Seth in the first part: "Don't worry players - the regular GM won't screw you over - have fun." Seth in the second part: "GM's if one of you makes me a liar - I will come to your house and burn it to the ground like the vikings burned Lindisfarne."
Relax players theres nothing to worry about. The Gm will cause no trouble. Pay no attention to the fact the dm portion of the video is four times longer. We're just discussing cookies:)
The advice at the end about how to actually give advice is gold. I think there would be a lot more great gms in the world if the people they gamed with were more supportive when they started out
At 1:29, when he switched to black and white and said "seriously GM's..." I heard Seriously James". My name being James, I had a slight freak out moment and had to re-watch that section.
I legit ran my first game of Call of Cthulhu tonight & our groups' Main GM joined in last minute as a sub. It was my first time running a game for him & it was a system that none of us had ever played, but he was awesome. You could tell he was loving being a player. Exploring the world, but still giving the other player their time in the spotlight. I was nervous at first, but once we got going, I was so thankful that he had joined. Definitely going to run another game & who knows, I may become the Call of Cthulhu GM on my all D&D server. 🎉
I will forever remember the time I did a short campaign for my group. I had to regular GMs in my group. During the time, I also lost my job and I moved, so that added a lot more stress to me, and I lost some of my notes. But day 1 and I was there. The two experienced GMs, "What is my motivation for playing in this campaign? I'm not feeling it, give me a better motivation." Corrected me on the rules, didn't like a judgement rule I made against one of them. It was just one thing after another. It was such a nightmare. They could have used this video back then.
Finding the voice is very important. One of my players actually tried to gm and went for my style which is very character-based. After I nudged him a few more times he wanted to give it another shot. I suggested he try out something more mechanic based like a dungeon crawl which I really hated. And he totally nailed it! He had the maps completely figured out and new what was where which I struggle with. He even had an awesome boss fights. It was this huge sandstone golem and I was kinda wondering if I wouldn’t overwhelm him: I asked if we could a dagger like a chisel and hit it with a weapon to cut off limbs. He went like...hmmm....yes-he needed a minute but then he pulled it of pretty well. I also loved doing role-playing as just one character and going really into getting the others roleplaying.
Honestly, this is a great example of how sometimes different people are great at adding different flavors to a campaign. I love a good dungeon crawl, but when I've DM'ed, I'm usually more of a story DM. It's fun to swap seats once in a while and get a little variance in the game.
That's an awesome anecdote. Thanks for sharing! GMing for others is fun and it's great to switch GMs in your group. Everyone likes different aspects of rping and seeing people play their strengths when GMing is just so much fun!
This is one of the things I tell new GMs who have played with me before. My style is not really a good one for new GMs, so don't feel like if you are running the game differently that it will be bad. Be comfortable and it will be fun and generally always judge in favor of fun if you have an option. See I run my games as total sandbox improv. I have an idea of where I would like to see the game go, but if they go in a completely different direction, I just roll with it, create a new story on the fly, make up encounters on the spot. However, I can pull this off most of the time, because of 40 years of gaming experience as both a player and DM. This is a big thing to ask of someone new to DM'ing. I often suggest their first time running might be best using a pre-made adventure or if they have a specific idea in mind, to make sure they write down the most important details. This info is all relayed way before the run the session, during the session I am just a player, and make sure to create a character that will not create huge problems and will be willing to follow just about any story. I will only make a comment during the session if asked, and after the session will always lead with at least 3 points I liked about the session and more specifically about how they ran it. I have found this encourages the most out of my players, and has led to at least 3 of my players becoming what I would consider top tier GMs, even better than myself.
@@vidard9863 Yeah I've played with a guy who backseat GM'd games. "Well that's not how that is SUPPOSED to work.." To which I'd have to break in, "GM's word is law!"
Using the words "Next Time" in critique might as well be black magic. "Oh man I loved this part! I hope we get to do something that cool next time!" "This part was kinda disappointing, next time try this?" "That was awesome how you did this! I can't wait to see whats next!" Your goal is to encourage them to keep on going. No matter what the advice is, assuming that there will be more means that the chances of that happening go way up. That way, if they want to stop they have to actively say "I'm done." instead of just not doing anything.
I've actually had to enlist the rest of my table in stopping me from just blurting out rulings without thinking about it (ADHD is a bit of a bitch). I tend to be the most familiar with the rules at the table, and my "solve the problem" reflex tends to be faster than the impulse to think if I'm stepping on people's toes. Basically, just having them tell me "Hey. Back off" is useful for breaking that habit, even though I've got a fair way to go before I'm really "over it".
I have this exact same problem and one of my friends has different ideas about some rules and so i basically told them i know i have a big mouth and its fuckin reflex that things shoot out my mouth before my brain can think them through. so just tell me if its overstepping. theres somethings i will stand up for. last session we were attacked by rogues with fuckin mega poison and sneak attack and i had to stand up for the monk that being immune to poison means being immune to its effects its damage and the condition
Kevin Griffith I have switched the table and started to ask the guy that knows the rules better whenever I‘m not 100% sure. Works very smoothly, but I also have a group that accepts when I tell them that I won’t use this or that rule and just make a different ruling.
@@originaluddite So did I. @Kevin Griffith Knowing your flaws is the best way to work on them. Good idea to pointing it out to your fellow players to improve yourself. 👍
after being a DM/GM for 37 years, I finally got to be a player for once! ..my brother-in-law ran a Cthulhu Scenario and I remember both me and my character being soo excited to have a go at 'the other side' I fear we may have frightened the dude! .. great fun and I thoroughly recommend any player to have a go at running any game and see 'the other side' and how rewarding it can be ... I've rolled six more characters just in case one of my gang want to be DM for the day.
For feedback I think the compliment sandwich is a good start but also a high ratio of positive feedback to critiques. Maybe 4:1. Also enthusiasm for how much fun you had and their gm style.
As the forever GM, I found it so hard playing a character that I didn’t have time to screw it up! “Wait, I have to stay in THIS character? I need to act as part of a team? Good lord this is a lot of class abilities…”
When I was in high school and first learning D&D, I had a group that rotated who was the GM each session of the campaign. We didn't use modules but we kept the same characters and setting and whoever was GM that week was responsible for advancing the plot. It was sort of like writing a collaborative story where each person gets to write one paragraph before passing it off. It was surprisingly fun and the campaign just grew organically as each person pushed it in a new direction. We never really ran into problems with our group dynamics (beyond typical high school drama) but we did run into a major problem with power creep. One session the GM/player accidentally gave us a ridiculously large cash reward and everyone went on a shopping spree. No one wanted to say 'no' to another player so we all bought equipment that was way too powerful and never bothered to justify where we found the merchants who were selling it. At the end of the campaign we were so overpowered that the only worthy opponents we could find were doppelgangers of ourselves. Eventually, two of the players conspired to destroy the world and reset the game so we could start fresh. We tried a few other campaigns like it but they all died out after one or two sessions and we were never quite able to recapture the experience.
Strangely, we used to do the same thing of rotating DM's (mostly me and one other player) to give each other a chance to enjoy the version of the Realms we were building. It was *so* much fun, but like you say, power creep was inevitable. Eventually, I destroyed the world as part of my DM mini campaign (think 80s Crisis on Infinite Earths) and reset the continuity so we were all de powered and could pick up from before it all got out of hand (around level ten I think). Ah...those early campaigns before we learned restraint were just magic.
As a GM let me tell you - _remind me of the things I don't know._ If it's been four turns don't bring it up but if I say "Oh the electricity arcs through the air and strikes you and you're paralyzed" but you remember ten seconds later your Spinning Dance gives you +1 to Evasion, go ahead and retcon the hit. I gotta remember a thousand spell or move effects and every creature's status, even with notes on my screen I _can't_ be expected to remember everything.
My uncle was my first GM for years and when I took the reins as a GM, I was so nervous to have him as a player. But, he loved being a player and was very supportive. Then, when he started a new campaign, he asked me if I would co-GM with him. It felt wonderful! We split duties, and I made maps and coat of arms for various locals. He ran the combats, like the pro he is, and I had a few notable NPCs the players fell in love with and kept coming back to. Now, I live across the US from him and miss those days of co-GMing.
I use to agree, but I'm currently dming 4 diffrent editions. So now I have no problem with rules being looked up, because I dint want to make a 5e ruling during my pf game
I assign a rules lawyer. It is their job to look up rules. I know most of them and refuse to spend important time looking up things that just slow down the game. He looks them up and everyone learns them, I ignore it all and keep going. Next time the table informs me what the rule is and either I implement it, or I ignore it. If it is implemented, it will always be implemented. Another thing that is a home rule. Anything the players can do, the enemies can do. Example: casting deeper darkness on yourself (with the skills and feats to function without penalties) and then using it as a killing bubble. Yea, if you can do it, so can I. In a game a few years later they were in a fight with a nasty bugbear underboss that did the same trick. (instant fear).
As a DM of four years who played for the first time this year. An issue I’ve often found is knowing all of the ways the monsters function and things of that sort so it makes it quite difficult to not meta game that stuff and easier to tell when the DN is taking it easy on us.
I'm a forever GM and this is an issue that comes up quite a bit (I'm assuming for many others as well). This is where "role-player" must try to overcome "roll-player".
Great video! The first time I ever ran a game was with my Uncle's DnD group. Plus, at the time I was only 18 or so years old and the others in the group were veterans. They all just sat there and played and only offered help when I asked them. It was a great experience and they only told me about what I could have done better after the sessions which we did when my Uncle was the DM before. I still appreciate the fact that they let me DM and we all had a great time. I attribute that experience as one of the reasons why I still play RPGs decades later. I have had my share of negative experiences as a DM and player that are usually my own fault but having those phenomenal experiences is kinda the reason I keep coming back to RPGs.
I am GMing a game for the first time with a bunch of friends, two of whom are very experienced GMs. From a player moving to a GM role, the biggest problem I have is I have no idea how many character classes work as I never played them, and balancing combats is tough. There's certainly more reading to do than I did as a player, but I ask them for advice and feedback between sessions and they've been really helpful. When you're all there to have fun, and not feed your own need to control, it's a much better game.
