I love the idea of monologing in character while in the car and whatnot. That sort of exercise can be really great for character development and doesn't require any extra time because you just work it in while you're going about your day.
Brilliant idea to practice monologing in the car and such. It worked for other speeches after all. I usually am on the skimpy side of the prep time and materials, but as I get older and slower on the uptake, I would rather be a little better prepped. It all is how and what you prep.
I put in between 30min and 4 hours of prep per session.I focus on just the important plot facts.Doing stuff on the fly is awesome and some of my best sessions have been unplanned.I also never tell any of my players that i haven't done very much prep for the session,or that I've done heaps. Feedback from my players so far has been very humbling and it drives me to continue running my campaign. Great Vid Matt
I prep by ding stuff that will save time in the adventure. I use a battlemat. But don't draw on it. I draw on clear upholstery vinyl (appx $3 for 3 ft X 5 ft) squares, so I can just drop the room n the mat during game. These squares can be drawn on with wet erase or dry erase markers and it wipes off appropriately. I make up NPC cards with the stat blocks of significant NPCs and arrange them by room number where they will be found. attach photcopies of pages of spellcards for the spells any caster has available to prevent flipping through books when they cast spells. Don't make the page of spellcards and leave that attached t the NPC card... you'll have to buy too many sets of spell cards. But you may find that certain pages spells you copy get re-used for several casters over a campaign so don't toss them when the NPC is defeated. Each room's description is on a sheet that is compiled from all information about the location found looking through the module. I have no idea why module writers like to split up information about any one NPC or area over several places in the module. The only way to be sure you have all the info for a room is to go room by room , search the module for any info on that room and repeat until you have it all. Then do it again for each significant NPC. No page flipping and searching for that text block you know is in there somewhere....
As a (relatively) new GM, I find this useful, but in an ironical way. I rarely GM, but it's in the extreme of preparing very little (usually only monster stats) and improvising the rest according to a general idea. And even though the topic was how to prepare lightly, you've given me some ideas on what else I could prepare, while keeping it light. +1
Improv practicing Something I definitely learned to appreciate as a DM! Practice 'talking' with/to NPCs that are/will be in your campaign, practice different personalities, imagine how it'll be to go to a certain locale/interact with members of a certain group. The more you do, the more you'll get an innate understanding of their workings, and so, say when a player gets in a random personality with the Castle's Mage, you'll know how he'll react... no matter what the player does.
I had my first real session as a GM and i prepped like an hour for it. In the end i didn't need anything and just improvised everything. It made it a lot more fun nad the story i thought up wasn't even able to come up because we were busy making our own. For the next session i will prep some encounters and characters because i now know what we will be doing in big lines. PS: I always love to watch your videos so keep being awesome!
Great video. I have been accused of over-prepping. I certainly have, early in my DM'ing career, made all the mistakes you referred to; trying to cover every contingency. Now, while I made a lot of notes, I find it's more to cement the mental picture of each location or NPC in my head. When I actually run the game, I barely refer to them. It's a style that works for me, and I think it's a good tip for any upcoming DM is to experiment and find a style that works for you.
I agree about the note-taking aspect. I rarely refer to notes during the game, but it helps knowing they're there, and it further ingrains the character/location/encounter in my mind.
Copious notes really help me as well! Like you said, I may not even glance at the notes, but the act of writing both solidifies the scene/setting/character in my mind as well as helping me to further conceptualize my creation. Great point!
I don't know what happened around 5 minutes, but your eyes gave me a heart attack. Good video, though. I recently read The Lazy Dungeon Master and it helped me stop over prepping. First session was scary though without a mile of notes.
Agreed, take some of that prep time and spend it testing NPCs. My tip: Pick a graphic for key NPCs and if players end up inspecting them more than you expected, use the graphic as a guide - well he's got dirty boots so he's a bruiser. His hair is messy, so his mind is scattered, etc.
I love your videos and think you have a lot of great ideas and knowledge. Something I was thinking about during this video is that although a DM shouldnt over prep, a new DM generally isnt experienced enough at first to be able to improv as well as an experienced DM. They dont have the knowledge base that good DMs have. I understand a lot of it comes with time but as a beginning dm what should they do to help themselves because they cant wing it as well as experienced DMs. what are some ways to practice getting comfortable with the game so PCs dont notice a new DM is winging it, because with a new DM they will.
