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1. 0:16 A compelling story 2. 4:15 A good plot hook 3. 6:08 An intriguing villain 4. 8:55 A subservient lieutenant 5. 10:53 A twist 6. 12:59 enemies that do more than just attack 7. 15:21 A piece of lore 8. 17:04 Balance among the three pillars 9. 20:57 Interesting encounters and combats 10. 22:06 Variety of encounter difficulty 11. 23:15 Escalation and rising action 12. 24:29 Climax and boss fight 13. 25:28 Resolution 14. 26:44 Rewards 15. 28:18 Stakes for the world 16. 29:46 Stakes for the characters

Oh ya. Forgot something. I never do a standard "random encounter" table. I use what I like to call "scouts". They are random in a sense, sure, but they are usually smallish groups that must be dealt with quickly, or they run and get friends. Great for tension. Sometimes it's not a small group of things. Instead it's just a big critter nosing around looking for dinner. It's best used during a normal encounter, and doesn't care which side it eats. Great for livening things up. Honorable mention: Rolling dice behind the screen for no reason, pretend to study them for a second, and say "hmm" quietly. Usually this leads to someone saying "Oh great". But nothing really happens.

I tick off my players by having the monsters drink the potions of healing in the adventure. I still let them find the potions but it does throw them.

I try to do most of these. I had a group in my 3.5 game convert a fire giant to their side and now he helps guard their stronghold.

The surprise twist of this episode is that there really is 17 tips!! Ironically one of the number 3s should have been the twist, since the number was repeated twice. You know, since Luke apparently can’t count😂

Great tips! I definitely shy away from exploration too much but I've been making an effort to include it more. I just get nervous when it's time to describe environments.

Three pillars to the game: Combat, Exploration, & Social Interaction. Personally, I think puzzles are also a pillar. I try to balance all four together.

This is where I differ as my two current campaigns have gone more classic and ditched the central BBEG. There's a world and each quest has an individual story but there is no epic, world-saving, beat-the-central big bad guy type of stuff.

I get what you mean by enemies just attacking. In one encounter I opened with a sneak attack of catapult and, well, separated a goblin overseer from his head. The ones he was overseeing didn't attack, they freaked out and fled. Had another where a shaman cast an eclipse to give his allies and advantage against us, so he became one of our primary targets, we managed to break his concentration and reverse things, giving THEM disadvantage, and ended up incinerating him as he tried to cast the spell again.

If I'm not running a monster 100% as written, like if I added lair actions or special abilities or a magic item, I don't run it from the book. You can copy-paste it and put the magic item right in the stat block. Instead of "longsword" their action is now "flaming sword" and does an extra 2d6 fire damage, can't miss it. Never forget a magic item again!

"Flying with a cane" made me laugh out loud for about a minute, thank you for the humor (and idea)!

Me, running a sandbox: step 1 👀

Forced evolution plothooks constantly popped up in the past for my older plots, villains wanting to forcibly enhance themselves, a monster type, etc. were constant as the vinaigrette drive but I wildly varied the methods or reasons they were doing it. The players usual got the classic start of getting good at beating natural threats and arena fights, then some externalised or foreign body stepped into the bigger picture gradually, messing with stuff until they got discovered and yeah it varied how involved the player characters were with that villain from there. One villain Mike is creator and enslaved their followers and made a war proclamation against the second home of the player, and the player used a battle of wits and patience, to which the player totally destroyed that villain. Then discovered a much deeper plot that never got expanded upon, as life went elsewhere.

