Dungeons and Dragons Makes You A Better Writer 

Ey! I have been wanting to talk about Dungeons and Dragons on the channel for a while now, so I hope you enjoy this. It is my favorite pastime, and it is my goal in life to share it (and TTRPGs in general) with as many people as possible. On the back end of stuff, there has been a bit of a gap between videos as these last two have been more ambitious than any project Jesse (my wonderful and talented editor, illustrator, and animator) and I have ever done before. With that said, expect a handful of videos over the next few months. Based on the support the channel has been getting on Patreon along with simply getting more views, the dream of this becoming, like, an actual sustainable thing is starting to become a real possibility, meaning we have been and will be able to put more time into it. So, thank you for watching, and if you want to support the channel, share videos you enjoy (like this one hopefully), engage in the comments, and, if you have the means and desire to, check out the Patreon. I appreciate you, and I hope you have a great day and/or night.

I've been a DM for 15 years. The number one advice I tell new DMs "Write Lord of the Rings, expect to play Monty Python."

The very first session of D&D I ran in college, the players took a job to raid a bandit hideout and recover stolen goods. They killed the leader and took his lightning-imbued sword, also choosing to spare two of the lackeys. I didn't expect this, but I went along with it. Having just watched The Dark Knight Returns, I named them Ron and Don and sort of went for a comedic buddy-buddy tone with them. The players asked me what the two bandits' alignments were. Checking the MM, I saw that bandits could be "any non-lawful" alignment. So, I rolled a d6 for both of them (1=NG; 2=CG; 3=TN; 4=CN; 5=NE; 6=CE). Ron got a 1. Don got a 4. Right then and there, the party began to talk amongst themselves. Within minutes, they unanimously decided to make Ron, this random lowlife bandit with a heart of gold, the hero of their campaign. I decided at the same time to make Ron less of a comedic character and more of an insecure, low-confidence character, which only made them latch onto their idea even more. Considering the quality of their weapons (level 1), they gave him the lightning-infused scimitar, and encouraged him to give it a name. He asked them to name it for him, but they insisted he name it. And so, "the Arcrider" was born. Grateful that their lives were spared, Ron and Don were persuaded to follow the heroes for the rest of the session. A battle erupted in the village they started out in, cultists of Cthulhu aligned with sahuagin attacking and kidnapping people left and right. Smoke filled the air as the wooden structures began to burn, and sounds of chaos filled the party's ears. The party sprung into action, making a heroic counter-charge in the streets. Don was killed in the first round of combat. Ron went solo into the burning smithy to look for innocent people. The heroes engaged in battle against the cultists, eventually coming face to face with their leader (plot twist: it was their employer). Whenever it came to Ron's turn (I rolled behind the DM screen for his success, since they couldn't see him), they filled in the blanks. The fifth round of combat, Ron emerges from the smithy, the blacksmith's arm around his shoulders while his two daughters fled. To my surprise, they were almost more overjoyed by this than their own success against the cultists, proceeding to convince me that Ron's sword was also stained with blood because he single-handedly took on numerous sahuagin while rescuing the smith and his family. Mechanically it didn't make sense (one CR 1/8 vs multiple CR 1/2), but I didn't step on their toes and make it legit. The battle against the head cultist was starting to take a sour turn. The paladin was down (again), the fighter was almost below 0hp, the ranger and monk were doing their best, and the cleric was being a coward (totally in-character). The head cultist was using a _spiritual weapon_ that was focused on occupying the characters at range while a few sahuagin minions tried to block the melee characters. Was it a hard fight for level 1? Sure, but not impossible. Eventually the monk goes down, and I have Ron come running down the street, his flimsy crossbow in hand. The party knows that the spiritual weapon's still in play, and they all warn him to stay away. His response? "N-No, my friends need me!" New objective: save Ron. The party didn't try to move him away, but knowing that the boss was low on HP, knew they had to focus on him. The ranger's turn comes up, and I say, "[The boss] is pretty hurt, but he's furious. If you don't kill him on your next attack, he'll target Ron." Nervous remarks spread through the players' ranks, and they all look intently at the ranger. He grabs his dice, shakes his hands with a look of pure desperation, and rolls for attack. Hit. Roll damage... 7. BBEG falls to -1 hit point. I'm sure you can imagine just how joyous those next thirty seconds were. --- Honestly, I don't think I could have DMed a more compelling or exciting Session One for a handful of mostly inexperienced players. They took this random NPC that I had given absolutely no thought toward ahead of time and made him the highlight of their adventure. They invested themselves in the story and created something special, a common goal that will last for probably the entire campaign. Ron is barely above a young adult peasant in almost every aspect of his character, but my players are determined to have him be such a large part of their story that he becomes the world's most triumphant unlikely hero. Of course, I would never let Ron completely steal the spotlight from the players, knowing all too well that DMPCs have that habit. A lot of the time he doesn't talk, simply following along with the party and fighting alongside them during combat. If they want his opinion or something, I'll play his character accordingly, but I never awkwardly force him into anything without the players taking the initiative to include him first. Ever since his introduction I agreed to their demands of making Ron a low-key badass, much to the delight of my players. He has very little self-confidence and talks with a stutter, relying on the players to guide his actions, but when the chips are really down he comes in full force with his lightning sword. I always roll for Ron in front of the players, and let's just say the dice gods have a funny way of making effectively dramatic moments every other session or so. Ron is definitely not a crutch for the players. In fact, I always keep him a level or two lower than the rest of the party so he doesn't get too powerful. They are the protagonists of the story and they know that, but honestly I'm more than happy to build a story around Ron *with* them. Often times the best experiences in D&D are those that are least expected, and being a narrative-oriented DM, there's nothing I love more than to work with my players on shared storytelling. Sorry for the long post, but if you read through it all, I hope it was at least entertaining and somewhat relatable! --- *TLDR:* My players befriended a random bandit at level 1 and are now actively working with me to make him the hero of their campaign. I couldn't be happier to oblige.

