My name's Rich - I love TTRPG's - as a player and DM / GM for DnD, Daggerheart, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Cypher System...
Table top role-playing games are something that I can't get enough of, and you'll find a truthful, passionate advocate for the hobby - championing the joy and diversity within our lovely world.
I got into TTRPG's relatively recently, so I'm learning and discovering every day - and on this channel I share my wisdom (and my mistakes!) with you.
Subscribe to keep up to date with all the latest videos, and I'll see you there, or at a table near you - rolling an improbably succession of 1's - cheers!
Great video! I would say the players also have responsibility for making their characters the sorts of people who would want to go on adventures and interact with the world.
I think a fair bit of them might have gone over your head there bud. Luckily you're only half way through the video so take a wee break and come back fresh for the second half.
Wait, you've started a youtube channel about ttrpgs around 4-5 montus ago, you do gamedev and play music too??? I've watched all your vids, good stuff my man! 💪 How can we get in touch?
Thank you so much! I started the channel at new year with the idea of talking about Music, Game-Dev, Politics as well as TTRPG’s. It was fun to share all those aspects of the things I enjoy, but it meant that 75% of people who watched a video wouldn’t like the next one youtube sent them, so I decided to focus on the TTRPG’s in March (when I switched the name from Skythorn to Renegade Rolls. It’s still all very new, but i’m having a blast with it! If you have discord, I’m renegaderich - i don’t really do other social media apart from Mastodon (where i’ve got the same handle)
Thank you so much! Turns out my "authentic self" to bring to making videos is someone who makes AWFUL jokes about Beholders - I regret nothing!! I really appreciate the kind words - it's lovely to have you on board!
This is excellent, and so is your channel! More people need to know because you put out great content, and it really is helpful. So I came back into the hobby about a year ago after a few decades away (Paychecks & Priorities and such), and I did what I guess you could describe as a survey of games rules (which is absolutely a cleaning up of "I spent way the #*#& too much money on TTRPGs"!). I did start seeing common DNA and am now at the point where I've developed specific preferences and can see which games share those. Into the Odd, Knave, and Cairn are all from the same taxonomic line and so I know there are certain things that I can expect. I know they will be very stripped down and OSR-like in implementation but not necessarily in specific feel and I like that. I started back with Pathfinder 2e and learned that is absolutely not my game of choice. Love Golarion but my God I do not love crunchy games. But I had to explore what was out there in order to get a sense of it all. I ramble... I really liked your idea about reading summaries and critiquing those alongside the source material. And being a theology student of sorts, I do this same thing with commentaries and scriptural texts. And it absolutely works in that context.
Thank you for a really lovely comment, welcome back to the hobby! I'd be really curious to know how you feel it's changed in the time you've been away? Paychecks & Priorities sounds like the worst TTRPG ever! (I'll be amazed if someone hasn't made it into an actual game) Agreed about the common DNA and feel of Cairn, Knave etc. (I need to look into Into The Odd) - as with Dungeon Crawl Classics, the relationship I see between them is they're very much "you call yourself an adventurer, most people call you scum" - so low magic, low character power, with DnD like core mechanics. You might enjoy Crown & Skull from Runehammer (I love all their games) which starts very similarly but has characters rising to higher stations in life, and with some cool mechanics, especially the initiative / turn order system. This seems to be a wonderfully theological and thoughtful comments section so far - check out the comment I pinned from Oettrpg for some very relevant Proverbs!
