You have the eyes of ray bradbury, the brows of orson wells, and the beard of wolverine. For this I salute you

Firefox crashed while loading this video so all I heard was Matt say "FUDGE!" loudly and then my browser closed. 10/10 video, Matt, would watch again.

Man, your last video "The Sociology of D&D" was one of the best and most thoughtful D&D-videos I have watched. Comments on that video is turned off so I'm putting my comment here instead. I also intensely liked one of the preceding ones, "Why we play D&D", these videos together put your channel in the absolute top-tier of D&D channels on YT and that says a lot because there are a LOT of D&D channels on YT. It is also very inspiring to continuously see that you put all of your decades of experience in use in such a deeply humane and satisfying way which is expressed by your very genuine statement of "if you had fun, I had fun". You totally get it and you are helping other people also getting it!

Hey the comments on the last episode, "Sociology of D&D" were locked for understandable and depressing reasons. But I really wanted to thank you for making it, so I thought I would just do it here. I am past 30 now and only recently have started very tentatively exploring playing D&D myself, even though I have bought all the core rulebooks since 3.5e when I was a teenager, and spent hours reading them and making up characters and scenarios etc. And even now, still I am only playing with my boyfriend because I just never have felt comfortable in "nerd culture" spaces despite like 90% of my interests being super traditional "nerd culture" interests. Your example of the hypothetical GM's "middle eastern friend" was so on point for me. I am white, so I haven't felt excluded because of my race/cultural background, but as a woman it is almost exactly the mode of exclusion I've experienced. Nobody really said I couldn't play or shouldn't play with them, there were just subtle ways of talking and certain assumptions made that made me feel -- exactly, as you say, unwelcome and sometimes actually uncomfortable. And I know lots of those guys, and like 'nerd culture' generally, didn't and don't think they're pushing women and people of colour away from their games/passions, or that their attitudes or behaviour are problematic. So, I hope, for those of them who are well-intentioned but misinformed, your example is a really useful trigger for them to re-evaluate. Anyway, thank you so much for making the video, and for the feeling and sincerity with which you delivered it. Especially the bit about really having to dislike a person before you want to make them feel unwelcome around you. It just all was really great, and it made me feel really, like ... validated and included. Gosh that sounds so corny... But, really, thank you so much. PS. Your 1950s bandstand presenter voice is a thing of both beauty and wonder.

Matt, you brought up the "whole body DM screen," and though that does seem weird... Today, we play on Roll20 without Cameras, and it's sort of like the same thing. At times, I'm biting my lip to keep from laughing at the zany ideas the PCs have. I drop my head on my desk as they make horrible decisions... I can have these emotions without them knowing, so all they have to go on is my narration and the map. huh... odd. It all comes full Circle =D

I had to lie to my players just last night. The gnome ranger landed an ensnaring strike with disadvantage against a displacer beast, and the beast failed the saving throw to avoid being ensnared. And after I loudly and excitedly announced "you ensnare the displacer beast!" the player reminded me that large creatures have advantage against the save. So I rolled again and rolled a 20... At this point the party was already amped up because the beast already took out one player with a single hit, and restraining it was a huge turning point in the fight. So I just let them have it. According to the rules and the dice, the beast was free, but as the DM I thought it would kill the excitement in the room.

Hey Matt, I think it's really Sad You had to deactivate commentaries on the previous video, but I totally get it, so I'm using the space on this video to thank you for the previous one. It was one of the best and problably the most needed, thank you!

Really loving this series. I especially loved the previous one. I am a queer woman who started playing D&D at the beginning of covid. I am now 59 - so late to the game so to speak. Our DM has been playing for 30 years and he is fantastic. He suggested these videos when I said I might one day like to DM. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insight and thanks for being inclusive.

I know these vids are super old and no one will probably see this, but i really want to say this. The video before this fucking slaps. Hearing Matt say those things with such conviction made me so, so happy. If you're reading this Matt, Thank You.

