DnD Hacks DM's Use To Manipulate Their Players

[@johnymousAnonymous]

Once when my players were working on a puzzle I had planned and the inquisito rolled unusually low on his check, instead of just giving away the information needed to solve it on a low roll, I said that he noticed some dwarven runes carved into the bottom and so he told the dwarf in our party to come and investigate, the dwarvish was not part of the original plan but still let him fulfill his Sherlock Holmes fantasy of finding a big clue, and then built teamwork by having another party member come over to help out

[@gizmo7396]

Another way to do that is have a base level of info that you give out for free and then ask for a check to glean more. That way, if they fail, they've still got the base info to go off. You can also use a sliding scale. If you beat the DC by 5 or more you get more info for example.

[@Nosmo90]

​@gizmo7396 100% this. I've been in a Call of Cthulhu campaign where the Keeper literally threw his campaign notes over his shoulder because he'd put the necessary clue behind an Investigation check and every single one of the 5-7 players failed the check. The same Keeper also kept asking the same player to make Sanity checks ad nauseum which the player kept passing until the Keeper GM-fiated the latest roll as a failure. He also once had us arrive at the town where the investigation was to take place, mentioned the church in his description and nothing else of note, so we all agreed to go to the church because A) he specifically mentioned it, and B) back then the local church was a community hub and the priest/vicar would be a good source of local knowledge; it was a guaranteed good idea. The church was locked. In the middle of the day. In the '20s/'30s. I've rarely been more disheartened in a game. I could see the church in my mind's-eye, like one of those fake buildings in Blazing Saddles with nothing behind the facade. "Church is locked." became a by-phrase for negative railroading/lack of player agency amongst my friends, although it'd also work as an expression of a lack of preparation.

[@digitaldevil696]

You can see Lou Wilson being so done with Brennan's shenanigans the second he started it 😂

[@miguelshihto]

Brennan shenanigans should just be called Brennanigans

[@joeo3377]

I can't remember if it was Matt Mercer or Brennan Lee Mulligan who pointed this out, but in defense of railroading, they pointed out that roller-coasters are on rails and people love the heck out of them. If you want to take your players on a roller-coaster of emotions, it helps to have some rails to direct that journey.

[@joshuaharvey8046]

I heard it from Brennan on his gm guide videos.

[@michaelguth4007]

The only question that matters regarding railroading: Are your players unhappy? If yes, you're doing railroading wrong. I had the opposite problem: My players lately said they feel like they have too many choices and fear-of-missing-out by making some of these choices. So I offered to be a bit more direct with guiding them along a more clearly visible path.

[@ForDerrick]

Brennan has also described his GMing style as more of a Waterslide. There’s a definitive start and end, but a couple twists and turns along the way make it quite fun and fluid

[@williamross6477]

It helps to alternate. Let the players wander around the theme park until they find a ride that looks interesting, then strap them in and take them for a ride. Once the ride is over, ease up, let them recover and get back to exploring (and maybe have an NPC talk about their favorite ride).

[@althechicken9597]

Railroads and roller-coasters are different in a few ways...

[@JEPs.]

To be fair, discovering someone is actually a spider half the day by investigating cobwebs actually sounds badass.

[@benjim8462]

I was gonna say that cool af

[@ddeboy002]

The evil vampire Valencia is coming after your group with 100 vamps. What do the 5 of you do? They march closer and closer closing in around you. First vampire leaps and strikes with a critical 20 upon the fighter in the group. One after another from all around you're getting consumed by vampires. Blood being drawn with each second that passes... Until... finally, you all fall victim to the Vampire Drinker of Bloodsquirting. He looks up with blood dripping from his lips looking out into the night. He sees people walking down the street 100 yards away with the metalic smell of blood in their noses Bloodquirter says... "More fresh blood. Onward my army. Onward my friends. Blood ... blood blood. Don't stop now!" This was the best DM ending I ever had... we lost to the vamps, and we loved it.

