oh how many of you are in a D&D game ooh
look at that awesome oh yeah I didn’t
raise my yeah a good part of this
seminar will be dedicated to Q&A but we
want to kick off things by introducing
ourselves and starting a few questions
to get the ball rolling and each of us
dreamt of a question before we came here
that we could ask one another my name is
Chris Perkins I am the senior producer
for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the
coast thank you
my DM cred comes from years of
campaigning the two campaigns I’m
running right now our fourth edition
campaign set in my own campaign world I
talk about it a lot on the D&D website
in a column called the dungeon master
experience you may also know me as the
dungeon master for acquisitions
incorporated and he’s my DM yes and mine
is and we’ll be doing our annual live
game tomorrow at 3:30 in the paramount
it’d be awesome the gentleman next to me
is I’m Mike Murrells I’m the senior
manager for D&D
how many players have you killed over
the years oh I mean sorry not there’s
actually there’s I have a few aliases
I’ve gone
that’s why Mike’s not in the game right
now right exactly all these players are
bad yeah they’re all in his basement
it’s actually cuz I know I have to be on
it it’s because I I DM at homes for the
elderly people the end state survives
yeah Mike Mike I love that you’re such a
dyed-in-the-wool DM that you are drawing
a dungeon right now on that piece of
paper I think it’s to kill yeah just
kind of did some graph paper just going
to hack them together on either side is
I’m Jeremy Crawford I oversee
development and editing for Dungeons &
Dragons and thank you I have a fourth
edition campaign I’m DMing right now set
in my home setting of Oberon that I have
been using since first edition I’m
Rodney Thompson I am an advanced
designer on Dungeons & Dragons I I’m
also a co-designer of the Lords of
Waterdeep board game co-designer dungeon
command and my DM cred is similar I have
a fourth edition Forgotten Realms
campaign that I have run on Monday
night’s load these many years so we hope
that this seminar will be informative if
not entertaining and if it is neither
feel free to walk out at any time but to
get things under way I’d like to ask the
first question of my panelists which is
what in your mind is one thing that
makes a great DM so the ability to
improvise we got these questions before
so I’m not answering just super fast cuz
I’m clever I’ve thought about this I
think it’s the ability improvised like
you know because play D&D is all about
chaos and who knows what the players are
going to try to do so if you’re going to
do one thing as a DM f is one school you
can try to have it’s the ability to
improvise under pressure and really I
mean a lot of cases it’s not always easy
to do so having the ability to just sort
of stall for time would be the second
thing
I can’t improvise and at least keep them
waiting usually that’s a good time like
maybe get dinner
lots of P let’s of P breaks yeah yeah I
get a piece of me gotta do so that’s
probably my two best things at the end
all right uh the the one I’ll say is an
add-on to that and that’s actually being
a good listener which might seem like a
strange thing to say because DM spends
so much time talking at the DM I mean at
the game table but so often to improvise
well the DM needs to listen well to in
and I don’t mean just listen with your
ears but also pay attention with their
eyes to see what’s making their players
smile what’s making them laugh what
maybe occasionally makes them cry and
then improvise Jeremy knows a lot about
this yes I I do actually at least once a
year have a session where I make my
players cry because they’re moved not
because I’m hurting them mace eye sprays
them with mace but yeah a big a big part
of being able to improvise well is just
having a lot of awareness at the table I
would say one of the biggest things that
a good DM can have is patience both with
their players because we all know that
patience players can sometimes be trying
and difficult but also with themselves
just as we talked about improvising
being a really big part of Dungeon
Master Aang when you do run into
something you can’t handle remember to
take a step back to keep calm and keep
DMing if I were to answer my own
question I’d say one of the qualities of
a great DM is really good players in the
group if you’ve got players in your
group who are acting like a bunch of ass
clowns
it doesn’t make one what a difference
how good of a DM you are the story is
not going to be very satisfying for
anybody so Jeremy you had a question
well my question is related to the
answer you just gave and so so my
question to three of you is when you’re
the DM what makes a great player I like
players that get engaged for the game
world and get they’d like to be active
in the design of the world and the
design of the campaign I like it when my
players say hey I want to be a part of a
secret
society or hey I want to lead an army or
you know give me at some idea what
creative things they’re interested in
doing and then take that next step and
be creative right don’t just tell me
you’re in a secret society tell me that
you’re in the order of the crimson Raven
and they do X Y & Z and I imagine one
way that a DM can encourage that kind of
great player is making it clear to them
that they too can improvise and helped
create the world absolutely I would say
one thing that makes a great player is
the ability to pay attention you know
like you know when you read box text
from an adventurer or you’re describing
your room you say you walk into a ten
foot high chamber full of bones and the
first question somebody around the table
asks so how high is the chamber yeah
wait what was give Ethan I’m Rodney is a
worst offender I hate him but also I
like players who can remember the
thousands upon thousands of NPC names
that I throw on there oh my god he is
not kidding yeah so even if they just
could remember the NPC that they’re
actually talking to that would be great
welke and and I lied in that Chris
creates so many NPCs in our campaign
that you know most of us will try our
best to remember the sort of the
big-ticket NPCs but there’s a look there
are lower tiers of NPCs where my running
joke in his current campaign is if and
if an NPC has dropped to one of those
lower tiers that none of us can remember
the the NPC’s named my character always
refers to the person as Expo no no it’s
it’s oh you’re the cook yes so so all we
have so many cooks
we have Magnus so I’d say for me as a DM
