Holy hell. You're literally the only other person I've ever encountered who understands that D&D story is a war story, a fish story, an anecdote of shared experience. I've been trying to explain this to people for years.
You should look at the stuff RPGpundit has been putting out. To him "the dm is not a storyteller" is rule negative one to the rule zero of "the dm is the final authority".
I learned this after a pretty bad burnout. Threw away prep in frustration and ran the adventure blind, it was pretty slow but holy-hell did it bring back the sense of wonder and freedom for everyone at the table. Discovering the adventure WITH the players is the best fun for a DM (IMO). Now I prep but never for any particular outcome, just need to know what lies ahead in their course.
@@German-md1xc It's almost like ... like the DM is playing the game, too. 🤯 And I bet you and everyone at the table have stories about what went down. Playing the game generates stories, as if by magic.
Ok 2 things. 1. This is really good advice. I'm glad I found it. I think if dnd planning was my 9-5 job that got me payed, my story telling skills would be fantastic, but since I have a normal job and dnd is just fun this avenue of prep will really aid me. 2. Your video making style is tremendous. You made me laugh. You made me feel entertained, but most importantly, you taught me something valuable while doing those other things as well.
I think you are missing the point. Even if you had time, even if you were a Hugo award winning novelist, imposing your story on the play will make it worse. Yes,mit cists time, yes it causes frustration, but that aside it make play worse. Basically, what you need to do is create all the Encyclopedia stuff at the back of Dune, let the players roll-up Paul and Lady Jessica and off you go.
Well said! "Story is what happens *after* the game!" One of my rules-of-thumb as a GM is that my job is to give the players the opportunity to do cool stuff. I set up the situation, they get to break it.
This is solid advice 👍 My life as a DM got way better once I stopped prepping like my party was going to interact with every square inch of the world and spend a year talking to every NPC
This is how old-school D&D (and by extension, OSR games) operate. Before, they were called Referees before being called Dungeon Masters. Dungeon exploration was by 10 minute rounds, where monster encounters were rolled every 2 turns. Monsters would get reaction rolls to see how they treat the party on first contact. Morale, time tracking, and random encounters were how most games back in the 80s and 90s operated
True, but 1980s editions,which most osr copies, definitely had advice of DM as storyteller. I think it’s easier when the players are constrained by a dungeon. The DM can easily plan rooms and a story for the players to discover. Even in Duskvol the players are constrained within the city, without referee fiat. No I have written that, I wonder if that’s the key, the players discover the story rather than the DM tries to force them to act it out .
@@davidmc8478 I do agree that the DM should have some skill as a storyteller, so they can enrapture an audience (the players). The worst DM, no matter how good a campaign, is a boring DM. But it’s more of the improvisation that is what is confused for a storyteller. You could just have that encounter be combat, or just another random location and one-of-comment, but a good (or at least a creative one) will spin that idea into something bigger.
@@davidmc8478What storyteller means, and what kind of story is being told is vastly different In an emergent OSR style story, you tell what is happening, not what Will happen. You dont plan the future, or need to detail the past, and that radically alters how the game plays, and dramatically lessens the workload
I think those D&D youtubers are not playing MY version of D&D. They are actors, creating an entertainment product. They even have writers in the background! This is not D&D, this is an entertainment show losely based on a game I used to love. But as of now, everyone thinks they have to come up with fantasic character voices, interesting backstories, a good plot with a twist. I say: scratch all of that, pick the things you like from the DMs Guide or whatever, gather your frieds, put a huge ass map on the table, put some character minis somewhere and just have fun. Oh - and dont forget the snacks.
We *cannot* plan *story*. We plan plot: at most, the setup to a scene. Story is what emerges between the players and the GM. For more on this, I highly recommend the Lazy DM's Guide by Sly Flourish.
@@thomaswhite3059 I describe it as planning background.... You're not writing a story, just background fluff. Example: Your campaign is going to have a Mc Guffin in it. Instead of planning for this item to be in scene X and Y and Z, writing a story to completion from the perspective of the Mc Guffin, you only detail what it was like prior to the start of the game. How it had been used previously, how it has influenced the lore of the setting, and... importantly... what the players will uncover should they begin to investigate the Mc Guffin for clues. Don't write the long and complicated task of destroying the Mc Guffin, even if that is your intended goal... stop at the background. Your story ends when the player's begin theirs.
Thank you deficient. I'm currently stressing out about preparation for my next session and I got overinvested in worldbuilding, map making and all this stuff, which leeches the energy out of me. I should really try to discover and experience the story with the players I'm sitting with at the table. Thank you ❤
This is great advice. I fortunately learned it early just when prepping for my first ever homebrew adventure. I was trying to think of things my players would do, and I wrote a couple of pages of stuff. When I ran the adventure, most of that prep went to trash. Immediate lesson learned, just prep situations, and leave the rest to the players and your own improv.
Learning how to DM was quite the... challenge for me and my gaming group at the time. It was my first time DMing any ttrpg game, hosting for 5 (sometimes 6, if he ever bothered to show up) players, all never played any ttrpgs either, running the game every lunch period in high school (30 minutes everyday for a year). We had acquired the DMG, players guide, and monster manual through some sketchy free pdf sites, and decided to just go for it. The most I could understand was martial combat, so I asked everyone to play martial classes at first until I knew how spells worked, except for my best friend who insisted on being a sorcerer, and everytime he cast any spell we would have to pause the game for 10 minutes to read rules. I ripped off a game for the plot, and it was a cluster fuck. TPKs were common, and nobody got past level 3 (I had them restart at level 1 when they died). I had no clue how challenge rating worked, so I just through whatever I thought might be most interesting at them (Might have introduced them to a Tarrasque or two). Midway through I gave in to peer pressure and let my players play any class or race in the players handbook. We treated any spells like cantrips, where as long as you knew it you could cast it at will (I had no clue what a spell slot was, and was too busy trying to learn the rules through trial and error rather than read. The DMG was pretty large for a beginner, so it intimidated me to the point I only used if I needed to.) We went by a rule that of you rolled a 1, the worst possible event happens, and if you got a 20, you succeeded on whatever you where doing. They started wanting to do a little bit of tomfoolery- warping reality and creating nuclear bombs and such, so I started auto killing those players doing those activities if they rolled a natural 1. Stacks and stacks of character sheets later, and my story I had stolen was in ruins thanks to my players that had ascended into godhood. We all had a blast, and came to love what D&d had to offer. I still DM now, years later, but am much more versed on the rules and much stricter now. I miss those days though. Their first characters where so Chaotic Evil, I think the Demons in the Abyss could have learned a thing or two from them.
Coming from Dungeon World and other Pbta games I fully agree with you. One of the principles in Dungeon World is "Play to find out", which is to say that the GM is not supposed to know exactly what will happen before the session is played, players will make choices, the dice will decide how well they achieve them and so no one truly knows what will happen in a session, and that is the fun of the game. Even if the GM could anticipate every single thing that will happen, wouldn't that be boring for them?
I struggle with this in my current campaign. I’ve set up a pretty grand, expansive plot and have realized that it’s SO hard to “write” a story with fully autonomous characters. This video was awesome, and is some of the best advice I’ve ever received. Thanks, man!