I love watching your video's while putting together/planning new adventures for my step-son. He's got really good "theater of the mind" but loves having physical maps and tokens he geeks out about. So while printing maps, cutting out paper tokens, enemy sheets and planning, just having it playing in the background, and listening, while doing the other work I constantly get new idea's. He loves using "home brew" characters. Making a back story of how a 5 Nights at Freddy's clone character meets my character "King Kick Ass" (Yes, I stole that from Robot Chicken), or my friends classic wizard can be hard sometimes. Listening to your "Old Chimera" character on our new campaign I've been planning. Trying to make a new beginning was confusing me until I heard that. Now I have my opening.. (Opening) In this world, an old dragon who's life force that is the source of the mage's power realizes his dragon, and his power, are at an end. The dragon only has one, at most two, hours of life left. The mage (who has been the protector of this world) will not be able to protect the people against this threat any longer, so he makes one last hail marry spell opening up a dimensional rift in time and space pulling said characters into his world. The characters, when warped in, will see a large dragon as it dies being comforted by the mage. The characters will see the dragon take it's last breath as it's life force disappears as it's body starts to turn to ash. The mage stumbles, dropping a piece of paper as the nose of the dragon he was holding crumbles in his hands. The Mage lifts his hands and see's it starting to turn to ash as well. He reaches out towards the adventures, his arm crumbling as it moves, the mage says (Clue #1), "I'm sorry for the sacrifice one of you must make." He helplessly gazes into their eyes as the blackness spreads to his face, before the blackness engulfs him, the mage's last words are a plea to save his world. Now, Only a black ashy figure stands where he once stood, his last words echo's through the chamber. Once the echoing stops, it collapses into a pile of dust leaving no trace he, or a dragon, ever existed. They will have to adventure to learn the land and try to figure out who the main villain is before it's too late and hopefully find a way back home. Only by adventuring and exploring will they find a way to make it back home. If they don't adventure and find it, none of them will make it back home, but, If they make it to the end, AND they found the way. They will possibly have to make a critical choice(s), 1 person may have to stay behind, be greedy and let the world die, attempt to save yourselves and this world, or leave the world to fate. As it takes one person outside the circle to cast the spell (the Mage, a 5th person, originally cast it) as the person casting the spell can not be inside the circle, as the final words spoken must be spoken after the dimensional rift has enclosed on the others. If the final words are not spoken at this time, the spell ends up sending those stuck inside into oblivion. (Clue #4)comes from the final boss as he dies. "Fools, ( he laughs as he coughs blood), With the Mage gone, only I could get you all home." The final clue (clue #5) will be hidden from them until just before they enter the area they will find the final riddle engraved on the door. "4 have entered, that took 5 to achieve, if only 4 you have, 1 will not leave." Why couldn't they just ask a towns person? Well, only a person of magical abilities, or one of those affected by the spell, may reverse it. Seeing as how the Mage died at the beginning, and if the group killed the boss, who was the only other enemy with magical abilities able to perform it and get them all home. (Clue #3) comes from interacting with the towns people at the beginning to learn that, in this world, only those effected by the magic, or one of magical abilities, may reverse the spells. This is a good backup clue if your adventurer's don't explore the starting area so you can give them a second chance to figure out how to get home, or if they find the paper the mage dropped, but not the book to put it together. They could possibly figure this out with the towns people's help. (Clue #2) comes IF your observant and search your starting area, as the paper the mage dropped was part of the spell you find to get you back home, I like this clue because it gives the adventurers two paths. If they are avid explorer's they could find the ripped paper dropped by the mage and by being observant, notice a spell book in the corner and put the two sections together in the book right away, giving them a heads up on the fate that awaits one of them and instant meaning to the mages words. By doing this, They have multiple paths. Either be greedy and convince the boss to cast the spell to send them home and he can take over this world. Beat the boss within an inch of his life, try to force him to cast the spell and hope he doesn't screw them over. This is where a saving throw by the DM could determine the fate of that world, as being greedy adventurer's could end with negative results against other people, Bad throw, he lives and takes over the world but your home, Good throw, he bleeds out and dies effectively saving this world and getting everyone home, or you may not want to leave the lives of millions to fate and just kill him, ultimately one of you being stuck in this world (which might not be a bad thing), getting your friends home, but saving millions. If you don't explore, hate exploring, or just kill everything you see, the fate of 1 is sealed unknowingly.

