19 Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started GMing - Running RPGs
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
- Advice for newer Game Masters wishing to avoid all the mistakes I've learned the hard way.
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#ttrpg
00:00 Intro
00:46 Common Sense
01:25 Find Your Own Voice
02:54 You Can't Learn All the Rules
03:00 Confidence in Judgement Calls
03:38 Communication & Consistency
04:12 Over-Prep is better than Under-Prep
04:40 Overpreparation can be Worse
05:48 You'll Always Have to Improvise
06:21 Players will do the Unexpected
06:46 Make Situations not Solutions
08:16 Too Much of a Good Thing
11:36 Meaningless Rolls Suck
15:10 Don't Ask For a Roll You Can't Accept
17:42 Redefine Success & Failure
19:02 It's About the PCs Not the World
19:41 Players Care Less About The World Than You
19:57 Encourage Roleplay Through Example
20:56 Players Might Have Different Tastes Than You
22:24 Don't Be Afraid to Suck
23:38 Outro - เกม
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I love the "convincing the king to handover his kingdom roll" If the player gets a natural 20 the king thinks it's hilarious and offers him a job as the court's jester
I really wish people would stop treating nat20s as automatic successes for skill checks. A nat20 is only an automatic success on ATTACK ROLLS! That's it. The same goes for crit fails too... a player with +9 in Athletics literally cannot fail a DC10 Athletics check. A player with a +9 Strength save can't fail a DC10 Strength saving throw either.
@@trequor I know that's what the actual rules say, but...it's just a game, and if people prefer nat20s and nat1s as critical success / failure on skill checks, just let them have their fun.
@@trequor Yeah, that’s my thoughts as well.
@@trequor I mean, that's your choice to play with people who don't do the auto-success. But at my table, we like the excitement of the nat 20, so we're going to stick with it.
@@trequor Also, the crit fail thing is simply not true, even in real life. The best dancer in the world can still crit fail and fall during a 'dex check'.
One of the biggest advancements I've made as a GM came from the realization that we don't need to see and play every single thing. I've taken to referring to what "the camera" sees, thinking of it like a serial TV show.
So when a character goes to shake people down for information around town, instead of 1: playing out every single shake down with a bunch of meaningless NPCs or 2: doing one roll and saying, 'cool, here's the information you get,' which can end up feeling like that action didn't really happen inside the fiction, we can have a middle ground where we discuss what the camera sees for this montage of kicking in a few doors, holding a lowlife by his collar, hunching over the bar and whispering with the landlord... And then we cut back to action with them returning to the rest of the group with information in hand.
It has really upped my level of satisfaction with my games and really helps keep the players viewing their characters acting inside the world.
YES! This is how you keep a game well-paced and running smoothly. The most important resource a GM controls is TIME! They have the ability to narrate an entire day based on a single skill check, or to grind through a play-by-play of each second. It's all about using dice rolls wisely to keep the game on track.
PS: On the note of "information gathering" I almost always 'cut' to other players so that the game can progress while I look up the information needed haha
It's all about pacing, and you seem to have found a gold nugget
Oh this is so helpful! I'm planning on running a Call of Cthulhu game, (which I've never even played before, but my friend is really interested in, so I volunteered to be the keeper, even though I've never GM'd before! 😵) and I was worried about how I was gonna handle all the time spent doing research. I can just describe how the characters spend hours in the library sifting through books, the librarian bringing them a steady stream of new material, the volumes piling up on the table and floor around the investigators, crumpled, ripped, and smudged pages of notes scattered all over the place. Like a training montage, but with research. I love it! It's beautifully cinematic and saves us all a bunch of time! Thank you!
@@marcz2903 Awesome! I'm so glad it helped. A prompt I stole from my GM is asking the player in question, "What does that look like?" to get them to help build the montage. Good luck with the game!!
This "hot tip" works with Players who have NO IDEA what their PC's are actually doing... By that, I mean the guy who's never even sat in an airplane before in his life, let alone fly in one, and is trying to RP a Pilot of any degree. He's not going to be all about the controls or the minutia of a Boeing with a "proper yoke" versus Airbus with that side-stick and "fly-by-wire" business. He just needs to know on a roll of X+ his CHARACTER knows what to do to get the plane off the ground... fly a reasonable route.. and bring it back down in one piece, probably even re-usable... period.
I've HAD Players who LOVED the minutia (Seals gotta Seal, same for Force Recon, or any "specialist") and if you're prepared to write a novel at the Table, they're prepared to dictate it for you... AND I'll bet most of you never thought of Special Forces as "nerds"... but GOD... can those guys NERD THE F*** OUT!!! I feel like I've maybe forgotten more about field survival and battle field medic training than most of y'all will likely ever learn... just as a hint of what it can be like...
BUT that's okay. While there are "those" kinds of Players, there are also PLENTY who just need to roll the damn dice and let that sort out the details of "yes or no"... SO it's EVEN okay to let Charisma work as a skill, just like any other... and a roll of X+ sets the difficulty of the task... and the weird quiet kid can even become a Rock Super-Legend... just like he dreams... in the Game of course. haha... ;o)
No GM is infallible. I've been GMing for almost 42 years, and in my last session I made a cardinal mistake. I took away a player's agency and then killed the PC with bad rolls. It wasn't intentional. I'm running an ALIEN campaign under the sea, and the planned encounter didn't go as I had envisioned it. The PC was having an nitrogen narcosis-induced hallucination, and what they believed they saw was a ghost from their past opening a dangerous hatch. In reality, their PC was opening the hatch. Another PC was supposed to come along, stop them, and snap them out of it. What I didn't calculate was that the "sane" PC was suffering from so much stress that they failed to stop the hallucinating PC and was forced to run away. I let three rolls - "Just roll me one damn success without panicking!" Nope - fate wasn't having it. The hallucinating PC died and did major damage to the base. Retroacting the encounter would've been too cheap and anticlimactic, and the player was a good sport about it. I apologized to the player and group. I should have known better, but I had one of those "deer in the headlights" moments. All I can say is that you learn, move on, and try not to do it again.
