A good conductor doesn’t need to know how to play *every* instrument, they just need to know how everything should sound together. Being a DM is largely similar.
I did this to a point too. While I designed a world beforehand with a minimal amount of description, I based the important NPCs on how much character relationship they have with the party members. Got to say it's starting to work out well.
I went a step beyond, by accident lol. One of my players went overboard in creating backstory, so much so that the (first) main objective is to solve her personal goal. (Basic gist, sickly girl gets scouted for wizard school, learns bro mightve been turned in a demi dragon, quest for truth and salvation). I let everyone meet up "naturally" in a big city. Basically let her walk in town, the crowd pushes her towards some shady people. Next player observes this and I gave him a chance to intervene. Then a couple of high rolls later and my plan for the rest of the meet up failed, so I quickly went to player 3's perspective so I couls come up with an idea how to fix. Don't remember all the specifics after that point, but the players played along and in the end really liked it. Next session I hope to "bind the party by blood" by having a high stake encounter, since they only barely met. New story hooks based on other player backgrounds already in the works and when I have finished at least the first major plotline I plan on releasing it as a full on campaign for others to play
So my first foray into DMing was lost mines of phandelver. My party wanted to continue after the campaign ended, so I looked at their backstories, realized what was happening, and just threw stuff together that would make sense for them all. 3/4 players had stuff to do with demons and devils, so guess what? Demon lords are now trying to take over the material plane, the blood war is spilling into your reality. Boom, new campaign thrown together due to their backstories
I love using players backstory and making Npcs they remember. It's always fun to just make up a random guy on the spot cause I needed someone to answer a thing they wanted and then by the end he's one of their most trusted friends.
My first time DMing was a true baptism of fire. Running 3rd edition dnd at one of the biggest gaming conventions in the country. Nearly 10 years later I still love dming, still have no clue how to run 3rd edition
How to be a good DM: Step 1: Watch a bunch of vids of green text horror stories about bad, awful, just horrible DMs. Step 2: Don’t do that stuff. Step 3: Have fun.
I still gm like this. It's all made up horse shit. The goblin crawls up the walls like a spider, the troll is a little too strong and now his leg from the war is acting up, the enemy's name was George yesterday but nobody took notes including me so now his name is Carl! I'm happy people can have fun with me and they always, somewhat miraculously, say see you next week. You find a party that jives with you and you run with it is my philosophy.
My favorite part of DM'ing came 10 months into a whirlwind campaign, when I had the party's patron make a major reveal to one of the players, who then turned directly to me and said "I've known this person in-game for a total of nine days."
The anniversary of my first campaign as a DM is approaching and the bard who felt unconscious in the first session against some spiders is STILL IN A COMA
Ok so given the “player having fun= good gm” rule, that means that by default our campaign ending with a team of giant mechs fighting against a tarrasque and king ghidorah was a GOOD idea
As a seasoned DM, if I could give you one piece of advice to live by it would be: Respect your players' characters. Don't coddle them, but also don't use the world to belittle and make a joke of their characters. Sure they lose from time to time or take a lot of damage in a trap, but don't turn them into the butt of a joke. Let them feel cool at least some of the time. If you can do that, you'll do fine.
About "make sure your players are having fun" is a rule I can't fully agree anymore. I have been puting other people's fun over mine, and that led me to make decisions in the adventures based on what I knew would please then, and not what would please me. That led me to be burned out and end my campaigns earlier.
Ok listen up. Yes, the dm is there to make sure that the players are having fun. However, and it must be said, the players also hold the responsibility. If a player isn't having fun, it shouldn't be totally the dm's fault. As someone once stated: "Your dm is also a player, not an employee."
"I didn't include 'you' in that role for partially semantic reasons" hot damn if that entire point aint the truth. You need to get vicarious enjoyment out of it. I had one DM before who hated 5e and DMing so much that it was incredibly difficult or a fool's errand for them to even get any satisfaction out of DMing. It led to very bland or frustrating sessions, but they insisted on DMing even when told they didn't *need* to.
personally I hard disagree with that perspective. the satisfaction of watching someone be intrigued by something you created, and become fully immersed in a world that only existed in your own head an hour ago is something special that only GMs experience. there's nothing "vicarious" about that enjoyment, and it's something that's unique to GMs that players can't experience (until they eventually [fingers crossed] run their own games). saying that GMs only get satisfaction by watching players be happy is similar to saying that the only enjoyment a director gets out of film making is watching the actors act in order to vicariously satiate their own unfulfilled desire to be an actor. It's just wrong. being a GM is uniquely rewarding and satisfying in a way that being a player is not, just as being a director is uniquely rewarding and satisfying in a way that being an actor is not.
@@TheSonicShoe That's not remotely what I meant nor said. Not to mention I didn't say "only" at all in my post. If you don't get enjoyment out of people enjoying or getting engaged by your world and experiences you've made, then you shouldn't be GMing. The alternative is basically a GM power trip which isn't fun for the players. That's literally all I was saying.
This is invaluable. I am a very new DM and have been working through mechanics and encounter building. I am just now finding a balance of encounter building after my party faced Glasstalf in Lost Mines. The balance of “this is a hard combat” and “we all had fun” is sometimes a fine line and I appreciate Davvy emphasizing the player fun being of importance
here's a fun rule i have: don't make encounters for the party, but make them for the party: this rule is contradictory, but that's by design. i balance encounters against the party, do i need to hit harder then the book says or lower (generally higher for me, short adventuring days so the encounters that do happen need to be punshy)? but do not take into consideration what the party is capable of (for the most part). don't take into consideration that the party may be able to croud control humanoids like crazy but got little against undead and so trough more undead against them. don't take into consideration how good the party is at sneaking and perceiving when balancing sentries and/or stealthy enemies. don't think about the capabilities of your party specifically when designing things. sometimes this will mean that your party can easily overcome a challenge and they'll feel awesome. sometimes they'll come across a roadblock that they'll have to really think their way trough as they lack the traditional means. my party once trivialised floor based traps because one of them could fly and ferry everyone over with ease. the same group struggled for multiple sessions (every time they returned to town) to get trough a locked door because no one had thieves tools or other methods for breaking in. these leave memorable moments.