This is an old series, but I just want to say that I really appreciate the previous episode, "The Sociology of D&D". I hope that, you being a man, a lot of guy nerds have found your voice easier to listen to and have considered inclusion in their games. Personally, I don't care if people mess up, just that they get better.

Hey man, I know you're probably never going to see this, as this series was posted a little while ago, but I just wanna say that episode #8 really made me think. I'm new to DnD as a player, and I was pretty sure that I wanted to DM, but now I'm 100% convinced that I should. Everyone should, or at least they should try. To facilitate that feeling, that feeling of inclusion amongst people you don't even necessarily consider your close friend is an incredible thing, and something sorely needed in the world today. So I just want to thank you. It was a very touching video.

Eventually I'll do a video about playing D&D online using a Virtual Tabletop. I have a lot of experience with Fantasy Grounds and in spite of it's ABSURDLY bad UI, I think it's great. The reason I bring it up is because one of the many amazing benefits of running D&D over FG is it gives the DM the power to, with a click of a button, roll, say, a History check for each member of the group and tell you the results without the players seeing. That lets the DM do some neat stuff. "Duncan, you remember hearing about...," without asking the players to roll. Does a lot to aid immersion. It also lets you roll Stealth and Perception for the players without alerting them to the results. Of course, Passive Perception is meant to handle this, but in my experience Passive Perception is typically too low to be useful.

Thank you! You are the first GM I have heard talking about it who don't actually look down on fudging rolls where it would be appropriate.

I just watched episode 8...again. Fucking bravo, sir. I've never watched a dnd video that made me say, "Hell YES! This isn't just dnd...this is how LIFE should be." I am a river to my people!

Your hair has a 20 Charisma. Most impressive

I want to thank you for previous video. It made me open my eyes to potential failures on my part, having ASD, to look in the best interest of other player's wishes and fantasies. It's always a struggle for me to socialize a lot, and I feel a strong improvement lately, but I would've definitely fall into that little trap if you didn't tell the viewers about it. :D

I am 50 and haven't played since 1st edition. love this series. Thank you for the very well done videos with informative content. Excited to get back to playing.

DM: "Player 1, Roll perception" Player 1: "got a 20!" DM: "You notice some particularly nice looking flowers in the rocks appx 20 yards ahead on the left side of the road." Yes, I have players roll perception for random reasons. This way they never know if a failed perception was important.

The new revised edition of the screen has listened to your advice as the tables are more useful now. Good advice btw

Thank you, Matthew Colville, for making all of these videos. Because of your help, I started DMing for my small group of three friends and I just got a compliment I won’t forget. One friend confided in us that he began to lose interest in d&d but my story reinvigorated his interest. I have only you to thank for being such an influence in my style of story telling as well as role play. You made my friends have fun. So I had fun. So I hope, in turn, you have fun learning this.

So I recently found this series, and I just want to compliment you. Even though you seem to focus ALOT on the official D&D 5e and such, this is great system agnostic advice. Which I appreciate being a pathfinder GM myself. Keep on rocking!

There's lots and lots of comments about #8 and I hate to add to that, but I just had to say that video really touched me. It was beautiful and eye-opening too, as I'm about to narrate my very first campaign soon. I deeply thank you for this series and I admire you for the 8th one. Keep on going man, love your work!

I had a lot I wanted to say about your previous video but as comments are disabled, I wont, other than to say I thought it was a great message. I am really enjoying your series here and find it very informative and inspiring :)

There's no DM screens in the doodly-doo :(

Kinda weird to be catching up on these older episodes, hear Matthew talking about wanting reach 5K subs someday, and looking down to see he currently has 413K :P This channel really has come a long way in 6 years :)

Just wanted to say that episode 8 was fantastic. Those horror stories about certain groups of players is exactly why I won't play with complete strangers through DND meetup sites, or even people at comic shops. (I tried the latter once, thinking it would be better than internet strangers, and my wife and I were sufficiently creeped out by some of the players, ending that plan permanently.) I've been trying over the years to put together a group with coworkers, but my office only has about a dozen people, so there's not a lot of volunteers. Going to be trying again with just two other players later this month, which is why I'm studying up on your videos!

