Making a one off NPC that has no abilities and you only intend to use once but your PC's all adore him and want to take him on adventures with them....oh god poor Gilear...XD
In the first campaign I ever played, it was also our DM's first time DM'ing. We captured a goblin and nicknamed him "Backpack". Because we tied him up and our Barbarian carried him like a backpack. For weeks. To this day he's been my favourite NPC.
Dave Toms - Sounds familiar. In my first session of DMing, my players captured one of the goblins, had a high charisma roll to persuade him to help them, and he ended up staying with them long term. He’s mostly useless but they find it worthwhile to protect him, giving him food and the occasional “shinies” he covets to keep him friendly. They love the way he talks (which of course I had come up with on the spot), and the fact that his name is Rarflenargen - which turns out to be an old family name; all the other goblins had names like Bill, Sally, and Joe.
This has completely thrown over so many plots of mine. Once they UNKNOWINGLY killed the endboss on first sight and then proceeded to follow a line of investigation that involved a throw away priest. So I changed the whole middle of the story AND put someone new in charge of the whole organisation. Wored out fine, but imagine my fucking face when that soldier one-hit the boss and there was NOTHING I could do about it, because I was open about his HP. Now I regularly lie to my players to keep the story going and the challange up.
"If you make an NPC that is beloved by the PCs, they will take them along even if they don't have any abilities.".... Literally had a talking statue head, just the bust, that the PCs fell in love with and decided to make 'Buster' part of their group. They even did a side quest to get an animated armor set for Buster to reside in.... I have made a grave mistake.
@@derekhoward8614 they left buster with the lady they were supposed to protect, and the two of them got abducted. Which became the main catalyst for moving the story forward. The BBEG became the main target when he flew buster up several flights and dropped him into the stone courtyard shattering him into dust.
I had a talking shrunken head on a stick. They carried it around for a year long campaign, talking to it occasionally. After the campaign, I did a one shot in the past of the same universe which ended with a cultist making a lich angry. The punishment? Shrunken head, eternal life, stick.
Brennan is absolutely right about the NPC thing around 10:20. I had a merchant character in the middle of the desert as a throwaway character since my players decided to go farther and ended up getting lost. I basically made him a Khajit from Skyrim and his only purpose was to steer the characters away from the area because nothing was there since this merchant sold sand...in the desert. But he didn't accept coins for the sand, he only took sand as currency, so they would take sand from the ground to buy sand from him to which he just added back to the ground. They LOVED this guy. I ended up having to give him a conclusion at the end of the story too because they wanted to know what happened to this rando merchant xD. Edited for spelling.*
Freakin' loved the idea of the sand merchant in the desert. If I ever use it on a campaign, be sure it will be named Xsariaks in honour of it's creator.
@@robertrodriguezharo1906bro I'm starting a campaign very soon and the players' first mission will happen in a desert, something about a tomb that's rumored to be that of an ancient Emperor of the Sands in a place called the Valley of Winds, and you can be 100% sure that Xzarias will be there waiting for someone to trade a bit of sand with him.
I started watching college humor for the jokes but the fact that DnD is why I'm staying and got Dropout for is truly one of the biggest changes I've undergone this decade.
30:00 I feel like I'm transitioning from a beginner GM to an intermediate, and one of the biggest revelations to me right now is that keeping secrets from players is usually not valuable for very long, and being transparent can actually enhance the game. Just open up and communicate. Also, if you have Big Story Secrets, don't keep them for more than a few sessions, then reveal The Whole Truth, and you will find that it actually deepens the players' engagement with the world, and deepens your story. Players aren't dumb, they probably already know and they probably already have better story ideas in mind than your Big Secrets.
Piggybacking onto this, something told to me that hammered this idea home was, "A secret isn't a secret until someone else knows." As DMs we sometimes get in the habit of only letting the players know what their PCs would know, but learning to trust your players with information just as much as you would like them to trust you with information will enhance your games dramatically. Even if that means finding out which players you can't trust with information, sadly.
@@loganmcgee18 Yeah, a lot of the time I think players have better ideas than I do, and they will actually feel more ownership and engagement when their suggestions like, "What if SHE is the true villain all along?" are actually taken seriously.
a summary of a session I dmed when everyone was drunk: They planned on seeing the king and queen, parleying with some wererats, and holding a rally to recruit people into their army. They instead broke into someone's house and killed them, then convinced the king that person had given them his house and then immediately skipped town.
9:55 I learned this in my very first session ever as a DM... we were starting Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and i spun up a ticket-taker working at the carnival who was getting huffy that the PCs were lollygagging in his line. Lo and behold, the players adored his "disgruntled retail worker" personality and convinced him to quit his job and accompany them to the Feywild. It was useful for a while, I made him a barbarian to help out the party of squishies, but now that they have a paladin in the party, well... the feywild is a dangerous place, and the party has made some dangerous enemies 🤷
His point about character creation is extremely helpful. Tell ur players what type of adventure ur running, otherwise they might end up like me. I made a triton barbarian with low charisma looking for a cure to a magical curse for a friend's campaign. It turned out that the campaign i was joining was an intrigue and political style story that took place in a setting where magic was literally just introduced a few weeks ago and extremely rare - my character was basically useless and just kinda sat there trying (and failing) to do something of value for the 2 sessions i stayed with it before i left in frustration.
That character is really cool! But you’re right, they weren’t a fit for that setting. Working together with your DM helps EVERYONE match settings to characters. This is not your DM’s fault or yours. It’s more of a “we’d both be happier if we’d communicated more” scenario.
Been wanting to play dnd with my friends for about a year now, but we didn't have a dm. I finally decided to bite the bullet and learn how to dm myself. My first session is this weekend. Your videos have been super inspiring and helpful! You seem like a great person and are a wonderful dm and interviewer. Thanks for doing what you do!
Usually I have the players make a goal for themselves along with their backstory. I then sprinkle in things from their backstory and hints for the goal in the campaign so they want to continue.
I really think preparing a Brennan style solo intro for every player and then having them compelled to converge is the ideal way to do it. Thanks for the tips, Brennan!
