Matt Colville's "My Campaign" sheet is very good for this. It gets you thinking about the things that are going to be directly in front of your adventurers during the game.
Classes are also a backstory in a sense, they say a bit about the world, especially if they diverge from the expected cliche. Little tweaks to classes can make them feel like they emerged from that environment. If your game has classes, that is. I know backstories are going out of fashion in some circles (or never were in) but I like the players saying a bit about their character because it helps me figure out what their assumptions are about my settings, and how we can sort of meet in the middle if things need to change a bit. That plus just presenting situations, factions, places and letting them get curious about the world means they're pressing me for details, rather than me pressing them to listen
Backstories are going out of fashion? Is it not actually in vogue? Dnd is all about roleplaying nowadays and not gritty realism/gameplay for most people.
@@rltofuiii Depends on the groups one runs with, I guess :) I don't see the grit being mutually exclusive, but some people like to basically say the story starts when you start playing. It's not necessarily old school, since stuff like Traveller basically had a back story generation system from the start, and I think my old groups naturally started doing back stories decades ago...
I’ve found two systems that help get players invested in a game world: “I’m Sorry Did You Say Street Magic” and “Microscope”. Both provide systems (with a little modification) for groups can connect characters and events to the PCs. After using it for a game’s session -1, a player told me that this was the first time they actually felt invested in a game world instead of being so out of obligation.
Excellent recommendations! I have successfully used Microscope as my initial campaign/worldbuilding setup for three different campaigns so far, and my players have all been fantastically invested in the campaign world when they made their characters afterwards. You do have to be willing to relinquish total worldbuilding control of course, but it really goes a long way towards making a unique shared world for the game's conflicts to take place in.
@@letteracura Both are coop narrative games where you use notecards to build out a city (Street Magic) or timeline (Microscope). Each start grand scale and then narrow down to either key events or figures with key not necessarily meaning important, but most interesting to whomever introduces them
I love this advice! I feel this is the secret sauce that a gm needs to first prep for a game. Getting a player's backstory should give you the ability to meld the gameworld and their personal narrative, making the game that much more special.
The only thing that you can do beyond this is to have session 0s where you one-on-one with each player to see what they want and actually write lore with them.
The thing that got me into DMing is at the DM of the campaign was I playing in let create the towns that we are from. So I came up with this whole city my character was from and the noble factions, one of whom exiled my rogue. Later on in the story we ventured to that city and had to defend it from a goblin siege. It was much fun and it raised the tension in the plot. So when coming up with nations for my campaign world I generally give the nation a name and a little general idea of what they are all about, but am willing to let players have their own input on things.
The best way to engage players in a custom world is to have the lore of the world react to character actions or invest in their characters. In those moments when they wonder why people are doing these things. Historical lore of your world can answer the questions.
I've gotten to the point that I don't even give them an overall quest often times, and just make the world building come around for my players as they go looking on their personal quests. I often play in games like cyberpunk, and the character's goals unless I push them is just get the next job that pays. When I ask them for their own goals though, I can work out a mystery for them to solve.
My DM will provide a primer prior to the start of our next long campaign. This sets the stage of what is currently happening in the area of the world we are about to adventure in. The primer provides just enough information, but leaves room for us to add input. Then we have as many "session 0" as needed for us to create our characters and their backstory. This allows us to and the DM to add to the world, weave our backstory with the known history of the area, and of course the DM pulls all the needed bread crumbs from our backstory to create individual story arcs that run through the main story line. This gets everyone excited about the lore of the world. Especially when it involves our characters.
I find a large issue with modern role-players is the tendency for an over-ambitious DM to be talking "past" a group of over-ambitious players and vice versa. Everyone gets so wrapped up in what they've created - while alone - that they fail the core concept of role-playing, which is collaborative story telling. I find a lot of DM's are far too "holier than thou' with their mediocre setting they've created...while many players are too proud with their overly elaborate back-story which actively breaks up the DM's world, etc.
Getting back into DnD a few channels have been such a great help, but this channel has by far been my favorite to sit down to! Thanks for the great content? .. Help?.. Videos!