I just love this story, my first ever game was a one shot, with elements lifted from Twilight princess, the intro to be exact, think of it like if the twilight stuff never happened. Old boy Link would deliver the sword, see the princess and go home at the end of the day
I agree that you don't need to know all the rules to be a good DM. However, I think that to provide a fun game, you need to be familiar with the rules, even if you don't have every little thing memorized. If you don't have a feel for how the game works and the different mechanics interact, you'll have trouble with things like building encounters and making rulings. Those are both really important skills for a DM to have.
When people say they don't want to play as a healer, what they mean is they don't want to play as life domain cleric. As the DM, it is your job to rectify this misunderstanding, and teach them about other options they can play as that they might actually have fun playing.
Yes a 1000 times to this. In one of my current campaigns I have a Circle of Dreams Druid that picked up the role cause the group wanted a support caster. He never played a healer and never really like magic users. HE FREAKING LOVES THIS CLASS! He throw out his Bonus Action subclass ability to heal every so often and is always just unleashing hell with his amazing Druidic spells every turn. He is the dominant healer and he does the second most damage in the group, at the same time.
Lol that’s my DM style in a nut shell. I have been DMing for 18 years now. I am actually running my first module ever right now because I very busy with work.
As a forever GM, Davvy's "I have to play a game before I run it" rule is so alien to me, as I've almost exclusively GM'd systems I've never played in before. Matter of fact, the first real campaign I participated in was one I ran. I had already played in a few disastrous sessions that were supposed to be part of campaign before that, but they crashed and burned before they even got off the ground. I ran what was supposed to be a one shot for that group in a new setting, and it turned into an 8 month long epic that managed to reach a reasonably satisfying conclusion just before it unfortunately petered out due to scheduling conflicts.
DM'd for the first time yesterday, my little brother bought a dnd starter kit for our youngest brother. They asked me to dm the game for them and their friends since I'm the closest thing that knew dnd. I used to have such performance anxiety as a player but shit that melted knowing what its like from an official dm screen trying to run a structured game. Holy shit does every input from a player matter even the shy ones and it's so satisfying to give advice in a non intrusive way and watch players get in the groove of rping. I might just be trash at it
I've been on the D&D DM side of the internet for years, and this was BY FAR the best DMing advice I've ever heard for first-time and experienced DMs, and it was presented in the most eloquent and concise video I've ever seen on the subject. You, sir, get a gold star on the Good Noodle board.
Always remember that there is no such thing as a good or bad d&d game. Unlike a game or movie that can be bad but still be fun. Fun is the only factor that determines the quality of a d&d game. Did your players have fun? Did you? If so, it was a great game. If not, the next one can be.
This is some of the best and most straightforward advice out there for any Dungeon Master, new or not. If I'd gotten this though my head two and a half years ago when I started DMing, I'd have saved myself a lot of anxiety. Rock on, Sir Chap!
My first game I ran I told my players "your typical fairy tale, save the princess from the dragon in the tower type story". They started out as the dregs in the dungeon of a xenophobic and anti magic local lord, sent as a suicide squad to rescue his princess and check up on the champion he had sent to fetch her who subsequently went AWOL. They had a few encounters, a couple of puzzle doors, and made it into the trashed old keep that was the dragon's lair. A thorough search found no dragon and no princess, but the scout found some footprints trailing into the distance. The footprints were large humanoid, medium humanoid and hoof prints. After a time the medium footprints disappeared and were replaced by an additional set of large footprints... leading into a swamp... where the players met a talking donkey... and then had the final encounter with two ogres and a talking donkey... to the soundtrack of All Star by Smash Mouth. It honestly took thirty minutes of reddit plagiarism to work out the encounters, and those players still talk about that game to this day. My advice is to not stress about the small stuff and try something dumb for your first game.
Or try something completely insane. I'm kinda old started playing back in 2nd edition. My first time DMing I let myself get ...inspired by some really good weed and ended up ripping the setting from a series of post apocalyptic novels I was reading(radioactive wastelands, lost government bunkers with advanced/alien tech, mutants, even some time travel) and homebrewing the hell out of 2nd edition to fit the setting. It was a total mess(2nd edition rules do not lend themselves to machine guns) but the players loved it.
Some things i wanted to add from my DMing experiences: first off, the focus of your encounters should be fun rather than difficulty. if the encounters you throw at your party turn out to be really easy, but they still find them engaging, then that's a successful encounter! not every encounter, combat or otherwise, has to be difficult. I'm currently running a 5e game with 6 players who are admittedly a little overpowered. so instead of saying "well okay, i need to match them in power to make this interesting.", what I do is constantly surprise them with new encounters that the party wouldn't expect. it's fun because they never know what they are gonna run into next! i also homebrew some monsters and reflavor stat blocks, and this has helped the party not metagame about stat blocks and such and focus on finding the new that's in front of them. Second thing is that you don't have to have EVERYTHING prepared before the session. personally, I find it better to just write the skeleton of what you need to know, and then just kind of wing it from there. having that open space let's the players interact with it more. And if you like an idea the player's idea, go with it! they'll never know that you made it up on the spot. and they don't need to. honestly, sometimes the stuff that my players think up is more interesting that what I think up.
I still remember my first time DMing. I was a bit........over ambitious. The only game I had played at that point was 2nd edition dnd (and yes I'm old) so in my infinite wisdom (and inspired by some really good weed) I ended up taking the setting from a series of post apocalyptic novels I was reading and homebrewing the hell out of 2nd edition rules to fit the setting..a setting that included radioactive wastelands, reminates of government conspiracies, lost advanced technology, mutants, and even a dash of time travel (imagine if mad max and fallout had a baby suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome). It was one of the hardest games I ever ran(mainly cause I was figuring out rules, and balancing combat, weapons, etc on the fly most games. I was honestly amazed how much everyone loved the game. They really really enjoyed the setting and were more than willing to help me "play test" the Homebrew to keep the game going.