I know this is a 2 year old video, but the comments on one shots are so incredibly true. We had a player missing from our regular campaign so we decided to do a one shot, where I DM’d. My wife’s PC decided to go off the freaking CHAIN. Turned a one shot into a 3 shot. Which I’m glad to find out is incredibly common
The first time I ran my "Haunted Mansion" one shot, (we didnt really have a session 0 because I knew everyone and we had all played together before,) I dropped them in the tavern and the did the whole awkward "I walk up to So-and-so's character and say Hi" thing and we got on. They didnt do much roleplaying in town and basically got right into the mansion. The second time I ran it, this last week I put everyone on a trade caravan on the way Into town instead, and had them ambushed by some bandits a few minutes in. They fought them off, congratulated (and derided) eachother's performance in the fight, then went to the tavern etc. It was a great oppurtunity for some "Show, dont tell" characterization I think, and skips the possibly meandering 'Meet in a Tavern' intro that some dont like
The hook for my party members to get together in the campaign I've planned is that they're all travelling on the same train and there's a Murder On The Orient Express situation where they have to team up to find the killer. Hopefully by the end of the session they'll have bantered enough to feel naturally that they should stick together
Literally me! Mine is bomb on a city space ship in the year 3500 but same vibe. Can't go anywhere, they need to solve shit and good luck doing it on your own. The campaign is designed to be only 4 sessions maybe so is going to be short, fast and sweet
I’ve found this advice very useful as I’m starting the Light of Xaryxis module. I found the intro incredibly barebones, but because I’ve spoken with my players, and we’ve done a session 0, I’m actually prepared to run a half decent game. The players start 1 level earlier than when the module would normally start, and they fight some giant monster that threatens a festival held at a seaside town; all while foreshadowing for the coming events is sprinkled in. The random captain who basically just says, “Hey you guys wanna come on my spaceship and get off this dying rock?” is now linked to half the party members, who are crew on her spelljammer; and, given their shared experience in killing an incredibly large, very, VERY hungry caterpillar, they actually have a reason to pick up the party and bring them into space.
I put these on in the background when I'm doing errands around the house and I constantly have to run back to my little notebook and write down ideas for my campaign that Brennan knocks loose with his insights. Truly incredible advice and just a heartwarming vibe that makes me feel more confident as a DM.
I just started DM’ing a campaign recently, the reason my group is together (chosen by the group themselves) is that they met in cloud watching club in college, became friends, stayed friends, and got hired as a group by their employer
Such an underrated series. 36k views is nothing to scoff at, sure, but all of the Adventuring Academy videos are wonderful resources for players and DMs, alike, as well as a fun way to get to know the Celebrity DnD players and DMs a bit more.
I love this series. I just started my foray into D&D as both a player and a DM a couple months ago and I am consuming tips and tricks non stop. Thank you so much for putting this content out!
I really liked the way i started my first (and only) campaign (although being a new DM at the time i could have implemented the start better in many, many ways): Everyone was a part of a large caravan that got hit by an avalanche on their way to a large trade city, the caravan sustained heavy damages and got stranded in the wildernis with many injured and dangerously low on supplies. someone had to go get help and wouldn't you know it our hero's just so happened to be in the best shape to undertake the perilous journey back to civilization........ the idea being to start the campaign with a crisis of sorts that requires a small group of people to step up on the plate for their own well being or that of those around them. similar scenarios might be: A shipwreck, a village getting over run by goblinoids, a nomadic tribe is being corrupted by a mysterious fog and only the hero's have the regenerative power to withstand it's influence or a bank gets held hostage by a group of terrorists and our heros need to take them down from the inside or never see daylight again.........
having a drink with dnd is cool just dont get drunk. It is called confidence juice and that just helps with getting into the RP and relaxing with your mates. Getting drunk ends up with just abandoning the game
My party and i play a jokey dnd game that doubles as a drinking game, where there's a list of things that we have to drink to, some things specific to each player. At the end we're all piss drunk and usually end up forgetting the end of the session, which ends up being double the fun when we have to resolve our drunken mishaps during the next session.
Can confirm, my "im a new dm. Ill so a oneshot" oneshot is now an almost Westmarches style Arcane University where my core group and a group of family memebers are enrolled and doing different things. (They did both latch onto a throw-away line on a noticeboard about a lost rat, and spend way too much time looking for it)
I thought that plus sign was a genius bit about the camera being out of focus. Three minutes in and thinking, man they're really committing to this bit! 🤦🏻♀️😂
Brennan, you are the best! Your cadence, your charisma, your natural thought processes. Absolutely wonderful. I never had any interest in DND and you make me want to try DMing. Didnt know what I was missing with DND until you showed me your passion for it. So happy you get to do this as a profession
Bing watching this as I prep for running my first ever campaign, we have done one session as like a tutorial level (for new dnd players and new DM lol) and now I want to run a campaign that feels as character driven and be the best DM I can be! I’m starting with a module but love the advice on keeping things loose and reactive on how they get there, or if they even want to. If they dont do what the campaign wants they will just have the consequences of not stopping what’s happening and they will have to decide how they are going to react to that!
On the last point(red herrings). Note that perception and investigation are 2 different checks. Let your players perceive herrings then, if they're going off the rails, use investigation to tell them "no me just liked the shiny rock, it is not part of the plot." According to 1 feat, all characters have a passive investigation score. Anything you think is obvious, is obvious to their characters (unless they dumb in game.)
"Just a heads up players, not everything I say is relevant to the plot of the story......." *DM snaps his head back and raises and eyebrow at the player* "However, keep in mind...... anything I say could be relevant to the plot of the story!" lolololol Freakin love it!
If you gonna play Drunk n Dragons then DND Beyond for all players is a must. The ability to just click on a check and it automatically roll and apply bonuses is fantastic. Ontop of that I have found down time activities in a tavern also work well. Even just playing Liars Dice (Google search for rules, it’s very easy to play) in game can be a hoot when there are in game rewards on the table.
Nah bro my players are too green or something, lol. I mention some things with like a great degree of emphasis and then they just kinda stare at me waiting for me to continue after I'm done talking about it lul
So, it sounds like maybe they need some extra encouragement and confidence. Calling them by their characters’ names, asking them questions about what they would like to do and how they feel about different characters, and occasionally putting a timer on their combat decisions, will all help them make stronger decisions. At the same time, a little railroading won’t kill them. Green PCs need breadcrumbs to follow and that’s okay.
