Interview a DM: Phil Robb

[@mcolville]

Throughout the video you can hear me agreeing with Phil as he's talking, I wanted to make sure he felt relaxed and it felt conversational, but it's pretty distracting to the listener. We could have pulled my audio down when Phil was talking but I wanted to get the video up today. I'll do better next time.

[@thecatspjs6714]

Matthew Colville we all like to hear you talk though

[@steveharrison76]

I honestly didn’t notice, mate. It gives it a podcast feel, if that helps!

[@InvictaHistory]

Thanks for all the hard work and carrying about all the minutia of your craft, it means a lot. The agreements did help it feel more like a natural conversation and to me was not problematic. I can see how others might obsess over something like that so your suggestion to lower your mic is a good one for the future.

[@brandonogden3498]

Matt, it's totally fine - I appreciate that you did this, and especially that got it uploaded so quickly! Hearing your agreement just makes it sound conversational instead of a hardcore interview - it's not a problem, just a change of tone.

[@Israelmadruga]

Relax man, we like you, we wait your content and i really would like if you interviewed other DM´s

[@bigcolor584]

Phil is my friend, former boss, former DM, current player in the Chain of Acheron, illustrator, character designer, executive art director, co-owner at turtlerock studio, the Unburnt, Protector of the seven Kingdoms, Prince of Dragonstone and the King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men.

[@q1w2e3621]

+

[@noahegler9131]

LMAO

[@kly8105]

You missed "the man who married my mother when i was 25" and "the man who subsequently married, and, had a child with my sister", "my stepbrother, and also my grandad and his own cousin thanks to timetraveling in our D&D sessions".

[@raweriio3306]

The thing of nouns

[@ChristophZak]

we ask matt for a campaign diary with phil and get an interview. he is truly a river to his people!

[@DyrgeAfterDark]

The Patreons pay me a Golden Treasure yet, I am Poor! For I am a River to my people.

[@cxfxcdude]

They both are

[@InvictaHistory]

Wohooo! So excited by these interviews which help share decades of experience with all of us new to the community!

[@tarareid8428]

I love when my favorite KZbinrs watch eachother, Invicta your videos have given me a lot of cool insights into world building when I play d&d!

[@ardinhelme687]

Same, I deployed the Every Day Moments, a Roman soldier prepares dinner description when my players made camp, it did a good job of grounding them in what life is like for their characters.

[@livrasyt166]

Ohhh hello Invicta! You here too? Why am I asking?it isn't actually that surprising.

[@InvictaHistory]

@@tarareid8428 Awesome to hear! I've actually been inspired by Matt do a little series on the history of Wargaming. My goal is to get to an episode on the history of D&D and share some of my own homebrew content I've been working on.

[@InvictaHistory]

@@livrasyt166 YES! Love Matt's content. Been working on my own homebrew world thanks to him as well. Here is a map I've made of my setting, the Shattered Realm imgur.com/deMtPME

[@dorkseid5874]

"I have to believe in it if I'm going to sell it to the players." -Phil Robb, newest entry in my personal Appendix N. Something I've struggled to articulate for years to fellow DMs who accuse me of doing a lot of work that nobody else is going to care about.

[@mikegould6590]

When the DM believes, the players will follow. I really relate to Phil in this regard. Well said Phil.

[@danithedorito]

thanks for this comment :)

[@SlayerOfWorlds]

MCDM needs to get Phil as an author for one of their physical products. A large multi level adventure from this guy would be awesome.

[@IshanDeston]

There is a real easy way to point players to the presence of traps.... have one triggered and fail. For example... take the Trap Phil described with the twisting tunnel and have that trap triggered. The Group comes to a section where rock is blocking part of the way, the hallways is crooked and the body of a crushed monster is hanging out in bits and pieces. The players now have to reset the trap to advance. Something of the monster got caught in the mechanism and prevents the trap from resetting. They have to either scramble over the crushing rock or reset the trap and then move on. Since the disabled trap is an obstacle you can have them work and interact with traps and the concept of traps... and they now are well aware that the area has some pretty dangerous traps.

