How to GM TTRPGs / D&D with Luke Westaway from Outside Xtra - part 3
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Luke ran an Oxventure and everybody had a brilliant time, but did it go according to plan? Let's pick over the session that was and find out!
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The real Oxventure is the rules we fudged along the way.
Barbossa said it best. The rules are more like guidelines. Here's how to form the adventure, but if they get in the way of a good time, go with your gut.
Secret Rule 1: When the rules get in the way of the fun, ignore the rules.
Secret Rule 2: no plan survives interacting with the players.
@@prince_nocturne I think this is why I've never had any fun trying to play RPGs myself. I keep getting groups - not only GMs but players - who put the rules ahead of fun, the plan ahead of choices, and rolling dice ahead of pretty much anything. Now I believe those people ought to just play with their dice and let the rest of us play the game.
@@JervisGermane There are some that enjoy that style. But it's not for everyone. And really, any good GM should be willing to bend, break, or just flat out ignore rules if the whole group agrees that it's a dumb rule.
And 'the plan' should never come before player agency. I've literally had a game story completely hijacked by a throwaway line leading to a random NPC becoming integral to the story and turning everything on its head. It made for a better, more memorable story.
I hope you find a good group to play with some day.
Need that on a shirt.
Some time down the line I would love to see the Oxventurers enter a tavern and a Dwarf panic and rush out the back door, leaving his pie. XD
Johnny, please bring Bob (The character Luke created that heard Prudence‘s message) into a later session.
He could be vital to healing Egbert, so the team has to go on a quest to track him down.
What if he makes him like a stalker for prudence because of the connection they made
I just imagined Mario looking for Peach, but Mario is Oxboxtra and peach is bob.
@@blaxidii7360 probably the other way around. Hey have you seen my family. Oh they just left or something
@@tyrannicpuppy kk
For what it's worth, I'd be fine with three hour episodes going forward.
I second that notion!
Or four.
@@redhex__1738 I like the way you think.
1. Detailed first paragraph.
2. ?????
3. Profit
As soon as I knew Hengest was a dwarf, the “there’s a knock at the door” stood out to me immediately as a hobbit reference when bilbo had all the dwarfs knock at the door.
I was a fan of Luke's technique of rolling a dice and then saying no when Andy asked to do things.
actually i think I was thinking of Luke rolling to see if Shoelacey died when Corazon kicked him. so funny!
Honestly that’s one of the things my former gm did, when we asked to do something that he knew he wasn’t going to allow he would roll a die just to give us the illusion of choice
@@TuIdiota I mean, if you flesh the answer out a bit, that's perfectly valid worldbuilding. An easy example: your party knows there is a hidden door that's revealed by a puzzle. They don't wanna do the puzzle, and try to "bruteforce" find the door using Perception. Even if the roll a nat 20, they still won't find it. Then you could say something like: "you spend the next two hours mapping out every centimeter of the room, but absolutely nothing looks remarkable in any way whatsoever. If you didn't know there is a secret door in here, you'd fully believe this to be a completely empty and unimportant room"
The Oxventure team should bring Dob a tunic back from the museum. Maybe one saying "My team fought a mummy and all I got was this tunic"
Great merch idea
@@CorwinAlexander make the tunic out of mummy wrappages!
Genius 😃👍
Edit:@all of the above
Johnny being so proud of Luke yet refusing to take any responsibility for it is so wholesome. It's so lovely to see someone be so humble and just grateful to share their love of something with another person.
The best teachers think they did nothing, but did everything ... Johnny is most definitely a good teacher
Luke is one of those people who can’t see how great they are. He is very talented.
He so amazing that his shirt changed color mid-stream!
Yeah, he does it with bloodborne too. He starts every episode with this is his first time and sorry if he’s not good and then he proceeds to be a parry god and destroy every boss
@@AlphaOrion98 absolutely agree
Luke and Johnny both, honestly.
Be aware, he is good, but most people can do this ... GMing is not difficult if you can think on your feet, and improvise - and pre-plan as much as you think you need ...