I think this is great advice! One thing I try to do, is think of at least three different ways for the players to solve a problem. They usually don't end up doing any of the three, but it is helpful to think of. It helps the GM react to different scenarios and prevents the GM expecting the players to come up with whatever answer popped into their heads. The players aren't psychic and aren't supposed to be.

the first point is very easy to extrapolate into excellence if you put the work in. "the big bad is A, he is going to place b, so he can enact change C, by taking action D, for which he needs macguffin E, which they are retreiving by taking action F. and to set up his masterplan he needs to have things G, H, I and K happen before taking action D" thats the basics of making a baddies masterplan. but it doesnt just have to be the BBEG. i do this for each players background enemy as well, then for each faction that has real power in the setting, and use these other NPCs in the BBEG plan. either make the players enemies Leitenants for the BBEG, or have two factions goals clash and arrange for the players to be there. it makes everything effect every player and ties the whole thing into one story. even the side quests.

Much appreciating 2 things here: 1) Mention of Savage Worlds (such an excellent and simple to learn system!) 2) Emphasis away from combat (3 pillars). I have gone to an entirely 3 pillars xp system where my players choose their own values and short term goals matching those pillars that encourages their character's personality development, and drive not only story progression, but character progression, and inform my plot development of the campaign.

Your channel has been very helpful to me, I am currently playing in a campaign my friend is DMing, but I am the go to DM for our group, so now I got more to plan our next adventure. Point is, so far I have just run official modules and longest campaign only went until lvl 8, so now I am planning a very ambituous campaign that I hope goes at least until lvl 10.

So you are essentially saying that variety is the spice of life. What else has spice, CHILI! And where can you find a variety of chilies? A chili cook off! 1: (Interesting Story/Goal) Their goal is to taste them all, but also to see if they can handle how hot they get!. 2: (Motivation)Their motive is to win a bet that they are able to try them all without wimping out. 3: (Plot Hook) Where should you have them start? They need to get to a different Land, but don’t have enough money to get there. So they have to ask one of the characters super rich boss, Charles Van Scorchers, who wants to make a haunted house theme park. Good job Luke in your ability to count😆 3: (BBEG) The Big Bad is head of the city watch Sargent Wiggum’s, who makes the hottest of the hot chili. He makes it with the (not so) secret ingredient, The Merciless Peppers of Quetzalacatenango 🌶️ 4: (Lieutenant) But first they need see if they can handle last years winner in the spiciest category Sargent Wiggum’s son Ralfus. He named this Brew “It Tastes Like Burning” 5: (Twist) When they go to the booth of The Nettles of Flanders expecting a real challenge, they find out that the 5 alarm chili is really just a 2 alarm chili. 6: (More than Attacking) Every Chili doesn’t need to be spicy, it also should have some interesting tastes to it. “Is that cinnamon I detect?” 7: (Lore) Did you know that the super hot peppers that Sargent Wiggum uses are also called the Guatemalan Insanity Peppers that are picked by the inmates of an insane asylum?! 8: (3Pillars)You should have a balance between talking to the cooks, exploring the interesting tastes, and trying find ways to combat the spiciness of the different chili’s. 9: (Interesting Terrain) It would be boring if every Chili is just served from a crock pot. Sargent Wiggum has a cauldron to serve them with and a spoon with serrated edges. 10: (Variety challenges) Make sure you have a good variety of chilis. Some players like to eat different levels of spiciness. You should have mild, medium, spicy and super hot ones. 11: (Progression) You should have them progress from the mild to the super hot. They need to be able to try them all and should still be voting for favorites in each category. 12: (Boss Battle) The final tasting of Wiggum’s insanity hot chili should be very challenging and the players might need to be creative to win, like coating their tongues in wax. 13: (Resolution) After winning their bet they find out that their is a national chili tasting challenge that you can win some big prizes like a new 70” TV for their Dungeon. 14: (Reward) If they win their bet they get to go to the Land of Itchy and Scratchy. 15: (Consequence for the world) If they fail, they have to stay the night in a haunted house. When they do they will share that the house is actually a mimic and kill it. This saves the town from being destroyed by Van Scorchers to make a theme park. If they win and go to the land of Itchy and Scratch, they will potentially save a lot of lives from metal golems. 16: (Make it Personal) If they the fail they will also be laughing stalk of their town!

