Talking D&D with Brennan Lee Mulligan

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3 жыл бұрын

In this live stream, Brennan Lee Mulligan and I talk D&D, including such all important topics such as the best snack for Dungeons & Dragons game sessions. Brennan has been a dungeon master since he was 10 and is now the DM for Dimension20, an RPG show produced by CollegeHumor.
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Пікірлер: 114

@theDMLair 3 жыл бұрын

Dimension20 KZfaq Channel ▶▶ kzfaq.info/love/C8zWIx8aBQme-x1nX9iZ0A Dimension20 Twitter ▶▶ @Dimension20Show Brennan Lee Mulligan Twitter ▶▶ @BrennanLM Brennan Lee Mulligan Instagram ▶▶ @BrennanLeeMulligan

@TheKrou Жыл бұрын

To the now-44-ish-year-olds who taught Brennan DnD 24 years ago: We all thank you.

@jbudris 2 жыл бұрын

Imagine being someone from that first group that welcomed 10-year old Brennan to play with them at the game store - could you have guessed what he'd go on to do? Wild!

@DaDinoDM 2 ай бұрын

And that, my friend, describes the beautiful results of the butterfly effect and being welcoming to people and treating them kindly. (-:

@tomsparrow1823 2 жыл бұрын

"I don't feel I need to police that boundary when I can tell the players are honoring it themselves" gave me flashbacks to Ally trying to make Kristen fly with a ribbon wand.

@benjaminoechsli1941 Жыл бұрын

Yeah! Ally was... definitely not honoring the boundary there, and their character paid for it.

@BrandonPatrk317 3 жыл бұрын

I absolutely love that the camera would cut back to Brennan and he's half-way through a bite of a snack.

@benjaminoechsli1941 Жыл бұрын

"Some of our _bODiEs_ are betraying us from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed! I'm a little podling! I need to snack!"

@TrairFrair Жыл бұрын

His friends need to pony up and get him a mouth on his back. Maybe GoFundMe is the way, idk

@spooderous 3 жыл бұрын

Brennen is my favourite DM to watch.

@joshuaspromise 3 жыл бұрын

His improv skill carries his game so well. he's as good at improv as Mat Mercer is at lore and worldbuilding. An absolute joy to watch.

@alijoc 2 жыл бұрын

absolutely, it hard not to smile when watching him because even his more serious-themed campaigns he’s still such a joy of a DM to watch

@Shaydebeats Жыл бұрын

Brennan's answers are so well formulated its insane. You'd think he had power-points in front of him. haha

@Jessie_Helms Жыл бұрын

1:39:00 “When they take it seriously… I’m more likely to negotiate.” *Flashbacks to Corn Cuties*

@kazikmajster5650 3 жыл бұрын

I bet Brennan rarely keeps his opening hand.

@theDMLair 3 жыл бұрын

What do you mean?

@kazikmajster5650 3 жыл бұрын

@@theDMLair Magic the Gathering reference ; )

@korbdan711 3 жыл бұрын

@@theDMLair It's a play on his name

@IdiotinGlans 3 жыл бұрын

In Magic mulligan is when you draw first 7 cards and decide to shuffle them back and draw 6.

@samjuli6393 3 жыл бұрын

A mulligan is a do-over.

@salsaul4288 3 жыл бұрын

Brennan Lee Mulligan? I didn’t the CEO of tumblr, tide, Venmo, and much more played D&D

@BrotherHood-xh9sg 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I couldn't remember where I saw that face before.

@xxcherirabbitxx 3 жыл бұрын

He runs multiple D&D campaigns on College Humor

@wcanderton 3 жыл бұрын

It's like, his whole schtick lmao

@SeffScugg 2 жыл бұрын

I didn’t the either

@sanethpierre8560 2 жыл бұрын

My biggest conspiracy theory is everyone plays DnD most don't talk about it.

@Seority 3 жыл бұрын

There are some amazing advice and tips in this video for DMs and players alike! One of the best I've seen in awhile. Highly advize anyone to watch this one fully. 😃👍

@theDMLair 3 жыл бұрын

Totally agree! Brennan is aweseom!

@hp2xp425 3 жыл бұрын

I'm here for the emotional damage from Brennan Lee Mulligan's childhood which explains his talent.

