This was wonderful to listen to. Thank you for making it. I’m a little late to the party but videos that helped me improve at running the game. Matt Colville’s action oriented monsters video and dungeon masterpieces older video on how to be a better GM by taking notes after every session and then analyzing them all once you have enough for a set. On a personal level knowing that not every advantage or knowledge needs to come from a die roll and I put fun at the foremost of my games. If my players and I find a rule to be in opposition to our fun we throw it out. Rules should serve the game not the other way around.
I stumbled on your youtube channel because I admittely consume lots of content. Your description of your old self just feels so oddly relatable... Looking forward to consume even more content of your channel! maybe as of now more consciously... Although I will use the paper minis made thanks to your tutorial tomorrow ;)
I'm so glad you thought so! Yes, I hope to make more stuff, slowly but surely, that sorta strikes a nerve. I gotta say, when I set out to make this channel, I made a list of like 20 videos I wanted to make, and now I look back at half that list like "Ugh, nahhhhhh"
I admit I have resisted solo games for various reasons, but your point about using solo games to identify what you like really opened my mind. Thank you for that. I also liked your take on collecting ideas and tools, and how that's not the same thing as implementation at the table. At the end of the day we have to find the mix that works for us and let go of that which doesn't. And it is all synthesis; the number of GMing advice books I've read is extensive, but I couldn't tell you what aspects of my actual at the table approach come from which books, which came from RU-vid videos, and which come from personal experience. Your point about being present at the table is so true as well. Reading the room, sensing the flow, and understanding what you want the adventure to do as well as understanding how to marry that to player desires is an art that has to just be practiced. As Rick Rubin puts it, "Every work of art is simply an iteration." The Creative Act is one of my favorite recent reads, and I think about it more often than I thought I would when I first picked it up.
OH MAN, so glad you also dug that Rick Rubin book!! I honestly feel like I'll take the 3-minute chapters in bites and listen to one each morning for the rest of the season on repeat. And yeah, I'd highly recommend looking at oracle-based solo gaming, particularly interpretive prompts. Just futz around with Ironsworn, Mythic, One Page Solo, something like that -- it'll expand your mind a bit. I know that you in particular are big into big campaigns and pre-written stuff, I personally think solo can be a great way to play through a small module you know you're never going to run. OR, I'm going to be doing a video on these soon, a little round-up of how I like incorporating them into GM'd play, you could always wait on that ;)
Oh absolutely! I actually confess, when I first stumbled across Runehammer, I was very hard-hearted and judgemental, I was like "Ok, this is just like, a silly kinda guy -- it's a little too whimsical or whatever for my taste" but the guy just has a ton of depth, and the material he puts out through RPG Mainframe is just wonderful in its aims and approach. I just like when people have a big heart for friends, mutuality, etc.
I really love this video. I feel like a lot of it does double duty as signs that you're growing in general, not just as a GM. And in regard to solo games, I just saw someone say that they almost always just use one single simple oracle (d6, 1-3 yes, 4-6 no, and rolling advantage or disadvantage depending on which is more likely), and it made my mind expand.
Ha, yes! I think that's part of the biggest flaw with the "GM advice"-o-sphere is that it considers itself a discreet column of growth, and not totally on a continuum with the rest of your life. Or it approaches the topic from an extremely discreet perspective. Haha, I love probability oracles, but frankly, I also really like Action/Theme oracles that are meant to be used interpretively. Those always light me on fire!
Miniatures... goddamned miniatures... I have been collecting minis for... since i started 5e (since 2017)? These little guys are really neat. For years i have been telling myself "Oh, ill need this one for that campaign." or "Oh, I could build an encounter around this one." And i haven't started those campaigns, and I haven't gone through these encounters, because the session was cancelled or the campaign died down. At best, I have used it! Once. Collecting minis as been for me a passion, especially since i started slowly painting them too, they are a cool immersion tool. But, you can lose control of the collection aspect until it becomes a hoarding mechanism. like it did for me. I could have built like...three 40k armies with that money, and used them for D&D games left and right, with unrelated figurines to in-game appearance (those who use bottle caps and ruppers for standees know what i'm talking about) but being "realistic" or "correlated" between the miniature and the In-game character as become too important for me. I have been hoarding drow minis for years. I have been hoarding pirates and fishmen and Eberron minis for that specific setting in the Lhazaar Principalities and it has costed me HUNDREDs of dollars. It is like i am rellying on my minis being perfectly organized and present on the table with the positions and the monster types. Half of those figures, I have never even used. I have a pile of shame (unpainted minis) about a third of my minis. I financially may never recover from this. My unhealthy coping mechanism to make my games "perfect" and "immersive". It never will be. but this is good enough. I logically know i don't need more. But, ill get more, that's for sure. Anyone else with the same problem? Any tips?