in my campaign i made a side villain that i intended to be a joke character that would pop in from tome to time (like team rocket in pokemon) but agter driving him off for the first time, the player found the villians baby son, i thought the player would just kill it in some goofy way but then the player decided to take in this baby boy as his own and raise him to be a great fighter, many many sessions later this boy is now a young warrior alongside his adopted father after going through so many adventures together, i cant imagine my campaign without him

Another craft that DnD often requires is the art of verbal storytelling. it may seem unnecessary, but It is vitally important. the best example I can think of is comedians. most of their jokes are told in the form of stories and the way they tell stories don't make good literature when written down. So the way they tell stories is very important, like the cadence of their speech, how they adjust volume and tone mid story to clue you into the importance bits(usually in sync with their cadence.) and the posture they have throughout the story are all integral to keeping attention on the important bits. And that's what I try to integrate into my DMing personally.

You REALLY notice some people genuinely love the hobby when they talk about it

Carl you can't just walk through doors, that kills people Carl.

Worst part about having to write for a campaign is how crazy off the rails it gets. Our party was meant to have a intense game of intrigue with a local Hag, possibly make a deal with her for information. Instead they attacked her, she got away and they burned her house down, along with the trapped villagers inside who they went to go save.

I love DnD, and when you get enough experience with the system it's really flexible with what you can do with it. My friends and I have done a "traditional" fantasy campaign, a Norse campaign, a modern campaign, a zombie apocalypse campaign, a magical girl campaign, and a "from another world" campaign. We generally stick to 3.5 or Pathfinder (sometimes both) and I have countless memories of it all, and it's a huge reason why myself and my elementary school friends are all still friends despite being in our mid 20s now.

"Carl walked through the door and FUCKING DIED." I have notes exactly like that, so nice to know I'm not the only DM, great video !

I remember when a couple of my friends approached me a year ago and asked me if I would like to play dnd for the first time and I would avoid them like the plague. It wasn’t until I was legitimately kidnaped by them to finally join them and by god am I glad they did. I fell in love immediately when I made my Half Orc Barbarian “Keth Yurk,” with his awesome backstory. From that day I was introduced to fantastic lore and a awesome community. I was so happy to bring three more people to this awesome game, to our group which we had only a few members. I am now a DM of my own campaign with all six of my dearest of friends and with more people wanting try it out in my high school. I couldn’t be more happy to be part of something like this.💙

Wait, Carl dies on a 14!!! What was the DC on that door ?!

