Most Copied Sayings DM's Use To Hook Players 

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It's highly specific, but Brennan Lee Mulligan got alot of mileage out of the phrase "I need you, right now, Emily Axford, to verbally describe a sexy rat for me."

“You can certainly try” also serves to remind the player that failure is a possibility in the situation.

The main phrase every new DM should know but not every game remembers to teach you: "What will you do?" It gives a signal that description has stopped and now is turn of the players to chose

I feel like Brennan's "innncredible" whenever his players derail his plans also helps to reassure them that he's still having fun.

"It doesn't appear to be trapped." or "They don't appear to be lying" are two of my favourites...But then I gaslight my players like an abusive parent.

"By all means, do your worst" is my usual go to if I want my players to really go all out on whatever they're pursuing in that moment, and every time it has been incredibly exciting.

So, my husband has been a forever-DM for about 7 or 8 years. I don't really recall ever hearing him use the phrase "how do you want to do this?" in all those years. However, just a couple months ago, we started a new campaign for some people who had never played D&D before. And lo and behold, for the first time, when our monk got her first kill, my husband asked her: "how do you want to do this?" And I swear to god it was one of those lightbulb moments. I'd always played it as like, 'ok, cool, killed it, move on to the next one.' never really adding too much creativity to it. But this monk had never been desensitized by years of combat. it wasn't old to her. So she verbally illustrated one of the most brutal mortal kombat style finishers she could describe, and it added so much visceral detail to what her character was capable of. I realized in that moment that the new person who had never experienced combat before was getting more out of D&D than I was, and it rekindled my own passion.

This is a great summary. One very minor but awesome word I keep hearing from Brennan is simply "amazing". His players do something? Brennan: "Amazing!". They say something: "Amazing!". They do something that is not that amazing: "Amazing!". Might look minor, but it's such a subtle but impactful way to give the players some assurance and encourage them to keep roleplaying

I feel like the most effective times Aabriya uses "What you don't see" is when she's describing something they missed but is instantly going to become relevant, giving context the party would otherwise not understand. Like an enemy starting to cast a spell, but nobody picked up on it.

Aabria also has the phrase "Paint me a word picture..." which I love, and have stolen.

A phrase I like to use when players ask things like "can I make a check?" is "what are you hoping to do/learn" or "what do you expect to happen?" It usually leads to a lot more clarity to their intensions, and gives me an opportunity to craft a story that leans into their desires in a way that I would otherwise miss just playing to my own favorite outcomes/tropes.

I used "what you don't see" for the first time in my last session to GREAT success. Just as you said, it was so fun for the players to get to see a consequence of their actions that the characters might not ever know- and, as a writer, it is kind of selfishly fun to monologue about something behind the scenes for a minute or two haha

1. You can certainly try. 2. What you don't see. 3. How does your character feel in this situation? 4. How do you do want to do this? 5. What does it look like when...?

The "how do you want to do this?" equivalent I was first introduced to from my DMs was "Tell me how it dies"

When a player hesitantly asks whether something is possible I like to say "Let's find out!", for me it reinforces that the DM and Player are collaborating and discovering together. Over time my players have learnt that a question that prompts "Let's find out!" will often be followed by some very wild and/or silly scenes (which is our groups vibe), so it has also resulted in players looking for opportunities to try creative things more. I think this is an important addition to your video, these phrases are great, but to get the most out of them (and generate that excitement) the consequences need to be consistent. i.e "HWYLTDT?" should also be hype, "What you don't see..." must always prompt an "oh damn!!!" from the player etc.

I love Aabria's "What you don't see is" because for years I've started sessions with "vignette's" of what characters are doing off screen, be they villains or just important NPCs. It's gotten to the point when I don't have one everyone is very upset at me, lol

"how do you want to do this?" is definitely a favorite. At my table, my group came up with a truly brilliant plan to basically one shot a boss. After a series of near perfect rolls they all just kinda looked at me, I checked behind my screen, eye'd them all and hit them with that phrase, and they all just erupted. Wasn't the encounter I imagined it would be, but man was it perfect either way

For that last one, I loved in EXU prime when Aabria got to throw it back at Matt. He saw the players light up and get celebratory over their accompaniment, but when he got to FEEL it himself, he realized “oh shit, this IS amazing to hear.”

