@@hopelessly.lavenderly I personally think that 'Planned' is the most useless ability in the entire game. I mean, come on. You forego like what, seven long rests for nothing other than just a +1 bonus for readiness? Pfft.
@@fiontathomas1574 It means that literally every dm gets into that situation where they are ironically like "oh, yeah, that was totally planned and not spontaneously made up."
Jan Elan Testaverde yea, but he is quoting someone so you're not disproving anything he said with your response. In fact, your response is incredible in the way it responded to someone and simultaneously didn't address anything that person said at the same time. Just because another dm has said that doesn't mean that matt hasn't said so I don't know why you're trying to argue with the op, or even what you're trying to argue with him about, the fact that Matt Mercer did indeed say that or that other DMS have said that?
@@fiontathomas1574 I think you're taking this a bit too serious. I wasn't disproving anything, I was extending it. Making my own kind of joke out of it. "Every DM" does, in the end, include Mathew. He's a DM as well, after all.
Yhe hidden railroad: u prepared a bunch of events but not where or when they occur. Your players make a choice and you make it lead to the event. They feel like they made a choice and you dont have to have crazy improv
And to improve the feel of making a choice, everytime your players do something they think is crazy. Just go uhhhh ummmm and pause for 1 or 2 min. My DM use to do that (still do)in our session and we always think we have caught him off guard
A good DM tip for writing notes: KNOW YOUR PLAYERS! Knowing your players lets you understand how they think, make up options related to what they might do, and then they feel like they picked that option, not you. If you do not know your players, make things vague, letting things go in a way that you nor the players know.
My group is mainly a bunch of random chaos bringers who love to do absolutely anything stupid or funny. Kinda difficult if i’d ever want to DM...great tip tho to improve the game. Just depends on the people as you say
I sit somewhere in the middle. I have scenes planned out. But they're set up for whatever the PCs have done, rather modular. Like I have a "Betrayed at the Inn" Scene, it's just a setup where the Players are betrayed by an NPC, surrounded by an angry mob allied with said NPC. But depends What NPCs have been interacted with by that point. Now I do detail the hell out of Locations and keep time tables going.
My players: Do you have a game ready? Me: Yeah. What my DM notes say: Me again: So there is a war about to start between the lizardfolk and the goblins.
@@Yental Then you can try to set it up and just think of some good early game encounters. Like, finding some lower level creatures and planning things around them. Displacer beasts are like cr 2 I think and are really cool. They can guard things like mansions.
@@garrettwade1294 Well we play a diffrent system but I now got some early game encounters ready, main problem I have with them is that they all cant take damage, they had a tank but because he wanted to kill the cat of the healer because he was allergic to it he now is wellllllllllllllll... dead
"when they go to sleep the guards will arrest them" Sounds like the skyrim quest of getting into the dark brotherhood where you needed to fall asleep, but no one sleeps in that game so everyone has to look it up online to find out how to get into the dark brotherhood.
I got really confused when it happened to me. I was using a bed in a dungeon while doing another questline, and then next thing you know I've been transported to a cabin in a swamp and have to make way through the whole dungeon again.
I DMed for the very first time last weekend, and watching your videos first really helped. My friends are all more experienced players (and DMs) than me, so I thought I should be super prepared: I found a fun one-shot and adapted it a bit. I knew how EVERY POSSIBLE OUTCOME should go. My friends then proceeded to go down the ONE pathway of action I HADN'T prepared for. Cue four-and-a-half hours of me pulling encounters, monsters, NPCs and plot points out of the air. The supposedly "main" combat was done in two rounds, while the "easy" combat took forever. But we all had a great time, and apparently, they didn't notice any of my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants improv. I was very proud of myself!
I'm kinda jealous. I'm the storywriter type of DM, so i basically write a plot idea and a story around it. after that's done, i chop the story into events and locations allowing for greater flexibility.
heyyyy that's a great idea! i just started playing and they made me the dm but i know very little as well. and nothing about notes, so thank you :) mind if i try?
This is a good channel to help you learn how to play. Writing notes is a very important part. If you are using a computer to help write notes, I suggest world anvil. It's a great tool for Dms and authors alike. Unless you are running a pre-made campaign, like the lost mine of phandelver.
Personally I write down the percentage of a certain race/ races of a city or area in general, this helps me with determining what race npc's should be.
matt colville figured out (live, on stream, after toying with percentages for an hour) that it's better to describe the city makeup in qualitative terms. like, humans are the dominate, there's a minority of dwarves, an enclave of tieflings, etc. our brains are really bad at understanding percentages, and they can often be misleading anyways.
@@CeruleanMirage Even IF they succeed, the owner knows what he had and who was at his shop. They may get banned and WILL get suspicious reputation and eventually be considered criminals.
"if you want people to care about lore write a book" fortunately my D&D setting is set in the world of the novel i've been writing off and on again for the last 5 years. But also agree with the mostly improve thing, i go into sessions with one dot point and wing 95% of it. Side note: my players care about the Lore
I thought the "go write a book" point was shallow, honestly. The point of an RPG (or any game) is to experience the world yourself interactively. Rich lore can make that interesting for players that engage with it, and a good DM will make it interesting for the players that don't.
@@magentanide5984 i would say its not too shallow, i think he means that you shouldnt just dump lore on your party, you shouldnt read your book of backstory to them, but let the party explore the world and find little treasures and bits of lore on their own, its about the players more than your world
@@Gevaudan1471 He's not saying you can't write lore but that writing lore isn't the same as being a good DM and that the players will always Prioritise how the lore affects them above how interesting it is.
I would say, personally, i like having a rough outline of what's important for that session and then just improvise in between. Usually, this includes the general idea of the session, any important descriptions for important characters (like say a gang boss) or places (like arriving in a new city or town), and any planned encounters (again, perhaps a leader or a monster encounter i've been leading up to). Improve is the best way to go, but having a general idea of a plan is great.
Improv DMing works for me in D&D, because I know the system pretty well. When I'm doing something I'm less familiar with like WFRP or whatever, then I do more prep. But like... smart prep. Character names and backstories. Random encounter tables (hint: 11 entries that your roll on with 2d6 lets you weigh results towards the middle). The facts of a mystery game, giving players the choice to fly or flop.
