Hey I got a shoutout from Jim! That’s freakin awesome!! Even though your channel is new it has become a treasure trove of gaming wisdom for me. Game on!!
Jim Murphy well I appreciate the wisdom coming from you. Always looking forward to the next video so that I can use that wisdom to improve my game. I’m currently running every week in my friends garage, so I’m gaining a tiny bit of wisdom as well.
I love both your videos and Matt (Colville)'s videos on DM-ing, but I find it fascinating that you two have (what seem to me) different but equally valid ways of framing your videos and helping new DMs. Matt's videos are like puzzle pieces, each of which holds directly usable information about how to set up or solve a specific need/problem as a DM. Say you wanted help with something very specific like lowering the CR of a high CR monster because you want to use it at a lower level. Pretty specific. But Matt has a whole video just about that, with the medusa example (great video btw)! It helps a prospective DM with specific issues, almost like a handbook of separate lessons, each of which is self-contained. Your videos, on the other hand, I think are much more big picture. Instead of necessarily giving people the ways to solve a problem, you talk about the source of the problem contextualized in the the frame of group dynamics, the spirit of the game, and linked to the reasons why we play D&D. Lots of times this means that your videos sort of weave fluidly in and out from talking about the main issue, to talking about a specific story, to talking about a subpoint, then back to the big picture in an interesting fashion. Lots of the videos even link together and overlap, which helps portray your view on the game in general. It really makes for videos that help DMs (like myself at least) think about the bigger picture of how to approach things, not just one specific part of the game. So i find it pretty cool that a new DM could come to your channel and listen to get ideas and inspiration for general things such as how to approach the group player dynamics or thinking about different suggestions for how the game could be played to better suit everyones needs (like having monster wranglers to help new DMs), but then also go after that to Matt's channel to find specific videos about more detailed questions that could help them along the way, such as how to deal with bad sessions (Matt's video on that is also a good one) or how to make cool bad guys. Anyways, just a big fan of both of you, so thought I'd share my opinion on why I like both of you guys equally but for different reasons!
@@jimmurphy1591 As someone watching both, you compliment eachother....together, I get the best,and this commenter hit the nail on the head!!! This is how I feel, I love you and Matt for very different reasons, while gaining knowledge from two completely different perspectives. I'm still waiting for others in my area, trying to come up with other players. Playing Neverwinter in the mean time, hoping ads, and feelers come back.
I'm glad you decided to add your voice to the dialog Jim. You express some much needed concepts. If you ever find yourself headed towards Spokane WA, give me a shout. We'd love to have you join our game one night. Hell, I'd even turn my campaign over to you for the night!
That’s a fantastic bite-sized piece of advice. “Lose with panache.” I wish I could tag that gent in from the previous video who asked you how to play tactically.
Hi Jim, Long time DM here. First time listener of your channel. Great insight and loved how you convey simple, yet highly useful, information to your audience. It shows your experience and depth of knowledge. I'll be going back and watching all the videos I haven't watched on your channel. Thanks for everything you're doing for the community. Please stay encouraged to keep posting videos!
Great advice, Jim! I'm a big fan of having a villain that got away constantly harass the heroes. I recently had a dragon turtle sending mercenaries after the heroes because they stole a lot of magic items from her treasure horde. The waves of mercenaries kept on for nearly a year before the players finally got fed up and tracked the dragon turtle down and killed her. It was epic. 😃
Thank you so much for this! It's been about 26 (27??) years since I last played and I'm now eager to play again. Although I don't have any to play with I've asked my wife and my kids to join me. But wanting to play as a DM it occured to me that neither my wife or my kids has played D&D before , and since it's been that long ago since I played myself I might be too concerned that I might mess thing up and scare them away from the game. It's like I'm terrified to throw them all out there telling them: "Now , you're on your own... go do some adventures!" I guess what I'm trying to say, is that you never know what you're going to get with totally new players and a DM that hasn't played for over two decades. I guess I'm scared that it will all go off track... Although that might be fun in the end. Anyway, great video and it really keep me relaxed about the whole thing. Thanks!
Wow, I have to say, Jim, you are one of the only 'youtubers' that reading your comments is just as informative as the video. Love your community here, enjoying the info in the video, as well as the people commenting!!! Keep it up!!! Hugs from Indiana!!!!
Howdy from Auckland New Zealand, Jim. Bloody great video mate. I’ve been DMing and playing since I was 15, just over 10’years ago, and I have been pulling a lot of great knowledge from your videos lately. Thanks for the great and frequent videos recently, I hope you keep it up. I also hope we get to see you DMing one day! Cheers, Colm.
