Your last critique is funny because both Matt and Brennan have said that its best, even in home campaigns, to never hide information behind dice rolls. So even when they fail a dice roll, a player should get some kind of information that will point them forward somehow. Also, notice how every time he does this everybody starts to take notes. He's not giving out useless information, particularly early in a campaign, he's teaching the players about the world they inhabit. Also as Ursula K le Guin said, "Thanks to “show don’t tell,” I find writers in my workshops who think exposition is wicked. They’re afraid to describe the world they’ve invented. … This dread of writing a sentence that isn’t crammed with “gutwrenching action” leads fiction writers to rely far too much on dialogue, to restrict voice to limited third person and tense to the present."
If you get your players crying with joy and sorrow, belly-laughing, screaming, gasping, jaw-dropped, horrified, shocked, philosophizing, cheering in relief and literal exaltation, all in a single session, you're among the best of the best. There's lots of things that you shouldn't do in your typical game that make a lot of sense for this specific style of play, which to me feels more like an interactive novel than DND sometimes. The most relevant example: in your typical game you should NEVER have a scripted defeat; absolutely terrible idea, in general. But for fulfilling this particular game's purpose -- to tell important backstory for a larger, long-established world, that ending was not just the entire point of the game, but also critical for the general feelings of dread and doom. The goal was to tell important lore to people who've been invested for many years. It wasn't to be like your regular games. They'll be " back to your regularly scheduled programming" soon enough; but this was a very special time they'll remember forever, I'm sure. I will, and I was just watching. Not saying these sessions were without fault, but nothing is without fault, and if you concentrate on the faults, ignoring the good, you've got a skewed vision of reality. It's just an overly negative view of looking at things that will make your life harder. Also, it's just preference, but I cherished the details and appreciated the ways he tried to be generous with the different checks. I think the players did too.
I don't want to discourage you from making your videos, I hope I wasn't too critical of you, I want to support and encourage smaller channels as they grow and I wish you all the best. I wanted to express disagreement with your points, not to say you were messing up or something. Again, I hope you flourish here on RUclips 😁
@@johnpinkston3818 I'm glad people want to talk about this stuff, It lets me know where to go in the future. I am making the Flip of this video, which maybe should have been first. Subscribe so you catch it when it comes out and I look forward to you commenting on that one!
I'm honestly surprised to see a video talking about what you can learn as a DM from Brennan in Calamity that only talks about a plot hole and some differences in taste of how to describe and give lore. There is WAY MORE to learn from this series! Like how to keep your players (and audience) engaged. How to play with tension. How to amplify emotional investment. I can understand that each person has their own taste in DMing styles, but to say that we should be learning from Brennan's mistakes in this show feels like saying the Mona Lisa teaches us how not to pick a frame. You're ignoring the painting, man.
Well said! Would you like to see me make a video of all the things he does well? Would you have clicked on a video called, "The difference between D&D Entertainment and your Home game?"
All right I will make that, It is a good video idea. Subscribe so you catch it when it comes out, should be 2-4 days. It shouldn't take to much time to make, in between dips from making my "Oops All Clerics!" Video.
Much of the lore in EXU Calamity was created by Matt and this whole prequel was more for lore and backstory of this world than exploring characters and relationships we will never see again. Also this was a mini series that much more dense than a usual mini series and so as much information must be given as possible to give us the answer of what caused the calamity to happen
I can definitely agree that some things work for entertainment more than home games. I personally enjoyed the explanations still with failed checks at time, but it would be bad if a player didn't play for over 30 minutes. I will say, whenever coming to teleportation, I just thought since they're really high officials ("The only people that actually do anything" I think they said) and Zerxus is the First Knight, he just didn't have enough time to go on such a prolonged break. That's at least my headcanon.
Right, it is nice to hear the explanations as a viewer for sure. Teleportation can be tricky, it just seems like "The city of Mages" would have made a permanent circle at some point. Say a word and poof! No spell needed.
