just starting out with dnd, played another format before. i think about 5 hours for a session but i procrastinate a lot, so most of the time just as much as i can scribble on my notes before the session starts
@@dominikbaumgart1597 staring out, it can be very hard to find what works and what doesn't, so taking a bunch of time to prep then throwing most of that away is understandable. Hopefully you'll find with time what works for and actually helps you run a better game!
The "all your notes are Schrödinger's cat" is both a really fun and useful tip. When your players choose between going to one of two villages, none of them will know that both villages were the same all along because you only had 1 plot planned for both of them. And this won't even break the consistency as long as you take notes and remember what happened in that specific place so you can reference it and connect it to something later down the road.
Yes! Though it can be very difficult to navigate the illusion of choice vs a sandbox of options as a DM. Keeping at least some of those "drop in" villages or encounters on hand can help a lot when players go a totally unprepared direction.
I’m so impressed by this channel! I am currently creating a home brew campaign on about a years playing experience (and 0 DM experience) your videos have been great to help me through some sticky points
That's good to hear! I never even played before DMing, so having a year of play experience is going to be a lot of help 😊. My only recommendation for a new homebrew campaign is to start small and plan for it to be short. If you do short campaigns early on, you can try a bunch of stuff quickly to see what you and your table like! And it can be less stressful to keep a campaign going for 10 sessions than 100. But it's all up to you and what you want to do! Just discuss the plan with everyone in a session 0!
For real dude, how the hell don´t you have more subscribers, i really hope for your big boom of subs. Damn... high quality, comedy and information. Youre a legend. Keep it coming^^
As others have said, your work is really nice and succinct. It's engaging. My planning usually take a couple of hours over the week leading up to the next session. It's often on my mind as I do other things so when I have an idea I write it down. As a writer I learned that planning too much almost always leads to failure and burnout since I obsess and as a theater kid I can usually improv something on the spot. Most of it relies on reading the module I'm running and trying to make my players have cool moments that force them to care about their world. They always seem to surprise me in the best ways and giving them the right avenues to wow me is becoming the main thing I focus on. The druid wants to join the Emerald Enclave, I use it to make him think more about his backstory and goals. Things like that. The biggest prep thing I do though is watching TH-cam videos. Series like yours can help prep and show things I hadnt thought of before.. Anyway sorry for the essay.
Thank you for leaving a heart felt comment. It's not an essay, it's just that phones and comment sections makes sentences look like paragraphs. I'm happy to be a small part in your journey to make a better game for yourself and your group. I myself have burnt out trying to fill in details instead of focusing on what the players and the party want to do. I highly recommend the "How to be a great gm" TH-cam channel. Guy has a lot if videos, but I especially recommend his death of plot video. Gave me at least some ideas on how I want to DM going forward. th-cam.com/video/hKEeTusSOIw/w-d-xo.html
@@GreenDM Thanks so much. Ill check it out! Your video does an amaxing job of takjing about prep and giving resources Ill be sendung this to some mates.
Idk if they think the voice is too silly, make him an even more vile antagonist. "Gorsh, looks like I moidered all the chil'en you just saved. Whoopsie daisy!"
How do you prep? And how long does it take?
just starting out with dnd, played another format before. i think about 5 hours for a session but i procrastinate a lot, so most of the time just as much as i can scribble on my notes before the session starts
@@dominikbaumgart1597 staring out, it can be very hard to find what works and what doesn't, so taking a bunch of time to prep then throwing most of that away is understandable. Hopefully you'll find with time what works for and actually helps you run a better game!
Give the players a puzzle and the "correct" solution is whatever one amuses you the most
The "all your notes are Schrödinger's cat" is both a really fun and useful tip. When your players choose between going to one of two villages, none of them will know that both villages were the same all along because you only had 1 plot planned for both of them. And this won't even break the consistency as long as you take notes and remember what happened in that specific place so you can reference it and connect it to something later down the road.
Yes! Though it can be very difficult to navigate the illusion of choice vs a sandbox of options as a DM.
Keeping at least some of those "drop in" villages or encounters on hand can help a lot when players go a totally unprepared direction.
I’m so impressed by this channel! I am currently creating a home brew campaign on about a years playing experience (and 0 DM experience) your videos have been great to help me through some sticky points
That's good to hear! I never even played before DMing, so having a year of play experience is going to be a lot of help 😊. My only recommendation for a new homebrew campaign is to start small and plan for it to be short. If you do short campaigns early on, you can try a bunch of stuff quickly to see what you and your table like! And it can be less stressful to keep a campaign going for 10 sessions than 100.
But it's all up to you and what you want to do! Just discuss the plan with everyone in a session 0!
For real dude, how the hell don´t you have more subscribers, i really hope for your big boom of subs. Damn... high quality, comedy and information. Youre a legend. Keep it coming^^
Thank you! You're a legend for finding such a small channel!
As others have said, your work is really nice and succinct. It's engaging. My planning usually take a couple of hours over the week leading up to the next session. It's often on my mind as I do other things so when I have an idea I write it down. As a writer I learned that planning too much almost always leads to failure and burnout since I obsess and as a theater kid I can usually improv something on the spot.
Most of it relies on reading the module I'm running and trying to make my players have cool moments that force them to care about their world. They always seem to surprise me in the best ways and giving them the right avenues to wow me is becoming the main thing I focus on. The druid wants to join the Emerald Enclave, I use it to make him think more about his backstory and goals. Things like that. The biggest prep thing I do though is watching TH-cam videos. Series like yours can help prep and show things I hadnt thought of before..
Anyway sorry for the essay.
Thank you for leaving a heart felt comment. It's not an essay, it's just that phones and comment sections makes sentences look like paragraphs.
I'm happy to be a small part in your journey to make a better game for yourself and your group.
I myself have burnt out trying to fill in details instead of focusing on what the players and the party want to do.
I highly recommend the "How to be a great gm" TH-cam channel. Guy has a lot if videos, but I especially recommend his death of plot video. Gave me at least some ideas on how I want to DM going forward.
th-cam.com/video/hKEeTusSOIw/w-d-xo.html
@@GreenDM Thanks so much. Ill check it out! Your video does an amaxing job of takjing about prep and giving resources Ill be sendung this to some mates.
Idk if they think the voice is too silly, make him an even more vile antagonist. "Gorsh, looks like I moidered all the chil'en you just saved. Whoopsie daisy!"
ty for explaining this in a concise video -- i dislike the hour-long ramble videos that are on this topic
Thank you! Can be hard to be concise and informative, so I am happy this video balanced that well for you!
Great work and info as always. I should prepare better fpr my next campaign.
Fantastic video, thank you for the great work!
Thank you! Extremely useful and straight to the point! 😁👌
Hope it helps!
Good video, keep it up
Thank you! Happy to get something out for april... Even if it was the last day of April 😅
All I learned was to let my barbarian throw critters into lava pits
Very good take away.
I love your videos so much
Thank you!
Listen buddy, I happen to like gothic horror and I'll be running CoS as my first campaign as a DM
Good luck! When you can pull it off, it's a lot of fun!
✨Engagement✨
It even has sparkles! Now that's good engagement!
Jokes on you, you think I prep
Chad move right there