I don't usually like to make my monsters super smart unless its an unusual occasion. It makes players feel like their decisions matter more, like when they decide to throw themselves into a poor position to attempt to taunt a monster away from a downed ally or use an action to inconvenience a monster. I've had a bard in my campaign who's fed himself into the enemy and used his action to use his immense persuasion to have everyone focus on him and pass up his allies. He's been exceptionally lucky - the first time he did it I thought he was fed up with my campaign and tried to lose his character to leave. I was really angry at him and threw everything I had to kill him. I missed every attack. I found out after the session he was doing it as a distraction to keep everyone alive, he was just lucky enough to disengage and reconnoiter with his party and they all got out safe. The second time he was just as lucky but ended up bludgeoning a skeleton lord to death, earning him all the glory he ran away from in that first death scenario. The party is now tied ironclad to each other. Had I held back, botched dice, bailed them out, or whatever it wouldn't have been as genuine - I rolled my dice in front of my players and every roll was a teeth clencher. I've done these types of fights before but I didn't commit before. You really have to be confident in your decisions as a dungeon master, regardless of how you feel in the moment. If the fight was way too much, then learn from it but if the path you took makes sense, the players had alternate options, and there was a steady escalation, do NOT feel bad about how the encounter is going, you are being a great DM, these things are natural. As players (actually as humans), we test the boundaries of our world and without them you wouldn't have a believable one.
Great video! I'm a new player to D&D and a new DM. I've taken the "let's make it dramatic" approach to my gaming, and I think it's made the game more rewarding for my players. Last session, they killed my main villain, of the whole campaign. But... they also ended up unleashing an ancient evil dragon on the world. Now they keep talking about that fight, and I'm so happy they beat my main bad guy. Drama is where it is.
I've been told by a few players and the one who's been in my games the longest, say that I am really good at running combat, that I know how to make it engaging and fun, which was funny to me because I've never really been a big fan of combat myself (especially as a player). But here I am at being praised for being able to craft challenging yet enjoyable encounters of combat, and narrating them in a way that felt extremely cool. Perhaps it stems from that idea that I don't find combat that enjoyable which makes me subconsciously push for the more investing scenes of combat, but I honestly don't think it is as difficult as some might perceive it. You just gotta remember that simple things can make a big difference when applied properly.
+TheNerdySimulation - I have been similarly complimented by my players before and I think you are right. I hate when the story comes to a grinding halt for thirty minutes while combat occurs, and so in my games I strive to keep the combat fun and engaging. The biggest thing I think is to not fall into the rut of just calling numbers out to each other and turning it into a game of Dungeons and Accounting. I encourage my players to describe their attacks cinematically (especially crits) and instead of simply responding "Hit" or "Miss" to attacks made on them, to narrate exactly what happens to them. The "rule of cool" definitely applies strongly in my games, and I think players end up really appreciating it and having more fun as a result.
THeNerdySimulation, Been there, myself... For what it's worth, I think those of us who have found "the combat systemic" dubiously objectionable, have been able to readily identify WHAT we don't like about it... Perhaps, as Sharky Sharklops suggested, it's where the Story gives way to "Dungeons and Accounting"... I've always had a personal disdain for anything that disrupts Narrative and Story Craft... SO I've always voted for "Epic as Hell" when engaging in the "combat narrative"... I think it coaxes everyone at the table to speak about their actions in language and Role Playing terms rather that numbers and Roll Play terms, which at least sounds better... AND for the record, no. Combat isn't as difficult to run as many would like to believe... ;o)
I am a 1st time D.M, who discovered your chanel fairly recently. ... Of all the Gamemaster advice vids, I think your the best at *motivating* me to *want* to D.M. ... Lore and ecollogy vids make me want to homebrew adventures, other advice vids may help me run them better, but you make me *want* to *run* them.
There’s a recurring bad guy I’ve been wanting to run - a goblin who I will refer to as “Grinko” that, through some kind of arcane/eldritch means, has his soul tied to some kind of magical item and it makes him immortal (similar to a lich) for as long as that item remains intact. After encountering Grinko, killing him, then taking his magical item, Grinko will return and relentlessly pursue the party. He will appear with increasingly difficult enemies to ‘aid’ him until he eventually appears with some stolen Red Wyrmlings. The mother dragon is understandably enraged by this and, when alerted, will burn Grinko alive, eat him, then attack the party if they are near. Grinko is largely unconcerned as this was the plan the entire time. I’m excited to try it out. It has recurring bad guy that I can introduce any time there’s a lull in the game, and it should be a fun way to run a plain old goblin.
I very much enjoy creating creatures with the the 3.5 ed d&d templates, the more unexpected the better. I find they inspire both story and plot. Some favorites: Jagtooth, a half-dragon (blue) orca Sheepling Folk, tauric halfling sheep Dire chickens Goblin Half-Elf Thank you for the wisdom and guidance on this our journey to becoming better gm's.
