This was the biggest lesson I learned in my DMing career! I make a list of allll the NPCs, locations, etc as one big toolbox. Whenever I go to plan the next adventure, or to incorporate a new player's backstory, I reference the existing "toolbox" I have and try to use as many pre-existing elements as possible. Made my life easier AND my campaign so much better.
It occurs to me that you can also "pseudo-stitch" together characters even when they can't possibly be the same character. For example, suppose that you know that several adventures down the line you are going to want to run an adventure featuring the dread lich Batharik as the main villain. Now, obviously Batharik can't actually *be* the necromancer villain from your starting adventure for your level 1 PCs, but you could easily have the necromancer be a cultist *of* Batharik, and plant Batharik's sigil and a few other references to him in the necromancer's possessions and dialogue. And then maybe the cursed dungeon the party needs to delve into two adventures later is one of Batharik's old abandoned fortresses from before he went into torpor a few millennia ago. Keep this up, and by the time the party actually gets to the Batharik adventure, you've built him up as a major figure in the legends and history of this setting, and his actual appearance will have the gravitas it deserves.
When I ran 5e's Lost Mine of Phandelver, I stitched it together with the AD&D adventure Night Below and the 3.5 adventure Red Hand of Doom. I didn't like how little LMoP's side quests made sense and that players had no reason to pursue them. Stitching in these other campaigns made the whole thing feel deeper and more alive, even though the Night Below content never made out from behind the screen in an obvious way. The players knew there was something there they hadn't figured out yet.
Mate I learn so much from you and your website. I just started DM-ing a duet with my wife and these insights are just fanstastic. Keep doing what you're doing. Your audience is insultingly small and should be much higher.
This is really exciting for me. I have done this intuitively a few times, but having a clear way to think about it helps so much. You're stuff is always great.
Great tips! I should say that some writings on screen (like in the Surprising Hooks video) would make it easier to organize the ideas in my visual head.
I personally adore the idea behind adventure paths, and one thing I've always been tempted to run is the TAGDQ campaign, starting with the Temple of Elemental Evil, moving on to Against the Slavelords, and then the Giants modules, the Descent modules, and finally Queen of the Demonweb Pits.
Blending elements together instead of doing wholesale replacements is something I've done and advocated for a long time. Not only does it provide an easy way of having a more detailed final result than using just one or the other, but it also tends to have much more verisimilitude because people/places/etc. in reality have multiple aspects, complex and sometimes contradictory histories, and so forth. Also, for anyone seeking inspiration on how to rework/recast elements in different ways, may I suggest looking at the Gundam franchise, since it does a ton of that across different series/movies? Gundam Wing is basically a retelling of Gundam/Zeta Gundam/Char's Counterattack in a single work, 00 Gundam blends motifs from Gundam Wing with the story/characters of Zeta Gundam, Gundam Build Fighters recycles G Gundam in a far lower-stakes situation, etc.
I ran a campaign luke this last year. The first location was an observatory that had fallen in a random earthquake but by the end the earthquakes were brought about by misguided folks trying to lift a curse on a bridge. The campaign ended with the party lifting the curse but one died, one became forever transformed into swan and one character walked away.
Would love a video about Prepping a session :D I`ve read the dont prep plots, smart prep and etc on your awesome blog, but a video about how you do it would give me even more inspiration in my never ending hunt of improving my prep
I agree that antologies can be as good as a novel. A short story is never going to get stale, and a series of short stories work better at painting a world where a novel might be constrained to it's narrative.
Great video. You always having a way of taking the complex implications of simple ideas and distilling them down to a level we humble DMs can appreciate fully. Keep it up!
Great advice. I already do some of the things mentioned in that video (especially stitching the PCs background into the setting/campaign) because I'm still running 3E-based Realms and/or Eberron and mostly make use of Paizo's Pathfinder adventures. What I certainly can improve on is to trust my players to do part of the work for me, but then I love the world-building process inherent in that activity, so I tend to do much more than I probably would need to. Still I can testify to how amazing it is when players make connections you'd never have thought of. Those ideas are sometimes way better than what I had envisioned first, and if you don't overdo it it also has the beautiful effect that players feel validated in the guesses they were taking.