I do the monologue thing all the time. in the car. In the shower.. accents.. diction.. threats. insults. monologues. all sorts of things. really helps me get an idea of the character.
I always streamline what I think the players will do that session, and let the world slowly build itself overtime as characters interact with the world.
When I started out I was super guilty of this. The first game I played, I prepped like 30 hours for a 4 hour game. My most important revelation was that I barely used any of it. It all turned out to be mental masturbation. This was a great video on DMing. Put time in where the return is high, like into characters and conflicts like you say. Golden advice!
I did that myself for a long time, now I prep very little for games, and wing most of it. I did, however, spend alot of time (probably thousands of hours over 20+ years) fleshing out my campaign world, because it gets alot of use, and repeatedly so.
i once showed upp to a champain with one line of text (excluding monster stats and loot tabel); "The adventurers show upp at the city of Tides end looking for a stone tablet", we spend one and a half month on that bacis.
I improved the whole one shot I did of 5e that can be seen over on Nerdarchy. Everyone had a good time though so it was a success! This is a good video and I am feeling inspired by this video as well as Sr2joker's old video where he wrote 30-40 pages of prep per session. Thanks for putting out such awesome videos Matt!
In the past I often over prepped my campaigns but these days with my son running around and another one on the way I found that I didn't have enough time to do the amount of prep that I felt I needed to do. I just winged a lot of it because I had to. I just finished up my last campaign and I'm not sure when I will run another campaign. I tend to do setting prep first and foremost and the rest always just seemed to flow from there.
great video. the pc's NEVER do what you think they will (unless you railroad them which is bad, and even then....). spec some mobs, do some lore, and let the dice fall where they may. my main prep is artifacts and magic items and how they tie in to the world. also, taking what they have done in the past and making it matter in the future (ie. they killed a named bandit and now his family/friends are out to get the party now).
Is it weird that I was just the opposite when I first started out... EVERYTHING was improve, I've changed to making notes of important things like NPC's and especially loot... because when I imporve loot I make WAYYYY overpowered things. My rogue has a cloak that allows them to teleport 20ft then burn any adjacent creatures for a d8.
+Migario Lamplight I think that's awesome, but it's a bit of a wasted effort to draw NPCs just to never use them again. Maybe it would be a good idea for you to take a region or a city in which the players want to stay for some time and base your adventures around that area. If yu keep file and reusesome characters frequently, it can seem much more alive - and if the players have something to look at, they will remember than NPC more easily.
My first few sessions I over prepped and it caused me to railroad my players because I was scared of going into improvisation. Now I just prep a bunch of miscellaneous things I can bring in at any time. They can still tell when I'm improvising though :/
My first game as a DM, I prepped the hell out of it, the second game, I accidentally left most of my prep at home and had to improvise a LOT. My players told me later that they enjoyed the second game a lot more, and now I just figure out the bare bones of what I would like to do, and that makes it a lot more fun for me as well as the players.
A great way to run a game with very little prep is to do it the way Burning Wheel does. In BW your only mission is to challenge the beliefs that players have written down about themselves, and make them fight for them. So in any given situation, you can look at what they believe, and then throw them a curveball based on that. It's improv heavy, but the beliefs give you strong guidelines.
I would really like to spend less time prepping, and being anxious, but I really, REALLY suck at improvising. I just don't seem to have the knack for getting into character if I haven't had a chance to think about it in advance and figure them out. If I don't come up with things in advance, my NPCs have no personalities. I've also forgotten completely to put in plot-important encounters *cringes*. Can anyone help?
Kit Saunders Seems like you have identified your weaknesses, which is the first step. Plot hooks and NPCs. So devote most of your prep time to those things. Every session, set a goal for yourself. "In this session, I want to say 'um' less." "In this session, I want to work on my descriptions." "In this session, I want to involve the PCs' backstories more." These are all goals I have set for myself at various points, and by focusing on one thing at a time, I have improved by leaps and bounds over the years. DMing is hard work, so don't sell yourself short. I'm sure you're doing a lot better than you give yourself credit for.In short: improve one thing at a time, every session. Identify strengths and weaknesses, and devote more time to your weak areas during prep.
