The Handout | Running the Game
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ก.พ. 2019
- Episode 73
Link to the handout I gave everyone for O'D&D
mcdm.gg/TH-cam/ODD.pdf
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Matt: I swear this'll be a short video.
Me: Sure buddy. Sure.
Video: 10 min.
Me: Oh dang.
shorter then 10 would not be rly usefull
He did it. He actually did it, the madman.
@@UncleGus007 I was thinking: "He did it, that magnificent son of a bitch did it!"
Basically, and this is something I thought of when Matt said, "It is a period of civil war," you want to create the slideshow before any Star Wars Movie. Very dramatic language, several paragraphs to situate you in the timeline, and enough namedrops to make you feel like big things are happening.
wow, I literally thought the same exact thing at the same point in the video! XD
It is a period of civil wars in the galaxy. A brave alliance of underground freedom fighters has challenged the tyranny and oppression of the awesome GALACTIC EMPIRE.
"You could be a Halfling. EVERYONE LOVES YOU." Wow, halflings got it good in the Colville-Verse!
I know but in normal DND myth the same thing applies.
gods decide to send halflings to overthrow/undermine ajax. he never learns of this.
I.e. everyone thinks you are an easy mark
"What is the purpose of a handout? It is to make for yourself a soul." Wait-- no, that's not it!
100% agree.
At work we call these "one pagers." My boss taught me the awesome efficacy of the "one pager" over a lengthy treatise. Try it everyone!
For some reason, I assumed you meant that you use pagers for handouts.
I'm an idiot.
That last line of the handout... "You could be a halfling. Everyone loves you!"
I'm sold.
4 halflings go on an adventure....I think I've heard this story somewhere before...lol
@@wolfhelser815 Yeah, something about an old wizard and a ring
Front side: Everything you said.
Back side: Cool map
To people who e mail Matt.
Seriously, ask the subreddit, he's telling the truth. There's a lot of really knowledgeable people in the subreddit
That's fair and I'm glad it is being promoted. Reddit in general deters a lot of people, so if there is a good subreddit it has to be constantly promoted.
the discord is great too!
@@Eaode Oh yes, the discord too!
If someone says "it is a period of civil war," they'll just think of the opening crawl from Star Wars.
This is not a bad thing! Alluding to books, movies, TV shows, and other works that the players may be familiar with can be a HIGHLY EFFECTIVE method of conveying moods and themes to them! Alluding to A New Hope would tell players A LOT about the themes of the game! There's probably an oppressive regime, with the players on the side of a plucky-but-outmanned-and-outgunned group of freedom fighters!
@@comradeshmoo I didn't necessarily mean to imply that it was! But you're right, of course, and I hadn't really thought of it that way
oh I don't know...when he said it the first thing I thought of was the literal American Civil War
Well yes, the American Civil War was what Matt was referring to, but in fairness there's some cross-contamination there. What I'm saying is that leaning into either of those references (or something different that players would be familiar with) can do a lot of heavy lifting when establishing the theme or tone of a campaign.
For example I tend to run a very pulpy game, so I reference well-known pulp works like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, all kinds of superheroes/comic books, etc very frequently. Even simply using language like, "smash cut to blahbityblah," explicitly narrating cutscenes, noting that there are chandeliers or balconies to swing off of, etc. helps to establish a pulpy feel.
One page. Hmm. I never really considered pre-campaign handouts. But one page makes it sound much more friendly to work with(Players and DM alike) I'll hear you out! 👌
I like the idea of this, because it forces a DM - who might have been world-building simply for its own sake - to pare the setting down, and distill it into what would be interesting _for the players_ . What's the essential points they need to know about the world? What would they be doing in the campaign? Why should they care?
Huh... It's actually pretty short this time 'round.
He did it. THE FATED VIDEO THAT HAS BEEN FORETOLD FOR MILLENNIA, the fabled short video
Still over 10 minutes. OG TH-cam, he'd still have to trim.
Fitting, given that it's a video about keeping handouts short.
It's an imposter!
I handed out a 10 pager and the players absolutely loved it 😸 it was one page for geography, one containing a map, 3 pages for races including 2 home brew, 3 pages on classes including home brewed subclasses for some, and some final words on deities to help their character creation.
Don't burn out man. You are working hard on a lot of things.
Is it possible that people aren't watching these videos as they aren't labelled Running the Game?
unlikely, I am pretty sure Matt's community watches all his videos. Well I do anyway :)
I don't take handouts...
Unless they are from the DM.
That's T-shirt material right there.