I recently took a break from my campaign to run a Call Of Cthulhu one shot where I only had the beginning prepared, instead of preparing every story beat like I usually do, and it's since turned into its own mini campaign that basically needs no prep and I just enjoy the priviledge of DMing! So yeah, really good advice!
That sounds right. Sly Flourish calls it, “Give players three plus infinite options.” You give the players three options and they are free to select any or their own ideas.
That's good advice in general and I will not ever argue against it. But the issue goes so much deeper. Some games actually teach GMing that way. We're running Kids on Bikes and it actually requires the players to contribute to drafting up scenarios and character relations. As in, there are explicit rules for it. This is very much a D&D problem and not an RPG problem. While other rules-heavy games also require more prep, few I've tried are as bad as D&D. So let me add a second piece of advice for new GMs: Broaden your horizons. Try something new and try it in different ways.
I am currently running a bit of Blades in the Dark, and the game also tells the GM to let the players decide what they want to achieve that session (we want to rob a bank! we want to assault a guard tower! we want to get into a turf war with an enemy gang) and go from there. Like, sometimes you'll have a cool starting idea as the GM and also propose a "score", but you leave the heavy lifting to the players, then just come up with the obstacles during play. Another game I ran was Jadepunk, one of the Fate settings. That game literally has you ask your players "who is the villain this week and what is he planning" and then they have to come up with 2 or 3 hooks. The result is that they *WANT* to bite those hooks, and you only really have to worry about generating secondary NPCs or small challenges. Of course there are many people who say "muh immersions are ruined!" or "if I find that the GM is coming up with stuff on the fly, i'll huff and puff and leave the table and slam the door! slammity slam!". Because some think that GMs are there just to follow a prewritten script or have everything mapped out in advance (all the rooms in every house they visit, have to be completely populated by items by the start of the sessions, the players can only find what is there! no improvising!). So basically they want GMs to be computer games.
The really interesting and forgotten thing about the hero’s journey in particular, is that it was not conceptualized as a storytelling how-to. Joseph Campbell says the hero’s journey is a set of symbols that we understand intuitively. So if you let your players just make decisions for their characters, THEY will make a good story because those symbols are already living in their head!
WHOA WAIT... The quality of your video is INSANE! Take the sub my guy, I'm sharing with all my players too. You deserve MUCH more love imo, have a great day.
I feel personally attacked by the limited edition book of many things part of this video. I literally went to my wife yesterday and said "hey do you want to just consider a thing I bought myself my birthday present?" That thing was the alt cover book of many things lol. As for the actual video, I am running a pre-published adventure so there is a little more rigidity to it. But I have found it makes my life a lot easier to pick out the scenarios and be flexible with where they encounter them. Sometimes they will come across it where it's "supposed" to be and other times I move things around to get them to the important thing they are looking for even if they don't know they are looking for it. This has helped a lot and this is good advice.
In all my decades of GMing, I don't think I've ever run a published adventure 'as written.' Usually because of things my creative players do that aren't conveniently predicted by the authors, sometimes becuase I just like doing it a little different.
@@occasional-dabbler I have only been playing for about 2 years and I started DMing this adventure about 6 months ago. I have a good grasp of the mechanics and rules and I had been hoping the published adventure would be an easier way to run my first game so I could get used to DMing. I tried to run it "as written" but I essentially had to force certain things to account for players actions/choices. I hate forcing them to do anything and try to give them as much freedom as I can manage. So as time has gone on I have moved from trying to follow the book strictly to trying to keep the spirit of the adventure but make it a little more dynamic. It's been a great learning experience.
This is an excellent condensation of the issue. It took me way too long to learn this. I basically had to leave the 5e space and encounter a game that encouraged this kind of GM approach.
The DM's just one of the players. The gig's a bit more involved, sure, but you're all in it together, and what everybody does determines what the story will be. Like in Black Hack, where you gain experience by telling the common folk back in town about your latest adventures. After the fact. Just like you said. The times I had any real success DM'ing were when I quit worrying about what *I* wanted and responded to the players organically. Even if it wasn't always great, it was much more enjoyable, for everybody.
To be honest I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it when I clicked on the first video of yours I saw. But you’ve got some very refreshing advice. I’ve been doing next to no prep and going into each session with just about no plan for the players other than what they want to do for the session and I’ve been having more fun than ever
I'm in my 40s and new to DMing. So far, the best advice I've found is from Dungeoncraft (professor DM), the XDM guide, and Return of the Lazy DM. This video is hilarious and pulls many of those concepts together in a neat short format. I'm currently running Shadowdark, and really enjoyed running "Clue" (aka Deathbringer). Rules light rules!
The way I handle story in my games is quite simple. I don't write for the players. I write the story of the world and the villains for the players to ruin. Intentionally. Somewhat following the idea of "everyone is the hero of their own story" I don't plan anything for the players. I simply write a world with characters in it doing their own thing that can be aided or ruined by the players getting involved depending what they decide to do. I see the game like a toybox full of toys that I want my players to break, and in so doing, they write their own story. It's also why I heavily discourage my players from writing detailed backstories. I don't want them to write a grand history of who they were before starting a level 1 campaign. I want the most import things that happen for the PCs to be what the players do with them now.
Idk most underrated DnDTuber. I guess you’ve only been going at it a year now so I think your numbers are good. All I know is the quality of your videos in next level! Don’t burnout
So, you are basically saying, that we should prepare for our games like Dungeon World says we should :) "Play to find out what happens". Amazing video btw, I was laughing all the way.
Thank you for this video. Somebody who's been there forever DM since he was in seventh grade, I'm now in my late thirties, this video was not only hilarious but incredibly helpful. Thank you for this content. Please continue to make more sarcastic and helpful videos such as this.
5:21 I had the exact same realization! Reminds me of what James Cameron said: "You make the movie twice. During filming, and again during editing. My strategy is to prep for every other session. I let the players' actions determine the setup, then I use my understanding of story structure to prep a satisfying payoff.
holy cow! dude!!! you are amazing!!!!! i have the feeling that yoor channel will grow like crazy and you will b one of the biggest out there in no time!!!! best regards thanks for the great content!!
Since you mentioned you read everything I thought I dropped by and leave a comment and thank you for your hilarious but very truthful content. I recognise myself in so many of your practices and solutions it feels good to get some kind of validation. Hence I thought I'd share my heartfelt thanks to a fellow forever DM/GM/ST... you get it. Keep going, I believe you are on track for greatness.
Can confirm this entire video. I used to run a sandbox 5e game with new players and absolutely loved it! At a certain point some of the players noted they wanted more railroading due to how overwhelming the choices are for the entire world Ive made. So I changed the whole structure of the campaign to have a very clear narrative and story, which I immediately noticed increased my prep time to a massive degree, since now I had to keep in mind every character’s character arc and how I can push them down a path to get there. Did the players enjoy the story? Absolutely! And it did feel rewarding but at the cost of being EXTREMELY burnt out. That party ended up almost unintentionally getting TPKed due to some horrible luck, and I was just so done with the game at that point that I just decided to end the game there. The next session was an epilogue and I haven’t touched DMing since except for a oneshot. Putting things simply, trying to build your players’ entire stories and character arcs is exhausting and extremely overwhelming for DMs.
