How to find a fantastic Dungeon Master

[@GMWorkshop]

Thanks to Zac, I started DMing and now, my house is filled with miniatures and books and I found true love, defeated a genie, became a genie, freed myself from being a genie, ate a bagel and then defeated the Byzantine empire! Thanks Zac!

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

It's true, I was there, I was the Byzantine empire

[@KillerKoala87c]

I too would like to eat a bagel. Dming here o come 😂

[@funnyplanet6787]

​@@ZacSpeaksGiantit's true indeed, as I was the bagel!

[@Vasilefs_Terranorum]

You dare stand against the eternal glory of Rome? The barbarism. The sheer barbarism.

[@YearZeroHero]

We just covered this on our podcast. The Mercer effect is actually a good thing. He’s not the problem, it’s that players can’t play to the concept of the game like his do. It’s not about scripting, CR plays the damn game without being nuisances at the table and do it looks scripted or improbable. Most gamers can’t help themselves and act out of pocket at the table. And they’ll continue to lament the Mercer Effect because they don’t understand they are the problem, not the DM.

[@funnyspeedrun84]

Shoutout to that guy who doesn’t play DnD cuz his Friends are Annoying. We need more honesty like that these days.

[@inciiopath]

People get understandably nervous seeing all the RPG Horror Stories and things like Critical Role where GMs are either really good or insanely bad, and they're scared they'll be the latter, but in reality these are the two *extremes*. 98% of GMs fall into the center, because 98% of campaigns aren't professionally recorded epics, or scripted content, or toxic friend groups. 98% of campaigns are you, your group of highschool friends, a whiteboard, and some plastic click clacks, just messing around and having fun. My best piece of advice that I've ever given new GMs: Just because *some* tables take this super seriously doesn't mean *you* have to take it super seriously. RPGs are about having fun. For some people, that's spending 10 hours on character creation and trying to outdo The Odyssey, and that's totally fine. But, and I mean this, almost every table you join up with is just low-stakes, fun stories with a bit of dice-roll minigames mixed in.

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

All of this is top notch advice I wish I included in the video

[@steffy9575]

Actually a really helpful and motivating video. I've been pondering about DMing for a bit to see what it'll be like. I might check out the DM Starter pdf and read the necessary rules, maybe find modules to run to get used to encounters. I think seeing this video was the "stars-aligning" moment for me hahaha 4:40 Initiative misspelled into Initative.

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

That typo will haunt me. Glad the video was helpful though, good luck DMing!

[@notyourbuisiness5675]

All I can say is I started DM'ing when I was technically only a few months into DND, as I joined a campaign that fizzled out after 1 session due to no more response from the DM, the second one people left gradually and also died down. I wanted to try and test my luck as a DM and give my friends, who were also DM less, a campaign. I made an entire homebrew world with lore and background i used the faerun pantheon but next to that everything was homebrew besides some basic creatures as I like to tell my story with my creations. ( big mistake but a great mistake in the end.) I started running two groups on the same campaign next to each other basically, I thought hey going over things twice gives me a chance to try things out that didn't go well in the first attempt and see how small or big changes affect the game. BAD IDEA, it was a lot of work and a lot of energy, and i don't regret doing it xD. I have to mention that I had no idea how the game worked except from the player perspective and even that was bare bones due to my lack of actual play time. You don't need to know much, just find some experienced people that are okay with you being a newbie and they will help you out along the way. the campaign is running for a year now and most of both starting parties are still there with a few that left and new additions along the way. I love my campaign and I enjoy DMing but i wish i did things a bit more differently. DON'T THINK TOO MUCH, JUST START As said in the video DMing isnt difficult, its intimidating YES!!! So don't think about that too hard. just throw something together and test it out. You soon realize there isn't much to be stressed about. (except if you didn't prep a session but you promised them one) DO NOT START WITH A CAMPAIGN. a friend of mine that is also in one of the parties got his hopes up with DMing because of me and he wants to do a one shot in my world. This is something i should have done. A one shot. It gives u a great idea of what you can do and its okay if you kill someone due to unbalance at the end fight and guestimate a bit better how to balance things out. This is by far the best advice I can give. Make it small lighthearted and fun. So its also fun for yourself. I thought in the beginning I would burn out with the amount of work i threw at myself. In the end I figured out how to best DM for myself (which is different for everybody else) and am able to do the just right amount of work i need to be ready for a session and have it go smoothly. Find your way to DM. What works for one doesn't work for everyone. Good luck to all who will start, I am rooting for you ^^