I have a rule at my table which is the first time you use a new ability or spell, I will always ask the player to describe how it looks and sounds when they do it. It's a great way to build more colour into the scene but also it's a great way of letting my players flaunt their new toys. Of course, I might ask them for a description another time as well, if it's a significant moment. But I always ask for the first time.

Mine is "Seems fine" after checks with mid rolls. It gives the players a Schrodinger's box to play with.

As someone who watches more dnd than I actually play, "Roll for initiative" always sends a sort of tingle down my spine.

I had the pleasure of introducing a few new players to "How do you wanna do this" and its so fucking fun to see how much their eyes light up xD

This is a super specific phrase, but I think the idea behind it is good to use as well. At one of my tables, one we’ve played for about eight months now, our dm is always asking for medicine checks after battles. We go to patch up after a fight, our healer rushes over to help our front line out. “Give me a medicine check.” Then, two sessions ago, our front line went down. We have hidden death saves, so we were uncertain about what was happening, but we couldn’t stabilize him right away. When we finally got a chance to sprint over, to try and patch him up… our dm hit us with the payoff for all the classical conditioning we’d been put through. It went something like this: Healer: I pull out the bandages and start patching him up. DM: Okay. Go right ahead. Healer: Do you want a medicine check? DM: You don’t need a medicine check to know no one could survive that. This was the best way to handle a character going down for our table, we’ve been playing together for so ling that we all know that. It may not be the best death sequence for another party. But. The moral is having a routine thing that you can twist and subvert down the line. Nothing mundane, like perception checks during watch. Something unique and notable to your DM style or setting. The payoff is so powerful. (Also, the death in this case was a scripted event, and explained a part of the frontliner’s class progression. It wasn’t planned for him to go down this time, but upon first death, he got a major plot point. He was returned, presumably not as an undead, soon after by the god of death from the setting bearing a new mission for the party.)

This video is densely packed with great suggestions & examples. And the little "why this works so well" discussions are great reminders of the things we're (as DMs) trying to roll into a single coherent ball of fun game for everyone. Well done, and thank you!

One that I find brings some amazing RP elements to the game is whenever a player wants to roll for something that might not make sense at that moment, "Describe how you " typically "Describe how you assist in this roll" "I want to assist with their interrogation" *rolls* "Describe how you're assisting" "I stand close behind X, hand on my bow looming over them as X talks" Another that's more energy than a direct phrase is "Convince me" "I want to convince this person that I'm actually on their side" "Tell me how you do it?" I use things like name dropping people or places that would be important to the NPC to raise or lower the DC of a roll, give advantage on what's happening, and so on. Finally, if I can tell that the party is stuck, I'll have the PCs make an intelligence check and give them hints based on the score for things that their character should know but the player missed. In my current game this played off wonderfully- the players, after taking the whole situation into perspective about a heist were completely convinced that the task was impossible with the given time frame, the party started to slowly shut down and I asked them to make int checks, someone got an 18 I believe and I told them "The quest giver didn't give you a timelimit, the -boat captain- did. The captain won't come back, but you could take as much time as you need to pull this off". The characters would know that the boat captain is optional in a pinch, but none of the players thought of this. Their engagement shot through the roof knowing that their time window was MUCH longer than expected.

I also want to point out something about Brennan’s phrase. Usually when he asks a player how their character feels, he then immediately builds on it. Like there is a moment in crown of candy where he asks each of the members of the party how they’re feeling in that moment and from that description given by the player elaborates on a memory or thought or scenario running through their mind in that moment that aligns with what they just told him. He uses this as a way to gain an insight into where his players think their characters are at this moment and builds the way he describes things or moves the story forward so that it honors that characters perspective as the players see it. Which I think works really well in immersing players in the story, making them feel more agency and power over their characters, and gives him a prompt almost of the best way to proceed that’ll be ‘fun’ for his players

Adding two or three examples / clips of the most satisfying moments for each phrase would have been a great addition to your video.

When a player asks if they can do something, I have often responded with, "I don't know- can you?" When I encountered "You can certainly try," it was immediately incorporated. It really is a perfect phrase.

The very first time I heard Matt Mercer say "you can certainly try" I actually clapped like i was watching a live performance in person. lol. best statement ever for a dm.

The best DM I've ever played with had a very similar phrase/technique to Aabria's "What you don't see" that I was always a fan of, as it tended to bookend sessions or moments with that same dramatic irony and it was "Our camera pans away". Mostly accomplishes the same thing, I just always liked it as an alternate phrase.