it’s probably I really like players who
have a kind of a sense of lateral
thinking like instead of just here’s the
door let’s just go through it is there
another path we can take being a little
inventive and how players attack
problems and taking a bigger picture of
you like if is a haunted house you don’t
just go into the front door maybe you
climbed the roof in Toronto or get into
the second floor or just burn the
haunted house down right
I actually like the visit because me
that’s more interesting it’s more fun as
a DM to deal with that and roll those
weird punches after flaming ghosts
running around oh alright well Mike you
had a question oh yeah so my question
was uh what is your the biggest
challenge you face as a DM I don’t know
I’m gonna pass the buck to Jeremy
because you have no chal challenge hmm
it’s dumped Ronnie do you have a quick
answer deep time you can’t bounce it
right mine is Mike no I think the
biggest challenge I always face
personally is remembering what I’ve said
in a previous session I know that sounds
ridiculous but man I love to run with
things off-the-cuff one of our players
if I see them reacting really well to
something I’ll be like oh yeah and then
the guy says here meet my brother Joe
right and then two sessions later I’ll
be like hey what was that guy’s name
I’ll be like pee break so yeah the
biggest challenge for me is remembering
to actually write things down during the
session when I get super engaged in
dealing with my players yeah now that
that is one of my challenges I will not
cop out though and just say that’s my
answer to oh I might ya know one of my
challenges is because I insist at least
in my home game on making everything up
myself I never run any published
adventures anymore
it means I am constantly having to like
come up with the maps for everything the
names for everybody and so one of the
things I go to for the most help is
ready-made Maps like that’s sort of like
the one cheat I give myself is it’ll
please any where is there a map I can
lift either from an adventure or you
know that the plan of a real world
building that I’ll use for some location
in my campaign my biggest challenge is
coming up with story ways to kind of
make the characters grow during their
campaign so when I
nice once once I know who all the
players are and who all their characters
are I spend a great deal of time
thinking about what’s each of the
characters arcs what do the players want
their characters to evolve into over the
course of the session and finding ways
to pay that off I sort of think of my
campaign a lot like a an ensemble
television series like I’m the writer of
a series and trying to find episodes or
adventures that are going to key off of
different characters so that Jeremy’s
character for instance gets a moment in
the spotlight
Rodney’s character gets a moment in the
spotlight finding those moments and
finding interesting things for their
characters to face a tie-in to the
greater stories is an ongoing challenge
I think my character is a little bit of
a spotlight hog yeah I love how
matter-of-fact were you agree ah
Ronny so my question for the panel is
what’s the one piece of advice do you
always want to give to a new DM a new DM
that’s so for me I would just say just
do it like it’s so easy to worry about
the rule I’ll say noticing and keeping
everything Jami I was going to say it’s
fine if I want an issue you run it jump
in there I saw you last 8 yeah that’s I
really just it’s not it’s it’s it’s easy
to get really bogged down to worry about
all the details and getting everything
absolutely mapped out but most the time
the player is going to do something
unexpected anyway so you can all the
prep you do like maybe 10% of it will
actually come into play so if you’ve
thought about DMing and you think it
seems into it’s just the best way to do
is just is just start just run that
first session and get it out of the way
so yes I DM I remember making the
mistake of like fully detailing out of
town and talk you know detailing out the
blacksmith and the mine near town and
the innkeeper who had this cool story
about you know being this ancient war
hero who had basically settled down and
all that it was completely meaningless
the characters were gone from that town
and never looked back five minutes after
the campaign started
if they could have burned it to the
ground they would I was gonna ask if all
that was left with a smaller ruin right
yeah and you know the dead end keeper
his fist rising up out of the records
saying but I had a story my my piece of
advice would be trust what you love and
what I mean by that is it’s really easy
as a DM to second-guess yourself and
think oh I need to come up with this
story in advance
that’s going to be totally creative and
nobody’s ever seen it before and
tailored exactly to what my players want
your best starting point is just what’s
what excites you what do you love what’s
the kind of fantasy story you want to
tell be inspired by other fantasy
stories or science fiction stories or
any kind of story
that you love and and carry that passion
into your DNA and again just trust your
gut well I’ll say my answer to my own
question is don’t hold anything back if
you have a good idea or obviou I think
is good if you have an idea for
something exciting or fun that could
happen in the next session use it
because you’ll always have more ideas
right I used to do this all the time
where I’d say I’m gonna have this
awesome fight with a treant and he’s
gonna have a laser gun or whatever and
it sounded better in my head and I would
say but that will be a great thing for
two sessions from now and then of course
the next session the game explodes and
my players leave and we never get to
that right you will always have more
good ideas so when you come up with
something don’t save it don’t hold it
back always put your best ideas out
there because that’s what’s going to
keep the momentum going in your campaign
that’s a really good idea whenever I do
the PAX games with the guys from Penny
Arcade I just generally assume that it’s
always going to be the last one right
and so I try to throw everything I can
into that session knowing we might never
do it again because I might get hit by a
bus yeah when I when I was a much
younger DM I would constantly dream up
these amazing banner encounters and you
know these these set pieces that will
blow people’s minds and as Rodney says
you know often the campaign would never
even get there and so the whole thing
was about getting to
destination that we never arrived at and
so now I follow the advice that that
