to do anything so they felt like they got nowhere.
That's interesting because I currently DM for a group of beginner and fear I railroad them too much.
"No, but" is just as important, if not moreso, than "Yes, and." - I've had a hard time saying no to my players, but sometimes you just gotta, especially if you got a munchkin.
yeah and in kinda the same vein is not just saying yes to predictions your players make just because they are exited about them. I got into a lot of trouble with plot holes because I was laying out hints and clues already for a reveal, and a player made a guess that they were really exited about, so I just went with it, but then I realized that their idea really didn't make sense with what they knew, so I was stuck filling things in to try and make it work.
And sometimes it needs to be just a straight, simple, "no".
What does “if you got a munchkin” mean?
@@oofguild7788 munchkins are like a slightly less frustrating version of power gamers or min-maxxers :P People who optimize the crap out of their characters and action economy.
"My campaign was a disaster. My players had a wonderful time." That seems like a contradiction. Yes, you made mistakes that meant it wasn't a sustainable campaign, but if the players were having fun, it wasn't a "disaster."
Depends on your player group. The group I played with loved it when things went to hell. The crazier things get, the more we loved it.
I'd take it as a "my" versus "our". "The campaign I made was broken, but the campaign they played was enjoyable."
That's part of the lesson I think, not trying to be the sole author of what's supposed to be a group story.
Things can also go bad, but everyone still have tons of fun. I have been in a game where the DM was completely caught off guard and it was probably a nightmare for him personally, but he handled it well enough and people had fun. That is one of the reasons my group switches up DM duties, sometimes the DM is carrying the world on his shoulders literally and needs a break.
Arguably you could say the PLAYERS had a wonderful time but in a way, the GM is still a player themselves. If THEY aren't also having fun then I could see why you would still consider the campaign a disaster.
eh I decided screw it dived in head first and everyone is having fun so I count it as a win
I ran phandelver as my first adventure as a DM after years of not being able to run my own campaign. This module as well as your videos and others have given me a decade of dungeon mastering experience in two short years.
Same boat! So glad I didn't skip a pre-written adventure to make my own as a first time DM and SO glad I watched these videos.
Lost Mine of Phandelver has great DM tips for new DMs! They are in each section too - very useful.
I'm running it right now. We've got a sympathetic bugbear named Klarg (an NPC) who's realized there's more to himself than outwardly boorish behavior. He "arrived" while the adventurers were exploring the Cragmaw Hideout and has become an important element to the campaign. This module has a terrific frame to bounce ideas off of, with room for sandboxing there in Phandalin.
"....and other substances." That's hilarious
Yes Other Substances ........
Bags of sulfur and guano.
Fusaka? You spice?
I've seen the 'water pipes'...
Skooma
Thank you for 4. I have never got to play in a campaign where my character's backstory ever got to matter. I might as well have played a talking table lamp. Basically, I've had two types of DM; the type who ignore backstories altogether and the type who use them for the sole purpose of screwing players over. Now, I'm a forever DM, so...
I finally got into D&D in my mid-twenties and absolutely fell in love. A few months into my first long-term campaign (DM’ed by my brother), I had this crazy idea to DM a campaign set in the world of a story I had been writing since middle school. Though I’ve never gotten close to publishing it, the story is so dear to me and holds a special place in my heart; if I was going to run a campaign in this world, I wanted to do it right.
I picked up Tales from the Yawning Portal and just started reading through the modules, and then ran them with different groups. I subscribed to almost every TTRPG UA-cam channel for advice (admittedly, you guys were the first 😊). I perused through every source book I had. I didn’t know when I’d be able to actually DM a campaign in my homebrew world, but I wanted it to go perfectly...
This comment is already longer than I meant it to be, it’s just basically a response to the first point lol I’m glad I ran pre-written modules before diving into my homebrew world. I’m now happily running the first campaign in my homebrew world ☺️ also happy to report that my bro, my first DM, is playing in it and said it’s his favorite campaign ever 😭
I know exactly how you feel! Using sentimental old story ideas as world building for D&D just felt like a natural evolution of my creativity.
@@rwbyab7423 Same here, and it's inspired me to write little stories in my world.
@@glassberg5018 the gift that keeps on giving!
¹1
“2 Brothers!....taking in the boss’s world....with....friends they meet along the way....then...having a hard time...and getting one over on all the goblin ferrymen...it’s just...Two Brothers!!”
I feel like I'm missing something :)
@@hawkthetraveler6344
Interdimensional Cable.
It’s what’s up
@@jriggan thanks, that was a much more google-able reference :)
@@jriggan and here I thought it was a loose reference to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
In my experience, it's crazy how different it feels to DM for four players versus five players. With four players you feel like a god in control over the entire universe but with five players it feels like everything is chaos and the entire campaign could break down at any moment (which can be fun in its own right). I cant even imagine DMing for 8 or more people.
It can be lots of fun, and also a chore. I'm a high school teacher, and before COVID I ran my school's D&D club for all new players. The goal was to DM for a bit, then have them break up into smaller groups on their own with their own DMs.
But to start, I had to divide the club into 2 groups of 8, me DMing both on different days, for teens aged 15-18. One group is 7 girls, 1 guy and is very creative, follows the story, and are team players with great attitude. The other group is 5 girls, 3 guys, and are shoot first, ask questions never, chaotic and funny.
Why? How is 4 worse than 5? It's clearly the people you had and not the amount that is the issue, if not, explain how 5 is worse than four considerably?
I actually have the opposite experience. I think when you create a world you know it well so it's easier to manage. However, the pre-made modules are sometimes overly complicated with random NPCs and faction conflict, thus making the DM memorize all this content that they might not find exciting. This makes DMing a chore. It really comes down to: try things out and see what you do best. You won't know till you try it.
It depends how you look at it. I've always cherry picked what i like out of modules. I view it as someone else has done all the background work for me but I pick and adapt what actually makes it to the table out of the options/information supplied.
@@1caoboi1 I agree, I think selecting parts you like from a module is a great way to run a game of D&D. People can also have a homebrewed framework and just fill it with pre-made stuff.
