DungeonCraft #3: The Secret Every DM Must Know

[@matthewmcguigan4293]

Your channel has helped me get over "rules anxiety" and is making it possible to have more fun with DnD. Thank you!

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

A year late, but thank you!

[@chriskaline800]

The secret every DM must know is, how to keep the game moving. In particular when a player does something you weren't planning on. Being able to adjust on the fly is the hardest thing to learn. And it only comes with experience.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Very true.

[@rickausten7013]

Continued Excellence from Tweed & Vest. I agree: keep the game moving. Common sense is still the most effective gaming aid.

[@fleshanthos]

Furthermore, this stuff is not at all news. I learned it in the mid 80's playing FASA Star Trek.

[@kylegreene1356]

@@fleshanthos Wow, you're so awesome. If only more people were as cool as you.

[@kingsfan2099]

at least that player is doing something. what about the player who refuses to engage with the game.

[@JenEssitBroughman]

I found myself (a 25+ year DM) reviewing this video, and I must say you are spot-on. As a humorous side-note, when I started DM'ing, I was in the Marine Corps and working on F/A-18 aircraft; also, I was studying chemistry and physics in correspondence courses. I bring this up because the party I was running at the time faced a dragon, a green dragon no less, in its lair. And so, working around turbofan engines and understanding just how rapidly hot exhaust gas can expand in an open-air environment; plus learning gas law, expansion rates, and chemical compositions that quickly displace breathable atmosphere, this really gave me a keen sense of what a PC might experience after having been exposed to a green dragon's breath weapon. The party members that successfully saved against the breath weapon still other problems: the dragon's breath was composed of chlorine gas, and I deemed it hot (a little under the boiling point of water due to the chemical reactions within the dragon's lungs in order to expel concentrated chlorine). So now, even if the PC's survived the damage induced from the chlorine, there was the scalding effect from high-temperature gas, and the lack of breathable atmosphere; you can imagine their surprise on top of all this when I had them make additional poison (fortitude) saves due to the rapid absorption of chlorine into their bodies via exposed skin. Afterward, the party was very, VERY cautious when facing a dragon in my campaigns - for the record, only two of the seven PC's survived that encounter, and not from breath weapon damage as much as from asphyxiation; and the only reason there were very little complaints (aside from dead PC's) was due to how real-world experience and education could be used to make such events even more compelling (and deadly). Dragons are NOT to be underestimated!

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Great story! And thank you for your service. My son is currently serving in S. Korea.

[@jonpeacock3016]

This is the best DM channel ever. I’ve watched other content creators but Professor DM is the king of DM advice. Thank you sir for making this channel and sharing your wisdom with us. May your games be enjoyable and your snacks never run out.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thank you!

[@DisneyInHonesty]

Beginning my quest with your videos after just coming across your channel. I've never heard such perfect sense expressed so digestibly. I guestimate a great change to my DMing, thanks!

[@gnarlestongnu637]

+1 for recognizing the true goblin king

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

You got that joke? +100xp for you, Gnarlston!

[@benvoliothefirst]

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 + for shrinky-dinks!

[@prestonmolloy808]

@Drew Taylor What do you get if you own it? Sadly I don't, my oldest is #68 but to be fair I purchased all my copies in person at the time of publication.

[@alfonsocruz6100]

Bowie is a Legend

[@brettyoss1693]

@@alfonsocruz6100 Bowie absolute has a goblin in his pants... After I noticed it I couldn't take the movie seriously lol.

[@MrCefus]

I've been running games for friends since the 80's and I love this advice. Nice to see others saying the same things I've been doing for years. When in doubt, guess a number and roll a die.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Yep.

[@Frederic_S]

This is one of the most proficient videos on KZbin and worth every revisitation ☺️

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks! Working on a proficient video about proficiencies now. Stay tuned!

[@Frederic_S]

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I do not GM D&D and I don’t use any form of terrain. Still I love your content and I do watch every single video, Professor Dungeon Master 👨‍🎓 We have shared opinions on many topics and I found most of your tips and tricks very helpful. Even after 20+ years of GMing.

[@BearlyOutdoors]

I figured this back in the year 1976ish. (I can't believe you spilled the magic beans. I am pulling your DM certification! ) It is/was my theory that individuals want to play a hero, not a normal player, so I will almost always give the player character the advantage. Most excellent information, even though you are no longer a certified DM!

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Hey, Michael. Funny thing is-- people REFUSE to believe it! So the secret is still secret. Cheers!

[@steelmongoose4956]

Another great point. All of the statistics in D&D exist to do two things: 1. Create noticeable and playable differences between player characters, and 2. Maintain an approximate degree of challenge as the characters level up. The orcs you face at 1st level are the giants you face later on. The DM just puts a new coat of paint on the orcs and uses bigger numbers that have scaled with the PC’s bigger numbers. The upstairs apartment the thief burglarizes when he’s starting out is the wizard’s tower he sneaks into when there are higher numbers on his character sheet. It’s all about maintaining the right level of difficulty and interesting consequences for success and for failure.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Yep!

