First time DM: "I'm worried my first campaign will suck!" Veteran DMs: *puts a reassuring hand on their shoulder* "Don't worry... it WILL suck. And you'll have a blast."
"All I knew about DnD was what I knew from NADDPOD and Dimension 20." My brother, we were raised by Bahumia and the Unsleeping City - we could only be great.
@@personwhohasyoutube That's perfect man Here is my unironic advice: Steal ideas Become a rampaging warlord of ideas watch shows and media and write down or remember anything you think is good, even a minor character interaction you found was funny, take it and put it in your own game! Become such a rampant concept thief you end up with something wholly original, a frankenstein of things you thought were cool Being original is overrated and doesn't exist, this is supposed to be fun for you and your friends! it doesn't need to be a perfect show!
absolutely. I hate railroading, because i always feel like giving my players diapers. But at the same time my players wish for them right NOW. Maybe you can add this as a bad example and how to do better. My playgroup went with some strange celestial actions into another world with a hard to understand political situation to solve and unite the land against an unknown unexplainable void menace. They found all the information around the world, made a name for themself got pieces about all the political fractions but what now? They dont know how to wrap it up and i dont want to present them a solotion where i am 100% sure they could find a better one because they are creative players.
I don't think he means actual railroading. Because like, I drop my players on a town and they are going to THE npc and do THE thing in the town, but that's not railroading. I give them a goal and that's relevant to the overall narrative, and let them figure out how to get to that goal by their own means. If it was railroading there would have to be a single way to achieve that goal, I think.
Pro tip: wherever the PCs go to, the good and interesting stuff is happening, trick is for them to not notice. That's good railroading. Bad railroading is when the outcome of players actions and decisions doesn't impact the world. If it doesn't matter if the PCs are there or what they do, the result is always the same, than this is usually bad railroading.
I personally would love to see your new prep style! All the big DMs (Brennan, Murph, etc) talk about their process briefly and in broad terms but i've always been curious quite literally what other DMs write down and how they prep
If you're looking for more DMs that show how they prep, Matt Colville has some wonderful videos that might be up your alley. "The Delian Tomb" is one that comes to mind, but there's a lot more!
The best prep advice I give any DM is to ask your players what they want to do next session. Do this at the end of your session and this one question will save hours of needless prep time. Shameless plug, I just posted a video today with pro tips for new DMs.
I think Matt Colville and Mike Shea (Sly Flourish) are the DMs that put the most specific stuff on youtube on how they prepare their games, which has helped me tons.
This is every first time homebrew GM ever. Halfway thru Abomination Vaults my players were lost in the jungle and someone (reasonably)complained about not being able to go to town for months. So, I had Venca’s black dragon swallow them all, no save, and teleport them all to Barovia because I was reading Curse of Stradh at the time. Priceless.
I've spent the last TWO YEARS writing a campaign and my first session is on the 29th. I'm so scared it's going to be awful😂😂 Edit: This is the first session of *this* campaign. Not my first in general. For context, I changed a lot of the structure of dnd. So it's like, dnd based but there's a toooon of homebrew. I also wrote a lot of setting and lore. It's mostly lore lol I just like really detailed and thought out religions. And there's a lot of dystopian elements. Lots of mystery. I basically wrote two campaigns, the real one and the fictitious one. The players will be discovering what's real as they go. I've been a player for a long time and have written a lot of homebrew already. I just have never DMed this big of a campaign before!
Were you writing a setting and setpiece and encounter ideas, or a series of events that are going to happen like a novel? If it's the latter, actually that can still be fun as long as you have player buy-in. Session zeros and setting expectations is important!
The dragon reveal caught me so off guard 😂 i love that other DMs started with the same kind of notes. Now prep is one page with names, motivations, and what happens if the PCs do nothing.
This is so fun to listen to. As a first time DM I am constantly terrified of if I am writing too much and if my homebrew is not balanced correctly. Sometimes it is so much better to hear what doesn't work instead of what does. If this ended up becoming a regular thing I would be sure to watch every episode.