Dm advice never gets old. Even if it's the same advice as before. I tend to get overwhelmed by brainstorming in it's self. Playing would be whack, it feels. Thanks for snapping me back into reality.
You just helped me so much! Thank you. Currently, I am preparing the 2nd session of a Pathfinder game and I know I prefer to improve but I held myself to an impossible standard. You gave me permission to play the game how I like to. And how I knew I should have been. Thank you.
Currently prepping for a Second Edition D&D campaign! Yes, I'm going back to the old ways and looking on how to professionally prep for it! Thank you for uploading this amazing video! :)
I like to have good detail because I have a mix of note takers. My quiet player has almost everything in notes but rarely speaks. Both know it all PC's players take awful notes. But then they meet an NPC they haven't seen for a while and I misspeak their eye color and the player has in their notes the original eye color and decides it must be a disguise or something. While it's fun to pretend like that was intentional, I want to be reliable when repeating previously given information.
Oh thank god. Another DM who has a lot of players who are really, really into details. If I make up that there was a battle on this land 500 years ago that's absolutely irrelevant to the plot, well, I better remember I mentioned it because I'm going to be asked about its political ramifications 10 sessions later....
I'm so glad there's another DM who does this, I spent a LOT of time trying to run well-planned campaigns and eventually it became SO easy for me to just assemble pieces on the fly based on world lore. I couldn't prep for ANYTHING my players would do. The kind NPCs got murdered and the very stereotypically evil NPCs were trusted until the party were backstabbed. I still can't plan for what they might do! I've spent three weeks trying to figure out how the starting dialogue of our next session will go, and I've planned about two sentiments that the character can try to convey.
Your videos are awesome! You help me get into the mood to write more on my campiagn. Sometimes as dungeon masters we lose sight of what makes a game fun. I've done exactly what you did with a city once or twice and I only had 1 character out of 6 be: like I take a tour! and followed my guide NPC around while everyone else bought magical items. I've since revised my notes, and now he just has a bit more of a leg up because of the tour so when they needed to get somewhere he could be like I know where that is! Once they returned to the city and I had revised things the players seemed so much more interested. It even became a split the group up and the two groups both had their own mysteries to solve. They even commisioned a house to be built there for themselves as it became their favirote city.
I feel so much better after watching this video. I’m a new DM running my second homebrew campaign and this is exactly how I do it. Just write down random scenarios and then go off of what the players decide to do. Lol
I like the idea of improving as I go along. Like I've never DM'ed before and about 6 months ago I started doing it for my housemates. I'm not particularly good at it but I get the point across and can make a hell of a set piece. The thing is its set in my own homebrew world and while I have a good strong image of it as well as my style, I like to think that the world and my style of play will evolve with each other as the campaign goes on. I love doing this.
Your world-building and session planning is the exact issue I have. Added on that I both write out way to much and improv on the spot. All of that lovely whirl-storm combined is the reason why I'm gonna reboot my campaign just a little bit. As in: telling the players that 'no, the Abyss isn't opening again. You guys don't have to take care of that, not that you have been so far. Just, don't worry about it anymore.' And a few more things like that.
I feel so much better about DMing after hearing you say you are an improve DM. Cause I am as well but I build a lot of my world like you do. I go through the same process of basic ideas and such. I thought I was doing it wrong. Thank you for this video.
I am so glad but you're an improv DM. It really makes me feel better about myself as one. Not because I'm a good DM, but because at least I have a chance to get better without punishing all of my time in to Prep work
I am a sort of experienced Call of Cuthulu GM(or keeper, as it is called) and got some experience writing mysteries. A good rule of thumb is to treat it like a dungeon, except the rooms are places the players can get clues and the corridors are the clues. Start off at the entrance (something happens the player need to investigate) they get 2-3 clues leading to 2-3 different places, there they can find clues that bring them to the next place. From there the players can move from scene to scene as they wish based on the clues they find. Make sure to move around vital clues if the player miss them and they will hopefully feel really smart by the end.
Tbh, everytime i watch your videos, I get inspired, and i just want to have a really wholesome time, with each of us playing twin garlic bread clerics. We can discover new eldritch horrors, sole the mystery of the missing towns people, and dismantle a cult of secret vampires together.
For population, what I do is a system I learnt from Matt Colville. Basically, you don't write down a number or percentage of elves, but you write down whether or not they're a majority, minority, enclave, group, individuals, or a singular figure. The way this is more helpful is that you know what the players see around the town, what kind of people are walking around, and what kind of architecture and the like they'll see, which gives the place some flavour. If they're a majority you see them wherever you go in a settlement; if they're a minority you'll only see them in certain parts of town; if they're an enclave it's usually something like an embassy or a few dozen interconnected people; a group is just that, a group; individuals are bunch of disconnected people; and finally there's a singular figure, and you probably already know what I mean by that.
Can I just say... I'm preparing for my first homebrew campaign and this video - though old - has been a breath of fresh air. Make the NPC's, have loose goals, make up shit but speak it with confidence. I actually feel much better about this now.
Great video (as always!) I usually come up with a general story line, break it up into individual sessions, then write down key plot points and encounters on some note cards. (I USED to write about 8 pages of story for a 3 hour session, but I eventually learned that you can't ever assume what your players will do...) Even though extra prep work makes me feel better and more confident, most of my players prefer the more improv-heavy games. BASICALLY, a lot of prep work might be good for YOUR story, but it can limit YOUR PLAYERS story. Sometimes it's better to not write out solutions and just see what your players come up with!
I’m an improv dm too, mainly I only create notes for world building and important moments that I need to read word for word (visions and divination - whenever I make an important item or person I make a legend lore phrase because they love using divination -_-)
first session i dm'd i was pretty much reading from the script (i had written) for the first 2 hours. then i realized that was stressful, so i started winging it and just LOOSLEY FOLLOWING the notes. you just need the base characters and some emergency NPCs and it's infinitely more fun.