[@teeseeuu]

Important to note that a linear campaign doesn't mean its a railroad. Its about agency. Also, prep situations, not plots

[@kittikats]

Exactly. Having set missions or outcomes / storybeats that need to be achieved does not a railroad make. Its when the players have no MEANINGFUL choices or decisions or impact on the world/story that you have a railroad. An example I use: mission is deliver letter to the king. Has to be the letter because the seal is needed to verify message (so no message spell). But bandits have been terrorising the main road to the castle. Linear: hire an air ship. Use a delivery bird. Travel through the woods instead of on the roads. Polymorph into beasts. Use a local teleportation circle. All choices they can make that can lead to outcomes or random encounters. Railroad: none of the above options are allowed and are shut down by DM, leaving the ONLY choice of travelling by road and getting ambushed. Oh no, so unpredictable!

[@belrose2155]

Brennan gave a really useful piece of advice about railroading in the EXU Calamity DM Roundtable, which was to put the plot points you need "behind" the things the PCs already want. So if your PC has sworn vengeance on their evil uncle, you put the plot between them and their uncle. Obviously it requires a minimum level of buy-in from your players, but at the right table it's a great way of driving the story forward without making your players feel like they've been pushed into it. Anyway, I've been really enjoying your videos, keep up the good work!

[@Oneiromantisgr]

But that is not really railroading. It is making your players interested in your plot so you don't have to railroad them.

[@Nosmo90]

​@@OneiromantisgrIt's positive railroading, but it is railroading. If one wants to guarantee that people at point A encounter point B, then figuring out what's interesting to those people, making that thing/those things point C, and then connecting all three points up with one three-stop-minimum railroad is an effective technique, but it still involves building and using a railroad.

[@riotto1802]

I honestly bought into this method so hard, especially when I run One-Shots are short-length campaigns!! I also recommend talking to each of your players and try to get grasps on their likenesses as a player and also encourage them to embrace the mission they set out for their char! They want to find their mom? Turns out she's here in this strange town with a mystery going on, and she's part of it! They're hunting someone? Well that person actually disappeared to this town! Work with their personal motivations! And hey, rails can be fun! I agree with another comment that noted how Brennan or Matt once commented that sometimes you need some rails, but make it a fun rail! Whether that be a bullet train of combat, a roller coaster of emotion, or even a theme ride through a haunted mystery, just aim to make it fun and interesting enough that your players continue to ride the ride!

[@FinalMyle]

@1:35 this is the exact reason Matt Mercer will describe everything in great detail. That way the players won't know if just because he pointed out that there is an ornate dragonhead carved into the brass doorknob, is because it's trapped or just because the person who purchased the door and knob liked the style. I've started adapting this style of explanation into my own campaign. If you describe something in detail when you don't describe that thing in detail normally it will draw attention to it. If that is what you want then go for it!

[@michaelhathorus4859]

Guard Rails instead of Railroads; you can get the McGuffin from Point A to Point be and you have to do it as quickly as possible is "Guard Railing" - they have parameters to enact the story but HOW they do it is up to them. Railroading is "You have to get the McGuffin from Point A to Point B and must do it along this road and whatever you do you will ALWAYS run into that hungry Owlbear who will never be friendly ever.

[@RinLoller]

oddly specific 🤣

[@Axiom_Link]

I’m glad the internet has stopped crying about railroading in more recent years. I don’t know of a single campaign that was completely sandbox, where the players actually made meaningful choices towards creating a story. In fact, if you can name me five protagonist that went actively looking for problems, I would die from the novelty. Almost every single hero doesn’t want to be a hero until they get pulled into the story and then they have a job to do. But that’s railroading! 😂

[@tommihaapanen846]

Agreed. Railroading is the absolutely stupidest non-issue topic discussed in roleplaying communities. I remember it intrigued me 25 years ago as a 15 year old and just wanted to play and lead games and knew absolutely nothing about neither. It feels to me that that is the demography bitching about railroading: teenagers who just want to faf about and do what ever the hell they want. For them anything encroaching on their freedom feels like oppression, and with that they throw the baby of story structure with the bath water. I fathom those people would have the most boring games ever if they actually would get what they want. A whole world to do whatever the hell they want but with nothing worthwhile to do.

[@13vatra]

Yeah, plus it was much more nuanced than what was typically said. The issue people had was bad DMs not the railroading itself. A good DM will lead the story in a way that doesn't feel forced. A bad DM will do it in ways that upset the flow and even actively removes player agency. People latched onto railroading as the culprit, when really it was just how it was being done.