I feel this one. Walking right into a GM mistake that you know to avoid and have even spoken at length about not doing is just that extra bit of sting when you realize you still fell for it again.
Honestly, I don't even think you did anything bad. You made a clear attempt to try and let the PC get out of it, and fate decided that it wasn't going to happen. Beyond that it didn't end the campaign from the way you told it, so you've simply added a twist to the plot that the surviving PC's will have to deal with. (And you can probably get the dead one back in as a synth or something with a little hand waving)
The "Meaningless Rolls" setion perfectly encapsulates why I enjoy Delta Green's usage of passive skills and advice to only roll when there is a chance for failure. In my experience it helps players feel satisfied with their PCs ("Hell yeah, my computer engineer can break into this system no problem") and prevents hitting walls bc they failed and there are limited ways to get around it.
It's also why I like FFG's d100 Warhammer 40k systems, you get pretty hefty modifiers for things that aren't hard or are regular tasks for that thing, and the degrees of success mechanic means it's still relevant for the player to roll to show off how much better they are at even the basic tasks.
In D&D, passing a DC 5 check is mechanically the same whether you have a +2 or a +10 to the roll, but passing a check with 1 degree of success versus 5 degrees of success when you both roll the same thing has a visible difference.
I don't know why more systems don't use passive skills. I always found it odd how you can be under no pressure with no outside variances and be skilled in something only to fail because of a bad roll
This is addressed under a variant rule in 5e D&D, and it basically comes down to predictability. Even an expert can screw up sometimes.
@@thomasbecker9676 but do they screw up 5% of the time? Is it reasonable for a person with a +12 history to forget the name of the king?
@@anthonynorman7545 are natural 1s actually auto-fails on skill checks or is that just a house rule everyone thinks is RAW? Because if they’re not meant to be auto-fails then a character with a +12 would never be able to fail at a DC10 check.
A tip for 'over-prepping':
Use a paper address book for NPC's. In spare time, say you're waiting for a train, rough out an NPC's skills, stats, personality etc. to be firmed up later. You can use colour-coded sticky tabs to denote what sort of character they are E.G. cultist, ally, walk-on canon-fodder etc.
Thus when preparing a scenario, you have a 'bank' of NPC's to draw on.
I remember my 2nd session DMing, I was running Dragon Heist for DnD 5e. I had been reading all the materials and preping for weeks. There was a fireball that went off right outside their orphanage/tavern and saw a figure slink into the crowd. The other villain took off across the rooftops toward the villain's secret hideout. The module said the one who was in the crowd escaped through the sewers and that was the end of it, but the other one was a detailed description of where he went and how. Guess which one my party chased after.
They rolled a great perception/investigation/survival to find him, and I didn't feel it was fair to say "there's no trace of him" But I froze, like a deer in the headlights, because I had NO idea what the sewer system looked like in that neighborhood. I had a forgotten realms expert at my table who called the "secret" final boss on session 1. I didn't know how to BS/improvise my way out.
I turned to my group and said, "Guys, I'm so sorry. I have no info on the sewers. I could make something for next week, but we wouldn't be able to play anymore tonight. The only thing they have is following the guy over the rooftops. I'm sorry I didn't think of this ahead of time."
Thankfully, I have awesome players. They just said, "ok. So we use those rolls to find the other guy. Which way did he go?" I've been DMing for 3 years now and always provide at least 2 choices that are fully fleshed out for them to take. I'm still leading the same group, and I'm so thankful for their patience and understanding while teaching me to DM by being awesome players.
Strikes me as bad module design honestly. It's entirely reasonable for the PCs to chase after the crowd villain.
Wow, this is perfect timing. I have just started running CoC as a keeper and have been struggling. Thank you so much for this Seth!
Hope it provides something helpful, or at least confirms what you'd already figured out. Either way, hope you and your group have fun.
@@SSkorkowsky Thank you!
Also I loved the How We Roll playthrough of MoN. Dwayne was the best 😄
Same here!
Remember the golden rule and tell yourself:” Today, I am going to have fun!”
same here. trying out "Dead Light" as my beta run.
Regarding the “It’s about the PCs, not the setting,” I like to run my games as there is a story that is happening whether or not the PCs interact with it. If they did nothing, the NPCs will do what they planned on doing anyways. The PCs then interact with that and change it significantly. It’s still their story in the end, but it makes it feel for them more like they have an effect on how the world develops and changes rather than the amusement park of an mmo or single player RPG.
In my current game the players keep stumbling about the main story but mostly just f about doing their own thing, sometimes foiling a plan of some guy without even really knowing it.
@@Syaniiti I love that lol
@@Syaniiti I’ve played in and run some “campaigns” like that, and they can be really fun. IME it works when the players are already a group of friends who mainly just want an excuse to hang out together, and can lead to a lot of slice-of-life RP that can be surprisingly immersive and occasionally hilarious. But for more goal-oriented groups or DMs, it’s not so great.
