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protip to new aspiring DMs: forget trying to play with friends that you want to get interested in the game, find new friends that are already want to play

20 year DM here. This vid is spot on. It took me years to learn some of these lessons. New DMs take this to heart.

"No plan survives contact with the [players]." This is true. But this is also true: "Plans are useless. Planning is essential." Like Luke points out, the more you plan, the better you'll be at coming up with a new plan at a moment's notice. Improv uses the same "muscles" as planning. And if you have planned for every possibility that you can think of, when your players inevitably come up with something you didn't, you'll be better equipped to come up with the response.

These things are also good reminders for veteran DMs. Especially knowing that your players aren’t judging you as much as you think, and knowing that you’ll have a bad session every once in a while… very important to keep in mind

"If you see your players laughing and smiling, if they come back week after week, then you're probably doing just fine." This made me genuinely cry in relief. I'm judging myself too harshly! Thank you for making me realize it, Luke!

My previous DM actually quit half way because he wasn't having fun. We were not doing literally anything he planned for... and that was both of our faults. He would make everything seem optional or not important, and besides me, my group was very indecisive, so it turned out badly for all of us. For example, my character's brother was going into a dungeon. So I asked if his life was at risk if I didn't go with him. DM said he'd be fine. So I didn't go with him and got back to the main quest. The DM had the whole dungeon planned out and he was very disappointed. However, so was I because I wanted to go down there too, but i thought I'd be helping my DM more by going back to the main quest since I figured if thr DM wanted me to go with my brother, then he'd have told me he was in danger or about some reward. I say all of this to new DMs from a player perspective... if a player asks you "I'm not sure what to do" don't be afraid to break the 4th wall and just say "well I planned for you guys to go into the dungeon." In my limited experience, if you tell players you have a direction planned, then they will be more than happy to go that way and come up with a realistic character reason to do so. And another note- be careful saying "the room SEEMS empty" when it's actually empty... cause players will spend far too long trying to solve a puzzle that isn't there.

"The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group cooperative experience." ~ Gary Gygax 👍

So since you asked for the "Nein Flavours of Aspargus", here is my explanation: 1) The Cobalt Aspargus - It somehow tastes blue in a kind, not to confuse with the smurf variant 2) The wild grown Aspargus - It tastes a clay. Clay. That's it. 3) The Aspargus of the Sea - It tastes a lot like fish, yet it is vegan. Delicious. 4) The Colorspray Aspargus - Having his name from a wild sprinkle of color, its taste really reminds me of tealeafs. 5) The Two-Faced Aspargus - The taste of this one really depends, on some days its really beautiful and delicious, on other days is smells and looks like a rotten green cucumber. 6) The electrified Aspargus - This one is a special. Unlike most other Aspargus, this one gets fried via electricity and gets really crispy and tender that way. 7) The Rainbow Aspargus - Probably my favorite one, it tastes like sprinkled with the dust of deliciousness. 8) The Hot Boi Aspargus - Well this one is more for the eye, than for the taste. It has a dark, purple look, and it kinda tastes like regular aspargus, but with a twist. 9) The Reborn Aspargus - It tastes like a mixture of the Sea and Colorspray variant, but in the end, it still creates his own flavour. Delicious. You are welcome!

These tips are exactly what I learned over 40+ years playing DND, it’s good to see that they’re being passed on to the younger players.

Since I've literally just started putting together my first campaign I really appreciate this. Thank you.

Common misconception: the primary purpose of corn fields is for pilots-in-training to crash into. Harvesting only happens as a byproduct and corn prices are as low as they are because of a lack of interest in piloting 😁👍

I have a safe phrase for my players when they're about to do something silly. When they hear, "Are you sure you want to do that?" they know the choice they're contemplating has a high chance of very unpleasant consequences. Sometimes, however, they do it anyway. =)

I really appreciate this video, I've been "planning" my first DMing session and secretly been avoiding it because I was so worried about how I'd do

You just had to say it... Here ya go: The 9 flavors of asparagus (yes, these are just ways of cooking it): 1) Grilled 2) Sauteed 3) Roasted 4) Creamed 5) Puree 6) As part of a gross "nutrient shake" 7) Steamed 8) Raw 9) Broiled

I was always overprepared and found so much of my planning went to waste (though I've since recycled some things that were not used initially). Now, I only really plan for the current trajectory of the party and have a loose-but-adaptable plotline for the overarching story.

