I love how Brennan approaches railroading/linear narratives. Especially the way he put it in EXU Calamity: the best rails are a well-built character. It always amazes me how implicitly expansive the session zeros are, even if D20 doesn't film them, you can feel how much work they put into character creation once the cameras start rolling.
In my experience, D&D games work best when the party is working towards a goal they care about, and It seems Brennan puts a lot of work into making that happen, as represented by everything you just said!
This! Characters like Zerxes and Laeryn needed no persuading to further the plot. All Brennan had to do was understand at a fundamental level: who are these characters and what do they want? With that understanding, and with the players fully bought in to their characters' flaws, Brennan was able to weave his usual incredible tapestry. No railroads necessary, the characters are building the roads with him.
I've watched the majority of the Dimension20 seasons and never really noticed/thought about it. I'm not sure if it's because I watched some videos on the topic recently, but there is one scene in particular I remember from their current season that made me realize how good Brennan can be at smoothly steering things where he wants them. Spoiler below on ep8 Brennan in that scene plays a kinda cursed NPC who they just bested in combat and helped return to her original form, a young girl. She asked to touch a magic book that might be helpful/interesting to her, and Ally, playing a caring old man who doesn't want to put her in danger, denies her/Brennan for the moment, saying that they should put it off for later. After a bit, they were somewhat at an impasse with noone in the party really advocating for the NPC, so Brennan in character turns to Emily, who plays a young girl wanting to make similar age friends (and who had bonded a bit with the NPC during and after the fight), and says sth about being sad/disappointed about not getting to touch it (and his frickin' sad face! 😭😂). And immediately Emily is like "no! Let her touch the book!", which considering the protective and close bond Ally's character has with Emily's, makes Ally pretty much instantly go "alright" and offer the girl the book to touch xD that was super effective hahaha
The most fun my group ever had at the table was when I offered to DM a game as a collaborative creative writing exercise where I wrote a short story (3-4 pages) for the background of each of the 4 characters, and I let my players decide who they wanted to be from the character options at session 0, and then I ran the game sort of like a choose your own adventure book, where I had a system of outlines based on 1 or 2 key decision tree moments in each session, and then navigated through encounters from there. It was probably the most railroady mini campaign that we ever played, but my friends loved it because the plots were deeply character driven because each player was effectively participating in an individual story that I wanted to tell, where they got to make the in character decisions to reach the outcome of their story. Good character/player pairing and personal investment in the story is what makes railroading seem like the way the game is meant to be played, instead of an overbearing DM stifling player creativity.
Brennan and Dimension 20 are what go me into DnD. I saw a compilation on RU-vid of Gorgug asking people if they're his dad, gave the first couple episodes a shot and got hooked. After years of watching, I got to play my first proper game, which is about to turn one year old tomorrow :)
RU-vid shorts of D20 are also what got me into dnd lol. I kept watching them cause they were always funny and I’d been a college humour fan for a while. Now I’m playing in two campaigns, I’ve watched every episode of D20 and I’m halfway into CR C1
That seems to have been a very impactful compilation. I see a lot of folks saying that was the reason they started watching D20 and it's why I started watching as well.
Tried playing once when I was 12 back in the 90s and couldn't. Um Actually and a friend of mine got me into D20, and I played my first campaign this year. Right now I'm figuring out how to DM.
I think the biggest thing about Brennan is that he knows how his characters want to grow, he never fully hands them what they want but he gives them the opportunities to take them
The panic I felt in my heart when I expected Brennan to fall victim to the Mercer Effect in the sense that he also set the bar way too high for every other DM in 5th Edition
He definitely set the bar high! One of my other videos makes the point that DMs shouldn't try to be the famous DMs they watch, and to find a style that's true to them. That said, we can still learn a lot from folks like Mulligan and Mercer!
@@TheKillaShowup. Him and Aabria. I know she wasn’t the first, but I know a lot of people probably first saw a DM make “camera” references after she did the EXANDRIA UNLIMITED series. Others have done it (notably DICE SHAME) but I think she brought it to a lot of people’s attention. I’ve heard it a butt-tonne since. Hers is a style that may be jarring after watching BLM or MM, but it is a refreshing take on DMing that feels wonderfully divorced from the other two.