Dumping Lore on the players at a campaign's first session is obviously the wrong way to go about it. That's why I like to work with campaign handouts / bibles when presenting a new setting to the players before the game even starts. A few pages about the most important stuff they need to know to be able to create characters fitting in that world, zooming in on the starting location and the people living there the characters would know. Apart from that, if it's my own world or a published setting like the Forgotten Realms, I always work under the assumption that any setting detail, as long as it hasn't become an established fact at the table, either by me or the players, could as well not exist in the setting. Which means players don't need to know it and if they do something that would change that detail, well, we just established a new fact going forth.
I fully understand that world building is mostly for me. So I'll drop something in a session that's cool, and mysterious, and directly related to the events at hand. Then if I really love that idea, and doubt it will come up directly anytime soon, I'll send my fun write up in a discord chat. Someone reading it and saying "cool" is enough to scratch my itch, and it doesn't slow down the session. I think of it like loading screen tips, or From Soft item descriptions.
I’ve tended to view the lore, world building more the fun for me as the DM and a helpful ‘outline’ to draw from when writing adventures or leaning on for story fillers. It is great though when you see a player repeat or draw from something that part of my lore. 😀
Hey Baron, I recently discovered your channel and love it so far, but I was wondering if you would consider looking into Numenera. It's a game that takes place in the distant future after multiple extremely high tech civilizations have risen and fallen. It's inhabitants are currently in a dark age on the cusp of renaissance under the watchful eyes of the Amber Papacy and Order of Truth a religious movement that worships technological progress and the secrets left behind by the ancients.
Even randomish events should fortify the world's storybeats, priorities, or mood. Friends don't let friends roll random encounter charts without a tie-in.
Love the tips and insight in this video! (Side note; I dont get why the AI images on the side were there. They felt more distracting, than adding anything.)
Good and helpful video. HOWEVER All videos of that kind leave me with one critical question: How the F are players supposed to make a character Background in a world that has just been created by me? Or, even more precisely, that is still in the process of being created? All those tips on integration backstory can only work if the characters already have, at least some information on the world. Or even better when one uses a predesigned world. So basically they work really good if we make a variation of the Realms, Mystara, Aventuria or whatever. I have tried that and it always felt a bit hollow, weird and wrong. I have tried to make the player characters basically be transferred from their world to my world. That works well IF the players are okay with it and the campaign is some form of "getting home" story or a "we are stranded so let us find our place in this world" theme. Both I like very much, it is however fairly hard to find players interested in that. *PS: at least interested more than once...* So how about a video looking into the problem of players not knowing about the world.
I agree that this kind of videos often fail to address this question. However, I think the point at the heart of the question is: don't leave your world undeveloped, just don't dump all of the development on the players at once. Give them the main information that is relevant to their character from the moment they start playing; you can bring in the rest over time. Character creation is a dialogue between the players and the GM, and you have two approaches you can use for this, depending on how much you trust the players' attention span: 1)You give them a short overview of the area they'll be starting out in - not a fully detailed map and history (it's good if you have one, but you need to be able to summarise). Then they can use this as inspiration and framework for building their own character and determining how their character fits into the world. Your goal here is not to "railroad" them into your worldbuilding, but provide character building "hooks" that they can choose to capitalise on - for example, if you mention that the starting town has a prominent Bards' College, maybe one of the players who was thinking about playing a bard will choose to play a member. Then, if they do, they already have a reason to be interested in finding out more about the College. 2)You ask them to give a very general character concept of who they want to be (e.g "I want to be a local bard") and then you offer them options on how this could fit with what you already have for the setting (this is where you can, for example, bring in the fact that there is a Bards' College in town). Bonus points if you can make it a meaningful choice (e.g "if you choose to affiliate with the Bards' College, you'll have good connections with the upper classes and academia; but you could also work at the local tavern, which will make you loved by the travellers and commonfolk"). This way, you are making it seem less like you are loredumping them, and more like you are just answering question they themselves asked. Of course, depending on how much you have developed the world already or what the players like themselves, you can also ask the players to come up with certain worldbuilding details themselves (e.g "You want to be a bard? What type of bards' organisations do you think this town would have?") - this can make players more engaged and invested and gives them more agency, but it's important to note that this approach isn't all positives, as some players can feel it damages their immersion or is just something they don't want to deal with in a game.