@@br41nc3ll I agree. Different methods, similar end result.
Did this! My first campaign was a jumbled wandering murder hobo katamari. It was broken, glorious, nonsensical, but a lot of fun. I was just lucky my first mistake was enjoyable =]
Since I didn't know about "katamari," I mentally translated that as "calamari" ... fun images lol
When I first started playing, it was me and two friends, playing 4th Edition with nothing but a PHB and a pirated copy of the character builder. I ended up being the DM and we had sessions that were DAYS long. I played my own character to balance out the party, and had to make up content on the fly. It was a campaign held together with duct tape and dreams. It was very fun but ultimately I was running the game wrong. BUT, ever since those primeval months of 4E, I've DM'd for over 9 years now, and the best advice I can say for new DMs is just... do it. Is your first session or three going to have awkward moments? Yes. Will you forget the rules or make mistakes? Yes. But if your players are having fun, THAT is the most important thing. A level 1 DM isn't going to be Matt Mercer immediately.
Rule 4 was something I learnt the hard way: I almost worked myself to a brun-out in my first campaign because I wanted it to be perfect. I was constantly feeling like I wasn't good enough. But then... after the campaign I asked my players how it was. And they said "we had a great time". I opened up to them about how I felt and they told me "yeah, but mistakes are okay". So in my next campaign I went in with the expectation "yeah, I will make mistakes but as long as me and my friends enjoy the game, it's okay".
My two lessons I learned from making mistakes as a DM are: 1. Don't mess with your player character stats. They made the character and unless they specifically come to you for help tweaking their PC, never mess with their character, even if you think they aren't optimal. 2. Plot-wise, avoid making the player characters "chosen ones" or "destined" to do such and such. It's far better to let their characters be heroes in their own rights and evolve into the story instead of be some kind of plot-selected special beings that happen to exist. They are special because of their choices and abilities, not because of forces far beyond their control.
My group had great fun hearing that they are chosen ones and after that absolutely not living up to expectations. It kinda created the whole setting.
Give examples, you can't mention points but then not tell us a reason.
And I thought that expecting your characters to follow a set path not being a good idea was a no brainer tbh.
Monty: I made a lot of mistakes!
Kelly: Yeah.
I just want to say I really appreciate this video. I'm getting ready to try DMing for the first time and it's a bit nerve-wracking. So many videos out there are "It's so easy to homebrew games... just do XYZ" I love that you are saying its ok to just learn and practice with the Essentials or Starter Kits. Its what I planned on doing, but a lot of those well meaning videos kinda made me feel a bit "less than" because I didn't want to create my own world. So thank you for reinforcing my feeling that it was ok to use the Essentials as training wheels! Maybe someday I'll DM enough that I can take them off 😁😁😁
Good luck! Never be deterred by training wheels, they are there for a reason. Happy rolling!
It’s a little late for me, but this is informative. Admittedly, I started with a homebrew, but I did limit it to a single continent, and myself and all 5 of my players in their mid-late 20s, so we didn’t have quite the same issue with dynamics/respect.
In a 4 hour session, with 9 people, assuming everyone plays for the same amount of time, each player is speaking for a total of only 25.6 minutes. Yikes.
And that's not even accounting for the DM, or did you lude the DM as a player?
I understand your point. But much of the time people aren't playing alone.
My first DM session was a DnD club in middle school where only 3-4 people actually were Dming and since it was extracurricular it would be only 1 hour so I had 8 players running Mine of Phandelver for 1 hour every friday. We managed to complete the module by the end of the year but herding 8 player is something I will absolutely not do again.
@@thezerowulf507 I chose speaking time because, in an ideal scenario, two people will never be speaking over one another. My point is to illustrate that, as a group gets larger, the time each player spends as an active participant in the game- as opposed to a passive observer- gets longer. It's easier for someone to lose focus as an observer as a participant, so with a large group, the large amounts of time spent listening rather than speaking can make it very difficult for a person to stay tuned-in.
Yea, I was thinking the DM will get 1/3 to 1/2 the face time, so the other eight players would get between 15 - 20 minutes in a 4 hour session. And when you delete the combat time, it goes down from there.
I would just like to say thank you for having this kind of channel. Sadly as of right now I think I'm going through the trial run of mistakes. I made my own homebrew campaign. I have 7 people in my group. Including me it would be 8. I do have a great story but I think what saved me is that I did look at something on how to start a campaign without going to far off the rails. I looked up stuff and done alot of research. I just want to thank you again for having answers and maybe pointing out some of the mistakes I have already made and fixing them as I go. Also having friends that have DMed before you doesn't hurt. They have helped with alot of my questions and have given me advice.
Eberron is my favourite setting. I wanted to introduce my players to the entire world, so instead of having a focused game, I tried to make it a globe-hopping thing where they were in a different country every other session. Instead of showcasing a rich world, it was basically "check out this quirky place, now check out this quirky place". I tried to show them everything and never really showed them anything.
The bit about backstories me and my friends learned: We first give a GM a very brief summary of our backstory idea, like, class, race and a bullet list of general tropes/traits you hit, then GM responds with some input, and we get some hooks, details etc. set with the info GM trickles down at that point. Then we send a more complete and elaborate version, with the GM's feedback included. Last step is a back and forth, that is setting all the details to fit everything nicely.
It is a fair bit more involved from the GM side for sure, but with internet, whole character creation can be done over a discord/skype, without the need to be on at the same time.
You can get a rich backstory, while still fitting in to GM's idea for the campaign, you do not have to try to schedule a session zero, and GM can devote more attention to less experienced players needing more attention. Works pretty well for busy schedules :P
My friends and I wrapped up our "Two Brothers" adventure last year. The new campaign I'm now running for the group has some great moments...but the show stealer is really "Pool of Acid."