You are incredible :) I've run 3 sessions total as a DM, and my players will THANK you for all the improvements to come from your advice. Stay cool, Mr. Dooblidoo. Peace. Out.

Just found this series - love all of them so far, but especially #8. Thank you!

“I sound like I’m at the bottom of a well”. pause. Say hi to Timmy for me. ;)

Matt, I know it has been an age since this series came out, but I felt I had to comment. I am sorry that comments for the previous video had to be turned off. As a white, middle aged, straight, western european male I wanted to say your previous video brought me to tears. Thank you for being the voice for reasonable, empathetic and most importantly genuine human beings put there. I applaud you for what you have done for this past time and I hope you have found happiness and joy bringing those exact same things to everyone you have encounter in the world. Bravo. You are an inspiration.

From one Human Matthew to another, You are super helpful and you are truly an amazing person.

I was born after you got started and now i'm using your videos to DM my first game in a week, that's kinda trippy to me

This man is amazing - is there a Nobel prize for greatest DM ever?

seriously man, fantastic series it has helped me become such a better dungeon master and my players who we have played with me for a solid 3+ years, two of my players comment after our session last night "hey, man idk what you did but that session was amazing, probably the best we have had yet good job man!" i sent them the link to the playlist they are also gunna check it out thanks man

From three years in the future, I want to thank you MC for Ep 8 (it is even more relevant as we near 2020 than it ever has been before), as well as these tips. I DM'd for a little under a year, then real life and our firstborn kinda put that on hold. Two years later now and I'm ready to jump back into it and this playlist is a wealth of knowledge, so thank you! PS lol@5k subscribers; a mere three years later and you're at a whopping 325k!

Love this episode, I am new to DnD (a few months in) and my DM uses an iPad or laptop as a DM screen, gives him the access to all information he has on his devices, can even show us how a character or magic item looks like. I like the idea of the DM roll our perception check for us, because it's true that whenever he saids 'roll a dexterity check' or 'roll a perception check' we are all like 'uh oh, something's going on'

Man, that last episode of this series, the 8 about the sociology of d&d was one of the most inspirational video on the youtube. I just want to thank you for that.

I just had Session 0 with some co-workers this week, and am bingeing this playlist to get ready for the adventure in a week or two. I’ve gotten so many ideas from you, and am feeling empowered to give them a great experience. Thank you for this wonderful content!

Piggybacking off your conversation about the DM rolling for stealth and perception, I play with a DM who rolls all character's checks for finding and disarming traps. It takes away a temptation to metagame from us because we don't know that the rogue just rolled a 3, so there's no reason for, say, the wizard to step up and say "No, no, you must have missed something, let me try." Because the wizard wouldn't do that.

Hey! This video is old and you probably won't see it but is there a reason that there is no longer any links to dm screens in the description?

These just get better every week. This channel has to be the greatest asset a DM could ever, ever find.

This series is so stinking good. I'm getting so pumped to DM and this is filling in a lot of gaps in my understanding from the other side of the table.

I've watched a number of these and appreciated them all. But it was episode 8 that made me a subscriber. I understand why comments were turned off, and grieve that that is necessary, but kudos to you for making that episode Matthew. I am loving this whole series. But that was special. Thank you.

Hey! I Don't know if you still check comments, but thank you for making these videos! I wanted to comment on your last video, The sociology of DnD - but comments are disabled. I can understand why. I just want to thank you for making that video, and bringing attention to those sorts of things. I'm the DM in my local group (that is also mostly women,) so I don't have to worry about rape and things coming up in sessions, but I can only imagine how awful that must be for those that do experience it and don't want to. Overall your videos are awesome! You bring up a lot of little things I I have not thought about before, and overall I hope I can improve my quality of DMing. Thanks for being awesome!