Rodney just gave in every session I
treat it as if we might never have
another session so you know the thing
that’s exciting me now is the thing I’m
putting into this session ooh
well we’ve all had a chance to ask our
own questions this is an hour-long
seminar and we’d like to offer you the
chance some of you to come up and ask
some questions of us related to DMing in
particular if you have other questions
try to grab us after the seminar is over
and and we also have other panels we’re
doing at the convention mm-hmm check
your on in situations where a conflict
between player characters is boiling
over what’s the best tips you had for
keeping story continuity
now you’ll resolve it they’ll kill each
other or whatever but I’d like to get
the story going I like characters we are
talking about player characters as
opposed to players right absolutely
that’d be a different panel all right
but I mean that’s actually something it
comes up in in Chris’s game in I play on
Wednesday nights and at various points
I’m not sure Chris has pushed me into
conflict over the player game yes yeah
yes he has right I probably pushed
Rodney’s character harder than anybody
else I set up huge conflicts with him
and other party members right but I
think the thing that makes it work is a
make sure the players know that at the
end of the day this conflict needs to be
resolved in a way that keeps the
campaign going right one of the things
we often talk about when we talk about
DMing is that there are players who will
say things like well this is what my
character would do it’s okay to have
that conversation with your players and
say do what your character would do in
such a way that the campaign can
actually keep going after that because
there’s there’s real playing your
character and then there’s being
disruptive right so I think just first
of all making sure that you’ve set up
that that relationship between your
players between your players and
yourself is really really important and
also I think just sort of set
foreshadowing it helps
because then the players kind of feel
like they’re building toward it to take
the case of Rodney he’s playing a
character who is a devotee of the Raven
Queen the queen of death and in my
campaign war forged are actually fueled
by necrotic energy not life energy and
so she has charged him her eternal
champion with basically wiping the war
forged out the problem is another of the
player characters is a war forged and
what does that actually mean that’s been
sort of building up or brewing up to the
point when she actually came forward and
said hey Vargas get off your ass and
kill the war fort yeah and now he’s got
to wrestle that issue that’s unresolved
at this point but I think the players
understand that this is all part of the
story and regardless of how it ends up
it’s not player versus players whatever
by the same token in the same group Kurt
Gould another player of mine who plays
played until recently xantham the gnome
bard he got thrown for a loop out of
nowhere and got thrown into hell spent a
lot of time there came back realized
very little time had passed
in the world at large but the party
didn’t want him around anymore and they
threw him off their ship and so you
think it’s all so harsh you threw him
off the ship
he was a known Bard I mean he couldn’t
hey be nice to the gnome nice to know he
could Norris I’m kidding so that one
sort of came out of the blue that was
one that wasn’t very well foreshadowed
and consequently it actually caused a
sort of a minor disruption in the
campaign because at that point Kurt
decided that he was going to go back and
play one of his older retired characters
rather than bring xantham back but
obviously Kurt wanted to stay in the
game so that was the solution that
worked for him and as far as I know they
have no intention of throwing his
current character no I would like his
other character yeah
because he’s not a known bard thank you
and when the conflict is generated by
the players rather than something you
know rather than a seed that the DM has
planted because Chris definitely does
plant these seeds this is where
improvisation becomes so important yeah
for the for the DM to be able to roll
with it and with any bit of adversity at
the game table whether it’s inter inter
party conflict or some unexpected course
of action that the party takes what I
always try to do is see it as a new
storytelling opportunity rather than oh
my god what my plans are being thwarted
instead it’s like no is this awesome
crazy thing I can now do because they’re
being idiots you know or you know
whatever it is thank you like
celebrities um I actually don’t have a
question I just want to give you guys a
quick thank you I think I’ve watched
online or attended every ask the dungeon
master panel has been I read you guys
blogs I’m a big fan of stealing stuff
from your world Chris my party’s in heal
gala Roth right now Wow oh sweet um but
I wanted to just share a quick text
message that one of my players sent me
not knowing that how much of all of you
guys stuff I read and how much I steal
from you so really I think you guys
deserve this credit what he said is I
know you’re going to a place where
everyone cares about the the things that
we care about so you can feel free to
share this my DM is the best DM hands
down and I will murder anyone who
tries to re
Wow so so thank you very much for all
for all the ideas you guys give me and
all the tips over the years and
everything and all the panels it’s been
great great thank you so when when I
played D&D now I look around the table
and I see a lot of iPads cell phones
laptops are there are there any software
tools that you guys use yourselves or
would recommend are definitely worth a
look at things like that for helping the
DM a you know sort of keep track of
notes for instance or keep track of
maybe the 10000 status effects that
happens sometimes uh anything that you
guys would recommend in that area I I
now do all of my DMing with an iPad and
I have my campaign notes in it I create
all my encounters in advance using
Apple’s spreadsheet program numbers
that’s also how I track initiative
because I can quickly reorder things so
yeah by iPad has become my little DMing
companion I also use my iPad I haven’t
there’s an initiative tracker out there
called I think it’s called initiative
right that I use is really simple to use
I have a database program that I use to
track world war sometimes I will set up
slideshows in advance with images if I
know the players are going to encounter