D&D 5E (I assume you are playing that) is difficult to balance around and even the CR levels are just recommendations as some monsters can counter some classes while getting crushed by others. Just ask some help and it is better to make an encounter a little weaker then usual because the party could make mistakes, bad rolls and you can tweek a couple of things behind the screen.
Early on, regardless of your system, you're always better off using a single monster. Even in really unbalanced scenarios the monster is unlikely to win vs 4-5 players simply because they've got so many more attacks than the monster. This allows you to balance combat fairly easily by just having your flavor of goblins run in to do something and distracting the players.
@@ZeroNumerous another tthing my GM did is have rolling waves of enemies. i.e after every third turn x amount of enemies show up. This is quite good because if they aren't too strong you can just have them stop a little bit early if the group is having trouble or combat gets boring
Also, it's the player's job to know their class inside and out. As long as you trust the players not to cheat or intentionally do something they shouldn't, you dont have to know all the ins and outs of each class. You just have to know what your monster's abilities are, which is frankly much more streamlined. If you have a villain that's, say, a wizard, then know his class inside and out, but otherwise, trust your players and make them responsible for their own classes.
I had to come back to this video to remind myself how to act sometimes. One of my groups has split our time between me running (who's an experience GM) and another player running (who's just really started) and I have to sometimes physically stop myself from backseat driving the game and remind myself that I'm just a player at that point and need to set the example.
"Okay players, that's all, good luck!" ::sees there's 12 minutes of video left:: "Uh oh..." This might be your funniest video yet, Seth, and that's saying a lot!
Look, we play games of make believe, suspension of disbelief is easy for me, but this is hard to wrap my head around.....I don't always have to run the game?!
Shot the GM at my first game of Cyberpunk 2020 with an airsoft pistol. It was prearranged, but not the point in the game that I'd do it...none of the other players knew what the hell just happened. It was an atmospheric, dress as your character session with mood lighting and other props. My own Cyberpunk game sessions aren't run like that...too much effort. Also prevents me from getting capped, gnome sane? XD
I mean I sat at a table where someone flew over the table a sledgehammer in hand at another play... it happens unfortunately. Also once had a DM ram another players car after a game.... yeah that was fun
That escalated quickly... In all seriousness I was at an open game at our FLGS once and this big guy got so mad he tried to stab my friend with a pencil. My friend, who might've weighed all of 100 lbs, stood up to him and call him a psycho for acting that way and told him to mind his manners, shut up, and play the game. The guy actually backed off. Ballziest thing I ever saw.
The first Cyberpunk games I Refereed had two of my former GMs as players. Somewhat nerve-wracking, to say the least. Thankfully, they did not backseat drive and just let me find my own way. One of them was a brilliant player, forever coming up with awesome inventive responses to the challenges I set and taking the initiative in coming up with plans and goals for his characters.
They never tell you when you start gm'ing that eventually you're the only one who will ever run games and that you'll never get to play the game as a pc yourself. 😞. Let your gm play every now and then.
So, I have a trick that allows me to help out the newbie GMs in my group, and keep me from backseat GMing. I offer (not insist) to track initiative for them. When I run I commonly ask another player to track initiative, and it tends to rotate around the players, so no one in my regular groups takes offense to this idea. They know I'm doing it to offload some mental calculus and make sure that other players remain actively engaged. Seriously, by the way, offer an experience bonus to a rotating note taker and make them the initiative tracker. It works wonders for both engagement and helps out a lot. As these are notes direct from a player perspective they become public record, so you keep your own notes, duh, and they have theirs, which they all collaborate to make. Anyway, back to the idea. In combat a lot of rules get tied to initiative, so "Tristan is up and you said he was still poisoned" doesn't come off as being pushy. I'm doing my job as part of the group instead, taking some of the informational load off of the GM so that he or she can think more clearly and make decisions better.
This is not a problem. In my main group. Everyone is a GameMaster. We all rotate and run two or more campaigns simultaneously. 1) We alternate weekly. 2) when on GM's campaign ends the next one starts with a different GM
@oz_jones Actually no. 1) We have multiple game nights. 2) Each game master runs their own campaign. 3) when one game master's campaign ends, A person that hasn't run a campaign in a long time starts thier campaign ( This is the reason why i very rarely do reviews of pre-made campaigns as im the only one in my groups that run pre-made campaigns or modules ).
@oz_jones We don't do a westmarches set up. The difference is that each gamemaster runs an entire campaign in their own setting. 1) We don't share campaign settings. 2) An we don't alternate gamemasters in the same campaign ( a series of adventures ). Westmarches has a rotation set up where each gamemaster does an adventure in the same campaign setting & campaign.
I was set to run CoC for the 2nd time ever at a Con (maybe have run 5 times in total) last month, and I then offered to run it additional times once the Con switched to online mode (and some of my player events were cancelled). Wouldn't you know it, an industry publisher signed up for my event. A little nerve-wracking, lol. He basically followed your GM advice to a T, gave a good reaction at the end of the game and mentioned a thing or two as options in a particular encounter (which was useful since I was running the same event the next 2 days).
My thing is that I occasionally respond to questions on reflex. I do my best to shut up and be encouraging after the game because every one of my players that runs games do genuinely good jobs.
This is something I've always been critically aware of. Whenever a new GM tries their hand at it for the first time, you have to be supportive. Nothing grinds my gears more than when people give them a hard time.
I so love these videos. All of 'em. I'm a full-time GM, I almost never get to be a player. Sitting on the other side of the screen makes me feel exposed and demoted, but if it's a game I don't know the rules to then it's much more enjoyable.
Hey seth, I remember you mention a cyberpunk campaign where players grew up from age 13-18? Would you ever consider giving us more insight into how that campaign went?
Eventually I might talk about it as a weird sort of War Story vid. It was a very weird campaign in that it all took place in a small 4x4 block area of Night City. That little piece outside the Combat Zone was their entire universe (except the one time they had to go one neighborhood over to do a deal, and another time when they had to go into Night City Proper to see a Johnny Silverhand concert at the stadium). I consider it the best campaign I've ever run.
The GM definitely judges you when you GM over them... The way I ran one module with basically zero prep because DM said "You DM this." And I went "Sure." And they ended up running half the dungeon on a single initiative because I played the Goblins that wanted to live, so they they would run away when they were wounded... but then players would pursue them... into the next group of Goblins... This happened 4 times... they stacked 5 different encounters into one by pursuing retreating enemies... I didn't do this shit on purpose. It was the module that placed the goblin encounters where it did. Everybody thought I was some sort of psycho DM that was out to kill them. But I tossed these a-holes extra goodies, because they really had a rough go of facing 5 encounters as one big encounter, even though that was their own doing, So I telegraphed that some of the goblins had healing potions by having the second goblin that was retreating chug one while retreating... Hoping to get them to loot some healing potions and heal themselves rather than feckless chase the lone survivor into the next goblin band... they just chase the lone into the Goblin band. At this point I decide that dropping subtle hints that they don't need to just keep chasing these guys wasn't going to work so I just decide to have all the remaining encounters converge at this point. And since the fighter really deserves a +2 Longsword and Sheild upgrade, guess how I decide to adjust the Hobgoblin boss... Now don't worry too much, I nerfed the guy's Strength and Dexterity slightly so he didn't Get much a buff. And swapped his +1 Chainmail for a +2 Studded leather so it would have the same stats but be an upgrade for the Ranger. They didn't seem to believe me when the bracers of Armor that were on the Shaman were actually part of the module and not something I pulled out my ass to make the Shaman Harder... although really that +3 Armor Class were would do the wizard a lot better than the. I don't remember if it said in the module or I decided on the fly that the Shaman could sacrifice other gobbos to regain spell slots... So he'd spend goblins ro grab the dying but not dead downed goblins, provoking attacks of opportunity, bring them to the Shaman, the Shaman would coup de grace them and use the recovered spell slot to recuperate his healing spell. This might have pissed the players off, but coup de grace is a full round action and the gobbos running body snatching duty weren't on hand to stab the players but were subjecting themselves to attacks of opportunity. And as much as it pissed the players off every time that Shaman drew blood then healed another gobbo the next turn. Every turn he did that was a turn he wasn't swinging his mace or casting burning hands. Of course the players were smart and spent a round or two finishing off the downed wounded that were nearby so the Shaman was now doing his blood sacrifice thing on wounded gobbos that were still standing. They didn't seem to much appreciate that I was thinning the enemy ranks a bit and nerfing the enemy's action economy. Or that the Shaman was healing the boss... but if they didn't want the Shaman healing the Hobgoblin boss, maybe they didn't need to chase the wounded gobbo to the place that was in sight of both mobs.... Sure you could call me the Asshole DM for having the Gobbo run right to where he's be visible to both groups, but he moved at his run speed, he was running to where his buddies were, and his turn ended where his turn ended. The players chose to pursue. So the Shaman and the Boss being in the same encounter really was their own doing more than Mine... Had I had more time to prepare I would have altered layout of the module so the encounters wouldn't be all practically stacked right on top of each other. I would have used the dry erase map and spaced the premade segment out a bit more. The Designers were working within the constraints of a single 4 foot by 4 foot mapmat which is plenty of room for a Dungeon map but makes things cramped when the module puts multiple encounters in the main corridors while giving the place a shopping mall type open floorplan. In retrospect, it might have been intended as a stealth mission, because the Ranger could have stacked his favored enemy and favored terrain bonuses to scout the whole area undetected and see just where the Goblins were in relation to each other. They would have figured out then the best approach for taking the goblins down one group at a time or they might have been drawn to investigate the side rooms first. MOST of the content for this portion of the module was in the side rooms anyway. The few combat encounters they had in the side rooms were small and trivial. It was search checks and finding various clues. I retrospect I thin the designer of the module had intended a stealth mission. Something came up at home, so I had to leave early, but I turned the DM seat over to another friend as well as the notes I was frantically taking the whole time, ranging from me puzzling over where the friggin were supposed to be (As I was giving them as much information as the module was giving me, and I was on the verge of asspulling to get them the next clue ) And it also included all the on the fly alterations I made... like giving the goblins more healing potions,(but I only had the ones who already had healing potions drink any) Altering the gear and stats of the Hobgoblin boss so he'd be close to the same Challenge but offer better loot. When a goblin rolled a 1 in the first encounter and I decided he shat himself and lost his turn. I jotted down that a Pearl of Power and a Ring of Protection +2 were in turds. (Since multiple goblins rolled 1's at different points, and shitting themselves something to do other than accidently hit their buddies over the head,, which that also happened.) The players located the Pearl of Power, which I described as sticking out of the turd like a "piece of corn," but they were unwilling to dig through the goblin turds to find magic items... Even when I hinted at them with the description of piece scrolls and the occasional gemstone in the mix. Now they weren't going to fail the search check because it was only after a successful search check that I even gave them the first clue. The Cleric has detect magic casted... he knows there's more magic items in the turds.... he plucks the Pearl of Power uses or to recover a Cure Moderate Wounds spell and heals his friends up some more... But while he'll pluck an Item he could identify out of the turd, he drew the line at digging through shit for them so he missed out on the Ring of Protection +2. And when my other friend took over as DM and looked at the notes he turned and asked, "Why did you decided to put a Ring of Protection +2, a 2nd level Pearl of Power and a Scroll of Fireball into Goblin Turds?" Without missing a beat I responded with "They ate a wizard a few days ago." I go home. My friend finishes the session. Don't know how the rest of it went. I know I made some changes, but every change I made was in some way in the players' favor. And everything I did that added to the challenge, also increased the players' chances of survival. Giving the Hobgoblin boss slightly better equipment but slightly lower stats, Damage and attack bonus were the same but AC was 1 point higher... And 3 pieces of equipment were potential upgrades instead of just one. Played seemed to have fun, didn't ask me to DM again.
