Underneath his gruff exterior, Deathbringer is just a simple man who just wants to be loved. And to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and hear the lamentations of their women.
My first time here, 5 seconds in "This guy looks sharp and has a strong intro." 10 seconds in "Yeah, it's pretty good." 20 seconds in "Well, I don't know if I want to subscribe yet, I just got here." 24 seconds in "Yes deathbringer, of course I already subscribed."
If you are considering patronage, the professor has an awesome set of masterclass videos only on patreon that go into depth on gaming and mechanics. Totally awesome and game changing.
This is great! I’m currently running a campaign where the main villain has the ability to reach into the PC’s dreams once they have a tuft of the PC’s hair. Convening eerie messages and cryptic breadcrumbs. It’s working well, I only have to remind myself to do it while the players rest. Thanks for all you do PDM, appreciate all your wisdom.
I always say a good adventure and EVERY session needs a strong S.H.I.P! STORY (a basic idea of what the adventure is about) HOOK (a strong intro that grabs the player's attention at the very start) INTERACTION (interesting NPC's and encounters) and PACING! (keep things moving). It's pretty much the same four as the Professor describes.
Very nice... So it's the W questions. Objective being what, location being where, time limit being when, and Villain being who. Given that adding a Why would not be a bad idea. :) I think Lindybeige mentioned that too.
The way I had my BBEG be involved with the party before the climax is to reveal that most of their magic items and spells were made/written by him and he'd been able to scry on them ever since they were level one.
This is awesome. Love how you made it into simple steps and gave great examples. Of all the D&D advice channels yours is one of the few I have stuck with because you actually provide interesting and useful tips.
In the interest of feeding the algorithm, allow me to offer a counterargument, or at least an alternate point of view, that will hopefully inspire people to pile on and call me a dummy. Warning: long post. I think your four elements can be used to produce a successful adventure of a certain style of play. However, I take issue with the idea that all of these four are critical (i.e. necessary) to creating a satisfying adventure, and that adventures with these four will always be more satisfying or more successful than those missing one or more. It all depends on what you consider to be successful and satisfying. Forcing all four of these elements into every adventure encourages an adventure style that is linear and plot-driven. It’s a valid way to create an adventure and play the game. In fact, it’s probably the most popular kind of adventure style since the Hickmans’ wrote I6. The problem I have is that people think it’s the only way to create an adventure, or at least the best. I disagree. And I realize my opinion puts me in the minority and goes against the common wisdom of the entire RPG industry for the last 35 years. I prefer a slower, more player-motivated, exploratory, campaign-centric (rather than adventure-centric) open world game. To my mind, adventurers are not heroes by default, they are treasure hunters and explorers of the strange and unusual just for the sake of experiencing the strange and unusual. Time-based plots with objectives assigned by the DM tend to discourage adventures of pure exploration for its own sake (including hexcrawls) or dinking around interacting with interesting things that don’t have anything to do with the Main Objective. I like this dinking around. That’s the game to me. That’s what I find satisfying. Hmm, what does this lever do? Why is there a weird glow coming from the caverns to the left? Can I get the treasure without interacting with the villain at all? Can I play what this faction wants against the other faction to my advantage? I can have a good time playing in a plot-driven adventure, but it’s not my preference. I don’t have a problem picking up an obvious adventure hook and playing ball with what the DM has prepared. But I do start to feel a bit resentful if I sense I’m being pulled in a direction or that there is a correct sequence of scenes that need to be played out in order. It makes me feel like I’m playing against a script. As a DM, I try to resist pushing players one way or the other even if it means they don’t encounter the really cool thing I placed in the west tower. And I really don’t like the 5-room dungeon concept. I want a dungeon that PCs can get lost in. There is very little wonder to five rooms. I don’t care if they miss certain encounters entirely. I’m also not concerned with creating a nicely-paced story graph of narrative exposition with an intro, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. I like that in the fiction I read and movies I watch, but I don’t want it in my role-playing games. I understand most people probably do. Yes, I’m saying I think 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans can be wrong. For me, creating more exploratory, open campaign adventures requires a little bit more work up front, but I think it pays off for what I (and some others) want out of the game. You don’t have to map and populate an entire planet with hundreds of pages of lore. In fact, I’d advocate that new DMs don’t. They should start small and let it develop organically. Start with a small regional map with at least one town with access to trade. Include some (not all) surrounding geographic areas: woods, swamps, plains, cliffs, hills and mountains, etc. Create maybe three different adventuring sites, maybe a multi-level dungeon under some old castle or temple ruins, an “abandoned” tower, a series of tombs. Populate each of these with monsters, traps, puzzles, hazards, mysteries, and treasure. Create random encounter tables both for the locations and the wilderness around them. Create at least three factions in the area all with distinct motivations. These don’t need to be monsters; they could be cults or political forces inside the town. Instead of The Objective, create a rumors table with multiple hooks, some of which might bring them to one of your locations or contact one of the factions. I think your bulletin board idea in your KotB videos is an excellent example of this. Finally, build in a couple external events which will happen within a certain time unless the PCs do something about it. They don’t need to do anything about any of these things, in fact, it’s more interesting if multiple deadlines are occurring simultaneously to make them have to choose which to engage with. With this kind of setup, you can campaign for years, expanding the map as you play. I’ll take this kind of game play over a linear, adventure path any day. Even GDQ.
I agree with you 110%, Chris! This is the type of game I personally prefer to build *and* to play in. (Not to say that the other style isn’t enjoyable or valid, simply not my preference.)