@@user-jt1js5mr3f essentially, telling the players things there characters don’t know, but describing it in character. I’ll link an example, give me like 30 minutes
I honestly wished they posted session zero after the season is over cause it would be so cool to see how some of the characters we watch slowly come to life
I've seen Brennan around the internet for years but I only started watching Dimension 20 recently and I have to say he is really charming. Not only is he a great emphatic DM and story teller but because of his improv background he's a master of jokes, instant world building and a fantastic generous scene partner. I've noticed that sometimes one of the players will make a little off hand joke and Brennan still follow it through, sometimes minutes or weeks after the joke has left the air, all without losing the rhythm. The best way I can describe him that makes him so special in my opinion is that he seems to understand that everything that goes on to the table is an opportunity. Whether that's for a joke, a characters arc or for the main plot and he does it all without ever letting the players know so they don't just get railroaded. I'm really enjoying dimension 20 at the moment. I instantly like all the intrepid adventurers. I wish it wasn't behind a paywall because I think a lot of people don't know what they're missing but having said that, the paywall must be a huge help because the maps and sets Dimension 20 make are unbelievable. I don't know who the team is, I think the person who built the dome is Rick Perry but whoever they are, they're really doing a great job.
Brennan is exactly what I strive to be as a DM. I discovered him after I did Mercer so, for the longest time, I looked up to Matt. But even then, there were things that I thought I could do differently. But, watching Brennan DM made me realize- he is EXACTLY how I want to be as a DM. Clever, knowledgeable, witty, quick to adapt, and, above all else, entertaining. I still respect Matt and his top tier skill as a DM, but Brennan is just such a diverse person that it bleeds over into his ability to DM and that really is the bar that I want to reach
I've never played DnD, and while I have watched a little bit of DnD content it was still very hard to properly enjoy online DnD content like Critical Role. Brennan's DMing is so beginner friendly while also being incredibly intriguing that despite my issues of lacking experience, I was able to enjoy Fantasy High so much that it's become infinitely easier putting myself in the right mindset to enjoy these online campaigns, and I can actually watch others now too without feeling like I have to multitask to keep myself from being bored. Brennan Lee Mulligan singlehandedly opened the floodgates for me. I was just feeling like I was out of stuff to play/watch, and now this whole new world is open to me, and it genuinely feels like I could spend my entire 2023 on it and still not have run out of content.
Ally Beardsley sure does roll a lot of miraculous nat 20s and honestly? I love that for them. Brennan always does such a good job of drastically changing the world when something miraculous happens once he gets over the initial consternation.
For me, the thing that really makes Brennan special is that he's the kind of DM who isn't afraid to throw the first punch. In fact, he practically encourages his players to get into an outright brawl with him, then refuses to pull back his punches. And you know what I've realized, from both watching Dimension 20 and my own experiences with playing TTRPGs? A DM who brandishes a knife during the fight in the Denny's parking lot actually increases player agency, and this increase cannot be overstated. Of course, the DM has to have love in their heart, even while they're trying their damndest to make Julius Caesar's assassination look like a mere flesh wound in comparison. By this, I mean that the DM has to always be coming from a place of wanting to make the game fun for their players, and not be an adversarial dickwad trying to beat them. But if a DM has this intent and the awareness to do things in a way that won't make their players actually upset, then players quickly realize the crucial thing that makes this all work: they shouldn't pull back their punches either. And once players bring their own knives to the aforementioned parking lot, that's when things get really exciting. Ultimately, DMs are the ones who set the precedent for the mindset players have during the game. If I only have reason to believe that pushing the big red button would only create environmental catastrophe and soul crushing guilt, then why would I ever do that? But if I have reason to believe that the explosion would be glorious, and then the party would galavant through the nuclear wasteland doing Mad Max-esque hijinks, then why wouldn't I push that button? This example is pretty extreme, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that if a DM establishes that the consequences for failure and shenanigans will be fun by having the world and NPCs be dramatic and proactive, and also being dramatic and proactive themselves, then players are much more willing to take risks and try crazy ideas. And to me at least, player agency is only meaningful if I have the freedom to make choices that could very well result in disaster-and make the experience that much cooler for everyone involved.