Your job as the GM: set up a string of situations, hold a coherent, fantastical world, force the players to act. How to be a player: ask yourself what you would do as your character because he is defined by his actions, aslways state intent and approach. The GM decides when the players roll the dice: when there's a chance of success, a chance of failure, and a consequence for that failure, the dice are rolled to determine the rest of the story. Be fair, telegraph most everything, and tell your players why they are rolling the dice. Your GM lexicon: conflict, opportunity, danger, call to action, fellowship, motivation, arbitration, and tags. Your best tools: Maze Rats random tables, Godbound random tables, and ICRPG. GM reading list: Trap Theory video by Runehammer, the AngryGM's book or his articles about GMing, Basically, SlyFlourish's Lazy Dungeon Master book, and The Monsters Know What They're Doing by Keith Ammann. DM Lair as well, obviously! ;P *And know this: you're NEVER going to be perfect, we simply can't and we keep learning forever, so stop worrying and get into the fray because you'll have a hell of a lot of fun. And Luke (Lucas? I don't hear it well.) is right, your players aren't judging you as much as you think they would, they'rej ust busy having a good time. Oh, and steal. Steal, steal, steal good and interesting ideas, you're now part of the coolest club ever: all that advice above? I stole it from the sources I've shared, it's a pleasure for us GMs to have our ideas, adventures, traps, and even advice stolen for somebody else's table. GLHF!* :D

I'm currently writing a new campaign, and one of my players (a DM of a couple of our other games) decided to send me this video. I'm feeling called out but it was extremely helpful in putting a couple things into perspective. Cheers!

Not sure about flavors but the 12 types of asparagus are Green, White, Purple, Wild, Apollo, Atlas, Jersey series, Mary Washington, Precoce D’Argenteuil, Purple Passion, UC 157 and Viking KB3.

I've been a GM for a few years and always good to hear tips, and your first tip is already fantastic!

This helped a lot, it's actually my second time but you cleared up ALOT of my errors and anxieties! Thanks :)

This is a fantastic video man. I needed something like this to send my players who want to start their own games but are getting over that initial first hump of anxiety/fear to get started.

For planning. We always plan 3 sessions ahead, we aim to do a session every month. We have found out that planning 3 months ahead is the sweat spot for us to make sure we can have a monthly session in a group of 6 players and a DM.

So glad I just found your channel -- 30+ years playing (off and on) and now soemtimes DM -- appreciate all your stuff SO MUCH -- thanks, man!

Awesome tips. Don’t be afraid to DM, the DM’s standards for the experience they generate are always higher than the players’.

The Dice touching thing is on page 235 of the DMG. "Don't touch others' dice if they're sensitive about it." That is, if we are thinking of the same quote.

My wife is studying to be a first time dm, NO DND EXPERIENCE, she's currently taking notes from the 5e dm guide book. So ready to see how this one shot turns out

I genuinely LOVE all of your videos, they are so helpful, and they have actually gotten me a group that always comes back eagerly. Thank you soooooooo much!

"DnD is not DM vs Players", yeah, tell that to our table lol. We have a running gag that we are always scoring points against the DM and he on us when any makes a question or statement where the other stumbles to or can't answer. DM: "you're standing in your tavern..." Player: "What's the name of the keeper?" DM: "..." Players: "OH YEAH, WE'RE WINNING DND"

As a new/very inexperienced DM, you have given me a lot of things to consider. My last group fell apart due to holidays and schedule changes. Hopefully we'll get to start back up soon.