I found that epic moment at the end of ep 4, 5hr,32min, 30sec to be a bit awkward, Abria starts throwing all kinds of dice around and rolling before the DM even says what she needs to roll for. The first time I watched it seems like she rolled 3 or 4 times,.. but I guess she just set the first die aside, then fumbled,... but yeah. Just felt like it was a must make roll, and then 24 or something like that.... anyways, no biggy, It was the Best 4 episode campaign adventures ever.
@@universalgamemaster6703 but would it make sense for 14th level characters, all very crucial in their own way in the city, engineers, fighters, detectives, archivists of the highest order to fail those tests so spectacularly that they get nothing from it? Don’t say “you don’t remember” when someone fails a history check. Give them info, but without crucial details. If you take everything away from them so that their action was essentially useless, you create a very disappointing story. Same with perception checks. Ok it’s too dark to see much, but they can still perceive the shimmering of a silver medallion on the person’s waist. They don’t know what it is, they have practically no info, but next time, they’ll be on the lookout for that exact thing. They’ll have somewhere to go. A failure is not necessarily a total failure, especially when you’re supposed to be an expert in your field.
Nice insights! I would just disagree with the issue regarding teleportation. Because I guess what locks them isn't the logistics of going back and forth, but their duties as the Ring of Brass. Kind regards!
It's funny that you focus on his portrayal of skill checks as the biggest gripe you have when it is the biggest praise I've heard about him DM'ing from most people I've put onto the show. Most people seem to like the idea that if your a master of a craft you don't just "fail" a check. There is still information you can glean from your mastery even if it isn't much as a success would have been. 30 minutes without playing thing is kinda sorta valid. If you have a bigger party, with 6+ people and you split said party into multiple groups, you're very likely not going to play for 30 minutes. Thats just what it is. Playing at home, in my experience, is slower than what you watch streamed, not faster. I don't see that as a particular failure as a DM if the massive party wants to run off into different directions and all the players are okay with it. There are no "hard" rules of DM'ing. You DM towards your players. And if your players want to follow their characters motivations into 4/5 different directions that means they're going to sit and listen while others play at times. And if they are there for that type of game that's okay too.
I think the problem with your #BigOne is that, for one, as you say, this is being done for an audience. And the main reason that this problem isn’t a problem is that failed checks shouldn’t result in no information at all. They should result in the bare minimum of information the game requires to keep functioning. There’s a big difference.
The too much time explaining checks complaint misses a major point that is actually one of Brennan's main strengths as a DM. Brennan does the same thing in the first episode of every game he runs. He gives each player a 10 to 15 minute vignette introducing their character. During that vignette the player describes their character, the NPCs most important to them may get introduced, and he often has them make at least one roll or lets them cast spells. Yeah, that means the players who go last may have to wait longer, but when you're running a game as entertainment for an audience without visual aids, costumes, or animatics you absolutely need to get the entire audience locked in on who is playing what character and what their deal is. Abriya didn't get called on until 30 minutes into the first session not because he was ignoring her or taking his time. She waited because the audience needed to be caught up on who three people at the table were before getting to the other three. In the very first season of dimension 20 Brennan rolled to decide who would get introduced first/next. I'm pretty sure he rolls ahead of schedule now to speed things up.
The only thing I would say is that he is trying to lore dump because he only has a limited time to complete this campaign. I think he would have done this more organically if it had been a home game.
This isn’t a plot hole. Teleportation isn’t accessible to the baker or the cobbler. Planes exist but I have never been to Hawaii. As for the “friends circle”… spells cost money/materials. I have friends in Denmark but they don’t pay for tickets to fly me out there….
I don't mean to be rude by saying this, but I feel like a lot of this is very subjective, a DND game is still a DND game whether it's played in front of an audience or not, and while yes there are "wrong" ways to play DND, I think you're really pushing your preferences on Brennen's DMing too much, almost everything you said were, yes, nitpicks that were your opinion, but I don't really think they're really justified since you're using this video with the objective to educate people on how to DM better with "important lessons for a DM to learn" (it's literally in the title) when most of the things you said were personal preference. DMs and players are just different table to table, and that needs to be accepted without criticism that wasn't really needed or asked for. if I were to put my shoes into the players at the table, I don't think there was really anything truly problematic in these 4 sessions. I can maybe get behind the idea of separating what is a "show" from a "home game" but if everyone at their home game table wants to play like one of those neat "Internet DND shows for entertainment like that Mercer or Mulligan guy", then I'm all for it, it's not hurting anyone as long as everybody is clearly communicating (unlike what happens with cases of the MM effect) and having fun! I think like Sam's comment said, making a different video on all the amazing different and exotic ways that Brennen goes about DMing and how they may elevate your games and draw more interest to your players would benefit educating DMs a lot more. Overall I just had a sour taste in my mouth after watching this, but I hope you take this purely as criticism as I want to see DND content go in a more positive direction!