@@nw42 This can be the case, but doesn't have to be. Yes, if people are just there to hang out and enjoy a social RPG it can tend towards slice of life instead of grand narratives.
If you're players want to be given a central narrative to explore that has clearly set expectations like "first you do A, then B, and then the epic finale C" they will be disappointed
But this misses a third group of players, who are my favorite. The self motivated player.
My current table is a sandbox that's loosely draped over a module. Each PC has their own motivation for adventuring, and for most the quest from the module is just a means to an end.
They want to cure a plague that's afflicting a village, discover the provenance of a suit of mysterious set of armor, cure a curse they've been afflicted with, prove that they're worthy of leading their clan, learn what happened to a lost dwarven sect, etc
Each of these things have leads to or from the adventure, but none is intrinsic to it. They often make detours to explore tangents related to their personal quest. They seek mentors and clues. They have individual motivations.
By having the module not be a world ender they can muck it up and the story goes on. I place hooks for other modules around the hex map and as random encounters. When the current module ends, win or lose, they'll have to discuss amongst themselves what to follow next. Between this module and the next they do solo sessions where they solely pursue their own goals.
One of the best pieces I can give for starting DMs who have trouble launching their campaign is to give themselves a set start date. Something not to ridiculous or to short notice, something like 2 weeks or so is a perfect amount of time to motivate yourself into actually starting your adventure.
Absolutely. There's nothing like a deadline to motivate you to complete your game prep. Though I need to learn to spread out the work, as I tend to get next session's prep done literally the day before the game LOL.
"Players love rolling dice. So, give them plenty of opportunity to do so." and the man holding the Kult book gave me a laugh.
4:47 I remember many years ago I would spend 10 hours a week or more preparing for one 2 hour gaming session. Invariably the PCs went off and did their own thing and I wasted all that time. Now I prepare until I feel I can handle any deviations and then roll with it if I have to
Few pieces of my own advice:
- Problems are almost always better than puzzles - Anything where an issue needs to be solved is best when there's multiple ways to solve a problem, rather than a single way to solve a puzzle.
- The best game prep a GM can do comes down to making their games more adaptable. The less rigid each piece of the game is, the more useful it'll be to both GMs and players alike. Or, in other words, if players want to steal any item, animal or NPC, it shouldn't be enough to destroy the game's entire structure.
- Lethality is one of the most important tools in the GM's arsenal. When a GM is about to run an encounter, they should consider how lethal they want the fight to be. Sometimes a fight they can't lose is useful if players want to experiment with new abilities, but in my experience players love knowing they have a real chance of dying in any given fight.
- Sometimes players shouldn't roll dice. If the ultra strong warrior wants to open a heavy door, just acknowledge that they are too strong to fail, otherwise you run the risk of them fumbling, only for someone much weaker to open the door. And tell the player when you do this, it'll make them feel rewarded for their choices.
- Play with music and visuals. Give your players handouts between games. Reward the players that buy you snacks.
Very much so on each point... Personally I find it insulting that say a random barbarian who can even read and read a spell scroll and the players today feel that the DM should come up with why rather than... Requiring any training, proficiency, ANYTHING relevant to the task...
Yes. Redefining the roll has made such a difference.
Yeah, I've found that those that keep waiting til they're "ready" have the most trouble getting started. There comes a time when you have to take that leap of faith and get started, despite the jitters, worries and such.
You are by far one of the best TTRPG content producers, not just on TH-cam but on the internet in general. Your professionalism, your skill, your knowledge, are all in peak form. You have continued to develop and grow as a creator, however even your early content was. T such a high level of quality that it’s as watchable and enjoyable as recent videos.
Your videos are a huge relief and a huge source of joy in my life. Keep making amazing work.
On the die rolls thing: I like to ask players occasionally (in a mysterious tone) to make some kind of roll. I don’t tell them what it’s for, I just tell them what die(s) to roll. Then, I react to the roll with sighs, groans, or sounds of delight/satisfaction, and take notes behind my screen. In reality, the roll is meaningless, my reaction and notes are fake, and it creates wonder and curiosity. One can abuse this. But, during a lull is a great time to use it. It’s all about the reaction-selling it.
I've been planning an eventual video about GM Mind Games that talks about doing this and other little tricks to heighten tension and engagement. My favorite is the Very Specific Questions, such as "Hey, Jim, what color is your character's tie?" then pretending to make a note. One of the other benefits of it, outside of giving a little paranoia, is now that player visualizes their character even more because they know what color their tie is, and they probably won't ever forget it. But you're 100% correct that GM Mind Games can be abused or get overused, but in small doses they're fantastic at setting the mood or injecting a little dose of wonder.
@@SSkorkowsky I like that. And, there’s the added benefit of it being fun for the GM. It’s harmless. Occasionally, a player may grill the GM, desperate to know the nature of the question/roll. I like to say, “This roll may determine the direction of a future event. But, I can’t talk about it now.”
I love to use crazy voices with my NPCs and Seth is right, usually other players around the table want to also try acting more in-character and have a little more courage to do so.
Because they can't do worse than my silly acting and voices. I just make an idiot out of myself with a few NPCs to set the RP bar pretty low.
been running coc with two different groups and I'll usually decide if a game is worth running based on your videos, if anything your videos are the main reason I'm playing coc now
In my groups, at least, I've found players LOVE when they come up with an idea that I just did NOT expect. Never had an instance where they weren't happy to high-five each other and preen over stumping the ST while I figure out just what the hell happens.