[@wowprobeast7543]

@@13vatraeven bg3 rail roads bc of how the games story works however it’s done just fine. It works well. Doesn’t feel forced at all the acts play very well to each other

[@mgcarrigan]

This has to be one of the most useful and thoughtful DM channels out there.

[@TheCrownedSun]

I think the key to sandbox play... It's "easy" to just have players direct ALL the play, but for a true sandbox like. Yes, you have sand. There's probably a plastic castle, too, and some shovels. Maybe a few stuffed animals and other toys. Some army men. That shapes what is going to end up happening in the sandbox. The players can do whatever they want in the sandbox, maybe, but a really good sandbox game is going to have elements there that play along with what the players are going and also shift the game in other directions.

[@sleepinggiant4062]

More persuasion than manipulation. The goal is for everyone to have fun, not for the DM's personal gain. Railroading is making players solve a challenge one way (the DM's way) and not allowing them to brainstorm and come up with alternative ideas. Preparing material is not railroading.

[@feitocomfruta]

The recurring NPC example is good, especially if they are a supplier of sorts, but you don’t need to have them present necessarily. With CR and Matt Mercer, Shaun Gilmore is a great example, because while he doesn’t appear all the time, most large cities are likely to have a Gilmore’S Glorious Goods location. They look and function similarly to each other, and there is a known reason and possibility that he will show up, but it’s not a guarantee.

[@andrewhazlewood4569]

Matthew Colville has an excellent video “Railroad vs Sandbox” that is really worth your time

[@drew_and_dragons]

Loving the content! Thanks for all you do for the community!

[@yourhiddendreams]

You are a saint! Thank you for your method of approaching these subjects, as a new GM I am so grateful for your content and other like you who serve the greater community! A true hero you are. :)

[@kirstenwyatt9675]

Okay, every beat of this vid is things I have seen used in Baldur's Gate 3, that I didn't even notice in the moment, but with each "tip," I remembered at least 1 point in the game that used it.

[@BogdanFB9]

Love the vids! Thanks for all the tips!

[@hardymasonj]

My favorite thing (as a DM) when I have a set piece encounter I want the players to get to is have a few "variations" of it. So the players have real, honest choices that all lead to the encounter, but the direction they go will change how the encounter plays out. If they choose to camp outside town they may get ambushed by rangers with pet wolves but if they took a room at the inn they may be attacked by assassins. In either case, one of the humans that attacks them has a note in their pocket with instructions to kill the party and a location of a dead drop for further instructions. Then which direction they choose may change whether the boss's lair is a cave or a warehouse for example.

[@moti0n_314]

This video was great! Every iteration of story telling will inevitably involve guiding the direction of the story, and detracting from the actual power of a guided story telling experience by calling it "railroading" and "manipulation" simply indicates a lack of communication between the parties. Before any story you set some expectations, that way a directed campaign, even a heavily planned and scripted one, can still feel alive and full of choice and color.

[@thedmdidit9842]

well done. excellently put together video.

[@RoninXDarknight]

All D&D campaigns are railroads to some extent. The issue arises in how overtly it's done as well as how much agency is taken from players in the process. For instance, the party needs to find a magical artifact in a dungeon of some kind and they have to travel to get there. A good DM will have several different scenarios setup that will all lead to that dungeon no matter how the players decide to get there. A bad DM will actively shut down any route to that dungeon other than the one they prepared. This doesn't have to be complicated either. Can be as simple as: Party goes through the woods, finds mansion, artifact guarded by vampire; Party goes through mountains, finds cave, artifact guarded by Troll; Party goes along road, finds group of bandits, bandits have already found artifact; Party goes across lake, finds underwater cave, artifact guarded by Sea Hag; Party goes by airship, finds sky pirates, sky pirates have artifact. And you can string several of these together if the party makes it to the original destination too quickly or easily. Perhaps the vampire was already defeated and the artifact taken by bandits? Or maybe the artifact was split into several pieces hidden in different locations that they need to assemble. None of this is to say you can't throw up road blocks either but then have an alternate way (if it makes sense in the setting) to allow them to go through with their idea. The party wants to take a boat? Let the players build their own if none can be rented/bought. No horses? Let them pay a bunch of farmers or kobolds or goblins to carry them. They want to go by air? Let them try to steal an airship from the local sky pirates. At the end of it all, the goal is the same in all of these scenarios, but give the players a long leash in deciding how they go about achieving that goal.