When I first started DMing, I had the idea I would have to prep for every little possibility. I said, "Fuck that!" and just improvved EVERYTHING. I went to the table with only a very basic understanding of what I was gonna do, and I made most of it up on the fly. So far, it's been working for me. Still gotta perfect my methods, but it works.
What would you say about preparing for the dialogue a character will say? Of course, they will say different things depending on what players say to them, but in general how much should NPC dialogue be planned? Because for me, I have trouble improvising.
Very useful information. I've always DM'd Mouse Guard games (Burning Wheel) but recently moving to D&D 5e had been such an interesting learning experience and transition. I am very guilty of overprepping, and especially with modules because there are do many provided characters and I want to give all the detail that the book does. From watching your videos, I really see what I need to improve on. Do you have any tips on how to not be nervous for the most part? I think this really messes me up when I'm trying to roleplay an NPC.
I an almost total no prep dm other then I do magic item cards with a sketch of the item on one side and a description on the back few of my items are straight from the books. In my game identify is rarely needed and detect magic is a free be to all magic users and the aura is color coded on the items magical school. One time a close friends bride to be wanted to have a D&D game (pathfinder) in the bachelorette party so I wrote a module for them and ran it. I made them say the prince (Lord Elder-the groom) from a temple Siddietress (if you ever read the sword of truth they are like the Mord-Sith). I gave them all bad ass character that played on naught stereotypes Val Kyrie (paladin and kingdoms greatest soilder-the bride), Slivara (sorcerous of the sliver dragon-naughty librarian), Kotchico (a gesha-ninja/fan dancer), Darra (priestess of Yondalla). The villain is turns out to be the only known priest of Siddietress with his +2 black leather armor with a prismatic whip of nine(6 tails) and his partner apprentice to the kings master mage and discovered he practiced a maho (blood magic) disciple. also the magic items had a bit of a naughty novelty the wand of sticky goo (web), a potion of endurance in a odd looking bottle, a rubbery ring of resistance to disease, and a much more fun stuff
I've been running some games for more than a year now and I honestly never prep, maybe out of lazyness. My players still tell me they're having fun, though, which is a good thing, but one of my players tells me that i should still prep to improve the game. Problem is, I tried to prep and I never use it, I really can't predict what my PCs want to do next, and my quest always happen on the fly. I don't know if I should prep my game, being so disorderly...
I'm just going to throw together a big notebook full of papers that jut out so it looks like when I open it up I am referring to notes instead of improving. If I go to the bathroom and they sneak a look inside they will find nothing but lines and lines of "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy."
aFistfulofDice didn't help, that was the first thing I tried, strangely it works in the drop down comment section version of the video but not the video itself, and it is this specific video too.
aFistfulofDice nah, that ain't it, as I said it works in the little bell on the top right that leads to this comment section(which has a copy of the video in it), so it probably isn't the browser.
For what it's worth, I had issues too. Got the error on iPhone and iPad in both safari and chrome. Was able to play via chrome on my laptop tonight, but it was acting strangely as well... would play for about 5 seconds and then go back to the start... did that a dozen times or so. I kept trying to hit different resolutions and eventually it played... Haven't had trouble with any of Matt's other videos.
![Matt Click [aFistfulofDice]](http://yt3.ggpht.com/Omje4j2w1emmnZJeUp5Y3B1gbJd92-oXa8niOaMRg-LIt50KchuJ_KtB5WvBOW0YiDr3wdWwPA=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
I love the idea of monologing in character while in the car and whatnot. That sort of exercise can be really great for character development and doesn't require any extra time because you just work it in while you're going about your day.
Brilliant idea to practice monologing in the car and such. It worked for other speeches after all. I usually am on the skimpy side of the prep time and materials, but as I get older and slower on the uptake, I would rather be a little better prepped. It all is how and what you prep.
I put in between 30min and 4 hours of prep per session.I focus on just the important plot facts.Doing stuff on the fly is awesome and some of my best sessions have been unplanned.I also never tell any of my players that i haven't done very much prep for the session,or that I've done heaps.