I watched a Jamie Oliver video where he cooked a chilli over a flame until the skin was black, then scraped off the burnt layer and chopped it up to make a really yummy dish. He specifically said to poke holes in it with a fork before hand but I forgot. It exploded in my face.
I have forgotten every single cooking video I've ever watched but I remember how to cook chilli over an open flame until the skin is black, then scrape off the burnt layer and make a really yummy dish. Without it exploding in my face because I poke holes in it with a fork before hand.
I vividly remember the absolute @#$%ing pain of a molten hot chilli exploding in my face. Sometimes you just need to fuck up for yourself and learn the hard way.
Evolution has made pain into an excellent learning tool for most people. :)
@@richmcgee434 Yeah it certainly works for me! Which probably explains why I have never tried slamming a drawer closed. With my bits in it.
@@mainepants For me it was getting splashed with hot wax from a candle rather than an exploding chilli, but the lesson still stuck pretty well.
And to think, some people pay for that sort of thing... :)
I’ve always enjoyed your videos for numerous reasons; down to earth, informative, with a perfect amount of humor.
I’ve been playing RPGs since the late 70s but I’ve always been a better player than GM. Even still, your advice has been much appreciated. Thanks.
Btw... I was stationed in Texas for about eight years and completely forgot about Scott Brown until watching one of your Cyber Punk videos. Hilarious!
I decided to to expand them into space in a SF game I’m running. Scott Brown Colonization Corp.
😆
I assume they kick out anyone already living on the planet in order to colonize it?
In the middle of orbital bombardment of the locals they call down, "I GOT A SHOWING!"
@@Syaniiti
Haven’t gotten that far yet, but that sounds about right.👍🏻
Haha nice. I've also sprinkled them into my cyberpunk/sci-fi setting, unbeknownst to my players. They are still in the "tactical real estate" business, now at a galactic level.
I’ve got into the hobby a year ago, and now I’m GMing a Blades in the Dark campaign. You and these videos have been a consistent inspiration and source for me for pretty much the entire time. And to top it off, your videos on CoC got me through a one shot of The Haunting for my group, and Im now my groups “game master for stuff that isn’t dnd”. Long story short, cheers.
The only other piece of advice I could think of for new dms is to learn a system that you’re passionate about. You’ll be putting in a lot of leg work to make everything and learn everything and teach it to your players, and it’s a lot easier if you’re enthusiastic. If you suck at learning lots of rules, maybe try go with a more rules light games, or invest into starter packs. Dnd is awesome, but branching out into new games, especially if you already have a dm for your current game is possible.
Always go back and refresh your basics. In addition even if you’re already doing some of these things without thinking about it having your attention drawn to them can help you unpick how you are doing well, important for doing better.
Great vid, as usual. One thing I would add: you are not just a fun dispenser. You are a player too and should be having fun. A successful game is not just one where the players enjoy your game, but where you do too.
Procrastinating because I think I'm going to suck or make too many mistakes... I can totally identify with that. Probably my greatest error as a GM.
Another important thing I learned when it comes to Meaningless dice rolls is sometimes you need to think if the consequences of the check matter.
Example :
A check resulting in going prone in combat could well be impactful.
however in more peaceful circumstances its merely slowing down the more narrative scene.
‘Only call for a roll if you’re willing to accept success/failure’ was one of the first big things I learnt when I made the jump to Keeping. It’s a great tip. As is redefining rolls that ‘fail’. I asked my old Keeper for advice on that and they said more or less the same as Seth. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment.
Something I picked up from a real play podcast that I incorporated into my own games (or rather when I ran ‘The Fungi from Yuggoth’ for new players, and I was still getting the hang of being Keeper) was at the start of each game I had ‘Cthulrules’. Basically I’d choose a rule/s to explain for a few minutes so we learnt together. Usually things from the previous game when I had to rule one way to keep the game moving, but noted down to look up later, or any questions from players that came up in the last game or between games.
I should start doing it again.
Which subset of TTRPG are you from where (Dungeon (presumably)) Keeper is your phrase? Or is it maybe a geographical region thing?
@@demonzabrak The game master is called "Keeper of Arcane Lore" in the Call of Cthulhu ttrpg
@@demonzabrakCall of Cthulhu. Sorry, habit. Should have used more system neutral phrasing. But anyway, in CoC the GM title is ‘Keeper of Arcane Lore’, usually shortened to ‘Keeper’. As an aside players are ‘Investigators of the Unknown’ or simply ‘investigators’.
Anyway, essentially the verb for running the game/GMing becomes ‘keeping’ the game.
One thing I've come up with is if there's a situation where I want the entire party to roll (like perception) but I also want (or need) them to succeed, I then treat the roll results as who spots whatever the thing is first. Rather than purely succeed or fail. Sprinkle in degrees of success as well for good measure.
There are some problems with having players to roll for finding something.
I remember several years back the following happened:
The group was in a rectangular courtyard garden, with a dead-end path protruding from one corner.
One PC did check the dead-end path for possible hidden exits but fails the roll.
Shortly after a second PC did that same check, and failed as well.
And a little bit later a third PC did that same check, rolled successfully, and found no hidden exits.
The fourth and final PC did not do it as they were now sure.
I think some problems became obvious, such as the players knowing they failed their dice roll.
Technically they should be in a situation where they do not know if they did not find anything because there was nothing or because they failed the check.
And the other players should know even less about what the active PC did.
