How To Prep For DMing a Campaign Session (Adventuring Academy: Office Hours) 

"LET them get drunk at the tavern, LET them ignore your plot hook," "And then two days later when the ritual goes off, let the goblins come back with an 18th level wizard and smoke the town" *A man after my own heart,* this is diabolically humbling and I WILL be doing this to my players.

"So glad to be here!"...aaand he's one "Hey, bud!" away from fully becoming Digby Thistlespring.

can totally imagine Brennan as a bartender in the closing hours, polishing away... “wanna hear a story?”

Adventuring Academy: Office Hours, also known as "That show where Brennan sits talking to himself for half an hour". Would watch again.

IMAGINE having Brennan as your camp counselor?!

-Prepare one session at a time -Use bullet points, don't write a novel -Don't write a story, imagine a _setting_ with some _situations_ going on, and let the players drive the rest. In reality, if you practice giving control to dice rolls and player choices, and with a little improv creativity at the table, your prep could be an hour or less.

Brennan: no spoilers hahah Also Brennan: you could have a gritty setting with no healers... you know... hypothetically

I love when he said “you have the railroad and the players decide to travel down it” it so perfectly encapsulates, to me at least, a perfect campaign. You have a clear story, and quests, but if the players don’t want to do it then that’s fine! And you allow them to go stop the train on the tracks and hope off.

In my experience, the difference between guiding the players and railroading them is when you have a specific solution for the scenario's conflict in mind, and therefore start rejecting your PC's ideas as "wrong". That's why more often than not I don't even know how my PC will solve the problem I throw at them, but as soon as they figure out a plan that makes sense and makes for a cool resolution, I let them implement it (while throwing a few wrenches in it for drama's sake of course!)

A list of time stamps for the questions, in case you want to reference stuff: 1:40 How in-depth do you go making notes for session? How much is too much or too little? 6:40 What jobs did you have before College Humor? 7:15 Will Season 5 take place in a more realistic setting, like unsleeping city, or a more fantastical setting, like Fantasy High? 8:00 How do you punish or give cost to rough battles that aren't just limb loss? (Advice on deciding grittiness levels for campaigns) 13:10 What is your favorite type of monster? (Advice on creating horrifying Villains/drama) 16:20 How do you balance and an open world with railroading? (Balance Freedom and Direction) 20:50 How do you riff off of yourself when two NPC's are talking to each other?

I'm like 2 years late, but this 23 minute video has already given me a HECK bunch of things to think about. I only found dimension20 fantasy high a couple weeks ago and you're fast becoming my favourite show to watch!

Brennan just seems like the most chill guy

"Ally Beardsley" sounds like the name of a DnD character already. Lol they're great though! Always brings a wonderful element to the campaigns. Tbh one of my fav cast members too 👀

I will consume and love any D20 content you put out but put me down as a vote for more AA podcast episodes

Hey Brennan, doubt you'll see this. I just wanted to say thanks for being an awesome guy and a great DM! You encouraged me to get into the game, and to be a DM, and now I have two different games sessions going weekly at my law school. Everyone is having an amazing time and it's just such a good atmosphere. I've learned a ton from your videos and you gave me the courage and encouragement to start. If I hadn't found Dimension 20 or you I don't think I would have ever considered the game and I would have missed out on so much, so just wanted to say thanks! EDIT: I misspelled two as to and had to fix it.

Some of the best advice I've inadvertently given on the railroading issue is "It's okay to see the rails so long as you don't feel them."

i am president and co-founder of the D&D club at my school and whenever someone asks me on advice on how to DM, i point to you. keep up the amazing work

I agree so much with your comment on humanoids being the best villains. I had a Dragonborn preacher called Father Huxable Kraw who was the dad of one of my PCs. He was secretly running a cult to Tiamat, and had the whole town under his thumb. Even the party found him really hard to fight because "he's just so damn charismatic and likeable!" amazing roleplay and a great final battle. It's great when the players can argue with their villains and call out their awful behaviour, only for the villain to crack a smile and say "well it took you long enough to notice!"

As for “permanent damage” I think a better thing to punish for huge damage would be semi-permanent where you get stabbed through the arm and have disadvantage on all attacks requiring shoulder mobility for 5 long rests. Or you take a huge blow to the head and suffer a debuff to intelligence checks for a while.

I love love love the fact that a friend’s improv puppet show is one of Brennan’s most treasured memories ^_^

If there's any DM's out there that are new or feel that they need some guidance with how to run things I recommend the book, "Return of The Lazy Dungeon Master". It literally brings up the point that Brennan did about preparing the minimum amount you need in order to feel comfortable when improvising. I still do a few mistakes here and there when prepping, but using some guidelines and resources really helps in honing your style.

