19 Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started GMing - Running RPGs 

I love the "convincing the king to handover his kingdom roll" If the player gets a natural 20 the king thinks it's hilarious and offers him a job as the court's jester

One of the biggest advancements I've made as a GM came from the realization that we don't need to see and play every single thing. I've taken to referring to what "the camera" sees, thinking of it like a serial TV show. So when a character goes to shake people down for information around town, instead of 1: playing out every single shake down with a bunch of meaningless NPCs or 2: doing one roll and saying, 'cool, here's the information you get,' which can end up feeling like that action didn't really happen inside the fiction, we can have a middle ground where we discuss what the camera sees for this montage of kicking in a few doors, holding a lowlife by his collar, hunching over the bar and whispering with the landlord... And then we cut back to action with them returning to the rest of the group with information in hand. It has really upped my level of satisfaction with my games and really helps keep the players viewing their characters acting inside the world.

No GM is infallible. I've been GMing for almost 42 years, and in my last session I made a cardinal mistake. I took away a player's agency and then killed the PC with bad rolls. It wasn't intentional. I'm running an ALIEN campaign under the sea, and the planned encounter didn't go as I had envisioned it. The PC was having an nitrogen narcosis-induced hallucination, and what they believed they saw was a ghost from their past opening a dangerous hatch. In reality, their PC was opening the hatch. Another PC was supposed to come along, stop them, and snap them out of it. What I didn't calculate was that the "sane" PC was suffering from so much stress that they failed to stop the hallucinating PC and was forced to run away. I let three rolls - "Just roll me one damn success without panicking!" Nope - fate wasn't having it. The hallucinating PC died and did major damage to the base. Retroacting the encounter would've been too cheap and anticlimactic, and the player was a good sport about it. I apologized to the player and group. I should have known better, but I had one of those "deer in the headlights" moments. All I can say is that you learn, move on, and try not to do it again.

A tip for 'over-prepping': Use a paper address book for NPC's. In spare time, say you're waiting for a train, rough out an NPC's skills, stats, personality etc. to be firmed up later. You can use colour-coded sticky tabs to denote what sort of character they are E.G. cultist, ally, walk-on canon-fodder etc. Thus when preparing a scenario, you have a 'bank' of NPC's to draw on.

The "Meaningless Rolls" setion perfectly encapsulates why I enjoy Delta Green's usage of passive skills and advice to only roll when there is a chance for failure. In my experience it helps players feel satisfied with their PCs ("Hell yeah, my computer engineer can break into this system no problem") and prevents hitting walls bc they failed and there are limited ways to get around it.

I remember my 2nd session DMing, I was running Dragon Heist for DnD 5e. I had been reading all the materials and preping for weeks. There was a fireball that went off right outside their orphanage/tavern and saw a figure slink into the crowd. The other villain took off across the rooftops toward the villain's secret hideout. The module said the one who was in the crowd escaped through the sewers and that was the end of it, but the other one was a detailed description of where he went and how. Guess which one my party chased after. They rolled a great perception/investigation/survival to find him, and I didn't feel it was fair to say "there's no trace of him" But I froze, like a deer in the headlights, because I had NO idea what the sewer system looked like in that neighborhood. I had a forgotten realms expert at my table who called the "secret" final boss on session 1. I didn't know how to BS/improvise my way out. I turned to my group and said, "Guys, I'm so sorry. I have no info on the sewers. I could make something for next week, but we wouldn't be able to play anymore tonight. The only thing they have is following the guy over the rooftops. I'm sorry I didn't think of this ahead of time." Thankfully, I have awesome players. They just said, "ok. So we use those rolls to find the other guy. Which way did he go?" I've been DMing for 3 years now and always provide at least 2 choices that are fully fleshed out for them to take. I'm still leading the same group, and I'm so thankful for their patience and understanding while teaching me to DM by being awesome players.

Regarding the “It’s about the PCs, not the setting,” I like to run my games as there is a story that is happening whether or not the PCs interact with it. If they did nothing, the NPCs will do what they planned on doing anyways. The PCs then interact with that and change it significantly. It’s still their story in the end, but it makes it feel for them more like they have an effect on how the world develops and changes rather than the amusement park of an mmo or single player RPG.

