Two months ago I subbed to your channel and watched your entire running the game series in about a week. Last month a ran a one shot for two of my friends using a modified Delian Order adventure from your first video. Rave reviews, one of them said it's the most fun they've ever had playing D&D. Started my first campaign this last week for the same two friends and a couple other newbies and we're having a blast. I definitely owe a huge chunk of this success to the advice in your videos.
Every single idea that you show is worth trying. Even though some don't work for my table, a lot of them made me a better DM and there's no way to thank you enough!
This is what we have been doing at our table. We are doing something strange. We have introduced a PVP element to things. There are 8 of us, so we divided into two teams. One team is the evil team and the other team is the Hero team. While the evil team is playing, the hero team is moving the minis and rolling for the monsters and even playing NPC's. It's so cool to sit back as the DM and just watch everyone play against each other. It becomes like a tv show. The other night, I handed out prepared NPC sheets with motivations, personality traits, stats, spells prepared and so on to two of the "heroes" and just let them play the NPCs and just sat back and watched the magic as they roleplayed against one another. It ended up not going into combat, but the heroes got to play other npcs during the combat portion of the night. It was awesome!
I showed the Railroading video, the one where he tells the story of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as D&D campaigns, to my sister. Her first comment was how fast he talks. Up until that point I hadn't really noticed it, but I think that that video is also one of the videos where he talks a little quicker, along with this one. English is my second language (in the sense that it was not first language I learned, I'm German by birth) but it probably is the language I am most fluent in (maybe), so I have no problem understanding Matt, especially since his pronunciation is clear and his his grammar and word choice excellent. However, I can see his speed of speech being a problem for some. I remember my mum overhearing part of the video and commenting that she had a hard time understanding him. But then again, she claims to have a hard time understanding someone with only the slightest Australian accent :D.
Curse you, Matt. Just when I thought I wasn't going to be purchasing new miniatures any time soon, you go and tell me about the company who makes the Dragon minis... Have you no mercy for my bank account? Also, that reading was pretty great, Matt. I know you've struggled with recording your own audiobooks for Ratcatchers, but I really think you'd do a great job at it (even the excerpt you did on Twitch was pretty great!).
Oh I forgot! I hung out for 2 hours with Adam Koebel! th-cam.com/video/jn5U6pNQ-bA/w-d-xo.html I had a blast, I think it's a great conversation. I think it would be a lot more interesting if I had designed my own RPG? Because then Adam would be able to read it and see not only how I think as a designer, but what's important to me, and I think that's the kind of stuff he likes to sink his teeth into. But I really enjoyed hanging out with him.
Players rolling attack and damage simultaneously works great. To some it seems odd...why roll damage if I don't yet know if I have a hit?...but...just roll with it (pun intended). It really does speed things up as well as players doing the extra bonus math versus doing it out loud and even asking if they hit. As always, thanks for sharing your great ideas and experience!
Yes, and a part of it has to do with what seems to be presumptive on the part of the players. I'd guess that no DM ever likes it when a player states that they definitely hit. It's much better when a player says something like, "18 on my attack roll and I think that's a hit, right?" It displays some confidence but still enables the DM...well, to be a DM and confirm that it was a hit. Smart players automatically tune in on what a hit, miss, and near miss are. Great DMs add to the dialog. Examples: "You just missed"...or..."Your orc barely managed to get his shield in front of your attack." Natural 20s...well, those cause some pure excitement and most players (me too!) exclaim some excitement. I've always thought of a 'nat 20' as that perfectly timed attack that the enemy was just not ready for.
also, not only helps rolling attack and damage simultaneously speed up the game, it also helps with description: how much force was in that blow (even if it missed or was deflected)?
“I shouldn’t mind.” ❤ Dear Matt Colville, that was INCREDIBLE. The other 99% of the video was incredible, too. :) Please continue sharing things that inspire you!
Matt, thank you. I've been struggling to show my friend Maddie that she'd be a fantastic DM. I'm not sure I'll use this for every game, but I definitely want to when I want to set another DM to take command.
About 30 years ago, we tried something similar. Our DM brought in a friend of ours to run all the encounters. He wasn't involved in the campaign in any way, so he was completely unbiased. The DM would deploy the monsters, and it was the other guy's job to do everything in his power to attempt to kill the PCs (based on the Int/Wis of the monsters and their capabilities). It made for extremely lethal combat, so the DM had to be extra careful in the encounters he set up. It was a great deal of fun, and removed any implication that the DM might be taking it easy on us.
I absolutely love you adding in the closing quote. You’re the one that got me to read it in the first place. I wish that you would share even more stuff like Dune, Black Company, etc that are marvelous books. Though perhaps more obscure stuff that is less likely to be seen recommended.
Thank you Matt! I was totally inexperienced at D&D but started DMing after watching your playlist- now I host a big game every other Friday all thanks to you! Last session I asked the players if they wanted to keep track of damage and let me roll stealth and it's been awesome! I've also been following your guy Jim Murphy and the two of you have very quickly brought me to a point where I know my players are having a good time. Having the players keep track of damage last session allowed me to do a big ambush with a ton of bandits that was really dramatic- without your technique I would have been overwhelmed My players have no idea how much of their fun is the direct result of your work on these videos. I hope I keep seeing them for a long time to come. P.S. Thank you for giving teenage me a great experience playing Mercenaries all day- got me through some tough times.