Thanks so SO much for this! It's awesome! I think one of the main things that made me facepalm at myself was the idea of basically expendable monsters as learning tools, I kept thinking about my goblins as THE goblins, if I wrote that there are 6 of them, I have 6 of them and I can't lose them xD also the idea of story vs efficiency was not alien to me but I think this made me realize how flexible the "story" part really is, and that even if I'm not too efficient I can always throw more Stormtroopers at Luke, and it will be dramatic... Again, thanks A LOT for this, I will apply all of these next time we play... Peace! :D
So, close, but it HAS been 35 years... oy! 😂 The Oggsbog battle was magnificent; the ogre was actually slaughtering the party. Wizard incapacitated, fighters dead or KO’ed, and then the halfling steps around the corner with his sling and plants a stone tight in the ogre’s forehead. Knocked unconscious on the edge of a precipice, the ogre had a 50/50 chance of falling forward to the floor or backward to his doom. Bye-bye, Oggsbog. What made this fight epic is that it was in SPI DragonQuest. There are no “feats” in that game, no canned “special attacks”. Everything that happened was the result of random die roll results paired with player and GM choices. The confluence of random results made the event memorable; it was not planned to end the way it did, and the manifestations of fate provided a conclusion all the players still talk about today, 35 years later. And I still have Oggsbog and, like Redcap (Jim’s goblin), his body was never found. 😁 Now, the Succubus Queen... THAT was the build-up that had all the player terrified. Weakened by her orcs and undeads, now they faced the Big Bad, who swept out of her chamber, easily won the initiative, conjured an opening spell that would have killed half the surviving party... and rolled a critical fumble. Stunned, the Succubus Queen fell to the floor, the players looked at each other and hacked her to bits before she could recover. THAT was the encounter I stared at, dumbstruck. When I finally came to my senses, I think I said something like: “So... pizza? “ 😂
Don Hawthorne it is interesting like the Bulette encounter with Matt’s group we talked about on his video. I find often after decades people recall things differently
In my opinion, you should be careful with fleeing and recurring enemies. If done wrong, it can feel like harassment. Don't let enemies escape for the sake of it and without giving the players the chance to get the bad guy. In a campaign I played in, we had a bad guy always escaping through a miraculous way. First we tried to fight him, used dimensional anchor and other stuff on him, but somehow nothing worked. In the end, we just gave up and stoped caring about the whole campaign. PS: Jim, love your work and your take on the game!
Bazhwak Yeah, if the enemy gets away, it needs to be done in a way that seems realistic. If the players feel like they should have stopped him but the DM pulled some garbage move to make him get away when he shouldn't have, then yeah, it breaks suspension of disbelief and kills the fun of it.
So this last weekend the college group got back together after 27 years. I ran them through the last battle in the Spelljammer universe and it only took them about 30 minutes to find all the old habits. I spent the next two days shaking my head and making changes to the narrative as they did crazy things. Some of the encounters were great and some were not, but they were having a ton of fun. So this is great advice. As a note, they now want to try Roll20 and I am going to be running a game for them online.
So I’ve been DMing this group for nearly a year and this has been their first campaign. I’ve given them items, unique spells, made the world fit their backstories and most of the encounters have been really easy for them. I’ve been trying to slowly ratchet up the difficulty so there’s some actual stakes. 2 of the players are a couple and we play at their house because they’ve got children. The wife has stated multiple times that she will quit if her player dies and spends most of the game on her phone. The other players are so passive. I want them to surprise me and they just sit around waiting for me to railroad them to the next bit of loot. How do I promote player agency and active play. Or am I wasting time I put a ton of work into the world, encounters, and NPCs and no one takes notes. The most active player is the host of the house and he says he doesn’t have good enough handwriting to take notes. And when I warn them that if they forget information then their character forgot they act like that’s cruel and harsh asking for names of people they’ve met multiple times and had lots of interactions with. This is a long post sorry but I’m getting burnout from this and don’t know if it’s worth the effort.
I'd say for combat encounters, allow yourself to start by building the encounters easy and over time make them harder (as Jim also suggests). In terms of how to run encounters, there are a few charts out there that will tell you how to run a particular monster based on their intelligence score. Generally, animals are very quick to flee and don't show mercy to prey, nobody (almost nobody) wants to die, and any creature with 14 INT or more is probably going to be pretty excellent tactically. Also, it is okay to just literally ask players how lethal they want the game to be. So long as they choose a level of danger that a DM will also have fun with, you're good.
Thanking you kindly sir; I am really enjoying your videos so far - both to just listen and relax to as well as expand my DMing approach, so thank you again! One question I have for you is about jazzing up monsters to make them interesting. I follow the line that a monster's hp and ac are rarely that important, that their schtick and memorability comes from a special ability, or move, or way of fighting but I feel many monsters just boil down to hp meatsacks. I have seen Mr Colville and your kind self recommend dipping into previous editions to jazz them up, but I don't have any experience or current access to previous monster manuals. Is there anything you would highly recommend doing in that case? Any help or pointer in the right direction would be appreciated!