I'm a beginner Brazilian master and day after day I fall more in love with your content Thank you very much for these pearls of learning Forgive me for my bad English :D

Long time player finally running my first game with a coworker and his young sons. We rolled character sheets as a separate event and plan to play our first Golden Vault game next week. I’m really excited to get to help them build the world they want to live in, and this video really helped me seat my confidence in my readiness and ability to make this game fun for them.

I still struggle with number five. I have thought all of those things after about half of my sessions. But they do keep coming back, they do seem like they're having a good time, so I try not to worry as much. It's been helpful that some players will stay after a bit and we talk about the session, what we thought went right and what went wrong, so that's been good.

13:47 I don’t care if people touch my dice unless it was Wil Wheaton

I'm a new DM with my group playing a basic D&D campaign from D&D beyond. These are amazing tips! I've been super nervous but so far it's been really fun and I've been looking into possibly creating my own homebrew campaign.

Being a relatively new DM it feels good to hear that if they come back they are enjoying it enough. Thanks for that !!

Actually good advice that will save you days and days of trial and error to figure this out on your own. Good video!

I agree on almost everything. Except the rules-as-written point. I've played with some house rules since day 1 - for instance ignoring XP and using a milestone system for levelling up instead (which I haven't regretted even once). Of course it does come down to how well you do know the more common rules when you start. I've played a few adventures in my group as a player before I became our de-facto DM (The others enjoyed my style best, I guess, plus I go all out with printing minis, making terrain and props and the like and they love that haha), so I already had a decent understanding of what worked well in our group and what didn't. So I'd say it depends. For someome completely out of their depth initially, it's probably a good idea to stick to the rules exactly, but if you feel comfortable with it, having house rules from the get-go can totally work.

I've been playing and DM'ing for almost 40 years now and I really like the format of your videos. I've got some friends or family that are thinking about trying their hand "behind the screen" and I think your videos will help me, help them. I don't want to teach them how I run a game, I want them to find their own style. I play a wide variety of pen and paper RPG's and I really enjoy see different styles of story telling. Much appreciate the work you've put into these.

About a year ago, I began running a campaign for my family as my first trial run in 5e. This video was incredibly helpful. Failure is inevitable. As a player and a DM. I love this mindset. It has all been a learning process. And I've never failed more fantastically than this first run. My advice, full send it. Try it out amd dive in head first. Failure is learning. DM's roll nat. 1's too. Once you accept that, you can't have a bad time

1: Roasted Red Pepper 2: Himalayan Salt & Cracked Pepper 3: Korean BBQ 4: Sweet Mango Habanero 5: Bacon 6: Lemon Pepper 7: Garlic Parmesan 8: Jalapeno & Cheddar 9: Wasabi Bonus: Dill Pickle

I prefer green asparagus to white, but like both. I'd rather have it steamed, but I'm not opposed to grilled or even boiled, if there's no other option. All it really needs is a little salt and pepper to bring out the flavor of the asparagus. Adding too many spices just overwhelms the natural taste.

I played D&D at uni a looong time ago and ever since i wanted to play again but no one wants to be a DM. I have finally gathered the courage to become a DM and in september i have my first session, needless to say im scared AF but hey now i discover this amazing channel and vid, ill take all the advice i can. Thank you!

"Your players aren't judging as hard as you think they are"... Straight to the heart. Thanks.

As of now, I feel personally attacked and called out by tips 1, 3, and 5. Lol! I used to write novels **for fun**; granted, I'd never tried to have any of them published, but making sure that what I'm creating is fleshed out with no plot holes, and is something that everyone will enjoy AND be able to critique is one of my biggest "perfectionist" moments. I struggle with enjoying having fun myself in positions of authority because I'm too busy trying so hard to be perfect. Edit: On the dice touching debate; I'd say it depends on the dice. A $10 set of dice you can get at your local game store? Sure no problem. A $100 tempered glass set that my best friend got me on my birthday to also commemorate our year long friendship? No, absolutely not. Hands off. 2nd Edit: "There are no winners or losers in D&D." This is blatantly incorrect. You see, when everyone gets together and has a good time, then everyone is a winner! :3

My tips A book of dry erase battle maps( like 20 maps) is the best thing I've ever bought. Have ideas for a plot line but don't push it forward, prepare locations, npc and there goals. Don't railroad let the players decide what to do and think how the world reacts. Try to prompt close to the end of the session the players plan for next session Create combat shortcuts for yourself you could use average damage, roll all attack rolls at one, don't keep track of all hit points on some make them die after so many hits or just decide when.