@@whoaitstiger I'd buy it, lol
SPANKS?
do you take spanks, you sure do...
"You could be a halfling. Everyone loves you!"
So... the fact that I created a custom 75 page "players guide" is overkill?
If you intend it to be something the players will read before deciding to play in the setting, then yes. A one page handout is good for giving people the gist of a setting, and how it differs from other settings. That should be good enough to give people what they need to decide to play in it or not. From there you can go wild with a full-length setting guide.
Matt actually made a video about this once before.
It's not a complete waste to write a lot because even if the players don't read it, they know it exists! In other words, they know you put in the effort and that the setting and adventure are actually all carefully planned and written down. This makes the world feel more real to them.
Also, it's not uncommon for at least one player to be really into the game and be willing to read 75 pages.
10 minutes? Alright, fine, I'll watch it twice then. You can't stop me.
The timing for this could not be any more perfect, thank you Matt!
This is exactly what I needed! Thank you.
I like the idea of doing a handout for my next campaign. After reading Matt's handout my initial reaction is I want to play a gnome.
the absolute mad lad
Perfect timing Matt, literally started making a player handout an hour ago, and I have been stuck on how to format it the whole time.
To be honest, I like that your videos are usually longer than 10ish minutes. But I'm eager to watch them all, regardless of length.
Love,
All of Us
Thank you Matt - this was perfect timing for me! I am literally days away from putting together my handout this helped so much. Congrats on the short video btw. ;D
Just wanted to thank you for your running the game series. It got me to start Dming and im having an absolute blast
Matt, thank you.
This was an excellent video. I could have used this 3 weeks ago, but I'm glad to hear it now. The "before first session" handout is a genius idea.
Thank you thank you thank you! Was just about to make the first handout, but needed inspiration... OF WHICH YOU ALWAYS GIVE!!! :D
*this is exactly what i've been looking for starting my campaign thank you so goddamn much*
I am running my first campaign ever thanks in large part to your videos. Thanks for all the hard work and sharing your experience with us.
VERY nice job and nice also to share that handout. I am always getting ideas from you and you're the reason I went from being a player to a DM. You, sir, are the DM of DMs!
Just an example of this handout really helps focus down on what I wanted to pitch. Love the evocative descriptors you have, really helps sell the tone!!
I've actually been having a lot of issues getting my friends interested in my sci-fi adventure RPG thank you for making this
Matt you look so stoked doing this video! It's a joy to see.
Awesome! I’m starting a new campaign next week and I’ve been wondering a good way to structure some info for my players! Thanks Matt! I appreciate it!
I cannot wait to watch the OD&D sessions!
Just watching this and I intend to try abit more pre- prep for my next couple of campaign. This is useful for sure.
I've been doing the 1 page handout thing for a long time yet still you found a way to make me feel like an idiot doing everything completely wrong.
Great job!
This convinced me to look at/simplify my campaign pitches. Thanks, Matt! :)
Ah! I’ve been waiting for this!
This was such a pure and informative place to learn. I really don't know what I am watching anymore after this video. Guess the audience only wants live content now. I entirely have to say thank you Matt. You've not only made me a better DM. You've actually made me a better person. I had no idea I was able to increase my empathy roll. I was living. Now I am Living.
Make as long a video as you wish, and I shall watch it. I love your videos, you're one of the most thoughtful people I've ever found on the internet! Long live Running The Game!
I dislike the short videos, but your always cool w me... and your hair and etiquette are always on point.
I've set out the pantheon in my game so my handout is pretty large. This is great guidance for the blerb though! Thanks, Matt!
I’m running a one-shot set one week before the events of the movie Shrek.
My handout is “All Star” by Smash Mouth.
Details?
Michael Beske-Somers
I’ll give details and maybe someone could provide suggestions?
My players are all newbies so I wanted to pick a fun familiar setting. They all playing crappy versions of fairytale characters:
1) Pity Pan, the spell casting rogue (doesn’t believe in himself so he can’t fly, for each PC that dedicated an action to “believe”, he gets 10ft of flight speed)
2) Vaping Vernon the Vermin Vector, the Great Old One Warlock (the pied piper’s brother, but his flute just summons swarms of vermin that are hostile to monsters and the party)
3) Foggy, the 8th dwarf and either battle master fighter or cleric (the 8th of the 7 dwarves, who is magically forgettable, all NPCs treat Foggy like a stranger after 10 minutes out of line of sight)
4) Please leave a suggested crappy fairytale creature with a crappy magic buff.
The adventure has the party sent on a quest by Lord Farquaad to capture the evil witch from Hansel and Gretel. The witch summons gingerbread versions of D&D monsters.
