@@MrDavidKord hardest thing i had to learn as dming. Just dont tell your players ^^ They want the mystique. Its all smoke and mirrors but it makes the game better for all involved
I can improv quite well as long as I have a pretty good idea of the types of monsters the party will be encountering, so I need the theme of the challenges for the next 2 or 3 player sessions, and then I can improv a mashup that moves them along to finishing off the overall accomplishment. I do find that for online play now, my prep requirements are higher. At the physical tabletop I could quickly draw with a grease pen and throw down some miniatures, but online I feel I need to have decent maps pre-drawn with all of the fog of war barriers placed, etc.
@@dondumitru7093 And the minis. There's not excuse not to use accurate artwork, since it's all available, but it's a little more work than just throwing down a few minis on a map that are the right general size and shape. However, it's always a better LOOKING game than I ever had tabletop, so the work is actually worth it imo.
Around the 30:00 point, I had nostalgic flash back in relation of player action writing the story. I've been running a semi gritty Tomb of Annihilation module and I mostly said 'ok' and just let the players go about on their own speed. Somehow it ended up them going to the ziggurat with the seer naga named Saja, but it was so early they didn't really have any idea what to ask so they asked for a prophecy. I took the story of the nine trickster gods and made five legendary items out of it and made a prophecy of the party needing them and name dropping Artus Cimber to help face a terrible evil. So two third of the camp was a chill jungle adventure looking for the magic items and tracking down Artus Cimber before heading to Omu. One of the items was a rewritten Spear of Backbiting (From Tales of the Yawning Portal book) and instead named it The Spear of Evil's Bane (totally original don't steal, kek). It's story was it was made by one of the nin trickster gods mention in the story of them. The kamadan named Shagambi made it to pierce the evil in the Omuans heart. However the grung goddess took it. Now it's assume the tale is actually not a lie or trick it was really made. It feel out of the Grung goddess possession into the goblin clan Baitri (the totem mask ones that climb on each other to form a tower). Who used it to kill the green dragon Needle Bone, and the net they now build their home one was actually originally designed to capture the dragon in their lair. The curse portion of the Spear of Evil's Bane was Needle Bones death haunting the spear. It makes the spear naturally treacherous to whom ever wields it with a 5% chance that it will fly back at the thrower. Our Bard/Rogue loved it so much they actually took one level of Warlock becomeing a Hex Blade useing the story that Shagambi the kamadan the original crafter of the spear and Needle Bone the dragon spirits became the 'patrons' as both have a portion of their power inside the spear constantly in battle for dominance and are useing the player as the judge of their bouts inreturn they gift them a small sliver of power that they can. So the Hexblades curse is like sending the curse of the green dragon onto a target, and the ability to make a weapon use Cha to attack and damage is useing the special technique made by Shagambi. In the future the party gets a chance to release the original spirit of Shagambi who in the module was meant to semi possess someone and gives a minor boon of sorts. Instead with that player, they basically were given a chance to upgrade the spear in return for losing the hexblade curse portion but in return Shagambi will forever fuse with the character's spear giving it an upgrade and act like a true patron, or let Needle Bone devour Shagambi and take dominants control over the spear and defacto get revenge for her death. This keeps the curse on the spear, but in return the player gains a free level in Hexblade. It was honestly a really great subplot that sprouted from Players contributions. A gem in my eye in my Dming experience.
I've been saying this since the beginning of Fantasy High, but Brennen deserves to be regarded as highly as Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins. He is truly a master-tier Dungeon Master.
Agreed, been watching the recent stuff on Dimension 20 and to see him DM is quite the treat. The levels of enthusiasm and high energy can pull almost anyone out of a cloud of funk.
He’s my favorite DM, personally. I want to be at his table. He hooked me with his interpretation of the NAT 20 from Ally Beardsley on Prompocalypse part 1. He allowed her to make her move and his in-game explanation was the most nuanced, layered and character connected story telling I’ve ever heard.
Brennan is a Master Class DM, seriously the guy nearly TPKs the players of his first streamed game and managed to improvise a NPC rescue that still managed to have an incredibly high cost. I know it’s not just him it’s a crew but the combats in the show almost always feel dangerous.
Escape from the bloodkeep he full-on made up an entire side quest and memorable, deep and hilarious character that he had the lightest of notes on. While on camera with no cuts. With Matt Mercer and Amy Vorpahl as his players. Spectacular improvisational mind with nerves of steel.
Brennan is looking so adorable here! Also, love this convo and the streaming ttrpg community's friendships! I'd love to see Pruitt in one of Brennan's campaigns or Jim DM'ing a campaign for D20!
Every time I hear about Brennan's childhood, I'm so happy that there are parents out there that support their children so wholeheartedly. He was reinforced with wonderful morals, but free to explore what he enjoyed. It sounds so wonderful to grow up with that.