John oops. I sometimes give them just a special ability. A spell, the barbaric rage, a special attack or alike that makes them “ different. Matt’s epic bad guy ability to take an extra action wowed me. Or multiple classes. Anything changes the dynamic.
A questions I'd like to hear your thoughts on, if you wanted a video idea: -When should you do when you've clearly made too difficult an encounter by accident? Especially if someone is downed in like round one.
in my game, when the players are fighting goblins, kobolds , zombies ect. I make usually use more than average, but I will run them very sub-optimally. Because goblins are stupid, and the players love out-smarting a very powerful encounter.
Hey Jim, great video. Check your location tag on this video though, it appears to be a residential cross street and you don't want to be broadcasting your address to the depths of the internet, especially as you get more popular.
8:21 Lore-lawer here, Kobolds are usually zellots, so they probly will fight to the death. ... Goblins are alot more likely to retreat or surrender. ... Both will use cunning tactics, traps and deception, given the chance.
Jim, maybe you can help me with something I've always struggled with as GM. So, I'm running a goblin lair, and the goblins in the first room run away because they're dying in droves to the PCs. These surviving goblins run away to the next room to alert their companions. Do you have the goblins in the next room come running in and assault? Do they set and ambush? Can you share some specifics and ideas about what happens AFTER the initial host of monsters runs away. Do they rally the troops? Set traps? What say you?
My #1 question, is how do I get better at pacing. I seem to rush or gloss over the minor details. I know I’m doing this. But when I’m at the table I still rush to get to the juice of the session.
David Fried Since you're aware of this: When you prep the session write down the details you don't want to forget. Write them in "Character voice," so you can easily say it as a Villain or NPC. Draw doodles in your notes to remind yourself of the colorful descriptions you want to give.
13:43 If you're players are scared, like my wife... LOL! That's great! Sounds like my wife. But don't tell her I said that. I'm getting ready to introduce her to TTRPG's & I know I have a challenge because Combat is my strong point & she said that she wants to be a Bard because she doesn't want to be a hero. She just wants to cheer for the hero.
Aw hi Jim great to hear from you! I love your oldschool style and vids, definitely one of my top 3 channels.Hopefully see more from you soon! Best wishes from the rainy hills of Yorkshire, England.
Purpl Sheep everything is a story. Bad dice rolls or overpowering encounters add to your tail. Maybe it was something more than the pick up game. Now it’s a pivotal plot in the adventure. They were “ special “ monsters. Then let the player Taylor their next character with what happened before. Don’t kill and forget. Make up some meaning that drives story or makes the outcome important. I have talked about this but maybe a whole video might help.
Hey I got a shoutout from Jim! That’s freakin awesome!! Even though your channel is new it has become a treasure trove of gaming wisdom for me. Game on!!
Jesse Bourbeau the channel is new, but not the owner. Seeing if I can everything out of the head and make some room
Jim Murphy well I appreciate the wisdom coming from you. Always looking forward to the next video so that I can use that wisdom to improve my game. I’m currently running every week in my friends garage, so I’m gaining a tiny bit of wisdom as well.
This was a great video, James Francis Joseph Xavier Murphy.
Dresden Files taught me that Jim dun messed up. Now all I gotta do is summon him for a one-shot...
XD
The secret is to lose ... I love that.
Great advice for new players, Jim. With all the outcry overCritical Role it's clear to me that all these new players need to hear advice like this.
I love both your videos and Matt (Colville)'s videos on DM-ing, but I find it fascinating that you two have (what seem to me) different but equally valid ways of framing your videos and helping new DMs.
Matt's videos are like puzzle pieces, each of which holds directly usable information about how to set up or solve a specific need/problem as a DM. Say you wanted help with something very specific like lowering the CR of a high CR monster because you want to use it at a lower level. Pretty specific. But Matt has a whole video just about that, with the medusa example (great video btw)! It helps a prospective DM with specific issues, almost like a handbook of separate lessons, each of which is self-contained.
Your videos, on the other hand, I think are much more big picture. Instead of necessarily giving people the ways to solve a problem, you talk about the source of the problem contextualized in the the frame of group dynamics, the spirit of the game, and linked to the reasons why we play D&D. Lots of times this means that your videos sort of weave fluidly in and out from talking about the main issue, to talking about a specific story, to talking about a subpoint, then back to the big picture in an interesting fashion. Lots of the videos even link together and overlap, which helps portray your view on the game in general. It really makes for videos that help DMs (like myself at least) think about the bigger picture of how to approach things, not just one specific part of the game.
So i find it pretty cool that a new DM could come to your channel and listen to get ideas and inspiration for general things such as how to approach the group player dynamics or thinking about different suggestions for how the game could be played to better suit everyones needs (like having monster wranglers to help new DMs), but then also go after that to Matt's channel to find specific videos about more detailed questions that could help them along the way, such as how to deal with bad sessions (Matt's video on that is also a good one) or how to make cool bad guys.
