I have really grown to enjoy your videos very much. My tip for the "unprepared" GM: NEVER throw away your old stuff. I started playing and GMing in 84 and I kept every single dungeon, house, tavern, village, NPC and PC I ever made (even if he died) and I kept them in folders and boxes. And guess what :): I have enough stuff for at least 10-15 years of gaming with only a few minutes of preparation. But as I like making new worlds, and new adventures as well as working on, and refining old ones my collection grows. Sad really, if I would not need the money from my work, I could spend the rest of my life playing and GMing...

Just what I needed! The only problem is that now I only have 22 minutes left after watching this video to prepare for my dnd session which was 30 minutes from now. ;)

A great backup for an unprepared session is a couple good arena maps. Have the players “wake up” in the arena kidnapped by a God of war (whichever one fits your campaign). They are to participate in a great gladiatorial combat for their entertainment. The players get to test out their character in PvP destroying their friends. HUGE fun for them. VERY easy for the DM. And afterwards, they wake up unharmed and the victor find they have a magic item that will help the party in their current campaign.

There's also a random dungeon generator in the back of the DMG, as well as a couple of premade maps. One of the DMs I know used the generator in the DMG to make a few dozen pre-stocked rooms/passages/features, wrote each of them on a cue card, then shuffled the deck to make The Mystic Dungeon of Randomonia! that aspiring adventurers would challenge to make names for themselves.

A great way to make a dungeon layout is to find a top down map of a mall or casino, as they usually have large maze-like layouts to keep people inside and spending money longer. (If you want to make your players cry just use an IKEA map, and add in some traps from tomb of horrors.)

I recommend dungeon scrawl for a quick and simple map maker. It's fast and looks pretty good as well.

I’ve been obsessed with 1 page dungeons recently. I’ve made 4-5 and plan to make 3-5 from each type and setting in the dmg. That way I can just drop it in wherever. This helped when I was running keep on the borderlands the other day. The castle ruins went a different route with my players and I was able to pull out my ruined castle 1 page dungeon. Went great

Thank you SO MUCH for this helpful video!! As someone who has experienced the stress of 'Last Minute' problems, I find this video very helpful and will definitely use the advices for a last minute dungeon.

Here's a DM hack for the idea of keys: have it possible to find them on the corpses of previous adventurers. This is something that you can easily do on the fly if the party gets stuck.

One "trick" that I use to lure players into a dungeon is to have them each draw a random "rumor" from some paper I've printed off and cut up. Usually there are a few more rumors than players, so not all get used. Several rumors mention that great treasures and wealth in the dungeon and others warn of the dangers or give hints/info/history that can be taken advantage of for it. After each of the players shares the rumor they've heard, they usually say "Wow, I think we should go check out this place." If this is the only adventure you have prepped right now - it doesn't hurt to just tell them that too :) I do this because usually they can leave back out of the entrance in my dungeons (because they are deadly enough even with a known path for retreat :)

Thank you soooo much. How did I even get by all these years without these resources?!

Last session the party all met up at an Inn to rest up after their last adventure, no problem; they wake up to a scene of a violent struggle, the innkeeper missing and a trail leading to a hidden door. A reward of money by the Inkeepers daughter to find her father. Into the dungeon the Adventures go.

Had a similar situation last night, I'm in the early stages of a 2e campaign and, after a busy week, I suddenly remembered the dungeon I'm working on isn't anywhere close to finished. So I used the moathouse from Hommlet instead.

Thanks for a lot of great ideas! That said, though, I don’t see how a dungeon the size you recommend is doable in 30 minutes. ;-) One thing I’ve come to rely on for single-session dungeons is the “five room dungeon” method with added rooms or monsters as time allows. The technique really forces you to focus on the central idea of the place and its cohesion.

30 minute dungeon, nice! But I was almost expecting: "step one, clean, peel, cut and caramelize some onions (5 min)" 😆

I would add one more consideration to the story bit: why are the monsters there? What exactly was this dungeon before they moved in, and what is it now?

I always appreciate your content as well as the encouraging and enthusiastic tones in which you deliver it.

Very helpful, and I really like the step by step process. Thanks!