You say players don’t have a reason to emotionally invest in a DM’s worldbuilding. Not trying to be a contrarian, but this is just blatantly false. I try and get all the lore I can out of my DM’s games because I know the more I can get immersed in the world, the more I’ll enjoy the gameplay and important decision making. This is just a basic hallmark of RPG games. If your players aren’t at least trying to get into your world, either you’ve made a shitty world or they aren’t RPG players.
Solid points here. Definitely relate to the importance of creating ties from your worldbuilding to the characters specifically. Perhaps a bit of a jaded view, but I've always found the advice that "everyone cares primarily about their own stuff" to be helpful in creating engagement. Recognizing that fact, I can create or adjust the presentation of Lore so that it touches upon something of importance to the character in question, so that they care enough to discover it. Do you find your approach (and earlier synopsis of the problem) to be true for ALL players at your own table?
No they don't. They live in that world, they might shape it through their actions, but that world existed millenia before they came into existence and probably will millenia after they are gone from it. The game must be about the characters, but the world isn't.
I learned to not water board my players with world lore. I also limit thier backstories to 4 sentences. Then as the game is played, the players can use those loose story bits to tie it into the world around them.
Baron, I know this is out of the blue, but I know a large publisher of 5E modules & campaigns who wants to make the jump to OSR compatible modules and campaigns. Not specific to one OSR system, such as OSE, Dungeon Crawl Classics or Basic Fantasy, but just OSR in general where a GM running it would only need to make minimal changes on the fly for the specific system they are running. Is there a resource list anywhere that would help them know how to set up the stat blocks and mechanics to be broadly compatible with the OSR standards? Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I was wondering IF I could send you the PDF of my AD&D 2e. Mod 1.0 and Character sheet. IF you could go over them and maybe do a play test with some friends to check out game mechanics and give me your honest opinion.
Adventure Title: "Echoes of the Crystal Spire" Millennia Ago: Long ago, a powerful wizard named Arvandor erected the Crystal Spire, a structure imbued with ancient magic to protect the realm from a cosmic threat. Arvandor vanished mysteriously, leaving the spire dormant for centuries. The knowledge of its purpose faded into myth. Months Ago: A scholar named Elara deciphered an ancient text, revealing the significance of the Crystal Spire. Recognizing the impending return of the cosmic threat, she gathered a group of adventurers to reawaken the spire and prevent the impending doom. The adventurers faced trials to collect the elemental crystals needed to reignite the spire's magic. They successfully activated it, but in doing so, inadvertently opened a temporal rift, connecting the present to the moment Arvandor first created the spire. Moments Ago: As the temporal rift destabilizes, the adventurers find themselves in the past, witnessing Arvandor creating the Crystal Spire. They learn that its power can only be harnessed once every millennium. To close the rift and save the present, they must aid Arvandor in completing the ritual without altering the timeline. The adventurers navigate political intrigues, forge alliances, and face ancient guardians to ensure the spire's creation. However, a dark force seeks to corrupt the spire for its own nefarious purposes. Climax: In a climactic confrontation, the adventurers confront the dark force moments before the completion of the spire. A battle ensues, and the fate of the timeline hangs in the balance. They must make choices that will ripple through time. Resolution: The adventurers successfully thwart the dark force, but in doing so, they unintentionally alter the course of history. Returning to the present, they find a changed world where the Crystal Spire's magic is now a beacon of hope. However, unforeseen consequences of their actions emerge, setting the stage for new adventures and challenges. Rewards: The adventurers gain powerful artifacts influenced by the temporal energies, tying them to the very fabric of the timeline they navigated. They also earn the gratitude of a grateful realm, forever remembered as the heroes who shaped the destiny of the Crystal Spire. This adventure structure allows for a rich narrative that spans different eras, offering a blend of epic fantasy, time-traveling intrigue, and the consequences of meddling with the fabric of time.
to me its irrelevant ... i so enjoy to ravage my players parties using clues and world-exclusive features that i revealed before but no one seemed to care about while they were buffing up their characters and power gaming without restrain
As much as I agree about lore dumps and the techniques discussed, I think some onus needs to be given to players. Everyone keeps talking like the players are sitting down at a game console rather than speaking to how to be better players.
or you can play Burning Wheel. As a GM I only need to build as much world as the players are engaging in. No more hours wasted making NPC's they'll never meet or dungeons they will never explore... you just have to be flexible and challenge what the players Believe.