[@Drraagh]

You talk about being Writer/Director for your game control and things like Reoccuring NPCs, Railroading versus Character Freedom... Well, I would suggest thinking about Video Game Design tricks for a lot of it as well. For example: Reoccuring NPCs, such as the travelling merchant character, my mind immediately went to the SNES RPG 'Secret of Mana' with the Neko NPC. They were a merchant who showed up in all sorts of places as the players travel across the story. They would have healing items and gear appropriate for the area, as well as the ability to save the PC's progress. Given he can show up in dangerous areas this function is equivalent to games that would put save points in a location like near a boss battle or just a 'break point' for players who may need to leave the game for RL and don't want to lose progress. As for the NPCs being put into danger or being needed to further som story and then just being put in player direction no matter where they go... well, this happens easily as the players are in a sort of Schrodinger's Universe where what the don't see is in a state of flux that is not set until they observe something again. An example of this is seen in Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past where you rescue Princess Zelda by going into Hyrule Castle and getting her escorted out and brought to Sanctuary to keep her safe. However, this doesn't stop her from getting captured again later in the story and it just happens, you're out getting the Master Sword and then there was a mental communication that she's captured because she needs to be to further the story. So, now you gotta go to the Castle and save her, except she's now been sent to the Dark World by the wizard and so, you go to rescue her and the other Maidens because that's what heroes do. This is not taking away player agency or railroading them to a specific path. The players are free to solve the problem however they choose, it is just that events will occur that lead to the certain events occurring. You'll usually encounter this in a style of 'Open World' RPGs where you'll be given the world first as a series of gated locations, where you go from location to location to complete objectives to give access to the next location. Earthbound for SNES is n example of this, even to the point that many of the towns you go through are numbered. You go to Onett and must beat the Ant boss at Giant Step to get the first melody and then you head to Twoson but must beat the Police Captain to prove you're strong enough to leave and then in Twoson you must go Happy Happy Village and rescue Paula and fight Mr. Carpainter and the next melody by defeating the boss Mole to go to Threed and find the zombies, but wait, we need Jeff so the player switches to Jeff in Winters and we make them escape their school and.... so on and so on, until finally you get the world opened up and can go anywhere. By the time you finally complete X number of missions and get 'full access to a open world', you're still going around and completing objectives to get enough powers and abilities to complete the game. Chrono Trigger is 'You have unlocked all the times and areas, you can go fight Lavos now or... there's these people who need your help, if you want to'. Even the original Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games on the NES are like this. In the original Dragon Warrior, the whole world is open to you except the final location for the end-game fight. You need to collect items to get access to that area, and to do so the game will guide you go from city to city with a dungeon or ruin or other point of interest nearby that are there to explore to gain some new items, complete some story beats and gain information about the next location to head to to get some more items, complete some story beats and get the next clues to where to go. The original Dragon Warrior needs the Rainbow Drop to make a connecting Rainbow Bridge to the final continent which is made by getting the Staff of Rain and the Sunstone and bringing them to the Sanctum to get combined by the sage. The Staff of Rain is getting the Harp from a dungeon and trading it at the Rain Shrine, and the Sunstone is back at the Castle you first started at but you don't have access to it until later in the game. How do you get the man in the sanctuary to do the creation of the Rainbow Drop? Prove your relation to the ancient hero by showing the Hero's Token, which you find by the Princess telling you where it is, who you save by fighting the Green Dragon and rescuing her. Some of these you can skip, like you don't need to rescue the princess if you know where to find the token, so this gives the player agency on the when, how and even if they do some things. Finally, you find the plot staling because your players want to sit at the tavern and party? Sure, have the time jump happen is one option, but there's also a bit of Directing trope that is more writing than gaming (but can happen sometimes in Gaming storytelling), and that is Chandler's Law. Raymond Chandler, the pulp detective fiction writer is said to have talked about how, if you find your plot is stuck you can inject new life by having a man come into the room with a gun. I like to reference the Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie for this one, just because it's 'family friendly' so anyone can enjoy it. You have Eddie Valiant find that Cloverleaf Industries bought Maroon Studios and before that they bought they trolley cars before Acme died. So he goes to interrogate R.K. Maroon at the studio, only to have them get shot by a gun pointing in the window who also tries to kill Eddie Valiant. Peeking out the window, he sees Jessica Rabbit running away and chases her into Toontown, only to find that she didn't shoot at him, it was Judge Doom. This was sort of a linear example, as Maroon could have let slip that it was Judge Doom behind the purchase, but this added some character development scenes for Eddie as he dumps out his alcohol and finally goes into Toontown, a location he used to famously go to before his brother was murdered by a toon and he began his downward spiral from great detective to the peeping tom taking pictures of Marvin Acme playing Pattycake with Jessica Rabbit, Roger Rabbit's wife. The inciting incident of the whole movie, which all ties in nicely to that 'Player Agency versus Railroad'. You've given a mystery, the players have the freedom on how to explore it but if they want to solve it there is only so many ways to get the information needed.

