What to make your job as GM or DM easier? Save on prep time? Design awesome adventures that leave your players begging for more? This is the channel for you. I look at ways to make your life easier, more engaging, and ultimately more enriching as a Dungeon Master. Whether you play Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulu, Pathfinder 2, Bounty Hunter, The Dark Eye, or any other TTRPG out there, I'll share my 20+ years of Game Mastering experience to help you level up your game.
No matter If you are a beginner Dungeon master or an advanced role player, we release videos every week!
This is the exact kind of Content I’ve been looking for. genuinely. There’s tons of -stuff- out there to put in games, but getting to see the thought process of a real DM with genuine experience is vastly more valuable
Im using a looser version of Benefits in my Shadow Dark game. Always RP and Heroism, but any Genius or Cathartic: Laughter, Cheering,lWeeping and yes Moaning from The Table. And they get an XP when they earn it, and when they spend it.
I'm a bit curious on your thoughts on divination (the woe or weal type) spells. Half expected them to show up here, i haven't quite figured out how to incorporate them properly yet.
Okay so me and my boyfriend just started a campaign like yesterday my boyfriend is GM and there’s like three other players besides myself, everything is going great, but the other players keep trying to tame the monsters in every encounter we’ve done so far, and it’s my boyfriend first time gming and I don’t want him to get overwhelmed having to keep track of every creature in the party and also it’s really annoying that everyone is trying to keep my Exp as a pet, am I being a duck or what should I do
It is a slight shame that players (these days) having their own lair is "somewhat niche." In ancient times, 1970s-80s this used to be a common goal! Thanks for posting this Guy!
Goodberry should not exist. Arguably ruins the most important point of survival checks, ruins chances at RP between players during hunting trips, takes out a VITAL hook for potential side adventures I.E. you chase a white deer, seeking its expensive pelt, but it leads you to a barrow den full of ghouls and treasure. None of this stuff would happen if you cast goodberry every time you needed to eat while travelling. It also just takes the stakes out of surviving, if you have goodberry there's no risk if you don't come prepared and it's just lousy that there's such an easy out for something so important.
I'm loving watching these because the players seem like real people just enjoying their hobby and Guy does such a good job of putting up with Avery and Gottfried's BS =)
Why would you?? Any good GM should be capable of adjusting their campaigns based on situations. PC's are always at the disadvantage in your setting and have to be creative or always on the lookout for anything you throw at them.
I was the player at Guy's Team B table who triggered the near-TPK (leading to a very quiet, guilty, and awkward lunch break and incredulous comments by players from other DMs' tables). Guy confided that if Team B's rogue had not survived and put into play our contingency resurrection plans, the adventure would have picked back up again in Hell and ended very differently... Anyway, for anyone interested in how the characters in Team B turned out, here's our epilogue video... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qRYl88H9Hf8.htmlsi=IQOxuGQ6EUT8GWv2 (To answer the most frequent question, if your lifestyle allows you to spend $4,000+ per person for an elite weekend gaming experience, D&D In A Castle could be worth it: Historic venue, famous GMs, attentive organizers, 25-35 straight hours of gaming, and all-night socializing with people from all over the world.)
I feel like this is a very important video but wasn't executed well. I don't agree with the description that 'adult' is a tone. "gritty" "dark" those are tones. Tones are like moods. A world of oppression, Slavery? Peace? Distrust? evil, survival? All of those are tones. And then also this video didn't give the characteristics of the tones. Overall this seems like a video about a topic that wasn't researched or thought about enough before making the video.
I actually love how magic completely change empires, societies and conflict. If, as a DM, have a mighty empire, it has a secret service with wizards and clerics scrying, ask the gods, if using other divination soells; there are almist unveatable hit squads, teleporting in, assassinating opponents and teleport out with the body so it can't be resurected etc. Then there is counter espionage to prevent a ruler from being spyed on or assassinated in this manner. I love it, but my players don't. 😅
Great heavens! Found! Just wait til I get you home!!! 😊😊Cave! No, wait, cave is likely inhabited...by something awful...so, oh, NO! Leeches! And nasty ones! Thank you all for another adventure! 😊
Resurrection of the dead only complicates succession in the event of violent death; it won't help if the person dies of old age. Even then it does become a question of cost because it's not a simple transaction, you at minimum need a willing spellcaster, who will be a cleric more often than not, and that's a spell they can choose to cast or not, but it is ultimately not their decision whether or not the soul is returned. Powers can be fickle about these things, or at least seem to be that way. Plus the cost isn't merely in GP, there are components to be used up by the ritual itself, you can't get around that, and this is the greatest expense, and makes the strategy of killing the king enough times that it bankrupts the kingdom a viable strategy, and a thing like that could produce a culture which frowns upon the usage of such magic for the elite in the future.
