Host @satinephoenix & @MazeArcana co-creator @RutyWoot talk community-building on the latest episode of hi everyone I’m satine pheonix
co-creator of maize arcana and GM of
savage nation welcome to the brand new
edition of GM tips it’s a video series
where we share our thoughts on how to
dungeon master or Game Master your own
role playing game today’s DM tips is
about community gaming today is crazy
different than it was back in the day
you were lucky to find a group of
friends who are interested who would
risk having food thrown at them during
lunch like juice boxes with carrot
stepped in them or fresh made brownies
this is what I went through in high
school it’s sucked well 2017 is
brilliant we nerds have one there’s at
least a dozen Gaming stores here in Los
Angeles can’t leave your house to play
use an online platform like fantasy
grounds or find people to gain with on
websites like meetup com seriously there
are gaming conventions like every other
week all over the world as some of you
know my game of choice is Dungeons and
Dragons for six years that organized the
DMV community in Hollywood and meltdown
comics there I ran one shots for
beginner players so many people came in
looking for games with different career
backgrounds different ages men and women
of all ethnicities the community we
built there was beautiful a really safe
place for all of us to play the games
Iran were all homebrew wacky David Lynch
doll adventures that I’d come up with on
the fly since then I’ve learned that
Dungeons and Dragons has created
something called adventures League
centralizes their gaming community they
have specific roles on character
creation and League approved modules I
could roll on but instead let’s discuss
this their local gaming community expert
the co-creator and GM of Major Arcana
mr. rudy ruitenberg hi hi welcome to the
show thank you for having me I have been
home brew gaming forever but al you were
the expert can you explain a little bit
what it is al adventures League is
organized play it’s basically the
the easiest way for you to find a game
especially if you’re new to someplace
and you don’t have a bunch of friends
like let’s say you’re that person that’s
at home that’s like I I want to get in a
game I can’t find it and all I’ve got is
a mountain of books and stuff like that
and you can’t find people that are
interested in doing it with you al is
how you’re going to get in you’re going
to get experience playing with people
it’s kind of like an lfg for tabletop
well how did you find it for adventures
league so basically I got invited into
the play test for D&D next and that was
with some Hollywood friends of mine and
we were just playing around and then as
one does your schedule gets all over the
place and the group not fell apart but
needed to take an extended break I took
the initiative to look at meetup com and
for me up I found all of the the game
stores around the area that could
facilitate adventures league in which
night and then I ended up being a little
bit of a junkie and probably playing
like four nights a week for a while as
you do as I did a lot and then I got
more and more involved in it and I
started to get invited to conventions
and so you can find adventures league
games it basically any convention you go
to and you really get the opportunity to
play with a wide variety of people so
that’s how I got into it they pulled me
in and they’re like hey do you want a DM
a game and I was like sure and they’re
like good you don’t need any prep time
here’s the module and I was like oh ok
adventures league has a certain
structure to it you can’t just come in
with your own module and run games and
have it be adventurous League can you
talk a little bit about what it’s like
running an adventure al is kind of
adverse to a home brew where you make up
rules you want to add new feats you add
new feeds if you all players at 35 feet
at first level that’s something that’s
clearly open to you as a DM but in
adventures league there’s a standardized
rule set there’s a couple of the rules
that are in the dmg or in the players
manual that are variants like rolling
for stats and the adventures league
takes a lot of the randomization out of
it so that when you set up to a table
with four or five other people you’re
rolled the same way nobody’s going to be
vastly overpowered or under
Howard have you ever sat down at a
homebrew table and then like the weakest
party character or the strongest well I
just roll really bad so I can never tell
if it’s me or the mechanics but in the
long term games that I’ve played they
were really long games so we had a
chance to really get to know that game
masters right whereas an adventurer’s
league it’s more you know like you don’t
know who your game ash is going to be
that week right or you don’t know the
other people playing in the game so I
guess what you’re saying is that
ventures League has a structure to it so
everyone feels like it’s fair adventures
league is not there to make you go by
the rules exactly it’s not there to
hamstring a DM what it’s there to do is
give you a constant narrative that you
can plug into and weave in and out of
that goes alongside the campaign’s that
they’ve created so okay you have a
standardized module that many people can
play right and at conventions you have
players who played some of the old
modules and they’re familiar with it so
how do you get them not to cheat well so
well like the really awesome things
about adventures league is that the
community shares an experience right all
of the models are available for
everybody so I can run a game and you
can run a game for totally different
people but those people can come
together getting coffee at Starbucks
down there or anything else and be like
oh my god how awesome is this thing that
happened blah blah and they’re like yeah
unless you want complete without the
rail like I did like yeah that was so
cool you know I did this how did you
guys do oh we did this the downside to
that is that sometimes you get dms or
players who by all of the modules and
read them and sometimes that means that
they’re going to go through and they’re
going to be they’re going to know the
quickest answer to every puzzle they’re
going to know where all the loot is
they’re going to know you like whatever
it is so you know but it’s fun to
struggle through these things together
so as a DM when you go into play those
models and stuff you also have to like
that’s where metagaming really becomes a
thing where you just have to make sure
that you’re not doing those things and