With that as inspiration, tonight I’m looking at all the NPC’s I’ve introduced and figuring out who to replace in our next adventure. Time to pull out the needle and thread and start stitching.
I know this is an older video, so you probably aren't reading comments for it anymore, but I wanted to let you know that I recently discovered this YT channel, and have been voraciously consuming the rich foamy broth of your distilled brain matter like a delicious roleplaying game soup. The metaphor got away from me a little, but good job! Keep them coming. :)
This is a fantastic, under-plumbed discussion topic for DMs. Post below: What are your favorite combinations of adventures you’ve stitched together? I’ll start: Right now I’m working on The Veiled Society + Dragon Heist, with a little Power Behind the Throne thrown in.
I started running Paizos Rise of the Runelords, but quickly decided to condense it and combine it with other Runelord themed adventure paths. Now running a combination of Rise AND Return of the Runelords + Shattered star all in one, cutting what I consider filler content.
Coincidentally I am running Power Behind the Throne where I left out the purple hand and the skaven and used the Cassalanters as servants of a rakshasa and Xanathar as 'the man'
I have trouble seeing that “aha moment” ever actually happening. PCs don’t remember the names of NPCs they closely interact with, the odds of them recognizing one who has only been name dropped before is minimal.
Great video! Thank you very much for your efforts. I love your structural and organised approaches. I would love to hear your thoughts on running and creating factions in a political intrigue style campaign.
This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I just posted something you might find useful over on the Alexandrian: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/46667/roleplaying-games/remixing-avernus-part-7f-warlords-of-avernus
Hm. As an application of the tips here, how might one stitch together the adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries? It’s easy enough to replace the patron of each adventure, but the villains are *quite* different each time, to the point where uniting them in some grand conspiracy would strain credulity.
I know video editing is a non-insignificant amount of work, but I wonder if you've considered chopping up any of your VODs on Twitch, and posting them here? You have a lot of great content on your Twitch channel, but it would be easier to digest in smaller chunks. Plus I've heard other content creators say that the audience for Twitch and the audience for RUclips don't cross over as much as one might think. So if you put pieces of your streams up here, you might reach a different segment of your fan base. Just a thought.
I like your content, but there's this thing that pulls me out of what you're saying to pause just about every video. It's the music. It reminds me of basement clubs back when I did that sort of thing. I feel like I'm on my way to the drum and bass room through the main floor. It's good music, but it's not the music of my thoughts about RPGs.
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
we're all regular people that like to hear when their work is appreciated. you're doing a good job justin. thanks for the quality content.
Thanks!
This was the biggest lesson I learned in my DMing career! I make a list of allll the NPCs, locations, etc as one big toolbox. Whenever I go to plan the next adventure, or to incorporate a new player's backstory, I reference the existing "toolbox" I have and try to use as many pre-existing elements as possible. Made my life easier AND my campaign so much better.
It occurs to me that you can also "pseudo-stitch" together characters even when they can't possibly be the same character. For example, suppose that you know that several adventures down the line you are going to want to run an adventure featuring the dread lich Batharik as the main villain. Now, obviously Batharik can't actually *be* the necromancer villain from your starting adventure for your level 1 PCs, but you could easily have the necromancer be a cultist *of* Batharik, and plant Batharik's sigil and a few other references to him in the necromancer's possessions and dialogue. And then maybe the cursed dungeon the party needs to delve into two adventures later is one of Batharik's old abandoned fortresses from before he went into torpor a few millennia ago.
Keep this up, and by the time the party actually gets to the Batharik adventure, you've built him up as a major figure in the legends and history of this setting, and his actual appearance will have the gravitas it deserves.
When I ran 5e's Lost Mine of Phandelver, I stitched it together with the AD&D adventure Night Below and the 3.5 adventure Red Hand of Doom. I didn't like how little LMoP's side quests made sense and that players had no reason to pursue them. Stitching in these other campaigns made the whole thing feel deeper and more alive, even though the Night Below content never made out from behind the screen in an obvious way. The players knew there was something there they hadn't figured out yet.
Mate I learn so much from you and your website. I just started DM-ing a duet with my wife and these insights are just fanstastic. Keep doing what you're doing.