This is easily the best way I've seen it described. What Brennan really REALLY excels at is creating stakes. He can be a brutal DM, especially in Crown of Candy and Calamity. He pulls zero punches and actively makes the game scary and stressful. But even though he's brutal, it's never with malicious intent. He wants his players to win, but he will make them work for it, which makes their successes all the more poignant. Of course, it has to be said that both of those campaigns he had very clear communication with hia players that he was going to actively try to kill them and they were ok with it. It's almost disorienting to see him at his peak devastation as DM and then switch to him on the talks episodes where he's so sweet and lovely. But that's also why it works. You know deep down he is not being mean because he's actually mean, but because he's delivering what they agreed on and asked for. It's kind of beautiful to watch. I've been craving the kind of tragedy he gave us in Calamity, and I sincerely hope he does more games like that in the future cuz it gutted everyone in the best way.
Brennan is also a master of playing into the “players against the GM” dynamic-which is usually a *very* toxic way to play D&D-because he *only* does it at the right times and in the right ways. He never loses sight of how D&D (at least in his campaigns) is a *cooperative* storytelling game, first and foremost. And he’s never trying to “win” by tricking his *players.* Any “tricks” are generally by his *characters* against the *players’ characters,* and he’s always fair to the players from an out-of-character perspective. But when he’s time for combat, he *absolutely* leans into the player/GM divide in the most friendly, playful ways possible. “I’m gonna kill that dog!” And I obviously can’t read his mind (or Detect Thoughts), but I get the impression he does that *specifically* so his players feel an even stronger sense of victory and accomplishment when they prevail.
I haven’t heard many DMs yet, but it seems to me that Brennan plays heavy on the NPCs and uses them to bring the world to life as opposed to making the narration super engaging. I’m glad I’ve listened to D20 because it has given me an idea of what a narrative style of campaign looks like. The DnD guide books seem to lean more towards the misfits doing random stuff for treasure, so I’m glad I’ve got Brennan’s example of story telling. Gonna start running my first campaign later this week!
i agree, for the longest matt was mine. But after watching a bunch of dimension 20 and tbh Calamity series solidified Brennan as my favorite. I look at the two (matt and brennan) Matt: Tells a damn awesome story and it sucks you in his detail is second to none. Brennan: This man can flip the switch so fast, its amazing to watch. i like most of characters he acts out.
The legendary BEARDSLEY NAT 20s!!! I don't think anyone can handle - and properly celebrate! - those kinds of moments as effectively as Brennan can. Another great example is Rekha Shankar's roll for if ghosts are real in Of Mice and Murder - if you haven't watched that campaign GET ON IT! Its a great example of how amazing he is at supporting new players without just telling them what to do.
Dude just commented on your video first time the other day, and now you're putting out a video gushing about BLM the way I would if I had a channel. Officially convinced that dark patron gave you telepathy as well.
I like the comedy advice, As long as it's not overused, like in some bad movies that mix comedy and dark without letting either shine in their own moments. You have some comedy and let it shine, and have dark moments and let it sink
Brennan and Anthony (from dungeons and daddies) will always have special places in my heart because those two got me into DND I like them both too because they show 2 very different styles where Anthony doesn't have the pure technical skills and what not that Brennan might but the main thing I get from both is they all have so much fun playing and that's really the most important part. I want to start playing and start DMing my own stories one of these days when I'm not so busy with other life stuff and other tabletop games. (I'm trying really hard to learn battletech and holy jeepers there's a lot of information there.)
Hi, hello what's up. Out of all the videos I have seen on DM/GMs not once have they talked about the importance of laughter in games. So hats off to a awesome video
Yo, this video was amazing! Really professional and informative but fun and very interesting. You're very aware and that shows, always putting the players fun and emotions first in ways that really boost the potential of a campaign. You seem like a great DM also: Thank you for putting my thoughts about BLM into a video!