you’re taking it from me avenue of what
a character would do it hasn’t been in
that situation I actually think that
after you start to gaming it’s really
important to play especially stuff that
you already know because it helps you
get out of your mind for those things
and then it makes you a better player or
a better DM later be
cuz it helps you to like understand the
NPC’s and motivations stuff that nobody
should just clearly be good and evil
right you know have motives what you
want sushi and I know that so like now I
can like motivate you around a way for
people who can’t make it to conventions
let’s go down locally okay so locally on
a smaller level most game stores have an
adventures league system set up and
they’ll run games could just be one day
a week it could be with one table it
could be five days a week with 30 tables
game empires an entire floor any place
probably around you where you’re going
to pick up your book when you pick up
your books or miniatures to paint or
whatever you should ask if a store that
you go to is like no I don’t have this
or like that we haven’t we want to we
haven’t yet number one feel free to be
an organizer you can do it yeah you
don’t even have to like ask anybody you
can just say k can I start organizing
things and everything will get linkedin
eventually but meet up so i found my
first games outside of the the plate s
you found it on my meetup group on your
me that’s right i joined here is before
we even met exactly so i joined your
meetup group I found it on there and
then later I have my own meetup group
one of them is specifically for getting
players into the shops yeah and the
shops want to host us because they want
you to be around they love that
community they love the energy drinks to
the store and it doesn’t hurt to sell a
book or two so if you’re a new game
master and you want to study a good way
to structure your game reading one of
the AL modules might actually be a good
idea so you can see how to feed all the
hungry players oh yeah because I mean if
even if you just read like a standard
campaign right those standard campaigns
are very long form and you can pick it
up and put it down anywhere but a module
is going to give you like okay you can
really fit in realistically in a four
hour period or in a two hour period you
can fit in this number of things and you
have to have your hooks you have to have
your setups you have to have your
resolution and you make sure they don’t
murder hobo the town while you’re at it
yeah so it really gives you as a DM a
good way to handle that and there’s a
lot of like little side blocks on things
or like if the players decide to get you
know too rowdy here yes this happens it
will give you creative ways that you can
get them back on course and then of
course playing eventually gives
the experience with a bunch of other
dm’s to see how they handle things so
really awesome stuff that some people
can do for ethics that’s a thing so an
ethic is you can only do it at
adventures League usually it cons but
it’s like anywhere between eight and
forty to fifty tables all interwoven to
wear a thing that happens over here
affects this table and that one and this
one and this one and there’s just this
ping-pong going on it takes dm’s that
are just floating around getting
information to make happen but it feels
so interactive and world like like like
wow would be right like you’re talking
about like oh this happens and this
happens and then they did something and
it happened to thing over here it’s like
a raid 440 tables that’s pretty cool
it’s incredible and it’s one of its
again pacing yeah so in getting all the
dm’s to understand the pacing yeah what
does your pregame house rule explanation
look like oh well mines very quick
because I say hey so I’m this kind of DM
I appreciate these kind of things I
reward things and i show you how i don’t
use inspiration i have eminem’s or
veggie sticks or whatever because you
get a you you know maybe it’s amazing
like I do that it adventures leader
because that’s like a thing that you got
to do you got to be aware of it and and
you got to have your you know community
diversity table conflict resolution oh
here happened in effing mmm it’s not as
you know don’t worry about that plus two
there’s an imminent sometimes it works
what is your most memorable DM moment I
would say that probably my most it’s
going to be multiple moments because it
was over a span of an entire game but I
once played a game or ran a game where
the entire group I think there was five
went through the entire thing without a
single swing of a weapon the entire
thing was diplomatically handled because
the players understood the town they
understood the miscommunication i
suppose and and the motives behind it
like they knew their enemies so when
they went through and they were talking
things out they even had this wonderful
like sounded like two lawyers going back
and forth but like good pop bad cop kind
of thing but like well you could do this
on the other hand you could do that and
like I didn’t even make a role for it
because
blew my mind like how do you like you’re
right I can’t make you roll like what
happens if you get it one on that that’s
terrible it negates the whole thing no
go ahead you win you can’t win D&D they
won d and be nice yeah really quick tip
to the audience about Game Master well
this is an elders not okay it is great
for that warlock in your life or maybe
that aspiring night it is not an
eldritch not exactly but we’ve all kind
of sold our souls anyway so like all
right whatever and I probably should be
wearing a little bit nicer shirt if I’m
going to go that fancy on the not
splitting that it’s not yeah but you get
a freebie on this because the idea would
be make sure that you have an efficient
dry cleaner thank you absolutely thank
you ready no problem that’s a shell
Thank You Rudy for being our special
guest you can follow him on twitter at
Rooty woot Boop i hope you enjoyed the
new DM tips i look forward to sharing
more tips with you here on geek and
sundry in the meantime you can find us
every sunday on twitch TV / maser kana
from 12 to 4 p.m. pacific standard time
thanks for watching Rudy dms outta here
it’ll be my pleasure the door groans is
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it’s just the game
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@satinephoenix Just saw you in #GMtips & you were amazing! I'm also a female GM & love getting tips & tricks. Looking forward to next vid!

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