Your audience is insultingly small and should be much higher.
Thanks! I'm glad they're useful!
Hopefully everyone will keep spreading the word and we'll be able to bring these videos to more people soon!
I started this expecting it to be about a campaign Snitch. This one was great!
You son of a Stitch, I’m in.
This is really exciting for me. I have done this intuitively a few times, but having a clear way to think about it helps so much. You're stuff is always great.
Thanks! It's great to hear this is useful!
Justin's calls to action ("Like, subscribe, & comment) are always outstanding. Masterful outro to a masterfully crafted video.
Great tips! I should say that some writings on screen (like in the Surprising Hooks video) would make it easier to organize the ideas in my visual head.
I always love a new Alexandrian video!
I personally adore the idea behind adventure paths, and one thing I've always been tempted to run is the TAGDQ campaign, starting with the Temple of Elemental Evil, moving on to Against the Slavelords, and then the Giants modules, the Descent modules, and finally Queen of the Demonweb Pits.
Best argument for depth Vs breadth I've heard yet - and I tend towards the latter when I run. Will bear in mind for future.
Blending elements together instead of doing wholesale replacements is something I've done and advocated for a long time. Not only does it provide an easy way of having a more detailed final result than using just one or the other, but it also tends to have much more verisimilitude because people/places/etc. in reality have multiple aspects, complex and sometimes contradictory histories, and so forth.
Also, for anyone seeking inspiration on how to rework/recast elements in different ways, may I suggest looking at the Gundam franchise, since it does a ton of that across different series/movies? Gundam Wing is basically a retelling of Gundam/Zeta Gundam/Char's Counterattack in a single work, 00 Gundam blends motifs from Gundam Wing with the story/characters of Zeta Gundam, Gundam Build Fighters recycles G Gundam in a far lower-stakes situation, etc.
I ran a campaign luke this last year. The first location was an observatory that had fallen in a random earthquake but by the end the earthquakes were brought about by misguided folks trying to lift a curse on a bridge. The campaign ended with the party lifting the curse but one died, one became forever transformed into swan and one character walked away.
Would love a video about Prepping a session :D I`ve read the dont prep plots, smart prep and etc on your awesome blog, but a video about how you do it would give me even more inspiration in my never ending hunt of improving my prep
Thanks for pointing at Justin Alexander at the end, very helpful!
I agree that antologies can be as good as a novel. A short story is never going to get stale, and a series of short stories work better at painting a world where a novel might be constrained to it's narrative.
Top tier stuff. I'll have to share this with my partner who's running a game for the first time
Bought your book. Read all of it Dm since 1981. Your book entertain ing n joyful.
Thanks! Glad you've found it useful and enjoyable! High praise from a long-time veteran of the GM's chair!
While I'm doing most of what you mentioned, the "recast" and "merge details" points definitely has my mind racing. Thanks so much!
A master class as always, thank you!
This advice is so good that I can't believe it's free.
Great advice! Thank you!
Great video. You always having a way of taking the complex implications of simple ideas and distilling them down to a level we humble DMs can appreciate fully. Keep it up!
Great advice. I already do some of the things mentioned in that video (especially stitching the PCs background into the setting/campaign) because I'm still running 3E-based Realms and/or Eberron and mostly make use of Paizo's Pathfinder adventures. What I certainly can improve on is to trust my players to do part of the work for me, but then I love the world-building process inherent in that activity, so I tend to do much more than I probably would need to. Still I can testify to how amazing it is when players make connections you'd never have thought of. Those ideas are sometimes way better than what I had envisioned first, and if you don't overdo it it also has the beautiful effect that players feel validated in the guesses they were taking.
Glad to see more videos from you, Justin, they're always great!
Huge fan of your blog for a great many years but I had no idea you did videos as well! Thank you for the wellspring of great GM tips and ideas!
Recasting is such a cool but simple technique
With that as inspiration, tonight I’m looking at all the NPC’s I’ve introduced and figuring out who to replace in our next adventure. Time to pull out the needle and thread and start stitching.
Great advice as usual, Justin.
I know this is an older video, so you probably aren't reading comments for it anymore, but I wanted to let you know that I recently discovered this YT channel, and have been voraciously consuming the rich foamy broth of your distilled brain matter like a delicious roleplaying game soup.