Thank you for the Feedback! I have Great news, that other video is already up! Give it a watch and I look forward to reading what you think about it: ruclips.net/video/7hY4psnUTNM/видео.html
We do not yet, it was something that was thought about but had not happened as we didn't know the amount of interest. Is that something you guys would like to see?
@@leavit2levi432 Absolutely! This whole channel exists to help people with RPGs. Give me one week to get a discord going. Until then check out some of my other vids and see if they can answer some questions you have. Reddit can be helpful, but I also know it can be a bit of a hornets nest, check out DMAcademy there. Tell your friends about my channel too!
His long winded way of describing everything is the main reason I couldn't get through the intro portion of the first episode. I decided I'd just wait for a breakdown of the series. Hopefully they do a recap of the series like with the mighty nein.
I feel the whole Teleportation Circle thing is a 2 sided blade. I could immagine, that those mages, as parraniod as they are, wouldt want some circles around. Especially permanent ones. In a city if backstabbing wizards i wouldnt have some tbh. But yeah. Its a bit weird that they are so city centered but family lives way off with no chance to see them is weird. I mean its atleast regular. Every 7 years you can see your kids. Sounds fair XD
Right? 4 Mages and 3 people without magic could Teleport to 3 different places, hang out for 20 mins and be back to the city in under an hour. Thanks for the Comment and Watch!
I felt like the player engagement problem was at its worst in the final episode. Everybody died right at the beginning and then it was just Zerxus and Asmodeus flapping their gums and talking in circles for what felt like the next hour and a half, even though it was just under forty. And when Lou kept asking how much time had passed, I almost felt like he was trying to prod Brennan to speed the eff up so that everybody else could play. I had a lot of trouble staying engaged even as a viewer.
I really don't like Brennan as a DM. Part of my job is to evaluate presantations that people hold. Brennans "ahh aehh you... ahh... walk down... ahhh... the street and ahh.." would be an F for extrem useage of filling words. I would ask the person if they ever have even seen what they are trying to present. I know it is not even close to being the same, but still, the "filling words = bad" mentality i can't turn off ^^ That being said, i enjoyed Calamity, despite this ^^
I didn't realise that DMing and presentations were the same thing. I think you're setting your demands too high, when you see it you'll notice Matt also "umm"s and "ahh"s a lot as he's trying to roll with a scene and his players' character choices
Okay you asked me to checkout your HOT TAKES 🪵🔥🪵 🥵 🪵🔥🪵 I'm listening, but starting out idk who wrote this and I haven't seen it but loved your positive video from a few days ago.
Glad you liked that video! I don't know if these are hot takes in this one, just some things on my mind with all the worldbuilding I have been thinking about.
Your last critique is funny because both Matt and Brennan have said that its best, even in home campaigns, to never hide information behind dice rolls. So even when they fail a dice roll, a player should get some kind of information that will point them forward somehow. Also, notice how every time he does this everybody starts to take notes. He's not giving out useless information, particularly early in a campaign, he's teaching the players about the world they inhabit.
Also as Ursula K le Guin said, "Thanks to “show don’t tell,” I find writers in my workshops who think exposition is wicked. They’re afraid to describe the world they’ve invented. … This dread of writing a sentence that isn’t crammed with “gutwrenching action” leads fiction writers to rely far too much on dialogue, to restrict voice to limited third person and tense to the present."
If you get your players crying with joy and sorrow, belly-laughing, screaming, gasping, jaw-dropped, horrified, shocked, philosophizing, cheering in relief and literal exaltation, all in a single session, you're among the best of the best.