One of my favorite Brennan encounters that I never hear people talking about is the hot exit early in *A Starstruck Odyssey.* He threw SO many different obstacles from so many directions at a pretty low-level party who were literally just trying to get the hell back to their ship, and it was so fun and engaging.
THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THAT SYSTEMS OUTSIDE OF DND EXIST! I've seen it too many times when people try using mechanics that clash with narrative and then they get annoyed by the game not working out. Like if you want to make a 80s/90s slasher film, don't use a system with things like HP, in depth combat mechanics, or heroic PCs. Use something like Dread where you have a Jenga tower and the GM declares how hard something would be to accomplish is tied to how many blocks you need to pull. Then if/when the tower falls the character dies.
The most interesting part of Brennan's style vs say Critical Role to me is the way Brennan really carefully designs everything around fitting a lot into a little, because it needs to fit into a season of a limited number of sessions.
I got my dropout subscription just so I can watch D20, my personal favorite season was the first season of unsleeping city. The reason was that Brennan just did so at playing npc’s, it also helps that Brennan is actually from New York so he knows how New Yorkers are. I’m a first DM at my school club and I took heavy inspiration from Brennan in how I DM, still working on voices but I play through my npc’s in a way that my group enjoy and I especially love acting out the characters. I’m also still working on the whole ability to go unhinged that Brennan has but I’m getting there
Spoilers for NADDPOD Brennan is my favorite DM too but Brian Murphy is a very close second for me. NADDPOD was my first big experience with D&D so there might be a hint of bias but I truly think that Murph is one of the greatest DMs of all time. Murph created such a tonally rich world in that of Bahumia. It manages to be both very silly and tongue and cheek will still taking itself seriously and having a dramatic edge. Similarly to Brennan he uses comedy as a backdrop to serious moments, take a look at the final battle with Thiala for example. It is huge in scale and has so much gravity to it but it also has magic elephants and the revival and subsequent verbal abuse of Galad Rosell. Murph is the master of establishing a fair yet fun dynamic with his players. He'll allow Fulkery but he'll still deal out consequences for dumb decisions. Fi ally, it's my opinion that NADDPOD has the best combat of any actual play. It using being completely theater oof the mind to its advantage and al.ows the combats to be more free flowing and sometimes even scattered like when the people of Gladehome got possessed. Season 1 of NADDPOD is pure magic and seasons 2 and 3, while not quite as amazing, are still really good.
Murph does a great job of being the straight man on the show. And as a consequence makes the whole podcast that much more entertaining. IRL it’s 3 funny men to one straight man, but in the story it 3 funny to an entire world of straight men and that makes the party all the more entertaining
I'm already sucked into the Bahumia full fledged sequel. Honestly anything Emily Axford is in proximity to becomes instantly cooler. What a power couple between the two of them.
For the little amount of time you have been uploading the videos have been amazing. They seem well thought out and have very useful and fun information. I can't wait for the many more videos in the future.
I've never played D&D and discovered Dimension 20 like 2 weeks ago. I'm now on my 3rd campaign. His improve is 2nd to none. I also love how engaged he is. He basks in the victories without handing them out. I recently watched a few other DM's campaigns and although socially engaging, the victories felt hollow because the circumstances kept bending into the groups favor. It felt like they were protected by plot armor. I wouldn't go as far as to say the victories felt scripted, but it felt like every time the group started to fail the difficulty was lowered.
I'd love to see one of these videos about Johnny Chiodini of Oxventure. Mostly because he has the complete opposite approach of Matt Mercer but is still an excellent top teir DM.
Really enjoyed this video! Your way of approaching the topic feels super inclusive and well-explained for players of all ages and experience levels, I really appreciate it
I was still here so here is my comment! Thank you for the video. I fully agree in the sense that Brennan is my favourite DM. I only recently found his campaigns after fully catching up on the cr 3 story. Theatre students slay :D
I love your comment about not invalidating the group. For my first ever campaign, the ground zero meeting we already diverted expectations and our DM was not expecting us to join the leader of the cult, but we decided to befriend him. And now that character is our favorite.
