Things I love about this channel. 1. DND discussion 2. no ads 3. no wasting the viewers time you talk fast and clearly 4. when you say doobly doos. 5. your passion for the topic bleeds through. Great channel
especially 17:00 - 18:15 . Well put and THANK YOU. :) You have the means of reaching a lot of people with your videos, so I'm just very happy and thankful you among others are speaking up about this. I'm glad we're growing as a community. I have players of different genders and sexualities in my group, and they're thrilled to be able to play a game with, against and as characters they can relate to, without being mocked or shunned for it. Letting your players feel welcome while having fun is what's most important.
I agree. My teenage child and I got started in D&D about a year & a half ago, and our enthusiasm for and enjoyment of the game have been hugely enhanced by the videos on this channel (we have also been inspired by Critical Role, Adventure Zone, Dimension20, et al). Shortly after we started playing D&D together with others in our family, my kiddo came out to us as trans/nonbinary. Later, we started playing with a few other families who also have trans/nonbinary/gnc teens, and it has been a wonderfully supportive social activity for all of us. I appreciate that D&D gives *all* of us opportunities to explore different aspects of our own identity and character growth, in the guise of role-playing.
I don't play D&D, haven't played D&D, don't really ever intend to play D&D... but these videos are so well put together that I will happily keep coming back to watch them. For a subject I have little interest in, these videos are super interesting. I definitely am one of those "watch the long videos while I'm doing work" people, but short videos will do just fine too. I love the recaps on real life events and what you've learned, but then the whole episode about the sociology of D&D might have been my favourite of the lot I'm glad you seem to be enjoying doing it, because it's become a regular thing I look forward to watching week on week. Get well soon!
As the only person in my close group of friends with any experience with DnD; which doesn't have to be a lot; it fell upon me to DM for our first campaign. We managed to flounder through the starter set campaign. My friend decided that he'd like to take a crack at running a game, which was perfect for me because in my mind being a "player" was much more enjoyable. He quickly found out DMing can be an utter nightmare if you're not prepared. After just two sessions we kind of just stopped playing. Thankfully I came across your channel. I now have a desire to whip up a sandbox game to get my friends together and playing again. Thanks for the time and effort you put into your videos and keep up the great work.
This is like the 5th time I’ve watched through most of your videos. Every time I feel that I get something new and different from them, or I remember something that I had forgotten. I have DMd for several groups and even got a friend of mine to start DMing and he’s fantastic. This is in large part to these videos. Many thank yous are not enough!
Ok, seven years after the fact and my head whips around at the mention of Ken White and Popehat. Incredibly small world sometimes. Also, thank you Matthew for all the work you've done with this channel. I'm a new subscriber because last weekend, I DM'd my first campaign since 1992. Thank you!
I took your advice from the Deck of Many Things video and put one in mine this weekend. I thought about using the box trick to give them a better outcome but decided against it at the last second because I wanted to give my players, and myself honestly, a feel of how the DOMT would work out in reality. I loved it because I have two people who are relatively new to Dnd and two veterans. When one of the veterans saw what they had found and realized what it was, he looked like he was going to have an aneurism. I thought they would draw once, then realize it was a bad idea to draw more, but......eh........yeah I was wrong. The Bard drew once and immediately lost all his magic items, one of which was essential to my story (it was an artifact so it just disappeared), then kept drawing. We fought avatars of death, lost xp, gained an NPC and a keep, before I had to make the thing disappear. It got crazy.
Honestly Matt, I like your content so much I watch lots of old videos in bits at a time, even though I do usually watch all your vidoes once through at least. I'm driving, waiting for something, or making food (like now) and just want a little bit of the straight dope. Edit: your videos are all straight dope, regardless of length.
Once you're up to 3 videos a week maybe you can do a video each week or every other week on how to design a specific type of encounter? Ex. Day 1 Talking about a specific theme or idea Day 2 Follow up on the specific theme or idea and viewer questions Day 3 (Week A) Lessons from your campaign from the previous 2 weeks Day 3 (Week B) How to design an encounter involving x theme or mechanic Have people in the comment section suggest types of encounters and then whip up an idea for how you would run it (for example a little while ago I wrote a unicorn birthing encounter for someone on reddit, or it could be more common things like laying siege to a castle, creating an interesting library encounter, how to make nautical travel more engaging without always having your ship boarded, etc.)
You have easily become my favorite DnD Channel on RUclips and I kinda stopped watching the others and just focus on these. But now you're getting famous and this community is getting bigger with all the awesome people involved. You're doing good work here Matt.
I love your "history of" series....my husband is an OG D&D player, I showed him your channel, he is super moved by your videos. He works nights, so when he came in this morning, I was watching your second history video...he was hooked!!! You brought back so many memories for him, as a teen, playing. Thank you for that. He thinks I'll really like DMing, and be great at it. I found your videos while watching Black Magic Craft, you came up in recommended. I've been binge watching since.
I'm setting up a game over the internet with friends from 3 different countries because I was hooked by your videos. Keep it up, the videos are so interesting and informative.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. Most other DM advice channels are long winded and unedited, it's a nice change of pace to get a vlogbrothers-style series.
Your channel is so great exactly because it focuses on what is unique to running tabletop RPGs and that your advice applies equally to D&D, World of Darkness, Pathfinder, Star Wars RPGs, Cyberpunk 2020, anything. Keep up the great work!
Lol, as a Brit... loved the sign-off. People need to realise that context is important in communicating. These videos are great Matt, thank you and keep up the good work. It's very much appreciated!
both short and long videos are great. keep up the awesome work. the best decision I made in my short gming career was following a link Liam posted to your page. There is so much useful information that doesn't exist in the books.
Congrats on the win! I'm also happy to see that your subscriber count still seems to be flourishing! It's a great channel and it's doing good work. On the topic of getting more people involved in DMing, something that my last GM did (for a DC Superhero RP) was he would have an open invitation for the players to GM a plot arc if they had any ideas. It gave him a break and gave the players a taste of GMing without needed to continue for months on end if they didn't enjoy it.