My favorite GM saying is by Austin Walker from the Friends At The Table podcast: “Okay, two things happen at once”. He uses it in a lot of ways, but a great one is to set up immediate personal consequences and larger scale narrative consequences. A missed roll might involve a character taking damage, but also reveal something about a NPC (which in FatT is probably that they’re a robot ghost or something)

The way you organize your videos with time stamps and countdowns is amazing.

I always love when the phrase "How do you want to do this?" gets used. As for "What does it look like when you do this?"... that's one that resonates most for me when I'm a player. Not that my group does it so much anymore, but a few years back, I'd often get heavily talked over by the table. Not in a malicious way or anything, but I found myself trying to say something but with others talking over me and I'd just shy away and wait, only for things to move on before I could say my piece. I LOVE playing spellcasters, and I LOVE describing how my spells work and what's happening with my character, if needed. It's just something that sets my brain working... so being suppressed by such table-talk didn't feel so great. I would've loved to have more moments where I was asked how it looked when certain actions happened... and nowadays it does, as things have gotten better in the group as players (less unnecessary table-talk, etc), which I'm very thankful for, as some of my best and favourite moments during games have happened during such times. Things like describing my naive and child-like wizard Mylo opening a magically locked door with seeming ease when the rest of the party couldn't make it budge... Like how my cyborg character Roberto, frustrated at not being able to hit ANYTHING while fighting a ship of pirates, instead decides to smash and short circuit the ship's controls and cause it to sink... A group of us collectively and coincidentally all failing our rolls to identify a mimic, and instead all agreeing that it's actually a dog, adopting it as the party's new pet! It's all been wonderful times over the years!

My personal favourite is "How do you fail this?". I firmly believe players should get as much of a saying when their characters fails as when they succeed, so, when a player fails something like a Stealth check, an attack roll, etc, they get to describe it in a way that makes sense for their characters.

The one thing about Aabria's phrase used here is, in one of the dropout vids with Brennan, she said it's something she mostly uses *in actual plays* both because a lot of her DMing/playing is *in* actual plays at this point, but it's also there more for the *audience* rather then the players themselves.

My favorite moment of "a nat 20 isn't necessarily a success" is from Dimension 20, specifically from The Unsleeping City Chapter 2. Basically, the character Pete casts banishment on an ancient and powerful god, and Brennan just goes "If you didn't roll a nat 20 there, you'd be dead right now."

My friends and I have been using “How do you want to do this?” for years, and while it doesn’t always have the big shouts from the table as I’ve seen on CR, I can say when it comes from a big moment, the hype is absolutely real.

I didn't fully appreciate what Aabria was doing at first. Her style is different than what I'm used to. But it didn't really take long before I was so caught up in it that I got it, and I totally approve. The amount of player engagement she gets out of it is exactly what you want at your table. As you said, of course, YMMV. Another one is more of a tactic than a phrase. Use ambiguity to maintain suspense and tension. When a character makes a check, you say something nebulous, like "as far as you can tell..." or "you don't see/hear/notice anything" as opposed to being definitive: "there's nothing there" or "it's empty" or the like. Let them wonder.

The one I find funniest is Brennan always says "and you see" Even if that follows up with someone saying something lol.

I've been using the "How does your character feel in this situation" a lot in my Pathfinder 2E game. "Where is your character at mentally right now?" or just any way you can invite a player to delve deeper into their character is such a great way to create immersion and get them invested in the world

I think I’m going to definitely start using “what you don’t see”. Since my group tends to lean towards horror style one shots and I’m already doing things like deadpanning monsters into location descriptions and adding and deleting monster photos to the reference channel without saying for people paying attention to the discord.

I stole a saying from the trainer at my new job and it's equivalent to the "you can certainly try". My go to is "You just, do what ever feels right."

my DM had been using the "how do you do this?" for years now, its so cool, and the player describing his barberian losing the grip on his weapon, because he rolled a nat 1, was super funny XD

I've become a big fan of "two things happen at once." My first GM made judicious use of it, and it works extremely well in action scenes that aren't combat. It helps reinforce that there is no real "turn order" and things are just happening. Another one that I really like is "You're doing ___, right?" or "Where did you place ___ again?" Both of those can remind a character that something they did in the recent past is coming back to bite them. For example: "You're going to convince the mob boss you're a bootlegger, right?" or "Where did you leave that backpack again?" Finally, having just gotten to a hiatus in a campaign where all my players spent, on average, about half of each session split up and doing their own things, a new favorite of mine is "What does ___ see?" when a player character walks in on another. That puts that player on the spot as they have to figure out exactly how much of what they were doing the other person should be allowed to see.

