welcome to DMing. no matter what you are good at/learning about you can use it for dnd. some people make great artwork. so people do great voices. i'm a programmer and made a program to keep track of how long it would take before the dragon returned to their lair and fuck up the pcs that were stealing from it. no matter the skill/knowledge, you can use it.
Hey Matt I am a political science professor ( I have a masters degree in Political Science/ International Relations and I'm getting my Ph.D.). I am also a veteran DM, I've been dming since I was 14 (I'm now 30) and my campaign setting is also very politically charged. But very much like you I never force the political drama on to the pcs, they will get involved in the politics if they wish to, but the consequences of the unstable political system can be felt all over the place. I've been developing the campaign world for over 9 years now, and because I love doing it, I've created the internal political structure of all my nations (human or otherwise). So I have details on how each nation governs itself, and the international relations of all the nations that are interconnected in my campaign setting. And I must say your videos on Politics and D&D are excellent! You bring fantastic points to how we can look at our history and be inspired to introduce political problems into the our fantasy worlds, and by doing so we create worlds that are far more complex and believable, that truly come out as living breathing worlds! So I would like to congratulate you and say thank for making these videos and that they are fantastic!
Have you solved how big staged battles are played?, cause of the way Im DMing the campaign is very likly it will end in a massive war were almost all DnD races are involved. any advice ? Must be super cool to understand politics in such a specific way and the moving those abilities to DnD. (GameDesigner here btw)
@@maxcruzolivares5439 You do the Helm's Deep method. You don't focus on the entire battle, you focus on different points within the battle. You give your player's goals which outcome effects the entire battle. I won't go through the entire Battle of Helm's Deep, but you can re-watch it and just see how the "players" (Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ins specific) interact with the battlefield, how they move from place to place are given a clear goal so you can root for these minor moments that lead to the end. I will highlight one part to illustrate my point. There is a scene where the enemies are loading up gunpowder underneath the wall, and a warrior starts running towards the gunpowder with a torch. The goal is for the players to stop the torch-runner before he gets to the wall. In the movie, this goal was failed and the torch-runner successfully blew up the wall and we moved into the next part of the battle. A clear goal was placed in front of us, and we tried to succeed. The goals can be anything, though, try to get some civilians into a safe-house, the enemy brought a troll onto the field now we can't let it get to the castle, the drawbridge is starting to lower we need to get it to stop, etc. Come up with a list of challenges that the players can accomplish during the battle, give them 3 or 4 options so they can choose whichever one they want. Everytime they succeed a minor goal mark it off, if they fail a minor goal mark it down, if they fail too many goals the battle is lost, if they succeed a certain amount of times the battle is won.
Ulrican414 I am in the beginning stages of building my own world (Pathfinder based) and will begin play later this year or beginning of next. I find this series very helpful. It’s nice to see approval of the political videos from an expert in the field with experience in gaming. Thanks for the post.
I am a college student of International Relations and a "neonate" DM, and I think the political system of my setting in alike manner, details of nations inner structure and the international relations between them.
I am so excited that you mentioned Donald Keegan! The first time I picked up one of his books, I was in 8th grade. It was the very first time I had ditched school, and I went across the street to the public library and hung out in the historical nonfiction section. I ended up getting a hold of his book 'The Peloponnesian War'. It was my first real encounter with nonfiction outside of the text books we read in school. I fell in love. I don't know if it's still true, but for a very long time his lectures were freely available here on UA-cam. This is a super non-sequitur, but I just couldn't contain myself when you mentioned him
"Why is there peace here? The world is busy dealing with another war." This tends to be the basic answer to most of my worlds' political status. Example: If the Mongols are invading, you fight the Mongols, prepare to fight the Mongols, send mercenaries, sit and do nothing or maybe even try to profit from the conflit and perhaps strike a deal with the Mongols, but a Major Threat to the important political entities will always be the pivot for most things war-related in a setting that has one.
"Are the nations in your Dungeons and Dragons campaign at war? if not why not?" As of the standard start of my campaign, no. But they're about to be, and everybody knows it.
For reasons, I heard the opening questions a ton and would pause the video so I could watch this video "later"-I left this tab open for months. Finally, finally, I understand that you were not challenging me with that "if not, why not?". It wasn't that a setting at war was *more interesting* and that I was leaving juicy narrative on the table by keeping my two current campaigns in a postbellum pax terra and a city-state confederation butting up against the untamed fey forests respectively... it was that I should know what key figures or elements *maintained* this peace... and what could thereby destabilize everything when neutralized. God, I love this channel.
So, I intuitively did everything right so far in my campaign. There is Peace between the dwarves and orcs right now. And my players are on their best way to upset the delicate balance of power within the dwarven kingdom that made this peace possible in the first place as well as plotting a commando mission into orc territory. War is inevitable, but they will realise the consequences too late AND they will think it is all their fault. It will be a glorious reveal.
I did the same thing, my pcs still get squirmy going near anyone from the cities involved in the war they think they started, "that civil war we started" is now a running joke. (In reality both cities wanted war because the last election was rigged and the city of Mirabar needs access to the sea through Luskan)
Wow I didn’t know I was getting the best history lesson I’ve ever received. Thank you! And this entire video makes sense in the context of “introduce a source of friction/conflict” to a steady-state world
In a deleted scene, Luke speaks with his friend Biggs, an Imperial cadet on leave in town, and asks him a bunch of eager questions about the academy only to discover that he's disillusioned with the empire and wants to defect to the rebellion. So in the uncut script, Luke would have had Biggs's skepticism, Leia's distress message, Obi-Wan's encouragement and the murder of his aunt and uncle forcing him out of his childhood home to motivate him to join the rebellion.