[@loreer123]

This is a great idea!

[@artesque]

Yes!

[@LAKlH]

I do something similar. Just show a sprung trap and the players will get paranoid.

[@3nertia]

Great design!

[@nickchivers9029]

Thoroughly and shamelessly stolen.

[@TheBlazingSilver]

I think a third camera where you could cut to a wide shot would be a good addition, but I don't know if your studio is conducive to that. I'm not done yet, but I really love this format and I'm excited for you to get more folks in to do this!

[@calebm.8192]

Honestly, Phil is the type of DM I aspire to be. I'm pretty new to the hobby and am still only a teen, so seeing DMs out there that do *now* what I want to get good at in the future is really inspiring. So thanks Mr. Matt, and Mr. Phil!!!!

[@scook9999]

As you age, you'll hopefully find the breadth of your DMing will increase, cause, you know, life.

[@TnTyson81]

Around the 40 minute mark was awesome, it started flow in to two friends just talking about running D&D. Not an interview, not a campaign diary, just two friends talking. You can genuinely feel the love :)

[@Acewarren]

Yes! Phil did such a fantastic job. It is always a great thing to get other DMs mindsets and perspectives.

[@bunnythekid]

I think an appropriate title for Phil’s style as a DM is “engineer”. His world comes to form through the mechanisms and functions. I think that is why his world feels believable and lo-fantasy. It seems to me that Phil doesn’t particularly want magic in his world, because it cannot be explained logically. However, instead of not using it all, it’s painted as a new discovery and one that’s almost explicable, but not common knowledge. Clever way to limit an aspect without removing it entirely.

[@farrout000]

That is a really good assessment. I build my Homebrew games/dungeons in a similar manner as Phil. Everything should make sense and have a purpose and ecology to it. (I'm also am engineer IRL so my brain is wired to find the logic in things).

[@MCXL1140]

I want to work for Phil. He seems intense, demanding, and very thoughtful.

[@haveswordwilltravel]

Phill Robb sounds like a wonderful DM. As a guy who has been playing and DMing since 1981, I can’t express enough gratitude for how much insight and inspiration I get from watching these videos.

[@keeperofdusk]

I think I would prefer a wide screen shot of both of y'all at once the whole way through, or a split screen of each of your personal cameras at the same time. Love the interview!

[@rontalkstabletop]

Great conversation/interview! Now get Anna! Get Dael! It would be cool to have people newer to the DM role interviewed.

[@SlayerOfWorlds]

Ron Frazier this would be awesome

[@larkincarmichael4773]

this is possibly the most useful video you have ever done, and I have found a veritable wealth of knowledge in your videos to date. This interview, though, is incredibly insightful. Walking through the process of having no plans to run a game, to running one a week later, and then running another two sessions after that is an incredible and informative example stop how to take inspiration and run with it, which we both know is half the DND game. Then after that, just the back and forth as you basically both break down the game at the same time like a campaign diary, it was just a wealthy, wealthy episode.

[@zultak3611]

Hell yeah, really looking forward to watching Phil's thoughts on DMing

[@marshallsonsteby3862]

Love the conversation! It feels very natural and organic. I love the responses, threads the conversation. :)

[@codyc7477]

Phil's attention to detail and hardworking really shows. His world is very easy to get immersed in. He's the kind of DM whose game you feel lucky to be in.

[@broodley1107]

Heck yeah! Phil is great and so are you! Keep up the excellent content

[@ZeusRahl]

As a fledgling DM, and after watching the the episodes Phil ran, this interview had been incredibly helpful. Listening to Phil self critique his work and describe his thought process had been very insightful. Thank you.

[@tomyoung9834]

Phil's experience with starting D&D is almost exactly the same as mine! Same time frame, same red box....amazing!

[@hive_indicator318]

Yeah. That box was one of the 1st D&D things I remember seeing. Frank Mentzer is responsible for most of the fun I had as a teen.