Thanks for this and all your videos, I'm currently making the transition from player to DM and I've been working through your playlist of videos and find them incredibly inspiring and helpful.

You are the best person ever. I've gotten so much advise from just nine videos. Thank you!!

A friend of mine bought a plastic, three-panel menu cover from a restaurant supply company, typed up his own pages to slide into the slots, and used that as his DM screen when he ran our campaign. It was very durable and the cover itself was less than $5!

Hey since the comments on the last episode were deactivated, I'm just going to comment here about it. I actually emphasizes the struggles in the world and see which of the struggles they care about. As an example, slavery is accepted in the world I created and even child slavery is accepted. One of my players felt very touched by this subject. I asked her if she preferred if I didn't mention it anymore in my games but she instead decided to change her background to make her character an ex-slave instead of an urchin. In fact, she is now some sort of a freedom fighter: She actually stole a slave kid form a slave merchant to try to liberate him... and it worked. The next mission I prepared is based on that completely unscripted act the party decided to do: They are going to escort ex-slaves and return them to their families. So instead of making everyone equal and there is no struggle, I put players in different situations than what they are used to be and give them an opportunity to change the status quo of the world in the game. They want to fight for the liberation of slaves, fine, I'll do missions about that so they feel they have an impact on the game. One of the player wants to be recognized as a person instead of a freak of nature? Fine too, I'll give them the opportunity to do so. To me, it's not about living in magic land where every one is equal, it's to create an unequal world where the PCs can change it for the better.

This was an incredibly thought-provoking collection of DM tips and style decisions

I ran my first game on a night my regular group wasn't all there and they said they loved it. Took a chance to make voices, describe attacks, the environment and the works. Result, they loved it. Thanks for these videos. Your thoughts on the game are right up my alley. Please keep up the great work!

Incomming deck of many things! Really interested on how you handle that trainwreck...

This comment is unrelated to this video. It is in regards to your previous video. The Sociology of D&D. I only wanted to say, I have been enjoying your videos and they've been extremely helpful in my journey of learning to DM. And after that video, I not only enjoy your videos but have a lot of respect for you. I can only imagine the immense amount of messages and comments you receive, and IF you see this.. Thank you for all of your help.

I just finished watching the last video and was going to leave a comment but then saw that comments were disabled. I quickly understood why due to the topics that were spoken about. What I was going to write was: You good sir, are a magnificent man and I love you.

as a new DM, a new D&D player in fact, I have not yet used a DM screen, and I really like the openness of it all, my players also like seeing the DM as this guy with a book of notes in front of him and I like that there isn't this border between me and my players, but I have never played with a DM screen before, so I won't know actually what I prefer until I try that of course.

I almost cried at the end of episode 8. I fucking loved it

If you want a good, cheap, DIY DM screen here are the steps on how i made mine: take a box and cut off the folding parts, i used a pretty big box but you can choose your size, then cut off 3 parts of the same size, then tape or paperclip papers on the box parts, and the. Tape all the sides together. You can decorate the side that the players see if you like!

Passive perception is a lifesaver. It's put a stop to Pathfinder's plentiful "roll a perception check" calls in my old campaigns.

Sir, I just want to say thank you. I ran my first game of DnD last night with some good friends, and to say I lifted a good chunk from your first video for the dungeon is an understatement! With that said, I intensely enjoyed the experience, it was not only an absolute blast, but three people who had never played before all agreed: They liked it infinitely more than they thought. That is all thanks to your wonderful videos, your wonderful spirit, and putting it out into the world. Thank you for being a river to your people!

Yours is "When we last left our heroes" My table on roll20 is always playing "Sweet Home Alabama" and the players realize that the game started when i switch the music xD

I love being reminded of crossovers between Nerdfighteria and Critters.