Lol, I had never played a single session of DND..... and I was the dungeon master. And people came back to continue playing in my game... weird. It was months before I even got to be a player. Good points across the board in this one
Laughing in open world adventure as I take this video, cut the 'difficulty' section out of it with a sharpened blade, and toss it into an open fire. I'll be taking the rest, though.
I remember my first time running - and for some reason I thought every thing had to have its own dedicated random table. Shops, NPC's, encounters, everything was sorted by the tables I spent weeks making 🤣
I ran 1e AD&D for years with barley a clue how the rules worked and misunderstood most of them. Our group always had fun and no one ever knew until I started actually learning and teaching them. They often said they preferred my version so even after learning the rules we’d just play my way.
Cannot agree more, my first DM cared too much about his world than players, and i thought there must be more to this, so i approached it as a story teller and improved a oneshot for few mates where they had to solve a murder of a traveling musician just cause, and the engagement of each charachters was the key for players to have an absolute blast on a basic bitch adventure
There are a lot of TH-cam videos on DMing. Some of them are good, many of them are bad, almost all of them are too long. This is the best TH-cam video on the topic of Dungeon Mastering I've ever seen. Thank you for making it.
Certain systems doesn't require backstory. In the Blades in the Dark series I run one of the players decided only in the third session the details about his family (she only knew they are nobles and that her character has a lot of brothers), and one of the character still don't really have personally yet. Additionally, only in this session their crew gained a personality - false worshipers of a 5 years old girl they traumatized and brutal arsonists. Play to Find Out.
Ah, I agree. Backstory is fine but it can be made on the spot somewhat. I have a player who plays a princess with a lot of siblings and I can put up any kind of wacky NPC that is related to her easily. We can make stuff up as we go, I personally find that more enjoyable (both as a DM and as a player).
The first campaign i ran was without any books or rules. All we had was hp and stats and we rolled with it. And everybody had a good time and several people have gone on to play on the regular
To be completly honest, I do not know if i am misreading the intent of this video but it for me feels like mister chappy is shitting a lot on the prepwork dms have to do. " Just make things up, dont read the rules, the most important things is that the players have fun" yes I get that. And I know this is more intended for new DMs that feel overwhelmed by the responsibility at the beginning. But this feels more like you teach new dms to always do their sessions in a roundabout way and just be satisfied with that. But i spend a lot of time to get an understanding of the system i gm, sit together for hours with my players just reading the books together, helping eachother fill in blanks and those times have always been enjoyable. It is NOT just the DMs/Gms job to make sure the table is fun. It is everybodys responsibility. I spend hours planning encounters and scenarios and challenges to actually be able to respond properly if my players do something very unexpected. Campaigns and sessions will never be perfect and they shouldnt be and it is always a steep battle against anxiety to assure oneself it is okay, but what is wrong with putting in an effort? Both you and your players deserve it. This whole video just feels like all this hard work becomes very invalidated.
Surprisingly enough you actually said the intent of this video in your comment. 6ou may have missed it because, this video is not meant for me and you. Anxiety is a steep battle and newer gms feel it most of all especially now with many people coming into dnd from pets play shows with dms who have been doing this for years as their examples. All of the examples he gives about the sessions he's run with little to now prep are not him saying this is how you should do it its him saying look over here at these sessions that by the logic of our anxiety should have gone terribly wrong because I wasn't fully prepared and we still had fun. And he says that because that's a pitfall a lot of new dms fall into thinking that the session and session prep have to be perfect or they've failed. And the reason he doesn't go into how much effort and time should be put in before a game is because as he's said in previous videos, that's different from person to person. For example, you like to put in hours preparing for every thing your players may do and that's great. I don't it more often stresses me out to the point where I don't want to run the game anymore when I do so instead I prep the main plot relevant stuff and have some descriptions ready and have some basic concepts I can mesh together on the fly for when my players do something I didn't expect because that works better for me as a dm to do. Does that mean I'm not putting in effort, no, I put in a ton of effort in my games I've just learned a process that works for me as have you. All this video is doing is saying to the newer dms who are still figuring out their process is to trust themselves, the effort they've put in, and that the anxiety telling them that they are going to fail 9r the game will be bad because they didn't think of everything is wrong.
Finally you got it right, almost gave up on you. DMing for a decade is long, try 4 decades, yes I'm old. , keep up this line of thought going about just making sure everyone has a good time and you will too. Proud of you man.
And don't be scared to change the rules. If you have a setting you wanna try but the rules don't fit...rewrite them. If you don't like how some of the rules work...try making them work the way you think they should. If done right it can make the games more fun, interesting, and unique for everyone. DM included. That's why a lot of the newer stuff they are putting in the rules don't bother me. If I don't like it I just won't use it or I will change it. And 5e lends itself to this a heck of a lot better than 2nd edition did.
2:16 this is exactly why i think the player's handbook is a better dungeon master's guide than the dungeon master's guide itself is. the phb contains pretty much everything the players will ever think to use. even the odd rules that you may not think will come into effect will come into effect. have a death pit? players will use what grappling and enemy position moving rules they have to put the enemies in there. players have an assortment of odd items? prepare for unique traps or mobility techniques even the power of illusionary spells can become quite effective when put into practice
Party chasing down a necromancer who flees through a portal while releasing 4 zombies which have an 18 AC, 50 HP, and two attacks for 1d8+3 damage each with a plus 6 to hit making the party have to pull out all the stops in order to come out on top. One thing I tend to do which gets my players really excited is I throw them an encounter that is much harder than what I normally throw at them that is still winnable, and push the PC's to the limit having them always come out rattled and bruised but still living most of the time the sense of relief they get when they come out of a difficult combat encounter which is immense and I typically reward them accordingly. This also lets me flex some of my DM encounter making muscles in a way I normally don't have a chance to.