[@RiobasTayem]

I like the first tip, because it gives me a device to let my players set the scene with me and create something they want to engage with. Basically improv on the spot about their ideas what a location could look like and what kind if people are there.

[@GabeTetrault]

Great takes on getting players to get hooked into a campaign! I also enjoyed the subtle dinosaur shadow puppet show.

[@philin6468]

Dude you're making really cool stuff! Good luck with your Patreon!

[@Xiatter]

Calamity and Mentopolis were so darn good.

[@feitocomfruta]

In Calamity, Brennan needed Aabria to destroy the Tree of Names, but he also knew that he couldn’t just say “you need to destroy this tree.” He made it clear that this was an important tree, that its destruction was pivotal to the story for some reason, but that there would be dire consequences for doing it. Credit also has to go to Aabria here too, because she got it as a player, and she knew it was going to happen, but she knew she had to resist it for as long as possible. So when Sam and Marisha’s characters were in mortal danger, even though she didn’t hear the story as to why the tree was so important (information her character was not privy to), she acted exactly as she needed to. Manipulating your players to meeting specific key story beats can be done without railroading, because you are only pointing to the end point and saying “I’m leading you there, but the path and experience on the way is wholly up to you.”

[@cjtrules1]

All of Calamity was like this. Everyone knew The Calamity happened and their characters were big parts of why it happened. They all didn't know HOW they were responsible for it though which is Brennan's job. It's up to Brennan to create a scenario where the characters either do something by accident like everything with Zerxus, have no other choice like with Patia sending her Orb of Power away or they think doing something is the best choice like Cerrit flying to his family instead of fighting alongside his friends.

[@monkeytime9851]

I like what I heard somewhere and can't recall where: Don't railroad. Highway. Give many lanes to get to the same place :)

[@bigdungeonenergy]

This was fantastic information. Thanks man!

[@nick-kqi]

I personally didn't find the background music too loud or distracting.

[@thedarkbard]

Speaking of a hub, I’m planning a campaign where their home city is cut out of the earth, falling into a modified Underdark, and before level five too. (Yes, I’ll be heavily basing it it off of the Deep Dark & the Depths.) But they’re forced to come back to the hub as it’s the only 100% safe place for them. Also, since the villain who put them in this situation also put most of the more expo adventurers in the ground/ critical conditions, the party will have a major physical impact on the town as it adapts and utilizes the new players resources available to them. Hopefully this will help them see it as ‘their’ town.

[@thedarkbard]

Beetle!! I’ve still never figured out how he move between stables.

[@Mr_Yod]

The time forward thing to me has always been an obvious thing to do in certain situations, I find it baffling that very few DMs do that, on the opposite: some force the players describing every single second. I'm learning from the worst. =)

[@only2megabytes139]

I wanna add something onto the part about asking questions for details. It's fine to mention details like cobwebs in the corner of a room if you wanna add some flavor, but use it to enhance whatever adjective's you are giving. Saying "there are cobwebs" sounds a lot more suspicious and like a spider-based encounter is going to happen than. "The house is filthy with cobwebs spun in corners." Things are suspicious when they are out of place or don't make sense, so give reasons for your mundane descriptions unless you want players to interrogate a man in his house about his web related activities.