That's so true, that you learn more about DMing the first time you do it than in any amount of videos. Got to go in to the deep end and make some mistakes, modest or otherwise, to learn. The fast, motormouth style is correct for youtube, methinks. If people can't follow it I would suspect they're not paying attention. Being from the UK, an American throwing up a pair of vickies while saying "peace" cannot be legitimately interpreted as a slight. We'd usually do a peace sign palm side facing outward. Love the longer videos, but I can understand if more shorter videos makes more sense from the other side.
+Jon Watson Yeah I think it's mostly American viewers who learned something about British culture once and want to show off what they know, but they have misapplied it. :D
My only complaint about it is you saying that it's screw off; but I can understand you wanting to keep it PG-13. A brit that only recently found your channel. Also necro.
Hope you get feeling better soon! Thanks for doing these videos. I'm one of my group's 2 regular DMs and it's always nice to get some much needed advice. Keep it up!
Recently started watching the channel,got hooked instantly,but man is it exhausting keeping up with this speed,you talk like a machine gun.That being said i do think its part of the charm and why i keep watching and will keep watching from now on.Keep them coming
The speed of your speech is actually one of the reasons I like this series. Usually I get distracted from RUclips videos because the pace just drags (ditto for podcasts). I wish the games I ran could move at that pace. Maybe that's a good topic for a future video: pacing the session. I try to have places where it starts and ends that follow some semblance of how an episode of a show might go, but it gets clunky at best. I'd like some insight in how other people do it.
Watching 4 years later, and your "shorter" videos has not come true!! :P I love it and I hope you see enough return with MCDM and S&F, I am an owner of the physical copy of S&F and when I have a job after graduation, I will be getting K&W!
Just feeling the need to say I love the fact that your talk fast in your videos. Makes me feel normal. Throughout my life I've been told to slow down, but I talk just as fast as you when I'm excited about something or want to get a point across. Also, like many others, thanks to your videos, and Critical Role, I too am steeping into DM shoes and running my first ever game of D&D. Thank you for taking the time to do these. Looking forward to the videos of the future whatever length they are. ;)
Me too I get told I talk too fast, but I get frustrated by how slow other people around me speak and think. I feel like the whole world runs at half speed sometimes.
I absolutely love this channel. I'm currently participating as a player in my first RPG, so a lot of your information is more advanced than what I need, but your content is so entertaining and you are so good at getting me hyped up to play! Please keep up the great work!
I really appreciate all of your tips and input. Watching this video it's easy to assume that your recent boom in attention, the negative feedback and being sick are all getting to you. Hope you feel better soon. Don't let the stress become you! :) Thanks, Matt.
I'm really interested in the series, but when I watch material like this I have to really sit down and watch every video in succession. I'll need to plan a weekend for that
I don't know how the metrics work, but for what it's worth, when I stop watching one of your videos 8 minutes in it's because I was re-watching it for one of the points I wanted to hear again and then realized it was in another video. The first time around I watch the whole thing and love every second of it. So shorter videos focused on a single, narrower topic might cut down on partial viewing for that reason, too. Short or long, though, I just look forward to more videos!
I think the main difference on the hand gesture for the peace sign is that by and large if your unused, curled fingers are facing yourself, it is more typically the "screw off" version the UK has in its gesture-slang, whereas a lot of your classic "giving the peace sign" pictures show hands where the knuckles are outbound.
Firstly, I love your narrative style and find it very engaging. I've listened to almost all your videos in two days and have a request/episode idea. I'm about to run a game for a bunch of new people and I'm finding these videos a great learning tool. I'd like if you did a basic Player rules episode. I'm thinking something like "now you have a character sheet either made or pre-generated... What to do with all these numbers?" Explaining skills like perception, persuasion, insight and most used skills. Or basic ways to interact with the world...Or whatever you naturally think new players need to know.. Just an idea. Can't wait till your next video. Keep up the good work.
I always liked Robert Lynn Asprins Thieves' World series of books. I love the short stories collected in one setting. There's a few early Warhammer Fantasy books with collections of different authors short stories set in that setting which I really like. I've taken so much inspiration from all the different short stories. It's like small scenarios you can implement into your own already running games. Love that stuff, the compact inspirational boost that you can just lift out and put in with a bit of tweeking to fit your story for your players to interact with.
Hey Matthew, just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your content. It's entertaining and informative in the best ways possible, and I look forward to your videos every time a new one comes out. As I'm about to begin to DMing again after a little hiatus, your videos have been really helpful. Keep up the good work! :)
His philosophy of GM'ing, (whatever gets you behind the screen) applies to many things in life. Just do whatever gets you out there, having fun with your mind, actively being creative, it is better than passively consuming content.
Matt, you do you man. I love your videos and have learned new techniques and new ideas from you. Ignore the haters. They exist everywhere and will try to goad you into a conflict. Keep on Keeping on. I will continue to come and watch, and I look forward to hearing more about your personal story that you are currently running!
Like you, I always use the old names and rules by mistake (statistics, backstab, diplomacy etc). Old player I've become. This is the first RUclips channel I've ever subscribed to and I had to reactivate G+ to do it. Worth it!
I'm more of the silent watcher type. I rarely post comments. But you do what you think will work best on video length. I watch them no matter what the length is! Also just a general thank you for these videos. They have been helping me so much in understanding the game better!
Congratulations on the 7k!!! I am flattered to be called a friend of yours. I love these videos! P.S.: Giving a look at your books on kindle. Once I have the money, I will add them to my library!
Your statement of things that make you uncomfortable and nervous made me realise I am not a weirdo, despite my lack of skills in acting, speaking with different accents and a rich imagination. You are awesome!
Mat, another one you can consider is to talk about whats coming up at where in the video if you want to say "this is what you need to know" I know some other RUclipsrs phrase the most important thing in the video or address it first. i'm the sort who listens to you in the background while I work on DnD or play games. I find this helps me learn as I tend to repeat videos like this.