Dear Matt, Thank you for all your DM running the game videos. I always relax listening to your musical tones and philosophical thoughts. Congrats on getting over 397k subscribers - you smashed your 5000 target. All the best.

when it comes to perception, I agree that asking for a roll means the player knows there was something to notice and they missed it. To help mitigate this, I have them make perception checks when they first enter a scene; this is their ability to "take in a room", in this way, I can remove the need for passive perception checks, and only focus on changes.

I love the term doobly doo. I giggle every time I hear it!

So, I just watched the previous video, and of course I get why the comments are disabled, but I did want to express myself about it. I'm a girl and I just started playing about half a year ago. So far I haven't encountered that at all, but when I started to get interested and looked info up, there were a lot of post about women worried about other people's behavior. There were forums looking for all female groups and some stories like those, at least where they felt uncomfortable. I feel lucky and also sad about the reality, but there are awesome people out there as well and it shouldn't discourage anyone to play. Some people are assholes, don't waste your time, just walk away and play with other people. That also a great thing about playing this game, meeting all sorts of people along the way. By the way, epic line at the end.

I would never DM without a screen. I don't want my maps and notes to be visible to the players. But I do make some of my rolls on the other side of it, where the players can see the outcome. Initiative rolls, for example. I usually roll to-hit rolls privately, because DMs need to have life-and-death control in some situations. But your cheat sheet idea could free me up to do more of it, since I'd be able to see at a glance who is in what condition. I am definitely adopting this idea. It's gold! "The Watchmaker keeps to his schemes..."

I’m not a DM but I feel that as a player this helps me understand and respect what the DM does… and maybe help me not get my character killed..

"We'll have another episode talking about ______________ ." While editing . . . brings out notebook, writes, "must do episode about _____________".

In response to episode #8, you're still playing to win. You're just winning at life.

I'm a new dm, thanks mostly to your tutelege. Re: rolling behind the dm screen; I'm experimenting with the players rolling all the dice and I never see the results (they're trust worthy), on the basis that I can fudge the stats, health, or modifiers if I need to. I'm running one-on-one dnd with my DM with a view to writing my own modules to reuse with other players, or for other people to use; so there is an understanding that all the stats are a work in progress prototype.. And we're both DMs now, so we both understand that sometimes, just sometimes, the dice are an impediment rather than an aid.

hey Matt, i really like the stealth and perception idea. it gives the game a more narrative feeling and i may try it out myself. Keep up the good work.

"jay and i are having a friendly rivalry.... i only have about 5000 subscribers but i'm catching up." 234,000 subscribers.