(Hint: it *will* be too much, but this is normal, and some of it will come in very very handy)
"I feel like, I'm getting more enjoyment out of being the reason why everyone else is having fun...", is probably the most GM mindset you could ever hope to have and pretty much explains, why Luke bloomed in that role, I think. Also Johnny's impeccable coaching of course...^^
edit: Just had the thought, if Corazon'd keep the bracers and take the Grappler feat at lv.8, he could literally transform into an ogre suplexing luchador. And I think I now want that.😅
Corazon isn't an ogre, he's a human.
@@christophersmith8316 think he meant that he would suplex orges, not that he would be one. regardless, the real question is, can corazón suplex a train?
J H "Roll a D20 and don't biff it"
@@christophersmith8316 Actually he's Half-Orc
@@z3rotollranc3 Dob (Luke) is half orc. Corazon (Andy) is "just" a human
Turns out Corazon becomes the logical adult one when Dob and Egbert aren't there. I didn't realize before but he really adopts the personality of the people he's around. When it was just Merilwen and Prudence who are sort of the straight (wo)men he becomes much more serious and straightforward. I honestly adore that.
Corozan just wants everyone to like him, but won't admit to that.
What is his alignment? Lol definitely feels a bit Neutral lol
@@baseballjustin5 Probably chaotic neutral, he's down for whatever, friends.
@@joelsmith7078 There is a lot Corazon will not admit about his personality ...
I'm pretty sure none of your audience will ever care if you overrun the time.
I know I'll make up some excuse for a Friday evening if I have to be in a place that isn't my home office.
@@MrMBinder lol "hello boss I am going to be a bit late today Oxventure is running a bit longer then usual" Boss: "What!!! That was today!?" *closes office and heads for nearest pc*
@@blakearmentrout7717 I can't catch streams live on weekdays Monday through Thursday due to my job, but at least I don't work on Fridays.
Such is life working the evening shift, I guess.
Audiences might not, but if he ever does run a future Oxventure for a live audience when the world return to normal, the venue would most certainly care. that's why they established the mindset now, when there's no pressure from us
I was half an hour late to work cuz I was watching it. Worth it.
I suspect many DM's out there who enjoy watching Oxventures are also acolytes of the school of Chiodini, you're an ispiration!
There, more compliments for you today Johnny~ you'll take them whether you can handle them or not!
Honestly as an aspiring DM preparing for my first ever DnD session, I was so calmed by Johnny's advice. The advice I'd heard before was saying about how important making lots of notes were and I was getting a bit flustered and overwhelmed, espically when I couldn't think of how to plan the middle bit fully. But now I know what to focus on, and it doesn't matter that I haven't got a fully fledged story, so long as I can leave enough clues to point them to the boss fight without adding in red herrings. So I'm very thankful for Johnny's advice for calming my nerves and probably going to make the whole thing go a lot smoother and be more fun for my first-time players
A note on the timing thing; I don't think any fans of the series mind at all. I was thrilled to have 3 hours to watch! I understand wanting to keep the times more palatable to attract new viewers and such, but I reckon people jumping into the series would most likely start at the beginning anyways. Honestly I just enjoy the stories so much that it doesn't matter how long they run!
Why doesn’t this have more likes? I loved the 3 hours. I was entertained the whole time! Laughing and waiting to see what would happen, even though I roughly knew. Watching Luke change little things was hilarious. Keep it up everyone!!!!
Agreed completely. I couldn't watch live because I was at work, so when I got home and saw I had 3 hours of Oxventure to watch, I squealed like a school girl.
I'm a 40 year old man
Phoenix Cierebiej A grown man squealing about a D&D show on UA-cam??
Who are you...me? lol
@@dougunfunny2477 we're like twins, but not
Phoenix Cierebiej shit...am I replying to my own comments again? I am known to do that.
I'm loving seeing the proud dad Johnny face when he hears Luke talk about his GM experience, so wholesome and good and why I love these channels!
Johnny has such dad energy that his coworkers at Dicebreaker jokingly call him dad all the time.
Dicedad, even 😉
@@nunyobidniz Dungeons and Dad-gins
I guess the watch really did have a form of magic- we got another whole hour of Oxventures. That's clearly a win n my book...
I was actually a big fan of the 3 hr format. On the normal 2 hr sessions sometimes the last fight feels a tad bit rushed.