I would definitely watch you just ramble on about your campaign! In the mean time, hearing your personal take on each class would be interesting, particularly bards :)
LMFAO No really! I had to pause it at 21:50 (DoMT) until I could stop. I had already almost spit my coffee when you said "NO! I'm not gonna run a game for you". Tell it like it is Brother! This one was as fun as stand-up to watch. So much gold. About the speed of your speech, I had thought a lot about that after the email I sent you post ep. 6. I noticed the speed was not much faster than it normally was... it was the slight style pauses (breaths & breaks) that you seem to nail 98% of the time seemed to be hinky in sections of that one. I don't mind when you speak fast, because your enunciation, diction & tone are excellent for recording. I am looking forward to seeing The After Action Reports w/ vitamins, when they come up. They are definitely fun, but I totally agree with your instinct on doing them only when there is something to be learned by it. Maybe some twist of fate will bring me to your coast, if this unlikely scenario ever occurs... I would ask, Can I run a game for you to thank you? (^_-) Peace & Go Screw (This may be our group's new 'Live, Long & Prosper')
Really hope you get to feeling better! I'm really interested to hear what happened in your campaign. I've been toying with the idea of running a campaign of my own and finally decided to jump in. Gonna run a pair of one shots with 3 buddies to work out the kinks and learn how to prepare and then hopefully a campaign after that. Your videos are really entertaining and informative and should really help. Thanks
I love your channel and I look forward to seeing more videos. I think that it is great that you talk so quickly. As someone else has already said, you are clear and concise without wasting any time with long breaks or belaboring any points. In this video, you mention that every DM gets burnt out at some point. Would you ever consider doing a video on "DM Burn Out"? Like what you think can be done to stave off burn out or to recharge quickly. I know that you said playing in a game is the fastest way to recharge a DM's energy, and I fully agree, but in my case, I rarely get the chance to be a player, because my players and friends don't want to try DMing or don't think they'd be good at it.
I'm in the same boat with Malazan; I keep bouncing off Deadhouse Gates - not because I don't like it but just because I keep forgetting where I am and restarting. Really glad your recommended it though. Really influential series.
speaking to your later point about on rails vs. sandbox. initially I wanted a sandbox game, one where all the players can carve out their character's place and legacy in the world. The problem with this is that I am still a novice GM and don't have the resources, skill, or technical aptitude to sufficiently provide such an experience. I feel like I've, in a sense, painted myself into a corner since I want to scale back to a more on rails system, but the players are expecting so much more.
just a thought with regards the passive perception/rolling FOR the players. you could have the players roll a handful of times ahead of time and use THOSE rolls for the 'passive' occasions and then get them to roll again once those are used up.
I have enjoyed all the vids so far! I think youre right about your format though. I watched everything you made all the way through, but smaller chunks makes it so we can pay full attention to every subject.
Matt, I really love your channel's content. It's very informative and entertaining. That being said, I would love more videos in the 10 minutes of less format.
You know I think you've helped me define another couple of general categories to generally define players. Those that are there to play a game and those that are there to tell a story. Something I've been paying attention to. Game players want the rules to be followed to a tee while story tellers are less concerned with the rules other than a tool to give structure to the story. Just a thought.
I'm about to introduce a new village to my players this weekend....and now I am desperate to hear that cool way of introducing villains. :P Great video, again!
Regarding Passive Perception: it's a bit clunky and not really helpful in regards to getting them to notice things. To combat this, I use Passive Perception to see which players are allowed to make a Perception Check when I call for it. It demonstrates the diversity of the party in terms of specialization, grants opportunities for a scout to be a scout even when he's with the party, and prevents everyone from rolling for everything at all times.
Hey Matt, keep it coming, you are doing extremely well. However, I do not agree that a well experienced GM wont learn anything here. Im about to turn 47 and ive been playing since I was 12 years old. And GM-ing for almost as long. Not only do I feel very entertained by your videos, I love comparing your experiences to my own, I also get new inspiration for my own campaign setting and new sessions. I watch every second of all your uploads so it was a big surprise for me when you said that most people dont watch more than 10 mins. I never click next or stop untill I hear the signatory "Peace, Out" Thank you for doing all this. Keep it up and dont change anything :)
Hey Matt. Thanks for the videos. I've listened to a few DM-help series, like DawnforgedCast and WADS20, but yours' are easily the best and actually helpful, compared to tips that I could've gotten from a quick google search.
~22:00 Interesting thing about the Deck of Many Things: I've recently seen two adventure modules which both manipulate the deck to be either absolutely negative or just benign, and this is from a company thats made campaigns since the early days of D&D. "Manipulating" it seems more commonplace than one may think.
+Highwang I actually went out of my way to design a Deck of Many (lesser) Things. Eventually I want to run it for my friends, but our games in my life time have yet to surpass 8th level in any system so I figure the full Deck might be a bit overbearing for some lowbies. So I made a lesser variant with fewer and lower-powered cards. I figure storywise it can be a prototype and if they ever get far enough the real deck can make an appearance, fresh out of its creator's hands.
I really enjoy the long format video style! But I understand that a majority of viewers may not be into that. Also, I read "Priest" in less than a week and I'm probably gonna pick up "Thief" for my upcoming birthday. Feel better soon so you can write that third book so I'm not left on any endless cliffhangers! ;)
On the note of passive perception. I like the idea that you can only be so attentive If you're not actively on the lookout (which you can't be doing for more than a couple minutes at a time in reality). If I used my players normal perception checks, lower level creatures like goblins would have no chance to sneak up on the PCs!
I modified the deck of many things in my game so there are negative effects, but none of them are so bad as to require anyone to roll a new character in the middle of a gaming session. Most of the bad effects can be countered by questing for a cure of one type or another.
I started DMing about a year ago. Your videos are phenominal. I am eating this content up. "You have my d20 (and my sub)!" Also shoutout to Dael Kingsmill's videos that initially brought me here.
As a trans person I can add that the overt presence of inclusivity not only makes me feel more represented or welcome, it also ads an element of safety, because I know that if forced to choose between defending me or some wangrod who thinks I shouldn't exist, its my back that has cover, not theirs. As a DM I try to create the same sense of safety for everyone.
