Replace Session Zero?! (Ep.196)
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024
- Professor Dungeonmaster shows how to replace session zero with something better. The first episode of the Veiled Society campaign!
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Honored to be mentioned in this video, and even happier that you mentioned Bardy McFly 🦅 Thanks, Professor! …and I only just got “no harm, no fowl.” Haha
I cackled. Truly we are blessed.
Sorry Deathbringer ate Bardy. I can't control him.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Characters never really die, even when eaten. They just end up in another campaign somewhere out there in the multiverse.
...Is Deathbringer's stomach a campaign setting?
@@zeterzero4356 "Death is a primitive concept; I prefer to think of them as battling evil - in another dimension!" - Grig - The Last Starfighter
Bardy McFly should have a fly head (you know, like The Fly) instead of a bird head.
Just say'n. 😀
“I create conflicts, but I don’t need to know how the players figure their way out of the conflicts…that is their department.” That’s some graduate level DM knowledge right there.
My personal rule as a DM is figure out what your players can handle and give them just a bit more than that. They only shine under pressure, and people like to shine. You provide the pressure. They can usually retreat and try again if it doesn't go well, and defeating a challenge after multiple tries makes the victory all the sweeter.
Years of failing creates later success!
Just create a start state and a solved/final state. Let the pcs figure out how to get from one to the other because you will never be able to predict what they'll do. I created a wide open universe for them to explore, what do they do... Become inter stellar carpet salesmen. I joketh not.
I kind of do that, but when I create a situation for them I always make sure that there is at least one way that it CAN be resolved. That's not railroading them into one soultion, it's just having a situation where you know it is possible to succeed.
I have a player who often asks, "How could we have done that better?" when they finally overcome something they had real issues with. Then I can run through a couple of things they could (generally fairly easily) have done to have made things easier on themselves. It usually involves saying something like "All those NPCs you either antagonised or ignored, had loads of information that would have really helped" or "Remember when you planned to break into that warehouse, then forgot all about actually doing it? Yeah... there was a load of stuff in there." or "Remember at the start of the adventure when I mentioned that I'd made over 30 maps for that damned village... and you only visited like... three places?"
Pre-roll ability scores. Hide them around the room for players to find.
That’s honestly hilarious
AHAHAHA I did that with spells! I made tiny spell scrolls and when a player found one I gave her a hint and she went looking for it... she found the most powerful one, lucky (that spell eventually killed her character on a double natural 1, so maybe not so lucky)
Lol. Good one.
Brilliant!!
i like that idea
I love how all the DM youtubers reference each other and plug their content. The DM and D&D community, from my experience, has been healthy with kind people even if there are differences. I’m glad we can all enjoy this game and our experiences with it in such a great way!
I think there is a genuine love and appreciation there. It's a great community.
Love the player secrets idea. Personally, I never have a session zero. I start the game as soon as I possibly can. Character generation needs to be very quick.
I am fond of talking to the players 1 vs 1 and getting their character done asap leading up to the game so when we all meet we can jump straight into the fun. I hate groups knowing what the other players can and cannot do. I feel that should be divulged through role playing.
I take you definitely avoid Shadowrun then ;) hahahhaha!
My players took 1-2 weeks to chargen. Some of us even talked about our gear to one another while on an airplane during a commercial flight, laughing loudly about the Shadowrun equivalent of AK47's and Bazookas. But it was okay bc we are all white ;)
"Sir, you can't say BOMB on an airplane. BOMB BOMB BOMBIDY BOMB BOMB!"
I loved that movie (meet the fockers?)
Thanks for commenting! FYI--I'm coming to the U.K. next year. Any chance of a DungeonCraft Lindybeige crossover?
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 that must happen please
I had my players random draw prewritten PC from index cards, also my old game shops would just have night/ days were we made half of a dozen or more PC, to be drawn as NPC at any given time.
Game shops are fun but have their own problems, like ," What type theme of game are we going to play ?"
Comes down to, just shut up and play a PC as you play Magic the Gathering.
Random dice carts and card pulls throws some chaos into the mix.
One day I had everyone pull cards and start off in a tavern, ...
player one, " So the game starts off in a tavern, that's new, wait a minute .. I am the bar keeper ? If this going to be like the game of Clue ?"
--- sings says : No Fighting, No Drama, Or You Are Out !