[@JaconSamsta]

I'm a fan of how Shadow of the Demon Lord handles this. 10 is always the target number. If it is an easy task you get a boon, +1d6 on your roll. If it's hard a bane, -1d6. Boons and banes cancel each other out. Characters also have professions. If your profession would help you in a situation, add a boon. It's not better or worse than what you are suggesting here, but a simple, quick and dirty, system is really all you need. Most importantly, keep the game flowing. That will be much more important than arguing over that +/-1 the player should have gotten because of this obscure ruling burrowed a couple hundred pages deep in one of the seemingly infinite source books.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Jacob Samsta I’m a fan as well.

[@AndyReichert0]

with every video of his i watch, i'm convinced that morkborg was really just somebody's collection of Dungeon Craft's homebrew rules with an apocalypse timer.

[@wanderinghistorian]

PDM: "You're not trying to kill your players." End of video PDM tells DMs: "May all your rolls be natural 20s!" :D

[@ZebastianAsp]

This was mind-blowing. Thank you so much.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thank you!

[@02JAN1970]

10:03 - That's critical for some DMs (like me). We see the game has rules and we try to follow them - sometimes to an illogical conclusion. Thank you for the absolution and thank you for sharing the Secret Rule! I promise, your secret is safe with me...

[@normanlennox4949]

I've got a new party coming to play. All brand new, never played before. I'm a pretty green DM myself. But I've been taking notes from your videos on how to make our games run faster, and be more immersive. These in particular are going to be very helpful. So happy I found this channel.

[@ForeverYoungKickboxer]

Brother, if you follow Prof DM you will not go wrong! Happy gaming from this 1969 Gen X metalhead D&D nerd!

[@torreyintahoe]

This is the best DnD channel on KZbin. Thanks Professor.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Wow, thanks!

[@NemoOhd20]

One of the all time best D&D videos. Love this.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thank you. This advice will be in the full version of Deathbringer. Cheers!

[@joshuaarmstrong2445]

This is hands down the best video you for anyone who wants to be a DM.

[@Turglayfopa]

I accidentally DM'd like this at the start. Then I tried to do it "proper", and I hated it. This video was very helpful.

[@JOEBECK07]

I took this and no initiative and used this in my last gave and the game was very fun, I'm going to use this.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Cool. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@michaelb2westgaedu]

In college we used to play a game called "roll high" where we would just pitch 20 sided dice and work through generic dungeons. They loved it, and we spent many an afternoon just doing these pickup games.

[@johnathonshaw1408]

As a current graduate assistant, your intro killed me. I loved it.

[@eddarby469]

I thought the end of that monolog would be "now he stumbles along sidewalks in the dark hours of the night having tasted every ale on the street row of taverns. Or you can find him at any graduate happy hour, but you better get there early if you need to understand his gibbering."

[@bradeinarsen]

This video just exposed my primary DM tactic used since 1980!

[@VERITAX808]

Thanks for this. Will be DMing for the 1st time in a couple of weeks.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Awesome! Let me know how it goes!

[@PhyreI3ird]

Be careful of overdoing it though. Don't wanna make the trick obvious to your lovely players.

[@jackhartford521]

Every time I watch one of your videos, I feel like I’ve already been thinking, and playing the game, and running the game, basically in the ways that you do. I love the idea of a freethinking dungeons and dragons game. Where it’s everyone around the table helping to create a scenario together. Keep up the good work!

[@Labroidas]

I don't agree that proficiencies are useless, they do make it possible to make your character more unique, but in the obvious examples you used in this video I agree with you, guesstimating with confidence is the best thing to do.

[@sdm533]

This is some of the best advice I have heard in a long time. All those charts and adding all the extras take away from the game. Keep the game rolling . Love it

[@markdowse3572]

I am watching this video after enjoying your recent (2020 and on) videos, Professor. I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying this retrospective ! 👍😃 But your Vest is only +2? 😲 Ha ! My tattered old cardigan has permanent invulnerability. (Ah, yes, the old spell "Permanence"..... What an superb piece of magic! ✨😎) @ 4:26 The difficulty is INFINITE. It CANNOT BE ACHIEVED EVER in any campaign that I run. My Dragons are always TOUGH. In the end, the DM screen is there for a reason..... Dice rolls in front are for ALL to see. Dice rolls behind it (by DM or Player) are known only to the DM. POWERFUL and balancing.

[@bobsyeruncle5545]

I think you and I have been playing the same game for years. I taught my two daughters to play using precisely this approach. Thank you for your inspiration. Subscribed.

[@MagnumOpus333]

I gotta say, I love this channel, You are truly inspirational. Thank you.

[@VerumAdPotentia]

I'm a rogue DM. I don't need no stinking "license"!

