How to Get Into Tabletop RPGs!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ค. 2024
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Spire
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Dread
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For the Queen
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0:00 - Intro
1:59 - Part 1: You Can Do This
6:38 - Part 2: What game tho
14:56 - Part 3: Tips for Games Masters
26:19 - Part 4: Final Thoughts - เกม
"Actual Play is to roleplaying as pornography is to sex" is maybe the best & most concise explanation *of* and reassurance *against* the "Mercer Effect" I think I've ever heard.
The best advice I got out of this video is the highlighted line. Make your NPC's at the level of Wrestlers. I think this is the best advice I've ever received.
Even better doing it without naming it too.
@@austinbekken7315 For sure. Matt seems like a good guy with an obvious passion for gaming, so I always felt sad his name is attached to something with such negative connotations.
I have described it as “Actual Play is about as real as professional wrestling” and I love Pro Wrestling.
This comment is 100% correct.
Best GM plotting tip I learned is from Monster of the Week which is: Plot out what will happen if your PCs do NOTHING. That will be all you really need to know, so when your PCs do anything to change that outcome it will be much clearer to you what has changed and what happens now
Wow, that's actually super good
* writing down *
Best advice to follow Quinn's advice
"The dragon will stay curled up on its pile of gold, presumably until the end of time, and the other monsters will just hang out in the dungeon, picking their noses or playing cards."
Is that it, or is there more to it than that?
@@blandalbloot1138 I've not played M0tW, but it might be more like "If the players fail to investigate and stop the Beast of Blarg, it will foray deeper into town each night, eating Farmer Mose on his farm on the outskirts on Wednesday, killing the entire Jones family on Maple street on Thursday, and nearly killing Stinky Pete the vagabond currently residing on Main street. If the players fail to stop the beast before Saturday evening, the beast will open the portal under the main street library, unleashing the horde on the unsuspecting townsfolk of Townsburg"
My personal favourite GMing trick: when players ask about worldbuilding and lore and you haven't got anything in mind or any strong ideas for what to have the answer be, point the question to the person at the table that seems most appropriate to answer it (which might be that player themselves).
For example, you're in an elf village or something and someone asks "oh what do the elves eat here?" - point that at the player(s) who're playing elves, as it then becomes a way for them to put their input into the world.
I do this because its 1) way more fun to use 5 or 6 brains at the table to come up with good worldbuilding rather than my own, and 2) the more you do this the more players have a stake in the world as a whole because of that personal connection.
Wholesale stolen from Vel Mini's "Fellowship" game and it's Spout Lore move.
That's a good thought in general, but I've definitely had GMs use the "It's your world, so it's whatever you make of it" as a way to excuse their own lack of creativity. It's great to have players be involved like that, but you still should be prepared with a fallback if they're not able to contribute.
Brilliant.
This is built into most Powered by the Apocalypse RPGs. They're designed with collaborative worldbuilding in mind and frequently advise the GM to do as little prep as possible. :)
"Oh, well, we have an elf in our party. Why don't we ask her about her culture, and what her people like to eat?"
The girl playing the elf, currently chowing down on a pack of gummy worms irl: "Worms!"
@@micahnightwolfhell ya worms!
As someone who has always wanted to play RPG's, but has also been intimated by them, this was packed full of things I needed to hear. Thank you for sharing your insights Quinns. This was an incredible video and I have no doubt it will have a meaningful impact on many people who have been RPG-curious, but also hesitant to dive in.
Can’t wait to watch tabletop RPG rules, GM tips and tricks on Watch It Played. 🤩
I can actually hear Rodney Smith's voice when I read this. Guess I might watched a TON of his videos.
Just reporting back to say: I did it! Last month I ran two separate RPG sessions, and they were great learning experiences (and fun!)
@@WatchItPlayed out of curiosity; what game did you manage to get to the table?
@@christopherwintersvahn6087 Critical Foundation and Labyrinth
One great tip i got when i started as a DM was in the same line as Quinns "It is not your story"
The one thing i focused on before we started playing was to tell the players the following:
"I am not here to tell you a story. You are all here to together figure out what story we are creating. I am here to represent the world reacting to that story. The dice are here to represent the chaos in that story."
Great introduction!
That’s a great way to explain it! I’m so using that for my group. Thanks!
@@jamesthelimey1738 Do it! No problem!
Fantastic description 👌🏻
You are there to play a game, not to tell a story. The "story" is what happens AFTER you are finished playing (it is the recounting of the deeds that happened during the game at the table).
I died when you said RPG rulebooks “Look like an Excel spreadsheet had sex with a Bible.”
It's why Monster Manuals are the best. All the spreadsheets you could ever want combined with reams of Bible nonsense.
It cracked me up too! Probably the most accurate description of a RPG rule book ever uttered!!!
My favorite system is Mythras and the print is hilariously small to save on ink and paper. Love the game but damn.
"I'M THE BIGGEST MAN IN THE VILLAGE AND I'VE RUN OUT OF EGGS" is my new favourite character
My 2 GM TIPS:
1 - Don't get hung up on the rules, just wing it and let the story flow unless it's something that will make your players feel they are being treated unfairly.
2- paraphrased from Palladium's "Beyond the Supernatural", if you need a few minutes of time-out and wish to create angst and dread, when a player reaches to open a door, simply ask them which hand they are going to use.
The difficulty is if one of the players is a rules lawyer. They can bring the entire game down if they're always arguing with the GM.
That is genius
As a long time DM, the most beautiful thing in this world is watching someone skeptical about TTRPGs say well can I do this? You say yes. Well then can I do this? That moment where they become a believer in the hobby and are not looking for the programed response or option like in a video game but feel they can do anything, it is special.
Just experienced this as a new DM, and with new players. It made me realize why i love this hobby and how unique it is
I will forever remember the little oneshot Knave game I ran for four people, one of whom was a seasoned player, and the other three newbies. It was the end of the dungeon, the horrid creature controlling this vile place was in front of the characters, a man partially fused into a wall of fleshy growths, immobile yet magically powerful. One of the newbies looked at their character sheet and said "I got a bear trap. Can I just shove it into his face? He can't move, right?". For a moment I floundered, and then said "YES you do that and SNAP his head comes off!". They were converted right there and then.
M
@@JarLoz I love that.
Exactly! That one moment a new player realises that they can do anything. The look in their eyes when they realise what this potentially means. A joy to behold!!!
What I love about SUSD is that they have some videos that really feel important. Like they had to be made, and they are THE videos about that topic, because they are not just information, they really give you the feeling of that thing. And I think this is one of them. Other example is the how to teach board games.
I totally agree with you. Those are m favorite videos also among the regular reviews. When I can get a feeling for what it is like to play that game - instead of just knowing the rules. In other videos this gets a bit lost between the wacky sketches and jokes. 😉
Or the Twilight Imperium Documentary.
Well, even the Review of TI got me into their entire channel.
I've tried D&D with 5 different groups and didn't have a good time with any of them. Then I played Call of Cthulhu and fell in love. If you feel like you want to get into RPGs and something just isn't clicking, don't be afraid to try a different game. Quinn's advice of choosing something that gets you excited is so spot on and your options feel endless. Paranoia is next on my list to try.
Paranoia is a tricky game for long-form campaigns but an absolute blast for one-shots and short adventures. Drive your character like you stole it, life is more fun when you push the red button, you're going to die a couple of times anyway, and that's on a good day.