If they dont have a hero just act like it's a normal party. They'll figure it out. They will ALWAYS figure it out. That's also my tip for any new DM. Any hole in your game will be filled in by your players. THEY are the game. Not you. You are the world and they provide the driving story. They are having a hard fight Inside a wizard tower? They will start asking a bunch of questions trying to find some loop hole to win. Say they see a potion or a door or something simple, they'll make it work
I will say this works alot better when playing with friends. With random people I have both seen and been in game where groups walk all over the dm and it just drains the dm even they are having a good time. Exanple I once saw a party "test" a first dm by saying hey you are dming this dnd 3.5 games where we are all ancient dragons. They just wanted to play a dragon game but they all wanted to play so they basically bully a highschooler into dming.
Ok, I get the point but, this video was all over the place, like maybe this is a bit of a roundabout way for you to talk about an issue you've actually ran into past your personal experience dm'ing.
Let me trade you some advice @Davvy. Butter your corn, lie it down in a frying pan (no other oils or whatever), and turn it every minute until it looks nicely toasted. Trust me, just try it.
I ran a oneshot recently for a bunch of friends, and I let one of my players grapple a gargantuan creature. Does it make sense and is it possible for it in the rules? Nope. Did it look cool and make the players have fun and cheer them on as they rode a flying leviathan on a floating sky ship? Heck yeah.
I was promised adivice on, and I quote, "stripping people naked and choking them with leather". This was however false advertising. For shame Davvy, For shame. But I guess I shall still watch the rest, harumph.
No one wanted to play a healer, i just made a cleric npc they could befriend and could ask for favors. He never carried the party or made decisions for them, just like any other npc he had things to do somewhere else.
What was this issue and fiasco around this Society? All I could find on the web is that they were a WoD Fan/Larp group and got disbanded(?) two years ago and someone made a very confusing blog entry about how the members caused it and related to social media somehow.
Before we begin. I prefer sarsaparilla or Cucumber as my safe words. This way you can still be understood by syllables even when I cut off your air supply. And continue.
Hello, Davvy. I love your videos, but I don't usually comment. This video got to me though, not because I'm a DM or starting out as one, but because I know I can't be a DM. I'm a very serious person and find it hard to let go and have fun even in the most relaxing times. I'm not a stickler for rules or protocol, but I'm also not the type to pour my blood sweat and tears into something, just for everything I built up to go flying out the window. I also am not very imaginative, so leading a derailed campaign is also out of the question. Last but not least, and this might be the most depressing, I feel like I just can't. I'm a quiet, introverted and boring kind of person. I don't go out, get crazy or even have friends to get crazy with. I'm stonefaced. I just don't have it in me.
I mean, the best way to know if you are capable of DMing is trying it. As long as you have some improvisation ability you will be fine. That is, if you want to, nobody is saying that you should DM if you don't want to. But it kind of is a diferent game than being a player.
Can I make a suggestion. Try DMing. But don't DM dnd. Pick a setting (steal it from a video game, novel, movie whatever.) Adjust the 5e rules to fit and have fun. You might have fun adapting the rules and rewriting them to fit your world and if it's an interesting world your players will be willing to support you and help even when they screw things up for you. I mean imagine leading a campaign in the world of mad max or fallout. Heck you can even have them in Hogwarts if it suits you.
"this doesn't mean your players won't notice you are making BS up" My party, Saying that the campaign Is "railroad-y but fun" when literally 90% of what Just happened this session was made-up BS:
This video kind of hurt. my campaign just ended cause 2 players quit on me out of nowhere. they brought up some issues with the most resent session and never even gave me a chance to fix it for the next. Nothing like a game i was really enjoying abruptly stopping like a car crash.
A good conductor doesn’t need to know how to play *every* instrument, they just need to know how everything should sound together.
Being a DM is largely similar.
Davvy: "Don't worry about player backstories so much on your first game"
Me: * Makes the entire plot based on the player's backstories *
I did this to a point too. While I designed a world beforehand with a minimal amount of description, I based the important NPCs on how much character relationship they have with the party members. Got to say it's starting to work out well.
I went a step beyond, by accident lol.
One of my players went overboard in creating backstory, so much so that the (first) main objective is to solve her personal goal. (Basic gist, sickly girl gets scouted for wizard school, learns bro mightve been turned in a demi dragon, quest for truth and salvation). I let everyone meet up "naturally" in a big city. Basically let her walk in town, the crowd pushes her towards some shady people. Next player observes this and I gave him a chance to intervene. Then a couple of high rolls later and my plan for the rest of the meet up failed, so I quickly went to player 3's perspective so I couls come up with an idea how to fix. Don't remember all the specifics after that point, but the players played along and in the end really liked it. Next session I hope to "bind the party by blood" by having a high stake encounter, since they only barely met.
New story hooks based on other player backgrounds already in the works and when I have finished at least the first major plotline I plan on releasing it as a full on campaign for others to play
So my first foray into DMing was lost mines of phandelver. My party wanted to continue after the campaign ended, so I looked at their backstories, realized what was happening, and just threw stuff together that would make sense for them all. 3/4 players had stuff to do with demons and devils, so guess what? Demon lords are now trying to take over the material plane, the blood war is spilling into your reality. Boom, new campaign thrown together due to their backstories
I love using players backstory and making Npcs they remember. It's always fun to just make up a random guy on the spot cause I needed someone to answer a thing they wanted and then by the end he's one of their most trusted friends.
Running Curse of Strahd and one of my players mentioned they had a missing half-sister. Guess who's got a new bride of Strahd?
My first time DMing was a true baptism of fire. Running 3rd edition dnd at one of the biggest gaming conventions in the country. Nearly 10 years later I still love dming, still have no clue how to run 3rd edition
I grew up on 3.5, and no one knows how to run 3.x myself included.
How to be a good DM:
Step 1: Watch a bunch of vids of green text horror stories about bad, awful, just horrible DMs.
Step 2: Don’t do that stuff.
Step 3: Have fun.
Step 4: profit
Kind of what I did to help improve my skills.
Crit crab videos
I did the same thing.
@@fancifulbread8040 dangit you stole my reply
Cultist Carl ends up as the BBEG trying to monopolize all the taverns.
I still gm like this. It's all made up horse shit. The goblin crawls up the walls like a spider, the troll is a little too strong and now his leg from the war is acting up, the enemy's name was George yesterday but nobody took notes including me so now his name is Carl! I'm happy people can have fun with me and they always, somewhat miraculously, say see you next week. You find a party that jives with you and you run with it is my philosophy.