[@thelogicallarynx4380]

My biggest mental hurdle has been to DMing has been the idea of building encounters. I have very little experience with DnD (tons of hours watching, but a collective week or so of playing). I don't even know where to start to learn this stuff

[@mysticwizard1943]

It was mentioned briefly in the video but running prewritten adventures is an excellent learning tool for new DMs. They give you pretty much everything you need to succeed as a DM, but rarely have I felt like I was in such a box that I couldn't take creative liberties with how npc's were portrayed, the sequence of events, or the ebb and flow of difficulty. You'll pick up how things like balancing encounters works through osmosis as you'll have been given plenty of examples of "by the numbers" encounters, and you can apply that to your own creations. The way that I got more comfortable (after running some prewrittens and moving on to creating my own world) was to build encounters using the guidelines in the DMG, then just running them myself with a group of "dummy" characters of the appropriate level as if it were an average day of adventuring (accounting for short rests). Run the day a few times (to account for the randomness of dice) and in a few different orders, and you'll have a pretty good idea as to whether it's too easy or too hard. Too easy? See where you can add a few extra bad guys (while trying not to break the action economy) or buff one up with some extra HP. Too hard? Look at which encounters drain the party of resources or contain some heavy hitters and dial them back. Give the day another run and see how it goes. Admittedly this is a pretty time consuming process and you could just go by the standard "six to eight medium to hard adventures in a day" and hope for the best, but for one I just enjoy solo play and would do this for fun even if I wasn't prepping a session, and for another it's nice to know if I'm heading into a potential TPK (which is fine when playing with an established group, but still nice to be prepared for). DnDBeyond's encounter builder does a lot of the calculations for you by determining the difficulty category and XP mulitpliers, which made this process a lot quicker.

[@fisherjam5182]

I recommend you just play around with the health and damage values as you play. Players usually don't track the enamys health or have stock monsters health memorised so you can tweak that as you go. As for damage I'd say generall rule you don't want any one attack to do more than 10 or so damage and just have more attacks if you need to hit more. If you have acsidentaly made any one monster too strong target the party's tanks if the damage dice are too low go for the sqishies. As the DM you have a lot of control on the tension generally

[@notyourbuisiness5675]

@@fisherjam5182 Indeed something i do as well, If I overpower something the HP goes down and certain abilities disappear. Another thing I do is I work with reinforcements: the fight starts and I throw a small amount of enemies that would give them technically a medium fight, chill. See how that goes for 2-3 rounds and if they are to easy i let more pore in and different varieties to make it to the scale i want. If they prove to be more difficult then i anticipated well it becomes a difficult fight but the balance should be good and there is no reinforcements. They have no clue what i kept behind.

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

There's some great advice in the comments that have already been posted. Definitely use pre-written adventures to get a good benchmark (although early level fights can be a bit tough in pre-written stuff). Also, feel free to change things on the fly during a combat - maybe that monster will suddenly have a few less hitpoints if your players are already in rough shape. The other thing is to not take combat too seriously, especially if your players don't. It can sometimes be the funniest part of the game. Most of all, this will come with experience - cut yourself some slack - encounter design is something I'm constantly trying to do better at as well.

[@imperfectimp]

A lot of people gave some good input, but here's my 2 cents: even the pro's struggle with making encounters. CR often doesn't fully represent a monster's capabilities. A good way to run a combat is to play the monsters dumber and less strategic when your players start to struggle and have backup drop in when you feel like the players are just wiping the floor with your baddies. Don't feel tied to your original notes and feel free to improvise. Just be careful with Deus Ex Machina moments as they tend to take away player agency and makes them feel useless.

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

If you are dissuaded by the "you're an adult" thing, Matt Colville (not mercer, but the do know each other I think) sais 15 is the ideal age to start, and that's ideal, not minimum, so go nuts

[@huxleyleigh4856]

My DM-ing is very image based. Like: here's a cool thing that would be really fun to describe and maybe evoke something in the players. And then I have trouble finding ways to bring these up organically that feels as little railroady as possible.

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

I actually DM in a very similar way, I think of an interesting scene or encounter, and work backwards. I think there's a real harsh backlash online against anything that seems 'railroading' but honestly it's not a bad thing to have a direction and a goal you're leading the players towards - just always be mindful of incentivising the goal, and creating a threat to keep them moving toward it. No one complains about railroading when it makes sense to follow the tracks.

