What can Star Wars teach about RPGs? Professor Dungeonmaster opines. Patreon: / dungeoncraftyoutube Dungeoncraft Facebook : / 1620296361377654 Music: "Fury of the Dragon's Breath" by Peter Crowley Bandcamp : petercrowley.ba...
Star Wars taught me three things related to D&D: 1) Shoot (stab) first. 2) Never go down a garbage chute. 3) Don't jump into bed with a new NPC until you determine whether you two are related.
Players walk through a strange market run by goblins (I haven't created any NPCs, gonna wing it) Player asks if there are any goblins selling food. "Yes, he has a small table with a basket of fish." "What's his name." (Uh....) "Gripp." Gripp the Goblin was with us for 36 more sessions and survived the whole campaign.
I don't think Grumm should return, but they should recover his body for a proper burial. Make him go to a Valhalla sorta place where he will train for a Ragnarök sorta event, and if a player dies in combat he/she can meet him there.
Don't forget that Luke and Ben meet Han Solo and Chewie in a seedy tavern in the beginning of Star Wars before going on their quest to save the kingdom (I mean galaxy). I think George Lucas was a secret D&D player. :-)
Hmm, you yourself said, “Don’t subvert player expectations, meet them and exceed them.” So I say, “Give them Baby Grumm!” I have spoken that this is the way. The little, bearded Grummling even comes with a book of bedtime stories that some normally gruff and grumpy but soft-hearted player character is pestered to read from every time the party stops for a long rest. The title: “Grumm’s Fairy Tales.” Okay, okay, I’ll see myself out now. No need to push. :)
I had one of those NPCs in a game over 20 years ago that my players still bring up. It was a halfling warrior in AD&D 2nd Ed, Zodal the Small. He was just supposed to be a throwaway character! He had three things I used to describe him; he wore a chain shirt, he was small, even for a halfling, and he waved hello and goodbye with both hands. THAT'S IT!!! Yet still he is remembered, over 25 years later! You can never know where the next Zodal the Small will come from.
@@kalenplant2675 It sure is, a quick search is wotc destroying dnd beings up videos talking about all the different ways they are doing it, I when full OSR because of what they are doing.
@@herohiroguy I just want your view on it man, not regurgitated crap from angry people online because as we know, the Internet will get angry over anything.
Perfect video for today sir. I am more excited to see your videos then that movie masquerading as Star Wars. The heroes journey is what we all want in our movies and games. I regret I have only One like to give. Sharing this video to even my non DnD friends.
Along the Grumm line of thought.. One of the best NPC's in a campaign I played in was a mimic. Instead of fighting it we fed it some rations then offered it a job as doorkeeper of the dungeon which was under a key shop in a city. We lured it with the promise of fresh pastries and cake which were way better than dry rations. Very memorable role-play moment because the dwarf could speak undercommon.
Just like Babe Ruth said in The Sandlot, "Remember kid, there's heroes and there's legends: Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Don't take that literally though... Grumn's legend will be reduced if he's brought back from, what was presumably, his death.
It's been a garbage fire since the Prequels, Disney is just carrying on the tradition of completely misunderstanding the appeal of the original trilogy.
@@zacharyhoover5588 Or there are retards that will watch anything and sing its praises like a bunch of zealot fanboys. Isn't there a Jonas Brothers album you should be pirating right now?
Yet another well crafted video. One thing to mention is the when and how of removing the mentor. Once the 'kids' have leveled enough that they can handle things on their own, having a memorable and story-driving exit to the mentor is very important. It cements the 'old fool' as a beloved NPC and puts a bullseye on the baddie who brought him down.
I got my friend coming over tomorrow to play d&d for the first time. He is joining in on my sons campaign and I can't wait to unleash the dungeon craft and runehammer style of play onto him. Great story, fast combat and "don't let them see how the sausage is made". Your content is simply amazing and my go to place for d&d ideas, even the videos I've already watched. Keep up the great work.
started watching mandalorien last night with the kids, they noticed right away that ir was just like DnD. but star wars. we looked up Jon Favreau wiki and it has a paragraph on how he credits dnd with his storytelling.
The Throw Away NPC can be solid gold. One of the most memorable for my group was a tavern mutt named Frank the Dog. It was simply an ambience piece in a murder mystery adventure in a large port city. I had no intent of having the animal be anything else, until the Druid cast Speak with Animals and interrogated it. Frank wound up providing a nugget that lead the party to discovering the murder was an undead monster disturbed from a centuries long sleep by an expansion of the city sewers. Frank is now legendary from two interactions in a campaign I ran 12yrs agon
The Grumm story made me think that sometimes what players want is not what they or the campaign need. When they insinuate that they want Grumm to still be alive, they're really just nostalgic for the feeling of Grumm. Grumm, like so many beloved characters in our stories, was more than a fictional entity, he was a process. He was a story. When Grumm ended, he became complete. If you ever did bring Grumm back, he would feel somehow hollow to the players. A ghost wearing Grumm's skin. Instead of wanting to resurrect him, the players should think of creative ways to commemorate him in the game without trying to recreate his story. Ohhhhhhh, Star Wars, I get it...