[@AidenGreen-re5tj]

I had the funniest ad trasition ever. when he said "your bard is" I got a Wix ad the said "making a website for your online business?" so it sound like "your bard is making a website for your online business"

[@thanesgames9685]

I had an adult green dragon show up to make the 3rd level party a "deal" to explore a cavern he was too big to get into, and he had sent several parties before him and never seen again. It was a place he had noted, and was certain treasure was inside, and he wanted his cut of it. 50/50 with the party. I suppose I played him too menacingly, because the party came out a different side and were convinced the dragon would kill them and take all of it ... actually, he would send them on another quest, one with a more evil intent for the players to wrestle with. But they decided to just try to get away. Of course they did not, and while they said they would try to be charming with the dragon, instead they got very belligerent until he finally attacked. I gave them an out if they could catch the eye of distant metallic dragon they saw in the sky, but otherwise I was going to have them wake up with 1 HP and all their equipment gone in the middle of a hostile forest a week away from town if it got into a full on fight. The party ended up with 2 down and the last two DID come up with a clever way to get the silver Dragon's attention, and it chased off the green. But from the Green's perspective, the party renegged on their deal, AND saw him humiliated by a silver dragon. They now had a very powerful enemy, and a very powerful mildly interested associate. The green sent mercenaries on the ground to chase after the party, resulting in a bunch of harrowing encounters before they returned to town. Then he sent more mercs to stalk them, and try to kill them in their sleep, resulting in several missed long rests. Then he sent his child with more mercs, and got his child killed. Then he went nuts, abdicated his position in the green dragon empire, stole a bunch of artifacts, and was sending elementals at the party every few days. A lot was going on otherwise in the campaign ... this was a side story. But it annoyed and threatened the players into finally setting up a level 8 party vs Adult green dragon fight, as they decided they needed to end the threat before anything else got complicated. They got information, got resources, and picked a spot in the forest. It turned into an epic fight with the dragon burning away multiple elemental gemstones trying to weaken the party up front before they found where he was doing it, and dropping several party members and their NPC's to 0 multiple times. The dragon tried to fly away to save itself at the end, threatening the party with more ambushes in the future, and one player desperatly put themselves in the position of using a magic item to prevent the dragon from moving more than 30' from them, and the dragon coming after them nearly alone while the rest of the party got a round to sort of recover. The player barely survived with 2 hp, and then a player risked dying by elemental to line up the final shot on the dragon. It was truly an epic arc, and the party pulled together and used all their resources to barely pull victory out. It can be hard to create a re-occuring enemy, especially in 5E, where characters seemingly can drop anything if they focus hard enough. Having their enemy send minions, make threats through messages, sabotage their other efforts, but at a distance where he was essentially untouchable, invested the party like little else could.

[@mister_deacon8264]

The countdown timer in the corner gives me anxiety for some reason

[@philiptky5310]

Wonderful tips, do you do live play? Will be fantastic to watch a live session.

[@river7874]

I run a grimdark style game for my friends. It's basically been two years of psychological torture once a month. And they absolutely love it. How I railroad them without railroading them is by letting them choose where to go and what to do and I interject the important information based on their choices and rolls. I used to write myself into a corner by being too detailed and if my players did something that broke away from that, it messed everything up. The method I use now is much easier and more entertaining for my players.

[@meribor]

I am super interested in that document. Does it already exist, and does it largely already reference the content of your published videos? Also, a thought, maybe include in that document some of the ideas and observations that didn't make good KZbin content. Different kinds of information often work better in different formats.

[@BonusAction]

The document does not exist yet! Just finding the time to start it, (should be soon) and it will be a slow process, it will start with the tips from my first couple of videos, then I will update it regularly with more and more until up to date. I do want to add more ideas and observations to it that are not in the videos too! Maybe ideas that did not make it to a video, or ones that I want to do for future videos. Though I am brainstorming the long term plan currently, this could end up turning in to quite a beefy document!

[@dom6244]

Would it be possible to go over the skills and techniques that Anthony Burch of Dungeons and Daddies uses?

[@mithril1584]

SAO abridged: HEY some of my best friends are NPCs!