"Someone's gonna come from Wizards of the Coast and take my books away and beat me up." this line aged poorly
Largest group I ever played with had 27 members. Within a month, the GM divided us into 2 groups of 13 and 14 players, playing alternate weekends. It was a ton of fun, as everyone took their turns and eagerly planned their next move between turns. The GM handled it well, keeping each player to no more than 5 minutes per turn... And we all quietly waited for our next move.
How tf did combat go? I mean if all 13/14 players were in the same combat encounter, how many enemies did your GM have to throw at you?
@@PedroKing19 Entire clans of orcs, private armies of lesser nobles, that sort of thing. This was during 3rd edition. At least once we fought a minor demon horde.
I have yet to touch a game of dnd (work schedule pretty much prevents any attempts), but thanks to channels like this and watching so many rpg horror story videos, I feel like I could step into a game as a brand new player and have a much easier time getting into the rules than someone with didn't consume all these videos. Thanks, you guys!
Also helps that I'm a sucker for character races and subclasses, and therefore have collected all of the physical source/rule books.
This does work. I've gone from the videos to my first game right into dming for my son's and friends. Still learning and very not comfortable but the boys are loving it and it's literally thanks to @dungeon dudes and others. Thank you guys.
As a player and, hopefully, an aspiring DM, I think one of the biggest mistakes that a DM makes is not being as invested and interested in your PC's as you want them to be in your Campaign. The easiest way to get a player to be emotionally invested in your campaign is to let them know what you, as the DM, are excited to see shape out in their characters. That doesn't mean railroading their character development by imposing your own vision of their future. What that means is pointing out that a character has an interesting personality or character flaw that you look forward to seeing playout in the later levels and adventures. That's something that takes comparably less effort than even the easiest facet of developing a campaign... or even using a pre-existing one. That's just my two copper on it, at least. :P
Great advice dudes, I started in the early 90s and yes we made all these mistakes.
I did find a neat way to get 8 players with no backstory started.
“You wake up sore, dreary. The sound of dripping water and breathing nearby.” You are currently chained to a wall in a room with 7 other strangers also chained, oh and naked.
Begin!
Over giving is one of my biggest issues. I really just like rewarding players with loot whenever a situation calls for it, but I usually give magic items as that's what they want. Players should definitely not have as many magic items at level 4 as my parties usually end up with. I basically create more work for myself by having to make more challenging situations to account for all the niceties I give them.
I have made that mistake too and then realized I can create game situations where the players might lose items too- maybe throw a creature at them they couldn’t beat and have it negotiate a trade of an item or two in exchange for sparing their lives. It teaches them a few good lessons
@@keithfricke6096 I have tried creating situations like that (taking the toys away or so to speak), but it almost always just makes people upset with the exception of my wife and like 1 long time player. I play with a typical group of 6 people...or used to prior to Covid. I will prolly break them into 2 groups (i have a few others that occasionally play) so I should be able to do 2 groups of 4 or so players. That will at least help with the time each player gets in the spotlight.
Your enthusiasm and love for all things D&D is infectious!!! Currently running Dragon of Icespire Peak as my first DM attempt. Your videos are my go to source!
Thanks for being awesome.
Age 14. I wanted to write stories. The npc's were the main characters. The PC's watched my heroes hog the story. They were still happy to have a DM, but god it was rough. Nearly 30 years later I am joyous of both the memories and the adventure.
In the name of the Emperor the Inquisition has issued an Exterminatus order for your campaign
Just joking, glad you stuck with the hobby and learned as you went!
I highly recommend the Duets (one-on-one) First Blush, Second Glance, and Third Time's the Charm. Currently running my fiancé through them and we're having a blast. They get progressively more complex, with each one adding more mechanics and roleplay and decision-making. Just finished Second Glance with her driving three characters (her Cleric, plus the Rogue and Paladin which can be DMPCs), and she was asking if she could drive a fourth! I've had to coach her that "Hey, these guys are PEOPLE, not a wrench and a hammer, so you need to give them personalities separate from your PC," but she's doing great.
In addition to gradually introducing the Player to the game, they're good learning experience for the DM. First Blush has EVERYTHING you need in it, while Second Glance has most of it, but also sends you to the Monster Manual and Player's Handbook for things.
www.dmsguild.com/product/264021/First-Blush
www.dmsguild.com/product/269135/Second-Glance
www.dmsguild.com/product/274183/Third-Times-the-Charm
Thank you Dungeon Dudes, Love all your content and always looking forward to more! Stay safe and have a happy New Year!
I highly recommend that any GM trying out their first non-module adventure do something similar to my first real campaign: The PCs are shipwrecked on a cursed island and when they get off, they win. Easy premise to understand, functions well at low levels, almost any PC premise works with no hassle, room for multiple encounter types, fairly simple worldbuilding without 500 NPCs, a clear, obtainable end point and an inherently finite limit on how much the party can take things off the rails, since they are physically stuck in one place. (For the record, I had the ship be sunk by a sea monster to discourage any "Let's just build a raft and sail away" schemes - only by exploring the island and finding the ruined magic lab on the other side could they find a way to incapacitate the serpent.)
A rookie GM is not going to be able to effectively run a massive 1-20 sandbox. Setting simple geographic limits on what the PCs can do is not railroading - it is focusing their attention on what is important.
3-5 players is the ideal number of D&D players. I have run and been a part of several 6-player groups, and that seems to be the tipping point where things can get out of hand in terms of giving enough attention to each player and keeping everyone focused on the game.
Monty's 8-player campaign experience was my exact same experience with my first campaign. We ran a heist, with the players being forced to decide whether they wanted to do stealth or go in guns-a-blazing. Cue a 40 real-life minute argument that causes a player to leave, and all that gets done is that they for some reason wait to rob a bank until it closes for the night. Like you said, everyone talking over each other, needing me to yell to get them to shut up or even be heard in the first place. After the heist campaign, we as a group agreed to have a player cap per campaign (or at least every session), usually set at 6 or 7 depending on the DM and the campaign.
My mistake was trying to dm the game without any idea how dnd was played. I had a Player's Handbook and that was it. If only UA-cam was around back then, so I could see a game being played.
