My Disastrous First Attempt at DMing

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2024
  • We all have to learn from our experiences... and the first campaign I ran was QUITE the learning experience.
    Chapters:
    00:00 - The Good Ideas
    01:10 - My Mistakes
    04:37 - Taking a Second Shot at Running a Campaign
    05:35 - Learning from Mistakes
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ความคิดเห็น • 57

  • @jeffcooper5138
    @jeffcooper5138 2 ปีที่แล้ว +46

    Oof, so many mistakes in my career as a GM. The cringiest one was when I learned the hard way to never screw with a player’s agency. I created what I thought was an un-beatable foe, sent them after my party with the intent to knock them unconscious and drag them to the next part of the plot. I don’t remember those details but I sure remember my players genuinely outsmarting the creature I had built, and me getting upset with them for doing it.
    It was YEARS ago, but I still cringe at myself whenever I think about it.

  • @morganmcinroy4211
    @morganmcinroy4211 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    I ran my first game at 30 and I was a nervous mess, and I was friends with all of my group. Much better now, and biggest thing I can recommend is to take a breath, take it easy, and your friends (if they really are friends) will understand if you make mistakes.

  • @aaronwhodrums5438
    @aaronwhodrums5438 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    I have only DM'd about 14 sessions with two irl friends I have known for decades. I know my players very well, so I don't think I have done anything too egregious. Thing that stands out the most, is I didn't adopt "yes, and"/"no, but" soon enough. I missed an amazing opportunity to have a recurring villain in the campaign because I didn't plan the players to spare his life in a battle. I basically forced them to kill him, and ultimately, killed an opportunity for an incredibly memorable encounter down the road.

  • @manueltorresart2345
    @manueltorresart2345 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    That's the kind of insight it's going to help me if everything goes to shit when I star DMing. Not matters if it doesn't go as well as I hope, I can only try to get better. Thanks.

  • @SlyLilFoxo
    @SlyLilFoxo 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    My main mistake was constantly getting interesting ideas, then tossing them in without thinking too hard about it. Especially in a campaign that had no real end goal and was more sandbox than not, tossing stuff in really changed the theme and vibe constantly. I would also outright tell players "No" quite often because I didn't want to just "give them" things or let them do stuff they wanted because I didn't feel it was appropriate or it needed to be earned, but would never actually give them those opportunities or even directions to locations where they could actually do that.
    I've learned a lot over the years. I still make a tonne of mistakes and am still very anxious about DMing, but I'm glad to know I've improved from that and I'm a lot more open to indulging the players and ensuring they're getting what they want, while also not handing them it for free. They still need to work and think and not every location has everything, but they do a lot of what they want and feel fulfilled when accomplishing feats they set out to acheive.

  • @bencarter1646
    @bencarter1646 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    The most flat moment in my current LMoP campaign for new D&Ders came when I accidentally let slip the location of Glasstaff (the dungeon boss) within his hideout. Thinking back, there were several ways the PCs could have got this info, but it came down to me getting carried away while voicing an NPC. They were then able to sidestep the dungeon and head straight to the boss. Even with a hastily suped-up stat block, he didn't last 3 full rounds. It was hugely anticlimactic.
    On the upside, it did make me think hard about how to make the NEXT fight (the PCs set off a Thunderwave which alerted all the guards!) suitably epic. There was a lot of tension as we got into death saves for the first time, and excitement as first magic items were acquired. So it wasn't all bad!

  • @OrganMuncher
    @OrganMuncher 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I've been wanting to get into D&D for a while, and I've started working on running a game for my group of friends using the(?) starter pack and the Lost Mine of Phandelver story. I already know a few things I need to work on; I have a tendency to be very precise about rules, settings, and other details, or at least about knowing them well enough to allow me to actually bend them; I have a tendency to be overly verbose in a way that can be either confusing or boring; due to years of dealing with various mental issues of various flavors, I've suppressed a lot of the creative drive I've had, while also developing a bit of stage fright, so I'm expecting a lot of bumps due to nervousness and difficulty to open up and "let loose". My greatest fear is that I make the experience so bad that they wouldn't want to try it again.
    That said, I'm still looking forward to getting on with it, and with videos such as yours, that I've legitimately stumbled across by chance, being very inspiring and helpful, I've gotten a good few pointers about things to look out for, and I'm generally a lot more confident in just giving it a go and having fun.