I find that every time I try to transition from Forever GM to a player I end up playing a conjurer, necromancer, driver, drone master, whatever the class or variant is that lets you puppet around several creatures because I am so used to playing multiple creatures at once. Subconsciously I just drift to the archetype one point/level at a time even if the original intent was to play as a chill support or literally anything else but mini GM. Is there a way to unbreak my brain?
I got a bit of the same problem although it is a way I always played my games before. I like classes where I can either control an aspect or be strategic with what I am going to do next. Basically be the mastermind behind the curtain while being number two.
I feel you. I have a Binder with a cohort in one of my friend's campaigns. And just recently I got the power to summon creatures. At times I feel overwhelmed instead of relaxed and enjoying the game. I wouldn't suggest making a warrior, it's too plain since with your knowledge you'd feel tied down. I'd suggest something in between your typical fighter and caster. Or even a type of caster that is focused on battle control instead of summoning.
I agree with Paradox. Pick a class and enjoy it. Warlock Eldritch Blast everything. Cleric heal everything. Barbarian yell and smash everything. Playing a true class character can truly open your eyes to a simpler existence than DMing ;)
I'm definitely the opposite: I want a break from that stress. I'll either do fighter/thief or bard - a mix of abilities for variety, and nothing too complicated.
Seth's reaction at 0:10 - I felt that so hard: the excitement, the pride, the hard time resisting saying, "Yes! Finally!" and grabbing a character sheet right away.
I took over GMing our group a couple months ago, and really enjoy it. One of my players is our former GM; he actually prefers playing, and i think he was only doing it because no one else felt comfortable taking the role. I've asked him for advice a few times, especially when I first started, and he's been pretty sympathetic to "GM problems" (especially since he still runs games at home with his family). Glad I have a group of friends who can be cool about things; this video made me realize that I'm actually lucky.
@@The_Custos Cue the Conan theme music, "Know then, oh prince, that between the banning of conventions and the rise of online play, there was a time best forgotten."
My group still plays, we just wear masks and have an industrial sized dispenser of hand sanitizer. Granted most of us are people who live alone and in our 20s- early 30s.
For the gm half, as another player in please for the love of god do not correct the gm when they are forgetting something in the players favor. For instance the +1 aim bonus thing that allows the enemy to have hit. Now for the passive perception one you did the right thing but the wrong way. What would be appropriate to do is ask the other player “hey don’t you have this thing that might help you?” Then you’re not making it about what the gm has or hasn’t forgotten but it’s you working together with your party. Like I had a friend who we spent one whole session just watching him have a big duel he was kinda outclassed for and I noticed a half dozen times where the gm forgot to add the additional damage bonus to the enemies attack and my friend just squeaked out a win with like 5 health even after the gm did a thing or two to intentionally give my friend a chance. I kept my mouth shut because I don’t wanna be the kid that asks a teacher If they’re gonna collect the homework that they’d forgotten about
It's also great to end the new GM review/advice (from the forever GM) with a positive thing they did as well as starting the review on a positive note. Thanks, Seth.
I'm not even in that exact kind of situation, but tomorrow we'll start a 3-day-marathon to advance our campaign that three of us took vacation days for. I was pretty stressed out about it, being the GM at all and not having a ton prepared, but you video made me remember that these are all my friends whom I've known for years and can even easily improvise for if necessary.
I always gm'd until this opportunity popped up, and my player that made his story had us do a fight where the enemy was blind and would attack any sound. We played the whole encounter without talking, and it blew my mind with how unique it made it
This video illustrates how Seth's skits are not only fun to watch, but provide a great way to see his advice in action. It's sort of the RUclips GM Advice version of those actual play examples in written DM guides. Even seeing the hypothetical worst case scenarios works in a Goofus & Gallant kind of way.
My friend is our DM for 5E and I am our keeper for when we play CoC. Both of us get to play the other game, but sometimes we want to play the game we GM. A few months ago it was just the two of us around for a week or two. We both made a short oneshot for each other and swapped. I ended up making a mini solo dungeon for a 3rd level character with 3 rooms and a gimmick for each (one had a scarecrow that would move through tall wheat and blend in with inanimate scarecrows). He made me this spooky mountain trek into a mining town. It was pretty fun.
Love the video... the "shelter at home" has come out in this one in a most satisfying way.... no... seriously... I'm going stir crazy... I have been lucky enough to play some games back in 1st edition and I think the biggest problem I ever had at the transition is I find it difficult to help problem solve for fear of being thought as using my GM knowledge of things to overcome obstacles. But even so, I've always had a blast being able to foray into someone else's world for a few games...
5:43 Okay, I think that one was a bit too much. The first one was okay, the second one would be passable if it was the last time, but that third one... Yeaaaaah, even I agree that it would've been better to keep it to yourself, this time...
I find when I'm (very rarely) sitting on the opposite GM side I just ask questions to clarify the mechanics. When one of my players ran CoC for the first time they frequently forgot early on that just seeing monsters would require us to roll sanity. At first I let it go because I thought they were giving us a break, but after the third time I just asked "That sounds scary. Should I roll sanity?"
I can still remember, fondly, the times with my old group. We changed DM after every adventure or even within the adventure if somebody had a nice idea he wanted to test. So everybody who wanted, and most did, got a shoot at DMing and everybody got to play. We had a kind of episodic style to our campaign and that worked very well. Basically, we had, after some time a campaign with 3 major arcs as all regular DM followed their own arc when doing their DMing. It was fantastic and so much fun. Even the one player who DMed scarcely started to find an overall theme to his adventures. What was so fantastic about it was the playtime for all of us and thus we could also refresh and have great new ideas for our own story arc. Also, there was no "problem" if an arc was completed, the characters had other things to take care of and the DM had no pressure to come up with something new, thus our stories were most times exactly what all players wanted. We saw what the others did and liked so we did accordingly. Those were the days ...
I love your honesty Seth. I've been growing as a DM for a year+ now, and I've always leaned on you for advice. I am proud in my flexibility as a DM, and I account a lot of that to you and other channels. "Don't be a dick" is some pretty simple advice to follow.
Me and another friend was the forever DM and we both along with another player was all various degrees of well meaning rules laywers, meaning we point out rules that are even to our own detriment. That thing was the standard way we played and it worked well. Then when one of the non rule-lawyer decided to DM, he could do it and just using the rest of us as living rule-books to great success.
Thanks for making this. The only time I remember doing backseat driving was AFTER the session just talking with the new GM, so it's just feedback. He allowed a player to use a spell in a way that didn't fit the description. I went with it because 1) it was his ruling 2) allowed a new player to do something cool without getting too bogged down in rules 3) let the scene go where we all wanted it 4) I didn't interrupt the flow or pacing. Other than that, I just ASKED things like, "I get Advantage for being "unseen" by that enemy, right?" I am a relatively new GM but finally have my first chance to play as one of my players asked to run a full campaign. Now we rotate every other week, which has mostly worked out great. He doesn't seem to have any issue running for me.
Tbh I don't think a lot of players know what a different task it is to run the game than to play it. The game master unfortunately has to invest waaaay more time and money into creating a game than the players have to invest to play it. GMs write game worlds, scenarios, buy minis, track initiative and status effects, and hopefully if done well, the players enjoy it. Then they get to thinking, "I have an idea for a story. Let me try!" And about three sessions in, they realize what a task they've just taken on, and they disband the game. I'm a lifetime GM who has never made it beyond three sessions in a game run by anyone else, and I think thr main reason is that the game looks so much different from the other side of the screen.
I get video recommendations for Seth in my RUclips sometimes. Sometimes I press them. But every time I am always amazed at how he by far produces the highest quality RPG discussion videos. Every time I finish a video I always think, "wow that guy really knows what he's doing" - he always knows exactly how to get a point across, and the points he chooses to get across are always excellent; his videos always add something to the community. Sometimes he's corny but its always funny. So thanks Seth, I cannot describe enough just how incredible the content that you produce is.
I've been GMing since the 80s and my kids grew up playing my campaigns. Now my oldest daughter and my son run their own campaigns and I have played under them. There was some nervousness at first but I just tried to be a really good player for their styles and it all worked great. They learned a lot from me but have their own distinct styles. So even with that amount of history , it can work just fine. It was really fun to get to play for a change even though I really love GMing. In fact my Daughter uses me to help new players get into the RP aspect.