The metaphor got away from me a little, but good job! Keep them coming. :)
Brain soup! Delicious!
Great video, thanks for all the great game advice you provide!
This one is begging for a 2nd part with some actual adventure stitching. Seeing some of your process might be very valuable to a lot of people.
That's a great idea!
I would be excited to hear you do an audio book for a lovecraft short story...my brain tells me it would be good.
I have good news for you: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/50309/Mythos-Audio-Library-1-Call-of-Cthulhu?affiliate_id=81207
@@TheAlexandrian dang, I guess my brain was right.
Fantastic content!
This is a fantastic, under-plumbed discussion topic for DMs. Post below: What are your favorite combinations of adventures you’ve stitched together?
I’ll start: Right now I’m working on The Veiled Society + Dragon Heist, with a little Power Behind the Throne thrown in.
I started running Paizos Rise of the Runelords, but quickly decided to condense it and combine it with other Runelord themed adventure paths. Now running a combination of Rise AND Return of the Runelords + Shattered star all in one, cutting what I consider filler content.
Coincidentally I am running Power Behind the Throne where I left out the purple hand and the skaven and used the Cassalanters as servants of a rakshasa and Xanathar as 'the man'
Good advice. Thanks.
Great piece!
Yay! New video!
Great advice!
Thanks, Peter!
Great, thank you!
Thought that is video was going to be the about the RPG equivalent to the Honeymoon stitch.
Nice OTE shirt! 🔥
Amazing Job :D. I would really love to see your take on a west marches style guide / game in dnd 5e
Video coming soon, I hope! But check out the Open Table Manifesto: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/38643/roleplaying-games/open-table-manifesto
...either your shirt or the text on the candlekeep mysteries book is reversed.
π on the hat is also not reversed. Somehow, somewhere, we are being lied to.
fnord!
Justin has been “stitched” to the mirror realm. Great advice, though.
something strange is going on!
The O and the T are symmetrical, but the E is clearly the right way around. How deep does this mystery go?
Episodic saga tips? Nice!
I have trouble seeing that “aha moment” ever actually happening. PCs don’t remember the names of NPCs they closely interact with, the odds of them recognizing one who has only been name dropped before is minimal.
Great video! Thank you very much for your efforts. I love your structural and organised approaches.
I would love to hear your thoughts on running and creating factions in a political intrigue style campaign.
This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I just posted something you might find useful over on the Alexandrian: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/46667/roleplaying-games/remixing-avernus-part-7f-warlords-of-avernus
@@TheAlexandrian Thanks for the reference. An interesting read indeed. I got a few loose ideas about prepping some factions I am currently working on.
Liked! Is it just me or is the audio off from the video (less than a second but noticeable)?
Tam Shoon, subtly amusing.
Step 1) Take a One Page Dungeon Contest compendium
Step 2) Stitch the adventures together
Step 3) ???
Step 4) Profit
What is thhe city map behind you please?
That's a map of Duskvol from John Harper's BLADES IN THE DARK.
Hm. As an application of the tips here, how might one stitch together the adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries? It’s easy enough to replace the patron of each adventure, but the villains are *quite* different each time, to the point where uniting them in some grand conspiracy would strain credulity.
What is the disk just to the right of your head?
A Harptos calendar (from the Forgotten Realms setting) that was handmade by one of the players in my Dragon Heist campaign.
I know video editing is a non-insignificant amount of work, but I wonder if you've considered chopping up any of your VODs on Twitch, and posting them here? You have a lot of great content on your Twitch channel, but it would be easier to digest in smaller chunks. Plus I've heard other content creators say that the audience for Twitch and the audience for RUclips don't cross over as much as one might think. So if you put pieces of your streams up here, you might reach a different segment of your fan base. Just a thought.
Is it just me or is the audio out of sync?
I like your content, but there's this thing that pulls me out of what you're saying to pause just about every video. It's the music. It reminds me of basement clubs back when I did that sort of thing. I feel like I'm on my way to the drum and bass room through the main floor. It's good music, but it's not the music of my thoughts about RPGs.
I find the engagement the most erotic part of the comment.