When nerds are charismatic af, that scares me. Makes me feel inadequate. They are simply the best of both worlds, outliers but in their element. Brennan is like the character Eddie from Stranger Things. It's hard not to crack a smile man.
I'm a massive fan of high fantasy and was drawn in first by Critical Role, especially because campaign one has so much bittersweet tragedy laced throughout, aka catnip for my Shakespeare loving ass. Calamity was my first exposure to Brennan, and I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. His ability to guide the narrative in a tight storyline while still allowing his players to make bold choices and break things blew my mind. It was such a change from Matt's more open map Oblivion style of play. Both are amazing for different reasons. I've subscribed to Dropout to watch more, and I'm really enjoying Crown of Candy. Brennan is definitely a titan in the ttrpg world and I am likely going to binge his work to see what else he can do. Not going to lie though, I'm craving more Calamity style tragedy from him. He was absolutely brilliant.
If you haven’t reached it already I 110% recommend A Crown of Candy if you’re after that tragedy. Fastest description I can give is “Candyland but it’s Game of Thrones”
I'd love to see Dimension 20 do a campaign based around the concept of the movie Office Space. The idea of such everyday people like office workers, but in the world of magic, sounds hilarious
your content reminds me a lot of some DnD shorts and XP to lvl3 videos, i like how you are calm though and explaining in detail slow and steady. Overall amazing. Keep going :)
I think my top DMs are Aabria/Brennan and then Matt Mercer, but I think it’s because they’re able to be a bit funnier seeing as their campaigns are usually pretty limited. Gonna watch your Matt Mercer video now. You have great content.
Thank you! If you're interested I do DM on a podcast called Thunder and Dragons. I don't promote it here very often because I've learned a lot since its first episode and the release schedule is all over the place (which is entirely on me haha)
Brennan's campaigns make me want to get back into d&d so badly. He just has so much range for both comedic and emotional storylines and I wish I could jump into a game with him. Have you listened to The Film Reroll podcast? Their main DM (Paulo) is also a really incredible storyteller and has run some amazing campaigns (and shorter games) on their show and all the other players are improv comedians and/or actors in real life and there's some really fun games they've run by taking movies and running them like a RPG campaign.
Steady putting out thoughtful, high quality content. I dont kniw what makes me say this but you and Dael should get together on a video. You, bricks and mortor; her, fine lumber. Together youd make a great dnd house
Love Dael's content! I think she's a little out of reach in terms of our audience sizes, but I certainly wouldn't turn down the opportunity to work with her!
A really solid set of advice I do have one nitpick however with goal setting and railroading. I think there is a distinction between the giving the players a goal and offering the players a goal, one of the worst ways you can railroad your players is by telling them what to care about. If your players don't accept your first offering, let the story advance and give them other offers. There are two things you can do to improve the chances that the player will take your offer that I know Brendan does. The first is get everybody on the same page about what the game is going to be about before the first session (I do believe you did touch on this in the video) the second is to mine players backstories to figure out the motivations their characters will be starting the game with and designing the offer with what you know that the players want to do. Once your players have committed to a goal, you should be able to set intermediate objectives and let your players figure it out as you described.
YES. THIS IS A GREAT POINT. I am the DM for my group. All three of them are darkly whimsical. The darkest and most whimsical is my wife. Her last two characters were as follows: 1. A half-ogre (half elf, half ogre) whose backstory was "no one must find out I am part elf" and "I am going to find my mother's ghost so I can kill her. Again." 2. A Yuan-Ti Paladin with a book on human culture and species traits. Her Paladin's take on human slaves under Yuan-Ti: they're pets. Bad slave owners are really bad pet owners. (Yes, I know. It's better than it sounds, which is good, because it... sounds awful.) If I tell them what they should care about, they totally lose interest. I can use modules and stuff, but I can rarely tell what they're going to do next. It's just about impossible to railroad a train that's already off the tracks. Best to just enjoy the chaos with some groups.