I notice you disabled the comments on video #8 but I felt I had something interesting to contribute so I wanted to add this here, hope you don't mind. You discuss that there are certain fantasies that seem to show up that you find distasteful, certain themes and story elements, for example rape; and cite Game Of Thrones as an example. Well, I'm one of the GMs that includes these elements in my games. I include rape, torture, racism, sexism, class warfare, slavery, and extreme poverty. I have these things in my game because I feel it makes my game more enticing. I use them as narrative elements and have them act as a contrast to the glorious, heroics of the campaign. It makes the setting feel dark, foreboding, and serious in a way that dragon attacks and orc raids don't.... But how do I make sure that I don't upset or offend people. How can I be sure that someone who's been a victim of sexual violence but isn't open about this, doesn't feel excluded or feel they're reliving painful memories. How do I make sure someone from a minority ethnicity doesn't feel marginalised by a game setting with overt racism and slavery in it. Well, I ask them openly in my session zero to do something specific... the "traffic lights" list. I give each player a piece of paper and I say to them. I'm happy to run any tone of game, from whimsical fantasy to dark and foreboding. I'm happy to include extreme violence, gore, and sex; and make the game graphic is people want a horror aesthetic, or scale that back entirely if people want a more Tolkien like fantasy. Given that. I want everyone to make three lists of things. Green, Amber, and Red. The Green is for elements you'd actively like to explore. This can be anything from "Pirates" to "Good vs. Evil" or even something specific like "Roman Empire" or esoteric like "What it means to be kind", it can even be something mechanics based like "Fight Dragons", "Political espionage game" or "Traditional dungeon crawl". Whatever things you're excited to explore add to the green list. The Amber list is for things you're interested in but want to have handled tactfully. Like for example if you're happy for their to be sex in the game, but you'd prefer we "fade to black" and just ignore any details, put that in the Amber list. The important list is the Red list. This is where you put your hard limits. If you really don't want a setting that includes slavery, add it in here. If the tradition short drunk Scottish miner stereotype for Dwarfs annoys you and you'd hate to have to deal with them, put them here. If you have something that particularly upsets you or a phobia you don't want to deal with add it here. One player I know always adds 'Spiders' to this list, which is good because the Drow are a race that worship spiders, have giant spiders, and follow a spider-demon god; so if he plays they're either not in the setting or I change them. Anything can be added to the red list. Once the lists are made, I'll compile them together and give out a copy of the red list. This is the "hard limit". These things are not to be discussed or done at the game table. That way we all have a good time. I like my system, and as the GM, I also make my own list. I for example had my girlfriend have a miscarriage so I find the subject quite upsetting. I add things like "Miscarriage" to Amber, and "Horror Foetal Imagery", "Pregnant women in peril" to the Red column as it's bothers me. Certain video games like The Binding Of Issac are impossible for me to play due to the foetal body horror. I'm also physically disabled so I add, "PCs unable to cope with disabilities" as a Red as well. I'm happy for someone to play a one-legged person or a blind person, but they need to be overcoming their disabilities and be awesome in spite of them. It's too sombre to see a character being portrayed as helpless due to disabilities. This makes everyone closer I find, and for long campaigns it helps to ensure that we've got a game that will explore what we want, and avoid what will upset us all. Hopefully this was an interesting comment. Great series Matt. It's a shame you felt the need to disable comments on the other video but I can see it's a delicate issue. Hopefully you don't feel I overstepped the mark here.

Amazing that you were wondering if you'd hit 5k subs! Congrats for the progress Matt, still love your videos :)

a player on a friend's table ended up developing a hatred about hidden DM rolls since he was trying to find out if a cup of coffee was poisoned, the DM rolled a 1 behind the screen and said him it was tottaly poisoned. The PC was actualy a master in poisons and had a awesomely high bonus to the roll, so he was faithfull on his abilittys. It ends up that it was just a cup of coffee offered by a friendly elder, that was brutaly murdered for "trying to kill us". The player argued that he would never be confident on a roll like this ever again, even though he was prety good at it. (Brazilian here, sorry for any possible mistake)

It's the deck of many things!