Here's another helpful suggestion that can speed up combat at the cost of tactical fidelity: go straight-up narrative-heavy theater of the mind (inspired by Sly Flourish). The PCs and monsters both start with a front rank and a back rank (like Final Fantasy), and when combat starts, the front ranks are immediately in melee range. Roll initiative. Distance is made up of three sections. Measuring distance is determined by whether or not something is in melee or at range. The DMG gives guidance on how to adjudicate area of effect spells in theater of the mind. [Player characters at range] [Melee] [Monsters at range] Moving from one section to the next uses your movement. Disengage to avoid one opportunity attack. Assuming one type of monster, damage dealt to the monsters is applied to a single monster, unless the PCs declare otherwise. When that monster dies, damage is applied to the next one on the list. Continue applying damage to one monster at a time, going down the list, until all the monsters are defeated. This means the DM is focusing the PCs fire without the PCs announcing they're focusing their fire. It works heavily in favor of the PCs. If there's more than one type of monster, the PCs declare which type they're attacking. Damage is applied to only one monster of that type at a time. The DM has a scratch paper list of the individual monsters. Goblin A 7hp Goblin B 6hp Goblin C 7hp The combat goes like this... DM: The goblins come screeching out of the dark tunnel, hungry for your blood! Torgol, what do you do?! Drew: I leap at the goblins with my battle axe! Attaaaack! *roll* Drew: 18 to hit! DM: A mighty blow! Drew: 5 damage! *rips his shirt off, Hulk Hogan-style* Goblin A 2hp Goblin B 6hp Goblin C 7hp DM: Goblin blood has been spilled this day! Iangwen, what say you? Lisa: From the shadows, I loose an arrow, swift and true, to strike down mine enemy. *roll* Lisa: Natural 20! DM: And so it was that a "shishkebab of goblins" was made this day. Bards shall sing of your skill! Goblin A DEAD Goblin B DEAD Goblin C 7hp DM: The lone goblin suddenly halts his advance as his warren-brothers die before him. His eyes wide in disbelief, he tears his gaze from them, and a seething, hissing snarl rips from his throat at he rushes with furious abandon headlong into - *roll* - Garret! The goblin strikes viciously! *roll* DM: 17 to hit! Erik: Yep, that gets me. DM: *expectant pause* Erik: *blinks* DM: ...dude, c'mon. Erik: What? DM: This is supposed to be, y'know, epic. A thrilling adventure with harrowing skirmishes. Erik: Yeah... and we're fighting goblins. DM: I know, but... you guys are level 1. This is supposed to be scary for your characters. Erik: Alright, alright. *takes a moment* Aaaaahg! I am struck! Telleth mine family that I loveth them so! *arms flail* DM: *not amused* Erik: *pauses* *continues to flail arms* DM: Take your damn turn. Erik: I recoil, drop to a knee, and suffer the goblin to loom over me like the Three Glooms of Hades. A small whimper escapes me, speaking of the weakness of the goblin's quarry. But lo! what is this in my boot! Is this a dagger I see before me?! With fingers nimble and springing like a steel coil, my moment of weakness is revealed to be a ruse as I thrust mine point up under the goblin's crooked jaw, and... *roll* Erik: 15 to hit. DM: *still not amused* Erik: *wait patiently* DM: Hits. Erik: ...drive my dagger home, to the hilt! TO THE HILT, I SAY! For... *rolls* 7 damage! DM: The goblin dies. I... may have gotten a little side-tracked there.
Having the players manage the damage on the monsters was so useful. My group is still relatively new so I wouldn’t do this as of yet. I want them to focus on what their characters are doing/teamwork before adding this extra layer, even if just one player. One things that’s helped my group (7 players and myself) is saying... John you’re up. Josh you’re next. Then Josh you’re up, Dave, you’re next, etc. Keeps everyone focused and is a gentle reminder that the next player should be ready when it gets back to them.
I like the idea of a threat die to meter out how advantageous the "monsters" behave in combat. I think it provides a layer of believability to the inherent meta-gaming of pushing models on a table.
In the case of crowdfunding, ”We just raised a whole lot of money” equals “We just took on a huge debt”; and I think most of your followers know that. I am happy you take the responsibility seriously and it makes me even more pleased that I backed. Keep up the good work!
The monster wrangler idea just blew my mind, it's beauty is it's simplicity. I love the threat die idea to help coach the player into thinking more about RP based combat.
One thing that I found was pretty entertaining for my group was to involve players in certain arcs of backstory, most likely in-between major plot points. I would work with them to create maps and npcs vital to them and step down as a DM to allow that certain player to walk through a small chapter that revolves around their history whether it be a home-town, family or maybe a nemesis. It gives the players good practice for DMing as I get to actually play for once and take a break, but I still can aid them in mechanics or generating monsters, keeping the plot a mystery to myself and others. This whole process in turn makes the players feel special and develops their characters better without completely overwhelming them with the responsibilities of a full fledged DM.
I used this when my players in Starfinder found themselves with a gang of Ysoki criminals giving them aid, gave the control of the entire gang to one of them, and it made combat such a blast. Thanks for the advice Matt!
Thanks for the inspiration, Matt! As a budding DM, I have come to appreciate the many hats one dons behind the screen; storyteller, writer, referree, actor, tactician, leader, adviser, maths-person, people-wrangler, etc. But also group therapist and psychologist. I really appreciate how you use your understanding of psychology of the game, people and players to provide us DMs with the tools to present a great TTRPG experience for our players. I'm really interested in hearing any further thoughts you have on the impact of player psychology on the game, and maybe possible game mechanics that DMs can use to exploit the inner workings of their players for better, more satisfying experiences for the players at their tables. Thanks for being a river to your people! JB.
I like the idea of just having a co-GM (or assistant GM) to split duties with. That way each can play to their strengths. I was an assistant GM in a game for a while in a game. I figured that would cut down on the number of players by one and help distribute the load of the extra players. It didn't work out too badly. It also gave him a sounding board for his ideas and I'm usually better at riffing off of another person's ideas than coming up with my own.
Anything like this can be considered a PR effort, since we also bought/buy your book(s). At the end of the day, you're keeping touch with your support base. Great ideas again.
I've been having my players do both the attack+damage dice as well as keeping track of monster HP for years now. Always works out great when you've got a small white board for them to use. I find it's best to designate a single player, one who has a good grasp of their character and can multitask because of that, who is the designated HP keeper. With this I also have them draw their own maps as we go, so that they build the area around them (this works 50/50 and sometimes you need to edit what they've drawn to make it reflect the DM map) but they frequently enjoy doing their own map making rather than just being handed a sheet. Also really great to have a player designated to remove minions from the board as they die, it keeps everyone from reaching in and moving models all the time.