Thank you for the fantastic tips! One of your ideas set off an old memory. One thing that made my players call me a genius was to always create a backstory for the dungeon. Who first made it and why? How did the current inhabitants take over or move in? Answering these questions made it easier for me to justify why there were traps and puzzles and to also give them flavour. The dungeon's backstory also often provided a sort of flashback scene that helped make the story come alive rather than just being a door-to-door hack and slash. I also endeavoured to have at least one scene designed to stick with the players. After a few sessions, you learn what kind of scenes your players like talking about and reminiscing so I try to reverse engineer similar but different scenes. For puzzles or mysteries, I also liked to ensure that players always found every clue [either made the skill rolls super easy or just said they found the clue] but made the clues open to misinterpretation [or make the skill role matter to how hard I make the clue for interpreting correctly, e.g., often the order the players get the clue sets them up to interpret what the clues mean, so if they succeed with the skill role, they get the clues in a helpful order but if they fail they still get a clue, just out of order and more likely to be open to misinterpretation.] The satisfaction of players falling for the hindsight bias and saying "I knew it!" when it becomes obvious what the clues meant too late, delightful! Just make sure that the rewards for figuring out what the clues mean too late are still something the players will talk about. For example, if somehow the players learn what the clues mean in time, they win the entire treasure hoard [warning: power level creep!] but if they only learn what the clues mean too late they still get everything they had originally wanted from the dungeon. One group had been hunting for a bag of holding, so I knew that even if they did not put all the clues together correctly but still got the bag of holding, they would be talking both about the win with the bag of holding they had been searching for and the huge treasure hoard they had just missed out. They talked for a long while about returning to the area once they had levelled up enough to face a new threat that had chased them away. The campaign story went a different direction and the sense that they had unfinished business at this dungeon that took me 40 mins to make made that time feel like the best time spent for making the world feel immersive. tbh, I had a proper campaign story lined up but overheard them talking about how unlikely it was to find a bag of holding with what they were currently doing, so I lied about not being prepared and asked them to play video games for 40 minutes while I designed the adventure so they could find the bag of holding. So much fun!

I love your channel! great ideas and content with each video :)

This was such a good vid! I've lost count of how many of my favourite dungeons I've made in this last-minute way --- so much so that I've memorised half of the random tables from basic and expert dnd haha

Sometimes not being fully prepared can be a good thing. It can lend itself to creative ideas and/or good worldbuilding if you play your cards right. One idea I've got is having a dungeon who's levels above ground were torn down/repurposed into another type of building, but the underground parts are untouched and more dangerous. Another thing I like to keep in mind is that not every dungeon dweller has to be hostile. Heck, you could make a whole video about the effects of having people (usually goblins) living in a dungeon and how that would affect item/loot distribution.

Just found your channel with this short but informative video. That's a great technique, especially for lazy DMs like myself. Thanks!

thank you youtube reccomendations for sending me this video like, exactly when i need it

Lol I need this today. Going to run a test game in about an hour.

Such a helpful video!

I decent way to get the party involved in the dungeon is to literally drag them into it. Have slavers or harpies or some other monsters grab one or more players, either during a fight or while the party is resting. If they get all of them, great, just resume play in captivity, with need to escape. If only some are captured, allow the rest of the party to easily chase or track the captors back to their lair. Either way, getting the party members out will be the key objective. Liberating other captives and grabbing loot is a nice bonus. Even if the assailants fail and flee, the party might chase or track them simply to deal with the problem.

When I began playing in the early 80's, I had problems where a DM didn't have anything planned, so with no DMing experience I made a few "Spur of the Moment Dungeons" I could throw in as one shots when needed. I wasn't terribly good as a DM, but I enjoyed making these.

This is AMAZING!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ Just a suggestion, but could you perhaps do a video on the *NPC Roleplay* mechanic? It's when the party is split up and a scene with one party member is active, the other players get a chance to be involved in the scene by role-playing AS some NPCs.

I use the random tables for treasure alot to make oneshot and 'quickly made' dungeons and adventures to have a theme. Roll 3 times on 3 different tables for 3 nice items fitting for the level. These 3 items give you nice inspiration for the dungeon and also the rewards.