Just come across this video as me and a small group are looking in to starting a campaign for the first time. I'm going to be giving DM a shot and this video has been incredibly helpful!

I've bumped into this video and for me as an experienced GM (35 years in RPG) this list is great. Perfectly summarizes all points for new and experienced GMs!

Definitely good tips to remember 👌 even for experienced DMs

My main DM used a dry erase map and dice for enemies. We as players could use minis or whatever. I used a putting green coin or small shiny rock. Didn't bother us to busy having fun.

For those interested, here is my way to long experience of the past 4 months. As a little bit of background, I started playing about 2 years ago and haven't played as much as I would have liked (something about a pandemic, idk?) and decided a couple months ago I wanted to try DM'ing as my previous DM was strapped for time and cut his campaign short. Decided to start with Lost Mines of Phandelver to get a feel for the trade while making my own entire world from scratch (I have a pantheon I'm decently happy with but might scratch and redo the world map, it's a long-term thing hence the module). TLDR: trust your players with a bit of freedom, roll with their decisions, don't pull your punches with monsters that 'seem' too strong out of fear one of the players may go down, let them. Make mistakes, it's the fastest way to learn. I got a 3D printer for mini's, then a second one (first was filament, second is resin for better quality). Only do this if you want an extra hobby, it takes up a lot of time and especially resin printing has a bit of a learning curve, but wow do they look good on the table. Having your own means of producing mini's also allows for a lot of flexibility in what monsters and other things to throw at your players. I gave my players quite a bit of freedom with their characters, one is a dragonborn with wings and a tail, he doesn't use them functionally, though I might allow him to eventually. This was justified in his backstory as being experimented upon by the Cult of the Dragon. I also have a fairy barbarian, by one of my experienced players, this was before fairies were offically released. I gave the wizard a ram with the stats of a Nyx fleece Ram, which is utterly to strong as a familiar, but the ram is the husband of the fairy and the roleplay between me as the ram, the fairy and the wizard is absolutely hillarious. Lastly, I have two nobles, one paladin/warlock and one draconic sorceror. The freedom I gave my players has turned out fantastic as all of them are more interested in playing an interesting character rather than metagaming. Funny things that happened so far in the campaign: both the fairy barbarian and the dragonborn barbarian absolutely fail at opening doors, they have become the bane of my player's exsistance. They convinced the Redbrands to clear out of the cellars of Tressendar Manor, to avoid being utterly obliderated, aided by the scene of the dragonborn kicking in a door (the only one that would be kicked in) holding a Redbrand up by the throat and the warlock slicing their neck as a statement (great rollplaying ensued). They are now potential allies and the party hired one of them, named Cole, to be a guide to Thundertree. Cole has never really done much adventuring, and roling incredibly low several times he now officially has PTSD from all the monsters he's seen these insane people fight against. He's become the guide/cook/nanny to the fairy's 4 baby mimics, found during a session 0.5 to give my players a 'prologue' to their story and why/how they know eachother. Some things I learned: I have been to nice to my players. i had them start at lvl 3 because I personally dislike lvl 1 and 2 and I have been pulling punches when it comes to monsters with multi attack. I have now decided to stop that, underscored by a spontaneous 'gauntlet' we decided to do as we reached a plot point for an absent player and cut the session short. The monsters i threw at them they had already fought before, but now with multi attack and such. They did fine. During one session we had a guest player. One of my players decided they wanted to go back a bit to try open 'The Door' again. I should have cut this off before it started or after his first failed attempt and not gone on for 1.5 hours, it wasn't fun for the guest and we could have done this some other time. One of my players is an 'audience memeber', he made the sorcerer because the other player made a warlock and they would play off each other as the characters are brothers, the idea being they could help each other with certain skill checks. The player unfortunately doesn't know what to do with this character and during a great oppurtunity for some character development and roleplaying he completely shut down. When I or the warlock player brought this up, things didn't go so well, this player also copes with some mental problems which, I admit, I have no idea how to deal with. For the forseable future i will leave him to be an audience member, maybe prod him again in a few months if he's feeling better. Thanks for reading, hope you found it useful or at least entertaining!

