To quote a Disney employee when a child was asking if a baobab tree was real, the guide simply answered "It is really there."

I'm actually the show script writer, the season finale where an oiled up Danny DeVito bursts out of the table wielding a rubber sword and shield shouting, 'It's me! Hobo Swaggins!' is really going to round out the whole adventure and exceed audience expectations.

I love how your "click bait" title actuality led to a dungeon crafting video rather than internet drama. Very sneaky sneaky of you!

Holy crap! I think I'd rather have the professor's notebook than the module.

Easy Sanity Check: Compare the crew when reading the sponsor crap, which IS scripted, to when they're playing.

Don’t mind me I’m just tickling the algorithm

Speaking as a professional writer, it would be a hundred times more difficult to script this convincingly than to let the players improvise to a situation. Scripting, learning, and performing four hours of content each week would be an absurd undertaking and it wouldn't come off like this. Yes, a lot of work has clearly been done on the characters and where their stories are likely to lead them, but that's an entirely different thing.

You hit the nail on the head. They are professionals working together to make a show for an audience. As professionals they are aware of what will work for an audience and try to make choices that will entertain. Being skilled and playing with purpose are not the same as being fake.

At one point in campaign 2, he mentioned having several maps built for use depending on where the heroes encountered a particular fight. At another point, he called for a break while he went to build a battle map (I think the group decided to go T-Rex hunting?) neither of these things scream "scripted" in the sense that people who complain about critical role seem to think. However, I don't se nearly as many of them as youtubers youtubing about this topic seem to see. Maybe I don't spend enough time in the comment section...

As a former streamer, I was both GM and player in several online games, the players will sometimes discuss a dramatic plan when they know of an upcoming event, "You do this and I will do that when this situation arises.". Players will also talk with the GM in advance to set up something they want to do. At most I would call it influenced improvisation. Players, myself included, will try to preplan certain remarks, quips, and actions that will develop their characters in the direction you wish. My streaming was with Mann Shorts (www.youtube.com/@MannShorts)

Excellent video! I love it when experienced dungeon masters pull back the curtain and show the actual tools that they use, warts and all. Those notebooks are a work of art.

I’m reminded of Who’s Line is it Anyway. It’s near-impossible for us laypeople to imagine that stuff like the songs on random topics weren’t planned out ahead of time, but apparently they were.

Great video, Professor!

I write my adventures for my players like an old dnd module. I then update the notes as the players progress and include likely scenarios or choices that they might make. Then, on game night, I write down what I would like to see or get to and improve as necessary. So really the adventure is for me to script out, then descript for the players so it makes it more fun and loose. It takes stress off of me since I know beforehand how much we'll play that night, opens the sandbox up for the players since they won't be railroaded and it cuts down the notes I need to take with me since I'll have most of it memorized. Kinda like a debate team that comes in and doesn't look at any notes since their prepared and practiced that they don't need to check their notes

Good GM tips and great video, Professor! I normally make my sessions with no prep and full improv, most of the narrative is sometimes generated by my random event tables. During the session, everything I dispose of is one to three key locations, clear objectives and a time limit. Also, I always keep in mind the "less exposition, more demolition" philosophy when constructing the scenes with my players. Also, the one and only Deathbringer should totally be part of the Bells Hells campaign series. Best character for me indeed.

Planning is very different than scripting. CR isn't scripted, but there's definitely planning going on, not just from Matt but the players (sometimes) plan in between sessions about what they are hoping to do.

Thanks for the video! It had some useful tips like only preparing what's necessary and staying one step ahead of the players. Also thanks for showing the kitchen drawer organizer for holding miniatures. That's an interesting idea, but the lack of a cover seems to make that a bit less ideal for transport. For organizing and transporting minis, I usually use flat plastic tackle boxes with moveable dividers such as the Plano Stowaway series, but there are other cheaper brands available too. When I used to use more metal miniatures, I also added felt or foam to the bottom and sides, but that doesn't seem to be as necessary for plastic figures.

Brave of you to do the video without your vest of protection +1 ! Just kidding, awesome video like always Professor! Also, really love how you prepare your adventures! That is also exactly how I made my one- to three page adventures

The amount of time Sam Reigle has personally taken the show of the rails should prove it’s not scripted.

Great video. I particularly like how you segued the video into, essentially, a separate video on DM advice

As always you give me stuff to think about. I have been gamemastering for 35 years but its great to have an experienced gm give you his viewpoint and sometimes challenge your ideas. I don't always reach the same conclusion as you, but my games have definitely improved because giving some thought to your ideas.

When people say scripted, they don't mean GM planning.

