If you enjoyed this video please check out the Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Overview Videos: ru-vid.com/group/PLb39x-29puapg3APswE8JXskxiUpLttgg For a more updated Lazy DM kit, please check out this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ukn3elc49tM.html Thanks for watching and please subscribe to the channel! Sorry about the purple blob...
I bought and read "Return..." over Christmas with the goal of getting back into D&D. So many great tips that have eased the worry about GMing. I'll now have to dust of my Rory's Story Cubes collection! ;D
i dont mean to be so off topic but does anyone know a way to log back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb forgot my account password. I appreciate any help you can offer me
@Keagan Danny i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and im trying it out atm. Seems to take a while so I will get back to you later with my results.
Nick Candy Thank you. I stopped the video two times thinking it was a spot on my surface pro 3 (the touch screen make the video stop when I tried to wipe it off). :)
Nick Candy I wanted to reach around the back of my monitor with a glass cleaner to try to reach the camera lens. It's a very effective torture method against geeks.
Depends on the kind of campaign you're running, and what kind of party you have. With my party I could put a ton of work into having everything prepared ahead of time, and they would still decide to go off somewhere I never expected and I would have to improvise an entire new area anyway. If you're running a strict campaign sure, but some players revel in freedom and having everything open.
Electric Molasses True, though it still doesn't hurt to have some templates handy for you to throw things together a bit quicker, you don't want the players to lose interest waiting for you to figure out what comes next.
Lazy DM is like: - You are in a lets say castle... I don't know ... Old castle. And in the first room there are some things... I don't know... spidery shits. - But! - Shut up and throw your dice...
joeofmacabre07 Ok I just wanna say that I posted that comment over a year ago, and you reply at 3 in the morning. Just think about your priorities here.
This does NOT work in mathematics. You just end up avoiding big numbers. My friend often uses techniques he knows don't work in the question's context because his lazy head convinces him the longer way isn't worth it.
Robert A. Heinlein wrote a story-in-a-story called "The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy To Fail", where a 2,400-year-old man named Lazarus Long does a Scheherazade deal and tells stories in Heinlein's book, TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE. Great military humour. He tries to explain silly 20th-century customs to people in the 43rd-century. Find that chapter!
My tools: 1) Enemies cards: These are around 9 cm wide and 18 cm high. They are displayed vertically so i can hang more of these in my DM screen. They show the stats, traits/feats and weapons / armors. Plus, i can write on the back wether they have or not other loot beside its equipment. 2) Spell cards: Cards with simplified description of a spell effect, with spell components, duration, range, etc. Easy for player to track down the spell they have. 3) Magic item cards: I give away lots of magic items, not very powerful ones, but sometimes they come in handy. Because of the way these items works, you can have many of these, but only have a few ones active at the same time
Great video, long time DND player, going to be DMing my first game and really was looking to impress. These tools will certainly help me to be prepared. Thank you, will definitely check out your book.
You've got some great tips here. I love anything that makes my life easier as the DM. Liked, subbed, and sharing over on my Nerdarchy FB fanpage tomorrow 11-19 at 12 pm eastern time. We like to high light different RPG RU-vidrs. -Nerdarchist Dave
This is EXTREMELY helpful to me. I tend to be juggling alot, and I'm still getting over that first time DM overwhelming feeling. I'll have to take up a lot of these tips, especially the note cards, amazing Idea thank you. Both I, and my players thank you.
What a great video! Some great tips in here. I've used a similar technique like the face cards. Since I play Magic the gathering, i've separated out dozens of different humanoid cards for reference for my players. Absolutely a powerful tool. Especially for helping us to remember important NPCS. Well done!
Awesome tips!!! I just bought the "Pathfinder Beginners Box" and this video has basically told me what I'm missing to get started once I finish learning the rules.
I got your kindle a couple of years ago and I have to say for any new or even for experienced DMs such as myself (since 78!) that your advice and information is TRULY priceless! Thanks for the great wit & wisdom Mike!
Thanks for your video. My group and I were navegating the hole internet looking for new homemade "widgets" and tricks for playing D&D. After seen tons of D&D sponsored videos, you appeared and show us at least two ideas we are going to use. Thanks a lot!
In cons or demos, if I don't know the players before, I would draw an outline of the table on a piece of paper, write the player name on the outside of the outline in relation to where they are sitting from me, and the character name on the inside. This is key so I don't get confused about who's who (the 2 kinds of who's). I've got the Rory's Story Cubes but there are now the Gamemaster's Apprentice card-decks, two-sided 60-card decks split into many areas which print random dice-rolls, descriptive words, possible adventure hooks, and the contents of an NPC's pocket living OR dead. They come in different genres like fantasy, horror, steampunk, demon-hunter fantasy or science-fiction. These are idea-sparks but more tailored to gamers. They also have a rules-basis to play a GM-less game with them.
