Our groups forever DM unfortunately just left our group. Now I have to take up the mantle, and I feel woefully underprepared. I’m going to be watching a lot of these DM guides to help me. Thank you DD for the help!
The secret is that you are already more prepared than you think. Just use the rules as best you can, don’t worry if you forget some stuff, and have fun with your group. You’ve got this!
If you are doing a homebrew campaign, it is really nice to use a short premade adventure while getting used to DMing. Find one that fits vaguely into the current adventure, and modify it as needed.
Daniel you got the right idea, the dudes haves inspired me so much as a new dm(6-7 sessions in), from the info videos about dm'ing to drakkenheim. The dudes are a true treasure chest! My best tip- make the campaign the way you would have fun playing it, passion is one of the best creativity engines.
This is great. It's also a useful set of guidelines for breaking the big adventure hook into smaller pieces. Like players may know they need to "Retrieve the macguffin" as the overarching hook, but to actually DO that retrieval, they need to "Slay the monster" in order to "Recover the key" to the macguffin after they have "Discovered its location." So you can do this kind of verb-noun hook at different layers of the adventure, each of which takes a level of play, but feels like you're working towards a large goal.
The advice at the beginning about breaking things into chunks so they don't lose the plot is so valuable. In a campaign I recently ran, the party was in a small city (bigger than a town) in Empire A. A clandestine organisation gave them a quest to travel quite a long distance to Empire B, to infiltrate the capital city, meet their contact there, and investigate the contact's organisation to find a mole. The quest-giver gave all of these objectives at once. Along the journey, since it was such a long way to travel, I wanted to include things that were fun, interesting, and that roped in the characters/players by tapping into their backstories and giving them some breadcrumbs about the "big picture" of what was going on in the world, including leads to the BBEG. It all went perfectly to plan...except they constantly forgot what that main mission even was. I would have been much, much better off having that NPC just give them some sort of magical McGuffin with information in it to take to the capital city of Empire B. Once there, they could've received more info about investigating the contact's organisation and looking for the mole within it. "Take McGuffin to Empire B" is so much easier to remember than a complex sequence of objectives, and would've kept them way more invested and focused.
@@monkeysk8er33 no, not really, despite my recommendation to do so. You can't force them to, though, and if they're not the type to do so then it's better to break your objectives into simpler chunks. I think that's good advice even if your players are the note-taking type.
Thank you so much for this video! The guy who DMs for my group wants to be a player for once (understandably) and so I've stepped up to the plate and am writing a campaign for the first time. This is really going to help me out!
It's worth mentioning that the When factor becomes more important as levels increase. In tier 4 play, it's less about limiting the opportunity for engineering projects and more about limiting the number of Wishes the party can throw at the problem. But level 13 is when Simulacrum comes online, level 10 brings Divine Intervention, level 7 is when you've got to start thinking about Fabricate slots, and level 5 gives access to Animate Dead, to name just a few spells and features; the snowball gets started pretty early, and the more tools the players get, the more valuable prep time becomes. Even spell scrolls are a massive force multiplier (that are criminally underused except in highly optimized parties), and they show up at level 1 (every scroll of Goodberry is another encounter that can be safely won with Entangle and cantrips while still keeping a key contingency for when things go wrong). It's further worth mentioning that failing to complete the adventure "in time" need not mean failure. It might just be the point at which the BBEG completes their new magic weapon and becomes way harder to beat, for example (which may in turn lead to the party needing to figure out how to prep and escalate even harder to stand a chance of overpowering the BBEG, resulting in a whole new interesting subplot). There's more flexibility in how to structure adventures with a time crunch than you might think.
I say the biggest way/steps to create adventure/plot hooks is; allow players vast amounts of personal freedom for character creation, and read the players' backstories then create hooks with regard for those backstories. For example, if the player has a goal in their backstory to become immortal then set up points in the campaign/adventure that have information/items that aid that goal.
What you have essentially described, and what I like to use for myself since there is no shortage of templates/flowcharts/tables one can find, are S.M.A.R.T goals. They are very popular in the management sphere, and there is a lot of overlap with running games. The best thing is that SMART goals can be stacked and layered to create a longer term pathway to a larger goal. I usually like to have my players give their character at least one short term and long term goal. S is for specific (what/where), M is for measurable (desired result/outcome), A is for attainable (how), R is for relevant (why), T is for time-based (when). For some, an acronym like this will help guide the thought process of what each step should look like.