[@jigsaw924]

Every time I spend an hour crafting an interesting NPC the party nods and keeps walking. Every time I add a random NPC doing something funny or weird, they adopt them and keep them in their party for the entirety of the campaign. Osmund, a traveling qizard stuck in a bush on session 1. They're level 14 now and theyd die for him. Tyber, a dragonborn barbarian trying to eat an ice sculpture at a party. One of them named their FIRSTBORN CHILD AFTER HIM. Hyek, a tortle druid who talks really slow and drones on eloquently about sylvanus destroying cities because they're monuments of human hubris, they hate me now because they think he's dead (He isn't, he escaped) Moral of the stoey- if you see your party clinging to an NPC or saying they love them? Roll with itm give them more, and let them join the party if they're invited. It'll make your game so much better.

[@Scott_Burton]

I try to look past this detail, but I feel a geas, a magical compulsion to address this issue. Player death ahould never be a goal of the DM nor any character in the game. Player *character* death might become a goal of an NPC.

[@TakaD20]

Good video but, sorry, I find the loud background music very distracting.

[@pizzarolljohnson5589]

I come from the school of perkins. Not enough people talk about him

[@ether4211]

The Chris Perkins method is not railroading as not describing everything lets players question CREATE the scene with the DM! If the players ask about something the DM didn't think about this lets the DM say YES - yes there is a random NPC by the road, Yes there is a fence you might be able to climb, yes there is a hole in the fence you could climb though. In contrast over described scenes are a way to say NO - the player can't make friends with a random NPC by the road if the DM has already said they are alone, the players can't climb the fence because the DM said it's too tall, the Player can't climb tough the fence because it's made of thick bricks. By asking questions Players are guiding the DM to what they want to do and they/their PCs are interested in but can also be used to subvert/play pranks...eg by spending a lot of time describing a locked door only to have a hole in the fence right next to it. I often will put things like this in my game with no set solution to see how the players solve it. For Players you can actually do a lot with questions for example Druidcraft lets a PC know the weather forecast - this gives a player the power to control the weather by making the DM answer the question. What was a session where weather doesn't matter may suddenly change if the DM rolls rain or a big storm. Now the players know and can plan to use the storm as cover, or wait a day before starting a sea journey.

[@MerryMoss]

Interesting video ^^ Yet I have a question: at 8:20 you stand in a hallway with floating candles... how did you do this? Do you have a tutorial? :D

[@BonusAction]

Those were haloween decorations that we have now left up for Christmas! I think if you search floating candles on amazon you should find them.

[@dermario2]

What episode is it at 3:53 ?

[@TP19]

Taliesin just said manipulate who? Lol

[@Mgaak]

Good advice

[@bobbobbing4220]

see i dont agree with your first point. your job is to create the scene, you should state what is "apparent" like a guard standing guard over a door, its singular light source, then your secondary with questions stage.. is the wall barred or solid.. what is it made from, how heavily armed is the guard... finally the obscure info.. " what sort of metal is the gate, does the guard look formidable.. are there any other guards.. what sort of lock does it have.. does the guard have a key on show.. things that need a role. obvious, investigational, cost (spending an action to roll, using tools) or OIC "oh i see"

[@pst5345]

adhering to the player is not playing a game but downright toxic. You need to have a basic structure of players do a then b is the result. You do not need to have evry possible reaction laid out but 4 possible reactios in context of accessible class abilities should be ok to construct enough illusion of choice for that one certain key event

[@ChrisLawton66]

Perkins seriously uses a sock puppet?

[@fnhs90]

Missing examples from play

[@sebastienparadis9115]

Rail-roading i was totally against it, until i started playing with little kids.

[@creezuz]

this thumbnail is fucking hilarious

[@noxnox8554]

Not railroading is bad bc the story might flail about? Almost like real life. Some people enjoy that & Lost still have plenty of fans lmao. I think this focus on celebrity DMs is unhealthy

[@rail7646]

if a player would ask such toxic question as you have shown in your video, this wouldn't really contribute positively to the tables fun, no matter how bad the dm on that table was, alone thinking about these things sets you up for horrible evenings

[@KloodRising]

I used fishing competition in zero one for my players. 😀

[@monkeibusiness]

ok cool video BUT WHY IS THERE A CHRISTMAS TREE

[@BonusAction]

Merry Christmas!