I like to make super fleshed-out settings and areas, and then create some plot hooks and stuff and introduce NPCs that give the players a reason to do stuff, and I let the players run around in that sandbox. If they choose one thing, other things will happen off-screen, I love the idea of a living world beyond the session. This gives players a sense of urgency and once they get caught on one plot hook, other things will happen and the ball just starts rolling and it only stops to take a break when a major thing comes to a close.
The best way I’ve ever explained D&D to someone who doesn’t have any clue what it’s all about was “it’s a play without a script, you have your characters so embody them in mind”
Glad to know i'm not the only improv DM. I have a hard time planning it out beforehand and overprep and my best games have ALWAYS been improv made with only a basic theme.
the way I prep is build key locations pre campaign. I'll also do factions and then populate with people based on my players and what they're going for. I'll also come up with significant events and things that are going to happen. past that I'll do towns dungeons and encounters the night before
I, too, am an improv DM. When people I know ask what they should do as their first ever session of being a DM, I tell them to experiment. It took a while for me to find what type of DMing suited me. I tried notes, and... I lost sleep. So it really depends on how good you are with improv. Some theater people could be great at improv DMing, and I am an example, but some could not be as good... Find what suits you.
One thing I found interesting that a DM said before is (loosely paraphrased); "Your plot remains in tact but your plot structure is disposable". For example, Your party members didnt go to sleep so the guards dont encounter them... but maybe theyre out on the road after leaving town and a group of bounty hunters encounter them and take them for capture. In essence, your characters/places of interest can be changed on the fly. They are all essentially "x find the player party". The person, place, or thing is irrelavent to the overall plot. So, if your characters ignore a mystery in one town you can have it pop back up in the next town, keep the plot and exchange the characters. So, if it was John who they had to talk to in city 1 and they didnt, then John is now the guy they need to talk to in city 2. If they never met John then they never know the difference. I personally found this information extremely useful for improv.
one of the better notes to make are in what gradual way the villain will win without the PCs involvement. For example (and im going super basic here): The Evil Necromancer seeks the Crystal of Zodd. With it all undead in the land will kneel to him! Players decide to fuck around in town instead. first escalation: Cults start to move more openly second escalation: They hear of more assaults by undead third Escalation: Trouble at the local graveyard forth escalation: A horde of undead kids assault the town as shocktroops since they are to small and feeble for what the necromancer plans, so he sends them as wave one. Now shit have hit the fan. If the players dont jump onto the adventure by this point, they wont. So then let the badguy win.
When I do a ton of prep the players either don't touch it or exhaust it within an hour I had a party once use their connections with a mages college to bypass a multi session dungeon and steal an airship that they weren't supposed to have for several sessions
You're my spirit animal when it comes to dming. I had a little intro scene to sort of set the story because it was a one shot and I had to make up 3 extra npcs because I only wrote 1 down so the players could play out the scene in which the only npcs that survived the intro were ones that I had made up then and there and I was well ok guess that npc I put work into is dead XD guess we'll continue as if everything is normal
I'm preping for my first time DMing and have, the BBEG, what they're doing, and some secret plot twists, and two NPCs, both of them having to do with the plot twist, so, I'm ready, as I plan on improvising most of this stuff!
I think that a beholder with a kenku for sfx would be a good DM. He'd be prepared for literally anything the players could come up with and keep the game going.
I've only DMed a few sessions, and this is what I've tended to do. I have very little prep time to begin with, so it works for me. I've got a bare bones plot with a BBEG and some cities worked out, but everything else is up to my players. My notes consist of what I want the end of that session to be, and I'll add what actually has been done throughout the session so I can keep continuity.
My folders in my world I'm running is: Quests Important Places Dungeons Characters (i use this for characters that they try to point out and find. example they need a high level wizard, i have one saved.) Homebrew Stuff (homebrew monsters, spells, and magic items) Maps
Thing is, I had a choice for my players to go to 3 different places. They all had their own specs that (Since they are somewhat stolen from other media) I had down, and turns out, it helped, because from this stupid little flavour choice they went on an at least 20 mins discussion about which place to go. It went as deep as how the town is, how big it is, how influential the governor and chief of security of these places were, and the fauna of the surroundings. I love worldbuilding, (and the content is partly stolen) so it was fine and we all enjoyed it.
I write down a timeline of events of things that WILL happen up to two sessions in advance. Things that are a direct result of the players' actions. This way, primarily I won't forget them, but I also remember what things are to come regardless of what happens in the session I am currently running. Usually I only write something down because unless the players derail literally the entire story, they will not change and will come to pass. Not because I'm railroading them, but because NPC #186, AKA: "John the Woodsman" had a specific hag he was hunting and the party killed said hag, so he WILL go to her hut and take back his wife's locket, but if it isn't there, he'll track the party till he gets it back. He probably wouldn't try violence unless it's absolutely necessary.
I'm also an improv DM, and my notes are basically directions for improvisation. Nowadays it's basically a Dungeon World Adventure Front, some handouts like maps, puzzles, character drawings and some accessible random generators of S T U F F (character sheets, maps, dungeons, monsters, names, etc.) I have made the mistake of going with my hands absolutely empty to a game, and it was a disaster, so I decided to develop some strategies to create content and free my mind for the plot. Usually, most of my games are generated on the fly, but with the certainty that I don't fail because of a bad day.
You can also just write small vignettes in your setting that have worldbuilding lore stuff scattered in that your players can read, which allows a more authored experience while still fleshing the world out and, done well, can help things seem more real.
I always keep intrigue as optional stuff. More so people have secrets, ulterior motives, and hidden agendas, but can't be perfect about hiding it, well not if they want to do anything with those things. So if players pick up on something, they can try to figure it out, but maybe they don't, or even better they come to the wrong conclusions.
Wow.. so you're me. You literally went through the same evolution. From having massive notes, to, a paragraph or less haha. Its so funny going back to look at notes for sessions I remember as being among the best, and the page is empty :P I spend most of my time world building, but the actual session, nah. Unless it's a dungeon, then I do need to a lot of work, on things like puzzles (I do not have a head for puzzles at all)
Hey thanks, man for the guide. I was curious could you do a how to play gunslinger video in the near future. I think you would be great for explaining it.