I started using all of these in the session I ran tonight, and it made such a hide difference. Letting them describe what happens or tell me what their own spell casting looks like … that alone made things incredibly fun.

Great video! Thanks for the chapters and the timer in the upper left as well!

I really like your videos and your vibe, finding them super helpful and just easy to watch and listen too, very straight to the point and informative, keep it up man!

me: oh this is a DnD tuber I haven't heard yet then me: oh so he's got a fun voice we are so in

Love the timer in the top! For some reason it feels warm & inviting, not ticking at all. I appreciate it personally 📿

I was thinking that Aabria's saying can be tweaked for different tables and still build up suspense. Perhaps there's a shadowy creature following the players, but they never notice so they never feel the dread of being followed, so instead of telling them exactly what they don't see you could drop just a clue: "What you don't see is what created that sudden breeze that caresed your neck" (maybe it was something dangerous, maybe it was a clingy fan, or maybe something happened behind the players, but no one was following them). Or weave a clue that seems innofensive into a narration: "As you head home for the night, you cross the now empty square illuminated by the moonlight. The night is still and a leaf falls from the tree that adorns it". (They failed to see the creature perching at the tree before it moved away, but that leaf fell because of its movement.)

a personal favorite of mine, if a tad darker, is "you asked for this." Just to remind the player that all the "character development" they're going through was wrought by their own hand. The party being locked in jail for mouthing off to a guard after they were caught trespassing and being stripped of all possessions and their reputation being besmirched? The love of the rogues life betraying him when they're staring down 10 pissed off bandits? The dragon you've raised since birth giving in to it's hunger and eating all of the local farmers livestock? You asked for this.

Brendan's four favorite words; "I need some almonds."

I really enjoyed this video - this is my first I have seen from you. I fully agree with the chocies of phrases here and I use all of them - in my own way - in my campaigns. Also, just a thing about your channel - I REALLY love the timer in the top left for segments

I really appreciate the timer you put counting down each section :)

nice content! I sort of use these sentences frequently. It was still good to see all of them collected like this ^^

Thank you for being exactly what I was looking for in a D&D channel It was slightly hard to deal with the audio interference hum throughout the video though

Bonus action, thanks for making such awesome videos. I really appreciate you distilling these lessons down into precious nuggets of wisdom so I don’t have to break out my bag of holding. Keep up the great work, you are awesome!!

Found you today, great videos man! love this stuff.

Nice video with some great tips. Im going to put this list on my dm screen.

Never really dabbled in D&D before, but your videos are slowly convincing me to! Subscribed!

I really like the timer in the corner for each section!

one good phrase I say when the players kill a boss or a powerful enemy is "Describe their demise"

I like to give my players choices after they roll. Typically it’s right after a roll that’s just low enough where they just missed the dc but it can happen in other circumstances as well. For example: “The dc was fifteen but you rolled a thirteen. So as you catch the portcullis when it came crashing down to split the group, you just barely catch it with your hands a little too late and your in a very awkward position to hold this thing up. Now normally this would be no problem for you, you’re a raging Barbarian, but the fact that it kind of came out of left field and caught you off guard was the killer here. In this uncomfortable position you feel your grip slipping and soon you feel like it’ll just overwhelm your body and pin you to the ground which will hurt you like a mofo. You got a round before that happens though, so at any time you can just drop it and pick a side to be on but that’s at the cost of if you let it down before everyone else gets through then you got a split party scenario. You don’t have a lot of time before that happens and I’ll tell you that the bandits are smart enough to realize that you can very well ruin their little trap they set for you. They are going to prioritize targeting you for the time being. That’s what you have to work with right now.” It can prevent bad luck from ruining someone’s night and I even do that on successes every now and again to build some tension and give players that feeling like they can actually effect the story with their choices.

I like the little timer you put in the corner for each saying

Great stuff I'll be using all of these! Thanks man!