It sounds odd but the last game i ran was set up as a one shot that looked like it could develop into a campaign. This was in response to another players where he messed up his introductory game that i now suspect was deliberate as his intended campaign was more a series of one shots that didnt work because he couldnt keep his game straight. I felt i needed to correct the lack of a session zero in my game, unfortunately he decided to jump settings as he really didnt give a damn about the game only his critical role obsession. I quit the group as i had enough of his idiocy. Did more to damage my interest in d&d than wotc!
I feel it's been forever since De Ropp De-ropped any content, but time is an odious concept and I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. I will keep a close eye on it and remain suspicious of any Greek insurgents potentially hidden within, however, which is why you should never look in a horses' mouth, you'll just present your head to the archers. Also it's insulting to 'tyre kick' a gift that was freely given as though you expect it to be somehow inferior or faulty, but mainly it's the Greek archers. Or peltasts, whatever. Ballistic missile based military infantry* There.
Unliked for dig at Superman, whose most interesting era WAS before Kryptonite. It was when he was a politically motivated angry socialist that would kidnapp arms dealers to force them to fight in wars they supply. Kryptonite was introduced at the time they stripped the character from all interesting parts.
Never a fan of backstories period, I'd rather start out with nothing and build into something than start at the middle chapter of some kind of heroes journey. That way you build your story based on the world with the world, instead of forcing your character's story into the world as you are kind of suggesting. Don't know, that's tough, but even 100 words is too much, one line is fine. "Getting money for my family" "Getting revenge" "Paying off my debt" is good enough of a back story. All a technique though and mileage may vary by user ;-)
I think you heard this before but f%$# it I'm a little drunk and I'm gonna say it anyway. You sound like Cyril Figgis from Archer. Which is cool though. Thanks for all your guides bud.
Every character must be a Skywalker or a Palpatine? I like yer content. But I play the game to play the game. Not to write the next epic fantasy trilogy. I find almost all worldbuilding to be unsatisfying and derivative. I prefer a loose web of concepts that vaguely form a background to the enjoyable bits of play: combat and exploration. the crunchy nuggets of history, sociology, and politics can shuffle themselves together organically as the players need them to appear.
6:53 - A Willem who has become an enemy, a sort of Willem DeFoe, if you would.
Great episode. What a twist for Willem!
So is Willem really Doombringer?
It is sad that he did not upload any video soon. He was the god of DMing
Matt Colville's "My Campaign" sheet is very good for this. It gets you thinking about the things that are going to be directly in front of your adventurers during the game.
Just watched that video. Very good
Is it the “Handout” video you’re referring to? Or something else?
@@projmayhem2510 I believe it is the "Local Area - Running the Game" video if I remember correctly. I could be wrong.
you're correct. as in no you're not wrong, you are correct@@travisguzman5603
Classes are also a backstory in a sense, they say a bit about the world, especially if they diverge from the expected cliche. Little tweaks to classes can make them feel like they emerged from that environment. If your game has classes, that is. I know backstories are going out of fashion in some circles (or never were in) but I like the players saying a bit about their character because it helps me figure out what their assumptions are about my settings, and how we can sort of meet in the middle if things need to change a bit. That plus just presenting situations, factions, places and letting them get curious about the world means they're pressing me for details, rather than me pressing them to listen
Backstories are going out of fashion? Is it not actually in vogue? Dnd is all about roleplaying nowadays and not gritty realism/gameplay for most people.
@@rltofuiii Depends on the groups one runs with, I guess :) I don't see the grit being mutually exclusive, but some people like to basically say the story starts when you start playing. It's not necessarily old school, since stuff like Traveller basically had a back story generation system from the start, and I think my old groups naturally started doing back stories decades ago...