Don't you just love finding new TH-camrs that pump out perfectly edited videos every time? Nothing brings me more joy than seeing a new video come out that you KNOW will be good. Love your work Deficient, you'll be huge in no time
These videos are incredible. Last time I saw a "new" youtuber with such quality and high production value it was "tasting history with max miller" and he went over a million subscribers in a year. I'm betting you're going over 100K before two months. In any case, I will like/share/subscribe to help!
This has put into words something I could feel but never could put my finger on. I've recently been running a Star Wars game with the FFG system and the way they prep adventures just feels terrible, forcing players from one set piece to another. I keep making comparisons to my players on how Blades in the Dark just *feels* better and now I know why. Scores (the "dungeons" of the game) are self contained scenarios that the players take on. What's even better is that they're player chosen, so *they* inject the narrative into the score by default as most scores are either in retaliation to a rival or in preparation to retaliate. Thank you *so* much for getting me to recognize this flaw in my prep and hopefully solve my burnout problem with 95% of TTRPGs!
I love this video. I've been running a 5e game since 2019 and I've been burnt out since 2021. I've taken breaks, done other systems to refresh but I wish I had a video like this a few years ago.
I have gone back to classic game styles with no plot or pre-planned BBEG to defeat. It makes my life both far less stressful and my game experience is both more enjoyable, and more creative. I also switched to C&C from DnD 5e. The monsters in that book don't have recommended HP, just their HD. So I even roll the HD for each creatures HPs and I never know either how weak or how strong it will be. Yet I have been told by current DnD DMs how "bad" I am and how much my players must secretly hate me because I don't do plotlines or create entire quest archs for each players backstory. My players beg to differ.
I keep getting reminded of how old I am. What you describe as 'from youtubers' occurred in my day as well, we called it the Oral Traditions. Okay, I am not so old that writing is younger then I, but the reality isn't so far off... no one read those books, we learned from each other. Watching over each others shoulders, listening to each others stories, and what not... much more fun then dry reading. Still, do you know how many errors this has bred into the hobby? A lot... Such fun when you learn your method of doing X never existed in writing.
Omg I always use cluedo as my reference for dming advice, basically make a cluedo , fill each room with an obstacle and a reward/clue then make their big bad guy have all the clues as obstacles during the final scene
@@TomVCunningham Which is frankly bizzare if I have to be honest. In a good way of course! His content may be new, but its editing style is a fine blend of HowToBasic's wacky shenanigans combined with honest and to-the-point advice that doesn't beat around the bush. It's a very good style that's pleasing to watch, but it's not easy to emulate. Give him a year or maybe even a few months and he'll be right up there within ranks of Runesmith or XP to Level 3.
Absolutely true. I had a similar transformative experience with that JA article, it’s basically my Bible now. I’ve seen so many people asking for advice about some issue to do with GMing and my answer is so often “you wouldn’t have this problem if you prepped scenarios instead of plots”.
I love seeing the different articles, games, etc. that make it click for GMs or make them figure out how to GM smarter, not harder. It sounds like Justin's article/post was what did it for you. For me, it was Dungeon World. The only thing you need to do is figure out the rules, like when to call for a roll. Because when it comes to story/plot, it explicitly says not to plan anything for the first session (or very little if you do). And this is because your players will create characters and, through questions you ask, they'll tell you exactly what they're interested in exploring with those characters. That way they aren't playing in "my" story, they're playing in "our" story because it's being written in the moment!
Hey man, I love your post-it notes diagrams, and storytelling! Your content inspired me to do the same for my presentations, and a little desire to DMing
Honestly, as a new dm only a few months into the campaign I’ve started to prep this way, because I was writing multiple page session templates and all that, and it was fun! But exhausting. Especially when the party does what they want anyways lol. So I’ve gone for more of a scenario based session design. I know they’ll get to my scenarios eventually, but they’ll take their own path and fill in the blanks. And when we get to the fun narrative parts it always feels more special. Like they’re glued to a screen. Also it frees up some time for me to do thing like terrain and mini crafting/painting. Which is always fun!
You just popped in my feed and I subbed almost immediately! Great advice, awesome edits, and all your videos have been interesting and helpful! Super hyped to see you get successful. Only a matter of time man. Keep it up!
I have to say thank you ,I'm rebuilding Night Below 1e with the 5e conversion using Chat GPT for the talking bits and I was thinking it was becoming to much story telling but your vid actually showed me I was creating scenarios because I wasn't caring about plot points or anything like that. So now I can continual on and not worry about any of all of that. Just do as I have been with making sure the players have the options to go where they want to.
Nothing wrong with writing out dialogue, especially opening lines. Gives me a better idea of that NPC's personality at a glance rather than just a list of adjectives. Sounds like it'll be a great game.
Wow I'm new to the hobby and been DM-ing for two years and sometimes I feel the burnout, but I learned from experience (and an advice from a writer friend of mine) that when I prepare for the intention of running a game, and a game session deadline is placed, I should only start with the immediate surroindings of my party, and go outwards from there. Over the course of the still-running campaign, I got to explore and build the world with my party at the table, almost in real time as they're experiencing it. Over the runtime, I got to world build other aspects, such as important npcs, planes, pantheons, continents, etc. I would have never been able to do all of this at the beginning.
I was a plotwriter/referee for larp before I started dm-ing, and at larp I learned how writing/planning plot to the point just before the plot meets the players is good, any planning on what happens next is generally a waste of time, since you never know how the players will respond and you want the NPC's to not get stuck in a situation where they can not do what was in their briefing because the players are not at all responding as planned. You may have pointers (if A then B), motivation of the npc, etc but scripting any situation in-game just makes things complicated. So, when I started dm-ing, that was what I kept doing, and it has always worked for me. I use adventure modules, I really like those to start a campaign, get the thing going and have a view on what the problem in the world is. But by the time we reach chapter 3, I get to do the same thing we always did with the plot-book at larp during a weekend (usually saturday, right after luch): chuck it over my shoulder. That is why is is called 'plot', that is the sound it makes when it hits the floor behind you. And that is where the true fun begins, at least that is how I see it.
This is definitely good advice, and the way I've been operating as a DM for awhile now. What's funny though, is that multiple players at my table over the years have told me that DM burn out doesn't exist
Great insights. I love how the captions put in "Son Mario" for one of the scenarios! Certainly looking forward to getting my group together to start back into gaming. Gonna start with Honey Heist.
Great video! That Alexandrian article is an absolute must-read. One thing I would add is, to me GMing is an "easy to learn, hard to master" thing: you could watch D&D youtubers talk about some ultra-nerdy nonsense like fichtean curves or whatnot, but that's all bonus stuff that you should only look into if it sounds fun to you. You don't need any of that to run a good game. If your players are having fun, you're doing it right, and most GMs get there before their 3rd session. To me, the fact that the skill ceiling is basically infinitely high tells me I'll never run out of new tricks and techniques to learn, and I'll never get bored - so it's a good thing. But if that stuff is overwhelming to you, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going through life without looking into any of that nonsense I and other D&D TH-camrs talk about.
Trek, Deficient and Justin (the Alexandrian)are my favorite dnd youtubers/bloggers! We are just missing Justin here to have an epic dnd game design conversation hahaha.