Your advice on NPC’s is spot on. I made probably 15+ NPC’s over the course of a year and the one that stuck was a prisoner I made up on the spot he joined the party and is now 11th level. Almost all of the comic relief comes from this NPC’s actions and commentary. He’s everyone’s favorite.
My party's all time favourite npc was an orcish shaman that was supposed to appear once to sell info and potions to them midway through a dungeon. He was always kind of annoyed by them and became a recurrent shopkeeper throughout the campaign.
Great episode! Aside from the excellent DM’ing tips, I was starting to feel grumpy and cynical for thinking the new trilogy is terrible. Glad to know I’m not the only one!
Grumm had a son that no one knew about. The managed to recover his body and favorite weapon. He talks to the weapon and seeks its counsel in battle planning.
Re: NPCs who the players unexpectedly like... I was DMing a game with one player... I had this mage NPC, Felonius who, along with a thief NPC, Greegan, regularly bullied a dwarf NPC. When goblins took down Felonius in one of the party's first battles, I was surprised that my player didn't want him to die. 😯 As a result, I bent the rules to allow Felonius to survive on death's door and recover after much rest. Felonius might get killed later (his survival is not inevitable), but it depends on what happens in our campaign.
Great DM'ing advice! Sharing with my son, who is preparing to run his first D&D game, in a few weeks. Been at this DM'ing stuff for 39 years... Still learning! Finding a few gold nuggets in your videos, to add to my dragon's hoard of treasures. Huge fan of X-DM -- amazing book, amazing techniques within it. And... It has amazing gamer humor in it, too. I laughed out loud reading it -- my D&D-playing family thought I'd lost it. ;-) Keep this stuff coming. I learned all of this, the hard, slow, torturous way. I am helping my son learn it fast, easy, and well. Your videos are a wonderful resource. Cheers!
My players attached to a throwaway NPC merchant, to the point of involving themselves in a war, (a war that wasn't part of the main plot as nobody had skin in the game until said NPC) just to save the NPC.
Grumm returns, as an undead lieutenant. He seeks revenge against any who stopped him from achieving his goals. Party must confront him several times before recapturing his soul, and giving him a heroes place in the halls of his ancestors
Great idea! I told my group I'm only bringing Grumn back if this video hits 10k views, which is looking unlikely. But your idea is one of the better ones.
Old school DM/player (1e/2e)who got back into the hobby a year ago. 5e is awesome , the choices, and options for PC’s is a breath of fresh air but as a DM I find it extremely difficult to truly challenge my players without going to great lengths that border on cheating. Your channel and advice have helped me tremendously to combat this problem. Thank you, Professor, and keep up the good work.
played what you described !!! love every minute of it !!! started in the kings chamber and wallked in to a siege battle and then started the quest and ended in the kings chamber
Don't listen to those who complain loudly about your preferred style of game not being theirs. My friends and I love your channel and enjoy your insight, experience, creativity and approach to the hobby. It's easy to find "how to overpower the game" advice on other channels if that is what someone is looking for. We students of Professor Dungeon Master need our mentor!
My characters role played with a minor villain so hard they eventual convinced him to turn on the big bad lol. He was supposed to be an epic combat to finish level 3 of my dungeon, but they sacked his room and learned what made him tick before confronting him. They now have their fav NPC 😅 who uses Time Magic. They love this guy!
Another great video. Your points on the Star Wars characters was articulated very well and made me realize precisely why I didn't like the newer movies.
Basically the same thing, but I wrote my campaign using Dan Harmon's story circle. One of my players agreed to let his character die in a very dramatic fashion. It devastated the party. That arc felt so rewarding.
I had an NPC whose only description was "he's a young guard used as the errand boy by the mayor", and he was just supposed to ask them to meet the mayor. Well, it wasn't one of the more than 10 NPCs with backstory the one they fell in love with, it was this Gawyn boy who didn't even had a name before they asked it.