I can improv to an extent, but for me to do that effectively I have to immerse myself in the world by taking notes about the setting! I keep physical notebooks mainly for session prep, but I also have google docs to supplement that lol
As a wise man once said: "Lay the tracks as the train moves, and it will never be derailed". All of my notes are world building, but only for the stuff that the players are already heading towards, and only the things that will effect whatever story the players end up creating. I don't make the story. They do. I just make the setting for it. For instance: Let's sat the players hear about an old barrow and seem interested. Between sessions I invent the wraiths that reside there, what they want, how it ties in to other events, the purpose of the barrow, and some kind of new plot hook for the players to run into if they deal with the wraiths. I also decide which NPCs know what about the barrow, and maybe some other parties that have an interest in the barrow. Notice that I never put in "then the players will...". That is their job. They create the story. I tend to do alot of this practical world building before we start a campaign, so that I have something substantial prepared if the players decide to take a hard left into the middle of nowhere. This makes the world seem much more real and credible.
One thing around worldbuilding is definitely whenever you have the chance: BUILD AND PREPARE FOR MEMORABLE AND/OR FUNNY ENCOUNTERS OR ACTIVITIES! For those who watch or have watched Critical Role, remember that episode where they went into the smutt shop? It will make your players more invested, and it will make your campaign and locations a million times more memorable. I mean seriously, "You enter the capital city. You see... A city. There are shops here, there's an armory shop, a potion shop, a restaurant, and a blacksmith. There is also some architecture. What do you want to do?" versus "You walk into this city, which is the capital city of this empire. You see beautiful architecture, and some shops, but what strikes your attention the most is a fairly poorly written sign that says "BURGERS AND COLORS: THE ONLY PAINTBALL AND HAMBURGER SHOP IN TOWN" in all capital letters."
i feel so much better about how much ive written. Im about to start my first ever campaign with a group of friends. (we have experience as players, though i was late to join our old schools game club by half a year so i have less experience.) I was worried i was going into too much detail but it puts me at ease to know its a common thing to do. Next time i write a script though, i definitely will either be brief on paper, or write it online because writing pen and paper is more difficult than one would originally anticipate lol
My DM's first murder mystery, he didn't even decide on the culprit until he rolled randomly from the list of NPCs he literally just created that minute. It didn't end well. In fact, it ended with all of us BEGGING him to give us a clue because he wouldn't hear us saying "WE HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA, YOU KEEP SAYING TO KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS BUT WE'RE TAPPED OUT AND YOUR NPCS ARE STONEWALLING US." He made up for it with another one later at least, that was much better.
We're still waiting for *Slams DMG on table* "So you wanna be a Dungeon Master"
Yes please! Or "how to kill your party"
At level three, choose your Last Strand of Sanity!
Improv! Proficiency in any and all Charisma checks.
Planned! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
@Om Lo whats the difference
@@hopelessly.lavenderly I personally think that 'Planned' is the most useless ability in the entire game. I mean, come on. You forego like what, seven long rests for nothing other than just a +1 bonus for readiness? Pfft.
@@takdudung And Improv is like, so op?? Wizards what
Like Matt Mercer once said:"You're right, I did not make this up on the spot. At ALL"
I mean, you can replace "Matt Mercer" with "every DM" in this case.
Jan Elan Testaverde what? That literally makes no sense.
@@fiontathomas1574 It means that literally every dm gets into that situation where they are ironically like "oh, yeah, that was totally planned and not spontaneously made up."
Jan Elan Testaverde yea, but he is quoting someone so you're not disproving anything he said with your response. In fact, your response is incredible in the way it responded to someone and simultaneously didn't address anything that person said at the same time. Just because another dm has said that doesn't mean that matt hasn't said so I don't know why you're trying to argue with the op, or even what you're trying to argue with him about, the fact that Matt Mercer did indeed say that or that other DMS have said that?
@@fiontathomas1574 I think you're taking this a bit too serious.
I wasn't disproving anything, I was extending it. Making my own kind of joke out of it. "Every DM" does, in the end, include Mathew. He's a DM as well, after all.
Yhe hidden railroad: u prepared a bunch of events but not where or when they occur. Your players make a choice and you make it lead to the event. They feel like they made a choice and you dont have to have crazy improv
I call that the Osbourne, since it's truly a crazy train
Good old bethesda way. They can say hell no to your quest but you take it as a sarcastic no.
@@dylank2428 What? Doesn't really make sense or match with what we're talking about imo
I call it “quantum ogre.” You want the party to fight an ogre. The party has two paths to take. The ogre will be down whichever path the party takes
And to improve the feel of making a choice, everytime your players do something they think is crazy. Just go uhhhh ummmm and pause for 1 or 2 min. My DM use to do that (still do)in our session and we always think we have caught him off guard
A good DM tip for writing notes: KNOW YOUR PLAYERS! Knowing your players lets you understand how they think, make up options related to what they might do, and then they feel like they picked that option, not you. If you do not know your players, make things vague, letting things go in a way that you nor the players know.
My group is mainly a bunch of random chaos bringers who love to do absolutely anything stupid or funny. Kinda difficult if i’d ever want to DM...great tip tho to improve the game. Just depends on the people as you say
Let's see... If I have a cook out in this event, I should be ready for one of them chopping this guy's arm off and grilling it to check the taste.
@@Elkator955 Yes. Make sure you season it right, or you'll get the weird rodent taste.
@@seasnek7024 I pity DMs like you all over the world. Also, for those kinds of Dms, just do what Jacob does: absolutely nothing.
@@metalicbat1284 Thanks but I don't DM. However I am interested in the role because of the likes of Jacob and Matthew Mercer
I'm so glad I found another 'Improv DM' my other DM friends tend to look at me like I'm crazy when I run games without anything prepared.
NomadicPanda
More power to you. Improv is usually much more difficult a skill to master than preparing a load of notes, especially for beginner DMs.
I use to over prepare, my players think I'm so prepared, but my notes these days are just me reacting to players and writing stuff as it happens.