+1wsx10 Seriously! My gf doesn't play or give a shit about D&D really (she still asks how my game went each week cause she's a sweetie) but whenever I put these videos on she'll sit and watch just cause the delivery is so good.
I think a lot of new players to D&D come from video games and movies and think they HAVE to follow the DM's story linearly. Sometimes while DMing these sorts of players you really have to be more subtle with the plot hooks so they assert themselves a bit more. The last thing a DM wants to have to say repeatedly is "You guys know you can do whatever you want. You don't HAVE to do what the king wants you to do" lol.
consider perhaps asking these players what their character wants most in life, and what are they doing to get it. I tried to give my players them impression that any npc might start a new quest, depending on what they needed. get them talking to npc's like people and you are well on your way to them uncovering their own things to do.
It takes a subtle balance. Plot hooks too obvious, and some players will rebel just to rebel; they don't want to get on that train just because It is a train. Make the hooks too loose, and players might not notice that there are quests available at all. They'll either not make any choices at all or make really dumb ones. I had a group where this balance was very difficult, so I decided to just tell them that we had to change the style of play: I would present them with a number of missions, and they got to choose one of them. They would either stay on those rails until the mission was completed or abandon it to choose a different one. If a player wanted to do something completely different, we would discuss it as a group, and if everyone was okay with it, then I could add that idea to one of the missions available next time. That way, I could set something up that would be interesting and less ad hoc.
I personally prefer my players to roll their own perception rolls, because whenever I ask that, the whole table electrifies. It creates this feeling of unease and paranoia, especially if the player fails to notice anything. In fact, if the game enters a lull, I might make them roll it even if there's nothing there to notice, just to get them back into the game. It might be a tad bit sadistic, but also very effective.
I usually watch the video for a bit (8 minutes), and download it to watch in the office or listen to on the way to work. . . . and my son has started building a campaign on your videos (hes 10). . . thank you. . .
I loved watching this, your first message was about the viewing efficiency and that you were going to be making shorter videos, but low and behold you get talking and BOOM!!!! Video is 27 minutes!!! Love it, please keep it them coming. Also, I'm from the UK, and "Peace out" does not mean anything insulting lol What shit do people come up with!!?? lol
+James Reid I think some American viewers once learned something about British culture and want to show off what they know. But they have overreached their understanding. :D
The only comment I have on the ending (I didn't even notice that the fingers were "backwards") is the way you emphasise the "OUT!" It makes me think that the video ends with you saying peace, and then you just tell us "Get out! The video's over! Go on! Shoo!"
(This might not all be accurate , sorry in advance) The 'Go Screw' gesture was from waaaayyyy back when the english and the french were at war. The French captured archers and cut their two fingers off, and when the English eventually won the war, they would put their two fingers up to the French like "Go Screw, I still have my fingers". This is what my parents told me, blame them for any errors.
+Oscar Sant Sorry to say that while I have always liked this story it is an urban myth! In the UK the peace sign is with two fingers but the hand the other way round (palm towards the camera).
Yes I'm English and the two fingers story is true. also the Lords would cut those two fingers off the hand of poachers who hunted in their forests. So the two fingers meant F u I have My bow string fingers, a sign of serf defiance.
I know is hard to keep measuring the video's length while recording, specially when you are using the narrative method. You can opt instead to make subdivisions of the video and note them with markers. I do not know how to, but they could rather be markers directly on the video's progression bar (like chapters), or with text as a title in a corner of the screen that can be seen in the miniatures that pop up when the pointer is in the video's progression bar... That way you can address easily saying "That was in the video on the part x"
So I had been trying to get a game together for AGES and I finally convinced some friends to play a game today, but one of them cancelled last minute and then they all flaked out after that. I've never been able to play a game and I've been looking forward to it sooo much!! Basically it ruined my entire day and I'm worried that this will happen every time because we're all pretty busy people. Ugh I just want to play D&D SO BAD!!
Awesome to hear One Fighter at Time is going to continue! As far as battlemap building have you tried Fantasymapbuilder? It's kind of wonky but I like it so far and it's early in dev, Campaign Cartographer is absolutely DRACONIAN in its functions but it can produce a nice map. Also Pyromancer's working on a new offline app for dungeon building, so I'm holding out hope for that!
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Things I love about this channel.
1. DND discussion
2. no ads
3. no wasting the viewers time you talk fast and clearly
4. when you say doobly doos.
5. your passion for the topic bleeds through.
Great channel
Although I just watched this whole video and heard no doobly doo :/ Apparently this might need to go up to 1 or 2. :D
+Xanhorn "4. when you say doobly doos."
I giggle every time I hear it.
+Xanhorn I'd be fine with ads if it gave this guy money. Great channel indeed.
@@jgn1977 Did you just reply to your own comment...?
@@AppledirtArchive it was a change in RUclips's formatting... It sure looked weird I'll give you that. 😀
Around 7 minutes: "You develop taste a lot faster than you develop skill."
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I can't help but comment about how wonderful Matt's videos are. From a new DM, thank you for this confidence.
8 1/2 minutes? Casuals! Watch the whole thing, for crying out loud. This stuff is epic!!
+Andy Robertson Attention spans seem to become smaller and smaller with advancement of technology. Sad really.
lol I was thinking the same thing.
I'm not the DM my friends need.. I'm the one they deserve.
Beat me to it by 6 months XD
That sounded dark said by Batman. It sounds even darker with Dming XD
especially 17:00 - 18:15 . Well put and THANK YOU. :) You have the means of reaching a lot of people with your videos, so I'm just very happy and thankful you among others are speaking up about this. I'm glad we're growing as a community. I have players of different genders and sexualities in my group, and they're thrilled to be able to play a game with, against and as characters they can relate to, without being mocked or shunned for it. Letting your players feel welcome while having fun is what's most important.
I agree. My teenage child and I got started in D&D about a year & a half ago, and our enthusiasm for and enjoyment of the game have been hugely enhanced by the videos on this channel (we have also been inspired by Critical Role, Adventure Zone, Dimension20, et al). Shortly after we started playing D&D together with others in our family, my kiddo came out to us as trans/nonbinary. Later, we started playing with a few other families who also have trans/nonbinary/gnc teens, and it has been a wonderfully supportive social activity for all of us. I appreciate that D&D gives *all* of us opportunities to explore different aspects of our own identity and character growth, in the guise of role-playing.
you are the best D&D youtuber ever.