I almost feel the exact way about dungeon MASTER or Game MASTER. I'm a storyteller. A narrator. Everyone else gets to write the story with me and as the narrator im kinda just like "yes that can totally happen" or "okay so let's reel this back a bit"
First thing to make a party cohesive is the buy in from the players. Point blank just ask the player what would make their character want to stay with the party. That way you can work with that as a hook to have that character do so. Now sometimes it’s easy. An example for mine was that both my character and one of the party members (I was a later addition to the table for context) had a connection to this one npc. When we both discovered that this npc was in trouble my character and them teamed up to help each other. My character then stayed afterwards because said npc said they were worried about their old friend (the pc in the party already) and asked my character to stay. Also we had some rp moments and my character had already promised to be another pc’s friend (considering we just had a violent run in with that pc’s toxic ex-friend, my character was doing this also as a reassurance). The other part is that I made my character a steady type who likes caretaking and this lot was….a hot mess we will say in a kind way. Affectionate towards each other but yes, hot mess the whole lot and it would be easy for such an insightful and perceptive character as mine to clock that they were prone to a series of bad luck. I made my character one who doesn’t sit back if they can help, especially those they feel affection for, and they tend to develop affection fast despite their usual habit of “wait and see” for situations. They usually rely more on a hunch when it comes to people to trust and befriend and who not to. Anyway so that’s how we meshed and quickly. Monk and I also quickly realized during some rp that our characters clicked and would make for a very good friendship once some hiccups were settled (everyone has their rocky sections of a friendship) so we gladly leaned into that. It left the last two of the party pretty easy to draw in when now I had a connection to the majority. Actually I even had a connection to one of those last two since we were same faction and, while not having met before, recognized that and had heard of each other’s reputations. I have had a good many chances to mesh my characters over the years and I always try to find a reason why they stay in the party and why. Most times my personality bleed over is myself being a caretaker, so that gets added into most of my characters to some degree, but also I find other ties and reasons. I listen to my fellow players and ask questions and, if I find something, ask them if they don’t mind me meshing this or that together so we have a link or a parallel theme, etc. Like I said, I try to find something. Same with the dm as I treat the world as a character too and ask what themes and links I can create. I enjoy making a character that feels like they are living and breathing that world. But that’s me. But for all that, this is why I say the first step is the buy in by the players. My most successful times I have made my characters is when there is buy in, not just from the dm, but the table as a whole. That’s how you get the party to stay together, but having everyone buy in first and meshing together reasons to stay together. Even irl, people need multiple reasons to do what they do. And those complex ties mean they are less likely to untangle themselves from those ties.
the best way i've started a long format campaign was they all started as prisoners on a slave ship they woke up Skyrim style, that way they had to break free, and take over the ship, once they did that they had to get to the destination (they were more than half way there so turning around wasn't an option as they would have run p\out of supplies) once they landed they were already together for 2 weeks. Also once there they needed money to get home thus they start questing, but they also have a built in first BBEG the slaver who was paying the Captain/Crew. By the time the fininshed that and were 3rd level they had become invested in the small town and were then summoned to the Counts court for a meeting.
I'd love to see Brennan's notes from Unsleeping City. I (MIGHT) plan to run my own "futuristic" horror/fantasy/Supernatural based campaign, and have some very VERY loose ideas, such as NPC's, locations and stuff. I'm mostly worried about not having enough/too much information. I don't want to drone on about a world background or history that people might not enjoy, but on the other hand, I'm worried about not having enough information where a character asks about a place or something and being like "uh...". I'm also curious how people make cities and towns, and how many things they put in it (shops, herbalist places, key locations). I'm a first time DM and have been DMing Waterdeep (soon to be Mad Mage as well), but feel a lack of confidence in my own resolve to either DMing, and that the players are having a good time. I can resonate with Brennan as he explains the lack of "time" for prep work, as I have been feeling it was more of a "chore" than something I "wanted" to do. Lack of motivation was really hard (before a sudden brew session for a campaign happened) for a while and contributed to my inability to want to do prep work. I honestly hope that I can flesh out these ideas into a campaign in which my players might be interested and invested in! Hope to see more videos like this, and hopefully more episodes of Unsleeping City as well as Fantasy High!
The one-off NPC that we grew attatched to in our group's first campaign in Eberron was a kobold criminal called Sniks, he was literally just the one enemy we didn't kill in our first encounter within Sharn so we could question him, and from that point on we kept him in a backpack as a little companion who was always antagonistic towards us, eventually we even left him to help watch the kids of an orphanage our minotaur barbarian donated to as a sort of penance, but he eventually ran away and rejoined the criminal organization or something and we never heard from him again. The campaign is over now, but the DM of that campaign plans to run a second campaign that is set half a year or so later but in Karrnath, so maybe by some stroke of luck we might end up in Sharn and once again meet Sniks the Kobold.
I got my group together after a lot of work. All three of my PC’s had reasons to hate each other. One was basically a fantasy cop and the other two were his prisoners. One of the two Druids was basically framed by the other. And the third one found both of the others to be either evil (fantasy cop) or betrayers (other Druid). How they all managed to come together was pretty simple: I forced them to be in the same place until they found a reason to stay together. And the fantasy cop forsworn his oaths to the evil king once it become obvious he was evil
This is reminding me of a particularly difficult campaign where I gave a mission statement to try and give some direction and get everyone on the same page and set the ground rules. "You are each unknown adventures who have heard the call to adventure and the need of this city due to a surge of monsters pouring out of the mountains. If you characters haven't meet before you meet on the caravan trip to the city." I mistakenly assumed that all the players would have read the quick 3 paragraphs on "WHAT you should know for character creation" including the above setup and guidance such as race will be important part of the campaign etc. This dude walks in with I want to be an elvish prince on a pilgrimage. Whatever cool as long as he understands no one will no who he is cool have some fun with that. But he got annoyed he didn't get royal treatment from the city nobility which would fundamentally change the campaign I had planned on. Normally whatever but I just didn't have the time to rewrite the campaign for him given college.
The only idea for a one shot I've been toying with is basically dropping the Players into the trailer for Magic the Gathering War of the Spark. The tenth district of Ravnica is under siege. Nicol Bolas is sitting atop his Ziggurat. An army of 100,000 Death Knights, 20,000 Liches, and all manner of zombified beasts plated in blue metal are pouring out of a portal in the middle of what used to be Ravnica's biggest shopping mall. The Interplanar Beacon has lured you and a thousand other planeswalkers to Ravnica, and the Immortal Sun has blocked all your planeswalker powers. The inhabitants of Ravnica are pissed. The Dreadhoarde is determined to rip your soul out of your chest. Everyone make 3 level 20 characters and lets see how long they last after being dropped one by one in the middle of the war zone. Don't worry about the time limit. At the end of this play session either the Dragon will be dead, or 500 CR 25 undead will overrun whatever building your characters are hiding in.
I have my 3 massive games and my 30 odd games that are old or finished. The 1st of the massive games have about 20% of the things finished and so im taking about 50% in to game 3.
