Dungeon Master Tips for D&D | Mathew Mercer | Critical Role | D&D 

Just some format feedback: I would much rather see the full interview in one video than all of these 1-2 question chunks broken out. I like Matt, I like the content, I would just really rather sit down and listen to everything once instead of having to click on video after video after video.

My one D&D experience was DMing a game with my family for my birthday. I crafted a simple, by the book adventure, and the party immediately decided to attack the town guard and spent the next two hours fighting guards in a tavern.

Chat: [Person] looks so angry. [Person]: You have no idea what you’re talking about. Truly the eternal story of CR’s Twitch chat

Never give your players a deck of many things unless you are willing to face the consequences

I think character death can be interesting later in a campaign. Or just with experienced players. Unfortunately, in D&D you're far more likely to be killed extremely early on, well before you have any of the tools necessary to "fix" it. It's especially bad if the players are new too. My dad had a bad experience like that 30 years ago and I can't get him interested in D&D at all because of it. To him, D&D will always be a game where you spend hours creating a character, coming up with a backstory, and then they run into a room and die. Roll a new character. Or quit as he did. I have no idea what went wrong: killer DM, forgetting to check for traps, kobolds. I doubt he remembers either. All he remembers is that he created a character that he didn't get to play.

Matt has given me a level to strive for and permission to outshine him in my own way. Thanks Matt for the wonder example you set when I needed it most.

Since they talked abour sharing house rules, I wanna share one of mine. If someone tries to Counterspell a Counterspell, it creates a wild magic surge. It makes it so there's none of those Counterspell chains (it got REAL bad in one campaign I was in) and adds an interesting dillema. Do you try and help your ally's spell go though, at the cost of something chaotic erupting on the battlefield? I'd personally make a smaller table for this, but one of the results I have is the magic becomes so unstable it just erupts across the field, knocking everyone prone!

I want Mathew Mercer to write books. Books about dungeons and dragons, being a dm, his feelings about stuff, whatever, I'd read it.

I really like to play with the rule that: Reviving... is a limited resource and that it should be hard to accomplish. Does it sometime make for short campaigns? Yes!, but it really adds a sense of deeper connection to your character and the fact that you can't just villy nilly revive all the time and that death have consequences. Cause that makes it so that death isn't a trivial matter. I have plenty of times played in such settings and if i die?... I die... then im out of the campaign. Yes you could roll a new character, but again. I personally at least see this as a ''new life''. Ofc i do understand people that want to roll a new character after their deaths. Heck i have done that aswell, but it is as many says here... at least let it take a while before that character comes into play cause it makes for an impact rather than a: ''eh... i died... oh well... guess im rolling a new toon. Be back next session guys!''

I think one of the best things to do as a DM is join a game as a player if you can, even if it’s online. As a resident DM who finally joined one, I am learning so much

New DM here. I have run a total of 3 sessions. It didn't really "click" for me until I backed off as a DM. Let your players tell the story. You're just there to set up the "guard rails". Unless the players break the rails. Then you just make a new set of rails. Also I tell my players. "You can die. But I'm never going to kill you, but the game might. There will never be a no win scenario. So take chances and come up with your own solutions."

The question I would ask Matt is "HAD Keyleth walked back the goldfish idea into a bird, would you have allowed it?".

Could you imagine creating a house rule, posting about it online, and later finding out Matt Mercer saw it and liked it so much he started using it in Critical Role

D&D is the greatest game of all time, I love that endless GMs can use the same plot, location, and villains and still have their stories become unique.

Oh yes. If i learnt anything about DMing from watching CR, it's to shut the hell up and let the players talk. So good to see this spoken about here because it is the thing that transformed my table's game experience. I have so much fun just being a spectator in my player's story now. Played in a few too many games where players didn't communicate and the DM did all the talking. Can't go back to that.

At 0:33, Can we all take a moment to acknowledge how Laudna may be the weirdest best character ever created for Critical Role? Her backstory, her patron, the creepy messages. She just might be my favorite this campaign.