This is excellent advice. I feel like a lot of people try D&D because it's the game everyone has heard about and go "Well crap, these games are full of numbers and charts and fighting, I'm out." which is a huge shame.
So yeah. While I totally agree with the advice in the video that it's impossible to really guess what kind of game you want when you've never played ANY, I think after you've played one or two, you should be able to say "I'd like something where my character's personality matters more than their loot" or "I'd like something where position on the battlefield is more important" or "Could I get something with less math please?" or whathaveyou.
@@mpureka The #1 reason I find people give for not playing RPGs other than D&D is the perceived mechanical complexity of other systems. They seem surprised when they realise that D&D is one of the most complicated contemporary RPGs out there (obviously historically there were much crazier systems around in the 1980s or whatever) and if you can play D&D, you can sure as hell play Deadlands/Savage Worlds or a Modiphius game or Blades in the Dark or WEG Star Wars or almost anything else (maybe not Shadowrun, but almost).
Great advice. Paranoia is the greatest RPG experience I've ever had. It's perfect if your friends are assholes - it gives them a chance to shine.
GM tip I learned over 4 years and I wish I was told about on day 1:
You don't *need* to say yes to any thing your players ask (sometimes it actually is something that could screw up the whole game or ruin other people's fun), but whenever you can't say yes you should LISTEN and figure out why the player asked.
The example that helped me figure this out: Is your player asking to play as an Antipaladin (AKA a murderous dark knight who lives to spread Evil and death) in your Good campaign? You should probably say no, especially if you are not experienced enough to deal with that kind of scenario; that would require you to basically delete 90% of your campaign and start over. BUT, whenever you have to say no, you MUST ask yourself why that player asked that thing. Maybe they like to fight a lot and your game has been dealing with a lot of intrigue and roleplaying, but not enough stabbing; find a way to fix THAT, give the party more things to fight, and the problem may solve itself without needing to rewrite your whole cast of side characters and completely restructure the game.
Your players are both your audience and your co-stars. You must focus on giving them what they want just as much as what you want (and actually more).
Matt Colville had a great advice here: if a player asks you if they can do something crazy and/or innovative, your answer should usually be: maybe, let's find out together. This usually leads to a skill roll or even a whole mini-adventure and is the perfect invitation to create the best memories from the game.
My answer to the player asking 'can I play something unusual' would be: Could you elaborate why you want to do that? As you said, perhaps they want something that the campaign is not providing, or perhaps they feel like they want to emulate a character they like... or perhaps they just want to screw with the other players.
This is an important point: when a player asks a seemingly oddball question, they’re saying this is how they think they want to play and you need to give that some consideration.
As a player, GM and game designer of many years, my top tip for anyone getting into the hobby is always *communicate openly with your fellow players*. Especially as the GM it's easy to feel like you need to be some kind of narrative wizard who can spin a dozen story threads into one cohesive narrative without anyone seeing the seams, or coerce your players into making a particular choice without them realising you're doing it, but you'll have a better time, tell a better story, and learn more about playing/GMing if you just ask for help, get your fellow players to make stuff up, or straight up tell them there's a really cool enemy if they go to the haunted fairground tonight.
Great advice. It is such a wild revelation to some players when they learn their GM is just making shit up off the top of their head but it can equally be a terrifying reveal for a GM to admit they are just making stuff up in response to what the players are saying.
Everybody is there to have fun and tell a cooperative story. When GM and players understand that everyone at the table is responsible for both of those things together, it is just the absolute best.
Really great point. Every time I've said to my players "You know what? Can you give me 5 minutes to figure this out?" or "What do we think is a fair ruling on this?" or even "What's weird about this pub, do you think?" it's immediately made the session better.
@@Quinns_Quest The thing I love most about FATE is that is encourages players to create truths about the setting. But you don't need FATE to do that. In a town the players keep visiting just ask each player to establish one location that their character likes to go there. Have them mention one (new) NPC that their character likes or dislikes. Within a few sessions, those will be the players FAVORITE locations and characters to interact with. And when your goblin hoard attacks, they will suddenly worry that wally the woodcutter made it into the keep before the doors are closed, and be willing to go look for him if he didn't. Now if I make up wally and try to make them care, well they will just let wally get eaten so they can play a card game! :)
This is so important, and so hard to break the habit. There's this mystique around GMing that can really hinder you as a storyteller just because you don't want to let your players peak behind the curtain. One of the best things I discovered is how much better my games get when I ask my players "what do you want to do next session?" Cuts down on prep, focuses my narratives, and makes my players feel very seen and heard.
Yessssss
1. Perfect Timing
2. Quinns, that beard's giving you +5 Charisma points
3. Can we get a Solo RPG special?
I think i remember Tom doing an episode on solo RPG's around the time of the first wave of the pandemic🤔
"The Dungeon Dive" just posted a run-down of some Solo RPGs on their TH-cam Channel, if anyone is interested.
@@timbirk4044 yes, they've covered them on the channel before too. Tom covered A thousand year old vampire, and I think they also mentioned Artifact and A Quiet year too. I found 'A mending' through SUSD podcast too, another feature would be comfy I guess.
@@genghispawn3919 oh wow, I just went through that video. Amazing recommendation, I hope the algorithm picks it up. I am intimidated by oracles and other simulators that can convert regular RPGs into solo experiences but their presentation was so clear, I might give it a closer look with some of the tools mentioned especially in the end segment.
@@TheCyberSpidey Dope -- The Dungeon Dive as a channel is in a way different niche than SU&SD, but he's putting out great content. Glad to point you to it.
I'm so glad you're showing off your collection of "not D&D" stuff. I was really worried this would just be "play TRPGs, go pick up D&D and do these things", but anytime someone encourages people to play different stuff I'm happy.
Yesssssssssss!!!!
While D&D is iconic and it is wonderful that it is now popular culture and getting new people interested; the flip side to it is, as a TTRPG system, I would rate it on a lower tier of quality. There are so many better systems available. Both for new players and as total coherent focused systems. D&D in it's current iteration is very wishy-washy, contradicts itself, and it is very vague in many of its aspects, and it only gets more so with every new book that Wizards of the Coast puts out. I find this makes it harder for both new players and particularly new GMs to know how to navigate it.
@DerGrantelbart I think that's being unfair for the explicit list of hard moves a GM can do (and is only allowed to do when PCs fail a roll, except when players look to them for answers) in PbtA systems. And FATE is not telling GMs to improvise any more than D&D does. And DCC is old school D&D so...
Yeah I tried a bit of d&d about a year ago and just didn't really feel like the story in the basic box had anything to recommend it - it really relied on the players wanting to go around and kill stuff to get loot which just wasn't what mine wanted to do. I also didn't find the combat very satisfying or tactical even though it was so heavily emphasised. We gave up after 2 sessions with no one really having a good time and ended up selling the box... I'd say at least part of that was my fault in that as GM I didn't really know how to deal with the players not wanting to follow the plot hooks (we ended up in a town I hadn't actually prepared for in any detail and skipped the first dungeon) and then somewhat tried to force them to go to the place they were expected to go... So I think the approach in that box is somewhat contrary to Quinn's advice here - it very much felt like a highly scripted plot on rails and when the players didn't want to do that the emphasis on needing to know all the detail of the dungeons and monsters meant it was hard to improvise
I just wanted to let you know that this video took a massive amount of pressure off me. I ran a few RPG sessions about a year ago for some people and they didn't really seem to go well. I am in the process of preparing to GM my first adventure of Call of Cthulhu next week for a few friends and was starting to stress that I may not be cut out for this, as much as I enjoy it. Thinking about creating a toybox of characters, places, and sources of conflict rather then mapping out an elaborate story is such a breath of fresh air. For the first time, this video caused me to stop and ask, "what will my players think is fun to do?" rather than "I really hope I can entertain them with the story I am preparing." Thank you, Quinns.