I can't wait to try this advice 🙂

This is probably the most underrated tabletop channel right now

Great tips, thanks :)

Thanks for the awesome video, I really enjoyed it! If y’all take suggestions, I’d love to see a video about how to make folklore/Witcher-y monsters for D&D.

Learning how to improvise a dungeon is also helpful to mitigate GM burnout. It's helped me a lot to know that a 4 room dungeon with a combat encounter that I can use any online tool to make, and a non-combat encounter like a puzzle (that you can also find online in a jiffy) can keep my players busy for a couple of hours at least. One tends to overestimate the speed players can move the story forward

I sometimes watch this right before a session, whether I’m prepped or not because it helps with creation/revision process

excellent video

I, years ago, created a dungeon in 20 minutes that has seen dozens of sessions of play. It could see more again. How? I took two pregenerated maps (one of a tower and one of a cave system) tossed in some less used critters (especially extraplanar) discovered that a lot were “guardian” types that contract with Wizards…and one I had decided to use was a Demi-Lich (and this was back in 2nd Edition, where Demi-Liches came in two varieties, failed Lich or a Lich that had transcended into god-like power) and stumbled into the story and theme of the dungeon while doing so. The tower was the long ago home of an ancient wizard, so ancient that the oldest records of the longest lived races remember only that he was frighteningly powerful, and a “collector”: new (to him) race or creature( or even new “variant” be it a coloration he hadn’t seen or a new power on display), it gets a habitat (or added to an existing habitat) in the caverns; new (to him) item, magic, or magic item? Into the tower or certain areas of the caverns. His wandering and “collecting” weren’t limited to just that world either, but the Planes and other worlds (a big deal on that world, you usually need a God/Goddess to give you permission to travel that way off that world). As he grew in power and knowledge, he started setting up powerful magics that drew in new specimens, knowledge, and items to his tower from all the places he visited. Then he decided his (centuries extended) lifespan wasn’t good enough, and sought Lichdom; he obtained it, and started to work even more powerful lost magic to make sure his “collection” would never empty, and would be properly guarded when he went on his trips. Eventually he transcended his need for his old body and became a Demi-Lich; his home, now woven with extensive magic that kept it repaired and filled with all the things he enjoyed, stood for thousands of years without his spirit being present. Some of those “collected” by his traps managing to set up villages or such things in their “habitats”, while the people that eventually spread out enough to discover the pristine tower that had been built in the desert in the middle of nowhere learned to avoid it when those that entered didn’t escape…or parts of them got tossed out. Centuries later, enter the party, asked to check the place out by locals in the bustling seaside desert metropolis a day from where the tower stands. The tower has all the new “specimens” and goodies gathered by the magics, things the Wizard himself gathered, anything summoned into the place by those trapped there, and other adventurers (or raiding parties) from places where the traps (and “gatherers”, in other words magics/constructs stealing items and books from elsewhere) were found and traced back. An ever changing dungeon of wonders with cool backstory (told through both journals, magic mouth spells used like the audio clips from museums/art galleries/some zoos, and illusion based “video journals” by the Wizard) and theme.

A Difficult Scenario: Okay, I am in this adventure party with myself, a paladin, a thief, a cleric, and a MU. We open this door and a chamber is revealed to us. Inside the chamber is 6 Orcs who are completely surprised by our entry. It is a typical chamber with various furniture and such. One of the Orcs is lying in a bed with 2 other Orcs hovering over him. The Orc is lying flat on the bed and seems very old and feeble with grey hair. Of of the 2 Orcs beside the bed, one is wearing a long white robe and holding a clipboard. He is wearing some type of stethoscope around his neck and was leaning over the older Orc as you entered the chamber. Next to him, is a young attractive female Orc who is holding a vial of some sort, maybe a potion. She turns as you enter and you are mesmerized by her alluring appearance. These 2 are wearing a matching set of gold wedding rings and you suddenly feel a sense of disappointment. Now, you quickly surmise that the older Orc on the bed may be related to them in some way. The other 3 Orcs are located in the opposite corner. These are young child Orcs who seem to be playing one of the popular dice games that is common to the area. They are all sitting on the floor in a prone position. The child Orcs do not notice you entered the chamber. They seem to be consumed by this game they are playing. Suddenly, one of the child Orcs yells, "Yes! Critical hit!". And now it is your turn to act. What do you do? The Orcs are all surprised so you have the first move. What would you do in this situation?