Feedback from my players so far has been very humbling and it drives me to continue running my campaign.
Great Vid Matt
I prep by ding stuff that will save time in the adventure.
I use a battlemat. But don't draw on it. I draw on clear upholstery vinyl (appx $3 for 3 ft X 5 ft) squares, so I can just drop the room n the mat during game. These squares can be drawn on with wet erase or dry erase markers and it wipes off appropriately.
I make up NPC cards with the stat blocks of significant NPCs and arrange them by room number where they will be found.
attach photcopies of pages of spellcards for the spells any caster has available to prevent flipping through books when they cast spells. Don't make the page of spellcards and leave that attached t the NPC card... you'll have to buy too many sets of spell cards. But you may find that certain pages spells you copy get re-used for several casters over a campaign so don't toss them when the NPC is defeated.
Each room's description is on a sheet that is compiled from all information about the location found looking through the module.
I have no idea why module writers like to split up information about any one NPC or area over several places in the module. The only way to be sure you have all the info for a room is to go room by room , search the module for any info on that room and repeat until you have it all. Then do it again for each significant NPC.
No page flipping and searching for that text block you know is in there somewhere....
As a (relatively) new GM, I find this useful, but in an ironical way. I rarely GM, but it's in the extreme of preparing very little (usually only monster stats) and improvising the rest according to a general idea. And even though the topic was how to prepare lightly, you've given me some ideas on what else I could prepare, while keeping it light. +1
Improv practicing
Something I definitely learned to appreciate as a DM!
Practice 'talking' with/to NPCs that are/will be in your campaign, practice different personalities, imagine how it'll be to go to a certain locale/interact with members of a certain group.
The more you do, the more you'll get an innate understanding of their workings, and so, say when a player gets in a random personality with the Castle's Mage, you'll know how he'll react... no matter what the player does.
I had my first real session as a GM and i prepped like an hour for it. In the end i didn't need anything and just improvised everything. It made it a lot more fun nad the story i thought up wasn't even able to come up because we were busy making our own. For the next session i will prep some encounters and characters because i now know what we will be doing in big lines. PS: I always love to watch your videos so keep being awesome!
Great video. I have been accused of over-prepping. I certainly have, early in my DM'ing career, made all the mistakes you referred to; trying to cover every contingency. Now, while I made a lot of notes, I find it's more to cement the mental picture of each location or NPC in my head. When I actually run the game, I barely refer to them.
It's a style that works for me, and I think it's a good tip for any upcoming DM is to experiment and find a style that works for you.
I agree about the note-taking aspect. I rarely refer to notes during the game, but it helps knowing they're there, and it further ingrains the character/location/encounter in my mind.
Copious notes really help me as well! Like you said, I may not even glance at the notes, but the act of writing both solidifies the scene/setting/character in my mind as well as helping me to further conceptualize my creation. Great point!
I don't know what happened around 5 minutes, but your eyes gave me a heart attack.
Good video, though. I recently read The Lazy Dungeon Master and it helped me stop over prepping. First session was scary though without a mile of notes.
Agreed, take some of that prep time and spend it testing NPCs. My tip: Pick a graphic for key NPCs and if players end up inspecting them more than you expected, use the graphic as a guide - well he's got dirty boots so he's a bruiser. His hair is messy, so his mind is scattered, etc.
I love your videos and think you have a lot of great ideas and knowledge. Something I was thinking about during this video is that although a DM shouldnt over prep, a new DM generally isnt experienced enough at first to be able to improv as well as an experienced DM. They dont have the knowledge base that good DMs have. I understand a lot of it comes with time but as a beginning dm what should they do to help themselves because they cant wing it as well as experienced DMs. what are some ways to practice getting comfortable with the game so PCs dont notice a new DM is winging it, because with a new DM they will.
I do the monologue thing all the time. in the car. In the shower..
accents.. diction.. threats. insults. monologues. all sorts of things. really helps me get an idea of the character.
I always streamline what I think the players will do that session, and let the world slowly build itself overtime as characters interact with the world.
