I think the biggest advice I can give any fellow novices is this: Play your encounters in unusual ways and don't sweat too much what you throw the party's way. Give the enemy and players goals that aren't just "Fight till the end". One of the most memorable encounters my players have commented on was a surprise attack from a roaming pack of Merrows. In the encounter, the party was tasked with keeping night watch in a ship out on the sea. During the fight several Merrow would appear, lead by a Kraken Priest, and attempt to drag the party beneath the waves, as sacrifice or tribute to a local Kraken. The trick is, these Merrow would rarely stick around to be killed, and using a combo of Sirens (Re-flavored Harpies) and the Kraken-Priest's magic, they would often attempt to catch out unsuspecting players to be dragged down to the depths. On the player's side of things, there was a bell located that when rung, will alert the rest of the ship to the sudden assault. The fight played out in a rather fun way, with players attempting to reach the bell, save each other from being pulled to the depths (Had our one player pulled beneath where he witnessed a bemused Kraken's gaze) and fending off the rest of the enemies. One last advice that I myself struggle to sometimes do: Don't show undue mercy. Of course this doesn't mean try to wipe out the party (Unless they are looking for that experience of course), but rather, don't be afraid to punish callousness or dumb choices. If the level 1 Bard storms a cave filled with hundreds of Dire Wolves, then that is their funeral. It is hard to get used to, but its necessary to keep things feeling exiting rather than pre destined With all that being said, loved the video my dude! I am looking forward to see what you bring out next! TLDR: Good fights are not always "Kill or be killed", don't be afraid to give consequences to actions and keep up the good work!
Going on your last point about encounters that make the players feel powerful. One of the easiest things you can do to make your characters feel like badasses is to change change the scale of your opponents. Let's say your party is retreading old ground and suddenly they're attacked by goblins. A lot of them. Instead of five goblins with six hit points each attacking them, for a completely trivial battle, there are five sets of six goblins each with one hit point. And when Your party does damage to them, every point of damage takes out a goblin. When the goblins attack, they get group bonuses, say an extra damage for every two of them in a unit. Nothing drives home a sense of having come so far as to be able to take out whole swaths of the bad guys in one swing of your axe! It's easy scaling it this way and just a matter of semantics for the GM, but for the players it feels so good.
This is an entire article series, so there's a lot here, but it's absolutely worth getting into. The Dungeon Master Experience PDF: vk.com/wall-174681246_3129
Dnd is not "foremost a game about improv". It's a game about combat , tactics, Danger, exploring weird places and fight weirder monsters , a narrative and story is secondary, just a context to the action, can be more for sure, but it's not the focus. There is many narrative focus ttrpg games with much lighter mechanics that yes, those are "foremost about improv"
It's a matter of perspective really. Combat, tactics, danger, narrative are all heavily influenced by a DMs and a players ability to improvise. A player doesn't always know what a DM is going to pull out in combat, and tactics have to change. A DM doesn't ever have a perfect road map of where the narrative will go since a group can always make a vastly different decision than what you were expecting, taking a completely new direction. Now the comment may be slightly hyperbolic, but the point still remains that at least for me, the more I've learned about being a dungeon master the more it has been me learning to plan less or differently, and improv more. Even things that are planned have an element of improvisation to them, you certainly can't plan out every conversation like a BG3 dialog menu, and many core elements of your game are improvised both in and out of the game dependent on what ideas you have and when. This is why I say D&D or TTRPGs in a general sense are first and foremost an act of improvisation, because it's probably the one element you can't avoid if you actually want to role play.
@@FamiliarEvils I think I got it, I understood you wrong. It's not about putting improvising above the game but using it to stitch together what happens on is many spheres, not exactly a focus on purely improvisation in narrative but everything?
@@leonelegender Yes, basically improv influences the whole game because ultimately it is a role playing game, and even if you're playing it like a war game your greatest tool is going to be improvisation. Role play by definition implies improv.
This was a great reminder of the need to engage your players in the campaign for their fun and to keep them from becoming murder hobos.
I think the biggest advice I can give any fellow novices is this: Play your encounters in unusual ways and don't sweat too much what you throw the party's way. Give the enemy and players goals that aren't just "Fight till the end". One of the most memorable encounters my players have commented on was a surprise attack from a roaming pack of Merrows.
