Puffin Forest: *Draws himself as overweight, no glasses, brown hair* Also Puffin Forest: "Why did nobody notice me at Gen Con?"

Still not over the fact that you aren't a vaguely human-shaped watermelon

I love it when he rolls the 20 and the 1 just quick silence at what he sees like WHAT!?!

Nat 1 Nat 20 Dm recieves stunned silence debuff

Man, your animations are so life-like now.

That pause when he rolled a 1 and 20 at the same time. Lol.

16:03 and 18:51 Wow, twice in one video, he casually rolls 2 d20 and gets a natural 1 and 20 together!

On the topic of mats, my favorite is Mercer, but a close second would be Colville, no doubt.

"your favorite puffin forest"? IS THERE MORE????????

becau-- *dice rolls a 1 and a 20* *vietnam flashbacks*

Hey! Thanks for the shoutout. Love the vids. :) For battlemats I agree that there is no clear winner. I lean toward Chessex for most situations though. The old clear furniture vinyl was a great solution when I was on a tight budget, but nowadays I'm willing to spend a bit more on my gaming. For the Chessex, I usually just get two damp rags and I'm good to go for cleaning. I don't like messing with a spray bottle and I don't like wasting paper towels.

When I was a new player, this exact thing happened. Me: So how many dice packs should I buy? Friend: Probably two or three... Me: Ok, how many do you have? Friend: uh. *starts counting in head* Friend: Twe- no.... Th- no..... 14 packs....... Me: Luke.... that's like 150 bucks....

That moment when he rolls a 1 and a 20

Holy cow, this new animation looks so real!

"I use these to roll advantage and disadvantage" *Rolls a Nat 1 and Nat 20 at the same time*

*rolls 2 d20 andgets both a 1 and a 20* Perfectly balanced as it should be...

This... is a very weird animation. Puffin's character has tons of shading all of a sudden and has a lot thinner face....

Your reaction to the natural 20 disadvantage and the natural 1 advantage is just... hilarious. XD

I know this will probably sound sad but I'm in my 50s and still play D&D and PF taught me some things that I never considered. Thanks PF!

your animation is getting really good, please do a face reveal

Was I the only one who died laughing at the critical hit/miss with the big D20s?

You don't have brown hair. You don't wear a light blue shirt. You aren't fat. WHY DID YOU LIE TO US. WE TRUSTED YOU!

11:09 The die rolls they don't need to see... if they don't know what the roll is for then you don't have to hide it. 🤣 DM: Oooh, you looked in that urn? * Rolls a d20, then a few d6, writes in notes * Player: Uh... What's going on? * mildly concerned * DM: Huh? Oh the rolls? It's probably nothing. 😎 Player: * concern intensifies *

1 and 20 Dis/Advantage roll was hilarious. Broke me into a cold sweat till I realized _ah no, not in gameplay right now_ Also, I really appreciate how 'low tech' your game system is, I personally hate dragging a mini around, I don't like bulk in terms of supplies either. Super great video!

me and my friends used to make a mini map because miniatures and mats are too expensive here in Brazil. Now here's how we did it: we made a tall base with styrofoam or stacked cardboard sheets. On top of that we put graph paper. Sometimes we covered it in transparent plastic sheet so we could draw over it with markers and erase it later. To represent characters we used colored sewing pins, each color representing a character. We put the pins the through map and inside the base. It was small and we could pass it to the players when it was their turn. It was super effective and cheap and easy to lookup and lasted for several sessions. When it got old we just made another one.

YOU HAVE A FACE. All this time I just assumed you were a cartoon

concept: short GM screen so you can have the more involved interaction with the added advantages of a GM screen too

"Hey what's up it's you favorite Forest Puffin here" I mean, we don't have a other Puffin ,os I guess your technically my favorite Puffin.

"The player just need the book, the pencil and the dice, then your kind of set... and MAYBE character sheet."

1 and a 20 ... wow ok.. I understand the moment of silence

Soda cap rings as effect halos/markers... genius. I’m so taking that.

For my first time DM'ing, I used a scrabble board and letters for people/board. It was super helpful as I didn't have too many things for now. For minis, I went to the lego store and made some minifigures and used those. Not too expensive and is fun to make them. I also used other legos I already had.

The Chessex beige mat, the staple of a prepared GM. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

100% convinced he hired an actor to play himself and dubbed over them

Is it weird that I'm trying to imagine Puffin's avatar when he talks? He just looks so different from the avatar I'm used to seeing =P

18:52 that pause/sigh at the 1 and 20 simultaneous rolls was gold.

Points at the blue die and says "advantage", points at the red die and says "disadvantage". Rolls dice, blue die gets a 1, red die gets a 20... do your players know you're playing with loaded dice?