NPCs just load the images on to on my
iPad and say and you know see this guy
right and and that’s a good way to do
the sort of pseudo handout
I guess most what I use I’m the opposite
I’m very old-school I don’t have a
Facebook account I don’t have a Twitter
account I don’t use my iPad I don’t
bring a computer to the table
I just keep everything trapped in my
robot like brain yeah I don’t have a
radical brain I have Dropbox so I just
use Dropbox and everything and so
uniform at work I just see an image I
like I just put it my Dropbox have a
folder that just gets filled with stuff
and so either it’s campaign notes so
after a session I can just if I have a
few free minutes at work I just you know
can go through them but even just
keeping things on air for import that
for just ideas like maps I see online to
someone on a blog posts a map or
anything or just a photo about you know
cool-looking vistas like that I just
drop it all my Dropbox when it’s time to
plan at least echo levels random
collected thoughts or in one spot I can
just go through so thanks um I actually
run a game that has seven players um so
there’s no obviously with fourth edition
combat can take a long time and there’s
also a lot of time in between each
person’s turns so a lot of what I see is
twittering facebooking using their cell
phones and stuff which I’m fine with
they usually also get up and like sit on
the couch but it’s gotten to the point
where a couple of my players last
session started playing magic in between
turns so my question to you is um what
we hardly endorse their magic playing
behavior
my my question is how can you engage the
players when it’s not their turn and
you’re also trying to adjudicate other
people’s turns what one thing I do I
mean on one hand I just accept that a
certain amount of that is going to
happen I mean that’s been true you know
ever since I’ve been D I mean going all
the way back to first addition people
get up they’ll go get you know a drink
from the fridge they’ll you know play
you know more recently play a game on
their phone or something but one of the
things I do is I try to keep the story
going throughout a battle so almost all
wait and this is yeah this is something
Chris definitely does as well in his
DMing is I just keep the description
coming the whole time you know the NPC’s
always have things to say there’s always
some cool thing to describe in the
environment so some some shift that’s
occurring
I don’t assume that once I’ve set an
encounter up that it’s basically sort of
a clock I wound up and it’s just going
to play itself out I just I keep
performing the whole time and and that
usually succeeds in keeping people
engaged yeah I was gonna say too one
thing after I’ve heard other people do
this with with 4e and it’s something I
think is pretty useful if you give if
people have their action chosen before
their turn like as soon as their turn
comes up they know exactly what they’re
going to do you should give like a pasta
bonus or something like that so the
least your it might not solve for
everything but it encourages people to
be at least be ready and that kind of
maybe helps things move along and it
does reward you for paying attention
because you know what’s happening you’re
not just going to fireball those kobolds
oh no they just died on Bob’s turn or
something bad so does reward you for at
least keeping tabs on what’s going on if
it’s a case of a player being indecisive
like they’re just taking a long time to
figure out what they want to do I’ll
skip them and go to the next person and
just once they figure out what they’re
going to do they can jump back into the
initiative order I don’t wait for them
basically got to keep it moving
no no yeah all right thanks hey guys
hello um actually little tip on since
you use your iPads and games I’ve got a
note-taking app that to help me remember
I actually record all my games and I
take notes afterwards I thought about
doing that but I’m afraid than my iPad
will burst into flames
sometimes you have to employers yeah
sometimes we have to go back and censor
but I actually she kind of touched on
one of my questions
most of my players we work by ton so we
very rarely get together so two of the
things that I struggle with are for one
prepping with short amount of time
whenever we find a weekend that we can
actually gain you know I’ve got story
out to forever but actually getting
right for the game so any tips that you
have there and then also when we get
together it’s like we haven’t seen each
other for a while so how do you guys
manage keeping on track on task and
moving the game forward even though
everybody is you know having fun talking
to each other because you don’t want to
stop that but you also want to make sure
you get somewhere meaningful in the game
at the start of a game session as soon
as I feel I’m ready to begin all just
force all the conversations come to a
stop by saying previously in i”m Andhra
and then recapping previous sessions
work everybody just sort of goes oh
they’re in the game now and it all just
sort of stops dead it has a nice
ritualized feel to it especially because
yeah this is another second campaign of
Chris as I’ve played in I know when he
says previously in the block campaign
that’s time to stop talking yeah
and it’s it’s a technique I use in my
home game as well and because I mean
with Chris’s game we play at the office
so we we don’t have audio equipment
where we play but at home I not only do
the the sudden you know the the visual
and the the verbal cue that it’s time to
start but I also have a piece of music I
always play when it’s now the game is
starting it was sort of the theme song
and yeah if you go while between games
it also and one thing I try to do is
have it the first scene of that
adventure you’re going to play is like
really important you’ve you’re it’s a
cliffhanger that’s being resolved or
there’s a really important like just
Troy Sadowski made because I found a
players start talking socially but they
start talking with a game then it’s
easier segue because people know you
know what do we do about this X or Y or
is you know some I’m going to live or
die or something
I mean so if you can kind of plan it
ahead you can sort of tell the players
like here’s almost like get that
preamble done or on email or something
like that so they know coming in you’re
going straight into something really
important as far as prep time stuff I
find cover your ears
that I don’t have to do much prep at all
I just know knowing it but they think I
spend hours and hours and hours actually