@@renegaderolls No worries! I genuinely am enjoying what you're doing, and having done a bit of radio and amateur producing, I have to commend your excellent diction, articulation, and tempo. It's the most boring compliment ever, but it really matters for the listener, so there's that. Since coming back, I am blown away by the absolute engine for creativity the internet provides. I wish I had been active in the Google+ days because that sounded revolutionary. But I get to reap the benefits of some excellent work. The author of Into the Odd (Chris McDowell) has a fantastic youtube channel. There's something about that game that is odd but great. Descendants of that game like Electric Bastionland are things that are so amazing and so out there that I don't think I ever would have found them back in the 1990s and if I did, I doubt anyone I knew would have wanted to play! I have to quite being an idiot. I grabbed DCC ages ago because pretty much every youtuber who likes games similar to what I do recommended it unreservedly. But I really haven't gone into it at great length. I do like the lower magic thing a lot though. I will probably grab Crown and Skull if for no other reason other than Hankerin is brilliant and I want to support anything he gets behind. Amazing dude with legit cool tattoos! I like the vibe of this comment section, and I really liked and took a lot away from the pinned comment! great stuff!
Those are very specific compliments, but I appreciate them a lot! Rather than being well spoken, people assume I'm either posh, English, or accuse me of being from Edinburgh! (a grave insult as I grew up in Clackmannanshire which is fun to try and say, and find on a map!) Being able to come across clearly is something I've always been careful to do - for this channel I made sure I had a decent mic (SE2200a from my days recording the vocallist in my old band) way ahead of getting proper lighting or a camera. For me, I only really got into the hobby during the pandemic. Having RU-vid as a resource to find ANYTHING I was curious about was brilliant, also to learn the culture of the hobby from some of the big names when I couldn't play at actual tables was so valuable to me. To have come into the TTRPG world "organically" must have been a very different experience! Just tracked down the Chris' Bastionland channel and subscribed - thanks for the connection! I did a broadly positive 10-Shot review of DCC if you're curious: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3WcJl_ZzjV8.html though in the end I found myself inspired to investigate Cairn, Knave and Shadowdark rather than get too committed to DCC. It could be a lot of fun with the right group, but it didn't quite fit my style. Also lovely to hear your last line there: great to see a little bit of community forming - it warms my nerdy heart!
Damnit, French! lol xD ---- Comments on learning new ttrpgs: I try and categorize games based on GameNarrativeSimulation aspects, and then give it a Easy/Hard to learn and explain rating, and then rate the how fun it is... .because even if a game falls into the right amount of GNS you like, and it's easy to learn, sometimes the execution of the game and the flow of gameplay can just be... not great... Although, with some patience and consistency, those clunky bits can smooth out... Giving time to something that doesn't feel natural at first is rewarding... I mean that's how we learned 5e! Example: One of the biggest questions I've gotten from new players is "How do spell slots work again?" "Wait... so.... I'm out of 2nd level spell slots but have 3rd level spell slots... does that' mean I can't cast.... Oh I can, but...??? " lol.... 5e isn't smooth it's just the most popular... it can become smooth though... The community and culture, I think, keeps people persistent in learning 5e... They've seen shows like critical role and have a future or orientate from... They understand that, If I practice and learn, I can have a game like that... (or something like that lol) At the end of the day playing tabletops has a certain expertise to it... it could be a Skill on a character sheet lol. So I when it comes to Daggerheart or MCDM and other ttrpgs coming out or ttrpgs from that past.... I think the biggest key is "Having a vision of the future you want that is inspiring." ---- now... I'm not a religious person at all... but there is a quote in the bible that I find to be true, "Without a vision the people perish" --- i little exaggerated as a quote lol... but I think there is wisdom there... without a future to be inspired by motivation and interest will fade. As a marketer and advertiser I've also learned this. You NEVER explain the PROCESS first... You always sell them on the RESULT... because when they can imagine a future where that is the case then they will have a subconscious question: "So how do I get the result?" --- that's when you give them the process... because now they have vision that provides a context that will work like a spiders web that can catch and hold the information thrown at it. So.... When learning a new system for yourself... or teaching it to another... or trying to convince your table to try out a new ttrpg ruleset.... Start with the vision first... What's the result? What is the ideal and best outcome? ---- once inspiration has occurred, then it is easier to learn the system. Also... I LOVE THE DUCK METHOD xD hahahahahaha. Anyways --- wanted to write a big comment too to support your channel and give you bump in the YT algorithy :)