Definitely this, Trekiros. I think it's easy to see the amount of DM content/advice and get intimidated. I just want more people to fall in love with DMing like I have. With the next edition moving forward I want to see the big dogs focus on making the game approachable. Justin Alexander wouldn't be putting out a whole book on Gamemastering if the need wasn't there. We got plenty of topics/content for DMs that want to continue learning, but we don't have many quick guides to how to start running a first session, and I think there's a ton of "responsibilities" you can temporarily ignore or even drop altogether to have a good first game/campaign.
Yup, you're exactly right. I do want to add that if you *do* want to feel the need to create a dynamic world, go for the Dungeon World method instead. Let the NPC factions have a plan with three-or-so steps GOAL: Summon The Red Cook and let them destroy the world! 1. Steal the magic crystal from the Cave of Lost Souls 2. Walk back to our encampment in the Forest of Illusions 3. Prepare the ritual with the crystal to summon The Red Cook and then advance the plan one step each time the players *don't* interact with the NPC's plan, or fail to succeed in stopping them at a given point. If the players don't show up at the cave, then the NPCs get the crystal and are now in the forest. If the PCs track them through the forest and find them, but fail to stop them, now the NPCs are preparing the ritual. And if the PCs do stop the NPCs, well, that was the quest, right? Return to the kingdom and finish the quest with the questgiver as normal. It gets fun when multiple factions advance their plans at the same time and the PCs can only interact with one of them at the same time. But don't overdo it. Two, maybe three factions is enough I'd say. Keep the rest for later.
I actually did go deep into the rabbit hole of storytelling theory to be a better GM. It did enrich me as a person and funny enough after GMing for many years and reading all kinds of material on the subject I arrived at the same conclusion. However, there comes a point in storytelling where everything is cause-and- effect, action and reaction. In Screenplay by Syd Field he tells you in all caps KNOW YOUR SUBJECT as well as KNOW YOUR CHARACTER. If you do both of these things and you master how to begin a story you will have 80% of what you need to sustain a campaign from a storytelling perspective.
Bingo! You nailed it! Campaign Masters aren't storytellers. You AND your players tell the story together, which is why as you've previously mentioned you want players who "Do Stuff!".
DoIP was my first game I ran. It's been over 2 years. The dragons's on ice, and a while back they started dragging Harbin Wester around to various places against his better judgement.
Funny video. Im one of those old players and your spot on - let the players tell the story of the games afterwards. Set up the situations and let the players and the dice sort it out. The 5e DMG needs more guidance for Dungeon Masters.
I've always seen the players as the story tellers and the GM as the architect of the world there in the trick is coaxing players into interacting in that world.
Along with scenarios, I write down a short list of things the players can discover during the next session(s), doesn’t need details, they are simply leads, such as “There is a rumor coming from up river that the largest farm has stopped sending shipments into town” the trigger for this can be heard in a tavern, come out from an NPC exchange. I use these when the players are spinning. Based on what they bite on I can improve some scenarios to happen for the remainder of the session and now I know what scenarios to loosely prep for next session. Tie ins to prior scenarios is how you can create cohesion over time.
I generally try to build a background story that's always ongoing in my games. The players can choose to interact with it or not. If they do, they can have direct control over the outcome and the exactities based on their choices or how they act or how big they succeed/fail. Otherwise, I will just choose the most interesting result in said background conflict and have its consequences be a motivator for the players in some way. (Evil Lich wants to take over. Evil Lich succeeds. Players must now mount some sort of resistance if they want to keep living in the city or maybe the game is about them being relocated to a new city/trying to eke it out in the outdoors.) The idea basically being to provide a background scenario which can spur players on in a multitude of directions, rather than having pre-defined scenes.
huh you found a way to perfectly describe my dming style lol I once ran a oneshot with no notes at all, because I forgot to take any. It was still pretty cool.
My my, this hit the nail dead on. (A nat 20, if you will) I'm always trying to focus on 'plotlines' and 'storytelling' as opposed to anything else. I see that this is problematic, now. When the DM makes an elaborate set of plotlines and the like, they tend to expect the players to follow along like movie characters. But the players have their own free will, which often goes in completely different directions. (Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse) I suppose making fewer of these expectations will help you and your players have an easier time.
Something I do that helps me avoid doing the things you’re talking about is that I almost exclusively say “what do you do” then say how the world around them responds. It doesn’t always work the best but it does work enough to keep the players present and involved and the focus of everything. Published adventures are bad for this, but I can lazily open Theros, give the players 30 minutes to build characters, then put them on a boat that will reach an island in 20 minutes of irl time before just describing where they land
I see the role of DM as playing the World and the players play the characters. I indeed set up situations and then together we work out what happens. But I have played and DM'd since 1997. My biggest problem is how little support 5e gives DMs. You need to do a lot of work that other editions and games would assist you with. Simple things like Magic Item prices.
Buy Apocolypse World. Read the chapters “Master of Ceremonies” and “Threats”. You’ll learn more about how to run an RPG in those 24 pages than any other source IMHO.
Holy hell. You're literally the only other person I've ever encountered who understands that D&D story is a war story, a fish story, an anecdote of shared experience. I've been trying to explain this to people for years.
There are dozens of us. Dozens!
@@DeficientMaster Woah! A whole dozens!
You should look at the stuff RPGpundit has been putting out. To him "the dm is not a storyteller" is rule negative one to the rule zero of "the dm is the final authority".
I learned this after a pretty bad burnout. Threw away prep in frustration and ran the adventure blind, it was pretty slow but holy-hell did it bring back the sense of wonder and freedom for everyone at the table. Discovering the adventure WITH the players is the best fun for a DM (IMO).
Now I prep but never for any particular outcome, just need to know what lies ahead in their course.
@@German-md1xc It's almost like ... like the DM is playing the game, too. 🤯 And I bet you and everyone at the table have stories about what went down. Playing the game generates stories, as if by magic.
Ok 2 things.
1. This is really good advice. I'm glad I found it. I think if dnd planning was my 9-5 job that got me payed, my story telling skills would be fantastic, but since I have a normal job and dnd is just fun this avenue of prep will really aid me.
2. Your video making style is tremendous. You made me laugh. You made me feel entertained, but most importantly, you taught me something valuable while doing those other things as well.
I wish I had the option to "like" a comment harder. By that I mean dittos @bunkersnail9531!
I think you are missing the point. Even if you had time, even if you were a Hugo award winning novelist, imposing your story on the play will make it worse. Yes,mit cists time, yes it causes frustration, but that aside it make play worse.
Basically, what you need to do is create all the Encyclopedia stuff at the back of Dune, let the players roll-up Paul and Lady Jessica and off you go.
“Return of The Lazy Dungeon Master” is amazing for new DMs.
Bob the World Builder has a GREAT break down of that book I recommend to anyone!
It's a good book but it is the EXACT opposite way I prep games so I can't really mesh with it's tips.
Eh. That book generates a particular aesthetic that is very much not the one I grew up with or enjoy either as a player or a DM.
Well said! "Story is what happens *after* the game!"
One of my rules-of-thumb as a GM is that my job is to give the players the opportunity to do cool stuff. I set up the situation, they get to break it.