And how was it???
@@dimazum It went well! I ran three one-player sessions to roll characters and introduce the players to the mechanics and themes of CoC. Then we came together and played a three player session of The Haunting with the same characters and had a great time!
@@sojou.RN. Good one! I have played RPGs in the past, mostly D&D, and now I'm about to be a GM for the first time, playing Mutants & Masterminds! Hope it plays out nice aswell :D
Same, Ive been on the wrong end of Bad GMing (total Railroading, where when I tried to talk to an NPC as my character, the GM ran the entire conversation by themselves), so I tried to make sure not to do that in my own attempts at doing it, but some of the things Quinns mentioned, while sage, also were hard for me to nail down what I wanted to do or how I wanted my games to go.
As a 5-year subscriber Quinn’s spontaneous new beard is distractingly attractive
ikr it's like "oh no quinn's hot"
lol thought you wrote 5 year old subscriber and was weirded out
Plus the tan
Also he's absolutely jacked.
hard agree
Tip: SESSION ZERO!!!! Literally will get everyone on the same page if you all create your characters together, you can form bonds during the process come up with crazy ideas how you met etc. That way when you go into your first session of actual play everyone is excited to get on with the story and not get bogged down with "well who are you?". Also as a GM you can see what direction the players are leaning towards and design a story that fits them instead of them trying to fit into your story.
In addition to this I want to add how damn important Safety Tools are! I personally recommend Script Change by Beau Jágr Sheldon but others out there use tools like Lines & Veils, the Traffic Light system, & the X-Card.
These are extremely helpful not only in getting everyone on the same page, but making sure everyone involved can openly express themselves without worry of making others uncomfortable or having their comfort suddenly yanked out from under them. Even when I have nobody add much of anything to the "Do not include this" list, we often all come away knowing what collective tone to aim for and have a better starting point for building characters together!
Agree. I had one friend complaining that the others players at a DnD game were ruining it, he was trying to play a silly critical role celebrity spot style game, and they were wanting a gritty lord of the rings drama fest. His character had 0 skills or roleplay aspects to support this. Session 0 saying this is a gritty LOTR style serious game would have changed his character and his mindset from the get go.
Yeah, this is great advice. Even today, my campaigns often start with my players treating one another like strangers. That's no good! Way more fun to start a campaign with some of the characters being exes or colleagues or siblings, at the least.
YES! SO MUCH YES!
God yes! I played a Cthulhu game without a session zero. I chose a female character and the GM neglected to inform me everyone I interacted with would have ‘era appropriate’ attitudes toward women. Meaning I had to work twice as hard to do anything. I REALLY wish there’d been a session zero. I deal with sexism enough in the real world I don’t want it in my made up world. I’d have chosen a male character or noped out of the game if I knew in advance.
I cannot stress enough how right Quinns is about just getting started instead of overthinking. Fling yourself joyously into the deep end. I started roleplaying with a group of much more experienced roleplayers, which was a great way to start because they could mentor me, but it meant that when I decided to run my own game for my group, I was running it for those same much more experienced roleplayers. Oh god. And I chose Exalted, which is my favourite game, but not one I'd recommend for newbies. Oh, and I homebrewed a new setting with a bunch of optional rules from supplements. Basically, I did everything I possibly could have done to sabotage myself at the outset, overcomplicating the process for myself massively, aaaand ... the game is still going strong almost EIGHT YEARS LATER. Because as long as you are having fun telling a story with your friends, you are winning at roleplaying.
My minor addition to the list of excellent advice is to keep character secrets public to the players.
For example, if your character is secretly living a double life, the fun part of that is probably the threat of having that exposed. Getting to share that fun with the rest of the table makes it so much better! That way the other players can also play into your secret instead of maybe stumbling into it purely by chance.
To some extent, and somewhat depending on the game, this works for the GM as well. Don't be afraid to cut away to a (brief!) scene showing what the bad guys are planning, or to tell the players something their characters don't know. Aabreya Iyengar describing a scene and then telling the players "what you don't see..." was a real eye opener for me.
Absolutely on “public” secrets. There’s no wrong way to play, if you’re having fun-but with the exception of a few games where keeping secrets from the other players is a core part of the gameplay, if you’re not sharing your secrets, you’re doing it wrong. 😉 I kinda feel like keeping your character’s secrets from the other players is kinda the player version of adversarial play, because it’s treating the other players as your competition or your enemies, rather than as your collaborators.
If somebody ruins your fun when they know your secrets, the problem isn’t them knowing your secrets, the problem is them. Maybe they’re a jerk. Maybe they misunderstood what you wanted and thought they were helping. Maybe they didn’t understand that this was a secret that their character didn’t know. (Ok, this last one could be you-make sure you’re really clear that what you’re sharing is something the other characters don’t know.)
You can have so much more fun if the other players can play into your secrets, rather than you having to try to work them into the story while nobody else knows what you’re doing, so they can’t help except by accident.
And a secret that _never_ gets revealed isn’t really doing anything for the bigger story. Imagine a novel where the main character has a secret, but it never comes up in the story. What’s the point? And imagine the difference between knowing from the start that they have a secret, but only find out the details much later, vs a secret just being dropped with no foreshadowing in chapter 17. Letting the other players (and the GM) In on the secret makes it possible for them to help you with that foreshadowing, so that it can be that much cooler when the secret finally comes into play and is revealed.
I *love* the advice of "Don't write a story," because it's exactly the hole I fell down for the first few years I GM'd. And I really like writing these huge, complex settings and plots and characters - so I just write them for myself! It's really useful to have an idea of a background and history of a place, and have a wealth of ideas to bounce off the players - but it's also too easy for me to think that the NPCs are the main characters, when really it's the players.
Advice for GMs: Don't be attached to anything in your story. Your super cool sword? Ignored. Your neat NPC? Accidentally killed. Your badass villain? Ignored, then accidentally killed.
Advice for players: Share the table, share the spotlight, and work off of one another. You are not the only cool character. Imagine if Game of Thrones or The Simpsons just focused solely on one character - how simple and boring that would be? Enjoy your fellow players! Make them better by engaging.
Good advice, I learned the same lessons from the same mistakes. Now I take joy in setting up scenarios just to see what happens, I make cool stuff and let it go into the void for the fun of making the thing.
And I have learned I am an awful writer, I couldn't story my way out of a Kobold lair. But my players are amazing by sheer virtue of collective story telling, the best story lines get filtered to the top and the bad ones get left behind really efficiently. Together we have had some amazing adventures and all I did was say the mayor was kidnapped by an Owlbear, and the Gnomes are on strike.
Last session I had a location where I was expecting the players to spend a month. They spent probably about 60 minutes in there before escaping out of a window. But you know what? The knowledge that they'd "broken" my expectations was more entertaining to them than my original plan was! They all left going "Great session!"
Some of my first personally written adventures were quite linear and I've totally made this mistake. I think D&D in particular was never very good at explaining what makes a good GM/DM. This has come much later since Chris Perkins hosted the PAX games and have come out on what makes a good DM.
Exactly! I remember in one of my first (too tightly designed) dungeon, my players broke through a wall and found a route around an orc ambush on a ledge I prepared.