This is very good, and I did realize after a while, the first time I was a player instead of a GM, that I was doing. I talked to the new GM, clarified the air, and now I simply enjoy the game "as is"... So much more fun for everyone!
My main game group are all 30-40+ "old hats" and although we tend to have one GM/DM per systems we all take it in turns running them. So one guy loves running our high fantasy D&D, I tend to run the sci-fi (Traveller/StarFinder) type games and others have run CoC, Rolemaster, Champions etc etc. We find this way, each person has to "learn" the rules and can homebrew to their little hearts content and when they're players they understand the authority of the GM.
I've found myself in this situation recently - a player I taught to play several years ago is running a campaign and I joined it a couple sessions ago. I rolled up a rogue (party had none, so I figured I could save them from awful traps and locked doors) and have been enjoying the chance to be a player. I knew I'd be tempted to do too much - direct tactics, hog attention, or talk too much - and I've been conscious of that. So far I think it's going quite well. I'm a teacher too, and the positive reinforcement/feedback is 110% the right thing to do. Sure I could have picked holes in the game, but I'd rather give helpful feedback and compliment the good parts, as you said. The only place I've stuck my nose in so far (I did ask before speaking up) was when a player was downed and was asking the party to NOT heal his character. He wasn't having fun playing it, and had been wanting it to die so he could reroll. I chimed in that there were alternatives - since the DM had said that this PC was part of the plot, I advised that if it was that bad, the PC could be retired into an NPC so the player could reroll. I don't know how that turned out yet, because I kept my nose out afterwards. We DMs-turned-PCs walk a tightrope above the abyss of Forever DM. Thank you for doing your part to advise us on not falling! Jeez this was ramble-y. OH WELL never get rid of material!
I was the original DM for my old group and I was stoked when a player said they wanted to run some sessions. My one piece of advice for new GMs and players wanting to take the reins: stand your ground. Some players who are super enthusiastic may try to take over or argue about rules and rulings and such. In those moments, politely but firmly stand your ground. Don't try to domineer, and make sure you listen when players talk. But the active GM is the final authority in the session, so be willing to say no sometimes. Otherwise the players will run roughshod over you
I actively try to encourage all of my players to run something, whether it be a prewritten adventure, a one shot, or even a full fledged homebrew campaign. Honestly the best way to figure out dming is to jump in, you will learn more in the first session of dming than you would in months of reading through rulebooks. And who better to learn with than people with styles of play you are familiar with. As they learn dming they also will generally become better players, they'll become more proactive in their play, they'll learn how useful roleplaying can be, how to approach puzzles etc.
Something I've tried for first time GMs - take a system you already know and run a lower level module or even the 'sample adventure' from the book. Have your fellow players play characters wildly different than they usually play, and just have fun with a one-shot.
I first played DnD at 9. My first DMs were my late Uncle and Aunt. I remember they would insert adventures in our campaign were a player would be the DM. It usually happens in the dream of a player character, were they are forced to go on a "sub-conscious" dream adventure. Depending on the outcome of the "dreamventure", a goddes of dream will reward the player with a treasure. It really was a good incentive for us kids to lead a game and grow as a player too
I used to be part of a group where we rotated GMs for different storylines and the stories ended up crossing over. One of the most gratifying feelings in the world was when my players remained invested in my characters even when I moved them to the background as NPCs. It made me feel appreciated both as a player and a GM.
As a decade long forever GM, I get to be a player every few years. This video is VERY important, I've seen the good and bad things you mentioned happen before and it's so important. I like your recommendation "be the best player you can be" as what to focus on.
Back in my twenties I was part of a small D&D group that would take turns GMing and, because of that, nobody was regarded as _the_ GM. Having said that, we each had preferred settings and campaign plans, and needed a way to keep those apart. At the time, Spelljammer was a new thing, and our solution was that the adventurers had a space-faring caravel that would take them from setting to setting as GMs changed over.
I'd agree the biggest temptation is to speak up and correct the Ref. Second is to have a bad poker face reacting to what he rules and orders. Might be good to wear a covid mask just to hide your expressions, lol. A first time GM might be so nervous that he sets up the game to be a railroad affair and if you improvise a move he hadn't planned for, it can *seem* you're actively subverting the game, even if you're not. It might help to take on a character who is a second banana, almost an NPC, so as to not take the most prominent role at first.
If you get confused while watching Nature Documentaries and Star Wars just remember that the one with interesting plots, well thought-out characters, lots of cool action moments and intense drama... Are the Nature Documentaries.
This is my group. Only one member of the group has DM'd and had trouble, he's still finding his feet. While one hasn't DM'd as far as I know. I've been DM for the most part while the other two have stepped up and played their part as pretty awesome DMs.
And when the Stars are right, we will have our dark dungeons made by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment in the blessing of Jack Chick unaware that it spoofed the heck out of his shit!
LOL I loved that stock image with the map of Barovia in the background. :D Also, thanks for the reminder of not being a backseat GM when-ever one of my players will accept to run me in a game.
Hey man, gotta tell you, I love your videos, you know the timing of the jokes, you don't extend them too much, your videos are very creative and you usually speak clear, so I understand your words. Just letting you know, that your quality is high, and I love the little skits you do in black and white with the 4 characters
I think I've been lucky with the groups I'm in at the moment (currently in 3), most people in each groups takes their turn at running the game, and we all have our "specialty" games
This video came out at the right time for our group. We’ve got two DMs, me and a good friend of mine that have a lot of rapport but never really get to play together. One of the guys in our party wanted to step up and take his shot though, and I gotta say I’m very proud of his enthusiasm. I sent this vid to him
I had my forever DM as a player in the first game I was DM. He was a great player in game, but afterwards he gave me some advice (really good advice) about how to make the game better. Then he kept bringing it up throughout the week without prompting. It was really discouraging and I ended up ending the campaign cause I didn't want to play with him anymore. I have started DMing again with a group of new players - which is really nice, none of them watch critical role :D I hope when I am more confident as DM I can invite my forever DM to the game again, but I need to find my voice first.
My only perma-houserule is: Rules mistakes are treated after the session. For the next one we correct how we tackle it, but we don't slow down the game for that.
If I saw Seth Skorkowsky turn up at a gaming table, I'd ask him if Jack the NPC was coming too; that guys rocks. Loads of good advice again. Thank you for sharing.
Very good advice. I was realy worried when i ran my first game and I'm worried again since the last time was so long ago. The good thing in our group was, that basically everybody took the mantle at some point. The bad thing about it was, that i took it last, so in a way i GMed for a group full of GMs. That was quite disturbing. And to any player who wants to try it out. Just do it and have fun. Ask yourself. "What could possibly go wrong?" The answer is "Yes!" So stop to worry about it and have a go.
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
Seth in the first part:
"Don't worry players - the regular GM won't screw you over - have fun."
Seth in the second part:
"GM's if one of you makes me a liar - I will come to your house and burn it to the ground like the vikings burned Lindisfarne."
Seth in a later video: BOMBSHELL.
There is a blurry line in these videos between rpg advice and life advice and frankly, I love it
don't even play any table top and I still watch his videos
What is an RPG, but life with dice, and clearer rules, and obvious objectives... okay, so not much like life, then.
I got the same impression
It's one of the main reasons seth is the Yoda of rpg content.
@@ryandornan8698 Seth, the Yoda of RPG, is.
"Now your job is to not make me a liar." 👿
I died. 🤣
Relax players theres nothing to worry about. The Gm will cause no trouble. Pay no attention to the fact the dm portion of the video is four times longer. We're just discussing cookies:)
The advice at the end about how to actually give advice is gold. I think there would be a lot more great gms in the world if the people they gamed with were more supportive when they started out
At 1:29, when he switched to black and white and said "seriously GM's..." I heard Seriously James". My name being James, I had a slight freak out moment and had to re-watch that section.
Understandable. Seth has a disarming way about him. Ooops, dropped your sword lol.
Seriously James, you gotta be better. :p
Imagine being the guy who was lucky enough to grab the username "James".
I legit ran my first game of Call of Cthulhu tonight & our groups' Main GM joined in last minute as a sub.
It was my first time running a game for him & it was a system that none of us had ever played, but he was awesome.
You could tell he was loving being a player. Exploring the world, but still giving the other player their time in the spotlight.
I was nervous at first, but once we got going, I was so thankful that he had joined.
Definitely going to run another game & who knows, I may become the Call of Cthulhu GM on my all D&D server. 🎉
Is that a copy of Ashes of Onyx by renowned urban fantasy author S. Skorkowsky in the background?
Why, yes. Yes, it is. :-)
@@SSkorkowsky I've been thinking of picking it up. Worth a buy? I've good things about that Skorkowsky guy
@@skirk248 I've read a few of his books and honestly he is pretty good. You should pick him up.
@@SSkorkowsky You should see if he'll autograph it for you. Makes it worth more!
Ooh. I actually didn't know Seth wrote any books. Any of them good as audiobooks?
I will forever remember the time I did a short campaign for my group. I had to regular GMs in my group. During the time, I also lost my job and I moved, so that added a lot more stress to me, and I lost some of my notes. But day 1 and I was there. The two experienced GMs, "What is my motivation for playing in this campaign? I'm not feeling it, give me a better motivation." Corrected me on the rules, didn't like a judgement rule I made against one of them. It was just one thing after another. It was such a nightmare. They could have used this video back then.
I just offered to run a one-shot for my group, and my GM's reaction was pretty much identical to GM-Seth's reaction in the opening skit.
Good luck on the game.
Finding the voice is very important. One of my players actually tried to gm and went for my style which is very character-based.
After I nudged him a few more times he wanted to give it another shot.
I suggested he try out something more mechanic based like a dungeon crawl which I really hated.
And he totally nailed it!
He had the maps completely figured out and new what was where which I struggle with.
He even had an awesome boss fights.
It was this huge sandstone golem and I was kinda wondering if I wouldn’t overwhelm him:
I asked if we could a dagger like a chisel and hit it with a weapon to cut off limbs.
He went like...hmmm....yes-he needed a minute but then he pulled it of pretty well.