Halfling picks a fight with a half orc by baiting him from standing on a foot stool. " something about NO Drama !"
Half Orc looks at the sign, bar tender, towns guards, and his travel group, and not wanking to be punk out. Drops to his knees, wraps his jacket behind his back binding his elbows and start vigorously shadow boxing the halfling selling it like 1980's pro wrestling.
So for the next five hours we played old fashion .. bar games .. dice, cards/ Magic the Gathering " normal night there," and the bards, rogues, do their performance rolls, and make deals.
Other old player, listed a few problems with this ..
Me," How is this any different than most of your Vampire games ?"
Old player, " Good point, but I wanted a bit more action."
Me, " You know how I run most of my games."
Old player, " Brutal gore, time loop ghost stories, strange para realities of running for your life, I think I just stay behind the bar serving drinks and figure out what type of crime social power base I run from here."
Game shop owner's wife loves to F**k with players minds as a DM, She Will find some way to screw over your PC some how, you know she will always going to do it, the fun is seeing how she pulls it off..
a.) Wizard gets a arrow through the hand, so they not have penalties in casting spells.
b.) Rogue has a eye sight problem and drops his lock pick in the dark.
i.) Make Wisdom/ Will save cause you are nervous that the guard patrol is getting closer to you.
ii.) Make Dex/ Reflex saves to keep from dropping your tools due to hands are sweating. " Player, but my PC wears lamb skin gloves ?"
One player is having his PC rogue roll for a few rounds to pick a lock.
Another player says they are walking off to the restroom.
PC rogue is given a lighter to play with if he doesn't have a pen in hand already.
Person that said they were going to the bathroom .. screams like a high pitch banshee.
PC rogue player drops their pen, and the DM ten year old daughter says, " As a patrol guard do I make a roll to See if I HearD something Dropped ?
Different player, that doesn't count, that's cheating little girl !
DM daughter, you were at the tavern and heard a bit rumor about the place being haunted, but didn't look into the rumor, and now you heard the ghost scream and drop your pick !
DM, you can .. roll .. to see if your pick fell between the floor boards.
With playing time so precious with a group of working adults, I have moved to doing session zero over the course of discord chats, brief phone calls and texts...some people need more guidance then others and especially with a mixed group of skill levels/experience it saves time for those needing less guidance.
Good idea!
thats what iv done since the interweb
Some people you just can't trust to pre roll their character and write up their own magic equipment.
Fun to role play with, but just can't trust them.
Then again, I have been .. known .. to lie .. about my dice result just to create drama.
After awhile .. high .. heroic action gets .. boring, .. sooo ...
Question is, catching a toss items ...
a.) Is it a non important catch, just something part of the story.
b.) Important catch, but non life or death moment.
c.) We need to club a guard from behind, but no club and your team make toss a club to your character. Where everyone knows there is a catch that your PC could miss the catch. .. SO .. is it worth the risk ? Or will it make more drama to miss the club ?
Example:
Your PC realizes they don't have a club, but the other PC makes the motion to hit the guard with the wine bottle which is still half full.
a.) Waste the wine and break the bottle on the guards head.
b.) Finish drinking the bottle of wine, then hit the guard with the .. empty .. bottle.
c.) Risk trying to catch a club toss to your PC to hit the guard with.
Some people just want video game hack & slash, others want .. drama .. story telling.
d.) Miss the toss/ catch like and idiot waving your hands in the air as the guard turns to see what the noise was. Then offer the guard a drink.
Guard, " How did you get in here and what the hell is in that bottle I can smell on your breath ?"
Also my DM likes to have her goblins put .. grease .. on slops, stairs, and at the base of doors to slip on.
@@krispalermo8133 yes rolling charcetrs in front of the Gm should be a rule, unless you trust them or just dont care.
@@TheOGGMsAdventures or give a pre arranged array the players have to use, if the math doesn´t add up you will know ;)
We played a classic 5e campaign where I had a short 1 or 2 hour session with each player to flesh out back story, and why they were in the town where all the shenanigans started. As a result, every player seems very motivated for their own reasons, and have plenty of cards in their sleeves and secrets that they haven't shared. It's the best campaign I've run so far having only been a DM for 3 years, but if your players are up for it, more narrative driven solo sessions for backstories worked wonders for me. It also allowed the players to have actual world based knowledge for a lot of stuff, rather than having to ask me if they know where someplace is. They all took notes, so they actually physically know exactly where they're from and what they were up to before the story took place.