I’ve found two systems that help get players invested in a game world: “I’m Sorry Did You Say Street Magic” and “Microscope”. Both provide systems (with a little modification) for groups can connect characters and events to the PCs. After using it for a game’s session -1, a player told me that this was the first time they actually felt invested in a game world instead of being so out of obligation.
i love microscope
Excellent recommendations! I have successfully used Microscope as my initial campaign/worldbuilding setup for three different campaigns so far, and my players have all been fantastically invested in the campaign world when they made their characters afterwards. You do have to be willing to relinquish total worldbuilding control of course, but it really goes a long way towards making a unique shared world for the game's conflicts to take place in.
Can you please explain what those systems are?
@@letteracura Both are coop narrative games where you use notecards to build out a city (Street Magic) or timeline (Microscope). Each start grand scale and then narrow down to either key events or figures with key not necessarily meaning important, but most interesting to whomever introduces them
I love this advice! I feel this is the secret sauce that a gm needs to first prep for a game. Getting a player's backstory should give you the ability to meld the gameworld and their personal narrative, making the game that much more special.
I hope Baron de Ropp is okay. It has been many months since he released a new video.
The only thing that you can do beyond this is to have session 0s where you one-on-one with each player to see what they want and actually write lore with them.
The thing that got me into DMing is at the DM of the campaign was I playing in let create the towns that we are from. So I came up with this whole city my character was from and the noble factions, one of whom exiled my rogue. Later on in the story we ventured to that city and had to defend it from a goblin siege. It was much fun and it raised the tension in the plot.
So when coming up with nations for my campaign world I generally give the nation a name and a little general idea of what they are all about, but am willing to let players have their own input on things.
The best way to engage players in a custom world is to have the lore of the world react to character actions or invest in their characters. In those moments when they wonder why people are doing these things. Historical lore of your world can answer the questions.
I've gotten to the point that I don't even give them an overall quest often times, and just make the world building come around for my players as they go looking on their personal quests. I often play in games like cyberpunk, and the character's goals unless I push them is just get the next job that pays. When I ask them for their own goals though, I can work out a mystery for them to solve.
...where has he gone??
I'm coming back I'm coming back!!
The 9 year old analogy cut deep 😆 Uncomfortably accurate!
My DM will provide a primer prior to the start of our next long campaign. This sets the stage of what is currently happening in the area of the world we are about to adventure in. The primer provides just enough information, but leaves room for us to add input. Then we have as many "session 0" as needed for us to create our characters and their backstory. This allows us to and the DM to add to the world, weave our backstory with the known history of the area, and of course the DM pulls all the needed bread crumbs from our backstory to create individual story arcs that run through the main story line. This gets everyone excited about the lore of the world. Especially when it involves our characters.
is it just me or does the ending theme tune f*cking slap
bro where you at
I find a large issue with modern role-players is the tendency for an over-ambitious DM to be talking "past" a group of over-ambitious players and vice versa. Everyone gets so wrapped up in what they've created - while alone - that they fail the core concept of role-playing, which is collaborative story telling. I find a lot of DM's are far too "holier than thou' with their mediocre setting they've created...while many players are too proud with their overly elaborate back-story which actively breaks up the DM's world, etc.
That's baked into the history of the hobby, it's not modern. The problem was much worse in the 90's
Getting back into DnD a few channels have been such a great help, but this channel has by far been my favorite to sit down to! Thanks for the great content? .. Help?.. Videos!
Dumping Lore on the players at a campaign's first session is obviously the wrong way to go about it. That's why I like to work with campaign handouts / bibles when presenting a new setting to the players before the game even starts. A few pages about the most important stuff they need to know to be able to create characters fitting in that world, zooming in on the starting location and the people living there the characters would know. Apart from that, if it's my own world or a published setting like the Forgotten Realms, I always work under the assumption that any setting detail, as long as it hasn't become an established fact at the table, either by me or the players, could as well not exist in the setting. Which means players don't need to know it and if they do something that would change that detail, well, we just established a new fact going forth.