Some really good stuff. After watching this I do kind of realize that I've been doing one of the things you advise against. I set my players up on a long term adventure where they have to travel to Hell and find out why/how some devils have been getting in to their world. But the location (Hell) is obviously far away and I specifically set it up that inter-planar travel is unstable and something that few people know about. So, so far they’ve spent four sessions just trying to find a way to actually get to the adventure. So now I do worry a bit whether the focus of the adventure has shifted too much, but on the other hand I did specifically want the journey to be more than just, "oh, we'll just go find a wizard who knows planeshift. No problem." To be fair, they found a way to get there after halfway through the third session, but now they wanna be 100% sure they know they can get back home again as well, before they go there. And I've just been going along with their plans while making sure it all stays within the rules of the universe that have been laid out, so it still stays consistent.
So glad for this video!! I'm writing my first fully homebrew one-shot and having some troubles getting the players into the adventure to start with-thanks for the great content as always!
During 3.5 days, I had a group of players sign on for an Ebberon campaign that would start each session 'in media res' or in the middle of the action. Opening up with the thieves in the group hanging from a window ledge that had partly crumbled. Discovering a murder but in a way that made them look guilty. On the way home from a significant but easy and uneventful score only to deal with an ambush. Making the adventure hook organic to the action was a fun experiment. Would not recommend having the entire campaign like this, but if your players are on board for sometimes picking up the action in the middle, it can add a cinematic flair to the story.
*Great video and points! Especially "Why should we do this?* Nothing is more crucial than player motivation. Some of this video is about *communication and setting clear goals, as well as organization,* like running a good business. The issue of "Where?" and "travel? Relates to a Session Zero aspect to list: Does the DM's game or campaign have a lot of travel? Does "travel" mean a lot of game time spent with encounters, or can the party travel for days, taking 5 seconds of game time? Being able to say "Okay, you travel for four days and you are near the castle" (making the entire trip one sentence lasting 5 seconds) is a skill. Players often balk at long distances because they assume the trip is full of boring random encounters. DMs need to consider this (unvoiced) objection before proposing huge journeys.
I've had a strange note in a language that none of my player characters know left behind by a group of bandits, they were super excited to get the note translated and it described a rendezvous point and time for a secret meeting. I now wish I had dropped a clue as to what the meeting was about because they lost interest in that hook and decided to spend time in town past the deadline. I guess those kids will have to stay kidnapped.
Where the kids from that town? Maybe the tavern or shop owner the party interacts with is too distressed to properly serve them because their kids (or their nieces and nephews) have been kidnapped.
@@iododendron3416 No, it was like the third session in my first homebrew campaign, I know looking back at it that I didn't leave enough breadcrumbs. The next adventure hook was far less subtle, an injured person they met from a neighbouring village saying they had been attacked.
About to DM for the first time and the thing i've been struggling with the most is easily figuring out how to start everything off/how to introduce my PC's characters into the world I have built. This was really helpful
Glad I had youtube open! Y'all are the best keep up the work. I'd love to see a video on DMing and RPing with family and close friend NPC's of the PCs. Also how to run betrayals in an appropriate way.
I can imagine a scene where the player characters are walking around town and start to hear bells and people running everywhere and freaking out. They start to see town guard gather in the streets and grab their crossbows and some lady runs into one of the player characters and pleads for help. Maybe they've figured out somehow that this is a dragon attack and maybe they're running or not but the next thing that happens is a short distance away an old lady is trying to run away and the dragon swoops down between the buildings and grabs her in its mouth. It then flies away looking mostly unaffected by the crossbow bolts.
If I’m running a multi part campaign I will break it into chapters with flavor intro and ending it with the we join our adventures as they as a reminder.
Just got caught up on Fate of Drakkenheim last night around 4 a.m. cause of the cliffhanger from thr previous episode! Im so excited to watch live on the 18th!
Hey dudes! Amazing video. Genuinely took notes for the one-shots I’m running since I’ve experienced time and time again that we don’t get momentum going until 2 hours in. Would also love to see a video like this that’s about campaign hooks. I’m considering running a few campaigns for my group and I want to make decent elevator pitch for each so my group can choose without having to google and spoil it for themselves.
"You can claim the magic items from their horde!" "Yeah, we were going to. It's not like the dragon's treasure is yours to give anyway. And if you have the strength to contest that then you can slay your own damned dragon!"