The avengers analogy around the 60 minute mark is so spot on. You can even begin to show off that power progression starting around level 5 by going against some goblins and low threats.
@@FlatOnHisFace goblins at level 5 get cleared out quite easily, even if you stack the odds way out and have them perfectly prepared. Mind you because goblins aren’t mindless, can be negotiated with and are often craven most of the time they aren’t fought to the death when I use them
Brennan has a point when he says for sandbox play, the DM has to make sure character motivation is built in the PCs backstories. Because these backgrounds will propel the story forward.
About 44 minutes in, Jim mentioned latching on to another character. Just last session (early in the campaign) my undying warlock found out the ancestral guardians barbarian's family had been hunted down by what he called "the undying". I latched onto that and changed so much of my idea of my character and his motivations. Its so much fun in the first few sessions to be able to rework your character to fit in well with the party.
I think this is the PERFECT discussion for DMs who have been doing it for maybe a year or two but really want to start working in high level concepts and tricks from the "old guard" of DnD. Edit: from the perspective of someone who picked up the hobby in 5e It can be really difficult when a newer DM asks "how did you prep for that?" And the only truthful answer you can give is "well its just in my head and i make it happen". But this conversation really puts that statement into workable ideas. Like having an encounter ready for when they meet someone you know they are going to meet. Doesnt matter where or when, but 'this' will be the encounter. Or having a whole bunch of "stock" encounters ready to go at any time.
Once, in 3.5, I made a catfolk ninja, who eventually got a combination of feats that allowed him to wield a specially-made elven greatsword, sized for a large creature...without penalty. It had a huge crit-range along with improved crit, and because it was elven, I could use my dex mod for attack. It took forever to get to that point...but it was worth the wait. . So...with the abilities I had, such as their 1-round invisibility, and the catfolk's improved base speed...I could pretty much cross any typical combat distance in one round...and one-shot a motherfucker. I was reasonably difficult to hit and had decent saves...but easy to take out otherwise. Kind of a martial glass cannon. And almost always went first in initiative...so there wasn't much the enemy could ever do about it. Only the biggest baddies could survive a hit from me. . It wasn't optimal...but it was damned effective, and fun as hell. I'd ask which enemy they wanted dead in the first round, and take out whoever they sent me after in that first round. Then it was targets of opportunity from there on.
God I love brennan as a dm. His rule of cool players first style track for a lot of the games I run and have played in as compared to the mercer grounded was or even the shenanagins of unexpectables
I like relistening to these episodes and considering the question of "how is it that my character wants to stick with the party" or "why would all of us go on this adventure together": My players are really good at creating characters that have history with one another. A married couple, old friends, used to serve in the same army etc. But if you/your players are struggling I highly recommend just stealing the History part of the Monster of the Week playbooks. They are free online. When you create a character you are told to pick one option for each other character and the options range from "you somehow keep running into one another" and "you are friends from school/work" to "they once saved your life and you owe a debt to them" and "they are at heart a truly righteous person and you swore to keep it that way" If you have a list of options while looking around at the other characters it is much easier to make up a connection.
It's not fair, you can't just make a video like this that I HAVE to watch. Does youtube know you made a video that people are incapable of choosing not to watch?
I like 5e. It's pretty well designed and easy to pick up. Even at that though, there's so much stuff. I adore those small form splat books that aren't even necessary, but supplement a more compact, free form ruleset.
Having watched mostly Perkins, Mercer, and Crawford, I'm happy to say that (ahem) I'm taking a Mulligan on my next series. I've only seen snippets of Dim20 and this interview, but wow, I'm all in. Look at the big brain on Brennan!
Brennan and I are roughly the same age, moved from NY to LA within a decade of each other, and have the same basic mix of Scots-Irish heritage. He looks like he did 10 years ago, and I look like I have a road map of the world drawn on my face.
Watching this just reminded me of how improvised my second pathfinder game was. With things that constituted GM errors, with overfunding a pc, and giving us a lot of empty land that nobody was around. With the overfunded pc being used to flush out cash to start a town, and the land expanding into my pc's masterpiece while being mostly mediocre as a business minded party member. It was my favorite campaign, from 1 to 17 or 18. Though it ended because we couldn't develop high enough level encounters, and had that city producing and expanding rapidly. Almost makes me want to try at running a game again, and just sit down, make a framework, and watch it break.
in the first 10 min... wow I feel old... started in 1981 and been playing ever since. listens to vid - started in early 90s or 1998. I still have my first character mini's.
There are so many times where I’ve had an “amazing plan” the party mentions “oh well maybe the bad guys want to do X, or maybe that item does Y…. And been like omg that’s so much better that’s what it does now. And the players feel awesome for guessing.