I've always been ruined for all DND after watching dimension 20 campaigns, and it is definitely because of Brennan. I've tried watching other campaigns and he's right, the moods that he creates for these campaigns are just unbeatable!

Fantasy high is my absolute favorite online dnd campaign of all time!

Re: railroading. I love his take on CritRole 4 sided dive where he describes that as a player playing a character he wants to be able to play that character by simply following the shortest possible path to whatever goals his character has, but as a player, to watch how the story unfolds in twists and turns and adventure and surprises not because there's some rollercoaster design, but because at each moment the set of choices available to a party inevitably and simultaneously lead them in interesting directions but directions that seem like the shortest route to the best outcome.

Spoilers for season 5: Is it a more realistic or more fantastical Setting? Brennan: yes.

I’ve been watching DM tips videos and other content as background noise for several years now and this was the most practical and useful explanation of how much preparation to do. Only started watching collegehumor and D20 stuff after EXU Calamity (best thing I’ve ever seen) and have since been blown away by how thoughtful, insightful, and well spoken Brennan is. Just fantastic stuff.

"As a dungeon master, I prefer the submissive role." 17:45 Hmm...

Hugely helpful. I love keeping things open-ended with infinite options - but my players are highly passive. So it sounds like a good response is: don't be afraid to railroad a little; make fun things happen and hopefully they'll spot something shiny and try jumping off the railroad track themselves

I've seen enough Dimension 20 videos to be genuinely terrified of this man. But at the same time become addicted to this humour and wit

So late on watching this but loved the comment on plot and railroading. The concept that you as a DM create the train car and move it down the tracks is really cool. The PCs can get on that train (plot) at any station (story beat) they choose, but the train will still move to the next station whether they get on or not. In other words, inaction also breeds consequence, which encourages players to act from the get go. What a great analogy!

Brennan has a beard? BRENNAN HAS A BEARD!!!!

We did that injury system thing in one of my old games, and it was like a test for everything that you went through. My character was at first rogue(died), and then a super naïve Good Pali basically kind of a gray paladin now, Who literally has so much scar tissue and abrasion over most of his body, he scares most of the PCs he’s around. When he was disavowed by the church, not the deity, he changed his name to Dust and anytime he comes into a campaign, everyone knows that the difficulty level is about to ratchet up significantly lol

Brennan is honestly the best thing to happen to D&D for me since i started playing nearly 16 years ago. His show alone got me to sign up for dropout (Although now that i have it i have also fallen in love with WTF 101) and i cant wait to see what amazing creative ideas come next. Also hope to tune into the next one live!

Thanks for the answer Brennan! Totally agree with you that feeling heroic and cool as players is a design choice of DnD and as a group you have to actively choose a grittier tone to get that feeling of "die hard". I personally think I'll save any major injuries and such on players for moments of narrative peaks where it feels the most badass to overcome them, but really insightful comments. Thanks again! P.S. Humanoids are the best enemy type

Brennan in full lumberjack mode

It would be really cool if y’all got to interview Alexander J. Newall, the GM for Rusty Quill Gaming!! great stuff, keep it up Brendad!

This is a very nice surprise to come home from, thank you Dimension 20!

That final point about using summaries and paraphrasing when having to describe dialogue between multiple NPCs is huge, it’s definitely helped with my campaign.

love both...BUT, remember there is a big difference prepping/playing a game for a local DnD session, and the alternative, making a entertaining to watch/listen DnD session for the masses. Just a thought to keep in mind!

Once was so overprepared I had a slideshow of the city map with every single npc placed in it to show where they would be at varying times. So basically their schedule over the the course of a month. Maybe just a morning day night would be okay, but I gave each NPC a “motivation” that they advanced on each day. I had 30 days of planned npc story at the start of the game. I’d recommend not doing anything more than 3 days. I typically have not played longer than this at a time and I’ve played for 12 hours before.

That was actually very helpful. Looking forward to future instalments of this format :)

17:46 "As a dungeon master I prefer to be in that submissive role." UHHUH

Old, grizzled master warrior- "There is a reason I am old in a profession where most die young."

For me I always had mixed feelings about traditional monsters getting killed in books and movies because more often they come across as animals and I am a big animal lover, the Rancor scene from Return of the Jedi for instance I feel it was a nice touch to have the jailer crying over the dead rancor because it fit this idea that there was a cost to Luke having to defend himself from it and it fits that Jabba was the one that put them on the collision course to have to fight each other

Please revive this fantastic show. Would love to see more behind the scenes about how you plan out your campaigns =)

I recently watched Calamity and I'm in love with Brennan's DMing style, he is amazing!!!

Just found this series and it's absurdly helpful. This guy resonates with me.

Would you guys consider creating a show about creating miniatures, landscapes, and other items related to dnd? Your shows have astonishing landscapes and miniatures.