i love this channel ;w;

Smart video. I listen to most content at fast speeds, but can't do that with your videos, too dense with content to digest. Are you guys familiar with the Lazy DM Prep method?

the most important skill for a dm is improve. remember the players will take roughly an hour to complete each encounter. So if your running a modest game of three hour sessions like me you only need to bring three encounters planned. I usually bring at least six though in case one is made irrelevant. note two things about encounters, they aren't only combat and they aren't fleshed out. An encounter plan should be little more than a bullet list with each bullet being no more than seven or so words, unless you have side notes on it tying it to something else that happened in the campaign. For the most part though a bullet list should look like this "the farmer asks for help, they go to the woods and fight goblins, they find a cave where the goblins came from" just getting them to talk to the farmer can take an hour and combat can take a long time if the dice are unwilling or you want it to and add more enemies who the party did not see before or the goblins called for aid by blowing a horn. Then the cave exploration can be its own three bullet points or less or more. If the party doesn't talk to the farmer but instead ignore him and wander off they can just be attacked by goblins as they travel. then the farmer looks like foreshadowing for a goblin attack. Or if the party goes the other way to avoid the goblins just have them travel to the next town or to the wilderness. replace the goblin fight with some wolves or something. simple fixes on the fly are crucial to keeping the game going. also the most important thing for a DM is to READ YOUR PLAYERS BACKSTORIES!!!!!!!!!!! seriously nothing inspires impromptu fixes like a PC backstory. goblins are nice and all for a one shot but if you instead have the zelot group who killed the cleric's sister in those woods, well let's just say the party is far more inclined to do some murdering. Including the PC backstories in your game is a fast easy way to engage your party with the plot you've cooked up. in session 0 or at least prior to session 1 you should have each character come up with a little backstory for their character and inform you of it. backstories should include a secret about their character that other players don't necessarily know, a motivation to be engaged in the campaign, and where they're from, and what they did or would be doing if they weren't adventuring. you can also have players add things like fears, enemies, disabilities (optional), old friends to family. Thisberion the wizard is a fine character but Sir Thisberion Festus Dela Shakespear First Knight of the High Note third son of the eighth son of the second prince of Bebembur is a much more fleshed out and useful character for the dm. Think about how much of the worldbuilding was done on critical roll just to get through perciville's backstory. THink about what Grog's backstory brought to the campaign. See the difference? it isn't wrong if a player has little to no backstory for their character but don't ignore the benefits of having a lore happy player who made this up. It can also be a great way to figure out what kind of campaign the players want. if a player has his daughter Taken because they want to play out the plotline of Taken then you'll know there are likely going to be some implied sexual themes there so you can ask the table how comfortable they are with that. If they aren't you can find the middle ground between their comfort and the player who wanted to be liam neilson. reading PC backstory is probably the most important step to being a good dm. THough if its more than a page you might wan tot ask them to trim a bit.

Locks and keys are great for a video gamey dungeon, but I find that locked doors don't really stop my players that much. There's always someone dextrous enough to open it, or strong enough to break it, or magic enough to teleport through it. Also, for most dungeons, it doesn't make sense that so much rooms would be locked. Creatures live there, right? Are they always unlocking and locking doors to pee or to go play cards with goblin C?

Good thing I enjoy worldbuilding and character creating as pastime.

I have a problem, where I have amazing ideas for the future, like a chapter involving the Dragonborn in our group reuniting with her family after 12 years or a hidden society in a city behind a waterfall, a council of Dragon Riders, a naval war in the cold Northern regions, a cult seeking powerful artifacts to fight another cult that does something similar. Yet I have no idea how to get to these moments. And when I do, it suddenly sounds way less cool. My brain always goes like:„Wow, that's the best you can do?” These videos help me figure out, how I should do these things. Thank you

My personal strategy is to simply stop time so I can calmly take my time to prepare moments before we begin.