Monty: "One of the best ways to make player characters care is to threaten their family." "The Fast and the Furious" series is a D&D campaign, confirmed.
The easiest way to build a quick campaign is to pick a random monster out of the book and build a game around it. What did it do, what does it want and how to stop it. One of the biggest mistakes DM make is they think every adventure has to be epic and be prepared for every contingency. Actually, the smaller the adventure the better and the easier it is for you the DM to manage it. Adhoc themes and ideas as you go through the adventure. Then build off that mission and incorporate all those adhoc hooks from that last adventure. Pick a new monster and new theme. There is no requirement to make it all connected. Dont pigeon hole your self in trying to make it all connected. Yes it makes since to connect it, but it's rarely fun.
Making it clear is essential. Some players are great at initiiating events and forging their own path, and some want clear objectives. Clarity helps with the later- the "why should I care" works better with the former.
Loved ones turned to stone? By the cruel serpent wizard from another dimension? An excellent motivation for the greatsword wielding barbarian, by Crom!
Well let me put it this way I haven't played very much but I think my favorite plot hook that I've seen in action is from TFS at the table. The players start on a ship heading for an island and once they get to the island they find out they were the last ship to arrive before the island being put under quarantine. And I liked that because it allowed each character to have their own reason for traveling there and a need to resolve the quest to be able to actually leave in the process finding more or even personal plot hooks.
I Agree with the Adventure Hook part! my Example comes from the end of the critical roles "Nightmare before critmass"! marisha rays character attacks a minion and her respons after the attacks is "I didn't know what else to do"! that is part of the problem!
I'm trying to write my own campaign set in a worldbuilding project I've been doing, and I've never DM'ed before (I plan to run a prewritten campaign while prepare and write my own), and you guys + pointy hat are a godsend! About meandering... I was thinking of starting my (written) adventure with a shipwreck. I was going to have them start on the boat and let them kinda check the boat out and show them a few important NPCs and Macguffins before having a giant sea monster wreck the ship. I was thinking the hook for the first "dungeon" would be for the survivors to band together on the shore and see if they can find their way to civilization. Is that too slow a burn for the start of an adventure?
On one occation, they all had Masters who were extremly important heroes in the realm. Ultra high level so they present their students after 5 years training them to each other(my players) The masters leave to investigate something happening in a mountain leaving one behind. The players recive a quest from the town mayor so they leave to take care of this. one week later they come back to the town after finishing the quest with a special item they dont know anything about. Their masters come back one day later but with grim expresions and they reffuse to talk about anything. The town throws a party for the succesfull completion of the quest and several priest from different dietis come to the event to give their blessings. sudently in the middle of the act, the masters slays in the most brutal way the priest and the member they left behind when they leave, they steal the object and leave the town. The players are putted in jail and suddently they all are the villians with out understanding a thing. I trully loved this plot, even though it was very difficult for me to imagine becouse i mixed a ton of religion and a lot of cthulhu culture. but it was very fun to see their faces when their mentors and the great heroes slay all the priest and stole the sacred item.
As a GM we often feel offended when players don’t follow the hook we through at them. But never forget that it is a common trope that protagonist don’t want to be heroic at first. They want to run, they want to back away. It’s part of the trope that they have to overcome their own survival instinct to become a hero for others. It’s a fantastic journey. Don’t be mad if a player has that fantasy.
I have threatened and even killed family members to advance the plot of the story and hook the players into an adventure. I approach the player first asking if I can use their family background or not and then go from there. It has worked very effectively and it helps if you have players that do not like to build or are lazy in building the player characters backrounds.
I have my new group rescuing their friend who discovered at tomb outside the city, which happens to be Colville's starter tomb. They thought the friend was gonna be their NPC that went on adventures with them, but for the first couple of levels he is just gonna keep getting himself into trouble and they will have to get him out of it.
Next video: character motivation tier list! Revenge, low B high C tier good standby but nothing special on its own. Love, A- B+ cliché but for a reason. An opponent has stolen something from the group, S tier, works every time, you will have the party COMMITTED.
I have dmed twice now, one short campaign and one one-shot, have what is going to be my favorite hook for a while. The literal kidnapping of Santa Claus.