I know you disabled comments for episode 8, but I really wanted to say this: Thank you. I cut my teeth DMing one-shots for absolute beginners to D&D in a pub in Nottingham (the same Nottingham that's obsessed with 'Robin Hood') every other Monday. I never knew who my players were until they showed up on the night, so it was difficult to gauge what players wanted from D&D. In a long campaign, the trick would be to include a little bit of everything. I once ran a four-session campaign with each session representing one of the four cornerstones of D&D gameplay: Stealth/Strategy; Survival; Roleplay and Combat. But in a one-shot? I found the easiest was to try and go for something like your "Capitol" (Incidentally, I used Waterdeep for that. Faerun already has a huge, multicultural Port-City). Or I'd go the other way and describe 'Blackthorn'; a Hamlet that was just off the main trading route between Baldur's Gate and Tor Garon. It was founded by travellers and merchants, and the distinctly multicultural populace of it reflects that: An Apothecary run by an old Dwarven Couple who also make the Tavern's speciality "Dwarven Strongmead". The Humans who run the Tavern - "Wagons & Flagons"; a rest stop for travellers who can get a meal and an ale whilst their horses and carriages are tended to; it is run in partnership with the local Blacksmith; a wizened old Red Dragonborn whose scales were just turning brown/black at the edges, partly from age and partly from working in his Dragonfire Forge for so many years. He also performed sermons for anyone who cared to pray with him, as he was a Forge-Domain Cleric by class. I did once get accused of 'pandering to the SJWs' when my focus on multiculturalism was spotted in a game. I was initially going to just let it go and continue with the game, but when he tutted and muttered after I initially ignored him I figured this needed addressing. "How is this pandering?" I asked. When he told me he didn't like the 'unrealistic' idea of a hamlet having all these different people on it, I initially joked "...but you're okay with dragons, Tarrasques, Demons, Orcs and Tieflings and all those other totally realistic aspects of D&D, right?". I then explained: "Blackthorn is born of merchants and travellers; not everyone is Human. The Dwarven Couple were chosen as Dwarves because Dwarves live for 400 years or so, and they are perfectionists by nature, which lends itself extremely well to the study of alchemy: Time plus dedication = results. The Blacksmith is a Dragonborn because frankly many of us have loved the idea of swords forged in dragonfire, and yet the concept of that is sorely underrepresented in D&D. A Dragonborn Blacksmith is the only realistic way that can be a thing. The Humans running the Tavern isn't a token representation on their part; humans make up 80% of Faerun's demographic." I did not enjoy the rest of that game. An awkwardness descended onto the table after that and not only did it limit the fun the players were having, but I was of a mind to simply phone the rest of the game in and just be done with the session as quickly as possible. I'd change the demographic in my games to suit Nottingham locals, but I don't know who the next group is going to be. Chalking it up to it just being the nature of the beast.

I have run many D&D campaigns, and have one ongoing campaign that started in 1985. Over time, I developed the method of keeping the perception, stealth, and saving throw stats for each player behind the screen and then having the players roll perception checks, saving throws, stealth checks, etc. over the top of my DM screen. I also make rolls behind the screen periodically. I have them roll and I roll often enough that they never know when its a real check and when its a dummy check. This keeps them from wondering what they missed. If I don't tell them anything, or say something like "you don't notice anything unusual" they know that doesn't necessarily mean they missed something. It works for me and my players.

As a DM, I used a screen to "curate" as you say - mainly for attack and combat. I don't like killing off my PCs, but I do want them to be challenged. If I hide the dice role, the guy who wants to over-power his character suddenly is just as essential as the rest of the party. I can make his combat last slightly longer while speeding up the combat of weaker characters. Whereas if all dice rolls are visible, the weaker characters get no modifications at all, and may feel bored or useless.

I couldn't comment in the previous video and I just wanted to say that I was in a really bad day and that video made me feel better, I think is because I could see the love that went into making it. Thank You !!

It bothers me fairly often that exhaustion isn't on that screen

Thank you for this! We game in a space without much table real estate, so I taped two small plastic photo albums together - the kind you get at the dollar store - and filled the pages with small prints of the characters' stats and common monsters, along with any cheat sheets I need. The outside can be customized with pictures of whatever the current setting is. It's cheap to make and super handy!

I laughed so hard at the low key, matter of fact 15 second destruction of GRRM i had to fast forward one vid to comment. And I LIKE the guy's work.

Um, does episode 9 of this series exist? I enjoy every episode, and would hate to miss one, but I am unaware of its location. Thanks.

I love to up the tension by requiring players to roll perception for nothing. Or randomly roll and write something down. If they ask I just smile and say you don't notice anything.

replying on this video about the sociology because comments are off, I am a 19 year old straight black male DM and i play with family, just wanted to inform you that one of the situation that my first campaign got into was that a player was trying to haggle a blacksmith for cheaper prices and i on the spot made the blacksmith gay which caused another male player to use charisma to woo such NPC into giving them a discount...heres to say times have definitely gotten better with dnd lol never occured to me how gender and stereotype norms can affect a story. love learning this!