I went with it, improvised and let them come up the ledge behind the orcs - which were facing the other direction. Same fight in the end, but the players where the ones surprising the orcs and were super excited they apparently outsmarted the baddies.
I write little story hooks that the players can follow or not, and then procedural generate maps for the areas they seem interested in. Because we're doing it over Roll20, there is some focus as to where they expect to go, and since we really only have about two hours a week to play--if that--most recently they've been cleaning out a Goblin Warren that's a culmination of several months of tracking the goblin whereabouts and dealing with their various attacks.
My number 1 tip as a GM: Schedule the next session. You can do all the planning in the world as a GM (which can be fun) but it doesn't crystalise into anything unless you are actually sharing it all with your players at the table. And the first step is to schedule the next session. Once something is in the calendar, this will create urgency for yourself. You will find the creative juices flow more freely and your planning is also more productive.
I've been playing and GMing for 40+ years, and this is, by some margin, the best practical advice I've ever seen being given to prospective players. Shame YT and SUSD weren't around in '81!
Small tip, but one I needed to learn. Don't make your group too big. If you have a bunch of excited friends, you may all want to play. But more that like 5 at a table and things can often get really tricky! It's hard for everyone to shine in that case.
Not just that, but it can make game sessions very long. On the other hand, if you've got people who can't always make it, a larger group can be useful to balance too many people not being able to play any particular day.
If you have a huge group of friends who want to play, something I've seen is dividing everyone into 2 groups and have them all play different games, but in the same world and different parts of the world. Then you can plan some kind of fun crossover later on, or have characters cross-over from time to time, etc
What a great vid! The comparison between Actual Plays and the reality of amateur RPG was not only hilarious but I think so helpful as well! These shows are so popular and, while entertaining, create unrealistic expectations of what campaigns should look like. Normalise the awkward! It's fun!
Agreed, that comparison was ON POINT.
"Normalize the awkward." Yes! Absolutely!
Personally I think shows like Critical Role are the worst things to happen to the hobby because it can set unreasonable expectations. It was one of the things that sent me on my spiral to finally quitting.
I've always been confused by the unrealistic expectations people pick up from them. For me they're a constant source of enjoyment and inspiration. Like you don't watch professional athletes do sports and then expect to perform on the same level when you play. has exploded and really grown in recent years. This is definitely the best time to be a ttrpg player that there's ever been 🤷♂️
Personally I am always thinking about whether I’m running the game that I and my players enjoy and not comparing my group to these shows. If my players behaved liked the people I see on CR they’re not being themselves. Let your own game evolve into what you’re all comfortable with and the fun will never end…
I have a new player joining our DnD game who's never played RP games before and I immediately sent this to them. It is absolutely brilliant and you have eloquently, and hilariously, cleared all the murky air around what makes such a game fun.
"As if the story was a spirit you summoned during a seance and, for 1 breathless hour, you all get to exist within it." Such a magnificent collection of words! Goosebumps!
16:09 absolutely lost myself laughing at how perfect an impression you just did of my GMing style. Thank you for that (and the rest of the vid too)
Inappropriate swearing and forgetting the name of a major character hits way too close to home
On saying "yes", i want to add, don't *just* say "yeah", say "wow, that's awesome" or "i have no idea how that's going to work, ok let me think... Roll a d20 for me and add your modifier" or "amazing, that's genius, or stupid, but definitely amazing" or "aaaare you sure you want to try this" or "you are going to kill me with stuff like this" in short encourage the players, inject energy, remember to laugh, cheer, clap, cry. Even if it feel fake at first but it's likely that if you put in that positivity, everyone's moods will follow
That's generally good advice, but don't let your players just do anything they want as well. Restrictions and conflicts to be overcome make for much more interesting stories than just letting the players have a meaningless power fantasy.
@@stevejakab274 absolutely. I tried to make my example responses suggest "that's very cool but i don't think it's going to work"
This is exactly the nudge I needed to jump in and try some d&d. Thanks!
Welcome to the hobby!
Get the 'Starter Set' or the 'Essentials Kit'. Either one is all you need to get started, and get you playing for weeks / months.
Do the thing!
"For something ... surprisingly sad, [play] the Warren, where everybody plays a rabbit"
**has flashbacks to watching Watership Down as a 5 year old, getting traumatized to no end**
Mutant: Year Zero is an excellent starting point. The whole settlement building mechanic is great for player investment as they have a direct hand in how it develops. However, you should probably point out that Mutant: Year Zero and playing as animal people is actually two separate things. Mutant: Year Zero has you playing human mutants, in the vein of X-Men or Fallout, basically human shaped with weird powers. The animal mutants are from its sister game Mutant: Genelab Alpha. If you get both, then it is all fine, but it might be problematic if on your recommendation they bought it expecting one thing but getting something else.
Yup, and the confusion is probably caused by the Mutant: Year Zero video game (Road to Eden) which defaults you to playing the animal-people mutants.
This combined with the polygon vid on fighting games recently are such nice supportive videos to get into intimidating hobbies
As a big fan of both ttrpgs and fighting games, I can say that the initial intimidation factor is high but the rewards are so worth it for both. If anyone wants to get into either, I'd be happy to act as a guide/mentor/cheerleader for your endeavor.
What the what you just read my mind!! 2 communities absolutely worth getting into
Unsolicited advice warning
If you get into ttrpgs you get a creative output, you delevelop skills like storytelling, acting, improvising, and balancing a groups needs. You get great stories of drama and comedy that you crafted together. All in a game system that is enforced socially, so all the rewards are social. You become a more empathetic, social, cooperative person.
If you get into fighting games, you get better at fighting games. It's better than no hobby but you're not developing yourself in any other way than specifically fighting games. If it's a steep learning curve you want, or a competitive community, just pick almost any other sport and you'll become a healthier, more well rounded person.
I didn't mean it as an attack on people who are into it already, but in response to the idea of picking fighting games to start investing your time and energy in.
Also there are lots of things nice about fighting games and the community around it I didn't touch on but my point still stands.
@@tychoclavius4818 I’m going to try and separate myself from the implication of your first comment, whether intended by you or not, which is that pursuing fighting games as a hobby is a waste of time.
The competitive drive, analytical thinking, adaptive reactions, and social graces (admittedly not as well enforced by some) that I’ve learned in fighting games are the same you would learn in chess, or go, or any card game you can think of. And while I would never put down the benefit of ttrpgs, I’ve seen some truly shy and closed off people bloom within a game, I think there are some that get some very similar benefits from fighting games specifically. The one-on-one nature of the competition along with random chance being a rarity within those games teaches you to accept that you won’t always win, and finding someone better than you is a gift because that’s someone you can learn from. It teaches you to accept that you make mistakes and the drive needed to correct them.
I could go on, but I value the lessons I’ve learned over the years from fighting games and I think they actually make an excellent complement to the lessons learned in ttrpgs. Especially for those of us who are less physically inclined or are not able to participate in sports for one reason or another.
"It's late. . . But not like that late."
Bro that's a whole darn mood! And I feel it in my bones!
There’s a local dnd night at a cafe near me and I’ve never felt I could go before! But you have inspired me to go!
yes lad do it
The most important thing I learnt recently: just walk away from a group if you realize it doesn't work. I spent way too much time playing a Campaign that I did not enjoy at all with a group of people I love as friends but hated as fellow players. I was so close to losing interest in the hobby due to that prolonged experience. Just be respectful about turning them down but by all means, turn them down if it just does not work out at all. RPGs is such a massive investment of time, be respectful to yourself and others.
