There are so many great tips for new players, we couldn't possibly cover them all here. What are your DOs and DON'Ts for new Dungeons and Dragons players? What's a piece of advice you wish someone had told you when you first started playing Dungeons and Dragons?

I really hope The Dungeon Dudes get to read this because this an awesome story. First a little background. I've been playing DnD since 1976. The group I am with now, I have DM:ed for 40 years. For a couple of reasons I felt the need to share this video with the group. I did this a few weeks ago. Everyone agreed it was great and despite the fact we've been playing for so long there were things to learn for everyone. Now to the story. One of my friends in the group works as a high level manager in one of Swedens largest and most renowned companies. He is in charge of, amongst other things, Leadership, to develop and educate branch managers. This time he held a lecture for 42 employees who are in a program to be branch managers. He played the entire "Seven Principles" video, stopped frequently and commented how this would be applicable to the branch managers in their daily work. It was a total success. He ended with saying two things. "Remember the most important thing, The Will Wheaton rule; Don't be a dick!" "These two guys, The Dungeon Dudes, are amongst the best leadership developers in the world. They just don't know it, yet."

If there is a player sitting on the sidelines waiting for the narrative to introduce them so they can start playing, try to steer everyone in that direction. If the DM keeps hinting that the party should go meet someone at the local church, take the hint and don’t go on a two hour shopping spree. Also if you are the DM make it a priority to steer the narrative to that players introduction as soon as possible. There’s nothing worst then spending your entire afternoon waiting to play..

I always 'rest' my dice with the highest number on that type of die facing up. Not only does this teach my dice what is the proper side to have facing up (Like they ever learn..), but it's also real simple to see what each die is. "That'd a d12." Okay, I grab one of the dice that reads '12'. It's simple. Most people that start playing have 1 or 2 sets of dice, each set being a uniform color or marbling of colors, so they can't have 6 or 7 different color dice very easily.

I also feel like it’s important to ask people questions in character. Everyone wants to do their own backstory quest. Be that guy that lets someone tell their characters story.

Guys this is great and you know what this video can be applied to the workplace. You could rename it to 7 principles to being a great employee / co-worker. I love you dudes you always have great content and present it in a straight forward easy to understand format.

Having a table veto rule has helped my party a lot. It really curbs the occasional murderhobo impulse. If someone declares an action, if another player shouts “veto!”, and everyone at the table raises their hand if they agree. If half of the other players call veto, we have 60 seconds to agree on a new course of action that the player can be happy with. The second rule of the Table Veto is don’t spam table veto. The third is don’t try to get vetoed. This is especially helpful when I’ve played in shop games. The other rule that’s worked well for my DM is you put your hand on your head if you’re talking out of character. It feels pretty silly so we stay in character a lot more. And we always know who’s talking.

The seven principles: 0. 1:30 - Have fun! 1. Be respectful 2. Be focused 3. Be reliable 4. Be prepared 5. Be cooperative 6. Be constructive 7. Be descriptive

Sending this to my newer players immediately, and my veteran group soon after. Never hurts to remind people of these.

I love this sort of discussion. It's just good to see D&D reinforce healthy communication between friends and allow people to express themselves. I think D&D has great potential to strengthen relationships and help players grow as people. It kind of teaches you not to be a dick, if played correctly.

This “game of thrones” reference is getting dropped a lot. I sense some personal salt 🧂lol. Love your vids 😊

8:11 Having another party member roll a nat 1 and shoot me in the back with a fear crossbow instead of her intended target and me failing my wisdom save, causing me to get frightened, was one of the best memories I have of playing DnD. Everyone at the table found it hilarious when my character was panicking like a madman because the cursed character(story stuff)accidentally shot him. Of course, in character that wasn't funny, but that also highlights the "in world" and "at table" attitudes, even if my character was angry afterwards, I was still just trying not to laugh.

One thing that helps is to simply play to a pause point, then break for a bit. Not only does this give the players a chance to socialize, eat, use the restroom, etc., but it also give the DM a chance to mentally prepare for the next run. In addition, it also gives the players a chance to fully absorb the information that's been presented.