Great job dudes as usual! I hope that this isn't a controversial question: will there be a TH-cam upload of the one shot you did playing new subclasses with Ginny Di. Since I am a big fan of both your content, I was hoping it would have happened by now
Once I made up an entire family for my character, thought of his relationship with them, mentioned to the DM that I'd love to run into them at some point, even designed an inn that they owned - and then we arrived just after the inn was trampled by some giants and my entire family as missing, presumably kidnapped, by a force we were several levels away from being able to fight. This did not inspire the enthusiasm the DM probably wanted xD It taught me that putting your PC's important people in mortal danger (and, more importantly, removing them from the story without letting them interact) might not always be the best move.
Hey, just wanted to thank you for remembering the "5e" when mentioning D&D... People who love 5e won't mind, and people who can't stand 5e can know what they are walking into (and make informed decision)
"How do you know if that strange ring found in the bottom of the river is important...?" Dude... ALL strange rings found on the bottom of rivers are important! 😂😂😂😂
I've got four players at my table, and each one is playing an orphan with no living family and friends. However, two of them really.. Really like playing pet store. Mepo, Irky, pseudo dragon #5, it doesn't matter. I'll get two of them to care and then they'll argue with the rest 😅
Hey, what should you do if you're me, and you have some D-bag players like I do who signed a contract with a Lich to get their own small kingdom? I've got 4 donkeys playing and now the whole adventure hook is how to do more for the Lich so they can get more lands. They don't care that it will destroy the place they came from....I didn't intend to do this, this wasn't my plan, but I'm working with a bunch of S- throwing Bullywugs. My whole hook is in tatters...HELP!?!?
That’s easy. Have a neighboring kingdom declare a crusade and give them a choice of turning against the lich. It’s a fantasy world, but an evil lich is likely to make all the kingdoms around him nervous, and the religious groups would find what he is doing to his subjects an affront.
I just kidnapped my PCs, had them meet someone they knew of who was kidnapped, then kidnapped an NPC they like. Hmm...I'm kind of one dimensional, aren't I.
You guys always do such excellent work! I just started my own channel Encounter Mastering Dungeons. Idk if you guys will check it out but feel free to critique me if you come across my content on the webs. You all were a huge inspiration of mine so ya know, just wanted to let you guys know you're making a difference on the 5e scene!
Our groups forever DM unfortunately just left our group. Now I have to take up the mantle, and I feel woefully underprepared. I’m going to be watching a lot of these DM guides to help me. Thank you DD for the help!
This channel is a goldmine of knowledge that I have put to direct use in my forever DM life, so you'll be fine if you stick to it. :)
The secret is that you are already more prepared than you think. Just use the rules as best you can, don’t worry if you forget some stuff, and have fun with your group. You’ve got this!
If you are doing a homebrew campaign, it is really nice to use a short premade adventure while getting used to DMing. Find one that fits vaguely into the current adventure, and modify it as needed.
Daniel you got the right idea, the dudes haves inspired me so much as a new dm(6-7 sessions in), from the info videos about dm'ing to drakkenheim. The dudes are a true treasure chest!
My best tip- make the campaign the way you would have fun playing it, passion is one of the best creativity engines.
You got this. The mantle is heavy, but when you see the other players buy in it’ll all be worth it.
I agree, when facing a Vampire threat you need to have good stakes
Sounds like an adventure with real bite.
You two just made my day
This is great. It's also a useful set of guidelines for breaking the big adventure hook into smaller pieces. Like players may know they need to "Retrieve the macguffin" as the overarching hook, but to actually DO that retrieval, they need to "Slay the monster" in order to "Recover the key" to the macguffin after they have "Discovered its location." So you can do this kind of verb-noun hook at different layers of the adventure, each of which takes a level of play, but feels like you're working towards a large goal.
The advice at the beginning about breaking things into chunks so they don't lose the plot is so valuable. In a campaign I recently ran, the party was in a small city (bigger than a town) in Empire A. A clandestine organisation gave them a quest to travel quite a long distance to Empire B, to infiltrate the capital city, meet their contact there, and investigate the contact's organisation to find a mole. The quest-giver gave all of these objectives at once. Along the journey, since it was such a long way to travel, I wanted to include things that were fun, interesting, and that roped in the characters/players by tapping into their backstories and giving them some breadcrumbs about the "big picture" of what was going on in the world, including leads to the BBEG.