Video actually made me want to consider playing sometime

On top of improving my storytelling skills, d&d has been a real source of motivation to get better at voice acting. Like 90% of the npc’s in my campaign have distinct voices and while I do look silly making their voices it’s always gratifying knowing and seeing my players can recognize most of them by “their” voice.

You're definitely in deep, or as some would say, D&DEEP

“I’ve been writing stuff ever since my teacher told me I’m not entirely terrible at it.” Literally my existence in a nutshell.

You're not entirely terrible at this. Haha,. that's perfect.

"You're not entirely terrible at this." - the nicest thing his teacher ever said to anyone.

Hey, there's one thing more people should know! There are OODLES of other TTRPGs beyond DnD! Many that have easier but more fun rules, span different genres, or approach the same genre with different perspectives or objectives! World of Darkness and Powered by the Apocalypse systems are worth reading just as much as DnD if not more!

You're the person that wrote Percies Funeral? That was such a great read that I still sometimes think about it!

I don’t think I realized how much I missed D&D until I watched this.

"DMing seems to appeal a lot to writers" It's the whole reason I figured out I *am* a writer. Now to actually write something instead of just creating synopsis.

I just recently started playing DnD after wanting to since high school (could never find a group willing to take on a total newbie). I can't believe it took me till 31 to start playing, but holy crap is it fun! I'm already starting to look into DMing, and I'm hoping that it'll go well when I do.

Ayyyy, Hollow Knight music. :D I recognised it instantly. :P

I played DND made in 1975 for Plato (and DOS in 1984)

playing d&d for the first time tomorrow!

5:16 aaayyy! I wondered if I would see a McElroy in this video!

Just started playing D&D for the first time in 40+ years. Huge help to my writing. Wish I would have started sooner. But, glad I did!

Damn, I like the "2 more senses" insight.

Your channel is so under-rated!

Shadowrun is a game that will teach you about being the sole person responsible for disarming the bomb. the amount of tension that can rack up even doing something relatively small is enormous and rewarding. my group has successfully gotten into the back room of a storehouse where some gangers are hiding stolen tech. everything from this point has gone swimmingly we have knocked out the guards confirmed the goods and all we have to do is carry them down the stairs out the back load up the car. the one roll between that and us ghosting the fuck out of there? a stealth roll to bring the car around back.... we get spotted a shot rings out 9 guys in the other room now know we are in here im already pretty drained from slinging spells around. the face was not designed for combat in mind. our one shot is to take out all the guys in the other room at once. no grenades, its up to me to cast the most powerful spell i can and it just might kill me to do so butt there's not a lot of alternatives.

I'm stealing that idea of having some dice near me when I'm writing.

4:50 this scene just makes me happy at my core

This... 100% this! I recently finished writing my first book, haven't got an editor yet as I can't afford it at the moment. I've been doing D&D for 15 years, primarily as a player, and as I've dived in deeper and deeper into DMing I've found the opposite that you have, that my writing has helped my DMing descriptions and world building an immense amount. I can't wait to publish my book and see how my writing has improved with the second book in the series. :)

i only knew d&d by name and this is the first time i actually tried to learn what it is about. i need more.

Please make another D&D video. This one was awesome.

Loved all the pat rothfuss clips! especially the one where his beard was all bouncy! haha TNotW is definitely my favorite novel. far and away from all others. as a writer who dabbles in art, acting, and basically everything creative, I've loved D&D. I just started last year but I fell hardcore in love with it. You have some really good points in this vid, and I especially like the idea of rolling a dice while you write! With the little thing about getting published at the end, I say go for it! Novels are hard to publish, but it can be pretty easy to get short stories, personal essays, or poems published in a journal somewhere! Just today I actually got 2 copies of a journal I was published in, snd it was super simple! I'm a published writer and you can be too :)

as a guy who is studying screenwriting an has played dnd for the last four years, this hits real close to home.