Well and about this video, first of all it's great! So much to learn from it. I was in the process of realizing some of it already but this really sped up the process to becoming the player I'd like to have as a GM and the GM I'd like to have as a player.
As pretty much everybody I overdid it with the preperation of the story as a GM the first few times I GMed. It went okayish but boi did I not enjoy to GM these sessions.
Personally I think it's a good starting point to just dive headfirst into a very light RPG like the ones you mentioned. Or my personal favorite: Ten Candles. You can do the character creation + rules explanation in 30 minutes or less, no preperation required from the players. Narration isn't too heavy on one specific participant. Atmosphere and table presence: 10/10, it doesn't get any better imo. Also it always ends with a bang which makes it such an easy system to introduce to people. Like we all know these sessions that don't end in a meaningful way or the group might never come together again to finish the story and it's an opportunity missed, right? Shouldn't happen with Ten Candles.
Finding a good group to play with is actually the hardest part of RPGs. People can have very different expectations of what they want from a game.
"Ooo-oooooooh, doyouwannaknow the rules for halberds..." is gonna be stuck in my head FOREVER.
... there aren't enough rules about halberds.
@@dahobdahob Eh, I think it has enough. 5e is not trying to be THAT tactical about your weaponry. Reach and Brace are a thing, I think that’s about all you’d need in 5e.
15:20 For me when I come back and wanna hear this again
That simile comparing shows like Critical Role to regular roleplaying as Porn is to sex is so good. I never thought of it that way. I'm gonna store that away for the future.
That was my favorite quote of the year so far. 😀
It's quit a common anolegy. Like it's had been sayed for years now
One of the more important things you can do when your group is just getting started on a game is to have a Session 0. That is, a chunk of time devoted solely to talking through everyone's expectations, desires, influences, and safety (e.g. setting up hard lines and soft veils around content that people in your group don't want to experience in their game). This doesn't have to take a ton of time-I've gone through all these things in as short as ten minutes-but even a little bit can help clarify everyone's expectations, keep everyone safe and happy, and bring to the forefront the elements of the impending collective story that will be the most fun.
Talking through character creation in person can be really helpful for all of the above reasons. A lot of modern games do this already, but if you work on character sheets together, your group can develop shared points of interest or conflict that can make inter-party interactions easier and more fun. Plus it gives the GM hints (sometimes called "flags" in the TTRPG scene) about what each player wants, thematically or gameplay-wise, from their character.
Basically, in a rule: Communicate with your group! Tell them what interests you, what you like and don't like, how you feel about the experience as a whole, and ask them the same. Open communication always leads to a better time.
Since people reading this might be completely new to RPGs:
“Lines and veils” are ways of excluding certain story elements.
• a line is something that you agree as a group not to cross. So maybe you decide “there’s not going to be rape in our game-it won’t happen during play, it won’t be part of character backgrounds, and it won’t be referred to by characters”. Usually, but there’s no requirement, these are things that would ruin one or more player’s fun, or derail the game. They could be things that reflect past traumas or touch on a phobia, or they could be things that you just don’t want in _this_ game, but might be fine with in a different game or with a different group. You can decide whether the things that are “over the line” literally don’t exist in your fantasy world, or you’re just not going to talk about them, or you don’t care which it is, so long as they don’t show up in the game. By their nature, it’s good etiquette not to demand explanations or try to negotiate the limit-if somebody says “no clowns”, you don’t say “what if it’s just a few clowns?” But clarifying where the line is, respectfully, is perfectly reasonable. If somebody says “no jump scares”, you might need to clarify whether they’re talking about things that might make their character jump, or things that make the player jump? Are they wanting to avoid creepy villains getting the drop on their characters? Or the GM yelling “ATTAAACK!!” when the enemy gets the drop on them?
• a veil is an agreement that something might be part of the story, but it’s going to happen “off screen” or be vague and without details. So your group might say, “yeah, sure, we’re vampires so obviously we sometimes kill people to feed, but we don’t need to play through them.” And then when it comes up, instead of either the player or the GM talking about exactly how the character seduces their victim, or narrating the sounds and smells of killing then, they’d just say “ok, you’re able to find someone to feed on tonight, and nothing special happens” or “…but they managed to scream, and you had to flee before you were finished” or “…but they managed to scream, and now you’re on the run with a posse of villagers and their dogs after you”. Lots of people veil gore and/or sex. It’s like a fade-to-black to keep a movie PG-13, but we all know what happened.
In addition to using these as safety tools-to keep content that would harm players out of the game, as well as content that would ruin the game for them-these are also very useful tools for crafting the sort of game you want to play. Maybe you’re playing a Goonies-inspired game, so you agree that kissing will be veiled and anything more sexual than that is over the line. Or you’re playing a serious fantasy-military game, so you’re all fine with violence and gore and crude language, but you draw a line at bringing in real-world racial/ethnic/sexual slurs, and another line at “silly” humor that might undermine the emotional weight you’re going for.
As someone who's been trying to "crack the code" so to speak on getting himself and his friends into tabletop roleplaying games (tried a number of systems), this was an invaluable watch.
Have you tried pre-written adventures/scenarios? They can be a good way to bridge the gap between reading a lot of largely-abstract rules and disjointed example scenarios, and actually playing a full session of a game with other people, if that's what you're having issues with; a lot of modern games now offer them, thanks to the wild success of D&D 5's actually-good box-sets. Some games have similar boxes to D&D, but others might still have a beginner's 'example adventure' available online or something. Check around, check out the designers' websites, check your role-playing game distributors of choice; if all else fails, you can always web search for '[your preferred system] introductory scenario' or 'beginner adventure [your preferred system]', and such.
I’ve been scouring TH-cam for videos to send to the people that ask me about ttrpgs/people that I am trying to get into playing. Thank you for a single comprehensive piece that I can refer friends to in the future!
Matt Colville's got a great one as well.
th-cam.com/video/Eo_oR7YO-Bw/w-d-xo.html
Having a rather shoddy day, so 30 minutes of quins is very warmly welcomed.
Thanks guys
As someone who's been playing tabletop rpgs for little over a decade now, i had so many endearing laughs watching his. Fantastic video as always guys, and thank you Quinns for trying to inspire new DMs in a way thats ACTUALLY gonna help them have more FUN playing instead of endlessly gushing over the little details and overcritizing themselves for not being professional entertainers.
Quinn's tip on not writing a script but instead providing a playground is golden, but can be a bit intimidating since it requires lots of improvisation during play, and inexperienced GMs might not feel confident.
You can try to mix the two approaches: I GMd a campaign where the players were investigating a crime, but the focus was them infiltrating various buildings to get clues. The story was super linear and each clue led from scene "2" to scene "3". But I designed each building like Quinn's suggested: many things to interact with, a goal where the clue is located, and let the players figure out how to get to it.
It worked really well: I get to reveal a bit of the crime each time they complete a heist without having to add/remove elements from the story on the fly, and the players get a cool sandbox to interact with and surprise me!
As a DM the most impactful tip that Quinns touched on in this video was to be a fan of your players. That doesn't mean make things easy, but it's so much better when their own plans they were empowered to make backfire from a bad roll. Hand them enough rope to tie themselves in knots, and do it with a smile.
Agreed. Especially after they get comfortable, I have come to trust that my players are going to get out of most situations and it's so fun to watch how they do it.