[@huxleyleigh4856]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant Thanks so much! I'll try to do more to create a credible threat

[@AGIANTWEASEL]

I know this was Dm advice but I found myself fondly entranced by Zach’s super sexy N64 on his bookshelf. That’s nostalgia right there.

[@notwithoutcid]

Being a DM: anyone can do, sure. it is easy to do. Being a DM that can keep players entertained, immersed, and continue to show up to scheduled sessions long-term: basically impossible (likely would be the case even for the Mercer and Mulligan types if the players weren't getting paid)

[@TheLyrical]

This is so helpful actually, thank you, sir!!

[@dannyswagster2725]

My buddy got me this exact starter set for Christmas! I tried running it for our house of 3 last night. I have never DM'd and have limited time as a player and ooooo boy what an adjustment that was... lol.

[@ronanrogers784]

Ok but I was zoned out for half of it admiring Narsîl in the background

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

Just waiting for Sauron to try somethin'

[@MarcusBeirne]

I've DM'ed 4 or 5 times so far, twice for groups that have never played D&D 5e before. Group 1 only one player of 3 had played any TTRPG, my latest group was 7 players, only 3 had played TTRPGs before. I did not once open a rulebook or need to check the Players Handbook or Monster Manual. All you need is to know the Basic Rules, and the adventure you are running that season. And time, and players. Anyone can be a DM.

[@conlon4332]

How do I find players? I don't have any friends.

[@conlon4332]

My biggest problem is that I need friends. Friends who would be even vaguely interested in playing it with me, or any friends at all. How do I find people? I don't care how easy it is to DM if I don't have anyone to play with.

[@Siegfrido]

My worst enemy when dm'ing is myself... Yeah I'd really love to be like Matt or like Brennan... But I know that I don't need to be anybody else but me... Then I'd really like to deliver something I'd find cool and engaging. Create a cool world and feel accomplished by it. What I end up having, because of adult stuff and no time for preparing, are nice dungeons for combat but just that. My players conveniently end up being killing machines and really enjoy exploring the dungeons I make for them, we all have fun, but I feel that I could give them more and I'm not able.

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

Here is how to be a dm: 1. Make sure people feel safe and welcome at your table 2. Be prepared for nothing to work, and don't give up on trying to make it go on anyways 3. Get some copy if the rules like the free pdf (5E SRD) online, and dice or just use a free rolling sim online. 4. Friends, you need friends, see step one for guidence the rest is luck. 5. I don't know this step, but Matt Colville sais there is pizza in there somewhere? Idk watch his running the game series, the first five videos is all you'll ever need. And the rest is just getting better. The skill floor is nothing, it's unskilled labour, willingness to do it and showing up is all it takes, Matt Colvilles running the game has five short videos that will take you through a surprisingly hood first time if you want it to be good, and if you have money, there is a starting kit with all you need and more. Listen, be a DM, suck at it, and even so everyone will love it and you will all have a great time. There are some risks • If there is an asshole at the table whose goal is making everyone feel awful. Solution, tell them to cut it or fuck off, mean it. • Someone (possably you as the DM) having a panic attack. Solution, memorise that passage from dune, or have supporting friends, I do both, works wonders. • You make a mistake as a DM and realize too late, feeling like you let your friends down, and you're a terrible DM. Solution... listen, this happens to everyone, more when you're new, but even Matt Mercer has slogs. Just get through it, accept it, let it go, and do better next week, or even take a break if needed, dw, you're all in it togeather trying to have fun, it's just a game, and I say that having been a DM for six years and outright deaming it my favorite thing to do, beating sex, music concerts or band jam sessions, writing fiction, and it ties with having a loving and supportive mother who accepts, supports and fights for me even through my queer neurodivergent shenanigans, in spite of all her own struggles. Ok that last one is like slightly better than D&D, and another caveat, when I say D&D I mean TTRPG's, including other games like gurps or call of cthulhu, its not just the one brand. Anyways, run D&D, fuck up, have fun. ❤

[@crassiewassie8354]

I think a lot of people have an expectation that a DM: Knows all the spells, Has played every class, Understands how every class works. I think that's expecting too much from someone who wants to have fun for a few hours. And also that kind of knowledge is only obtained by playing. You shouldn't go and memorize all of the classes before you play the game. You should just play the game.