I hear that Vindsvept music in the backround :4:10 Good choice sir. Very good choice.

Totally agree! I also recently came to the conclusion that building a campaign (for other GMs to run) has helped with a lot of the structural aspects of writing a novel. Writing down the "Major Characters" breakdowns, factions, the world, and other aspects of the campaign, to form a template that the action takes place in has shifted how I write. I used to internalize everything. I also do love the idea to roll a die for success in story writing. Great video!

This was in my recommended, and I'm very glad I clicked. I've been playing D&D since I was 8, and became a much better storyteller because of it. (Because dear gods, did I suck miserably at writing. Fuck a plot. Let's just throw in dragons. Just a priestess who sprouts dragon wings. Yeah, that works.) I love connecting with others who find such joy and inspiration from it! Please keep up the wonderful work! And best of luck on the book publishing someday in the near future.

What about writing down a D&D campain one once had with his party and filling in some details/colorizing it with nice language?

I landed here after following a link on Game Maker Toolkit's video about synergies. Good stuff! I'm stealing your idea to roll dice when a character does something, not to keep it, but just to imagine how it'd play out, just for the unpredictability value. You have your characters succeed or fail for a narrative reason most of the time, so you actually already have a really good picture in mind of how they feel and act in those particular circumstances, but adding the unpredictability value does sound like it'd teach you as a writer a ton about them. I love that idea.

I've never seen any of your stuff before but this really pulled me in! You're absolutely right about how it helps as a writer, and I loved hearing about your story with the villain and the tip about describing two other senses in any given scenario because I hadn't heard that one before. I'd really love to see you talk more on the subject in the future, and it was a quick subscribe from me when I was only about 3 minutes into the video;;

God I agree with this! I've just started playing D&D and recently DMed my first session on New Year's Eve for some friends. It's incredible how that immediate response is so great for improving my writing and story telling. At the start, the players woke up in a tavern and I described it fairly simply, mostly due to nerves. Once they left the tavern, they see the main focal point of the village they're in which is a clocktower. This tower is the main dungeon the players will end up crawling and so I've spent A LOT of time thinking about it, and my description of that was a lot stronger. One player at the table actually gave a little sigh at this massive structure, like they were seeing what I was seeing and that was enough for me to really understand what they needed for the world to be real to them. That immediate feedback is so vital, even though they didn't know they were giving it, and I KNOW it's going to improve my storytelling in general. The dice thing while you're writing is such a neat trick that I'm going to steal for sure. One other trick I've been doing is using the combat rules of D&D as a way of writing combat when I'm writing. Before, I found fight scenes desperately difficult to describe and understand, but the idea of breaking it down into six second segments that work in some sort of order has really helped (and then going through and editing it down so it's not reading like a description of a TTRPG encounter haha) Bravo, excellent video!

Hi, love the video! Going to check out your podcast now! Thanks!!

This video resonated with me hard, me being a screenwriter in Russia, who just have finished university. It's kind of surreal, that i too started playing about two years ago and the things that cheks all the boxes with you is really the same for me. It's a great feeling to know that your thouhts are simmilar to another guy at the other side of the world. Basically, thanks for the vid, subsribed now.

As this was uploaded I had just finished building my Lionfolk mystic lol! Love your videos man

One thing about DnD (or similar game) that i think about when it comes to writing (tho i do not write) is that you always have to consider character powers and abilities. The players will address their obstacles with their repetoire to the fullest extent, so you must always consider what those include. Often a thing i notice in movies and tv is that the writers will have characters forget their abilities - especially their overpowering abilities - when its convenient to move the story forward. Meanwhile, players at a table will not hesitate to use what they can to potentially avoid conflict or reduce a struggle into something trivial

"Carl walked through the door and FUCKING DIED!" the audacity.