When they were talking about a really great characterised character as well as optimised, I immediately thought of Brennan’s character in Naddpod (Not another D&D podcast)
Every time I've watched a D&D thing with Brennan I've been 100% on-board with what he's saying, but talking crap about Tome of Battle crosses the line lmao
On the optimization point, I want my character to be good at combat because I want to be an active force in the world outside of combat. I want to have ambitions and goals and feel comfortable that if swords come out in the process of doing those things I will be formidable. I’m strong so that the fear of fighting won’t hinder my ability to fully express myself in all the other aspects of the game.
Hm! The part about reusing encounters that the player's avoided makes me feel the time DMs put in preparing stat blocks in D&D. In other games (playing Coriolis right now), stat blocks are so simple mathwise, that you can build a statblock for an enemy in your head, on the fly. So the need to reuse does happen, but much less. You just follow the story, and producing stats and mechanics is really an after thought, even though Coriolis does have some depth mechanics wise. It's not a narrative only game, at all. Just much less math, really, and less powers and feats and types of damage and immunities and etc.
d20 Conan had a feat called Weapon Panache that allowed you to use Charisma instead of Strength or Dexterity for the to hit bonus with a specific weapon.
My 1st game was 3.5 in 09-10ish I had asked some friends about it cause I saw people talking about d&d on runescape. 1 of my friends had a group I've been playing ever since BTW that 1st group was a nightmare but I still love d&d
i agree with brennan about the DM being involved with the backstory as an editor and arbiter of sorts but ultimately leaving it to the player so they have agency while also ensuring them having a place in the story and world. the work of a DM starts long before the first session
Parents started playing with 1st edition, began playing 2nd with them and their friends. D&D was our Monopoly. At least until I became a rebellious pre-teen and abandoned my Mom and Dad for my Dad's friend, who played Rolemaster and I started playing with him, his son who was a year older than me, and some other folks. Rolemaster changed my gaming life and sent me down a completely different path than most people I knew. Also diminished my options for people to play with lol. No regrets though, evolved away from Rolemaster and ended up at Harnmaster.
@@iratevagabond204 The folks I play with aren't in to that style of game. I enjoy a weird mixture of soft-magic/fantasy and simulationist pseudo-history that doesn't jive with my player group even when using a more accessible system. Harn would turn all but one of them sooo off. It's ok though. My preferred type of game is highly unlikely to happen, so I try to approach things with a bit more of a beer and pretzels mindset. I'll follow other folks' lead.
@@TheBrassGeologist That sucks, I'm sorry man. That is why I groomed my own players! My youngest brother is 15 years younger than me (I'm 31, 32 in may), and I have three kids of my own, with my eldest being 13. Only one of my gaming friends is into systems I enjoy, and my brother has a friend that likes them as well.
Very fun video, thanks. As a DM with a high level party those tips were helpful. 3.5 is an awesome but a bit crazy version and my fav still. 5e has some great strengths too.
When he said he started playing as a kid in 1998 it hit home just how old I am. I started playing D&D 20 years earlier in 1978 when I was 10 years old.
23:45 So, you mean the Investigator or maybe even the Mastermind Rogue from Pathfinder 2e. They both can do effective Int-based combat if pressed, but it's not their main schtick.
30:34 this unlocked a deep memory of when I critted on insight for a "uhhhh, bob", a local merchant. I loved bob so much. I think this is made funnier because not 2 minutes after I rolled a nat 1 on perception so my character mechanically had all eyes on bob
Pluck Mechanic = Hero Points/dice. # of enemies = points for that combat. Base die is d4; you can spend +1 point to either use bigger die (d6/d8..) or roll more dice. Used just like Bardic Insp.
At the end of a years-long 1-16 campaign, I let them fast-travel behind enemy lines by being rocketed through a plane of memory. Every round, a major moment from thier past appeared. The guy who killed the first PC in session 2 or 3 all the way to the recent dragon fight., back to back to back. all the way up to the second most recent boss. It was cathartic to see how far they'd come, a trip down memory lane. Until the VERY end it was never an actual threat, but they got to feel badass as a leadup to the final boss.
It just occurred to me that a possible solution to Brennan's "PC who wanted the plucky paladin who isn't that strong, but that's a mechanically terrible choice and probably won't be that fun to play because D&D doesn't have a pluck mechanic" would just be to say "this paladin attacks with their longsword using their charisma and that represents them using their pluck rather than their strength" and literally just swap out which ability they use to attack with. I know that's much more of a 5e type solution with the way they really encouraged rules hacking and DM agency in design and probably would be sacrilege to any veteran 3.5 or older player, but would honestly completely bypass that problem imo. I've heard Brennan tell that story on the D20 Adventuring Academy podcast and that solution straight up did not occur to me until just now watching this.
As a forever DM. Hearing them say the part about "IVe got all my notes im prepared im ready for whatever they could throw at me" ha...haha...hahahaha.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *sobbing uncontrollably*
@Brennan ! You have deff been affected by a plot hook! Your whole dnd experience started somewhere, right? You're just in the middle of your plot, so you can't really see the scope of the plot. You're on an insane arc!