[@RyanNerdyGamer]

After months of procrastination on starting my hypothetical campaigns, in just two days of stumbling onto and bingeing this channel, I’m both motivated _and_ hyped to get back into my DMing duties without delay. @ZacSpeaksGiant, you’ve achieved the impossible by making me excited about D&D all over again. You’re a legend. 👍🏻

[@lucasrider4895]

I'm a new SM (Star Master) for my group that is playing in the StarFinder System and I am super excited. I have a tendency to prep at the last minute but keep notes on thoughts I have through out the day to make my game exciting. I am actually making my own lore with the lore of the Knights of Golarion faction and its fun but pretty stressful because I want to bring something to the table that my player's will enjoy. I'm using world anvil and notes to build my own "Module". I hope I can run at least my first campaign for 50ish sessions. Any tips for a fledgling DM/GM/SM on improving a totally homebrew'd campaign with the previous aforementioned SF Lore GM to make my game compelling to play for at least 50 sessions?

[@kingsilas3467]

I always struggle with running anything outside of combat, like actual npc interactions designing plots that motivate the party and stuff, plus making party members notice the easy defeat gimmicks some of my monsters have without just telling them

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

There's a good T. S. Eliot quote, 'good writers borrow, great writers steal'. If you're having trouble with plots or characters, look to what kind of movies/shows/books etc. that *you* really love. Then make your own twists on them. The other thing to keep in mind, a good rule of thumb is to always have an incentive and a consequence. Make a reason they're going into adventure - maybe tie it into one of your player's backstories. And also create a consequence - some clear danger, a time limit to push them towards that goal. Those two things will immediately make your plot feel more driven.

[@kingsilas3467]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant thank you! That’s some great advice that I’m going to use on the campaign I’m writing right now.

[@spicysalad3013]

I ran a oneshot for my mom where I just gave up and said "remember you're fighting a VAMPIRE and there is a TREE GROWING THROUGH THE ROOF OF THIS ABANDONED CHURCH so there's A PATCH OF SUNLIGHT" because the vampire could heal itself every turn and my mom's characters (she can't ever pick one character and loves playing two at the same time) were losing the war of attrition I don't feel bad tho because the oneshot was mostly to test homebrew I'd made anyway (the race my mom helpfully played as for me) and that part was successful

[@Mayiamaru]

In my very first session as a DM, I didn't like reading rules. Just threw all caution to the wind and just started looking up stuff I thought was fun. My players were my very first DM and two players from that campaign I started in as a player. So I set up a campaign set in a little town at the base of a mountain where children were going missing. They were being led away by a warlock into a cabin in those mountains. The first encounter they had on their way to deal with that was in the forest where they had run into a bear and decided to attack it. It was a black bear. THe DM had minmaxed himself a sneak attacking rogue. Well, he critically failed, got crit by the bear, and died in one hit. Since that wasn't fun, through the power of the goddess of life, I brought him back and the chaotic evil rogue became a devout worshipper of that goddess and ended up seducing one of the nuns into being his girlfriend when they had to go back to the town to regroup. They went out again to deal with the magic kidnapper, but I didn't want them just up and dying again, so I held back a bit and they ended up killing the warlock. Hooray! The cabin was simple, but the basement was bigger and the kids stashed there. On the body of the warlock (that they obviously looted) was a Bag of Holding. Some of the kids that were lured away were missing. There was no blood. The rogue takes the warlock's hand and starts putting it in and out of the Bag of Holding. Until I have to reveal that is was a Bag of Devouring. They were level 3 characters in 3.5e. I... didn't pay attention to the CR, just thought it would be an interesting lil story. No one else was eaten by the bag. Also, I still don't give a crap about CR :3 But a zap happy rapier wielding cleric has stabbed a level 14 warlock in the back while he was at low HP because his conscious got the better of him and he kinda half admitted that he might've unleashed the undead that 'killed' her mama.

[@mariatserpe8730]

Zac, that was a great video, I do have a question I'd love to hear your thoughts about tho. I've DMed a couple of times, enough to realize I am a better DM than a player and I enjoy it more as well however I tend to want to run grand stories with focus on roleplay, drama and eldritch forgotten gods... Aka not campaings I can just create in one sitting and even after creating the basics I need to keep going back to edit and rework to make perfect... This whole process and love of mine for a dnd game that makes my players think (and hopefully invested too) takes a lot of effort and time from me, energy and brain space that I shouldn't be filling with a hobby such as this when I'm also trying to start my music career which also requires a lot of time and energy. I guess what I wish to manage at some point is to find a balance between the two... Do you have any tips on how I could keep my signature four dimensional NPCs and mysterious world building without making my campaign creation so time and energy consuming?