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Me too!

[@patricksanders7988]

I watch this video every six months or so. It is the most important OSR rule in my book. With this rule, you can play an entire campaign without opening up a book during game play. The rulebooks from 1974 through the current year should be referenced during down times for inspiration and thought experiments.

[@Rabbit-the-One]

Reviewing the comments, there is a very distinct schism in "older", "more experienced" DM's, and "newer", "modern" GM's; and it's all about structure. Being in the latter, I can tell for sure rules have changed drastically since you last thoroughly scoured a DMG or PHB, but are more intimately knowledgeable with the earlier editions than I can hope to become in the next year or so.

[@marceloave30]

I really love this easy decision making system of yours.... It was somehow there in the back of my mind....but you eloquently find a way to word it.

[@deezznuts5396]

this takes the roleplay out for me. its fun to have a character be good at some things and bad at others, even when their character class would indicate otherwise.

[@Pixxeria]

That's not going to make much of a difference unless you build characters that aren't good at their class strenghts anyway - like a wizard with low intelligence or a rogue with bad dexterity.

[@deezznuts5396]

@@Pixxeria sometimes players aren't powergamers, or just take proficiencies you wouldnt expect, or even just make their classes important stat their second or third best stat.

[@rayduke]

@@deezznuts5396 Back when I played 3.5 and pathfinder I had an orc barbarian who plugged everything into the linguistics skill. Dumb as a brick but by level 8 he knew how to swear at people in seven languages. Didn't like the idea of people talking about him in a way he couldn't understand, plus it got him work with people the party wouldn't normally deal with.

[@datalore7311]

Honestly, this is best handled by straight stats. Prof bonuses are a trap. If you remove prof modifiers and bring down dcs, you can make a witty fighter or a thuggish wizard. If you really care about roleplaying, just allocate your stats that way.

[@anthonynorman7545]

@@datalore7311 don't the proficiency bonuses represent the difference between natural talent and experience/training? That would seem to me as an important aspect of roleplaying, especially if one is referencing skills.

[@ben10mama]

You have opened my dungeon master third eye. While I have been slowly coming to learn this and have been doing this concept subconsciously (I'd sometimes ignore the books and just look at the dice and decide whether it seemed high enough or not) however the way you outlined it I found a little more exact and giving the players more control, however I'll say I personally don't tell my players the number, I'd keep it in my head or write it on a sheet behind the dm screen

[@davehoyle9865]

Dear professor dungeon master, I enjoy your channel. It’s given me ideas on how to start crafting to make my sessions more immersive. This video did point out a situation all DMs should understand and totally get that the DM should be able to improv situations but I find a fatal flaw in much of your methodology that you might want to reconsider. FANTASY GAMES DO NOT TAKE PLACE IN THE MIDDLE AGES! I’m not yelling just emphasizing the point. Basing things around the assumption that this is the Middle Ages on earth with magic added is flawed. This is an alternate universe with the gifts of world bending magic so the time line can be exactly the same length as the current earth but advancements were put into the study of magic instead of high efficiency technology. You can have firearms, you can have railroads, you can create things that don’t fit. This is not a time period. Star Wars is about inconceivably advanced civilizations with magic and technology far beyond what modern earthlings can comprehend but what does it say in the opening crawl, “Long ago in a galaxy far, far away,” this is their past. All I’m saying is don’t get stuck in your own head on these things

[@sergioalgelis]

But it does tho

[@Lodane]

This is a great confidence building bit for new DMs. After they've played, they know this intuitively but they don't *know* they know.

[@DevilinGame]

I really admire your point of view Professor, people are so obsessed with micro rules and everything calculated to every inch.

[@zednumar6917]

Rewatching this again for your algorithm. It still holds up. More gamers need to see this.

[@WillyLee23]

I totally agree with professor DM about just giving the players the clues, no investigation roll needed- pretty much no unnecessary rolls. I’ve witnessed a DM literally lock his adventurers out of the dungeon. The story was at a standstill until this thief picked the front door lock. She managed to fail twice before passing her third roll. There was no consequences to failing, “just try again next turn”. It was the first roll of the session and really drug down the mood as the party twiddled their thumbs waiting two turns for her to succeed a roll that was completely arbitrary. If the thief has the skills, the tools, all the time in the world, and especially if there is no adventure unless they pass through that door- just let her pick the lock. Lmao 🤣

[@KurtzMista]

Dread curse of the ones! Discovered your channel and love the practical content. Pretty awesome for the very first episode, and glad to have seen how its evolved over time.

[@elrond3737]

I guesstimated right every time. 30+ years of DMing

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Right on, Elrond! Thanks for watching!