I don't ever try to hide railroads. If my players don't want a train ride, they don't have to get on. But they know, there are fun sights on that train and I only have to show them the road. They will gladly hop on. It does not hinder immersion as much as it woud, even though we all say "Chuuuuchuuu" after they hopped on. It's part of the fun and I feel blessed with players who see through parts of my narration and gladly fold to it or tell me what they want to experience in the future. As a GM I don't want to write a novel, but I want to bring a wold to life together.

The railroading question is the anchor of this knowledge nugget. Immense rewatch value just off that.

My preparation is typically, names of some towns, some NPC's, a few monsters stat blocks either printed out or placeholders in the monster manual. Once I feel the setting feels real, to the point where the players aren't asking me permission to do things in it. They know the names of the places they are going, they know the NPC they want to talk to. I can go completely hands off. Some of my most memorable sessions were ones where I did literally zero prep, it was as if I woke them up and let them run around the open world. And I was comfortable enough to let them find the monsters.

I’m going to be DM’ing for the first time and just binged all of Dimension 20 that’s on RU-vid. I will now be binging all of this for advice

Anyone else fearful of what was going to happen when the first commercial popped up as you cranked your volume for this video?

Love this series!!! Hope to catch the next one live!!

you're so good at explaining things such that the listener can get a concrete grasp of what you're conveying. you have such a way with words daddy "what makes a player character face the dark side of humanity? what is it that the resolution, between two thinking feeling people, is to take up arms? some people call it drah-ma" to the hit points: i believe the player's handbook describes your hit points as your will to keep fighting, essentially. so dnd pc's just have adrenaline pumping till the very end

this might be the best advice I've heard in a long time

It really blows that there are only three of these. I absolutely love these

This guy is quite literally a legend. No more. No less.

I've been building a campaign for over a year now and my players keep telling me that my style reminds them of Brennan, so imagine the surprised pikachu on my face when this pops up in my recommended feed

Hey Brennan not sure if you still read these old vid comments, but I am constantly impressed with your DM style. I started DMing a year ago, never playing as a character in any campaign. I love your style and teaching approach! Often I second guess myself as not doing a good enough job because it's hard to have an end campaign goal that doesn't railroad the PCs. Thanks for the tips!

Love the way you explain, it's really close to the way I think, albeit at a far higher level I'm sure lol, and that makes it extremely easy to digest.

11:40 Don’t forget, it is possible to magically replace missing limbs, or create mechanical prosethetics, and so on

I have a question: are you my dad? (also, on a related note, guys, Brennan's great and all, but do be careful with your parasocial relationships. Sometimes I read comments and I get a tad worried.)

I don't know how I've been a CH fan all this while and never heard about dimension 20. Brennan, you're just amazing, man.

Thanks for this, Brennan! :)

I love what Brennan said about railroading. I always find those stories of DM trying to pitch his amazing dungeon with a lich raising undead and the PCs just ignore him and go start a business. Just have the lich raise his army and then come and burn down the village with their major supplier - now they realize that if they want to protect the business they need to go to the dungeon.

I'm sitting here watching this because my local school asked me to teach the students D&D, but my conure is going absolutely ballistic. I think she likes your voice, Brennan

You my sir are a gentleman and a scholar!!!

Thinking on railroading, the best is like the subway. There's stops. There's multiple directions that it runs in. But there's a way from a to b at a given time.

We need more of these.......it's me...I'm "we" 🤣 A new, very overwhelmed DM

One thing to note about the permanent damage effects and filing in the world, a solution is to involve side adventures to heal those more permanent debuffs. Long rests may get you back to not rolling disadvantage but combat movement may be limited until you find a specific magic healer. Now you guarantee some sense of urgency, decision making, world building, and getting to flesh out an npc that is likely to get the spotlight and not be a waste of prep time. The weight of powering through something vs going off the path to remove the debuff can just be another invisible DM choice that can adapt to the mood.

100% agree on humanoids. I’ve run whole campaigns where monster have only made up 5% of bad guys. I find it so much easier to believe their motivations and combat too.

Pricless info from one of the greats. thanks for shairing.

this actually perfectly captures the feel and tone of going to a professor's office hours...

i love rp'ing an element as sorcerer because all the chances of having amazing build workarounds that can be so good and surprising for new players to see a new light in the rp world.

such a superb video and commentary

As an actor who mainly plays characters but getting into DMing I feel like my improv classes are gonna help a lot. Take improv if you aren't feeling strong about your DMing. Also play multiple characters in one campaign if your GM will allow it. Cause that feels like its helping a lot too. Now I just need to find people to play with.