[@mikek6298]

I spend about a month or two creating an outline, usually 1-2 sentences of each 1-3 session adventure, and a paragraph for each major NPC. Then, I come to my players with a synopsis, and they make characters to fit. Then the week of that adventure is just a matter of prepping the technical aspects. I've had great success with ~6 month to year long campaigns using this method, to the point where the last session was half playing, half reminiscing about past campaigns. I'll also note that I don't play D&D, but Shadowrun. I mention this because the system is designed for this type of storytelling structure. You might need to adjust this method to your game, or find a system that fits your storytelling style.

[@mariatserpe8730]

@@mikek6298 interesting... I'll check out Shadowrun and see what I can do, thank you ^^

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

This is a really good question, I think DnD is one of those hobbies that can quickly take up a huge amount of your time. Couple things I think you could do: 1. Find the bits of the DMing process that you don't find joy in, and use pre-published content. I love writing the plot and story, but will often just use monsters straight out of the manual but re-skinned. If you like the NPCs and worldbuilding, maybe use a pre-published adventure and reskin it to make your life easier. Or just pull plots 2. Trust yourself to impov. I used to pour a huge amount of time into prep, myself, but when I started to rely on my experience and ability to adjust to the player's actions I found myself prepping less. It can be a bit scary to do, but I believe in you. 3. Have a chat to your players. I think a big part of why we put so much time and energy is partly because we want out players to have fun. Letting them know that maybe you don't have as much time to put towards this campaign to adjust their expectations (or your own expectations) will go a long way in feeling okay about devoting less time to prepping.

[@mikek6298]

@@mariatserpe8730 Shadowrun certainly isn't for everyone. I wouldn't recommend it for you if you're looking to reduce prep. It's more important that you understand how the setting and system of your own game influence things like adventure length and character advancement. For example, D&D 5e expects a lot longer adventures than what my group covers in 1-3 sessions. If I were writing for a D&D campaign, I'd probably write 3-5 adventures/acts of one huge adventure, then break each of those into 3-5 acts that more loosely fit my 1-3 session structure. This method will not create as detailed an adventure as you will want. Speaking from experience, nothing short of writing a novel with Tolkien levels of unwritten backstory will. This method does however produce consistently memorable and fun campaigns for both me and my players without breaking my brain or taking a decade to prep. Actually, doing the math, if you do a 5/3 act structure and level at every mini-act, you're looking at a lvl 1-15 (or 3-18) campaign about every year including time off for prep/cancellations. That's a pretty great pace to aim for if you ask me. Zac's points are also all great. Particularly the one about stealing from prewritten stuff

[@mariatserpe8730]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant Oh man that's good advice... I'm already doing no1 (basically I took Curse of Straad and filled it with drama and crazy horrors) and it has drastically helped me actually make something manageable instead of worrying about filling whole continents with stuff no one will ever see any time soo. The second point you made is a super important skill and frankly you're totally right, I should try to work on that Talking to your players and setting limits on what both they and I can expect is maybe the best advice I've gotted for this issue as it immediately makes me worry less about having to give it my all at a great cost... Thanks again, reading your comment definitely made me understand my situation better and so feel more confident in going forward with it in the future ^^

[@sofielee4122]

me: "yeah! im gonna make D&D spice and wolf!! my players are all gonna be just as nerdy as me and thus will LOVE pre-industrial intra- and inter- city socioeconomics! i can even include some spicy stuff, maybe have an anarchist village they visit!" me, three sessions later: "please stop hyperfixating on the frog man i created as a one off bit. i will drop an anvil on his head if you don't do something else"

[@ShedHead-wx9lv]

I’m not adult human, I be a young pirate man

[@thebrotatochip32]

I want to start DMing to do funny dnd games where dice rolls are replaced with cards against humanity and other goofy dnd variants I have found on this channel. luckily I have a game club at my school with people who would be more then willing to help me learn the ins and out of of the DM

[@dudester5334]

Yea, I finally had the guts to make an ad for a campaign and was immediately hit with a full party of folks. They now all work for dnd doofenshmirtz in a steampunk world with a campaign inspired by the D&D 3.5 book “Elder Evils”, and yes, I do it while mimicking his voice. I do a good food impression. They are now aboard his rv labelled “the junk mobile” with strict instructions on not hitting the self destruct buttons. They must head out to stop a group of cultists known as the “Association for the Promotion of Enlightenment” or “APE” for short.