NomadicPanda I do the same, I improved a story with a pack of goblins & a secret room which put I a random demon trapped inside in a crystal
I am also an improve GM and have been for 8 years :)
The details I have found really helps me is floorplans and names of characters ^^
I sit somewhere in the middle. I have scenes planned out. But they're set up for whatever the PCs have done, rather modular. Like I have a "Betrayed at the Inn" Scene, it's just a setup where the Players are betrayed by an NPC, surrounded by an angry mob allied with said NPC. But depends What NPCs have been interacted with by that point. Now I do detail the hell out of Locations and keep time tables going.
My players: Do you have a game ready?
Me: Yeah.
What my DM notes say:
Me again: So there is a war about to start between the lizardfolk and the goblins.
I have the problem, My campaign is in the early game but I can only think of planning out the late game
@@Yental
Then you can try to set it up and just think of some good early game encounters. Like, finding some lower level creatures and planning things around them. Displacer beasts are like cr 2 I think and are really cool. They can guard things like mansions.
@@garrettwade1294 Well we play a diffrent system but I now got some early game encounters ready, main problem I have with them is that they all cant take damage, they had a tank but because he wanted to kill the cat of the healer because he was allergic to it he now is wellllllllllllllll... dead
Yental this sounds ridiculous. Don't worry about the end. Fuck all that. Just have something fun for your players to do *now*
Wait are you supposed to have notes as a DM?!
Shan Daniel HAHAHAHAH yeah just ideas😂
Yes, maybe, kinda, not really? Do what works 👍
What's "notes" eh?
same
Andres Alvarado He’s joking, you idiot
By God we need a sequel to the cringy notes
Indeed
Yas
2 years later this holds up
@Chase Alizzi If those craziest nat 20 videos have taught me anything, its that rolling a nat 20 gives you Mary Sue levels of luck
"when they go to sleep the guards will arrest them"
Sounds like the skyrim quest of getting into the dark brotherhood where you needed to fall asleep, but no one sleeps in that game so everyone has to look it up online to find out how to get into the dark brotherhood.
I didn't want to use a potion to heal so I just slept and got lucky.
I got really confused when it happened to me. I was using a bed in a dungeon while doing another questline, and then next thing you know I've been transported to a cabin in a swamp and have to make way through the whole dungeon again.
@@thepopulargirl1784 THANKS, SITHIS
I sleep in skyrim :(
I mean obviously an inn.
I DMed for the very first time last weekend, and watching your videos first really helped. My friends are all more experienced players (and DMs) than me, so I thought I should be super prepared: I found a fun one-shot and adapted it a bit. I knew how EVERY POSSIBLE OUTCOME should go. My friends then proceeded to go down the ONE pathway of action I HADN'T prepared for. Cue four-and-a-half hours of me pulling encounters, monsters, NPCs and plot points out of the air. The supposedly "main" combat was done in two rounds, while the "easy" combat took forever. But we all had a great time, and apparently, they didn't notice any of my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants improv. I was very proud of myself!
I'm kinda jealous.
I'm the storywriter type of DM, so i basically write a plot idea and a story around it.
after that's done, i chop the story into events and locations allowing for greater flexibility.
Same.
heyyyy that's a great idea! i just started playing and they made me the dm but i know very little as well. and nothing about notes, so thank you :) mind if i try?
This is a good channel to help you learn how to play. Writing notes is a very important part. If you are using a computer to help write notes, I suggest world anvil. It's a great tool for Dms and authors alike. Unless you are running a pre-made campaign, like the lost mine of phandelver.
Same
@@tfrenchiestfry3673 This comment was sponsored by World Anvil
*dies inside*
...everything’s color-coded
Personally I write down the percentage of a certain race/ races of a city or area in general, this helps me with determining what race npc's should be.
matt colville figured out (live, on stream, after toying with percentages for an hour) that it's better to describe the city makeup in qualitative terms. like, humans are the dominate, there's a minority of dwarves, an enclave of tieflings, etc. our brains are really bad at understanding percentages, and they can often be misleading anyways.
You could say he was d&deprived...
Badum tsst
Same
Jacob I frickin love your channel just wanted to let you know :D
❤️ thanks!
I liked the comment. Now you only have 29 more likes to go.
My name's Jacob. Just putting that out there
@@jacob-zo7hn Me to...
Yes. It's a good channel. For to learn with and things
THERE'S NO DEFENSES AT THE ALCHEMY SHOP
The obvious response is "OK, in that case let's wrap up this session for today". Then make detailed floor plans and everything for the next session.
@@1Maklak The only problem is what if they try to steal from the potion shop in the first 10 minutes of the session
@@CeruleanMirage Even IF they succeed, the owner knows what he had and who was at his shop. They may get banned and WILL get suspicious reputation and eventually be considered criminals.
This dude wrote the Tyranny of Dragons campaign before WotC did
0:53 "And that's tendo how I kinda run my games anyway."
"if you want people to care about lore write a book"
fortunately my D&D setting is set in the world of the novel i've been writing off and on again for the last 5 years.
But also agree with the mostly improve thing, i go into sessions with one dot point and wing 95% of it.
Side note: my players care about the Lore
I thought the "go write a book" point was shallow, honestly. The point of an RPG (or any game) is to experience the world yourself interactively. Rich lore can make that interesting for players that engage with it, and a good DM will make it interesting for the players that don't.
@@magentanide5984 It's unbelievably shallow. Without lore, there are no stakes.
@@magentanide5984 i would say its not too shallow, i think he means that you shouldnt just dump lore on your party, you shouldnt read your book of backstory to them, but let the party explore the world and find little treasures and bits of lore on their own, its about the players more than your world
@@Gevaudan1471 He's not saying you can't write lore but that writing lore isn't the same as being a good DM and that the players will always Prioritise how the lore affects them above how interesting it is.
I would say, personally, i like having a rough outline of what's important for that session and then just improvise in between. Usually, this includes the general idea of the session, any important descriptions for important characters (like say a gang boss) or places (like arriving in a new city or town), and any planned encounters (again, perhaps a leader or a monster encounter i've been leading up to). Improve is the best way to go, but having a general idea of a plan is great.
Improv DMing works for me in D&D, because I know the system pretty well. When I'm doing something I'm less familiar with like WFRP or whatever, then I do more prep.