[@monkeibusiness]

@@BonusAction Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

[@itsanthony1980]

It's November 😅

[@Nosmo90]

Perkins's technique seems a bit too lacking in detail. Would he really describe a gate with a lock, but not the fence that the gate is attached to? 'Cause A) that gate's not going to be very useful if it's not attached to a fence, and B) I can't imagine how the party could see a locked gate, but not the fence that it's attached to, so why not also establish the fence? Not establishing the hole in the fence and the distant NPC I understand, those both seem like details that engaged players can uncover for themselves; particularly if the fence and gate are described as ill-maintained. In addition, I think that a discussion should be had - preferably in session zero - about how the GM is planning on scene-setting so that the players understand how much information they'll need to find out for themselves. 'Cause I've been in sessions where the GM has given us a bare-bones description of the scene and then there's just an awkward pause as we realise that that's all we're getting and the GM realises that we weren't already aware of what we're now realising. It's an unfortunate disconnect.

[@Nosmo90]

Also, if you're making the things that you describe in your scene-setting retroactively significant that's not the fault of your players. If you teach your players that everything is significant by making everything significant then they're going to think that everything is significant; at some point they'd be fools not to. I realise that you may well have been using hyperbole, but I decided to err on the side of caution, as even if you were being hyperbolic, I don't know to what extent that you were. 🙂

[@Nosmo90]

I *love* your idea of the Word document! I've often found myself despairing at finding lots of fantastic TTRPG advice via KZbin, yet knowing that I can't keep it all in my head at once (aural learning is easily my weakest form of learning, so a lot of stuff falls out of my head)! 🙌

[@kirstenwyatt9675]

Railroading is shutting down player choices, taking away their agency, trying to dictate what their players characters do. Banning certain spells retroactively, neutering the mechanic they built their character around without discussing it, making all enemies immune to a specific power/spell.

[@XionicalXionical]

wow your mic quality / whatever you have done to the mic has come a long way in 7 months.

[@NoxLegend1]

Cobwebs in the corner is equivalent to the chair in critical role campaign 2!

[@BoojumFed]

I still don't trust that chair...

[@cjtrules1]

Dude you need to get a mic stand or clip. Just holding it in your hand is so weird.

[@deathybrs]

The first example is some of the worst advice I think I've ever heard, especially at the point where the players have to think to ask about the fence. If there was a hole in the fence, that's honestly more important than the freaking lock, and should NOT be something that they have to ASK about. Not having overly long descriptions is one thing, but leaving out vital information to do so is not good DMing.

[@ddeboy002]

forcing a battle upon your party is not DMing. It's forcing which means you're a dishonest DM. I would have quit CR 3rd episode in the first season.

[@MightyGachiman]

They dont manipulate their players, they make a show. Dnd streams to real dnd are like porn is to seggs...

[@Hallinwar]

I hate this circles in left corner

[@Hallinwar]

*these

[@BonusAction]

Ah I am sorry you do not like that aspect of my content!

[@johnymousAnonymous]

I love it

[@AngeloWindblow]

I love it

[@Fusionchimaira]

The problem with Lost is that it was supposed to be only 1 season so they stretched the story so thin, you could predict what was going to happen

[@BomimoDK]

can someone explain to me the fad of KZbinrs holding a Shitty microphone replacement in-frame when they obviously have a proper sound setup outside frame? Everyone does it right now and they look like weathermen...

[@BonusAction]

Yeah I can explain it for me atleast. I don't use a fake mic (of course, that would be insane and pointless). The mic in my hand IS my mic (of course, anything else would be expensive and a huge waste of my time). And if by weathermen you mean broadcasters who would be on location and not have access to a full studio, then yeah.... (Obviously I don't have access to a full professional studio, im filming in my hallway...) Hope that answers your question!

[@BomimoDK]

@@BonusAction Apologies. It's easy just to shout into the void, not expecting the creator to actually ever notice. You probably didn't need that comment and maybe i didn't need to make it.

[@greedygremlin7471]

I understand the desire to have well known faces in a thumbnail and to discuss well known DMs in the DND space but please for the love of God be more inclusive. There is so much talent out there but these types of videos always tend to focus on the white men in the DND space. Do better.

[@BonusAction]

This is a very fair critique of both my videos and the D&D space in general.

[@progfrogg]

are you fucking serious? this video was about popular DM's. at what point do their ethnicity have any importance in this discussion. it is YOU who needs to do better.