My biggest moments were 1:
Always have a backup for the cool thing to get flubbed, the obvious thing to be not-obvious, or for your advice / descriptions to be ignored.
(I had a group of players chase a goblin into a crack in a wall which lead to a long lost hallway and stairs going down. The goblin was working for someone powerful, and had a ring of teleport of the return trip.
Soon I describe to the players as they decend down them, that while the stairs keep decending, there is no trace of anyone being down them in a long time, thick layer of dust, cobwebs across the wgole passage etc.
They ignore my descriptions "there is no way that thing just disapeared!" and keep going down. I panic and let them. Eventually I said it reaches an entrance to an underground cavern where a drugar warns them that everything down here WILL kill them if they keep going.)
I wanted to know about the great mistake regarding the Froghemoth. I am sad and happy because the Froghemoth is never a mistake.
I feel so related... When I first decided to became a DM I also wanted to make a pirate themed campaign, with a lot of things happening in my head. After a few months thinking about the world and even having my players made their characters, I decided that it wouldn't take place, at least for now. I decided to run Tomb of Annihilation instead, and oh my, that was the best decision I've ever had. We played the campaign for a few months untill work and studies made us stop, but that was some of the best moments I had playing D&D. They were for like 3 sessions (7-8h) in Port Nyanzaru, talking with NPCs, learning everything they could about the city, going to places that didn't exist in the city and that I had to came up with fast...
What I learnt about running this campaign was that having a nice plot to guide me so I could think about every other aspect of the game felt great. So yeah, listen to this guys XD
Wondering how many of these I'll have already done.
Thanks for sharing these great tips. I started playing DND in 1981 at the age of 15. A couple of good lessons I’ve learned: (1) The pressure to avoid railroading a home brew campaign can cause you to get overwhelmed by creating a sandbox adventure. You can build some structure that feels like a sandbox but really isn’t. For example, I created one campaign where early on the quest was to collect 5 body parts from 5 different creatures that represented 1 of the 5 senses (the eye from a cyclops (sight), the head of a catoblepas (smell), etc. I built each of the 5 mini adventures and let the players decide the order in which they tackled collecting the items. This gave the adventure a sandbox feel. These items were needed in order to cast a mysterious spell from a book they found. Casting the spell opened a portal to meet with the god of one of the players (I integrated their back story) to set the stage for the second story arc (2) I have that just as important as a Session 0 is a 5-15 minute debrief after each session to find out what things resonated with the group and what didn’t about the session. Use that feedback to either confirm what you are doing is working or get feedback to help shape future sessions. You’ll find in either case the feedback will inspire your creativity
I am a Dm again for the first time since college so I feel like a newbie lol 15 years later, 35 and married now.
Just recently DMed my first campaign. Would like to thank you and every other dm I've learned so much from.
I was properly prepared with a more stoic mindset from people who've been doing it for years to share their knowledge.
I had a lot with your second problem (to many players). I had 10 players total. I had done a 2 month of recruiting, allowing everyone to read the players book, had set watch player d&d tutorials online. Really getting people amped up to get into it. But also trying to not rush everyone to understand what exactly their getting themselves into.
Then we all met up for our session 0. 8 hours, of ages between 26-32, a couple of nectars, we all got on the same page together. 11 in total, thats including me. 7 guys and 4 ladies. I told them. We would cut into 2 groups and I'd run the modified starter set campaign for practice to feel everyone out and they can feel the game out before we even go full force into it.
Afterwards no one quit and they all fell inlove with d&d...
I honestly think I just got lucky with how everyone has been friends for years. Or they were all married and loved eachother. As such a large group. They all respected their time and the amount of time I put into it. I went from only knowing 1 guy to knowing a whole damn clan of people.
Soooo. After the 2 group short 7 and 8 session campaign each. We all met up and decided to all pick a campaign everyone could get behind.
You wouldn't believe it.... everyone picked curse of strahd..... every flipping player around was convinced curse of strahd was the way to go... hahaha... sooooo we did a party of 6 and a party of 4. The party of four came from the west side of barovia and the party of six came from the east.
Out of around 50 sessions each, I had them meet up for around 30 of them in order for larger combat scenarios, roleplaying, and even switching out party members to achieve balanced party to tackle quests with more ease. Seeing the growth of their innovation was astonishing. Hahaha it was honestly something I couldn't quite explain.
But it all worked out. Never seemed bogged down, everyone enjoyed themselves, no one ever missed a session. Habaha just unbelievable.
Sorry just wanted to share my story. Thanks for your knowledge again. Best of wishes to everyone out there
I hand out lots of magic ítems (that is a no no). I allow the use of a homebrew class (that is a no no). Balance is important now i know better...
I just ran my very first session as a DM with 4 players at the table, and after watching this video I definitely will be implementing these tips into the next session. I drew a map on a regular sheet of printer paper with the basic towns/cities that each character said they were from in their backstories, as well as the main city where the campaign would be starting out. I also drew and cut out some 'fog' and taped it to the eastern side of the map so that as the characters continue I can work new things into that side of the map. Definitely the biggest thing I've learned is to let the players help you tell your story!
Great advice guys! I’m on the cusp of running my own campaign, and I think I’m going to start small with a pre written campaign now having watched this video. Keep up the great work!
A few months ago I had a session that ended in one PC's death, and another PC fleeing the fight and the player retiring the character. The one remaining PC spent the last few minutes of the session burying his fallen comrade, putting a personal item of his in the grave so he could find it again with locate object, and doing knowledge rolls to find out if he knew where to find a cleric that could revive the player.
The next session he got back to town and told everyone he decided not to revive his ally.
Never forget, YOUR PLAYERS PLANS CAN AND WILL CHANGE, ESPECIALLY BETWEEN SESSIONS.