But like... smart prep. Character names and backstories. Random encounter tables (hint: 11 entries that your roll on with 2d6 lets you weigh results towards the middle). The facts of a mystery game, giving players the choice to fly or flop.
Robert Moorhead I thought ur last name was Motörhead for a second. I was about to flip my shit
THAT IS EXACTLY TO A T MY DM STYLE
I'VE NEVER FELT CLOSER TO SOMEONE
Says the man with a profile picture like that...
1:00 can confirm. Most of my ideas happen whilst in the shower.
Mine always happen when Im doing dishes or (tmi?) Im going to the bathroom😂😂 Whyyy??? IDK!!
Dm advice never gets old. Even if it's the same advice as before. I tend to get overwhelmed by brainstorming in it's self. Playing would be whack, it feels.
Thanks for snapping me back into reality.
You just helped me so much! Thank you. Currently, I am preparing the 2nd session of a Pathfinder game and I know I prefer to improve but I held myself to an impossible standard. You gave me permission to play the game how I like to. And how I knew I should have been. Thank you.
Thank you Jacob, very cool!
This is actually one of the most useful videos I've found on how to be a better DM and I've watched a lot of videos on how to be a better DM
Currently prepping for a Second Edition D&D campaign! Yes, I'm going back to the old ways and looking on how to professionally prep for it! Thank you for uploading this amazing video! :)
After a very short time of consuming dnd youtube your channel is easily my favorite. Thank you so much for the advice.
I like to have good detail because I have a mix of note takers. My quiet player has almost everything in notes but rarely speaks. Both know it all PC's players take awful notes. But then they meet an NPC they haven't seen for a while and I misspeak their eye color and the player has in their notes the original eye color and decides it must be a disguise or something. While it's fun to pretend like that was intentional, I want to be reliable when repeating previously given information.
Oh thank god. Another DM who has a lot of players who are really, really into details. If I make up that there was a battle on this land 500 years ago that's absolutely irrelevant to the plot, well, I better remember I mentioned it because I'm going to be asked about its political ramifications 10 sessions later....
@@d.riddle2965 - THANK YOU. I haven't even DMed yet but this happens in so many campaigns my friends run.
"So I'll get into the shower and drive somewhere." 🛀🚗
Lore brings the world to life and makes the game more immersive.. its the best part
I'm so glad there's another DM who does this, I spent a LOT of time trying to run well-planned campaigns and eventually it became SO easy for me to just assemble pieces on the fly based on world lore. I couldn't prep for ANYTHING my players would do. The kind NPCs got murdered and the very stereotypically evil NPCs were trusted until the party were backstabbed. I still can't plan for what they might do! I've spent three weeks trying to figure out how the starting dialogue of our next session will go, and I've planned about two sentiments that the character can try to convey.
"you have to make them easy"
like the "please open" door?
does everyone do this?
TWO UPLOADS IN ONE DAY THANK YOU JACOB (also can do more dnd tips, i miss them)
Your videos are awesome! You help me get into the mood to write more on my campiagn. Sometimes as dungeon masters we lose sight of what makes a game fun. I've done exactly what you did with a city once or twice and I only had 1 character out of 6 be: like I take a tour! and followed my guide NPC around while everyone else bought magical items. I've since revised my notes, and now he just has a bit more of a leg up because of the tour so when they needed to get somewhere he could be like I know where that is! Once they returned to the city and I had revised things the players seemed so much more interested. It even became a split the group up and the two groups both had their own mysteries to solve. They even commisioned a house to be built there for themselves as it became their favirote city.
The misty step is an awesome name for a travelling magic shop... I really like the disappearing shop idea I'm gonna borrow that, thanks.
I feel so much better after watching this video. I’m a new DM running my second homebrew campaign and this is exactly how I do it. Just write down random scenarios and then go off of what the players decide to do. Lol
I like the idea of improving as I go along. Like I've never DM'ed before and about 6 months ago I started doing it for my housemates. I'm not particularly good at it but I get the point across and can make a hell of a set piece. The thing is its set in my own homebrew world and while I have a good strong image of it as well as my style, I like to think that the world and my style of play will evolve with each other as the campaign goes on. I love doing this.
Your world-building and session planning is the exact issue I have. Added on that I both write out way to much and improv on the spot. All of that lovely whirl-storm combined is the reason why I'm gonna reboot my campaign just a little bit. As in: telling the players that 'no, the Abyss isn't opening again. You guys don't have to take care of that, not that you have been so far. Just, don't worry about it anymore.' And a few more things like that.
I feel so much better about DMing after hearing you say you are an improve DM. Cause I am as well but I build a lot of my world like you do. I go through the same process of basic ideas and such. I thought I was doing it wrong. Thank you for this video.
I am so glad but you're an improv DM. It really makes me feel better about myself as one. Not because I'm a good DM, but because at least I have a chance to get better without punishing all of my time in to Prep work
I am a sort of experienced Call of Cuthulu GM(or keeper, as it is called) and got some experience writing mysteries. A good rule of thumb is to treat it like a dungeon, except the rooms are places the players can get clues and the corridors are the clues. Start off at the entrance (something happens the player need to investigate) they get 2-3 clues leading to 2-3 different places, there they can find clues that bring them to the next place. From there the players can move from scene to scene as they wish based on the clues they find. Make sure to move around vital clues if the player miss them and they will hopefully feel really smart by the end.
Tbh, everytime i watch your videos, I get inspired, and i just want to have a really wholesome time, with each of us playing twin garlic bread clerics. We can discover new eldritch horrors, sole the mystery of the missing towns people, and dismantle a cult of secret vampires together.
For population, what I do is a system I learnt from Matt Colville. Basically, you don't write down a number or percentage of elves, but you write down whether or not they're a majority, minority, enclave, group, individuals, or a singular figure. The way this is more helpful is that you know what the players see around the town, what kind of people are walking around, and what kind of architecture and the like they'll see, which gives the place some flavour. If they're a majority you see them wherever you go in a settlement; if they're a minority you'll only see them in certain parts of town; if they're an enclave it's usually something like an embassy or a few dozen interconnected people; a group is just that, a group; individuals are bunch of disconnected people; and finally there's a singular figure, and you probably already know what I mean by that.