  • @coolintruddle
    @coolintruddle 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    My first attempts at dming involved multiple tpk's. It took me months to figure out how monsters worked. Luckily, my friends were having fun, regardless. This was back in the early 80's. The rules were...mystifying for my 12 year old brain.

  • @nergatron8237
    @nergatron8237 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    My first campaign that I ran lasted only one session. It was more or less a decent story planned out. But looking back, I would describe that experience as: I actually wanted to write a book and not a campaign.
    I’m actually working on a campaign now after 4 years later. I learned from my obvious mistakes and I’m actually nervous excited about starting again.

  • @AAAndrew
    @AAAndrew 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Only DM'd once. It was a one shot just a couple of weeks ago. It was for our regular DnD group, and the current DM is ready for a break. My biggest, near-fatal mistake was trying to cram too much into it. The story was not complex, the players were a "special operations" group for a big smuggling ring. Someone had stolen one piece from a shipment, but it was the piece that was a special order from a very special, and powerful, customer. The person there at the port they had sent to find it was killed. They needed the big guns to retrieve the package.
    But the mechanics of the whole thing was too complex, and I felt rushed. Instead of explaining all of this and starting in the port, I had them meet the big boss, get the orders, take a ship journey downriver to the port, and then start the campaign. Because I was rushed the players didn't get to role play as much as they would have liked, and it still lasted 6 hours.
    It must have had some things that were fun, because they're all agreeing to let me DM a regular campaign. I feel like I'm going to be a better DM because of that semi-failure. (we all still had fun, so not a total failure) And because it's a full campaign, there's no need to feel like I'm hitting a schedule. This is all set in a world I've created. Like yours, the world is rich and detailed. I have a broad outline of a story, of what's happening elsewhere that is starting to bleed into their peaceful world, but it's set up in such a way, hopefully, that it could play out in various ways, depending on what my players want to do, and where they want to go.
    This time I've set up a session zero, and sent them some basic questions. We don't have to worry so much about boundaries and social aspects, we've been playing a couple of years now, but the two campaigns we've done have been very different, and I want to know what's really fun for them, and what kind of tone, and style of play they want. I have my own assumptions, but I think it will be very good to find out directly.
    Thanks for your advice and insight in your videos. They've given me some good things to think about as I start my own DM journey.

    • @johnathanrhoades7751
      @johnathanrhoades7751 ปีที่แล้ว

      Hitting your marks on one shots is TOUGH. There is a lot of “ok, this whole section I had planned is getting cut for time”. I really enjoy it personally, but I am very much the oddball there…that goes away for the most part with a long form campaigns.

  • @LXReads
    @LXReads 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I really appreciate that you caption your videos, especially considering the size of the channel!