Fantastic video, I’m especially inspired by the style of your GM notes. You’ve made me very impatient to get back to DMing once my exams are over

I’ve always loved your to the point session note taking. Question though, where do you keep notes on your game world? If someone asks what the town over the hill is called, where do you write that down for future reference?

Hi Prof I was watching this vide and at around the 2 minute mark you mentioned access to your GM's notbook. I hightailed it over to patreon and couldn't find that detail. Now if you would please bear in mind that I am autistic and where there is a glut of info I often miss the details. Cant see the trees for the forest kind of thing. Which tier is it please or what phrase doe the patreon use that I should look for.

Great Video! Do you have a video on how you do your dm Journals?

Great video! Love all the content, Professor.

I love the way you organize and note your sessions. I am sadly not nearly so organized, but you are a great inspiration.

Nice video. Very interesting and gave me thinks to thing about. It doesn't have a lot of relation with the title and thumbnail though... I could had perfectly missed it like I did with some of your other videos because I had though they were about something else.

You get a like and comment for mentioning Tanis half-elven from Dragons of Autum Twilight. One does still remember these stories with fondnesss. I do like your handwritten adventure notes. These do look to me more like a work of art, with all the details and time you put into. I am guilty of stopping your vid from time to time to just look at these beautiful pages you made. Thanks for shareing.

Some great take aways for if i ever DM for my friends! Might have to binge your vids if i ever do 😅

Great video and great notes! I have a similar approach, but I like to have the monsters and NPCs on cards with an image on one side and stats on the other.

How do I plan? I develop encounters, NPCs, perhaps new monsters or magic items, then improv from there. I might set up **some** encounters, but for the most part, I react to the players...who react to me. Maps are either pre made or improvised. The trick is to watch the players and know their intent. Once you figure out that, making things up on the fly is easy. It's a better balancing method than 5Es concept of CR, that's for sure.

Session -1, the Brainstorm: Co-create a setting WITH your players to set up the "knowns" while you secretly figure out the "unknowns". The players then figure out what their characters are going to be. Set the tone with your players, we often ask ourselves what movie are we trying to get close to? Director style? We are not making a movie, but we are taking the tone of it. Then I prep out what my NPC's are doing, their plans, and how it will change the world if they succeed. Thats it. (NPC's include monsters and organizations). I have a few locations "realized" out, I usually don't have places to grind-out levels, as our players tend to prefer locations with a smaller handful of interesting rooms or sections. Of course our players are proactive, so they control their pace, but I (as GM) will insert the occasional "push" from organizations/NPC's that make sense (as a result of cause/effect) or makes the characters ask questions on the motives of these NPC's. The players drive their own story, and I run with what the players are doing.

The issue over whether CR is "scripted" isn't whether there is a module/GM notes. It's about how much of those notes is known by the players in advance of going on air. The players are obviously aware of the need to share the spotlight, and keep things on track. That's NOT a bad thing. My players are old enough to udnerstand how to share and understand that if they roll with the adventure I have planned, they'll probably get more from it than if they decide to go off book. And there are plenty of times that I let them loose with no specific quest, and they have time to kill. I imagine that the situation that occured the other week was less from Matt and more from the player. I've had players come to me and say, "I don;t want to play this character any more... I'm really just not into them any more and really want to play an XYZ instead, do you fancy killing them off?" At which I always say "Are you sure? No are you absolutely SURE??" and if they say "Yes, then I'll give tehm the same sort of opportunity that the player in CR got" It's never been "Scripted" but certain players having more information tha n others about what might happen is a GOOD thing... If... IF!!!! you have good players.

Great video as always PDM. That scenario notebook of yours looks awesome. Love the doodles.

I always enjoy these 'how I prep' videos. I'm not as organized as yet, but I'm working toward having a streamlined system like yours. I've learned a lot from you, Professor. Gonna use a UDT for Wave Echo Cave this month. It will be the first time I break it out for an entire dungeon. Best wishes!

Your notebook and prep are amazing! are you cutting and pasting in images among your drawings? I wish I were so neat in my organization. My own style of prep can be referred to as, "Controlled Chaos". :)

I would like to know more about your game preparation process. Do you go into more detail on your Patreon with more videos there? Great video!

What a great video! A little ways back I gave my group a one-off after wrapping up our last campaign and now it's just kept going, growing into a larger and larger story after several months. Because I never really had any plan for this I've also been staying only a session ahead of my players and it feels right to me, but I wasn't sure if I was too lazy with my writing to keep it that way. Also, that notebook is amazing. Cudos for taking the time to create that, I'm currently using legendKeeper for all my campaign notes, etc.