At this point, at least in my perspective, when I say to my friends that we're gonna play an one shot, I've already fully mentalized myself that this is gonna take at least 4 sessions. Also, if it ends and people still wanna play, I'll start my campaign from there. If not, no harm done
Story time: I was dming for a group that needed to hire a boat. They went and found the harbor master who gave them the names of three ships, their captains, and an idea of who they each worked for. Players said, "Obviously, we're going to hire boat one. They work for the same people we're allied to." They meet the captain and pay him for passage. But then one of the players goes. "I wanna check out those other two boats." So they do some legwork boat number two is a merchant vessel, faster but more expensive. But boat number three is... different. They approach and they notice that the ship has a strange leathery look to it. Like it's stretched over a frame. The harbor master said they were an independent vessel but the crew is clearly tough and grizzled. Then they find out the captain is wearing a cloak that matches the ship. Kraken leather. Some careful questions later and my players are groaning. "We could have hired the bad ass pirate kraken submarine!?! Why didn't we do that?"
fun story, running a murder mystery for a couple players, jokingly said there was blue pigment in the shape of a dogs paw on a wine bladder (the bladder was supposed to be a clue, i was doing a blue's clues). my players went down the bunny trail of where did this blue pigment come from so I had to invent out of whole cloth the story of how this pigment gets made and what it had to do with the murder.
Your point of the DMs work beginning even before the first game is one of the biggest hurdles my group has right now. We're newer players and some of what my DM considers meta gaming is actually just stuff they should be doing, like telling us what kinds of enemies we'll mainly be facing or the world setting of the campaign. They don't realize that the players are not the characters, and trying to be secretive about stuff like the setting so that we can "discover it on our own during play." makes no sense. You want me to pick a home town from the sword coast, but at the same time keep the entire sword cost a secret so that I can discover it while playing? Nope, sorry. I'm reading about the sword coast and picking a place that makes sense to my character. Our first campaign ended early to a TPK because I rolled a ranger and my preferred targets were humans, none of which we fought since it was a goblin and orc focused campaign. Would have been nice to know that beforehand, but they consider that meta gaming so I guess I just get to play as what is basically just a normal dude with a bow and no other features for the first few levels.
My first chacter is now my perfect main npc He's a beastmaster ranger with a boat who's very chill and unmotivated with a rich backstory who I know everything about
Once found a good in-character reason for a lawful evil character of mine to burn a use of the wish spell to resurrect a party member who was killed by my father (warlock, dad is one of the dukes of hell lol, friend pulled the flames card from the deck of many things and my DM took the solid plot hook of it making my dad view my friend as an enemy). I found a way to make it advantageous to bring her back sealing a pact between my father and her order that keeps them out of his business in the 9 hells, letting me do what I personally wanted to do, while keeping it consistent with my characters motivations...
We have an NPC named Caldwell who just turned out to be a janitor, and in the very first game we played the DM tried to kill him Boromir style and we brought him back to life and will not let him go. Since then the DM has tried to get rid of him at least two other times and we've prevented it each time and delayed our entire quest, basically going on side quests for Caldwells 😂 Mind you we have an awesome DM so it's kind of become a game in and of itself. DM tries to get rid of him, we find ways to keep him. Good stuff 😁
hey Brennan, love your face, just wanted to ask if the bad kids/ fantasy high is ever coming back or are you guys done with the setting and the characters. it was the one of the first actual play shows I ever watched and fell in love with D&d through it, so I have a weak spot for those guys. just really wanted to know if that chapter is closed for good?
I find npc healers the hardest to run, because I know what the enemies can do. Like I had a cleric pc that lost connection during a dungeon, and no one knew the character well enough to run her, so I ended up doing it. Balancing healing, attacking, and support while knowing what was in the dungeon was a pain the ass. Like sure, I know you all just set yourself on fire by using Firebolt to get rid of the webs that you were caught in but I really don’t think I need to use one of my 2 third-levels on Mass Healing Word when there’s a boss waiting behind next cornere
![fellow fellow - พรุ่งนี้ไม่มีใครรู้ feat. INK WARUNTORN [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QP6JyjYx_W0/mqdefault.jpg)
But I'd just learned to love the plus sign ...
You'll love again.
Making a one off NPC that has no abilities and you only intend to use once but your PC's all adore him and want to take him on adventures with them....oh god poor Gilear...XD
I know the feeling, the cleric visited his temple and the very old high cleric was so entretained to them that they didn't want to leave
In the first campaign I ever played, it was also our DM's first time DM'ing. We captured a goblin and nicknamed him "Backpack". Because we tied him up and our Barbarian carried him like a backpack. For weeks. To this day he's been my favourite NPC.
Dave Toms - Sounds familiar. In my first session of DMing, my players captured one of the goblins, had a high charisma roll to persuade him to help them, and he ended up staying with them long term. He’s mostly useless but they find it worthwhile to protect him, giving him food and the occasional “shinies” he covets to keep him friendly. They love the way he talks (which of course I had come up with on the spot), and the fact that his name is Rarflenargen - which turns out to be an old family name; all the other goblins had names like Bill, Sally, and Joe.
This has completely thrown over so many plots of mine.
Once they UNKNOWINGLY killed the endboss on first sight and then proceeded to follow a line of investigation that involved a throw away priest. So I changed the whole middle of the story AND put someone new in charge of the whole organisation. Wored out fine, but imagine my fucking face when that soldier one-hit the boss and there was NOTHING I could do about it, because I was open about his HP.
Now I regularly lie to my players to keep the story going and the challange up.
The first non hostile Gobbo, to most first time adventuring parties, often has this effect. Lol.
Brennan: "The best example of a good peer teacher I can think of..."
My brain: MURPH
Brennan: "is Murph"
Brennan gives off such friendly dad vibes when he says "hey gang!" ToT
DENNY
Camp counselor energy
Well, his biggest goal in life apparently IS being a dad, so he really mastered that. He's the dad for all of us.
with how often in-session he says kiddo and his language is very very dad-like!
Brennan's greatest ambition is to be a dad!
"If you make an NPC that is beloved by the PCs, they will take them along even if they don't have any abilities.".... Literally had a talking statue head, just the bust, that the PCs fell in love with and decided to make 'Buster' part of their group. They even did a side quest to get an animated armor set for Buster to reside in.... I have made a grave mistake.
Could you please let me know how it went lol
@@derekhoward8614 they left buster with the lady they were supposed to protect, and the two of them got abducted. Which became the main catalyst for moving the story forward. The BBEG became the main target when he flew buster up several flights and dropped him into the stone courtyard shattering him into dust.
@@drewcourtney376 that’s awesome lmao, I appreciate the reply
I had a talking shrunken head on a stick. They carried it around for a year long campaign, talking to it occasionally. After the campaign, I did a one shot in the past of the same universe which ended with a cultist making a lich angry. The punishment? Shrunken head, eternal life, stick.