When you are obsessed with this game, every social encounter is a session zero.
Lol. My episode on Social Encounters is coming in July. Watch for it!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 hahahahaha nice one
Soooooooo true!
Conflict generator...yep that's me!
The backup characters leveling up along with the main character is a nice idea too. 👍
Thanks!
I've seen this done in a West End Star Wars campaign box called DarkStryder, in which you play a grunt team and a command crew of a vessel in search of an Imperial governor.
This is gold. I love seeing you (and Runehammer... and Kelsey) just roll dice and take some random result then somehow make it an interesting story.
Yeah. They're awesome. Hung with them last weekend.
Professor strikes again. One of the best session zero rundowns I’ve ever heard. You dance through this like you’re going over your syllabus.
Thanks!
For the Curse of Strahd campaign I'm playing in, my DM ran me through a one-on-one session zero - it was perhaps the best session I've ever had in D&D.
Setting up the character and rolling the stats was done both at the start, but also as we played (feasible due to no actual combat happening, as the session was pure collaborative storytelling and RP).
By the end of the session, I had a fully stated character with a rich backstory, personal goals, allies, and a custom hook into the campaign.
Well done! As a 40-yr D&D player, I find your ideas, musings, and thoughts to be absolutely in sync with my own. Great stuff, and I plan on becoming a Patreon backer soon
Great lecture from PDM- really enjoy including the DM as a player in the group
Ye, the DM is there to have fun too! 👍
Thanks, Sir Guy!
For every 1 person complaining about a premier, there’s 10 people who had greater engagement with the video and is proven to help channels grow. Not every video needs premier ofc, but I fully support the use of premier. Like… let this man get his engagements damn. The negativity just shows that the ppl complaining have no idea how much effort goes into these kinds of videos
Thanks. I I think once in a while, they're fun.
doing my bit for the algorithm ... I watched this with a lot of interest. I just started a new campaign last Saturday, following many of the principles PDM talked about. I've been wanting to use Five Torches Deep (FTD) to do a bit of "palette cleanse" from regular 5E (we finished a 5 year running campaign just recently, before that we were playing AD&D for about 4 years).
I used a couple of things from DCC in addition to FTD: character funnel, background occupations, limited money (a few copper and silver); basically using zero-level characters. Including me reading the quick background blurb (about 2 minutes), we were off and playing in less than 30 minutes. It was refreshing; my players didn't keep searching their sheets for "how to do stuff". They simply described what they did and where appropriate I gave them a DC (default 11, per FTD). There was tension in the story; there was character death (out of 12 PCs, 6 survived), there was mystery and intrigue. But most importantly, my players wanted to come back and keep playing. We have agreed on a 4-5 session story arc, after that we'll see ...
Thanks for feeding the beast and for taking the time to share!
I love the idea of creating archetypes specifically for the campaign. D&D is a very specific flavour of fantasy, it should be tweaked for every campaign to match the tone! The character questions prompts were also appropriately themed, very cool!
This video is gold. This is where you are at your best, PDM! New campaign! YAY
Thanks, Professor. I'm from Brazil, and recently discovered your channel. Your thoughts about the game are something that I'm looking for since I started DMing, 4 years ago. It's so helpful! Cheers! And may all your rolls be 20s!
Thanks! I have a lot of fans in Brazil, so welcome aboard!
Have them experience the world and reveal that world through play! Music to my ears 👍
This is pure gold. Love the ideas presented here. Thanks Professor!
Even though we primarily run different systems (I bow to the blood soaked altar of WFRP), your videos have immensely improved my games. My hat off to you, sir
I absolutely love this channel. I've found that I'm pretty often disagree with Professor's opinions on gaming... and that's why I keep coming back. Every time I'm getting stuck with some roleplaying problem or found myself to absorbed in some boring modern convention I go to this channel - Professor will provide his own well thought opinion which almost always helps me to look at the problem from a different angle. And then I just shamelessly still what works for me.
Thanks for watching!
I like it! I've been trying to convince my current group to do a back up character for nearly a year now.
No one's died yet?
Your game mastering style is so very different from mine but your tips and advice are extremely insightful, I always learn something from your videos. You put a lot of thought into your games and it shows.