On the "be on time" thing you mentioned, I take this to heart very seriously. If there's a conflict that comes up that I can't avoid, such as one of my choir concerts, a wedding or funeral, a family vacation, etc, I tell my group as soon as I find out about it, and then if it's a ways away I'll remind them a couple days before. The only reason I would ever bail out on the group is if me or one of my close family members had to take an emergency trip to the E.R. And if I'm not incapacitated during that time, I will shoot them a quick text telling them what's going on. If I am the one that's incapacitated, I'll ask one of my family members to do that for me. That way they don't have to be sitting there waiting for me to come. I try to plan ahead for traffic if I'm traveling outside my home neighborhood, and if an unusually long traffic jam happens that will give me a little buffer time, and if it's really bad then I'll tell them "hey, I am coming, I'll just be a bit late because of a traffic jam." That way they'll know that I'm not just blowing it off or forgetting until the last minute. Heck, even if the car won't start, if I have financial means to take public transportation or get a ride from someone else, I'll do that instead of just not coming.

Even though I know these principles, I reflect and catch myself committing party fouls in recent games. Even seasoned players should review what it means to be a top-notch player. I recently set a goal that I wanted to show excitement for the game, so I photoshopped a portrait of all our characters (pretty goofy, btw). I also made name tags for PC's with their pictures. Went over well. I did these things because I saw a video like this one and I set some goals.

I like the point on how you can argue and have a rough relationship with characters as long as it doesn't affect real life because me and my best friend have the two characters in our current game who disagree the most, while simultaneously probably being the closest IRL, it makes it more fun that way

Passionate, intelligent, and engaging content always, chaps, but this was a stand out episode. Great stuff.

Having fun on the expense of someone else can be FINE, done right. Having fun on the expense of someone else's fun, however, is not.

I don't normally comment on videos, but in this case I feel that you guys have hit the nail on the proverbial head. These views rarely and really need to be brought out of the shadows and discussed more often than not. You both covered this topic very eloquently, especially for new characters, and at the same time seasoned players who tend to quote "bully" the game or players without even realizing their doing it. This needs to be addressed more in out hobby and I thank you for covering this issue. Major Kudos guys!!

Love the video, guys! Subbed.

That dice colour is a great idea. I have one set but have them laid out in front of me in size order, left to right. Less obvious but helpful for me as a new player

A helpful tip for wizards: Get a small notebook (whatever your taste and budget) and write your stats and spells in it. Not only does it help with reference, but it also helps with immersion, as you are literally referencing your spellbook.

This video is amazing and so well put together. I love the content Dungeon Dudes produces. I’ve learned so much and I’m constantly taking things I learned here and applying them to my own journey.

1. This was a really helpful video. 2. You have the same energy as the Ghost Chasers from Supernatural.

Love the earlu summary of the 7 principles, really guides the video

Here are some of my tips: - Bring a grab bag of random dice. You can get these for cheap. That way you have extra dice for yourself and the party that you don't have to be too concerned with losing and can freely share. It's a blast to be able to invite someone's guest to the game on the fly and have everything they need already. -Have a default action to fall back on during combat. Whether it's simply attacking the nearest or most troublesome foe, or using a healing/buff spell or item, have something you can immediately do if your epic plan for your turn suddenly changes due to the turn before yours. This keeps combat flowing. -If you end up the leader/face of your party, always involve the other members. Spread that spotlight around. Even if the other players are shy or new, you can focus on the abilities or spells they offer in your plans to accomplish goals and make them feel valuable even without a lot of RP dialogue back and forth.

Just got back into Dungeons and Dragons about a month ago. Haven't played since the late 80's early 90's. Shortly after I discovered this channel. Just wanted to say you guys are great and thanks for all the time and energy you put into making these videos. You guys have really helped me rediscover what I loved about Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. I'm going to show this video to all my players this week. I'm hoping it will help with a couple teenagers we have in the group who can be quite disruptive at times. They're my girlfriends nephews and wanted to give them a fair chance before I bring the hammer down. As a whole I know the group including myself can benefit from all the principles. Thanks again guys.