I also loved doing role-playing as just one character and going really into getting the others roleplaying.
Nicely done!
This is the golden rule of GMing: GM the way you'd like to GM. If you build it, they will come.
Honestly, this is a great example of how sometimes different people are great at adding different flavors to a campaign. I love a good dungeon crawl, but when I've DM'ed, I'm usually more of a story DM. It's fun to swap seats once in a while and get a little variance in the game.
That's an awesome anecdote. Thanks for sharing! GMing for others is fun and it's great to switch GMs in your group. Everyone likes different aspects of rping and seeing people play their strengths when GMing is just so much fun!
This is one of the things I tell new GMs who have played with me before. My style is not really a good one for new GMs, so don't feel like if you are running the game differently that it will be bad. Be comfortable and it will be fun and generally always judge in favor of fun if you have an option.
See I run my games as total sandbox improv. I have an idea of where I would like to see the game go, but if they go in a completely different direction, I just roll with it, create a new story on the fly, make up encounters on the spot. However, I can pull this off most of the time, because of 40 years of gaming experience as both a player and DM. This is a big thing to ask of someone new to DM'ing. I often suggest their first time running might be best using a pre-made adventure or if they have a specific idea in mind, to make sure they write down the most important details.
This info is all relayed way before the run the session, during the session I am just a player, and make sure to create a character that will not create huge problems and will be willing to follow just about any story. I will only make a comment during the session if asked, and after the session will always lead with at least 3 points I liked about the session and more specifically about how they ran it. I have found this encourages the most out of my players, and has led to at least 3 of my players becoming what I would consider top tier GMs, even better than myself.
Def made all these mistakes. DAMN MY ARROGANCE!!!
Me too. :-(
I wish i could say I never did that.
I can't.
@@larspetterolsen I can totally say that "I've never made any of those mistakes". I'm just lying when I say it.
Next time you will do better.
@@AzureIV "Next time, Gadget! Nexxxxxxxt tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime"
This is up there with "The Story of Jeff." A perfect video. Well done, sir. Well done.
Jeff would have done it way better though
"I get Star Wars and nature documentaries confused a lot"
Oh good! I thought I was the only one.
I blame KK she has made the franchise so contemporary and relevant .
This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Attenborough; soon it will see the end of the penguin mating rituals.
Reminds me of southpark who get star trek and the bible confused a lot.
@@davidbrennan660 LOL
@@DaDunge Easily done. They both talk about the enlightenment of humanity but dwell on it's faults while appealing to the holy trinity for salvation.
I have literally never seen any push back for running games for your GM. Oof. I'm glad I've been part of more supportive games.
Right! Usually they are so happy to finally play that they don't care.
I've always been happy to get a break and just get to play for once.
You have no idea how happy I am to see players run a game for me. I was always GM, but now I actually play.
Occasionally, very rarely, you get a GM who is just a control freak... But they generally don't make good GMs anyway.
@@vidard9863 Yeah I've played with a guy who backseat GM'd games. "Well that's not how that is SUPPOSED to work.."
To which I'd have to break in, "GM's word is law!"
Using the words "Next Time" in critique might as well be black magic.
"Oh man I loved this part! I hope we get to do something that cool next time!"
"This part was kinda disappointing, next time try this?"
"That was awesome how you did this! I can't wait to see whats next!"
Your goal is to encourage them to keep on going. No matter what the advice is, assuming that there will be more means that the chances of that happening go way up. That way, if they want to stop they have to actively say "I'm done." instead of just not doing anything.
The dreaded counter spell "If there is a next time" is a hideous beast though.
Next time makes me so happy to hear when I somehow bumble my way behind the gm screen. It's the greatest thing out there
@@girlbuu9403 And that's D12 Emotional Damage, no save.
@@girlbuu9403 just dont bombshell and you will be gravy
0:18 - The look of pure JOY on Seth's face is so relatable for perrenial GMs.
Also, 2:11 - "are you kidding?? I want to PLAAAAAAAAAY"
Player: I’m thinking about running a game.
Forever GM: let me in... LET ME IN!!!
I've actually had to enlist the rest of my table in stopping me from just blurting out rulings without thinking about it (ADHD is a bit of a bitch). I tend to be the most familiar with the rules at the table, and my "solve the problem" reflex tends to be faster than the impulse to think if I'm stepping on people's toes. Basically, just having them tell me "Hey. Back off" is useful for breaking that habit, even though I've got a fair way to go before I'm really "over it".
I also have ADHD so I know all about that disconnect from brain to mouth.
I have this exact same problem and one of my friends has different ideas about some rules and so i basically told them i know i have a big mouth and its fuckin reflex that things shoot out my mouth before my brain can think them through. so just tell me if its overstepping. theres somethings i will stand up for. last session we were attacked by rogues with fuckin mega poison and sneak attack and i had to stand up for the monk that being immune to poison means being immune to its effects its damage and the condition
Kevin Griffith I have switched the table and started to ask the guy that knows the rules better whenever I‘m not 100% sure. Works very smoothly, but I also have a group that accepts when I tell them that I won’t use this or that rule and just make a different ruling.
I'm a bit tired so I initially mis-read ADHD as AD&D...
@@originaluddite So did I.
@Kevin Griffith Knowing your flaws is the best way to work on them. Good idea to pointing it out to your fellow players to improve yourself. 👍
after being a DM/GM for 37 years, I finally got to be a player for once! ..my brother-in-law ran a Cthulhu Scenario and I remember both me and my character being soo excited to have a go at 'the other side' I fear we may have frightened the dude! .. great fun and I thoroughly recommend any player to have a go at running any game and see 'the other side' and how rewarding it can be ... I've rolled six more characters just in case one of my gang want to be DM for the day.
For feedback I think the compliment sandwich is a good start but also a high ratio of positive feedback to critiques. Maybe 4:1. Also enthusiasm for how much fun you had and their gm style.
As the forever GM, I found it so hard playing a character that I didn’t have time to screw it up! “Wait, I have to stay in THIS character? I need to act as part of a team? Good lord this is a lot of class abilities…”
Seth is still filming with his players during COVID-19?! So irresponsible!
Bwhua ha ha! 😈🐙
ever noticed how you don't see them side by side?
It's through webchat, they're sitting at different tables
I dunno, the footage is in black and white, so maybe he recorded some time ago ;)
Maybe they bought a table big enough to stay six feet apart.
I think they live together. They've all probably been quarantining in the same house.
When I was in high school and first learning D&D, I had a group that rotated who was the GM each session of the campaign. We didn't use modules but we kept the same characters and setting and whoever was GM that week was responsible for advancing the plot. It was sort of like writing a collaborative story where each person gets to write one paragraph before passing it off. It was surprisingly fun and the campaign just grew organically as each person pushed it in a new direction.
We never really ran into problems with our group dynamics (beyond typical high school drama) but we did run into a major problem with power creep. One session the GM/player accidentally gave us a ridiculously large cash reward and everyone went on a shopping spree. No one wanted to say 'no' to another player so we all bought equipment that was way too powerful and never bothered to justify where we found the merchants who were selling it.
At the end of the campaign we were so overpowered that the only worthy opponents we could find were doppelgangers of ourselves. Eventually, two of the players conspired to destroy the world and reset the game so we could start fresh. We tried a few other campaigns like it but they all died out after one or two sessions and we were never quite able to recapture the experience.
Strangely, we used to do the same thing of rotating DM's (mostly me and one other player) to give each other a chance to enjoy the version of the Realms we were building. It was *so* much fun, but like you say, power creep was inevitable. Eventually, I destroyed the world as part of my DM mini campaign (think 80s Crisis on Infinite Earths) and reset the continuity so we were all de powered and could pick up from before it all got out of hand (around level ten I think). Ah...those early campaigns before we learned restraint were just magic.
As a GM let me tell you - _remind me of the things I don't know._ If it's been four turns don't bring it up but if I say "Oh the electricity arcs through the air and strikes you and you're paralyzed" but you remember ten seconds later your Spinning Dance gives you +1 to Evasion, go ahead and retcon the hit. I gotta remember a thousand spell or move effects and every creature's status, even with notes on my screen I _can't_ be expected to remember everything.
I know when I've run games with my GM as the player for the first time, I felt like I was taking an exam to see what I've learned.
My uncle was my first GM for years and when I took the reins as a GM, I was so nervous to have him as a player. But, he loved being a player and was very supportive. Then, when he started a new campaign, he asked me if I would co-GM with him. It felt wonderful! We split duties, and I made maps and coat of arms for various locals. He ran the combats, like the pro he is, and I had a few notable NPCs the players fell in love with and kept coming back to.
Now, I live across the US from him and miss those days of co-GMing.
"your job is not to make me a liar" O.O feeling intimidated
The only time I allow a ruling to be "looked up/argued" during the game, is if it involves a player death. Otherwise...we discuss after the session.
I use to agree, but I'm currently dming 4 diffrent editions. So now I have no problem with rules being looked up, because I dint want to make a 5e ruling during my pf game
I assign a rules lawyer. It is their job to look up rules. I know most of them and refuse to spend important time looking up things that just slow down the game. He looks them up and everyone learns them, I ignore it all and keep going. Next time the table informs me what the rule is and either I implement it, or I ignore it. If it is implemented, it will always be implemented. Another thing that is a home rule. Anything the players can do, the enemies can do. Example: casting deeper darkness on yourself (with the skills and feats to function without penalties) and then using it as a killing bubble. Yea, if you can do it, so can I. In a game a few years later they were in a fight with a nasty bugbear underboss that did the same trick. (instant fear).
As a DM of four years who played for the first time this year. An issue I’ve often found is knowing all of the ways the monsters function and things of that sort so it makes it quite difficult to not meta game that stuff and easier to tell when the DN is taking it easy on us.
That is a skill acquired as a GM. Can't do anything about it.
Always a question for session 0, just how much lore is common knowledge.
I'm a forever GM and this is an issue that comes up quite a bit (I'm assuming for many others as well). This is where "role-player" must try to overcome "roll-player".
You can always try and play systems you don't know that well.