[@etho7351]

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 speaking of guestimation. I know this will accomplish nothing by pointing this out but in medieval times castle and wall designs didn't particularly care about obvious hand holes. Castles were simply invented to stop Vikings from raiding them then later large armies. Basically no one was stupid enough to scale a 50 foot wall, and especially the armies they were meant to keep out because that would take a long time and you'd be shot. If you had armour on that's going to make things ten times harder. The only real thing deciding if you get up that wall is if the guards notice you and if your finger grip and arm strength are great enough to pull your bodyweight for at least 20 minutes. Mr.knowitalls rant over.

[@troydhansen4990]

Your right, keep the game moving forward, it keeps the pace up, and the DM is God above the gods, period.

[@DarkLordShadaou]

Your wisdom has not been lost on me x.x I am truly taking your words to heart and my players fears about the game being slow or uneventful are slowly becoming nihl. Thank you.

[@RyanWBL]

Such a great way to trim the fat off the rules. I've been lowering HP of monsters and increasing their damage out put. These other tips are gold. Page one of the DMG should state: ITS ALL ABOUT PACING!

[@Cgates642]

I've never had a DM tell me the number they want me to roll. That would tell some of the Mystique away I think. But I do agree with transparency. A DM shouldn't Fudge numbers unless he expects his players to do the same. Then it's just a free for all of crazyness. But that screen and trust don't go hand in hand especially if you have had bad experiences with bloodthirsty DMs in the past.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Your comment about trust and bloodthirsty DMs is very astute. Welcome aboard and watch more DungeonCraft!

[@trooks40]

Another great video Professor DM! I run a weekly game called ‘D&D for Beginners’ at a pizza parlor in my hometown. I’ve adopted your quick character creation method and the 2 rules every DM should know. The players asked me if we were playing a new game, LOL! But I think your tips improve the player experience and make D&D easier to teach. What modules have you produced in a Dungeon Magazine?

[@trooks40]

Excellent advice Prof DM! Have you ever forgotten that an NPC was traveling with the party, only to be reminded by the players? I have! Sometimes there is simply too much for the DM to keep track of.

[@robertschell1235]

One of the best games I played in, no books at the table and the DM made everything up on the spot. We only used 2d6 for everything. The game was very stream lined fast and fun.

[@cferdinandi]

Sounds like you played Dungeon World. It’s an improv heavy 2d6 system.

[@davidhasselhoff1634]

Thank you for your helpful videos! I love how David Bowie is your Goblin King!

[@Xplora213]

Regarding proficiency, as a 2e ad&d DM to his kids, it seems that the main purpose of the system is to spread out the concentration of highly valuable professional skills like bowyer or armourer which can nearly break the game.

[@Wallach_a]

Love the posters in the double murder room. 🙌🏻😽

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks!

[@Cthu1hu]

Mind Blown. Thank you for continually making such excellent videos!

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks for watching! New episode tomorrow @ 6pm, BTW.

[@Tiaslin]

This is all correct, absolutely. But, there is one or two important points, one of which is even mentioned in the video: The "Illusion". The Illusion that their characters improve and become more powerful. And second: Comparison and predicability. For me, its useful to set the difficulty BEFORE considering the character sheet, that gives everyone a sense for the difficulty for the task at hand and the chances of him or her succeeding at a task, compared to the other party members, without me explaining why i would set different difficulty levels for each character. Also, because of that, its way easier for me: I don't have to come up with several difficulties for each character, instead, i set just one, the rest results out of their characters numbers. That being said: I totally agree on all other factors. I don't need 50 tables on several conditions that might apply modifiers for a task. It's good enough to consider everything in your head and come up with a reasonable DC, the player's won't know anyway.

[@methisguy6397]

Because of you, I got rid of EXP and Leveling up altogether! to get better stats, a player has to convince an appropriate trainer to train them and make a check or use better items. Learn magic spells? find a wizard. More HP or Movement speed? train with the Marital Arts trainer. Better chance to hit, damage ? get a better weapon. Better Defense ? better armor. (I call Armor class Defense...because dodging isn't armor.) ^_^ v

[@jacobcarsten9586]

Interesting point to be sure. I've had a tendency to do a variant of this with DC setting. Things like setting a climb difficulty or a lock are usually based on how hard they should be intuitively for me. My issue is when you say get rid of skills completely and rely on class knowledge. This creates cookie cutter classes in my opinion. Not every thief is going to be trained in climbing, some might be smooth talking charlatans. Not all clerics will be trained in religion, they had a calling and a devotion, not a book learning of all dieties. And not all mages (especially sorcerers) are going to be able to understand complicated runes as some magic is intuitive. I think you have some good points, but your stance overreachs with lack of supporting arguements, Professor.

[@toshley6192]

I think that just boils down to knowing your player's characters as a DM. You are the one setting the DC, so if you know that player's rogue has never had to scale a wall in his life, you can still set the DC high. There's nothing forcing you to set the same DC for every different rogue. 5e rules as written are actually worse for that. Any rogue with a high Dex is going to be a better climber, because your acrobatics skill gets a bonus from dexterity. There's no way for you to be a rogue with a high dexterity and low acrobatics. This way allows the DM to set a high DC for an acrobatics challenge your character might not be good at, despite being otherwise naturally dextrous.