In my last session my Barbarian was surrounded by dopplerats that we were fighting in a cellar, so he used his attack to hit a barrel of ale and used the flood to wash some of the rats away from him so he could help the warlock.

Listening in my car cause I can't wait to watch this !

When playing a selfish character I would say reserve selfishness for the appropriate opportunities - ie pick-pocketing a valuable amulet when no-one is looking. Some have the instinct to act selfishly in every opportunity, which is not fun nor realistic.

"I shall observe this room with intense scrutiny, leaving no hidden thing unseen."☺

On the flip side of the table, if my players try to do stuff without describing stuff, I ask them what that looks like; Them; I with use my sneak skill Me; What does that look like?

Love seeing videos from you guys pop up on my feed. Another quality vid!

Dungeon Dudes, you do a great job! Well presented, entertaining, and informative, with well thought out points. Thanks!

We just started a game all newbies. I have experience as a DM but it’s been years. Was hoping that they would pick basic starting characters that I could easily understand. Well let’s just say someone went and picked a Warlock. I would love if you could do a video of the Warlock to help us both know how to run this character the way it deserves to be played.

Hey guys, binged like 70% of your videos in a week. Really appreciate your stuff. Doing Canada proud!

It's so nice to see Liev Schreiber and Jonathan Frakes talking D&D.

One of the most important things i learned while playing D&D is, that you as a player need to learn to give away control over the situation. Obviously for multiple reasons: 1. You're not the f***'n protagonist with "plot-armor" 2. You're not alone at the table and every player, including the DM, has a word to say/an action to take etc. 3. It will teach you to find fun in bad luck and chaotic situations For reference: We had a session where an attempted distraction ended with my Character making out with a female orc unvoluntarily, all of it happened due to bad dice rolls and it was probably one of the funniest moments we had up to that point in our campaign. Also we ended up not getting killed which was kinda strange considering the bad rolls that maneuvered us into that specific situation (overall the whole evening seemed to be jinxed, let's just say we had a lot of natural ones that day and natural twenties when they were rolled against us) needless to say my character was in quite a pinch and needed saving + emotional support afterwards. Furthermore he was NOT the Bard, i repeat NOT! the Bard. Sorry for bad english.

New DM. Bout to run my first session. Didn’t need anything more than these videos.

21:12 i've been blessed with a group of friends who have never once tried to de-rail a plot and are always invested in what is happening. This must be insanely frustrating for DMs who put so much time into creating the world/story for the players and one of the players just goes "nah that sounds dumb".

My thoughts on the (very well made) points in this video: Knowing your character sheet: I've written out my character sheets on paper to mirror the layout of the official ones. This way when a DM asks for my character sheet they can understand it easily and find what they want rather quickly. For knowing your dice: I line mine up in order on the table (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) so I can grab them really easily. Also knowing your spells and abilities helps, most of my characters only use 2 dice as well as the d20, so it's not always about managing all of them. Descriptions: There was one time where we found a dead dwarf and this was a setting where a previous NPC has hidden things in his shoes. The DM figured it would be hard to find things on this dwarf so the DC was 18 or 19. I figured it would be something fun to try so I said "I search his beard" and I just found the items. Descriptions of actions are really good, but I still feel the need to limit myself to my best skills.

Reading new spells and abilities OUT LOUD is such a great idea!!

This is really one of the best videos I've seen on this topic, and has more to do with how much fun we have in the game than the vast majority of other topics. I wish there were more videos like this.

Honestly it's surprising how much I needed to hear "if ur feeling upset about stuff going on in game, it's ok to tell the table that ur feeling bad about it." I've had a handful of instances playing this game where I did everything right that I could've done right, yet because my dice refuse to roll above a 5 I'm sitting on the sidelines wondering if all the investment and love I put into this character is gonna be for nothing. I usually pride myself when it comes to communication, I wanna make sure I'm always on the same page with my DM and fellow players so we can all contribute to this shared fun we have together. I've even gotten pretty good at voicing when things in game are making me feel upset for personal reasons, but I guess it's just hard to voice when I just... don't want my character's story to end yet when the almighty dice have decided otherwise and I'm feeling upset by that. It's good to remember, talk to your group! Thanks dudes.