[@shawngillogly6873]

You red box late-comers. Us Blue Box owners look down our noses at you! :P

[@craigmartin8230]

Ha same time frame, but first experience was watching best mates brother and friends playing with blue box and then buying red box. Oh that whole experience with characters coming back the next time with cool magic items and leveling up was just my friends being dicks.

[@toryniemann5124]

Whoa, the Misenchanted Sword, that’s a real blast from the past.

[@Jake-te4pl]

First of all, Phil did an amazing job DMing and I can't wait to see the continued adventures of this dwarven party and see more of the Phil's world. Second, this is a great interview with the two of you. I love hearing the insight that you both bring to the game. The only critique I have (as if I'm qualified to critique anyone) is it would have been nice to see you both sitting together in frame, instead of the back and forth camera shots. Thank you for sharing this interview with the masses.

[@glorfendell2967]

This was so insightful. I fully appreciate the level of detail Phil puts into his descriptions. I am the same type of "does it work " dm. I think that's why I enjoyed the world and the adventure. Thanks Phil for the game and Matt for this interview.

[@Adrian_Lee6113]

I am so excited to watch this! I loved the interview with Jim Murphey, now we have Phil Robb! Please do more, we love these!!

[@Vogelkinder]

I appreciated this interview. Recollecting the memories of the origin of the hobbies we love is great to hear from other fans.

[@phatman9762]

LOVE Phil, his characters of Basra and General Bone Spures had me rolling on my floor laughing.

[@WallsofCorn]

Phil was an excellent DM and I look forward to anything he or anyone else that you guys have come in to run games and whatnot.

[@SC-vq4zc]

Great conversation. Nice to see the juxtaposition of the view of a player versus the view of a DM to the same content. I hope someone who sees this can pass on my appreciation to Phil for both being willing to run the game, and have a candid chat about it :)

[@cj719521]

Ooh! Sexy professional KZbin end screen! Love it! I love seeing how much this channel-both content and professionalism-has developed. Here’s to more growth, success, and ultimately more freedom to do cool stuff with your friends!

[@Smaug84]

I just want to say that Phil is an inspiration. That I love Matt's work, but I feel way out of my league aiming to do a campaign like the Chain. But Phil has in his own way reminded me of a campaign I was considering years ago. I hope to see more of his world as time passes. Keep up the good work, MCDM!

[@GrimBrotherIV]

Fantastic video! I need to go back and finish watching the sessions. I think Phil is my favorite. Don’t tell the others.

[@ROYBGP]

Phil's eyes are gorgeous. I'm mesmerized everytime I look at him.

[@OfMaceAndMen]

The man is a silver fox

[@ROYBGP]

He really is.

[@yojishinkawa378]

I LOVED Nox! I had no idea Phil worked on that. So many hours of my childhood was spent along with my brother and sister playing that game. I already loved Phil, I had no idea I could love him even more! Is Phil the guy who did that cool drawing of Hecuba?

[@Warrior_Culture]

Hey Matthew, I'm a new follower of yours that is currently watching all of the "Running the Game" playlist that you have. I recently finished watching #8 and I just wanted to thank you for saying some of the things you said in that episode. You earned a lot of respect from me, even if you may not have from others (I assume that's why comments are disabled for it) and I hope you keep putting out content so that when I catch up to your 2019 videos there's more to watch from you! Keep up the fun times.

[@hawkmore]

Warrior Culture I actually try to make a habit of watching a video of his prior to DMing any of my sessions...not anything in particular, but I always feel like he makes it seem easy and my sessions always go better. He’s a great role model, although I don’t run games very similarly to him. Being able to roll with the punches and convincing myself that it’s just going to be fun and easy always hugely helps me.

[@jgn1977]

I am very much like Phil and I very much like Phil. So it makes sense.

[@F4R207]

Thanks Phil, Matt, that was great, the three parter was great, just received strongholds & followers in the mail, which looks great, the art pieces are magnificent, I might be a bit critical in how the layout has some elements that to me clashes with each other, other then that I'm looking forward to returning to what's in store for the chain in a few hours, and I hope we get more Phil or some one else as a interlude again, been great fun watching.