Why can't I find Michael's Magnificent Made-up Game on D&D Beyond?
Have you searched for MMMuG Beyond?
I uh... Haven't gotten around to putting it up on there. Very complicated, lots of words, you know... Yeah.
Trying looking for it on AmaZOOOOOM!! I heard they are taking pre-orders.
@@nicka3697 I thought it was spelled MMM Eugene.
Noob, It's Mordenkainen's Magnificent Made-up game.... And your DM likely restricted it
My favorite part of DM'ing came 10 months into a whirlwind campaign, when I had the party's patron make a major reveal to one of the players, who then turned directly to me and said "I've known this person in-game for a total of nine days."
The anniversary of my first campaign as a DM is approaching and the bard who felt unconscious in the first session against some spiders is STILL IN A COMA
At least you just put the bard in a coma. I killed the bard in session 1.
With the other players.
Ok so given the “player having fun= good gm” rule, that means that by default our campaign ending with a team of giant mechs fighting against a tarrasque and king ghidorah was a GOOD idea
That's awesome!
Yes
That sounds like a good time right there
El, is that you? If not, it’s strange that is how my friend’s campaign ended.
Absolutely
I’m about to DM for the first time and this definitely helps soothe my fears.
As a seasoned DM, if I could give you one piece of advice to live by it would be:
Respect your players' characters. Don't coddle them, but also don't use the world to belittle and make a joke of their characters. Sure they lose from time to time or take a lot of damage in a trap, but don't turn them into the butt of a joke. Let them feel cool at least some of the time.
If you can do that, you'll do fine.
Good luck to you, you've got this!
About "make sure your players are having fun" is a rule I can't fully agree anymore. I have been puting other people's fun over mine, and that led me to make decisions in the adventures based on what I knew would please then, and not what would please me. That led me to be burned out and end my campaigns earlier.
Ok listen up. Yes, the dm is there to make sure that the players are having fun. However, and it must be said, the players also hold the responsibility. If a player isn't having fun, it shouldn't be totally the dm's fault. As someone once stated: "Your dm is also a player, not an employee."
"I didn't include 'you' in that role for partially semantic reasons" hot damn if that entire point aint the truth. You need to get vicarious enjoyment out of it.
I had one DM before who hated 5e and DMing so much that it was incredibly difficult or a fool's errand for them to even get any satisfaction out of DMing. It led to very bland or frustrating sessions, but they insisted on DMing even when told they didn't *need* to.
personally I hard disagree with that perspective. the satisfaction of watching someone be intrigued by something you created, and become fully immersed in a world that only existed in your own head an hour ago is something special that only GMs experience. there's nothing "vicarious" about that enjoyment, and it's something that's unique to GMs that players can't experience (until they eventually [fingers crossed] run their own games).
saying that GMs only get satisfaction by watching players be happy is similar to saying that the only enjoyment a director gets out of film making is watching the actors act in order to vicariously satiate their own unfulfilled desire to be an actor.
It's just wrong.
being a GM is uniquely rewarding and satisfying in a way that being a player is not, just as being a director is uniquely rewarding and satisfying in a way that being an actor is not.
@@TheSonicShoe That's not remotely what I meant nor said. Not to mention I didn't say "only" at all in my post.
If you don't get enjoyment out of people enjoying or getting engaged by your world and experiences you've made, then you shouldn't be GMing. The alternative is basically a GM power trip which isn't fun for the players.
That's literally all I was saying.
@@TheSonicShoe stop liking your own comment
@@harperthegoblin lol I didn't. you sure you're not projecting there pal?
This is invaluable. I am a very new DM and have been working through mechanics and encounter building. I am just now finding a balance of encounter building after my party faced Glasstalf in Lost Mines. The balance of “this is a hard combat” and “we all had fun” is sometimes a fine line and I appreciate Davvy emphasizing the player fun being of importance
here's a fun rule i have: don't make encounters for the party, but make them for the party:
this rule is contradictory, but that's by design. i balance encounters against the party, do i need to hit harder then the book says or lower (generally higher for me, short adventuring days so the encounters that do happen need to be punshy)? but do not take into consideration what the party is capable of (for the most part). don't take into consideration that the party may be able to croud control humanoids like crazy but got little against undead and so trough more undead against them. don't take into consideration how good the party is at sneaking and perceiving when balancing sentries and/or stealthy enemies. don't think about the capabilities of your party specifically when designing things. sometimes this will mean that your party can easily overcome a challenge and they'll feel awesome. sometimes they'll come across a roadblock that they'll have to really think their way trough as they lack the traditional means.
my party once trivialised floor based traps because one of them could fly and ferry everyone over with ease. the same group struggled for multiple sessions (every time they returned to town) to get trough a locked door because no one had thieves tools or other methods for breaking in. these leave memorable moments.
God, LARPs is such a good show
And they have a way to fund a third season!
I was surprised at how good it was. Leave it to the Canadians to put some of the best stuff out there.
@@Shayma98 THERES GONNA BE A THIRD SEASON!?
@@joshualinley4417 oh man i didn't even know it was canadian! i need to go back and rewatch it
This is the Bardic Inspiration i needed
I just love this story, my first ever game was a one shot, with elements lifted from Twilight princess, the intro to be exact, think of it like if the twilight stuff never happened. Old boy Link would deliver the sword, see the princess and go home at the end of the day
I agree that you don't need to know all the rules to be a good DM. However, I think that to provide a fun game, you need to be familiar with the rules, even if you don't have every little thing memorized. If you don't have a feel for how the game works and the different mechanics interact, you'll have trouble with things like building encounters and making rulings. Those are both really important skills for a DM to have.
When people say they don't want to play as a healer, what they mean is they don't want to play as life domain cleric. As the DM, it is your job to rectify this misunderstanding, and teach them about other options they can play as that they might actually have fun playing.