It all went perfectly to plan...except they constantly forgot what that main mission even was. I would have been much, much better off having that NPC just give them some sort of magical McGuffin with information in it to take to the capital city of Empire B. Once there, they could've received more info about investigating the contact's organisation and looking for the mole within it. "Take McGuffin to Empire B" is so much easier to remember than a complex sequence of objectives, and would've kept them way more invested and focused.
Sounds like your PCs don't take notes.
@@monkeysk8er33 no, not really, despite my recommendation to do so. You can't force them to, though, and if they're not the type to do so then it's better to break your objectives into simpler chunks. I think that's good advice even if your players are the note-taking type.
@@_bats_ I agree that the chunking is good, but players who don't note take care not good players. The DM isn't supposed to do all the work.
This is the best Dungeons & Dragons channel on youtube, change my mind.
Thank you so much 😊
Why change your mind when I could agree with you?
The Dudes are the best!
absolutely
Thank you so much for this video! The guy who DMs for my group wants to be a player for once (understandably) and so I've stepped up to the plate and am writing a campaign for the first time. This is really going to help me out!
Good luck, have fun! As long as everyone has a good time, it means your doing a great job!
It's worth mentioning that the When factor becomes more important as levels increase. In tier 4 play, it's less about limiting the opportunity for engineering projects and more about limiting the number of Wishes the party can throw at the problem. But level 13 is when Simulacrum comes online, level 10 brings Divine Intervention, level 7 is when you've got to start thinking about Fabricate slots, and level 5 gives access to Animate Dead, to name just a few spells and features; the snowball gets started pretty early, and the more tools the players get, the more valuable prep time becomes. Even spell scrolls are a massive force multiplier (that are criminally underused except in highly optimized parties), and they show up at level 1 (every scroll of Goodberry is another encounter that can be safely won with Entangle and cantrips while still keeping a key contingency for when things go wrong).
It's further worth mentioning that failing to complete the adventure "in time" need not mean failure. It might just be the point at which the BBEG completes their new magic weapon and becomes way harder to beat, for example (which may in turn lead to the party needing to figure out how to prep and escalate even harder to stand a chance of overpowering the BBEG, resulting in a whole new interesting subplot). There's more flexibility in how to structure adventures with a time crunch than you might think.
I say the biggest way/steps to create adventure/plot hooks is; allow players vast amounts of personal freedom for character creation, and read the players' backstories then create hooks with regard for those backstories.
For example, if the player has a goal in their backstory to become immortal then set up points in the campaign/adventure that have information/items that aid that goal.
This is the earliest I’ve ever been to a DD video :)
Same
You guys are the masters of dnd. Well done. This is absolutely perfect. I use this for all of my sessions and character arks.
What you have essentially described, and what I like to use for myself since there is no shortage of templates/flowcharts/tables one can find, are S.M.A.R.T goals. They are very popular in the management sphere, and there is a lot of overlap with running games. The best thing is that SMART goals can be stacked and layered to create a longer term pathway to a larger goal. I usually like to have my players give their character at least one short term and long term goal.
S is for specific (what/where), M is for measurable (desired result/outcome), A is for attainable (how), R is for relevant (why), T is for time-based (when). For some, an acronym like this will help guide the thought process of what each step should look like.
"They're brother will turn into a Vampire if they don't act. Now they have stakes." Unintentional dad joke?
Roll a D6, and on a 5 or 6 you use the correct "Their".
@@Apeiron242 I already made the save. Did you?
@@golett0331 I hate when people use the wrong their. I hate it more when I do. Guess I failed my int save. Nice catch.
@@Apeiron242 Yeah, I rolled a nat 1. I deserve all the mockery I get here. 🤣
Some really good stuff.
After watching this I do kind of realize that I've been doing one of the things you advise against. I set my players up on a long term adventure where they have to travel to Hell and find out why/how some devils have been getting in to their world. But the location (Hell) is obviously far away and I specifically set it up that inter-planar travel is unstable and something that few people know about. So, so far they’ve spent four sessions just trying to find a way to actually get to the adventure. So now I do worry a bit whether the focus of the adventure has shifted too much, but on the other hand I did specifically want the journey to be more than just, "oh, we'll just go find a wizard who knows planeshift. No problem."
To be fair, they found a way to get there after halfway through the third session, but now they wanna be 100% sure they know they can get back home again as well, before they go there. And I've just been going along with their plans while making sure it all stays within the rules of the universe that have been laid out, so it still stays consistent.
So glad for this video!! I'm writing my first fully homebrew one-shot and having some troubles getting the players into the adventure to start with-thanks for the great content as always!