@@Bluehawk2008 While having a look at the creative process is always interesting, I dont think it's really a relevant point here. While that may have been intended originally it didnt make it's way into the actual work, so it's not actually how the character developed.
I just showed the Donald Kagen part of this to my 10th grade 20th century Canadian history class last week. I thought it was something really good for the sharper tacks in the board.
I read Kagan's book in ROTC when I was in college. Cool to see it get shout out here, it changed the way I looked at historical wars. My world has three or four wars going on depending how you count and at least one that is soon to break out.
hi Matt! thanks for the videos. I'm into running my second session for a group as a new DM and I found a lot of these videos made way more sense after you've actually gotten into the thick of it. it was funny, I watched all your videos and felt so so prepared for my first game. I got so much ready for my game, but once you're behind the screen it becomes a whole different world. I'd get asked questions that I didn't really know how to answer, get flustered and then get worried i wasn't doing well. everyone said they had a good time, but I was always fumbling over books and just only mildly freaking out. buuut after that stress I realized I was focusing on the wrong stuff. I was DMing to run the "best game possible" and not the "best game possible, for my players and I" and it totally changed how I approached the game. and it all kinda comes together, your videos. they make sense more now than ever, and I'm probably going to watch them all again. anyway I'm going off on a tangent. basically your videos are boss and they help people feel better about playing a sweet game so cheers.
"Listened to a 26 hours Podcast" I now have to imagine how Matthew did that in one sitting, just powering through it and remembering everything that was said in that Podcast...
These are super useful! Thank you! I started small in my world but I'm slowly building it up into something epic and these videos help me work on things I otherwise wouldn't know how to attempt.
The content of this video is excellent and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one. Plus I really enjoy all the comment and creative ideas. I love being the DM. Peace-
I am stoked because I've watched these videos multiple times, but I'm finally going to be able to use the advice in these videos from the politics series
Sort of. He wanted to become a pilot and the only normal way to do that was the Imperial Academy. He does tell Obi-Wan though that, "It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it but there's nothing I can do about it right now." He's not trying to join the Imperial Academy because he's a fan of the Empire, but because of his interest in piloting. Joining the rebellion has never occurred to him as a possible or sane thing to do, especially in regard to becoming a pilot at this point, and he might actually approve of the rebellion - even if he lacks the personal motivation or courage to join it at this point.
I am so glad I found your channel! Your insights have made me a better DM, with more complex storylines despite less time prepping. It would be amazing to be in one of your games, I think.
I love that I discovered this channel so I could learn how DM but then ended up also learning a lot about life, philosophy, and politics along the way. It's seriously amazing.
MAN! Huge fan of your videos and they have helped me become a better DM. I have seen almost every single video you have made except of the politics videoes and as soon as you mentioned Dan Carlin and his podcast my face dropped. I have used his podcast very much the same way I use your youtube channel to become a better at stuff. So cool you mentioned him back in 2016. Good luck with the MCDM company! Cheers from a DM (... and a hopefully a future history teacher!)
Matt, thank you so much for your videos! I have gotten so much use and enjoyment out of them since discovering your channel several weeks ago. I love the historical background you provide in this one.
This was very useful. So much in fact that I have come back to watch the Political Series again after seeing #5 on Black Panther. Always good to find a new nugget of info from a second listen.
I guess a lot of people already told you that but you actually really help me with building my own campain setting. I had a kind of empty area on my map and I was like "Hm what could I put there, maybe some political stuff, I don´t have to much of that so far" and having no idea how to do that your videos actually gave me a lot of inspiration on how and what to do there. By now I´m really exited for my players to stumble into this area and make cool stuff happen. Thanks a lot for all the advice and inspiration for my world that would be a lot poorer without you.
These videos are a great help to the campaign i'm currently running in regards to fleshing out the political motivations of the different factions. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to make them.
Hey Mat, I wanted you to know that I really appreciate this video. I just started a new campaign as the DM where the players are dealing with a villain who is working to stage a military coup. I have been struggling in the last few sessions to create an environment that feels as tumultuous as the atmosphere of a city where political and social unrest are happening and you videos really helped put that into perspective. Keep up the great work. This is one of my favorite series on game design and world building.
Good stuff, looking forward to part 3! Makes me stop and think "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?" Maybe a drought will ruin the harvest? Maybe there's already a drought, but the druid circle has been using its resources to create rain? Maybe they're also out of resources and have been resorting to foul rituals? Maybe the king has been giving them prisoners to sacrifice as fuel for the rituals? What happens if the king falls ill? It just keeps going! One thing I'm wondering about is the balance between moral ambiguity vs letting players feel good about fighting for the "right" side. I think the typical D&D game wants some of both to be engaging... Oh also, there was a CGP Grey video recently called Rules for Rulers, might interest you regarding this topic!
That CGP Grey video certainly comes into it heavily, it's fantastic! From what you said about thinking about "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?", I'd like to propose a counterpoint or concurrent line of thought - "where can I add stability to something that is inherently fragile?". That question to me captures the point Matt was trying to get across in the video. Not that I suppose you didn't get his point, but our intuitions have a way of substituting easier or more familiar questions in place of harder ones without us noticing. And certainly this idea of having "add" fragility is more familiar to our predominant worldview, so it makes sense that your intuition would have you stop and think and feel excited about answering that question. Just thought I'd throw that out there anyway :)
Thank You for this video, it definitely helped me organize things in my head for my campaign. This is my first campaign, but my brother and I have decided to create a world together for our different campaigns, he is a player in mine and I'm a player in his, separated by 1000 years. In my campaign the "steady state" was peace, caused by the country of Ebren conquering the main part of the continent in the 1000 years since my brother's campaign. The inciting incident is the reemergence of a cult that worships an arch-demon called Tyranus. However the only interaction between my players and this cult has been in one place, they haven't sought out this cult at all, however they have gone off and interacted politically with the elven country to the North where my brother's character is from. So, they are on the same stage as this major conflict, but they are keeping their distance for now.