Mitchell Horton true, how would you advise asking a player-dm about running other systems?
Great video! The first time I ever ran a game was with my Uncle's DnD group. Plus, at the time I was only 18 or so years old and the others in the group were veterans. They all just sat there and played and only offered help when I asked them. It was a great experience and they only told me about what I could have done better after the sessions which we did when my Uncle was the DM before. I still appreciate the fact that they let me DM and we all had a great time. I attribute that experience as one of the reasons why I still play RPGs decades later. I have had my share of negative experiences as a DM and player that are usually my own fault but having those phenomenal experiences is kinda the reason I keep coming back to RPGs.
I am GMing a game for the first time with a bunch of friends, two of whom are very experienced GMs. From a player moving to a GM role, the biggest problem I have is I have no idea how many character classes work as I never played them, and balancing combats is tough. There's certainly more reading to do than I did as a player, but I ask them for advice and feedback between sessions and they've been really helpful. When you're all there to have fun, and not feed your own need to control, it's a much better game.
D&D 5E (I assume you are playing that) is difficult to balance around and even the CR levels are just recommendations as some monsters can counter some classes while getting crushed by others. Just ask some help and it is better to make an encounter a little weaker then usual because the party could make mistakes, bad rolls and you can tweek a couple of things behind the screen.
Early on, regardless of your system, you're always better off using a single monster. Even in really unbalanced scenarios the monster is unlikely to win vs 4-5 players simply because they've got so many more attacks than the monster. This allows you to balance combat fairly easily by just having your flavor of goblins run in to do something and distracting the players.
@@ZeroNumerous another tthing my GM did is have rolling waves of enemies.
i.e after every third turn x amount of enemies show up. This is quite good because if they aren't too strong you can just have them stop a little bit early if the group is having trouble or combat gets boring
Also, it's the player's job to know their class inside and out. As long as you trust the players not to cheat or intentionally do something they shouldn't, you dont have to know all the ins and outs of each class. You just have to know what your monster's abilities are, which is frankly much more streamlined. If you have a villain that's, say, a wizard, then know his class inside and out, but otherwise, trust your players and make them responsible for their own classes.
My fiance got me your "the Gang" t-shirt! Love it!
I had to come back to this video to remind myself how to act sometimes. One of my groups has split our time between me running (who's an experience GM) and another player running (who's just really started) and I have to sometimes physically stop myself from backseat driving the game and remind myself that I'm just a player at that point and need to set the example.
It is really easier said than done at times because there's such an impulse to help.
@@SSkorkowsky That's true. We, as GM's want to see them succeed, so it's almost second nature.
"Okay players, that's all, good luck!" ::sees there's 12 minutes of video left:: "Uh oh..." This might be your funniest video yet, Seth, and that's saying a lot!
Look, we play games of make believe, suspension of disbelief is easy for me, but this is hard to wrap my head around.....I don't always have to run the game?!
took me like five years before someone ran a game in which I was a player
oh yea....that moment when switchblades are drawn....we all have been there....wait what?!
Yeah, that's crazy! Everyone knows that people have all switched to butterfly knives by now.
Shot the GM at my first game of Cyberpunk 2020 with an airsoft pistol. It was prearranged, but not the point in the game that I'd do it...none of the other players knew what the hell just happened. It was an atmospheric, dress as your character session with mood lighting and other props.
My own Cyberpunk game sessions aren't run like that...too much effort. Also prevents me from getting capped, gnome sane?
XD
I mean I sat at a table where someone flew over the table a sledgehammer in hand at another play... it happens unfortunately. Also once had a DM ram another players car after a game.... yeah that was fun
That escalated quickly...
In all seriousness I was at an open game at our FLGS once and this big guy got so mad he tried to stab my friend with a pencil. My friend, who might've weighed all of 100 lbs, stood up to him and call him a psycho for acting that way and told him to mind his manners, shut up, and play the game. The guy actually backed off. Ballziest thing I ever saw.
Apparently Seth has played D&D in some shady places
The first Cyberpunk games I Refereed had two of my former GMs as players. Somewhat nerve-wracking, to say the least. Thankfully, they did not backseat drive and just let me find my own way.
One of them was a brilliant player, forever coming up with awesome inventive responses to the challenges I set and taking the initiative in coming up with plans and goals for his characters.
They never tell you when you start gm'ing that eventually you're the only one who will ever run games and that you'll never get to play the game as a pc yourself. 😞. Let your gm play every now and then.
So, I have a trick that allows me to help out the newbie GMs in my group, and keep me from backseat GMing. I offer (not insist) to track initiative for them. When I run I commonly ask another player to track initiative, and it tends to rotate around the players, so no one in my regular groups takes offense to this idea. They know I'm doing it to offload some mental calculus and make sure that other players remain actively engaged. Seriously, by the way, offer an experience bonus to a rotating note taker and make them the initiative tracker. It works wonders for both engagement and helps out a lot. As these are notes direct from a player perspective they become public record, so you keep your own notes, duh, and they have theirs, which they all collaborate to make.
Anyway, back to the idea. In combat a lot of rules get tied to initiative, so "Tristan is up and you said he was still poisoned" doesn't come off as being pushy. I'm doing my job as part of the group instead, taking some of the informational load off of the GM so that he or she can think more clearly and make decisions better.
Speaking as someone who is a GM playing in someone else's campaign, I've been doing this myself and it is a great idea.
You are truly a good dude, and it shows in your thoughtfulness. I appreciate you Seth. Now get the F out I got a showing!
This is not a problem.
In my main group.
Everyone is a GameMaster.
We all rotate and run two or more campaigns simultaneously.
1) We alternate weekly.
2) when on GM's campaign ends the next one starts with a different GM
Westmarches woo!
@oz_jones
Actually no.
1) We have multiple game nights.
2) Each game master runs their own campaign.
3) when one game master's campaign ends, A person that hasn't run a campaign in a long time starts thier campaign ( This is the reason why i very rarely do reviews of pre-made campaigns as im the only one in my groups that run pre-made campaigns or modules ).
@@tabletopgamingwithwolfphototec i actually cannot read, apparently. Illiteracy, woo?
@oz_jones
We don't do a westmarches set up.
The difference is that each gamemaster runs an entire campaign in their own setting.
1) We don't share campaign settings.
2) An we don't alternate gamemasters in the same campaign ( a series of adventures ).
Westmarches has a rotation set up where each gamemaster does an adventure in the same campaign setting & campaign.
I was set to run CoC for the 2nd time ever at a Con (maybe have run 5 times in total) last month, and I then offered to run it additional times once the Con switched to online mode (and some of my player events were cancelled). Wouldn't you know it, an industry publisher signed up for my event. A little nerve-wracking, lol. He basically followed your GM advice to a T, gave a good reaction at the end of the game and mentioned a thing or two as options in a particular encounter (which was useful since I was running the same event the next 2 days).
Sadly, i've been the forever GM for way to long now. Help me, Seth Kenobi, to get one of my players intrested in running. Your my only hope....
My thing is that I occasionally respond to questions on reflex. I do my best to shut up and be encouraging after the game because every one of my players that runs games do genuinely good jobs.
This is something I've always been critically aware of. Whenever a new GM tries their hand at it for the first time, you have to be supportive. Nothing grinds my gears more than when people give them a hard time.
I so love these videos. All of 'em.
I'm a full-time GM, I almost never get to be a player. Sitting on the other side of the screen makes me feel exposed and demoted, but if it's a game I don't know the rules to then it's much more enjoyable.
Hey seth, I remember you mention a cyberpunk campaign where players grew up from age 13-18? Would you ever consider giving us more insight into how that campaign went?
Eventually I might talk about it as a weird sort of War Story vid. It was a very weird campaign in that it all took place in a small 4x4 block area of Night City. That little piece outside the Combat Zone was their entire universe (except the one time they had to go one neighborhood over to do a deal, and another time when they had to go into Night City Proper to see a Johnny Silverhand concert at the stadium). I consider it the best campaign I've ever run.
@@SSkorkowsky What? No Scott Brown? ;)
@@SSkorkowsky sounds really cool
@@SSkorkowsky Stylin', Choomba!
