The 3rd Secret Every DM Needs to Know 

“Don’t think, feel! It's like a finger pointing away to the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory.” - Bruce Lee

Omg the bit about the shire and killing Gandalf could have been the most true dnd experience ever told.

I love how the success of a game of DnD is collaborative, like the game is cooperative.

I don’t fear the DM who runs a million games, I fear the DM who runs 1 game a million times

I feel like your players attacking the bandits after promising to leave them alone were the true villains of the story.

“Be like water” is actually a Sun Tzu quote from the art of war tho

Great advice as always professor. I also like the quote from Game of Death, "Rehearsed routines lack the flexibility to adapt."

So true! Flexibility makes games stronger. A few sessions back I set up a city for my players to explore before going to a dungeon. I figured they'd spend maybe half a session going around the city. But they enjoyed meeting NPCs and shopping so much that I decided to let it go on, and they ended up spending a full 2 sessions just exploring the city and having a fun time!

It took 2 years because the last one is the best one. patience grasshopper

In gaming as in war “plans are useless but planning is indispensable” -Eisenhower

Omg, two of my favorite things (Bruce Lee and Dungeons & Dragons), fused beautifully by one of my favorite youtube channel... !! Love that stuff.

I fully agree with this philosophy. I follow the idea that as a GM I create three things for a session: NPCs, Situations and Complications. I NEVER create solutions, that's the players job.

'Flow like the wind through the reeds, Grasshoppa.'

This, IMO, is the best advice you have ever given on this channel. Thank you. Everyone needs to hear this as a GM/DM.

Just turned 50 the day this came out. Thanks for teaching an old dog some new tricks!

The good Professor has offered us years of excellent content, advice, and instruction, and meaning no disservice or criticism to all that good work, I must say this, for me, the best of them all. It reflects the style and grace of a truly great Game Master. From one professor to another, well done sir!

And 'Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.' Bruce Lee AND Professor Dungeon Master

Hey Professor, it’s been two years since you gave us the last sec- oh. You answered the question.

Yep. I too find that running the game with as much hands off as possible and letting the players do what they do leads to the most exciting content for everyone.

I almost always leave a peaceful or escape option open - in case they actually try it

Every time I watch one of your help videos my prep mode get up and go gets going! Thank you. -Brian.

As a 20+ year DM and lifelong JKD practitioner? Hell yeah. Being flexible and adaptable is about the most important life skill you can develop - serves everything from your day-to-day to telling cool stories with dice. Love it.

YES! This is the Tao of RPG! I really feel like one's "World" needs to be a web of connected layers with threads to be discovered by the Players. "Randomizer Charts and a limber imagination... This is the Way of the Master Game Master.

I just DM'd my first session this morning. I picked up the D&D essentials kit to start teaching my 8 year old son to play. These videos have been great learning tools for a beginner DM especially the ideas for simplifying and speeding up character sheets and combat respectively. These "Secrets" videos have taken away any anxiety I felt about being able to run this for my son in an enjoyable way. Thank you so much, the joy on his face when he rolled his first natural 20 and killed an orc in one hit was irreplaceable.

I am in love with how much actual usable practical advice you give on your channel. Thanks for getting to the point, I can tell your games are fun and fast paced.

Very deeply influenced by Zen writings, the Enlightened Lao Tzu and his teachings on the nature of water, and Yip Man's "Art of Detachment," Bruce came up with the "Be like water" realization while in a boat. The lesson is deeply spiritual in nature and invites one to seek Enlightenment/Truth. Applying this to your gaming approach is exactly what I have been advocating all along in past comments. Welcome to Spiritual gaming.

The 3 secrets are incredibly helpful! Thank you!

Here's a trick to go along with it: Create a few NPC cards, give them names a quick sentence about personality (use index cards or get fancy with your favorite graphics program.) Then just plop them in whenever you need them. They don't have to be tied to a specific location (though they can if that helps). I upload these cards for my online game and they are ready to go when I need a quick NPC. Keeps things VERY flexible. Thanks Professor DM also, I'm going to write "Be like water." Down and tape it to my monitor.