I'm sure i've said this before, but really, thanks for making all these Running the Game videos, they've helped me a bunch! Really interesting to learn all this stuff! Keep up the awesome work, Matthew!
This series actually came out just in time for my campaign. My players have just gotten to the point where they're really engaging in the politics of my world, and this has really helped me flesh it out beyond the immediate scope of what the PCs are doing.
Hello Matt, these videos are great, I'm getting a lot out of them (since you asked), and I'm a grey-whiskered veteran of running D&D, myself. This short series on political play has been especially useful, as it's what I've been wanting to do for a while: a politically complex open-world campaign setting. My heartfelt thanks! May your sword-swings always be mighty.
Thank you so much for introducing me to Dan Carlin. I've been listening to his WWI Blueprint for Armageddon the past couple weeks. It's fascinating. Love your videos and your 2001 analysis.
Hi Matt Steadily working my way through your vids - and getting lots of cool ideas for my campaign, so many thanks. Can't agree enough with your point about every side of a conflict seeing things from their own point of view, all derived from the central conflict. One of my favourite SF shows, Babylon 5, did this so brilliantly - and also showed how NPCs can have radically different attitudes, to the extent of villains appearing in a sympathetic light and whole episode given over to showing alternative world views. Now I just need 5 years or so to get these ideas down on paper......
Being a historian who personally subscribes to the "Great men and great events" theory of history, and also a huge German History and WWI fan your example got me all warm inside.
hey Matt, that's a nice second episode of a three part series you got there. it would be ashamed if someone... complained about how long it's taking for episode three to come out
Interregna = entertainment. I enjoy that you focus on the build up and the why. Usually players and DMs always are excited to jump into the immediate state with the description of, '...and something bad happened, causing the government/king/etc to fall, but that isn't important right now-' and it so often is, especially to make the risks and challenges have meaning.
I especially love how relevant this video is for the current campaign (campaign 2) of Critical Role. They really do have a remarkable group keeping peace. Thanks for this video Matt. I refer to this video regularly to keep my campaign setting on the right course
Perfectly helpful, thank you! My campaign involves the players taking an artifact they have recovered, and using it to bring peace to the land. I have no idea what that means for future gameplay! Ha ha!This video series gives me some points to run with.
I love this series on politics AND I learned something about history! Can we expect a video on how to integrate mass combat into our games in the future, though? I would love to see that
This was a ridiculously good video and I will not be able to keep these ideas out of my games from this point. I especially liked the explanation on how we view war wrong. Thanks!
I would love to see the specifics of that study, if it's available for you to share, re like, what exactly incites players into different character ideals
A lot of this is reminding me of the GM section for Nights Black Agents. Particularly his description of creating an interesting and dynamic city for the party to do what PCs do in. Worth a read for anyone who wants to really focus in on politics but in a smaller and less formal arena. The book itself is about being Jason Bourne-esque super spies taking on a vampire conspiracy, but since reading it every major city I've made has taken advice from NBA.
Matt, thank you so much for these videos. This one is particularly fascinating to me as a fiction writer and new D&D player. This is what makes story and campaigns so fascinating and fun, the fact that there’s so much complexity going on behind the scenes and within the characters and it just makes for great storytelling and great play. I don’t know if you read non-fantasy fiction, but you might want to check out just about anything by Robert Olen Butler who is an evangelist for desire within characters as being the driving force behind plot. This is exactly what causes conflicts great and small whether between nations or spouses. We want stuff, we fight to get it, if we don’t get it we go to war and somebody gets hurt in the process. The reality is ugly, but the fiction part of it is beautiful.
I started a game set in Harn where the players were agents of the tiny kingdom of Chybisa playing off the two larger kingdoms that had some tenuous claims on it (Kandor and Melderyn) against one another. It was short lived, and it fell apart due to scheduling difficulties if I remember correctly. This video reminded me of that. I'll have to try that again sometime.
I love your videos ive been binging them and my players have been loving all the new stuff im bringing to the table. Ive never felt the need to write a comment until now. WAAAGH!!! three a's one g and at least three explanation points. Sorry couldnt help my self :)
I love your whole series, but this one particularly inspired me. I've long grappled with adding more political depth to my campaign. When I reviewed my campaign concept in terms of "central tension, steady state, and inciting incident" I was able to provide a clearer and more defined framework for the game. I was at a bit of a loss on how to approach the plot and adventures of the upcoming adventures and now that's basically planning itself. This has really inspired me! And I'm even looking through my old adventure notes, the players' decisions, and the consequences of their actions and the new framework is giving me a better way to tie past sessions together towards a single 'Grand Unified Campaign Theory.' THANKS, MATT!
I love coming back to these politics videos. Amazing how some of the most informed, in-depth looks at history come from bloody dnd videos, not history class
I am a huge fan of Hardcore History. While binge watching your videos getting ready to DM for the first time, I was happy to see you enjoy Hardcore History. Thanks. I'd love to see Dan Carlin play d&d.
I've run Rolemaster games where the overall world events were based on a strategy game I was playing Middle Earth Play by Mail. A failed navigation check let the party right in the path of the Witch King's armies which led to 4-5 sessions of trying to avoid being captured.
