Chris Perkins On Making Your D&D Game Great 

"I think great DMs, they never stop thinking about their games." - Chris Perkins 2017 4:48

3:33 every char gets their fish out of water situation or moment to shine so viewers can differentiate the chars and love each char for a diff reason

This man is a living legend.

I love Chris' swearing - lame-O's and door knobs

Chris' first RPG work to be published was as a teenager in Dungeon Magazine in 1988 (#11, Wards of Witching Ways, as "Christopher Zarathustra"), and thereafter he became a regular (and dependable) contributor for TSR's publication. He officially joined TSR in 1995 and was promoted to senior editor of Dungeon Magazine in 1997. His AD&D 2nd edition credits include Warriors of Heaven, Road to Danger and Dungeons of Despair. In 2001, now with WotC who had acquired TSR in 1997, he worked on 3rd edition. Over the years, Chris has worn many hats and contributed to the Star Wars, d20 Modern, D&D 4th edition and D&D 5th edition roleplaying game lines. He has therefore been published for every edition of (A)D&D, starting with 1st edition in 1988 to the current 5th edition.

It's awesome that this great DM gives such priceless advice that not only helps newbies but grizzled veterans like myself who've been running games for decades. If you've never played a game yet, you are TRULY missing out! Just remember though, the game is only as good as the DM & players let it be. My philosophy has always been "If it's not fun, why are we doing it?".

I believe the term for "doorknobs" he was searching for was "Murder Hobos", lol

The thing that I admire the most and try to emulate from Chris is his language proficiency, he has total control over his semantic field, he picks the perfect words to craft the incredible narrarive speech of his; every verb, every noun is used in a unique way to form the phrases, it's just magical!

Chris was my first DM to emulate.

Thanks for this gem...Chris is an ispiration to us all.

Last monday i was DMing for the first time. things didn't go as planned since minute 1. it was amazing.

I just finished watching the DiceCameraAction series "Curse of Strahd" and wow it was So Good. I especially loved the npc appearance of Mordenkainen played by Sam Witwer and the tongue-in-cheek mention of Elminster and Tenser. Mordenkainen: "Old guy with a beard packin' a pipe." and "Are the Hags still there? They make these great biscuits." and "Excelsior lets Make This Happen!" and "Get your Iron Stakes out, tie everyone together, get your Ten Foot Poles out and lets start tappin!" We D&Ders are lucky to have Mr. Perkins. Old School meets New school D&D. Utterly Awesome! .. Flask of Oil! Anyone??

With this campaign I'm running now, my first intent was to actually make it a one-shot. The players were completely new to DND and I had no idea whether they would be drawn into it or not. Now, after 5 months, we're at the end of season 1, and the five of us, almost complete strangers in the beginning, have become very good friends. I pushed them to their limits in my games, tried to turn them against each other to test them and even put them against impossible odds, and with each and every (exhausting ) challenge, they became more bonded, in game and outside. They got so immersed, that they even decided to make pretty solid background stories for their characters, with flaws and everything that could make it more believable (and that's a lot if you consider they didn't have any previous experiences with RPGs in general). Of course I decided to use every bit of information against them, bringing back characters from their past when they expected the least (Thanks Chris Perkins. Acquisitions Inc. really helped me on that one). For season 2 I'm planning on running an adapted version of Curse of Strahd to fit my overall story. Hope they don't die. It would be a shame after they have invested so much in their characters and bonds...

These videos are amazing! Chris Perkins is a DM and storytelling genius! Thanks for making and sharing these stories with us, Todd. :)

Chris Perkins bringing back "doorknobs" with style. Enjoyed the insight he provided.

I still got his published adventures in dungeon magazine. pure gold!

"Torment Anna's Character, or Holly's Character, [or kill Jared's Character.]"

Finally starting to consistently DM (never actually played as a player), and this is good info!

Loved watching, thanks so much for interviewing Chris Perkins. I would love to see a good D&D player to get their take on what makes a good game, DM, and similar things. But regardless, love what you're doing.

sorry to hear Perkins is looking at moving on, he is a master storyteller... I never played campaigns, since 3rd edition it was all home brew, but after finally swapping to 5th with my players, we've been having a blast hitting all 5e campaign books, absolutely love them... if you haven't given them a shot, highly recommend trying

Chris Perkins made me interested in D&D. I still don't have no one to play DnD with but, I become interested enough to watch critical roll's 115 episodes.

torment Anna/Holly? I think that is not how you pronounce Jarred :D

Very nice advice. Words to keep in mind as i trudge forward as a DM!

Man, this was great information. I have been DMing for a while now, and have not had much feedback as to how things are going. Hearing some insight from a guy who is pro when it comes to DMing really helps, and I know how to better the gaming experience for my player. Thank you Todd and Chris for putting this together.

The concept of the DM/Player contract is 100% true. I like to assume most problems in my campaigns are my fault, because I think that insecurity keeps me looking for ways to improve. But players can be the sours of trouble for a campaign just as easily if they don't respect their relationship to the game and the rest of the table. D&D is a group experience, and making sure the whole group is having fun is everybody's job, not just the DM's.

This has one of the best Thumb up/down ratios i've noticed in a while. Go Perkins!

Being surprised as DM is the most challenging, fun and interesting thing 👍

Great video once again.

Love the channel keep it up :)

The Man INSPIRES ME to be a DM again and get my RPG buddies to roll bones once again.

Chris Perkins should do an AmA. There's a ton of questions I'd love to ask this dude

Chris you are the man keep it up!

My take away, don't get saddled with lameos... hehe, don't be a doorknob. Pure gold Chris!

Oh my god, I'm a brand new dm but he just basically described how I run my game

I played about 2 or 3 sessions before I started DMing with my own group. We're currently on the Lost Mines of Phandelver. I can't really give a review on the adventure because I haven't played any other ones. It has been a learning process for both me and the group. I quickly picked up the game mechanics and rules, but I still struggle with roleplaying and answering questions that the book doesn't give me an answer to. For example, what if someone is looking around in a room for treasure or a secret door and then they crit? I used the "for a moment your character gets a strange ethereal perception of the world around you with Godlike giants surrounding the world and giant dice and paper everywhere". I know I need to get better at improv for stuff like this, because i have one player who wants to search everything, every dead body, and every nook and cranny; most of which is not already in the adventure guide. I also made the mistake of running a session and not reading beforehand so that slowed us down a little. My players need to get better at paying closer attention to the game instead of their phones. I basically have one guy that is running the group and the others only show up during combat. I have one guy who doesn't even show up for that.

That collar is looking better today

Chris Perkins and Matt Mercer are the best GMs I've ever seen bar none.

The AI games are one of the things in life that i truly enjoy

M.T. Black and Dan Dillon, probably is on that path.

hah, the writing DnD in the back of your maind all day. that's a truth there. Love ya' Mr Perkins

Cool

lol the first dnd game I played was as a dm

anyone knows how be a player in dnd with C. P.

Chris, we all know your main thought of who to torment is Diath XD No, let's be honest, you torment all of them XD

Great advice- Listen more than you talk. We've got two ears and one mouth for a reason. Nerdarchist Dave

Everyone knows CP is the best, comon

I've had to check discord repeatedly because of that sound at 1:24... is that actually discord on your audio?!

lol, Chris. Can't help thinking, when you're with your wife thinking about mmmm, yeah; you still got in the back of your mind: ok whats happening with the PC's.

I mean, you can provide a bad game. That'll disappoint players pretty quick.

Where is the suggestion to build a wall? I don't feel like we are making D&D great again.