Anyways, just a big fan of both of you, so thought I'd share my opinion on why I like both of you guys equally but for different reasons!
PoetryStud I try not to step on his toes and provide something useful but not a shadow of another. Plus give out the long perspective!
@@jimmurphy1591 As someone watching both, you compliment eachother....together, I get the best,and this commenter hit the nail on the head!!! This is how I feel, I love you and Matt for very different reasons, while gaining knowledge from two completely different perspectives. I'm still waiting for others in my area, trying to come up with other players. Playing Neverwinter in the mean time, hoping ads, and feelers come back.
I'm glad you decided to add your voice to the dialog Jim. You express some much needed concepts. If you ever find yourself headed towards Spokane WA, give me a shout. We'd love to have you join our game one night. Hell, I'd even turn my campaign over to you for the night!
VerumAdPotentia that could happen, I have a best friend in Spokane.
That’s a fantastic bite-sized piece of advice. “Lose with panache.”
I wish I could tag that gent in from the previous video who asked you how to play tactically.
The villain must lose.
But he must give them a show.
"To Lose with panache." Wise words for the hobby. Thanks.
This is great man. Heaps of good tips. I will found the more I involve my players stories the more the campaigns write themselves
Stuart Watkinson thanks buddy
Never give the devils your True Name, Jim!
Geoff DeWitt do you think I did?
Given that the summonings I did to have you run my group's game failed...probably not. Well, this is awkward.
Please never stop making these, I find they really help me run the game, and this episode was especially introspective about how I run the game.
Hi Jim, Long time DM here. First time listener of your channel. Great insight and loved how you convey simple, yet highly useful, information to your audience. It shows your experience and depth of knowledge. I'll be going back and watching all the videos I haven't watched on your channel. Thanks for everything you're doing for the community. Please stay encouraged to keep posting videos!
arlome thank you for the support! Game On!
Great advice, Jim! I'm a big fan of having a villain that got away constantly harass the heroes. I recently had a dragon turtle sending mercenaries after the heroes because they stole a lot of magic items from her treasure horde. The waves of mercenaries kept on for nearly a year before the players finally got fed up and tracked the dragon turtle down and killed her. It was epic. 😃
Thank you so much for this! It's been about 26 (27??) years since I last played and I'm now eager to play again. Although I don't have any to play with I've asked my wife and my kids to join me. But wanting to play as a DM it occured to me that neither my wife or my kids has played D&D before , and since it's been that long ago since I played myself I might be too concerned that I might mess thing up and scare them away from the game. It's like I'm terrified to throw them all out there telling them: "Now , you're on your own... go do some adventures!" I guess what I'm trying to say, is that you never know what you're going to get with totally new players and a DM that hasn't played for over two decades. I guess I'm scared that it will all go off track... Although that might be fun in the end.
Anyway, great video and it really keep me relaxed about the whole thing. Thanks!
CreativeFosse go start with some Adventure League to firm up the 5E rules and meet some new people
I’ll bang out a new video soon just to try out the new device.
Wow, I have to say, Jim, you are one of the only 'youtubers' that reading your comments is just as informative as the video. Love your community here, enjoying the info in the video, as well as the people commenting!!! Keep it up!!! Hugs from Indiana!!!!
MrsKKrueger 👊😈👿👊👁🤬✌️
Howdy from Auckland New Zealand, Jim.
Bloody great video mate. I’ve been DMing and playing since I was 15, just over 10’years ago, and I have been pulling a lot of great knowledge from your videos lately.
Thanks for the great and frequent videos recently, I hope you keep it up. I also hope we get to see you DMing one day!
Cheers, Colm.
Another utterly fantastic and informative video Jim. Keep them coming please.
I don't usually like to make my monsters super smart unless its an unusual occasion. It makes players feel like their decisions matter more, like when they decide to throw themselves into a poor position to attempt to taunt a monster away from a downed ally or use an action to inconvenience a monster.
I've had a bard in my campaign who's fed himself into the enemy and used his action to use his immense persuasion to have everyone focus on him and pass up his allies. He's been exceptionally lucky - the first time he did it I thought he was fed up with my campaign and tried to lose his character to leave. I was really angry at him and threw everything I had to kill him. I missed every attack.
I found out after the session he was doing it as a distraction to keep everyone alive, he was just lucky enough to disengage and reconnoiter with his party and they all got out safe. The second time he was just as lucky but ended up bludgeoning a skeleton lord to death, earning him all the glory he ran away from in that first death scenario. The party is now tied ironclad to each other. Had I held back, botched dice, bailed them out, or whatever it wouldn't have been as genuine - I rolled my dice in front of my players and every roll was a teeth clencher.