@@drewcourtney376 Buster!! ... NNNOOOOOOOoooooooo
Brennan is absolutely right about the NPC thing around 10:20. I had a merchant character in the middle of the desert as a throwaway character since my players decided to go farther and ended up getting lost. I basically made him a Khajit from Skyrim and his only purpose was to steer the characters away from the area because nothing was there since this merchant sold sand...in the desert. But he didn't accept coins for the sand, he only took sand as currency, so they would take sand from the ground to buy sand from him to which he just added back to the ground. They LOVED this guy. I ended up having to give him a conclusion at the end of the story too because they wanted to know what happened to this rando merchant xD.
Edited for spelling.*
Now I want to know more about this sand merchand
Freakin' loved the idea of the sand merchant in the desert. If I ever use it on a campaign, be sure it will be named Xsariaks in honour of it's creator.
Now that's a sustainable business model
Dude is either lost his mind in the sands or is some sort of mystic
@@robertrodriguezharo1906bro I'm starting a campaign very soon and the players' first mission will happen in a desert, something about a tomb that's rumored to be that of an ancient Emperor of the Sands in a place called the Valley of Winds, and you can be 100% sure that Xzarias will be there waiting for someone to trade a bit of sand with him.
I started watching college humor for the jokes but the fact that DnD is why I'm staying and got Dropout for is truly one of the biggest changes I've undergone this decade.
Dayana Aparicio same.
really fucking same, thats what 2020+ does to you I guess, atleast the content is good
This comment literally described me except I’m late to everything 😭
Me too lol
30:00 I feel like I'm transitioning from a beginner GM to an intermediate, and one of the biggest revelations to me right now is that keeping secrets from players is usually not valuable for very long, and being transparent can actually enhance the game. Just open up and communicate. Also, if you have Big Story Secrets, don't keep them for more than a few sessions, then reveal The Whole Truth, and you will find that it actually deepens the players' engagement with the world, and deepens your story. Players aren't dumb, they probably already know and they probably already have better story ideas in mind than your Big Secrets.
Piggybacking onto this, something told to me that hammered this idea home was, "A secret isn't a secret until someone else knows." As DMs we sometimes get in the habit of only letting the players know what their PCs would know, but learning to trust your players with information just as much as you would like them to trust you with information will enhance your games dramatically. Even if that means finding out which players you can't trust with information, sadly.
@@loganmcgee18 Yeah, a lot of the time I think players have better ideas than I do, and they will actually feel more ownership and engagement when their suggestions like, "What if SHE is the true villain all along?" are actually taken seriously.
Aabria’s “what you don’t see” is an amazing tactic for storytelling imo, as long as your players don’t have a metagaming problem
Dramatic irony is a powerful tool@@darksentinel082
I don't know what to do without the plus sign... My love...
The references to gilear in this SLAYED ME
"thanks for attuning in" I can now use the magic item that is this youtube channel
a summary of a session I dmed when everyone was drunk: They planned on seeing the king and queen, parleying with some wererats, and holding a rally to recruit people into their army. They instead broke into someone's house and killed them, then convinced the king that person had given them his house and then immediately skipped town.
DM put a random goblin exile in the game to extort information from, my oath of redemption Paladin has made him his squire. Random NPCs are the best
i usually say to my player before the start of the campaign. "you guys know eachother already, figure out how"
9:55 I learned this in my very first session ever as a DM... we were starting Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and i spun up a ticket-taker working at the carnival who was getting huffy that the PCs were lollygagging in his line. Lo and behold, the players adored his "disgruntled retail worker" personality and convinced him to quit his job and accompany them to the Feywild. It was useful for a while, I made him a barbarian to help out the party of squishies, but now that they have a paladin in the party, well... the feywild is a dangerous place, and the party has made some dangerous enemies 🤷
I want to strongly agreed with Brennan here re one-shots. My only time DMing was a ‘one shot’ that took 3 sessions.
His point about character creation is extremely helpful. Tell ur players what type of adventure ur running, otherwise they might end up like me. I made a triton barbarian with low charisma looking for a cure to a magical curse for a friend's campaign. It turned out that the campaign i was joining was an intrigue and political style story that took place in a setting where magic was literally just introduced a few weeks ago and extremely rare - my character was basically useless and just kinda sat there trying (and failing) to do something of value for the 2 sessions i stayed with it before i left in frustration.
That character is really cool! But you’re right, they weren’t a fit for that setting. Working together with your DM helps EVERYONE match settings to characters.
This is not your DM’s fault or yours. It’s more of a “we’d both be happier if we’d communicated more” scenario.
Character creation should be collective, so everyone can create a coherent world
Been wanting to play dnd with my friends for about a year now, but we didn't have a dm. I finally decided to bite the bullet and learn how to dm myself. My first session is this weekend. Your videos have been super inspiring and helpful! You seem like a great person and are a wonderful dm and interviewer. Thanks for doing what you do!
Hey Boss… 2 years later… how did it go?
Genuinely curious to know too
Yeah bruh, we want to know! 🧙♂
How it go
the anticipation only builds w the years
Usually I have the players make a goal for themselves along with their backstory. I then sprinkle in things from their backstory and hints for the goal in the campaign so they want to continue.
I really think preparing a Brennan style solo intro for every player and then having them compelled to converge is the ideal way to do it. Thanks for the tips, Brennan!
It’d be super useful if Brennan could share what are the “bullet points” he talked about at around 26:00 for first level campaigns!
Favorite Monster in D&D?
**brennan**
MAN.
**the depth of this joke just ko'd me**
"I take blame for that"
"No, no! Its fine!"
That is how you be a decent person, we are all just people. Great job guys!
I know this is a 2 year old video, but the comments on one shots are so incredibly true.
We had a player missing from our regular campaign so we decided to do a one shot, where I DM’d. My wife’s PC decided to go off the freaking CHAIN. Turned a one shot into a 3 shot.
Which I’m glad to find out is incredibly common
The first time I ran my "Haunted Mansion" one shot, (we didnt really have a session 0 because I knew everyone and we had all played together before,) I dropped them in the tavern and the did the whole awkward "I walk up to So-and-so's character and say Hi" thing and we got on. They didnt do much roleplaying in town and basically got right into the mansion.
The second time I ran it, this last week I put everyone on a trade caravan on the way Into town instead, and had them ambushed by some bandits a few minutes in. They fought them off, congratulated (and derided) eachother's performance in the fight, then went to the tavern etc. It was a great oppurtunity for some "Show, dont tell" characterization I think, and skips the possibly meandering 'Meet in a Tavern' intro that some dont like
The starstruck T-shirt was some heavy foreshadowing!!!