That's a well-tied double windsor, Professor. Very toight; like a toigerr. Thank you for your excellent advice and delivery. You're a true professional.

I like how your hair looks in this video.

You had me at the hobbits becoming Warlords of the Shire! Never have we had an Evil Dark Lord with the stature of a hobbit (other than Spaceballs).

I am running two campaigns, and one night they all happened to be at my house. Ironically, both campaigns were in gnomengarde from the dragon of icespire peak. so I ran a single campaign, letting the player characters meet up, and boy did they obliterate my plans, they started a war with the rock gnome recluses and left the gnome king (who was inside a barrel crab), whom they fought in the end, alive. I could have just redirected their play alot, but I was interested to see how theyre actions would really play out. Yes, they all failed the mission, but they won an enemy, and possibly a war, from their choices. I would never have thought about how a gnome war would have ever made it into our world, but there it is, and I LOVE IT!

Lao Tzu (more or less, actually it was from a Xena episode): "What is softer than water, but who can resist a flood?" Being like water is more than just filling a container, it is about projecting force.

Professor, as always, thanks for your insights. I watch them several times, so it sinks in.

Improvise, overcome, adapt. This is one of the most valuable lessons a DM needs to learn. The players will always do the unexpected and you need to be able to roll with the changes.

Some of the best sessions or encounters I have run are when I had to react to the players doing something unexpected and I had to improvise and change my plans. I am sure lots of people would say the same!

Very good video. I'm playing a sci-fi RPG with my son, who keeps doing things I didn't expect and have to improvise. This chapter was supposed to be three episodes... it's now six or seven sessions in, and has expanded dramatically in both content and NPCs as I try to stay a step or two ahead. I have a rough structure of what I intend to happen, but it keeps getting modified as he does things I didn't anticipate.

"I've been playing the game for 29 years..." Youngster! 44 years of gaming and counting, 43 as a DM too. I'll be the first to admit that the learning curve for DMs was STEEP in the '80s and '90s though. There were no so-called "experts" to consult and the Internet didn't even exist. I often found myself in my school's library trying to "educate" myself about some obscure subject so I didn't look like a fool or get "upstaged" by a player who was "more knowledgeable" about that subject than I was. This was a true "fool's errand" back then because there was simply too much you needed to know and not enough time to look it up. It did make me a more "well rounded" student, and I found that JEOPARDY questions were a lot easier to answer than my fellow Non-RPG playing students found them. It was also a very good way to develop interpersonal skills as well as leadership skills. DMing will build those skills like nothing else will. Today, I prefer to let the DICE help me narrate the game. I will throw ALL of the dice together, so I can use the combined results of those dice as a "narrative tool." I use a To Hit die, a Hit Location die, and a Damage die (or dice). EVEN IF the To Hit die misses, I use the Location die to describe where the attack was directed while the damage roll (even if the hit missed) decides if it was a "mighty blow" (for a high damage roll) or a "feeble scraping hit" (for a low damage roll). I also like to narrate an "exceptional result" or "spectacular failure" for non-combat rolls which either exceed the target number or miss it by a large margin. This is in addition to Crits and Fumbles. I will give a small "mechanical bonus or complication" for such rolls on a Proficiency check roll.

This episode was so insightful. Professor Dungeonmaster is totally rad! Excellent advice, and the concepts are widely applicable, not just to D&D.

This link is pretty much appreciated, and not just in DnD. Thanks, boss

This is just perfect to post to any New DM questions.

That's what I've been missing in my game "Doritos"! Thanks PDM!

This is a good reminder. I sometimes find myself attached to a particular plot or NPC or solution to a problem and when the players decide to avoid the plot, kill the NPC, and circumvent the problem, it can be a challenge to be like water. For me it helps to take a moment to mentally say goodbye and then quickly move on by starting to look down the new paths these decisions can take us.