I’ve made the first mistake. When I got into a different table top rpg I set aside my ego and picked up a module
One of my pet peeves with DMs is (and I’ve found this happens with a lot of DMs) when they consistently/always punish a nat 1 roll but don’t always look for ways to reward the rare nat 20s that aren’t in combat. For example if you roll a nat one on a perception check for standing watch at night, the DM will say you fell asleep and a raccoon comes into camp and steals some of your party’s stuff, but if you nat 20 on a perception check for standing watch, they say you go through the night and nothing happens but you can really hear the individual crickets chirping well…that’s nonsense and you will lose players trust when you do that. Even if you didn’t have anything planned, maybe make something up like throw in an unplanned small encounter that the nat 20 just saved the party from a surprise attack or even that you saw it coming early enough that your party now has an opportunity for a surprise round on the bandits, or maybe say that the player notices a little bit of glittering in the nearby stream and find a little bit of gold or even that a player notices that a deer has unwittingly bedded down right next to the party and they can shoot it with their bow so the party has some fresh meat and a hide to sell in the next town….something…anything…the player feels like they got a win and you get a win by looking like you had something prepared and it encourages your players to be more engaged even in the mundane stuff
Time to play a another fun game of "how much of this am I guilty of."
I've been enamored by your guy's content these past few months. I mustered the courage at the suggestion of an old friend to DM a session for a group of 4. I asked them all what they wanted to see, and got some ideas from everyone. The party dynamic includes a Warforged gladiator, deactivated years ago upon defeat in a great arena, relearning his abilities as time goes on so he can assume the mantle of the ultimate war machine once again. A shadow monk prodigy who's grown up in a monastery his whole life, and has finally decided to heed the call to the adventuring life. A life cleric, sworn to Athena(Greek pantheon is a big theme in this setting. Think Primeval times), whose village is burned and destroyed in the very first session. Shortly after the first sessions, another player joins the mix, a Tiefling Bard who is joyous and gaudy, with a fixation on glamor and flair.
The setting is that of a continent established by settlers. In my writing, "The people of Karak(continent name) take solace in the construction of their progenies dreams". So, think 7000ish BC in our times I suppose, with a world still in construction, where the average common citizen is a simple serf almost. Adventurers are seen as bold, wild, perhaps even a bit insane, and monstrosities and wickedness wanders the land, the creatures of myth as we see them today being that of unrefined chaos, ravaging any walks of life they oppose. Session 1 starts off with a Hellhound fight flavored as that of a wild Cerberus, not that of Hades, but a wild creature really.
Shortly after meeting the Bard and clearing a nearby burning village of a Doppelganger and Grimlock forces, the party heads to their hub town, going to the southern end, approaching docks and ports, in hopes to explore some uncharted local islands. They barter themselves into obtaining a ship and crew, and venture off. Last session was the party arriving on this island, fending off some Dinosaurs and clearing the first room of an unknown cave, and should they succeed in wiping the dangers off this island, can establish it as a settlement for the hub town, gaining influence in the lands.
This may sound great, and I think it is, but this party is exceptionally strong, everyone having rolled unreal stats and me allowing some magic items from early on in the progression. This group wipes the floor with everything I throw at them, fighting off both a Cyclops and Grick Alpha in Odysseus Cave(Total CR13) at level 3, with ease mind you.
This setting is building up to a grand scene, that of the world's first Colliseum, that of Collis' Emporium. When the party arrives there, we will be opening up some room to have what looks like 7 players compete, as opposed to the current 4 that I'm familiar with running. So far, I've had to do a lot of work as DM to produce challenging story moments and combat encounters for my group, only to be thwarted with ease. This group has already reached level 5, based off of XP ALONE, they're that strong, and we're only about 5 sessions in. Anyways, I'm hoping to avoid some major mistakes highlighted in this video to keep things balanced, so nobody is left behind. Sorry to ramble, but I'm just extremely excited/nervous because I'm taking on some ambitious ideas for my first session in years, and any advice from this awesome community is most welcome
Perfect timing! I'm going to start dming pretty soon, so this video is very helpful.
I played dnd back in middle school during 3.5 and had a couple of sessions that I DMed that were supposed to be hooks into larger campaigns that fell apart in large part because of both my own impatience and being a bit of an adversarial DM.
Back at the beginning of the year I finally got back into DND and in August I started DMing a campaign that we’ve been running for four months now and it’s been a really awesome experience, even with most of it being home brewed.
I think there’s basically three reasons why it has worked. 1) I have a good group of players who have agreed to play the game seriously, it’s not that we don’t have fun or joke, but ultimately the campaign is not “whacky” it’s pretty grim and serious and the players are down with that. 2) I don’t over explain things. I’ve found it much easier to tell my party “You’re in a town, it’s pretty large, what are you looking for here?” Rather than map out a whole market district or city. 3) most importantly instead of looking at my role as being opposed to the party, I’m supposed to help the party craft an interesting story that they enjoy. I’ve had to change a lot of plans and be okay with the fact that some ideas I love don’t get used. But it’s worth it because it’s really gratifying to be told after a session how much fun it was for them.
I just thought I’d charge a little positive experience, hope it helps someone.
Everyday i am further wowed by the power of Kelly's mustache
One mistake I made was not carefully reading the full description of a magic item before putting it in the campaign. It was the Deck of Many Things. My players had somehow convinced me that the way it worked was it disappears after the person who owns it pulls the number of cards they choose to pull (This is true). However, they allowed others to pull cards and then, rather than pulling cards themselves allowed another member of the group to claim ownership of the deck and that person allowed everyone to pull from the deck before passing it on to the next member of the group without pull the cards. (It doesn't work like this). They only stopped doing this when one person's soul was trapped on another plane and another person had some other bad thing happen to them that I can't remember. But by the time everything was said and done, they had several keeps between them, several wishes, and a couple other great effects. I will never, ever introduce a Deck of Many Things into my campaigns again. Also, had a minotaur stop a Tarrasque with a warp marble. He got trapped in the warp marble with the creature, but still. He stopped it with a warp marble. Yea!
Love the video, are you guys planning on doing a sorcerer subclass tier ranking video?
Yes we are!
1) Follow the rules in the PHB and DMG to the letter, thinking that TSR must have known what they were doing.