That was... amazing! Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of that - I really appreciate the insights, as well as the kind words!! I started making a TTRPG system summary database in Obsidian (best program ever) with fields like "Roll High / Low?" "Class Types" and "Initiative System" but I found myself with a ridiculous number of fields and not actually making useful comparisons. Lately I've taken to writing system summaries like the one in the video. They tend to serve me better and are a bit more browsable to refresh my memory. 5E has by far the best online resources for learning and tools for running games. Also people get up to speed WAY faster with DnDBeyond as it has answers right at their fingertips to all the questions they're afraid to bring up at the table. Daggerheart has a decent version with the Demiplane character sheets, but it's not nearly as polished yet. If I made a system of my own, ease of onboarding would probably be one of my top priorities, even if it meant sacrificing cool, but complex systems or concepts. Agreed 100% on showing the result before the process - when learning things myself, the best tools for me are the "100 things you didn't know you could do in DaVinci Resolve" videos - seeing the results gets me WAY more enthused to learn more than seeing the process of just one thing from start to finish. The next time I do a system first look or 10-shot review (Daggerheart next!) I really want to include some of the "result" - i.e. a bit of actual play with my group; showing, not telling why I'm in love with the system. "Without a vision, the people perish" is a great line - slightly dramatic for whether or not to play a new TTRPG, but the truth of it is defintely there. I'm writing my next video just now on campaign / story crafting, and I think it applies really strongly to character and player motivation. If the player doesn't have a vision of their character at Level XX they're at risk of not being invested in the story and drifting away from the game. Likewise, all the best characters want something - if the players can articulate that into a vision that the character dreams of, then you've got a wonderfully self-motivated group on your hands! Have a lovely day, may your printer print exactly what you want it to. (I think that's the kindest wish I could wish for anyone!)
100% this! There's so much wisdom in that gnome - it's so cool to chat to someone on the same page on so many things! I'm not sure Adam would agree with my spelling of FavoUrite in the thumbnail though!
Our home game switched from 5e to DCC and we are so much happier - it's such a wonderful system! The Dungeon Crawl Classics discord community is also super nice!
That's great to hear! Would you say your group is more combat or roleplay focussed (or a mix?) I found with my group, that they roleplayed differently in DCC than in 5e, and I think it was because they knew EXACTLY who their characters were, as they'd been with them since they were just commoners, rather than fully formed heroic heroes.
I think I use the ‘bottom up’ approach… i don’t go into any great detail (nor any detail prep) re location specifics and details (and no world view) but I ask my players to come up with character aspects like their Homeland and Goal and then we use that to ‘create’ the world. That said, I only run oneshots in a west marches style drop in and out game so maybe that wouldn’t work for campaigns
Great advice! I wonder if there's a trend that GMs tend to worldbuild (and prep in general) more at the beginning of their tenure and less as they gain more experience - that's definitely what I experienced and it sounds like it is for you too. Having had my second session of 100% collaborative storytelling with Daggerheart (a second group), that's definitely where I want to take my games in the future. Keep up the videos, Rich! Sadly I'm on hiatus for UKGE prep!
I love how Daggerheart makes the collaborative side as something that's built in to so many of the game mechanics: those maps, the downtime activities etc. It ticks so many of the boxes in what I want from a TTRPG! (still waiting for proper friendly NPC rules though) Good move not over-stretching yourself - definitely a smart decision, but we'll miss you on here! I'll be staying up late on election night with my multicoloured tiny cakes again. I'll need to figure out whether to make more than one green one... or any blue ones for that matter.
@renegaderolls yeah, I had trouble with "allies" in a large combat I ran (3 players, 3 NPCs and a horse vs. 6 mercenaries, the dodgy dealer the players were after, and 4 servants holding up the palanquin. I essentially just handled their flow by interspersing some narrative as to what was going on between every few player turns. What's with the cakes?