I give my player's characters ties to the bbeg's lieutenants. It works. They have recently stated that will enjoy them getting to kick their asses. They are invested.

DM: You can interact with the bad guys in all kinds of ways. You can talk to them, sleep with them, empathize with them, convince them... Players: I shoot him! And I cast a fireball! I swing my axe!

I think I had to discard most of the tips because a lot of them hinge on very D&D-style BBEG-behind-the-scenes adventures, whereas my group tends to prefer stories where the issues are systematic (oppressive laws, overly dogmatic religious control etc) where opponents are more nuanced and not necessarily combat-oriented. There's usually no overarching story, but there are factions with goals (and NPCs within those factions that agree or disagree with the goals) and those react to the players' actions. It's not clear-cut, there's no BBEG to kill, and killing might not even be the best course of action to take in some cases. There've even been times where they've had to choose between 2 bad choices based on which was less bad in the long term. All that seems to interest my group a lot more than the clearcut "there's a BBEG and we kill it and deal with the next one". Every time you mentioned something about "interesting villain" and the example given was a combat-based thing, I felt mildly disappointed.

I’m DMing my first game this Saturday I’m at work watching your videos and I’m just so excited to go home take notes and prepare

You are the best bro! Thanks for your videos. I'm restarting play D&D, and your tips are very useful! I'm brazilian and learning English too with you. LOL

This content is so useful! Thanks Luke, for enriching the lives (and untimely deaths) of my players.

I like to use the plot map method of making my adventures and campaigns, get all the players to give you a backstory, preferably open ended and a little vague, and then work out ways of linking the back stories together with each other but also with the overarching story, that way the characters have stakes in each other and the story

No good DM has ever had to say "because I'm the DM that why"

I’m DEFINITELY INTERESTED in this kickstarter. Will there be an all .PDF version?

Thanks! Maybe it's known for most of GM's, but nice to repeat it sometimes ♥️

Thank you for these videos! I start the pateron next month! Thank you thank you!

I’m glad you posted all the links. You mentioned quite a few.

I started a game where death is possible, but not permanent death, unless it is party wipe. This is very intentional because the players are playing as themselves (isekai basically). If you die the players have to find a way to revive you. This is still discouraged for 2 reasons though 1. The players may get annoyed having to do extra work to revive you 2. You can still do things as a ghost, but are more limited so it wouldn't be as fun, so DON'T DIE.

In a major adventure it is important to use as much as the PCs background in the adventure as possible....

I am currently in a campaign where the DM is used to running one shots and it had a bit of rocky start with encounter difficulty as he was manually adjusting the encounters but didn't seem to have realized the difference in pacing in campaigns (ie, you are expected to have a long rest or equivalent between one shots).

The Attack, Attack, Attack thing is tricky because players with often use talk as a way to try to set themselves up for combat which is super metagame-y. 3 of my players are very experienced DM's. As a result many of my enemies are "homebrew" in that they don't exist in the monster manual, but will probably borrow stats from something that does. It makes finding tokens challenging, but it also means they now have to use checks to see what they might now about the creature rather than meta knowledge. I also often take spells and abilities and reskin them so they are statistically identical to a normal spell, but different. It is more work for me, but my players enjoy it. Items are also tough to homebrew. My favorite recent one is a huge shield that lowers movement by 5, but reduces ranged attack damage by 2 and also has a "shotgun" attached over the handle that can be tilted up and fired in a cone for damage similar to a dragonborn's breath weapon and requires a short rest to reload. My player loves the thing.