Knowing your ranges is good, but there's another way of reading the d20 that I've come up to reduce the maths. I call it "what you roll is what you get". Under this system (assuming you have a positive modifier): - If you roll above your modifier, you just state the number rolled. - If you roll below or equal to your modifier, you just slap a 2 in front of the number you rolled. (1 -> 21, 2 -> 22, etc.) With this, the d20 addition maths is reduced to a couple of Boolean comparisons: - Anything above your modifier requires no maths. - Anything below or equal to your modifier is at least 21, and thus probably succeeds. Additionally, the value of your modifier becomes your natural 20 face on the dice, which I think makes it feel more personal and tied to your character. Negative modifiers are more convoluted under this system, since you're going the other way (20 - > 0, 19 -> -1, etc.), but as they're pretty rare and almost never larger than -3, using the normal method for that special case should be trivial. The biggest opportunity for slip-ups would be rolls made at (dis)advantage where the two dice fall on either side of your modifier, since your "I win" range comprises the lowest numbers on the dice.
I recently ran a number of combats with zombies and oozes, what really sped up the combat there was since those creatures have a very low AC, I just said "Listen guys, unless you roll a 1, you hit". Made it so much easier on their end. It's also, for a DM, make sure you have the characters AC on a sheet of paper behind the DM screen. Then you can say "monster rolls 17 to hit player 1 and deals x damage" instead of the whole "monster rolled a 17, does that hit?"
Congrats at being the head of where you work, and I would watch all of your videos, no matter what the content, to hear that "Golden Voice" that all dungeon masters need.
My wife and I will be co-DMing a session next month (a one-shot). I've been at it for a year now, in large part thanks to this channel, but this will be her first time behind the screen (she plays in our campaign). This method will be great for running combat encounters together, specifically the d6 dial. I've used so much of what I have learned on this channel at the table. I think it has made me a significantly better DM than had I not discovered it. Thanks for everything you do! Can't wait to receive my Strongholds and Followers book.
I think have a Monster Wrangler would work well in a situation where you have one player who is 'checking their phone' when it is not their combat turn. Involving them more in the game but giving them and additional job/role of either moving the minis or adding up the damage. Of course with both, there has to be that level of trust.
You know, my current campaign's had a bunch of encounters that would have been fun for it to be "DM as one set of monsters, another player as the horde." That's smart as hell dude.
I also have an idea for when my Necromancer hits the point where she can control a large group of undead. Instead of having the DM micromanage all of them, or him having me do it, I will probably suggest to the DM that the other players do the undead's turns. This is especially viable because the behaviour of the undead is already spelled out quite accurately in the spell description, and it also takes away the problem that the minion master's turn takes forever.
I enjoy all of your content, I hope the majority of your viewers agree! Create what you feel you need to create, there is always value in a perspective beyond one's own.
One of the nice things about playing online is that you don't have to roll your dice and then add your bonuses and then announce what you got; you can just add the bonuses to the roll itself (at least in roll20). So if you roll an attack roll and you have +5 to attack you can type in /r 1d20+5 and it'll automatically show the result of the roll and the total of the roll and your bonus ([roll 5] +5 = 10)
One of my favorite things to do before combat as a DM to speed things up is using color coded dice. Each unimportant monster (generic orcs, goblins, skeletons and such) gets an attack and damage die in it's color, and I roll them *all at once* on the first player's turn after each monster has had an action. Then, when I move the creatures on the board I just call their attack and damage rolls up depending on if they attacked or not. This gives me as a DM something worthwhile to do while the players are trying to think of what they do on their turn. I don't recommend doing this for every monster (Even though it can easily be adapted to creatures with multiattack, just assign the creature more than one color) because there's a lot of tension when the DM takes a moment to roll the attack of a big, heavy hitting monster. When there's a fistful of dice waiting to be thrown if the stone giant hits with his greatclub, just having it step up to them and you say a damage number just doesn't feel as satisfying for either party.
The previous suggestion (players tracking monster HP) wouldn't work for my table for a number of reasons, but I still appreciate you sharing. The suggestions you made in this video, and the points you made regarding player perceptions and why they would embrace the ideas, were great. I've considered having a co-DM many times in the past 20 or so years, mostly to help run the combat encounters, but always felt there was too much DM knowledge to deal with to try to prep someone for the task. Limiting it to the more simple encounters, or just the minions in an encounter with minions and a leader, seems like a really good compromise. I believe it would work for me and my group, and I'm going to try it in the next session. Thanks Matt!
I used to sit at the head of the table. When I heard that Jim sits at the side of the table, I knew that wouldn't quite work for me. So I place a very small table (about 2'x3') at the side and run the game from there. This means that the arrangement becomes more of an arc of players rather than a long rectangle. It helped one of the Thursday night players who needs a hearing aid and who, perversely, sat at the opposite end. It's a little easier for me to reach the battlemap, but I still stand a lot of the time. Standing is not a bad thing when you might otherwise be seated for 2 hours.
Southron_d13 I prefer to stand when I'm DMing too. I like being able to see the players over the screen, and it lets me use more body language when I role play NPCs. I think if I had my own purpose built gaming room I'd probably use some kind of lectern rather than a screen.
Thanks so much for the threat die idea I can see this being really helpful for he to see how sereus, desperet or smug the villains are in combat. This is defenatly a game changer for how the game feals in combat or even to suttaly tell the players to Iver run or calm down.
The Wrangler offers a quite interesting side of running combat 'together', still I don't know if it will suit my table ... yet. Sure along the pipe it could be a trick to revive and engage players if things gonna get stale. The last part was awesome Matt, you are rad!
It's been a long-standing tradition in my groups to offload most of the normal GM rolls and stuff onto the players. By far my favourite method of speeding up combats is to have the players handle the enemy attack and damage rolls fon their characters. It's a pretty simple system. You convert enemy attacks to DCs by adding 10 to them (eg. +4 = DC 14), convert AC to a bonus by subtracting 10 from it (eg. AC 15 = +5), and then have players roll d20 to avoid the attack. As a DM all you reall need to do is say to a player, "the orc comes screaming in at you with his battleaxe, swinging with all his might. DC 15." They then handle the rest. You can also include damage with the DC, either by using the listed value (eg. 1d6+3), by the average (eg. 6), or by inverting the damage roll (eg. 10 - 1d6). As a rule of thumb, I have the players roll attacks and damage on anything without special rules. Any time they're just given a DC without damage, they know that they're in for a world of hurt.