Yeah,It was a great win..the best thing was it never felt like it was streaching for too long for me it was just a simple case of special episode of oxventures so it is 3 hr long
I'm just really glad they didn't rush it, even though it was obvious that some/most of the players were aware of the time.
Everything had a nice pace despite the whole thing running an hour longer than usual.
I have to agree with you. It was nicely paced but not too long to be boring. I think they should keep it at 3 hours.
Adding my voice to agree with a longer adventure time. Too many stories have had to be rushed at the end.
I loved how Luke created the -10 rule for baby form and then removed that when Prudence wanted to grab because "baby grab". It really helped the previous penalties make way more sense thematically and creates great moments like that. It's more like you're using the rules as a starting point to help decide what happens rather than a rigid be-all and end-all. Great stuff!
well, minus 10 is for casting spells. Grab isn't a spell, it is a thing babies do really well.
I can totally see where Lukes coming from saying he should have started it in the museum, but as a viewer I really enjoyed the slow tavern start and the introduction of Johnny. If it had started in a tea shop I think it would have felt a bit out of character for everyone, they've never struck me as tea-shop types
You kidding? Corazon would definitely be there.
...
Selling his merch, I mean ;P
@@mar_speedman oh yeah I can believe that, I mean he is ALL about the merch.
But they don't serve booze
Yeah that would've been practical but just a tad railroady. I think Luke could've spun it in an interesting way that would've still worked, but if he'd taken the time to explain that they're in a museum they would've still roleplayed around anyway, and the adventure might've felt even smaller for the fact that they started and ended in the same place. The tavern worked really well for me as well and I think for the players too.
Bulletin board. Put it in front of the tavern, in the middle of town or wherever the party happens to venture to give them the hook and send them straight to the museum without an npc interaction to save time
@@gamehunter88 That's just a wall of text, though. It degenerates the hook into a side quest the players may or may not care about. With an NPC at least you have some manner of control over the situation as the DM, and can manage to convince them to take the bait without breaking immersion.
The bit with Andy killing a guy by kicking him, and Luke talking to Johnny about it, was a bit ironic, given Luke's participation in the, let's say, handling of Johnny's NPCs.
Hey, noone in dobs papoose has died yet. Bismuth might be half her original height but thats it
I didn't mean the death of the NPC, but Johnny being robbed of the opportunity to fuck with Luke's NPCs.
Andy spartan kicked someone? Wow! 🤣
@@najibzulkafli5820 thats one way to interpret it. You should watch the session. Johnny is right to look like a proud dad lol
@@najibzulkafli5820 Less Spartan kicked, more stamped on a frail old man who was tied up on the floor and already too wounded to stand
I really loved the part where Corazon just kicked Simes once, he died and everyone was like "What? Oh yeah... He's an old man who was just kicked by guy wearing heavy boots in the head, of course it killed him" It was a great serious moment that reminded the party that they may not be the good guys... and then Corazon wraps up the adventure by doing it again.
I'd love to see Bob turn up in one adventure as someone needing help with a quest, meeting the party and embracing Prudence for her message from the beginning of this session... and then reveal he's hunting the BBEG who broke into his families home/shop and murdered his father, an old man, before leaving and burning his home to the ground
They're usually the good guys... But... not always.
@@AlexSchmid-TheAceofSpades maybe better than those they are up against, but not necessarily good.
While Luke feels bad with how the watch played out at the end, the ultimate disappointment by Merylwen at Corazon being right about Shoelacey.
Can we just have a podcast of luke and Johnny discussing their dnd campaigns?
I’d follow it!
They should call it Dungeons & Debrief
@@christophmuller3511 Oh my God, yes. At the very least, that should be on a shirt.
@@dominateeye and the design is like a table with paper and stuff thrown all over like an Agent Debrief lol
This was like an hour long competition to see who could compliment who more.
Yep
They deserve it. Wildly entertaining. :)
I'm totally here for it!
And I loved every second of it
To be honest, if you run overtime that is good for me, more oxventure to watch
Johnny: "A demon told us off as we killed another being and I felt bad about it"
(Somewhere Merilwen chuckles as she prepares her meatgrinder)
Or if it ever happens similarly Merilwen's microwave!
I'm so glad Prudence got babied. I've never seen a Teethling before
Hats off to you for that pun sir.