Excited for this video!

I subscribe to the professor DM thought these days. I plan the big event for the session and how they can get there all on facing pages and things go really smoothly.

Maybe this is just semantics, but I wouldn’t call most of the sort of preparation you’re talking about “scripting.” There’s a difference between a set designer and a playwright. I might have extensively prepared maps and locations and NPC profiles with notes on psychology and motivation, but no real idea how the story will play out past the initial quest assignment and some potential combat encounters, assuming the players don’t find a clever way to circumvent it.

I love your book, but how much time does it take to create a page?

I love all Dungeon Craft videos! Especially when they build up the community at large. And when they give great tips for when I finally run a homebrew game!

Your maps in your notebook are amazing. How long does it take you to get things setup in there?

I think the notes/index cards of plot points (be they story or dungeon) are really important when you are basically improving this game.

8:47 I created a custom gpt for my campaign and copied chapter text into it to give me summaries to fast track planning and omg does it help

Always get the best advice and insight from The Professor!

hi professor is there a way to contact you to view a project?

Love seeing the simple but "artisanal" scenario notebook! I agree that simpler is better and with a few random tables or scenarios built in as quick-draw options is a great way to keep the narrative going without having to pause too much or stop the session because you haven't prepared something.

Okay you’ve done some great videos in the past, but I think this is one of your best. I’d like to see more like this, maybe going into a little more detail of various things touched on. Here’s why this video was so good: Instead of talking about the need to do cool things when running a game, or talking about problems when running a game, you did something that I like to call taking off the top of my head so you can see inside. I was a middle school teacher for many years, and one of the things I would do after describing our class objective is that I would tell the students “now I’m going to take off the top of my head so you can see inside.” I would then show the students some of my thought process, or even various thought processes to reaching the objective, how I might organize my data table, what things I think are important to focus on, or even how to map out my plans or organize drawings. This is what you did that I thought was so beneficial. We saw exactly what tables you create, exactly how you organize possible events, and what information you think is important to focus on. You didn’t merely talk about it, you specifically showed us your real-world examples. This gives us much more information than just discussing it. We see it and can then make judgements on what we like, what we would add, or what we would do differently. The important thing is we had a tangible example to get us started in the process. For example of random charts I like the idea of using 2D6 charts so I have a nice bell curve of probability so I can have more common encounter and more rare encounters. It also allows me to list encounter as more dangerous (numbers like 2,3,&4), and more benign or possibly beneficial encounters (numbers like 10, 11, & 12). Thanks for the video it was very, VERY helpful. 👍👍

I've watched Critical Role for years now. (And I've been a long-term fan of yours, too, Professor!) I think you nailed it on the head: planning is not the same as prescribing conclusions. It's painfully evident when CR are doing something scripted, such as ad reads or transitioning topics on 4-Sided Dive. The game is clearly not. Some elements, such as guest players, inherently require some amount of planning. I have noticed that a majority of those who think CR games are scripted are also those who detest heavy improvisation in RPGs. One does not cause the other, but I think there's at least a strong correlation. Truly, I don't think any less of anyone for how they want to play their games, but I think it really comes down to each viewer's/player's philosophy of RPG gaming as to whether they enjoy Critical Role.

I am in awe of your notes, So much detail on these pages without waste. I could never muster the drive and energy to be this prepped. It is amazing.

Great content Prof DM, thank you. I like this sort of stuff and hope you have more to share.

I love all of the professor's Dungeon Craft videos. I hope we get to see a new campaign soon.

What brand of notebook is that, and how do you attach things to pages?

This is a great pulling back of the curtain. I have forgotten to plan a shopping session and has to pull things out of the hat so to speak. It was fun, but having the names of shops and their proprietors would have been nice. I have a list now from that session.

Awesome video! I’m a DM of 20x years and find these advises really helpfull… Keeps em coming!

Love seeing your notes. Very well organized and clean.

I love Deathbringer , we should give him his own channel!

🤩 I hope we can see more of your terrain in future videos 🤘🏾

@6:13 would love to see an entire book like this with various encounters / areas broken down in 1-2 pages with stuff scaling up to mid/high level.. great inspiration just from the couple pages you showed here...

I never got all the hate for CR. It's not for me, but its impact has been undeniable. No telling how many people joined the hobby because of it. And if it is scripted: so what? It brings people joy week after week.