Big Win, fellas. Especially the part where you explain to the audience if one IS being offensive, just stop it. Ruining the game is an eyelash from roleplaying a jagoff PC.

Very helpful video. I’ve been playing d&d since the mid 80s and found a lot of good stuff to help me be a better player (and human). I’m someone that doesn’t always play well with others irl. I have rough edges. I express thoughts that don’t always need to be expressed. Some of us didn’t learn those all important lessons in kindergarten. Or we lost them somewhere along the way. I can be a jerk when I don’t mean to be. I appreciate you guys taking the time to point out some pro social guidelines for those of us that don’t want to be jerks to people we play with and need some help with our rough edges, faults, inadequacies and/or curmudgeonly nature. I took notes and will review them before my next game (tonight). Thank you.

This video should be watched by every new player! In fact, while I'm not DMing yet, when I do eventually take on that role I will very strongly suggest this video to any new players, and (somewhat less so) even suggest it to veterans as a refresher before they play my campaigns for the first time.

This is the video that made me subscribe to the channel. The way you address the "what my character would do" excuse is an excellent articulation of responsible play.

You are amazing! Thank you so much for your effort! I've really been inspired by you, soooo many times. Thank you!!!!

Thank you very much! I played my first session last week, and despite the nerves, had a great time. The bit about going over your spells, even saying them out loud, is something I’ll definitely be doing! Ditto for laying out my character sheet in a way that makes sense for me. Kudos, gentlemen.

I'm the guy who read my spells and makes scenarios in my head for how to use em before I get em. Also I have nice spell cards so I can go full Yu-Gi-Oh style c:

Just getting into DND and these videos have been hugely helpful and inspirational for my play. I played some unknown version of the rules decades ago and it was very numbers-heavy and tactical, so I'm super happy with my group that leans more into the RP and flashy combat and Milestone leveling. Very cool hobby, very cool videos.

Some seriously fantastic advice here. Great job Dudes!

As others have said before, great video. You guys clearly put emphasis on the most important aspect of playing d&d; having fun and respect for each other and creating friendships to last a lifetime. Keep on going with the good stuff.

I find it ironic that the "my character would do this" excuse happened tonight and made a mess of my session, i get on youtube an hour later and i see this

Getting back into d&d. I haven't played since 3.5, and these videos really help.

TYVM!!! This has been very helpful!!! I have really been enjoying your videos. You have inspired me to delve back into D&D after many years of not being active at all. I am currently getting a few players to take part. YOU ROCK!!!

Going to have my first game next Monday. This video really helps! I'm feeling excited 😁

I don't have any major problems with any of my players, but a NICE "problem" to have is that my players keep inviting new people to play with us. A group of four players (three players and me as DM) has expanded to 8 plus me! So, I "have to" keep helping roll up new characters and this is actually helping us as a group understand the (to us) "new" 5e rules. THIS video is timely and helpful. Thanks for posting it.

I don't know how others feel about critical fails but I had one once that was pretty cool. The party was outside a door and down a hallway on the other side were some orcs that were preparing for the party to open the door for the fight to ensue. One of the party members was killing something in the corner before the door opens and ... he rolls a 1 and I decided that not only did he drop his sword, he kicked it while trying to pick it up and it slid under the door and now the orcs had it. This was in 2nd edition I think when critical fails were over the top funny/crazy.

Brilliant! My favourite video so far! Great breakdown of principles that can applied not only to D&D, but any time and place. 😊 '7 Principles'! Fantastic!

We game with one simple rule. Make a story that's fun for everyone!