@mathewfrance5165 3 жыл бұрын

I have seen so many episodes of Adventuring academy, its fantastic to see Brennan get interviewed!

@vadecoriffs2327 2 жыл бұрын

What a great conversation! Came here after being blown away by Brennans dming in EXU Calamity.

@alloypaulson7520 2 жыл бұрын

I love all his D20 stuff, but coming from EXU Calamity "A Crown of Candy" will probably be one of your favorite campaigns, but I personally loved fantasy high and seeing him as a PC in Misfits and Magic

@ijeremyoliver 2 жыл бұрын

Is it an interview with Brennan Lee Mulligan if he doesn't mention his 11-year-long home game?

@jeremydurdil556 2 ай бұрын

You should feel free to brag when your campaign is old enough to go to first grade.

@andrewjustice210 3 жыл бұрын

The DnD GM mantel is actually the Flava Flave clock, but it’s a 32hr a day clock

@articusramos808 3 жыл бұрын

Morning! Its 5:01 AM... I'm tired and I'm here to listen to this for a bit

@theDMLair 3 жыл бұрын

What else do we have to do this early? 😀

@clickchick760 2 жыл бұрын

I love the fact that there is a cat-cam in the bottom corner 😀

@hambinger 2 жыл бұрын

I started playing when I was 10, at my public library in 1979, before the Satanic Panic, it wasn't that rare for young kids and young adults to play together... then again, the game was very much a meat-grinder back then... I love younger players. I regularly invite youth to play in my games, and the best players always go off with their friends and start their own games... So Fun hearing the origins of how folks come to the hobby.

@BeastmasterRanger Жыл бұрын

Its always good to teach games to kids. I remember playing adventurers league a few years ago and a group of kids showed up and no one wanted to run for them because they had their own games going. Me and my friend saw them and went over and offered to run for them. They were so excited and had a blast. It was a really enjoyable teaching them the game and a great experience.

@apocalypso3427 Жыл бұрын

I'm two years late to the party for this one but maaaan. How amazing is this interview? I would love to sit and chat with both of these guys!

@witec83 Жыл бұрын

I always pictured the mantle of the DM to be made of the sheets of dead characters.

@r0flgal0re Жыл бұрын

Brennan is the GOAT. If not for his own chops, which are gigantic, it would be for getting Brian Murphy into DnD, who is also one of the very best imo.

@carnage2332 2 жыл бұрын

For train/untrained checks I allow the players to always do untrained checks unless it is something extremely specific. For example identifying some components of a monster the party has never encountered/that is very uncommon to the region. Or when I am asking them for a check, in those instances I will specifically ask if they are proficient and for group rolls I will let multiple people roll but only if they are proficient. Sometimes for successful knowledge checks to know more about a monster if someone was not proficient I would just loosely tell them a couple of things most people would likely know (like trolls being weak to acid/fire) but if they were proficient I would hand them the monsters manual or equivalent and tell them they have 30sec to look over it and memorize what they can. Then after they can tell everyone else what their character knows about it. Which sometimes is wrong as people have faulty memories. But that adds an extra layer to the fun of this method. I usually let them have an extra 15 seconds to look for every 5 they rolled over the DC. If using this method the only time I would say something about the monster would be if there is a setting specific detail.

@blueicer101 Жыл бұрын

I also think a great thing about improv in dnd is that I've heard improvising is about saying "yes", kind of like playing along which is exactly what dnd is like. It's all about agreeing to some set of rules together, over time your players will get comfortable and familiar with those rules, and then eventually be able to be more immersed in the story and make their own mark on the world.