+mckennly mclain Also i heard about you trough a teacher at my school.
+mckennly mclain Your teacher is wise!
What a great quote. “You develop taste a lot faster then you develop skill.” I’m gonna use that.
Should I Paint a Mini- for a give away?
Jim Murphy yes please
Short or long videos, I love em both. Keep it coming!
I watch every video from "Hey everybody, Matt Colville here" to "Peace, Out."
I don't play D&D, haven't played D&D, don't really ever intend to play D&D... but these videos are so well put together that I will happily keep coming back to watch them. For a subject I have little interest in, these videos are super interesting. I definitely am one of those "watch the long videos while I'm doing work" people, but short videos will do just fine too. I love the recaps on real life events and what you've learned, but then the whole episode about the sociology of D&D might have been my favourite of the lot
I'm glad you seem to be enjoying doing it, because it's become a regular thing I look forward to watching week on week. Get well soon!
As the only person in my close group of friends with any experience with DnD; which doesn't have to be a lot; it fell upon me to DM for our first campaign. We managed to flounder through the starter set campaign. My friend decided that he'd like to take a crack at running a game, which was perfect for me because in my mind being a "player" was much more enjoyable. He quickly found out DMing can be an utter nightmare if you're not prepared. After just two sessions we kind of just stopped playing. Thankfully I came across your channel. I now have a desire to whip up a sandbox game to get my friends together and playing again.
Thanks for the time and effort you put into your videos and keep up the great work.
This is like the 5th time I’ve watched through most of your videos. Every time I feel that I get something new and different from them, or I remember something that I had forgotten.
I have DMd for several groups and even got a friend of mine to start DMing and he’s fantastic. This is in large part to these videos.
Many thank yous are not enough!
Ok, seven years after the fact and my head whips around at the mention of Ken White and Popehat. Incredibly small world sometimes. Also, thank you Matthew for all the work you've done with this channel. I'm a new subscriber because last weekend, I DM'd my first campaign since 1992. Thank you!
I took your advice from the Deck of Many Things video and put one in mine this weekend. I thought about using the box trick to give them a better outcome but decided against it at the last second because I wanted to give my players, and myself honestly, a feel of how the DOMT would work out in reality. I loved it because I have two people who are relatively new to Dnd and two veterans. When one of the veterans saw what they had found and realized what it was, he looked like he was going to have an aneurism. I thought they would draw once, then realize it was a bad idea to draw more, but......eh........yeah I was wrong. The Bard drew once and immediately lost all his magic items, one of which was essential to my story (it was an artifact so it just disappeared), then kept drawing. We fought avatars of death, lost xp, gained an NPC and a keep, before I had to make the thing disappear. It got crazy.
Honestly Matt, I like your content so much I watch lots of old videos in bits at a time, even though I do usually watch all your vidoes once through at least. I'm driving, waiting for something, or making food (like now) and just want a little bit of the straight dope.
Edit: your videos are all straight dope, regardless of length.
Love seeing a D&D RUclipsr actively talking about inclusivity. Awesome work, love your videos.
Once you're up to 3 videos a week maybe you can do a video each week or every other week on how to design a specific type of encounter?
Ex.
Day 1 Talking about a specific theme or idea
Day 2 Follow up on the specific theme or idea and viewer questions
Day 3 (Week A) Lessons from your campaign from the previous 2 weeks
Day 3 (Week B) How to design an encounter involving x theme or mechanic
Have people in the comment section suggest types of encounters and then whip up an idea for how you would run it (for example a little while ago I wrote a unicorn birthing encounter for someone on reddit, or it could be more common things like laying siege to a castle, creating an interesting library encounter, how to make nautical travel more engaging without always having your ship boarded, etc.)
You have easily become my favorite DnD Channel on RUclips and I kinda stopped watching the others and just focus on these. But now you're getting famous and this community is getting bigger with all the awesome people involved. You're doing good work here Matt.
I love your "history of" series....my husband is an OG D&D player, I showed him your channel, he is super moved by your videos. He works nights, so when he came in this morning, I was watching your second history video...he was hooked!!! You brought back so many memories for him, as a teen, playing. Thank you for that. He thinks I'll really like DMing, and be great at it. I found your videos while watching Black Magic Craft, you came up in recommended. I've been binge watching since.
I'm setting up a game over the internet with friends from 3 different countries because I was hooked by your videos. Keep it up, the videos are so interesting and informative.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. Most other DM advice channels are long winded and unedited, it's a nice change of pace to get a vlogbrothers-style series.
Your channel is so great exactly because it focuses on what is unique to running tabletop RPGs and that your advice applies equally to D&D, World of Darkness, Pathfinder, Star Wars RPGs, Cyberpunk 2020, anything. Keep up the great work!
Yes! A new Matt Colville video. =D
This day is now splendid.
Lol, as a Brit... loved the sign-off. People need to realise that context is important in communicating.
These videos are great Matt, thank you and keep up the good work. It's very much appreciated!
Also, nice job on pronouncing my username! Most people manage to butcher that, LOL, but you nailed it.
both short and long videos are great. keep up the awesome work. the best decision I made in my short gming career was following a link Liam posted to your page. There is so much useful information that doesn't exist in the books.
Congrats on the win! I'm also happy to see that your subscriber count still seems to be flourishing! It's a great channel and it's doing good work. On the topic of getting more people involved in DMing, something that my last GM did (for a DC Superhero RP) was he would have an open invitation for the players to GM a plot arc if they had any ideas. It gave him a break and gave the players a taste of GMing without needed to continue for months on end if they didn't enjoy it.
That's so true, that you learn more about DMing the first time you do it than in any amount of videos. Got to go in to the deep end and make some mistakes, modest or otherwise, to learn.
The fast, motormouth style is correct for youtube, methinks. If people can't follow it I would suspect they're not paying attention.