Few pieces of my own advice: - Problems are almost always better than puzzles - Anything where an issue needs to be solved is best when there's multiple ways to solve a problem, rather than a single way to solve a puzzle. - The best game prep a GM can do comes down to making their games more adaptable. The less rigid each piece of the game is, the more useful it'll be to both GMs and players alike. Or, in other words, if players want to steal any item, animal or NPC, it shouldn't be enough to destroy the game's entire structure. - Lethality is one of the most important tools in the GM's arsenal. When a GM is about to run an encounter, they should consider how lethal they want the fight to be. Sometimes a fight they can't lose is useful if players want to experiment with new abilities, but in my experience players love knowing they have a real chance of dying in any given fight. - Sometimes players shouldn't roll dice. If the ultra strong warrior wants to open a heavy door, just acknowledge that they are too strong to fail, otherwise you run the risk of them fumbling, only for someone much weaker to open the door. And tell the player when you do this, it'll make them feel rewarded for their choices. - Play with music and visuals. Give your players handouts between games. Reward the players that buy you snacks.

Wow, this is perfect timing. I have just started running CoC as a keeper and have been struggling. Thank you so much for this Seth!

One of the best pieces I can give for starting DMs who have trouble launching their campaign is to give themselves a set start date. Something not to ridiculous or to short notice, something like 2 weeks or so is a perfect amount of time to motivate yourself into actually starting your adventure.

I watched a Jamie Oliver video where he cooked a chilli over a flame until the skin was black, then scraped off the burnt layer and chopped it up to make a really yummy dish. He specifically said to poke holes in it with a fork before hand but I forgot. It exploded in my face. I have forgotten every single cooking video I've ever watched but I remember how to cook chilli over an open flame until the skin is black, then scrape off the burnt layer and make a really yummy dish. Without it exploding in my face because I poke holes in it with a fork before hand. I vividly remember the absolute @#$%ing pain of a molten hot chilli exploding in my face. Sometimes you just need to fuck up for yourself and learn the hard way.

On the die rolls thing: I like to ask players occasionally (in a mysterious tone) to make some kind of roll. I don’t tell them what it’s for, I just tell them what die(s) to roll. Then, I react to the roll with sighs, groans, or sounds of delight/satisfaction, and take notes behind my screen. In reality, the roll is meaningless, my reaction and notes are fake, and it creates wonder and curiosity. One can abuse this. But, during a lull is a great time to use it. It’s all about the reaction-selling it.

4:47 I remember many years ago I would spend 10 hours a week or more preparing for one 2 hour gaming session. Invariably the PCs went off and did their own thing and I wasted all that time. Now I prepare until I feel I can handle any deviations and then roll with it if I have to

"Players love rolling dice. So, give them plenty of opportunity to do so." and the man holding the Kult book gave me a laugh.

Love the disclaimer in the beginning, really shows you know your audience, some of us can be very... literal...

Yeah, I've found that those that keep waiting til they're "ready" have the most trouble getting started. There comes a time when you have to take that leap of faith and get started, despite the jitters, worries and such.

You are by far one of the best TTRPG content producers, not just on RU-vid but on the internet in general. Your professionalism, your skill, your knowledge, are all in peak form. You have continued to develop and grow as a creator, however even your early content was. T such a high level of quality that it’s as watchable and enjoyable as recent videos. Your videos are a huge relief and a huge source of joy in my life. Keep making amazing work.

"Don't be afraid to suck." - Really good advice, Seth. I suck at running games. I'm seriously bad at it. I didn't start until age 30. I've never actually played a campaign as a character, and have no idea what it's like. All my players have been doing this longer than I have. Most of my maps and settings are bare bones, with only a few NPCs and quests, and even less window dressing... ...And my players LOVE IT. All of my crappy improv and desperate attempts to present things in a reasonable and plausible way? They don't notice how flimsy it all is. They consistently compliment me on how well prepared I am, and how deep and dynamic the settings are. How free they feel to pick a direction and walk in the full confidence that there is something to see or find. I'm a really crappy GM, and I suck behind the screen... But the game is fun, and that's what matters.

Yes. Redefining the roll has made such a difference.