The few times when I write out dialogue, is for helping myself to not forget to mention important details or very specific character interactions or idle conversation starters to help direct them to something. I like doing mysteries and having little details in my conversations that my players can over hear from important npcs that can Foreshadow events and the like.
I've been DMing for a while now and I still struggle with writing way too much in prep but literally every time life gets too busy to properly prepare and I just enter a session with a half baked idea about what I'm gonna do, those are my favorite sessions
Dude you are an absolutely amazing content creator I genuinely believe that if you continue with this and work on videos like this for your main channel you could be one of the largest creators on RU-vid who do dnd content!
I had just recently wrapped up my campaign. It had everything: a final boss fight, intense role-playing, and dramatic storytelling. I had my DM notebook with me. At the end, one of my players and best friends decided to sneak a peek at what I must have written down. He was baffled by the fact that it was blank, aside from a combat initiative tracker.😅
Bro your shorts are SO good. I was REALLY surprised the other day when I hopped onto your actual videos page and saw there was nothing. Glad you decided to change that.
Hearing the whole “you don’t need this” moments is very helpful as my entire friend group similarly has not played DnD. So me getting put into the DM position with no one having experience has been a little difficult trying to prep even the prebuilt campaigns because I don’t want to be flipping through the book every 2 seconds.. 😅
This was absolute gold! All of it! I want to see and hear more, yes please! 😂 I think we all start off this bad of DMs and realise, we're not writing a novel as we go along
I recently discovered your DnD shorts and they are soo good! Your humor is on point, the twists are amazing and I honestly love to hear what you came up with for every short. When I saw that you posted your first video I had to check it out! I'm relatively new to DnD myself and you explaining what didn't work or isnt a good mechanic in your old campaign and why is really helpful. You also got me hooked the way you speak, it's really entertaining! If you do decide to make more videos I'll love to watch them ⭐️
I watched all of your shorts multiple times and I just wanted to say thank you! Your content is so relatable and just genuinely funny. I hope you will continue putting out long form videos. Keep up the good work - can't wait for more videos.
I have been a player of D&D for years. About four before last year I started my first session. I am about detail and voices. My players were new also and luckily friends. Before long after my fourth session with them, I had run out of ideas to keep the story entertaining And Fresh. (All Homebrew aside from several items and weapons). So I had a veteran player I knew at work help. These guys were new but very intuitive and creative I told him. Fast forward to a point where they got a cube of force that he let them purchase and not once…but twice they escaped danger. Blew a hole in a wall to a castle and used the cube of force to keep a Grisgol and two Helmed Horrors at bay as they escaped. And… Survived a tidal wave they created killing Goblins and Lizardmen by the dozens… Me a Rookie DM frustrated feeling I was failing… My veteran friend awestruck and Also annoyed… But enjoyed every moment despite having to scrap several days of work… As I did with the Castle and loot and such… It was great… I’ve learned a lot about pacing the story and have more fun making up some things as I go as the veteran DM informed me. I still write notes. And any Magic Items I create I have him screen and keep to a note card to ensure it’s not overpowered. Sorry this is long. LSS I learned a lot from previous mistakes. Had fun with it. Helped me out of a dark place and still play with my friends and the veteran DM and halfway through our second Campaign.
I'd love to hear more from you! Your shorts are THE BEST and you mentioned something about film school which I can definitely feel with the great acting and pacing of the shots. Seeing the real you like this is really good too!
Your acting ability and creativity is absolutely amazing. Mostly judging from your shorts. I love your shorts and I'm excited about your long form vids too.
This was honestly so relatable! I've been a long time DM, going over 17 years now and I started in grade 7. I still have some of my earlier maps and 'plots' and god, the world was scattered with "Kobold City" and "Outpost of Fire" and also such masterpieces as "Tribal Village 1* And now? I've been running my own professional GM business as my full time job now for over 6 years. I've come a long way but it just goes to show that even the ones who look like experts have to start somewhere. Never be ashamed to learn something new. Great video man!