2) Running published adventures literally and with the heavy railroading that requires.
3) Including and combining everything published that we could get our hands on.
We mostly learned that both TSR and WotC often don't seem to have a clue what they are doing.
Happy New Year) Thanks for all your work!!!
Yeah, one of my big mistakes starting out was not having a grand scheme for my players to do. They had a "main quest" kinda thing, but I had no idea where to go with it. I planned out a lot of things-too many, in fact-but I didn't have a concrete plan of "the McGuffin is in place X, and the players might stumble on it if they keep looking".
First played when we were about 10 years old in the late 70s.
My local pastor gave me the old Basic Box Set, (Blue rule book cover with the Dragon facing a wizard and plate mail archer! Didn't even have the B1 Module in it!!!) as a gift because of our shared love of Tolkien. He'd been on a pastoral trip to the US a few years earlier, and picked it up out of curiosity but never did anything with it. He eventually he became an occasional member of our group, even running games at our Church Youth Club...
So, I told my friends at school that I was getting this game, and they came round at the weekend. We got this box... and no one gave a damn about the rules... it was all we could do not to explode with excitement at the notion of a TWENTY SIDED die... (and of course you had to use a crayon to fill in the numbers!!!!!!)
I was "elected" as DM and cobbled together a Dungeon in about 2 hours, filled it with all manner of madness, and my three friends rolled up characters exactly as per the old 3d6 per stat system, and off we went.
We were playing a home spun dungeon within about 3 hours of first opening the box.
We had no concept of the notion of a wider world than that individual dungeon, so when a character died, rather than creating a new one, I just had the player "Respawn" at the entrance to the Dungeon.
For about a week we just ran that same dungeon over and over until they out levelled the rule book!
I've learned a LOT since then.
TLDR; (basically a list without timestamps that should've been in the description)
1. Start with small adventures
2. Start with small groups of players
3. Have a "Session Zero" where you set up expectations etc
4. Don't ignore what palyers put in their characters backstories and what they want to achieve.
5. You will mess up rules and you will have to adapt things on the fly. Learn to live with it.
I set myself to DM in the trialling times of 2020. I wanted to start small, so I made a One Shot that turned out to be a Too-Far Shot, and we took 4 sessions to finish the adventure. But the last session was a bummer, because I didn't have enough more material to cover a 3-hour-long session. So I stalled, and it turned out to be boring for everyone and disencouraging for me, because I wanted the big epic ending of the adventure to be memorable. What I learned from this is that I need to set time constraints on each story arc. Great video and thanks for all the invaluable tips. Have a great 2021 guys!
Currently running my first campaign (homebrew world with 7 players) and, even though it's going surprisingly well so far, your discussion of the first and second mistakes hit me so hard personally. Oh god.. I'm not stressing, but I am! lol
Thank you so much for the advice, your videos have been massively helpful!
Happy New Year dungeneers!!!
I think this is great advice for new DMs, especially when they also don't have that much experience as a player.
I do have a few caveats, though.
I'd take new RPG players' desires lightly and view them as flexible. A lot of players' perceptions of RPGs have been sculpted by WoW and Skyrim. My whole party told me in session 0 that they wanted to 'kill shit and get cool loot.' They proceeded to spend the next 4 or 5 sessions socialing their way out of almost every encounter, RPing amongst themselves, and interacting with every NPC as quickly as I could create them. I had a very direct chat with them at the beginning of the next session and said. 'Hey, you all told me you wanted ____, but have been engaging with the world very differently. I've adjusted on the fly, but I'd like to know where to spend my prep time. What do you all think about how things have been going?' Everyone was on board and I was THRILLED! I'd been designing everything they were asking for and they'd been dodging it, but now I knew what they actually wanted and could make a world they'd really enjoy. Just getting buy-in on session zero is not enough.
I typically DM for 6-7, and it's hard for me to DM for less than 5 unless it's a solo or duo side excursion. My players play so much off each other that it puts a lot of pressure on each individual in the smaller group to find things for their character to interact with. With a larger group, some players are spectators while others are engaging, but even the spectators are having fun. They get ideas and then build off each other. No one feels pressured to interact if it's not really what their character would do. With a smaller group, it feels like my players all force themselves to interact even if it's not in their character because someone HAS to. It feels less genuine and they go through content almost exponentially faster. It's like a speedrun. Trying to hit the triggers as quick as possible to keep things moving. What might be 3 sessions of content for 7, a group of 4 might go through in one evening. If that's what you're looking for it might be great... but not great for my game.
I jumped right into homebrew. I had, however, been through horde of the dragon queen as a player, and then hopped into a homebrew campaign with very experienced players for a year or two before deciding to DM. Homebrew felt right and much more what I was looking for. I actually did not and do not have ideas for the ultimate BBEG or how I want things to end. The world I want to create is one where it truly forms around the players. What they imagine really becomes reality, within reason, but everything is formed around their characters and what they engage with and seek out. I started this second campaign at level 5 and I see it as sections from 5-10, 11-15, and 16-20. We're rounding out the first chapter and it's them gaining notoriety in the world. 11-15 they will be playing as a known force. 16+ they will renowned heroes interacting with the world at the highest levels. What will they choose to do with their fame and fortune? I look forward to seeing it. I'm showing them the powerful players and they can choose who is a friend and who is a foe.
It feels almost taboo to hear this
I remember getting stressed with 5 people, while advertising I would run groups up to 6. I started DMing by running duets (DM + 1 PC), and after I’d done that for a few months, I figured I was ready to start DMing groups. It was a major shift, and I had to restructure both my understanding of what I could handle at my table, and blundered my way into accepting that my time and focus have limits, even for something I love doing.
Sometimes I forget my stress/prep limits, like right now: I’m running 7 games over a two week rotation. Definitely at capacity, but the groups are more manageable: 3 duets, one group of 3, one group of 4, and one monthly group of 5. Having most of them biweekly is essential for me.
Oh man I was railroader. I had an idea of how things wanted to go to form the story in my mind. Terrible games I shudder thinking back at them.