I've just started playing DND during lunch lol

In one session I did some of people from the dnd club at my school (one of them had started their own campaign on discord) we had a recurring character be a young child whos father had been killed by one of the villains, at one point in a surprise turn of events we found the child dead, this almost made me break into tears because of how much he had put into the child character wise and how the child had become one of my favorite npcs, plus the dm described so well, and I think that's one of the highlights of the campaign I do outside of school almost

As a writer, this was so interesting to watch. My friends and I started playing dnd over quarantine because my fitness brother, a DM, was available to help lead, especially since most of us didn’t know what we were doing. We were gonna okay once a week until the campaign was done but we stopped as school was taking over our lives. While we played, I felt myself not very connected with what was happening. Maybe because I never really had an interest in dnd before or maybe because it’s set in a fantasy world and I usually write romance/young adult stories or maybe because I wasn’t physically sitting around a table with my friends playing the game causing it to be less engaging for me. I honestly don’t know but after this video, if were ever free enough to try it again, I’ll keep this video in mind as I could use it to improve my own writing. I’m currently writing a novel right now which isn’t something I normally do. I’m normally a short story person so it’s definitely been rough but I’m working on it slowly day by day, with things in mind for what’s going to happen that may or may not make it into the final edit as well. But I had this idea and I thought a novel would be best as it was just such a big idea to put into one short story. Maybe if we ever play more dnd I can use what I’ve learned from this video to influence my writing. Also I got into fiction writing because a teacher encouraged me and told me I was good at it too :)

Video about why D&D is great: ✔ Video with Hollow Knight soundtrack: ✔ ✔ ✔

One could say you're in D'n'Deep.

7:55 Carl died from an 11... ... good to know.

Ive wanted to get into a good tabletop RPG, but every time I've tried, the group im with just ends up being really dry, or the DM has no clue what he wants to do, practically making up a nonsense story every game. I get bored because nothing is happening, even after 3 or more sessions. Were still in the same town, taking to the same people, and discussing some plan to do some thing that will never expand. Only one time have I ever played a good table top RPG was actually a home brew verison, and it was because the DM we had actually seemed interested and excited in his own story. That got me excited, and got me trying things and creating events that otherwise would've never occurred. Over the course of the story, I ended up being an extremely weak character, but who's persuasive skills were so great that i could convince my enemies to attack each other, and that was the main way that I did battle. The DM allowed this, and began creating rules for what could and could not be persuaded in battle, and it created much more interesting combat encounters. But most DM's try too hard to railroad their own ideas and plans for the story that it sucks all the fun and creativity out of the game. And usually those are the DM's ive played with over the years. I'd love to get into the game with someone who's excited to tell a story, but also open to having that story changed based on what the players have chosen to do.

7:57 "Carl walked through the door and FUCKING DIED" had me rolling on the floor

I’m a simple man. I hear “Reflection” by Christopher Larken, I like

This is a really neat video, more like these please. I would watch an entire series about your opinions and thoughts on DMing and writing fiction in general. I thank you for the tidbit about using two senses apart from sight, never thought about before but it is a good rule of thumb. Here is my personal trinary rule of writing: 1. The Plot 2. Character development 3. World building Unless it is related to one of those three then it is irrelevant and needs to go away. It helps me keep things focused and I mix and blend the three to keep things interesting and you would be surprised how many things that can fit in those three categories.

Wow thank you for this video... Thanks for your time and your work :)

This was a huge coincidence for me viewing this video today because I just finished DMing a Zelda themed D&D campaign. It took 10 months to finish, and now I feel somewhat empty now that it's finished. But also relieved. I really like that you also write fan fictions about your own campaigns because I am also in the process of writing a fan fiction retelling of my Zelda campaign.

Awesome video! Tabletop RPGs have been a huge creative outlet for me and it’s awesome to see how many people have picked them up lately!

This video gave me an idea for when writing. Any action for the character your writing about, write about if they succeed the action, or fail. What is most interesting but also follows it to be a better story. I'm hoping it will help shape the story even more so then just writing along the lines of when you want them to succeed and when you don't.

I wouldn't be an author if it wasn't for D&D. This video does a great job of showing the connection between gaming and writing as well as show non-gamers the basics of D&D/rpgs. I think my experience as a GM helps when my story takes an unexpected turn, especially as I work from a loose outline to begin. Gaming experience is especially invaluable to pantser writers, as they are comfortable going wherever the story takes them. Thanks for making this video - I'll be sure to share.