One time I tried to run a one shot which was just a cavernous dungeon which had a monster they had to fight to get out.
It took at least 3 sessions.
The hook for my party members to get together in the campaign I've planned is that they're all travelling on the same train and there's a Murder On The Orient Express situation where they have to team up to find the killer. Hopefully by the end of the session they'll have bantered enough to feel naturally that they should stick together
Literally me! Mine is bomb on a city space ship in the year 3500 but same vibe. Can't go anywhere, they need to solve shit and good luck doing it on your own. The campaign is designed to be only 4 sessions maybe so is going to be short, fast and sweet
I’ve found this advice very useful as I’m starting the Light of Xaryxis module. I found the intro incredibly barebones, but because I’ve spoken with my players, and we’ve done a session 0, I’m actually prepared to run a half decent game. The players start 1 level earlier than when the module would normally start, and they fight some giant monster that threatens a festival held at a seaside town; all while foreshadowing for the coming events is sprinkled in. The random captain who basically just says, “Hey you guys wanna come on my spaceship and get off this dying rock?” is now linked to half the party members, who are crew on her spelljammer; and, given their shared experience in killing an incredibly large, very, VERY hungry caterpillar, they actually have a reason to pick up the party and bring them into space.
I put these on in the background when I'm doing errands around the house and I constantly have to run back to my little notebook and write down ideas for my campaign that Brennan knocks loose with his insights. Truly incredible advice and just a heartwarming vibe that makes me feel more confident as a DM.
I just started DM’ing a campaign recently, the reason my group is together (chosen by the group themselves) is that they met in cloud watching club in college, became friends, stayed friends, and got hired as a group by their employer
🥺 that is precious
Sometimes I like to throw random things at my party just to see if they get side tracked and it gives me a chuckle
Such an underrated series. 36k views is nothing to scoff at, sure, but all of the Adventuring Academy videos are wonderful resources for players and DMs, alike, as well as a fun way to get to know the Celebrity DnD players and DMs a bit more.
Questioneer: "how do you prepare for a campaign"
Brenan: "hang out with my mom"
Trying to fix the focus reminds me of my eyes when I first wake up. One second good, the next completely blurry
I love this series. I just started my foray into D&D as both a player and a DM a couple months ago and I am consuming tips and tricks non stop. Thank you so much for putting this content out!
I really liked the way i started my first (and only) campaign (although being a new DM at the time i could have implemented the start better in many, many ways):
Everyone was a part of a large caravan that got hit by an avalanche on their way to a large trade city, the caravan sustained heavy damages and got stranded in the wildernis with many injured and dangerously low on supplies.
someone had to go get help and wouldn't you know it our hero's just so happened to be in the best shape to undertake the perilous journey back to civilization........
the idea being to start the campaign with a crisis of sorts that requires a small group of people to step up on the plate for their own well being or that of those around them.
similar scenarios might be:
A shipwreck, a village getting over run by goblinoids, a nomadic tribe is being corrupted by a mysterious fog and only the hero's have the regenerative power to withstand it's influence or a bank gets held hostage by a group of terrorists and our heros need to take them down from the inside or never see daylight again.........
I love how the camera is attempting to prove to us that that, Brennan's face, is indeed a face.
Getting real CEO series vibes with Brennan and the cameraman talking about the technical issues.
having a drink with dnd is cool just dont get drunk. It is called confidence juice and that just helps with getting into the RP and relaxing with your mates. Getting drunk ends up with just abandoning the game
My party and i play a jokey dnd game that doubles as a drinking game, where there's a list of things that we have to drink to, some things specific to each player. At the end we're all piss drunk and usually end up forgetting the end of the session, which ends up being double the fun when we have to resolve our drunken mishaps during the next session.
Can we just give this man all the awards already? He's fucking brilliant.
Can confirm, my "im a new dm. Ill so a oneshot" oneshot is now an almost Westmarches style Arcane University where my core group and a group of family memebers are enrolled and doing different things.
(They did both latch onto a throw-away line on a noticeboard about a lost rat, and spend way too much time looking for it)
Please share the playlist of stock music! I would love somewhere to refer when I need some
There's a few really good playlists on Spotify, just search d&d playlist
But I want to know HIS playlists
I thought that plus sign was a genius bit about the camera being out of focus. Three minutes in and thinking, man they're really committing to this bit! 🤦🏻♀️😂
I LOVE WHEN HE ALWAYS SAYS HEY GANG
Brennan, you are the best! Your cadence, your charisma, your natural thought processes. Absolutely wonderful. I never had any interest in DND and you make me want to try DMing. Didnt know what I was missing with DND until you showed me your passion for it. So happy you get to do this as a profession
I'm 3 years late to seeing this, but for sure, i have learned to love the plus sign. It IS supposed to be there!
The first question was from me and I completely missed it live! T^T But thank you so much for answering! Forgot to include my name.
Bing watching this as I prep for running my first ever campaign, we have done one session as like a tutorial level (for new dnd players and new DM lol) and now I want to run a campaign that feels as character driven and be the best DM I can be! I’m starting with a module but love the advice on keeping things loose and reactive on how they get there, or if they even want to. If they dont do what the campaign wants they will just have the consequences of not stopping what’s happening and they will have to decide how they are going to react to that!
On the last point(red herrings). Note that perception and investigation are 2 different checks. Let your players perceive herrings then, if they're going off the rails, use investigation to tell them "no me just liked the shiny rock, it is not part of the plot." According to 1 feat, all characters have a passive investigation score. Anything you think is obvious, is obvious to their characters (unless they dumb in game.)
Brennan with the Starstruck t-shirt!!! That's so soft. (I'm rewatching all of those in preparation for my second DMing session!)
Maid Marian and her Merry Men had an entire episode about how the gang got together, so yeah, this shit is important!
"Just a heads up players, not everything I say is relevant to the plot of the story......."
*DM snaps his head back and raises and eyebrow at the player*
"However, keep in mind...... anything I say could be relevant to the plot of the story!"
lolololol Freakin love it!
That weird crosshairs on your face makes me this is footage from a Predator drone trying to get a firing solution.
"Either your playing or your drinking is going to suffer." LOL
23:10 I remember my on my first campaign, I played a ranger whose chosen enemies were Humans
If you gonna play Drunk n Dragons then DND Beyond for all players is a must. The ability to just click on a check and it automatically roll and apply bonuses is fantastic. Ontop of that I have found down time activities in a tavern also work well. Even just playing Liars Dice (Google search for rules, it’s very easy to play) in game can be a hoot when there are in game rewards on the table.