There is a trick I learned on how to remember that your NPC/villain has something special, a skill, a spell, an artefact etc. For whatever reasons and because of the system I mostly play stuff like magical items are often rare, except for the really weak ones. So it is quite natural to forget about such an item during the "stressful" combat... I have started to make simple pictures to represent such items. In the beginning, I drew them on the notes for the NPC which I use during the game, thus I am always reminded whenever I look at his stats, reduce the HP etc. Makes it harder to forget when you constantly see it. Later I used blank cards from Amazon or another store to draw the picture on one side and the stats on the other, then I fixed that card to the character notes and if the PCs loot said item, they have a card for it...

I am trying to make sure I sprinkle in optional rewards around for clever adventures. So add some non-critical loot or other rewards and make them non-central to the plot so the players are on their toes to try to go the extra mile. Contrary to what was said I find all or nothing play with lives on the line should be reserved for only the rarest of fights. When characters are dropping like flies and then of course being dragged back to town for resurrection (or later just brought back between fights) then death loses its meaning and just becomes a time out for that player. Time out is never fun! The game should always try to be fun for everyone. Instead tension is better built for most things with an array of stakes. Instead of 0 or 1 give the adventures a 0-10 range of success. Make the 10 really difficult but a 6 or 7 should be easy enough to obtain if they aren’t just being foolish. And constantly change the stakes, sometimes winning is defeating the foe, sometimes winning is just surviving or getting away with key loot or knowledge. Make sure the players understand what the win condition is though, so they set expectations appropriately.

One thing great about pf2e you touched on (that I’d like to elaborate on!) is the “geriatric chimera”. Pf2e has a real rule for increasing and decreasing the difficulty of monsters with their weak/elite system, and it’s great fun! No more guessing about what will create a good challenge for your party. Creature too high level? Want some grunts for your boss fight? Weak monsters! Need an elite version of a mook to command the rest? Elite! I’m about to throw a gorgon at my level 4 pf2e party, and making it weak should do just enough to lower it to their current level and gear.

My players were up against a vampire necromancer who is trying to use this amulet that will let him harness the power of all the hells and his lieutenant was a character from one of my player's backstories who had been turned into a vampire servant.

I usually find that the magic item i give bad guys is just worst then their normal abilities. (its hard to forgo 3 attacks for one item activation) and if players get item then its good again.

Combat is definitely my favorite piller of any TTPRPG. Well besides character creation.

My last game i did a uh "state of the word" kinda thing and players took them as plot hooks When really only one was really a plot hook so now I have to go build an entire other country and create an adventure.

very useful content, Thank you!!

Great stuff thank you for what you do!!

As you guessed it is true that auto play is on But as long as you keep playing on my feed I refuse to tern it of You have saved me so many years of learning and so many hours of waisfull prep And I'm Shure you'll continue to save me many more

A list of the 15 things would have been nice.

“Denoument” The falling action, or the cigarette after …

"Flying with a cane." It's a really long cane.

Do you prepare notes or strategies for your combat encounters? That's where I write when or how the opponent will use the magic item so I don't forget

Definitely gonna steal the priestess thing

3:35 i'm sure Lord Paxton is behind all of this... oups sorry wrong campaign

Nice Luke! Thanks!

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

Does the Inventor work as Artificer well enough? I was struggling trying to do Eberron in Pathfinder

Could you give some advice, do a video on, finding a good gaming group? I was playing under a particular DM for the last 30 years. He recently passed away. I'm feeling rather lost.

@theDMlair . Hey Luke! I know the Kickstarter is ended (congrats btw), but I'd really like to purchase the digital secrets bundle and the link to order goes to your website, but there's nothing available there. How can i get my hands on these pdfs?

I actually set up plot hooks in the lore itself.. I have a number of natural and supernatural conflicts that have taken place over the centuries in my setting,, as well as a global threat called the blight that affects the lands and minds of all people.. kinda cool to watch my players take the lore they"ve learned about over years of campaigns in my setting and create while new characters out if it..

Definitely agree with having plot hooks at end of an adventure for the next one. As soon as theres nothing on the horizon everything just looses focus

Hmm. I watched this video three times up until now. This is not a video. This is a master class… again 😇

Thanks for the gift

😬 "Put in some furniture..." 🤗 My very 1st thought was (classic) HERO QUEST, of course.