planning all this out no III
actually wing it a ton too
I mean I it I find the most valuable
prep is getting getting your elements
ready like a list of names some
locations a few useful maps you make
make sure you actually have your own
plot straight in your head and as long
as you have those key pieces ready you
you can pretty much do anything what I
typically do to prepare and this is
exactly what Jeremy’s describing is I’ll
make a one sheet for myself that’s
basically here’s the name of the
adventure at the top here’s a list of
NPCs organized in some sort of priority
order from most important to least
important or however I want to do that
very much like a you know cast scroll at
the start of a television series or
something like that with like a one-line
description of who they are just as a
reminder to me so that when I put this
sheet in my log later on it doesn’t get
I can remember all the details and then
underneath that list of the cast list
basically is a bullet point list of
events what I assume is going to happen
in the session now often that’s about
50% inaccurate as the session plays out
it goes off in weird directions but at
least in my head I’ve thought about one
possible way in which this is actually
going to play out thank you very much
your uncle hey guys hello I uh
periodically run one shot game nights
for both to introduce new people to the
game and to kind of interview people
from my ongoing sessions so I was
wondering if you have any advice on both
how to make the game as exciting as
possible for those brand new people and
– and for my benefit to see you know
which players are going to be the best
for my ongoing campaigns well I think
for brand new people it’s easy to
overcomplicate it like if they haven’t
played uni before even just the simple
things just the idea of hey you can try
anything I think I’d be an important
thing to bring up is give them really
open up it’s easy to think for beginners
you want to give them something very
linear but I think the opposites
actually
true like in my experience new players
the ones are the most open to just
trying anything that new kind of testing
the bounds of the game and in some ways
kind of giving them something that is a
has a really I mean the one thing they
probably need is clicks clear direction
because you have them one one hand you
can do anything beyond the other well
why are you doing what you want to do so
I usually like to run for new players
sessions or adventures that have a clear
goal like here’s something that’s going
on that you need to resolve in some way
but give them a lot of options for how
to do it rather than a very like say
linear dungeon or something that’s very
ambling like hey you’re under dungeon
what he want to do right so the players
kind of know hey we have a goal here’s
what we chose to do and I think it’s
also important in the setup is to give
them a reason to care about that goal
you know whether it’s just you know
you’re going to visit your mentor and
hey he’s been kidnapped or we’ve been
killed and here’s the guy who did it you
know or something like that so so the
players are they’re not trying to like
figure out what they’re supposed to do
they’re more focused on how are we going
to do what we’re supposed to do because
I think players if they’re new to deity
are you steady of games having goals
right if you play Mass Effect you know
where you’re supposed to do or any other
RPGs so I think kind of trading on those
two things is key and kind of challenge
them to be creative and have a good time
rather than kind of feel yet the really
blow up lead them by the hand from point
A to point B there are two things that I
do very quickly one is I don’t start off
by describing the rules in any way shape
or form I just throw them right into the
story and the rules will come up as the
story progresses and I can deal with
them on a case-by-case basis then the
other thing I do is I spend a lot more
time articulating some of the more
visual elements of a battle say like how
this guy is swinging his sword around
and what he’s saying and doing as the
sword is hitting and what what the
effect of the sword hitting the shield
actually does the shield splinters all
these little fine details that aren’t
represented in the rules at all but just
that color to the combat in the
situation and as far as sort of spotting
potential players in in a situation like
that this goes back to something I was
saying earlier about just listen well a
watch yo see see who’s engaged see who
is funny without being disruptive see
who is who’s being a mini storyteller
with you as the DM because I I know as
Adam I love it when players sort of join
me in telling the story you know they
take a detail in there characters
background or and then the environment
and they just run with it they start
describing things so I just again just
listen carefully watch their behavior
person’s a rules lawyer who there’s no
chance they’re going to make it to my
table that’s why you kick me out
the one thing I will say is remember
that you are the window through which
the players look into your world so all
of your descriptions are extremely
important but it’s also good to
communicate to them Mike said make sure
they have lots of options to communicate
very clearly that they are options right
if you if you think that they can solve
a problem by going and talking to the
blacksmith or the butcher or the
carpenter make sure that when you
communicate to the players that there
are those three professions that there’s
something about them that draws the
players towards them as a means of
getting them through that plot it’s just
it it can’t be you know I can’t
reinforce enough that with your
descriptions you’re painting a picture
of your world so it’s really important
to pay attention to what you’re telling
them alright thank you guys welcome hi
hello Lee my evil campaign needs your
help my party is awesome they have
formed a nice cohesive unit they are
well on their way down the story to
world domination they’re not having
enough evil fun um they’re being
incredibly smart we’re having some great
interactions with all these NPC’s
they’ve managed to talk enemies into
joining their cause which is kind of
evil but I have a few more bloodthirsty
members of my group who would love to do
things like slaughter the puppy that I
put out for them but they then managed
to convince the guy to join them and the
puppy doesn’t get slaughtered so I feel
like maybe I’m just not coming up with
smart enough ways for them to be evil if