Wow, totally triggering comment, lol. This is a great topic, but yes, this is a huge problem and I tooooottaalllly agree. Lol I wish I could just like, record you a voice memo: First of all, I wanna say: I've been there. Not only did I get the minis, and build the terrain, but I actually RAN the games. But for me, two things finally broke me on this: 1. Running the games finally REALLY TELLS YOU whether or not something is worth your time. For me, it largely wasn't (I'm going to talk about this in future videos, but I allude to it in my paper minis videos). I realized that the time I poured into minis and tablecraft didn't have the returns I wanted. Like, it's cool, but as you said, you start to recognize that the time would have been spent better another way. But there is a difference between knowing this abstractly and experiencing it. Once you EXPERIENCE the feeling of like "wow, I spent 20 hours prepping for a single combat encounter, and I should have just spent ONE hour like, improving the environmental design," you begin to look on your stack with less luster. 2. I ran out of room. I'm big on living within my means, and having a smaller apartment, living in a major metro. And eventually, you just run out of room for the shit, and if you want new shit, you gotta SELL the stuff you have. I just sold a fully painted Kill Team Octarius box for like $400 to make room for other stuff, lol. Like, you gotta keep your kit light, for reasons I mentioned in this video. But I am going to make a blog or video about my slow walk away from all of the tablecraft. As I said in my first video ever, a lot of my tutorials are actually made because I'm saying goodbye to those things. Thanks for the great comment!
First of all, I gane this video in recommendations. So, maybe someone in YT had been engineering a good algorithms:) Because I like this video! The most insightful thing for me is the actor view. I think, you give me a course. And maybe a good exercise to review future sessions. I wood love to see content about good and healthy conversations with players. I've been trying hard to find a way to get them to talk:( My best bet was Stars and omens thing, but unfortunately it doesn't work right.. I love my IRL friends, and I absolutely can't abandon them. So, I do my best to teach them, because I want to grow. And hopefully in this way. So maybe you can get some advices? Also, my apologies for poor language. English isn't my first:)
That's a great idea for a video!!! I've added it to my list, you're absolutely right, a lot of people struggle with getting their group to open up. I think there are a few strategies, some you might like, some that would work, but others you might reject. Here's one I can think of off of the top of my head: Just ask your players about broad questions like "Why do you like RPGs? What is it that draws you to them when you can be doing anything else?" And then whatever they say, you say "That's so cool, I can relate. Do you think we're really fulfilling that? How could we get closer to that?" I love your energy and enthusiasm for helping your people!!!! Stick around, I'm really glad you liked the video.
@@Jack-gs6sd thank you for your answer:) We thinking about new big game and trying new systems (dnd deprivation). So, I think there is no better time to try your advice!
Oh man, if that's the case, I'm excited for you!! I'm in a very similar experimental phase right now. I recommend worldbuilding games, I wrote about one I really love here: jacke.substack.com/p/you-can-just-make-a-world-with-your? @@cherry_buzzsaw
@@Jack-gs6sd That game sounds cool. I never heard about worldbuilding tt games. From your examlpes World of forsaken plane is my favourite: at first sight some ideas looks similar to my own setting!:) especially combination of planes, elemental nature and eldritch noosphere. So, if this game allow to produce this kind of stuff, I'm already very intrigued:)
And also, by listening to the artist stuff, you'd even slightly adapt it to TTRPG's, by doing so, it automatically triggers YOU creating/making it your own and not just... a follower? Where it may help with becoming more... independent? confident? Able to adapt on the fly? Or perhaps these are just paper thin thoughts... lol
Yes! This is an excellent observation, which is also akin to when people like "The moment you start GMing, you are also a DESIGNER of games and game experiences, even if you don't think of yourself as a designer." Confidence, independence, all of these things help us be more FREE. And I think that's one of the things that always makes me a shitty DM at the table: Some form of feeling shackled, or feeling closed up, or shuttered, or something. Hope that makes sense.
@Jack-gs6sd It absolutely does. And reading the "always makes me a shitty DM" part... it's crazy because my thoughts were automatically No! or I Seriously Doubt That!! Yet, even though everyone loved my game last night, that's what I kept thinking. How's that for another video idea? xD "Healing the GM spirit" lol
@@Jack-gs6sd A duck walked up to a lemonade stand And he said to the man runnin' the stand "Hey! [(bam bam bam)] Got any grapes?" The man said: "No, we just sell lemonade But it's cold, and it's fresh, and it's all home-made! Can I get you a glass?" The duck said, "I'll pass." Then he waddled away - waddle waddle 'Til the very next day "Bom bom bom bom bom babom" When the duck walked up to the lemonade stand And he said to the man runnin' the stand Hey! (bam bam bam), got any grapes? The man said: "No, like I said yesterday We just sell lemonade, okey? Why not give it a try?" The duck said. Good bye Then he waddled away - waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle 'Til the very next day When the duck walked up to the lemonade stand And he said to the man runnin' the stand "Hey! (bam bam bam) Got any grapes?" The man said: "Look, this is gettin' old I mean, lemonade's all we've ever sold Why not give it a go?" The duck said: "How about - no." Then he waddled away - waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle 'Til the very next day When the duck walked up to the lemonade stand And he said to the man runnin' the stand: "Hey! [(bam bam bam)] Got any grapes?" The man said: "That's it! If you don't stay away, duck I'll glue you to a tree and leave you there all day stuck! So don't get too close! The duck said, Adios Then he waddled away - waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle 'Til the very next day When the duck walked up to the lemonade stand And he said to the man runnin' the stand "Hey! [(bam bam bam)] Got any glue?" "What?" "Got any glue?" "No, why would I - oh..." "Then one more question for you: Got any grapes?" And the man just stopped The he started to smile He started to laugh He laughed for a while. He said: "Come on, duck Let's walk to the store I'll buy you some grapes So you don't have to ask anymore So they walked to the store And the man bought some grapes He gave one to the duck And the duck said: "Hmm, no thanks But you know what sounds good? It would make my day Do you think this store Do you think this store Do you think this store Has any lemonade?" Then he waddled away - waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle waddle Then he waddled away - waddle waddle