@@squashwash4381 My players have managed to turn so many no-win (this is a high level area do not enter) scenarios into (sometimes too close) victories through sheer creative malice, I am hardly surprised when one of them finds a loophole I didn't plan and rolls high enough to exploit it. It is always amazing to see unfold and it leads to such interesting and rewarding situations for me to create around.
This is a big one for me and something that made a big difference in the games I run. I would add to this that being a fan of your player's characters also helps you think of interesting ways to challenge them as after all we're looking for excitement and drama in this game so be a fan, but don't make things easy.
Something I wish I had known when I started GMing: don't be too proud to use modules. As long as you remember that the module's story is malleable and can be changed at any time by you or the players they can be a great help for people starting out and to experienced GMs.
and pick up Curse of Strahd ^^
This here is good advice. Using somebody else's module doesn't make you less of an artist, because RPGs are not art. And there's a lot of cool tricks to learn from somebody else's book which you can shamelessly steal and put into your own games!
@@scimmytag Curse of Strahd is great. I hear the updated version has fixed some of the more problematic elements of the original.
One thing to keep in mind about them though is that they are written for everyone and for a particular story, so they can be a bit prescriptive or not written in a way that helps you gm in the way you like. You can totally raid them though for cool ideas and ways to start scenarios the way Quinns talked about
I whould refrace this into: If you see a cool idea that fits into your game, take it, steal it, make it your own. This is how inspiration works.
I bought a module, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Player Hand Book then went to a D&D Discord server to recruit players.
I specified in my ad I wanted experienced players who’d be patient with a brand new DM and I got the most wonderful batch of “forever DMs” you could ask for.
Almost a year later and I’m on my second campaign with dozens of sessions and countless fond memories.
My first session was really bad, but my players were excited just to get to play for once, and imo by around session 3 I was perfectly serviceable.
This video sets the bar for introduction videos into the RPG hobby. Thank you Quinn.
Hey, been a roleplaying and a long-time DM (25 years and counting) plus I've been running paid games for new and veteran players alike during the pandemic. This video is really solid and really good advice. Just start, pick an RPG that gets you and your friends excited in some way, muddle your way through first session, don't sweat the rules, then ask your players how it went and what they did and did not like. Then do more of what they liked and less of what they didn't like in the next session. Keep going until the game inevitably ends due to scheduling conflicts!
First rule of a GM in my book is: know what your players want. This goes in line with it being a player's story.
Nothing kills a campaign faster than running an intrigue heavy game with murder hobo players or a dungeon crawl with a noncombat focused party.
I like to set up a general outline of major plot points and then discuss each player's character before session 1. Games with advantages and disadvantages are free subplot generators.
I'd like to complement the video, if I may, by saying that the barrier of entry can be even lower. Many RPGs have quickstarts, which sometimes come with little adventures. Most of the time these are free.
D&D has its Basic Rules PDF out there (I couldn't find a link in their website the other day, but you can find it by googling it).
Call of Cthulhu has theirs for 7th Edition.
Runequest does.
Broken Compass does.
Forbidden Lands does (it's a pretty beefy one, though, 153 pages long).
Delta Green, Vampire The Masquerade, Star Trek Adventures, John Carter of Mars, Conan... So many!
And then there are the Starter Sets. Which are printed versions of a reduced number of rules plus an adventure (or more than one) and a few dice. So if you want something physical, you can go with that.
I'm a Grognard form 1979 and OD&D and Ive played crazy amounts of pretend games; this is some of the VERY BEST advice Ive seen. period. Well done.
Additional advice: USE SAFETY TOOLS!
I'm not an absolutist about very many things at the table, but using safety tools is *such* a good habit to get into. I use an X card, some people use lines & veils, whatever works for your group and game. But have something. It's so so so important to have something.
Wonderful video, Sir!
Over the 25 or so years I've dedicated to TTRPG's, the most important rule I've found is this: learn to listen. As a player, listen to your GM and fellow players, and you will find opportunities to reinforce their contributions to the game. As a GM, listen to your players, and you will begin to recognize how best to engage them. Universally, this amazing hobby has far less to do with mechanics and far more to do with empathy.
Yes, you've hit the nail on the head there. The best GM's are the empathetic ones. Of course this doesn't mean you give the players everything they want, we all want an engaging story and that needs to have pitfalls as well as triumphs. Yet to enjoy these ups and downs, a GM would be amiss not to appreciate the experiences the players are having.
So one of the best bits of advice from a game i got was from Legends of The Wulin was "Don't draw maps, draw relationship webs." I've never had a player get excited about how far the docks are from the pub but I have had player get excited about finding out the Bard's Ex is now in love with the prince of a clan that just declared war on the barbarians old village.
Also if you want the players to care for an NPC they have to be useful, be it mechanically or story line wise. Mentorrr King of Goodguysia is just a thing, The potion seller who gives them a list of weird plants to be on the look out for in exchange for a discount or the guard they know they can bribe to over look things. Those they care about.
Also if you stuck for a name take one form the list of Kickstarter Patrons or Play testers.
Oh man, this is inspiring. I’ve been scared of RPGs because I kinda suck at role play. I get embarrassed and anxious just thinking about it. This sets a lot of my apprehensions at ease. Just do it and see where it goes. Most definitely going to pick up a D&D starter set and play it with my fiancé. Gonna do my best to be an “anything goes” GM and just have fun with it, doing a two player game.
There's probably plenty of suggestions for short rules sets but Outside Xbox played a one shot of a TTRPG called "Lasers and Feelings" your character has 1 stat of where they lie between robot and empath, and the entire rule set for the game can be printed out on a single piece of paper
Another John Harper masterpiece! He’s the creator of Blades in the Dark. (You probably already knew that, but just in case…)
@@jamesthelimey1738 If the only one-page RPG they know of is Lasers & Feelings, and they only know of it from Oxbox, then probably not! And if Donlad is reading this, there are TONS of ingenious single-page role-playing games out there that would be fantastic either for new players or for experienced ones. Looking up the games of Grant Howitt would be a great place to start.
I love this video and Quinn's advice! I spent a few years "studying" to be a GM and watching every video there is on the topic. I am also wrapping up a year and a half campaign. I have finally reached the same conclusion as Quinns. This is not my story to tell! I need to get out of the way as much as possible and let the players tell their own stories in the world we create together. That is where the real unexpected magic is. BIG fan of this video!
This is the best (and most honest) ever intro to rpgs I've ever seen
23:37 hahaha... danggg. I needed to hear it! I needed to hear it. This channel is amazing as usual.
Can confirm that it is indeed easier to get into than you may think. My biggest hangup when trying out DnD for the first time was the roleplaying side of things. Thankfully, while some people prefer to get super serious and roleplay as their character, I've found that those types of people never mind sitting side by side with other people who are new and who just want to be there and experience the story and gameplay.
Get everyone a drink, sit around the table, and make a mess of things together. My first character was a Monkey Ninja wielding a +1 salad fork of demon slaying in a campaign with not a single demon, and I eventually got killed by a peasant. But I'll never forget that campaign.
When I was younger I played Hero Quest, which I was told was entry level D&D. Then I was given the D&D box, was completely confused! The manual felt insurmountable with new vocabulary like "dexterity" which I, at 8 years old, could not get to grips with very easily. And the really sad thing is we pretty much stopped playing Hero Quest after that too.... The storytelling stuff would have been right up my alley. But that manual? I can't imagine ever going back. After Quinns was talking about the Heart RPG I looked at the manual for that. The art is beautiful but the instructions are so dense and impenetrable. I don't like big rulebooks in a board game with strict rules so why would I want a big hardback novel-length manual for a player-run storytelling game where anything can happen? It makes no sense.