The nat 20 bit reminds me of when I introduced a character to my players as a hooded figure and someone said “can I roll to see if he’s black” and they got a nat 20 😟
I think Matt Mercer is ultimately the better DM on a technical level, but Brendan is far more entertaining for me. I’ve literally watched him for hours at a time which I can’t say about Mercer.
There's an Adventuring Party episode (I think it was for Mentopolis?) where Brennan expressed that the reason he's so good at this is because it's his primary skill, so it BETTER be the thing he makes a career out of because he has no other marketable skills (improv comedy doesn't pay particularly well). He's put his whole life into refining this, so don't feel bad if you're nowhere near his level, unless you're willing to dedicate your entire life to becoming an expert in that one thing. Most actors can't be at Meryl Streep's level, most basketball players can't be at Kobe's level. But you can learn from them and study their techniques to make yours better.
5e dms always want to be matt mercer or other "professionals". in my opinion playing dnd can be compared to playing soccer. you can play with your friends and kick around but you shouldn't try to compare yourself to the professionals because it's basically what they always do and you just do it for fun
D20 was what truly got me into D&D. And even more specifically got me into DM'ing. Brennan actually makes being a DM seem like fun. If not even the most fun part of the game. I'm still a beginner DM only having played a few games as one (Who knew finding the time to actually play was gonna be the most difficult part 😂), but so far I genuinely enjoy it more than being a player.
Very interesting observations, but I must disagree with you on one point: players trying to figure out what to do, what goals to pursue and where their characters should go IS playing DND. It's just one of the things that is often lost in actual play because of the playing for the crowd aspect.
Hey, I found myself getting distracted and threw your video on 1.25x and found it way easier to stay on this video. Not sure if it needs to be quite that fast, but 1.1x could make a big difference for collecting viewers? Anyway, great video! I’m gonna go watch another when it’s done.
When I watch Mercer I say “wow, that was really cool how he did that. I can’t wait to use that.” When I watch Mulligan I just stare, muting “how the fuck did he do that…?”
the only thing that i dont like so much about brennan as a dm is the fact that he did'n make gilear a recurent character in the others campaing, really a waste opportunity😔 but man what a cool video, really hope it gets reccomended for more people!
Hey man! I like you, good vibes. Liked, subscribed, shared and commented. Don't want your Patron to get Mad xD. Don't we all need Eldritch Blasts in our lives :D
I truly enjoy watching Brennan DM a little more than Matt, but I love the cast of CR too much. If Brennan DMed a game that all 8 players of CR were in, I would watch and rewatch for eternity.
Re: using the right system. I follow a game designer and he talks a LOT about how each system has inherent assumptions about both rules and goals, and how dnd\ d20 being so popular limits a lot of players looking for the right system and instead just trying to cram their game into this system. Makes me think
I don't disagree. It can be limiting when you're stuck using one system with all its assumptions and baggage. That said, I think D&D 5e is pretty flexible, so long as your story involves a lot of combat haha
This summer I rekindled my longtime love of GURPS for superhero campaigns. It just has a flexibility for creating characters with unique abilities that D20’s class system can never match. Which is not to say I don’t love D&D when it plays to its strengths.
I am of the same mind, I find Brennan's style to be looser than say Matt's style and I think it allows him for grander and more fun moments to occur in games, he lets his players try things and set out clear expectations and maybe it is more how he approaches it, but it never feels like he does it to prevent a player from having fun, it is more a question of ok, let's see how well that attempt goes sort of thing.
I struggle to understand what to take away from this video. I don't watch Brennan, so my takeaways are just, incorporate an appropriate humor style to your campaign; possibly use systems for different types of campaigns if you want; consider running a railroad; and Brennan has creative encounters. The last point probably speaks the most to Brennan's skill but the other points don't seem to defend the idea that Brennan is particularly good at D&D. I am beginning to get worried about all the new pro-railroading I'm seeing, it's very bad advice. If you craft a story-web and just focus on placing pieces around the world, major players with influence and goals of their own, and figuring out what they will try to do, then that naturally creates drama. Pre-planning *events* is intrinsically contrary to player agency.