Since this is a mistakes video, seems appropriate. The only advice I've taken from this channel that ended up badly was to 'gradually take away a supporting NPC and encourage the players to take the lead'. I was running a very small group (3) in Star Trek and I pushed one of my players to become a captain instead of using the NPC they loved as an ongoing support and it kneecapped the game rather nastily. Don't let GMPCs steal the spotlight, but promoting them to supporting extra or regular quest giver is an option too. Let the players decide if they want to keep your support (and don't be hurt if they're ready to let them move on). "You will be the best of Starfleet." -Capt Sinjin Vir

One thing I've come up with is if there's a situation where I want the entire party to roll (like perception) but I also want (or need) them to succeed, I then treat the roll results as who spots whatever the thing is first. Rather than purely succeed or fail. Sprinkle in degrees of success as well for good measure.

been running coc with two different groups and I'll usually decide if a game is worth running based on your videos, if anything your videos are the main reason I'm playing coc now

Great vid, as usual. One thing I would add: you are not just a fun dispenser. You are a player too and should be having fun. A successful game is not just one where the players enjoy your game, but where you do too.

I’ve got into the hobby a year ago, and now I’m GMing a Blades in the Dark campaign. You and these videos have been a consistent inspiration and source for me for pretty much the entire time. And to top it off, your videos on CoC got me through a one shot of The Haunting for my group, and Im now my groups “game master for stuff that isn’t dnd”. Long story short, cheers. The only other piece of advice I could think of for new dms is to learn a system that you’re passionate about. You’ll be putting in a lot of leg work to make everything and learn everything and teach it to your players, and it’s a lot easier if you’re enthusiastic. If you suck at learning lots of rules, maybe try go with a more rules light games, or invest into starter packs. Dnd is awesome, but branching out into new games, especially if you already have a dm for your current game is possible.

I love to use crazy voices with my NPCs and Seth is right, usually other players around the table want to also try acting more in-character and have a little more courage to do so. Because they can't do worse than my silly acting and voices. I just make an idiot out of myself with a few NPCs to set the RP bar pretty low.

In my groups, at least, I've found players LOVE when they come up with an idea that I just did NOT expect. Never had an instance where they weren't happy to high-five each other and preen over stumping the ST while I figure out just what the hell happens.

‘Only call for a roll if you’re willing to accept success/failure’ was one of the first big things I learnt when I made the jump to Keeping. It’s a great tip. As is redefining rolls that ‘fail’. I asked my old Keeper for advice on that and they said more or less the same as Seth. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment. Something I picked up from a real play podcast that I incorporated into my own games (or rather when I ran ‘The Fungi from Yuggoth’ for new players, and I was still getting the hang of being Keeper) was at the start of each game I had ‘Cthulrules’. Basically I’d choose a rule/s to explain for a few minutes so we learnt together. Usually things from the previous game when I had to rule one way to keep the game moving, but noted down to look up later, or any questions from players that came up in the last game or between games. I should start doing it again.

I’ve always enjoyed your videos for numerous reasons; down to earth, informative, with a perfect amount of humor. I’ve been playing RPGs since the late 70s but I’ve always been a better player than GM. Even still, your advice has been much appreciated. Thanks. Btw... I was stationed in Texas for about eight years and completely forgot about Scott Brown until watching one of your Cyber Punk videos. Hilarious! I decided to to expand them into space in a SF game I’m running. Scott Brown Colonization Corp. 😆

Always go back and refresh your basics. In addition even if you’re already doing some of these things without thinking about it having your attention drawn to them can help you unpick how you are doing well, important for doing better.

Another important thing I learned when it comes to Meaningless dice rolls is sometimes you need to think if the consequences of the check matter. Example : A check resulting in going prone in combat could well be impactful. however in more peaceful circumstances its merely slowing down the more narrative scene.

This is it, guys. This will be the video that takes Seth to over 100K subscribers, and a full-length movie starring Seth and only Seth!

"...or very often it's a stalling tactic...the game master isn't quite sure; they need a minute to think about it, so they blurt 'hey, roll the dice!'" I feel personally attacked.

While I know all of these, I've been out of the chair for a while and these are good reminders as I struggle to get back into it. Finding players is the hard part.