HI IM 30 MINUTES BEFORE MY GAME RIGHT NOW AND YOU SAVED MY ASS. thanks :D!

5:22 I mean...if they do...you get to ask the question...why? What writing is it? Elven juvenile delinquents defacing dwarven holds? Insane elven prophet forecasting the doom that came to the hold? Is one wandering the halls, alernatingly bitterly smug and sadly despairing about the now empty hold?

Everything in this video is perfect but my advise is: every room shouldn't bee an encounter. Too many encounters can turn a dungeon into a slog, leaving empty rooms (empty of threat) leaves room for exploration and ambiance and are used for pacing, and the fear of a possible encounter around the corner. hell, don't even have rooms with monsters except their lairs if they live in the dungeon, use wandering monsters and see what shows up that's a lot of fun too and will help you prep less if in a pinch. If you are running out of "what should i put in this room" remember that some dungeons (abandoned keeps, crypts, caves, tombs and mazes) are places in ruins and abandoned and sometimes you could just find a room with debris and rubble, how ever you can leave clues of the possible denizens of the dungeon with clues. If you want an example of this just look up any urban exploration video youll see left items, graffiti and strange findings.

The entrance can double as the exit. 🙂

I was wondering if there was a dungeon generator. It seems like a useful tool. I had my own concept for one that uses rooms made by users with puzzles, traps and encounters designed by the users. With a whole bunch of filters to feel a little less like a collection of random rooms and more like a single dungeon with theme and purpose. Or you could just have no filter and laugh at the absurdity.

I do fully improv sessions, very chaotically fun

started a dungeon game will most defiantly use this lol

English subs, yes!

Also, adventures don't require a dungeon. If one of the PCs can ritual cast the tiny hut spell then rests will go better for the PCs.

Thanks for the great advice in the video but you should have considered making it a bit shorter now I only have 21 minutes and 28 seconds left to prepare aaaaaaahelp

In my experience, if you place a locked door, the players will do their best to just break through without considering looking for keys

4:57 *did you just put Loss as a puzzle*

U realy have to prep at some point, but you can get away with not preparing once or twice. Good players will chew on a good plotbone for quiet a wile. You just have to take notes to remember what you improvised 😁 But I don’t think that what we see in this video can be done in 30 Minutes. At least not on the first try and with D&D 5e

Making up maps is easy and fast. It’s the production aspects that are a pain, like making them in whatever VTT you are using, drawing them out in a presentable and readable way, and getting it laid out and ready for player consumption. None of this solves that problem

What is this word, pre-pare?

Preparing ahead a time? Nahh Preparing an hour before they show up and while they get set up? Yeahhh

Oh no! I have 30 minutes left and have prepared nothing! (me every week). also this is not an advertisement for not planning, please plan and save yourself the mental aguish lol.

Don't know what you want to throw at your players? Let the characters take the wheel and drive

Dungeons yes, but I hate illogical monster distribution, as in, we are in an ancient tomb, then one room a giant spider, next deadly traps and next a bunch of goblins!? How did they get there? Makes no sense. Thus consider, if habited by whom? What rooms are in use for what? If not, what might live there anyway? How? What is the function of the dungeon as a whole, prison, tomb, temple, treasury, etc. Consider that, makes buy in to the story so much better.

this takes waaay more than 30 mins to me.

This is a video game dungeon. I need tips on trasforming this to a D&D dungeon.

We need to prepare our sessions?

Color-coded and single-use keys? That's a bit video-gamey. Besides, if a DM is cramped for time, easier to ignore all that. Proficiency with thief's tools is a thing, as is, in the absence of such a proficiency, a knock spell or just simply busting down a door.

Building a dungeon this quickly is so cool you will really really want to tell your players. But don't. Seriously. Imaginative players create tons of backstory trying to understand your deep plans for your world. So resist the urge to tell them it was 30 minutes, random tables, and an old module. Instead, just smile, listen to their theories, and use those theories in your next game.

Are they really people out there who take dnd session so much for granted they forget to prep? Bruh if I have the chance to play I’m ready 3 weeks in advance. Privileged people taking dnd for granted smh