The homebrew game project I've been working on (for the past 22 years) will also supports the key characters & elements in the matching book novel & moviescript I've got percolating at the same time, more or less..

when the Hollow Knight music came in, I felt that

I hear that Hollow kinight music...and I'm totalyl not crying..

As a novelist, I honestly really understand how DMing fits in with my writing. I'm DMing for the very first time, and I got way more excited than I thought I would

5:48 ... Not including any actual games I've played, just what I've watched and listened to... I have consumed over 2000 hours of D&D (I recently calculated it). Most of that has been Critical Role. I checked. and I knew EXACTLY what moment that was in the series!! I am a Freakin Critter! My Life is Validated! That is all. For those wondering its campaign 1, episode 85, A Bards Lament, 2:58:20

0:40 (insert wonderland vogue elves joke here)

Thank you so much for this. I have to say one thing, it looks to me you have already written something that has been published... by making this and other videos. Might not be a novel, but it's still your ideas and vision being shared with many many people. You've earned yourself a fan. And that d 20 by the computer while you write! I'm gonna try that.

I've never played D&D. The woman I like keeps trying to drag me to play. Eventually she will succeed, so I need a primer lol

I find it quite interesting that you use a d20 to help in your writing. If you've never looked into it before, you should check out FFG's Narrative Dice system they use for the Star Wars RPG. That system involves more than just success or failure, it also adds in advantage and threat, which cause the players and the GM to have to think even more outside the box on how a scene plays out because you can succeed a check, but still have something bad accompany it; or you can fail a check, but still have something good come out of it. It makes for some pretty engaging moments. The first time I played the Star Wars RPG I thought "this system would be fun to try and use in a writing experiment."

I just found out about you and love your content. I’d love to see you cover the topic of waypoints and other stuff that directly guides the player in games (quest steps, direct instructions on how to do stuff and where to do it, etc). I’d love to see you discuss how many games fail to make it interesting and engaging for the most part (assassins creed, Bethesda RPGs, Horizon Zero Dawn, literally any Ubisoft open world game) and games that do it well as well as ones that do it well in other non-open world games (games like the old Thief games, Deus Ex, Dishonored). And it’d be interesting to see you discuss what lessons should be taken from other games when designing open world games and their quests. I personally believe minimal hand-holding and guidance is the best route. Let players get lost. Let them experiment. Let them run into challenges and find their own unique route and make their own story. Obviously this requires more than just changes to hud and the info you give players, it requires a specific design and focus when designing the game’s systems as well as the world itself and when writing the quests. Anyway I’m loving your channel and looking forward to more content and analysis on game design like your “Items are boring” video.

Love how you out in the Node dnd vampire "thing" lol

The thing that me and my friends love about dnd is how after each campaign and session we can always recall memories in the story as if we were there

If you had a million vids on this topic I'd watch all of them in a day. I love your perspective as a writer on DnD

as someone who plays dnd i can find this whole video true, there are some very memorable moments we talk and joke about even from 2 years ago like an iron door that no one could get through because everyone kept getting bad rolls, so for now on any time someone mentions an iron door we all smile i know this comment seems excessive, but i don't think i will ever outgrow narrateing and playing table top rpgs and especially dnd

My favourite DnD story has to be one I read on Tumblr about a guy who failed a roll when he was trying to insult a monster (troll or orc or ogre or something) and the DM is like "you give the monster a compliment" and it just spiraled out of control and they ended up in a relationship. 2nd favourite story is how I met my love through it. I wasn't part of the campaign as it was my roommates' team but one day they invited me to help host and become a sort of secondary DM and I ended up doing the voices for the NPCs and rolling for the monsters. The man across the table was absolutely fascinated with me and he stayed well past when everyone went home asking me about my writing and gaming skills, my two passions. It was wonderful I wish he didn't move to another country :/

Hey dude, as an aspiring author who also loves d&d I related super hard to this video! Everything you spoke of was super true! You sir earned yourself another subscriber 😁