GM's have to remember that rpg'ing is a collaborative storytelling and it's great that Matt lets the players have their moments in the light. That allows characters to be a part of the story just as much as the NPC's that the GM creates.

I remember one time I was playinh 7th Seas and one of my teammates recommended going to his secret society to get some answers. Meta-knowledge I knew this was a bad idea, that they'd likely kill me to stop me, but in game this seemed like a fine idea. The plot of the game was heavily hinged on my character at the moment, so I talked to my DM in private, told him I was okay if the dice lead to my character death, and we set up a fallback plan to move the plot onto my first mate (basically a letter and a map so he could pursue the treasure/break the curse without me) if I should die.

Not only do I enjoy watching critical role from time to time, but I enjoy picking up things Matt does to see if I can use for myself. I never would strive to be exactly like him, I have my own way of doing things, but he has some incredible ideas that I feel could help me improve my Dming.

One of my favorite house rules I've come up with is if any of the players find something interesting in real life adventures and bring it to the game, I will make it a one use magical item in game that their character found "off screen"

When he said "some DM's don't give the players that space" I couldn't help but think "Yeah, but most players aren't professional voice actor's employed to create stories for an audience." DM's have a lot to do already and the majority of players just show up and wait for the magic to happen.

A good conversation about DnD with a Darkglass head on an Ampeg cab in the background...hell yeah, my 2 passions in the same frame.

Damn Matt, I really love the way you addressed the real consequences question. I’ve been running, what is my first attempt at, a realistic Eberron campaign for the last year. But a couple of sessions in I realized that this is all of us coping from the pandemic and honesty that makes my job so much easier. We’re all here to have fun and forget about the BS for a few hours

I am a DM and I had a player charater death resently. It was so far but we all have been working through it. I think in a way it was a good thing to help everyone work through some stuff or at least I have seen them all do well with it. And I have seen a bit of a change in their play as well. Like they dont want to be next.

I can definitely second the fact that Matt says that he learned a lot from the other players at the table. I have learned a lot from my players as they have game mastered adventures, and I was thinking, "I'm going to steal that! That's an epic idea!"

Every group is different. Some players/groups, I'm serious, only want to create 20th level characters and fight bosses - no story or role-playing (not my style). Other groups want to role-play and act out everything and own the table role-playing (very few players, and not my style). Most players prefer, narration interaction - I narrate, they decide, with many (not all) role-playing their characters in tongue.

There's an alternative critical hit rule set that they use on High Rollers Presents: Aerois Instead of rolling dice then multiplying by 2 you max the damage then roll again, that way you never have a crit that does less damage than average.

watching this after c3 episode 33 hits differently.. but it's a good reminder that they had these conversations before the start

Great advice that Matt gives there about positive spaces and the internet, step away if it ever gets too negative. I stepped away from all social media except RU-vid and LinkedIn. When a certain company decided to show me cat memes and trolling from both sides of the political aisle instead of my nieces wedding pictures, it is when I drew the line and cut myself off. I do not miss it. The only thing I have from that company now is messenger because it is a way for me to stay in contact with one of my nieces.,

This was really nice!

Me personally I'm a returning DM, I used to dm for 3.5 and stopped stopped many years. And I've found the biggest tip I could give to new or refreshing dungeon masters is keep your imagination open, and don't try to expect anything other than having fun

I talked to my players before we started playing and we established that they get super attached to their characters and would be unhappy if they died, so we agreed that there would instead be some severe consequences imposed if a character does fail all three death saves.

Here is a home rule we use in our home game. We roll Hit Points after each long rest. I give a bonus D20 roll when they have a safe and comfortable long rest in a mansion but give a negative D20 roll when the long rest is taken in a dangerous or broken sleep situation. Thoughts?

I played D&D all through 90's as a teenager. We usually played as a group of friends hanging out at someones house for the weekend. I hated when my character died, albiet it wasn't often. I put so much into it, and then I had to sit around watching everyone else play without me.