When I started out I was super guilty of this. The first game I played, I prepped like 30 hours for a 4 hour game. My most important revelation was that I barely used any of it. It all turned out to be mental masturbation. This was a great video on DMing. Put time in where the return is high, like into characters and conflicts like you say. Golden advice!
also guilty. :)
I did that myself for a long time, now I prep very little for games, and wing most of it. I did, however, spend alot of time (probably thousands of hours over 20+ years) fleshing out my campaign world, because it gets alot of use, and repeatedly so.
Progress Over Perfection
i once showed upp to a champain with one line of text (excluding monster stats and loot tabel); "The adventurers show upp at the city of Tides end looking for a stone tablet", we spend one and a half month on that bacis.
I improved the whole one shot I did of 5e that can be seen over on Nerdarchy. Everyone had a good time though so it was a success! This is a good video and I am feeling inspired by this video as well as Sr2joker's old video where he wrote 30-40 pages of prep per session. Thanks for putting out such awesome videos Matt!
***** sr2joker did that much not me man. That'd be insane.
In the past I often over prepped my campaigns but these days with my son running around and another one on the way I found that I didn't have enough time to do the amount of prep that I felt I needed to do. I just winged a lot of it because I had to. I just finished up my last campaign and I'm not sure when I will run another campaign. I tend to do setting prep first and foremost and the rest always just seemed to flow from there.
great video. the pc's NEVER do what you think they will (unless you railroad them which is bad, and even then....). spec some mobs, do some lore, and let the dice fall where they may. my main prep is artifacts and magic items and how they tie in to the world. also, taking what they have done in the past and making it matter in the future (ie. they killed a named bandit and now his family/friends are out to get the party now).
As a delivery driver I spend a large amount of my time in my car, by myself, thinking about my NPCs. It's the best place for thinking.
Is it weird that I was just the opposite when I first started out... EVERYTHING was improve, I've changed to making notes of important things like NPC's and especially loot... because when I imporve loot I make WAYYYY overpowered things. My rogue has a cloak that allows them to teleport 20ft then burn any adjacent creatures for a d8.
I like to draw NPCs... It's a bit of overkill on the prep time, but it looks cool
+Migario Lamplight I think that's awesome, but it's a bit of a wasted effort to draw NPCs just to never use them again. Maybe it would be a good idea for you to take a region or a city in which the players want to stay for some time and base your adventures around that area. If yu keep file and reusesome characters frequently, it can seem much more alive - and if the players have something to look at, they will remember than NPC more easily.
My first few sessions I over prepped and it caused me to railroad my players because I was scared of going into improvisation. Now I just prep a bunch of miscellaneous things I can bring in at any time. They can still tell when I'm improvising though :/
You should link the video you did on index card usage for prepping.
My first game as a DM, I prepped the hell out of it, the second game, I accidentally left most of my prep at home and had to improvise a LOT. My players told me later that they enjoyed the second game a lot more, and now I just figure out the bare bones of what I would like to do, and that makes it a lot more fun for me as well as the players.
A great way to run a game with very little prep is to do it the way Burning Wheel does. In BW your only mission is to challenge the beliefs that players have written down about themselves, and make them fight for them. So in any given situation, you can look at what they believe, and then throw them a curveball based on that. It's improv heavy, but the beliefs give you strong guidelines.
I would really like to spend less time prepping, and being anxious, but I really, REALLY suck at improvising. I just don't seem to have the knack for getting into character if I haven't had a chance to think about it in advance and figure them out. If I don't come up with things in advance, my NPCs have no personalities. I've also forgotten completely to put in plot-important encounters *cringes*. Can anyone help?
Kit Saunders Seems like you have identified your weaknesses, which is the first step. Plot hooks and NPCs. So devote most of your prep time to those things. Every session, set a goal for yourself. "In this session, I want to say 'um' less." "In this session, I want to work on my descriptions." "In this session, I want to involve the PCs' backstories more." These are all goals I have set for myself at various points, and by focusing on one thing at a time, I have improved by leaps and bounds over the years. DMing is hard work, so don't sell yourself short. I'm sure you're doing a lot better than you give yourself credit for.In short: improve one thing at a time, every session. Identify strengths and weaknesses, and devote more time to your weak areas during prep.