I didn't know there was a premiere thing. I kinda like it! It adds a bit of razzmatazz to the proceedings
Agreed. Its fun to see everyone whos waiting for class to start 😂
Very nice PFP you got there
Thank you. Actually, a lot of people complain about them, but once in a while I think they're fun.
_a bit of the ole razzmatazz_
Awesome video! I actually ran a session .5 for my old friends and I online just a few days ago. We hadn’t hung out since I moved a year ago and although many of them had made fun of D&D in the past they gave it a shot so we could hang out. I knew a full session 0 would bore them to tears so I used your idea of a job board so they got to pick the adventure they wanted after they made their characters. Essentially this was four small plot hooks that would bring them to one of the larger adventures I have modules for. I look forward to implementing your tips in future sessions since they are all stoked to play again. Thanks for the great content!
Ive been Dming for years and I always learn something new from you PDM. This is why your the Professor!!
Definitely like the idea of running a one shot with a new group to get their synergy going.
Great tips as always. I recently started a new campaign set in my own world, and ran a session 0 this way: The players all created their characters separately (coz they were too excited lol) so during the first session, after explaining the setting and home-brew rules, they each got a 20 minute one on one role-play session that set up where the characters came from and the reason that they all find them selves in the same town. It also gave them a way to 'discover' their class. These were all origin stories for their characters. Then also before we truly started the game (because of other reasons) I let the players create level 20 characters and we played a one shot that was set in the past of the world, at a time of a cataclysm that destroyed parts of the world, so they could create their own legends for the world. I think it worked well and they all seemed to enjoy it.
As a reasonably new DM (2 years exp) I feel I've become 100% better from watching these videos! I really like the simple, yet effective techniques you use. Thank you sir! My players and I are forever grateful.
This is hands down the most helpful channel I've ever found on youtube. Thank you!
That’s kind of you see. Please share this video with all your friends. May all your rolls be 20s!
I think this might be one of the best D&D advice videos I've seen. Set expectations, save the exposition for the actual game, DM as conflict designer. Great stuff.
As always superb presentation PDM! I think your advice is spot on. It turned out we started our last campaign in a similar manner and it went great. A short one or two encounter at the first session is a great idea. It lets people have fun and learn their characters.
Thanks, Patryk!
This video is pure gold. Thanks for the time and effort you put into it. I am quite new to the hobby and learned a lot in this video.
This is perfect.. Just ran Alien RPG the other night for my group. I did our Session Zero where we picked characters and went over game mechanics.. I opted to do some "pre-game" RPG as part of this Session Zero to help them get a feel for their characters and the new system. It was a hit!
Cool. Is Alien any good? How does it compare to Mothership?
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Alien = baby black dragon.
3.5e Star Wars imperial storm troopers vs a black dragon.
In all but two Alien movies had train soldiers with firearms, normally its civilians dealing with the space monster.
And baby black dragons are smarter.
3.5e WotC Star Wars RPG: Rebel Area source book has the main movie characters class level and skill ranks for each of the three original movies. So you can roll your own combat between Oni Wan vs Vader and the two battles between Luke vs Vader.
Due to random card drawn for PC play, along with the cannon fodder, Leia ended leading a squad of storm troopers just to survive against lab grown black dragon young. The action takes place right before Empire so Han is it play and Luke doesn't have his Force skills.
For the map, we used the game book for X2: Wolverine Revenge video game, of the cloning labs.
Darth Vader or the Emperor are such power houses we had the house rule of they only gain Xp/ Bonus Level Points for the number of troops they keep alive. " Command Points."
Since IST & Vader's helm has built in night/ heat vision with motion detectors, we gave the dragons Force Stealth where when they don't move for a given time they are fully invisible, cross a electric eel and a venom/ acid spitting sea lizards. ( Tactical Bioweapon Labs: TBWs)
Under helmet the creatures look like a cloud of electrical static energy, only normal eye sight can they be seen as they are. So Vader & IST have a different view of the creature compare to the main heroes or rebel troops that normal are never seen wearing eye protection.
A left over from the Old Sith Wars where Sith alchemists/ geneticist were creating Jedi force sensitive all terrain hounds, which the Sith would hunt for sport.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 It's a surprisingly simple system and lots of fun. Only 2 sessions in, but my group is really enjoying the change of pace and settings from 5e.
Minute 1-2. Perfect advice for any D&D-like game! Super applicable.