  • @MaskofFayt
    @MaskofFayt 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I learned a lot of what not to do from my first couple years as a player before I DM'd a game. First game had a DM who hadn't read the rulebook and decided to run the game the second he learned about it and kept inviting people to play. We ended up with a 12 player game and no idea what the rules where as the DM and all 12 players shared the single copy of the core rulebook as it was passed around the table when it came to someone's turn. That group then split into two and ran games. The group I was in ran a fairly successful if heavily modified version of Burnt Offerings that never reached its climax and was overloaded with crazy shit that felt out of place or random at times but was very memorable and fun. The next game was with the same group + a new DM but we felt like we where along for the ride and it was our party watching the heroic and villainous NPCs duke it out while we might have dealt with a random monster on the side-lines. After that I became the forever DM when that group stopped getting together and I started running games for new players out of my friends.
    My first game went off pretty well but it was because it was heavily customised for my players and was random fun rather than a serious dip into roleplay (A mansion of doors that lead to funny random encounters such as a room of dolphins that got defeated because the party just closed the door and noped out of there which lead to our in joke of 'you hear the sound of flippers flailing uselessly against the door'). As time went on we all got more into roleplay and my longest running game featured heavy backstory arcs (a mistake in itself as a lot of players dropped out and back in over time mid-arc due to life circumstances). However, the biggest mistake I've learned is to not get burned out. Take breaks and rests and encourage your players to try running a one shot to give you a rest if you absolutely 'have to play'. Real life comes first, and trying to squeeze in D&D isn't always possible. I certainly learned the hard way.
    However, every mistake is a learning experience and unless it entirely crashes a game in an instant then its not really a mistake but a happy accident. As long as everyone has fun in that moment it doesn't matter if they remember it later on or whether it was a flawless execution of narrative or gameplay perfection from a design standpoint or as 'art'. I know plenty of people dwell on the smallest errors they make and D&D is not a place for that, you just have to accept you've made the mistake, learn from it and move on. Its a part of the learning curve.
    Besides, I feel 'mistakes' or 'bad' D&D often comes from games with strangers with no session 0 or at least discussion about expectations or aligning playstyles and tastes. I've only ever had one truly bad DM and it was because he wasn't running the type of game he wanted to run and therefore didn't know how to run that game (purely high level combat focused DM tries to run an exploration game, never lets anyone roll for anything outside of combat and just spoon feeds any info we ask no matter how ridiculous then runs a deadly encounter that would still be deadly if we were 4 levels higher). Man just wanted to run a gauntlet of max level meat grinder dungeons but for some reason decided to host a level 2 party into the underdark and it ended in the most one sided TPK I've ever seen (4 level 2 players vs 3 intellect devourers and 2 grimlocks in a hall of booby traps, it was make the saves or instant death basically).

  • @garland336
    @garland336 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I gotta say this is a fantastic admission. I mean there's so many things here to take away from but I can really appreciate your honesty and exposition here on this. I can respect the difficulty in coming out and just admitting what you did wrong your first time. Good vid!

  • @jmass4207
    @jmass4207 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The biggest cringe is the common dm misconception that they are telling their story. It’s the dm’s world and backdrop, it’s the pcs’ and therefore the players’ story to help them tell.

  • @lkriticos7619
    @lkriticos7619 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Honestly I think that coming to D&D and GMing relatively late was probably better for me. My first campaign is still going. We're almost 50 sessions in, started at level 1. We've lost one player, gained another, and we're working across three time zones. But I think we're all still having fun and I adore the characters my players have come up with and how much they're engaging with the setting.
    I think if I'd tried to do something similar in my teens or early twenties it would have been a mess. Maturity and a little life experience goes a long way. I still make mistakes sure, hell just last session I gave the wizard a spell they already had as a reward, but I feel like my mistakes would have been a lot worse if I'd started when I was younger.