Yes a 1000 times to this. In one of my current campaigns I have a Circle of Dreams Druid that picked up the role cause the group wanted a support caster. He never played a healer and never really like magic users.
HE FREAKING LOVES THIS CLASS! He throw out his Bonus Action subclass ability to heal every so often and is always just unleashing hell with his amazing Druidic spells every turn. He is the dominant healer and he does the second most damage in the group, at the same time.
Everyone go give Aaron love for this thumbnail, good God.
I still long for a dive into the optional rules section of the DMG
The game stops being fun when you realize your choices do not really matter as a player and the DM already has everything planned out.
THIS. I’ve encountered more than a few DMs who, no matter what you do, will still continue with what they planned out
Literally my first time DMing today, so nervous... thanks Davvy
Lol that’s my DM style in a nut shell. I have been DMing for 18 years now. I am actually running my first module ever right now because I very busy with work.
As a forever GM, Davvy's "I have to play a game before I run it" rule is so alien to me, as I've almost exclusively GM'd systems I've never played in before.
Matter of fact, the first real campaign I participated in was one I ran. I had already played in a few disastrous sessions that were supposed to be part of campaign before that, but they crashed and burned before they even got off the ground.
I ran what was supposed to be a one shot for that group in a new setting, and it turned into an 8 month long epic that managed to reach a reasonably satisfying conclusion just before it unfortunately petered out due to scheduling conflicts.
DM'd for the first time yesterday, my little brother bought a dnd starter kit for our youngest brother. They asked me to dm the game for them and their friends since I'm the closest thing that knew dnd.
I used to have such performance anxiety as a player but shit that melted knowing what its like from an official dm screen trying to run a structured game. Holy shit does every input from a player matter even the shy ones and it's so satisfying to give advice in a non intrusive way and watch players get in the groove of rping. I might just be trash at it
I've been on the D&D DM side of the internet for years, and this was BY FAR the best DMing advice I've ever heard for first-time and experienced DMs, and it was presented in the most eloquent and concise video I've ever seen on the subject.
You, sir, get a gold star on the Good Noodle board.
I mean if you REALLY THINK about it DnD is just Jeremy's Jagnificent Jade-Up Jame
Me watching this after dming for a year and a half the day of my 8th session with my new group “I can mess up my first time?” Stress alleviated
Always remember that there is no such thing as a good or bad d&d game. Unlike a game or movie that can be bad but still be fun. Fun is the only factor that determines the quality of a d&d game. Did your players have fun? Did you? If so, it was a great game. If not, the next one can be.
This is some of the best and most straightforward advice out there for any Dungeon Master, new or not. If I'd gotten this though my head two and a half years ago when I started DMing, I'd have saved myself a lot of anxiety. Rock on, Sir Chap!
My first game I ran I told my players "your typical fairy tale, save the princess from the dragon in the tower type story". They started out as the dregs in the dungeon of a xenophobic and anti magic local lord, sent as a suicide squad to rescue his princess and check up on the champion he had sent to fetch her who subsequently went AWOL.
They had a few encounters, a couple of puzzle doors, and made it into the trashed old keep that was the dragon's lair. A thorough search found no dragon and no princess, but the scout found some footprints trailing into the distance.
The footprints were large humanoid, medium humanoid and hoof prints. After a time the medium footprints disappeared and were replaced by an additional set of large footprints... leading into a swamp... where the players met a talking donkey... and then had the final encounter with two ogres and a talking donkey... to the soundtrack of All Star by Smash Mouth.
It honestly took thirty minutes of reddit plagiarism to work out the encounters, and those players still talk about that game to this day. My advice is to not stress about the small stuff and try something dumb for your first game.
Or try something completely insane. I'm kinda old started playing back in 2nd edition. My first time DMing I let myself get
...inspired by some really good weed and ended up ripping the setting from a series of post apocalyptic novels I was reading(radioactive wastelands, lost government bunkers with advanced/alien tech, mutants, even some time travel) and homebrewing the hell out of 2nd edition to fit the setting. It was a total mess(2nd edition rules do not lend themselves to machine guns) but the players loved it.
Some things i wanted to add from my DMing experiences: first off, the focus of your encounters should be fun rather than difficulty. if the encounters you throw at your party turn out to be really easy, but they still find them engaging, then that's a successful encounter! not every encounter, combat or otherwise, has to be difficult. I'm currently running a 5e game with 6 players who are admittedly a little overpowered. so instead of saying "well okay, i need to match them in power to make this interesting.", what I do is constantly surprise them with new encounters that the party wouldn't expect. it's fun because they never know what they are gonna run into next! i also homebrew some monsters and reflavor stat blocks, and this has helped the party not metagame about stat blocks and such and focus on finding the new that's in front of them.
Second thing is that you don't have to have EVERYTHING prepared before the session. personally, I find it better to just write the skeleton of what you need to know, and then just kind of wing it from there. having that open space let's the players interact with it more. And if you like an idea the player's idea, go with it! they'll never know that you made it up on the spot. and they don't need to. honestly, sometimes the stuff that my players think up is more interesting that what I think up.
I still remember my first time DMing. I was a bit........over ambitious. The only game I had played at that point was 2nd edition dnd (and yes I'm old) so in my infinite wisdom (and inspired by some really good weed) I ended up taking the setting from a series of post apocalyptic novels I was reading and homebrewing the hell out of 2nd edition rules to fit the setting..a setting that included radioactive wastelands, reminates of government conspiracies, lost advanced technology, mutants, and even a dash of time travel (imagine if mad max and fallout had a baby suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome). It was one of the hardest games I ever ran(mainly cause I was figuring out rules, and balancing combat, weapons, etc on the fly most games. I was honestly amazed how much everyone loved the game. They really really enjoyed the setting and were more than willing to help me "play test" the Homebrew to keep the game going.
Lol, I had never played a single session of DND..... and I was the dungeon master. And people came back to continue playing in my game... weird. It was months before I even got to be a player. Good points across the board in this one
Oh man guess I'll have to watch through LARPS a third time
Laughing in open world adventure as I take this video, cut the 'difficulty' section out of it with a sharpened blade, and toss it into an open fire. I'll be taking the rest, though.