[@JorisVDC]

@@toshley6192 Yes indeed. It's funny how people try to come up with why this doesn't work in a specific situation. It's a video about a general concept. You know the characters because your players have described their background, so you know how good they are at specific jobs. The core message of this video is: less rules means less discussion and more room for the rule of cool!

[@russellgardner5485]

Thank you Professor Dungeon Monster, excellent content as always. This is very helpful for me.

[@SpencerLionguard]

This was such a good video, very humorous and greatly entertaining! Keep up the good work Professor!

[@danielalexander8402]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does something similar. When I started table top gaming this seemed like the most obvious thing in the world to me. It was a few years before I realized this wasn't a common skill or obvious tool.

[@Leathurkatt]

When designing an adventure, I establish an end goal and a series of "guideposts" to get them from point to point. The starting point is deliberately left open to allow for a more freeform start to the adventure, and the guideposts are also open ended to allow or greater flexibility in game play. Even if the players don't solve all the puzzles, the end goal is always to reach and defeat the bad guy causing the problems requiring the characters' intervention in the first place.

[@francescol.bellman9670]

I agree. Simplicity at its best. GURPS is less random, with the drawback of being a much more complicate system. Your stand point is valid for any system. I like GURPS better as the checks are on 3d6 (less exotic) but the medium difficulty is less random. Great minis, congrats.

[@grayve2122]

You must have been the weirdest kid in school and the coolest dad/granpa in the future (or now idk your age) great vid keep up

[@OtakuNoShitpost]

I appreciate the sentiment, but consider the following variation: The player declares their action as well as what skill they are channeling to make that action possible. They roll and call their total. Now you, as the GM, decide if that's enough to pass. There was no pre-set DC, just a question of "is a 17 enough for this character to be likely to do this thing?"

[@Jayce_Alexander]

I think that's good advice, and this is what most DMs I've experienced have done pretty much. I've been playing since the late 90s/2E era, and have experienced DMs of nearly every edition of the game apart from White Box/Holmes D&D. The vast majority of them, regardless of edition, seem to handle skill checks etc like this. And I think that's because it works well and gives the DM some leeway particularly in circumstances where you could otherwise let a die roll ruin a potentially epic moment due to a one or two point difference in the DC.

[@joshuaa.5523]

Great advice here. I'm a new DM and this stuff helps a lot.

[@TheSasquatchjones]

Love the Bowie "Goblin King" reference..

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Oh yeah...I had forgotten about that.

[@teejay818]

Love this. My 2nd edition game when I was teenager was theater of the mind, with similar ethos to this. Then 4th edition came out and just ruined the game for me and my friend. Skill cards to suffocate imaginative thinking, miniatures and grids to bog down the combat… we were lucky for 5 people to finish a 3rd battle in an afternoon. Now that I’m diving back into 5E, I want my games to be fluid, creative, story-rich affairs with the snappy combat I remember from my youth. Thanks for helping me crystallize my approach.

[@DungeonDad]

I like your channel man! I'll be looking forward to more sage advice in the future, this is a great resource for new DMs, and even those of us who've been at it for awhile ; )

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks!

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks, man!

[@calvininthanon1546]

The reason I see profiencies are there for is for creativity and freedom. Not everyone wants to play stereotypical archetypes and may want to play an aspiring thief but isnt that quick or sneaky. So to me it's just all about customization which is my favorite part about dnd 5e.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks for commenting! I played Pulp Call of Cthulhu a few weeks ago. I made a character in 5 minutes: arrogant film actor. Grant Revel starred in the films Continental Op, The Bloody Captain, and Sinister. He had flings with Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, and Greta Garbo. Could fight onscreen with a sword and gun but he didn't know how to use them in real life. Used a Ronson lighter and drank his whiskey neat. That's pretty customized. I never even looked at the character sheet. Proficiencies, feats, and skills don't make characters. Personalities make characters.

[@FlameQwert]

then a few simple scribbles on the character sheet is all that's needed. "a thief who gets by on charm more than nimble fingers. spent some time as a fake acolyte to score a big heist, can read some divine runes." done. so next time anything comes up to do with using a silver tongue, your character gets to roll with the party face, albeit perhaps with a harder target number. same with reading divine runes and the party cleric: the cleric can roll a simple 9 while your rogue may need a 12 and don't the free proficiencies in 5e per class already pigeonhole you? why would ditching that system to be more freeform be less creativity and freedom? so there's no need for dozens of hyper-specific proficiencies (which in itself, end up pigeoholing player's character creation process into only those skills)

[@XimCines]

First time I see your channel, inmediately subscribed. I love the theme in this video and always wanted someone to teach me this. Love the production made and the narration. Splendid work.