I'm glad to see your face because one of my professors sounds *EXACTLY* like you and it was pissing me off because I didn't feel I could ask them "hey are you Puffin Forest?!?" just in case I had to explain who that is and that I play DnD and because I'm awkward and would be like oh haha, sorry I asked, _guess I can just never speak to you or in this class again_

I loved the "dramatic" dice, when he rolled them and got a critical success and critical failure at the same time. EPIC!

This is honestly the most helpful channel about D&D I’ve seen

I would recommend the pathfinder mats. 2 double sided mats with quite nice backgrounds (sea, grass and two kinds of paving). It's nice and compact but when unfolded is quite big. It's quality is reasonable. Well worth it's price tag that's aroun 15$ (a 10$ one also exists without the backgrounds).

There’s an arts and crafts blog that shows how to imbed a touchscreen monitor into the table so you can digitally upload and edit the tabletop map as you play. It’s pretty cool!

I think with the wet erase Chessex mat you could just use a wet rag? Works pretty well for my games. I actually prefer the wet erase mats because they will stay and not rub off with a little friction, so if people are dragging their minis around/touching the mat, or if we don't finish combat/using the mat that session I can just roll it up for next session without any real impact on what I've drawn.

Captain Morgan I have that black dice I do enjoy those ones a lot I laughed at the Nat fail and Nat success at the same time lol

I don't know what I expected you to look like.. but it wasn't looking like my dad.

1 and 20, with the dices! I know what you did space out a bit :D

Oh and just to say cheers dude I watched some of your videos and went out and re bought all the DnD books and ran my first game for 20 years to much amusement of my 20 year old players. So again cheers.

Thank you for posting things like this! I was the person who introduced D&D to my friend group and started DM'ing so even when other people DM they mostly follow my style since it's what they've been exposed to. It's great being able to see the other things that can be used and watch your videos to see the kinds of encounters you come up with!

Ever thought of selling your art on mouse pads and dice trays

Your tips for tokens are very helpful! Thank you! I have a player who has nearly all the books with to much time on his hands. He always takes the books with him. I have the mat and everyone brings their own dice and a minis if they want. Otherwise we just use standard board game pieces. Since I usually play Dnd with the same people we can just bring the stuff. Edit: Also it’s kinda cool seeing people’s faces when you’re on the bus with a big tube for the mat.

You can use a spritzed towel over your mats to gently iron it on low heat. We had to do that when Chessex wrapped their megamat too tightly and it had super waves. My DM uses Windex on the the mat to make it easier. I've also found that treating the ink like clean up crumbs (doing scooping motions towards the center of the image) helps reduce the amount of paper towels used. You could also invest in a small rag for just wiping the mat. It would probably get stained, but it doesn't really matter.

I love that his voice is not altered from his animation at all. He's just a real dude who loves D&D

I can't wait until RPG developers start sending you game accessories! Do you hear me Devs! help this man out!

This took me so off guard. Kind of like suddenly hearing Hank Hill in a grocery store, only to find that it’s really Hank Hill. Great information, though. Grateful for the review of the wet erase mat.

First, we had the Lazy GM. Then, we got the Angry DM. Now, the one that I've needed all this time...The Cheap DM! I can't see spending a ton of money on minis just so my players don't ever have to visualize orcs and gnolls. Great work with the large and huge tokens, too. I don't believe how many ideas I got from this short vid. Keep it up, Ben!

Now all i can imagine is the 9-player game i'm in now without a mat.

Pro tip: If you ever mistake your markers and use your permanent marker by mistake, use the dryErase and draw over the permanentMarker and it will make it dry-erasable

When are u gonna do a face reveal?

So many useful ideas, thank you! Thoroughly enjoyable to watch, too.

My kit also uses the NPC Codex in a zip bag - instant recognition. I use and really like the Pathfinder Terrain 2-Pack, as some others have commented about. I keep all my dice in a zip bag though, so I think it's time to upgrade to the workman's box. Great suggestion. All that I pack in the outer fold of a messenger bag with other peripherals (markers, a terrycloth rag, phone chargers, etc). In the main fold I keep a binder for character sheets and a binder for the current campaign/adventure notes, printouts, and GM resources.

Dude, I legit thought that your voice was a "fake" voice, like something you do only for your cartoon. I mean it isn't a bad voice, it's just really weird to hear it without the cartoon lol. Good videos though, you're one of my favorite content creators.

Dice, Mats, and everything nice. These were the ingredients to make the perfect DD game. But Puffin added another ingredient, a grandmaster! And thus the perfect DD game was born!

For playmat, several years ago i bought a large sheet of plexiglass from home depot. I then used painters tape to model lines on it and spraypainted with outdoor paint. Did that a second time the other way and it came out really nice. So one side is not ideal for markers as its got the paint but the other side is fantastic and easy to see the grid. Bonus is sliding printed maps or art under it and its an instant wet/dry grid on top of whatever art/material you have. It has served me really really well.