[@CatMomVeronica]

I have been wanting to try being a DM but haven’t thought I could do it but I’m going to buy myself a starter set and see when I can get my siblings to play with me and see how it goes. Kinda wish I could be a player for my first game though to see what that’s like but I don’t know any DMs or people who want to be DMs.

[@robbie.gordon]

i may be able to become a dm, but how do i find other people to play with?? i was gonna start playing with two of my friends, one of them DMing, but they're both in uni now, they don't quite have the time, and i'll be in uni next year! there's a tabletop cafe in the city near me but i have no idea how to approach that environment without someone who's already been.

[@davisranger]

Now I want to add a Frog Wizard to a game

[@colynrobinson212]

This video is from a year ago and I can say for the entire year since this came out I've had the opposite issue. I volunteered specifically to DM so that I could finally play D&D and get a group, unfortunately I just don't like people enough to get random players I've never met to learn with and none of my friends want shit to do with hanging out anymore.

[@robparker1742]

I actually find much less stressful than being a PC, I can just immerse myself ao much more in the game and the world when I'm not worrying about my Character sheet and making skill checks.

[@RyanNerdyGamer]

2:38 “You’re an adult.” That has yet to be proven… 😅

[@Highonskooma]

0:48 it’s bizinteen, not bizeenteen

[@pinklightninggacha]

My sister decided to flirt with the final boss

[@a58034]

I'm already the DM. Now all I need are friends, and make sure they aren't annoying people.

[@johannmueller9660]

I had a Bard in my group who said he insults the noblewoman... So I said, "Okay. Insult me. No roll, just throw out an insult." the bard said, "I want to have children... just not with you." The game took a collective pause for about 20 minutes as we all laughed out assess off.

[@teamcyeborg]

Now I'm curious; what IS your advice for a DM who can't verbalize vowel sounds?

[@dominicstevenson8816]

Every time I tried to join a DND group it didn’t work, the first time was me having no idea how it worked and it was pretty boring because we didn’t follow any of the rules because we didn’t know how it worked. Second time, me going to a board game store and just never signing up, third time was a club at school that did 30 min sessions once a week, the next year not enough people wanted to reform the club, forth time I “joined” a group that had a good length DnD session once a week, sometimes skipping a session because to many people were busy, after I joined the DND group they stopped having sessions becuase everyone was to busy (I didn’t even talk to the other members yet besides my two cousins that invited me). This stuff just isn’t working out for me despite me wanting to play (and spending money on the books). I once even asked my friend to play before most of the other stuff I listed happened and he said he didn’t want too. These bad rolls just won’t stop.

[@dominicstevenson8816]

Why, I didn’t know I wrote so much…

[@dominicstevenson8816]

Wow*

[@smolwyvernboi3250]

acquisitions incorporated is an amazing book

[@hardiehardley]

Thr main thing is just don't overthink it. Just have fun!

[@its_ira3154]

I’m planning to start a campaign with a group of people who have never played D&D before. I’m DMing (I’m also the only one who has played before, but as a player) and I’m having a bit of trouble on where to actually start with the character sheets. Im also a bit of a perfectionist and I’m worried I might skip something important. Im not quite sure what to do…😅

[@fiddleriddlediddlediddle]

The revercer effect

[@wowanothercookie]

Not me coming here as a forever DM hoping to find a way to play hahaha

[@QueenInBlack5]

I’ve gotten the rules and story and all that down at this point, but I’m still having trouble making NPCs and making them different from each other, any advice?

[@robparker1742]

Borrow characters from other stories and media. If your NPC is important enough for you to have to flesh them out and your having trouble ask yourself what is their function, find a character in another story/medium that serves the same function and base them off of that. If you're not above some to gue in cheek humour you can even work real life cultural references to act as a shortcut ("dost thou remberest the epic poem known as Die hard", "you will of course be aware of the traditional folk tale of mean girls and are surprised by the resemblance to the character of.regina George). If it's more of coming up with NPCs on the fly because your bard decides they have no choice but to talk to the drunk in the corner you added for set filler there are a few options: have a few stock character types hat you return to every time (like Nurse joy in Pokémon), you could try and imagine someone you know and how they would react, or you can just invent a reason that the person can't/won't talk to the player

[@kevinwatkins3710]

When i didnt have friends who played, i decided to DM a game of Edge of the empire, 5 years and 3 campaigns later now i am always the GM/DM, only problem is now i want to try D&D but i have decision paralysis as to where and when to start DMing a D&D game, any advice for a long term campaign, not a starter adventure?