Great video! I've been a game master for almost 40 years and everything here is excellent advice. The advice I would give first time game masters, in addition to what is here, is never be afraid to make your own rules for a situation. Nothing slows down the momentum of a game more than looking for a rule.
I've been a GM for 6 years. My most common phrase is: "You can certainly try." And the best moments in my time playing always come right after it
I love this! I've played rpgs for about 27 years now and they're still my favorite hobby. I would LOVE if SUSD started to review rpgs! There are so many nowadays, I've lost track a long time ago. Plus even the classics deserve reviews for new players (and reviews of the most recent editions for players who played a previous edition).
As a follow-up to GM tip #1: Your story doesn’t need a plot because your villain already has one. So know your villains, what they’re trying to do, how they’re trying to do it. But your players are gonna thwart that villain’s plot. They’re supposed to! They might do it several times, and then the villain (if they survive; the new villain if they don’t) gets to come up with a new plot for your players to destroy.
Villains with plots are way more fun than GMs with plots.
Often, the players are more of a menace than the villain as well. Lol.
"Roleplaying is great fun to do badly". I love that. Once back in the wilderyears a couple of friends and I took it upon ourselves to start a roleplaying club in the town we grew up in. This was around 1990 so following our letter to the municipality we were invited to a meeting to discuss. We brought a jar of dice and along we went happily. It turned out the mayor's assistant was there, the head librarian, someone from the school board as well as the local priest. Yeah, rather weird sitting in that company at age 15 and talk about roleplaying games.
Luckily the librarian and the priest immediately starting fooling around with the polyhedral dice and my friend won the rest of the assembled people over with the immortal phrase: "You are Svend. Svend has a sword. You can now hit with it or not. That's roleplaying games." We got the permission and the club ran for years and we had quite a few members and it was a lot of fun. I think however that Quinns sentence might have gotten us more funding as it's aces.
30 years ago I was a Dungeon Master. It's unlikely I'll ever play a TTRP again, let alone GM one. However, this was a great stroll through memory lane. Thank you! :)
My start into P&P was shadowrun 3.01D when I was 19. Three one shot rounds as player, and then I stated a new round with me as GM and three friends. Great times... I still play rpgs as often as possible. Once you tried it and liked it, it never grows old.
If you try it and don't like it, even after some tries withj friends... It is not for you. Also, can be that you are more of a GM than a player and vice versa ;-)
The hobby is so rich, can create life long bonds once you find your people and is stupidly fun. What are you waiting for Quinns put it so perfectly, get out there and play!!! One bit of advice from me though, there are lots of different styles of game. Don't be put off if the first group or game you try doesn't fit or seem right for you, the right group and game is out there you just have to trust me on that.
Bizarrely for me lockdown was the best thing to happen to my RPG world. After years (decades *cry*) away I found an online group when we couldn't leave the house and I can't deny it got me through lockdown. In the last 3 years I have formed life long friends from those games and it evolved into 3 or more campaigns and we now even started a stream channel. Yeah its mostly so we can watch our games back for the memories. We aren't voice actors, its definitely actual play but its so much fun to make stories with people you love.
It's motivated to finish my own RPG based on my 2003 VIctorian Horror LARP., that is turning out better than I could have ever dreamed. I can't say how happy, fulfilled and motivated I am and it's definitely down to RPGs with good friends. What a hobby it is!
Yup my DMing is like this lol th-cam.com/users/clipUgkxZm5nQqbR6C-dIwvmGCzGLBbOObtA5jt1
I've played RPGs for about 40 years. The comparison of modern day D&D to video game RPGs is very important to understand. Its like 80% tactics and 20% roleplaying. There's a little room for improvisation by the players, but almost no room for improvisation by the Dungeon Master. For example, if you suddenly think it would be a great twist for a demon to show up, and the players decide to attack it, you've got to look up all the stats for the demon, what spells and special abilities it has, etc.. I'm actually moving away from D&D to more softcover stuff like the Powered by Apocalypse styles (Fate Core is also good). If you like rules-heavy but want to have a little more freedom while playing, the classic GURPS is your friend. It takes a lot of fiddling on session 1 (or zero, depending on how you count) to make a character. But once you have the character, game play is smooth.
One category he didn't mention is absolutely free and completely simple RPGs. Look up Lasers and Feelings. The "rules" fit on one side of a sheet of paper, and the character fits on the other. That's it. The original is scifi based, but people have made about every genre you could possibly think of.
Yeah, I find I prefer to play "crunchy", and run "rules lite". If the players want to follow and self-impose a lot of rules, that's cool. But I don't want to have to referee it all. If one of my players wants to cheat and give me really high numbers on their rolls, I will adjust the world to accommodate. Like Quinton said, if as a GM you are saying NO to a player, I tend to feel you are making a mistake at some level. This is only really a problem when you have players looking for different kinds of experiences (one wants a tactical challenge, the other just wants to do cool stunts), but even there I think a good GM can figure out a way. (your character is in the parkour room tearing up a dozen enemies, while your character needs to sneak in and do the tricky part of the encounter.) It makes things harder though.
I'm a baby GM and this is so helpful. Thank you so much. I'm going to be rewatching this over and over again.
And I just saw the end of the video saying not to watch tons of videos. My bad.
Wow, those tips for GMs dovetail what years of retrospection have shown me was the problem with my own attempts at running games. Kudos.
Re advice on choosing your first RPG: one way to go is to see what kind of stories your group most enjoys, and pick a game that promotes that kind of story. Some obvious pairings are D&D for Tolkien fans, Vampire the masquerade for readers of Anne Rice, and Shadowrun for people looking for cyberpunk. One benefit of this method is that it syncs the players' expectations and perceptions of the kind of story they are in, something that otherwise can foster confusion and frustration.
For adults I highly recommend discord to find games if you can’t find one locally! BUT for those who do decide to look online I HIGHLY recommend you look for or run your own game that uses TTRPG content safety tools.
In a game where anything can happen, setting ground rules for allowed content will help you avoid games that might literally give you trauma. I recommend searching “dnd safety tools” to find different systems and tools to use for trigger warnings.
My tip to throw in is, know what your players like and don't like and everything else can flow from there. I've run games where the players were rules lawyers and loved statistics so it was more about scenes to get you to tactics based fight scenes and i've run with players who liked stories and scenes, and any combat was just a means of getting to the next part of the adventure/story. By the same token, have had people in groups that certain topics are touchy subjects, so it helps to know ahead of time what not to talk about or get near.
also a solid notebook, no one talks about them, they are incredible tools. Did you just create an npc on the fly that you want to reuse later, jot down a few things as you're going and use it as a tool for in-between sessions.
if you're web inclined or even run a blog, jotting down bullet points of what happened during an adventure and posting it, not only for you, but for your players can be incredibly helpful, especially if you don't have a regular cadence or everyone gets busy and doesn't remember everything that happened 3 weeks ago or what not. That has been a lifesaver in a couple of times.
Two tips off the top of my head.
- Actual play shows are a great resource for GMs or potential GMs, if you sample multiple different GMs' styles and take the bits you like to develop your own style.
- There are lots of rpg conventions, game cafes, etc where you can try one-shots of games with folks who can help you get going.
Wow, "this is not MY story", man that is gold. I'm gonna have it written on the top of my GM screen .Like, yeah, sure, I knew it, sorta, but it's so easy to get bogged down in your own schemes and this is such a brilliantly simple formula for a succesful game! Hats off to You Mister!