Found your channel recently and I’m totally impressed many of your ideas I have already been implementing in my own games for years but your conciseness is impressive and your ability to condense rules into simplistic aspects is truly impressive especially your views on combat zones

29 yrs RESPECT! I have been playing since dirt was new (my family was in the biz back in the days of yore). I can stand in front of 100 people and throw dice but for the life of me couldn't pull off what you have accomplished with your videos. Still learning everyday, everyway! Thanks for sharing your gaming ideas, they go a long way to inspire many. Even us old dogs have learned some new tricks 😆

Love the secret.... I always aspire to be like water.

Be like Bruce Lee. Make cat-like yipping noises when you control enemy NPCs in battle!

Great advice, and we have similar interests, 2 of my main focuses when i was a kid were also D&D and Bruce Lee. WWWAAAYYYY back in the mid-70's.....that was a while ago, lol.

I learned this lesson recently. I had an epic story planned, but the players went a different way than I expected. I rolled with it and the player led stuff was the best part of the campaign.

Me after only watching the intro: "Be Like Water my friend."

Excellent video, Dan. Thank you so much for your wisdom.

I knew as soon as i saw the title that this would be about "the water quote!" And it's so very true. I've been DMing for a few years now and it's always been the way I run my games - even if i didn't know it lol. Thanks for another great video and can't wait for the next.

"Game like water." Yes! I try to run my games like a veritable ocean. I plan nothing, but I know my world well enough to know how to react in most situations. That said, I plan events, and encounters, and know what could await them in their next destination, but never plan for much. The players will inevitably do something completely different anyway.

This was a grest video and good life advice. I too and my whole gaming group were into D&D and fighting/martial arts. 40 years later, us retired fighters, bouncers, ex military nut jobs still play a bi weekly face to face game. I plan usually 3 sessions ahead also and just try to be ready for anything.

I never would have known i had two years on you.lol Great video as always Prof. Love to see the tie back and always love Deathbringer. Keep it up and stay safe.

Awesome advice that I needed today! I'm running a Pathfinder game and haven't GM'd in a year and over planning. Feeling so much better and ready to go.

My dear Professor, you may not have realized it, but you have been giving us this advice all along. After watching several of your videos, the realization came to me there is no need to build a world, let the players do that for you.

I'm reminded of the immortal words of Gunnery Sargent Thomas Highway: "Improvise, adapt, overcome." The best DM's are good at improvisation, it's a necessary skill to have if you want to be successful in the central chair of the game table.

lol. Be like water. Very clever combination of Bruce Lee and D&D.

Another good one. I love that quote from Bruce Lee. Re-watching the other two secrets now.

A solid advice. I was mostly a rigid DM before reading the mind opening "Return of the Lazy DM", which teached me how to be flexible in preparing adventures/campaigns and how to pour that flexibility also in the game sessions. I'm looking forward to read also his "The Lazy DM's Workbook" and the recently kickstarted "The Lazy DM's Companion", they may help me walk better along the "be like water" path. As always, really great content Professor DM, glad to have subscribed to your channel 👍🏻.

I've found of the years to form a group that enjoys being together. When you are among friends you can deal with conflict so much better and if things get ugly the GM can always step in and not invite the player who is being difficult. Quality over quantity.

If I have only learned one thing from DMing it's that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

There were actually 3 things you were into obsessively as a teenager, you forgot about teenage girls.

i absolutely love this. keep up the awesome work.

Here is another cookie for the metric, but be more like milk than water for that. Thanks for the content!

Funny, I gave the same advice to someone last week : "Good luck with the DMing, don't over prepare ! Go with the flow and be fair."

SImple but very effective. It's kinda something we all 'know' but don't realize we know until hit over the head with it, lol.

I saw where you were going with this one from the get go, but it's great advice. I like to plan long campaigns out on a very open framework (or flowcharts that you've demonstrated) dependent on character's backstory. This allows for me to fit their personal interest into my own games, but I only detail the "next" game out.