When he said he was coming at that from a biased perspective, my brain heard pothead perspective.
For people who want to skip the break thing that just says "Adventuring Academy Office Hours" with Brennan on it, Heres the timestamp to skip: 6:30
Nah bro my players are too green or something, lol. I mention some things with like a great degree of emphasis and then they just kinda stare at me waiting for me to continue after I'm done talking about it lul
So, it sounds like maybe they need some extra encouragement and confidence.
Calling them by their characters’ names, asking them questions about what they would like to do and how they feel about different characters, and occasionally putting a timer on their combat decisions, will all help them make stronger decisions.
At the same time, a little railroading won’t kill them. Green PCs need breadcrumbs to follow and that’s okay.
brennan look out you're being targeted
I almost feel the exact way about dungeon MASTER or Game MASTER. I'm a storyteller. A narrator. Everyone else gets to write the story with me and as the narrator im kinda just like "yes that can totally happen" or "okay so let's reel this back a bit"
I love randomly searching the monster manual for random encounters
Dndbeyond should advertise that with their site doing the math for you, you CAN get sloshed and play.
First thing to make a party cohesive is the buy in from the players. Point blank just ask the player what would make their character want to stay with the party. That way you can work with that as a hook to have that character do so. Now sometimes it’s easy.
An example for mine was that both my character and one of the party members (I was a later addition to the table for context) had a connection to this one npc. When we both discovered that this npc was in trouble my character and them teamed up to help each other. My character then stayed afterwards because said npc said they were worried about their old friend (the pc in the party already) and asked my character to stay. Also we had some rp moments and my character had already promised to be another pc’s friend (considering we just had a violent run in with that pc’s toxic ex-friend, my character was doing this also as a reassurance). The other part is that I made my character a steady type who likes caretaking and this lot was….a hot mess we will say in a kind way. Affectionate towards each other but yes, hot mess the whole lot and it would be easy for such an insightful and perceptive character as mine to clock that they were prone to a series of bad luck. I made my character one who doesn’t sit back if they can help, especially those they feel affection for, and they tend to develop affection fast despite their usual habit of “wait and see” for situations. They usually rely more on a hunch when it comes to people to trust and befriend and who not to. Anyway so that’s how we meshed and quickly. Monk and I also quickly realized during some rp that our characters clicked and would make for a very good friendship once some hiccups were settled (everyone has their rocky sections of a friendship) so we gladly leaned into that. It left the last two of the party pretty easy to draw in when now I had a connection to the majority. Actually I even had a connection to one of those last two since we were same faction and, while not having met before, recognized that and had heard of each other’s reputations.
I have had a good many chances to mesh my characters over the years and I always try to find a reason why they stay in the party and why. Most times my personality bleed over is myself being a caretaker, so that gets added into most of my characters to some degree, but also I find other ties and reasons. I listen to my fellow players and ask questions and, if I find something, ask them if they don’t mind me meshing this or that together so we have a link or a parallel theme, etc. Like I said, I try to find something. Same with the dm as I treat the world as a character too and ask what themes and links I can create. I enjoy making a character that feels like they are living and breathing that world. But that’s me.
But for all that, this is why I say the first step is the buy in by the players. My most successful times I have made my characters is when there is buy in, not just from the dm, but the table as a whole. That’s how you get the party to stay together, but having everyone buy in first and meshing together reasons to stay together. Even irl, people need multiple reasons to do what they do. And those complex ties mean they are less likely to untangle themselves from those ties.
the best way i've started a long format campaign was they all started as prisoners on a slave ship they woke up Skyrim style, that way they had to break free, and take over the ship, once they did that they had to get to the destination (they were more than half way there so turning around wasn't an option as they would have run p\out of supplies) once they landed they were already together for 2 weeks. Also once there they needed money to get home thus they start questing, but they also have a built in first BBEG the slaver who was paying the Captain/Crew. By the time the fininshed that and were 3rd level they had become invested in the small town and were then summoned to the Counts court for a meeting.
I'd love to see Brennan's notes from Unsleeping City. I (MIGHT) plan to run my own "futuristic" horror/fantasy/Supernatural based campaign, and have some very VERY loose ideas, such as NPC's, locations and stuff. I'm mostly worried about not having enough/too much information. I don't want to drone on about a world background or history that people might not enjoy, but on the other hand, I'm worried about not having enough information where a character asks about a place or something and being like "uh...". I'm also curious how people make cities and towns, and how many things they put in it (shops, herbalist places, key locations). I'm a first time DM and have been DMing Waterdeep (soon to be Mad Mage as well), but feel a lack of confidence in my own resolve to either DMing, and that the players are having a good time.
I can resonate with Brennan as he explains the lack of "time" for prep work, as I have been feeling it was more of a "chore" than something I "wanted" to do. Lack of motivation was really hard (before a sudden brew session for a campaign happened) for a while and contributed to my inability to want to do prep work. I honestly hope that I can flesh out these ideas into a campaign in which my players might be interested and invested in!
Hope to see more videos like this, and hopefully more episodes of Unsleeping City as well as Fantasy High!
The one-off NPC that we grew attatched to in our group's first campaign in Eberron was a kobold criminal called Sniks, he was literally just the one enemy we didn't kill in our first encounter within Sharn so we could question him, and from that point on we kept him in a backpack as a little companion who was always antagonistic towards us, eventually we even left him to help watch the kids of an orphanage our minotaur barbarian donated to as a sort of penance, but he eventually ran away and rejoined the criminal organization or something and we never heard from him again.
The campaign is over now, but the DM of that campaign plans to run a second campaign that is set half a year or so later but in Karrnath, so maybe by some stroke of luck we might end up in Sharn and once again meet Sniks the Kobold.
I got my group together after a lot of work. All three of my PC’s had reasons to hate each other. One was basically a fantasy cop and the other two were his prisoners. One of the two Druids was basically framed by the other. And the third one found both of the others to be either evil (fantasy cop) or betrayers (other Druid). How they all managed to come together was pretty simple: I forced them to be in the same place until they found a reason to stay together. And the fantasy cop forsworn his oaths to the evil king once it become obvious he was evil
hey look at brennan wearing his starstruck shirt! so cool.
I love having crazy characters. I once got a character into the campaign because of another characters backstory.
This is reminding me of a particularly difficult campaign where I gave a mission statement to try and give some direction and get everyone on the same page and set the ground rules. "You are each unknown adventures who have heard the call to adventure and the need of this city due to a surge of monsters pouring out of the mountains. If you characters haven't meet before you meet on the caravan trip to the city."