During 3.5 days, I had a group of players sign on for an Ebberon campaign that would start each session 'in media res' or in the middle of the action. Opening up with the thieves in the group hanging from a window ledge that had partly crumbled. Discovering a murder but in a way that made them look guilty. On the way home from a significant but easy and uneventful score only to deal with an ambush. Making the adventure hook organic to the action was a fun experiment. Would not recommend having the entire campaign like this, but if your players are on board for sometimes picking up the action in the middle, it can add a cinematic flair to the story.
*Great video and points! Especially "Why should we do this?* Nothing is more crucial than player motivation.
Some of this video is about *communication and setting clear goals, as well as organization,* like running a good business.
The issue of "Where?" and "travel? Relates to a Session Zero aspect to list: Does the DM's game or campaign have a lot of travel? Does "travel" mean a lot of game time spent with encounters, or can the party travel for days, taking 5 seconds of game time?
Being able to say "Okay, you travel for four days and you are near the castle" (making the entire trip one sentence lasting 5 seconds) is a skill. Players often balk at long distances because they assume the trip is full of boring random encounters. DMs need to consider this (unvoiced) objection before proposing huge journeys.
I've had a strange note in a language that none of my player characters know left behind by a group of bandits, they were super excited to get the note translated and it described a rendezvous point and time for a secret meeting. I now wish I had dropped a clue as to what the meeting was about because they lost interest in that hook and decided to spend time in town past the deadline. I guess those kids will have to stay kidnapped.
Where the kids from that town? Maybe the tavern or shop owner the party interacts with is too distressed to properly serve them because their kids (or their nieces and nephews) have been kidnapped.
@@iododendron3416 No, it was like the third session in my first homebrew campaign, I know looking back at it that I didn't leave enough breadcrumbs. The next adventure hook was far less subtle, an injured person they met from a neighbouring village saying they had been attacked.
About to DM for the first time and the thing i've been struggling with the most is easily figuring out how to start everything off/how to introduce my PC's characters into the world I have built. This was really helpful
Love the fact that monty now has doctor in front of his name in the intro
Glad I had youtube open! Y'all are the best keep up the work. I'd love to see a video on DMing and RPing with family and close friend NPC's of the PCs. Also how to run betrayals in an appropriate way.
I was legit just thinking how it's about time for a new dungeons dudes vid. And bam, here it is
I can imagine a scene where the player characters are walking around town and start to hear bells and people running everywhere and freaking out. They start to see town guard gather in the streets and grab their crossbows and some lady runs into one of the player characters and pleads for help. Maybe they've figured out somehow that this is a dragon attack and maybe they're running or not but the next thing that happens is a short distance away an old lady is trying to run away and the dragon swoops down between the buildings and grabs her in its mouth. It then flies away looking mostly unaffected by the crossbow bolts.
If I’m running a multi part campaign I will break it into chapters with flavor intro and ending it with the we join our adventures as they as a reminder.
Just got caught up on Fate of Drakkenheim last night around 4 a.m. cause of the cliffhanger from thr previous episode! Im so excited to watch live on the 18th!
Appreciate the shout out to Matt's old verbs video. I probably rewatch that one about four times a year when I get writer's block
Hey dudes! Amazing video. Genuinely took notes for the one-shots I’m running since I’ve experienced time and time again that we don’t get momentum going until 2 hours in.
Would also love to see a video like this that’s about campaign hooks.
I’m considering running a few campaigns for my group and I want to make decent elevator pitch for each so my group can choose without having to google and spoil it for themselves.
Great information Kelly & Monty- like how you mentioned Matt Coville
"You can claim the magic items from their horde!"
"Yeah, we were going to. It's not like the dragon's treasure is yours to give anyway. And if you have the strength to contest that then you can slay your own damned dragon!"
Monty: "One of the best ways to make player characters care is to threaten their family."
"The Fast and the Furious" series is a D&D campaign, confirmed.
The easiest way to build a quick campaign is to pick a random monster out of the book and build a game around it. What did it do, what does it want and how to stop it.
One of the biggest mistakes DM make is they think every adventure has to be epic and be prepared for every contingency. Actually, the smaller the adventure the better and the easier it is for you the DM to manage it. Adhoc themes and ideas as you go through the adventure.
Then build off that mission and incorporate all those adhoc hooks from that last adventure. Pick a new monster and new theme.