Along the way they meet up with the Gingerbread Man, the Muffin Man, Three Little Pigs, and, of course, Shrek.
Grimm I did something very similar to this. I had the party play through the events of Shrek without telling them what the game was based on. They got as far as murdering dragon before they pieced it together.
Clema029
I’ve seen a comment like this before on reddit or something. Maybe it was you!
@@qwertyuiopaaaaaaa7 Might have been. Either that or someone out there is as dumb as I am when it comes to DMing.
This is something I really need to get better at. My first campaign I barely had a handout. My second campaign I had one, but not as much pertinent information to the first session. For my next campaign I shall be much more prepared. Thanks Matt :)
One thing I personally think is worthwhile is to create 2 handouts. One short to actually tell the players what is what, that they'll hopefully actually consume.
The other one, longer with more detail. This one IMO is not for the players, if they actually read it GREAT. But primarily it's for the GM to pinpoint out for himself what he actually sees the world as.
That handout is amazing.
Great vid Matt
I love your long videos. To be honest, the longer, the better
So many good ideas for use whenever I may finally get around to starting my second campaign, if only I'd had more of this info when I started my first xD
Damn, I voted for this topic not too long ago AND my second priority is coming next.
You're making me a happy and hopefully better DM.
I did this for my first game that I'm going to be running soon! I also gave them a list of questions and stuff to get thinking about back story and stuff (they've never played before)
I was reading the handout and thought: "Carts traveling through woods, a sickly mysterious passenger? Seems kind of familiar somehow...Wonder if the passenger happens to have hourglasses for Eyes?"
Couldn't be Raistlin. That's DragonLance.
@@jerb963 Not what I was thinking. Have you watched the First Episode of Matt's D&D Stream? Specifically the Cut-Scene?
I didn't put that together.
Another great video! Also, another vote for long videos!
the "one page" restraint is also really good for people to read. News papers have studied extensively that most don't read "below the fold" aka past the first page. So it does actually mean that most people will read the one page but not further.
I made am 11page handout with 1 page with bold writing on a canvaslike background. The 1 page had all neccesary houserules and information for the setting. The last 10 pages are all about races and their home countries.
WOO more Matt content
The coolest thing about this video is that it instructs you to make short handouts and matt made the video itself short :v
Yaaaaay, another "Running the Game" episode :D
When I was about to run my first campaign I found that when I put like, more than one page of information, but spread it up in a bunch of posts on discord, people were more likely to read it.
The "handout" described here sounds a lot like what I call my "adventure pitch". I have a different approach to adventure/campaign building than I suspect Matt does, so that's part of it, since I tend to work with players to develop their PCs to enable me to write an interesting adventure that neatly ties up all the characters and allow for some dramatic twists. For me, the "handout" is usually an individualized story document that's written to be fun to read that gives a full description of the story for the character that we worked out together with additional information that the PC (and only that PC) might know. I spend quite a bit of time developing and writing these for each of my players, but it's always lead to games that run quite smoothly, at least as far as players driving the story, since they're given so much to work with. Plus, my players usually get a kick out of reading the ideas they came up with rendered in modestly well written prose.
I think one of the simplest Patreon rewards is early access. You could give your patrons the first look at certain videos, and then everyone else still gets access later. Nice little reward that doesn't keep all that good content locked up.
Restricting yourself to one page is highly effective in other endeavours too. When I changed my resume from a multipage meandering borefest to a specific one paged form tailored to the job I was interested in, the number of responses (and interviews) increased dramatically.
shakespear believed that the strict format of the sonnet forced a composer to squeeze maximum quality within its confines
Oh good, the Peace?!... Out! is properly back :D
Great video, makes me think of blurb-writing for books and things, probably similar skills at work condensing the core things the players need to know.
Reading the Handout possible roles you can assume...
"Noone trusts each other races and the kingdoms between them... Oh, and we have Halflings. Everybody loves halflings :D"
Halflings behind everything - confirmed.
Just dropped by to say... I love your long videos.
Matt, know your audience. We don't want short videos. Even about having short hand outs. Give us the straight dope and a lot of it!
Timely, thanks!
Its really hard to do in one page!
"[...]OD&D we call it" -Matthew Colville, time traveller or oracle, February 20th 2019
I'm pretty new. I think I've sort of tried to do this stuff in a character creation session, and so far, it's worked, but ideas in this video seem very interesting and useful, and I think I'll try using this for my next campaign.
well... looks like I'm playing a halfling....
Everybody loves you!