This is solid advice 👍 My life as a DM got way better once I stopped prepping like my party was going to interact with every square inch of the world and spend a year talking to every NPC
This is how old-school D&D (and by extension, OSR games) operate. Before, they were called Referees before being called Dungeon Masters. Dungeon exploration was by 10 minute rounds, where monster encounters were rolled every 2 turns. Monsters would get reaction rolls to see how they treat the party on first contact. Morale, time tracking, and random encounters were how most games back in the 80s and 90s operated
Was about to comment this, completely agree.
True, but 1980s editions,which most osr copies, definitely had advice of DM as storyteller. I think it’s easier when the players are constrained by a dungeon. The DM can easily plan rooms and a story for the players to discover. Even in Duskvol the players are constrained within the city, without referee fiat.
No I have written that, I wonder if that’s the key, the players discover the story rather than the DM tries to force them to act it out .
@@davidmc8478 I do agree that the DM should have some skill as a storyteller, so they can enrapture an audience (the players). The worst DM, no matter how good a campaign, is a boring DM. But it’s more of the improvisation that is what is confused for a storyteller. You could just have that encounter be combat, or just another random location and one-of-comment, but a good (or at least a creative one) will spin that idea into something bigger.
@@davidmc8478 Storyteller in as much as the person to narrate how players actions interact with the world.
@@davidmc8478What storyteller means, and what kind of story is being told is vastly different
In an emergent OSR style story, you tell what is happening, not what Will happen. You dont plan the future, or need to detail the past, and that radically alters how the game plays, and dramatically lessens the workload
Ok, the cut-in with Justin saying "scen-ahh-rio" was really goddamn funny
I think those D&D youtubers are not playing MY version of D&D. They are actors, creating an entertainment product. They even have writers in the background! This is not D&D, this is an entertainment show losely based on a game I used to love. But as of now, everyone thinks they have to come up with fantasic character voices, interesting backstories, a good plot with a twist. I say: scratch all of that, pick the things you like from the DMs Guide or whatever, gather your frieds, put a huge ass map on the table, put some character minis somewhere and just have fun. Oh - and dont forget the snacks.
I have the big ass map, but i don't have reliable friends. Military and police friends don't make the best party members
We're World Players, not Storytellers. (Planning some big scene you're 1000% sure your players are gonna experience is fine)
So pretty much "You meet in a tavern" and the rest is improvise
We *cannot* plan *story*. We plan plot: at most, the setup to a scene. Story is what emerges between the players and the GM. For more on this, I highly recommend the Lazy DM's Guide by Sly Flourish.
@@thomaswhite3059
I describe it as planning background....
You're not writing a story, just background fluff.
Example:
Your campaign is going to have a Mc Guffin in it. Instead of planning for this item to be in scene X and Y and Z, writing a story to completion from the perspective of the Mc Guffin, you only detail what it was like prior to the start of the game. How it had been used previously, how it has influenced the lore of the setting, and... importantly... what the players will uncover should they begin to investigate the Mc Guffin for clues. Don't write the long and complicated task of destroying the Mc Guffin, even if that is your intended goal... stop at the background.
Your story ends when the player's begin theirs.
Can't begin to tell you the number of times I was 1000% sure of a scenario[sen AIR ee oh] the players didn't choose.
@@b0thermepretty sure it’s pronounced sen-AIR-ee-oh
Thank you deficient. I'm currently stressing out about preparation for my next session and I got overinvested in worldbuilding, map making and all this stuff, which leeches the energy out of me.
I should really try to discover and experience the story with the players I'm sitting with at the table. Thank you ❤
This is great advice. I fortunately learned it early just when prepping for my first ever homebrew adventure. I was trying to think of things my players would do, and I wrote a couple of pages of stuff.
When I ran the adventure, most of that prep went to trash. Immediate lesson learned, just prep situations, and leave the rest to the players and your own improv.
This is the way
Learning how to DM was quite the... challenge for me and my gaming group at the time. It was my first time DMing any ttrpg game, hosting for 5 (sometimes 6, if he ever bothered to show up) players, all never played any ttrpgs either, running the game every lunch period in high school (30 minutes everyday for a year). We had acquired the DMG, players guide, and monster manual through some sketchy free pdf sites, and decided to just go for it. The most I could understand was martial combat, so I asked everyone to play martial classes at first until I knew how spells worked, except for my best friend who insisted on being a sorcerer, and everytime he cast any spell we would have to pause the game for 10 minutes to read rules. I ripped off a game for the plot, and it was a cluster fuck. TPKs were common, and nobody got past level 3 (I had them restart at level 1 when they died). I had no clue how challenge rating worked, so I just through whatever I thought might be most interesting at them (Might have introduced them to a Tarrasque or two). Midway through I gave in to peer pressure and let my players play any class or race in the players handbook. We treated any spells like cantrips, where as long as you knew it you could cast it at will (I had no clue what a spell slot was, and was too busy trying to learn the rules through trial and error rather than read. The DMG was pretty large for a beginner, so it intimidated me to the point I only used if I needed to.) We went by a rule that of you rolled a 1, the worst possible event happens, and if you got a 20, you succeeded on whatever you where doing. They started wanting to do a little bit of tomfoolery- warping reality and creating nuclear bombs and such, so I started auto killing those players doing those activities if they rolled a natural 1. Stacks and stacks of character sheets later, and my story I had stolen was in ruins thanks to my players that had ascended into godhood. We all had a blast, and came to love what D&d had to offer. I still DM now, years later, but am much more versed on the rules and much stricter now. I miss those days though. Their first characters where so Chaotic Evil, I think the Demons in the Abyss could have learned a thing or two from them.
Coming from Dungeon World and other Pbta games I fully agree with you. One of the principles in Dungeon World is "Play to find out", which is to say that the GM is not supposed to know exactly what will happen before the session is played, players will make choices, the dice will decide how well they achieve them and so no one truly knows what will happen in a session, and that is the fun of the game. Even if the GM could anticipate every single thing that will happen, wouldn't that be boring for them?
People seem to forget that the DM isn't the storyteller at the table. Dnd is a game about group storytelling not individual story telling.
Please don't burn yourself out making your videos, they are fantastic!!!
The 4th Edition DMG and DMG 2 are fantastic resources to this day.
I struggle with this in my current campaign. I’ve set up a pretty grand, expansive plot and have realized that it’s SO hard to “write” a story with fully autonomous characters.
This video was awesome, and is some of the best advice I’ve ever received. Thanks, man!
I recently took a break from my campaign to run a Call Of Cthulhu one shot where I only had the beginning prepared, instead of preparing every story beat like I usually do, and it's since turned into its own mini campaign that basically needs no prep and I just enjoy the priviledge of DMing! So yeah, really good advice!
Plan out 3 scenarios in the starting Position just for your players to create a 4th one 😂❤
That sounds right. Sly Flourish calls it, “Give players three plus infinite options.” You give the players three options and they are free to select any or their own ideas.
That's good advice in general and I will not ever argue against it. But the issue goes so much deeper. Some games actually teach GMing that way. We're running Kids on Bikes and it actually requires the players to contribute to drafting up scenarios and character relations. As in, there are explicit rules for it. This is very much a D&D problem and not an RPG problem. While other rules-heavy games also require more prep, few I've tried are as bad as D&D. So let me add a second piece of advice for new GMs: Broaden your horizons. Try something new and try it in different ways.