[@QuestingBeast]

Here's a trick for doing investigation games. Rather than having them roll for the clues or automatically giving clues to them, require them to actually find the clues and puzzle out the mystery for themselves. If they miss the clues or can't solve it, advance the game by activating the threat that they were trying to stop. Didn't solve the mystery of where the cult's ritual was taking place? They complete their ritual and now there's a horrible monster to deal with.

[@VitorRedes]

The thing is: You know you don't need that beucase someone created it first... so, yeah, I agree we don't need a lot of stuff in our game, but we know that because we can resume all this stuff given the fact that someone created it.

[@Wolfphototech]

*This is a good quick resolution to odd and rushed situations for arch-typical characters .* *But proficiency scores are great for none arch-typical characters .*

[@Carabas72]

Yep. You're not always going to have a Ranger handy to track through the woods, or a Cleric to deal with religious matters.

[@Wolfphototech]

@@Carabas72 Absolutely .

[@czero1243]

Of course any one can run things how they want. But it is the tendency of those who get lost in details and games companies that just want to sell you new charts, to create way too many specifics. These are over detailed abstractions that are too arbitrary to be measures of realism. Appreciate your consistent expert analysis that focuses on the actual reality, enjoyment of the game.

[@patkelley8293]

When we played as kids ( sometimes around a campfire) the rich kid with the books was the DM. And there was always this air of subterfuge as if we plotting against the DM. But we never spent much time in rule books, just had fun.

[@Born_Stellar]

8:15 "...behind that portrait of the goblin king" 🤣

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks for noticing. I have lots of Easter eggs hidden in the film footage.

[@TheEvilDM]

lol you are giving our secrets away! STOP! kidding.. Good Vid. This is something I figured out way back in the '80s and have been saying in all my videos over the years, "Books are guidelines, you rule the book, not the other way around"

[@fightindice6227]

These videos feel "click-baity", I'd like to make an insight check...

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

I prefer the term "intriguing." Thanks for watching, Ryan!

[@MoragTong_]

I would rather you make an intelligence check. If you clicked on the video hoping for a true "secret" then you're too stupid to get the point of the video regardless of the title. Go watch Matt Colville "critically role" all the newbs instead.

[@alanbarrett8311]

@psychotronik13 That's because the REALLY secret ones are secret...;-)

[@DarthBoberEXMinMaxMunchking]

For a party of 5-6 lvl14+ players, I super heavily rely on passive ability/skill checks. First couple of levels I asked for more rolls, now I just use the "With your passive Investigation of 17 you found XYZ in the room" shortcut.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

I allow players to find nearly 100% of clues and secret passages if they say they're searching for them.

[@DarthBoberEXMinMaxMunchking]

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Yeah, if you want the players to get something, you don't hide it behind a roll.

[@stantheman8175]

The advice I gained at the tender age of 16 was "...for all ameteures planning to give a performance; speak up, and keep the act moving!" The players never know the difference... AMEN!

[@Rabbit-the-One]

I'm a new DM, but not licensed. Where do I apply for/test for a licensing?

[@swaghauler8334]

GENCON or ORIGINS.

[@davewilson13]

Our representatives are reaching out to you now.

[@teeprice7499]

@@swaghauler8334 meh

[@MarkLewis...]

To this account... send me 100 gold pieces, 1 batwing, and a scribe-copied form of your DM test. Meet "Ranthar the Hooded One" at "The Green Dragon Inn" precisely at sunset, on the next Durin's Day, and await my further instructions. TELL NO ONE!!!

[@TubeHeader]

TSR

[@NobleWolf]

I figured this out long before reading much on guides when I started DMing. I am ok at it, but this did fill in a couple blanks in my info when it comes to AC

[@is-be6725]

Thank you for your absolution. I feel better already.

[@Xion_Toshiro]

I love how you alter your voice; and make the video sound more cryptic, very film noir like.

[@Titan360]

I love this idea! I even kind of have worked up a simplification for skills associated with each of the 5e classes, which, no are not supposed to be a hard and fast rule, but can inform the players of what a class MIGHT be good at: Warrior classes get lower DCs with soldiering, leading, protecting, quick or impressive heroics Scout classes are better at stealth, climbing, balancing, swimming, and not slipping to death Crook classes are skilled at crimes, cons, disguise, street smarts, and trap dismantling. Forester classes are skilled at Wilderness survival, Alertness, Wild Animals, and Herbalism. Sage classes are NEEERRRDDDSS! Templar classes are good at Religious lore, meditation, medicine, and Divine...stuff. Fighters and Barbarians are Warriors, most Arcane Spellcasters are Sages, Clerics are Templars, Druids are Foresters. Paladins are Warrior/Templars, Rogues are Scout/Crooks, Monks are Warrior/Scout/Templars, Rangers are Warrior/Scout/Foresters, and Bards are Scout/Crook/Sages who can perform music! Some races and career paths expand the character's archetype (Elditch Knight Fighters are Warriors AND Sages). Multi-classers only get a Difficulty reduction based on the number of levels they have in the appropriate class. Of course, everybody gets better at these rolls with level, but having the right class speeds things up. No hard and fast rules, just things to remind the DM of when s/he's determining the DC.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

That's a cool idea. Just a list that says your rogue is skilled at charming people, fast-talking, and disguise is enough.