I mistakenly assumed that all the players would have read the quick 3 paragraphs on "WHAT you should know for character creation" including the above setup and guidance such as race will be important part of the campaign etc.
This dude walks in with I want to be an elvish prince on a pilgrimage. Whatever cool as long as he understands no one will no who he is cool have some fun with that. But he got annoyed he didn't get royal treatment from the city nobility which would fundamentally change the campaign I had planned on. Normally whatever but I just didn't have the time to rewrite the campaign for him given college.
Please share a playlist of the stock music you use!! My PCs love a good vibe song lol
crosshairs locked on and ready to learn some GM tips lol
The only idea for a one shot I've been toying with is basically dropping the Players into the trailer for Magic the Gathering War of the Spark.
The tenth district of Ravnica is under siege.
Nicol Bolas is sitting atop his Ziggurat.
An army of 100,000 Death Knights, 20,000 Liches, and all manner of zombified beasts plated in blue metal are pouring out of a portal in the middle of what used to be Ravnica's biggest shopping mall.
The Interplanar Beacon has lured you and a thousand other planeswalkers to Ravnica, and the Immortal Sun has blocked all your planeswalker powers.
The inhabitants of Ravnica are pissed.
The Dreadhoarde is determined to rip your soul out of your chest.
Everyone make 3 level 20 characters and lets see how long they last after being dropped one by one in the middle of the war zone. Don't worry about the time limit. At the end of this play session either the Dragon will be dead, or 500 CR 25 undead will overrun whatever building your characters are hiding in.
"That's good, and normal"
I have my 3 massive games and my 30 odd games that are old or finished. The 1st of the massive games have about 20% of the things finished and so im taking about 50% in to game 3.
ive learned to love the plus sign
Starstruck Shirt! Starstruck Shirt!
In my experience with a Drunk DND christmas oneshot. If everyoning including the DM is getting sloshed then things devolve into nonsense very quickly
I love him. And I must have him. XD All brilliant advice from a brilliant GM. I need one of these in my life.
"No player I've ever met has been ungrateful for information about what kind of campaign this is going to be." I've had parties of people like that.
At this point, at least in my perspective, when I say to my friends that we're gonna play an one shot, I've already fully mentalized myself that this is gonna take at least 4 sessions. Also, if it ends and people still wanna play, I'll start my campaign from there. If not, no harm done
Story time:
I was dming for a group that needed to hire a boat. They went and found the harbor master who gave them the names of three ships, their captains, and an idea of who they each worked for. Players said, "Obviously, we're going to hire boat one. They work for the same people we're allied to." They meet the captain and pay him for passage. But then one of the players goes. "I wanna check out those other two boats." So they do some legwork boat number two is a merchant vessel, faster but more expensive. But boat number three is... different. They approach and they notice that the ship has a strange leathery look to it. Like it's stretched over a frame. The harbor master said they were an independent vessel but the crew is clearly tough and grizzled. Then they find out the captain is wearing a cloak that matches the ship. Kraken leather. Some careful questions later and my players are groaning. "We could have hired the bad ass pirate kraken submarine!?! Why didn't we do that?"
fun story, running a murder mystery for a couple players, jokingly said there was blue pigment in the shape of a dogs paw on a wine bladder (the bladder was supposed to be a clue, i was doing a blue's clues). my players went down the bunny trail of where did this blue pigment come from so I had to invent out of whole cloth the story of how this pigment gets made and what it had to do with the murder.
Your point of the DMs work beginning even before the first game is one of the biggest hurdles my group has right now. We're newer players and some of what my DM considers meta gaming is actually just stuff they should be doing, like telling us what kinds of enemies we'll mainly be facing or the world setting of the campaign. They don't realize that the players are not the characters, and trying to be secretive about stuff like the setting so that we can "discover it on our own during play." makes no sense. You want me to pick a home town from the sword coast, but at the same time keep the entire sword cost a secret so that I can discover it while playing? Nope, sorry. I'm reading about the sword coast and picking a place that makes sense to my character.
Our first campaign ended early to a TPK because I rolled a ranger and my preferred targets were humans, none of which we fought since it was a goblin and orc focused campaign. Would have been nice to know that beforehand, but they consider that meta gaming so I guess I just get to play as what is basically just a normal dude with a bow and no other features for the first few levels.
I’d absolutely love it if you guys shared the music for the live show!!
I know I’m replying four years late but all of their music comes from a sound library called Epidemic Sound
I went into this guys office hours and when I left he said ‘muah’
Brennen with the beard.
Me: 😳😳😳
My first chacter is now my perfect main npc He's a beastmaster ranger with a boat who's very chill and unmotivated with a rich backstory who I know everything about
Once found a good in-character reason for a lawful evil character of mine to burn a use of the wish spell to resurrect a party member who was killed by my father (warlock, dad is one of the dukes of hell lol, friend pulled the flames card from the deck of many things and my DM took the solid plot hook of it making my dad view my friend as an enemy). I found a way to make it advantageous to bring her back sealing a pact between my father and her order that keeps them out of his business in the 9 hells, letting me do what I personally wanted to do, while keeping it consistent with my characters motivations...
We have an NPC named Caldwell who just turned out to be a janitor, and in the very first game we played the DM tried to kill him Boromir style and we brought him back to life and will not let him go. Since then the DM has tried to get rid of him at least two other times and we've prevented it each time and delayed our entire quest, basically going on side quests for Caldwells 😂 Mind you we have an awesome DM so it's kind of become a game in and of itself. DM tries to get rid of him, we find ways to keep him. Good stuff 😁
hey Brennan, love your face, just wanted to ask if the bad kids/ fantasy high is ever coming back or are you guys done with the setting and the characters. it was the one of the first actual play shows I ever watched and fell in love with D&d through it, so I have a weak spot for those guys. just really wanted to know if that chapter is closed for good?
Thank you for these :)
I find npc healers the hardest to run, because I know what the enemies can do. Like I had a cleric pc that lost connection during a dungeon, and no one knew the character well enough to run her, so I ended up doing it. Balancing healing, attacking, and support while knowing what was in the dungeon was a pain the ass. Like sure, I know you all just set yourself on fire by using Firebolt to get rid of the webs that you were caught in but I really don’t think I need to use one of my 2 third-levels on Mass Healing Word when there’s a boss waiting behind next cornere
such great advice, youre the best brennan
I want Brennan to be my dad
Aspiring (screen)writers pay thousands of dollars in books and seminars to get this advice. 🙏
Love seeing that subscribe count go up. Well deserved. 🙏