This is such great advice! I’ve found that the best fun to be had for all is to ad-lib when the PCs come up with a cool idea, or the dice rolls produce a crazy random encounter. Really important to be adaptable to the story as it unfolds, even for the unexpected events.

Lookin’ good with the grown hair, PDM.

Good stuff! I was fortunate enough to learn this particular lesson in a very direct way in one of the first sessions I ran, but it's nice to see it articulated so well.

As a sandbox GM and tcma / Chinese philosophy enthusiast this is relevant to my interests.

I vibed through that video and then the Lil dicky joke at the end just wiped me out lmaooo have a thumbs up

I'm hearing more and more about this Bruce Lee fella. IMO, I think he would be good fit for action movies, particularly those which feature martial arts.

Sweet one professor! Thanks!

Nailed it Prof. You’re the best. I shared all your video a 100 times! I have made your ultimate dungeon terrain and speed painted minis. You are an inspiration and hope to buy you a Mountain Dew some day. I will drink a beer, but death bringer gives off heavy Mountain Dew vibes

Awesome stuff professor!

Great video. Thanks for all the advice you give.

Calling it before watching the video: "Be Like Water, My Friend" lol

Best advice Yet, and that is a HIGH bar!

Terrific advice! I've found that switching to an online mostly theater-of-the-mind style game has pushed me even further toward this approach. For me, the part of that flexible approach is adapting to the shape of the narrative that the players are creating, as well as designing my encounters to be moveable (not overly fixed in time or place) and easy to drop into whatever is unfolding. Thanks for sharing your insights with us!

I’ve had to learn more this secret the hard way. With my game the players had just retaken their home city from a bunch of bandits and had number of adventure hooks they could go after. At the end of the session I asked them what they were going to do next session. They said let’s go kill the black dragon in the swamp. When we started playing next week at the start of the session they decided that they were not going to fight the dragon, to which I responded with “You mother... alright so what are y’all doing”. Many sessions later they still have not dealt with the dragon.

Great insight and great story.

I've been playing for over 10 years now, and I just discovered this recently too. I've found, the less I have planned the better story I can come up with on the spot.

From my limited experience, the sessions I prepared for the least are the ones that were the most fun for my groups. The advice in this video is basically what I do already. I even made a video on a way I prepare some stuff now using Google Docs and a game called Kingdoms and Castles. It's a bit new for me, but should help in the future. I will likely mesh it with the advice here. If you want to watch it, thanks. If not, the brief synopses is I take screenshots of the city I built in the game and take notes with it. The game has randomly generated names for the people in the city you build, so naming npcs is easier with that. Then I just put simple info that gives me just enough to be ready for role-play. Just small notes, of course.

First campaign I designed, I took 6 months of planning an intrigue campaign. I only used roughly 1/3 of the notes because my players went Evil murderhobo, they had no interest in saving people or the politics. They only wanted to kill the BBEG mindflayer lich because he didn't stay dead. His phylactery was the imperial throne at the heart of a LG theocracy, where he impersonated the emperor. When they succeeded, none of the awards I planned a year prior fit their deeds before the showdown. "You have done us a great service vanquishing this evil. You have 24 hours before we hunt you down like the dogs you are." They celebrated like they hit the lottery, just had to roll with the punches to get there. I quit planning that much so far ahead.

I had to learn this the hard way and I have to be reminded every time that I put too much work into a story. As much as I love story telling within D&D, D&D is a shared narrative experience, sure, but its a game first and fore most and my players are PLAYERS and not story tellers (not yet any way lol) If you want to story tell, play a game where the mechanics are lite and you are in control of the narrative but be prepared for some push back against anyone who's not just there to follow the idea of the story beats. D&D and anything that has hard rules about how things function, go with the flow and see where the dice take you - that to me is the essence of this rule.