There is no requirement to make it all connected. Dont pigeon hole your self in trying to make it all connected. Yes it makes since to connect it, but it's rarely fun.
Miss you playing in Monty's basement with awesome terrain. Could you please do some episodes like this again.
20:28 And we all know how important it is to have stakes when vampires are involved...
Making it clear is essential. Some players are great at initiiating events and forging their own path, and some want clear objectives. Clarity helps with the later- the "why should I care" works better with the former.
Loved ones turned to stone? By the cruel serpent wizard from another dimension? An excellent motivation for the greatsword wielding barbarian, by Crom!
These guys, oh I mean dudes really have the best Dm tips out there.
Thanks!!
Well let me put it this way I haven't played very much but I think my favorite plot hook that I've seen in action is from TFS at the table. The players start on a ship heading for an island and once they get to the island they find out they were the last ship to arrive before the island being put under quarantine. And I liked that because it allowed each character to have their own reason for traveling there and a need to resolve the quest to be able to actually leave in the process finding more or even personal plot hooks.
Keep at it, Monte! Doing good!
I Agree with the Adventure Hook part! my Example comes from the end of the critical roles "Nightmare before critmass"! marisha rays character attacks a minion and her respons after the attacks is "I didn't know what else to do"! that is part of the problem!
Can't wait for the next episode! When is it planned for?
WOW Kelly's shirt is awesome with that quote! Does someone know if it is from somewhere specific?
It’s from the song “Secret Crowds” by Angels and Airwaves.
@@DungeonDudes thanks for answering!
Every middle manager watching this video: "oh so just set SMART objectives" (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound)
Always good stuff, would also love to see the Ginni Di playtest on you tube
I had to pause at 12:20 to do something and when i looked up i had a little ptsd as Kelly is dual knife handing me lol
I'm trying to write my own campaign set in a worldbuilding project I've been doing, and I've never DM'ed before (I plan to run a prewritten campaign while prepare and write my own), and you guys + pointy hat are a godsend!
About meandering... I was thinking of starting my (written) adventure with a shipwreck. I was going to have them start on the boat and let them kinda check the boat out and show them a few important NPCs and Macguffins before having a giant sea monster wreck the ship. I was thinking the hook for the first "dungeon" would be for the survivors to band together on the shore and see if they can find their way to civilization. Is that too slow a burn for the start of an adventure?
On one occation, they all had Masters who were extremly important heroes in the realm. Ultra high level so they present their students after 5 years training them to each other(my players) The masters leave to investigate something happening in a mountain leaving one behind. The players recive a quest from the town mayor so they leave to take care of this. one week later they come back to the town after finishing the quest with a special item they dont know anything about. Their masters come back one day later but with grim expresions and they reffuse to talk about anything. The town throws a party for the succesfull completion of the quest and several priest from different dietis come to the event to give their blessings. sudently in the middle of the act, the masters slays in the most brutal way the priest and the member they left behind when they leave, they steal the object and leave the town. The players are putted in jail and suddently they all are the villians with out understanding a thing.
I trully loved this plot, even though it was very difficult for me to imagine becouse i mixed a ton of religion and a lot of cthulhu culture. but it was very fun to see their faces when their mentors and the great heroes slay all the priest and stole the sacred item.
“One of the best ways you can make the player characters care is to threaten their family” - Monty 2022
Best advice.
15:50 Important point here: make sure it's the player-CHARACTER's family. Let me tell ya, I don't want to make that mistake again.
As a GM we often feel offended when players don’t follow the hook we through at them. But never forget that it is a common trope that protagonist don’t want to be heroic at first. They want to run, they want to back away. It’s part of the trope that they have to overcome their own survival instinct to become a hero for others. It’s a fantastic journey. Don’t be mad if a player has that fantasy.
Great video! I will now (verb) CLICK the LIKE BUTTON (noun)!
I have threatened and even killed family members to advance the plot of the story and hook the players into an adventure. I approach the player first asking if I can use their family background or not and then go from there. It has worked very effectively and it helps if you have players that do not like to build or are lazy in building the player characters backrounds.
How would you go about this when making more of a sandbox style game?
I have my new group rescuing their friend who discovered at tomb outside the city, which happens to be Colville's starter tomb. They thought the friend was gonna be their NPC that went on adventures with them, but for the first couple of levels he is just gonna keep getting himself into trouble and they will have to get him out of it.
