Story Structure (GM Tips with Satine Phoenix) 

Heya guys! Thanks for taking the time to comment here! I read all the comments and hope you enjoy the way these are going: More tips AND deeper discussion on specific topics. I hear some of you like the old format, but this is the new format. We record these 4 episodes at a time. This episode is the beginning of 4 storytelling/campaign tips. Currently planning a solid 8 episodes of Encounter building. Please, post your #GMTIPS Questions here. I'd love to cover information YOU want to know about. Please be respectful. This is an RPG/Tabletop/Gaming thread. Thanks for watching! :D

why ARE the dungeons there. that's a deep thought.

I love how enthusiastic and well-read Satine is. She must be a really good GM.

This was amazing. I've been DMing from prewritten modules, but struggling to come up with my own ideas. Once Amy mentioned the circle, I was able to plan out a campaign pretty quickly. I have no idea if I'll be able to pull it off, but I'm excited to try!

"Once in love with Amy, always in love with Amy." Couldn't agree more! My man!

I really appreciate how this dives deeper into the mechanics of how story works. I needed this right now for my campaign! Thank you!!

Could we get a gm tips on how to arrange notes? I'm a disaster at this, and it always comes back to bite me in the ass

Rewatching this every now and then cause Satine and Amy's energy is just so inspiring and overflowing!

Heya Ho. Great series and fantastic tips. An improvement I'd like to see is resources in the description. Especially in a video like this, where graphics are used (the 8 step-circle) and books are mentioned, I'd like to see them linked or referenced in the description. I mean, of course. Google is my friend - but it doesn't only save me a couple of minutes looking stuff up, but also lots of others who're in the same spot I'd reckon. Thanks for this fantastic series!

1000 faces is a huge resource on archetypes that aren't just in stories but are in humanity's subconscious. Which is why it works lol

For me, this was probably the most useful episode so far. Loved the recommendations from both Satine and Amy. Looking forward to more!

I'm starting to GM I'm not that great at it but here's what I've discovered from my longtime GM. An escalation of freedom to let the players do what they want is absolutely necessary as they become more comfortable and highered-level. Start the scale of your story small then branch paths out slowly but surely letting them choose what arc of the story they want to go on. This not only invests your players in the world they are in but allows you to adapt to the choices they make

I'm a fan of collaborative writing (AKA roleplaying in writing) and I find so many of these tips perfect for world-building and character-building in so many situations.

Why do I not see comments about satine's make up? It is magically magnificent!

I am a new DM (only 2 game sessions) and I am just doing modules right now, but I have been looking for a video like this for over a month. Thank you. Very insightful.

One of the best episodes yet! I love Amy and her enthusiasm. I actually, watched this episode twice and took copious notes. Great job as usual Sabine!!!

I'm really enjoying these pointers. Great way to build on a DM/GM skill set. Love seeing the so cal community get behind D&D gamers. I originally started playing 2nd edition D&D and that's where my love grew. We used to play nothing but theater of the mind. Recently I've picked up crafting and have incorporated terrain, minis, etc, to my game. I find this helps a lot with new players. I really liked Amy's tip on game props, it makes a big difference. Satine, you are doing a great job and you are a true ambassador for us gamers. I've enjoyed both maze arcana and I hit with my axe. Kudos to you and keep up the good work.

Her surname is "Vorpahl" and she plays pen-and-paper RPGs? I wouldn't mess with that woman. @_@

Really enjoyed this episode. Starting a novel, and plotting it out, so having some idea of how to structure it helps.

Thanks for these. Great video snacks for me during my lunch break. My games are better because of you.

This show is rad. My kids and I love it so we gotta throw out a big thank you to everyone who puts work into this. Cheers!

So happy to see Story referred to, I've been using McGee's tips for storytelling for years now, in both my writing and DMing

I love Satine. She's just a straight badass, super smart and just really interesting. I love the new format. The discussion allows for more thinking involved which allows for creativity to flow. The book recommendations are also amazing and so helpful for not just GM but story writing in general. Satine keep doing you this is so sick! Much love.

Very well-put. I like that you could really use this advice in pretty much any genre, not just fantasy.