We are in a category where it should be the GM making the roll hidden, so the player does not know if it was a failure, or if it was due to there was nothing to find.
I think it is good to (as GM) get used to making those rolls (hidden from the players), especially in such a situation you describe; to determine who finds it first.
As you can redefine the dice roll. For example to a simple roll a d(number of players) to determine purely random who sees it first. (And at the same time avoid the situation where everyone fails.)
And remember to NOT roll for seeing that tower right in front of them.
In that case, it is more about knowing the characters' personalities, and simply letting the character who is most interested in towers be the first to see the tower.
It is good to get used to seeing the world through the eyes of each PC, as you (as GM) are the eyes and other senses of the PCs.
Thus you are more likely to avoid unintentionally crippling the PCs by making them blind, deaf, numb, etc.
This is it, guys. This will be the video that takes Seth to over 100K subscribers, and a full-length movie starring Seth and only Seth!
That would be epic. I’m picturing the Gamers style film. First we see GM Seth, Todd, Dwebbles, and Mike at the table. They are playing Call of Cthulhu. Then the camera wipes to a dreary abandoned house and Jack the NPC is there.
@@samsampier7147 Yup. We got to tell Seth we want it!
While I know all of these, I've been out of the chair for a while and these are good reminders as I struggle to get back into it. Finding players is the hard part.
Since this is a mistakes video, seems appropriate.
The only advice I've taken from this channel that ended up badly was to 'gradually take away a supporting NPC and encourage the players to take the lead'. I was running a very small group (3) in Star Trek and I pushed one of my players to become a captain instead of using the NPC they loved as an ongoing support and it kneecapped the game rather nastily.
Don't let GMPCs steal the spotlight, but promoting them to supporting extra or regular quest giver is an option too. Let the players decide if they want to keep your support (and don't be hurt if they're ready to let them move on).
"You will be the best of Starfleet." -Capt Sinjin Vir
Seth I appreciate your generic advice for newer DM/GMs. Don’t forget you have old school experienced DMs in your fold. Be nice to hear some advanced ideas, campaign hooks, wierd stuff. Love your work.
I had a situation in which the player wanted to attempt something unreasonable (moving a huge boulder that was very soundly in the 'nope' column, mechanically speaking) so after a little too much time transpired assuring them that such a thing was impossible I allowed them to roll and they got a 20. I have some hot dice ass players and was prepared for this eventuality. The PC threw out their back and took 10 damage and was at disadvantage to strength checks until the party could take a long rest. On top of this, they also got a healthy chunk of XP for coming to a rather inconvenient, but ultimately instructive realization of their own limitations. From then on my player was much more realistic in their play style. Never forget that just because you sometimes have to "punish" your players does not mean that they and by extension their characters can't also learn and grow from failure.
"...or very often it's a stalling tactic...the game master isn't quite sure; they need a minute to think about it, so they blurt 'hey, roll the dice!'"
I feel personally attacked.
There's a bit in Don't Rest Your Head which actually recommends that players try to avoid being in situations where they need to roll dice, because that's when Bad Things happen. There shouldn't be any such things as meaningless rolls in DRYH (and, by extension, all other RPGs), because rolls should be for things that actually matter.
Love the disclaimer in the beginning, really shows you know your audience, some of us can be very... literal...
I have an alternative idea for the player rolling to persuade the King, but I don't know how it'll shake out at the table. You turn to all the other players at the table and have them roll against their highest mental stat to notice what the other PC is about to do so they can intercede before the situation spirals out of control.
Always remember that the DM controls the most important resource in the game: TIME! You can always freeze time and let other players jump in to do their stuff before the idiot idiots the situation.
i.e PLAYER: "I tell the king to sit on a sword"
DM: "Okay [other PCs] you see PLAYER opening their big mouth. What do you do?"
If a player gets salty about this then I deploy initiative rolls, usually in a limited way to determine the specific timing of specific, pre-determined actions.
I would personally not use that kind of strategy, because it borders on stealing agency from the other players. I'd let other players intercede if they want to, no roll needed, but I wouldn't encourage them to do so by game mechanics. It feels like it would possibly make them feel "forced" to act a certain way, and secondly I fear it may discourage players from roleplaying more without seeking a party consensus before, which is often a chore. I would rather focus on the possible consequences of the interaction: will the king throw them in jail, just throw them out without listening,…
@@LeChaosRampant How does this strategy "steal agency" any more than chucking their PC in prison..?
@@trequor I was answering to OP stating they would make the player roll to intercede. I think players should be able to intercede should they want to, but neither be forced/encouraged to, nor unable to. Choosing what you character want to do (intercede or not) is at the very root of agency, and impeding or influencing it is, for me, stealing player agency.
I feel this is unadvisable. Let the player make a fool of themselves. If other players stop his action, then nothing is gained; everyone has just wasted their time. It is way more interesting to role play the consequences of their actions.
"Don't be afraid to suck." - Really good advice, Seth.
I suck at running games. I'm seriously bad at it. I didn't start until age 30. I've never actually played a campaign as a character, and have no idea what it's like. All my players have been doing this longer than I have. Most of my maps and settings are bare bones, with only a few NPCs and quests, and even less window dressing...
...And my players LOVE IT. All of my crappy improv and desperate attempts to present things in a reasonable and plausible way? They don't notice how flimsy it all is. They consistently compliment me on how well prepared I am, and how deep and dynamic the settings are. How free they feel to pick a direction and walk in the full confidence that there is something to see or find.