>"I think this will be a short video" > Video is 20+ minutes long > I'm actually glad because video content was great and now I have a new podcast to listen to Thanks for being my D&D vice at work, Matt!
In the RPG Godbound, when you create a 'court' -- a group of people who run some enterprise or other -- you also create the internal politics of the court and a consequence for what would happen if the court is trampled by the vast powers of the PCs. Following that setup politics just happens: the characters either engage with the politics of the various groups they interact with, or they have to deal with the consequences of what happens when they cut loose. I mean, Godbound doesn't really *enmesh* the characters in politics because with their power the PCs can always just go 'oops, made a total mess here, better skip town!' and start up on another world-fragment altogether... but it's a neat system and easily portable to other games. Godbound is also D&D-based, so I recommend people give it a look.
I only recently stumbled upon your page on youtube. So I have been watching it on and off for a few days now. This is great stuff. I would love to see your war game rules.
This theory of peace and war is great for storytelling, especially for DnD setting. But do consult modern sociologists and politologists for current state of the world understanding. Economics, resources, human rights and political regimes have drastically changed in the past 100 years, and this heavily influences why and when a war can happen. Wishing you a peaceful sky above your head. With
As a student of history, I would advise against completely writing off Great Man history as many events in history are ultimately the result of an incredibly skilled or incredibly useless leader/person even if they had many conditions surrounding them. In most campaigns the best balance would be to focus on a few Great Men/Women, but have them be aware of any underlying problems or issues as most leaders are. This not only allows the use of an easy political group of characters, but also allows you to include elements of underlying problems and the economics or geography of the situation for players to tap into as well.This enables players to have more layers to tap into on a roleplaying basis. This video is very good however, I love this series and I'm particularly enjoying this 3 parter so far, I'm very glad you make these videos!
Good video Matt. You give great information on creating worlds. I'm going to get your books for more ideas. I'm starting a new world to make my first campaign.keep the videos comin!
Love these videos so much i rewatch them when writing for my campaign. I totally stole your shield idea in making "Sovereign" a longsword that belonged to the first king of the human tribes. In the hands of a human who has proven themselves, it can be planted into the ground to make a entire castle.
One of the best campaigns I ever ran was Arthurian legend where the players were just other knights of Camelot (or an apprentice of Merlin's in the case of the magic-user) who were dealing with their own things (typically fighting Romans and dark elves). They'd go to Merlin for advice on occasion (or have him identify magic items), and allies with Lancelot once, and even participated in the battle of Camlainn.
Oh heck yeah a Fantasy Grounds giveaway? That'd be awesome. I've played it before but group had a falling out with that DM and couldn't use it anymore. Awesome system. Also these political system videos are hugely helpful and couldn't have been timed better! Thanks a lot Matt!
pretty wild to be trying to learn how to run DnD and realize I'm studying for my global politics class at the same time
welcome to DMing. no matter what you are good at/learning about you can use it for dnd.
some people make great artwork. so people do great voices. i'm a programmer and made a program to keep track of how long it would take before the dragon returned to their lair and fuck up the pcs that were stealing from it. no matter the skill/knowledge, you can use it.
It's Saturday, so it's time to roll dice, kill dragons and shake up nation borders.
It's awesome
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room! "
Lol nice
I'm rather curious as to where that profile picture is from. Lol
Is that from a movie?
It’s a good line.
@@infidelheretic923 Dr Strangelove.
Wait, was it WarGames?
Sir, this is a Wendy's
Hey Matt I am a political science professor ( I have a masters degree in Political Science/ International Relations and I'm getting my Ph.D.). I am also a veteran DM, I've been dming since I was 14 (I'm now 30) and my campaign setting is also very politically charged. But very much like you I never force the political drama on to the pcs, they will get involved in the politics if they wish to, but the consequences of the unstable political system can be felt all over the place. I've been developing the campaign world for over 9 years now, and because I love doing it, I've created the internal political structure of all my nations (human or otherwise). So I have details on how each nation governs itself, and the international relations of all the nations that are interconnected in my campaign setting. And I must say your videos on Politics and D&D are excellent! You bring fantastic points to how we can look at our history and be inspired to introduce political problems into the our fantasy worlds, and by doing so we create worlds that are far more complex and believable, that truly come out as living breathing worlds! So I would like to congratulate you and say thank for making these videos and that they are fantastic!
Have you solved how big staged battles are played?, cause of the way Im DMing the campaign is very likly it will end in a massive war were almost all DnD races are involved. any advice ? Must be super cool to understand politics in such a specific way and the moving those abilities to DnD. (GameDesigner here btw)
@@maxcruzolivares5439 You do the Helm's Deep method. You don't focus on the entire battle, you focus on different points within the battle. You give your player's goals which outcome effects the entire battle.
I won't go through the entire Battle of Helm's Deep, but you can re-watch it and just see how the "players" (Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ins specific) interact with the battlefield, how they move from place to place are given a clear goal so you can root for these minor moments that lead to the end.
I will highlight one part to illustrate my point. There is a scene where the enemies are loading up gunpowder underneath the wall, and a warrior starts running towards the gunpowder with a torch. The goal is for the players to stop the torch-runner before he gets to the wall. In the movie, this goal was failed and the torch-runner successfully blew up the wall and we moved into the next part of the battle. A clear goal was placed in front of us, and we tried to succeed.
The goals can be anything, though, try to get some civilians into a safe-house, the enemy brought a troll onto the field now we can't let it get to the castle, the drawbridge is starting to lower we need to get it to stop, etc.
Come up with a list of challenges that the players can accomplish during the battle, give them 3 or 4 options so they can choose whichever one they want. Everytime they succeed a minor goal mark it off, if they fail a minor goal mark it down, if they fail too many goals the battle is lost, if they succeed a certain amount of times the battle is won.