Seth I appreciate your generic advice for newer DM/GMs. Don’t forget you have old school experienced DMs in your fold. Be nice to hear some advanced ideas, campaign hooks, wierd stuff. Love your work.

Procrastinating because I think I'm going to suck or make too many mistakes... I can totally identify with that. Probably my greatest error as a GM.

I had a situation in which the player wanted to attempt something unreasonable (moving a huge boulder that was very soundly in the 'nope' column, mechanically speaking) so after a little too much time transpired assuring them that such a thing was impossible I allowed them to roll and they got a 20. I have some hot dice ass players and was prepared for this eventuality. The PC threw out their back and took 10 damage and was at disadvantage to strength checks until the party could take a long rest. On top of this, they also got a healthy chunk of XP for coming to a rather inconvenient, but ultimately instructive realization of their own limitations. From then on my player was much more realistic in their play style. Never forget that just because you sometimes have to "punish" your players does not mean that they and by extension their characters can't also learn and grow from failure.

I have an alternative idea for the player rolling to persuade the King, but I don't know how it'll shake out at the table. You turn to all the other players at the table and have them roll against their highest mental stat to notice what the other PC is about to do so they can intercede before the situation spirals out of control.

You know Seth, I needed this video. I have been "working" on a campaign setting for way too long now, and I didn't even realize what I was actually doing was stalling to avoid the risk of failure.

There's a bit in Don't Rest Your Head which actually recommends that players try to avoid being in situations where they need to roll dice, because that's when Bad Things happen. There shouldn't be any such things as meaningless rolls in DRYH (and, by extension, all other RPGs), because rolls should be for things that actually matter.

A comment I could have made to any of these videos - I enjoy the whimsy of all the old photos doctored to now show people in generations passed enjoying RPGs. Even if they never existed at the time, there's nothing fundamental to RPGs to say they might not have existed sooner...

The black and white photos were distractedly great in this video.

These are all great advice and I have both sinned in each and every one of these and played under GMs who did as well. Also, as usual, the photoshop work is amazing - that picture with the soldiers and the shark costumed GM caught me by surprise and I just burst out laughing. The one at 22:18 is so good as well - it really does look like an RPG session now, plus the reflection of the GM screen on the table is incredible. ....I'm with Todd, though. I think you've forgotten some *key facts* here, Seth. Don't make Dwibbles pull out Captain Binky again.

That picture with military dudes and shark killed me.

My first time running a game I made mistake after mistake. I was running the West End Games Star Wars RPG, first edition, which had a simple d6 mechanic, but had way too many subsystems, especially when it came to using The Force. In addition I didn't actually understand how the module was supposed to progress. Fortunately it was a relatively linear adventure, and I muddled my way through. Fast forward thirty years or so. I began running an online game for my friends when the Covid lockdowns began. Running online means I need to step up and prepare much more, especially art assets and tokens for the VTT. The general attitude I have is 60-65% preparation, with the rest improvisation based on what the players decide to do. One thing I do is try to get the players to let me know their plans in advance so I will be able to prep a few sessions in advance. For example one player in session zero told me his dream was to play the module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, so I ended up buying the Goodman Games version and adapting that to the VTT. The party slowly explored the "dungeon", giving me time to populate it with encounters. It was a lot of work but there was plenty of payoff.

This is a great video and these are all really valuable pieces of advice that I wish someone had given me years ago. I've been feeling kind of burned out on RPGs for a while now after several of my campaigns went up in smoke, but watching your videos always gives me that spark of enthusiasm for the hobby again.

Best skill I picked up form GMing was learning to wing things off the cuff. I was that young GM that would have to plan everything out. But due to some things the group I was playing with suddenly lost their GM and no one wanted to run and I was pressed to run something in their place. I had nothing setup I only half knew the rules for the game at the time. But faced losing game night or at least trying I just winged it. It was the worst session half the time not knowing what to do the other half not knowing the rules I needed. At the end I packed up and was sure it was over. But the group was wanting us to get back and do it again next week. And that is when I realized really its not about what I had or had not planed or how well I knew the rules. As long as everyone was having fun that was what mattered. It was rough and I made a lot of mistakes early on but learning to wing stuff, listen to the players, and adapt as I go is what made my GM style work for me. Now 30 some years later it is a well practiced skill.