  • @AuntLoopy123
    @AuntLoopy123 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I got SUPER generous with my players, just after their SECOND ENCOUNTER.
    Two of the PCs worshipped Tymora, Goddess of Luck, and one was actually an acolyte. I was trying REALLY hard with the acolyte to draw her in, as this was her very first game. PLUS, I had decided that I wanted each and every one of them to have some sort of actual interaction with their deity, as a set-up for a MUCH LATER interaction with their deity. I also wanted at least one of them to die, so they could go to their respective after-life, and then be raised from the dead.
    Combine this with me seeing a story of how a DM used a particular puzzle room to encourage his PCs to use ALL of their skills. Again, new players, struggling with how the whole thing worked, and doing anything beyond bonking the monster on the head with whatever they were holding or talking their way out of it. They talked their way out of a LOT, which is great! I REALLY like that about them, but they can't talk their way out of EVERYTHING, so they NEED to know how to use their PC's abilities!.
    SO... I got super generous.
    I created "Tymora's Sanctuary," which just APPEARED along the road. A strange person greeted the acolyte, by name, and invited them in. Then, the door closed behind them, and the puzzle began. There were five doors, one for each of them, and each door would only open when they had used three of their class/race/whatever abilities, instead of merely bonking the skeletons.
    There were four skeletons, and each one spoke in turn: Escape! Takes! All! You! And then all in unison: HAVE!
    Then, whenever they killed all four skeletons, I would count down one minute, and they would rise up again.
    They figured out that they needed to use their abilities, and were comparing notes and looking at each other's sheets. "HEY! You can use Second Wind to heal yourself. Do that!" They raised the doors, and then went down a tunnel, with traps. Hilariously, instead of trying to disarm the traps, they just sent the dwarf down in front, with his shield raised, and squatting below the place where the traps fired their increasingly deadly shots, he duck-walked down the hallway, setting them all off. Hey, it worked.
    Then, they found a room with a big diamond, worth 500 gp (all ready for them to use to raise someone from the dead, right?), and another puzzle to open the doorway, which was blocked by a symbol of Tymora.
    When they got inside the next room, it was a luxurious gaming room, with free buffet, and to the side were luxurious bedrooms and baths. The games required an ante of Hit Points, you could win hit points from each other, OR you could ante up hit points to play darts, and win hit points (without taking them from other PCs), and you could spend as many hit points you wanted on the Wheel of Fortune (and with short rests, healing spells and a few potions, it didn't even matter that the cost of spins went up).
    Anyway, they would spin the Wheel of Fortune, and depending on how much they paid for the spin, they'd get rolls on progressively higher tables in the Dungeon Master Guide, until finally they were paying enough to spin on the Top-Tier tables.
    They won some GOOD STUFF, let me tell you!
    So, here they are, level 2, and WELL equipped. It has made the combat balance rather wonky, I must say. In fact, there was a battle I was sure they'd lose. Well, that Ring of Djinni Summoning changed that, and it was, literally, a breeze. Or should I say, whirlwind.
    I regret having my "Monty Hall moment," but it WAS a lot of fun. I just have to re-balance all the encounters now. And then, STRAIGHT FROM THE MODULE, they went up against some were-rats, and two of them failed their Con saves, so THEY became wererats, with all the wererat damage immunities, and I FREQUENTLY lament, right in front of them, that the module included that. "WHO WROTE THIS?! WHYYYYY?!" because battles now involve them setting up a bottleneck, then sending out "the runt and the old crone," to fight the enemies, and not take any damage, while the others pick them off slowly, from the rear, then jump out of the way, so they have cover when it's not their turn.
    SO... I now have to rebalance encounters AGAIN, so that the monsters can actually damage wererats (immune to bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons).
    But, balancing combat encounters is part of my job as DM, so I just don't go by the module, anymore. It's more or less "guidelines," at this point.

  • @Moulk
    @Moulk 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    My first big mistake was railroading the players as if they didn't have a choice. I had written an OS based on a viking tale, and the story was... written in stone. The players HAD to do what I intended them to do, because that's how it went in the tale. Thankfully that was just an OS and that was fixed for the next ones.

  • @richardwilliams2808
    @richardwilliams2808 ปีที่แล้ว

    I was lucky that my older brother played the game, as did a few of my friends' siblings / parents, so the first time I DM'd a game I was about 11 and while it was certainly terrible none of us knew or cared. The thought of starting in my 20s or later sounds very stressful.

  • @whirlingnerdish2734
    @whirlingnerdish2734 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I’m an anxious mess all the time, so I’m really hard on myself after most sessions. Finding the right balance of giving each of my players what they want is tough, and I’m still trying to figure out how to elegantly tie pc backstory into the campaign so that more than one pc is motivated to pursue those threads. They’re very into combats and challenges, so I’ve been really pushing myself to come up with unique and interesting encounters for them to engage with, but it’s definitely something I have to really work at. I’m getting better, though! And nothing beats hearing them say “that was a great fight” at the end of a session.

  • @Felixian
    @Felixian 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    These things are part of the reason I'm just starting with oneshots. I do not feel confident to really work character stories into a long term campaign just yet. I wanna be comfortable in telling a story and be familiar with the rules before I try anything crazy.