Ever since I was a kid I've always wanted to be an author. I would mostly get fixated on science fiction rather than fantasy, books of Asimov, Jules Verne,Clarke always had my attention more than fantasy books for a long time. When I started highschool everyone around me constantly said that I couldn't be a writer in Turkey because it is not a stable job with a steady income. Now I am doing a PhD and a few years back, I don't remember what sparked it but I got into D&D, and that tiny interest reignated my passion for writing. Now I am doing my PhD AND writing stories for my friends and wife who love D&D (thanks to me; D&D is not very well known in Turkey, I bought the books from England) and I only wish that it was even more popular here so I could keep finding excuses to write D&D stories.

Man, when I did my first D&D campaign, it was something else. Unfortunately, times change and I've not been able to do any D&D stuff due to work, and being alone alot. I personally would love to try Vampire: The Masquerade, mostly b/c of my time with Bloodlines on PC. But still, everyone SHOULD try D&D once in their life. It's actually pretty fun.

I tried to DM only for a short few years over the 20 plus years I had played D&D total. I stumbled, failed and progressively got worst as time went on. I think a lot of my faults lay on the fact I'm really bad at sudden turn of events or if a player does something to be more disruptive to the game then add to it. I become a mess when trying to come up with an outcome on the fly and if I try I usually make it worse. The problem with this is I can't just take 10-15 minutes break and have something ready in a short time. I really need to think about it, I'm slow and this is why I'm a bad DM. If I took the time to figure out how to deal with every twist and turn players were to throw at me the game would never get done it a life time. I tried to even use what I knew about my friend to anticipate what they might do, even going way off the rails, but they always find a why to go further beyond. Another matter is I think I was the only one just trying to have fun, not trying to become to worried about rule in the end, but my friends would always forgot that it should be more about fun and not rules. I always felt when I was DMing they'd weren't taking things serious when they should've and moment that shouldn't they would. In the end I think we all were just a very bad mismatched group and had harder time finding a common ground to agree upon. As for my other issue, I'm a very easy person to intimidate. I hate conflict and if there is any issue in the game with a player causing problem or anyone not paying attention I'm unable to do anything about it. DMing isn't from what I gather for the timid and weak minded. If you're unable to handle the issues at the table between you and the players then you probably should just give up. I could never tell any of my friends what they're doing feels disruptive to the table and if I ever need to kick someone out the group I couldn't do it. I'd sooner just give up being a DM or give up D&D as a whole then have to make such a choice. Which is probably why I to this day have no group or friends. I'm a door mat and I'll always be walked upon in the end. All the fun hobbies that require social interaction I'll never really understand how to get to that level of, "fun." I can't even keep up with single player game these days, everything seem so complex, I miss the simpler days of the 80's. Sure I didn't have much, but at least I had a better grasp of stuff. Feel like I should've been born early 1900's and should be in my grave by now. I feel in another 5 to 10 years and I won't be able to even function in society anymore.

1:06 I want to read that entire essay.

So awesome that this happens to be your video on my birthday. :)

7:34 funny enough my bard actually got stuck in a similar scenario, he was sneaking along a rooftop, failed a dex save, and fell into an alleyway where he was jumped by thugs and forced to defend himself with magic that he didnt know was illegal, this caused him to get arrested the next morning while he was at the clinic, he got interrogated by a court wizard, got out of punishment by becoming her aprentice, and now must return to her in 6 years for his aprenticeship. and yet if i hadnt rolled that 3, that session would have been so much more boring!

I once gave a baby dragon flanked by a low level dragonborn barbarian and a crazed dryad as a boss encounter. They decided to spare the dragon and are hoping to tame it. What was I going to do? Object to it? That's not how DMs roll. I gave them a fair chance at it, knowing it was more fun that way. The dragon is presently enjoying life in a natural reserve right next to an elven settlement. The players didn't inform the elves about this. To be continued...

I might have to start showing this video to people who have never played D&D before. It encapsulates the whole of D&D so well!