Tbh, while it's likely not that popular a statement in this circle, the best way I've found to speed up combat is change systems. My favorite is Savage Worlds, where my fist game running it I ran for 8 players (7 of whom had never played the system before) in a combat heavy game and it still moved quickly where we got several large combat encounters done in just a few hours. Of course, there are systems much faster than even that.
At the start of my campaigns, I usually delegate roles to players, like session scheduler, combat tracker, loot/time logger, table host, etc. I'm liking the idea of adding minion master to the list!
A thing that speed's my game up in Pathfinder is I do a crib sheet for each player (I like a complex game for me but make it as easy for the players as possible). I have them just keep a note on this of their current bonuses and they just alter that number when I tell them to so they just roll to a hit with a ready known bonus to hit and damage.
Each table, if they play together long enough (though sometimes pick up tables do this to) will find their own path, finding little tricks like these to make the game run smoothly.
I have often done this , plus I always have players roll dice for the “ monsters “ attack dice when there are more than 5 attacking monsters...So I as DM may move the 10 “ monsters” on the battle map, but as I do I have the players ( keeps all player engaged and everyone loves to throw da dice ) throw the dice to hit dice & damage ( at the same time ) so it really speeds up the combat . Plus gives us some great laughs at the dice .So in short, great idea and speeds combat up and keeps all players engaged .
I've always had one of the players control the monsters when their character isn't present. Last time, one of the guys brought a girlfriend to watch him play... and she was looking bored, so I gave her a crash course on D&D combat and let her try to kill him with a bunch of goblins.
THIS! I've been playing with the same guys for almost two decades. I find whenever there's a whole bunch of little bad guys, that if I take too long moving them, even without saying a word, my players will start moving them optimally by themselves. This thing is not just a cool trick, it's a thing that will inevitably happen if the table has good chemistry.
I like this. We kind of do this at our table already, and sometimes when I feel that adversarial tensions, I will ask the players what they think the monster would do given X.
One thing I have seen for those players who do have math issues is they construct a table for their attack ahead of time with the dice roll in one column and the modified roll in the next (if they have different modifiers for different attacks they could have multiple columns) so they don’t have to calculate, they just check the prepared table for the roll they got.
Having players run the monsters is something I've tried myself in the past, frankly it's Hit and Miss...some players are great at it and others are terrible, having the enemy move in the most ridiculous ways. When DM'ing a group I would swap control of monsters between players for each encounter...some players will get resentful of another player because they played the monsters in a realistic and tactical way....its a good idea, but you have to know your audience! Great Stuff as always Matt.....Cant wait for my copy of S&F!
Great idea. GREAT idea! The concept of shifting perception from "against the DM" to "against the monsters" is favorable. BUT. I feel my group would totally abuse this for their own advantage as they find breaking the rules in any game fun and can't handle failure. "Oh man that sucks. Can't we just..." is a common theme.
Was expecting a video on how to have players complete monster wrangling quests for the eccentric wizard's monster zoo. Nonlethal damage, nets, sleep spells, poisons, bait, cages, Handle Animal checks, transporting it in a wagon or ship's cargo hold, convincing an intelligent monster to hang out on display for people to look at for a few weeks or so in exchange for some gold or for doing some quest, rounding them all back up when they break out... Gotta catch 'em all.
The tip about announcing totals instead of the number you rolled, and having to correct miscalculations, has been "solved" at our table by announcing the full maths out loud. "I rolled a 12, I get a plus 7 on my shortsword, so that's a 19 to-hit." Yes it sounds more tedious, but I've found that keeping the maths purely mental makes it more likely to have confusion and to get the number wrong in the end.
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I often declare my hit rolls as "twenty-something", and the DM is like "yeah that hits".
This is the video where Matt has the best hair in all the Matt Colville videos
I thought I was the only one mesmerised by the awesomeness that was the Colville coif. :D
Great hair and be named Matt are signs of good DMing
Ah, a year later and yes this is still true. I spent at least 20 seconds at the beginning looking at it
That's some of the best hair I've ever seen
Correct
The once and future king of d&d, Matt Colville
Chris Collin I think you mean Kickstarter
Erez Amir why not both?
He once will be. All hail the king.
That thing at the end...was weirdly breathtaking and beautiful.
The Once and Future King. :)
Its writing like that in which makes you feel like whoever is talking actually deserves to be a hero. And that is "the stuff" it just makes you feel.
This is the first idea of yours that Im not immediately sold on, which is exciting! Can't wait to try this out next session.
Liam Cunnane
I love that. Instead of "Nah, this is crap" you go with"Not sure I like this, let's give it a go" well done you!
Two months ago I subbed to your channel and watched your entire running the game series in about a week. Last month a ran a one shot for two of my friends using a modified Delian Order adventure from your first video. Rave reviews, one of them said it's the most fun they've ever had playing D&D.
Started my first campaign this last week for the same two friends and a couple other newbies and we're having a blast. I definitely owe a huge chunk of this success to the advice in your videos.
I love the random little snippets at the end of your videos. They're weird, spontaneous, and fun.
Weird in the best way
Every single idea that you show is worth trying. Even though some don't work for my table, a lot of them made me a better DM and there's no way to thank you enough!
This is what we have been doing at our table. We are doing something strange. We have introduced a PVP element to things. There are 8 of us, so we divided into two teams. One team is the evil team and the other team is the Hero team. While the evil team is playing, the hero team is moving the minis and rolling for the monsters and even playing NPC's. It's so cool to sit back as the DM and just watch everyone play against each other. It becomes like a tv show. The other night, I handed out prepared NPC sheets with motivations, personality traits, stats, spells prepared and so on to two of the "heroes" and just let them play the NPCs and just sat back and watched the magic as they roleplayed against one another. It ended up not going into combat, but the heroes got to play other npcs during the combat portion of the night. It was awesome!
I watch all my videos at 1.25 speed. Matthew at 1.25 is anyone else at 1.75. Thanks for what you do Matt!
rujonesin1 i watch Matt at 0.75, my english isnt fast enough for his speech.
rujonesin1 I watch it on normal speed because I am normal?
I showed the Railroading video, the one where he tells the story of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as D&D campaigns, to my sister. Her first comment was how fast he talks. Up until that point I hadn't really noticed it, but I think that that video is also one of the videos where he talks a little quicker, along with this one.