    • @ArekesuLive
      @ArekesuLive 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      As someone who dove straight into a full homebrew campaign, a series of one shots would have been a way better way to start out. You get to test the system at varying levels, your players get to mess around with character concepts. You can rotate players in and out while you find who works and who doesn't.. Instead I ran a 19 session mini campaign where we barely played by the rules, a few players really didnt know how their characters played, I was trying to homebrew everything and keep everything afloat (probably 15 hours of prep for each 4 hour session) and ended in an anti climactic way because no one at the table knew how a certain spell worked.
      My second attempt a few months later, with the same players was way better on my part, but one of the players in particular was still jaded about the first game so he literally made a "Murder Hobo" a dirty homeless monk that went around committing crimes and killing people, which in hindsight he probably did one to see how much I would let him "get away with" and two entirely to mess with the party. My biggest regret is that I had the perfect moment to kill his character and I got scared of killing my friends character so didn't pull the trigger on the moment. Was too afraid of player death backlash.

  • @dancook6114
    @dancook6114 ปีที่แล้ว

    I feel ya there in terms of the first campaign. My first attempt was just not good and it was a few years before I gave it another go. We started at level 1 and we just recently hit level 18 after around 2 years of play. I still have my areas to improve on but this campaign has actually had the occasional session where a player has talked to me after the game and thanked me for a really fun combat, or especially enjoyable but of rp with a npc. We all get better 1 session at a time we just need to keep at it

  • @lordixlandis5085
    @lordixlandis5085 ปีที่แล้ว

    My biggest mistake has definitely been tolerating toxic behavior too long. I really needed that some players do not belong at the table.

  • @gianlucaguidotto8920
    @gianlucaguidotto8920 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    A thing that still really bothers me and gives me a lot of trouble as a DM who likes modules, Is finding a way to tie the PCs' backstories into the main plot both without robbing them of agency over THEIR character but also without giving me extra work that i don't want to do (especially if the players have a really clear idea of what they'd want/like to do and i have absolutely 0 clue on how to make It work, or even worse...i really don't enjoy their concepts or think they'd not fit with the campaign). Every time this inconvenient happened, It led to me abandoning my own campaigns because i honestly didn't care about the PCs and I wasn't able to come up with exciting quests for them.

  • @johnathanrhoades7751
    @johnathanrhoades7751 ปีที่แล้ว

    I ran three one shots and a short adventure before my first campaign. I made sure to have no more than 4 players. I thankfully avoided most of these pitfalls until my second campaign 😂 (I was not ready for curse of Strahd…)

  • @luhwizz7915
    @luhwizz7915 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Not gonna lie, you spoke directly to me. Just recently we cut my campaing short because of a lot of the same issues you brought up in this video. I actually had the exact same idea baout making a character the descendent of a king/queen and they were just about the same. Not interested, but still supportive. We ended up having a long talk about how everyone felt about the campaign and every one of them said they were pretty much done. Looking back at it now, I would've been done too. I will also say that they're the most amazing group of people anyone could ask for and are some of the most supportive kindest people I have ever met, we've only grown closer.
    I've got a lot of learning to do and a lot of books to read, but I do eventually want to run a campaign thatmy friends are proud of

    • @SupergeekMike
      @SupergeekMike  2 ปีที่แล้ว

      It sounds like your group has healthier communication than mine did at the time, which is a really good thing!

  • @justicebinkley1093
    @justicebinkley1093 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I’m currently running my first campaign & it’s been rough. 2 of my 4 original players left on after session 1 and so they had to be replaced, I’m still trying to figure out how to balence combat, and when i started i had a great idea for the beginning & end (homebrew campaign) but the middle where the characters are now is somewhat foggy. everyone is still having fun but ive walked away from a few sessions kinda bummed cause it just seemed like a mess that wasn’t going anywhere.

  • @SummerOtaku
    @SummerOtaku 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I think my second dnd character in 3e was a dude cursed to be a part basilisk. I think I really just wanted a reason to wear shades ala Cyclops from X-men and feel a little edgy. Literally only got it approved by it being something that would never actually have any functional mechanics or be addressed at all. So basically just visual flavor and a backstory that only lived in my heart. 😂

  • @Spark_Chaser
    @Spark_Chaser 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    First campaigns are rarely good. The trick is to learn from it and not quit. My first few games, the combats were not properly balanced and I wiped the party badly.