Digging the Phlosten Paradise shirt 👌
I
What I send out is a handout that has a couple of sections: 1) what the campaign is about, what the world is like; then the technical stuff: 2) Optional rules we use in game; 3) character creation rules and guidelines (3d6 once? 4d6 drop lowest? do we use hitting cover? Various human? madness? etc.). Never 1 page unfortunately :D
Jago sounds a bona fide bad idea generator. Godspeed, you mad carter.
Favorite word of his is doobley-do. Ive started using it now.
WOOOOO new video
I found the doodly do handout!
Hi. I'm reading your book, Priest and enjoying it.
Another video??? Yes!!!!
Happy Running-The-Game anniversary!
Wish i had this 2 weeks ago!
Nice
I typically do a simple, one page handout talking about my themes and intentions for the campaign to give the players an idea of what to expect, and then provide access to larger handouts with more details for them to follow up on the topics they're interested in.
What I did that I was glad to propose to my players was to have them discuss what they would like to do in the next game as to help me plan what to do for the rest of their mission and what interactions they might be interested in. it greatly helps in reducing the amount of prep you need.
Congrats on sticking to a small video, I thought it turned out great! Maybe even my favorite.
Oh man, I just finished reading Conan and the Tower of the Elephant. It was probably one of the best DnD adventures I've ever read.
No idea if you're is reading these comments any longer Matthew, but Space Alert is one of my all time favorite board games - awesome to see it on your shelf!
HOT START PLEASE!
About to do a hot start!
I keep going back and thinking I sent a poor handout/primer for my next campaign with my group. But hoping the session 0 we're having can clear up a lot of stuff I didn't have in the primer that Matt mentioned should go into one. That and it was my first and only one I've done so this video will help with future handouts and primers I give :D
I'm planning on starting my first campaign by handing out letters to my players written by the people hiring them. It can explain a little about the world, introduce a tension, describe how different ancestries or classes might be viewed, and it gives the first plot hook all while remaining short and interesting. (I hope).
Something I'm going to do is write a one page basic summery like you mentioned, then add a few other pages of world history, economics, religion, politics, etc... And give it to my players, I'll tell them to read the first page, then the rest of it is up to them if they want more info on the world.
Then when we start the campaign and as we play some of that information will be very important, I plan to rule that if the players know the info then their characters will know the info. Though I'm not going to do that often, because I don't want to force my players to read a small book before every game, that would just be tedious and not fun. But I think it will be an interesting way to introduce them to the world in a fun and engaging way and to kind-of start a reward system for reading the pamphlets, because I know that most of my players are new and will probably skim through it at best, if not ignore the entire pamphlet.
I have made a slightly longer 'handbook' that was a few pages long plus a second handout for racial variants, and I found that my experienced players would only read the first book without looking at the other handout until that racial variant showed up as NPCs.
However, they did take the original handbook very seriously, which was a list of different countries, what it would be like to be from there, and what benefits they got from being from that country that they would add to their character sheet. That on top of making it look pretty with pictures helped get players invested and interested in the world.
That is a sweet Fhloston Paradise shirt!
My favorite is the halfling "Everyone loves you!"
XD
Love these ideas but I haven’t tried them yet
Yes, Sensei. I shall try this for my next campaign.
I am sooooo looking forward to strongholds and followers. Even though I don't think anyone I play with is as interested in the tactical or factional stuff as I am, I'm sure that I'll find something I can use, and maybe even be able to use it to convince players to give it a go.
I'm a huge handout person though. I think this latest adventure had three multi-page ones. One for the setting, that definitely didn't need as much geographical detail as it had, and which made mention of all the potential player species (they all picked human, so that was a waste,) and very brief overviews of the two important pantheons and the names of the key deities (either of which could have been it's own multipage handout,) and a brief mention of the third major pantheon with no specific details just in case I needed to reference that (should've cut it.) Oh, and then I explained in no specific details what was happening IN this land, so the players might have something to uh... not know anything about because I was being too coy. And then some house rules. Not sure how to condense those, since they're pretty important. This included the magic rules, though there's a handout that's going to be spells and things once players get some magic under their belts.
The second was a handout that was just the civilizations, divided by Druid and Orthodox (or barbarian and non-barbarian,) with several references to the third pantheon/religion and the cultures that follow it. This was important because everyone opted to be human, and all these different human factions have complex relationships with each other and with the religions, magic, and the specific problem that the campaign is centered on. I probably didn't need to include as many as I did, but I wanted people to have choices, and not feel like they had to be European knightly types, just because the central faction is European and knightly.