@anarionelendili8961 5 ай бұрын

Way late to comment on this video, but since I didn't see it mentioned in the comments yet... What Brennan says about the Sandbox Campaigns is so true. I have played in a friend's campaigns over 20 years, and a big part of it is that I am one of those Forever GMs for my friend group. I usually GM, so it was a nice change of pace to be a player, especially in a system that I liked. However... The GM (the friend) is very big on video game adaptations and sandbox worlds. Alas, he often forgets to put in a story/plot, and it is very much a "OK, what do you want to do?" -style. And usually by the fourth session or so, we already have enough money and loot to get pretty much the best gear available. Not that we often even need it since the characters are so powerful vs. the normal opponents that combat is not really a challenge, but a chance for our PCs to show off what sexy shoeless gods of war they are. What finally broke me was that we spent several sessions taking a load of wine from one kingdom to the next to sell it at a profit and having some semi-meaningless bandit ambushes along the way. And then we ran into an entourage of a nobleman and his wife who were of the noble house that my character had escaped from (former gladiator slave). So I asked the GM, if I know this guy and do I have anything against him (my char was notable vengeful, too). Finally something for my character to have some personal stakes in! The GM says no, you know of him, but you didn't really interact with him, as he spent most of his time out of the family estates, trading. Oh, I guess I will hide from sight and make my way out of the town; one Stealth roll later, encounter over. I know I could have pushed it, told the GM that "no, I want there to be a story of revenge", but it was more emblematic of how the campaigns always went and I was mostly emotionally checked out already. The weekly 4h spent in a remote game wasn't fun, wasn't worth it anymore, so I told the GM that I was out.

@BradK4444 Жыл бұрын

So a version of the prep they were talking about that I do is a sliding scale of hit points. I'll use the Veteran as my example. In the book he has 58 HP because he has 9d8+18. I'll go on ahead and roll 9d8 and use that number, but I'll write his book's HP and his maximum possible HP in parentheses, so it'll look like HP 73 (58-90) Then if the fight is going poorly, I'll let the Veteran die early, so long as the party gets to 58; but if the fight would be over too quickly, I might take it all the way to 90 before I let the Veteran die.

@EternalTotem 3 жыл бұрын

This was one of the best piece I seen. I actually created a encounter, magic item, and face to a henchman for a lieutenant in my campaign.

@timokampwerth1996 3 ай бұрын

Brennan: "Fans hound me about snacks." Also Brennan: opens the chat with a 7min tangent over snacks Never change man, never change :D

@raff3486 3 жыл бұрын

Two awesome men talking about awesome stuff, what more can I ask for?

@teridactyl1250 3 жыл бұрын

My two favourite DMs in one video!

@tdpod6109 8 ай бұрын

12:13 i was introduced to the game when i was six. Now ive introduced my kin to the game as well as a couple kids at LGSs. Pass the torch. Ignite passion.

@millerlkme01 2 жыл бұрын

This is amazing. D&d snacks are not talked about enough!!!

@blazepond5518 2 жыл бұрын

awesome conversation, thanks :)

@sicklesorcerer1242 3 жыл бұрын

33:50 Make one of those squirrels an evil druid thief who steals their items or blackmails them after gathering information about them. Instant plothook.

@aimlesslyrunning5127 3 жыл бұрын

snack of choice, Sliders for the win, easy to make, everyone loves some kind of flavor, quick grab & Go

@AJBernard 9 сағат бұрын

I love The DM Lair... how did I miss this video???!?

@alslinet Жыл бұрын

I would love another one of these

@ryadinstormblessed8308 Жыл бұрын

41:50 my answer when people gripe about Min/Maxing is that that is exactly what adventurers would do in order to survive the deadly encounters of this high adventure fantasy world. They would focus and synergize everything toward being as competent as possible to survive. So it's not true that Min/Maxing and heavy role play are mutually exclusive. Maybe not every adventurer focuses on improving just 2 or 3 primary traits and leaving the other traits mediocre, but many would and those are likely to be the most successful ones more often than not.

@mikeheiser3728 Ай бұрын

I liked the video when Mr. Hart reached down to pet the cat.

@lar4537 3 жыл бұрын

Talking about TPK I played a game with 3 other people in it and we were level 5 and fought 10 driders

@elendiel 3 жыл бұрын

Yess!! Best friggin crossover since Aliens vs Predator (2010 PC game) came out!

@anthonywritesfantasy 6 ай бұрын

18 hour session! That sounds wild. When you play from 11am til sunrise the next morning, you call that "The Brennan"

@spudsbuchlaw 5 ай бұрын

Can't wait for the dimension 20 campaign where they play characters who are LARPing, and homebrew a ruleset for LARP rules within DnD

@jimmyreinstein9993 Жыл бұрын

For our dinner with Strahd we had a fancy dinner and roll played it all while eating steak. It was great.

@bradstates3697 Жыл бұрын

Omg.. I checked my phone almost every single time. KNOWING! It was from the stream

@paulunderhill550 Жыл бұрын

I love the great British baking show.