I've watched probably several dozen videos trying to understand what the "job" of GM/DM really is and this video, by far, has offered the best advice I've heard! Advice that I wish I'd gotten 2 years ago when I first got interested in D&D and realized that more people play than DM/GM heh
This might be the greatest introduction to TTRPGs I have ever seen. Thanks so much for making this, I will be recommending this to everyone, forever.
My tip is shop around for groups! My main group which is made up of people I love almost all have a play style that means I don’t enjoy the game half as much as they do and I thought spending the game feeling frustrated was how RPGs worked.
Then I played with another group who were focussed on the story and working together for a common goal and everything clicked into place. Both styles are legitimate ways to enjoy playing but I’d have never known how much fun I can have playing if I didn’t randomly get invited to a different game.
I think the biggest tip for people who want or plan to DM and want to create their own world in which to do it is “keep it simple!” I know so many folks who swear they’re going to run the worlds most amazing campaign, just as soon as they’re done outlining the setting… that they’ve been working on for years.
It’s really really easy to fall into the worldbuilding trap, where you just get stuck forever adding more detail that the players are just never going to see, or that your going to wind up dumping on them because you spent so much time making it that you feel like you need to show it to someone.
Get a couple core concepts “my world is post apocalyptic” “my world is high magic” “my world is generally light in tone”. Then slam out the location the game will be in (or if your game will be big, the location your game will start in), and one semi distant place you can occasionally reference as being “that place from which folks from far off often come from”. And then start running, let the rest grow organically or just build it over the course of the campaign.
Never feel like your setting needs to be “done” before you start your game. Because it’s a whole world, and people have spent lifetimes writing about our own world and not finished.
This is exactly the friendly call I needed to dive into the RPGs. Thank you so much for your sympathic and charismatic energy Quinn !
RPGs based on licensed properties, star wars, game of thrones, that kinda thing. Can often be looked down upon because people see them as not as few or open as other systems. I recommend folk give them a try, I found a deeper magical thing happens when you have players who are fans of a fictional universe from some other kind of media, so much of the worldbuilding is already done. Your characters might not have existed 30 minutes ago, but the players have so much genre knowledge and familiarity which will bleed into the characters and make them so much more realistic. When you subvert tropes of the genre those subversions will be all the more noticeable and weird.
Advice for my fellow GMs, since this video has genuinely been one of the best I've seen in a long time, learn to love your setting and run wild within it, embrace the bulleted list method of writing adventures, scenarios, and descriptions, and when in doubt, learn to throw out the actual rules and make up your own stuff. No game is perfect so feel free to write your own monsters, magic items, and abilities for your players. No one can stop you except you.
A really good way to get players more invested in the worlds you create is by letting the players make parts of it. Let that player get the core of their character figured out, then work with that player to add something to the setting that enables that character. A player is going to be more invested in your fictional town/religion/organization/customs if they had a hand in making them.
I think one thing I found helpful when I started GM'ing was to grab a pre-generated adventure you like the sound of and your players are up for and then run with it, I personally was a bit intimidated with the idea of putting a world together or thinking of where to start for a session but that definitely helped!
As someone who has played tabletop RPGs on and (mostly) off for the past decade. You're "provide experiences and toys" just completely recontextualizes GMing for me and made it feel like something I would love doing. My GMs always had the on rails narrative and that's what turned me away. But the idea of creating the sandbox sounds so fun. Thanks for this!
This was the first time I came across this channel or this video. Solid information. Charismatic personality. Funny. 10/10. Will recommend.
My one guide for being a DM: You are not trying to win, you are trying to lose with style. My one guide for being a player: Tell the DM what you want to see and plan to do, not only does it give them inspiration it allows them to create something they can assume you will enjoy
Exception: horror RPGs, especially Lovecraftian ones. It's not only expected that the players will "lose" it's generally part of the fun. You have to make sure player expectations are set ahead of time, though.
Always give them a reasonable "out". Now, if they really do stupid things...
Note that killing them isn't always the only option, either. Having them wake up owing the local cleric who barely knows medicine a few favors and the elf with a new peg leg... that's flavor. Lol.
Loving this. Been following SUSD for years and I finally now feel like I’ve found the games that I enjoy the most, and here the inspiring folks at SUSD have featured them both: tabletop role playing games (D&D is my favorite) and the pinnacle of card games (Netrunner). Thanks for encouraging others to discover RPGs. I knew I had to get back into roleplaying to introduce it to my girls-I want them to have that creative, collaborative, empathetic and empowering experience as soon as possible, and they love performing and kicking butt.
My first experience as a GM was with Monster of the Week. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
What everyone should bear in mind though is that you should be open to change or adapting stuff. Not just related to the story but also to the game system itself.
After a couple of sessions we reached the agreement that they wanted more involved combat as well, so I tagged on a basic square based combat system.
Once we finish this story we're going to look for a more involved combat system and a theme were interested in.
So yeah, just like Quins said, when choosing a game find the perfect balance between theme and complexity/depth.
This video is fantastic !
Me and my friends are getting ready to play our first game together next week. So excited
Thank you so much! I always wanted to try DnD with my friends, but we were all too intimidated to be the GM. This was not only very entertaining, but also so very helpful to show more realistic scenarios and take away my doubts.
Honestly, don't be afraid to play a module to start. Most level 1 modules will guide you through the rules, give you an idea of the flow and mechanics, and make the GM's job really easy. Once everyone is comfortable in the system, then it gets even easier to GM as you can focus on plot/setting/thatonecoolmonsterIjustsawinthebook and let the players help you by picking the most fun options you drop (seriously, play long enough and you will see how quickly bad plots turn into good from your players guiding things to be better).
28:12 The notion that video games and board games can get decreasingly magical the more involved you get with them, while TTRPGs get more magical, is a sentiment I fully agree with. Video games and board games after a while have many people looking at a new game like "what collection of mechanics is this?" moreso in board games than video games. Whereas in TTRPGs it's all "what new kinds of stories can I create with my friends with this new game that I couldn't before?" and there are often many surprising answers to that!
Oh wow. Quinn’s I played for years in my teens as player and DM. That was 20 years ago and I still miss it. Sometimes I watch a RPG episode or listen to an episode on a podcast. The tips you gave for How To DM is the best core advise I ever heard. I now see all the mistakes I did, forcing my captured audience through a story I built. And I see how I did not enjoy it as a player, when returning to try D&D at my late twenties. IT MAKES SENSE, and it is such a golden tip ('it's not YOUR story').
Really enjoyed this vid. Thank you!
Either create a world and let your players create characters for that world or hear what kind of characters they want to play before creating a world.
I abosultely love incorporating my Players Characters into this world and letting their actions and backstories influence the world at large. It makes them feel like every decision they make has weight to it.
Thanks for this video. It was exactly what I was wanting after the last RPG video you made.
Been playing (and mostly GMing) for 29 years now, and this is THE BEST video about how to / why get into the RPG hobby I have EVER seen. Thank you!
I've DMed, off and on, for decades... and those 2 tips are two of the best I've heard. I need to remember to remember them and action them!
That's crazy cool! This one 29 min video beats loads and loads of how-to and inspirational TTRPG content I've seen through years! Bravo!
Haven’t seen this genuine a video on TH-cam in a while, from anyone, including you guys. Thank you Quinns, really went all out on this one
Btw. Isn’t it ”an elf”. :D English not my native