Monty has one hell of a badass beard.
Love the t-shirt btw :)
“Overthrow the Empire” is what my party are doing. :)
Next video: character motivation tier list! Revenge, low B high C tier good standby but nothing special on its own. Love, A- B+ cliché but for a reason. An opponent has stolen something from the group, S tier, works every time, you will have the party COMMITTED.
Vampire, stakes, I caught that, good one.
When does Sebastian Crowe’s Guide to Drakkenheim release?
Shenaniganery! You stole my word! 🤣😜
I have dmed twice now, one short campaign and one one-shot, have what is going to be my favorite hook for a while. The literal kidnapping of Santa Claus.
Haha having stake against a vampire, good one!
"Your brother is going to turn into a vampire and now, all of a sudden, you've got stakes" I see what you did there 😏😏😏
All the aforementioned things!
Great job dudes as usual! I hope that this isn't a controversial question: will there be a TH-cam upload of the one shot you did playing new subclasses with Ginny Di. Since I am a big fan of both your content, I was hoping it would have happened by now
Tickle the Tarrasque.
Kiss the Kraken
Ramble with a Roper
Yodel with Yeenoghu.
@@Keovar Lay a Lich
Great quote out of context "one of the best ways to make the PC's care is to threaten their families"
Once I made up an entire family for my character, thought of his relationship with them, mentioned to the DM that I'd love to run into them at some point, even designed an inn that they owned - and then we arrived just after the inn was trampled by some giants and my entire family as missing, presumably kidnapped, by a force we were several levels away from being able to fight.
This did not inspire the enthusiasm the DM probably wanted xD
It taught me that putting your PC's important people in mortal danger (and, more importantly, removing them from the story without letting them interact) might not always be the best move.
Hey, just wanted to thank you for remembering the "5e" when mentioning D&D...
People who love 5e won't mind, and people who can't stand 5e can know what they are walking into (and make informed decision)
aren't adventure hooks compatible with any system?
But does pirates of the Ethereal expanse have… captain… hooks? Eh, I tried
I’m working on a tea ceremony encounter with my wife right now- between weasel folk and fish folk but still
"How do you know if that strange ring found in the bottom of the river is important...?" Dude... ALL strange rings found on the bottom of rivers are important! 😂😂😂😂
I've got four players at my table, and each one is playing an orphan with no living family and friends. However, two of them really.. Really like playing pet store. Mepo, Irky, pseudo dragon #5, it doesn't matter. I'll get two of them to care and then they'll argue with the rest 😅
So who, what, where, when, how and why…the basic building blocks of story telling…got it.
YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS
My campaign started with "Clear the fort"
My current campaign hook: "Deliver the shipment"
What they dont know is, What is the shipment?
I wonder if you guys will translate your videos to Spanish, would actually help my players in D&D
Please and thank you
mix and match. frame one, hurt one, put the timer on another, and hope the rest good people or good for a payout.
Hey, what should you do if you're me, and you have some D-bag players like I do who signed a contract with a Lich to get their own small kingdom? I've got 4 donkeys playing and now the whole adventure hook is how to do more for the Lich so they can get more lands. They don't care that it will destroy the place they came from....I didn't intend to do this, this wasn't my plan, but I'm working with a bunch of S- throwing Bullywugs. My whole hook is in tatters...HELP!?!?
That’s easy. Have a neighboring kingdom declare a crusade and give them a choice of turning against the lich. It’s a fantasy world, but an evil lich is likely to make all the kingdoms around him nervous, and the religious groups would find what he is doing to his subjects an affront.
Did Monte just say "shenanigannery?"
Wait, your players have families? All my players have characters that are orphans.
I just kidnapped my PCs, had them meet someone they knew of who was kidnapped, then kidnapped an NPC they like.
Hmm...I'm kind of one dimensional, aren't I.
I just had to convince my party to rescue the 6 year old daughter of a priestess
Notification gang
Save the cheerleader. Find the Grail. Destroy the ring.
You guys always do such excellent work!
I just started my own channel Encounter Mastering Dungeons. Idk if you guys will check it out but feel free to critique me if you come across my content on the webs. You all were a huge inspiration of mine so ya know, just wanted to let you guys know you're making a difference on the 5e scene!
Not first
First
You guys don't come off as stuffy at all.
As usual, alot of chatter and theory and not alot of really useful things. Cya next video