@nicolaezenoaga9756 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@liammckenney6792 3 жыл бұрын

So what i got from this is LARPing is DND theater

@dago6410 Жыл бұрын

Things that have to happen in a brenna 8nterview: 0. Snaccs 1. 11 year long campaign 2. Him being taught at the Age of 10 how to play 3. Snaccs 4. Dnd cosmology necessitates alignments/u cant be an atheist in dnd/ dnd does not allow for morał relations or some other philosophy 5. Mąkę your player backstories (possible story of edgelord Wolf raised by the wolves) 6. More snack 7. Flaws and low rolls are cool but also op chwracters and high rolls are cool too 8. Larp camp 9. Some craY cool monologue 10. Almonds Lets see how many i Got right (havent seen this video)

@tukman16 3 жыл бұрын

I think the thing about challenge rating that everyone ignores is that it is not simply number crunching. The texts in the DMG are enough but XGtE reinforces the need of critical thinking in order to set the challenges. Also, 6 players is kind of the limit for the challenge rating system to be stable. If you have a tendency of giving magical items to your players on top of that, don't be so surprised your encounter didn't work. Plan some strategies of your monster at first. To set combat strategies, "The monsters knows what they are doing" is a pretty impressive book. It gives you insight. In all honesty, even if your problem there was just action economy (which is NOT fully covered on the official books) or you didn't leverage the legendary actions, I'm still surprised how your breath attack didn't seal the deal for most of your players. They must have had some serious terrain advantage or were already expecting the combat as well as most external conditions.

@Skulltap 3 жыл бұрын

The top two items I tweak for NPCs the players fight are HP and damage. Don't just boost HP, it will make the fight a slog feast. If boosting the HP limit the boost to get one more turn or if for story sake to get the right person to end it. If reducing make sure it gets a couple turns in. Damage is an easy one to boost or lower. You can add or remove a damage die or make that poison only trigger on first hit. Look at both what the enemy can dish out and what the players can dish out and compare it to their HP. Its not really fun getting one shot, unless there is a story reason. Remember that you can always consider giving one or two some special ability that can boost AC, damage, damage reduction, or really anything you want. These can help to make the fight more then just a *insert attack here*

@naruyashamaster101 2 жыл бұрын

I feel like challenge rating is more used for the druids wild shape and rangers animal companion restrictions more than anything

@mr_mcdank8619 2 ай бұрын

him saying 10 rockstars would last a month really puts my caffeine addiction in perspective when that would last me 3 days....

@nicka3697 2 жыл бұрын

Whether a player can make an untrained skill check depends on a lot of things for me. Is it a knowledge skill, is it reasonable that they could do it, what is the tone of the campaign and how many players he I got. If the cleric and the druid in the party have already failed the medicine check I'm not likely to let the others try. They will need to go on a quest to find how to lift the fever. You should always allow failure and use failures to create new challenges.

@vincepale 2 ай бұрын

I'm At 28:00 and I think Plot Hooks are somewhere I need to work on. It feels forced to plant plot hooks, and it's hard to try to 'perceive' if your players are biting.

@notdaredevil8809 Жыл бұрын

Ive been playing dnd since like 2019 or so and I have never played it as a pc I have only ever been a dm for the past few years

@einCAA 3 жыл бұрын

Wow, Monster energy is how expensive in the US?! Here it is 0,89€ when the shop has it on discount. And there is allways some discount some where...

@oniminikui 2 жыл бұрын

A plot hook that I've used was the fiance of one of the players was abducted by the BBEG, so the party went out to rescue him. But when they arrived that discovered that the bbeg WAS the fiance as well as a werewolf. They had to take the fiance down. Permanently.

@DracThaDabKing Жыл бұрын

Okay, but can we find these now 44ish year old men that taught Brennan the rules to ages ago; reconnect them all to play a campaign ran by the "youngster" and show them how far hes come?! Cute nerdy idea, but id pay good coin, slay a dragon, or both to see this happen ❤

@suburbansurvival8239 8 ай бұрын

Way late on this video, but don't sleep on dried dates as a D&D snack. Tons of natural sugar for that energy but you also get the benefits of fruit and avoid the inevitable sugar crash.