I and it’s all you’ve got like this is
like some sort of bizarre oh yeah all
the people that they thought have been
well armored militia people who can
defend themselves and when I give them
opportunities to slaughter the innocent
they want to do smarter things so how do
I come up with a more subtle way of
being evil when they won’t even
slaughter a puppy
well I mean in in some ways the most
evil thing that they could do would be
to subjugate the people around them and
convince the people to follow them I
mean you basically become very clever
tyrants so if if the road of slaughter
is not the road they want to go down
then encourage that that pursuit of
domination yeah are the players having
fun are they enjoying the campaign they
are I just have a couple of the fighters
want to fight things and and they’re
having fun with the negotiations and it
certainly is all as I said on the way to
world domination but when they’re
itching to slaughter the town people
around them and everybody else is going
to know because then we can’t buy the
things that we need and we can’t get the
information we need and I want to reward
them for being smart and intelligent and
crafty but I’d like that guys to be able
to slaughter things every once in a
while be overtly evil well there are
there are good monsters they could be
fighting they could be fighting you know
gold dragon or a silver dragon have them
fight some treants you know so you know
an easy way actually like so if you want
to have it they talk some of these towns
folk into being their friends have them
revolt because it’s like hey we just
killed these guys this would have been a
problem so something like that where
it’s just I mean it’s an it’s like it
sounds like maybe it also if the players
really convinced this is always going to
work but you can kind of go back and
visit some of their older decisions as
cover I like to mess with players like
they think something’s solved but it’s
actually a glaring problem that’s
growing it kind of gives them a chance
to go back and revisit you know a choice
they made or something that happened
right so go you spared these guys well
these guys are actually forming the
freedom fighter alliance behind your
backs it’s going to come back and try to
in try to take you guys down or
something like that you can also
introduce the idea of an adventurers
guild in your world that sees your
adventurers as a problem both in terms
of PR and in terms of
adventurous can’t go into a town anymore
because they’re thinking about this
party who’s just ransacked everything in
sight having this adventurers guild be
the sort of the party’s nemesis and
occasionally when thing when the
fighters getting bored a group of these
adventurers suddenly become visible in a
room because they’re probably invisible
to begin with and start attacking them
out of the blue that could be an
interesting ongoing and odd campaign
villain and I think that especially with
villains right what’s the one of the
most common ways you see villains engage
and sort of wholesale slaughter is when
they need to make an example out of
somebody right I think the idea of the
rebellion or what-have-you is a great
example of you know
well actually killing these guys is the
right solution right in Star Wars they
blow up all around to make a point
basically thank you yeah
that was a great that was a great
question and very hard to top sir yeah
and I want her water problem good look
no comment I thought I’ve always in line
in reference to the thread earlier about
electronics I use a wiki to track all of
my stuff which works really well because
then you can kind of have links deep
information about things right but
anyway so my question was I tend to
focus really heavily on the RP side of
things and less on the mechanics and I
have this tendency to sort of bend the
rules I have some house rules that
good-for-you
expand oh you’re doing it right yeah but
yeah so I’m trying my question is if you
guys do that – like if that’s encouraged
how do you balance bending the rules to
tell a good story versus having the
players have a stable system that they
can rely on so that they they know what
they can do and like that things will
work when they expect them to work yeah
for me it comes down to like within what
kind of rules are changing and I try not
to house real things that show up in a
character sheet like if I’m going to
like change things it’s more likely be
they can access space like in this
campaign there aren’t any sorcerers or
in this campaign paladins Earl hunted by
this bad guy or something like that so
players know when they make their
characters if there’s any restrictions
or just things like you know whatever
certain powers that
don’t want people using the campaign
whatever the the trick is this in my
experience is if if you’re going to bend
the rules you can either be very obvious
about it the players know this rule has
been changed it’s a house rule and then
the other way to do it I mean in some
ways it’s the old diem trick of you know
you roll the die behind the screen and
then you have the other die that’s like
cocked right to the result that you want
to show the players and so they kind of
don’t know you’re bending the rules
because it is tempting sometimes like
you know it also depends on the kind of
players you have right like some players
especially the rules lawyers they want
the rules to work the way they are and I
suspect you have rules lawyers in your
group I have a mix I have some newer
players that I’m trying to get to you
know do things and like think about all
the possibilities but then I do have
older players who you know have been
playing for a really long time they’ve
been playing since a second I think some
of them men so they they’re expecting
the rules to work the way the rules work
in the in the book yeah I also just also
make sure that you when you bend you’ve
been both ways remember that your
players are engaged in that story just
as much as you are and so if you’re
bending the rules to their detriment all
the time of course they’re going to
react negatively that if you bend the
rules in their favor occasionally that
sort of softens a little bit so you you
it makes it very clear to your players
that you’re getting the rules to tell a
story but it’s their story that you’re
telling because I mean that’s really
what would what you do when you DM is
you help them tell their story right and
so bending in their favor lets them know
that you’re doing this all in good faith
yeah yeah and if as long as they know