English is my second language (in the sense that it was not first language I learned, I'm German by birth) but it probably is the language I am most fluent in (maybe), so I have no problem understanding Matt, especially since his pronunciation is clear and his his grammar and word choice excellent. However, I can see his speed of speech being a problem for some. I remember my mum overhearing part of the video and commenting that she had a hard time understanding him. But then again, she claims to have a hard time understanding someone with only the slightest Australian accent :D.
lol, i know i swear it seems like he's already sped up.
Everyone is double for me
The "threat" die is an absolutely GENIUS idea. Awesome!
Curse you, Matt. Just when I thought I wasn't going to be purchasing new miniatures any time soon, you go and tell me about the company who makes the Dragon minis... Have you no mercy for my bank account?
Also, that reading was pretty great, Matt. I know you've struggled with recording your own audiobooks for Ratcatchers, but I really think you'd do a great job at it (even the excerpt you did on Twitch was pretty great!).
PLEASE MATT WE'D LOVE AN AUDIOBOOK OF RATCATCHERS
Oh I forgot! I hung out for 2 hours with Adam Koebel!
th-cam.com/video/jn5U6pNQ-bA/w-d-xo.html
I had a blast, I think it's a great conversation. I think it would be a lot more interesting if I had designed my own RPG? Because then Adam would be able to read it and see not only how I think as a designer, but what's important to me, and I think that's the kind of stuff he likes to sink his teeth into. But I really enjoyed hanging out with him.
tow hours
Hate being that guy but just letting you know there's a spelling error, do with that info as you will, keep up the awesome content!!
Opens phone after a bastard of a day washing dishes, sees there is a new MC video.
Procedes to yell in unintelligible excited gibberish.
Monster Wrangler! It's Ingenious! Why did I not think of this!? So here we are nearly a year later, and this video has made my day. Thanks!
Players rolling attack and damage simultaneously works great. To some it seems odd...why roll damage if I don't yet know if I have a hit?...but...just roll with it (pun intended).
It really does speed things up as well as players doing the extra bonus math versus doing it out loud and even asking if they hit.
As always, thanks for sharing your great ideas and experience!
John R yeah I love it, my players haven't quite gotten there yet
Yes, and a part of it has to do with what seems to be presumptive on the part of the players. I'd guess that no DM ever likes it when a player states that they definitely hit. It's much better when a player says something like, "18 on my attack roll and I think that's a hit, right?" It displays some confidence but still enables the DM...well, to be a DM and confirm that it was a hit.
Smart players automatically tune in on what a hit, miss, and near miss are. Great DMs add to the dialog. Examples: "You just missed"...or..."Your orc barely managed to get his shield in front of your attack."
Natural 20s...well, those cause some pure excitement and most players (me too!) exclaim some excitement. I've always thought of a 'nat 20' as that perfectly timed attack that the enemy was just not ready for.
What a fun idea! Will intrigue some of my players, upset others...all good things for the soul!
also, not only helps rolling attack and damage simultaneously speed up the game, it also helps with description:
how much force was in that blow (even if it missed or was deflected)?
We do it in our game, very good and easy rule.
“I shouldn’t mind.” ❤
Dear Matt Colville, that was INCREDIBLE. The other 99% of the video was incredible, too. :)
Please continue sharing things that inspire you!
Matt, thank you. I've been struggling to show my friend Maddie that she'd be a fantastic DM. I'm not sure I'll use this for every game, but I definitely want to when I want to set another DM to take command.
Monster Wrangler, the prequel to Monster Hunter
What was that reading at the end? It was awesome.
T.H. White, The Once and Future King
The Once and Future King by T.H. White iirc
Quothcraft, I came to the comments solely to inquire the same.
About 30 years ago, we tried something similar. Our DM brought in a friend of ours to run all the encounters. He wasn't involved in the campaign in any way, so he was completely unbiased. The DM would deploy the monsters, and it was the other guy's job to do everything in his power to attempt to kill the PCs (based on the Int/Wis of the monsters and their capabilities). It made for extremely lethal combat, so the DM had to be extra careful in the encounters he set up. It was a great deal of fun, and removed any implication that the DM might be taking it easy on us.
I've done this many times and it works really well.
I absolutely love you adding in the closing quote. You’re the one that got me to read it in the first place. I wish that you would share even more stuff like Dune, Black Company, etc that are marvelous books. Though perhaps more obscure stuff that is less likely to be seen recommended.
Thank you Matt!
I was totally inexperienced at D&D but started DMing after watching your playlist- now I host a big game every other Friday all thanks to you!
Last session I asked the players if they wanted to keep track of damage and let me roll stealth and it's been awesome! I've also been following your guy Jim Murphy and the two of you have very quickly brought me to a point where I know my players are having a good time.
Having the players keep track of damage last session allowed me to do a big ambush with a ton of bandits that was really dramatic- without your technique I would have been overwhelmed
My players have no idea how much of their fun is the direct result of your work on these videos. I hope I keep seeing them for a long time to come.
P.S. Thank you for giving teenage me a great experience playing Mercenaries all day- got me through some tough times.
Here's another helpful suggestion that can speed up combat at the cost of tactical fidelity: go straight-up narrative-heavy theater of the mind (inspired by Sly Flourish). The PCs and monsters both start with a front rank and a back rank (like Final Fantasy), and when combat starts, the front ranks are immediately in melee range. Roll initiative.
Distance is made up of three sections. Measuring distance is determined by whether or not something is in melee or at range. The DMG gives guidance on how to adjudicate area of effect spells
in theater of the mind.
[Player characters at range]
[Melee]
[Monsters at range]
Moving from one section to the next uses your movement. Disengage to avoid one opportunity attack.
Assuming one type of monster, damage dealt to the monsters is applied to a single monster, unless the PCs declare otherwise. When that monster dies, damage is applied to the next one on the list. Continue applying damage to one monster at a time, going down the list, until all the monsters are defeated. This means the DM is focusing the PCs fire without the PCs announcing they're focusing their fire. It works heavily in favor of the PCs. If there's more than one type of monster, the PCs declare which type they're attacking. Damage is applied to only one monster of that type at a time.
The DM has a scratch paper list of the individual monsters.