Got a question to ask DMS Currently creating multiple characters to use as a final fantasy version of Cid (1 in every campaign) he's the same race but different classes, currently creating him as a barbarian but with unarmoured defence of no armour 10 +con/dex mods would these stack if his race was tortle with natural armour of 17. So do I add the 10+con/dex or just con/dex mods. I kno interesting build so he would b a tank but these build are NPCS

If only Matt did a revamp of his old tips, as well as setup. I would love to know what he has on his DM setup now in comparison to before, even if his setup is based on the studio they record in now.

Love the shorts, but is there a long form interview with Matt Marcer?

Matt is just the BEST. He's my DM spirit animal.

I would like to see an interview with Jeremy Crawford on his rulings and how they should be handled. Like does a Dragon's breath go through a tiny hut dome?

I actually picked up call of neatherdeep last night didn’t know the book was new neat

How I am is, like if there's a wall that needs to come and the only way is blowing it up, everyone took a point of damage but, you just found the lost artifact to put the spirit king to rest

Regarding character death, you need to have an in-depth conversation about it before playing. Not just, is it OK, but is resurrection (or the like) possible? If so, at what point do you say it's not? In game, how do you play after the death? Does the player roll up a new PC immediately? Do they take over an NPC? Do you continue playing the session or take a break?

why are these so short and cut up?!

Any chance of this interview being uploaded properly?

FYI Matthew is the voice of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Battlefront II

I have a strange rule, but i find it helps. Never start the players at level 1. (I usually start then at 3). Most of their class features are locked, the have only base stats, they have low health. It doesnt feel like you can do much at lvl 1 and I've seen players get bored.

I introduced some rival characters and my party rolled to befriend them and succeeded so now we have a party of 8 adventures exploring the world of DnD on the quest to close the gates of hell all over the land. We've also been drawing our characters and doing diy crafts and models.

Matt seems to be the human everyone else should strive to be.

I get breaking the interview up into chunks, but why not also release the full interview?

Thanks.

One thing I do is of they are not willing to die whenever they do I just have a hell scape so they can play just the over world and under world have to take turns so

This material is a catalyst for profound reflection. A book with like content reshaped my outlook on life. "The Art of Saying No: Mastering Boundaries for a Fulfilling Life" by Samuel Dawn

the thing I love about DND is the freedom that the DM has. even though I hate being the DM, I like working with the dm.

I agree wholeheartedly! Lethality doesn’t have to be the early days of 1st or 2nd edi where you can die (and probably will) at the drop of a hat. Neither does it have to be what some push for today where the PCs have plot armor and/or player death is unsociable. Of course if you like either of those than more power to you. No one can tell you that you’re doing fun wrong. That said, for me (and as someone who has played in both of the aforementioned styles) I think PC death shouldn’t be every time you play someone has to role up new stats, but I do think the reality of the risk should always be there. If there truly is no danger, then that takes the risk/reward part of the game out of it. In other words, as I see it, it takes the GAME out of the game. PC death happens. I’ve had several PC deaths in the current group that I actually run (we rotate out DMs). As long as it’s fair, it’s all part of the game. It also makes beating challenges more fun and rewarding! Just my 2 cents. You may disagree and if so please comment why.

Living your best life is when the smallest details drive the story. I like to poke them just enough to force their imagination.

Long may he reigh

I'm new to dnd and my brother is going to be the dm because I want to play and being a dm is supper harder then playing the game. The storm wreck isle set is coming in the mail soon. I borrowed a rule book from the library and my brother is reading it trying to figure it out and he's going to play with me. Mom said that I might not be feeling up to playing for 4 plus hours so maybe playing the game for 1 hour. Each time

Is there a good Session Zero Checklist on what to ask players: What they'd like to see, happen? Not deal with, fears. What would trigger them. If they want their character to be plot proof or not? I'm new and got my roommate, wife and daughter all in on a game, playing the Dragon of Icespire Peak. Let them play whatever they wanted, as long as I had the book for it. So Dragonborn Barbarian, Teifling Rogue, Halfling Druid. Our Daughter hasn't expressed much concern over her dying other than, playing smart( distance, behind the barbarian ) druid is also the healer. But the other two had... "jokingly" said that they're character aren't allowed to die / if they die, they're all done. But has me slightly hesitant on how to proceed, I'll keep them from dying if its what they want, but will they enjoy that, knowing they're Plot Proof?