Thank you for for this pun. You are great
It’s been two months but I still feel the need to compliment this pun. It’s one for the history books.
It's validating for me to hear Johnny say he doesn't care about the spell ingredient rules because I also think those are super clunky. Like forcing a character to carry butter in their pocket all the time just so they can create grease that's magical anyways. It breaks my immersion every time, even in more hardcore campaigns.
Well that's what spell focuses are for, if you use one of those you don't need components except for the ones with a money cost. The same goes with a component pouch.
I've never seen someone make their players hunt down every random piece of junk required for a spell before they could cast it.
Re: ranged attacks at close range - you might struggle to fire a gun with John Wick up in your grill, but you won't miss in a game of Russian roulette. Luke absolutely made the right call in the moment, and it felt great to watch (s'cuse the pun).
Sry, this rule must go unbent: that no pun may go un-booed, so Boo!
I agree, it makes more sense that it's very hard to miss from point blank range. lf there had to be some penalty, maybe it made more sense to give the damage roll disadvantage rather than attack roll.
@@fatim0nster how does damage get disadvantage from point blank?
@@hyhena-gaming9986 Good question. A year later I have no idea why I thought giving disadvantage for damage roll made sense. It doesn't at point blank range.
This whole thing has been a great ride. Oxventure has been a constant source of delight for me since it began and I'm glad to see how well this went. Plus I have a ton of drawing material which is always a bonus.
"Wwaaaaaaaah!" - Baby Pru, 2020
Luke did an incredible job for his first DM session. You can tell he hasn't quite found his flow yet, but definitely a natural. But I'd really like to acknowledge just how good of a player Andy is. He's the first to jump on an adventure, and always finds a plan to get what he wants. Add in how unpredictable he is as well, and, to me, that's as good of a player as you can get
The grease fire was hilarious! and I'm sure most of us saw that coming from when you add water to a grease fire lol
Adorable how neither of them take compliments well, getting all embarassed... (Ok, I should stop throwing stones at glass houses, I;m as bad lol). But I would like to say that the whole thing was brillent, watching from the first episode of Luke begining his learning, through the actual game, and then this. eye opening and awesome, thank you both!
I love Luke's metaphor of the brain running out of RAM 🤯
"Being the reason why everyone else has fun" are words I didn't know I needed, but fit my experience exactly. Thanks Luke! (And thanks Johnny for being my ur-mentor too!)
The oxventures were mainly scary because it was only Prudence, Corazon and Merilwen. Prudence is straight up evil, Corazon and Merilwen are neutral. Dob and Egbert are the moral core of the group, they're the good boys keeping them in line
It also helps that normally the Oxventurers encounter more animals/creatures and innocent, sympathetic people, both of which Merilwen is inclined to protect and not harm even being neutral. In this session though, they dealt with two thoroughly unpleasant NPCs (the barowner, who they didn't harm but antagonized a little, and Symes, who was rude and a criminal and whose armor attacked them, so they killed him w/o much remorse) - and then there was Shoelacey, who Merilwen was all in favor of being peaceful with until he double crossed her.
Merilwen is quite harmless until someone attacks or offends her, at which point she becomes savage. I see her as kind of a wild card in the group, cause she can seem like a good alignment in situations where Corazon and Prudence are being petty/cruel and she calls them out, but she gets real scary if you give her a reason.
*Dob is well-INTENTIONED but oblivious, raised by rabies, and easily carried away by peer pressure. EGBERT is the moral core - except when he gets excited, i.e. "Careless". Otherwise, bang-on.
@@griffinraynor8425 Marilwen is True Neutral so...
I just got a KFC commercial as soon as they finished talking about the 11 herbs and spices. Adsense is nuts
lol me too! the Colonel is monitoring our brains!
@@user-yv2cz8oj1k unfortunately there is no ad block for UA-cam when watching it through a smart tv which is where I watch it most :( I get hit with a double 5min+ ad almost every few mins when watching stuff, its absolute hell, all I can do is wait for the first one to play and skip the second one.
I watched the video, saw it was almost exactly 3 hours long, saw that Prudence was baby at about 1.5 hours in and thought that Luke had timed it perfectly as a midway climax of the twist in the 3 hour session he had planned and kept immaculately to time
All of which to say that Luke has completely mastered the most important quality of a GM. The ability to make it all seem like it was part of the plan
This just makes me want a podcast of Johnny and Luke discussing the games they've ran and bouncing ideas off each other. These meetups have been great!