[@cl0udbear]

Inspiring. Matt did a great job with RTG preparing me for DMing, but there's stuff here that really resonates with me too. Thanks for doing this.

[@therollingbones4080]

I think I can say, without fear of hyperbole, that this video has been one of the single greatest resources for me as a DM.

[@seanhillman1016]

Great discussion that, as someone who has been playing a while, I think can be invaluable to new and old GM/DM alike. The different thought processes of people who run rpgs shows off the idea that there is no one true way to do it. Plus the specific input of someone who is a visual artist and how they create their adventures was neat. I look forward to seeing more and different games as well.

[@anthonyalessio855]

Jeez Phil....that's me to a tee! Started with 'The Hobbit' and then discovered the Dragonlance books! All the while trying to figure out the basic 'red box'. I just love it that a world away (I'm in Sydney) there were other kids discovering this stuff the same way! Nice!

[@gonecoastal4]

Hey there, Pretty cool shirt ya got there! Looking forward to catching up on Phil's sessions. See y'all tonight.

[@bobmarthins]

Cool! Haven't seen one of these in a while, love to hear more from Phil!

[@K1LL14N]

Thank you guys so much for doing this!!

[@Gonziboss]

Thank you Phil for doing this! and you too Matt : great video

[@jimstevens5692]

Listening to this while working on my setting and Nox was a GREAT game! Back in the day I pulled many an all-nighter playing Nox. Phil = amazing!

[@cristianbelleville3394]

I'd love to see Matt interview the other players in the chain! It's cool to hear the stories of how people got into D&D

[@joshuacurrey4722]

I am running a low magic campaign and love that Phil has a similar philosophy. I put together a list of special weapons from history with simple stat buffs. Phil having +1 swords be well made weapons and rare tobacco having some small benefits connects the players with the world. If every item an skill is explained through magic, you lose out on natural skill, talent or success because all the good stuff only comes about through magic.

[@CoopMoe]

Also in a world that has a lot of magic and people with access to divine and arcane magic things like goodberry, create food and water, create or destroy water would entirely disrupt and eliminate any need for farming and destroy traditional economies. People would be constantly paranoid of charm spells. Imagine being accused of a crime and your defense is "well, magus so-n-so cast dominate on me!" sure, you can handwave some of the stuff with suspension of disbelief but having widespread magic with the spell lists available now it can utterly destroy any sense of verisimilitude.

[@neuropunk8267]

Ugh! At work! Can’t watch yet! Very excited for this one, Phil was awesome and I look forward to hearing some of his insights.

[@jrwood2425]

When this video came out I don't think I was ready for it. I watched the first few minutes and moved on because I really didn't what Phil said. He wasn't you. Now I'm back 3 years later and his perspective is not only interesting, but also useful. Thanks to you and Phil for sharing this with us.

[@hobbyknight9962]

Thank you Matt for a fantastic look in to Phil's DM mind. The story sounds very cool. I'm really liking the idea that a coven of hags would each have their own swarms. It's very thematic.

[@mithren86]

Phil is down on himself despite doing a fantastic job! He was awesome especially as he was DMing on stream for the 1st time. This was a great miniseries. Love that the introduction fights with each hag were more about flavour then epic battles as kept the pacing going, allowed for more RP then just combat which suited most of the players. I found this really helpful to see for my DMing (im quite new to it) as I'm often feeling the same way, that I want each battle to be epic. However, often players are just happy to get the feels of a battle before continuing the story, leaving the epic battle to the BBEG. Was great to see even Lars be more expressive with his RP and I think that was in part from the others enthusiasm.

[@jimmyhill5079]

I ran an all dwarf party. Anything that does poison damage is useless against their resistance. Wyverns, Green Dragons, Devils, you name it, are all chewed up by dwarves.

[@EXChaosFlameEX]

TY ! @Matthew Colville These vids are exceptionally helpful in terms of "how to structure" your dnd world/character! essentially this video is like a d20 crit on insight.