Being from the UK, an American throwing up a pair of vickies while saying "peace" cannot be legitimately interpreted as a slight. We'd usually do a peace sign palm side facing outward.
Love the longer videos, but I can understand if more shorter videos makes more sense from the other side.
+Jon Watson Yeah I think it's mostly American viewers who learned something about British culture once and want to show off what they know, but they have misapplied it. :D
My only complaint about it is you saying that it's screw off; but I can understand you wanting to keep it PG-13.
A brit that only recently found your channel.
Also necro.
How are people not watching the entire videos? If you aren't you're missing out on all kinds of amazing stuff. Can't wait each day for new stuff.
Hope you get feeling better soon! Thanks for doing these videos. I'm one of my group's 2 regular DMs and it's always nice to get some much needed advice. Keep it up!
Recently started watching the channel,got hooked instantly,but man is it exhausting keeping up with this speed,you talk like a machine gun.That being said i do think its part of the charm and why i keep watching and will keep watching from now on.Keep them coming
The speed of your speech is actually one of the reasons I like this series. Usually I get distracted from RUclips videos because the pace just drags (ditto for podcasts).
I wish the games I ran could move at that pace. Maybe that's a good topic for a future video: pacing the session. I try to have places where it starts and ends that follow some semblance of how an episode of a show might go, but it gets clunky at best. I'd like some insight in how other people do it.
Watching 4 years later, and your "shorter" videos has not come true!! :P I love it and I hope you see enough return with MCDM and S&F, I am an owner of the physical copy of S&F and when I have a job after graduation, I will be getting K&W!
Just feeling the need to say I love the fact that your talk fast in your videos. Makes me feel normal. Throughout my life I've been told to slow down, but I talk just as fast as you when I'm excited about something or want to get a point across.
Also, like many others, thanks to your videos, and Critical Role, I too am steeping into DM shoes and running my first ever game of D&D.
Thank you for taking the time to do these. Looking forward to the videos of the future whatever length they are. ;)
Me too I get told I talk too fast, but I get frustrated by how slow other people around me speak and think. I feel like the whole world runs at half speed sometimes.
Glad to hear that you're still planning on continuing the Create a Fighter videos. It's what originally brought me to your channel.
Watching your videos always gives me a bump in motivation to go work on the world I'm building. Been designing 'New Neverwinter for ages now'
I absolutely love this channel. I'm currently participating as a player in my first RPG, so a lot of your information is more advanced than what I need, but your content is so entertaining and you are so good at getting me hyped up to play! Please keep up the great work!
I really appreciate all of your tips and input. Watching this video it's easy to assume that your recent boom in attention, the negative feedback and being sick are all getting to you. Hope you feel better soon. Don't let the stress become you! :) Thanks, Matt.
I'm really interested in the series, but when I watch material like this I have to really sit down and watch every video in succession. I'll need to plan a weekend for that
Those history of D&D videos are great. I'm looking forward to the next one, whenever you find the time for it.
I don't know how the metrics work, but for what it's worth, when I stop watching one of your videos 8 minutes in it's because I was re-watching it for one of the points I wanted to hear again and then realized it was in another video. The first time around I watch the whole thing and love every second of it. So shorter videos focused on a single, narrower topic might cut down on partial viewing for that reason, too. Short or long, though, I just look forward to more videos!
I think the main difference on the hand gesture for the peace sign is that by and large if your unused, curled fingers are facing yourself, it is more typically the "screw off" version the UK has in its gesture-slang, whereas a lot of your classic "giving the peace sign" pictures show hands where the knuckles are outbound.
Firstly, I love your narrative style and find it very engaging. I've listened to almost all your videos in two days and have a request/episode idea. I'm about to run a game for a bunch of new people and I'm finding these videos a great learning tool.
I'd like if you did a basic Player rules episode.
I'm thinking something like "now you have a character sheet either made or pre-generated... What to do with all these numbers?" Explaining skills like perception, persuasion, insight and most used skills. Or basic ways to interact with the world...Or whatever you naturally think new players need to know.. Just an idea.
Can't wait till your next video. Keep up the good work.
I always liked Robert Lynn Asprins Thieves' World series of books. I love the short stories collected in one setting. There's a few early Warhammer Fantasy books with collections of different authors short stories set in that setting which I really like. I've taken so much inspiration from all the different short stories. It's like small scenarios you can implement into your own already running games. Love that stuff, the compact inspirational boost that you can just lift out and put in with a bit of tweeking to fit your story for your players to interact with.
Hey Matthew, just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your content. It's entertaining and informative in the best ways possible, and I look forward to your videos every time a new one comes out. As I'm about to begin to DMing again after a little hiatus, your videos have been really helpful. Keep up the good work! :)
I don't care how long, just more videos! I love your stuff and find myself checking for a new video every day!
His philosophy of GM'ing, (whatever gets you behind the screen) applies to many things in life. Just do whatever gets you out there, having fun with your mind, actively being creative, it is better than passively consuming content.
Matt, you do you man. I love your videos and have learned new techniques and new ideas from you. Ignore the haters. They exist everywhere and will try to goad you into a conflict. Keep on Keeping on. I will continue to come and watch, and I look forward to hearing more about your personal story that you are currently running!
Like you, I always use the old names and rules by mistake (statistics, backstab, diplomacy etc). Old player I've become.
This is the first RUclips channel I've ever subscribed to and I had to reactivate G+ to do it. Worth it!
I'm more of the silent watcher type. I rarely post comments. But you do what you think will work best on video length. I watch them no matter what the length is! Also just a general thank you for these videos. They have been helping me so much in understanding the game better!
Congratulations on the 7k!!! I am flattered to be called a friend of yours. I love these videos!
P.S.: Giving a look at your books on kindle. Once I have the money, I will add them to my library!
Matt Coalville, you are amazing! Thank you so much, you have helped me make some great D&D games! Please don't stop making videos!
Your statement of things that make you uncomfortable and nervous made me realise I am not a weirdo, despite my lack of skills in acting, speaking with different accents and a rich imagination. You are awesome!