I read every word of your response. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Would it surprise you if I said I agreed? Moreover, the line of 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans gave me a real chuckle. Everyone should read the second to last paragraph. Solid advice there. There are, of course, innumerable play styles and whatever you and your friends enjoy is what you should be doing. If I didn't include clear hooks, my players would wait around, wondering where the adventure is! This is the style that works at my table and--I believe-- reaches the widest audience. So thanks, Chris! Best wishes to you and your players in 2021.
While I think that style can work potentially, it's definitely not the norm, and the rules generally work against you. The problem with not pacing time in D&D is that if players control long rests, it's extremely hard to build any kind of encounters. 5E (and most other editions) are balanced around the idea of resource depletion and efficiency. If time no longer becomes a factor, then the players essentially can reload their spells and hit points whenever they want and the DM loses control over resource management. Now I'm not saying that your idea for a campaign is bad. In fact, it sounds like it could be be fun to play. But I do think the 5E rules are a poor choice for that particular style. 5E is largely designed for the kind of adventures PDM is advocating for. The megadungeon sadly does not translate well to it.
So well explained and argued! Ever since I came back to this hobby I've felt like a specific playstyle and campaign style has been push everywhere I look. What really got to me with the plot-driven approach was usually pushed as the one-true-way with anything else be incorrect and just bad (or at best "casual"). At first my reaction was shock and to be a bit of a jerk about it since many (I'm sure well meaning) presentations on designing adventures and/or campaigns seemed to say the kind of open-ended campaigns was just wrong. I don't have a huge problem with it in adventures (as long as its not presented as the only way to design an adventure); it gets to me more when its present as how to design a whole campaign as one big mega-adventure stringing together sub-adventures and ending when the "BBEG" is defeated.
@@taragnor The kind of adventures described were more typical early on and in "old school" gaming, and I think that is a key difference. A lot of old school adventures were actually designed with the assumption the party would fully rest multiple times, even returning to town to recooperate (or find some other place to lie low if a long wilderness treck is available). I'm sure you could still do this, though returning to town or some other safe area would no longer be required.
Great video. I made a short adventure where the final boss was really a ghost asking to be freed, and the first contact the players had with him was on a cliff, where he jumped into the ocean. But the players did not know it was a vision, so they thought someone killed himself
My four elements for an improv TTRPG session are: premise, destination, consequence, and opposition. It neat to see how those words overlap so cleanly with: objective, location, time limit, and villain.
Great advice, and well boiled down. Switching to an all one-shot format and this has helped focus the scenario writing. Of the 4 elements, villain has been the most difficult, which I didn't anticipate.
I have no nitpicks, which makes it really hard to say something constructive or engaging. Great advice for any adventure-writer. In fact, rather than write this essay to get into grad school, I'll write this adventure for my wife instead. :)
I DM'd my first game of DnD yesterday for my siblings who visited for christmas, and it went great! I used the simplified rules from your very first dungeoncraft videos to get going fast, and it was a really good idea. They all want more now. The great thing about your videos is that you bring everything down to the basics, and those basics are really incredibly valuable when you are in the field as a new DM. You also taught me not to respect the rules too much, and that really lifts a huge weight off both my shoulders, and my player's shoulders as well, because we don't have to get through hours of tedious rule-studying before getting to the fun stuff.
Last night I ran Unhallowed Ground, one of the scenarios that the Prof. Got published Dungeon Magazine. Great scenario, players loved it. It deserves a re-vamping and republishing to get it out there like Jigsaw, Professor!
Good cornerstones for making great adventures. You can always add more points, like ccol rewards for the players, memorable NPCs, varied scenery and battle scenes and so on. My favorite is when I manage to include some kind of extra challenge during combat. Like, it takes place on a sinking ship, on a very high bridge and so on. The alchemist lab of the villain might have some mechanical or magical machinery that needs to be stopped as well as fighting the villain - so that the PCs have to make choices when taking their actions and so that "their usual battle plan" don't just go off without a hitch.
I click on the notification, I slap the Like button, then proceed to watch the episode. Glorious as always, top notch video; thank you, Professor. Content like this is both why I want to produce something and why I feel like I can simply refer my people this way. Heck, if ol' Lindy Bones is a fan, then I might as well just sit quietly and take notes. LOL
Also, if you roll the comment by @lindybeige into this, it's the 5 Ws of a proper mission statement. Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Beat the villain to accomplish the thing at the following location no later than this time to facilitate an outcome. Nice.
Hey! You wrote Unhallowed Ground! I have maybe three issues of Dungeon, and I always thought that one was very cool and unique. And it made the cover, so good job!
my players in a GI Joe style modern SWAT game. Just slapped this together from the subject of the video. Characters are deployed to rescue hostages from a yacht. The time limit is that there is a transport on the way for the bad guys to get away with the hostages. The Villain is the Evil S.P.I.R.E. As for Lindybeige's suggestion, they're doing it because "The Chief" calls for them to be involved in the hostage rescue. Simplistic and maybe ham-fisted? sure, but that's the feel of the game. Red lasers are baddies, blue lasers are the good guys!
Absolutely fantastic! My friend and I recently started a DND group, whenever I watch your videos like these, it inspired me and makes me want to homebrew my own campaign.
i just had a thought about the location chart. i was thinking of adding an adjective chart, so instead of just rolling for the lost tomb, lost city, or the evil castle, you can end up with things like the haunted city, the loathsome tomb, or the underground castle. this would expand the creativity and there would be no two sessions that would sound the same using that chart above
Thanks for sharing today. Short rests are killing my game, so you’ve inspired me to make things a little more intense. Bye bye unnecessary short rests!