Insightful and to the point, thanks for another banger
I fully understand that world building is mostly for me. So I'll drop something in a session that's cool, and mysterious, and directly related to the events at hand. Then if I really love that idea, and doubt it will come up directly anytime soon, I'll send my fun write up in a discord chat. Someone reading it and saying "cool" is enough to scratch my itch, and it doesn't slow down the session. I think of it like loading screen tips, or From Soft item descriptions.
I’ve tended to view the lore, world building more the fun for me as the DM and a helpful ‘outline’ to draw from when writing adventures or leaning on for story fillers. It is great though when you see a player repeat or draw from something that part of my lore. 😀
Hey Baron, I recently discovered your channel and love it so far, but I was wondering if you would consider looking into Numenera. It's a game that takes place in the distant future after multiple extremely high tech civilizations have risen and fallen. It's inhabitants are currently in a dark age on the cusp of renaissance under the watchful eyes of the Amber Papacy and Order of Truth a religious movement that worships technological progress and the secrets left behind by the ancients.
Even randomish events should fortify the world's storybeats, priorities, or mood. Friends don't let friends roll random encounter charts without a tie-in.
Where'd you go?
I do like the M&M&M approach. Helpful!
Millenium ago, months ago, moments ago - I love this concept
More great and practical ideas. Thank you
Love the tips and insight in this video!
(Side note; I dont get why the AI images on the side were there. They felt more distracting, than adding anything.)
I gradually reveal the backstory to my players in small peices. My game world is like a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box.
Good and helpful video.
HOWEVER
All videos of that kind leave me with one critical question:
How the F are players supposed to make a character Background in a world that has just been created by me? Or, even more precisely, that is still in the process of being created?
All those tips on integration backstory can only work if the characters already have, at least some information on the world. Or even better when one uses a predesigned world. So basically they work really good if we make a variation of the Realms, Mystara, Aventuria or whatever. I have tried that and it always felt a bit hollow, weird and wrong.
I have tried to make the player characters basically be transferred from their world to my world. That works well IF the players are okay with it and the campaign is some form of "getting home" story or a "we are stranded so let us find our place in this world" theme. Both I like very much, it is however fairly hard to find players interested in that.
*PS: at least interested more than once...*
So how about a video looking into the problem of players not knowing about the world.
I agree that this kind of videos often fail to address this question. However, I think the point at the heart of the question is: don't leave your world undeveloped, just don't dump all of the development on the players at once. Give them the main information that is relevant to their character from the moment they start playing; you can bring in the rest over time.
Character creation is a dialogue between the players and the GM, and you have two approaches you can use for this, depending on how much you trust the players' attention span:
1)You give them a short overview of the area they'll be starting out in - not a fully detailed map and history (it's good if you have one, but you need to be able to summarise). Then they can use this as inspiration and framework for building their own character and determining how their character fits into the world. Your goal here is not to "railroad" them into your worldbuilding, but provide character building "hooks" that they can choose to capitalise on - for example, if you mention that the starting town has a prominent Bards' College, maybe one of the players who was thinking about playing a bard will choose to play a member. Then, if they do, they already have a reason to be interested in finding out more about the College.
2)You ask them to give a very general character concept of who they want to be (e.g "I want to be a local bard") and then you offer them options on how this could fit with what you already have for the setting (this is where you can, for example, bring in the fact that there is a Bards' College in town). Bonus points if you can make it a meaningful choice (e.g "if you choose to affiliate with the Bards' College, you'll have good connections with the upper classes and academia; but you could also work at the local tavern, which will make you loved by the travellers and commonfolk"). This way, you are making it seem less like you are loredumping them, and more like you are just answering question they themselves asked.
Of course, depending on how much you have developed the world already or what the players like themselves, you can also ask the players to come up with certain worldbuilding details themselves (e.g "You want to be a bard? What type of bards' organisations do you think this town would have?") - this can make players more engaged and invested and gives them more agency, but it's important to note that this approach isn't all positives, as some players can feel it damages their immersion or is just something they don't want to deal with in a game.
Brilliant! Dungeon Masterpiece indeed. 😎
big fan of formulas like the 3 Ms. awesome vid!