"I just want to stop living the lie" lmao. I felt that
And I like carrots!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 The only vegetables I don't like are celery and Brussels sprouts. Kale and radicchio are weeds, not vegetables.
@@MonkeyJedi99 Last week my wife made a meal from Home Chef. Usually they're good, but this one had Brussel sprouts mixed with pasta. I'm part Italian, so I had to say, "This is wrong. No one from Italy would do this."
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I'm of the opinion that Brussels sprouts are Belgium's revenge for being left adrift at the beginning of both world wars.
Not a vicious act of violence, just a passive act of dirt-flavored spite.
@@MonkeyJedi99 Celery. Yuck. What an awful awful weed.
Great advice to be sure!
I have a couple pages of pre-rolled stats grouped together in a way that the players roll a couple dice, and end up with an entire set of stats. Somehow this has been fun for them, so I continue to do it.
That was one of the best, succinct game pitches I've heard. I actually transcribed it to reference next time I'm writing a campaign pitch. Thanks!
Reading your players’ notes to find out what they latched onto in the sessions is brilliant. This tip alone is going to be a great help in keeping my players invested and involved in the trajectory of the story. Thank you prof!
Thanks for the video, Dan. I enjoyed it. I think this is the first of your premiers I've actually caught.
A good story, whether it’s mental or physical has incredible conflict. It’s impossible to separate the two. You my friend, no matter how much you dislike the word Storyteller, are a good storyteller.
Sidenote: As an educator myself, I chuckled when I saw you do notebook checks haha
Lol. Love notebooks!
A short "different" campaign is a good shake up! Really allows for 'whatever fun' to happen. :)
I've also heard... a DM doesn't create conflict, a DM creates sources of conflict. So many good ideas, thank you Professor!
Have to say Professor, there are a lot of great ideas here. That question list for characters is getting implemented the next time I run a game. I also liked the idea of a limited number of sessions. It permits me as a GM to experiment with short campaigns with a specific goal and not get distracted with side quests and filler.
The character questions are helpful, even if you want to spread them out later during play. Pillaging ideas from other RPG systems you don't necessarily play and implementing them into your own game can help a lot. First saw these in Powered By The Apocalypse games such as Dungeon World (some nice GM'ing ideas in there) and Monster Of The Week. There are many more good ideas spread throughout the hobby, so snatch up a variety and glean facets you want to implement in your own game. Even if you don't plan on utilizing the other systems as a whole.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
It also allows more rule types like Gestalt where two classes overlap let level at the same rate. So like everybody is type of rogue yet then after that you pick another class that works within the theme. If it's short why not have the players be a bit badass. Not everybody has time or wants to play a year especially somebody like me who's more so a combat / puzzle type player. I don't like the long winded RP aspects at times.
I love this! Setting expectations, the questions and the random session generator. So pro!
The scenario generator has changed how I plan my games. When I make a campaign, those random tables allow me to roll up the bones of adventures, encounters and sessions really quickly and they all fit my setting because I made them!
I wanna see Deathbringer fighting Lionard DiCaprio.
That may happen!
2:03
Don't you (Professor DM) mean "DiCATrio"? 🤨
@@orenmontgomery8250 I see what you did there
I really like the little notebook idea. I have never heard that one before (and I've been playing since 1978). I'm going to start using that idea!!!
My all time favorite character backstory question which I ask almost every time appears at the end of a list of other more typical ones:
Describe your character's ideal chair.
Is it simple and comfortable?
Is it heavy and burdensome?
A basic stool or an elaborate fully adjustable seat.
One more simply because I love these things.
How would a person describe your character upon meeting them for the first time?
Laughs a little too much.
Barrel chested and barrel gutted.
Has a gap in his teeth that makes him whistle and a noticeable limp.
Beautiful to behold but her eyes are terrifying.
These are great suggestions! I often use the Setup from Fiasco for inspiration (focus on Relationships, Objects, and Places). The Fiasco approach has the players choose randomly from these bonds, but then asks them to choose how that bond is interpreted and who in the party they are bonded to through it. For example, a necromancer and her apprentice, two disgraced soldiers who fled from battle, half-siblings with different fathers, or a bounty hunter and their quarry. These create great fodder for roleplaying and for the DM to introduce new conflicts and plot developments.