Jonathan Chute Yeah, had to figure that one out, the hard way 😅😅...
Ulrican414 I am in the beginning stages of building my own world (Pathfinder based) and will begin play later this year or beginning of next. I find this series very helpful.
It’s nice to see approval of the political videos from an expert in the field with experience in gaming.
Thanks for the post.
I am a college student of International Relations and a "neonate" DM, and I think the political system of my setting in alike manner, details of nations inner structure and the international relations between them.
"In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is only war."
For the emperor!
For Gork and Mork Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, this comment made it 5 years without a DCMA, congratulations!
For the greater good.
Finally someone who realizes Otto von Bismarck wasn't just some warmonger
Bismarck had a plan. He always had a plan.
Just like Walpole ;)
Finding it tricky to find the first video.. Very interesting..
W😮 aż aa
I am so excited that you mentioned Donald Keegan!
The first time I picked up one of his books, I was in 8th grade. It was the very first time I had ditched school, and I went across the street to the public library and hung out in the historical nonfiction section.
I ended up getting a hold of his book 'The Peloponnesian War'. It was my first real encounter with nonfiction outside of the text books we read in school. I fell in love.
I don't know if it's still true, but for a very long time his lectures were freely available here on UA-cam.
This is a super non-sequitur, but I just couldn't contain myself when you mentioned him
You might enjoy The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan, published 2000.
I'm pretty sure that having fantasy novels take longer and longer each time is just a sign that you're officially a fantasy author.
But the third one still isn't there, after 4+ years
@@theramendutchman takes a while to write a book sometimes
@@BallstinkBaron That true...
Especially with writer's blocks, or other hiatuses going around
War! Ugh! What is it good for? Lots of things, as it turns out.
Technologies :p
True that, as a person using a computer posting stuff on Internet, both things invented for military manners.
@@conradwerner2615 wat
Hey, here we are 2 years later, and we're getting the Kingdoms & Warfare book on Kickstarter... I hope it's as fantastic as Strongholds & Followers!
@@Kumimono The internet was actually invented for colleges to communicate...
"Why is there peace here?
The world is busy dealing with another war."
This tends to be the basic answer to most of my worlds' political status.
Example: If the Mongols are invading, you fight the Mongols, prepare to fight the Mongols, send mercenaries, sit and do nothing or maybe even try to profit from the conflit and perhaps strike a deal with the Mongols, but a Major Threat to the important political entities will always be the pivot for most things war-related in a setting that has one.
This video is so good it hurts! It literally changes the perspective on peace and war in general and how you can use it. Just mind blown.
"Are the nations in your Dungeons and Dragons campaign at war? if not why not?"
As of the standard start of my campaign, no. But they're about to be, and everybody knows it.
this
For reasons, I heard the opening questions a ton and would pause the video so I could watch this video "later"-I left this tab open for months. Finally, finally, I understand that you were not challenging me with that "if not, why not?". It wasn't that a setting at war was *more interesting* and that I was leaving juicy narrative on the table by keeping my two current campaigns in a postbellum pax terra and a city-state confederation butting up against the untamed fey forests respectively... it was that I should know what key figures or elements *maintained* this peace... and what could thereby destabilize everything when neutralized. God, I love this channel.
So, I intuitively did everything right so far in my campaign. There is Peace between the dwarves and orcs right now. And my players are on their best way to upset the delicate balance of power within the dwarven kingdom that made this peace possible in the first place as well as plotting a commando mission into orc territory. War is inevitable, but they will realise the consequences too late AND they will think it is all their fault. It will be a glorious reveal.
Ha I like the idea of trusting the PCS to fuck up the delicate peace.
I did the same thing, my pcs still get squirmy going near anyone from the cities involved in the war they think they started, "that civil war we started" is now a running joke. (In reality both cities wanted war because the last election was rigged and the city of Mirabar needs access to the sea through Luskan)
I kind of want to hear how this turned out...
@@brendanmurray4538 it's a style of DMing: set up conflict in unstable stability. the direction it'll fall will be by the players.
Sweet, streamlined mass combat rules? Would love a video on that!
Pathfinder's "Ultimate Campaign" has an entire chapter for that actually. Granted it is 3.5 esque rules but they could easily be converted.
Your politics and depth it effects your campaign blows my mind. Great content, thank you!
Wow I didn’t know I was getting the best history lesson I’ve ever received. Thank you!
And this entire video makes sense in the context of “introduce a source of friction/conflict” to a steady-state world
I really need to start writing again and running D&D. These videos are brilliant.
Did you? If not, no better time than now.
I could listen to Matt discuss history and politics allllll day.
Just a quick note. Luke wanted to join the Imperial Accademy.
He didn't know the Empire was evil yet, and simply sought adventure.
I think he just wanted to join to leave Tatooine.
@@alalalala57 Adventure, leave Tatooine. ¿Porque no los dos?
In a deleted scene, Luke speaks with his friend Biggs, an Imperial cadet on leave in town, and asks him a bunch of eager questions about the academy only to discover that he's disillusioned with the empire and wants to defect to the rebellion. So in the uncut script, Luke would have had Biggs's skepticism, Leia's distress message, Obi-Wan's encouragement and the murder of his aunt and uncle forcing him out of his childhood home to motivate him to join the rebellion.
@@Bluehawk2008 While having a look at the creative process is always interesting, I dont think it's really a relevant point here. While that may have been intended originally it didnt make it's way into the actual work, so it's not actually how the character developed.