I know I am several months behind, but I am really enjoying these relatively setting / system agnostic videos that just explain and give tips for running the games!

Heck yeah, fantastic video!! This gives me a lot to think about as a player who wants to start DMing!

I was specifically doing this for every GM covered in this video today! Thank you for beating me to it!

Just had this vid pop up. Easy sub. Love your style

Any new tool that I can acquire is good news for me as a DM. Thank you!

Really good video, im certainly going to try these frases on my games

Great video, thanks for the help!

Great video! Refreshingly helpful perspective. Checking out more for sure. One thing, the music was a bit loud and wild, it distracted from your well-said commentary.

Put HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER FEEL in bold on top of my next session's plan. Great video idea, love a part 2. Thanks for reminding me to sub. that deserved a like

Really enjoying these "Say More" and "Say Less" videos.

One of the better DM tips videos I've seen

I love the whole "you can certainly try" thing. I used that in the first campaign I ever ran and the amount of uncertainty that would go across my players faces when I'd say that made me chuckle. But when the thing they wanted to do worked it was an absolute blast for them and they would talk about it for days.

I'm like 5 seconds in so far, going to definitely watch this all, but the first and only 4-word DM phrase that leaped into my mind the second I saw this in my recommended videos was just "What do you do?" A way to hand the story telling over to the player(s), letting you take a break to think of how to respond, and leaving a more open-ended opportunity for the players to create their own fun. Importantly, it's a very powerful and common tool that you can use multiple times a session to get players more involved. It's super useful for helping new/shy players get involved.

Thanks for this content. Anything that can improve my DMing is greatly appreciated.

Years ago, my DM said "You can certainly try" so often that I started saying it at work. I said it so often that my one of my soldiers started saying it not knowing the reference.

This is excellent advise especially for to help draw out timid players. Thanks!

Thank you so much! very helpful and illuminating

"How do you want to do this" is the best line. It feels so good to hear after a hard battle, everyone at the table cheers when they hear it

good job with this vid, fella.

You missed one important phrase that gives the players a chance to describe anything themselves. E.g. pick something you want a player to expand on and frame your question through one of the five senses: Why does this building look out of place? You smell something that reminds you of home. What is it? Based on the rumors you have heard, what surprises you about the way this person looks? What about the way these people are dressed sets you on edge?

This is very specific, but whenever there's a bard at my table and they give bardic inspiration to an ally, I always ask "How do you inspire them?" It's along the same lines as some of the phrases in the video, allowing the player to be creative with how they use their unique ability. I took this idea to the next level when I got a chance to play a bard myself, describing how my character inspired their allies, typically through playing soothing melodies on their viola.

Let's not forget "They're hard to read". Players love to spam insight checks - this is the best response to poor rolling.

"I'm suspicious that you can, yet intrigued that you may."

A really decent phase i personally use is "I'm not stopping you." - which is the you can try. But its more of a "if you really want..." its really interesting to watch players go..."uh... wait"

"Great information to get through character" a rough translation. I use it when players start asking lore or general setting questions. Basically telling them to look for this info with there characters.

Something that I noticed after mainlining lots of Dimension20 and Worlds Beyond Number was Brennan Lee Mulligans use of rhythm and speed in his narration. Its so interesting to see how slowing down, quieting the voice and adding pauses in significant moments dialogue or even narration can really supercharge the immersion!

Nah when the bard asks to seduce the dragon, you tell him its a DC 15. Then when he asks why your rolling so many dice, you say "damage".

Matt’s “You can certainly try” was somewhat adopted by the rest of the cast in the form of “wouldn’t it be funny if…”. As Taleisin said on a Four Sided Dive, “wouldn’t it be funny is our way of asking do I have a second on this… I do? Great, let’s do it…”

Another really good one that I use is I asked by players what do you see around you because it allows them to build the world as they played and get creative as they play and therefore they have more fun and are building the world in their image

Really great insights, thank you! I'm toying with the idea of GMing and videos like this are very helpful! Some great stuff in the comments too.

Nice insights. Thanks.

Great video!

Great video! Subscribed!

I’ve gotten good mileage out of “You would assume so.” I give a description, they say their conclusion, and I validate their conclusion without giving certainty. “The door to the abandoned temple swings open to reveal that the room is dust free, save for some small piles of ashes beneath the torch sconces.” “… someone has been here recently.” “You would assume so.”