Loved this video. Am currently attempting at writing my first campaign and this video while entertaining was lowkey very helpful. Please continue this story!!!!
Great first long form video! Really helpful to see what *not* to do lol, keep up the great work! Would love to see more of these longer ones in the future
LOVE THE LONG FORM CONTENT! I’ve been waiting to see this from you, I believe you make a great content creator in the dnd space! Also can’t wait to see more of your streams!
Thank you for doing this because you just should everyone, "Just Do It!". Good, Bad, and/ or Ugly just do it and DM. At the worst you will learn what not to do. And at the best you will gain experience.
I would love to see another video on this! It reminds me of *my* first games and I'm interested to see how this, interesting, situation turns out! Also would love a video on your thoughts on railroading! Love the new format, and I definitely would love to see more longer-term videos from you!
Im about to run my first homebrew campaign coming up soon here, and I’m definitely an over prepper. I’ve spent months looking at videos and advice for writing and word building, but THIS has been some of the most helpful information I’ve seen that not a lot of other content creators are really sharing.
I DEFINITELY need to hear the rest. It's so comforting lol like we all know everyone goes through this, but seeing and hearing the concrete proof that someone else started out the same way I did is just a nice feeling. It's also hilarious, and super interesting to see how well you're able to identify the issues with your old prep. I think it'll be super valuable for veterans and newbies alike.
Im also currently writing my first long-term campaign, and honestly this video was really insightful into what you should do and what you shouldnt; I'd love to see a series on this that maybe could give some points of reference to people without experience!
Been playing DnD for about 3 months now and just found your content! Love the vids man, your shorts are hilarious and I wish you were my DM sometimes lol looking forward to where I'll be in 5 years time. Looking forward to what you'll do il the future man!
After hearing your inpirations were from nadpod and d20, the tone of your shorts makes so much more sense. From a fellow d20 enjoyer and DM enthusiastic I understand where your creative inspiration comes from. Brennan just brings that next level urgency to the table that no one else can seem to match.
You are the best d&d shorts creator me and my d&d table have ever seen anywhere, ever. We crack jokes from your content at work (a casino) all the time! You've genuinely made us laugh and enjoy our time together. That being said Remember that it's your ability *modifier* plus proficiency equals attack. 😂
I really do like this and I would be down to hear more of them as someone who's pretty new to dming it's been pretty helpful to hear how others have done it!
The first one shot I wrote, I wrote WAY TOO MUCH too, and halfway through just looked up and engaged my players an it was so much better! Love the long form, allows us to get to know you better. Your shorts are top level too!
This makes me so glad I have no idea where my oldest campaign notes are 😆Super entertaining though, and cool to see how much your DM style has clearly grown!
Hey Zach, watching this made me feel so much better about how my first campaign has gone so far. I wrote pages and pages about the starting town and first couple of quests, people, loot , etc. but the players haven't played even remotely the way I thought they would so they've missed out on so much of the stuff I had written. In hindsight, I don't know what I was thinking and now I'm 6 sessions in, 7 this Saturday. The level of prep that I had done for the first session was insane compared to what I'm doing now and I just want to say that this is so reassuring and has really helped me realize it's never as serious as I have been taking it. Still trying to find a balance between how much I think I should prepare to how much actually makes since. Love your content, keep it up.
i’d love to hear the overall story of the whole campaign!! overall, great first video dude! if i had one note, it’s that it took a long time to go back and read the small side notes (ex: meant Dispater instead of Dsipater) popping up as you went along because of how quickly they came and went, but other than that, great job and i can’t wait to see more from you!
I’d love to see a follow up of how’d you’d write/prep the session nowadays. You touched on a few things you’d do different but it’d be cool to see the full side by side
SO HAPPY YOU HAVE A YT!! Just started my first ever campaign and my party has 2 experienced dms which is nerve wracking but so far ive got nothing but good feedback! This was very fun to watch especially going back to my first dm notes compared to now😅