Admittedly, your bonus credit material is basically the point of my games. I love making cool reoccurring villains that my players love to hate: it's the best. Right now, my PCs have an evil party of adventurers they are pursuing/being chased by/competing with (not quite "evil-mirror-squad" but similar enough to act as great foils). The lines between which group actually the antagonists in a given situation get blurry often, but the game is all the better for it!
How about: "Get the ham and cheese sandwich on rye from the delicatessen before it closes. Watch out for the 'waitress'." 🥪⏰🙍♀️ That has all four elements. 😊 I reckon I could run that as a great adventure!!! 👍😎 So, thanks for another great video, Professor and HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! 🎆✨🎆🍗🍻😃
Keeping it sharp Deathbringer. Perfect advice, random tables are a low prep GM's greatest tools. See you next year, here is a new years cookie for the metric
Thanks for your tips to help me in DM’ing. I have a host of players that want to play but no one wants to manage the game. So I’m doing my best to get better at not just storytelling but handling situations and reactions of players
TLDR: 1: Objective: Make sure your players know exactly what they're doing no more than 10 minutes into a session. Confusion and vague goals lead to slog and chaos! Keep it simple. Give them a place to go and a thing to get. Table for inspo at: 2: Location: Any location is a closed matrix. Give the players the illusion of choice: left or right? Either way, it's a closed system. All roads lead to plot development. Know your location, and keep it small. fewer rooms in a dungeon= shorter session, more= longer. 3: Time limit: A clock means easy tension. When the players feel the pressure they are going to act, and feel like what they're doing has consequences. Punish them for stopping to rest/ don't let them rest, to begin with. Less time means more tension and a more difficult task. More time means the opposite. 4: Villian: A good villain has the same goal as a hero. Thanos and the avengers both want the infinity gauntlet, they just want it for different reasons. Same objective, alternative (and opposing) motives. Introduce this villain early on. This can be in foreshadowing of some sort, or you have them fuck over the players at some point before the final showdown so they really hate him. They should want to not only stop the villain but enjoy shutting him down. Their inevitable demise should create catharsis in the heroes!
Thanks for the mental floss. I dm for my son's , daughter , and anywhere from 4 to 7 of thier friends. I feel bad cutting the party down , can't leave kids out. You have it right... I have kids that bring Hero click figures for thier pcs. Last week l had wonder woman black widow and juggernaut, in my last crawl.
I use a Thor hero click as my default D&D Hero mini. Paladin, Cleric, Fighter, super handy to keep on hand, and it doesn't get beat up or paint chipped!
I don't know if this is a German thing, but I had several times players, who were perfectly fine with "pacifistic" adventures where you don't have villains or fights. For example, you try to prevent an ancient fey to steal a child, but the fey is not malicious, so we made a deal with her by helping her solving an old riddle and paying her off. There was tension, but it could not be resolved with violence. When again, it was a Christmas adventure...
I'm totally putting off prepping my game by watching this. It's in 30 minutes and all I came up with is, space monsters ate the crew of the ship which contains the mysterious McGuffin.
By far one of your best videos! Once again, you’re making DMing accessible to everyone! Great job. PS, still waiting for your video on managing romances in a campaign ;)
My favorite type of villain is one the players meet, but don't realize he's the villain yet; especially if hints are dropped that they are the villain but the players are missing a crucial piece of information to piece it together themselves until after the villain is well gone and out committing villainy. Or alternatively, a "villain" who's a friend to the players, but opposed to them in this instance for some reason, known or unknown.
I actually like short rests and wish my players would use them more. It is the long rests that kill the tension. That is why I make them take 3 days instead of 8 hours. That way the players have to be on a break from adventuring to get the long rest stuff, which, thanks to the time limit, they can't always do. Short rests are fine though since it is just a quick breather, some extra hit points, and then continuing on with the quest.
Yeah the 5 minute short rest in 4E was one thing I thought that edition really got right. I liked the idea of just assuming people get a post-combat recovery and that takes place while everyone is recovering dropped/thrown weapons, looting bodies, generally securing the area, etc. Long rests on the other hand are game killers. Honestly wish they made them take a week or something, because they totally break any kind of encounter pacing, especially on wilderness journeys.
Is there anywhere people still post homemade 3.5 dnd campaigns and adventures? I have a couple I would like to get feedback on, and I always enjoyed picking up a few new, really inspired adventures.
I've watched every DC that PDM has put out for us and I think this one probably ranks as my favorite. It's pithy, excellent advice that you can start applying right away. Well done!
Great episode! Can you do one episode on each of these items? This one seemed to be focused on the "time limit" one, but the others sounds excellent as well :)
Time limits are essential to storytelling, that is why they are essential to RPG’s. I love time limits, without them a whole bunch of verbal nonsense treachery is committed - and when verbal nonsense treachery is committed and time limits are exceeded, Deathbringer is transported through space and TIme to handle the issue in a very violent manner. Please PCs take your Time cause I want to play Deathbringer.
Oh, wow! All my latest campaigns so far had been following these elements! I wanna stress out how important the time limit is! Time limits are sometimes motivation enough to get the players moving. Without them, my players constantly ignored all the campaign story beats. The first time I did this, I was inspired by a horror game called Death Mark. The characters were cursed by the playful mocking villainess to a death curse. If they want to live, they will have to play her various deadly games and beat them before the time limit. Or else they die either way.