I think there aren't many modules for high-level characters because the higher level you are the more integrated into your campaign world you are. When you can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the most powerful well-known NPCs of your setting, your characters are now among the movers and shakers. It becomes more about accomplishing their goals and bless about merely surviving and getting rich. When my player characters were approaching level 20, I was worried that the DM was going to want them retired. We discussed it and neither of us wanted to do that so we elected to paraphrase an ex-president and declared "life begins at level 20!" I think low, middle, and high level gaming is like breakfast lunch and dinner. We may have a favorite meal of the day, but we're happiest when we have all three
Number eight is what I love of rpgs, how players can change the thing that you narrate and attach or hate others npcs. Something similar happen to in my campaign, I created a gravedigger that not talks to much (was a helper for a sidequest) I don’t know why the players created a mysterious background around him that I have to make him a villain... he ended to be a not too powerful cleric worshipper of the death but the players fear him to much that never make an attempt to stop him.
Wow, I just discovered your channel, and honestly, I am super impressed. I have had a WEG Star Wars gaming happening for 11 years, and it's been one of my most memorable game of all time. Each of us has a nemesis or villain that will show up once in a while and try to screw with us, and our GM has told this beautiful story. Having high powered characters I often wonder how he did it, and he told me something very simple that I use in my own games is scaling. Honestly I would love to sit down and converse with you on so many things. so impressed by your insights and I think very much in the same lines. Looking forward to watching more of your videos. (sorry this is long)
I created an NPC in probably five minutes that was a big tough grunt, and when he wasn't fighting, he was sipping lemon tea from his silver mug. At one point the characters and the grunt got captured and had all their possessions (including the tea and mug) taken away. I slipped on accident and said that the grunt was still sipping his lemon tea, in prison, and he has been a player favorite ever since. It drives the Bard crazy to try and figure out where the tea is coming from.
I can attest to the NPC part. My players loved a Nosferatu named Franky who was just there to give them quests and weasel them into owing him favors. He was just a sarcastic, witty douche and he was their favorite.
I completely agree about level. The journey to level 10 is usually the best part of the game. I've had more games die out after level 10 than at level 5.
Great video sir. I personally think the challenges of running high-level games comes more from the level based systems itself then it does the imagination of the storyteller. In games like Exalted and Vampire, everyone is uber powerful and yet its still easy to write campaigns. It’s psychologically and mechanically limiting when you have a 1-20 level system.
A new video, huzzah! So about Grumm... what if Grumm did survive but he was severely hurt and bashed in the head, giving him that good old amnesia trope. While he has recovered physically he's had the mindset of "die a glorious death" scrambled into "give others a glorious death" and one day he shows up wanting to kill the PCs. Does he do it, do they kill him, can they figure it out and 'fix' him?!
Do not have Grumm return; however, do have Grumm's spirit haunt the players. He died saving them instead of finding death and redemption in glorious combat. Because of his shame from this failure his spirit became trapped and spiteful. He now resents the players for denying him his glorious death, and his spirit has begun following them. Their task is to figure this out and somehow provide Grumm a glorious death in the spirit realm. (Also, great video)
The NPCs that I have introduced that have the highest percentage of PC acceptance are those who are squires/henchmen/pet projects to the players' characters. Give a Dragonborn character a kobold follower, give a Thief a street urchin who has some pick pocketing skills, or give a Cleric a disciple seeking redemption/piety but lapses into blasphemy due to a dark past, etc. Make them smaller/weaker than the PC (so they don't upstage them), but still helpful to them through knowledge, social contacts, or skills/abilities. Make them act like a fan of the PC (polite, deferential, helpful, and concerned for their well being). Make sure they have a problem that they can't overcome without help from the PC (illiterate, poor combat/magic ability, unattractive to opposite sex, etc.) You'll know you have them hooked, when they don't want the NPC to die.
I once created an off the cuff NPC to show the powerful player characters where the entrance to the cave of the beginning of their adventure was and named him “Paul the lucky”. They rolled a random encounter on the way and the whole party circled around Paul the Lucky to protect him because he was a lowly first level farmer. He became so endeared to them and I just could not figure out for the life of me why. Players are funny like that. Oh. And bring Grumm back!
You have a chance to introduce imposter Grumn, so they can relive the tragedy all over again when they are forced to kill the imposter themselves. Imposter Grumn could be a magical monster (Doppleganger, devil, etc) or just a shady dwarf with disguise skills that wants to screw over the PCs for some reason.
Professor Dungeon Master had made so many good recommendations that I came here to thank you for them and the ones that will surely come. I just watched Skyfall and S.W. Episode IV, V & VI. The last one I will never forget, specially the funeral pyre scene (the moment here was very deep). I think this was a great way to start my 2020.