you’re not their adversary right now my
guideline is I never mess with something
that could invalidate a player’s choice
and that includes not messing with
things on the character sheet but I will
mess with things at will if it’s going
to make a better story but that means
I’m usually messing with things the
players don’t have access to like the
abilities that a monster might have you
know right I frequently will have my
players meet some hag who is doing some
stuff that is in no stat block you know
she’s summoning up strange fake
creatures and turning the entire area
into a swamp you know this is not
written anywhere just I decided oh this
is going to make this encounter even
more awesome and and yeah that’s part of
my problem is that some of the people I
play with they’re actually
or DNS and so they know that that’s sort
of stuff like there’s no that’s not an
ability you know that that’s that that’s
what previews DM so that’s that’s
completely different right you’re having
the monster do something I mean if
you’re having to do it with players like
I cast fireball in like well this ice
elemental is immune to fire right that’s
one thing right because we’re just
trying to counter what the players are
doing but it’s examples like Jeremy just
gave that’s that’s part of being a DM is
going up with those things
possibly just tell the players deal with
it well yeah just say in my world is how
it works and thing cuz it’s not I mean
that’s especially that’s kind of how you
planned it out I mean that that’s you’re
right as the DM it’s not it’s subtle I
kind of argue with a novelist like you
can’t leave this can’t this guy can’t do
this because of that like well you can I
mean if there’s obviously the case the
players can just leave but I mean if
they don’t they’re really that offended
by it but it’s players shouldn’t be
trying to DM for you I mean that’s all
its kind of attitude toward it you’re
they’re creating like the setting in the
world fun to enjoy if they kind of want
us to start poking the the stuff of the
firmament behind it and it’s kind of to
me that’s kind of crossing a line is
Collier should be going if I’m changing
rules I always think well at some point
the player should be able to turn this
against me yep and I and if I’m cool
with that
then it’s good yeah one one trick real
quick that you can use if you have
people who are very familiar with say
monster stat blocks and this is a trick
I use all the time because a number of
my players work with us on the game so
they like you know like us they know the
game inside and out I make sure that
when I’m DMing say with a monster I will
only use the montt monsters printed name
if I’m going to run the monster by the
book if I if anytime
I am customizing the monster in any way
I never refer to it by its printed name
so nobody sort of goes down this path of
thinking oh I know what this type of
star spawn does like no I will give it a
unique name
you know nobody not knows what auntie
Rock tooth does only I do because I’m
making it up right now and and if I
never you know say this is a night hag a
lot of those problems vanish yeah I
think that news comes down to ply
players our expectations if you say hey
you’re fighting control and the players
think we should use fire oh this is
actually I know it’s a orange skin flame
troll it gets stronger with fire right
and then
then you’re not really playing fair it’s
so right I think it’s it’s having that
balance between those two well thanks
awesome yeah hey what’s up uh I run a
fourth edition dark Sun campaign I know
Ronnie liked you a lot of material on
that night oh I totally used as much as
I can
whoo so and one of my favorite things to
do like as IDM is to split the party and
get them to go on their different ways
except most recently uh the party split
uh it’s kind of hard to put them both
back together so basically just to run
down the plot I’m running like a giant
arena tournament a Coliseum and tear and
half the people are now like in the
final matches and the great you know
ziggurat and all that and half the party
didn’t make it and they’re doing off
their own thing but the problem is how
what’s the best way you would go about
handling both of these two subplots
together so that everyone remains
engaged I don’t have to like oh I have a
separate section for one top plot in a
separate section for the other I I would
one thing I would say is try and work
him back together
that mean I mean it’s a I’ve it’s I mean
it’s I realized that it was a little
harder than usual to do its time but
okay it’s okay to be contrived
occasionally to hate I mean the lady’s
like oh and suddenly because you’re
following this plot thread over here you
find the thing that allows you to go
fight in the arena again right I mean
that’s okay actually well that was the
thing because the party members I did
make it didn’t want to keep fighting
they didn’t want to go back to urea it’s
like they wanted to go down this other
path I have nothing for you I expected
via what I like to do is just define
some way for the other group to like
have an obvious reason to go handle the
other like dude like some monkey wrench
comes up that so if you have party a and
party B yeah party a is somehow being
recruited or somehow C being exposed to
something that’s going to monkey wrench
party B so in your example maybe some
mysterious stranger approaches these
characters who aren’t in the tournament
says hey we know you guys are gladiators
we want to hire you to infiltrate the
the tournament and sabotage party B with
maybe the guy not knowing that they’re
aligned or they over here so I’m making
these plans so you kind of give the play
organic input maybe interesting reason
for that eyes get together right there’s
there’s some plot there that’s going to
have them cross the group that’s not
fighting maybe you’re gonna give them
their own story to resolve like
something interesting from them to do
it’s not just hey you’re gonna go watch
the arena fight and that might be kind
of I found that happen sometimes when
you just split the party one group’s
having a more interesting story another
group just kind of is drifting they kind
of give them a real clear goal that’s
also going to happen I think they both
have something like really Oh
very high stakes for both of them the
problem is trying to keep the story
moving so I have try to give as much
attention as I can to both sides I think
that’s more or less the issue one of the
things I will often do in my games is
actually run both scenes simultaneously
that is basically put everybody into an