I’m doing a heavily home brew campaign and it’s been really fun. My players enjoy the combat and the characters. I’m a first time DM, but my friend who has been DMing us for almost 10 years who is one of the players said I’m doing really well. And honestly I’m mostly winging it. I go in with a plan, they do something funny and dumb, it changes the course, and we have more fun by changing the plan based on their actions. It’s fun for them and myself

Great video, Luke! These are good reminders for new and experienced DMs and players at any level to remember. This term has caught on like wildfire: “You can certainly try.” And often, the challenge is stated in the inflection. ... And asparagus baked with olive oil and freshly-crushed garlic. 😁

Just started DMing my first adventure. Gotta say, these are all things I know just rationally from being a player. Still, hearing them addressed directly definitely helps with some of the pressure. I really appreciate this video. And the wealth of resources on your channel I have to dig through still.

I started a D&D group 6 months ago. Im DMing the Lost Mine Of Phandelver. Its been an awesome experience. I make a lot of mistakes, but i get a tad better every time, and my group is merciful. I just try to prep, and be as consistsnt as i can. The advice in the book that says "when in doubt, make up the rules" has been a major help...If i make a mistake, they are none the wiser and i fix it the next time around.

One thing that really helped me as a new DM with players who are new to the game is starting out on an island. I don’t have to do too much prep work for things like that and they don’t have too much decision paralysis when it comes to what direction they need to go to. Also I’d recommend watching yters play first since even watching one campaign can really set you up strong on how to play.

Best D&D DM channel on KZfaq. Can't wait for my books I ordered from his site to arrive! Luke is a stud. Bacon is delicious. Huzzah!

This was indeed the first KZfaq result that came up when searching for tips for new DMs! And they were good tips too 😊 Am wondering, since you're mostly interested in the combat side as you said, are there any channels/videos you can recommend for new DMs who are more interested in story-focused campaigns? I'm trying to convince my friends to let me run a game for them, and I know we're all more interested in the story/roleplaying than the dungeon crawling aspects of games in general!

This video took a lot of weight off of me as a new DM and I gotta thank you a lot man

Man as a new DM binging your videos is a life saver. Luckily my players are all super chill and just in it for some fun escapism and know full well I only even played part of one campaign before jumping in to DMing but still. Wanna do well for them and all these tips help.

Hahaha!!! The plane part. LOL! LOVE IT!

I just ran my first one shot and am looking forward to running my first campaign, and i must say it is a really good start. If gives you good practice for dungeon design and how to guide your players to interact with your world but not feeling overly stressed.

I just started with my friends as the DM. NONE of us have ever played before (besides me with one single session when I was 10% awake). We are all having so much fun and I’m investing money into random props for the game. We’re learning the game as we go along and having a phenomenal time doing so. I wouldn’t be shocked if an experience DnD player saw us and went wtf are you doing it’s all wrong! We’re having fun and that’s the end goal

I'm new to DMing and yes, I dis the exact thing you said at the start.. I said, damn, I'm a new DM and need help, so KZfaq it is. Great advice for new and old DMs. Ill be creating content about my journey as a new DM. Ill definitely link to this video! Thanks for the advice.

I'm only six sessions into my first campaign and these suggestions are already quite useful.