Encounter balancing is something I don't think I've ever got right, but I don't think my players have ever said "that felt unbalanced". I quite like the Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 approach of the world being full of enemies of all levels, and if you stumble into the lair of something well beyond you, you'd better stumble out again quickly! I've found that my players don't really need deep worldbuilding to have fun, but they do need a sense of purpose, unless they're already intrinsicly motivated. A fleshed out world can definitely help them know where they'd like to go (A BBEG to go towards / run away from can help with that too!)
Heheh got your back buddy! When researching this one I found there was a load of advice on how to get started, but not much on knowing when you've done enough. My challenge is definitely to heed my own advice - that Goblin aristocracy doesn't need a coat of arms for EVERY noble house... does it?
Cancelling entirely and not getting together even for a one-shot / boardgame night is doom for a campaign. Once becomes twice becomes always and we're back to building worlds that never get played again! I'm guessing you have experience of this happening to you?
As a GM we have sooooo many resources available to inspire us it can seem overwhelming… where to start!!! I like your advice about stepping away from RPG for a mental break. I try to do this on my daily walk but I often end up coming up with more RPG ideas in my head and recording voice notes on my phone 😊. Will be interested to hear your thoughts after your first convention. Have fun
There really is no shortage of tools out there! Lately I've been getting better at writing my ideas down. For years I just assumed I'd remember stuff (spoiler alert: I did not remember stuff) - that Big List Of Random Things I shared is just one format that I have for them - I've got notepads, post-it notes and mysterious voicememos like you which all contribute to the ideas pool. The convention is going to be great - I'll be reporting back on my findings + sharing why I have no money any more as I KNOW I'm going to spend a fortune on dice and things!
I hadn't come across the book before - thank you for mentioning it! It seems to be out of print in every format I can find except audiobook. It seems to be VERY highly regarded in reviews.
Thank you! And me too - it's been really fun so far learning the dark magics of video making, at the same time as really trying to improve my DMing / GMing. I did one of those RU-vid Brand Awareness questionairres a few weeks ago to try and figure out what I want from the channel. The format was geared very much towards self-marketing and promotion, but I actually really like what I put down for one of the questions: What do you want to be known for in your niche? As a truthful, passionate advocate for the hobby - championing the joy and diversity within TTRPG's. I want to be seen as someone who is just like my audience, so always learning and discovering.
Thanks for the recommendations! I'm hopefully going to run a new short in-person adventure in DCC soon (as I've got the softcover book and a set of funky dice arriving in the post any day now). That first session has a really outsize influence on the rest of a campaign, and Portal Under The Stars was great for capturing the feel I was hoping for from the system. I've just picked up Nebin Pendlebrook's Perilous Pantry (partly for the alliteration in the title) and Doom of the Savage Kings. They both look really interesting! I'll be reporting back with my findings!
If my character dies while I'm absent for a session, the DM gets permanently blocked and probably so do the other players. I am in general not really okay with character death unless the affected player explicitly consents, and if I was running a game I would make sure the players can't realistically die until they get resurrection options. Dying in absentia however is completely and utterly inexcusable. Note: A death that can be reversed with a resurrection spell (or any other reasonably available means) doesn't count, and if a player, including myself, takes a properly telegraphed risk and then dies because of it, that's fine. ALSO! If I was DM'ing a game and a player had to be absent for a session, I would only run their character in a limited capacity. No dialogue, no character development, only the bare minimum participation so the group isn't suddenly outnumbered in combat. I would outright fudge death saves if necessary. I would expect the same from a DM if I was playing in a campaign and absent from it for a session. (In the video, you call this backgrounding.)
Great comments - thank you! Agreed completely that character death out of the control of the owning player should never happen. The plot and the roll of the dice are all secondary to everyone having fun, and if your fun is comprimised, then something has gone very wrong at the table! A fun question that I don't have the answer to... what if there's a TPK while a player is away? It would still feel unfair, but more understandable, as DnD combat can be SUPER swingy. Your comment also got me thinking about a TTRPG heirarchy of needs. It goes (in order of most to least important): Feeling safe and comfortable (yay safety tools!) Fun Story Mechanics and dice rolls. For the last couple, they're maybe a bit more interchangeable as the mechanics inform the story, and part of the fun of TTRPG's that no-one knows where the story is going to go, because of the uncertainty of the mechanics.