95% sure i saw this dude at my nieces gymnastic recital last night. Couldn't think why he looked familiar until i went on UA-cam today.
Nope. Wasn't me.
@@DungeonMasterpiece Then you have a Doppelganger out there. Have you made an BBEG's angry recently?
You say players don’t have a reason to emotionally invest in a DM’s worldbuilding. Not trying to be a contrarian, but this is just blatantly false. I try and get all the lore I can out of my DM’s games because I know the more I can get immersed in the world, the more I’ll enjoy the gameplay and important decision making. This is just a basic hallmark of RPG games.
If your players aren’t at least trying to get into your world, either you’ve made a shitty world or they aren’t RPG players.
Doesn't answer the question posed in the title, but that's just fine since the solution is more important and useful.
'Shebang' is one of my favourite words 😂
Solid points here. Definitely relate to the importance of creating ties from your worldbuilding to the characters specifically. Perhaps a bit of a jaded view, but I've always found the advice that "everyone cares primarily about their own stuff" to be helpful in creating engagement. Recognizing that fact, I can create or adjust the presentation of Lore so that it touches upon something of importance to the character in question, so that they care enough to discover it.
Do you find your approach (and earlier synopsis of the problem) to be true for ALL players at your own table?
very good video thanks
The characters make the world!
No they don't. They live in that world, they might shape it through their actions, but that world existed millenia before they came into existence and probably will millenia after they are gone from it. The game must be about the characters, but the world isn't.
Did you take the holidays off? Happy New Year!
I am going to be impertinent and say "first"
Hope you're having a dopalicious weekend Baron.
Gonna be at Pax Unplugged?
Nah, unfortunately. I'll be at mythiccon the following weekend in Charlotte
@@DungeonMasterpiece understandable
Watch me catch a plane
I learned to not water board my players with world lore. I also limit thier backstories to 4 sentences. Then as the game is played, the players can use those loose story bits to tie it into the world around them.
Great video. I like the 3 Ms tool! where did you get the art for it?
Baron, I know this is out of the blue, but I know a large publisher of 5E modules & campaigns who wants to make the jump to OSR compatible modules and campaigns. Not specific to one OSR system, such as OSE, Dungeon Crawl Classics or Basic Fantasy, but just OSR in general where a GM running it would only need to make minimal changes on the fly for the specific system they are running. Is there a resource list anywhere that would help them know how to set up the stat blocks and mechanics to be broadly compatible with the OSR standards? Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
please do a video on cortex prime (and possibly how it does fate better than fate)
Enjoy you putting my thoughts into words...or perhaps we just have similar ideas for gaming!
*Immediately gets ideas*
I was wondering IF I could send you the PDF of my AD&D 2e. Mod 1.0 and Character sheet. IF you could go over them and maybe do a play test with some friends to check out game mechanics and give me your honest opinion.
mmm 🤔 excellent advice 😊
thx fr the advace!
Adventure Title: "Echoes of the Crystal Spire"
Millennia Ago:
Long ago, a powerful wizard named Arvandor erected the Crystal Spire, a structure imbued with ancient magic to protect the realm from a cosmic threat. Arvandor vanished mysteriously, leaving the spire dormant for centuries. The knowledge of its purpose faded into myth.
Months Ago:
A scholar named Elara deciphered an ancient text, revealing the significance of the Crystal Spire. Recognizing the impending return of the cosmic threat, she gathered a group of adventurers to reawaken the spire and prevent the impending doom.
The adventurers faced trials to collect the elemental crystals needed to reignite the spire's magic. They successfully activated it, but in doing so, inadvertently opened a temporal rift, connecting the present to the moment Arvandor first created the spire.
Moments Ago:
As the temporal rift destabilizes, the adventurers find themselves in the past, witnessing Arvandor creating the Crystal Spire. They learn that its power can only be harnessed once every millennium. To close the rift and save the present, they must aid Arvandor in completing the ritual without altering the timeline.
The adventurers navigate political intrigues, forge alliances, and face ancient guardians to ensure the spire's creation. However, a dark force seeks to corrupt the spire for its own nefarious purposes.