There's lots of things that you shouldn't do in your typical game that make a lot of sense for this specific style of play, which to me feels more like an interactive novel than DND sometimes. The most relevant example: in your typical game you should NEVER have a scripted defeat; absolutely terrible idea, in general. But for fulfilling this particular game's purpose -- to tell important backstory for a larger, long-established world, that ending was not just the entire point of the game, but also critical for the general feelings of dread and doom. The goal was to tell important lore to people who've been invested for many years. It wasn't to be like your regular games. They'll be " back to your regularly scheduled programming" soon enough; but this was a very special time they'll remember forever, I'm sure. I will, and I was just watching.
Not saying these sessions were without fault, but nothing is without fault, and if you concentrate on the faults, ignoring the good, you've got a skewed vision of reality. It's just an overly negative view of looking at things that will make your life harder.
Also, it's just preference, but I cherished the details and appreciated the ways he tried to be generous with the different checks. I think the players did too.
I don't want to discourage you from making your videos, I hope I wasn't too critical of you, I want to support and encourage smaller channels as they grow and I wish you all the best. I wanted to express disagreement with your points, not to say you were messing up or something. Again, I hope you flourish here on RUclips 😁
@@johnpinkston3818 I'm glad people want to talk about this stuff, It lets me know where to go in the future. I am making the Flip of this video, which maybe should have been first. Subscribe so you catch it when it comes out and I look forward to you commenting on that one!
I'm honestly surprised to see a video talking about what you can learn as a DM from Brennan in Calamity that only talks about a plot hole and some differences in taste of how to describe and give lore. There is WAY MORE to learn from this series! Like how to keep your players (and audience) engaged. How to play with tension. How to amplify emotional investment. I can understand that each person has their own taste in DMing styles, but to say that we should be learning from Brennan's mistakes in this show feels like saying the Mona Lisa teaches us how not to pick a frame. You're ignoring the painting, man.
Well said! Would you like to see me make a video of all the things he does well? Would you have clicked on a video called, "The difference between D&D Entertainment and your Home game?"
@@universalgamemaster6703 Yeah, I'd give that a watch. Sorry, I meant no disrespect, just felt there was so much good about the series
All right I will make that, It is a good video idea. Subscribe so you catch it when it comes out, should be 2-4 days. It shouldn't take to much time to make, in between dips from making my "Oops All Clerics!" Video.
@@universalgamemaster6703 that actually sounds like a great idea and I would be interested to watch
Well I have good news, it's already up! ruclips.net/video/7hY4psnUTNM/видео.html Let me know what ya think on that video, and thanks for the watch!
Much of the lore in EXU Calamity was created by Matt and this whole prequel was more for lore and backstory of this world than exploring characters and relationships we will never see again. Also this was a mini series that much more dense than a usual mini series and so as much information must be given as possible to give us the answer of what caused the calamity to happen
Well said. I do enjoy the history, and would have loved to see the characters more. Can't have too much from only a 4 part series.
I can definitely agree that some things work for entertainment more than home games. I personally enjoyed the explanations still with failed checks at time, but it would be bad if a player didn't play for over 30 minutes.
I will say, whenever coming to teleportation, I just thought since they're really high officials ("The only people that actually do anything" I think they said) and Zerxus is the First Knight, he just didn't have enough time to go on such a prolonged break. That's at least my headcanon.
Right, it is nice to hear the explanations as a viewer for sure. Teleportation can be tricky, it just seems like "The city of Mages" would have made a permanent circle at some point. Say a word and poof! No spell needed.
I found that epic moment at the end of ep 4, 5hr,32min, 30sec to be a bit awkward, Abria starts throwing all kinds of dice around and rolling before the DM even says what she needs to roll for. The first time I watched it seems like she rolled 3 or 4 times,.. but I guess she just set the first die aside, then fumbled,... but yeah. Just felt like it was a must make roll, and then 24 or something like that.... anyways, no biggy, It was the Best 4 episode campaign adventures ever.
I like the way Matt responds to failed checks, he just says "you can't hear anything" or "it's too dark to discern any details" and moves on.