Now that the contest is over What is your friends channel?
+Buffaloguy1991 ruclips.net/user/truedeja! I'll put it in the dooblydoo.
Mat, another one you can consider is to talk about whats coming up at where in the video if you want to say "this is what you need to know" I know some other RUclipsrs phrase the most important thing in the video or address it first.
i'm the sort who listens to you in the background while I work on DnD or play games. I find this helps me learn as I tend to repeat videos like this.
I would definitely watch you just ramble on about your campaign!
In the mean time, hearing your personal take on each class would be interesting, particularly bards :)
LMFAO No really! I had to pause it at 21:50 (DoMT) until I could stop. I had already almost spit my coffee when you said "NO! I'm not gonna run a game for you". Tell it like it is Brother! This one was as fun as stand-up to watch. So much gold.
About the speed of your speech, I had thought a lot about that after the email I sent you post ep. 6. I noticed the speed was not much faster than it normally was... it was the slight style pauses (breaths & breaks) that you seem to nail 98% of the time seemed to be hinky in sections of that one. I don't mind when you speak fast, because your enunciation, diction & tone are excellent for recording.
I am looking forward to seeing The After Action Reports w/ vitamins, when they come up. They are definitely fun, but I totally agree with your instinct on doing them only when there is something to be learned by it.
Maybe some twist of fate will bring me to your coast, if this unlikely scenario ever occurs... I would ask, Can I run a game for you to thank you? (^_-)
Peace & Go Screw (This may be our group's new 'Live, Long & Prosper')
Really hope you get to feeling better! I'm really interested to hear what happened in your campaign. I've been toying with the idea of running a campaign of my own and finally decided to jump in. Gonna run a pair of one shots with 3 buddies to work out the kinks and learn how to prepare and then hopefully a campaign after that. Your videos are really entertaining and informative and should really help. Thanks
I love your channel and I look forward to seeing more videos. I think that it is great that you talk so quickly. As someone else has already said, you are clear and concise without wasting any time with long breaks or belaboring any points.
In this video, you mention that every DM gets burnt out at some point. Would you ever consider doing a video on "DM Burn Out"? Like what you think can be done to stave off burn out or to recharge quickly. I know that you said playing in a game is the fastest way to recharge a DM's energy, and I fully agree, but in my case, I rarely get the chance to be a player, because my players and friends don't want to try DMing or don't think they'd be good at it.
Who stops watching your videos after 8 min? That's crazy!! :)
I'm in the same boat with Malazan; I keep bouncing off Deadhouse Gates - not because I don't like it but just because I keep forgetting where I am and restarting. Really glad your recommended it though. Really influential series.
It's rare that I both disagree with AND fail to be inspired by what you say. That's a sign of quality!
there aren't enough like buttons for this video.
looking forward to seeing the channel grow.
keep killing it brother!
Beautifully said Matthew. I really love your 'selfish' agenda, and really value your distinction between railroading and a game on rails.
speaking to your later point about on rails vs. sandbox.
initially I wanted a sandbox game, one where all the players can carve out their character's place and legacy in the world.
The problem with this is that I am still a novice GM and don't have the resources, skill, or technical aptitude to sufficiently provide such an experience.
I feel like I've, in a sense, painted myself into a corner since I want to scale back to a more on rails system, but the players are expecting so much more.
Campaign Cartographer has been pretty food for me. I mostly make city and town maps with it, but it's good for dungeons and large scale maps as well.
just a thought with regards the passive perception/rolling FOR the players. you could have the players roll a handful of times ahead of time and use THOSE rolls for the 'passive' occasions and then get them to roll again once those are used up.
I have enjoyed all the vids so far! I think youre right about your format though. I watched everything you made all the way through, but smaller chunks makes it so we can pay full attention to every subject.
Matt, I really love your channel's content. It's very informative and entertaining. That being said, I would love more videos in the 10 minutes of less format.
You know I think you've helped me define another couple of general categories to generally define players. Those that are there to play a game and those that are there to tell a story. Something I've been paying attention to. Game players want the rules to be followed to a tee while story tellers are less concerned with the rules other than a tool to give structure to the story. Just a thought.
I'm about to introduce a new village to my players this weekend....and now I am desperate to hear that cool way of introducing villains. :P Great video, again!
Regarding Passive Perception: it's a bit clunky and not really helpful in regards to getting them to notice things. To combat this, I use Passive Perception to see which players are allowed to make a Perception Check when I call for it. It demonstrates the diversity of the party in terms of specialization, grants opportunities for a scout to be a scout even when he's with the party, and prevents everyone from rolling for everything at all times.
Love your cadence. I've watched all of your videos on character creation and thought you were hilarious. thanks again for your content.
Ha! The first episode I saw I was all like "Hey, look! It's D&D Vlogbrothers!" I was right! Keep making awesome content.
Hey Matt, keep it coming, you are doing extremely well.
However, I do not agree that a well experienced GM wont learn anything here. Im about to turn 47 and ive been playing since I was 12 years old. And GM-ing for almost as long.
Not only do I feel very entertained by your videos, I love comparing your experiences to my own, I also get new inspiration for my own campaign setting and new sessions. I watch every second of all your uploads so it was a big surprise for me when you said that most people dont watch more than 10 mins. I never click next or stop untill I hear the signatory "Peace, Out"
Thank you for doing all this. Keep it up and dont change anything :)
Matt ur the coolest for making these
Another great video!
Yes, you will definitely learn a lot watching yourself run D&D. Or at least, I've learned a lot watching myself running D&D. :)
Hey Matt. Thanks for the videos. I've listened to a few DM-help series, like DawnforgedCast and WADS20, but yours' are easily the best and actually helpful, compared to tips that I could've gotten from a quick google search.
~22:00 Interesting thing about the Deck of Many Things: I've recently seen two adventure modules which both manipulate the deck to be either absolutely negative or just benign, and this is from a company thats made campaigns since the early days of D&D. "Manipulating" it seems more commonplace than one may think.