[@colbyboucher6391]

I don't know, I always thought the Matt Mercer Effect was the general cultural shift towards big overwrought storylines and characters with twenty page backstories leading to DMs being terrified of just letting players die because they screwed up. ...Which I think is pretty well illustrated by the Critical Roll fandom collectively flipping their lid at that exact thing happening in their latest campaign. Of course I also just think D&D 5e specifically makes GMing harder than it has to be but that's a different story

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

5e definitely does put more in the hands of the GM, but personally I feel like it's less "here's the rules you need to know" and more "just make something up that makes sense". I prefer giving the GM the power to make a situation make sense.

[@colbyboucher6391]

@@ZacSpeaksGiant I agree that that's the direction 5e moves towards, but then it's got allll this fluff in the PHB that *does* focus on specific situations. And generally it's either: Nostalgia bait from old D&D that doesn't really make much sense in a 5e context and aren't very well thought out anyways (see 5e's encumbrance system, travel rules, discussions on what it costs to live a normal life or to buy a carriage, donning / doffing armor, the light radius and burn time of torches, etc.) where WotC has a "well it's optional" excuse to hide behind Or if it's really important actually, like how Darkvision actually works in practice, it's scattered in three of four different places. 5e just comes across to me as a game that's trying to please the "just make it up as you go" crowd while also trying to appease older D&D players who were upset by 4e and wanted a return to the old procedural dungeon crawling days. And while people might have managed to wrangle something decent out of it through years of play and not really knowing anything else, I'm not sure it was very successful at either. I think it's community just hammered it into something semi-coherent because D&D is the one with the KZbin rep that literally sits on Barnes & Noble shelves. Because frankly, there's a lot of games to cater to that looser, more narriative style and generally they actually support it through rules om how to play like that rather than just going "we won't tell you how to do this because you should do it yourself".

[@ElectroTiger]

Is that Mr. Wee Wulligan in the thumbnail?

[@gaurdians1]

I want to DM a game, but I don't have any friends and I'm afraid of strangers (hence not having any friends...). What do?

[@JoyWheeler1981]

Ok, fair enough, but how would you help the forever DM who wants to play but is always the one to dm.

[@Loch_Nessie9]

I really want to start dming but I don’t know how to get a party

[@Flowtow]

My issue is that my friends live hundreds of miles apart and im too lazy to find new ones.

[@magusofthelibrary]

Doing it online and with face cams is how many people play these days. My group was irl back in the day, but I wouldn't be opposed to an online game if I ever play again

[@dentescare]

Me sweating profusely bc i might end as a dm as my friend doesn't feel very kind as a possible dm xdd

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

You're going to do great!

[@StarboyXL9]

I'd play DnD but that would require having friends.

[@darkdragonsoul99]

Oh trust me I'm not the DM I'm barely capable of playing social anxiety kickes my ass hard enough When I'm a cog in the machine let alone the guy in control. I tried once and I straight up had a panic attack

[@matowekleshmitz2921]

Literally all of my campaigns are impromptu. By my third campaign I stopped writing a script and only writing down characters and item descriptions.

[@Adameia_]

my problem is lack of time and lack of friends lol but maybe one day

[@songbird7879]

Great I was thinking of DMing it is hard making a good Session from scratch but I have some ideas but I need a little help with the inspiration Can you do something like that video with ideas for a session

[@Fieryforger]

I have trouble narrating the environment as a dm

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

I actually struggled with the same thing. I would always gloss over the environment descriptions and get on to the action too quickly. I found that writing down a few lines about the cities or the next rooms of the dungeons they were entering as part of my prep slowly got me into the habit of describing them more. If you're looking for good examples, pre-published adventures often have a little bit of flavour text for each major room of a dungeon, have a look through the (free) Mines of Phandelver adventure.

[@nyankers]

by far the hardest part about dming or playing any tabletop is consistency you take one or two nights off because of life, and bam, the whole game's dead

[@hydragamedev025]

4:07 Jesus you look so evil

[@MVS-team]

I have a campaign I just don’t have anyone to play with

[@meng_jan]

None of my friends want to DM and most of them are murderhobo's I have tried DMing but i'm bad at explaining things.