I just ordered two of the three books you advised. (Story and Hero with a Thousand Faces). Thank you gypsy woman! also the idea of using psych theories for campaigns is great.

I love this series

Excellent episode! I find your tips to be very effective. You're doing a great job, and a great service to our wonderful hobby! I hope to see much more of your work.

good food for thought. I will be back to make notes as I prepare for the new campaign.

I thought Maslow not Jung did hierarchy of needs

I'm totally loving this entire series of videos! So far I've watched every one starting with Matt Mercer's stuff. However, while I loved this video as much as the rest, the one vital question I need answered is what is that music at the very end??? I was totally digging it!!

Everybody asks why the dungeons are, but nobody asks how the dungeons are

I've been reading/watching so much on Harmon's circle. So clever!

Loving these videos! Keep up the great work Satine!

That was a fantastic episode! And, more additions to my reading list! Thank you, Satine!

I really loved this!

Hay Satine, great stuff. I have been running games for 23 years and find allot of value hear. it's hard finding new tips for a season'd DM like me LOL! I love the backdrop and the ending you two lovely ladies weaved together. Very entertaining:)

Story is SO GOOD! Great advice!

Finally the episode I was waiting for. Thanks Satine!

Awesome episode, and I personally enjoy the new format. Thanks Satine!

Hey, Satine, just wanted to say these videos are terrific! I especially appreciated the book recommendations. Just finishing Campbell & Moyers' Power of Myth, and Hero with a Thousand Faces is on my reading list! Will definitely pick up Story as well. Would you do a video on building group cohesiveness, especially in settings like Adventurer's League, where players might not be friends outside of the game? I run a weekly campaign at a game shop, and have been thinking a lot lately about how to help the group gel better. Especially when personalities don't always mesh. Anyway, you're an inspiration, and keep up the great work!

This so crazy lol I was just researching the hero's journey story circle that is also used by Dan Harmon uses in all of his work (I'm researching this to be a better DM lol) and I remembered going through these videos and here you are talking about just that from a few years ago. Crazy madness lol thanks for the video to the past you from the future me.

This was well done. Thanks!

I just read your comment, Sabine. I've DM'd for at least 30 years, off and on. General GM tips are great but this DEEPER level you are going with are really making me reflect on my old campaigns and are preparing me for when I come out of Table Top RPGs and GM very soon. I'm excited and a bit nervous. I will be GMing with a group of 5 and only 1 of them has a bit of DnD experience, so I can groom them to become great players. I see in one of them, because of her creativity and intelligence, a possible GM in the making. It would be great to play for once!!!

So glad you did an episode a 2 parter worth Matthew Coleville he's how I got into learning to GM better your whole show is good stuff

This is so helpful! As a GM the story is the hardest part for me to get right and make sure my players are having fun.

As a GM who has only done it a few times, this was an absolute godsend. Some really great advice here, thank you! My question is this: I'm starting a new campaign in a few weeks with a group of completely new players to tabletop RPGs - Do you have any advice on how to gently introduce them to the story, whilst also making it grand and epic enough in scope for them to really get into it? PS. Damn girl, your makeup is SO on point here!

Great, bold makeup - and even better advice! Thanks, Satine!

What a great video! Wish I had read Hero with a 1000 Faces as a kid.

Awesome girls! Keep up the great work!

Thank you so much for that episode! I stop kinda every 2-3min and write in my DM Book :D realy ove it!

I really like the Harmon Circle Theory, it really makes sense.

Great video! Really enjoying the new format and Satine's takes on DMing and storytelling.

I like to use Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schmidt for writing.

I love the show, Satine, and there are good tips in here. I'm not a fan of using the Hero With 1000 Faces, Monomyth concepts too often. While a decent guide for structuring a D&D campaign, its very problematic as a breakdown of ALL mythology (to the point of being debunked). If DMs do a little reading, they can find myths that don't conform to the Hero/Savior, Macguffin retrieval/return, etc that can also be fodder for building an adventure. But, great job, loving the show and the tips! Keep up the good work!

Exactly it has to make sense!