I always save monsters for the end of my room descriptions unless I'm intentionally trying to be shocking or jarring. "You open the door and come face-to-sternum with a 10-ft tall troll."
Using Dixit cards to practice descriptions is inspired! YT tip: I believe it would be better to post a link to your Upping your game playlist rather than the individual video that begins the playlist.
Fixed - thank you for the suggestion! If it means people stay on my channel for longer then all the better... though once they've done that they should check out yours! I just caught up with your Initiative video and it's excellent! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7CE45V7l24E.html I'm now thinking about ways of bringing the Dixit cards into DnD... a Deck Of Many Dixits as a portal to strange demiplanes maybe? Or a prompt for players to describe dreams in character perhaps.
We all have jobs and families, and we have a rule that we continue as long as there is at most one player missing. We have one of the other players play the character and they just "tag along" in the background, but still take a turn in combat.
You're welcome! If you and your group are familiar with DnD5E, you'll find you can pick up the basics straight away. There's more depth to it than I had time to cover in the video, especially on higher level play. If my players are up for jumping back in some time, I'll maybe try a high level 10-Shot campaign and report back!
This is really important to remember when running large prewritten campaigns! CoS for example has no interesting encounters on its own. You really gotta put in the work to make it work as a DM
I've done Curse of Strahd as a player but not as DM. I felt like the encounters that were straight from the book felt oddly flat. Modules are often recommended to new DM's, but I feel like following them by the book can lead to some really bad habits. The people who get most from them are actually experienced DM's who know how to twist them to their party's needs. I've got a video on exactly this topic in the works. An open question for everyone: Have you ever played a module (from WOTC or otherwise) that you thought needed hardly any work from you to run successfully?
Thanks for the review, I've seen a lot of people talk about Dungeon Crawl Classics, but never known much about it. How long does it take to make a character roughly? It would be pretty devastating if it takes a while and your level 0 would-be adventurer dies to a stray arrow!
It's around five minutes per Level Zero character if you do it by the book. There's a bit of page turning (or PDF scrolling in my case) to catch all the stats, but it's pretty quick. If you're doing four characters, it's maybe 10 minutes for all of them. There's also a whole load of really good tools available here, if you'd like pregens in seconds: purplesorcerer.com/tools.php
It's something I hadn't thought about before, but DCC is effectively giving you a "The P Word" sheet for each character as there is so little player choice in their creation if you go Rules as Written. I'll need to ask my group whether they would have liked to hand-craft their doomed little Level Zero characters, or whether it would have felt like a waste, given four of them got impaled in the very first room!
@@renegaderolls Do you get to choose/customize your Ped character if you reach level 1? I'm a very strong proponent for customization - making a character is one of my favorite parts of RPGs (if you get a lot of choice in it, of course).
You keep the Level 0 stats as they are, but you get to choose their Level 1 class (unless you're an Elf, Dwarf or Halfling) and spells. I did a bit of ret-conning of stats with my players between Level 0 and Level 1 to help their stats feel a bit more suited to the classes they wanted to play. We all decided we'd preferred that approach to playing strictly Rules As Written. You can also come up with any character you like - Rules As Written the strictness I mentioned above only applies to the ones who made it out alive from the Level Zero Funnel.
So is that the whole Portal Under The Stars campaign? Or just part of it? Did the party succeed or fail? Or was the adventure designed to end like that. Loved the video and recap, and Foundry looks great, but the ending for the players seemed unfulfilling? (Or did I miss something?). And I’d love to know how long each session was (trying to gauge how long Portal Under The Stars would take to complete?)