Jokes on you, I procrastinate designing an adventure for today by watching this video, which actually helped me even though I was genuinely procrastinating ^^
Although these point can help make some sessions I don't agree that every session needs this. It very much depends on you players, "they won't care about the plot" a lot of them will in my experience. Location is not always needed to begin with, this could be explored, researched or found through NPCs. "You need a time limit", you don't always, it seems very "rail road" to me to always force the player to do exactly what "mission" you want to do this session. I prefer to run a more open style game with nuggets and clues for players to follow which often leads to a more player motivated story. Sometimes I have improvised almost entire sessions since the players wanted to explore something that I didn't think they'd find instantly captivating. Those were some of our best sessions :) I think villain is the wrong word here. Antagonist is better, in my experience the best antagonists are those the players can relate to and maybe doesn't do purely evil things but operates in a kind of grey area or has the right ideas but a bad execution. Still good advice, but I'm just against the "always do this" or the "one size fits all" mentality in D&D. People play differently and want different things out of a sessions and campaigns.
I always thought Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom is the perfect example of how to DM. I mean, it has all those things listed plus perfect examples of Traps and Hazards.
Very helpful video, and I agree with most everything you say in it! I would add that if you want inspiration for running truly unique villains than there is no substitute for the VanRichten guides to monsters! To this day the second entry in it ( the guide to the created) is one of if not the best book ever put out for AD&D 2nd ed ( which we all know is the only true D&D ed! LOL) . The guide to hags is also excellent, it really humanizes them to the point you pity their horrible transformation!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I would love to see you do a video about them if you happen to own them ( I know they are astronomical on ebay now but I think drive thru RPG has them all). The first 3 came out when I was 14 or 15 and I bailed a lot of hay to get them . His guide to the created will always hold a very special place in my ❤️!
As a Dm who has been a player maybe 7 times I much prefer to dm games rather than play but after going threw your channel and watching many of your videos I envy your players.
xD interesting to see the DM approch when you doing D&D. This "find mc guffin in location x" is something that is totally hated in the Dark eye / Das Schwarze Auge
WAIT A MOMENT! EPISODE 85!! 1. go get the witch's elves boots of swiftness 2. from the owlbear(/creature)'s den 3. ...before she gets pissed and turn the players into worms...? 4. the owlbear!!! i see the weave keeping together the fabric of the universe! PS! great video! super helpful!
A good way to solve the problem of short rest: short rest = 8h (a full night of sleep), long rest = 1 week (basically, between adventures). This will challenge your players much more and force them to stretch their resources. It also makes it more realistic since your wounds don't just heal for sitting around for one hour. It will also more likely have you reach the "6 encounters per long rest" that the game was apparently balanced for.
Underneath his gruff exterior, Deathbringer is just a simple man who just wants to be loved.
And to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and hear the lamentations of their women.
Ah that is good!
Lol, nice Conan reference!
Don’t forget salt their fields either!
My first time here, 5 seconds in "This guy looks sharp and has a strong intro."
10 seconds in "Yeah, it's pretty good."
20 seconds in "Well, I don't know if I want to subscribe yet, I just got here."
24 seconds in "Yes deathbringer, of course I already subscribed."
"What are you filthy, armed vagrants doing in my wondrous lair?!"
"Dying Guy told us to get the Thing."
Villian: *shrugs* "Fair enough." *Rolls initiatve*
No initiative! Didn’t you watch the dungeon craft video on that?
@@johnscotto5045 - Just Draw Cards, ideally. Solves two problems in one if you're not stuck with a d20 noose.
"Fools ! The thing is mine"
Yes
I love how you made a super useful concise video that some other channels would have dragged out for an hour.
Much appreciated, and very helpful.
Just saw this. Thank you.
If you are considering patronage, the professor has an awesome set of masterclass videos only on patreon that go into depth on gaming and mechanics. Totally awesome and game changing.
Thanks, Scott. I just uploaded next week's video and it will air on Saturday, BTW. Extended version is 23 minutes. May all your rolls in 2021 be 20s!
Professor Dungeon Master, your acting wasn't over; it was exactly need!
My kids are embarrassed, but I don't care. Cheers!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 If you embarrassed your kids, that's a bonus! :)
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 This is the Way.
He went to the Shattner school of acting... Lol
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 If you're embarrassing your kids... you're doing it right.
Dungeon Craft and Seth Skorkowsky videos drop back-to-back? Merry Middlemas, everyone!
Seth posted a video?!
Did he? I have to watch it. Seth's the best!
@@METALGEARMATRIX yep, C-o-C adventure review.
Who’s Seth sakorsky?
@@jeffbaril4047 A really great creator who makes videos about modules/adventures from various systems. I highly recommend him!
I love the way you sneak in the 5th ingredient- "no short rests!"
I totally agree!
Ah, the poor man's Tome of Adventure Design summed up in four high-concept points. Thanks Prof, great vid!
Thanks!
Second.
Many probably don't know, but Tome of Adventure Design is actually a great book. Used it to great effect.
Commenting for profile pic
I see you too are a man of culture
Remember Willie Walsh writing for Dungeon Magazine? That guy wrote some amazing Adventures in the late 80's and 90's!
Yes!!
This is great! I’m currently running a campaign where the main villain has the ability to reach into the PC’s dreams once they have a tuft of the PC’s hair. Convening eerie messages and cryptic breadcrumbs. It’s working well, I only have to remind myself to do it while the players rest.