Goblin A 7hp
Goblin B 6hp
Goblin C 7hp
The combat goes like this...
DM: The goblins come screeching out of the dark tunnel, hungry for your blood! Torgol, what do you do?!
Drew: I leap at the goblins with my battle axe! Attaaaack!
*roll*
Drew: 18 to hit!
DM: A mighty blow!
Drew: 5 damage! *rips his shirt off, Hulk Hogan-style*
Goblin A 2hp
Goblin B 6hp
Goblin C 7hp
DM: Goblin blood has been spilled this day! Iangwen, what say you?
Lisa: From the shadows, I loose an arrow, swift and true, to strike down mine enemy.
*roll*
Lisa: Natural 20!
DM: And so it was that a "shishkebab of goblins" was made this day. Bards shall sing of your skill!
Goblin A DEAD
Goblin B DEAD
Goblin C 7hp
DM: The lone goblin suddenly halts his advance as his warren-brothers die before him. His eyes wide in disbelief, he tears his gaze from them, and a seething, hissing snarl rips from his throat at he rushes with furious abandon headlong into - *roll* - Garret! The goblin strikes viciously!
*roll*
DM: 17 to hit!
Erik: Yep, that gets me.
DM: *expectant pause*
Erik: *blinks*
DM: ...dude, c'mon.
Erik: What?
DM: This is supposed to be, y'know, epic. A thrilling adventure with harrowing skirmishes.
Erik: Yeah... and we're fighting goblins.
DM: I know, but... you guys are level 1. This is supposed to be scary for your characters.
Erik: Alright, alright. *takes a moment* Aaaaahg! I am struck! Telleth mine family that I loveth them so! *arms flail*
DM: *not amused*
Erik: *pauses* *continues to flail arms*
DM: Take your damn turn.
Erik: I recoil, drop to a knee, and suffer the goblin to loom over me like the Three Glooms of Hades. A small whimper escapes me, speaking of the weakness of the goblin's quarry. But lo! what is this in my boot! Is this a dagger I see before me?! With fingers nimble and springing like a steel coil, my moment of weakness is revealed to be a ruse as I thrust mine point up under the goblin's crooked jaw, and...
*roll*
Erik: 15 to hit.
DM: *still not amused*
Erik: *wait patiently*
DM: Hits.
Erik: ...drive my dagger home, to the hilt! TO THE HILT, I SAY! For... *rolls* 7 damage!
DM: The goblin dies.
I... may have gotten a little side-tracked there.
Episode 1 to 60. Plus the interview and anunch of content. What a treasure trove you are. Thanks so much man
Thanks for the inspiration, Matt Colville! I'm going to try the Monster Wrangler gambit in my next game.
Having the players manage the damage on the monsters was so useful. My group is still relatively new so I wouldn’t do this as of yet. I want them to focus on what their characters are doing/teamwork before adding this extra layer, even if just one player. One things that’s helped my group (7 players and myself) is saying... John you’re up. Josh you’re next. Then Josh you’re up, Dave, you’re next, etc. Keeps everyone focused and is a gentle reminder that the next player should be ready when it gets back to them.
Final Fantasy Tactics! Yes! Love it. Good video, thank you sir.
I like the idea of a threat die to meter out how advantageous the "monsters" behave in combat. I think it provides a layer of believability to the inherent meta-gaming of pushing models on a table.
Those last few lines made me realize I yearn for Matt to do a dramatic reading of something-- anything, with how darn beautiful those lines were...
In the case of crowdfunding, ”We just raised a whole lot of money” equals “We just took on a huge debt”; and I think most of your followers know that. I am happy you take the responsibility seriously and it makes me even more pleased that I backed. Keep up the good work!
The monster wrangler idea just blew my mind, it's beauty is it's simplicity. I love the threat die idea to help coach the player into thinking more about RP based combat.
"If you rolled a 2, you missed."
*Laughs in +15*
One thing that I found was pretty entertaining for my group was to involve players in certain arcs of backstory, most likely in-between major plot points. I would work with them to create maps and npcs vital to them and step down as a DM to allow that certain player to walk through a small chapter that revolves around their history whether it be a home-town, family or maybe a nemesis. It gives the players good practice for DMing as I get to actually play for once and take a break, but I still can aid them in mechanics or generating monsters, keeping the plot a mystery to myself and others. This whole process in turn makes the players feel special and develops their characters better without completely overwhelming them with the responsibilities of a full fledged DM.
I used this when my players in Starfinder found themselves with a gang of Ysoki criminals giving them aid, gave the control of the entire gang to one of them, and it made combat such a blast. Thanks for the advice Matt!
That hair is sublime, Colville. Always slightly different every video and yet always wonderful.
Thanks for the inspiration, Matt!
As a budding DM, I have come to appreciate the many hats one dons behind the screen; storyteller, writer, referree, actor, tactician, leader, adviser, maths-person, people-wrangler, etc. But also group therapist and psychologist.
I really appreciate how you use your understanding of psychology of the game, people and players to provide us DMs with the tools to present a great TTRPG experience for our players.
I'm really interested in hearing any further thoughts you have on the impact of player psychology on the game, and maybe possible game mechanics that DMs can use to exploit the inner workings of their players for better, more satisfying experiences for the players at their tables.
Thanks for being a river to your people!
JB.
I love this idea and (I think) I'm fortunate to have at least a few players who would do this really well and enjoy it. Thanks for the suggestion!!!
I like the idea of just having a co-GM (or assistant GM) to split duties with. That way each can play to their strengths. I was an assistant GM in a game for a while in a game. I figured that would cut down on the number of players by one and help distribute the load of the extra players. It didn't work out too badly. It also gave him a sounding board for his ideas and I'm usually better at riffing off of another person's ideas than coming up with my own.
Good, another vid to sate my appetite during my current drought of games.
I used to play at a call center between calls, and couldn't always reach the board, so I would ask my players to move the monsters. Worked great.
Anything like this can be considered a PR effort, since we also bought/buy your book(s). At the end of the day, you're keeping touch with your support base. Great ideas again.