Thumbs up for the episode and another thumbs up for the ending.👍👍

This was the best GM tip episode. None have been bad, but this one was the best.

This is probably the best one of Satine's, insofar as the guest.

Loved this episode and will for sure use the ideas in my games. I wanted to take a look at all the resources mentioned and figured other people would too so an easy list to look up the books mentioned: Story by Robert Mckee The Writer's Journey: by Christopher Vogler The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell Hierarchy of Needs theory by Carl Jung (excellent source for psychological stories as well) The Action Heroine's Journey by Satine Phoenix and RK Syrus The Harmon Circle, the short cut story outline that Amy Vorpahl mentions

Omg I love that orchestra metaphor

you guys should have Griffin McElroy come on and do a guest spot sometime

Music at the end, where did it come from? I would like to make myself either a CD or library to put people in mood while we play, I always believe music is a great away to immerse people.

This was a really good one. Don't get me wrong I like them all, but this was the most helpful to me I think.

Great episode! Thanks Satine and crew! I think Amy is my new crush! She's cool as hell!

Thank you :)

Great tips! you're absolutely fantastic! great set too!

I liked this quite a bit

The Story Emerges from Playing the Game This is a key principle of my game management style. That does not mean that you can never think of yourself as primarily a storyteller but you absolutely do not have to. There are advantages and disadvantages to the storytelling style of game management. Glory Road Roleplay will still function if you take the storytelling approach but, in any system, players tend to lose agency when GMs (and DMs) set out to tell a story. Even “cooperative storytelling” means players making out of character decisions that reduce immersion and the more forceful and perhaps the more imaginative players may take agency from the other players. If you play the game with players making in-character decisions, I guarantee that you will look back on many stories that you never knew were going to tell.

Love it! Also love the music at the end. Anyone know where I could find it?

As someone who wants to be a writer, I'm definitely going to remember the Harmon Circle Theory, thank you for all the tips, I'm getting really pumped to try DMing again (I failed miserably the two times I tried...)

I've made some good homebrew by throwing something completely random at my players then coming up with a good WHY between sessions taking player theories (correct or not) into account.

Also important is letting your players know what story YOU want to tell, and force them to have characters with weaknesses/flaws/bonds and to actually play them. My first few gaming experiences I tried to show the players the main struggle of the plot, NPCs talked about it, the Gillian's stated they were doing X for Y reason, and the characters were asked for their opinion on the conflict several times. But for the players, it went over their heads and they weren't noticing the pattern. Never take your player's attentiveness for granted. Let them know out of game, session zero, what you are going to make the main conflict. I've also had to force players to make characters with flaws/bonds and to play them out. It's hard to have plot hooks when the characters have nothing to hook into. I've had players leave because the idea of a single flaw or potential weakness is unbearable to them. Force them to play out those bonds and flaws, and reward them for doing so until they naturally do it.

you guys are hilarious. i love it :)

Hey Satine! You've been an excellent host so far. May you please consider making an episode about the importance of Anthropology and other social sciences (or lack thereof) in making or playing campaigns? #GMTIPS in case I need the tag haha

One of the problems on relying on story structure so much is people may not understand how much plot and character is so closely connected. A story is made up of the three pillars of setting, plot, and character. Plot and character are connected by motive, so if the GM has chosen the stop the bad guy plot, but the player has chosen a motive that has nothing to do with that plot the you have a newbie GM that may not know how to handle that at all. Sometimes you have to just dumped that plot completely. One option to takr is to write the story with never the chacters in mind. Have the villain fight someone else in the world, and the players may or may not get caught in the middle of this. If the players create a hook themselves, you can try to connect it to the plot, but it's ok if you can't come up with a connection because someone else is fighting the bad guy, a understudy (the good king is an idiot). The understudy is doing it badly, and may not win, or maybe they do win but things are worse. If things are bad because the players didn't help, never let them think it's their fault. Instead they should feel like it's a living world, and stuff happens without them.

I always ask "Why" for dungeons. It can get frustrating sometimes, but it's ultimately a better experience since it fits with your over-arching narrative.

Still think you would rock teaching a class on stories.