+Highwang I actually went out of my way to design a Deck of Many (lesser) Things. Eventually I want to run it for my friends, but our games in my life time have yet to surpass 8th level in any system so I figure the full Deck might be a bit overbearing for some lowbies. So I made a lesser variant with fewer and lower-powered cards. I figure storywise it can be a prototype and if they ever get far enough the real deck can make an appearance, fresh out of its creator's hands.
I really enjoy the long format video style! But I understand that a majority of viewers may not be into that. Also, I read "Priest" in less than a week and I'm probably gonna pick up "Thief" for my upcoming birthday. Feel better soon so you can write that third book so I'm not left on any endless cliffhangers! ;)
On the note of passive perception. I like the idea that you can only be so attentive If you're not actively on the lookout (which you can't be doing for more than a couple minutes at a time in reality). If I used my players normal perception checks, lower level creatures like goblins would have no chance to sneak up on the PCs!
I modified the deck of many things in my game so there are negative effects, but none of them are so bad as to require anyone to roll a new character in the middle of a gaming session. Most of the bad effects can be countered by questing for a cure of one type or another.
I started DMing about a year ago. Your videos are phenominal. I am eating this content up. "You have my d20 (and my sub)!" Also shoutout to Dael Kingsmill's videos that initially brought me here.
As a trans person I can add that the overt presence of inclusivity not only makes me feel more represented or welcome, it also ads an element of safety, because I know that if forced to choose between defending me or some wangrod who thinks I shouldn't exist, its my back that has cover, not theirs. As a DM I try to create the same sense of safety for everyone.
i like the fast talking
+1wsx10 Seriously! My gf doesn't play or give a shit about D&D really (she still asks how my game went each week cause she's a sweetie) but whenever I put these videos on she'll sit and watch just cause the delivery is so good.
I think a lot of new players to D&D come from video games and movies and think they HAVE to follow the DM's story linearly. Sometimes while DMing these sorts of players you really have to be more subtle with the plot hooks so they assert themselves a bit more. The last thing a DM wants to have to say repeatedly is "You guys know you can do whatever you want. You don't HAVE to do what the king wants you to do" lol.
consider perhaps asking these players what their character wants most in life, and what are they doing to get it. I tried to give my players them impression that any npc might start a new quest, depending on what they needed. get them talking to npc's like people and you are well on your way to them uncovering their own things to do.
It takes a subtle balance. Plot hooks too obvious, and some players will rebel just to rebel; they don't want to get on that train just because It is a train.
Make the hooks too loose, and players might not notice that there are quests available at all. They'll either not make any choices at all or make really dumb ones.
I had a group where this balance was very difficult, so I decided to just tell them that we had to change the style of play: I would present them with a number of missions, and they got to choose one of them. They would either stay on those rails until the mission was completed or abandon it to choose a different one.
If a player wanted to do something completely different, we would discuss it as a group, and if everyone was okay with it, then I could add that idea to one of the missions available next time. That way, I could set something up that would be interesting and less ad hoc.
I personally prefer my players to roll their own perception rolls, because whenever I ask that, the whole table electrifies. It creates this feeling of unease and paranoia, especially if the player fails to notice anything.
In fact, if the game enters a lull, I might make them roll it even if there's nothing there to notice, just to get them back into the game. It might be a tad bit sadistic, but also very effective.
I usually watch the video for a bit (8 minutes), and download it to watch in the office or listen to on the way to work. . . . and my son has started building a campaign on your videos (hes 10). . . thank you. . .
I loved watching this, your first message was about the viewing efficiency and that you were going to be making shorter videos, but low and behold you get talking and BOOM!!!! Video is 27 minutes!!! Love it, please keep it them coming.
Also, I'm from the UK, and "Peace out" does not mean anything insulting lol What shit do people come up with!!?? lol
+James Reid I think some American viewers once learned something about British culture and want to show off what they know. But they have overreached their understanding. :D
Glad to see you not sweating the negativity. Big fan of the videos.
Enjoyed the History of D&D One Fighter at a Time...keep them coming.
The only comment I have on the ending (I didn't even notice that the fingers were "backwards") is the way you emphasise the "OUT!"
It makes me think that the video ends with you saying peace, and then you just tell us "Get out! The video's over! Go on! Shoo!"
(This might not all be accurate , sorry in advance) The 'Go Screw' gesture was from waaaayyyy back when the english and the french were at war. The French captured archers and cut their two fingers off, and when the English eventually won the war, they would put their two fingers up to the French like "Go Screw, I still have my fingers". This is what my parents told me, blame them for any errors.
+Oscar Sant Sorry to say that while I have always liked this story it is an urban myth!
In the UK the peace sign is with two fingers but the hand the other way round (palm towards the camera).
My life is a lie.
+Oscar Sant Just make it cannon it the backstory of a campaign world, problem resolved!
Yes I'm English and the two fingers story is true. also the Lords would cut those two fingers off the hand of poachers who hunted in their forests. So the two fingers meant F u I have My bow string fingers, a sign of serf defiance.
You're nearing 7.000 subs. This is more than good.
Good episode format, going over everything on the channel.
I know is hard to keep measuring the video's length while recording, specially when you are using the narrative method.
You can opt instead to make subdivisions of the video and note them with markers. I do not know how to, but they could rather be markers directly on the video's progression bar (like chapters), or with text as a title in a corner of the screen that can be seen in the miniatures that pop up when the pointer is in the video's progression bar... That way you can address easily saying "That was in the video on the part x"
So I had been trying to get a game together for AGES and I finally convinced some friends to play a game today, but one of them cancelled last minute and then they all flaked out after that. I've never been able to play a game and I've been looking forward to it sooo much!! Basically it ruined my entire day and I'm worried that this will happen every time because we're all pretty busy people. Ugh I just want to play D&D SO BAD!!
Awesome to hear One Fighter at Time is going to continue! As far as battlemap building have you tried Fantasymapbuilder? It's kind of wonky but I like it so far and it's early in dev, Campaign Cartographer is absolutely DRACONIAN in its functions but it can produce a nice map. Also Pyromancer's working on a new offline app for dungeon building, so I'm holding out hope for that!