NYET! You do as told, not one step backwards! LOL Great advice! OMG, YES write it down! I DMd a three year real time campaign which was an epic quest to decode a map to a fabulous treasure, the PCs had to travel to a remote elven library. After 3 years they arrive at the library, but no one myself the DM or the players forgot the reason for the quest, hilariously embarrassing.

Water can flow, or it can crash. Too much water, and you all might drown. Water can take the shape of its container, but there needs to be a container in the first place.

Nice job. Thank you for the content.

Excellent as always PDM!

As a DM, I enabled the enemies to capture the party. How? With a stairway trap in a dungeon where the stairway turned into a slide and dumped the party into a room where they were surrounded by orcs pointing spears at the party, ready to stab and kill them before they could attack. The party was disarmed and marched off to cells where they were held to join the villains' slave labour force. Fortunately the party managed to escape from the cells by using spells, which the guards weren't expecting. (The other enslaved people were not adventurers but were farmers and merchants, etc..) Then the party led their fellow prisoners in a slave revolt and brought the whole villainous operation down. That said, I do agree that being like water is generally more enjoyable for the players.

Great advice for any table!

Great episode!

Fantastic advice! I too am a Bruce Lee fan!

I always appreciate PDMs advice. I've been trying to simplify and implement the flow charts and one page session and it's definitely going to take some practice but this is a good reminder to just be like water :D

I love your video series. And I love how you often give advice at two levels, for the beginners and for the veteran players and DMs. I do want to pass an idea onto you regarding initiative. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm starting with your initial setup: no initiative, but characters act in order of their dexterity. Sit the highest dex to the DMs left and continue clockwise until the lowest dex character is seated on the DMs right. But Who goes first, the group or the monsters? Maybe DM decrees. Or maybe now you toss a die. This is my suggestion. Have the players roll for their collective initiative. The DM can choose to roll for the monsters or simply decree what the monster's initiative is. Fine. But that unit is not fighting under the tactical benefit of a commander. Let the party recognize one of their own as a battlefield commander. Anyone who accepts their command, gets to fight as a cohesive group, allowing the commander, and only the commander, to modify the die roll with their tactical knowledge. What is this skill, tactical knowledge, you ask? Well it's your natural attack bonus (without magic, without strength bonus). If you are using old school Thaco, the bonus is 20 minus your thaco. Anyone who refuses to accept command from the commander in combat is out of command. They use the same initiative die roll, but they don't get the commander's modifiers. This creates a secondary group, perhaps causing two groups of players to act at different times. The secondary group might even have its own commander, and then they use the second in command' s modifier. But this second in command must have unanimous acceptance of all his followers or the secondary group is simply "out of command" and has no commander. You see , this works great for monsters too. They can now act in groups, maybe with a commander, and maybe also a second in command. Unlike dnd 4ed, the commander is not a new class. It's elected, and subject to mutiny or change. It recognizes and values the fighters inherent tactical knowledge. The commander can lead the team on a charge once per combat to surprise the enemy for a round, but only if he has the initiative. And only his followers join the charge. The commander can inspire one follower per round to act out of turn, even if the follower has a lower dexterity. This needs to be roleplayed. "Johnson, take the shot" Finally, the commander can rally once per combat to either withstand a charge or call back his followers if they failed a morale check or failed their saving throw vs fear. In effect giving them another save. It's basically a compromise. Reduce initiative to one die roll, have each side split potentially into two groups instead of one, each group acting at different times, and allowing the commander some leeway to alter the order of combat among his followers. But only so long as he or she remains popular. Favoritism, or poor performance, could lead to mutiny.

Had a similar thing happening in my group with a goblin shaman. The monster description said that he had a blindness spell, and the dice really favored that mofo. He got the whole PCs blind during the big fight against the tribe, and even though the PCs won, the shaman blinded them all again and managed to escape. At the end of that session I gave him a name and he became a recurrent villain in my games, and the players absolutely hated him. And it was all completely non scripted :)

"Who's the Master?" "I AM!" -Bruce Leeroy The Dungeon Master. ;)