I'm a really crappy GM, and I suck behind the screen... But the game is fun, and that's what matters.
You know Seth, I needed this video. I have been "working" on a campaign setting for way too long now, and I didn't even realize what I was actually doing was stalling to avoid the risk of failure.
These are all great advice and I have both sinned in each and every one of these and played under GMs who did as well.
Also, as usual, the photoshop work is amazing - that picture with the soldiers and the shark costumed GM caught me by surprise and I just burst out laughing.
The one at 22:18 is so good as well - it really does look like an RPG session now, plus the reflection of the GM screen on the table is incredible.
....I'm with Todd, though.
I think you've forgotten some *key facts* here, Seth. Don't make Dwibbles pull out Captain Binky again.
This is a great video and these are all really valuable pieces of advice that I wish someone had given me years ago. I've been feeling kind of burned out on RPGs for a while now after several of my campaigns went up in smoke, but watching your videos always gives me that spark of enthusiasm for the hobby again.
We got an extra tip at the end! "Don't do something because you think you're _supposed_ to. Do want you think is right."
My first time running a game I made mistake after mistake. I was running the West End Games Star Wars RPG, first edition, which had a simple d6 mechanic, but had way too many subsystems, especially when it came to using The Force. In addition I didn't actually understand how the module was supposed to progress. Fortunately it was a relatively linear adventure, and I muddled my way through.
Fast forward thirty years or so. I began running an online game for my friends when the Covid lockdowns began. Running online means I need to step up and prepare much more, especially art assets and tokens for the VTT. The general attitude I have is 60-65% preparation, with the rest improvisation based on what the players decide to do. One thing I do is try to get the players to let me know their plans in advance so I will be able to prep a few sessions in advance. For example one player in session zero told me his dream was to play the module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, so I ended up buying the Goodman Games version and adapting that to the VTT. The party slowly explored the "dungeon", giving me time to populate it with encounters. It was a lot of work but there was plenty of payoff.
Last time my players told me their plan at the end of the previous session I prepared all of it, once the session came they decided to change their plan completely and didn't even go to the location of their previous plan (and scouted area, so I couldn't even use the same map). Now I prepare, at most, 50% of things.
How did the Barrier Peaks work out for you? I bought the Goodman Games version for nostalgia sake, but haven't cracked it open yet.
@@CassusAevum They dis a good job on the conversion. They added more encounters with iconic monsters which hadn't been created back when the module was written, and even came up with a suitable way to run it as a campaign. I made a few changes, such as the way radiation poisoning works, but overall it is very well done.
The black and white photos were distractedly great in this video.
A comment I could have made to any of these videos - I enjoy the whimsy of all the old photos doctored to now show people in generations passed enjoying RPGs. Even if they never existed at the time, there's nothing fundamental to RPGs to say they might not have existed sooner...
I used to be the guy who thought I needed a campaign decided upon and written out before I could run a single session. Like I believed session 1 would be bad if I hadn't decided what would happen in session 52. As a result my games went one of two ways, either i ran anyway and embraced the suck, which far more often than not did not suck, or I told everyone about the new campaign I was writing and would run any time now as soon as it was ready to go and told them to be ready to play, pumping them up for a game I had grand ideas for, but would ultimately never get off the ground.
I'm sure my friends were secretly rolling their eyes every time I said the words "I have an idea for a new campaign" because they knew that if I said those words then that game would never start.
The worst though is when i would embrace the potential for suck and just run a session and it actually turned out good, and then another and it would be good, and then suddenly I'd get hit with this fear that I couldn't top those sessions without weeks of planning, so I'd get all up in my head, unable to move forward, unwilling to run the next session unless it could be perfect, instead of just doing the things that made the last sessions so good.
So yeah, embrace the suck. Own it. Wear it like armor. Don't be afraid to start or to keep going, just because you feel underprepared, because some people will feel underprepared no matter how prepared they are, and a lot of overpreparation can be a more insidious campaign killer than some underpreparation.
Thank you so much for writing this. This is literally me except I’m an aspiring GM. I am one of those who never feels prepared. I always feel as though any questions the players may have suddenly displays my inability to create depth or gaping holes in my best design efforts thus far.
I’ve been sitting on this setting now for like 2 years & just can’t find a way to just ask my friends to play & start trying to run something 😅😕 I just don’t feel good enough
@@LeonTrig You definitely are good enough, and the only way to get better at this point is to start actually running. The questions your players ask that you are not prepared for are the best questions to be asked, they do not reveal gaping holes, they reveal exciting opportunities. Sure, it's nice to have an immediate pat answers to satisfy their sudden curiosity about the lineage of the lost dragon kings and what other noble houses they might have married into before their eventual downfall, but seriously, you don't have time to detail those things and every minute spent doing so is a minute you aren't prepping actual gameable material. So you either make it up on the fly yourself, or tell the player you'll get back to them on it, or (my personal favorite) ask the player to tell YOU about the lineage of the lost dragon kings.
Just as the story is the characters, not the setting, the game is the players, not the just DM, so allowing your players in on the fun of worldbuilding not only gets you off the hook for some of that work, it also extends an aspect of play to the players that they are otherwise locked out of. They will appreciate that opportunity and you may be incredibly surprised and delighted with what they come up with. Leave LOTS of empty space all around your setting for them to fill in, it will improve their enjoyment of the game and their investment in your setting.
I have a feeling that this one will be be on my "Frequent Rewatch" list. Good stuff, thanks!