This is huge, thank you so much for the tips. Starting my first campaign in a few weeks and I’m super nervous and a bit overwhelmed. Thankfully I know my players well and we should have a good time regardless

Number 9: I almost cried of joy when I saw this one. So many DMs that imagine a '"cool scend" and want to impose it onto the players as the conclusion to an adventure. Thank you for mentioning it, I feel not enough people do.

To your third point, about starting small, I definitely agree for the most part, but there is something that does bug me about that technique. Mind you this is more of a pet peeve of mine, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. The issue I have with only developing the starting area is your players' characters. For the most part, they've all probably grown up in this world you're creating, and even if they're the lowest of peasants, they'll probably still have a vague sense of the world's geography. To that end, it might be helpful to come up with a general layout for a world map (online map generators can help with that), place a few dots around the world, pick one to be your capital, and another to be your starting area. You probably wouldn't need more than that to start off. A bit of a bonus to this is that as your map evolves and develops, you can sometimes get some kind of quest idea or world building detail from certain features on it.

As a completely new DM i'm currently in the "Don't change the schedule due to one player" but it's our first campaign and i've told them that after we all get comfortable with the game we'll start running even though we're missing players! So i feel like i found a slight middleground!

My first time being a DM, I ran the first chapter of Lost mine of Phandelver. The goblin encounter, (I use minis and mats) I set up my goblins in such a way, that when it was the goblins turn, rolled a Nat1, goblin shot the arrow and killed a fellow goblin. I made that spur of the moment change and it was down right hilarious and fun. It was memorable.

I’ve played in WD: Dragon Heist and one home brewed campaign. Then I raised my hand to run the next campaign. I’m now 84hrs into prep for Curse of Strahd. Using tons of resources from the books, KZfaq content creators, discord, etc. I know my party will inevitably find a way to throw me curve balls. But I’ve flushed out the sandbox pretty well, to be ready for ‘most’ things. Asparagus with season all, baked in the oven is actually pretty good : )

So I had an idea for a campaign a while back, and I decided to go ahead and craft it. I put lots of work in crafting a functional world, designing each country the the finest detail, creating fun taverns a good story and making it so the players could have an enriched world to explore. I worked on this story for several years i found it relaxing. and when I finally got over my nerves, I asked to host the next campaign with my regular group. One of my players and our on again off again dm (we’ll call him Carl) recommended I do a simple one off or small pathfinder. But I really wanted to go with my plan, the majority of my group was very thrilled that I was stepping forward to run a game and they knew I had been toiling with this world for some time. But Carl didnt like having someone new run a long campaign and not take his advice about how hard doing is. When everyone agreed we all took a week or two to make characters and I had wrote Pages upon pages of notes. Carl decided to make the most munchkin min max character ever but it didn’t bother me. The story was simple treasure hunt. The party finds a map with clues and the party solves them and travels on an epic journey. Simple. The first session came and the party received the golden map to the treasure. Carls character a halfling rogue decided that they’re trait is burning things. Carls character then took the map… AND ATTEMPTED TO LIGHT IT ON FIRE. Stating that that’s what his character would do. He then went on saying “as a dm I should be aware that the party won’t always do what’s expected”. He proceeded to do random chaotic things to try and mess with me. When I became noticeably upset he would remind me that I should’ve taken his advice and done a smaller game. “It would pave been easier”. The rest of the players were upset with him but I was devasted. I refused to play with him and left the group shortly after.

A couple of mates and I decided to try DnD recently. None of us had played before, so I stepped up to the DM role. I had a massive beast hidden behind a door that was meant to almost wipe out the players... one of them threw down some ball bearings and pulled a lever to slam the door shut on the monster, cutting it in half. Nearly 100 hitpoints... gone like that. But I knew it was the right thing to do to give them a chance to win that way as they were laughing about it for the next 5 minutes.

1.) Green asparagus 2.) White asparagus 3.) Purple passion asparagus 4.) Wild asparagus 5.) Jersey giant asparagus 6 ) Precoces D'argenteuil Asparagus 7. ) Apollo asparagus 8.) Mary washibgton asparagus 9.) Atlas asparagus 10. Viking KB3 Asparagus Thank you for the advice I will hopefully be running my own game for the first time soon! Will check out your resources. Liked and subscribed.