Each player is bonded to two other players through different bonds. Usually these bonds create conflicting power dynamics. The bounty hunter might also be a drug addict. Her dealer might be one of the disgraced soldiers, who also happens to be the half-brother of the quarry, the necromancer. Etc.
Collecting the notebooks is such a brilliant idea!
So much gold, had to immediately re-watch!
This has the potential to be a really good couple of videos. Back in the day some of my friends didn't like Veiled Society since after you put up the paper houses, the module did get thinner. But I always thought the story was good. Thanks
Great character questions, I'll definitely steal those for my next game. I especially love the embarrassing secret they don't want the others to know.
"This is my campaign, it's Gangs of New York meets Game of Thrones, everyone plays a criminal, mostly rogues, no druids, bards, clerics, paladins. Everyone must play a human, no cat people, turtle people, elephant people. Low-level, low-magic, low-power."
Amen, praise-be, and hallelujah.
Thanks, Chris!
No bards ? " What about a rogue/ street magician."
Well, my character stills take skill ranks in singing and bluff/ diplomacy for leading all drinking songs and grifting people.
Also will gain ranks in alchemy by mixing and setting things on fire, mostly himself for in game slap stick.
Random watcher, " So, .. how many times have this guy sets himself on fire doing this act ?"
Passing fan, " More than a few times, but it is not part of the normal act."
Random watcher, " Do you think we get lucky tonight ?"
Passing fan," Gods only know, hopefully I can buy him a few drinks so we have better odds getting a light show."
Druid, just the crazy person that talks to street rats, cats, .. the .. birds .." long eye roll."
But for some reason, they can bandage a bleeding cut with a dirty rage and infection will not set in.
Low power magic = no instant Healing in combat. Bandage wounds prayed over just heal faster over night.
a.) Create food and Water, say the prayer and someone leaves a basket out for a few seconds for a easier snatch & run. Or a pack mule with supplies to rob. You can butcher the mule for meat.
Love the players notebook idea… I’m going to stealth this for my game… thanks for the great video!
Brilliant. I like to get things moving quickly as well. My last D&D game started with "you are hiding in the shadows of the Old Forest, watching as your village burns to the ground".... my last Traveller game started with the players being detained by the paranoid Zenos Secret Police at a space station, which then comes under attack from unknown warships.
This is such a great video. The idea od handing out and taking back the notebooks! Fantastic. My current campaign is close to ending, there are definitely many ideas here I want to use for my next one.
I really love that “creator of conflicts” badge for the DM, once one of my players asked me if I devise solutions for those conflicts and I tell them that I don’t, I just put things who could make sense in a place and they must find a solution. That alleviate a lot the work of a dm who tries to have every solution in mind or worse they could railroad the game.
Although my homebrew "Shoals of Pain" setting only lasted 3 sessions due to starting right before the pandemic, I did use a similar idea for our first session which I simply called "Adventure Zero". Once everyone had the final touches on their characters, I gave them a simple adventure with only one stipulation: stay in town. The goal was for them to talk to the townsfolk and resolve simple conflicts and learn about events in the area. By the end of the adventure they could decide where they would go next. Thus, I could plan several adventure hooks that the PCs could learn about without having to plan full adventures. Once they had decided on one, I would have something tangible to work with to design the next adventure.
Another video of great ideas. I love the idea of a 4-5 game pitch to try out new ideas.
This is one of your most insightful videos.
I like short vignettes where we play through elements of the characters backstory. I call my session zeros "session prologues" and it works crazy good. Gets players excited, can lead into session one and gives everyone a taste of their preferred pillar.
One of my favorite memories of 4th edition. Was a 1off my play group had. We all had Premade characters that were well flushed out. My favorite part of the whole one off was how you could learn how your character could play off each other character.
I love this damn channel! So does my four year old (she likes your crafting videos) and my son who is 10. He loves Deathbringer.
And I love you and your whole family! The crafting videos take a long time to make. I'm glad people people appreciate them.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I'm sure they do! We love them and watch them over and over.
The premiere was fun! And great content, as always.
I appreciate that!
DAAAAAAMN SON
This is fucking top tier quality advice.
Thanks, Carter!
Very useful stuff. Thank you! (Incidentally, as an author, I find it fascinating just how many of the same ideas and techniques for GMing are exactly the same for writing a compelling book.)
I also like the player secrets idea, as well as the little notebooks.
I'd bring a vegetable tray and eat it all myself, lol!