Hey, great video! It really helped me with my DMing. If it is ok, I will try to tell here some other suggestion, which I use. If you are not sure if sticky notes on NPC cards will hold over multiple sessions, you can buy card sleeve (usually clean, MTG format) and you can use normal note, just put it into the sleeve with NPC. Also, you can use more than one name cards, you can have one for every race (names can be from stories or PHB) divided into male/female. Also some small things that I found usefull as DM: - Hourglass (when players have only some time to do something, just use hourglass and use them as another element. After time is done and they didnt do anything, you will continue with some your stuff) - Remote candles (there is nothing better than playing horror story in bright light of candles and then you suddenly tell players something mysterious and change light of candles from normal yellow to dark red or something) - Multiple erasable tablets (every player should have one, if they want tell you, DM, something in secret instead of papers) - Precreate standart enemies (as thugs, or guards ... their stats and so on) - If you have problems to improvise, precreate some cards with NPC (you can use something like this www.reddit.com/r/BehindTheTables/comments/3zr0h4/npc_appearance_personality_faith_and_flaws/) - Lucky coin (if your players do something clever but risky and you dont know, if you want to create some obstacles or something, just get some coin. Let player toss it. One side is always unlucky, so they will know and they will get feeling of randomness - this is important if they think that you are, as DM, plotting against them) - Riddles, puzzle, etc (precreate some. If you come to place where you want create an obstacle, it will come handy) and so on, and so on Hope it helps :)
Being lazy is not doing work you need to because it's inconvenient. Being smart is doing less work to ensure that things are more convenient, and/or to ensure that you don't have to do them. You are smart, not lazy and you have helped all your viewers become as smart as you by sharing this video with them. PS - Try to keep this comment on an even number of likes! (-:
Loved your book. I really took the advice in it to heart and it has made me a much better DM. I've also picked up Story Cubes and they are awesome. My wife loves them as well.
Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master. And you thought playing a character was consuming. This guy has to build a world to keep you entertained for a few hours every week.
I miss that A Module. The Slavers :D With the premade characters Ogre (Fighter human), Elwita (Dwarf Fighter), Eljayess (elf dual class if I recall?) Good stuff :)
Yes, it's the time-honored "Schrodinger's Plot" device. The party leaves the city by the North Gate? The beggar who gives them their next quest is at the North Gate. The party leaves by the West Gate? The beggar's at the West Gate. The party descends into the sewers and finds their way out of the city _that_ way? They happen across the beggar camped out in the sewers, cooking a rat and waiting to give them their quest. They open a _planar rift_ and leave the city via the Elemental Plane of Water? It turns out that the water elementals built a similar city, the heroes end up in it and the beggar turns into a lowly undine, panhandling the other elementals for spare change (and waiting at either the North Gate or the West Gate to give the party their quest). Would a city on the Plane of Water even _have_ sewers, now that I think about it? Anyway, moving the rails is simple stuff, and it works. Right? ;)
I use a similar idea to your 3x5 cards for the initiative tracker. I have printed cards in sleeves with the characters names and a bit of info, and i order them in their initiative order and cycle through them placing the top card on the bottom and cycling till the encounter is over. I also have a card for the DM's creature turn. I also have all npc's act on the same base initiative for simplicity instead if trying to track 4 or 5 sets of creatures separate inits throughout an encounter.
Hi, i'm about to start playing D&D with some friends, no one of us has experience in table RPGs, and i've been designated as the DM. The video is a great pool of ideas, do you have any other tips or suggestions to help a noob master?
I encouraged my players to make things to flesh out the world, the better the work the more xp they got. some wrote history stories, one guy drew a beautiful map.
Ive never played dungeons and dragons because i dont know anyone whod want to play it but it looks so amazing Im gonna buy some of them story dice just to jump start my imagination when doodling and stuff lol Peace!!
I went to wet-erase for all my maps and never looked back. Lets me pack up sheets between sessions without having to erase it before-hand. Less smudging too. Just bring a package of wet-naps with you.
awesome! (just curious,what edition?) here are some tips that I can comeup with off the top of my head: 1. don't favor any player over another 2. make the story interesting, use description 3.THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO HAVE FUN....if you are being bogged down by a specific rule or something, DON"T USE IT 4. listen to your players 5. but don't let them gain control DMing/GMing is very fun and rewarding and can be, in my opinion more fun than playing, have fun with it, google is your friend
Where do you get the sheet of acrylic that you have laid over your Paizo dry erase map? Is it cut to fit and adhered to the map in some fashion or is it just layed down over the map?
Mike, I got your book, and enjoyed it, but I have a question. I didn't notice any advice on how you design encounters/dungeons. Do you craft those traditionally, or is there something you do to wing those as well?
I am looking for the cards you showed, the face cards, and the only ones I found that applied (Urban Deck) was 1000 dollars.. I assume they are of high value.
Don't know where to put this so I guess I'll put it here. Have some questions would like help on and open to advice. I used to collect DnD a long time ago and have only played Rifts and GURPS. That said, I want to get into DnD 5 and particularly like the Eberron setting. Need to get up to speed. So, starting with the basics, as a player, what dice do I need, especially as for multiples? What else would be good to get(?); I am getting the core books. What online resources (websites and RU-vid) are good for DnD in general and Eberron in particular? What do you recommend as for 3rd party sites and product lines? How does one get into online groups such as you do here? What events are good to attend? Anything else you would like to have known as a beginner? You know: If only I had known. . .
agneim If you only want to try and see if you like it, Wizard of the Coast have free pdf's called "Basic Rules" on their site. Get those printed out, they have both Player and DM rules with tons of monsters. On the other hand, if you already know you want to play it with other people at a location near you, the Starter Set is pretty cheap, comes with pre-gen characters (just the sheets, no miniatures, sadly) and a set of standard dice. It includes an adventure for low level PCs and is the perfect introduction do DnD 5e. After that, you might want to look into getting the core books. For online play, I cannot recommend Roll20 enough. They have sections where you can search for people who are already playing, looking for players, or you can even advertise yourself. On a sidenote, if you ever play with people IRL, ask your DM if they are part of DnD's organized play. He or she'll likely be able to tell you more about it.
Okay, so I was gonna say the initiative cards were pointless. But if you put character names or maybe character names and portraits of characters? Idk, I don't need help keeping a rotation going. 🔥💨