I love your disclaimer! I try to learn something i can do better from every game I run. I recently integrated the idea of giving the PCs a set of two or three different rolls they could make and saying "but this skill will give you the best info". It really got me over my habit of locking stuff behind shitty rolls.

Once made a kobold dungeon with raised platforms above a snake filled pit. The bridges connecting the platforms were no very wide and had no rails. Walking across them didn't require a roll, but running or fighting along the bridges required a measly 5 athletics or balance check to avoid falling. I never thought 3 of the 5 players would fail their checks in the same combat... With 3 of them in the pit, the remaining 2 were overrun by the kobolds up top. The wizard died from the fall (it was only 10') then the Cleric and the other fighter didn't have any missile weapons and were slowly and methodically killed by the kobolds raining down spears. I seriously never thought a 5 check would make such a big difference, but the DC is irrelevant when they roll a 1...

I have a feeling that this one will be be on my "Frequent Rewatch" list. Good stuff, thanks!

18:30 I'm more inclined to ask the player "you can make the skill check - but what do you think will happen if you roll well, and what do you think will happen if you fail?" rather than me as GM giving them that information. That could serve as a warning to the player but also gives me the GM some information on the player and possible ideas. But point well made!

On rolling for something, short gaming story: A friend of mine ran the whole campaign The Spawn of Azothoth over a long weekend. Truncated, yes, but he made it work and knew he'd never get the opportunity why other way. Our characters had a handwaved background that were investigators, and all had some experience with the mythos with small percentages of Cthulhu Mythos. This was basically to get intros out of the way, and we made up some stuff on the fly. Anyway, day two or so, or characters had traveled to a place in the wilderness to a (ranger?) cabin in the woods. We found a dead body there with weird marks and no real sign of injury other than that. With the GM described it, with my character being one looking over the corpse, my character blanched, breath held in his throat, and started backing away in horror. All the other players were confused and started to ask "What?" Before I could explain, I realized suddenly that I was reacting to player knowledge, not character knowledge. I stammered a second, apologized, and asked if I should make a Cthulhu Mythos roll. The GM raised his hand and said that everyone just rolled Cthulhu Mythos, and they all failed, except my character. Please, go on. I thought this was a brilliant way to deal with that, and remembered it all this time.

I've been GMing for a while and think that the first tip is the best tip. Thanks Seth.

Ease of success on rolls and failing forward on things like skill and climb checks marry really well with things like hit-dice/recoveries/surges. Failing a roll to climb a cliff that they need to climb just wears them out... costing future hp in their tank. They all still make the climb... it was just soo harrowing that it wears them down. Love the videos BTW!

I used to be the guy who thought I needed a campaign decided upon and written out before I could run a single session. Like I believed session 1 would be bad if I hadn't decided what would happen in session 52. As a result my games went one of two ways, either i ran anyway and embraced the suck, which far more often than not did not suck, or I told everyone about the new campaign I was writing and would run any time now as soon as it was ready to go and told them to be ready to play, pumping them up for a game I had grand ideas for, but would ultimately never get off the ground. I'm sure my friends were secretly rolling their eyes every time I said the words "I have an idea for a new campaign" because they knew that if I said those words then that game would never start. The worst though is when i would embrace the potential for suck and just run a session and it actually turned out good, and then another and it would be good, and then suddenly I'd get hit with this fear that I couldn't top those sessions without weeks of planning, so I'd get all up in my head, unable to move forward, unwilling to run the next session unless it could be perfect, instead of just doing the things that made the last sessions so good. So yeah, embrace the suck. Own it. Wear it like armor. Don't be afraid to start or to keep going, just because you feel underprepared, because some people will feel underprepared no matter how prepared they are, and a lot of overpreparation can be a more insidious campaign killer than some underpreparation.

I started The Hills Run Wild scenario for COC, and my players came up with a way to retrieve the artifact that circumvented the entire majority of the adventure, then decided to go to Britain. I had to do some prolonged off-the-cuff DMing, but it was fun. Excellent advice as usual Seth. Looking forward to your next video.

We got an extra tip at the end! "Don't do something because you think you're _supposed_ to. Do want you think is right."