Thanks for all you do PDM, appreciate all your wisdom.
I always say a good adventure and EVERY session needs a strong S.H.I.P! STORY (a basic idea of what the adventure is about) HOOK (a strong intro that grabs the player's attention at the very start) INTERACTION (interesting NPC's and encounters) and PACING! (keep things moving). It's pretty much the same four as the Professor describes.
Incorporating time limits (#3) is something that is great advice, but is tricky to do naturally.
One of the best examples of a short rest working in sync with building suspense is the elevator scene before the final fight in the movie Dredd
Professor!
This is great advice, instruction or refresher. Combine this with "3 NPCs your D&D game needs" and a campaign can write itself. On point.
Now that's a video! Totally encapsulated what went wrong with my last session!
It's funny how painfully obvious and simple it is once it's presented. Thanks for another helpful video. Now, back to the work I was putting off.
Very nice... So it's the W questions. Objective being what, location being where, time limit being when, and Villain being who. Given that adding a Why would not be a bad idea. :)
I think Lindybeige mentioned that too.
The way I had my BBEG be involved with the party before the climax is to reveal that most of their magic items and spells were made/written by him and he'd been able to scry on them ever since they were level one.
This is awesome. Love how you made it into simple steps and gave great examples. Of all the D&D advice channels yours is one of the few I have stuck with because you actually provide interesting and useful tips.
I Love ALL Dungeon Craft videos! Especially his back catalog.
In the interest of feeding the algorithm, allow me to offer a counterargument, or at least an alternate point of view, that will hopefully inspire people to pile on and call me a dummy. Warning: long post.
I think your four elements can be used to produce a successful adventure of a certain style of play. However, I take issue with the idea that all of these four are critical (i.e. necessary) to creating a satisfying adventure, and that adventures with these four will always be more satisfying or more successful than those missing one or more. It all depends on what you consider to be successful and satisfying.
Forcing all four of these elements into every adventure encourages an adventure style that is linear and plot-driven. It’s a valid way to create an adventure and play the game. In fact, it’s probably the most popular kind of adventure style since the Hickmans’ wrote I6. The problem I have is that people think it’s the only way to create an adventure, or at least the best. I disagree. And I realize my opinion puts me in the minority and goes against the common wisdom of the entire RPG industry for the last 35 years.
I prefer a slower, more player-motivated, exploratory, campaign-centric (rather than adventure-centric) open world game. To my mind, adventurers are not heroes by default, they are treasure hunters and explorers of the strange and unusual just for the sake of experiencing the strange and unusual. Time-based plots with objectives assigned by the DM tend to discourage adventures of pure exploration for its own sake (including hexcrawls) or dinking around interacting with interesting things that don’t have anything to do with the Main Objective. I like this dinking around. That’s the game to me. That’s what I find satisfying. Hmm, what does this lever do? Why is there a weird glow coming from the caverns to the left? Can I get the treasure without interacting with the villain at all? Can I play what this faction wants against the other faction to my advantage?
I can have a good time playing in a plot-driven adventure, but it’s not my preference. I don’t have a problem picking up an obvious adventure hook and playing ball with what the DM has prepared. But I do start to feel a bit resentful if I sense I’m being pulled in a direction or that there is a correct sequence of scenes that need to be played out in order. It makes me feel like I’m playing against a script. As a DM, I try to resist pushing players one way or the other even if it means they don’t encounter the really cool thing I placed in the west tower. And I really don’t like the 5-room dungeon concept. I want a dungeon that PCs can get lost in. There is very little wonder to five rooms. I don’t care if they miss certain encounters entirely. I’m also not concerned with creating a nicely-paced story graph of narrative exposition with an intro, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. I like that in the fiction I read and movies I watch, but I don’t want it in my role-playing games. I understand most people probably do. Yes, I’m saying I think 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans can be wrong.
For me, creating more exploratory, open campaign adventures requires a little bit more work up front, but I think it pays off for what I (and some others) want out of the game. You don’t have to map and populate an entire planet with hundreds of pages of lore. In fact, I’d advocate that new DMs don’t. They should start small and let it develop organically. Start with a small regional map with at least one town with access to trade. Include some (not all) surrounding geographic areas: woods, swamps, plains, cliffs, hills and mountains, etc. Create maybe three different adventuring sites, maybe a multi-level dungeon under some old castle or temple ruins, an “abandoned” tower, a series of tombs. Populate each of these with monsters, traps, puzzles, hazards, mysteries, and treasure. Create random encounter tables both for the locations and the wilderness around them. Create at least three factions in the area all with distinct motivations. These don’t need to be monsters; they could be cults or political forces inside the town. Instead of The Objective, create a rumors table with multiple hooks, some of which might bring them to one of your locations or contact one of the factions. I think your bulletin board idea in your KotB videos is an excellent example of this. Finally, build in a couple external events which will happen within a certain time unless the PCs do something about it. They don’t need to do anything about any of these things, in fact, it’s more interesting if multiple deadlines are occurring simultaneously to make them have to choose which to engage with.
With this kind of setup, you can campaign for years, expanding the map as you play. I’ll take this kind of game play over a linear, adventure path any day. Even GDQ.
I agree with you 110%, Chris! This is the type of game I personally prefer to build *and* to play in. (Not to say that the other style isn’t enjoyable or valid, simply not my preference.)