Welcome to the "School of ChioD&Dini "
This mini series has been brilliant. Fascinating and heartwarming both to see Luke developing his skills and confidence (and nailing it) and Johnny's brilliant tutelage.
I just realised this is a D&Debrief 😂😂
Thank you for sharing that, I love it more than I should 😆
With Luke Rollsaway and Johnny D+D-ini
Gave me a scare when the previous version disappeared. Been looking forward to this.
Same here
Same. It said private.😂
Anyone know why it was redacted?
@@PhantomJokerX There was overlapping strong music near the end
Right??? I was afraid it hadn't transferred to UA-cam properly and I'd missed it forever.
Both Luke and Johnny come across as natural storytellers. Add in their willingness to not just bend the rules but absolutely smash them to pieces if it makes the story better; this really makes the Oxventures so much fun to watch.
The part where Luke mentions really enjoying where Johnny took Ellen aside to talk about stuff, where he was super relieved because he can tune out and plan the next part of the session hits me directly in my soul as a DM lol
lol Johnny: you still have the bracers that bestow infinite strength and power but are unable to imbibe or enjoy the pleasures of drink!
Corazon Immediately is seen throwing a pair of bracers in the nearest trash bin....
was my first thought when they said that as well, but I love the idea of them being a magical fitbit and nagging him about his health every time he does something fun. likely to net the same end result.
Corazon:drinks
The Bracers of FitBit: Stop drinking you alcoholic.
Corazon: shut up!!
The Bracers of FitBit:You are in need of 10 three-hour updates.
Derailment extraordinaires, within the first minute they're already on a tangent about Col. Sanders and Gary Gygax indoctrinating new GMs with KFC recipe. Simply amazing
I honestly think Watch Out was one of the funniest and best OxVentures ever. Amazing work from Luke
Luke loving being the reason that people have had a good time feels like one of the most Luke/Dob things he could ever say and I think that says a lot about what a good lad he is.
You both did amazing in the last adventure, great job Luke for a wonderful adventure and nice job to Johnny for supporting Luke before, during and after!
I love the FitBit solution for the overpowered bracers. My go-to is usually to make really powerful items sentient. It's great when you get power, but not so great when you realise you're the power the item's gained.
3 hour format of the Oxventure would actually be the best choice! It didn't feel rushed at any moment AND it also didn't feel "too long", which is amazing.
Wish all oxventures lasted 3 hours
Totally loved that moment near the end where Merilwen and Corazon were arguing about whether to hand over the watch- it wasn't a problem, it just made that climax with the big reveal way more dramatic. Like, in-character as Shoelacey, Luke really seemed to have Merilwen believing he was just a big nerd, it was awesome! I watched it without having seen the planning videos so I wasn't sure myself. Actually one of my favorite parts of the episode in terms of RP.
Ran it brilliantly you mean. I think it was in some of the white wolf rpg's that had the golden rule that said if a rule was in the way of the story to just fudge or ignore the rule. So I was so proud when you decided to golde rule the combat with prudence. Sometimes remembering that the story comes first is one of the hardest things to do.
Great debrief, but it could have used a huge unexpected blast of music around the mid point.
I agree, it felt like something was missing
In another world...
Peronally I don't get the appeal of this Georgelucasian desire to mess with perfection.
Ahha! I thought it was just my app messing up lol
The bit when Luke said, have a detailed beginning, and know where you want to end up, and have everything in between be loose...that is exactly my approach to lesson planning as a teacher. A bunch of this stuff about DMing is directly applicable to teaching, which is really interesting.
I cant be the only one who's noticed any video that has Johnny and Luke is them dying of laughter half of the time its Brilliant.
When you consider just how difficult an introduction that was: 1) Live stream, 2) experienced players, playing characters they know already, 3) characters who are level 7 - therefore lots more skills to use, 4) your DM guru watching (I slightly disagree with Johnny about D&D not being beginner friendly, but if he means the content can overwhelm just because of volume, then yes) - then Luke wasn't good ... he was amazing. Definitely a GM future awaits. (Bah, I wrote this after watching 1 hour 6 minutes ... Johnny then used the word amazing too .. at one hour 7 minutes!)