I remember my first time running - and for some reason I thought every thing had to have its own dedicated random table. Shops, NPC's, encounters, everything was sorted by the tables I spent weeks making 🤣
Omg that sounds like a nightmare ahahaha
@@thebeanqueen1669 no that sounds like 2nd edition dnd(I'm only sorta joking btw)
I ran 1e AD&D for years with barley a clue how the rules worked and misunderstood most of them. Our group always had fun and no one ever knew until I started actually learning and teaching them. They often said they preferred my version so even after learning the rules we’d just play my way.
Cannot agree more, my first DM cared too much about his world than players, and i thought there must be more to this, so i approached it as a story teller and improved a oneshot for few mates where they had to solve a murder of a traveling musician just cause, and the engagement of each charachters was the key for players to have an absolute blast on a basic bitch adventure
There are a lot of TH-cam videos on DMing. Some of them are good, many of them are bad, almost all of them are too long.
This is the best TH-cam video on the topic of Dungeon Mastering I've ever seen. Thank you for making it.
Certain systems doesn't require backstory. In the Blades in the Dark series I run one of the players decided only in the third session the details about his family (she only knew they are nobles and that her character has a lot of brothers), and one of the character still don't really have personally yet. Additionally, only in this session their crew gained a personality - false worshipers of a 5 years old girl they traumatized and brutal arsonists. Play to Find Out.
Ah, I agree. Backstory is fine but it can be made on the spot somewhat. I have a player who plays a princess with a lot of siblings and I can put up any kind of wacky NPC that is related to her easily. We can make stuff up as we go, I personally find that more enjoyable (both as a DM and as a player).
The first campaign i ran was without any books or rules. All we had was hp and stats and we rolled with it. And everybody had a good time and several people have gone on to play on the regular
To be completly honest, I do not know if i am misreading the intent of this video but it for me feels like mister chappy is shitting a lot on the prepwork dms have to do. " Just make things up, dont read the rules, the most important things is that the players have fun" yes I get that. And I know this is more intended for new DMs that feel overwhelmed by the responsibility at the beginning. But this feels more like you teach new dms to always do their sessions in a roundabout way and just be satisfied with that.
But i spend a lot of time to get an understanding of the system i gm, sit together for hours with my players just reading the books together, helping eachother fill in blanks and those times have always been enjoyable. It is NOT just the DMs/Gms job to make sure the table is fun. It is everybodys responsibility. I spend hours planning encounters and scenarios and challenges to actually be able to respond properly if my players do something very unexpected. Campaigns and sessions will never be perfect and they shouldnt be and it is always a steep battle against anxiety to assure oneself it is okay, but what is wrong with putting in an effort? Both you and your players deserve it.
This whole video just feels like all this hard work becomes very invalidated.
Surprisingly enough you actually said the intent of this video in your comment. 6ou may have missed it because, this video is not meant for me and you. Anxiety is a steep battle and newer gms feel it most of all especially now with many people coming into dnd from pets play shows with dms who have been doing this for years as their examples.
All of the examples he gives about the sessions he's run with little to now prep are not him saying this is how you should do it its him saying look over here at these sessions that by the logic of our anxiety should have gone terribly wrong because I wasn't fully prepared and we still had fun. And he says that because that's a pitfall a lot of new dms fall into thinking that the session and session prep have to be perfect or they've failed.
And the reason he doesn't go into how much effort and time should be put in before a game is because as he's said in previous videos, that's different from person to person.
For example, you like to put in hours preparing for every thing your players may do and that's great. I don't it more often stresses me out to the point where I don't want to run the game anymore when I do so instead I prep the main plot relevant stuff and have some descriptions ready and have some basic concepts I can mesh together on the fly for when my players do something I didn't expect because that works better for me as a dm to do. Does that mean I'm not putting in effort, no, I put in a ton of effort in my games I've just learned a process that works for me as have you.
All this video is doing is saying to the newer dms who are still figuring out their process is to trust themselves, the effort they've put in, and that the anxiety telling them that they are going to fail 9r the game will be bad because they didn't think of everything is wrong.
@@axelrodthefourth3425 Thank you a lot for the answer, it helped soothe the iffy feelings a bit.
That profile picture is so hot god damn Davy take it down
Finally you got it right, almost gave up on you. DMing for a decade is long, try 4 decades, yes I'm old. , keep up this line of thought going about just making sure everyone has a good time and you will too. Proud of you man.
And don't be scared to change the rules. If you have a setting you wanna try but the rules don't fit...rewrite them. If you don't like how some of the rules work...try making them work the way you think they should. If done right it can make the games more fun, interesting, and unique for everyone. DM included. That's why a lot of the newer stuff they are putting in the rules don't bother me. If I don't like it I just won't use it or I will change it. And 5e lends itself to this a heck of a lot better than 2nd edition did.
2:16 this is exactly why i think the player's handbook is a better dungeon master's guide than the dungeon master's guide itself is. the phb contains pretty much everything the players will ever think to use. even the odd rules that you may not think will come into effect will come into effect.
have a death pit? players will use what grappling and enemy position moving rules they have to put the enemies in there.
players have an assortment of odd items? prepare for unique traps or mobility techniques
even the power of illusionary spells can become quite effective when put into practice
Party chasing down a necromancer who flees through a portal while releasing 4 zombies which have an 18 AC, 50 HP, and two attacks for 1d8+3 damage each with a plus 6 to hit making the party have to pull out all the stops in order to come out on top. One thing I tend to do which gets my players really excited is I throw them an encounter that is much harder than what I normally throw at them that is still winnable, and push the PC's to the limit having them always come out rattled and bruised but still living most of the time the sense of relief they get when they come out of a difficult combat encounter which is immense and I typically reward them accordingly. This also lets me flex some of my DM encounter making muscles in a way I normally don't have a chance to.
Last time I was this early the first sundering was still on it’s way
funny that you use the dm from the d&d cartoon. He was a right bastard. XD
This should be required viewing for everyone who wants to DM/GM any game in any system.
Davy thanks for making so many amazing videos! You encouraged me to start DMing with them!