A simple penalty system for combat damage I’ve had success with is to divide HP into 10ths. For each 10th of HP lost, all ability scores are reduced by 1 until the the end of a long rest. I’ve also done it where you only got 1+con ability points back per long rest. This definitely isn’t for the casual group, but it’s deadly fun-Really raises the stakes with some brutal realism and causes PCs and NPCs to really have to think out their strategy.

For real though, the sock puppet thing is low key genius. I might have to try that the next time I have to talk to myself in front of my players.

*Streamed live 4 hrs ago* NOOO!!!!! I will manage to find one of these live QnA's as they are happening one of these days.

I also feel doing away with encounter balance helps in the deadliness. 1d12 Trolls show up. Yeah, I'd think twice about going in that room.

I agree that at least for me it's better for the DM to be more reactive. I worked my ass off to build you a word what you do with it is on you haha i can always move a planned encounter to another city or anything like that my job is to make sure everyone is having fun

When players don't investigate in areas that you spent a long time preparing just move those npcs and areas to wherever they are headed along the way

“Oh hello there! That’s right, I’ve been here the whole time.”

Loving the 90s phone in the background just sitting there. Just modern enough with its screen and silver keyboard to not look anachronistic. Like someone glued a landline to a Nokia. 😂 Classic Brennan!

Really good tips here, even for veteran DMs

just a nice visit with my school counsellor right here

How I handle lingering injuries. They are only a possibility if the player is rolling death saves and above level 5. They roll a constitution save the dc is 5+(final hit damage-remaining hp before the hit) for example character has 9 hp left. Takes 11 damage the DC would be 7 vs a character has 5 hp left and takes 24 damage so the DC would be 24. Then you simply roll on the lingering damage table or your own table that you make or even if you trust the player not to go to easy on themselves let them describe it. Ie "a mangled scar covering their chest"

Making enough touchstones?! That’s such a beautiful way to look at it!

Welp, I know it's been a while since the last video of this series dropped, but I have small hope this will be picked up, in some shape or form :P I can probably listen to Brennan talking about DMing stuff, D&D or roleplaying in general for hours :D

yes i am late to these vids, i am also just returning to dnd after over 20 years...lovin the info

Thanks for the answer!

This is such a good series man. BLM and Matt Colville are must-see tip-givers for new DMs.

Honestly brennan seems like the kind of guy you could chat to for hours on a bench somewhere with a cider in hand. I don't DM because I just get anxious to such a degree that it's not fun anymore because I am an overpreparer so I spent... hours over 2 weeks trying to make a basic one shot. (also top tip: don't GM for 4GMs your first time, they'll be lovely, you'll feel time slow in nervousness) Usually people assume it's a control thing/ 'my way or the high way' thing but it's a safety net right? the 'minimum that you feel comfortable improving from' approach and accompanying advice was helpful so cheers. I guess my questions are more of when you need to shift stuff around it also becomes this knock on effect so how do you put the puzzle pieces together? like i agree in every way but practically do you... move a shop from the other town you planned or just make stuff up and then note that down for future visits...etc? i guess it's the method to adapting the practicalities of a setting that I think I just don't know and because of that I then can't do it on the fly despite having that...theatrical flair and creativity and all that. Thoughts from any DMs out there?

RPG Game Prep Tips: Stay Flexible by Reskinning your encounters and using generic monster stat blocks: Size: Small, HP:6, AC: 12, Attack: +1, Damage: 1D6, Could be goblins in the swamp with short swords, kobolds in the mountain with axes, or even ewoks in the forest with spears. Doesn’t matter which destination the party picks they get ambushed by the same stat-block. A maze of tonels beneath a mountain could just as easily be a maze of sculpted passages in a dungeon, or a maze of impassable streets through a ruined city. Also NEVER throw anything away. The party didn’t go into that shop in the elven city where you had planned to have them catch a shoplifter? No worries just change the names and accents and try again when they go into the dwarven town.

I know this is late but i just want to let you know your one the the greats. I want to adapt your playstyle into mine. I straight up admire your skills as a story teller . Story telling is a big part of my culture and i want to use that to tech people and help create awareness of mental health in my games. what did you do to get where your at? school programs , afterschool , collage, work experience . We need a how to be like Brenden Lee Mulligan

This is great. I was surprised this came out in 2019 because it feels like an early covid video ahaha

As for injuries i tend to give non player characters more injuries, in battle a good hit may chop of a zombies arm and give it disadvantage, or cut off a leg and knock it prone... i typically only do that if my players need a hand, if it works in a narrative sense, or if the roll is really good.

need more of this

I like using things that happened in other campaigns as world history. Like at the end of one of my campaigns, the players got a sword of wishes, and one of them wished for a tarrasque... they were underground and all got crushed, but the next campaign had 2 tarrasques and a vague story of how it magically appeared in the same region the players were in the last campaign.