@allencunningham9002 Жыл бұрын

I think TPK is extremely rare in DnD at this point, 5e has cushioned the game so far into the players favor that things that should be a challenge are often not. You really need to try to TPK for it to happen.

@MikeTsquared Жыл бұрын

I've recently switched to pathfinder 2e. Consequences are much more real and fair in that system.

@Clem68W Жыл бұрын

Thing is...and especially with the relative explosion of rpg's in the last two decades...many are trying D&D out now, and they approach it like any video game they've played their whole lives. They sit down, customize their character, tic all the boxes...and wait for the level to load. It's hard to get them to be actors. I think it was Professor DM who said in re: Critical Role: It's EASY to get Actors to become good D&D players, but it's very HARD to get D&D players to become good actors. So sometimes you have to work with what you have in front of you.

@MlleLorelei 8 ай бұрын

I'm finding that incorporating some improv comedy exercises into my game has helped with this if people want to do more RP but aren't sure how

@omiliag904 2 жыл бұрын

Is that reggaeton in the background?

@theDMLair 2 жыл бұрын

Could be. I like reggaeton WITHOUT the lyrics. Reggaeton lyrics are usually filth.

@Schizoid137 3 жыл бұрын

I'm listening to this and searching for insomnia memes ....... since 3 am.....sigh

@brickingle3984 3 ай бұрын

Giving a thought to what makes you feel dumb could be enlightening. Do feel left out when people talk about literature/history? Lots of ways to get educated that can fit your learning style. Do you feel you have a limited vocabulary? You can try some word of the day games. But if you feel like you’re dumb for failing at school, then you don’t have to concern yourself with that. School is not the place where people learn

@QisforQadim 7 ай бұрын

That boy has crazy eyes.

@tropism5193 Жыл бұрын

Maybe the treasure is orphans.

@Cheejer1 2 ай бұрын

Their snacks sound HORRIBLE to me. Give me coffee and cookies and so much water, but also like a sparking grapefruit over ice would be lovely and, a charcuterie board with all the grapes and cheeses and meats omg.

@thecosmic8248 2 жыл бұрын

As someone who plays almost exclusively online eating snakes while playing dnd is sooo weird to me haah

@ryanthro332 10 ай бұрын

Can yall please turn down the notification noise please

@dago6410 Жыл бұрын

Wait his last name is Mulligan And he played mtg Wow

@23tracy91 2 жыл бұрын

I got kicked from a group for not power gaming

@helencopeland8151 Жыл бұрын

That is unfortunate, tho I understand wanting everyone to be at a certain power lvl. Ps did you get an opportunity to work on a new character that works well with the setting or wer you just kicked??

@DM-CW 3 жыл бұрын

Whoever didn't mute their notifications the entire video... Distracting

@helencopeland8151 Жыл бұрын

🤣 LMAO

@Trintron46 Жыл бұрын

Don't buy rockstars! Whenever I find a place that has them, they pull them from the shelf after I've bought 9 a week for over two months. Only one place in my town now sells them. Please dont buy em, I might run out 🤣 Just order em from Amazon I guess

@josewagner4648 Жыл бұрын

wtf is that reggeton on t background

@cohesian1 Жыл бұрын

I know probably no one will see this, but I think the reason “how to be a better player” videos don’t do so well-(I haven’t finished the video so it may get addressed)- is that GMs actually have to work on their game. I am constantly looking for inspiration for my games. My players? They show up to throw dice and hang out. DnD is just how they want to hang out together. I have one player who is also a GM and so he does his own studying but other than that, not much. Aside from the one that watch Critical Role and even that not religiously.

@lyudmilapavlichenko7551 Жыл бұрын

Honestly, I think Rockstars taste better than Monster. Especially the new Rockstar. Fight me.

@TamaTeamOfficial 2 жыл бұрын

had to stop watching after a few minutes because the constant noises from the stream became too much for me :(

@phatcritz 7 ай бұрын

My guy I know I'm talking from the past... But if you're still doing interviews with your dono chimes on....please consider turning them off.

@xdecroix 3 ай бұрын

how to lose credibility : complain about minimaxing and get your opinion turned like a pancake by someone who knows what he's talking about. Then admit the opposite of what you just said because you're starstruck.

@deatheater6222 Күн бұрын

what?