Interesting thing here is that sometimes rules come into conflict when people emphasize one thing above another. Like including something in the game that people are uncomfortable with should be a problem with rule "be respectful", but the player bringing it in, might take your offense at that as a failure to "be constructive". it's good to establish some boundaries in session 0 because of that. sometimes it's not clear that someone has a problem with something being included in the game (like rape for example), because when playing D&D, you wouldn't assume that was a necessary part of the game anyway. Communication is key, I really like this video.

Another fantastic video, Dudes! Great advice as always!

Excellent presentation of the subject matter. The tone and flow of your delivery in this video was easy to follow and understand. I agree with the list and will likely recommend these videos as "tutorials" for my new groups from this point on. I also think this applies to some of your other videos as well. I'm taking notes (building a video "must have" list) and will be sure to promote your videos and the information as tools for everyone at my table (DM and players alike). Thanks for the solid video. I'll continue to follow and see where this lead. I'm curious to see if you broadcast your "own games" as well. Time to do a bit more research...………………..

For understanding respect among rules, this personally has to be my favorite, even with how many there are on youtube.

Being a player in one campaign and a DM in another campaign is a huge help to me in both scenarios. It helps me put myself in the other person's shoes. When I think about what I'm going to do as a player or what I'm going to do as a dungeon master, I think about how I would feel if I was on the other end of the spectrum. That really helps with all aspects of the game. Another thing that I do is try to respect what people are comfortable with. I may be comfortable with a lot of gore and bloody details, but if I know that another person at the table is not comfortable with that, or I can see the visual clues that they feel uncomfortable with what's going on, I'll dial my descriptions down a bit to accommodate to their comfort level while still maintaining an immersive environment. If I don't know what people are comfortable with, I always lean on the side of caution. Then if they tell me "hey, I don't feel comfortable with this," then I'll say, "ok, thanks for telling me. I won't do it anymore." This is the same thing that I expect of my friends at the table. I know some of my friends are fine with swearing a lot, but I make it clear to them that I'm not comfortable with it. If they're truly my friends, they will try their best to adapt the language they use and topics they discuss to what I'm comfortable with. And if they don't seem to be making that effort, that's when I consider saying, "if you're not going to respect me and the rest of the group, then please don't come again." I feel like the Session 0 is a great idea to get together and set some expectations. We can decide if we want to have food or not, what play style to do, how much gore we want in it, and any other rules of the table we want to put out. We can also use the time to create characters so we don't have to have a "you meet up as strangers in a bar" cliche, and instead weave characters' backstories with each other. It's also a great way to introduce new players to the game without feeling like we're wasting everyone's time. Of course, the creation of characters during this time is really only feasible when there's enough Player's Handbooks to go around. That way no one is waiting around for someone else to be done with the handbook so they can get started on their character. If I know that there's at least two players that don't have handbooks due to either them being new to the game or simply the "DnD is freaking expensive" factor, then I'll usually have the experienced players with supplies make their characters on their own time, while I take different one-on-one times with the new players or those without a handbook to allow them to create their character with my supplies, helping them when needed. Then we'll have a Session 0 with everything done except our backstories, and then weave the backstories together to form an already cohesive group, introduce the premise for the campaign, and set the expectations. I'll try to provide that regardless of whether I'm the DM or a player. If I know that the DM does not have the supplies necessary to keep things running smoothly, I'll often volunteer my time and supplies to help ease that burden a bit, because I know how it feels to be constantly having to switch from one new player to the other new player as both need help at the same time. If someone wants to DM for a large group but lives in a tiny apartment, I'll offer to host it at my house so people don't feel cramped. Overall, my top priorities are: set my expectations early, respect others' comfort levels, be prepared, and be helpful.

I really like the idea of being prepared and focused. For me its a great escape from my day to day life. I do enjoy a chat and a laugh but sometimes my playgroup is a little too chatty. I love them to bits and its never cause they are on their phone. We are all guilty of it, and it’s definitely something we are focusing on atm

As a DM, I find asking my players "How" whenever they say they do a mechanic helps them get into describing the actual action.

Thanks for the video. I'm a new player to dnd and my party is already a few sessions in and I just noticed that I'm ALWAYS asking for skill check or just "use a skill" without describing what exactly I'm doing, and how boring that actually is.