This is just a fantastic reassuring video. I started DMing again after forty, count them, forty years and it’s been all kinds of challenging. I’m enjoying it but I need advice and uploads like these are making it so much easier.

Luke, thanks so much for this video! Your number 9 tip completely changed how I look at being a DM... I've been wanting to run an adventure myself for ages, but I've always bene so so nervous about doing it. But with these tips in mind, I feel infinitely more at ease with DMing my first game. Happy New Year, man!

Just DM'd my first game last night - really the big take away I learned is 'go with the flow' and improv is king.

This is amazing, I just started my first campaign as a DM last month and your videos have helped so much! And the offense is the funniest but most truthful parts of your videos, keep it up lmao

Even to play with a grid, you don't need minis! You can just make a few round tokens with the PCs names and monsters name out of some kind of hard paper, and use some maps and grids made out of paper. Or even just sketch the map and grid with a pen, and let players mark their positions using pencils and when they move they just erase the previous marker. Coins, and dice can be great to substitute minis. As someone who had problems having access to miniatures for years, but always prefered playing with a grid, I can assure there are plenty of ways to do so without being cumbersome.

I really needed to hear that only make one adventure part, I forgot that my party isn’t going to get to the final big bad in the first session.

This is what I made very clear as I started my first campaign... Their characters' stories are the focus of this. There are certainly going to be 'things' going on in the world, but whether or not the players are there to do something about those thins is up to them.

As a intermediate DM of about 10 years, are use my love of miniature painting to gift players something they’ll be proud of and entice them to play each week and come back every week

I've been meeting with my group every Saturday at 400pm to make characters and talk about the campaign we want to do. A lot of people haven't been showing up. Told them we could take a break until after Christmas. Hopefully that does the trick. Otherwise I've gonna have to have a little chat with people and possibly boot them. Definently having a learning experience re people not showing up or getting back to me. Thanks for the tips.

we are starting next week with D&D, coming from Shadowrun 5th Edition. The one rule i swap from the start is the Long Rest - cant justify AT ALL, why a beat up group who just survived a near-death-experience just fully heals up after a little nappy. They'll will use their Hitdice + Con Modifier to heal up, restore half of the Hit Dice and get their actions back. Modifiers for major injuries (broken bones, fresh wounds etc.) will still be in effect until healed. In "safe haven" they get the change for an "extended rest" when staying 48 h in this place to restore everything. Time can be shortened by visiting healers etc.

I've been running games at home for my family and their primary experience is in my game. Now my sister is wanting to DM a game but she's scared we may not like it or so on. This video is absolutely perfect and I need to show her, hell it's even helped me with the way i think. Thank You!

New Dm and running lost mines of phandelver, really having fun and want to praise people like you who have provided superb information and dnd common sense. Thanks!

Every one of these points is a gold nugget of timeless advice. You shared many of these points with me a couple years ago and I've been running a game and having fun ever since.

Late to the party, but thanks for passing on the knowledge. All of these tips are wonderfull for new DM's. In the years I've ran as a DM some of these tips stand out to me because it felt like very important lesons I've learned while DM'ing. 5. is a great realisation to have. Once you see your players having fun and coming back for more games, you know you're doing a good job as DM. You don't have to worry even if you mess up, which was one of my fears, you are often the only one who knows a mistake was even made in the first place, since only you have knowledge about what should have happened. So don't worry as long as everyone is having fun. 7. I'm currently 3 years into a weekly campaign and I sometimes still run a bad session. It's no big deal unless it happens more frequently. Whenever I feel I ran a bad game, I just ask my players about how they feel and point out what I think wasn't fun. Often they say it wasn't as bad as I think it was and when they feel the same as I do, we talk about how we could prevent whatever went wrong in the future and no one makes a big deal of it. 13. Sticking to a set time is key to having a good campaign. When it comes to canceling or rescheduling game sessions, our group has agreed that if at least half the players can't make it, we either reschedule if more than half can make it on another night that week, or cancel whenever that's not possible. This prevents me from having to cancel a lot more games when a single player can't make the session. This keeps at least the half of the group that did make it engaged and when they talk about the game, it draws in the players that missed the session again. 15. Be a fan of your PCs! Provide them with interesting scenarios that makes them feel like the heroes of the story that you are all telling together, instead of finding out ways to "win". If you are a fan of the PCs and they win and are excited or relieved because they barely pulled something risky off, you as a fan of the party win too, and everybody wins.