[@otbaht]

agreed. dming isn't that hard. sure you wanna admit when you're new in case you mess up, but still. Of course I've dm'd for nearly a decade and was even registered with wotc as a dm without knowing it at one point >

[@kennethhirsch5066]

I can't storytelling or strategy. I have amazing plans and great campaign ideas but little details and moveset is a issue. Additionally, I'm not the best at improv. I'm decent but could be so much better.

[@nimlouth]

Alternatively, grab a copy of Dungeon World and actually get a full game that's playable forever without any addons (other than dice) and that ACTUALLY teaches you how to be an amazing GM in a fraction of the text that D&D shoves in your eyes.

[@TheRusty]

Or do both, because this isn't high school and one can like one thing without sneering about another thing.

[@Thatguy-un4yq]

I feel absolute confidence on rules and mechanics but I'm just not a creative or even okay storyteller

[@solpolaris3733]

But what if we want unhinged frog wizard comments 🤔

[@ZacSpeaksGiant]

Then you've come to the right place

[@flamefists911]

I wanna play DnD but i Don't have IRL friends they live from far away I only talk through the internet

[@flamefists911]

I don't think scheduling is gonna be easy either we can't even schedule a Minecraft session

[@Vasilefs_Terranorum]

>Byzantine Empire The correct way to pronounce it is ‘Roman Empire’. Easier and more accurate.

[@Wolvesofhomnat]

Excuse me good sir dming is extremely hard............ when you can't stop making campaigns, worlds, and story lines *Stares distantly at the 17 campaigns, 6 living worlds, and 35 story lines, sadly* But seriously truth, it's simple don't go overboard with planning, make it simple on yourself, make a few quick npcs that can be placed anywhere and not fully written up simple background strengths and weaknesses, and when the players adopt a npc write it up then.

[@rosegoldwolfie8482]

My problem is I have no friends.....

[@syncagray]

I didn't dare to ruin the 666 likes - but I like!

[@rosemarykitten7686]

What if I want to make an economy and a working government and politics and nobles..?

[@darth_yoda]

I know I am in the waste minority but I actually never found Mat mercy to be a good DM. He is a good story teller but not a GM in my eyes he allows his players to get away with way to many things that should be impossible and also have illogical mob combination like in Vox Machinima were you have a number of diffrent types of evil dragons working together as a unified group. Something that would NEVER happen because of they massive EGO's A blue would never work with a red as Blue Dragons are honorable to a fault while Red Dragons are egotismaniacs that happy slaughter a village for the fun of it. Just to mention two of Dragons.. From a story stand point it sounds great but from a actual ingame monster description it do not work at all.

[@beesymybeloved]

i want to play dnd but my family isnt interested + i have literally 0 friends haha

[@beesymybeloved]

i also hate socializing + my voice so finding friends on discord is barely an option :(

[@randomworld-ik7tk]

I am allowed to play just notget the stuff. Anyone dm me. I Have 0 experience.

[@jdworlow]

For people that want to start DMing, and feel a need for physical maps and minis, you don't have to go fancy or expensive. You can use a whiteboard, or even just blank paper (if you're wondering about movement scale, use a ruler and set a fixed ratio - my standard is 1" = 5') and whatever sort of game pawns you have handy for minis. So what if your party Wizard is the Monopoly Thimble, the Barbarian the Wheelbarrow, and the Druid is the Dog, while the goblins are all M&Ms and Skittles (to be honest, using candies for monsters adds a fun twist where your players get to "eat their kills")? The real point of a mini is to mark where your characters are standing on a map, and the map is there to help show the shape and scale of the room you're in. You don't need fancy, hyper-realistic visuals, and you don't need to break your bank to play this hobby game; let the Warhammer players do that instead.

[@realityveil6151]

Yum, skittles that have been handled to death by a random sweaty nerd. Tasty! 🤮

[@jdworlow]

@@realityveil6151 Then, do a wrapped candy like Starburst.

[@reubenhaitsma2522]

2:35 your an adult. lol no.

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

Says its not that hard, convinces nobody Summarizes what people think you gotta do and then fails to pronounce byzantine empire. Ok, checks out I know that was deliberate, you ckever sod

[@LuckyBonez]

FIRST

[@realityveil6151]

Mercer is the worst thing to happen to DnD since 4th edition. I hate him with every fiber of my DM being.

[@holdmyshoe_]

I've learned something, thank you for the informative video kind sir