I really enjoy this video and my favorite part is when U show your notebook. :) Looks simple, but detailed & usable in the same time, I simply love that! It was very cool to hear the "work smarter, not harder" and the "don't plan too far" advices too. Keep up the good work and HAVE FUN, my good sir! Greetings from Hungary :)

I am so in awe of this prepbook. I started doing the same since I saw it in February... its awesome! Thanks!

professor i used to be one of students at PRHS can you give me advice on how to find a game in the area

I love all Dungeon Craft videos! Your game master notebook is crazy awesome! I can guarantee you, no one has one like yours. Are you doing a video on how to make one? When is the 'ultimate game master notebook' (all rights reserved) coming? I mean, it would go perfect with your ultimate dungeon terrain & ultimate dungeon master screen.

The cast are professional improv artists and experienced actors. So they are naturally good at playing off of one another due to all their years of experience. Not to mention that like any tight knit friend group they know each other's predictable patterns and so it makes it easier for them like any "old friend group." That is it, that's the secret to everything that "feels" like it was planned. Friends just know each other and this group of professionals are good at their jobs so they can make the most of that.

People who have never been involved in Drama really don't have the perspective to understand how improvisation theatre really works. The second I saw the poll, I knew where this was going, and I agree.

I always enjoy seeing a sneak peek at your fab DM notebook in your videos Professor 🤩

It's probably more scripted than a typical, normal DnD session with friends around a table because it's an internet show with high production values and a lot of money behind it, but it's probably not as scripted as an actual TV show. They are actors, so they probably know how to act, improvise, and play up to the cameras, but that doesn't mean its a completely scripted thing.

Critical role is 100% fake. The cast isn't even real people. They are computer generated.

Pay attention to the man behind the curtain! Or in this case the awesomely made DM screen. I've taken to liking bullet points and keeping things brief and facing pages (stole that part from you) for games I am running, thanks for the advice!

Will you do a video on your DM notebook?

Awesome insights, I love all Dungeon Craft videos, especially the ones that improve my DM skills.

Honestly one of my favorite episodes, thanks again Professor DM! I prep for a game by having all the potential scenes laid out. If the PCs could get to X, I wanna make sure I have the monster stats or the clues to meet them there.

Professor DM brings another good one… take heed, naysayers! Loved the time pressure pointers, I struggle with this but the way you laid it out shows that simple can still be very effective.

I prepare about one session ahead. I find some monsters that I want to use. I create some npcs that I want to use (some details, one or two personality traits) and use that to make a scenario and I make some battle maps. I then assign monsters to these battlemaps. As for urgency, as you wait people are being slain works as does if you wait too long someone else will get it themselves (particularly a rival group, usually have one of these designed to mirror some of the pc traits and values). It helps that my players are always on the same page of wanting to get things one. As for hiding plans from the DM, that just baffles me. If you want to make something work and tell me what the goal is, I can help and make sure that I don't accidentally undermine it just because I don't know what you were going for.

Regardless of the click bait title, this is another informative, educational, and inspiring video from the Professor. Thank you for continuing to enhance all our games. Any DM who uses minis in a home game really needs to watch the recent DM screen video and the ultimate dungeon terrian videos. The first time I watched the dungeon terrian video I wasn't that impressed, which only shows my lack of comprehension. The.ultimate DM screen video helped me pull my head out of my well, umm, deep dark dungeon and see the full potential, cost saving and numerous uses for the Professor's ultimate dingeon terrian. Attempting to build gigantic doungeons is difficult due to space, cost, time and so many other challenges but with the Professor's method a DM can focus on other aspects without needing a huge amount of space. The only thing in this video that erks me is the fact the Professor uses premade wizkid doors after I spent hiurs following his instructions for making them myself. I will say his directions were excellent, and they came out great. Plus, it was fun. Anyway thanks for another video filled with useful positive content for any DM and not another let's bash Hasbro, WOTC and D&D video.

Good question at the end, what and how do we prepare? Myself I tend to just work on what captures my fancy at the time. My players are based in the City of Greyhawk, but one day I decided to detail a nearby dairy farm because the players expressed interest in investigating it. (Long story heh.) So I created the family and the hired hands and even the animals in case the players can speak with animals. Every cow has a name! It was fun. And of course I literally script certain things that are bound to come up, NPC responses to certain questions, etc.

Great advice. I love how you layout your notes! 🧐

I often ask my players to prepare a 5 minute monologue from their character each session. It's very nice to have something to call on while I stall for time, and I tie part of their per session exp to it (half stays in the normal methods per game, half is various aspects of participation common to all games I run). Plus I write myself some box text, even pre-record if I know I'll need full concentration for setup. But I also individually ask my players if there is scenes they want, and try to plan on hitting certain plot points even if there's no solid plan for how to get there. This lets them have those crucial character arc events a little more firmly. At the end of a session I have my players tell me what they want to do for next session, lock in hex map travel, location they want to go, person they want to interrogate, or mission in general. I also spend a decent amount of time begging my players to tell me the point of their teetering tower of rulings and mousetraps before it reaches an hour in just to be vetoed.

