there are actually online courses to prepare you to be a dungeon master

You know, that test is far less difficult than the old RPGA one from when they required you to take one to qualify to run games for them...when they shifted from the RPGA to the Adventurer's League, they dropped the test portion of it. And they'd had a few variant tests that they'd been forced into adding due to the RPGA also covering other games than just D&D that used the same system (Originally D20 Modern and Star Wars, but several 3rd party ones...though those still required the basic test due to the books requiring the Players Handbook). The higher level ones were a pain in the rear to pass

Hey Duke! Any chance of you guys still going to GenCon? I know you were waiting on hearing back about your events!

Trauma…”YES”. I’m the forever DM even though I can name NPC…. if you give me a few hours I can. One of my players got fed up from dying over and over. She said I want to DM so I can make you suffer. I got so excited I was gonna get to play. No one in my group ever plays a bard, so I played one in her campaign. After 3 sessions the game was over and she gave up. My Bard of Elegance seduced and slept with everything and openly in public. My ten page backstory I gave her read like a black diary X rated romance novel and she was disgusted by the detail. All her violent planned out encounters were peacefully and lustfully rendered harmless. Yes I intentionally did it, and I know I ruined my shot at playing again, but to crush her soul from trauma as a player made it worth it.

My party is now accustomed to expecting trauma whenever I say “you all take long rest, dream sequence time!”

more like how much trauma do you wanna give the SCs and all your NPCs.... 😈

Oh, no worries... my players will bring their own personal trauma and drama both at the table and in the game.

Players: jokes on you I'm into that shit

Teleported exactly where I wanted!

That’s exactly what I said too. But Cry also works.

Ye olde quantum ogre

Just don't move things they know the locations of. You will break the immersion because now they know they didn't accomplish anything. Really I prefer to just start making things up on the spot. If you can try to create a simple puzzle that will stump them until next session.

Just change the names and possibly the aesthetics of every town you had planned for. Suddenly the European kingdom of Ferrion is the desert sultanate of Alabahd.

At least you started

So you are writing?

same! though I didn't shout it.

Same

Fucking same

There are medications that works. Like "Grimtooths traps" for instance, take 2 of those if your players stresses you out and you will feel a lot better. If nothing else work, you need to get serious though... "Today we are playing a module written by Gary Gygax", that should tech them.... The best way for a DM to handle stress is to give it to the players instead.

oh... i've made like 7...

I failed, I always have names, and their lore writes itself in mere seconds.

@cyan_wings5420 Nah, you are the chosen one.

Just had this happen on Friday. I introduced a wizard who specializes in the study of magic items to kick of a quest to make the weapon of one of my players stronger. When the party met him I realized that I didn't give him a name. I paniked and went through a list of fictional characters and actors in my head , and what popped out of my mouth in the end was "Spell Pacino"...

Everyone just needs to make a random names table to roll on or grab one of the ones provided online, or just use one of the many name generators ffs. I have name tables for every region we play in, fore male names, female names and surnames. All I need to do is roll a D100 and voila, I've got a cool name ready in no time.

Stab

Ask if the player realy wants to cast fireball in such an enclosed space

@@MR-hk2qu The player says: "I didn't ask how big the room is, I say I cast fireball" What do you do?

@@icarue993 check if they have bat guano

Counterspell

I'm in a party where we have access to Wind Walk, Teleport, and Transport via Plants. At least we have the decency of telling the DM *where* we're planning on teleporting to, so he can prepare. Even if we end up spending the session not actually going there yet because we derail our own fuckin' plans.

Same here actually.

lol Mine was "feign sickness (or tiredness if we're already playing) and postpone until next week so I can prep" 🤣

I said weep just before he answered 😅

Eh social interaction is overrated xD

Wait... you have social interaction that isn't D&D?

Well look at you, Mr. Both-y McBothington! Goooood fer YOU! *cries in Sign **#48234759837917** that I need to finish my book*

@@monkibro u got this bro get that book

I do just DMing (and playing)

Whats your class test

Lol

Yeah, that sounds awesome

​@@BenisMannn I wanna know what the class test is, might be a good resource.

I would like to know more about Dungeon Master Bootcamp

Aw, I had to name NPCs because the players adopt them like pets.

That's when you tell your players to each submit a list of names for you to choose from. And another list next week. Like it's homework. That is graded.

@@deeps6979lol there's one specific guy on my group who asks the names, and them when I go "uhhhhhhhhhh" trying to think of something, other guy complains that I don't prepare stuff ( and then when he is DMing and we ask him for names he just says a really common modern name that sound completely off from the setting. Love that guy ) But yeah, stuff like your case hasn't happened yet

@@MonkeyJedi99 xD that actually sounds like a good idea, I might do just that

Def agree with Jedi, when they ask for a name, look to them and ask. "You tell me, what is thier name" Either it'll backfire and they'll call you out for it, or they'll feel they have more relevance in the game. Either way, bring snacks and have fun~

I got 144

I literally just started making my players calculate their own damage(they’re all honors level maths student and I’m an idiot tho so it’s very fair)

@@Edahs_exists Extremely fair

@@Edahs_exists That seems mean. We all know that math students can only calculate with letters and hiroglyphs.

@@SGast or calculators. I swear once you get far enough a long in being a maths student your mental mathematics takes a sudden decline... only to eventually return if you go even further.