11:48 to quote general Eisenhower: “plans are worthless, but planning is everything”.

I've just started DMing for my first campaign a few months ago, and this really eased a lot of my anxiety around it, still. Thank you LOL

This video really helped me. I'm a DM and I have been the DM for a year now but I'm also lucky! Two of the players in my group are also DM's so that really helps :) This helped me out lots! Great video! I love asparagus! Wrapped in bacon and oven baked for 30 mins at 360 :)

I am all about reusing stuff. My sister had all these dead disposable vapes and they were like square pillars, so I painted them dark green and covered them in hot glue and dipped them in rocks and sand and pebbles I got from the dollar store (I could have used river pebbles too for free) and they look JUST like cobbled pillars. And bonus, sometimes some sand will shed off and create more realistic rubble. I’ve recycled plastic bottle caps into bases for paper minis and glued terrain onto them like I did the pillars. I’ve also glued some together to make logs or barrels.

I like the part where you talk about the rules and not being able to know everything while also addressing the opposite extreme of being "too far gone" to not even look like DnD. I'm DMing a sci-fi world, where I completely replaced the wisdom stat with "tech" to fit the setting. I replaced "arcana" skill with both hacking and repair skills. But, most spells were able to be slightly reworked (usually just giving a lore friendly explanation on why technology can do these things since it isn't magic) and removing a few spells and adding a few more (but I have clearly written and organized descriptions for everything). I also tweaked/added/removed some classes (a super soldier that functions in a similar way to a barbarian, kinda like a barbarian with guns, and assassin class that takes inspirations from rogue class). A lot of the changes are putting a "new coat of paint" over it to make everything fit the world & make it more immersive. Putting a creative spin while staying relatively close to the original. I just felt like posting this in case someone scrolling through the comments wanted an example of changing things while still resembling DnD, I think I hit a good balance with it. It's different but experienced DnD players can have an easy time adapting to new classes/races/rules.

Back in mid December, I had what was by far the worst session I'd had in my campaign up to that point. I knew it was a crappy session, a couple of my players made it obvious that they weren't having fun... it was a rough session. But rather than getting worried about how I was going to fix it, I simply apologized and let them know that the session didn't go how I expected and that I'd fix it next session. That was three sessions ago. The past two sessions? Two of the best sessions we've had. Everyone had fun, the players were engaged, I got to introduce an NPC I'd been waiting to introduce (which was a character I played in a previous campaign which two of my players were also in, so they knew who the NPC was and were really excited to see her)... everyone was happy and totally forgot about the clunker of a session from a couple weeks before.

I randomly picked it up one day just to see if I could do it. Turns out I can. Now I'm a forever dm and it's a blast. You really do just got to jump into it.

Great advice for new DM’s and a great refresher for the more experienced. Sometimes we loose sight of the basics.

I just want to say that I find your videos extremely helpful and insightful. In nearly every one that I watch, you make me think of something that I can incorporate into my own game. Something that I simply have never thought of before or a new way of doing something. And for that simple fact, I thank you.

Cool stuff yo, good easy information for the mind.. ik that's odd to say but the way dnd just blasts your mind is crazy lol

10:45 - Behold, the plot hook for "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising"

You don't suck, Grilled with Garlic Salt and Olive Oil, thank you for asking. Great points. A famous shoe company once said, "Just do it". As a DM since 1980 doing it only makes you better. The thing I love about this game is that it rewards player cooperation as a group.