The Portal Under The Stars took us two three hour sessions (so six hours in total including character creation) - it was just that upper and lower level, the other eight of the ten sessions was fully homebrew by me: out in the world using some of those awesome Caeora maps. I’d say The Portal Under The Stars is pretty fulfilling for what it is - a fun intro to the system, and it does a great job of setting the tone. It was just the layout that the players didn’t like. Also the fact i ended up giving them The Clue for defeating the clay army was probably the main source of feeling unfulfilled for them. As for the resolution to the 10-shot campaign, the players enjoyed the ambiguous open ending that I set up for it with the different portals for the different alignments. This was deliberate, as it’ll make revisiting the system / setting interesting if/when we go back to it.
I LOVE the idea of your 10-Shot reviews. Based on your description, Dungeon Crawl Classics almost gives me Darkest Dungeon vibes. I actually own the physical DCC core book but have yet to crack it open. This might get me to finally do it.
Go for it - I reckon you’ll have a blast, just make sure your players are ok with characters dropping like flies at Level Zero. Some games make you feel strong… this is not it! Darkest Dungeon is brilliant - and definitely has some similar vibes. It also has my second favourite narrator in video games (after the guy in Bastion - his voice is like honey!) (ps I highly approve of the continuation of the “I LOVE all Dungeon Craft videos” approach that lots of people in the TTRPG RU-vid community are keeping up! Thank you!)
I loved the shout out to Monsters Know What They're Doing. By far one of the best books on the subject! My main takeaway from this video is to see monster sheets as more than a statblock. Treat them as thinking creatures. By the way, nearly TPKing a Level 3 party with 6 goblins is really impressive! 😂What did your players think of that encounter?
Fleshing out monsters is definitely one of the jobs that I'm bad for skipping if I'm short on time, but a quick skim of TMKWTD always gets my brain thinking in creative ways. As for the goblin ambush, It was mostly down to atrocious perception checks by the party while walking along a road through a clearing which led to them being surprised on the first round, then lacking in many ranged attacks, so the first two rounds were just a hail of arrows with the goblins trying to hide again. The party clawed it back eventually, thanks to some "kind" DM'ing by me saying that a natural 1 from a goblin's attack caused her to shoot herself in the eye!
I have been DM'ing for my group of girl friends for more than a year now. I had two girls in the group who had played before and the other three were brand new to the concept of the game. Originally, they agreed to play as long as I removed some fantasy aspects from the game (like gods and some races they weren't comfortable with). I had about a month of prep time and came up with a "mod" inspired by games like kids on bikes using memes and TV show tropes to reskin the classes (eg. Barbarian is a "Karen", Rogue is an ankle-biting "Lil Sh*t" etc.). I set them up into a suburban town where nobody remembers the name of the town and anytime someone leaves, they're forgotten by everyone within it. They've been enjoying playing so much that I've found out that they have a secret group chat to talk about their theories for what's happening in the town. I couldn't be more proud than in the moments when they're talking to each other in character and trying to flirt with all of the single dads and their favorite "cringe fail male wife", Jeremy.
I think this video is a good reminder that i need to try and incorporate different elements in my combat encounters to like terrain, weather and obstacles to provide ‘depth’ and the opportunity for tactics. I GM theatre of the mind games so I also need to get better at encouraging players to ‘make things up’ about what’s around them
Theatre of the Mind can make it tricky for the players to know what they can use in a situation. Until there's more information, I find myself assuming the most generic of rooms in my head. But even a suspiciously plain dungeon room might have loose blocks in the roof, or sand on the floor that can be kicked, or a puddle that can be electrified. It's something I need to get better at too! (one of the videos I'm planning for this series is all about "Descriptions" where I'll be looking at exactly this)
@@renegaderolls- yes that will be a good topic. In some recent OSR games I’ve played in Descriptions are even more important because discovering things is based on what the player asks and how the character goes about it, rather than just character skill checks eg searching for traps or secret doors
Good video. I always disliked the "oh, look, DM rolled an encounter and now we face 5 Goblins" and "Last Party standing" approach to not only rpgs but computer-games as well. I like the idea of "sentient" and to a degree "intelligent" enemies, that not neccessarily outsmart the player party but do act somewhat more realisticly when it comes to locations for an ambush, how they fight, if and when they retreat or if they can actually call in reinforcements from a nearby camp etc.