I read every word of your response. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Would it surprise you if I said I agreed? Moreover, the line of 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans gave me a real chuckle. Everyone should read the second to last paragraph. Solid advice there. There are, of course, innumerable play styles and whatever you and your friends enjoy is what you should be doing. If I didn't include clear hooks, my players would wait around, wondering where the adventure is! This is the style that works at my table and--I believe-- reaches the widest audience. So thanks, Chris! Best wishes to you and your players in 2021.
While I think that style can work potentially, it's definitely not the norm, and the rules generally work against you. The problem with not pacing time in D&D is that if players control long rests, it's extremely hard to build any kind of encounters. 5E (and most other editions) are balanced around the idea of resource depletion and efficiency. If time no longer becomes a factor, then the players essentially can reload their spells and hit points whenever they want and the DM loses control over resource management.
Now I'm not saying that your idea for a campaign is bad. In fact, it sounds like it could be be fun to play. But I do think the 5E rules are a poor choice for that particular style. 5E is largely designed for the kind of adventures PDM is advocating for. The megadungeon sadly does not translate well to it.
So well explained and argued! Ever since I came back to this hobby I've felt like a specific playstyle and campaign style has been push everywhere I look. What really got to me with the plot-driven approach was usually pushed as the one-true-way with anything else be incorrect and just bad (or at best "casual"). At first my reaction was shock and to be a bit of a jerk about it since many (I'm sure well meaning) presentations on designing adventures and/or campaigns seemed to say the kind of open-ended campaigns was just wrong. I don't have a huge problem with it in adventures (as long as its not presented as the only way to design an adventure); it gets to me more when its present as how to design a whole campaign as one big mega-adventure stringing together sub-adventures and ending when the "BBEG" is defeated.
@@taragnor The kind of adventures described were more typical early on and in "old school" gaming, and I think that is a key difference. A lot of old school adventures were actually designed with the assumption the party would fully rest multiple times, even returning to town to recooperate (or find some other place to lie low if a long wilderness treck is available). I'm sure you could still do this, though returning to town or some other safe area would no longer be required.
Great video. I made a short adventure where the final boss was really a ghost asking to be freed, and the first contact the players had with him was on a cliff, where he jumped into the ocean. But the players did not know it was a vision, so they thought someone killed himself
My four elements for an improv TTRPG session are: premise, destination, consequence, and opposition. It neat to see how those words overlap so cleanly with: objective, location, time limit, and villain.
Great advice, and well boiled down.
Switching to an all one-shot format and this has helped focus the scenario writing. Of the 4 elements, villain has been the most difficult, which I didn't anticipate.
As always, quick ,concise , highly relevant and entertaining
Thanks. Working on a review of the new basics sad right now. Trying to get it down to 15 minutes.
Did the Professor just call me out to get back to my math homework?!
I have no nitpicks, which makes it really hard to say something constructive or engaging. Great advice for any adventure-writer. In fact, rather than write this essay to get into grad school, I'll write this adventure for my wife instead. :)
Awesome miniatures and setting terrain in this video!!! I absolutely love how they are always integrated into the videos!!!
I DM'd my first game of DnD yesterday for my siblings who visited for christmas, and it went great! I used the simplified rules from your very first dungeoncraft videos to get going fast, and it was a really good idea. They all want more now.
The great thing about your videos is that you bring everything down to the basics, and those basics are really incredibly valuable when you are in the field as a new DM. You also taught me not to respect the rules too much, and that really lifts a huge weight off both my shoulders, and my player's shoulders as well, because we don't have to get through hours of tedious rule-studying before getting to the fun stuff.
Brevity is the soul of wit. Keep it up man
Saved. Content from Professor DM, DM Lair, and Seth Skorkowsky in one day. It is a good day for tabletop content.
Last night I ran Unhallowed Ground, one of the scenarios that the Prof. Got published Dungeon Magazine. Great scenario, players loved it. It deserves a re-vamping and republishing to get it out there like Jigsaw, Professor!
Thank you.
You never disappoint prof.
Good cornerstones for making great adventures. You can always add more points, like ccol rewards for the players, memorable NPCs, varied scenery and battle scenes and so on.
My favorite is when I manage to include some kind of extra challenge during combat. Like, it takes place on a sinking ship, on a very high bridge and so on. The alchemist lab of the villain might have some mechanical or magical machinery that needs to be stopped as well as fighting the villain - so that the PCs have to make choices when taking their actions and so that "their usual battle plan" don't just go off without a hitch.
Terrific advice. Through the four filter your adventure shall be viewed. +1 Vest of Perception
Really excited to tie these 4 elements with Runehammer's LOG method for planning out sessions. Thanks Prof DM!
I click on the notification, I slap the Like button, then proceed to watch the episode. Glorious as always, top notch video; thank you, Professor.
Content like this is both why I want to produce something and why I feel like I can simply refer my people this way.
Heck, if ol' Lindy Bones is a fan, then I might as well just sit quietly and take notes. LOL
Also, if you roll the comment by @lindybeige into this, it's the 5 Ws of a proper mission statement.
Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
Beat the villain to accomplish the thing at the following location no later than this time to facilitate an outcome.
Nice.
Hey! You wrote Unhallowed Ground! I have maybe three issues of Dungeon, and I always thought that one was very cool and unique. And it made the cover, so good job!
This is the video title we were looking for.
Well done, Prof!
Your videos' acted-out examples are excellent and chuckle-worthy :)
my players in a GI Joe style modern SWAT game. Just slapped this together from the subject of the video.
Characters are deployed to rescue hostages from a yacht. The time limit is that there is a transport on the way for the bad guys to get away with the hostages. The Villain is the Evil S.P.I.R.E. As for Lindybeige's suggestion, they're doing it because "The Chief" calls for them to be involved in the hostage rescue.