[@kbannister5441]

This is so great you guys, such a pleasure to get play-by-play insight from another DM. Thank you so much for doing this, can't wait to see what happens next in this campaign. Has anyone else considered running a mini-campaign? I'd love to see Ana or Lars run a couple sessions and get different insights.

[@DavidStavis]

That was great! Love the conversational style. I, like Phil, like my world to make sense. A lot of the work in my setting is finding a way to EXPLAIN, for example, how helpless peasant-towns exist in a world where a monster can and will regularly walk into town and eat half of you or kidnap your daughter (in my world they don't- all settlements are walled and protected by a fighting force). I love hearing about how Phil plans monster ecosystems. I plan on copying that idea of "ecological niches" for my future dungeons!

[@DavidMarkErickson]

Finally finished this and had the thought that I’d really enjoy seeing Matt interview more people about D&D and other RPG systems.

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

The dungeon ecology issue has actually lead to the creation of whole sub genres and campaign settings in the past. The entire reason Castle Ravenloft and Strahd exist is because the original authors of that setting were playing a run of the mill dungeon crawl and stopped in the middle of a session to ask "Why is Dracula hanging out in this dungeon two doors down from a room full of orcs and three doors before a small red dragon?"

[@mikegould6590]

Phil, I completely buy your outlook. If you believe, the players will follow. Make the world plausible. Use natural language to describe. Create memorable moments. All well said.

[@Jeppezzzful]

More interviews with the players please! They are so great to listen to!

[@momsend]

Knowing Matt is a fan of Venture Bros. makes me like him even more.

[@TrayanThandros]

Hey Matt, don't know if you'll read this, but I have been watching a lot of your videos lately. Thank you for them. I really enjoy your perspective. Yesterday I ordered a copy of Strongholds and Followers and I have been reading through the PDF. The level of detail is amazing and you sir do great work. Thank you.

[@TrayanThandros]

P.S. Mercenaries was a great game.

[@Ryanironwolf]

Should give Deadlands a gander Mr, Robb! Great setting and very spaghetti western and monsters. Thank you all for sharing your content. As an old school gamer I get your references and I know what it was like to start in the 80's I got in in '79 myself. Very cool stuff.

[@momqabt]

Hmm...I want to play in Phil's campaigns with him being a DM. I don't care if he would have animosity towards my elf I'd still love it! I love what he's done with the visual representation, I love what he's done for the world, ecology, connected economy, believability. It all just resonates with how I'd want to play on a 5th dimension level it's making my goosebumps have goosebumps.

[@zackf4109]

phil rules

[@RequiosWoW]

I would consider myself one of the fresh bloods, 5e being my first tabletop system. I just wanted to say that these "DM Interviews" are almost like historical videos for me. I grew up a huge fantasy nut, played tons of video games and such that wouldn't exist if it weren't for D&D. It's awesome to listen to these interviews, hearing about some of the ways D&D was played differently and it's cool to see the history and how it's affected me through the 20 years I've been alive.

[@candiedginger8729]

I really enjoyed the perspective of the artist part of the interview. Thank you.

[@fishbonesinc]

Loved the little end slate. As well as the actual video.

[@jessemorgan7480]

Great video, keep doing what your doing. Thanks to Phil for putting it cam!

[@lesliedunne9916]

This video is great! I'm a new GM and I feel like this video helps me focus on how I want to run games. You are asking Phil questions I need to ask myself and I find his answers really relatable being an artist myself. Also, always loving it when someone references Elric.

[@weirdandquirky9907]

Thanks Phil! Love ya!

[@mini_trebor]

Great interview Matt! You should do more of those, invite other DMs (they don’t have to be “famous” DMs) it’s really interesting listening to your and Phils opinions and experiences. And you’re a great interviewer,really interesting questions. I would definitely watch a channel where you play a one(2-3)-shot and then have an iterview with the DM...or maybe every time you need a break from the Chain :)

[@sebbychou]

Regarding the wyvern talk and how GMs are way more critical of their encounters results, always remembers that we (GMs) only see the RESULT of the encounter, not the taxing mental process of 5-ish people racking their brains to solve the problems. Because they ended the challenge quickly and brillantly doesn't mean they didn't sweat but that they successfully simulated dozens of possible TPK scenarios collectively and made sure they didn't go there. "Making it look easy is hard work"

[@dantebozzini8568]

Can't believe this is happening, super totally awesome!