Can I just say... I'm preparing for my first homebrew campaign and this video - though old - has been a breath of fresh air.
Make the NPC's, have loose goals, make up shit but speak it with confidence.
I actually feel much better about this now.
I know this is late but if you haven't watched "How to be a great gm" I like his content and find it enlightening
Great video (as always!) I usually come up with a general story line, break it up into individual sessions, then write down key plot points and encounters on some note cards. (I USED to write about 8 pages of story for a 3 hour session, but I eventually learned that you can't ever assume what your players will do...) Even though extra prep work makes me feel better and more confident, most of my players prefer the more improv-heavy games.
BASICALLY, a lot of prep work might be good for YOUR story, but it can limit YOUR PLAYERS story. Sometimes it's better to not write out solutions and just see what your players come up with!
"I am an improve GM". MY MAN!
'improve' yes... Not improv.
I really like these notes videos. It's cool to see how other people do their notes.
Oh my God I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who does this, I thought I was a terrible DM for the longest time
I come up with most sessions on the car ride to where we play.
Puts on some theme music and the music influences my decisions greatly.
I’m an improv dm too, mainly I only create notes for world building and important moments that I need to read word for word (visions and divination - whenever I make an important item or person I make a legend lore phrase because they love using divination -_-)
first session i dm'd i was pretty much reading from the script (i had written) for the first 2 hours. then i realized that was stressful, so i started winging it and just LOOSLEY FOLLOWING the notes. you just need the base characters and some emergency NPCs and it's infinitely more fun.
Valuable advice for new DM's especially about the improv. I was guilty of over world building too.
Preach it about lore! Great video, Jacob!
I like to make super fleshed-out settings and areas, and then create some plot hooks and stuff and introduce NPCs that give the players a reason to do stuff, and I let the players run around in that sandbox. If they choose one thing, other things will happen off-screen, I love the idea of a living world beyond the session. This gives players a sense of urgency and once they get caught on one plot hook, other things will happen and the ball just starts rolling and it only stops to take a break when a major thing comes to a close.
This is great advice! I used to do world building, but a lot of it really doesn’t matter right. Most players didn’t care about details anyways.
Improv dm here. I tend to have info on lore with me. Players can't derail a story if there's nothing to derail.
The best way I’ve ever explained D&D to someone who doesn’t have any clue what it’s all about was “it’s a play without a script, you have your characters so embody them in mind”
I love to hear someone who does dming exactly the way I do
Glad to know i'm not the only improv DM. I have a hard time planning it out beforehand and overprep and my best games have ALWAYS been improv made with only a basic theme.
the way I prep is build key locations pre campaign. I'll also do factions and then populate with people based on my players and what they're going for. I'll also come up with significant events and things that are going to happen. past that I'll do towns dungeons and encounters the night before
As a beginner dm I can say this helped more than some of the more popular guides on RUclips
Keep going my dude, great job!
I, too, am an improv DM. When people I know ask what they should do as their first ever session of being a DM, I tell them to experiment. It took a while for me to find what type of DMing suited me. I tried notes, and... I lost sleep. So it really depends on how good you are with improv. Some theater people could be great at improv DMing, and I am an example, but some could not be as good... Find what suits you.
Great video. Your wisdom is large... Thanks Jacob
The Avernus thing sounds a lot like the first session I tried to run... that didn't go well either. Thanks for making this video!
One thing I found interesting that a DM said before is (loosely paraphrased);
"Your plot remains in tact but your plot structure is disposable". For example, Your party members didnt go to sleep so the guards dont encounter them... but maybe theyre out on the road after leaving town and a group of bounty hunters encounter them and take them for capture. In essence, your characters/places of interest can be changed on the fly. They are all essentially "x find the player party". The person, place, or thing is irrelavent to the overall plot. So, if your characters ignore a mystery in one town you can have it pop back up in the next town, keep the plot and exchange the characters. So, if it was John who they had to talk to in city 1 and they didnt, then John is now the guy they need to talk to in city 2. If they never met John then they never know the difference.
I personally found this information extremely useful for improv.
one of the better notes to make are in what gradual way the villain will win without the PCs involvement. For example (and im going super basic here):
The Evil Necromancer seeks the Crystal of Zodd. With it all undead in the land will kneel to him!
Players decide to fuck around in town instead.
first escalation: Cults start to move more openly
second escalation: They hear of more assaults by undead
third Escalation: Trouble at the local graveyard
forth escalation: A horde of undead kids assault the town as shocktroops since they are to small and feeble for what the necromancer plans, so he sends them as wave one. Now shit have hit the fan. If the players dont jump onto the adventure by this point, they wont. So then let the badguy win.
DUDE! You should have given them a note at the end with a hand print and the words: "We know". They would've gone to sleep like immediately!
When I do a ton of prep the players either don't touch it or exhaust it within an hour
I had a party once use their connections with a mages college to bypass a multi session dungeon and steal an airship that they weren't supposed to have for several sessions
You're my spirit animal when it comes to dming. I had a little intro scene to sort of set the story because it was a one shot and I had to make up 3 extra npcs because I only wrote 1 down so the players could play out the scene in which the only npcs that survived the intro were ones that I had made up then and there and I was well ok guess that npc I put work into is dead XD guess we'll continue as if everything is normal
I'm preping for my first time DMing and have, the BBEG, what they're doing, and some secret plot twists, and two NPCs, both of them having to do with the plot twist, so, I'm ready, as I plan on improvising most of this stuff!
I think that a beholder with a kenku for sfx would be a good DM. He'd be prepared for literally anything the players could come up with and keep the game going.
I have a friend who can run a 8 hour session with no preperation. All of his game amazing. He remeber everything that happens in his world.
I've only DMed a few sessions, and this is what I've tended to do. I have very little prep time to begin with, so it works for me. I've got a bare bones plot with a BBEG and some cities worked out, but everything else is up to my players. My notes consist of what I want the end of that session to be, and I'll add what actually has been done throughout the session so I can keep continuity.
My folders in my world I'm running is:
Quests
Important Places
Dungeons
Characters (i use this for characters that they try to point out and find. example they need a high level wizard, i have one saved.)