I've done these types of fights before but I didn't commit before. You really have to be confident in your decisions as a dungeon master, regardless of how you feel in the moment. If the fight was way too much, then learn from it but if the path you took makes sense, the players had alternate options, and there was a steady escalation, do NOT feel bad about how the encounter is going, you are being a great DM, these things are natural. As players (actually as humans), we test the boundaries of our world and without them you wouldn't have a believable one.
Blindeyes1431 well said 👊🏻😈👿👊🏻👁🤬✌️
Love your videos, Jim, keep them up!
Great video! I'm a new player to D&D and a new DM. I've taken the "let's make it dramatic" approach to my gaming, and I think it's made the game more rewarding for my players.
Last session, they killed my main villain, of the whole campaign. But... they also ended up unleashing an ancient evil dragon on the world.
Now they keep talking about that fight, and I'm so happy they beat my main bad guy. Drama is where it is.
Clarky Clark now that’s the way to keep the campaign drama going 👊🏻😈👿👊🏻👁🤬✌️
I've been told by a few players and the one who's been in my games the longest, say that I am really good at running combat, that I know how to make it engaging and fun, which was funny to me because I've never really been a big fan of combat myself (especially as a player). But here I am at being praised for being able to craft challenging yet enjoyable encounters of combat, and narrating them in a way that felt extremely cool. Perhaps it stems from that idea that I don't find combat that enjoyable which makes me subconsciously push for the more investing scenes of combat, but I honestly don't think it is as difficult as some might perceive it. You just gotta remember that simple things can make a big difference when applied properly.
TheNerdySimulation what your doing sounds good, keep it up
+TheNerdySimulation - I have been similarly complimented by my players before and I think you are right. I hate when the story comes to a grinding halt for thirty minutes while combat occurs, and so in my games I strive to keep the combat fun and engaging. The biggest thing I think is to not fall into the rut of just calling numbers out to each other and turning it into a game of Dungeons and Accounting. I encourage my players to describe their attacks cinematically (especially crits) and instead of simply responding "Hit" or "Miss" to attacks made on them, to narrate exactly what happens to them. The "rule of cool" definitely applies strongly in my games, and I think players end up really appreciating it and having more fun as a result.
THeNerdySimulation, Been there, myself...
For what it's worth, I think those of us who have found "the combat systemic" dubiously objectionable, have been able to readily identify WHAT we don't like about it... Perhaps, as Sharky Sharklops suggested, it's where the Story gives way to "Dungeons and Accounting"... I've always had a personal disdain for anything that disrupts Narrative and Story Craft...
SO I've always voted for "Epic as Hell" when engaging in the "combat narrative"... I think it coaxes everyone at the table to speak about their actions in language and Role Playing terms rather that numbers and Roll Play terms, which at least sounds better...
AND for the record, no. Combat isn't as difficult to run as many would like to believe... ;o)
Always look forward to your videos, Jim. Excellent advice as always. And congrats on 6000 subscribers!
bocconom thank you and thank you
Mmmmm, more wisdom. Love it. Listen up, kiddos - I know I am. :)
Keep it up, Jim. Hope you're enjoying the ride!
Jason Kossowan more fun than I should
I am a 1st time D.M, who discovered your chanel fairly recently.
...
Of all the Gamemaster advice vids, I think your the best at *motivating* me to *want* to D.M.
...
Lore and ecollogy vids make me want to homebrew adventures, other advice vids may help me run them better, but you make me *want* to *run* them.
There’s a recurring bad guy I’ve been wanting to run - a goblin who I will refer to as “Grinko” that, through some kind of arcane/eldritch means, has his soul tied to some kind of magical item and it makes him immortal (similar to a lich) for as long as that item remains intact.
After encountering Grinko, killing him, then taking his magical item, Grinko will return and relentlessly pursue the party. He will appear with increasingly difficult enemies to ‘aid’ him until he eventually appears with some stolen Red Wyrmlings. The mother dragon is understandably enraged by this and, when alerted, will burn Grinko alive, eat him, then attack the party if they are near. Grinko is largely unconcerned as this was the plan the entire time.
I’m excited to try it out. It has recurring bad guy that I can introduce any time there’s a lull in the game, and it should be a fun way to run a plain old goblin.
Fenizrael love it. Just let a little time pass between encounters so they forget about him
Thanks again, Jim. Extremely useful. Do you think we might see you DM a session one day?
Gad Zooks just availability to the tech holds me back. I think it will happen
I very much enjoy creating creatures with the the 3.5 ed d&d templates, the more unexpected the better. I find they inspire both story and plot.
Some favorites:
Jagtooth, a half-dragon (blue) orca
Sheepling Folk, tauric halfling sheep
Dire chickens
Goblin Half-Elf
Thank you for the wisdom and guidance on this our journey to becoming better gm's.