Last time I played pen and paper rpg was some more than 10 years ago. It was a great group of vampire the masquerade, with multiple Narrators and more than 20 players. It was a huge and fun mess. We had minors encounters every friday early evening and a major one once a month with everybody, which was an in-game social event. Players wrote a "report" of the things that happened to the narrators. A lot of the stories happened by pure player interactions, with minimal Narrator intervention. Since then, I never found anyone that played RPG ever again, which is pretty sad. I got to know people from all over town and people from different circles and walks of life.

Dm: *spends hours working on a story considering how different results may impact it and making sure the story is good and solid but still flexible* Players: hey you know all those plans? Yeah nah we're gonna go look for stupid side quests instead Been playing dnd for about three years now (started running campaigns last year) and holy crap I cannot praise that game enough xD That said, I prefer Paranoia. I've never been much of a team player so being able to run off and do my own thing without other players knowing what I'm up to is such a blast. But running a game of dnd gives me such a great feeling that It's hard to say if I prefer running dnd campaigns/one shots or if I prefer playing in Paranoia. The first time I ran, I set up the game to be a sort of open-world type thing where players could do whatever they liked. This meant I was focusing way more on world building than anything else. There were plenty of sidequests for players to choose from (I had 5 people playing) and they took one about picking up and delivering some medicine that had gone missing. They'd stumbled on a village that had been deteriorating for decades and was stricken with disease and poverty. The few healers they found there wore plague masks, mass graves were being dug for those who hadn't made it, it stunk of rot and decay, people were heard crying and mourning their lost loved ones... Players got distracted on the way to the medicine by a bounty hunt. They killed what was essentially a Hinox for those who have played botw (I take VERY heavy inspiration from games xD) and then while looting the body, a question came up of what he was wearing. I said a simple loincloth. Then they wondered if that meant we could see it's schlong since he was laying down and they'd just taken the cloth. An argument broke out about how long it was and it was awkward as was since my little sister was in the group and my mom was in the next room and it was just weird, so I told them that we should let the dice decide. Upon agreement, I rolled it... and got a nat 20. It was the ONLY 20 that was rolled that entire session. The only goddamn one. One ended up cutting it off so they could sell it on the black market... Side note, they took so long arguing about the schlong and then dragging it around with them that by the time they returned with the medicine, everyone in the village had perished already and it was empty. I had so much story about this village, so many ideas about that grey area in morals and so many other ideas related to it...... nope, a Hinox schlong is more important😂

Alright, so, I got a story to tell I spent about half a year working on a campaign that gave each player free reign over what their character did, so if there were important characters, they could kill them, if they wanted to leave the party and explore on their own, they could. We spent more than a year playing it and honestly, it was one of my best campaigns I had ever ran. I took inspiration from The Witcher (specifically the third game) and several inspirations from Greek mythology and even games like Dead Space and Half-Life, to drive a sense of dread in players' actions. Basically, the campaign made every player "immortal", but they still die, only, any wounds they receive, including death, will be healed in one hour. Though, the campaign was very interesting, I am actually writing a story on it now, since there was a TON of events for a story. But yeah, DnD is good for story-telling and helping people learn how to write.

I don't know your channel but I'm really impressed and happy to hear the impact that d&d can have to writers. I am I writer myself or at least try to be one but since I DM, I just can't find the time to concentrate and be creative in two different worlds and circumstances. You probably won't see this but if you or anyone else in a similar situation reads this: Do you have any tips, any solutions for this problem? I don't want to stop DMing but I don't think that I can fullfill my dream and become an author that way...

Carl walked through the door and FUCKING DIED

That paper talking abt fast travel is great

I don't plan my campaigns on a session by session level, i just have hooks, villains, and encounters, and let the players bumble their way through it. It takes a while to get them out of the wenching and incoherent mess phase, but once people start roleplaying properly, that type of game is amazing. Plus you can keep notes and make things that just kinda happened into recurring things.

9:11 *Cries in no friends*

I really enjoyed this. I am fascinated by the wide variaty of the game to make a story and challenge. And it is sad that in Chile I can't never find a group to play with.

Working on my first character's backstory while listening to this!

Great video. Gonna start using that "describe with at least 2 feelings that aren't sight" rule.