Homebrew Stuff (homebrew monsters, spells, and magic items)
Maps
meanwhile my notes are just "The goblin sells SHOES! Initiate combat wizard plan 9" scribbled down on a used mcdonalds napkin...
Me, writing a city campaign: "this'll be good advice"
"CITY INTRIGUE IS HARD AS FUCK TO WRITE"
me:... Uh
Thing is, I had a choice for my players to go to 3 different places. They all had their own specs that (Since they are somewhat stolen from other media) I had down, and turns out, it helped, because from this stupid little flavour choice they went on an at least 20 mins discussion about which place to go. It went as deep as how the town is, how big it is, how influential the governor and chief of security of these places were, and the fauna of the surroundings. I love worldbuilding, (and the content is partly stolen) so it was fine and we all enjoyed it.
I write down a timeline of events of things that WILL happen up to two sessions in advance. Things that are a direct result of the players' actions. This way, primarily I won't forget them, but I also remember what things are to come regardless of what happens in the session I am currently running.
Usually I only write something down because unless the players derail literally the entire story, they will not change and will come to pass. Not because I'm railroading them, but because NPC #186, AKA: "John the Woodsman" had a specific hag he was hunting and the party killed said hag, so he WILL go to her hut and take back his wife's locket, but if it isn't there, he'll track the party till he gets it back. He probably wouldn't try violence unless it's absolutely necessary.
This is actually a hidden gem of advice
One of your best videos
90% Improv, thank you for validating how I DM
I'm also an improv DM, and my notes are basically directions for improvisation. Nowadays it's basically a Dungeon World Adventure Front, some handouts like maps, puzzles, character drawings and some accessible random generators of S T U F F (character sheets, maps, dungeons, monsters, names, etc.)
I have made the mistake of going with my hands absolutely empty to a game, and it was a disaster, so I decided to develop some strategies to create content and free my mind for the plot. Usually, most of my games are generated on the fly, but with the certainty that I don't fail because of a bad day.
I'll always say that GMing Call of Cthulhu will truly set forth whether you're cut out for ultimate intrigue like campaigns
If you lose your sanity over planning some adventures in Innsmouth, it's just par for the course.
I'm right there with you, bud. Literally the same.
What are these 'notes' you speak of?
Keeping track of your parties actions, nothing more.
You can also just write small vignettes in your setting that have worldbuilding lore stuff scattered in that your players can read, which allows a more authored experience while still fleshing the world out and, done well, can help things seem more real.
I always keep intrigue as optional stuff.
More so people have secrets, ulterior motives, and hidden agendas, but can't be perfect about hiding it, well not if they want to do anything with those things.
So if players pick up on something, they can try to figure it out, but maybe they don't, or even better they come to the wrong conclusions.
Those are really good notes! No wonder Sunder is so good!
Wow.. so you're me. You literally went through the same evolution.
From having massive notes, to, a paragraph or less haha. Its so funny going back to look at notes for sessions I remember as being among the best, and the page is empty :P
I spend most of my time world building, but the actual session, nah. Unless it's a dungeon, then I do need to a lot of work, on things like puzzles (I do not have a head for puzzles at all)
Hey thanks, man for the guide. I was curious could you do a how to play gunslinger video in the near future. I think you would be great for explaining it.
"Players don't care about lore"
My players, meanwhile, get so invested I can literally hire them as co-writers.
Nice, knowing that you run it like this makes me feel better about that I run it just like this
I can improv to an extent, but for me to do that effectively I have to immerse myself in the world by taking notes about the setting! I keep physical notebooks mainly for session prep, but I also have google docs to supplement that lol
As a wise man once said: "Lay the tracks as the train moves, and it will never be derailed". All of my notes are world building, but only for the stuff that the players are already heading towards, and only the things that will effect whatever story the players end up creating. I don't make the story. They do. I just make the setting for it.
For instance: Let's sat the players hear about an old barrow and seem interested. Between sessions I invent the wraiths that reside there, what they want, how it ties in to other events, the purpose of the barrow, and some kind of new plot hook for the players to run into if they deal with the wraiths. I also decide which NPCs know what about the barrow, and maybe some other parties that have an interest in the barrow. Notice that I never put in "then the players will...". That is their job. They create the story. I tend to do alot of this practical world building before we start a campaign, so that I have something substantial prepared if the players decide to take a hard left into the middle of nowhere. This makes the world seem much more real and credible.
One thing around worldbuilding is definitely whenever you have the chance: BUILD AND PREPARE FOR MEMORABLE AND/OR FUNNY ENCOUNTERS OR ACTIVITIES!
For those who watch or have watched Critical Role, remember that episode where they went into the smutt shop?
It will make your players more invested, and it will make your campaign and locations a million times more memorable.
I mean seriously,
"You enter the capital city. You see... A city. There are shops here, there's an armory shop, a potion shop, a restaurant, and a blacksmith. There is also some architecture. What do you want to do?"
versus
"You walk into this city, which is the capital city of this empire. You see beautiful architecture, and some shops, but what strikes your attention the most is a fairly poorly written sign that says "BURGERS AND COLORS: THE ONLY PAINTBALL AND HAMBURGER SHOP IN TOWN" in all capital letters."
i feel so much better about how much ive written. Im about to start my first ever campaign with a group of friends. (we have experience as players, though i was late to join our old schools game club by half a year so i have less experience.) I was worried i was going into too much detail but it puts me at ease to know its a common thing to do. Next time i write a script though, i definitely will either be brief on paper, or write it online because writing pen and paper is more difficult than one would originally anticipate lol
My DM's first murder mystery, he didn't even decide on the culprit until he rolled randomly from the list of NPCs he literally just created that minute. It didn't end well. In fact, it ended with all of us BEGGING him to give us a clue because he wouldn't hear us saying "WE HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA, YOU KEEP SAYING TO KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS BUT WE'RE TAPPED OUT AND YOUR NPCS ARE STONEWALLING US."
He made up for it with another one later at least, that was much better.
I usually add Homebrew stuff a lot but it's usually to make my players feel more special.
Been working for 10+ years
Congrads dude😎 Keep it up, dnd needs that continuing experience and love💗