Right! That's a better way especially for Home Games.
@@universalgamemaster6703 but would it make sense for 14th level characters, all very crucial in their own way in the city, engineers, fighters, detectives, archivists of the highest order to fail those tests so spectacularly that they get nothing from it?
Don’t say “you don’t remember” when someone fails a history check. Give them info, but without crucial details. If you take everything away from them so that their action was essentially useless, you create a very disappointing story.
Same with perception checks. Ok it’s too dark to see much, but they can still perceive the shimmering of a silver medallion on the person’s waist. They don’t know what it is, they have practically no info, but next time, they’ll be on the lookout for that exact thing. They’ll have somewhere to go.
A failure is not necessarily a total failure, especially when you’re supposed to be an expert in your field.
@@vynne3888 Well said! Finding ways to move the plot along and keep the ball rolling with checks is a balance.
Nice insights!
I would just disagree with the issue regarding teleportation.
Because I guess what locks them isn't the logistics of going back and forth, but their duties as the Ring of Brass.
Kind regards!
Very good point, Thanks for the watch and tell me what you think about the other DM Calamity Video!
It's funny that you focus on his portrayal of skill checks as the biggest gripe you have when it is the biggest praise I've heard about him DM'ing from most people I've put onto the show. Most people seem to like the idea that if your a master of a craft you don't just "fail" a check. There is still information you can glean from your mastery even if it isn't much as a success would have been.
30 minutes without playing thing is kinda sorta valid. If you have a bigger party, with 6+ people and you split said party into multiple groups, you're very likely not going to play for 30 minutes. Thats just what it is. Playing at home, in my experience, is slower than what you watch streamed, not faster. I don't see that as a particular failure as a DM if the massive party wants to run off into different directions and all the players are okay with it. There are no "hard" rules of DM'ing. You DM towards your players. And if your players want to follow their characters motivations into 4/5 different directions that means they're going to sit and listen while others play at times. And if they are there for that type of game that's okay too.
I think the problem with your #BigOne is that, for one, as you say, this is being done for an audience. And the main reason that this problem isn’t a problem is that failed checks shouldn’t result in no information at all. They should result in the bare minimum of information the game requires to keep functioning. There’s a big difference.
The too much time explaining checks complaint misses a major point that is actually one of Brennan's main strengths as a DM. Brennan does the same thing in the first episode of every game he runs. He gives each player a 10 to 15 minute vignette introducing their character. During that vignette the player describes their character, the NPCs most important to them may get introduced, and he often has them make at least one roll or lets them cast spells. Yeah, that means the players who go last may have to wait longer, but when you're running a game as entertainment for an audience without visual aids, costumes, or animatics you absolutely need to get the entire audience locked in on who is playing what character and what their deal is.
Abriya didn't get called on until 30 minutes into the first session not because he was ignoring her or taking his time. She waited because the audience needed to be caught up on who three people at the table were before getting to the other three.
In the very first season of dimension 20 Brennan rolled to decide who would get introduced first/next. I'm pretty sure he rolls ahead of schedule now to speed things up.
I think the party is less for the movers and shakers like the ring of brass, who are constantly busy, more like the many families and civillians.
The only thing I would say is that he is trying to lore dump because he only has a limited time to complete this campaign. I think he would have done this more organically if it had been a home game.
This isn’t a plot hole. Teleportation isn’t accessible to the baker or the cobbler. Planes exist but I have never been to Hawaii.
As for the “friends circle”… spells cost money/materials. I have friends in Denmark but they don’t pay for tickets to fly me out there….
I don't mean to be rude by saying this, but I feel like a lot of this is very subjective, a DND game is still a DND game whether it's played in front of an audience or not, and while yes there are "wrong" ways to play DND, I think you're really pushing your preferences on Brennen's DMing too much, almost everything you said were, yes, nitpicks that were your opinion, but I don't really think they're really justified since you're using this video with the objective to educate people on how to DM better with "important lessons for a DM to learn" (it's literally in the title) when most of the things you said were personal preference. DMs and players are just different table to table, and that needs to be accepted without criticism that wasn't really needed or asked for. if I were to put my shoes into the players at the table, I don't think there was really anything truly problematic in these 4 sessions.