Honestly I use a bit of AI now in days for description, music, and images. It isn't perfect, but having custom bard songs about my PC party is pretty cool. Lore wise use a bit of AI to help inspire if I am just brain dead for a bit, but always ties it back to the background religions, heroes, or lore. Example, you get a dagger +1...that has a bit of black scorch marks on it. With a history check X you realize this is from the Fallen City of Xoth. It is rumored a City Corrupter Demon assisted the already corrupt city fall into the 9 hells, and it's still there were the corrupted tortured souls dwell still. All that remains is a blacked scar of earth and ruins where no life can grow as a reminder of the once proud city. The black marks on it's hilt show the scorch of the hellfire it has been through. How did it get out or did it ever go to hell, who owned it before and are they looking for it? Now I have an extra paranoid player about it being cursed or hunted and a subtle lore drop.
The "insufferably curious" Gottfried is a character after my own heart. Most of my characters are similarly inquisitive. I'm always poking and prodding the environment, collecting data and looking for thing I can use to my advantage.
Actor here - classically trained, played Hamlet in "Hamlet" and all that. You're not wrong - although there are some tools that come from acting that can inform good roleplay, you don't have to have been an actor to be a great roleplayer. My current challenge, however, is that, as a GM - I tend to write my adventures as if they will be played by actors. Actors are very good at quickly understanding the dusty corners within the psyche of their characters and are also very good at understanding what their character would be doing in any sort of situation they find themselves in. Roleplayers, I have found, need for more before they will see a path through. They try to ferret out the bones of the adventure and then use that understanding to inform their actions. However, I don't know how to write for that. I tend to write for actors and I don't think I've ever had the change to run a game for actors. So my sessions can end up being players who do a lot of listening but take a long time to get moving. I know Guy has a billion videos - if there are episodes that would be useful for this issue I am very open to learning.
Zhon Nguainne.. hmm.. could be elf'ie... btw... Zhon is an actual name I gave to my son. Hard Z,.. pronounced the same as John. now as far as the accent?? meh.. ya.. maybe not... kinda like the ... um... individual I almost had in a group that wanted to be... Cher. Avatar pic and all... ya.. din't work out for our group...
I'd written an adventure as an AD&D 1e module and ran it for my old-school group. When my 5e group had a shift-working player sleep through the game. I ran the same game, and just converted on-the-fly: no balance, no worries!.
I like how Deadlands takes the “Pet Sematary” approach to resurrection. You come back, and you get supernatural powers, the bad news, depending on how you died you may still look clearly undead. you also have been possessed by a stubborn demon who is keeping you alive like the world’s angriest dialysis machine. Also this demon will not hesitate to give the GM control of your character at the worst possible time.
bringing back the dead in the game I am making Ive made it to where the prossess of ripping the soul from the afterlife back into their body damages the soul so they can only do it a number of times until the soul just refuses to return because if they do beyond that last time something else could take the souls place while the soul becauses food for the things that live in the space between the living world and the afterlife. Also as far as magic casting goes if you cast something that brings back the dead the caster also risk the spell backlashing and a many terrible things happening to to the caster AKA think about the spell then ask yourself would it be worth it?
One of the solutions I have for ressurection shenanigans is that its a common practice in my world to behead the dead to protect them from necromancy. Nearly every fighting style teaches decapitating blows, and its a sign of respect and civic duty to behead fallen enemies to grant them proper rest. Most physical undead are the bodies of fallen warriors from eons ago, or reanimated monsters or animals. Then we have the powerful necromancers of ages past that capture the souls of those who are slain and make armies of ghosts. If people are slain as a ghost, their soul gets destroyed. They need to be freed from a necromancer's control as slaying them will mean they cease to exist, and therefore cannot be resurrected by any means.
I currently am running three groups through the same home brewed Sandbox campaign. One group is 7 twelve year olds, another is 6 fourteen year olds and a 20 something, the third is 6 adults ranging from early 20s to 69 years old. Each group is quite a bit different from the others, and require different styles of GMing.
I prefer magic systems that do not impact food production, energy and labor productivity, transportation and trade, or state defense. Otherwise, magic will supersede geography, which means you’ll have to redo the entire world building.
I noticed why I was not enjoying my playtime with my original group. The GM was very modular and very inflexible, roleplaying within those confines was hard. I'm now becoming my own GM and I guess I would be more of a narrator, the rules are more guidelines in my opinion.