When I first started DMing, I had the idea I would have to prep for every little possibility. I said, "Fuck that!" and just improvved EVERYTHING. I went to the table with only a very basic understanding of what I was gonna do, and I made most of it up on the fly. So far, it's been working for me. Still gotta perfect my methods, but it works.
My players can never tell if I am improvising or not... Cos I am equally bad at all of it...
Thank you for another video filled with wise advice.
What would you say about preparing for the dialogue a character will say? Of course, they will say different things depending on what players say to them, but in general how much should NPC dialogue be planned? Because for me, I have trouble improvising.
I'm only a young dm but I believe that taking notes on their personality and quest like information works much better than preparing any dialogue.
Excellent ! Thanx Matt.
Very useful information. I've always DM'd Mouse Guard games (Burning Wheel) but recently moving to D&D 5e had been such an interesting learning experience and transition. I am very guilty of overprepping, and especially with modules because there are do many provided characters and I want to give all the detail that the book does. From watching your videos, I really see what I need to improve on. Do you have any tips on how to not be nervous for the most part? I think this really messes me up when I'm trying to roleplay an NPC.
I set up a few NPCs i want in the story, and then a list of fantasy words and everything else is improv
I use a chain of taverns called neverspoons (parody of weatherspoons) so i only had to write one or two and the rest are all the same
I an almost total no prep dm other then I do magic item cards with a sketch of the item on one side and a description on the back few of my items are straight from the books. In my game identify is rarely needed and detect magic is a free be to all magic users and the aura is color coded on the items magical school. One time a close friends bride to be wanted to have a D&D game (pathfinder) in the bachelorette party so I wrote a module for them and ran it. I made them say the prince (Lord Elder-the groom) from a temple Siddietress (if you ever read the sword of truth they are like the Mord-Sith). I gave them all bad ass character that played on naught stereotypes Val Kyrie (paladin and kingdoms greatest soilder-the bride), Slivara (sorcerous of the sliver dragon-naughty librarian), Kotchico (a gesha-ninja/fan dancer), Darra (priestess of Yondalla). The villain is turns out to be the only known priest of Siddietress with his +2 black leather armor with a prismatic whip of nine(6 tails) and his partner apprentice to the kings master mage and discovered he practiced a maho (blood magic) disciple. also the magic items had a bit of a naughty novelty the wand of sticky goo (web), a potion of endurance in a odd looking bottle, a rubbery ring of resistance to disease, and a much more fun stuff
A lot of videos this week! Thanks! :D
Loving the 5th edition rules too! Tiefling Bard ftw!
Most new dm's will over prepare while I did a six hour campaign without any preparation but somehow pulled a fun adventure out of my ass.
Great video.
I've been running some games for more than a year now and I honestly never prep, maybe out of lazyness. My players still tell me they're having fun, though, which is a good thing, but one of my players tells me that i should still prep to improve the game. Problem is, I tried to prep and I never use it, I really can't predict what my PCs want to do next, and my quest always happen on the fly.
I don't know if I should prep my game, being so disorderly...
I'm just going to throw together a big notebook full of papers that jut out so it looks like when I open it up I am referring to notes instead of improving. If I go to the bathroom and they sneak a look inside they will find nothing but lines and lines of "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy."
good tips details for new DM. lol
video error
Try refreshing. Having no issues over here.
aFistfulofDice didn't help, that was the first thing I tried, strangely it works in the drop down comment section version of the video but not the video itself, and it is this specific video too.
doombybbr Yeah, not sure what to tell you. Sorry about that! Try clearing your browser cache, maybe.
aFistfulofDice
nah, that ain't it, as I said it works in the little bell on the top right that leads to this comment section(which has a copy of the video in it), so it probably isn't the browser.
For what it's worth, I had issues too. Got the error on iPhone and iPad in both safari and chrome. Was able to play via chrome on my laptop tonight, but it was acting strangely as well... would play for about 5 seconds and then go back to the start... did that a dozen times or so. I kept trying to hit different resolutions and eventually it played...
Haven't had trouble with any of Matt's other videos.
Just make the maps and the people on the maps. Skip the rest.