In the encounter, the party was tasked with keeping night watch in a ship out on the sea. During the fight several Merrow would appear, lead by a Kraken Priest, and attempt to drag the party beneath the waves, as sacrifice or tribute to a local Kraken. The trick is, these Merrow would rarely stick around to be killed, and using a combo of Sirens (Re-flavored Harpies) and the Kraken-Priest's magic, they would often attempt to catch out unsuspecting players to be dragged down to the depths. On the player's side of things, there was a bell located that when rung, will alert the rest of the ship to the sudden assault. The fight played out in a rather fun way, with players attempting to reach the bell, save each other from being pulled to the depths (Had our one player pulled beneath where he witnessed a bemused Kraken's gaze) and fending off the rest of the enemies.
One last advice that I myself struggle to sometimes do: Don't show undue mercy. Of course this doesn't mean try to wipe out the party (Unless they are looking for that experience of course), but rather, don't be afraid to punish callousness or dumb choices. If the level 1 Bard storms a cave filled with hundreds of Dire Wolves, then that is their funeral. It is hard to get used to, but its necessary to keep things feeling exiting rather than pre destined
With all that being said, loved the video my dude! I am looking forward to see what you bring out next!
TLDR: Good fights are not always "Kill or be killed", don't be afraid to give consequences to actions and keep up the good work!
Excellent work on this. The flow and the advice are great boss. ❤
Thank you 💖
Really great video. Love your reaction to the double nat 20 at the end. Every time I see it I smile and laugh❤!
Was a great moment!
Going on your last point about encounters that make the players feel powerful. One of the easiest things you can do to make your characters feel like badasses is to change change the scale of your opponents.
Let's say your party is retreading old ground and suddenly they're attacked by goblins. A lot of them. Instead of five goblins with six hit points each attacking them, for a completely trivial battle, there are five sets of six goblins each with one hit point. And when Your party does damage to them, every point of damage takes out a goblin. When the goblins attack, they get group bonuses, say an extra damage for every two of them in a unit.
Nothing drives home a sense of having come so far as to be able to take out whole swaths of the bad guys in one swing of your axe! It's easy scaling it this way and just a matter of semantics for the GM, but for the players it feels so good.
Absolutely. That's something I do when it comes to the last point made about making 1hp minions. It really is a great tactic, and a lot of fun.
comment to support work
Oh wow! Really good tips. I certainly do not have the aptitude to be a dm.
I think you could, but I know health gets in the way these days 😔. But you're a great player and friend.
Where can i find the article?
This is an entire article series, so there's a lot here, but it's absolutely worth getting into.
The Dungeon Master Experience PDF: vk.com/wall-174681246_3129
@@FamiliarEvils Thank you very much for sharing
Dnd is not "foremost a game about improv". It's a game about combat , tactics, Danger, exploring weird places and fight weirder monsters , a narrative and story is secondary, just a context to the action, can be more for sure, but it's not the focus. There is many narrative focus ttrpg games with much lighter mechanics that yes, those are "foremost about improv"
It's a matter of perspective really. Combat, tactics, danger, narrative are all heavily influenced by a DMs and a players ability to improvise. A player doesn't always know what a DM is going to pull out in combat, and tactics have to change. A DM doesn't ever have a perfect road map of where the narrative will go since a group can always make a vastly different decision than what you were expecting, taking a completely new direction. Now the comment may be slightly hyperbolic, but the point still remains that at least for me, the more I've learned about being a dungeon master the more it has been me learning to plan less or differently, and improv more. Even things that are planned have an element of improvisation to them, you certainly can't plan out every conversation like a BG3 dialog menu, and many core elements of your game are improvised both in and out of the game dependent on what ideas you have and when. This is why I say D&D or TTRPGs in a general sense are first and foremost an act of improvisation, because it's probably the one element you can't avoid if you actually want to role play.
@@FamiliarEvils I think I got it, I understood you wrong. It's not about putting improvising above the game but using it to stitch together what happens on is many spheres, not exactly a focus on purely improvisation in narrative but everything?
@@leonelegender Yes, basically improv influences the whole game because ultimately it is a role playing game, and even if you're playing it like a war game your greatest tool is going to be improvisation. Role play by definition implies improv.