Best skill I picked up form GMing was learning to wing things off the cuff. I was that young GM that would have to plan everything out. But due to some things the group I was playing with suddenly lost their GM and no one wanted to run and I was pressed to run something in their place. I had nothing setup I only half knew the rules for the game at the time. But faced losing game night or at least trying I just winged it. It was the worst session half the time not knowing what to do the other half not knowing the rules I needed. At the end I packed up and was sure it was over. But the group was wanting us to get back and do it again next week. And that is when I realized really its not about what I had or had not planed or how well I knew the rules. As long as everyone was having fun that was what mattered. It was rough and I made a lot of mistakes early on but learning to wing stuff, listen to the players, and adapt as I go is what made my GM style work for me. Now 30 some years later it is a well practiced skill.
That picture with military dudes and shark killed me.
I love your disclaimer! I try to learn something i can do better from every game I run. I recently integrated the idea of giving the PCs a set of two or three different rolls they could make and saying "but this skill will give you the best info". It really got me over my habit of locking stuff behind shitty rolls.
My tips: #1 Ignore empty rooms/hallways and other encounters where nothing happens. (i.e. don't use them). As a working class adult my time is precious and having players spend 15 minutes searching an empty room/hallway is 15 minutes of wasted game time. I'll frequently tell players during a session zero that If I make the comment "This room is empty and there is nothing else of interest here" that means move along and don't bother searching the room/area or discuss why the room is empty. #2 When running premade adventures don't be afraid to remake the map if it doesn't make sense to you. or you think it could be implemented better.(*a perfect example is the map from the B1 Module Search for the unknown, that map is crazy but a fan made a better, more concise, sensible, and effective map layout that you can find online). #3. Make critical failures and critical successes feel special. I use critical failures to create a complication and critical successes usually always do maximum damage and/or create a beneficial side effect for players or hinderance for the enemy. #4 Be conservative with gold/treasure and create situations where gold is necessary (make spell casters purchase components, create situations like fines, paying off warrants, blackmail, repair equipment, building a keep or wizard tower, etc) #5 Use Passive Skill checks! One example; If a Wizard has a passive Arcana skill of 15 and want to identify a level one spell being cast that they do not already have (normally a DC 11 Arcana skill check) then automatically let them succeed (i.e. recognize what the spell is called and basic effect) and then let them roll to see if they can remember/discern more information (specific/detailed spell information). #6 Session 0 is a necessity, even if you don't want to use an entire session to have one, you should always have a quick (5 minute) session zero before the adventure starts. Creating story hooks, setting expectations, and establishing do's and don'ts makes life for everyone much easier. #7 Only run a game for 2-6 players, 6-8 players can be very challenging, more than that and you are just making it more difficult for you and less enjoyable for the players. Basically more players means that each player gets less time to participate in the game. Combats will take up more time, players get bored waiting for their turn, a few players might get to opportunity to "shine" while others might have to sit on the sidelines because the other players already performed the necessary tasks or overcome the challenge before their turn comes up. When you see players falling asleep or playing on their phones while waiting for their turn you know you have to many players at the table. #8 During Combat put all the bad guys (except maybe the boss) on the same initiative and have them always deal average damage unless they crit. This speeds up combat dramatically. #9 Reinforcements. If the players are defeating your "tough" challenge or big boss too easily, then add more minions or unexpected challenge even if it wasn't planned. If the players one shot killed your main villain, then have their older more powerful sibling or significant other join the battle to take revenge. Basically avoid anticlimactic final showdowns as it can really bring down a fun session. #10 Time management. Use a timer or set an alarm if you have too. check the adventure progression every hour or so. If you only have 4 hours to run a one-shot adventure that will not be continued, be prepared to omit some non-essential encounters. It really sucks for players to spend 4 hours overcoming challenges and obstacles just for you to handwave the final battle because you ran out of time....
Always happy to see new episode :) Thank you, sir!
Once made a kobold dungeon with raised platforms above a snake filled pit. The bridges connecting the platforms were no very wide and had no rails. Walking across them didn't require a roll, but running or fighting along the bridges required a measly 5 athletics or balance check to avoid falling. I never thought 3 of the 5 players would fail their checks in the same combat... With 3 of them in the pit, the remaining 2 were overrun by the kobolds up top. The wizard died from the fall (it was only 10') then the Cleric and the other fighter didn't have any missile weapons and were slowly and methodically killed by the kobolds raining down spears. I seriously never thought a 5 check would make such a big difference, but the DC is irrelevant when they roll a 1...
Thanks for these Seth!!!
Spot on, as usual. Great video and great tips!
Another great video with wonderful advice and reminders.
The best tip here is knowing when to part ways at the table. I agree 100% that if there is an incompatibility that is insurmountable... you need to be able to both recognize that and know that it means someone's gotta go or the game will suck for everyone involved.
My 2 biggest pieces of advice would be don't be afraid to say Yes and Don't be afraid to say No. Say yes to letting that player do that awesome thing or use a power to destroy a big boss in 1 round but at the same time don't be afraid to say no to things that destroy the fun for you and for others or ruin something you seriously care about.
Great vid, Seth, as always. I've had to shake out some players due to style. Most stick around for years, others stick around for months (mostly those that can't commit, or don't feel it enough to commit). When prepping, I break out about 4 scenes into 2 or 3 "and then", "but then" twists. But, I'm happy to chop up or toss my prep if the players take different turns - forcing me to improvise - agreed, that's part of the fun!
Thanks for all your videos Seth. Always entertaining and informative!