I've been having my players do both the attack+damage dice as well as keeping track of monster HP for years now. Always works out great when you've got a small white board for them to use. I find it's best to designate a single player, one who has a good grasp of their character and can multitask because of that, who is the designated HP keeper. With this I also have them draw their own maps as we go, so that they build the area around them (this works 50/50 and sometimes you need to edit what they've drawn to make it reflect the DM map) but they frequently enjoy doing their own map making rather than just being handed a sheet. Also really great to have a player designated to remove minions from the board as they die, it keeps everyone from reaching in and moving models all the time.
Knowing your ranges is good, but there's another way of reading the d20 that I've come up to reduce the maths. I call it "what you roll is what you get". Under this system (assuming you have a positive modifier):
- If you roll above your modifier, you just state the number rolled.
- If you roll below or equal to your modifier, you just slap a 2 in front of the number you rolled. (1 -> 21, 2 -> 22, etc.)
With this, the d20 addition maths is reduced to a couple of Boolean comparisons:
- Anything above your modifier requires no maths.
- Anything below or equal to your modifier is at least 21, and thus probably succeeds.
Additionally, the value of your modifier becomes your natural 20 face on the dice, which I think makes it feel more personal and tied to your character.
Negative modifiers are more convoluted under this system, since you're going the other way (20 - > 0, 19 -> -1, etc.), but as they're pretty rare and almost never larger than -3, using the normal method for that special case should be trivial. The biggest opportunity for slip-ups would be rolls made at (dis)advantage where the two dice fall on either side of your modifier, since your "I win" range comprises the lowest numbers on the dice.
Learned a new expression, telling tales out of school!
You’re awesome Matt!!
I concur wholeheartedly.
While I don't want to put words into Matt's mouth, I think the obvious thing is that, no, Katy Miller, you are awesome =)
Nice shirt! And such a great excerpt at the end!
I think we all need an audiobook of the Once and Future King narrated by Matt now.
Bubbling pots, ah? Presumably that means they're preparing their own virgin plastic in house.
I recently ran a number of combats with zombies and oozes, what really sped up the combat there was since those creatures have a very low AC, I just said "Listen guys, unless you roll a 1, you hit". Made it so much easier on their end.
It's also, for a DM, make sure you have the characters AC on a sheet of paper behind the DM screen. Then you can say "monster rolls 17 to hit player 1 and deals x damage" instead of the whole "monster rolled a 17, does that hit?"
Mind. Blown. Love this.
Congrats at being the head of where you work, and I would watch all of your videos, no matter what the content, to hear that "Golden Voice" that all dungeon masters need.
My wife and I will be co-DMing a session next month (a one-shot). I've been at it for a year now, in large part thanks to this channel, but this will be her first time behind the screen (she plays in our campaign). This method will be great for running combat encounters together, specifically the d6 dial.
I've used so much of what I have learned on this channel at the table. I think it has made me a significantly better DM than had I not discovered it. Thanks for everything you do! Can't wait to receive my Strongholds and Followers book.
I love the idea of a Wrangler. I'm going to try this for sure.
Bloody hell Matt, that reading gave me goosebumps.
I think have a Monster Wrangler would work well in a situation where you have one player who is 'checking their phone' when it is not their combat turn. Involving them more in the game but giving them and additional job/role of either moving the minis or adding up the damage. Of course with both, there has to be that level of trust.
Read "Priest" and am now reading "Thief" -- they're different and I am enjoying, Thanks!
Mr. Colville Sir the quality is top notch! Keep up the amazing work!
Matt, this is brilliant! I have never considered this, especially with the angle of nudging a player to think as a DM. I love this!
You know, my current campaign's had a bunch of encounters that would have been fun for it to be "DM as one set of monsters, another player as the horde." That's smart as hell dude.
Your camera is amazing. Cool shiny/reflective eye effect caused by such a nice camera! Also, I enjoyed your reading. #righttotheheart
Thanks for taking the time to make another video, we all know how busy you are. It's appreciated!
I just want to say this video is way more relatable than a lot of things. Very much been there, done that.
I also have an idea for when my Necromancer hits the point where she can control a large group of undead.
Instead of having the DM micromanage all of them, or him having me do it, I will probably suggest to the DM that the other players do the undead's turns. This is especially viable because the behaviour of the undead is already spelled out quite accurately in the spell description, and it also takes away the problem that the minion master's turn takes forever.
I enjoy all of your content, I hope the majority of your viewers agree! Create what you feel you need to create, there is always value in a perspective beyond one's own.
One of the nice things about playing online is that you don't have to roll your dice and then add your bonuses and then announce what you got; you can just add the bonuses to the roll itself (at least in roll20). So if you roll an attack roll and you have +5 to attack you can type in /r 1d20+5 and it'll automatically show the result of the roll and the total of the roll and your bonus ([roll 5] +5 = 10)
I love this idea for people learning to be a new DM. It's a great first step!
I don't know why, but that last bit brought tears to my eyes
One of my favorite things to do before combat as a DM to speed things up is using color coded dice. Each unimportant monster (generic orcs, goblins, skeletons and such) gets an attack and damage die in it's color, and I roll them *all at once* on the first player's turn after each monster has had an action. Then, when I move the creatures on the board I just call their attack and damage rolls up depending on if they attacked or not. This gives me as a DM something worthwhile to do while the players are trying to think of what they do on their turn.
I don't recommend doing this for every monster (Even though it can easily be adapted to creatures with multiattack, just assign the creature more than one color) because there's a lot of tension when the DM takes a moment to roll the attack of a big, heavy hitting monster. When there's a fistful of dice waiting to be thrown if the stone giant hits with his greatclub, just having it step up to them and you say a damage number just doesn't feel as satisfying for either party.
The previous suggestion (players tracking monster HP) wouldn't work for my table for a number of reasons, but I still appreciate you sharing. The suggestions you made in this video, and the points you made regarding player perceptions and why they would embrace the ideas, were great. I've considered having a co-DM many times in the past 20 or so years, mostly to help run the combat encounters, but always felt there was too much DM knowledge to deal with to try to prep someone for the task. Limiting it to the more simple encounters, or just the minions in an encounter with minions and a leader, seems like a really good compromise. I believe it would work for me and my group, and I'm going to try it in the next session. Thanks Matt!
Pure gold, and looking sharp doing it!