Simplistic and maybe ham-fisted? sure, but that's the feel of the game. Red lasers are baddies, blue lasers are the good guys!
Absolutely fantastic! My friend and I recently started a DND group, whenever I watch your videos like these, it inspired me and makes me want to homebrew my own campaign.
Hail Deathbringer!
He sends his regards.
We shall build a labyrinth to house the regards!
Shatner's Vest of Acting +1
MI:3 had the best use of a Disguise Kit I have ever seen in D&D filmmaking.
i just had a thought about the location chart. i was thinking of adding an adjective chart, so instead of just rolling for the lost tomb, lost city, or the evil castle, you can end up with things like the haunted city, the loathsome tomb, or the underground castle. this would expand the creativity and there would be no two sessions that would sound the same using that chart above
Thanks for sharing today. Short rests are killing my game, so you’ve inspired me to make things a little more intense. Bye bye unnecessary short rests!
Admittedly, your bonus credit material is basically the point of my games. I love making cool reoccurring villains that my players love to hate: it's the best. Right now, my PCs have an evil party of adventurers they are pursuing/being chased by/competing with (not quite "evil-mirror-squad" but similar enough to act as great foils). The lines between which group actually the antagonists in a given situation get blurry often, but the game is all the better for it!
Well put - i always appreciate your ability to wrap up complex gaming concepts so succinctly!
How about: "Get the ham and cheese sandwich on rye from the delicatessen before it closes. Watch out for the 'waitress'." 🥪⏰🙍♀️
That has all four elements. 😊 I reckon I could run that as a great adventure!!! 👍😎 So, thanks for another great video, Professor and HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! 🎆✨🎆🍗🍻😃
Just filled up another page of my DM notebook. Thanks again!
Tip #0.9 Listen to more Dungeoncraft.
I love this channel.
I love you loving it.
Keeping it sharp Deathbringer. Perfect advice, random tables are a low prep GM's greatest tools. See you next year, here is a new years cookie for the metric
Great vid Prof. A great simple core to build on. I've been GM'in years but always great to refresh on the grass roots.
Thanks for your tips to help me in DM’ing. I have a host of players that want to play but no one wants to manage the game.
So I’m doing my best to get better at not just storytelling but handling situations and reactions of players
Deception, detailed descriptions, risk, and reward.
TLDR:
1: Objective: Make sure your players know exactly what they're doing no more than 10 minutes into a session. Confusion and vague goals lead to slog and chaos! Keep it simple. Give them a place to go and a thing to get. Table for inspo at:
2: Location: Any location is a closed matrix. Give the players the illusion of choice: left or right? Either way, it's a closed system. All roads lead to plot development. Know your location, and keep it small. fewer rooms in a dungeon= shorter session, more= longer.
3: Time limit: A clock means easy tension. When the players feel the pressure they are going to act, and feel like what they're doing has consequences. Punish them for stopping to rest/ don't let them rest, to begin with. Less time means more tension and a more difficult task. More time means the opposite.
4: Villian: A good villain has the same goal as a hero. Thanos and the avengers both want the infinity gauntlet, they just want it for different reasons. Same objective, alternative (and opposing) motives. Introduce this villain early on. This can be in foreshadowing of some sort, or you have them fuck over the players at some point before the final showdown so they really hate him. They should want to not only stop the villain but enjoy shutting him down. Their inevitable demise should create catharsis in the heroes!
Thanks for the mental floss. I dm for my son's , daughter , and anywhere from 4 to 7 of thier friends. I feel bad cutting the party down , can't leave kids out. You have it right... I have kids that bring Hero click figures for thier pcs. Last week l had wonder woman black widow and juggernaut, in my last crawl.
I use a Thor hero click as my default D&D Hero mini.
Paladin, Cleric, Fighter, super handy to keep on hand, and it doesn't get beat up or paint chipped!
its official...you are the only big DM youtuber who should actually be a GM.
Great advice! Keeping this in mind will help me considerably.
Glad it was helpful!
3:08 beautifully put
I really appreciate these structural, concrete aid videos. Thanks Prof!
Doing my part Professor, disabled adblocker and commenting
this is such an excellent video, I really love the section on the time limit! I would say that's the one thing missing from my own game!
I don't know if this is a German thing, but I had several times players, who were perfectly fine with "pacifistic" adventures where you don't have villains or fights. For example, you try to prevent an ancient fey to steal a child, but the fey is not malicious, so we made a deal with her by helping her solving an old riddle and paying her off. There was tension, but it could not be resolved with violence. When again, it was a Christmas adventure...
I'm totally putting off prepping my game by watching this. It's in 30 minutes and all I came up with is, space monsters ate the crew of the ship which contains the mysterious McGuffin.
By far one of your best videos! Once again, you’re making DMing accessible to everyone! Great job. PS, still waiting for your video on managing romances in a campaign ;)
My favorite type of villain is one the players meet, but don't realize he's the villain yet; especially if hints are dropped that they are the villain but the players are missing a crucial piece of information to piece it together themselves until after the villain is well gone and out committing villainy.
Or alternatively, a "villain" who's a friend to the players, but opposed to them in this instance for some reason, known or unknown.
I actually like short rests and wish my players would use them more. It is the long rests that kill the tension. That is why I make them take 3 days instead of 8 hours. That way the players have to be on a break from adventuring to get the long rest stuff, which, thanks to the time limit, they can't always do. Short rests are fine though since it is just a quick breather, some extra hit points, and then continuing on with the quest.