Honestly, I often find myself tempted to rules lawer. For example, my D.M. recently told us that barbarians were net alowed to were armor. I was really tempted to point out that 1) Barbarians have proficecy in light and medium armor. 2) Lots of fanticy barbarians were those horned helmets 3) Real life barbarians, actually did use arnor, if they could afford it, witch we certainly could. 4) Don't tell the players how to play their own characters. In the end though, It was a relitive's barbarian not mine, and she was fine with this ruling, even though she was constantly geting knoked unconscious.

I don't get too salty when I roll horrible or get my butt kicked. I think of it as... character development. No one is perfect.

Great video dudes. I appreciate your time and dedication. I’m gonna try to implement these principle the next time I play. I can see you all taking these principles to heart in Dungeons of Drakkenheim and it makes the game very enjoyable to listen to.

My first critical failure was HILARIOUS! I rolled eight 1's in one session. And it was the debut of my NEW character. Honestly, me roleplaying it almost matched up with his personality and what had happened to him during the beginning of the session with how he was introduced. None of us will ever forget this character and the great time we had together. Getting mad at rolling bad is never the way to go. (Just pick up a new die and SHAKE THE SHIT OUT OF IT EVERYTIME YOU GO TO ROLL!!!) D&D is about having fun with the people that you are playing with and entertaining each other so that you can always look back on those moments and smile fondly together.

Don't be afraid to re-flavor the fluff text to some aspects of your character, such as a chosen background. It's rare that a DM won't approve that as long as the features remain the same. Let's say you like all the features of the Folk Hero background, so you want to take it, but the text surrounding it doesn't fit your PC. Change it! Instead of saving a village in your past, you are a long standing pillar of the community. You come from a long line who have been there since the place was founded. You're well respected, almost as a birth right. Rename Folk Hero to Prodigal Son, and Bam! Now it fits your PC, the features stay the same, and you and the DM have new hooks. Nothing is out of balance or OP. Feel free to recolor different spells too. Make your fireballs bright purple if you want, as long as they're consistent. Feel free to give your leather armor green dye. Or put a family crest on the middle of your plate mail. As long as the mechanics stay the same, you can customize the look and feel of just about anything on your PC. Role playing doesn't just happen at the table.

My awesome wife saw me looking at what was labeled as a small leather bound journal...that I saw as a 'spellbook'. She bought it for me as a birthday present. I haven't had the chance yet to use it as I am running another character at the moment, but I have it ready to go when the occasion arises.

As a DM, I've had a ton of new players and my rule of thumb for dice that I tell them is "When in doubt, roll the d20, majority of the time you'll be correct."

Great video, i can see some tips im gonna bring up to the people im playing with and some that i myself can work on, to be a better player and be sure that we all have a more fun time around the table!

I had my first ever game of D&D last Saturday night was so excited my mate who was DM brought his girlfriend who never played along also my girlfriend who never played myself and another friend. Well from the get go I knew the girls were going to be an issue ie getting distracted, chatting amongst themselves not game related while DM is trying to set the scene and then my girlfriend drank a little to much and just kind of blanked out half way into it. Also the DM’s girlfriend would start snickering at him whenever he would try to get into character made the whole thing a bit of a headache but after watching you guys I’ve got a list of things to go over wit all the players and DM before next game so thanks guys some very helpful tips

This is gonna be great to show to my players, much appreciated!

These are really good tips. Thank you for making this video! Really need more cool dudes like you guys normalizing things as simple-but-important as "be respectful." I've started playing a campaign at work with workmates, and they're great but sometimes I can sense frustrations around the table, and it can be hard to cut through the tension to speak up and say "well hold on, that's good roleplay sure but if you do that then [coworker] won't get to play or do the thing he wanted to try." In a group with a wild mix of DnD experience, it definitely gets tricky making sure everyone is, ultimately, on the same page that 'hey we're doing this for FUN above all else.'