I used to sit at the head of the table. When I heard that Jim sits at the side of the table, I knew that wouldn't quite work for me. So I place a very small table (about 2'x3') at the side and run the game from there. This means that the arrangement becomes more of an arc of players rather than a long rectangle.
It helped one of the Thursday night players who needs a hearing aid and who, perversely, sat at the opposite end. It's a little easier for me to reach the battlemap, but I still stand a lot of the time. Standing is not a bad thing when you might otherwise be seated for 2 hours.
Southron_d13 I prefer to stand when I'm DMing too. I like being able to see the players over the screen, and it lets me use more body language when I role play NPCs. I think if I had my own purpose built gaming room I'd probably use some kind of lectern rather than a screen.
Thanks so much for the threat die idea I can see this being really helpful for he to see how sereus, desperet or smug the villains are in combat. This is defenatly a game changer for how the game feals in combat or even to suttaly tell the players to Iver run or calm down.
The Wrangler offers a quite interesting side of running combat 'together', still I don't know if it will suit my table ... yet. Sure along the pipe it could be a trick to revive and engage players if things gonna get stale. The last part was awesome Matt, you are rad!
If I was King to choose a knight, Sir Matthew Colville shall be the one.
I love these shorter length videos!
It's been a long-standing tradition in my groups to offload most of the normal GM rolls and stuff onto the players.
By far my favourite method of speeding up combats is to have the players handle the enemy attack and damage rolls fon their characters. It's a pretty simple system. You convert enemy attacks to DCs by adding 10 to them (eg. +4 = DC 14), convert AC to a bonus by subtracting 10 from it (eg. AC 15 = +5), and then have players roll d20 to avoid the attack.
As a DM all you reall need to do is say to a player, "the orc comes screaming in at you with his battleaxe, swinging with all his might. DC 15." They then handle the rest.
You can also include damage with the DC, either by using the listed value (eg. 1d6+3), by the average (eg. 6), or by inverting the damage roll (eg. 10 - 1d6). As a rule of thumb, I have the players roll attacks and damage on anything without special rules. Any time they're just given a DC without damage, they know that they're in for a world of hurt.
This is also a great way to involve players in combat when their characters aren't present.
Tbh, while it's likely not that popular a statement in this circle, the best way I've found to speed up combat is change systems.
My favorite is Savage Worlds, where my fist game running it I ran for 8 players (7 of whom had never played the system before) in a combat heavy game and it still moved quickly where we got several large combat encounters done in just a few hours.
Of course, there are systems much faster than even that.
At the start of my campaigns, I usually delegate roles to players, like session scheduler, combat tracker, loot/time logger, table host, etc. I'm liking the idea of adding minion master to the list!
A thing that speed's my game up in Pathfinder is I do a crib sheet for each player (I like a complex game for me but make it as easy for the players as possible). I have them just keep a note on this of their current bonuses and they just alter that number when I tell them to so they just roll to a hit with a ready known bonus to hit and damage.
The thumbnail is perfection
Each table, if they play together long enough (though sometimes pick up tables do this to) will find their own path, finding little tricks like these to make the game run smoothly.
the choice of shirt makes me like matt even more than i already did 👍
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
Don't worry Matt. We all appreciate everything you are doing and have done for the roleplaying community.
We need a noodling session when you need a break from your Great Work. So sayeth the gentle few who love your bleeps and bloops.
I have often done this , plus I always have players roll dice for the “ monsters “ attack dice when there are more than 5 attacking monsters...So I as DM may move the 10 “ monsters” on the battle map, but as I do I have the players ( keeps all player engaged and everyone loves to throw da dice ) throw the dice to hit dice & damage ( at the same time ) so it really speeds up the combat . Plus gives us some great laughs at the dice .So in short, great idea and speeds combat up and keeps all players engaged .
oh man! i'm all caught up!! I'm so glad I started watching. Keep up the excellent work!
I've always had one of the players control the monsters when their character isn't present. Last time, one of the guys brought a girlfriend to watch him play... and she was looking bored, so I gave her a crash course on D&D combat and let her try to kill him with a bunch of goblins.
THIS!
I've been playing with the same guys for almost two decades. I find whenever there's a whole bunch of little bad guys, that if I take too long moving them, even without saying a word, my players will start moving them optimally by themselves. This thing is not just a cool trick, it's a thing that will inevitably happen if the table has good chemistry.
I like this. We kind of do this at our table already, and sometimes when I feel that adversarial tensions, I will ask the players what they think the monster would do given X.
One thing I have seen for those players who do have math issues is they construct a table for their attack ahead of time with the dice roll in one column and the modified roll in the next (if they have different modifiers for different attacks they could have multiple columns) so they don’t have to calculate, they just check the prepared table for the roll they got.
Great to see another video.
Loved the reading at the end.
Having players run the monsters is something I've tried myself in the past, frankly it's Hit and Miss...some players are great at it and others are terrible, having the enemy move in the most ridiculous ways. When DM'ing a group I would swap control of monsters between players for each encounter...some players will get resentful of another player because they played the monsters in a realistic and tactical way....its a good idea, but you have to know your audience! Great Stuff as always Matt.....Cant wait for my copy of S&F!
Great idea. GREAT idea! The concept of shifting perception from "against the DM" to "against the monsters" is favorable.
BUT. I feel my group would totally abuse this for their own advantage as they find breaking the rules in any game fun and can't handle failure.
"Oh man that sucks. Can't we just..." is a common theme.
This is also how you get players requesting undead and goblin campaigns :D
Was expecting a video on how to have players complete monster wrangling quests for the eccentric wizard's monster zoo. Nonlethal damage, nets, sleep spells, poisons, bait, cages, Handle Animal checks, transporting it in a wagon or ship's cargo hold, convincing an intelligent monster to hang out on display for people to look at for a few weeks or so in exchange for some gold or for doing some quest, rounding them all back up when they break out...
Gotta catch 'em all.
Just got your book, Priest, on chapter 22, amazing! Heden is written amazingly!
The tip about announcing totals instead of the number you rolled, and having to correct miscalculations, has been "solved" at our table by announcing the full maths out loud. "I rolled a 12, I get a plus 7 on my shortsword, so that's a 19 to-hit." Yes it sounds more tedious, but I've found that keeping the maths purely mental makes it more likely to have confusion and to get the number wrong in the end.