initiative order and when it comes up to
the turn of somebody who’s in Group A
we’re in the Coliseum when it’s
somebody’s turn and they’re in Group B
we’re out in the streets you know
killing somebody and I will jump back
and forth with a little bit of narrative
every time we skip to a new place I
think it’s totally okay to do that even
if both groups aren’t in combat yes yeah
and we have five minutes um I’ve been
teaming for a few years now
but I also work so I’m fairly busy but I
still you know want to learn to be a
better TEM but at the same time I don’t
have a whole lot of time to spend on
actually working it how to do that but I
do you know maybe have a couple hours on
a weekend to read stuff or you know
while I’m waiting for code to compile or
something like that so are there any
resources you could recommend that I you
know what one or two things would you
recommend I have a look at in the time
I’ve got read Chris’s column yeah his
his column has a lot of great advice in
it also the fourth edition Dungeon
Master’s guide is filled with great
advice
that is actually edition neutral no
matter what edition of D&D you’re DMing
or really in a lot of the advice is
applicable to any role-playing game and
there is a lot of great advice there for
running the game at the table preparing
for your game analyzing what you
players like and so on and so on and
assuming that you have internet access
when you’re when you have this downtime
I mean you said you’re profiling code so
I assume so occasionally I’ll go and
find like YouTube videos that are about
improv acting and watch those just
basically you know improv tips from
professional actors yeah there’s also a
lot of blogs out there on DMing if your
to RPG bloggers comm it’s just
aggregates a bunch of feeds and I found
like not all those blogs nest about
gaming but you may find a couple and
then it starts to network off from their
blog their lists you know whatever feeds
and then start finding more more blogs
gnome stood coms oh the good place to
start they have a lot of DMA advice
articles there I collect adventures so I
spend a lot of my off time just reading
old adventures not necessarily always
D&D either because sometimes I can get
as much inspiration from a Call of
Cthulhu adventure as I do from a dungeon
magazine actually I’d say that’s even
better sometimes the before gets you to
think in different ways you know instead
of having a very D&D mindset you might
be thinking about the dungeon or the
encounters reading adventures for other
systems can maybe help you think more
like a Pendragon you know adventure
which is you know sort of art theory and
fantasy might really inspire a different
way to approach the adventure and
there’s a slightly less chance my
players will have ever seen or heard of
it yeah but only slightly okay thank you
very much that’s so cool
hi I was wondering how you as a panel
come down on the idea of player death
versus a story like if you Warren’s
character dad we just put him in the
basement and Mike’s basement like if um
maybe the role just go there right about
to me maybe the mastermind that they’ve
been working towards and a bunch of like
the henchmen really just sock it to them
and they’re all wiped out do you let the
dice roll and sort of show a humanizing
lesson or do you maybe make a story spin
off so they all survive or just sort of
fudge the numbers what are you like I
typically let the dice fall where they
may and if it’s a if it’s like a TPK
which has happened on occasion yep often
I’ll sort of or even if it’s not even if
it’s just a single character I always
put the ball back in the players court
and ask them what do they want to do
they want to keep do they like playing
the character they have known do they
want that story to continue or they is
this an opportunity for them to try
something new maybe they’re actually
chomping at the bit and they’re secretly
relieved that their half-elf barter
pallidum is dead because now they can
play a character who’s actually liked by
the party yeah you having if they’re out
there too is if it’s near the end of the
campaign and you can always just fast
forward like a 10 20 years like evils
one what’s going to happen next because
that also means like some of those NPCs
the characters may have like the players
have been exposed to become really great
villains through next campaign
yeah it’s personal this time you know
it’s not just because because often your
biggest blessings as a DM are going to
be the things you didn’t foresee because
if rather than fighting it against them
if you embrace them you’ll have all
sorts of great twists thank you very
much so I loved playing I love damming
but ever since I started making games my
free time has just kind of been
vaporized and I find these days whenever
I’ve tried to actually DM I just burn
out very quickly and I’m wondering if
you have any tips for DMing on a very
tight time budget and like avoiding
burnout in that situation so one of
things I used to do before I came to
work at Wizards I was a freelance game
designer and I wouldn’t have much time I
had a campaign I ran and then it kind of
ended and I had I was kind of in the
same situation I made just a bunch of
like fourth level characters and I’d run
these very specific very weird adventure
just as one-offs you know things like
you know you are the year old like the
catechol minions of some super powerful
people guide who sent you to kill this
kitten kind of like the other theatre DM
the so can be something really distinct
but I also found having a very focused
meant we play for two or three hours and
then be done and it kind of get that let
me either a focus on something it’s fun
and completes it’s not like okay we were
middle finish or and it kind of let me
really test out lots of different stuff
you know and kind of track get back to
where I wanted to be as far as gaming or
you know the players new showing up that
we just we’re gonna have something very
focused and quick so and just having I
just I still have it a folder bunch of
three five characters of
just so no character generation just
grow the character sheets on the table
people pick them up and we just are
playing oh we’re at time we’re at time
I’m sorry yeah just like yeah don’t much
time to prep uh we have to call this
here but thank you everyone for coming
thank you thank you for playing thank
you for Dungeon Master ring there are
never enough Dungeon Master’s in the
world so thank you thank you have
Dungeon Master babies yes thank you
not now
okay out in the Holyman yeah okay