I really like the idea of the stealth and perception checks not being public for the players. Adds just enough tension to the game and I will be using that for my game going forward. Also, just wanted to say a very big thank you for doing these videos. Not many people DM and as someone who has been doing it since age 13 (none of my friends were creative enough as kids to run games), I find all of your videos insightful and I appreciate your commitment to the DM genre :D Recommended your videos to the DM of my current game I play in (Yay I get to actually be a player) and he has enjoyed them as well. Much respect and I look forward to every other video you make.

Running The Game #8 - best RPG video ever.

Just watched episode 8. Your awesome man! And inspiring. Had some rape jokes at the table last week and got I pretty bloody angry. but no one got me... Thought I was being over dramatic... Thanks for the solidarity. I really appreciate your understanding of the game, and you seem like you've dumped a lot of ego for applying yourself the way you have. Respect bro :)

You nailed it with your initial thought on this one. I have been running a CoC campaign for a while now. At the start of the game, asking the players to summarize the previous session and their current situation has opened all kinds of doors/ideas because what they perceived (especially in a game like CoC where there is a lot of mystery) was so much different than how I perceive game events. Sometimes what they think is going on gives me better ideas than I had previously planned.

I love the idea of having the players recap the last session. My most recent group took this to heart when I offered a small reward for doing it, and insisted everyone take turns. They wrote up the events like it were a diary entry and read it at the start of the game. I didn't say that I wanted it done this way specifically that was all on them and it was fantastic.

Can you please do a video on how to deal with players who meta game too much?

Love these videos! And also that you say dooblydoo :D DFTBA

Take a shot every time he says "doobly doo" lol In all seriousness though keep doing these man, easily makes the top 5 DND content channels on KZfaq.

When talking about perception checks on if players should roll them or the DM. I've found a good compromise is to sprinkle in irrelevant perception checks throughout the campaign. Something like, player rolls a 19 "ok what do I see?" "a bird the in tree above you is making efforts to hide its nest" It helps bring the world to life, and keeps them guessing as to what perception checks are important, and what aren't. Not everything hiding from the players is going to be hostile.

The doobly do. Are you a nerdfighter?

There is no need for the DM to roll for a player in order to keep information hidden. If your players do not say something along the lines of "I'd like to take a closer look" or "What do I see?/What does it look like?" they are not actively Perceiving. Active Perception and Passive Perception are designed for this reason. If you want to know if a player can see something, without cluing them in, consult their Passive Perception. For stealth just don't tell them if they succeed or fail. This preserves the feeling that the player is in control of their character while retaining the uncertainty of success. It also keeps with the mechanics of feats like Luck and other abilities that a player might have that can augment a roll. Think about how a player might use bardic inspiration on a stealth check if you won't tell them how high they rolled. While the player likely will not know if a enemy has spotted them they will likely be aware of how loud they are being and how low behind that wall they are. Just say something along the lines of "You duck behind that wall." or "You back up into the shadows." Say something that confirms that you know that they are in stealth and have the number you need to check against. Do not say "You are hidden." or "You successfully duck into the shadows." The game was designed with these things in mind. Please try to make use of them.

I just want to say that as a new play to table top RPGs you videos have been very helpful to start running a game as a DM. These videos have help me get new players to have lots of fun. im hooked at this point and I will continue to watch for tips and new ideas to introduce to my players. I would love to have a seat at your table though, I feel like it would be an amazing learning exp. Well keep them coming

when i was DMing [and when people before me did] we rolled a dice, and whatever number came up, that player would recap [or whichever one remembered, or i'd give them little pushes in the right direction]. we sat in the same places every week, and we'd avoid recaps with the same person each week. great series, by the way!

Comments were disabled on last video, but I want you to know that what you said in it meant a lot to me. Subbed.

If you’re a cheap steak like me then you can just make your own screen with a cardboard box.