@@SSkorkowsky well I'm looking forward to that video
The GM definitely judges you when you GM over them... The way I ran one module with basically zero prep because DM said "You DM this." And I went "Sure." And they ended up running half the dungeon on a single initiative because I played the Goblins that wanted to live, so they they would run away when they were wounded... but then players would pursue them... into the next group of Goblins... This happened 4 times... they stacked 5 different encounters into one by pursuing retreating enemies... I didn't do this shit on purpose. It was the module that placed the goblin encounters where it did. Everybody thought I was some sort of psycho DM that was out to kill them. But I tossed these a-holes extra goodies, because they really had a rough go of facing 5 encounters as one big encounter, even though that was their own doing, So I telegraphed that some of the goblins had healing potions by having the second goblin that was retreating chug one while retreating... Hoping to get them to loot some healing potions and heal themselves rather than feckless chase the lone survivor into the next goblin band... they just chase the lone into the Goblin band. At this point I decide that dropping subtle hints that they don't need to just keep chasing these guys wasn't going to work so I just decide to have all the remaining encounters converge at this point. And since the fighter really deserves a +2 Longsword and Sheild upgrade, guess how I decide to adjust the Hobgoblin boss... Now don't worry too much, I nerfed the guy's Strength and Dexterity slightly so he didn't Get much a buff. And swapped his +1 Chainmail for a +2 Studded leather so it would have the same stats but be an upgrade for the Ranger. They didn't seem to believe me when the bracers of Armor that were on the Shaman were actually part of the module and not something I pulled out my ass to make the Shaman Harder... although really that +3 Armor Class were would do the wizard a lot better than the. I don't remember if it said in the module or I decided on the fly that the Shaman could sacrifice other gobbos to regain spell slots... So he'd spend goblins ro grab the dying but not dead downed goblins, provoking attacks of opportunity, bring them to the Shaman, the Shaman would coup de grace them and use the recovered spell slot to recuperate his healing spell. This might have pissed the players off, but coup de grace is a full round action and the gobbos running body snatching duty weren't on hand to stab the players but were subjecting themselves to attacks of opportunity. And as much as it pissed the players off every time that Shaman drew blood then healed another gobbo the next turn. Every turn he did that was a turn he wasn't swinging his mace or casting burning hands. Of course the players were smart and spent a round or two finishing off the downed wounded that were nearby so the Shaman was now doing his blood sacrifice thing on wounded gobbos that were still standing. They didn't seem to much appreciate that I was thinning the enemy ranks a bit and nerfing the enemy's action economy. Or that the Shaman was healing the boss... but if they didn't want the Shaman healing the Hobgoblin boss, maybe they didn't need to chase the wounded gobbo to the place that was in sight of both mobs.... Sure you could call me the Asshole DM for having the Gobbo run right to where he's be visible to both groups, but he moved at his run speed, he was running to where his buddies were, and his turn ended where his turn ended. The players chose to pursue. So the Shaman and the Boss being in the same encounter really was their own doing more than Mine... Had I had more time to prepare I would have altered layout of the module so the encounters wouldn't be all practically stacked right on top of each other. I would have used the dry erase map and spaced the premade segment out a bit more. The Designers were working within the constraints of a single 4 foot by 4 foot mapmat which is plenty of room for a Dungeon map but makes things cramped when the module puts multiple encounters in the main corridors while giving the place a shopping mall type open floorplan. In retrospect, it might have been intended as a stealth mission, because the Ranger could have stacked his favored enemy and favored terrain bonuses to scout the whole area undetected and see just where the Goblins were in relation to each other. They would have figured out then the best approach for taking the goblins down one group at a time or they might have been drawn to investigate the side rooms first. MOST of the content for this portion of the module was in the side rooms anyway. The few combat encounters they had in the side rooms were small and trivial. It was search checks and finding various clues. I retrospect I thin the designer of the module had intended a stealth mission. Something came up at home, so I had to leave early, but I turned the DM seat over to another friend as well as the notes I was frantically taking the whole time, ranging from me puzzling over where the friggin were supposed to be (As I was giving them as much information as the module was giving me, and I was on the verge of asspulling to get them the next clue ) And it also included all the on the fly alterations I made... like giving the goblins more healing potions,(but I only had the ones who already had healing potions drink any) Altering the gear and stats of the Hobgoblin boss so he'd be close to the same Challenge but offer better loot. When a goblin rolled a 1 in the first encounter and I decided he shat himself and lost his turn. I jotted down that a Pearl of Power and a Ring of Protection +2 were in turds. (Since multiple goblins rolled 1's at different points, and shitting themselves something to do other than accidently hit their buddies over the head,, which that also happened.) The players located the Pearl of Power, which I described as sticking out of the turd like a "piece of corn," but they were unwilling to dig through the goblin turds to find magic items... Even when I hinted at them with the description of piece scrolls and the occasional gemstone in the mix. Now they weren't going to fail the search check because it was only after a successful search check that I even gave them the first clue. The Cleric has detect magic casted... he knows there's more magic items in the turds.... he plucks the Pearl of Power uses or to recover a Cure Moderate Wounds spell and heals his friends up some more... But while he'll pluck an Item he could identify out of the turd, he drew the line at digging through shit for them so he missed out on the Ring of Protection +2. And when my other friend took over as DM and looked at the notes he turned and asked, "Why did you decided to put a Ring of Protection +2, a 2nd level Pearl of Power and a Scroll of Fireball into Goblin Turds?" Without missing a beat I responded with "They ate a wizard a few days ago."
I go home. My friend finishes the session. Don't know how the rest of it went. I know I made some changes, but every change I made was in some way in the players' favor. And everything I did that added to the challenge, also increased the players' chances of survival. Giving the Hobgoblin boss slightly better equipment but slightly lower stats, Damage and attack bonus were the same but AC was 1 point higher... And 3 pieces of equipment were potential upgrades instead of just one.
Played seemed to have fun, didn't ask me to DM again.
I find that every time I try to transition from Forever GM to a player I end up playing a conjurer, necromancer, driver, drone master, whatever the class or variant is that lets you puppet around several creatures because I am so used to playing multiple creatures at once. Subconsciously I just drift to the archetype one point/level at a time even if the original intent was to play as a chill support or literally anything else but mini GM.
Is there a way to unbreak my brain?
Play a fighter. Simple, hit hard and be a wall for your friends.
I got a bit of the same problem although it is a way I always played my games before. I like classes where I can either control an aspect or be strategic with what I am going to do next. Basically be the mastermind behind the curtain while being number two.
I feel you. I have a Binder with a cohort in one of my friend's campaigns. And just recently I got the power to summon creatures. At times I feel overwhelmed instead of relaxed and enjoying the game.
I wouldn't suggest making a warrior, it's too plain since with your knowledge you'd feel tied down. I'd suggest something in between your typical fighter and caster. Or even a type of caster that is focused on battle control instead of summoning.
I agree with Paradox. Pick a class and enjoy it. Warlock Eldritch Blast everything. Cleric heal everything. Barbarian yell and smash everything. Playing a true class character can truly open your eyes to a simpler existence than DMing ;)
I'm definitely the opposite: I want a break from that stress. I'll either do fighter/thief or bard - a mix of abilities for variety, and nothing too complicated.
Seth's reaction at 0:10 -
I felt that so hard: the excitement, the pride, the hard time resisting saying, "Yes! Finally!" and grabbing a character sheet right away.
I took over GMing our group a couple months ago, and really enjoy it. One of my players is our former GM; he actually prefers playing, and i think he was only doing it because no one else felt comfortable taking the role. I've asked him for advice a few times, especially when I first started, and he's been pretty sympathetic to "GM problems" (especially since he still runs games at home with his family). Glad I have a group of friends who can be cool about things; this video made me realize that I'm actually lucky.
among the Nerds and Geeks, Covid-19 will forever be know as "the time of no conventions".
The time of online sessions.
@@The_Custos Cue the Conan theme music, "Know then, oh prince, that between the banning of conventions and the rise of online play, there was a time best forgotten."
My group still plays, we just wear masks and have an industrial sized dispenser of hand sanitizer. Granted most of us are people who live alone and in our 20s- early 30s.
I switch being GM with one of the guys in our group, I think we drive each other to be better even though we have different styles
I love it when we get Dad Seth.
Nicely done.
Great advice, as always Seth. It is the duty of any good Game Master to model in their playing what a great experience can be like for all.
For the gm half, as another player in please for the love of god do not correct the gm when they are forgetting something in the players favor. For instance the +1 aim bonus thing that allows the enemy to have hit. Now for the passive perception one you did the right thing but the wrong way. What would be appropriate to do is ask the other player “hey don’t you have this thing that might help you?” Then you’re not making it about what the gm has or hasn’t forgotten but it’s you working together with your party. Like I had a friend who we spent one whole session just watching him have a big duel he was kinda outclassed for and I noticed a half dozen times where the gm forgot to add the additional damage bonus to the enemies attack and my friend just squeaked out a win with like 5 health even after the gm did a thing or two to intentionally give my friend a chance. I kept my mouth shut because I don’t wanna be the kid that asks a teacher If they’re gonna collect the homework that they’d forgotten about
It's also great to end the new GM review/advice (from the forever GM) with a positive thing they did as well as starting the review on a positive note.
Thanks, Seth.
I'm not even in that exact kind of situation, but tomorrow we'll start a 3-day-marathon to advance our campaign that three of us took vacation days for. I was pretty stressed out about it, being the GM at all and not having a ton prepared, but you video made me remember that these are all my friends whom I've known for years and can even easily improvise for if necessary.
Day One: Total Party Kill
Day Two: Session Zero
All the best
I always gm'd until this opportunity popped up, and my player that made his story had us do a fight where the enemy was blind and would attack any sound. We played the whole encounter without talking, and it blew my mind with how unique it made it
This video illustrates how Seth's skits are not only fun to watch, but provide a great way to see his advice in action. It's sort of the RUclips GM Advice version of those actual play examples in written DM guides. Even seeing the hypothetical worst case scenarios works in a Goofus & Gallant kind of way.
My friend is our DM for 5E and I am our keeper for when we play CoC. Both of us get to play the other game, but sometimes we want to play the game we GM. A few months ago it was just the two of us around for a week or two. We both made a short oneshot for each other and swapped. I ended up making a mini solo dungeon for a 3rd level character with 3 rooms and a gimmick for each (one had a scarecrow that would move through tall wheat and blend in with inanimate scarecrows). He made me this spooky mountain trek into a mining town. It was pretty fun.
Love the video... the "shelter at home" has come out in this one in a most satisfying way.... no... seriously... I'm going stir crazy...
I have been lucky enough to play some games back in 1st edition and I think the biggest problem I ever had at the transition is I find it difficult to help problem solve for fear of being thought as using my GM knowledge of things to overcome obstacles. But even so, I've always had a blast being able to foray into someone else's world for a few games...
5:43 Okay, I think that one was a bit too much.
The first one was okay, the second one would be passable if it was the last time, but that third one... Yeaaaaah, even I agree that it would've been better to keep it to yourself, this time...
I find when I'm (very rarely) sitting on the opposite GM side I just ask questions to clarify the mechanics. When one of my players ran CoC for the first time they frequently forgot early on that just seeing monsters would require us to roll sanity. At first I let it go because I thought they were giving us a break, but after the third time I just asked "That sounds scary. Should I roll sanity?"
As a “more often than not” GM/DM I needed to hear some of these tips. Great video!
I can still remember, fondly, the times with my old group. We changed DM after every adventure or even within the adventure if somebody had a nice idea he wanted to test. So everybody who wanted, and most did, got a shoot at DMing and everybody got to play. We had a kind of episodic style to our campaign and that worked very well. Basically, we had, after some time a campaign with 3 major arcs as all regular DM followed their own arc when doing their DMing. It was fantastic and so much fun. Even the one player who DMed scarcely started to find an overall theme to his adventures.