2 mins in and already the adorable levels are pretty darn high. Both Luke and Johnny just seem like genuinely wonderful people, and no doubt great company in a warm country pub with an open fire.
Talking about how near unkillable Corazon is, is pretty much the fake it til you make it thing. He has somehow turned into a really badass character. Not bad for someone with the surname Milktoast
I'm glad Luke mentioned that it was SUPPOSED to be 2 hours and ended up being nearly 3. I was planning on having food after the oxventure... then was really hungry but had refused to leave my screen for fear of missing anything. That'll teach me to eat or make food BEFORE live shows 😂 (like Luke said "it was great BUT if I COULD do anything differently...", that would have been my one thing I changed lol) x
When it hit two hours I started to wonder if it was gonna be a 2 parter! Deffo would love to see Johnny join the Oxventurers again one day as a character. x
I recently played my first game of D&D and I found myself sitting behind the DM screen. Thank you Luke for giving me the confidence to try my hand in this and thank you Johnny for teaching me everything I know (even if I panic forgot most of it haha).
There's something very important I think they forgot to talk about; especially when talking about Corazon still having the bracers. The OXventurers still have the magic baby watch that's drawn to powerful beings. Also Bob, real family member of the OXventurers.
I liked that this session went for 3 hours. Yes, the first part in the tavern took a long time (about 40 min), so there's potential for time saving there if you need it, but generally, the tale was quite well told. It was also fun to see the role playing of "flavour elements" - the cat for instance wasn't necessary, but added something to the story. Having seen the prep, I also knew that you were freestyling the gift shop stuff, which was nice. :)
I ran across this little series after having seen the adventure & it has been really enlightening to see behind the curtain. Seeing all the little details that we saw play out was really fun.
As well as seeing them joke about baby Prudence flying around on her Eldridge Blast if she failed her DC & knowing that actually happened EXACTLY like they said.
Also, I would like to second the opinions of many people I've seen on Tumblr that it would be fantastic if Luke DM'd a game for Andy, Jane, Mike, Ellen and Johnny on the alternate Fridays with a set of new characters. It'd be easier for Luke and Johnny to explain Dob and Hengist's disappearances, it'd give Johnny the week off and it'd give the others a chance to experiment with new characters. :)
Your wish came true! Or you're a psychic 👀
Am I the only one who noticed the person walking behind Johnny at 59:46 and earlier. The joys of working at home I take it.
Johnny has such a soothing voice
Commenting to support the channel!
Also want to say that I'm a part of Johnny's school of DMing, he inspired me to try DMing after years of being scared to try. And Luke, you did a wonderful job, please know we loved your work and would be awesome to maybe start a new party on alternate Fridays with you as DM. Thank you so much to both of you!
Listening to Luke describe his thought processes, I bet he'll love Blades in the Dark and other less structured games.
This comment aged well.
Can we get a video about how Johnny makes the characters?
I too, consider myself an acolyte of Maestro Chiodini. Thanks be to the Chiodini GM'ing Academy.
Johnny, the way that I remember grappling is that the attacker has to maintain their grip (STR/Athletics). The target can either brute force their way out (STR/Athletics) or slip free and evade (DEX/Acrobatics). It seems to work for me ... usually. Thanks for the great videos, all the laughs, and best of luck to you all !!!
Idea for the bracers: make it like the Midas curse. They make Corazon *too* strong, and he's ripping doors off their hinges, if he pats someone on the back, they die, etc. You guys even joked about it when Corazon unintentionally kicked Shoelacey to death.
A more permanent way to prevent everyone from using the bracers is making it slowly eat away at his constitution or wisdom, at the price of his increased strength, till those stats drop to zero. And to make the bracers accessible for others (like the original wielder) make them roll a save to a really high DC (DC 50 or so!) This way, the bracers work normally, but the Oxventurers can't use them without hurting themselves, so they eventually discard it.
Any other method runs the risk of the players keeping the item with them and using them in combat, then taking them off when they're out of combat.