I allow short rests (in 5e anyway) to be just a few moments. 15 minutes of in game time or so.
Yeah the 5 minute short rest in 4E was one thing I thought that edition really got right. I liked the idea of just assuming people get a post-combat recovery and that takes place while everyone is recovering dropped/thrown weapons, looting bodies, generally securing the area, etc. Long rests on the other hand are game killers. Honestly wish they made them take a week or something, because they totally break any kind of encounter pacing, especially on wilderness journeys.
"Get the thing before the thing happens."
"Oh no! Where is the thing?"
"In the place. Hurry!"
Thanks for the basics refreshers.
Is there anywhere people still post homemade 3.5 dnd campaigns and adventures? I have a couple I would like to get feedback on, and I always enjoyed picking up a few new, really inspired adventures.
Excellent video! I’ve been craving info like this
I've watched every DC that PDM has put out for us and I think this one probably ranks as my favorite. It's pithy, excellent advice that you can start applying right away. Well done!
Great episode! Can you do one episode on each of these items? This one seemed to be focused on the "time limit" one, but the others sounds excellent as well :)
Time limits are essential to storytelling, that is why they are essential to RPG’s. I love time limits, without them a whole bunch of verbal nonsense treachery is committed - and when verbal nonsense treachery is committed and time limits are exceeded, Deathbringer is transported through space and TIme to handle the issue in a very violent manner. Please PCs take your Time cause I want to play Deathbringer.
Oh, wow! All my latest campaigns so far had been following these elements!
I wanna stress out how important the time limit is! Time limits are sometimes motivation enough to get the players moving.
Without them, my players constantly ignored all the campaign story beats.
The first time I did this, I was inspired by a horror game called Death Mark.
The characters were cursed by the playful mocking villainess to a death curse. If they want to live, they will have to play her various deadly games and beat them before the time limit. Or else they die either way.
Excellent video, chucked full of very useful information. Much better than similar videos by others.
Jokes on you, I procrastinate designing an adventure for today by watching this video, which actually helped me even though I was genuinely procrastinating ^^
Ha! Just yesterday I dusted off my copy of Dungeon issue #32 and was thumbing through it with fond memories.
Although these point can help make some sessions I don't agree that every session needs this. It very much depends on you players, "they won't care about the plot" a lot of them will in my experience.
Location is not always needed to begin with, this could be explored, researched or found through NPCs.
"You need a time limit", you don't always, it seems very "rail road" to me to always force the player to do exactly what "mission" you want to do this session. I prefer to run a more open style game with nuggets and clues for players to follow which often leads to a more player motivated story. Sometimes I have improvised almost entire sessions since the players wanted to explore something that I didn't think they'd find instantly captivating. Those were some of our best sessions :)
I think villain is the wrong word here. Antagonist is better, in my experience the best antagonists are those the players can relate to and maybe doesn't do purely evil things but operates in a kind of grey area or has the right ideas but a bad execution.
Still good advice, but I'm just against the "always do this" or the "one size fits all" mentality in D&D. People play differently and want different things out of a sessions and campaigns.
Without a time limit, you might get the party wanting to take a long rest after EVERY encounter.
I always thought Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom is the perfect example of how to DM. I mean, it has all those things listed plus perfect examples of Traps and Hazards.
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
These elements are often missing from Modules, which is why people often feel like they're just going through the motions because they're supposed to.
Very helpful video, and I agree with most everything you say in it!
I would add that if you want inspiration for running truly unique villains than there is no substitute for the VanRichten guides to monsters! To this day the second entry in it ( the guide to the created) is one of if not the best book ever put out for AD&D 2nd ed ( which we all know is the only true D&D ed! LOL) . The guide to hags is also excellent, it really humanizes them to the point you pity their horrible transformation!
Great tip! Thanks!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 no my friend , thank you for all your hard work to help keep us sane during this plague from Pappa Nurgle
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I would love to see you do a video about them if you happen to own them ( I know they are astronomical on ebay now but I think drive thru RPG has them all). The first 3 came out when I was 14 or 15 and I bailed a lot of hay to get them . His guide to the created will always hold a very special place in my ❤️!
Merry Christmas, and hope you have a fantastic and safe new year
As a Dm who has been a player maybe 7 times I much prefer to dm games rather than play but after going threw your channel and watching many of your videos I envy your players.
Most content producers back off during the holidays but not PDM
Great stuff as usual. Thanks again.
Great stuff as always. Thanks
xD interesting to see the DM approch when you doing D&D. This "find mc guffin in location x" is something that is totally hated in the Dark eye / Das Schwarze Auge
WAIT A MOMENT!
EPISODE 85!!
1. go get the witch's elves boots of swiftness
2. from the owlbear(/creature)'s den
3. ...before she gets pissed and turn the players into worms...?
4. the owlbear!!!
i see the weave keeping together the fabric of the universe!
PS!
great video! super helpful!
An impressive Neeson impression.
great advice! Thanks!
Great video 👍
You got published!? This explains why my brother wants to be like you.
A good way to solve the problem of short rest: short rest = 8h (a full night of sleep), long rest = 1 week (basically, between adventures). This will challenge your players much more and force them to stretch their resources. It also makes it more realistic since your wounds don't just heal for sitting around for one hour. It will also more likely have you reach the "6 encounters per long rest" that the game was apparently balanced for.
This video is exactly what I needed
Good stuff. Thank you!