I barrow the rule book from the library and the print is too small to read. Does dnd have bigger print books available to buy? I'm new to dnd and my brother is going to be the dm.

Levi in the house

One mechanic that some DMs use, which I recommend trying only once you're comfortable behind the screen, is looping a player or two into a secret subplot. Matthew Colville has a few examples of this, from reintroducing an old player character(sometimes from a player not at the table that you can invite in) into a new campaign for a couple sessions, to being like, "by the way, your character has been possessed during the night and now your goals are different." Obviously, you don't just want to drop this on a player and railroad them, but collaborate with them outside the game and get them onboard. Similar to the backstage discussion on Critical Role about Vax falling in love with Keyleth, you want to get everyone on board with the idea instead of making people feel awkward or uncomfortable. Like, maybe one of your players is a mercenary, or they have strong loyalty to a particular kingdom. For whatever reason, they have a reason to suddenly betray the party in a crucial moment. Maybe the city they're defending is under siege by an army that has paid this party member enough to betray the party by opening the gates or stopping them from closing, or maybe they feel beholden to the leadership of the invading army, maybe your NPC brother is the king or whatever. Or maybe they've been on board the entire campaign, subtly sabotaging the party without being too overt about it. Maybe you have signals, probably via text message that you can use to communicate with your DM mid session. Searching a wizard's laboratory for research notes? Everyone rolls investigation, but the saboteur also rolls for sleight of hand to either steal or destroy them, but only they and the DM know about the extra roll and the DM just weaves it into the narrative. Trying to make sure the BBEG gets away because they secretly employ you? Fail the strength check to break down the door he escaped through on purpose. Or find the hidden door and say nothing to the party about it. Intentionally jam the lock with your lockpicks. Whatever. As long as it holds true to the storyline and still makes everything feel immersed in the world you've created, no one is going to feel badly about it. The saboteur will feel amazing because they are literally part DM now, so when the charade is finally dropped and the last BBEG encounter begins, everyone will be astounded when he slips that dagger into your cleric's back. And it can be devastatingly delivered in the moment the mask drops. "Hey, Varduin, remember that time you suspected me of alerting the smugglers about our raid? *slides dagger into ribs* You were right." And it can even be timed in a point to swing the fight back into the BBEG's favor. And the rest of party is going to have a Holy Shit moment as they try to comprehend what just happened and suddenly remember a lot of little things that just seemed... off. Nothing obvious enough to warrant an investigation by the party into one of their own, just "huh, he took a long time just to go buy some arrows. Ah, it's a big city, there's a war, maybe he got lost or there's a shortage or something." Meanwhile they're actually off to tip off the smugglers about the party's planned raid. And yes there was a point to all of this, because of that one bit about the characters, or rather the players, having plot armor. Anyone can die at any time, for any reason, even secret saboteurs. The story is collaborative, it's not just the DM's story, even if they're providing most of the framework. Every player is writing their adventure together, and in adventures, people die. Like all the damn time. Look at all the random skeletons in the tombs of Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider of adventurers who failed. They failed a dex save and fell into a deadly spike trap, or they were betrayed by one of the secret guardians of the tomb and silenced to protect it. No one is necessarily safe. There's a character in the Wheel of Time series, Bayle Domon who appears several times throughout the series, who isn't a main character per se, but is still someone with his own dreams and goals who could've been easily written out at any time and replaced with another generic ship captain. Maybe he could've died in Falme, where there was a massive battle and his ship was at real risk of being blown to pieces on the whim of the Seanchan army. He was expendable, no matter how much you love his character, or how crucial he ended up being to the story overall. This time he survived, and the story played out as such. But maybe he died and the next time a ship was needed, it wasn't there, or another one was. Let the story evolve with the character's decisions, even if it means they ultimately die. Maybe your character dies, and their entire subplot just ends. That's okay. Maybe the saboteur gets unlucky in a seemingly unrelated combat, and dies as a result. Bummer, you were looking forward to that twist ending, but that's okay because now your story can evolve to become something else just as epic. Maybe instead of backstabbing the cleric in the final fight, with all their newfound knowledge of your game world, the would have been saboteur has become inspired to create their new character based on something happening in your world. The Elves and Humans are at war? Maybe they're reintroduced as a scout for one of the nations who just so happens to know that the Orcish hordes to the North are planning to take advantage of this war and ravage both countries, turning to the rest of the party for help to stop the war and save his country from the Orcish threat. Assuming the party succeeds and saves both nations, perhaps now they have not one, but two nations resources to help with the eventual BBEG. Maybe now instead of a tragic ending were the heroes lose because of the betrayal, they lose less or at least have a better ending than expected. Maybe the BBEG has altered their plans because their spy within the party has been killed, and it's just as difficult, if not harder, for the heroes to win the day. And after the last die of the campaign of has been rolled, and the credits have ended, you and the saboteur or whatever their role was can finally reveal what the hidden subplot would have been, and still get the reaction from the other players and theorycraft together how that story would have unfolded without that unexpected death. Who knows? Maybe in the next campaign, the players have evolved and become more aware of the finality of death, trying to find that balance of cautiousness vs recklessness of their character. And maybe that leads to another epic moment, one of self sacrifice for what their character believes to be the greater good. Never leave anything off the table, not even death, because when you give the players plot armor, you're denying them a multitude of ways to tell their own story within your world, and denying yourself to opportunity to evolve your world based on their actions within it, not being able to tell a grander tale than you initially thought possible.