I love your notebook. The mix of text with the layout of your adventure is so appealing to look at. Lol. I don't even play D&D but somehow landed watching critical role and now this. Great vid!

Flow charts are my go-to for pre-session planning. Then, updating what actually happened and adjusting from there is my post-session activity. I like to keep a board of my overarching plot and any subplots that come up... I find the Agile project management methodology really shines when running a D&D campaign.

I play games solo and improv everything (mythic gm emulator for tables and random stuff). I DM on a Neverwinter Nights persistent world and it's mainly the same, save for when doing things with the story lead and the rest of the DM team. Dungeon Craft videos are great!

I have tried sandbox and find i have trouble maintaining the game fron week to week. I prefer an over arching storyline with side paths. I dont script everything out, but have a general idea of where they are going in the end. I also loke to throw in classic modules and rework them for the current system. If they decide to travel across land, the cone across the Ghost Tower of Inverness. They travel by voat, they find the Isle of Dread, etc.

Great video, as always you have a lot of great insight!

Most of Critical Role are theatre kids too, and as I can attest to, they can be a bit.. dramatic in all things. Sure, they are playing it up a bit, but there's enough talking over one another, and sheer.. ludicrous ideas that makes it to me, feel unscripted. Now, I certainly feel that many of the scenarios Matt writes have a more televised flair, but no more so than a few GM's I've known that have enough time and money to make some ridiculous encounters (and I'm talking both miniature and the actual adventure equally). The way you have it laid out, with the barest bone : Get that from there, before this is a quite good script - everything else can really be improv.

"You only need to plan one session ahead." One of my favorite DC moments is when PDM asked his son about this and his son said that he plans the whole setting in advance in great detail. Everyone does it differently.

I like your idea on using kitchen organizers to organize your rooms in a dungeon for terrain. If I ever go back to a real tabletop instead of VTT, I will definitely use this idea. I use sewing box organizer's for my mini's. I think you should do a video on how to organize things in your campaign. I do well for myself but I think others would definitely benefit with your organizational skills. Just a thought. Great video as always. Keep up the good work.

GREAT video, Professor. This actually excites me for you, because whether you intended to or not, I think you've figured out how to tick the algorithm while ALSO making the videos that you want to. I'd recommend continuing to do videos like this until you've massively grown your viewership. As in: "Clickbaiting" the TRENDING buzz-topics (Hasbro, WoTC, Critical Role, etc.), ESPECIALLY Critical Role. And then use it as a segway into a DUNGEON CRAFT video. As you did here, take what Matt Mercer does and segway into what YOU like to do concerning topics: Terrain, exposition, world-building, etc.

People forget that they're extremely trained voice actors/actors. Not only have they been playing with eachother for a decade+ they're also well trained improv. I'm sure there's a tiny bit more information divulged than usual in certain situations, but barely.

Flow charts. I make flow charts of the highest level campaign. Then I make focus in on season 1. The flow chart will have possible encounters, towns, npc. This gives me a nice list of what I need. I also make sure to have a branch on the flow chart for each encouter if the player win or loose. I do like to run encounters that are more then just fights to the death. Next I just make a simple spread sheet for each encounter. Maps, encounters, and npcs are then all saved in a files for each seasons. Yes this means some files are duplicated. Since I run games via discord I need everything on my pc and flipping pages, or tabs it just as fast.

I hate when my moons go off-course. Unless the year is 1999 and we are on said moon.

I love all videos by Dungeon Craft. Great vid as usual

As a DM i have an outline, which is much like what he does, I also have random charts and fallbacks in case they go somewhere I had not predicted. I do use a flow chart and find that it works very well to help keep track of where they are and where they may go. I like sandbox setups and present things and let the players wander around and find and discover things and choose to do this or that. Also, I do not scale for level on any adventures so it is up to the players to decide that maybe not going after the dragon at level 1 and possibly going to the goblin bandet caves first.

great video as always. I never miss one of your vids, Professor!

Watched this episode probably three times and finally decided to "print screen" on the notebook. Keep it coming, sir.

I know i heard taliesan say that orion got the mirror idea from him. It was in a conversation that taliesan had with matt out of session and he had ultimately scrapped the idea. Orien was trying to implement the idea and they knew it but were trying to maintain kayfabe. Everyone was getting fed up with oriens attempts to manipulate the game and travis' frustration came out in that moment.