Thanks you very much ... yes we can learn very much from Star Wars... also Episode 7 and 8, the fails you don't have to do :D. ... The question why some side NPCs become greate and important NPCS are overseen... May be the first Situation in the game, if they come with a benefit (for the moment, for the situation, for the party, for the players or born out of the chaos of a fail.... I think if they trigger the right emotions they get the focus... Darth Vadders, in his first scene your emotions build an archetype.... you know how he (should) work.... first Order General Huks, you think he should work as an evil general... We know what he became... I think the first moment must be planed very well (make own notice to remember that for next time) As every time, great video with good support thoughts :)
If you haven't watched RotS yet, you're in for a surprise. The first hour had me watching in disbelief how similar to a regular D&D session the plot was. In the end I got the feeling I just observed 3years worth of a campaign, compressed into 2h... I'm not complaining, I actually enjoyed it.
I love how you think. Both for GM advice and film/screen writing perspective. I first saw "A New Hope" in 1977 when I was 5 years old. I can still recall the grandeur of the theater lobby and some scenes from the movie. You're correct about there being something inside us that resonates with traditional tales (DNA?), and this feels just right to us. Maybe it's a mystery to all humans. IDK BTW, I vote to leave Grumb be. His memory can be romanced by players for years to come. But...if you do decide to revive him, a planar adventure may be in order: have the party quest to find Grumb's soul. Once he's found, they can role-play their desire for him to return to the world of the living.
Have the party get drunk with a random NPC at their favorite tavern where they tell the story of Grumm. Let the NPC secretly be a necromancer who inspired by their tales, decides to bring him back as a favor.
In regards to Player's loving NPC's, I had my player's fight a boss fight against a little girl Assassin with the power to disappear and reappear and sing a creepy little tune as she did her work of death, the party was able to defeat her through great hardships by removing her source of power, what they did not know was that her source of power was also tied to her vital functions, so The living Teddy Bear and Kenku in the group who wanted to help her have a better life are pretty sad at what they had done the Kenku holding her in his arms as she is slowly disinfectant in his arms, the Kenku in the depths of despair from not being able to save her. Fast forward to one of two one on one session to set stuff up for the next part of the campaign, the Kenku and Doppelganger members of the party meet another little girl, this one is a lost noble girl with amnisha, they take here into the group later introduce her to the Teddy Bear and remember what happened to the little assassin girl are determined to help this new little girl find her way home safely.
Option 1: epic recovery, burial, Valhalla adventure as Grumm’s epilogue Option 2: epic plane hopping journey to recover, and return Grumm’s soul, sundered from his body, allowing his final rest. Option 3: One option followed by the other, then possible reincarnation for Grumm. But is it still the same Grumm? (Sometimes dead is better) Did Grumm reincarnate as a child, or another being with variable amounts of memories of their previous life?
Grum should stay dead since death is permanent in your campaign. However, you could introduce Grum’s relative who is there to avenge his death or some other reason.
What Star Wars taught me as a player: 1. Don't pick fights with people at the bar, you'll lose an arm that way 2. Take off your helmet because your survival rate is higher if the audience can see and identify your facial features, but the rest of the imperial armor uniform looks cool on you 3. Yes, a Critical Hit can destroy even something as massive as the Death Star
Gandalf returning was crucial, facing his demon lead him out of darkness and yet STILL his task wasnt finished, he was still sent back. Coming back for him was the sacrifice, he never wanted to come in the first place all those centuries before to face Sauron, he never believed he was important enough, he wanted to wander and enjoy wandering, Just like Radagast did in the end ,who is described as having been another failure among the Istari despite staying true to the cause he fell in love with the world too much. Gandalf was willing to give up his desires for the greater good, and is doing so he was the embodiment of self sacrifice, coming back for him was a burden and only by fully accepting that burden did he become more than Gandalf the Grey. From the ashes a fire shall be woken.Gandalf was the burden and final reward of the mentor that stays true. Lucas essentially mirrored that with the force Ghost of Obi Wan... In fact theres a strong sense in his death scenme that he isnt sacrificing himself to buy Luke time but to show him something more important that winning.
Ah Professor Dungeon Master, you truly are the Obi-Wan Kenobi of DnD. But the Alec Guinness version, not the slightly annoying Ewan McGregor version. That is why you do not fear your critics because, if they strike you down, you shall become more powerful than they can possibly imagine.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Merry Xmas (or applicable) to you and your loved ones. Thank you for the great content, your channel deserves to grow and grow. A fresh (but old skool) take on today's DnD landscape.
@@feagal612 Thanks, Antiochus. We do celebrate Christmas. As a matter of fact I'm writing this in front of a Christmas tree in a hotel lobby, waiting for my daughter to arrive. All my best to you and yours!