[@Titan360]

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Well...rogues (and bards) are good at all those things PLUS picking locks/pockets, infilitration, and disarming traps. Also, the "Scout" skill list is just a placeholder for all of those stealthy and nimble classes who use Dex and movement skills, but AREN'T thieves, which is why there are no "pure" scout classes. (Because, otherwise, I would just divide the skills by their Associated Ability Score, like that house rule on pg. 263 of the 5e DMG. It would even make sense with this system because EVERYTHING is now just an ability check...)

[@Titan360]

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Also...I kind of wanted to break classes up from their associated ability scores. Dumbo the Fighter has low intelligence? Nobody with experience and passion for their job is just dumb. Fighters are more than just strong, they are TRAINED SOLDIERS and can repair siege weapons, recognize a strategic ploy, or organize an army, so Dumbo might actually the BEST choice for certain types of intelligence checks. Classes pick up facts about their jobs as they level up.

[@elgatochurro]

For skills though... im quite strict about it "If the fighter and mage" to me, it depends on who they are... so the fighter could be an eldritch knight, skilled in magic, or not skilled in magic as another fighter archetype... or have training in arcana from his past, whatever his proficiency is Especially for the mage, is this a wizard whos used to spell scrolls? or a bard? warlock? sorcerer? cleric? furthermore im quite strict on having proficiency, a fighter who doesnt use arcana, isnt proficient with it at all, has a decent or low intellegence... is going to have a nearly impossible DC set for determining the scroll or notes written by a magic user, vs the mage. First off if they aren't proficient i outright make some things impossible, and others nearly impossible... this is so the party members who are TRAINED in a skill arent outshined by jsut a lucky roll... scenario: the group wants to move a alrge boulder that feel behind them, bl coking the cave exit... if the PIXIE BARD, or even a halfling rogue gets a 20 and succeeds without even having any decent strength or athletics prof., the fighter who is actually investing in his strength is going to look meek and useless comparatively... i dont feel like having that happen... Your Scenario: a spellscroll or notes in code by a necromancer should be pretty damn hard to understand, not only would i require prof, but i might have the Dc be high like 20, so only those really intelligent and invested in arcana or investigation can make it out, and if they get close like 15 or over, ill give them some idea or hints on it, but not the full thing. But yeah removing the skill system entirely could work

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Thanks for the thoughtful response!

[@egoalter1276]

I feel like the skill system is a prosthesis for those without intuition or creativity. It is a crutch best discarded as one gains experience. It isnt granular enough to generate any sort of playpattern, tje way it is improved is uninteractive and arbitrary, and detatched from the actioms taken by the player, and its weight on the potemtial course of the story is overemphasised for how poorly developed it is.

[@elgatochurro]

@@egoalter1276 It does seem to be the case... outside of weird "can i roll unrelated skills and stats to this situation?"

[@egoalter1276]

@@elgatochurro I feel like it shouldnt so much be a hard numerical system, just a list of proficiencies. As a result of your experiences so far, you have gained familiarity with X Y and Z fileds. maybe have an associative scale, like dabbling/novice/expert/master. And then have the players convince the DM it is applicable to the situation. Or develop it to be much more of an in depth simulation, based on combat rules. As it stands it is often a worst of both worlds solution.

[@elgatochurro]

@@egoalter1276 personally, swade is just better and works with any setting you wish The characters have stats, they're allowed to put skills WHERE THEY WANT up to meeting their stats and further past that if they REALLY desire to. But like rn I've 2 players with 0 fighting training but d8 agility training, one has a gun and shooting d8 and the other has dumped most their stats into smarts and spell casting based on it. They're doing fine, a little too extreme and thus vulnerable imo but they're living. Just that the player themselves can be in charge of their character with a very open class less system. Compared to 5e which is so rigid it's suffocating. Like EVERYONE kills monsters so easily just by the basic class options compared to "yeah I'm a pacifist" "yeah this characters a warrior, everything focused in combat and little else" to any in-between.