Lots of work for DM but cool
Thanks so SO much for this! It's awesome! I think one of the main things that made me facepalm at myself was the idea of basically expendable monsters as learning tools, I kept thinking about my goblins as THE goblins, if I wrote that there are 6 of them, I have 6 of them and I can't lose them xD also the idea of story vs efficiency was not alien to me but I think this made me realize how flexible the "story" part really is, and that even if I'm not too efficient I can always throw more Stormtroopers at Luke, and it will be dramatic... Again, thanks A LOT for this, I will apply all of these next time we play...
Peace! :D
So, close, but it HAS been 35 years... oy! 😂
The Oggsbog battle was magnificent; the ogre was actually slaughtering the party. Wizard incapacitated, fighters dead or KO’ed, and then the halfling steps around the corner with his sling and plants a stone tight in the ogre’s forehead. Knocked unconscious on the edge of a precipice, the ogre had a 50/50 chance of falling forward to the floor or backward to his doom.
Bye-bye, Oggsbog.
What made this fight epic is that it was in SPI DragonQuest. There are no “feats” in that game, no canned “special attacks”. Everything that happened was the result of random die roll results paired with player and GM choices. The confluence of random results made the event memorable; it was not planned to end the way it did, and the manifestations of fate provided a conclusion all the players still talk about today, 35 years later. And I still have Oggsbog and, like Redcap (Jim’s goblin), his body was never found. 😁
Now, the Succubus Queen... THAT was the build-up that had all the player terrified. Weakened by her orcs and undeads, now they faced the Big Bad, who swept out of her chamber, easily won the initiative, conjured an opening spell that would have killed half the surviving party... and rolled a critical fumble.
Stunned, the Succubus Queen fell to the floor, the players looked at each other and hacked her to bits before she could recover.
THAT was the encounter I stared at, dumbstruck. When I finally came to my senses, I think I said something like: “So... pizza? “ 😂
Don Hawthorne it is interesting like the Bulette encounter with Matt’s group we talked about on his video. I find often after decades people recall things differently
In my opinion, you should be careful with fleeing and recurring enemies. If done wrong, it can feel like harassment. Don't let enemies escape for the sake of it and without giving the players the chance to get the bad guy.
In a campaign I played in, we had a bad guy always escaping through a miraculous way. First we tried to fight him, used dimensional anchor and other stuff on him, but somehow nothing worked. In the end, we just gave up and stoped caring about the whole campaign.
PS: Jim, love your work and your take on the game!
Bazhwak no contrivance! If they get him they do. My gamers try hard to not let them escape. They have heard the horror stories!
Bazhwak Yeah, if the enemy gets away, it needs to be done in a way that seems realistic. If the players feel like they should have stopped him but the DM pulled some garbage move to make him get away when he shouldn't have, then yeah, it breaks suspension of disbelief and kills the fun of it.
So this last weekend the college group got back together after 27 years. I ran them through the last battle in the Spelljammer universe and it only took them about 30 minutes to find all the old habits. I spent the next two days shaking my head and making changes to the narrative as they did crazy things. Some of the encounters were great and some were not, but they were having a ton of fun. So this is great advice. As a note, they now want to try Roll20 and I am going to be running a game for them online.
Sean Hillman I think online gaming will be a big part of the future.
Especially in this case as we live in 5 different locations around the country.
So I’ve been DMing this group for nearly a year and this has been their first campaign. I’ve given them items, unique spells, made the world fit their backstories and most of the encounters have been really easy for them. I’ve been trying to slowly ratchet up the difficulty so there’s some actual stakes. 2 of the players are a couple and we play at their house because they’ve got children. The wife has stated multiple times that she will quit if her player dies and spends most of the game on her phone. The other players are so passive. I want them to surprise me and they just sit around waiting for me to railroad them to the next bit of loot. How do I promote player agency and active play. Or am I wasting time I put a ton of work into the world, encounters, and NPCs and no one takes notes. The most active player is the host of the house and he says he doesn’t have good enough handwriting to take notes. And when I warn them that if they forget information then their character forgot they act like that’s cruel and harsh asking for names of people they’ve met multiple times and had lots of interactions with. This is a long post sorry but I’m getting burnout from this and don’t know if it’s worth the effort.
Well you have to make that choice. But, maybe take a break and see how everyone feels after. Also tell them
I'd say for combat encounters, allow yourself to start by building the encounters easy and over time make them harder (as Jim also suggests). In terms of how to run encounters, there are a few charts out there that will tell you how to run a particular monster based on their intelligence score. Generally, animals are very quick to flee and don't show mercy to prey, nobody (almost nobody) wants to die, and any creature with 14 INT or more is probably going to be pretty excellent tactically. Also, it is okay to just literally ask players how lethal they want the game to be. So long as they choose a level of danger that a DM will also have fun with, you're good.