I am currently running a bit of Blades in the Dark, and the game also tells the GM to let the players decide what they want to achieve that session (we want to rob a bank! we want to assault a guard tower! we want to get into a turf war with an enemy gang) and go from there. Like, sometimes you'll have a cool starting idea as the GM and also propose a "score", but you leave the heavy lifting to the players, then just come up with the obstacles during play.
Another game I ran was Jadepunk, one of the Fate settings. That game literally has you ask your players "who is the villain this week and what is he planning" and then they have to come up with 2 or 3 hooks. The result is that they *WANT* to bite those hooks, and you only really have to worry about generating secondary NPCs or small challenges.
Of course there are many people who say "muh immersions are ruined!" or "if I find that the GM is coming up with stuff on the fly, i'll huff and puff and leave the table and slam the door! slammity slam!". Because some think that GMs are there just to follow a prewritten script or have everything mapped out in advance (all the rooms in every house they visit, have to be completely populated by items by the start of the sessions, the players can only find what is there! no improvising!). So basically they want GMs to be computer games.
The really interesting and forgotten thing about the hero’s journey in particular, is that it was not conceptualized as a storytelling how-to. Joseph Campbell says the hero’s journey is a set of symbols that we understand intuitively. So if you let your players just make decisions for their characters, THEY will make a good story because those symbols are already living in their head!
When it says "storyteller" in the DMG, the description of that role is more that of a narator than a storyteller.
Please don't stop, all your videos are not only entertaining but also demonstrate a deep understanding of the game. Such good advice.
WHOA WAIT... The quality of your video is INSANE! Take the sub my guy, I'm sharing with all my players too. You deserve MUCH more love imo, have a great day.
Immediate subscribe, hands down best burnout advice ive heard on TH-cam!
I feel personally attacked by the limited edition book of many things part of this video. I literally went to my wife yesterday and said "hey do you want to just consider a thing I bought myself my birthday present?" That thing was the alt cover book of many things lol.
As for the actual video, I am running a pre-published adventure so there is a little more rigidity to it. But I have found it makes my life a lot easier to pick out the scenarios and be flexible with where they encounter them. Sometimes they will come across it where it's "supposed" to be and other times I move things around to get them to the important thing they are looking for even if they don't know they are looking for it. This has helped a lot and this is good advice.
In all my decades of GMing, I don't think I've ever run a published adventure 'as written.' Usually because of things my creative players do that aren't conveniently predicted by the authors, sometimes becuase I just like doing it a little different.
@@occasional-dabbler I have only been playing for about 2 years and I started DMing this adventure about 6 months ago. I have a good grasp of the mechanics and rules and I had been hoping the published adventure would be an easier way to run my first game so I could get used to DMing. I tried to run it "as written" but I essentially had to force certain things to account for players actions/choices. I hate forcing them to do anything and try to give them as much freedom as I can manage. So as time has gone on I have moved from trying to follow the book strictly to trying to keep the spirit of the adventure but make it a little more dynamic. It's been a great learning experience.
This is an excellent condensation of the issue. It took me way too long to learn this. I basically had to leave the 5e space and encounter a game that encouraged this kind of GM approach.
Having a background in Vampire: the Masquerade, the Storyteller part does not scare me. It's the architect part that terrifies me.
Top notch quality from a top notch content creator, thank you!! 😎🙌
The DM's just one of the players. The gig's a bit more involved, sure, but you're all in it together, and what everybody does determines what the story will be. Like in Black Hack, where you gain experience by telling the common folk back in town about your latest adventures. After the fact. Just like you said. The times I had any real success DM'ing were when I quit worrying about what *I* wanted and responded to the players organically. Even if it wasn't always great, it was much more enjoyable, for everybody.
I love your editing and production. The amount of planning and work you put into this is impressive.
To be honest I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it when I clicked on the first video of yours I saw. But you’ve got some very refreshing advice. I’ve been doing next to no prep and going into each session with just about no plan for the players other than what they want to do for the session and I’ve been having more fun than ever
I'm in my 40s and new to DMing. So far, the best advice I've found is from Dungeoncraft (professor DM), the XDM guide, and Return of the Lazy DM. This video is hilarious and pulls many of those concepts together in a neat short format.
I'm currently running Shadowdark, and really enjoyed running "Clue" (aka Deathbringer).
Rules light rules!
The way I handle story in my games is quite simple. I don't write for the players. I write the story of the world and the villains for the players to ruin. Intentionally.
Somewhat following the idea of "everyone is the hero of their own story" I don't plan anything for the players. I simply write a world with characters in it doing their own thing that can be aided or ruined by the players getting involved depending what they decide to do.
I see the game like a toybox full of toys that I want my players to break, and in so doing, they write their own story.
It's also why I heavily discourage my players from writing detailed backstories. I don't want them to write a grand history of who they were before starting a level 1 campaign. I want the most import things that happen for the PCs to be what the players do with them now.
Idk most underrated DnDTuber. I guess you’ve only been going at it a year now so I think your numbers are good.
All I know is the quality of your videos in next level! Don’t burnout
I am just suprised your WOTC books are in such a good state, with all of the abuse they are passing through each video😂
So, you are basically saying, that we should prepare for our games like Dungeon World says we should :) "Play to find out what happens". Amazing video btw, I was laughing all the way.
Thank you for this video. Somebody who's been there forever DM since he was in seventh grade, I'm now in my late thirties, this video was not only hilarious but incredibly helpful. Thank you for this content. Please continue to make more sarcastic and helpful videos such as this.
5:21 I had the exact same realization! Reminds me of what James Cameron said:
"You make the movie twice. During filming, and again during editing.
My strategy is to prep for every other session. I let the players' actions determine the setup, then I use my understanding of story structure to prep a satisfying payoff.
holy cow! dude!!! you are amazing!!!!! i have the feeling that yoor channel will grow like crazy and you will b one of the biggest out there in no time!!!! best regards thanks for the great content!!
Since you mentioned you read everything I thought I dropped by and leave a comment and thank you for your hilarious but very truthful content. I recognise myself in so many of your practices and solutions it feels good to get some kind of validation. Hence I thought I'd share my heartfelt thanks to a fellow forever DM/GM/ST... you get it. Keep going, I believe you are on track for greatness.
Can confirm this entire video. I used to run a sandbox 5e game with new players and absolutely loved it! At a certain point some of the players noted they wanted more railroading due to how overwhelming the choices are for the entire world Ive made. So I changed the whole structure of the campaign to have a very clear narrative and story, which I immediately noticed increased my prep time to a massive degree, since now I had to keep in mind every character’s character arc and how I can push them down a path to get there. Did the players enjoy the story? Absolutely! And it did feel rewarding but at the cost of being EXTREMELY burnt out. That party ended up almost unintentionally getting TPKed due to some horrible luck, and I was just so done with the game at that point that I just decided to end the game there. The next session was an epilogue and I haven’t touched DMing since except for a oneshot.
Putting things simply, trying to build your players’ entire stories and character arcs is exhausting and extremely overwhelming for DMs.