Thanks for the video
The session zero is so, so vital. When I started out DMing, I had a player who was playing basically a JRPG edgelord lone wolf tiefling hexblade. That character's backstory seemed like the strongest candidate for a campaign hook - the other characters' backstories were more open to things like evil forces or revenge, which I tried tying into the story, but the crux of the hook was, "the Raven Queen wants you to go do X." So, I basically fed the main quest to that warlock character because he had the connection to the Raven Queen, but the player decided that the emo warlock would never want to endanger the other party members with his "personal baggage" so just utterly ignored the entire main story hook. I tried in multiple other ways to have that character engage with the story and every time the player chose to keep information secret. As a result, the players kept only seeing the actions of the evil factions that wanted the MacGuffin, but they didn't even know what the MacGuffin was because one player chose over and over again not to tell the party about it.
At future session zeros (we didn't have one for this campaign), I will make it abundantly clear to new players that those sorts of lone wolf characters have no place in a group game like D&D. Reluctant anti-heroes with complex morality are great, but if your character will actively prevent the story from moving forward...nah, make a different character.
The stash is back baby ! The one shots are coming soon ! Happy New years everyone !
This is how I started DMing
I got excited about all the ideas swirling around in my brain and I tried to come up with a storyline that brought every single one together. I never ran that. My first time actually running something was around a year ago during snow days, about 2 years after I started playing. It was a level 8 one shot that i had balanced with Kobold fight club (which I highly recommend, especially for new DMs) My players all loved the one shot, and i ran another a few weeks later. Since then, i have run a few more one shots, all at higher levels.
Now i am running Icewind Dale, and will soon be running Out if the Abyss for a different group after we finish one of the other DMs campaigns.
Oh I don't think I've ever been so early that there's only 1 comment! Crazy, Keep up the cool content though!
My first campaign as a DM went really well. I ran a made up game while on a camping trip with 4 friends that was in "3rd" edition. We didn't have rulebooks or dice. We had notebook paper sheets and used a deck of cards red A-10 low and black A-10 high for the d20. Picked the game up for real when we got home. Great success.
Now my second campaign.... I think I made the middle 3 that you mentioned. No session 0, no backstories, 12 players in a college dorm.
First? Love you guys
I have DM’d, exclusively DM’d, for over twelve years now. I feel like I have learned more in the last two years than I had in the previous ten, due to channels such as this one. Thanks. Happy New Years Dudes.
One of the biggest traps I fell into as a beginning GM was wanting to make up my own magical items..... I currently have a monk player whose can punch with the range of a long bow.
Outstanding discussion and advice! I think even experienced DMs can benefit from taking a step back and running a preset adventure like Dragon of Icespire Peak. I enjoyed running that so much more than I thought I would and it helped teach new players the game too. You two are awesome! Happy new year, dudes!
My first time as a DM, I had invited a group of probably 7 or 8 people to play Dungeons and Dragons. I did use a pre-written campaign, but with so many people, I often got sessions with no-shows, and the combat encounters were a nightmare to run. The next campaign I ran had a different problem. I tried to run my own homebrew campaign for my two siblings. That also didn't end well, mainly because I became overwhelmed with trying to make the world make sense and coming up with unique combat encounters to keep things interesting while still weaving in those plot hooks to draw the characters into the story I was trying to tell. It became too much for me to handle, and the campaign quickly got derailed and fell apart. Also I tended to underestimate my players and their characters, so many of my combat encounters were too easy.
Not D&D, but I'm in a Masks campaign right now that started with 6 people and a GM who were all first time players for that game. The GM was clearly overwhelmed until the 6th player dropped by the third session. We even played a couple 4-player sessions while people were sick or unable to play, and it's amazing how much more smoothly the session runs when going from 5 to 4, and it was basically impossible with 6.
My very first game as a DM taught me something; if they go off path, don't be afraid to have them discover something new.
My group left the little port town and went deep into the forest where they found an empty monastery and it turned into a crime thriller when they discovered the body of a mono nailed to the ceiling. None of them could read infernal, so they ended up copying the words written in blood that circled the poor victim and left the place to find a library back in town. They tracked down a translation book two weeks later in the nation's capitol where they learned that the ruler of the nation had banned all books on demonology.
TL:DR- definitely run a published module (or at least read one) before DMing yourself, and my advice is pick up “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” by Keith Ammann for more-meaningful encounters.
I love you guys! Another great video, and I’m currently enacting your first suggestion. In 2019 I played DnD my first time in the Lost Mines of Phandelver module as a young Tiefling Warlock. I was immediately inspired and decided I wanted to tell my own story about a Chronomancer.
After a lot of writing and research, I started my campaign, not to total failure but without having read a published module, I was really lacking a grasp on the fundamentals of being a DM. Ultimately, due to COVID, we stopped playing and I shelved it.
Fast forward and I’m now living in a different state away from my group of friends. My wife and her friends, who we moved to be closer to, have expressed interest in playing, having never played before. Remembering how much fun I had playing Lost Mines, I enthusiastically picked up the Starter Set and am preparing to run my first published module. Along the way, I hope to drop breadcrumbs of my Chronomancer campaign so that by the time the party is Level 5 at the end of Lost Mines, they can say “Hey, remember that Clock Tower we never investigated? Maybe we should go back and have a look see.”
The only advice I have is more of a resource. I remember when I was first cracked open the Monster Manual to begin writing encounters, though chocked full of useful information, I felt a lot of the monsters lacked depth. What is their motive? What does it really mean to have an intelligence of 3? Are they savage animals? I needed (craved) more information so I could make informed decisions so my party could have meaningful encounters and not just “a bugbear pops out from around the corridor.” Which is why, if you’re like me, am recommending the book “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” by Keith Ammann. It’s chocked full of tactics and resources about motives and how to roleplay a monster. If you really want to take your combat encounters a little bit further, I’d recommend checking this out. It’s a wonderful resource and reference book- super easy to pick up right before a session and read specifically about the monsters you know your party will encounter next.