Climax:
In a climactic confrontation, the adventurers confront the dark force moments before the completion of the spire. A battle ensues, and the fate of the timeline hangs in the balance. They must make choices that will ripple through time.
Resolution:
The adventurers successfully thwart the dark force, but in doing so, they unintentionally alter the course of history. Returning to the present, they find a changed world where the Crystal Spire's magic is now a beacon of hope. However, unforeseen consequences of their actions emerge, setting the stage for new adventures and challenges.
Rewards:
The adventurers gain powerful artifacts influenced by the temporal energies, tying them to the very fabric of the timeline they navigated. They also earn the gratitude of a grateful realm, forever remembered as the heroes who shaped the destiny of the Crystal Spire.
This adventure structure allows for a rich narrative that spans different eras, offering a blend of epic fantasy, time-traveling intrigue, and the consequences of meddling with the fabric of time.
to me its irrelevant ... i so enjoy to ravage my players parties using clues and world-exclusive features that i revealed before but no one seemed to care about while they were buffing up their characters and power gaming without restrain
As much as I agree about lore dumps and the techniques discussed, I think some onus needs to be given to players. Everyone keeps talking like the players are sitting down at a game console rather than speaking to how to be better players.
or you can play Burning Wheel. As a GM I only need to build as much world as the players are engaging in. No more hours wasted making NPC's they'll never meet or dungeons they will never explore... you just have to be flexible and challenge what the players Believe.
Love you videos, brother! Keep being awesome!
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DC20 HYPE TRAIN!!! Kickstarter launch in less than 4 hours!!!
It sounds odd but the last game i ran was set up as a one shot that looked like it could develop into a campaign.
This was in response to another players where he messed up his introductory game that i now suspect was deliberate as his intended campaign was more a series of one shots that didnt work because he couldnt keep his game straight.
I felt i needed to correct the lack of a session zero in my game, unfortunately he decided to jump settings as he really didnt give a damn about the game only his critical role obsession.
I quit the group as i had enough of his idiocy.
Did more to damage my interest in d&d than wotc!
I feel it's been forever since De Ropp De-ropped any content, but time is an odious concept and I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. I will keep a close eye on it and remain suspicious of any Greek insurgents potentially hidden within, however, which is why you should never look in a horses' mouth, you'll just present your head to the archers. Also it's insulting to 'tyre kick' a gift that was freely given as though you expect it to be somehow inferior or faulty, but mainly it's the Greek archers. Or peltasts, whatever. Ballistic missile based military infantry* There.
Unliked for dig at Superman, whose most interesting era WAS before Kryptonite. It was when he was a politically motivated angry socialist that would kidnapp arms dealers to force them to fight in wars they supply. Kryptonite was introduced at the time they stripped the character from all interesting parts.
Never a fan of backstories period, I'd rather start out with nothing and build into something than start at the middle chapter of some kind of heroes journey. That way you build your story based on the world with the world, instead of forcing your character's story into the world as you are kind of suggesting. Don't know, that's tough, but even 100 words is too much, one line is fine. "Getting money for my family" "Getting revenge" "Paying off my debt" is good enough of a back story. All a technique though and mileage may vary by user ;-)
I'll just let artificial intelligence deal with all of it.
Why does this video have to use AI-generated images?
I think you heard this before but f%$# it I'm a little drunk and I'm gonna say it anyway. You sound like Cyril Figgis from Archer. Which is cool though. Thanks for all your guides bud.
silly 9-year-olds. Back into your boxes!
This would have helped my 4 months ago. Thanks anyways tho.
Every character must be a Skywalker or a Palpatine?
I like yer content.
But I play the game to play the game.
Not to write the next epic fantasy trilogy.
I find almost all worldbuilding to be unsatisfying and derivative.
I prefer a loose web of concepts that vaguely form a background to
the enjoyable bits of play: combat and exploration.
the crunchy nuggets of history, sociology, and politics
can shuffle themselves together organically as the players
need them to appear.
I'm just not gonna listen to a guy in a tie telling me how to play DnD, yakno?
World anvil sucks.
Baron I love your advice and videos but using AI images in your videos is pretty disappointing
You wrote a crap world, try again next time get their input and don't make such a crap world.