GameNub Quin absolutely right
Thanking you kindly sir; I am really enjoying your videos so far - both to just listen and relax to as well as expand my DMing approach, so thank you again!
One question I have for you is about jazzing up monsters to make them interesting. I follow the line that a monster's hp and ac are rarely that important, that their schtick and memorability comes from a special ability, or move, or way of fighting but I feel many monsters just boil down to hp meatsacks.
I have seen Mr Colville and your kind self recommend dipping into previous editions to jazz them up, but I don't have any experience or current access to previous monster manuals. Is there anything you would highly recommend doing in that case?
Any help or pointer in the right direction would be appreciated!
John I sometimes just give them a😂🙂
John oops. I sometimes give them just a special ability. A spell, the barbaric rage, a special attack or alike that makes them “ different. Matt’s epic bad guy ability to take an extra action wowed me. Or multiple classes. Anything changes the dynamic.
Jim Murphy thanking you kindly - I will give it a bash!
A questions I'd like to hear your thoughts on, if you wanted a video idea:
-When should you do when you've clearly made too difficult an encounter by accident? Especially if someone is downed in like round one.
in my game, when the players are fighting goblins, kobolds , zombies ect. I make usually use more than average, but I will run them very sub-optimally. Because goblins are stupid, and the players love out-smarting a very powerful encounter.
Thomas Beswick-Wright perfect, you got it
Stay Cool Jim Murphy ⛷️😎
It's Jim Murphy!
Hey Jim, great video.
Check your location tag on this video though, it appears to be a residential cross street and you don't want to be broadcasting your address to the depths of the internet, especially as you get more popular.
K S It’s not that close, but I’m sure I’m easy to cyber stalk
Love your content!
8:21 Lore-lawer here, Kobolds are usually zellots, so they probly will fight to the death.
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Goblins are alot more likely to retreat or surrender.
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Both will use cunning tactics, traps and deception, given the chance.
Well said great insights
Thanks
We just need to See u GM thats all !
Thinking isn't my strong suit but alright.
Lobster shoes it is now!
Lets Hope! and Love the video!
Jim, maybe you can help me with something I've always struggled with as GM. So, I'm running a goblin lair, and the goblins in the first room run away because they're dying in droves to the PCs. These surviving goblins run away to the next room to alert their companions. Do you have the goblins in the next room come running in and assault? Do they set and ambush? Can you share some specifics and ideas about what happens AFTER the initial host of monsters runs away. Do they rally the troops? Set traps? What say you?
soo.. as someone who didn't play 4th what is it about a pacifist cleric that makes them so good? what bonusses do they get for not really attacking?
Zeyv Gaming best to look at it in 4th. I’ll bet there is a UA-cam video on them. Almost every action they take heals the characters
Fight me algorithm fight cause I hate peace!
My #1 question, is how do I get better at pacing. I seem to rush or gloss over the minor details. I know I’m doing this. But when I’m at the table I still rush to get to the juice of the session.
David Fried
Since you're aware of this: When you prep the session write down the details you don't want to forget. Write them in "Character voice," so you can easily say it as a Villain or NPC. Draw doodles in your notes to remind yourself of the colorful descriptions you want to give.
Nigga why this got
Ogsbogg! Did you play the Divine Right boardgame? I have been thinking about stealing the map for a D&D campaign.
Of course we did, still have the game
13:43 If you're players are scared, like my wife...
LOL! That's great!
Sounds like my wife. But don't tell her I said that. I'm getting ready to introduce her to TTRPG's & I know I have a challenge because Combat is my strong point & she said that she wants to be a Bard because she doesn't want to be a hero. She just wants to cheer for the hero.
Bard is pretty good. Ran a sword bard to 16 th last campaign Craig ran
Damn
What's happened to your video stream Jim? Is everything ok?
Dom Ranson many disasters including my phone drowning! Just got a new phone so I’ll be trying it out real soon
Aw hi Jim great to hear from you! I love your oldschool style and vids, definitely one of my top 3 channels.Hopefully see more from you soon! Best wishes from the rainy hills of Yorkshire, England.
How do you make a character death dramatic?
Purpl Sheep lots of color, drama and then a continuous story to new character
Jim Murphy But what do you mean by adding drama?
Purpl Sheep everything is a story. Bad dice rolls or overpowering encounters add to your tail. Maybe it was something more than the pick up game. Now it’s a pivotal plot in the adventure. They were “ special “ monsters. Then let the player Taylor their next character with what happened before. Don’t kill and forget. Make up some meaning that drives story or makes the outcome important. I have talked about this but maybe a whole video might help.
hey made a post of secrets and motivations and you can look at it here facebook.com/DiceDiceBasecamp right under the pinned post as of this comment.
Michael Anderson we did that in Empire of the Petal Throne. Everyone had a secret motivation. Often at odds