I always run a session zero, but that's mostly so the players can discuss class/race picks with each other so no one gets their toes stepped on. Some people are OK with being one of four fighters, others aren't. I think it just flows better if everyone knows what they're getting into.
One of the reasons I don't bypass a session zero is that I always do a 1 on 1 session with every player before the game starts, so everyone knows exactly why their character is where they are by the first session. It makes things a lot easier if I can get everyone rolled up in one go and then start to schedule the 1-player sessions.
I just started DMing with a very open world and before session 0 we had their characters basically set up and I was able to get through all our basic rules then surprised them with a couple of encounters. They were super stoked :D
This is awesome, thank you. I very rarely run a session zero. I generally handle a lot of the sessiin 0 stuff via text and individual meetings. I tend to start sessio 1 in media res. A habit I got from running WEG Star Wars. During slower moments of the first few sessions I fire off questions that haven't already been answered like "how did you meet" - in the event those haven't already been worked out. Sometimes I let the players run flashback scenes, sometimes they are in character asking each other these things over campfires, etc. I do also tend to game with people I already know.
I just ran a session 0. We talk flavor, home brew, opening scenes, and we end with conflict and some resolution
Cool!
The expression on the poor guy to DeathBringer's left at 0:23 is priceless
"You dont win friends with salad" - Homer Simpson all the arcane knowledge is hidden in the Simpsons
World builder / conflict designer / with a side of NPC seasoning sprinkler is a great description of the GM role
This is my "I just subscribed" video.
It was like listening to my inner voice.
Our session zero is usually going on through discord and email for a long while while the previous campaign is in its final stages. We’ve worked out our characters, their relationships and connections, swapped music that represents the feel of characters, etcetera and by the time we are done with the old campaign things are ready for the new one.
Of course we’ve had a stable group for twenty odd years now.
The last campaign had a group of freaks and oddities that were the only survivors from a traveling circus, three of which were actually family(of a very odd sort) and the rest of which were adoptive family. Part of the creation process was making up the imaginary circus poster ‘s tag line. Another player who is artistically inclined made personalized tarot cards of each character with the input of the players.
At my game it's just a given that everyone brings food (a meal) for themselves, and then randomly brings snacks. Game night and dinner time all in one!
Good stuff. Tips to keep in mind for every GM. Cookie for the metric
As an experience game master (in the idea of GMing a lot in the past, not in the idea of being good) I can confirm that players don't give a crap about dense and worked world. I learn it the hard way after a high number of deception.
Lot of time wasted. With the help of the knowledge of people like you, I now work really hard in the way of pkayer fun and player action base story.
Odd. I didn't get this video in my notifications and I'm subscribed along with the bell notifications turned on. Glad I happened to check my home area and noted the new video. Darn RUclips oddities and bugs. Now to enjoy the video. :)
I started out of the basic box in '77 at a bowling alley (Mom was a league captain). All of the thoughts here are solid and appreciated. Good stuff. DMing a new campaign starting in 2-3 weeks. Thanks for your video and thoughts.
You're welcome!
A very well made video. The perofessor does not disapoint.
DCC's Level-0 "funnel" style start is also an interesting way to begin a campaign quickly and split character creation into smaller swaths.
Roll statistics for three or four random normies for each player, roll their civilian profession & associated two or three belongings/weapons they have with them, and start playing in the action quickly. Once the session is over, the players each choose a survivor to advance to first level. This way they can take their time in between the first two sessions to decide on class options, and brainstorm any backstory desired. Start of second session (or end of first if time is left) is a level-up and shopping so there's not only a bit of accomplishment achieved for the survivors early on, but some shopping with the small amounts of hard-won treasure those lucky few liberated. Spreads the character creation out while playing zeroes-to-heroes.
Great advice as always. Regarding the where to start, someplace besides the tavern trope, I take inspiration form the 007 teasers at the start of the movies. Gets action going immediately, initiative, dice rolling, and kick a$$ fun right from the get go.
great video professor. Anticipation and expectation create fun.
Excellent! I generally go pre gens en media res for session 0. Intro a recurring villain/powerful minion, set tone, by killing a few, etc. then have them roll up their own at home following basic guidelines and world feel for session 1. Old pregens make great NPCs
My first campaign started everyone on a ship that was landing in the starting town.