I love that the thumbnail is the dungeon master from the 80's cartoon but with more hair. 🤣
If they dont have a hero just act like it's a normal party. They'll figure it out. They will ALWAYS figure it out.
That's also my tip for any new DM. Any hole in your game will be filled in by your players. THEY are the game. Not you. You are the world and they provide the driving story. They are having a hard fight Inside a wizard tower? They will start asking a bunch of questions trying to find some loop hole to win. Say they see a potion or a door or something simple, they'll make it work
So many RPG horror stories are from GMs who play to win. The win condition for a GM is the players having the time of their lives.
Larps shows how awesome the bard is. 😄
Davvy, you're the man! You do good work, keep that bardic inspiration coming!
I will say this works alot better when playing with friends. With random people I have both seen and been in game where groups walk all over the dm and it just drains the dm even they are having a good time.
Exanple I once saw a party "test" a first dm by saying hey you are dming this dnd 3.5 games where we are all ancient dragons. They just wanted to play a dragon game but they all wanted to play so they basically bully a highschooler into dming.
Ok, I get the point but, this video was all over the place, like maybe this is a bit of a roundabout way for you to talk about an issue you've actually ran into past your personal experience dm'ing.
"10 kobolds vs a party of level 5s would be cake walk"
Tucker's kobolds would disagree. Tucker's kobolds tpk lvl 20 PCs daily
Buff kobolds for the win
Let me trade you some advice @Davvy. Butter your corn, lie it down in a frying pan (no other oils or whatever), and turn it every minute until it looks nicely toasted. Trust me, just try it.
Yes it’s all about having fun
Cultist Carl news please. 🥺 It would be a cool tiktok/ micro TH-cam.
.... *takes notes on Cultist Karl* I'm going to steal this delightful goofy boy, Davvy. He's great.
I ran a oneshot recently for a bunch of friends, and I let one of my players grapple a gargantuan creature. Does it make sense and is it possible for it in the rules? Nope. Did it look cool and make the players have fun and cheer them on as they rode a flying leviathan on a floating sky ship? Heck yeah.
I was promised adivice on, and I quote, "stripping people naked and choking them with leather". This was however false advertising. For shame Davvy, For shame. But I guess I shall still watch the rest, harumph.
Man that reminds me of my first game! That's how I've learned to play.
Side note: I hope Davy is Texan that be dope XD
A gay? In TEXAS?! We don't allow that here.
(Just kidding, but Abbott...)
I'm still a fledgling DM, and this definitely helps me.
Davvy : "my rule is to not dm a game i've not played before"
Me who convinced my friends to play Pugmire : "As if I had the choice..."
Me: "I cast the wish spell to make my shield +3."
DM: "I'll allow it but roll a d20 first"
*Rolls a nat 20
Dm: *groans
Me: "So I now have 25 AC"
I missed my davvy chappy
This... is a lot of MTG illustrations.
So... where can we check out your Bards4Bards panel? I can only find a 30 second clip.
Where in the wide universe of TH-cam is the Bards4Bards panel mentioned at the start?
4:10 images of Davvy re-enacting the pottery scene from “Ghost” enter my mind.
No one wanted to play a healer, i just made a cleric npc they could befriend and could ask for favors. He never carried the party or made decisions for them, just like any other npc he had things to do somewhere else.
Yesssss! God I miss LARPs
Shitting on the Mind's Eye Society?!
Sign me up!
What was this issue and fiasco around this Society? All I could find on the web is that they were a WoD Fan/Larp group and got disbanded(?) two years ago and someone made a very confusing blog entry about how the members caused it and related to social media somehow.
TPK your party at every opportunity.
Great advice as always
Before we begin. I prefer sarsaparilla or Cucumber as my safe words. This way you can still be understood by syllables even when I cut off your air supply.
And continue.
For some reason my brain autocorrected the title to "How to be a Good Mom".
He's a such a great video cuz I'm about to run the Fallout tabletop RPG
Hello, Davvy. I love your videos, but I don't usually comment. This video got to me though, not because I'm a DM or starting out as one, but because I know I can't be a DM. I'm a very serious person and find it hard to let go and have fun even in the most relaxing times. I'm not a stickler for rules or protocol, but I'm also not the type to pour my blood sweat and tears into something, just for everything I built up to go flying out the window. I also am not very imaginative, so leading a derailed campaign is also out of the question. Last but not least, and this might be the most depressing, I feel like I just can't. I'm a quiet, introverted and boring kind of person. I don't go out, get crazy or even have friends to get crazy with. I'm stonefaced. I just don't have it in me.
I mean, the best way to know if you are capable of DMing is trying it. As long as you have some improvisation ability you will be fine. That is, if you want to, nobody is saying that you should DM if you don't want to. But it kind of is a diferent game than being a player.
Can I make a suggestion. Try DMing. But don't DM dnd. Pick a setting (steal it from a video game, novel, movie whatever.) Adjust the 5e rules to fit and have fun. You might have fun adapting the rules and rewriting them to fit your world and if it's an interesting world your players will be willing to support you and help even when they screw things up for you. I mean imagine leading a campaign in the world of mad max or fallout. Heck you can even have them in Hogwarts if it suits you.
i feel like the audio is a little quiet on this one but this video is very good, thank you.
Love the idea of CR 10+ Kobold
... is the thumbnail just the DM from the cartoon with Matt Mercer's hair and body language?
"this doesn't mean your players won't notice you are making BS up"
My party, Saying that the campaign Is "railroad-y but fun" when literally 90% of what Just happened this session was made-up BS:
5:24 *cough* healing surge *cough* check the dmg
This video kind of hurt. my campaign just ended cause 2 players quit on me out of nowhere. they brought up some issues with the most resent session and never even gave me a chance to fix it for the next. Nothing like a game i was really enjoying abruptly stopping like a car crash.
Thanks.
Yessss shoutout to LARPs!!!
That thumbnail is so cursed
2:17 *screnshots casually*
Oh hey, a new video
Davvy, why must you post new vids when trying to go to sleep at 2:00 AM?