@@mar_speedman I don't think Johnny's goal is to prevent oxventurers from using the bracers. I feel like he's going to have fun with them, actually
@@gothmissstress Well *normally* you don't just give the party expensive bracers of strength for free. I explained the way I would react in this situation, but of course, Johnny's DMing style is way more fast and loose and creative. I'm sure we'll all be surprised when next session comes
Can I like this video twice? I LOVE Luke in general. And his beautifully natural DM skills are like watching magic happen.
👏👏👏👏
As a GM who runs prewritten campaigns, I will say that you can make them as strict or as loose as you want. Like you said last week... "I'm a GM. I am not beholden to anything. Take that written down numbers!"
I like the modern prewritten ones because they usually do a great job of describing locations, items, and npcs, something I am terrible at doing on my own. I haven't really noticed them planning out a path/plot, but maybe that's just because my players never do what the book expects them to do so I just ignore that part of the book. As long as I know my world, I can react to what the players do, and prewritten campaigns do a much better job of creating a world than I ever have.
I am learning and growing in this skill, but it's all based on what I learn from other worlds in literature, movies, and yes even games. I feel people attribute so much of their success to themselves when in actuality, we are only "standing on the shoulders of giants."
Luke I absolute loved how you handled Shoelacey during the whole fake watch debacle and debate! I think it made perfect tense and created some good tension, which let the surprise come at the perfect moment. You played off that scenario really well.
If everyone would be on board for it I'd love to see Luke begin DMing the Oxventure periodically sort of once a season so that we don't miss out on Dob too often but we do get to look forward to the traditional Luke takeover/Player Johnny session in the future. Ofc it's entirely up to all of you how frequently or soon you're comfortable doing that but I can say confidently that if you did you'd have an eager audience for it. And thanks to both of you as well as all the other Oxventurers not only for the joy and entertainment your sessions bring but also for how accessible and fun you make TTRPGing feel. I've played one short campaign in my whole life and I'm still nervous about my ability to do it again but nothing's made me feel more motivated to try than the lovely people at Dicebreaker and Oxboxtra!
I understand there are other factors involved behind the scenes, but as a viewer I very much appreciated the extra time in the episode and will pretty much sit there as long as y'all are willing/able to keep going
This was truly fascinating to watch after having enjoyed the Oxventure. Seeing two DMs sharing thoughts after the adventure is done? Brilliant. I said this in the Oxventure comment but it's worth repeating: Luke did an AMAZING job. Johnny will always be Literally Everyone Else In The World in my mind, but as big as his shoes are I think Luke filled them exceptionally well.
Luke: "When you introduce an animal in an oxventure, its basically there for Merilwen to use if she wants"
Johnny: "Yeah Yeah"
Me: "Or for Corozon to kick or kill"
That poor chicken
@@brokemage1395 that poor rabbit too
That poor woodpecker
All those poor animals that had the misfortune of crossing Corazon.
Future oxventure idea: Corazon is plagued by the ghosts of all the animals he's kicked and killed.
For me it was obvious when Luke ran Wherwolf that he would be an excellent DM and I think he should run a game with a world of his own creation, he has a wonderfully creative mind.
This was such an excellent series. Huge props to Johnny for his amazing teaching and coaching skills and to Luke for creating one of the most memorable episodes yet!
Luke you did brilliantly! And am I the only one you loves how proud Johnny is?
Luke knocked it out of the park, I was not expecting it to be so amazing!
As someone that is a planner DM (particularly with combat variation, I like to have multiple waves of themed enemies that I can add or subtract from the battle to help with the difficulty), the thing that I loved the most about Luke's DMing style was that his first call he asked for was the Bob sending spell. It would have been so easy to just say "no he's out of range" but he went with it. Set the tone immediately and you certainly foreshadowed his DM style. I loved it.
That last point about druidic focus and stuff, I remember being told long ago "There are no rules, only guidelines"
As Captain Barbossa said; "The Code is more like "guidelines" rather than actual rules"
Woop! Been checking for this one... thought I'd missed it.
On a side note, I *did* totally predict Luke would give away all their gold.
You guys should do a running campaign not separated titles, then you don't have to worry about time pressures. I'm sure everyone will be on board!