What was so fantastic about it was the playtime for all of us and thus we could also refresh and have great new ideas for our own story arc. Also, there was no "problem" if an arc was completed, the characters had other things to take care of and the DM had no pressure to come up with something new, thus our stories were most times exactly what all players wanted. We saw what the others did and liked so we did accordingly. Those were the days ...
I love your honesty Seth. I've been growing as a DM for a year+ now, and I've always leaned on you for advice. I am proud in my flexibility as a DM, and I account a lot of that to you and other channels. "Don't be a dick" is some pretty simple advice to follow.
Me and another friend was the forever DM and we both along with another player was all various degrees of well meaning rules laywers, meaning we point out rules that are even to our own detriment. That thing was the standard way we played and it worked well. Then when one of the non rule-lawyer decided to DM, he could do it and just using the rest of us as living rule-books to great success.
Thanks for making this. The only time I remember doing backseat driving was AFTER the session just talking with the new GM, so it's just feedback. He allowed a player to use a spell in a way that didn't fit the description. I went with it because
1) it was his ruling
2) allowed a new player to do something cool without getting too bogged down in rules
3) let the scene go where we all wanted it
4) I didn't interrupt the flow or pacing.
Other than that, I just ASKED things like, "I get Advantage for being "unseen" by that enemy, right?" I am a relatively new GM but finally have my first chance to play as one of my players asked to run a full campaign. Now we rotate every other week, which has mostly worked out great. He doesn't seem to have any issue running for me.
Tbh I don't think a lot of players know what a different task it is to run the game than to play it. The game master unfortunately has to invest waaaay more time and money into creating a game than the players have to invest to play it. GMs write game worlds, scenarios, buy minis, track initiative and status effects, and hopefully if done well, the players enjoy it. Then they get to thinking, "I have an idea for a story. Let me try!" And about three sessions in, they realize what a task they've just taken on, and they disband the game. I'm a lifetime GM who has never made it beyond three sessions in a game run by anyone else, and I think thr main reason is that the game looks so much different from the other side of the screen.
I get video recommendations for Seth in my RUclips sometimes.
Sometimes I press them.
But every time I am always amazed at how he by far produces the highest quality RPG discussion videos. Every time I finish a video I always think, "wow that guy really knows what he's doing" - he always knows exactly how to get a point across, and the points he chooses to get across are always excellent; his videos always add something to the community.
Sometimes he's corny but its always funny.
So thanks Seth, I cannot describe enough just how incredible the content that you produce is.
I've been GMing since the 80s and my kids grew up playing my campaigns. Now my oldest daughter and my son run their own campaigns and I have played under them. There was some nervousness at first but I just tried to be a really good player for their styles and it all worked great. They learned a lot from me but have their own distinct styles. So even with that amount of history , it can work just fine. It was really fun to get to play for a change even though I really love GMing. In fact my Daughter uses me to help new players get into the RP aspect.
This is very good, and I did realize after a while, the first time I was a player instead of a GM, that I was doing. I talked to the new GM, clarified the air, and now I simply enjoy the game "as is"... So much more fun for everyone!
My main game group are all 30-40+ "old hats" and although we tend to have one GM/DM per systems we all take it in turns running them. So one guy loves running our high fantasy D&D, I tend to run the sci-fi (Traveller/StarFinder) type games and others have run CoC, Rolemaster, Champions etc etc. We find this way, each person has to "learn" the rules and can homebrew to their little hearts content and when they're players they understand the authority of the GM.
I've found myself in this situation recently - a player I taught to play several years ago is running a campaign and I joined it a couple sessions ago. I rolled up a rogue (party had none, so I figured I could save them from awful traps and locked doors) and have been enjoying the chance to be a player. I knew I'd be tempted to do too much - direct tactics, hog attention, or talk too much - and I've been conscious of that. So far I think it's going quite well. I'm a teacher too, and the positive reinforcement/feedback is 110% the right thing to do. Sure I could have picked holes in the game, but I'd rather give helpful feedback and compliment the good parts, as you said.
The only place I've stuck my nose in so far (I did ask before speaking up) was when a player was downed and was asking the party to NOT heal his character. He wasn't having fun playing it, and had been wanting it to die so he could reroll. I chimed in that there were alternatives - since the DM had said that this PC was part of the plot, I advised that if it was that bad, the PC could be retired into an NPC so the player could reroll. I don't know how that turned out yet, because I kept my nose out afterwards.
We DMs-turned-PCs walk a tightrope above the abyss of Forever DM. Thank you for doing your part to advise us on not falling!
Jeez this was ramble-y. OH WELL never get rid of material!
I was the original DM for my old group and I was stoked when a player said they wanted to run some sessions.
My one piece of advice for new GMs and players wanting to take the reins: stand your ground. Some players who are super enthusiastic may try to take over or argue about rules and rulings and such. In those moments, politely but firmly stand your ground. Don't try to domineer, and make sure you listen when players talk. But the active GM is the final authority in the session, so be willing to say no sometimes. Otherwise the players will run roughshod over you
I actively try to encourage all of my players to run something, whether it be a prewritten adventure, a one shot, or even a full fledged homebrew campaign. Honestly the best way to figure out dming is to jump in, you will learn more in the first session of dming than you would in months of reading through rulebooks. And who better to learn with than people with styles of play you are familiar with. As they learn dming they also will generally become better players, they'll become more proactive in their play, they'll learn how useful roleplaying can be, how to approach puzzles etc.
That was not the player I expected to step up and GM.
Something I've tried for first time GMs - take a system you already know and run a lower level module or even the 'sample adventure' from the book.
Have your fellow players play characters wildly different than they usually play, and just have fun with a one-shot.
I first played DnD at 9. My first DMs were my late Uncle and Aunt. I remember they would insert adventures in our campaign were a player would be the DM. It usually happens in the dream of a player character, were they are forced to go on a "sub-conscious" dream adventure. Depending on the outcome of the "dreamventure", a goddes of dream will reward the player with a treasure. It really was a good incentive for us kids to lead a game and grow as a player too
"I get Star Wars and Nature Documentaries mixed up."
You mean Lions AREN'T from Geonosis?!
I started my first campaign this year and all three of my fellow players have been my gm at one point or another =)
I used to be part of a group where we rotated GMs for different storylines and the stories ended up crossing over. One of the most gratifying feelings in the world was when my players remained invested in my characters even when I moved them to the background as NPCs. It made me feel appreciated both as a player and a GM.
As a decade long forever GM, I get to be a player every few years. This video is VERY important, I've seen the good and bad things you mentioned happen before and it's so important. I like your recommendation "be the best player you can be" as what to focus on.
Back in my twenties I was part of a small D&D group that would take turns GMing and, because of that, nobody was regarded as _the_ GM. Having said that, we each had preferred settings and campaign plans, and needed a way to keep those apart. At the time, Spelljammer was a new thing, and our solution was that the adventurers had a space-faring caravel that would take them from setting to setting as GMs changed over.
I'd agree the biggest temptation is to speak up and correct the Ref. Second is to have a bad poker face reacting to what he rules and orders. Might be good to wear a covid mask just to hide your expressions, lol. A first time GM might be so nervous that he sets up the game to be a railroad affair and if you improvise a move he hadn't planned for, it can *seem* you're actively subverting the game, even if you're not. It might help to take on a character who is a second banana, almost an NPC, so as to not take the most prominent role at first.
If you get confused while watching Nature Documentaries and Star Wars just remember that the one with interesting plots, well thought-out characters, lots of cool action moments and intense drama... Are the Nature Documentaries.
This is my group. Only one member of the group has DM'd and had trouble, he's still finding his feet. While one hasn't DM'd as far as I know.
I've been DM for the most part while the other two have stepped up and played their part as pretty awesome DMs.
Yes, a screenshot from the movie that spoofed the Chick Tract!
And when the Stars are right, we will have our dark dungeons made by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment in the blessing of Jack Chick unaware that it spoofed the heck out of his shit!
And the real funny part is, or so the story goes, is that Jack Chick actually endorsed it unwittingly!
LOL I loved that stock image with the map of Barovia in the background. :D Also, thanks for the reminder of not being a backseat GM when-ever one of my players will accept to run me in a game.
Hey man, gotta tell you, I love your videos, you know the timing of the jokes, you don't extend them too much, your videos are very creative and you usually speak clear, so I understand your words. Just letting you know, that your quality is high, and I love the little skits you do in black and white with the 4 characters
You are awesome Seth! Thanks again for the awesome video and experience you shared with me 😍 And by the way, noone likes my ingame jokes as well.
I think I've been lucky with the groups I'm in at the moment (currently in 3), most people in each groups takes their turn at running the game, and we all have our "specialty" games
I've given help to other DMs when the players do something surprising by saying "yes but"
This video came out at the right time for our group. We’ve got two DMs, me and a good friend of mine that have a lot of rapport but never really get to play together. One of the guys in our party wanted to step up and take his shot though, and I gotta say I’m very proud of his enthusiasm. I sent this vid to him
I had my forever DM as a player in the first game I was DM. He was a great player in game, but afterwards he gave me some advice (really good advice) about how to make the game better. Then he kept bringing it up throughout the week without prompting. It was really discouraging and I ended up ending the campaign cause I didn't want to play with him anymore. I have started DMing again with a group of new players - which is really nice, none of them watch critical role :D I hope when I am more confident as DM I can invite my forever DM to the game again, but I need to find my voice first.
This is perfectly timed because I’m taking over as GM for my regular gaming group next week with our old GM switching over to playing.
My only perma-houserule is: Rules mistakes are treated after the session. For the next one we correct how we tackle it, but we don't slow down the game for that.
If I saw Seth Skorkowsky turn up at a gaming table, I'd ask him if Jack the NPC was coming too; that guys rocks.
Loads of good advice again. Thank you for sharing.
Very good advice. I was realy worried when i ran my first game and I'm worried again since the last time was so long ago. The good thing in our group was, that basically everybody took the mantle at some point. The bad thing about it was, that i took it last, so in a way i GMed for a group full of GMs. That was quite disturbing.
And to any player who wants to try it out. Just do it and have fun. Ask yourself. "What could possibly go wrong?"
The answer is "Yes!" So stop to worry about it and have a go.