I like starting the party in a prison cell. All their chosen items are on a table being rifled through by a pack of goblins. The goblins get spooked and a dungeon ooze appears to eat the players. Bam. Team work to escape. Go.
I had a group of players starting a 20th level game. They started with a summons to the Titania, the Spring Court Goddess. She gave them a quest and it was up to them to decide to work together and where to go next from there.
I love when my players run into a challenge that they can't figure out and then turn to me to ask how I planned for them to solve it.
The look on their faces when I reply "Solutions are your job, not mine" is always priceless!
I have a very simple method for keeping track of whose turn it is to bring the drinks. I borrowed it from David Eddings (not sure if it was in the Belgariad or the Mallorean). The first person to ask "Whose turn is it to bring the drinks?" gets the response, "Yours."
Never fails. Simple, yet elegant.
I like doing a zero and then having a "role play tournament" to practice roles and ability checks especially a new players players get noticed by folks who want to hire them- Love the rouge start idea- not sure it would work with kids just learning but some grown ups could learn some valuable lessons playing- always use player input to move forward too!- thanks again prof.
I've slowly pushed my 5e game closer to b/x by incorporating the dungeon-crawl / hexcrawl rules (when appropriate), the d6 group initiative every round, and reducing monster hp (I actually just assign a hit value, so there isn't even monster HP). I also use the old 1 gold = 1 xp rule. I also bring back some of the deadlier things. Specters drain xp, for example. So my system is this weird hybrid but it actually runs very well. Last session ran for maybe 5 hours (with a 45 min break). In that time they finished a dungeon (3 combat encounters + exploration) and started diving into my (first ever home made) mega dungeon. They explored some of the surface and then probably 10 or so rooms. I rolled alot of random Encounters, so we probably ran 6 or 7 additional combats plus exploring rooms, finding treasure, and roll playing.
In my experience, asking players to determine how they know each other will get a response of awkward looks around the table and shrugs, but I still think it's good advice to prompt the question.
It helps give the characters agency in where they are in the world instead of the DM telling them they're somewhere or in a situation they don't feel like they would be in.
Really good advises. I also normally run a "session 0.5" instead of a session 0. I even go as far as allowing my players to build their character beforehand (they are really experienced players and like to dive into the rules and possibilities). Of course I give them rough guidelines for character creation and check their characters. This also gives them the ability to tailor their character backstory to their character stats etc.
But yeah, we are here to PLAY DnD, not to read rulebooks!
Amazing episode ! So many excellent tips
I've been waiting to do this for so long, but since i started out with Chaotic-Idiot-Neutral players, it took them a few campaigns before they really started to sink their teeth into the concept of "THEIR Characters". Hopefully with the next campaign I can squeeze out some of the more advanced stuff from my players.
One thing I did with my current campaign to get my players "more involved" is to have a Session Point Five [0.5] since our Session Zero took place on a random day before the game started (I had the day off, and they came in roughly two groups over a 4 hour period that day). When the players had a pretty good grasp on what they characters were and what they did, I asked them who they thought they had a connection with. I then took those players aside and asked them for a rough outline on how they "met" before the campaign began; one pairing was a street thug participating in an underground fighting tournament and making it to the finals where afterwards he would be hired by the Noble player as a "bodyguard". Another pairing was a Warforged who got a local inspector/bureaucrat/office clerk to stop harassing a small-time Kobold craftsman for not having official and up-to-date business licenses/paperwork. I had an odd number of players, so I took the odd one out and asked THEM how they would know one of the other players (they choose the Noble); I then went and used the Noble's background to construct an event that the Noble would be involved in, but wouldn't know what truly happened or its significance. I took that info and designed short one-hour mini-sessions, adding in extra details and letting the dice roll change just how good or bad events turned out (like the street thug BARELY pulled off a win). The players were psyched to get these "behind the scenes" look at each other's characters, as well as a sneak peak to a secret or two.
Session 1 starts; the Kobold is getting some food while the Warforged is sitting with his goblin foreman as the goblin is "treating him to some good food, and an excuse to take a long lunch break, you've earned it". Noble and his bodyguard street thug go in, waiting for a meeting with "a noble of the city". The Noble is late, and not where he should be. The solo odd-one-out player is trailing the Noble, suspicious of the Noble's true intentions were, and has creeped his way around the back...
...then the troll comes out of the hole in The Yawning Portal.
And that's how I started the Vault of the Dragons campaign.