So first time I noticed this but on a quick glance your logo looks like Dungeon Nudes because of how the sword crosses through the second D. Anyhow do with that information as you wish. I enjoy the videos, great information. Have a good day.

5:11 OBJECTION if you’re playing close friends that you’ve been playing with a long time or are good friends with. Then go for it and give your friend some grief. It’s funny and everyone has a good time. But only if you’re good fiends. Don’t do that to a new player or someone you’re not best friends with. For instance me, my sister, and one of our other friends are always doing this to each other. It’s all in good fun and we all know that. That’s why i say only do that with Best Friends who know that you mean good and you’re just messing with them a little.

It's tough when players hog the spotlight and talk over other people, just because they're so damn excited and almost child-like in their enthusiasm.

Fantastic video. Thank you guys so much. I intend on sharing this with all my D&D groups.

Embrace the rule of cool. As a player, readily accept a DM's ruling that favors the player or the situation over the RAW. If they're doing it for other players, they'll be doing it for you too. The DM is the one worrying about balance, not you. As a DM, embrace your players' actions when they want to get creative, do things rules don't specifically cover, or bend rules if they have good reasons to. Because as much as a player could rule lawyer you, you can end up doing the same to them if you're too by-the-book. Be flexible. Think of the RAW more as a GAS (Guidelines as Suggested). Most of the time you'll follow them, but every rule comes with exceptions. Any questions or major corrections about rulings should be done during breaks or outside of the sessions. Leave the game time to gaming.

When it comes to be respectful, one thing I have seen staling down the game is that someone have to do full research while interacting, instead of letting someone take the ball temporarily untill they have what they need ready. It's both time breaking, stalling and over time get quite alot if you have to spend way too much time because you do not prepare while waiting for your turn or letting the ball roll over and come back to it once ready.

I have a keychain on my dice box that sums up the idea that the DM is ultimate law of the land. It say, “My rules apply to everyone but me.” I always make sure that my players can see this when we play.

Take a drink every time the Dungeon Dudes say, "At the table."

1. Do what's needed to let others at table to have fun/talk more

"My character would do this" is no excuse. In real life people make decisions and do things against their better judgement.

Thank you for another awesome video. This one is great! I am sharing with my entire group!

Love the part about natural language. Doing a one shot for some new players and this will be key. Describe what you want to do and then let the DM translate into rules. Perfect.

21:14 can you add a card that gives a caveat that this is when that only player is looking to avoid a scenario and the rest are interested, not every hook is appropriate to every group. Yes that scenario can be appropriate, but there are times when the Player doesn’t even realize that the DM intended that to be a key event.

reading a spell out loud is one of the greatest things you can do to help yourself and others understand exactly how a spell works. When i DM i ask my players to read out what spells they cast if its the first time theyve casted it.

This was really good. I don't think I have anything to add. Just Rule Zero and the respectful principle covers almost everything.

you guys are amazing. this should be in the first chapter of the book

Great video; being prepared is such an important thing. Sometimes I wonder how much our DM can be frustrated by my party members forgetting how Roll20 works or waiting until the game to level up their characters.

Had my first session yesterday. A few times I felt like I was becoming one of those problem players who tries to be the center of attention, but I was having my character do something he would do. Hes a very showy pirate (literally his introduction was walking into a tavern, getting some ale, and then calling to everyone to present to watch him do magic (he failed the roll and ended up sending the cards flying instead of shuffling them right)). Well, a main npc had the PCs show off their skills, and he botched his twirling slashes on a dummy, and felt his pride was hurt because he was basically ignored. So I had him slash another characters crossbow bolt in midair (succeeded and cut the fletching). I felt kind of bad OOC because I didn't know if my friend was okay with me doing that. Let's just say, one of the PCs and the main NPC dont exactly like my character (npc is a war veteran, so he got really mad when my PC was showing off rather than being serious).

The descriptive element is much more fun than just "I hit it". For example I was using a whip and instead of saying this like "I hit this goblin with my whip". I said "I wrap the whip around his neck and crack his head against the wall." Or an enemy was running away so I said "My whip twirls around his foot causing him to trip"