Fantastic advice. I've learned most of this on my own (a few bits I was fortunate enough to learn from others) but I still think it's a great resource for others so that they don't have to do quite so much trial and error.

Great vid, Seth, as always. I've had to shake out some players due to style. Most stick around for years, others stick around for months (mostly those that can't commit, or don't feel it enough to commit). When prepping, I break out about 4 scenes into 2 or 3 "and then", "but then" twists. But, I'm happy to chop up or toss my prep if the players take different turns - forcing me to improvise - agreed, that's part of the fun!

I kinda took this concept from Call of Cthulhu for my D&D games, So like Seth says I have my players roll once if they say they look around a room, and if the match or exceed the DC's for the hidden stuff they find them, but if they fail that check by no less than 5 (or if I'm feeling particularly generous) I say something like the chest you searched felt heavier than it looked or the rug seems to have been moved recently....and then allow them to make a roll based on what they intend to do with this new information. so with the chest example they may say I smash the chest with my battle ax, or I search for a hidden compartment and they'll roll accordingly.

The best tip here is knowing when to part ways at the table. I agree 100% that if there is an incompatibility that is insurmountable... you need to be able to both recognize that and know that it means someone's gotta go or the game will suck for everyone involved.

That's a LOT great advices all in one go! I sure learned most of that the hard way. Another thing that some games include now that our group incorporated many years ago to build suspense is pre-rolls. Having a batch of pre-rolls from the PCs give them the satisfaction of rolling their own fate, but it also allows the GM to be more dramatic, and role-play them finding a trap or noticing something crucial or going the wrong way. Not sure if that's a 'tip for the GM', but it does help make things more story-like.

Always happy to see new episode :) Thank you, sir!

Meaningless Rolls Alternative: Great vid, good point. Our group simply gives the character with the highest relevant skill the info for things they're supposed to notice or know. You tell the person with the highest perception "you see a tower in the distance." The person with the highest knowledge history "you recall the legend of the so and so referring to something like this." Granted I've had player request a roll off for who noticed or known it first amongst themselves which is always entertaining.

Thanks for all your videos Seth. Always entertaining and informative!

Once again, great video Seth. I love your instructional videos, they are very informative and yet very understanding and reasonable. You don't get preachy, they are useful to GMs with many styles (because there is no assumption by you that your way is the best way). You somehow pull off being both frank with us while always being very friendly.

Spot on, as usual. Great video and great tips!

Another great video with wonderful advice and reminders.

Thank you Seth, I needed this bad, especially the message at the end!

One of my favourite examples of the degrees of success/failure is Vampire the Masquerade, where you roll a pool of dice with any roll above x being a success. It's a great system that actively encourages that. For example, jumping across buildings, a la the Matrix. Making your roll, one success might mean you don't quite make the jump, and are hanging on to the ledge, vulnerable to gunfire or whatever. Two successes might mean you make it, but you're a little slow to recover, whilst three + gives you an advantage afterwards. It's why I love the system so much

Congrats on 100K, you absolutely deserve more!

Such great advise! I love the, "caulking the cracks" imagery for improvisation. Congrats on the 100k subscribers. Well earned, sir.

Great video (as always) Seth. I consider your channel essential for any new or experienced DM. Picking up small tips that you can see should work for you and then feeling and assessing the feedback, is the way forward. Once again- great video- keep up the good work.

So many tips that I've heard before, and yet needed to hear again, or just found helpful hearing from you, Seth. Great job.

Seth you magnificent SOB what a great video. Loving your videos and tips about role playing man.

Great video Seth and congrats on the 100 000 subs!