  • @Matt2801_MC
    @Matt2801_MC 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I just started not only being a GM but tabletop games in general around 8 months ago. I warned my players that it was going to be a bit bumpy being a new GM and in a mostly new rpg system, my players seem to like it so far. Other than the fact they got thrown in prison a couple weeks ago for something one of the former party members did. Ps they broke out on night 1. All and all though I think my experience is going pretty good so far.

  • @Acquilla7
    @Acquilla7 ปีที่แล้ว

    I actually just started running my first game last month (we're playing bi-weekly, so only gotten two proper sessions in). Instead of running D&D I decided to go with blades in the dark cause I know the group I'm playing with and they prefer lighter rules and I prefer being able to improvise rather than having to plan all the things. So far the biggest challenge I've had is making sure that my players have direction without being too overbearing; there have definitely been times where it's felt like the party's spinning it's wheels and I'm not quite sure whether it's the players being indecisive cause their characters are, or because they don't know enough oocly to make a decision and aren't quite sure how to go about looking for answers. I'm assuming that's a sense that comes with practice though.

  • @nyxhighlander9894
    @nyxhighlander9894 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    In my first campaign I made the mistake of letting my players get an ice wolf in a Sci fi setting for moral support and they used it to get a bunch of free water and keep food refrigerated in a survival campign and let fire be a be all end all solution still loved it though

  • @ghqebvful
    @ghqebvful 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Honestly, I don't have much experience as a DM, and I don't plan on gaining more any time soon. My experience with DMing is just 2 attempts at running Lost Mine of Phandelver. One of which played through to the end, though our last session didn't have enough time to quite so nicely wrap everything up well. I had several problems throughout, most of which stemmed from my inability to provide decent descriptions and my general lack of improv skills. I also struggled to sessions even started, scheduling always seems to be the enemy. I struggled to take notes as a DM, but made sure I did. I think my combats took too long to start up: getting initiative and everything. As I was running a module, I didn't use character backstory and don't really think I succeeded in motivating or guiding the players. I feel like I needed to familiarize myself with more of the background lore of the Forgotten Realms as well, particularly things like the factions mentioned in the module (or leaving the mention of them out might have worked as well). I also failed to make any NPC feel lively.
    Basically, I couldn't really get anything right.

    • @arlesdinosauremoji
      @arlesdinosauremoji 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I'm running The Dragon of Icespire Peak for the first time (and it's also my one and only experience with dnd), and I have exactly the same problems you mentioned. I have also the tendency to railroad too much...
      What I did for character backstory is that I let the players write/change/refine their character's backstory while we're still in the module, and then I homebrew the rest of the campaign based on these backstories. So far two of them accidently created a new guild and powerful elven city, while another completely redefined the government of Neverwinter (or at least the homebrewed version I came up with)
      Maybe homebrewing the module to fit the characters' backstories could work for you too?
      Don't bring yourself down, it's normal to make mistakes when starting a new hobby, and I'm sure that you did plenty of things right 😊

  • @9miroke
    @9miroke 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Overthinking and overpreparing. I put too much time and effort in preparation for games, and when the map I drew didn't come up for 3 sessions cause players went south, I stopped preparing pretty much at all. Improvisation rules the game now. It's more like chess now, players make a random move, I make a random move and scenes. And before that was like ok, you just throw all my work out of the window, totally time well spent.

  • @SummerOtaku
    @SummerOtaku 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    My biggest regret is I had been playing with my niece and a few friends and my niece expressed interest in DMing. She was an amazing artist and creative person who loved comics and nerd stuff and got really flustered when we went off her path she thought we’d take. My friend and I expressed that she couldn’t do that, like just literally tell us no. I don’t think we were mean but she was super sensitive and insecure about it and she just gave up then and there and never tried to DM again or play D&D much more for that matter. Like the shame of not being perfect killed any potential love for the game. I wish I could go back in time and just not say anything until the end of the session or just be way way way more careful about the criticism. The hobby and me are so much poorer for the loss of the amazing DM I know she has inside her. The maps! The maps she made were so gorgeous and we never got to see any of them up close. 😭😭😭