Newly arrived with a question… Where did the image of the twins come from? I recognized nearly all except that one. Recém chegado com uma pergunta… De onde veio a imagem dos gêmeos? Reconheci quase todos, menos aquele.

gr8 video. cheers!

I have an issue with one of my players is playing the equivilant of Hermione Granger in my campaign. His character (not the player) is ignoring plot hooks, so I have to rely on the other players to continue the story. One of his professors was murdered in my last session, which caused classes to be dismissed. His character's reaction is "oh well, that sucks...I'm wasting money in tuition to accept getting dragged out of class and having classes cancelled". I'm thinking about having a dragon destroy the college to encourage this character to explore the world.

Hi! I'm writing a campaign based on the Lord of the Rings 5e book, and I would like some advice on what to do for the Famous Weapons and Armour area of the story, I would like my Player-Heroes to discover it but I need like a dramatic accidental way they can discover it. Do you have any suggestions? I'm open to anything.😁 Great video by the way.😋

So I wonder if you could cover the topic of anticlimatic deathes? Thanks!

Okay good video - good explaining but my god my adhd did not let me stay focused for each explanation had to keep going back like huh I missed it again 😂

Damn, did anyone else feel for the geriatric chimera, or was it just me?

I'm currently making a campaign where it's open world and you can join pirates bandits colts bounty hunters and more and do whatever you want but eventually the rising war between the rebellion and tyranny group and another group takes over the story because it's going to keep going in the background whether they interact with it or not and eventually all the groups that they could have joined instead of the rebellion will eventually have to take a side of that war. Is there specific advice for choose your own adventure things that have an overarching evil that takes over.

Regarding #6: I have groups that are going to thank you for the free round of combat they get against enemies who don't immediately grab their weapons and start fighting. I guess we can just give them that free round of combat every encounter...

Yelling at Luke again - So, another playing group had a TPK. I get it, a group can TPK because the players did something stupid. However, I'm noticing every campaign Luke runs a TPK happens. I'm not buying it anymore the players did something stupid, or at least all of them. A TPK can happen. It's sad when it does, but that's the game. However, when there are lot of TPKs something is wrong. I cannot give a definitive number of X PC deaths means the DM is a Killer DM i.e. unbalanced encounter design where X - 1 means everything is fine. However, TPKs are not normal, so to speak. I'm not saying they should never happen nor PC death should never happen, but when a TPK is happening every campaign yes, I will question encounter design. The common denominator here is the DM. No, I don't hate Luke. His DMing advice is well thought out, well presented, and helpful, but having so many TPKs something is in error. In my opinion of course.

I'm a simple man! I see SavageWorlds, I hit the Like Button!

In regards to #6, "enemies that do more than just attack" I have some questions that hopefully someone else can answer or at least relate to my experience. I learned to just have my enemies/BBEG just attack as soon as possible. Otherwise, they get pummeled after one action later in the initiative order. Each time I try to have them open with conversation, threats, negotiation, ect it doesn't work. I hype up an enemy over the course of sessions and finally when the opportunity to learn about them happens and I am having them explain things the players or give necessary information, the players always attack in the middle of conversation. So. Many. Damn. Times. I can't tell if they want to defeat the trope of the enemy having a monologue because they dislike it in media, if they want a tactical advantage, or they just want to skip to the action. It frustrates me because they HAVE negotiated, spoken to, and done other things. But when it's an enemy, it's always attack them in the middle of social interactions. I spend time analyzing and writing the rationale and motivations for my enemies. Rarely those things do actually become relevant but most of the time it turns into interrupting and spoiling the moment. I would like to have the grand epic moment sometimes as DM (largely playing a forever DM). Maybe my players find D&D most fun when it isn't fun for me. I can't force my players to care so I try to weave the narrative with a bit more tightness. I try to withhold JUST enough information or make things JUST weird enough but they don't seem to be that curious. How can I make this work better without me railroading them? Is there something that I'm missing? Am I reading into this too much? I appreciate anyone who can answer. Thank you.