My tips: #1 Ignore empty rooms/hallways and other encounters where nothing happens. (i.e. don't use them). As a working class adult my time is precious and having players spend 15 minutes searching an empty room/hallway is 15 minutes of wasted game time. I'll frequently tell players during a session zero that If I make the comment "This room is empty and there is nothing else of interest here" that means move along and don't bother searching the room/area or discuss why the room is empty. #2 When running premade adventures don't be afraid to remake the map if it doesn't make sense to you. or you think it could be implemented better.(*a perfect example is the map from the B1 Module Search for the unknown, that map is crazy but a fan made a better, more concise, sensible, and effective map layout that you can find online). #3. Make critical failures and critical successes feel special. I use critical failures to create a complication and critical successes usually always do maximum damage and/or create a beneficial side effect for players or hinderance for the enemy. #4 Be conservative with gold/treasure and create situations where gold is necessary (make spell casters purchase components, create situations like fines, paying off warrants, blackmail, repair equipment, building a keep or wizard tower, etc) #5 Use Passive Skill checks! One example; If a Wizard has a passive Arcana skill of 15 and want to identify a level one spell being cast that they do not already have (normally a DC 11 Arcana skill check) then automatically let them succeed (i.e. recognize what the spell is called and basic effect) and then let them roll to see if they can remember/discern more information (specific/detailed spell information). #6 Session 0 is a necessity, even if you don't want to use an entire session to have one, you should always have a quick (5 minute) session zero before the adventure starts. Creating story hooks, setting expectations, and establishing do's and don'ts makes life for everyone much easier. #7 Only run a game for 2-6 players, 6-8 players can be very challenging, more than that and you are just making it more difficult for you and less enjoyable for the players. Basically more players means that each player gets less time to participate in the game. Combats will take up more time, players get bored waiting for their turn, a few players might get to opportunity to "shine" while others might have to sit on the sidelines because the other players already performed the necessary tasks or overcome the challenge before their turn comes up. When you see players falling asleep or playing on their phones while waiting for their turn you know you have to many players at the table. #8 During Combat put all the bad guys (except maybe the boss) on the same initiative and have them always deal average damage unless they crit. This speeds up combat dramatically. #9 Reinforcements. If the players are defeating your "tough" challenge or big boss too easily, then add more minions or unexpected challenge even if it wasn't planned. If the players one shot killed your main villain, then have their older more powerful sibling or significant other join the battle to take revenge. Basically avoid anticlimactic final showdowns as it can really bring down a fun session. #10 Time management. Use a timer or set an alarm if you have too. check the adventure progression every hour or so. If you only have 4 hours to run a one-shot adventure that will not be continued, be prepared to omit some non-essential encounters. It really sucks for players to spend 4 hours overcoming challenges and obstacles just for you to handwave the final battle because you ran out of time....

Thanks for this video: lots of good advice. I will be taking your "roll for degree of success or complications, rather than straight success or fail" into my game this weekend.

Seth this is fantastic. I’m running Edge of Darkness this weekend as a first time keeper with a group of complete greens on tabletop RPGs, and I’m pretty nervous. I’ve watched god knows how many videos of yours and several scenarios run by other groups like How we roll, but any new tips are definitely welcome!

Excellent advice, as always. I've done most if not all of these myself. I like the ideas you presented for "success but at a cost." I'll have to remember that. I usually have failure merely take longer, but I like yours better.

Thanks Seth, that is a really great video - I especially like that you mentioned success with a cost rather than just plain failure with rolls - it's something I've been thinking a lot about with my group recently. It's easy to get blinkered into the "one or zero" nature of game mechanics and not think dynamically about story structure and moving the plot forward. I suspect that some of the Powered By The Apocalypse style games I've been playing and listening to have opened my mind a bit. Anyway, thanks a bunch for your guidance as always. Big Love

I love this kind of video, filled with good advice even if we're veteran dms. Keep on the good work !

9:46 "Actually, it'll be SUPER EASY! Barely an inconvenience!"

Always love your gaming vids... Thanks again.

Hey! Just saw 100k, well deserved and overdue! Conrats!

I've been running Call of Cthulhu for a few months now for multiple groups. Your videos are an amazing resource. Just wanted to say thank you.

As far as having the rules at your fingertips, preparing, and not have to look up anything, I like to type out the module, virtually word for word (it's waaaay easier if you have a PDF and can copy and paste most of it), making any changes I want, and then I can highlight needed rolls, difficulties, and any other rule reference right at the spot when it's needed. I can highlight dialogue, with bolded quotes and references to find it easier. It's a lot of preparation, but I'm a cripple on disability these days, giving me plenty of time. The only problem is my players like to think waaaay out of the box, and still come up with things I missed

Great advice! I definitely wasn't great at some of these when I started.