Matt's name is misspelled in the video title...

The best D&D for me were the earliest adventures where it felt very, very real that my character might die.

Most people know Matt from dnd while others know him for Jack cooper love ya Matthew

My games have a houserule that reptillian creatures like naga, lizardfolk and yuan-ti are weak to cold damadge on account of being cold blooded

Really wish Matt (and other popular DM's) would actually give useful and specific advice when they get asked for DM tips. It's so easy to give these super safe answers and repeatedly say "Oh yeah, take inspiration from other people", "Use homebrew you find interesting" or "Find out what your table likes". Come on, I've heard that before! Tell me something interesting!

Speaking of no plot proof characters, me and my friends were playing this campaign, the dm was new, never even played a character before. Second session, the party has split already. Me and my friend betrayed the party and joined the cult, but plot twist, we were actually the leaders of the cult all along and this cult owns the island the party is on. The other half of the party reaches the city, it’s surrounded by this huge, stone wall. On top of this wall is my friends character, and elf, and my character, a halfling. The party is yelling at us, asking how we could betray them. Then, from a gate in the wall, a giant suit of armour steps out, moving towards the party. The DM tells us that we are in control of this Helmed Horror. Now, the plan was to get the party to run, but they decided to take the time to discuss what to do. Half the party wanted to run, then one player went, “I can take it.” Then our frantic replies of, “AJ no you can’t, AJ just run, don’t do this.” To which he replied, “I can take it.” Then another player decides to stay and fight with him. “In the time it took for you to argue your plan, the Helmed Horror has reached your party and has just started to swing his sword.” The DM says, at that, half their party runs. The DM messages us in our separate chat for the stats of the Helmed Horror, which we named Mart’n, and looking over the sheet we asked, “is it holding the blade with one or two hands?” The DM said two. “AJ, how many hit points do you have?” He had 40. We rolled the dice. 9(d10+4). The least amount of damage it could possibly do is 45. We roll. It does 85 damage. “The Helmed Horror swings, his blade slicing AJ from shoulder to hip, killing him instantly.” Everyone is screaming, the other player who stayed turned and ran, leaving his fallen friend’s body behind.