I just showed the Donald Kagen part of this to my 10th grade 20th century Canadian history class last week. I thought it was something really good for the sharper tacks in the board.
Wow! I hope they dug it!
Matthew Colville I think they did. Made them think, alright.
"I think that video is relatively short"
*7 minutes later*
"I think this video was relatively short"
Love ya Matt, keep up the good work!
I read Kagan's book in ROTC when I was in college. Cool to see it get shout out here, it changed the way I looked at historical wars. My world has three or four wars going on depending how you count and at least one that is soon to break out.
Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #34: War is good for business.
Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #35: Peace is good for business.
"I'm hoping to do them one week after another."
Ah yes, four of those special extra long Colville weeks.
hi Matt! thanks for the videos. I'm into running my second session for a group as a new DM and I found a lot of these videos made way more sense after you've actually gotten into the thick of it. it was funny, I watched all your videos and felt so so prepared for my first game. I got so much ready for my game, but once you're behind the screen it becomes a whole different world. I'd get asked questions that I didn't really know how to answer, get flustered and then get worried i wasn't doing well. everyone said they had a good time, but I was always fumbling over books and just only mildly freaking out.
buuut after that stress I realized I was focusing on the wrong stuff. I was DMing to run the "best game possible" and not the "best game possible, for my players and I" and it totally changed how I approached the game.
and it all kinda comes together, your videos. they make sense more now than ever, and I'm probably going to watch them all again.
anyway I'm going off on a tangent. basically your videos are boss and they help people feel better about playing a sweet game so cheers.
"Listened to a 26 hours Podcast" I now have to imagine how Matthew did that in one sitting, just powering through it and remembering everything that was said in that Podcast...
These are super useful! Thank you! I started small in my world but I'm slowly building it up into something epic and these videos help me work on things I otherwise wouldn't know how to attempt.
The content of this video is excellent and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one. Plus I really enjoy all the comment and creative ideas. I love being the DM. Peace-
I am stoked because I've watched these videos multiple times, but I'm finally going to be able to use the advice in these videos from the politics series
This may be the most useful video I've come across for informing the Guilds of Ravnica campaign I run. Thank you, Matt Colville.
Luke did not want to join the rebellion. He wanted to join the Imperial Academy.
_Thank you_
There's plenty enough to criticize about what's ACTUALLY in Star Wars
Sort of. He wanted to become a pilot and the only normal way to do that was the Imperial Academy. He does tell Obi-Wan though that, "It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it but there's nothing I can do about it right now." He's not trying to join the Imperial Academy because he's a fan of the Empire, but because of his interest in piloting. Joining the rebellion has never occurred to him as a possible or sane thing to do, especially in regard to becoming a pilot at this point, and he might actually approve of the rebellion - even if he lacks the personal motivation or courage to join it at this point.
Fantastic yet again! Thanks! Eagerly looking forward to the next one. This miniseries is really helping me with my world building!
More great information. Looking forward to part 3. Thanks again, Matt.
"War is the health of the State" - Randolph Bourne
I am so glad I found your channel! Your insights have made me a better DM, with more complex storylines despite less time prepping. It would be amazing to be in one of your games, I think.
I love that I discovered this channel so I could learn how DM but then ended up also learning a lot about life, philosophy, and politics along the way. It's seriously amazing.
Hey, Matt! Just wanted to say thank you for all your videos. I'm a new DM and your videos have helped immensely. Keep up the great work.
MAN! Huge fan of your videos and they have helped me become a better DM. I have seen almost every single video you have made except of the politics videoes and as soon as you mentioned Dan Carlin and his podcast my face dropped. I have used his podcast very much the same way I use your youtube channel to become a better at stuff. So cool you mentioned him back in 2016. Good luck with the MCDM company! Cheers from a DM (... and a hopefully a future history teacher!)
Matt, thank you so much for your videos! I have gotten so much use and enjoyment out of them since discovering your channel several weeks ago. I love the historical background you provide in this one.
This was very useful. So much in fact that I have come back to watch the Political Series again after seeing #5 on Black Panther. Always good to find a new nugget of info from a second listen.
I guess a lot of people already told you that but you actually really help me with building my own campain setting. I had a kind of empty area on my map and I was like "Hm what could I put there, maybe some political stuff, I don´t have to much of that so far" and having no idea how to do that your videos actually gave me a lot of inspiration on how and what to do there. By now I´m really exited for my players to stumble into this area and make cool stuff happen.
Thanks a lot for all the advice and inspiration for my world that would be a lot poorer without you.
If there's an empty space on your map, write down "here there be monsters and treasure" and dangle that carrot in front of the PCs.
Thank you so much for these videos. Extremely happy with my world now after your advice and it wouldn't have been possible without your videos
These videos are a great help to the campaign i'm currently running in regards to fleshing out the political motivations of the different factions. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to make them.
Hey Mat, I wanted you to know that I really appreciate this video. I just started a new campaign as the DM where the players are dealing with a villain who is working to stage a military coup. I have been struggling in the last few sessions to create an environment that feels as tumultuous as the atmosphere of a city where political and social unrest are happening and you videos really helped put that into perspective. Keep up the great work. This is one of my favorite series on game design and world building.
Good stuff, looking forward to part 3! Makes me stop and think "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?" Maybe a drought will ruin the harvest? Maybe there's already a drought, but the druid circle has been using its resources to create rain? Maybe they're also out of resources and have been resorting to foul rituals? Maybe the king has been giving them prisoners to sacrifice as fuel for the rituals? What happens if the king falls ill? It just keeps going!
One thing I'm wondering about is the balance between moral ambiguity vs letting players feel good about fighting for the "right" side. I think the typical D&D game wants some of both to be engaging...