The mantra of "Story is the characters, not the setting." is why I've been struggling to find novels I enjoy these days. 'Normal distribution," most people enjoy stories about characters, I get that, and more power to them! But, I've been craving some good detailed world novels that I haven't already read. And I'm finding it impossible to find them, because novelists and publishers have found the lowest common denominator and write their novels for that. Sure, sure, every now and then something cool comes along like Binti... But, I miss novels like The Lord of the Rings and Dune. Which, had great characters, but also very awesome worlds that I could just sink into and vanish in for a while. Mistborn, Elantris, good stuff... but, so many novels say they've got creative worlds and they're really just retreads or have barely any world in them. The story may be the characters, but too many novelists neglect the setting. This is the same for roleplaying, I usually love to examine and explore the imaginary worlds. I love learning about fantasy kingdoms and cities, etc. Players get knocked on for the characters with no background these days, and I'm guilty of knocking people for it as well... and while having a detailed background makes a GM's life easier when it comes to creating a story that hooks the character into it... Maybe that player isn't interested in having their character be the center of the story, maybe that player just wants to go along for the ride. And, while you could argue that they could just easily watch a book, a movie, or play a video game... Maybe they get more from the roleplaying, or something different, such as the in-person socialization. Also, since anything can happen in a roleplaying game, where video games have to be programmed and thus are limited, a person really doesn't know what will happen in a good roleplaying group. - I for one can predict what will happen in most movies and TV shows. I usually know how a movie will end 5 to 15 minutes into the start of the movie, because they all follow a predictable formula. Sure, it's possible for the occasional movie or TV show to surprise me, but it's so rare that I find it not worth it to slog through all the predictable ones to find it. I'm also getting annoyed at reading so many novels trying to find one I like, then I read it, and I'm on to searching for another, it gets tiring. A roleplaying game can be truly unpredictable. You don't know who's going to live or die, the dice and players [can] make it unpredictable. - Yes, as a GM, remember most players want to be involved, but as Seth said about exceptions and extremes, some players are wall flowers, some players are friends who are tagging along for the socialization... Everyone has their own motivations for playing, and they can all be very different.

I think Scott Dorward is a wonderful shoutout here. Very great example. I listened to his voice running Fairyland on the Ain't Slayed Nobody Podcast, and was very impressed with the technique you're describing.

Redfine Success & Failure is the best advice in this in my opinion. I have seen this discussion so many times in forums and comments about the dwarf who wants to jump off a cliff and flaps his arms like bird. You can just let them roll but success might mean there was a ledge somewhat down the cliff on which they land and they don't die immediately. This is such an easy concept for me but apparently 99% of people do not understand this. The players decide what their characters do but the GM decides what the result is.

Seth, great stuff as always!

Wonderful and timely. I am starting a new game with all new players and this answered a few questions I was pondering over. Excellent as always. Thank you. Ps. Could we get a few more “war stories”? For Thor’s sake, please?

My 2 biggest pieces of advice would be don't be afraid to say Yes and Don't be afraid to say No. Say yes to letting that player do that awesome thing or use a power to destroy a big boss in 1 round but at the same time don't be afraid to say no to things that destroy the fun for you and for others or ruin something you seriously care about.

LOL, been there.. .done those... great Video. Heading up to New York from Virginia to Game for a 4 Day Weekend Marathon Game. Been running this Group since the 1980s!! Great tips!

I love this channel. I'm the forever dm in my group. Seth serves as a check or ground wire. After 25+ years I love having this as a advice source. Great job man.

Excellent stuff, good review and reminders!

I'd add a 20th, sort of good housekeeping at the table, 'Roll only when the DM asks' as it ties the dice roll to a specific outcome rather than someone just declaring 'I rolled a 16 for my perception!' or some such.

as always great, insightful advice. occurred to me Great Life and Interpersonal Advice as well ! good communication. find balance, are needs being met? are you having FUN? Listen. Keep it simple and smooth. Don't be afraid of the unexpected. Don't be afraid to SUCK. Thanks Seth!

“After a time, you may find that 'having' is not so pleasing a thing after all as 'wanting.' It is not logical, but it is often true.”

I'm about 6 sessions in to my first dcc campaign and this has been immensely helpful