I think the thing is that's a very long winded affair and the way every other youtube dnd channel does it, so the idea of short sweet adventures that are done in one and still follow along from each other kind of works better for the oxventurers playstyles. Plus its easier to plan one session that will get everything than it is to plan an entire story arc spanning several weeks
@@KarmicKnight97 that and if they do a live event, there is that real world time constraint for the event (Like say PAX)
"THERE IS A SUDDEN CLAP OF THUNDER!!!!!!"
"Wait! We haven't decided what pie we are having!"
Mentally taxing? No shit, that was a three hour session and you knocked it out of the park. That was brilliant, from beginning to end.
I have semi-recently run a game of Ten Candles for some friends, and I had no prior GM experience whatsoever. It was a mostly successful session, and I attribute that entirely to watching Johnny run games, and learning from how he just rolls with things, how he handles being derailed, how he sets the tone for the game and much more. If you’re reading this, Johnny , you are absolutely smashing it as a GM in every video I see, and you are an inspiration. I would never felt I was up to the task if I hadn’t seen your sessions and some of your „how to run a game“ videos. Thank you!
Also, more on topic, Luke did an amazing job, you taught him well.
Absolutely agree about ignoring rules that don't add to the experience.
Money, carry weight, spell materials, class alignments, racial modifiers; GET IN THE BIN.
They are frequently irrelevant or outright nonsensical.
Yeah, definitely in the kinds of games the oxventurers run. Money, carry weight and components can be fun in some games (like Luke and Johnny said), as it presents new challenges and rewards, especially in a more serious and less comedy-driven world. But it's nto going to be important or fun for everyone.
I agree that alignments for classes or races, and racial modifiers, mostly stifle creativity rather than add to it (also the way they are presented is often weird and/or problematic)
Certainly I can think of scenarios where they matter, but they are "special occasions" in my head. "trekking through wilderness" or "buying a house".
But I do think it's unnecessary to track anything that costs coppers and silvers, and that most carry weight questions can boil down to "could they reasonable tuck this suit of plate armour under their arm and walk off with it?"
Jonny you can count this Luke as another acolyte of your teachings. All three of these videos have helped me with becoming a DM as well. In short you are a legend!
I was on 4 hour train trip during the stream. It running for 3 hours was just perfect 😁
Johny, thank you so much for the advice you have given in this series with Luke, as well as your "7 Ways" video with the ox crew. I have taken my own steps into the world of DM'ing using your advice and it is so much more fun for myself and my merry band of adventurers than it would have been without your words of wisdom. If the academy idea pans out you definitely have a student here.
you can count me as at least one more in the "acolyte of the school of Chiodini" column
I'm so thankful this group is the one I chose to start watching as a case study when my friends asked me to DM for them as new players, and I'd only, like, half-played one adventure in the past. we had our first session just a week ago and I don't know if I could've handled it without the insights gained from, not only watching all the Oxventures, but also johnny guiding Luke through this process
This whole series has been an absolute delight to watch, along with the Oxventure!
Please let's end this conversation about a 3 hour campaign. Some of my favorite episodes run around that time on this adventure.
I've GMed off and on for about 40 years, but kind of lost my nerve a while back.
Watching Johnny and Alex Meehan encouraged me to try again.
So I'm adapting a published adventure. First session I did detailed notes on the characters and events in the adventure, possibly two session's worth, from the author's PoV
We blew through that in the first, and didn't use a quarter of the encounters and actions the author thought we did.
Session two I tried a much looser framework as per Johnny's advice to Luke. Saved time and again, and the adventure showed up something Johnny and Luke discussed. I can't see any way that anyone would follow the author's expectations. They would look at the information presented and short circuit the next journey.
So I agree with them, a plotted adventure/campaign can get in the road if you aren't prepared to throw it out and improvise until you can weave the essential buts back in
Thank you for doing this mini series! I found it really interesting to watch the whole thing unfold.
I'm coming to this quite late but these few GM Academy Mini-Series videos have really opened my eyes to trying to run a game. I've played, let's just say numerous, RPG's over the years but I've neer had the courage to try and lead the narrative, as it were. Watching the ease with which Luke picked it up and listening to Johnny's excellent advice has given me the gumption to take the leap, at least a small leap. I'm planning a game for my kids using the Risus system as it seems to be a nice simple way for all of us to get into it together.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is, thank you. This has been a joy to watch