Don't you just love finding new TH-camrs that pump out perfectly edited videos every time? Nothing brings me more joy than seeing a new video come out that you KNOW will be good. Love your work Deficient, you'll be huge in no time
These videos are incredible. Last time I saw a "new" youtuber with such quality and high production value it was "tasting history with max miller" and he went over a million subscribers in a year. I'm betting you're going over 100K before two months. In any case, I will like/share/subscribe to help!
This has put into words something I could feel but never could put my finger on. I've recently been running a Star Wars game with the FFG system and the way they prep adventures just feels terrible, forcing players from one set piece to another. I keep making comparisons to my players on how Blades in the Dark just *feels* better and now I know why. Scores (the "dungeons" of the game) are self contained scenarios that the players take on. What's even better is that they're player chosen, so *they* inject the narrative into the score by default as most scores are either in retaliation to a rival or in preparation to retaliate.
Thank you *so* much for getting me to recognize this flaw in my prep and hopefully solve my burnout problem with 95% of TTRPGs!
I love this video. I've been running a 5e game since 2019 and I've been burnt out since 2021. I've taken breaks, done other systems to refresh but I wish I had a video like this a few years ago.
*feeling awesome as I guessed correctly on the community post*
I have gone back to classic game styles with no plot or pre-planned BBEG to defeat. It makes my life both far less stressful and my game experience is both more enjoyable, and more creative. I also switched to C&C from DnD 5e. The monsters in that book don't have recommended HP, just their HD. So I even roll the HD for each creatures HPs and I never know either how weak or how strong it will be. Yet I have been told by current DnD DMs how "bad" I am and how much my players must secretly hate me because I don't do plotlines or create entire quest archs for each players backstory. My players beg to differ.
I keep getting reminded of how old I am.
What you describe as 'from youtubers' occurred in my day as well, we called it the Oral Traditions. Okay, I am not so old that writing is younger then I, but the reality isn't so far off... no one read those books, we learned from each other. Watching over each others shoulders, listening to each others stories, and what not... much more fun then dry reading.
Still, do you know how many errors this has bred into the hobby?
A lot... Such fun when you learn your method of doing X never existed in writing.
I am prepping for my first experience as DM. I certainly found your channel at the right time!
Fantastic video. Well done. Very well done.
Omg I always use cluedo as my reference for dming advice, basically make a cluedo , fill each room with an obstacle and a reward/clue then make their big bad guy have all the clues as obstacles during the final scene
Great vid! How come your channel is not bigger? This is QUALITY content my dude
His channel isn't bigger because he literally posted his first video 2 weeks ago.
@@TomVCunningham Which is frankly bizzare if I have to be honest. In a good way of course! His content may be new, but its editing style is a fine blend of HowToBasic's wacky shenanigans combined with honest and to-the-point advice that doesn't beat around the bush. It's a very good style that's pleasing to watch, but it's not easy to emulate.
Give him a year or maybe even a few months and he'll be right up there within ranks of Runesmith or XP to Level 3.
Absolutely true. I had a similar transformative experience with that JA article, it’s basically my Bible now. I’ve seen so many people asking for advice about some issue to do with GMing and my answer is so often “you wouldn’t have this problem if you prepped scenarios instead of plots”.
I love seeing the different articles, games, etc. that make it click for GMs or make them figure out how to GM smarter, not harder. It sounds like Justin's article/post was what did it for you. For me, it was Dungeon World. The only thing you need to do is figure out the rules, like when to call for a roll. Because when it comes to story/plot, it explicitly says not to plan anything for the first session (or very little if you do). And this is because your players will create characters and, through questions you ask, they'll tell you exactly what they're interested in exploring with those characters. That way they aren't playing in "my" story, they're playing in "our" story because it's being written in the moment!
Hey man, I love your post-it notes diagrams, and storytelling!
Your content inspired me to do the same for my presentations, and a little desire to DMing
I usually hate the over the top loud style youtuber. But you legit make me laugh. Thanks!
The Alexandrian is the Boss!!
Honestly, as a new dm only a few months into the campaign I’ve started to prep this way, because I was writing multiple page session templates and all that, and it was fun! But exhausting. Especially when the party does what they want anyways lol. So I’ve gone for more of a scenario based session design. I know they’ll get to my scenarios eventually, but they’ll take their own path and fill in the blanks. And when we get to the fun narrative parts it always feels more special. Like they’re glued to a screen. Also it frees up some time for me to do thing like terrain and mini crafting/painting. Which is always fun!
The man speaks the truth. I like your manic energy and explosion. Very Terminal Montage-esc. I appreciate this high brow humor
You just popped in my feed and I subbed almost immediately! Great advice, awesome edits, and all your videos have been interesting and helpful! Super hyped to see you get successful. Only a matter of time man. Keep it up!
Damn that DM burnout journey is so damn spot on like I went through it 6 time over the course of two years already.
Im glad that I discover your channel
you are the light in the end of the tunnel
thx for your hard work and amazing tips from you
I have to say thank you ,I'm rebuilding Night Below 1e with the 5e conversion using Chat GPT for the talking bits and I was thinking it was becoming to much story telling but your vid actually showed me I was creating scenarios because I wasn't caring about plot points or anything like that. So now I can continual on and not worry about any of all of that. Just do as I have been with making sure the players have the options to go where they want to.
Nothing wrong with writing out dialogue, especially opening lines. Gives me a better idea of that NPC's personality at a glance rather than just a list of adjectives. Sounds like it'll be a great game.
You are a legend sir. Looking forward to the 100k special in 4 weeks.
Wow I'm new to the hobby and been DM-ing for two years and sometimes I feel the burnout, but I learned from experience (and an advice from a writer friend of mine) that when I prepare for the intention of running a game, and a game session deadline is placed, I should only start with the immediate surroindings of my party, and go outwards from there. Over the course of the still-running campaign, I got to explore and build the world with my party at the table, almost in real time as they're experiencing it. Over the runtime, I got to world build other aspects, such as important npcs, planes, pantheons, continents, etc. I would have never been able to do all of this at the beginning.
For real, I needed this advice. Thanks bro!
I was a plotwriter/referee for larp before I started dm-ing, and at larp I learned how writing/planning plot to the point just before the plot meets the players is good, any planning on what happens next is generally a waste of time, since you never know how the players will respond and you want the NPC's to not get stuck in a situation where they can not do what was in their briefing because the players are not at all responding as planned. You may have pointers (if A then B), motivation of the npc, etc but scripting any situation in-game just makes things complicated.
So, when I started dm-ing, that was what I kept doing, and it has always worked for me. I use adventure modules, I really like those to start a campaign, get the thing going and have a view on what the problem in the world is.
But by the time we reach chapter 3, I get to do the same thing we always did with the plot-book at larp during a weekend (usually saturday, right after luch): chuck it over my shoulder. That is why is is called 'plot', that is the sound it makes when it hits the floor behind you. And that is where the true fun begins, at least that is how I see it.
My first thought was you need The Alexandrian.... and Lazy DM/Sly Flourish.
Great video. I hope people are listening.
This is definitely good advice, and the way I've been operating as a DM for awhile now.
What's funny though, is that multiple players at my table over the years have told me that DM burn out doesn't exist
Great insights. I love how the captions put in "Son Mario" for one of the scenarios!