Oh also, there was a CGP Grey video recently called Rules for Rulers, might interest you regarding this topic!
That CGP Grey video certainly comes into it heavily, it's fantastic!
From what you said about thinking about "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?", I'd like to propose a counterpoint or concurrent line of thought - "where can I add stability to something that is inherently fragile?".
That question to me captures the point Matt was trying to get across in the video. Not that I suppose you didn't get his point, but our intuitions have a way of substituting easier or more familiar questions in place of harder ones without us noticing. And certainly this idea of having "add" fragility is more familiar to our predominant worldview, so it makes sense that your intuition would have you stop and think and feel excited about answering that question.
Just thought I'd throw that out there anyway :)
Thank You for this video, it definitely helped me organize things in my head for my campaign. This is my first campaign, but my brother and I have decided to create a world together for our different campaigns, he is a player in mine and I'm a player in his, separated by 1000 years. In my campaign the "steady state" was peace, caused by the country of Ebren conquering the main part of the continent in the 1000 years since my brother's campaign. The inciting incident is the reemergence of a cult that worships an arch-demon called Tyranus. However the only interaction between my players and this cult has been in one place, they haven't sought out this cult at all, however they have gone off and interacted politically with the elven country to the North where my brother's character is from. So, they are on the same stage as this major conflict, but they are keeping their distance for now.
Very Useful Matt. I love your Running the game series. It's helping me with my setting that I will be playing soon
I'm sure i've said this before, but really, thanks for making all these Running the Game videos, they've helped me a bunch! Really interesting to learn all this stuff! Keep up the awesome work, Matthew!
This series actually came out just in time for my campaign. My players have just gotten to the point where they're really engaging in the politics of my world, and this has really helped me flesh it out beyond the immediate scope of what the PCs are doing.
Hello Matt, these videos are great, I'm getting a lot out of them (since you asked), and I'm a grey-whiskered veteran of running D&D, myself. This short series on political play has been especially useful, as it's what I've been wanting to do for a while: a politically complex open-world campaign setting. My heartfelt thanks! May your sword-swings always be mighty.
Thank you so much for introducing me to Dan Carlin. I've been listening to his WWI Blueprint for Armageddon the past couple weeks. It's fascinating.
Love your videos and your 2001 analysis.
Thanks for another great video, it has answered a lot of my questions.
Hi Matt
Steadily working my way through your vids - and getting lots of cool ideas for my campaign, so many thanks.
Can't agree enough with your point about every side of a conflict seeing things from their own point of view, all derived from the central conflict. One of my favourite SF shows, Babylon 5, did this so brilliantly - and also showed how NPCs can have radically different attitudes, to the extent of villains appearing in a sympathetic light and whole episode given over to showing alternative world views.
Now I just need 5 years or so to get these ideas down on paper......
Being a historian who personally subscribes to the "Great men and great events" theory of history, and also a huge German History and WWI fan your example got me all warm inside.
Great video, Matt. Definitely moving away from basics into the next level with these latest videos.
hey Matt, that's a nice second episode of a three part series you got there. it would be ashamed if someone... complained about how long it's taking for episode three to come out
Allright, now im up to date. Great videos. I've been playing for 15 years and still learned a lot and found even more stuff that i can steal! :D
Interregna = entertainment.
I enjoy that you focus on the build up and the why. Usually players and DMs always are excited to jump into the immediate state with the description of, '...and something bad happened, causing the government/king/etc to fall, but that isn't important right now-'
and it so often is, especially to make the risks and challenges have meaning.
“Everything changed when the fire nation attacked”
This is so interesting. Great content Matt, as usual! Can't wait for the next video, whatever it is.
I especially love how relevant this video is for the current campaign (campaign 2) of Critical Role. They really do have a remarkable group keeping peace. Thanks for this video Matt. I refer to this video regularly to keep my campaign setting on the right course
thank you this video just solve a question mark in my quest I was trying to figure out.
Perfectly helpful, thank you! My campaign involves the players taking an artifact they have recovered, and using it to bring peace to the land. I have no idea what that means for future gameplay! Ha ha!This video series gives me some points to run with.
Wrath of the khans by Dan Carlin is one of the greatest things ever recorded
18:03 - 18:07, a perfect demonstration of quantum entanglement
This is really good. I think there's a couple good points made here. This is right up my alley.
I love this series on politics AND I learned something about history! Can we expect a video on how to integrate mass combat into our games in the future, though? I would love to see that
This was a ridiculously good video and I will not be able to keep these ideas out of my games from this point. I especially liked the explanation on how we view war wrong. Thanks!
I would love to see the specifics of that study, if it's available for you to share, re like, what exactly incites players into different character ideals
A lot of this is reminding me of the GM section for Nights Black Agents. Particularly his description of creating an interesting and dynamic city for the party to do what PCs do in. Worth a read for anyone who wants to really focus in on politics but in a smaller and less formal arena. The book itself is about being Jason Bourne-esque super spies taking on a vampire conspiracy, but since reading it every major city I've made has taken advice from NBA.
Matt, thank you so much for these videos. This one is particularly fascinating to me as a fiction writer and new D&D player. This is what makes story and campaigns so fascinating and fun, the fact that there’s so much complexity going on behind the scenes and within the characters and it just makes for great storytelling and great play. I don’t know if you read non-fantasy fiction, but you might want to check out just about anything by Robert Olen Butler who is an evangelist for desire within characters as being the driving force behind plot. This is exactly what causes conflicts great and small whether between nations or spouses. We want stuff, we fight to get it, if we don’t get it we go to war and somebody gets hurt in the process. The reality is ugly, but the fiction part of it is beautiful.