    • @SummerOtaku
      @SummerOtaku 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Somewhat funny addendum to this story is she did go on to art college and now actually works for Hasbro in some kind design capacity and sent me a screen shot of her in a meeting about the next D&D stuff to taunt me. 😂

  • @cintiaedel3517
    @cintiaedel3517 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    My first actual big campaign was a mess partly because of mE and partly because of my players. On my side, I was partially doing the same as you. I was just writing a bad "decision based rpg game" module, and above that I was just implementing in the world and story the things *I* wanted to see, assuming my players would want it too. I was just making MY story trying and failing to make mix of NieR Automata, Dark Souls and Fire Emblem.
    On my players'... Well, as I was bad "writing modules" they were bad at communicating their interests. I would actually talk to them, at the group and in private, trying to recieve feedback (but not looking for them to modify my precious story of course, I was too selfish at the time) and they would just answer "yeah, it's fun". They made 0 effort to actually get involved in the story, probably encouraged by my dm-"style" tbh, but they were also making 0 effort to learn how to play the game and to help me running it.
    So... Yeah, mistakes were made by everyone. It was just a called disaster from the beggining.

  • @blackcatleader2459
    @blackcatleader2459 ปีที่แล้ว

    A story like this makes me worry. I've never played D&D before and I'm about to run mine and my friends first campaign. Gah...

    • @SupergeekMike
      @SupergeekMike  ปีที่แล้ว

      You’re going to do great! And if it doesn’t go as well as you might like, just keep at it and keep playing, I promise it’s a ton of fun! 😁

  • @marshalls951
    @marshalls951 ปีที่แล้ว

    starting my very first game on 28 oktober, wish me luck

    • @SupergeekMike
      @SupergeekMike  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Good luck!!!

    • @marshalls951
      @marshalls951 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@SupergeekMike didn't actually think anyone was going to respond since this video is 4 months old, let alone the legend himself!
      Thanks allot!

  • @frozenfeonix1328
    @frozenfeonix1328 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    DMed a one shot once because our usual DM said nope someone else's turn my stuff isnt ready i basically ran is like a prebuild module about my characters family history and their fall from nobility handed them prebuilt sheets think i did good but my boss monster did get killed in 2 rounds so i cheated and gave it undead fortitude and a how to summon ghost wolf minions on the fly while also going well at least one of the players need to live or my character gets back to the futured oddly my proudest part was at the end i framed it as my character telling the story at camp with the party the night before we fought the big boss so if he died at least the family history didnt die with him

    • @SupergeekMike
      @SupergeekMike  2 ปีที่แล้ว

      That sounds awesome! That’s such a cool way to integrate the adventure into an ongoing campaign :)

    • @frozenfeonix1328
      @frozenfeonix1328 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@SupergeekMike ya he was my third pc after my drow and kobold died so he never really got a backstory moment or wanted one so i took my chance to use that 3 page backstory local history of his ancestral home and a family tree going back like 8 generations

  • @TakeWalker
    @TakeWalker 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    for some reason, I thought the title meant you had *just* made your first attempt at DMing and it went poorly XD

  • @supernova0302
    @supernova0302 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Hi supermike in new and I would like u to cover the now famous Laura's scream at the exact moment that carpet died. I always thought It was when she found out she was pregnant with Ronan. Then she announced she was pregnant at the end of season one. Maybe u can dig deeper and some concrete evidence instead of my hunches. Ty and love the vids.

    • @SupergeekMike
      @SupergeekMike  2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Do you mean the scene when the carpet is disenchanted during the Slayer's Take arc, in the acid pit? If so, that was in 2015, and she did not become pregnant with Ronan until late 2017, so the two were unrelated. The scream from Laura (and the others) was a genuine reaction to the carpet becoming ruined.

    • @supernova0302
      @supernova0302 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@SupergeekMike ok good to know ty for clearing it up for me. Much 💕.

    • @SupergeekMike
      @SupergeekMike  2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@supernova0302 My pleasure!

  • @elvenatheart982
    @elvenatheart982 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Hey, you can become better bwcause ypu see those mistakes.

  • @Beau74
    @Beau74 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    You always look like you've been drinking too much gin and tonic