I can maybe get behind the idea of separating what is a "show" from a "home game" but if everyone at their home game table wants to play like one of those neat "Internet DND shows for entertainment like that Mercer or Mulligan guy", then I'm all for it, it's not hurting anyone as long as everybody is clearly communicating (unlike what happens with cases of the MM effect) and having fun!
I think like Sam's comment said, making a different video on all the amazing different and exotic ways that Brennen goes about DMing and how they may elevate your games and draw more interest to your players would benefit educating DMs a lot more. Overall I just had a sour taste in my mouth after watching this, but I hope you take this purely as criticism as I want to see DND content go in a more positive direction!
Thank you for the Feedback! I have Great news, that other video is already up! Give it a watch and I look forward to reading what you think about it: ruclips.net/video/7hY4psnUTNM/видео.html
Do you have a Discord for your channel?
We do not yet, it was something that was thought about but had not happened as we didn't know the amount of interest. Is that something you guys would like to see?
@@universalgamemaster6703 I would honestly, I need somewhere where I can ask advice for DMing or other TTRPG related things like discussing books
@@leavit2levi432 Absolutely! This whole channel exists to help people with RPGs. Give me one week to get a discord going. Until then check out some of my other vids and see if they can answer some questions you have. Reddit can be helpful, but I also know it can be a bit of a hornets nest, check out DMAcademy there. Tell your friends about my channel too!
@@universalgamemaster6703 I'll be sure to do that!
discord.gg/tMWS8J7pry Here is the Channel, bear with me as it may take a bit to get everything working right.
His long winded way of describing everything is the main reason I couldn't get through the intro portion of the first episode. I decided I'd just wait for a breakdown of the series. Hopefully they do a recap of the series like with the mighty nein.
I feel the whole Teleportation Circle thing is a 2 sided blade.
I could immagine, that those mages, as parraniod as they are, wouldt want some circles around. Especially permanent ones.
In a city if backstabbing wizards i wouldnt have some tbh.
But yeah. Its a bit weird that they are so city centered but family lives way off with no chance to see them is weird.
I mean its atleast regular. Every 7 years you can see your kids.
Sounds fair XD
Right? 4 Mages and 3 people without magic could Teleport to 3 different places, hang out for 20 mins and be back to the city in under an hour. Thanks for the Comment and Watch!
I felt like the player engagement problem was at its worst in the final episode. Everybody died right at the beginning and then it was just Zerxus and Asmodeus flapping their gums and talking in circles for what felt like the next hour and a half, even though it was just under forty. And when Lou kept asking how much time had passed, I almost felt like he was trying to prod Brennan to speed the eff up so that everybody else could play. I had a lot of trouble staying engaged even as a viewer.
Yeah it was a little strange, lessons to be learned from right?
I really don't like Brennan as a DM.
Part of my job is to evaluate presantations that people hold.
Brennans "ahh aehh you... ahh... walk down... ahhh... the street and ahh.." would be an F for extrem useage of filling words. I would ask the person if they ever have even seen what they are trying to present. I know it is not even close to being the same, but still, the "filling words = bad" mentality i can't turn off ^^
That being said, i enjoyed Calamity, despite this ^^
Many people do notice this, as it can be distracting. Also I find it Human to be nervous on a stage in front of 1.7 MILLION people.
He's improvising, so I don't think the expectations should be so high for perfect speech.
I didn't realise that DMing and presentations were the same thing.
I think you're setting your demands too high, when you see it you'll notice Matt also "umm"s and "ahh"s a lot as he's trying to roll with a scene and his players' character choices
Found the non-dm
Bit of a difference between a presEntation and improvised reactions in a non-scripted event
Okay you asked me to checkout your HOT TAKES 🪵🔥🪵 🥵 🪵🔥🪵
I'm listening, but starting out idk who wrote this and I haven't seen it but loved your positive video from a few days ago.
Glad you liked that video! I don't know if these are hot takes in this one, just some things on my mind with all the worldbuilding I have been thinking about.