I started a game set in Harn where the players were agents of the tiny kingdom of Chybisa playing off the two larger kingdoms that had some tenuous claims on it (Kandor and Melderyn) against one another. It was short lived, and it fell apart due to scheduling difficulties if I remember correctly. This video reminded me of that. I'll have to try that again sometime.
I love your videos ive been binging them and my players have been loving all the new stuff im bringing to the table. Ive never felt the need to write a comment until now. WAAAGH!!! three a's one g and at least three explanation points. Sorry couldnt help my self :)
I love your whole series, but this one particularly inspired me. I've long grappled with adding more political depth to my campaign. When I reviewed my campaign concept in terms of "central tension, steady state, and inciting incident" I was able to provide a clearer and more defined framework for the game. I was at a bit of a loss on how to approach the plot and adventures of the upcoming adventures and now that's basically planning itself. This has really inspired me! And I'm even looking through my old adventure notes, the players' decisions, and the consequences of their actions and the new framework is giving me a better way to tie past sessions together towards a single 'Grand Unified Campaign Theory.' THANKS, MATT!
These videos (but really all your videos) are souper useful, insightful and interesting.
I love coming back to these politics videos. Amazing how some of the most informed, in-depth looks at history come from bloody dnd videos, not history class
I am a huge fan of Hardcore History. While binge watching your videos getting ready to DM for the first time, I was happy to see you enjoy Hardcore History. Thanks. I'd love to see Dan Carlin play d&d.
Great as always, I think I will have to start watching the campaign diary/updates vidoes.
I'm surprised no one in the comments made "No fighting in the War room" joke
I was just about to!
I always feel so much smarter after watching your videos.
I've run Rolemaster games where the overall world events were based on a strategy game I was playing Middle Earth Play by Mail. A failed navigation check let the party right in the path of the Witch King's armies which led to 4-5 sessions of trying to avoid being captured.
I'm gonna miss the campaign diaries. They made me interested in actually playing the game for the first time.
Check out Critical Role. Truly fantastic series.
Jim Novak I agree with Stormchaser Knight, start with episode 1. It's a slog, but worth it!
>"I think this will be a short video"
> Video is 20+ minutes long
> I'm actually glad because video content was great and now I have a new podcast to listen to
Thanks for being my D&D vice at work, Matt!
Because the King is a Ancient Dragon that is literally over a thousand years old.
Xa Hoi
In the RPG Godbound, when you create a 'court' -- a group of people who run some enterprise or other -- you also create the internal politics of the court and a consequence for what would happen if the court is trampled by the vast powers of the PCs. Following that setup politics just happens: the characters either engage with the politics of the various groups they interact with, or they have to deal with the consequences of what happens when they cut loose.
I mean, Godbound doesn't really *enmesh* the characters in politics because with their power the PCs can always just go 'oops, made a total mess here, better skip town!' and start up on another world-fragment altogether... but it's a neat system and easily portable to other games.
Godbound is also D&D-based, so I recommend people give it a look.
This was pretty dope, seems quite useful for story telling in general. Thanks Mister Colville! :D
I read Kagan's book on the Peloponnesian war... twice. Great historian and author.
I only recently stumbled upon your page on youtube. So I have been watching it on and off for a few days now. This is great stuff. I would love to see your war game rules.
This theory of peace and war is great for storytelling, especially for DnD setting. But do consult modern sociologists and politologists for current state of the world understanding. Economics, resources, human rights and political regimes have drastically changed in the past 100 years, and this heavily influences why and when a war can happen. Wishing you a peaceful sky above your head. With
As a student of history, I would advise against completely writing off Great Man history as many events in history are ultimately the result of an incredibly skilled or incredibly useless leader/person even if they had many conditions surrounding them.
In most campaigns the best balance would be to focus on a few Great Men/Women, but have them be aware of any underlying problems or issues as most leaders are. This not only allows the use of an easy political group of characters, but also allows you to include elements of underlying problems and the economics or geography of the situation for players to tap into as well.This enables players to have more layers to tap into on a roleplaying basis.
This video is very good however, I love this series and I'm particularly enjoying this 3 parter so far, I'm very glad you make these videos!
Good video Matt. You give great information on creating worlds. I'm going to get your books for more ideas. I'm starting a new world to make my first campaign.keep the videos comin!
Thanks for the link to Kagan, now on my must read list.
Love these videos so much i rewatch them when writing for my campaign. I totally stole your shield idea in making "Sovereign" a longsword that belonged to the first king of the human tribes. In the hands of a human who has proven themselves, it can be planted into the ground to make a entire castle.
Dammit, a 23 minute video right as I'm about to go to sleep. Ah well, hopefully this will inspire me for my game on Tuesday.
Did we ever get the third video about power?
Or was the third video hijacked by the diplomacy video?
I haven't seen it yet, but it seems Politics #5 is "On the origins of Executive Power"!
Love your videos, love your books. Keep up the great work.
One of the best campaigns I ever ran was Arthurian legend where the players were just other knights of Camelot (or an apprentice of Merlin's in the case of the magic-user) who were dealing with their own things (typically fighting Romans and dark elves). They'd go to Merlin for advice on occasion (or have him identify magic items), and allies with Lancelot once, and even participated in the battle of Camlainn.
Perfect! A Colville video to go to bed to!!! Yesssss.
This guy is awesome.
Oh heck yeah a Fantasy Grounds giveaway? That'd be awesome. I've played it before but group had a falling out with that DM and couldn't use it anymore. Awesome system.
Also these political system videos are hugely helpful and couldn't have been timed better! Thanks a lot Matt!