Quick question for anyone, my players are obsessed with taking trophies from literally all of their kills, like teeth, tentacles even a Gorgons massive metallic head that they're dragging along the ground, i'm not sure if they want mementos of epic fights or just wanna decorate the tavern they appropriated. Do other DMs find this happens?

Yooooo what's that music at the end? It was awesome! Also love the series and Satine as the host!

One request/suggestion I have after watching a couple of your vids (which are awesome, btw *insert gushing here*) is adding links to plugs in the info section. Sometimes I don't always hear right or I need to go search for where a suggestion was made and I'd need to search through the vid. Not that that is bad, but links in the info area would be a nice-to-have.

I often find "new wave" Games try to answer the Why question right away, during chargen, which _is_ good!

I have a question. Internet Provider! If you have a multi-attack feature and an extra attack feature. Can you attack then multi-attack followed by an extra attack with another multi-attack followed by a bonus attack if you have one?

If you're looking for more of Mercer's style of tips, Matt Colville does a great series on DMing that covers more technical topics and practical tips.

12:40 This is me as a DM!!!! This is why we have a Paladin NPC named Ferris Beuller, and the huffable drug assailing town is called Skooma haha

8:50 great question.What is AA RPG ? I only find music resources.

I do have the rest of my day ahead of me. I must walk the dog, and go to work. Yay! may the adventure begin.

Any advice on how to start more personalized stories for my players who haven't fully fleshed out their backgrounds yet and/or have a background that has almost nothing to do with the current campaign? I'd like to write more meaningful stuff for them, but they're kind of on the clock. While they might go on personal errands, the bad guys will keep moving. Any advice on how to solve this?

Also, that was great! I now have a buttload more things to read but im looking forward to it... #TomorrowWhenTheWarBegan

Ah, the monomyth. A good place to start for sure, but doesn't it get kind of boring after awhile? Personally, I am not afraid to mix it up some- like a party of antiheroes who start out deeply flawed and "at their darkest moment". It can be done. One of the best DMs I have ever played with structured and described his campaigns in the terms of TV shows: each session was an episode, and each major part of the main story arc- or resolution of a sub-plot- was a season. And of course when all goals and objectives were met, there was a "series finale". It worked so well, so consistently, that I have adopted the same idea personally and use it in the GM101 section of the Myriad RPG rulebook.

Cool...English class is coming back to me.

BEST. OUTRO. EVER.

I am disappointed the ears are not present.

Also important is whether your campaign is "Plot Focus" vs. "Character Focus". For instance Lord of the Rings is plot focused. Everything that they're doing is in furtherance to the central plot (Save Middle-Earth from Sauron/Destroy the One Ring). Still great characters, but just that they've got a specific overarching task to accomplish. Firely/Serenity is Character-focused. Almost every ounce of plot in the series is generated by the main characters, where it be taking the train job from Niska, or Mal getting into a duel on Persephone while trying to cut a business deal on some illicit cattle. It's all about them in the end. I'm much more character focused as a GM, because what interests me is how the players chart their course in the world I've laid before them. I create events that are going on, and the PC's work out what they want to do. Character Focus tends to be a bit harder from a GM standpoint, because in loosening the reins of control, you have to be prepared much more for that sudden left turn, and make sure you keep up. like I said, I create events, so let's say that the PC's don't handle that little group of bandits. Well, as time goes on, the bandits build up, they get better, and eventually, they start to effect the various economies (things get more dear, and more expensive), and so on. The feels like its alive, rather than a string of plot posts that exist for the PC's to just go after.

Quickly becoming my fav G&S show! :D Lots of great resources and tips.

Could someone show how the Harmon circle works? Like just give an example demonstrating how it works, working through each part of it and showing visually how you use it?

5:03 I love Amy. She's a cool gal and has got a great smile!

satine phoenix is the bomb.

after watching Matt's tips I was stoked so naturally at first I was like wtf why's Satine doing tips now I'm three in and I'm really enjoying your spin on it keep it up Satine

Damnit Amy, making everyone blush and whatnot

I need a link to that Old-timers/Newcomers show. How to find it?