Certainly looking forward to getting my group together to start back into gaming. Gonna start with Honey Heist.
You are quickly becoming my favorite channel.
This is great timing. Justin is coming out with a book soon!
Great video! That Alexandrian article is an absolute must-read.
One thing I would add is, to me GMing is an "easy to learn, hard to master" thing: you could watch D&D youtubers talk about some ultra-nerdy nonsense like fichtean curves or whatnot, but that's all bonus stuff that you should only look into if it sounds fun to you. You don't need any of that to run a good game. If your players are having fun, you're doing it right, and most GMs get there before their 3rd session. To me, the fact that the skill ceiling is basically infinitely high tells me I'll never run out of new tricks and techniques to learn, and I'll never get bored - so it's a good thing. But if that stuff is overwhelming to you, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going through life without looking into any of that nonsense I and other D&D TH-camrs talk about.
Trek, Deficient and Justin (the Alexandrian)are my favorite dnd youtubers/bloggers! We are just missing Justin here to have an epic dnd game design conversation hahaha.
Definitely this, Trekiros. I think it's easy to see the amount of DM content/advice and get intimidated. I just want more people to fall in love with DMing like I have.
With the next edition moving forward I want to see the big dogs focus on making the game approachable. Justin Alexander wouldn't be putting out a whole book on Gamemastering if the need wasn't there.
We got plenty of topics/content for DMs that want to continue learning, but we don't have many quick guides to how to start running a first session, and I think there's a ton of "responsibilities" you can temporarily ignore or even drop altogether to have a good first game/campaign.
Yup, you're exactly right. I do want to add that if you *do* want to feel the need to create a dynamic world, go for the Dungeon World method instead. Let the NPC factions have a plan with three-or-so steps
GOAL: Summon The Red Cook and let them destroy the world!
1. Steal the magic crystal from the Cave of Lost Souls
2. Walk back to our encampment in the Forest of Illusions
3. Prepare the ritual with the crystal to summon The Red Cook
and then advance the plan one step each time the players *don't* interact with the NPC's plan, or fail to succeed in stopping them at a given point. If the players don't show up at the cave, then the NPCs get the crystal and are now in the forest. If the PCs track them through the forest and find them, but fail to stop them, now the NPCs are preparing the ritual.
And if the PCs do stop the NPCs, well, that was the quest, right? Return to the kingdom and finish the quest with the questgiver as normal.
It gets fun when multiple factions advance their plans at the same time and the PCs can only interact with one of them at the same time. But don't overdo it. Two, maybe three factions is enough I'd say. Keep the rest for later.
I actually did go deep into the rabbit hole of storytelling theory to be a better GM. It did enrich me as a person and funny enough after GMing for many years and reading all kinds of material on the subject I arrived at the same conclusion. However, there comes a point in storytelling where everything is cause-and- effect, action and reaction. In Screenplay by Syd Field he tells you in all caps KNOW YOUR SUBJECT as well as KNOW YOUR CHARACTER. If you do both of these things and you master how to begin a story you will have 80% of what you need to sustain a campaign from a storytelling perspective.
Bingo! You nailed it! Campaign Masters aren't storytellers. You AND your players tell the story together, which is why as you've previously mentioned you want players who "Do Stuff!".
I'm beginning to think this man cannot miss
DoIP was my first game I ran. It's been over 2 years. The dragons's on ice, and a while back they started dragging Harbin Wester around to various places against his better judgement.
Mrs. Deficient Master is now my spirit animal.
Funny video. Im one of those old players and your spot on - let the players tell the story of the games afterwards. Set up the situations and let the players and the dice sort it out.
The 5e DMG needs more guidance for Dungeon Masters.
Only 887 likes? Welp, *cracks knuckles*, guess it’s time to make 113 new TH-cam accounts.
I've always seen the players as the story tellers and the GM as the architect of the world there in the trick is coaxing players into interacting in that world.
Along with scenarios, I write down a short list of things the players can discover during the next session(s), doesn’t need details, they are simply leads, such as “There is a rumor coming from up river that the largest farm has stopped sending shipments into town” the trigger for this can be heard in a tavern, come out from an NPC exchange. I use these when the players are spinning. Based on what they bite on I can improve some scenarios to happen for the remainder of the session and now I know what scenarios to loosely prep for next session. Tie ins to prior scenarios is how you can create cohesion over time.
I generally try to build a background story that's always ongoing in my games. The players can choose to interact with it or not. If they do, they can have direct control over the outcome and the exactities based on their choices or how they act or how big they succeed/fail. Otherwise, I will just choose the most interesting result in said background conflict and have its consequences be a motivator for the players in some way.
(Evil Lich wants to take over. Evil Lich succeeds. Players must now mount some sort of resistance if they want to keep living in the city or maybe the game is about them being relocated to a new city/trying to eke it out in the outdoors.) The idea basically being to provide a background scenario which can spur players on in a multitude of directions, rather than having pre-defined scenes.
THANK. YOU.
Gods know, I needed this advice.
I love this! This video is seriously underrated! Its awesome!! This is the how to basic of dnd
huh you found a way to perfectly describe my dming style lol
I once ran a oneshot with no notes at all, because I forgot to take any. It was still pretty cool.
My my, this hit the nail dead on. (A nat 20, if you will) I'm always trying to focus on 'plotlines' and 'storytelling' as opposed to anything else. I see that this is problematic, now. When the DM makes an elaborate set of plotlines and the like, they tend to expect the players to follow along like movie characters. But the players have their own free will, which often goes in completely different directions. (Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse) I suppose making fewer of these expectations will help you and your players have an easier time.
Starting this hobby with D&D is like going to medical school to learn the proper way to put on a band-aid.
I've never planned a single arc in my entire DM career.
I've just been plopping the players down in the world and said "let's figure it out together"
Amazing video, You have a very unique style that I love. Havent even finished the video yet and im subscribing.
Something I do that helps me avoid doing the things you’re talking about is that I almost exclusively say “what do you do” then say how the world around them responds. It doesn’t always work the best but it does work enough to keep the players present and involved and the focus of everything. Published adventures are bad for this, but I can lazily open Theros, give the players 30 minutes to build characters, then put them on a boat that will reach an island in 20 minutes of irl time before just describing where they land
I see the role of DM as playing the World and the players play the characters.
I indeed set up situations and then together we work out what happens.
But I have played and DM'd since 1997.
My biggest problem is how little support 5e gives DMs. You need to do a lot of work that other editions and games would assist you with. Simple things like Magic Item prices.
For you, good sir. I shall ring the bell. Excellent channel, keep it coming
I’m dying 😂 Upper lower class millennial!?! Haha! That’s me! I’m also a forever DM. Thank you for speaking to my soul!
I came to this by default... it is interesting to see other people have invented this particular wheel already :-)
god i idied so fucking hard
"Your players are showing up in an hour, And you haven't even sketched the inner planes yet?"
Buy Apocolypse World. Read the chapters “Master of Ceremonies” and “Threats”. You’ll learn more about how to run an RPG in those 24 pages than any other source IMHO.
"No Wizards of the Coast products were harmed in the making of this video."
That's disappointing.
Thanks! Now I'm totally stuck on the pronunciation of scenario 🤣 Another great video!