Yesterday I literally informed my players that human names for a specific region follow FFXIV midlander conventions, because I'm using a name generator for that part

as an ADHD person trust me its better to assume rather then give them the opportunity to talk about it

I shall avoid being one of your players, then, because everyone would be called "Steve" if I had my way

I cheat and have a list of random names. Sometimes I use a name generator or takes popular historical names, sometimes I just make them up or whatever but I try to have 50 names. I also have some random pictures (taken from wherever) so I can dish out a name and a picture for a random NPC, both making my players think I am well prepared and suspect there might be more to the random NPC they ran into. You don't want a situation where players realize you only have a couple important NPCs worked out, they will quickly realize who of them are the big bad, the disguised princess or whatever else you are trying to hide from them that way and it will impress them for how well prepared you are even if you just spent a few minutes of doing that before the campaign started. I am also making a few somewhat important NPCs that can show up in most places in the campaign, so I can insert them whenever I need to spice things up. They might also help the PCs if they are stuck or sabotage them if things go too easy. Anything that makes the game run smoother and be more memorable. I don't recommend letting your players make the names for unimportant NPCs because it tells them just that. Unless you are sneaky of course and have them name the hidden big bad or the assassin that have a contract on them once they think whoever they named are unimportant. Generally, I try to have a theme for the naming in any area. Like maybe this city have mainly Saxon names, Icelandic names, Egyptian names or whatever. Adventurer stands out with more colorful names since it is a marketing strategy so they would call themselves names easy to remember and competent sounding even if they are actually baptized to "Jim" and "Nelly". I think the players should suspect where someone is from by just hearing their name and there plenty of sites to just pick names from making that easy. That doesn't mean everyone born in a certain region must follow this convention but enough to give the players a feeling of a real place. I also only gives last names to nobles, it is of course for historical reasons and not since I am lazy, right? Anyone else have their last name from what they work with or after where they live if they are from a small place. The smith named John would be John Smith if someone actually demanded their family name. Unless they are based on vikings, then I take their fathers name and add "son" at the end of it for males and their mothers name and end it with dottir for females, simple. Gudrun who have the Parents Thor and Freya would be named Gudrun Freyadottir while her brother Wulf would be Wulf Thorson. But that is just when a last name is needed, so the players know which of the 2 John is the barber and who is the smith. Usually I just have the nobles go on about their family name and everyone just give then their first name. It is super important to nobles though since their authority comes from their family.

Actually, I've found that players empathize more with npcs that they've named rather than thinking of them as unimportant. That helps when I inevitably leverage them in plot hooks and scenarios since I am currently running a sandbox.

@@moonsoft6601 That's odd... I wonder if that is something specific to your group or some kind of general rule? I have noticed that having a picture make a huge difference that makes them remember and care about the NPC better and that seems to go for all players I had at least. Depending on the picture it will also influence how they see the NPC, someone that looks shifty will be seen as suspicious and for some reason do they tend to treat attractive people of both sex better then unattractive. In any case, having some random pictures to show them helps them but if you do, they will demand you continue with it. If I don't have one for a specific NPC, they force me to find one now no matter which group it is. One group I used to run tended to make nicknames for the NPCs but I don't think that one is something for everyone.

@@loke6664 I'm not sure myself. I'll try it out with other groups and see how it goes. The idea with pictures sound interesting. I might do that when playing online. I usually just go off of descriptions and voices for fully offline games (without any screens).

Jealous

We are all DM in my group, chtullu DM, ravenloft DM, Witcher DM, Vampire DM and sometime we DM the thing the other do for him to play in his favorite universe ^^.

Me right here, this is me

Do you play 7 different characters or just the same one in 7 different hats?

@@Merilirem just 5 different Characters... The other 2 Campaigns are the ones I am DMing😂

I'm convinced that the Aarakocra's name in D&D Honor Among Thieves was a reference to DMs who have to come up with NPC names and say the first thing that pops into their head. "Oh, there's an Aarakocra council member? What's his name?" "..... Uh.... Jarnathan."

Skippy McSkip

Perfect, you pass, those with an A or F fail, those with a B, we've got our eyes on you so cut the crap.

22. I got144...?

Yes. Enjoy

​@user-ug4lt3yr5w 125+48-43+12 As there are no brackets and addition and subtraction are the same step in priority for math.You cheat and subtract first giving you: 125+5+12 130+12 142

@@DLOFT002 whooo!

Imagine not having CASIO calculator with you at all times

Hooray, someone actually cut out for the job! Have fun. 🤝

@@benjaminoechsli1941 thankies!!! :) i love being the GM

It's loads of fun but also really difficult and I can't always manage. But when I can manage, I love DMing. Always need a bit of help though. Has to be an understanding group. So I prefer playing in general, but I wouldn't say it's bad to DM either.

@@Torthrodhel yeah I don’t think I’d be as into GMing as I am now if my first group wasn’t as awesome as it was.

I also see this as a win. I really don't like being a player in D&D, I much prefer DMing.

...We're only ~30 weeks in; that's a level of giving up so consistent that it's nearly wrapped back around to a full-time commitment. Impressive!

@@LordJazzly i am a professional and often give up multiple times a day

"So that party also cancelled as a whole. But don't worry, the campaign I DM in is still there... for a long while."

You can, in fact I think you could really do it. You should really do it. Please?

1: Joe 2: kinda 3: all 4: all of my players suffering 5: eh 6: no I suck at writing 7: no 8: not at all 9: eh 10: no? 11: Joe 12: YES 13: not really 14: probably not 15: tell them it’s closed 16: don’t tell the players 17: no 18: allll of it 19: give it more health 20: no 21: I can’t math 22: still can’t math 23: Joe

I wish you great fortune on your dice rolls, against your players.

Not alone. I am quite fond of being a DM. Having others in my friend group who DM different games, and me being a player in them lets me see things from the player perspective and mind set.