Hey Ben! Wonderful video 😁 love the stuff you do! Surprisingly useful for the matt stuff. Use the alternate rule in the DMG for going diagonally, so every other square becomes 10ft instead of 5. Gives some semblance of growing distance

PUFFIN IT'S YOUR FACE

I really like these new kinds of videos :3 You should make this as a series! Calling it something like " Puffins D&D lessons" :D

Thanks for the video! Some of the things you've shown are quite insightful.

18:50 best moment on the video! A TON of great content. Keep up the awesome stories, animation and just over all no nonsense game help!

Yknow what they say a dice a day keeps the masters at bay

I struggle seeing how different you are than your animated character. Like don't take that in any way negativity, just so different. Love your content!

Thanks for sharing, Puffin! Your games seem well equipped and immersive! Personally, for maps, I just use a pad of grid paper. Travel size, easy to change, save maps for later... Keeps things simple! For dice, I have a bag that I bring with multiple 7-die sets in it and can lend them to any and all players that need them. I have a few extra d6s and d20s as well for spells and instances of advantage. Aside from that, I recommend a designated Party Inventory Sheet to keep track of treasure and equipment, as well as a Session Journal to track names and important factoids, which helps people remember important info over long periods of real life time.

I actually appreciate the advice and tips you've given. I'll be able to use some of it for my own games! Especially the card board for bigger enemies (I also don't use minis I use markers with numbers but always struggled with bigger creatures for finding markers). I use chess pieces for my players. So thanks! That's really helpful. Among the recommendations for playmats. As well as the "crystals" for unique items.

YOU AREN'T BEN! He'd never say forest puffin.

i laughed way to hard at that Nat-1 and Nat-20 at 18:51

Wow, this video was actually super helpfull! I've struggled for a while with using minis, but this video showed great alternatives!

omg, puffin thankyou!!! i was worried about enemies, but the indicators are so smart! thank you thank you thank you!

His face returns! ...I am no longer comfortable watching these on the can!

18:48 Where is your God now

Hey Puffin, just wanted to say that your videos have really gotten me into the game :) And also my husband and I searched for 2 days everywhere in our city and online for a dry erase mat with squares and couldn't find one, ended up with some weird thing from Hobby Lobby that looked...ok. THANK YOU for showing us the evergame mat! It is exactly what we were looking for! Can't wait to try it out next week :D

Very cool. I started playing in 1983 so we were stuck with the plastic die that you had to use the white crayon with to make the numbers show up. If you wanted minis you had to buy the lead melting pot, pewter ingots, and plaster to cast them yourself, but things changed rather quickly and all the stuff eventually became more available. I remember someone had a kit for making campaign buttons, small, medium, and large. For $10 we could make 100 button minis and they would last for decades. Over the last decade or so I've discovered the big bags of coloured replacement cubes and meeples for Eurogames. I like the real wood feel, but I love the convenience of being able to dump everything in a big bag at the end of the night. Anyway, good job.

Everyone talking about the 20 and 1 on the big dice. But did anyone notice the OTHER 20 and 1 that were just chillin at 16:05 in the middle of the screen..? (The blue and white one)

man, you should tape your playing and gming. like critical role and the guys from xp to level 3! it would be awesome!

I had a buddy that would use a flat screen TV with a plexiglass cover for the board. He'd then make all of his maps on roll20. Bit more of an investment, but the utility was awesome.

Useful information. Been trying to fill in as a substitute-substitute DM for a D&D5e group (crazy story, but involves current events, with the DM not playing as their wife is in a higher At Risk category, and will be moving as well, and a death in the substitute DM's family) and I'm trying to see about getting a buddy of mine, who used to play 3.5 back in the day, to play. Thing is, group plays using theater of the mind, while he, and a friend of his who wants to join a group, are used to grids and minis and such. Been doing a bit of chit chat in order to figure out how to do things.

Awesome vid, I loved it, ima new player so this helped a lot!

Wow 3 vids in one week

I like how imaginative, reliable, and useful your device and gameplay is.

I absolutely love the videos you do! Keep them coming!

Can you give some links to the different things you show here? Especially nice if they're amazon affiliate links so if I get anything you benefit from it.

4:15 actually baby wipes work well for that.

I love these new kind of video. And great tips and tricks I'm going to try. Thank you.

Really like the bottle tamper ring usage, very clever.

Are you the fifth Beatle?

This guy doesn't look like a Flumph!? How Abserd.

I like your token ideas for enemies....and the cardboard bases for the big boss. Good video!!

I found these tables that attach for different sizes, and are whiteboards on the top, making it easy to draw squares and shapes to represent buildings.

Oh... my... what a shock. I wasn't expecting a face reveal, I guess I missed the first one. Ok, carry on...

He's more beautiful than I imagined

This was really good. I never thought about using a ruler but that is pretty genius

Thanks Ben! I found that vid very helpful, especially because I’m about to run a campaign of my own and I want to buy the right stuff for it. Btw, I have a giant dice plushie that I always roll for important things, kinda like your big dice