[@smushta]

I loved how your line of questioning effectively got Phil to improv a campaign diary no problem, hitting all the same points as the normal chain ones. Not only informative from Phil's side but also great interviewing!

[@jordanbarber6376]

Awesome video guys! Thanks to Phil for sharing!

[@taraweston6929]

This was awesome. Phil’s setting and DMing is well thought out and totally engaging.

[@Hawdkoah]

I've been catching up on Vallenguard in podcast format. It's been a really fun listen, reminds me of the vibe in my own games.

[@asciblue]

That was good. Phil, you did a great job! :D

[@edyg787]

It's very helpful to see his reasoning. Great video!

[@RisaxTheImp]

I'm happy Phil has more plans for Vallenguard. I mentioned it in the first Vallenguard video that, when watching the VOD on Twitch, I was disappointed that it wasn't The Chain...but that quickly changed. I loved Phil's world, his take on Dwarves, the players, Matt's mention to the previous campaign, ect. Now, with The Chain returning, I'm...conflicted. I want more from BOTH shows.

[@jek_si2251]

The Player's Guide to Sanctuary is amazing! I'm thinking of running a game somewhere in the world now, thanks to it

[@travelingtango]

Extremely high quality content, well done

[@Chaoslizard]

Woo, so been looking forward to this!

[@danithedorito]

amazing interview. the insight into a thought-out, more simulatory style of DMing is really interesting and inspiring!

[@Ziajin]

I am so happy you guys pronounce 'niche' the right way.

[@Ziajin]

@@LB-yg2br Yea, but [neesh] and [nish] are wrong ;)

[@scook9999]

This is a really special one on one interview, with details on both sides. Do you think you might sit down with other DMs with different professional backgrounds and do this every so often? GREAT CONTENT!

[@Decado1628]

It would be awesome if this campaign continued. It is one of the best I have watched online. Phil rocks as a DM.

[@SyncMain]

This was awesome, loved the insight into crafting the campaign. Also, Nox was my introduction to RPGs and fantasy outside of The Hobbit and LotR. I play through the 'solo' campaign probably once every year or two, still lol.

[@MrSilvUr]

This was great. Phill was a lot of fun to watch run. Looking forward to Töm's first jaunt behind the screen.

[@caleboverman4464]

This makes me glad to see

[@monkeyg0d]

Lots of good times playing garagehammer and garagemachine with Phil and folks back in the day. Only got one 4e game with him as a player though. Always good fun and feeling like a complete muppet when seeing his painted minis.

[@alexitosworld]

I loved the stream and this interview! I would love to have more of this short adventures (or heck even a long one!) with Phil. Would be nice for MCDM to have multiple campaigns going on, but of course time! In any case, I can't wait to see what you guys do next.

[@mofohasteheyelazors]

I love this continuation of this series. I hope Anna runs a game in the future so she can do an interview and we can hear about her style. ( I imagine a game with Beholders & Bureaucrats )

[@artesque]

This minicampaign would make an EPIC Jim Henson movie!

[@nathansummers1655]

This is truly great stuff!...Weirdly, Phil and I have almost identical background/ gaming arcs, same age, interests, etc.... It's kind of like watching another version of myself in a parallel universe / alternate reality.Keep doing what you guys do!

[@datalore7311]

Wild West Cthulhu is cool. I would strongly recommend the novelette "Bulldozer" by Laird Barron for inspiration. It follows a Pinkerton investigating some crazy, cthulhu-eqsue wierdness. The Joe R. Lansdale "Dead in the West" books are also fun for some two fisted pulp Western Horror if using "Pulp Cthulhu" rules.

[@Arborhawk]

Hope you do an interview with Dael Kingsmill.