[@toshley6192]

I actually do like this method. It removes a lot of the tedious character sheet references that happen every time I call for a skill check. I see some other comments about how it would remove customization from characters, but I disagree; the 5e rules as written are far more restrictive in terms of allowing your character to be bad at something. I just made a Tortle Circle of Wildfire Druid who knows very little about plants and animals. His connection with and understanding of nature is based around the 4 elements. With the standard 5e rules, I have a bonus to my animal handling skill as a result of my high Wisdom, even though I am not proficient, and know very little about animals or their behavior. Using his rules, he could just set the DC as a difficult for me, and my character wouldn't have a mechanic that tells me I'm supposed to be good at animal handling. Or a nature check about plant life could have a high DC, where a nature check about earth/fire/air/water could have a low DC. One campaign that I run has experienced players who know how to handle all the ability score and proficiency mechanics, so it would be a matter of fixing something that isn't broken, and they'd have to get used to a different and unique way of doing things. I'm about to start a larger group of new players this weekend, and I think I might try doing it this way. With 5+ new players, this would save quite a lot of time that would otherwise be spent looking for each +modifier every time I ask them to roll a skill check.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

I may have a video on running larger groups in the near future. We'll see.

[@tomdulski3729]

the ability to guesstimate, very interesting

[@jorgeroblesreyes9254]

I use in my custom sheets for my players "knowledge" they note what knowledge have depending in their class and background. Example fighter and soldier BG have war knowledge. So any dead body they see can make an easy check o just tell them if the wounds are from a weapon or not (maybe a roll can determinate what kind of weapon and if the weilder is good at it) But i am gona star to use this quick check skills a realy big thx for sharing this secret

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

No problem!

[@vincejester7558]

Proficiencies are aspirational. If a player thought to write it on their character sheet it is something they WANT to be able to do. It's worth a +1 or 2 bonus for the forethought. That's also why proficiencies are limited, so the player also has to prioritize those aspirations. This is where I feel role playing and character creation is appropriate and desirable.

[@knghtbrd]

I'm going to make an unaimed shot and hope I make a good roll: No player should EVER fear knowing the contents of this video. But ideally a player should never know if the outcome was automatic because they decided to do X, predetermined based on a module or the DM's preparation, made up literally the moment before the player makes a roll, or even prepared to be a roll of a given difficulty in advance, but altered on the fly for story and pacing purposes. As long as they never know what's random and the story keeps moving without the players feeling they've been shoehorned into anything … the game will keep moving and the players are likely to have fun!

[@Number767]

Jokes on you, I already roll 1s.

[@Matt_Sorensen]

I'm a new DM but I feel like my group and I just kinda see the numbers as a means to an end. I do want to know the rules well but I don't want to slow the game down if I don't, and our group is a casual, 3+ beers a player kinda group so that works best for us and it's always more fun that way. For example, last session our sorcerer used a bonus action for two handed fighting and rolled a Nat 20 and killed the goblin on first damage die but I didn't want the 20 and second damage die to go to waste so I said that she swung her second sword with such strength that it slipped and hit the other goblin 10 feet behind the first one, slicing it in half (both damage rolls were very high). Sure I broke the rules a lil but it sped up combat and everyone enjoyed the moment. That's what DnD is all about right?

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

Yes. I would also permit that cool move.

[@Thr3ad3ater]

I would love to play in one of your games. Your style seems like a perfect method for quick, bloody, sword and sorcery flavored fantasy, I'll bet they're loads of fun!

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

I run games at GenCon, so it's a possibility.

[@Arnsteel634]

I would never make it that difficult for a thief to use a traditional thief skill.

[@wh3nderson95]

Something I evolved as a DM is when a player needs to make a jump to the ground. A person in armor is going to need to succeed a roll because equipment can really hurt ankles. While a character who is naturally acrobatic would need to succeed a low roll. I usually make failing small checks usually be a d4 in terms of damage.

[@JaredHayter]

Rather than remove proficiency from 5E, what I prefer to do is replace specific skills with a more generous version of the background proficiency option from the DMG. If it's reasonable that some aspect of the character's race, class, or background would aid them in accomplishing a task, they can add their proficiency bonus to the roll. This way we can have characters with different levels of detail being played in the same game. This works especially well for guest players: I can give them a simpler set of stats (Physical & Mental bonuses, Class bonus, AC, HP, and DMG) and they can more or less compete with the other players while requiring less mental overhead.

[@Joshuazx]

1:02 "warning...only licensed dungeon masters may view this content." I think you should bring back the concept of a Dungeon Master License.

[@DUNGEONCRAFT1]

I have a sequel called "The Secret Number Every DM Needs to Know." It airs next Monday or Tuesday. No mention of the DM license, but it's still really good. Look out for it. I think you'll like it.

[@Joshuazx]

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I look forward to it!

[@agsilverradio2225]

6:24 Proficiency are for character customization. Alot of the things you complain about are customization options for the player. Also, Just because your a ranger, does not automatically mean your good with animals. It's a ranger, not a rancher.

[@MogofWar]

The prolem presents itself when you have not allocated enough skill points/proficiencies to make your character know all the things that realistically most members of that class should know, much less use them to provide personal flavor of any sort.

[@agsilverradio2225]

@@goadfang So, TLDR, more "choices" don't always mean more creative freedom.