I really hate random encounters for this - "the book says five goblins" doesn't feel satisfying if there isn't any context. If you've seeded the idea in advance that there are bands of goblins stalking the area, then it feels a lot better. If I am going to use random tables, I'll try and foreshadow everything on the list ahead of time with clues for the the players on what they might face. This might get tedious if it's a d100 table... maybe keep it to 4-6!
If you play with someone new to the Hobby and you possibely don‘t know the Person very well you Should as well take about Safty Tools forhand (e.g. Veils and Lines)
Any teacher should know the current D&D5e is mathematically broken in the CR design - certainly if I had maths teacher advocating D&D say over pathfinder - has a robust encounter design system mathematically - I'd place bets on me failing my grades.
This is a great video. I love the game and I learned by basically reading the books and figuring it out on my own, so it's easy for the to get lost in explaining all the nuance and overwhelm whomever asks about it. It is nice to have the start of an outline on how to ease someone else into the experience.
If I am not writing a paper for a classical english class don't you dare correct my grammar. Each dialect within a language can have it's own proper grammar. Speech patterns matter and I choose my words specifically, but I speak with several dialects and will choose to write with them as well because that is My style of communication. Point out spelling errors, but you don't even know the grammar I may end up using.
Thank you so much! That's really kind of you to say. I'm hoping that'll be something consistent I can do with this series and with the channel in general: sharing some wisdom, but deferring to experts when I'm not sure about something. There are so many facets to the hobby, that I don't think I'll ever run out of things to learn, and pass on to the lovely people who watch the videos!
You did do a lot of research on this, it's great to see! I love the idea of having separate character sheets for different pillars of the game. I did something similar with my Character Journal - split up things you need in combat from things you need for social encounters. The standard D&D 5E character sheets leave a lot to be desired, but I was really impressed with the ones in Daggerheart! Clear, with enough space for everything you need, and they even include the rules for levelling up - that's how to do it!
You know, it's interesting. I tend to drop players into a game with more experienced players, telling them they'll pick up as they go. (Since my own personal method of learning best is by experience.) But after watching this video, I think I may privately give them a more in-depth mini tutorial covering the basic rules before their first game.
Pick-it-up-as-you-go is often the best approach tbh. If I know a prospective player well, and I think they'll embrace the challenge, I'll often go with it. But I know for some of my friends, that feeling of not knowing what to do can be horrible, and can make them feel really uncomfortable. It's another time where good communication makes everything better - a quick chat beforehand to guage the vibes (even at a pick-up or ad-hoc game) can make all the difference!
@@renegaderolls It's funny... as I watched this video and you spoke of the Affective Filter, I was suddenly taken back to my first d&d game and feeling so intimidated by how much EVERYONE ELSE seemed to know. It took me a couple of years in the hobby to feel semi-proficient. Also, I'm so happy to see this video getting its proper recognition! Looking forward to seeing the rest.
Great video. I mainly play one-shots and getting player onboarding right is an art. I’ve played in some games where hardly anything was explained and I didn’t know what I was even rolling for (I’m looking at you Genesys). And then other games where too much time was spent explaining things (eg a 3hr game where the GM spent an hour! explaining rules and going thru the entire Character Sheet). Two things I try and always do before Gaming with new players is (1) try and engage with them before the game eg be available to answer questions, select a character etc, and (2) provide some cheat sheets which are bullet point summaries on rules or session etiquette. This does help some players who are keen to engage or read material prior to the session, but interestingly, in practise, most players do not engage and just ‘turn up’ (which is fair enough I guess)