Large groups were/are a common thing in this old school/OSR games. One thing that helps a lot is to have a “caller” (just like a “mapper” and a “treasurer”) among the players. The caller gets info from all the other players at the table and tell the DM in a centralized way what the group is going to do in the specific turn of dungeon/wilderness exploration
Hi Monty, Hi Kelly watching your videos taught me a lot, thanks for helping new DM like me with clever tips and advices.
I tryed as a new dm to play with too much player, and most of them not really interested in fantasy ... They are my best friends but after a few sessions i realise, i can't make things perfect and infotunately they were not Pen&Paper players.
So the dream of playing D&D fade away for some time then i founded 2 bro who were into D&D + my own brother.
Now i have 3 amazing players and my campaign is focusing more and more on their background, we have a lot of fun.
Thank you Guys, and Happy New Year !
I've been DMing for just a couple months (we're currently headed for session #5). Most of what I know about DnD I learned by watching Critical Role and other streamed games. I never bought a single piece of official material, when I was learning rules, I only relied on the internet, most of all D&D Beyond and The Alpine DM. I gathered 5 of my pals and basically begged them to try building this amazing adventure with me. None of _them_ ever played the game, and I feel like I really solidified my knowledge of the rules by explaining them to my players.
I constructed my own world from scratch, with its own lore and everything. But the key thing, and a valuable tip I also learned from other DMs on the internet, is that I only constructed a very rough frame of the world, and I didn't immediately plan out everything. The way I lead our campaign, I try to make it really open world, which means everything's fairly flexible and I don't want to come up with great epic plots when I don't even know what's going to happen next time. We're all still learning how to play the game, and I don't want to end up overwhelming my players neither myself.
The starting plot of our story is basically: heroes trapped in a village surrounded by flood, a bunch of bullywugs kidnap some local kids, heroes go to track them down, turns out a bunch of lycanthropes with whom our paladin already has a beef charge the bullywugs to bring them human children so that they can turn them into werewolves and further expand their numbers. Other than a few player-specific subplots, that's pretty much everything I've planned so far. I think of it as a turorial plot before we can move on to something bigger.
My worst mistake as a DM, at least that I really regret, is that I had a player in 3.5 that made a cavalier character, and he desperately wanted to find a giant spider mount. I desperately didn't want that, because it would make tons of challenges trivial (it was a different version from the insane kinds of free movement 4 and especially 5 offer). But he was insistent, and he captured a giant spider, nursed it back to health, and I gave him rules on what kind of animal handling it was going to take to bend it to his will (I think it was 4x hard animal handling skill tests, 1 per day).
A big battle with 50 goblins started, and he decided to skip rest of the process, and just jumped on the spider. He rolled a natural 20 for animal handling. I should have just given it to him. Instead I gave him the ability to ride, but not control it. The spider booked it away from the combat, him on its back. He finally jumped off to go help his friends, and the spider kept running. He was so disappointed.
I did have it come back from time to time to leave him a kill, which made him happier. But to this day, I still regret not just giving him the damn spider mount on the nat 20, and letting him wreck a few encounters. It wasn't like there weren't three other incredibly powerful character builds in the party. Its just a game, and people are there to have fun. I mean, it became a legendary story in its own right among the group, but for all the wrong reasons.
My brother got 12 takers when he said he wanted to run D&D every week. He responded, "Ok, cool. There'll be 3 groups, and each of you will meet every 3 weeks."
In the end two or three people's schedules were less flexible than they'd hoped when they volunteered, and we settled on two biweekly groups with four or five PCs each.
I have been waiting for this. made a lot, like a lot, of mistakes as a new DM. some of them were left over from whe initial one shot a friend of mine DMed. the group ended up way to bif for the oneshot, but more importantly was that i told my players after we split up after the one shot they could use their same characters. i had not yet learned of the concept of a session zero at that time, and so having to DM for these not very thought out characters became very difficult for me. then there was also the problem that some players never showed up, so i delayed the story instead of just kiking them out immedeatly (which i eventually did). at least i managed to "end" the campaign off after the players met a friendly dragon and convinced the town to cooperate with it. another mistake i made was the noob mistake of not properly scheduling my games and instead say that we play when everyone has time
I just played my first game of DnD last week. It was also the first game I DM'd (doing both at the same time was not ideal, but necessary). I felt the mistakes I made deeply, though, thankfully my players (my family) didn't really notice. I only have 4 players, and even that felt a bit intimidating. My gut feeling of creating my own worlds is very akin to yours, but I am thankful and lucky that I chose to run the Essentials Kit adventure instead. Now, my one-shot has turned into a campaign and I'm having fun planning for episode 2. I'm also planning on running Lost Mines of Phandelver as a continuation, using some of the sourcebooks for tips for up-leveling encounters. My bigger homebrew plans can wait a bit.
Getting a bit worried because I'm writing my first campaign in my own world etc. I've got a good grasp on the worldbuilding, characters, general plot, and have confined it to one continent so I'm very confident in my world. However, hearing you speak about your experiences, I'm going to be going back over and rebuffing everything that I possibly can to make sure that I have that middle part figured out :)
The main lesson I'm taking from my first game as DM is simply: make sure to screen the players and develop an understanding of their characters early on. Like for example, check to see if the wizard is in fact a Necromancer. While that could be an interesting dynamic in an otherwise lawful good party, the DM should not be as caught off guard by that as the other players. Or if charging into a battle in the middle of a town square in broad daylight without consulting the rest of the otherwise lawful good party, immediately resulting in a double homicide, property damage, mass unintentional manslaughter, grand theft horse cart, and the fact that it is no longer safe for the party to return to a city full of important plot points is something your character might do, the DM ought to be able to prepare for that.
(These two examples are from two separate characters from the same player. He's no longer playing with us lol.)
Just found this video tonight. We're about to finish The Lost Mine of Phandelver & plan to go into Icespire Peak. Y'all just just blessed me with a HUGE sigh of relief that mistakes are okay & that my group is on the right path. Thank YOU!