Seth, great stuff as always!
Always love your gaming vids... Thanks again.
I kinda took this concept from Call of Cthulhu for my D&D games, So like Seth says I have my players roll once if they say they look around a room, and if the match or exceed the DC's for the hidden stuff they find them, but if they fail that check by no less than 5 (or if I'm feeling particularly generous) I say something like the chest you searched felt heavier than it looked or the rug seems to have been moved recently....and then allow them to make a roll based on what they intend to do with this new information. so with the chest example they may say I smash the chest with my battle ax, or I search for a hidden compartment and they'll roll accordingly.
Thank you Seth, I needed this bad, especially the message at the end!
Thank you for all the wise words! Keep up the good work
Man, that 100k sub has been a tease for too long. What's wrong with the rpg community. Seth is a master of the art. Come on people.
congrats on 100k seth!
congratulations on hitting 100k!
Tx. Great content.
Hey! Just saw 100k, well deserved and overdue! Conrats!
Good stuff, as always!
Great advice! I definitely wasn't great at some of these when I started.
Great video Seth and congrats on the 100 000 subs!
Such great advise! I love the, "caulking the cracks" imagery for improvisation. Congrats on the 100k subscribers. Well earned, sir.
I started The Hills Run Wild scenario for COC, and my players came up with a way to retrieve the artifact that circumvented the entire majority of the adventure, then decided to go to Britain. I had to do some prolonged off-the-cuff DMing, but it was fun. Excellent advice as usual Seth. Looking forward to your next video.
I'm about 6 sessions in to my first dcc campaign and this has been immensely helpful
Congrats on 100K, you absolutely deserve more!
Great video (as always) Seth. I consider your channel essential for any new or experienced DM.
Picking up small tips that you can see should work for you and then feeling and assessing the feedback, is the way forward.
Once again- great video- keep up the good work.
Fantastic advice. I've learned most of this on my own (a few bits I was fortunate enough to learn from others) but I still think it's a great resource for others so that they don't have to do quite so much trial and error.
Thanks for this video: lots of good advice. I will be taking your "roll for degree of success or complications, rather than straight success or fail" into my game this weekend.
LOL, been there.. .done those... great Video. Heading up to New York from Virginia to Game for a 4 Day Weekend Marathon Game. Been running this Group since the 1980s!! Great tips!
Once again, great video Seth. I love your instructional videos, they are very informative and yet very understanding and reasonable. You don't get preachy, they are useful to GMs with many styles (because there is no assumption by you that your way is the best way). You somehow pull off being both frank with us while always being very friendly.
I've been running Call of Cthulhu for a few months now for multiple groups. Your videos are an amazing resource. Just wanted to say thank you.
Excellent stuff, good review and reminders!
I think Scott Dorward is a wonderful shoutout here. Very great example. I listened to his voice running Fairyland on the Ain't Slayed Nobody Podcast, and was very impressed with the technique you're describing.
Seth you magnificent SOB
what a great video.
Loving your videos and tips about role playing man.
I love the idea of rolling for "ease of success". Thinking back, I've seen examples of this in other gameplay, but I didn't have that perspective of it. Totally want to use this.
👍 Awesome video as usual and awesome tips.
But i feel i need to cover this my self as well.
Seth this is fantastic. I’m running Edge of Darkness this weekend as a first time keeper with a group of complete greens on tabletop RPGs, and I’m pretty nervous. I’ve watched god knows how many videos of yours and several scenarios run by other groups like How we roll, but any new tips are definitely welcome!
I've been GMing for a while and think that the first tip is the best tip. Thanks Seth.
Ease of success on rolls and failing forward on things like skill and climb checks marry really well with things like hit-dice/recoveries/surges.
Failing a roll to climb a cliff that they need to climb just wears them out... costing future hp in their tank. They all still make the climb... it was just soo harrowing that it wears them down.
Love the videos BTW!
Congrats on the 100K!
I love this kind of video, filled with good advice even if we're veteran dms. Keep on the good work !
Thanks Seth, that is a really great video - I especially like that you mentioned success with a cost rather than just plain failure with rolls - it's something I've been thinking a lot about with my group recently. It's easy to get blinkered into the "one or zero" nature of game mechanics and not think dynamically about story structure and moving the plot forward. I suspect that some of the Powered By The Apocalypse style games I've been playing and listening to have opened my mind a bit. Anyway, thanks a bunch for your guidance as always. Big Love
This is one of the best you done Seth
This is the best video of this kind I've ever seen, I've seen a lot of them.
I just bought Traveller and want to DM it, perfect timing Seth!
Excellent advice, as always. I've done most if not all of these myself. I like the ideas you presented for "success but at a cost." I'll have to remember that. I usually have failure merely take longer, but I like yours better.
So many tips that I've heard before, and yet needed to hear again, or just found helpful hearing from you, Seth. Great job.
Definitely. A refresher course is always nice. It isn't till after the game is over do I remember that I wanted to do this thing more or that differently.
Learning that some ppl do not mesh well or expectations can differ so much that it is better to not play with them is the biggest piece of advice. I've left an entire group i had GMed for over two years due to one player. Getting rid of them didn't seem like an option, so I quit showing up. I could have handled it better but I was at my breaking point.
I still GM for a for a group I've known for 25+ years and yeah, getting assume of them to RP is near impossible, so I just try to get them up be a bit more descriptive in what they're doing. Some still want to play the game like a board game, which is ok... sometimes.
Truly great advice.