A much better title for this video would be "Recipe for a railroad adventure". And it could use a good edit, too. About 2 minutes would suffice.

How do you balance using tactics and varied mobs and players skill in adapting to the situation. I do try and balance fights, taking into account players ability to adapt to new tactics and enjoyability. Although what usually happens is a fight where my players say I'm metagaming or just trying to kill the party. That's never my intention and I do understand I could just be the issue but looking for your advice here.

honestly: enemies always fighting makes a certain amount of sense. if you're chillin' at your house and a group of heavily armed men kick down the door; fighting seems like the only real option. it's clear they're not here to talk; or play tidily winks. So yeah they're there to fight you; you have two options: fight or surrender. So if you want to give players the option to talk to monsters; put them in situation where the monsters are not being forced to fight the players... that doesn't mean combat can't break out mind you. Also make sure the monsters surrender when they're outnumbered or become aware that they're outclassed that prompts the players and gives them the chance to talk.

I have been able to integrate high tension social interaction. The king of an entire nation wants to go on an "adventure" to find some important resources. Do you take him up on his request for help? How do you turn down royalty???

my big bad guy is a ball of energy who turned himself into a mind flayer so he could feel and taste and touch and love, ultimately his wants turn him evil

A futon is an encounter is good too...

“Denouement” my friend. 👍🏼

Hearing about the 3 pillars thing for some reason makes me want to make a character who is afraid of combat

A cane for flying is a kite

Step 1: Dont suck as a DM. Got it ✌🏼

Luke and others here, do you ever find that when you highlight alternative means of conflict resolution (stealth, talking, trickery, etc) to the players that they will then attempt to use the same strategy again and again and again ad naseum? For example, I find that once a party is able to negotiate successfully once they will do it everytime, and worse they will get upset when it doesnt work everytime. Moreover, I have struggled to find a way to get players to actually inquire and learn about the creatures they are trying to negotiate with. I do not think I have ever had a player ask an NPC what they want or what motivates them. So their negotiation attempts are almost always generic "help me and I will help you" or "oppose me and you will die". How have you communicated to players that alternative means of conflict resolution require just as much strategy and thought as combat, if not more strategy or thought than combat. And how have you handled players coming up with nonsense plans and then getting bent out of shape when NPCs dont act like Skyrim NPCs with all the situational awareness of a drowsy hamster.

Number 1 should be snacks

New to this stuff… what’s a TPK?

Great tips…. But I forget the name of your pathfinder 2 campaign name lol

Anyone have any tips on widening my NPC creation range? Specifically women characters, it often feels outside of my expertise to create a well thought out and interesting female character. My players notice that whenever they meet a female NPC, it often just ends up pretty similar to everyone other girl they’ve met. I’ve been trying to create good ones but it just doesn’t seem to be clicking.

If your players want to use some diplomacy... maybe not kicking down the door would be a good start!

I like to make my players a shish kebob with the plot hook

Falling action, or resolution is called denouement

Why there is polish mony in 9:36 of this video?

A subservient lieutenant you say? Ah yes, Rahadin

Wait, did you have a TPK with your werewolf encounter?! What happened?

For the lieutenant thing, I found the solution: one of my players has secretely served the big bad demon (there are even gods they'll have to fight above him if they survive but that's a secret) for more than one campaign and now she has betrayed them and fled to organize her army and fight them. We're really impatient to show the other players what she has done (they only suspect some things but they think she just went crazy and wandered off in the desert)

Why do werewolves have immunity to normal damage and why do they not regenerate instead in 5th e dnd? Why is it that lycantropes do regenerate in dnd 5th e Ravenloft expansion? How am i supposed to take this game serious after that?

So... what you are saying there are other plot twists than just the questgiver betraying the party?

Great video. Thanks!

I like to put problems in my game. Npcs suffer, lack of supplies, that motivates Pcs to find out and then act. Insider antagonist divisions.