I have a general question towards anyone who'd like to answer it regarding DnD. I'm a relatively new DM, soon to be a year and a half, and still playing with the first assembled group I tried it with! Now... I have always been a lore sponge, and therefor felt relatively prepared for lore in DnD, even though I hadn't DMed before, and it did prove to be mostly rules and well, some more obscure lore that the players didn't necessarily ask or know how to ask about anyways so all was good! Now I want to create my own sphere in DnD... and I kinda want to change the "origin" of quite a few of the races for it to fit my sphere, in this case the changes being to Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Dragonborn, Drow, Tiefling, Gith and Gnomes. I don't change ALL of their lore, but I change the very origin of them basically to fit my sphere. How would people feel about this if their DM did it?... And DMs... how do you feel about this?

It's nice to see in critical role that the characters actually have downtime and use it to do fun stuff, last time my group had down time we had an artificer single handedly break the game by mass producing items to the point where our characters essentially became anime protagonist and thus caused artificers to be banned from future campaigns.

Ganondorf plays D&D

What happens if a character dies? Does the player just leave?

Look angry? Maybe because you're focusing on the next set-up and are afraid you're gonna miss some important roleplay moment the pc's bring about!

Talk about the cliff dive from Vox Machina if anyone says Matt is too forgiving!

Matthew Mercer is the best DM EVER!! Can't change my mind!!!! I'd love to meet this man!!!!!!!

20 wisdom

...and without real stakes, taking out real vampires can be problematic.

I’m glad to see that Todd Kenreck is no longer trying to be “heavy metal” with Hot Topic accessories and has settled into “comfortable dadwear”.

Let's start a chain of everyone's favourite moment in a game, whether it be something your DM or a player did, or a house rule of your table that came into play. Let's hear them all!

I can't tell if they're in his living room or a recording studio

YOO

I really don't wanna sound like an annoying guy just screaming his opinions on the internet cause I've already said this once in a previous video. But to hopefully give some constructive criticism, from what what can tell more people than not really dislike this 5 minute "interview" format. You ask like one question, maybe 2 if we're lucky then that's it till the next 5 minute video.. Could we please just get the full interview? It feels like your just padding for content.

1st tip is “steal other good ideas from the internet” lol

Listen, for however great Mr Mercer is,...he's still young. Still learning, we just benefit from it!

Mathew.....

Gotta be honest, stopped watching all these interviews since they got rid of Bryan & changed formats. It doesn’t feel like friends hanging out anymore. Feels more like strangers asking questions cause a contract got signed

Imagine calling Matt Mercer not nice lol

My entire family hates that i love d and d so i am relegated to watching critical role in secrecy. Its so dumb

Hard disagree with the idea of moving away from negative spaces. At least immediately. If you never face adversity, you will never learn to deal with it. Adversity builds strength. Running and hiding has never solved a single problem in the history of everything. That being said, if there's nothing there but negativity, yeah move on. Nothing to gain there.

This is so much tips, as it is congratulations to one dungeon master. No offense, but I learned nothing. This is all common sense stuff

Slightly less misleading title than Matt's Favorite C3 Moment which didn't exist but my respect has been lost already on account of integrity. Clickbait and drip-feeding this weak interview is a bad look. The questions are so bad, Matt can't even answer them properly. Watch any Hot Ones and tell me where that happens. Congrats, you got my view to add to your metrics, but you lost the chance at my heart in the process. Understate and overdeliver instead of assimilating into predatory advertising tactics and it will take you far.

"Positive Communities" Matt, I love your GM style and take a lot from it...but, to be honest, Critical Role is NOT a positive Community. I consider myself a fairly moral person and I often am disappointed at the language you and your players use. I add to this that I personally know 10 and 12 year olds that watch every episode of Critical Role. This fact makes me cringe when I hear the filthy jokes such as how FCG got his name. It's so unnecessary to the game and as inclusive as you have become year after year, I, and people like me feel grossly excluded from Critical Role.

What is up with that dudes mouth…